The Morning Delivery

Election Day Traditions That Refuse to Fade Away

 
Burying the Hatchet at ``Return Day'' in Georgetown, Delaware.

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With the midterm elections just around the corner, I find myself reminiscing about past elections and the time-honored customs associated with exercising your civic duty that reminded you that you belonged to a familiar tight-knit community, and weren’t just a registration number being whisked in and out of your polling station in the blink of an eye.

I remember, for example, growing up in a western suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, where there was often apple strudel and coffee available as voters made their way to the voting booth. It made for a nice sense of bonding and comradeship among voters. That tradition, like so many other treasured rituals, has long since disappeared.

In the 19th century, of course, before the reforms of the 1880’s, voters on Election Day could be found mingling with other voters for hours on end, munching on food, and indulging in the spirits that political parties were all too willing to provide for free to their precinct.  In Philadelphia during the 1880’s, after the polls opened, the State bell could be heard tolling every three to five minutes throughout the city, as a reminder to citizens to exercise their duty.

And well into the 19th century, Election Day meant plenty of parades with citizens marching through the streets, waving American flags, state flags, and other partisan flags.

So as we prepare to vote in what is sure to be a highly contested Election on November 2nd, I thought I would survey some counties nationwide to see if their communities still have some long held Election Day traditions that have remained intact, despite all the advances with computer technology, and the increasing reliance on early voting and absentee voting replacing neighborhood polling stations.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn there are indeed some communities which still hold fast to their Election Day traditions.

Here, then, is a brief sampling:

• In Georgetown, Delaware (population 4,927) in Sussex County, they have an Election Day tradition, dating back to the 1790’s called ``Return Day’’, in which voters return to the town two days after the election to hear the voting results.  ``Return Day is tradition in Sussex County, and people don’t like it when you mess with tradition,” said Return Day Committee President Rosalie Walls.

Return Day includes a parade, followed by residents gathering in front of the historic Sussex County Courthouse to hear the Town Crier deliver the returns from the Courthouse balcony. This event, of course, is not an official reading of the returns, just a mock event or a dramatic depiction of how Sussex County voters heard the results circa 1837.  Since 1965, Return Day (November 4th) has become a legal holiday for county and state workers in Sussex County

The biennial event is additionally punctuated with dramatic “Burial of the Tomahawk” by Sussex County’s party chairmen, which officially ends Delaware's political season.

In addition to the selling of food and crafts, visitors are welcome to dig into a free Ox Roast Sandwich, which is a slow cooked beef sandwich, barbequed on an open pit. Vice President Joe Biden has attended every Return Day since being elected and is expected to appear this year.

• Every Election Day for the last 110 years, residents of Wapakoneta, Ohio (population 9,474) the birthplace of former astronaut Neil Armstrong in Auglaize County attend a Turkey Dinner at the First United Methodist Church in Wapakoneta. The dinner on Election Day, November 2nd, starts promptly at 4:30 p,m. and lasts until 7:00 p.m. Admission is $8.00.

• In one close-knit precinct in the mill town of Scotia (population 1,000) in Humboldt County, on the north coast of California, located 200 miles north of San Francisco, poll workers decorate their polling place, the fire hall, with bunting and all things red, white and blue.  If it is a school board election, they wear their letterman jackets from high school.  At 7:00 a.m. they step outside with a cowbell and announce for the whole town to hear “Hear Ye, Hear Ye.  The Polls are Open.” 

If a resident is a first-time voter, poll workers, again using the cowbell, announce that John Doe is exercising his right to vote for the first time.  If the first time voter happens to be bashful and doesn’t want his name announced, the poll workers, of course, honor their request by skipping the announcement.

Poll workers in Scotia have held their positions for years. It’s considered such a prominent position that you need to inherit your place on the board.

• Daniel G. Burk, Registrar of the Voters Office in Washoe Count in northern Nevada tells me that when he went to observe the Presidential Elections in Kazakhstan in Dec. 2003, located in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, ``every polling location had the most grand spread at each site that included things like canned peaches and pears, breads and jams and these people had almost nothing of value in their lives in terms of possessions yet they wanted the observers to sit down and have lunch with them, even though we knew no Kazak or Russian and they knew no English.  Then, though it was freezing cold, every poll manager walked us to the gate out front of their polling place and wished us well.  In one location they had an orchestra of 7 or 8 musicians playing traditional instruments and music of Kazakhstan. `` It was one of the most touching experiences I've had’’ Burk said ``in 32 years of administering elections.’’

• In the 2nd Congressional district of Hartford County, Connecticut, a number of residents still try to uphold the tradition of baking the Hartford Election Cake

The Election Day cake was a tradition that dates back to the 1700’s in Connecticut, when going to the voting polls meant a long journey, which was accompanied by visiting with friends and family during the day.  But as polling places became more accessible during the 19th century, the Election Day cake gradually became less common. Still, some residents, like Jane Sibley, a poll worker from Haddam, a town in Middlesex County, CT, plans to bake the Election Cake for her fellow election workers.

• On Election Day In Farmington, 15 miles west of Hartford CT, centered in the Farmington Valley,  community spirits are well supported and kept alive as the local Women's Club holds a bake sale, the local girl scouts sell cookies and local boy scouts sell Christmas wreaths outside the four polling places in town.

• In Calhoun County. Mississippi (named after John C. Calhoun, the U.S. Vice President and U.S. Senator from South Carolina), in addition to poll workers feasting on a pot luck meal in which everyone brings their favorite dish, whether it’s a casserole or a pie, voters have been known to surprise workers with a tin of homemade peanut brittle or a dozen glazed donuts.  ``Seems everyone here wants to keep the workers happy’’ said Deborah Dunn, Circuit Clerk in Calhoun County.

• Jerry Holland, Supervisor of Elections in Duval County (Jacksonville, Fla), tells me workers from one of his precincts bake cookies for voters; and they do it on their own time and with their own money. ``But the voters love it.’’

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Of course, not everyone has the same passion for Election Day as the ones just cited. Theresa Owens, County Clerk from Carlisle County in Bardwell, KY, for example, has a completely different take on Election Day traditions in her county. `` The only tradition this office has ’’ Owens said, ``is getting up at 4 a.m. in order to get to the office by 5. The office is also open for regular business all day. The polls close at 6 p.m. and by the time all totals come in and reports to the state are finalized I might get to leave for home by 9p.m.’’ ``Elections are a thankless job’’ Owens adds, `` we County Clerks do. We do want to have a good relationship with the voters but they can eat before or after they vote!’’

Michael A. Kern, County Clerk from Christian County in Hopkinsville, KY, is yet another Kentuckian who doesn’t share my sense of nostalgia for Election Day.

``We all long for “Happy Days” Kern wrote in an email, ``but you are talking about a simpler time when we had a ballot and a box. Today we have to setup and operate two voting machines (one regular and one handicapped accessible). We have to contend with challengers, exit polling, provisional ballots, ADA regulations, disaster planning and the possibility of being sued for not fallowing all regulations and procedures. Kentucky County Clerks are not only responsible for elections they are among other things the County Recorder and DMV.’’

After receiving some sharp replies from both Owens and Kern, I couldn’t help but think I may have caught them on a bad day.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

 
 

Midterm Election Preview: A Roundup of Ballot Initiatives

 

With the midterm elections drawing near, in addition to the 37 seats in the U.S. Senate, 435 seats in the House of Representatives, and gubernatorial races in 37 states and 2 territories up for grabs, there will also be 155 issues from 36 states on the ballot, 42 of those (from 24 states) include citizen initiatives.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, California will have the most amount of initiatives with nine; followed by Colorado and Washington each with six, Oregon has four, while Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri and Montana each have three initiatives on the ballot.

Along with the 42 initiatives, Legislatures have placed more than 100 measures on the ballot for voters to decide.

What follows, then, is a brief overview of some of the measures and initiatives voters will decide on November 2nd.

Refer Madness

• California: Voters will vote on Proposition 19, which if approved, would allow state residents over the age of 21 to grow and transport marijuana while taxing its sales, so long as it is for personal use. In 1996, medical marijuana was passed in California.

Currently, no state has legalized marijuana; though at least 12 states have "decriminalized" first-time, personal-consumption possession amounts of marijuana (See: The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws 

• Arizona:  Voters will vote on citizens-initiative Prop. 203, which if approved, will legalize marijuana for patients with debilitating medical conditions, including cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and Alzheimer's disease.

If this initiative passes, Arizona will become the 15th state to allow seriously ill patients to use medical marijuana.  ) See ProCon.org)

• South Dakota: If approved, the Medical Marijuana Act, Initiated Measure 13 would legalize marijuana possession, use, distribution and cultivation by persons registered with the South Dakota Department of Health; the registrant must prove they have a debilitating medical condition and that the potential benefits of the marijuana would outweigh the health risk. Minors would be allowed to register with parental consent.

• Oregon: If Measure 74 passes, Oregon will join Rhode Island, New Mexico, and Maine in creating dispensary systems in which farmers can become licensed by the State to grow and distribute marijuana crops to medical marijuana dispensaries. Dispensaries and growers would be subject to state regulation, which also requires them to pay an initial fee of $1,000-$2,000 along with paying the state 10 percent of their gross income.

Voters in Oregon approved medical marijuana in 1998.

 Health Insurance

• Voters in Arizona vote on Prop. 106, which if passed, would amend the state's Constitution and prohibit any law that mandates participation in a specific health-care program, including insurance. Voters in Colorado and Oklahoma will vote on similar measures; while the Florida Supreme Court disallowed the amendment from being put on the ballot. In August, 71 percent of the voters in Missouri passed a similar measure prohibiting mandated health insurance.

Casino Gaming

• Voters in Maine and Oregon will be asked whether to approve casino gaming.  According to the National Conference of State Legislatures,32 states  currently allow gambling that range from bingo parlors to casinos, while Commercial casinos (non-tribal establishments) and racetrack casinos, or racinos, have been authorized in 23 states.

School Funding

• Voters in Oklahoma will be asked whether to amend the state's Constitution which would require Oklahoma to meet surrounding states' average per-student spending within three years. This measure was put on the ballot by voters who collected the necessary signatures.

According to a report from the the National Center for Education Statistics, Oklahoma ranked 49th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in per-pupil expenditures in 2008.

The controversial measure, ``State Question 744' 'just one of 11 questions on the ballot in Oklahoma is projected to cost $1.7 billion over three years to implement

Environment

• In California, voters will vote on Proposition 23, which if approved, would suspend the state's greenhouse-gas law (AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006) until the state's unemployment rate dips below 5.5 percent. California's unemployment is currently at a crippling 12.4 percent.

The greenhouse law as it stands now requires greenhouse gas emissions to be slashed to 1990 levels by 2020.

 Property Taxes

• Missouri voters will vote on a proposed amendment to the state's Constitution in Amendment 2 or the Missouri Prisoner of War Property Tax Exemption, which if approved, will exempt former prisoners of war from paying property taxes on their home.
 
 Smoking Ban

• In South Dakota, voters will be voting on ``Referred Law 12'', which if passed, will ban smoking in all workplaces, bars, restaurants, video lottery establishments and the Deadwood casinos.

Currently, 28 states along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have passed smoke-free laws that cover restaurants and bars.

Election issues

• In reaction to former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick being charged with 10 felony counts, including perjury and obstruction of justice, Michigan voters will be presented with an amendment to the state Constitution, which if approved, would prohibit persons convicted of a felony while in office from holding elective or appointive office and some other positions of public employment for up to 20 years.

• With four of the last eight governor's having been convicted on corruption charges, Illinois voters will decide whether to amend the state Constitution and give voters the power to remove the governor from office. If approved, the provision would require signatures equal to 15 percent of the total votes cast for governor. The petition would additionally have to be backed up by 20 members of the state House and 10 members of the state Senate.

 Voting Age

• In addition to electing a new governor, Vermont voters will decide on a proposed constitutional amendment over whether to allow 17 year-olds the right to vote in a primary, so long as they turn 18 by the time of the general election. If approved, Vermont would join 10 other states which allow 17 year-olds to vote.

Affirmative Action

• With the Legislature referring Proposition 107 on the ballot in Arizona, voters will be asked whether to amend the state Constitution and ban preferential treatment against any individual or group, on the basis of race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin in public employment, education and contracting. If approved, Arizona would join California, Colorado, Michigan, Nebraska and Washington who successfully passed affirmative-action bans.

Hunting and Fishing Rights

• Voters will consider whether to add the right to hunt and fish to their state Constitutions in Arizona, Arkansas, South Carolina and Tennessee. If passed, The Legislature would decide whether to grant authority to the state's Game and Fish Commission, giving more power to hunters rights' at the expense of wildlife protection. Currently, 10 states have the right to hunt and fish in their constitution, with Vermont’s right stretching back to 1777.

Right to Bear Arms

• Voters in Kansas will be asked to clarify an old provision (1905) in the state's Constitution which in its literal interpretation restricts gun ownership to militias. If approved, the provision clarifies an individual’s right to bear arms for the defense of family, home and state, for hunting and recreation and for any other lawful purpose.

 Criminal Justice

• Voters in the state of Washington will vote on Engrossed Substitute House Joint Resolution 4220, which if approved, will deny bail to a person who has been charged with a crime punishable by life in prison. The proposed measure, also known as the Lakewood Constitutional Amendment was prompted by the case of Maurice Clemmons, a convicted felon who murdered four policemen in Lakewood, Washington on November 29, 2009. A week before the gruesome shootings, Clemmons was released from jail after posting a $150,000 bail bond stemming from assault and rape charges.

Currently, judges can only restrict bail for persons charged with crimes that will land them on death row.

Constitutional Convention

• Voters in Iowa, Maryland, Michigan and Montana will vote whether their respective states should hold a constitutional convention. These questions are put to voters automatically at regular intervals (usually every 10 years) by state constitutions

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

Source: National Conference of State Legislatures; Office of the Secretary of State from select state Web sites.

***

Web sites to keep in mind:

November 2nd Ballot Measures from the National Conference of State Legislatures

State Elections: Stateline

StateVote 2010 (NCSL)

A Short History of Dabbling in Witchcraft

 

When it comes to the wacky 1980’s, there certainly were a number of fads the rebellious youth dabbled in at one time or another:  MTV, Pac Man, Break Dancing, Valley Girl talk, Boom Boxes, Miami Vice, Trivial Pursuit, and Moonwalking to name just a few.

But Witchcraft?

When it was recently disclosed that Delaware Republican Senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell ``dabbled in Witchcraft’’ during the 1980’s, more than a few eyebrows were raised about her rebellious past. Left wing bloggers generally and HBO host Bill Maher in particular seized on her Witchcraft disclosure to further lampoon another Tea Party candidate as being downright loopy and out of touch with mainstream America.

O’Donnell, speaking on the ABC show ``Politically Incorrect’’ in 1999 told Maher: ``One of my first dates with a Witch was on a satanic altar, and I didn't know it. I mean, there's a little blood there, and stuff like that. We went to a movie, and then we had a little midnight picnic on a satanic altar.’’

The Republican Party nominee in Delaware recently told Sean Hannity on Fox News that her ``dabbling in Witchcraft’’ was merely a form of teenage rebellion. ``Who doesn’t regret the ‘80s’’? , O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell’s `` teenage rebellion’’ might make you wonder exactly how widespread Witchcraft really is in the 21st century, and whether other teenagers also may fall prey to its magical irresistible influences.

First, a modern definition of Witchcraft. According to Margot Adler in her book, ``Drawing Down The Moon’’, the word ``witch’’ comes from the Old English wicce, wicca and these words derive from the root wic or weik, which relates to religion and magic.

Exactly how many Witches are there in the United States.? Obviously, such a number is hard to come by-since claiming you’re re a Witch isn’t something you check on your Census form, include in your resume, or post on your Facebook profile.

Sociologist Helen A. Berger, Research Associate at Brandeis University, who has authored a number of books on Witches, including ``Teenage Witches’’ and ``Voices from the Pagan Census’’, estimates there over 300,000 Witches in the United States. And according to the 2008 ARIS (American Religious Identification Survey), out of Trinity College in Hartford CT), they found 342,000 Wiccans, 29,000 Druids and 340,000 Pagans. But as Berger points out, Witchcraft is seen as separate from Wiccans, although there was a time when that wasn’t the case.

Berger feels O’Donnell was nothing more than a dabbler, which is a different thing altogether from real Witchcraft. ``There are lots of spell books geared toward Teenage Girls. They tend to have pink or purple covers and promise to teach the reader how to do a series of spells (like turn your boyfriend into a frog or some such). These have sold millions of copies. Are these kids Witches, not really, they don't practice the rituals, venerate the deities, or adhere to any of the beliefs associated with it.’’

In ``Teenage Witches’’ which Berger wrote along with Douglas Ezzy,  for every young person who became a Witch there were about four others that didn't stay. ``They dabbled’’ Berger said, `` found that they couldn't turn their boyfriend or girlfriend into a frog and stopped‘’

So exactly which category does O’Donnell fall under: Satanism or Wiccans? Since O’Donnell in her 1999 clip refers to her Witchcraft experience by describing blood and a ``Satanic Altar’’; we can assume she was referring to dabbling in ``Satanism’’, since Wiccans don’t worship, believe in Satan or sacrifice blood.

Of course, as Douglas Ezzy, Professor Sociology at the University of Tasmania, Australia, makes clear to me, teenage Satanism or Satanic tourism, which is something O'Donnell may have dabbled in as a teenager is entirely different from organized Satanism. It's quite common, in another words, for teenagers to be told by their Christian parents that the activities they consider fun, namely, drinking, dancing, and sexual experimentation are ``Satanic''. ``The teenagers’’, according to Ezzy,`` inspired by their Christian parents, then begin to use Satanic imagery in their leisure time.  This is called Satanic tourism.  Satan becomes a symbol of rebellion and a way of adding a bit of dramatic theatre to what they are doing.  A "Satanic altar" could be something as simple as the table that was used for last week's drinking games. ‘’

Organized Satanism is different from Witchcraft. It started out as a theatrical overlay on a night club strip show in which Satanic symbols and characters were used to make it more exciting. And according to Ezzy, it developed into a religion of pleasure and self-empowerment. It should also be pointed out that Satan is a Christina deity and he has no place in Wicca or Witchcraft.

Satanism, generally speaking, symbolizes someone who looks out for the themselves and celebrates pleasure. Ezzy tells me that there are various churches of Satan which are loosely organized.

Wicca has its origins in England; and Gerald Gardner, in particular, an English civil servant created the religion, the most influential subset of Neopaganism, in the 1940's. By the 1960’s, Wicca had made its way to the United States through the efforts of Raymond Buckland, who was greatly influenced by many of the social movements taking place in America during the ‘60’s, including the women’s movement, the counter-culture, the environmental movement and young people’s quest for individualism.

Wicca, moreover, accept Judeo-Christian cosmology.  They don't believe in Satan, and therefore can't be Satanists.

The normal practice is for Wiccans to join a coven (assembly of Witches) and train in specialized knowledge, and engage in dance, chanting, mediation, drumming and other practices in order to create mystical or magical experiences. Wiccans, both males and females, venerate the gods and goddesses.

As chronicled in Berger and Ezzy’s book, ``Teenage Witches’’, Wiccans use magic for a variety of reasons,  including doing well on exams, finding a job, and dealing with relationships in which they see themselves as linked to the universe;  in some instances they experience direct contact with the deities.

As Hans Peter Broedel from the History Department at the University of North Dakota points out, `` Wicca is a recognized religion with millions of adherents; Satanism is not.  Despite the forest of trees that have been lost publishing books about "Satansim," it has no recognized doctrine or even  set of core beliefs, no organized following, no institutional structures, none of the things one would normally associate with a religion.’’ `` ``Honestly’’ Broedel writes in an email, ``O'Donnell's comments strike me as a fairly typical, but heavily embellished, teen-age experience narrative, related primarily for shock value, but also to let people know that she has had some sort of "dark past," that allows her to speak with some authority about things she actually knows absolutely nothing about.’’

Richard B. Latner from the History Department at Tulane University, who has focused a great deal of his attention on the Salem Witch trials, thinks O'Donnell was merely dabbling in Satanic worship, but not willfully rejecting God or planning to harm someone.

``If this were the 17th century,'' Latner adds, ``her [O’Donnell’s] best defense would be to say that the devil or a witch took her to the altar and tried to force her to sign on — but she refused.  Then she could name the person who tried to get her to sign and accuse him or her of witchcraft:  doubtless, a Democrat.'

So what’s the future of Witchcraft in the 21st century?

Undoubtedly, since the 1990’s, Witchcraft or more accurately, Paganism has become hugely popular, especially with the publication of `` ``Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner’’ which made it possible for adherents to practice Wicca with one or two people-or simply alone.

But just last year in Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies’’ Ezzy and Berger published an article: ``Witchcraft: Changing patterns of participation in the early twenty first century’’ in which they show  that those seeking information about Witchcraft has been declining since 2004, which is not to suggest  Witchcraft is dying out or has been eliminated.

Rather, according to Ezzy and Berger’s research, Witchcraft and Paganism appears to be in a period of change in which communities, through the Internet and chat rooms are still thriving, but the intensity of individual participants is slowing.

The Web site, adherents.com, meanwhile, estimates one million neo-pagans worldwide, with the majority of those being Wiccans, which also includes figure from a Wiccan/Pagan poll that gives 768,000 neo-pagans in the US, again with Wiccans as the majority group.

Since Wicca is a recognized religion, I thought I would be able to find at least some high profile personalities who practice a form of Witchcraft. But other than singer Stevie Nicks (another dabbler), however, I came up empty. But as Michael D. Bailey from the Department of History at Iowa State University reminds me, ``unlike Kaballah or Scientology, neo-pagan Wicca still carries a stigma in some quarters - associations with Satanism etc. that I doubt many celebrities are willing to risk.’’

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

Hillary in 2012?

 
  
Maybe it’s because I don’t participate in fantasy sports anymore; but lately I’ve been plotting a dream Democratic ticket for 2012 with Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s names scratched in favor of Hillary Clinton and a player to be named.

I know its sounds ludicrous and practically inconceivable, but before you laugh and dismiss me as living in a fantasy world-at least hear me out.

From my vantage point, by 2011, the Republicans will be in full swing, mounting an aggressive presidential campaign against President Obama and charging him with failing to pull the United States out of one of the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Even under the rosiest of predictions, the unemployment rate will still be hovering around eight to nine percent, dire enough to cause the Democrats plenty of problems in 2012.

Even with all the feathers in his cap, and let’s be clear, Obama has had plenty of legislative victories: from health care to financial reform to credit card reform, but let’s also be honest-Mr. Obama’s  will be remembered most for his inability to get some 15 million workers back to work.

And while it’s usually not recommended to ``swap horses in midstream’’ (Abraham Lincoln’s 1864 campaign slogan), I still believe the time will be ripe for Hillary Clinton, make that former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, to launch a coup d'état and take the Democratic nomination away from her former boss.

The argument against such a move is obvious. Hillary would be accused of dismantling the unity of the party and giving some added momentum to the Republicans, much like Jimmy Carter was weakened by his bruising battle with Ted Kennedy in 1980 that kept him a one-term president.

I argue the circumstances are a bit different since 1980; and though Hillary would initially be considered a divider not a uniter, in the long run when the dust settles; and old wounds are patched up–the party will be in a much stronger position to ensure another Democrat remains in the White House in 2012.

Hillary’s motive for throwing her hat in the ring and usurping a fellow party member will be predicated on her desire to address the needs of the Democratic base that was sorely neglected by the previous administration: especially a large slice of the middle class; and the important DDD’s (Dunkin Donut Democrats, those making $50,000 or less) who were hit hard by the Great Recession and are looking for an alternative to Obama’s economic mishandling.

Just consider what Hillary would bring to the table in 2012:  More foreign policy experience than either Obama or whoever the Republicans throw in the ring; she would attract a wide swath of independent voters and Republicans who voted for Obama and have grown disillusioned with his administration, but still are not ready to embrace the Tea Party movement or fringe Republican ideologues like Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich.

If a frustrated voting population, including millions of unemployed workers, were given the choice of putting Obama back in the White House for another dicey four years; or alternatively, lending their ears to the Republican message-voters might very will throw their weight behind the Republican nominee in 2012 -if for no other reason than knowing since Obama failed them-how much worse can a Republican president be?

But if Hillary were the nominee; independents and a growing and mighty female voting bloc would at least have an alternative to a disappointing four years under Obama; and better still, have an alternative to whoever the Republicans have to offer.

As I see it, Hillary will be out of the Obama administration sooner than anyone thinks. If she’s able to broker a historic Middle East agreement; that will be her golden opportunity to head for the exit, having accomplished what no man before her has: mediated a constructive peace agreement in the Middle East, which would be the capstone to her international diplomacy portfolio.

Hillary would then be able to attack Obama from two areas where he is the weakest: the economy and foreign policy.  Obama botched the economy; while he dragged us in another quagmire in Afghanistan, while Clinton, not Obama, showed her grit with leaders in Iran and brokering a Middle East peace agreement.  Clinton would additionally be able roll out her domestic agenda, while chiding Obama for not going far enough with the stimulus spending, including his failure to advance an infrastructure projects in producing technologies of the future in order to keep pace with a burgeoning China.

As  New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently said on  ABC ‘s ``This Week’’ roundtable, Obama’s biggest failure was in not formulating a Marshall Plan for his domestic agenda ; as far as outlining  a  comprehensive education plan that will turn out graduates with specialties in growing industries, developing new technologies for the future, energy conservation programs, infrastructure projects,  etc.etc

Hillary’s strongest base has always been the blue-collar, shot- and-a- beer, Dunkin Donut voters; the very constituency hit the hardest in the Great Recession; and are on the verge of drifting under the Republican column.

Far from being perceived as an ingrate or a turncoat; if Hillary challenges Obama for the 2012 nomination and wins, she might spark new life into a moribund party in the 2012 general election that was otherwise on the fast track to oblivion with Obama as their conductor.

Thanks for hearing me out.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

Who Coined the Term 9/11?

 
The term ``9/11'' became such a fixture in our vocabulary so soon after the World Trade Center attacks nine years ago today, that it's hard to remember which person or news organization used it first.

As best as I can tell, The New York Times first used the term ``9/11’’ in a headline for a Bill Keller op-ed article on September 12, 2001: ``Correspondent: America’s Emergency Line: 9/11’’

   When asked about the origin of ``9/11’’ Jack Rosenthal, President of The New York Times Company Foundation, responded by email on his recollection of the day.

 ``Like just about everyone else in America, I kept asking myself all day, what can we do. That evening, the answer dawned on me: do just what we do every day at The Times Company Foundation, philanthropy. Why don't we start a relief fund? We already had in place the machinery for our annual Neediest Cases Fund -- 501c3 tax exempt status, phone numbers, online contribution site, credit card phone lines. Let's create a special solicitation of Times readers around the country. 

That night, sitting at my laptop in my Manhattan apartment overlooking the Hudson River, I sent e-mails to Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., our chairman and publisher; Rhonda Brauer, our Foundation lawyer; and other executives describing the idea and calling it The New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund. By morning, everyone had signed on so I did the next natural thing for a former reporter and editor; I wrote it up as a story, as a convenient way to get the information across to the hugely harried Times news department.’’

    The New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund’s first article appeared on September 13; and according to Rosenthal, the fund raised $62 million with the money distributed within the first 6 months which benefited 30,000 of the neediest families.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

Suddenly, Obama Addresses Unemployment Concerns

 

 Excuse me if I’m not overcome with joy about President Obama’s trip to Cleveland on Wednesday, where he’ll be speaking  just 3.7 miles away from where I’m writing this.

And pardon me if I’m not overly impressed with the president finally beginning to roll up his sleeves as he did on Labor Day in Milwaukee to say after 21 months in office, his popularity sagging, and his party in danger of losing both houses in Congress two months from now-that he’s finally serious about the economy and the plight of the unemployed.

Thanks for finally waking up to smell the coffee Mr. Obama; we thought you would never get here.

Mr. Obama rolled out his plan for an infusion of $50 billion into the nation’s transportation infrastructure on Labor Day. On Wednesday, he will speak at a community college in a western suburb of Cleveland to announce a $200 billion tax cut, which will allow businesses to write off new investments in plants and equipment from now through the end of 2011.

That’s the good news. The bad news is this proposal will need the approval of a divided Congress, which isn’t likely to vote on this until after the mid-term election during a lame-duck Congress.

Worse still, at least to read economist Robert Reich’s latest blog post, `Obama’s proposed corporate tax cuts won’t generate more jobs because they don’t put any cash in worker’s pockets.’’

So why is the president proposing it? Political football, of course, at least according to Professor Reich’s reasoning. Bill Clinton’s former labor secretary thinks the corporate tax cuts are being used only to embarrass the Republicans by co-opting one of their ideas. If the Republicans oppose it, the White House labels the GOP obstructionists, if it passes; Obama takes ownership of another legislative victory.

A brilliant strategy, but how will this help the 15 million Americans who spent Labor Day without a job?

Mr. Obama devoted eight months of his young administration to health care so that he could claim that he had climbed to the top of the mountain that no one has reached before. Not FDR, not Truman, not LBJ, and certainly not Bill Clinton. It was a historic achievement, expanding health care to 32 million Americans. But at what cost?

After the initial stimulus, which many economists like Paul Krugman thought too puny and not nearly enough to get the job done; why did the Obama administration forget about the economy, forget about the alarming unemployment figures, while he was busy carving out his place in history as the first president to push through near universal health care coverage?

Shouldn’t the thrust of the first eight months have been to get Americans back to work again? Or did the White House forget the unemployed still know how to vote?  Was Obama so obsessed with cementing his place in history, that he forgot those who voted him into office in the first place?

Did the president forget the people like me; an ``Obamacan’’, a registered Republican who voted for Obama in 2008, having been swept away by the idea of how he would change the culture of Washington, making it more open, more transparent and tend to the concerns of Main Street.

What follows are the words Mr. Obama, the candidate, expressed on September 26, 2008 during a presidential debate at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss. about the financial crisis.

``And although we've heard a lot about Wall Street, those of you on Main Street I think have been struggling for a while, and you recognize that this could have an impact on all sectors of the economy.

And you're wondering, how's it going to affect me? How's it going to affect my job? How's it going to affect my house? How's it going to affect my retirement savings or my ability to send my children to college?

So we have to move swiftly, and we have to move wisely. And I've put forward a series of proposals that make sure that we protect taxpayers as we engage in this important rescue effort.’’

I’ve been duped before, so it should come as no surprise to me that I’ve been duped again by another candidate with more empty words and broken promises.

Two years into his administration, Obama’s campaign promise of ``Yes We Can!’’ has turned into ``No You Didn’t’’, at least for the unemployed like me, still without a job and still waiting for Obama to move ``swiftly and wisely’’ to patch up the economy.

I’m now a member of the 1.4 million ``99ers’’ you’ve read so much about,  who have exhausted their 99 weeks of unemployment, and still haven’t been able to land a job. I’ve already ripped through my 401 (k) (such as it was). I can’t find a job at Wal-Mart, or my local grocery store; and most  job ads on Craigslist turn out to be  nothing but scams, asking for money  before I can apply for a job.

It was in July, 2008 when I was laid-off; when a executive editor of a newspaper had a security guard escort me out of the building like I was a piece of garbage. I still have nightmares about the last day; I still wake up in the middle of the night in a tizzy, having dreamt about my last day at work or having dreamt of my department head or just having a bizarre dream. Like clockwork, these nightmares usually strike around 3:30 a.m. I wake up in fit of anger, and then walk to the kitchen to have a bowl of cereal.

Do I feel like a complete failure? Yes.  Have I lost all hope I’ll ever find a job again? Yes. Although I still recite special prayers to St Anthony and St Jude before going to bed, just in case miracles do exist.

My predicament is further compounded by a state of guilt, knowing that by all rights, I should be living in a homeless shelter (like so many others) instead of living with a family member.

But even family members, though trying to be encouraging and supportive (bless their hearts) are beginning to shoot me some peculiar gazes, as if I enjoy being out of work.  Which is why I avoid family gatherings like the plague? No one likes feeling like a complete failure in front of their families eyes.

It’s bad enough being greeted with a steady diet of rejection notices, with the same monotonous replies: ``Not hiring at this time’’, ``Will keep you in mind’’, ``Best of luck with your job search’’; but now I’m getting return messages with a tone that suggests I’ve become a pest.  For example, I emailed a newspaper executive recently and asked if he might be able to give me some advice whether my blog profile  was professional enough. The executive returned my email with a message ``Sorry. Can’t help.’’ I felt like I just had a door slammed in my face.

So not only can’t I find a job, but now I can’t seem to even get any professional advice. I guess that’s when you know you’ve become a burden to society and to newspaper executives.

It’s especially hard to keep upbeat when you hear one economist after another predict that we should expect the gloomy unemployment picture to stay about the same for another three to four years with unemployment peaking at 10.1 percent in 2011. And unlike the recession of 1981-1982, this recession is structural, not cyclical meaning many jobs aren’t coming back, such as for news researchers in the newspaper industry. Most news organizations have closed their research departments with instructions to the reporting staff (those still with jobs) to do their own research. Since 2007, there have been 13,500 job losses at U.S. daily newspapers, according to the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

So people like me are pretty much toast: too old to get hired; and too young to retire. Everyone tells me I need to reinvent myself, but I’m not Harry Houdini; I’m not sure what that means.

All I need to do is find out how to stop the world so I can get off.

I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on President Obama. He has, after all, spearheaded some significant achievements besides health care. He bailed out the auto industry, which saved thousands of jobs; he pushed through badly needed financial regulatory reform, he drew down the war in Iraq like he promised; and hopes are high that Secretary of State Clinton will broker a Middle East agreement in the coming months ahead.

It’s a shame that it took the fear of Mr. Obama losing his job-before he started getting serious about others who have lost theirs.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

Remembering the Unemployed on Labor Day

Labor Day Parade, Main St., Buffalo N.Y.

As we get ready to celebrate Labor Day and the rights of American workers; it’s also a good time to remember the millions in this battered economy without jobs and struggling to keep their heads barely above water.

In commemoration of the holiday, then, I compiled some historical facts on unemployment in the United States, stretching back to the 19th century, followed by significant labor legislation that was passed at the federal level beginning in the early 20th century.

Labor Day Origins

• 1882: Matthew Maguire, who later became secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., first proposed Labor Day while working at the Central Labor Union in New York.

• September 5, 1882: First Labor Day Parade took place in New York when 10,000 workers marched from City Hall to Union Square.

• By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

• ***
Historical Snapshot of Unemployment in the United States:

• The German word for unemployment, ``Arbeitslosigkeit''-literally the state of being without work-was rarely used before the 1890’s, when Karl Marx discussed the unemployed in Das Kapital; he referred to them not as die Arbeitslosen but as die Unbeschaftigen , the idle, or not busy.

• In New York City, the first emergency association was the Samaritan Society founded to cope with a relief crisis in 1805.

• Buffalo N.Y.  was the site of the first YMCA (1854); and the first American Charity Organization Society (1878)

• The New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor was founded in 1843 by Robert M Hartley, a wealthy Presbyterian merchant

• State governments created boards of state charities to bring order to this administrative chaos; the first was in Massachusetts in 1863 followed by New York in 1867; by the end of the century 16 other states had followed suit.

• Until the 1890’s, thousands of homeless men (called ``lodgers’’) slept in police stations every night.

• In 1876, the Cincinnati Police Department sheltered and lodged 75,331 indigent persons without homes.

• Between 10 percent and 20 percent of the U.S, population in the late 19th century came from families of which one member had experienced the hospitality of a police station.

• European governments introduced unemployment insurance early in the 20th century. Britain passed the first unemployment insurance act in 1911; between 1919 and 1930-10 other countries followed suit. The United States didn’t pass one until 1932

• Wisconsin passed the country’s first unemployment insurance act in 1932; then New York in 1935.

• The Social Security Act was signed in September, 1935, which made unemployment insurance compulsory.

• Between 1929 and the summer of 1933, official unemployment in America climbed from 3.2 percent to 24.9 percent. In Cleveland unemployment reached 50 percent; in Akron 60 percent ; and Toledo 80 percent

• New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt engineered the Wicks Act,  which created the Temporary Emergency Relief Association (TERA) in September 1931

• Between 1930 and 1939 unemployment ranged from 8.7 to 24.9 percent.

• The average unemployment rate from 1950 through 1959 was 4.5 percent

• As unemployment increased in 1975, Congress increased the number of weeks for which benefits were paid, extending coverage to 12 million previously excluded workers and used federal funds, not payroll taxes to finance the program’s expansion.

• In March, 1975, a weekly average of 5.9 million persons received $1.5 billion in unemployment insurance benefits, more than five times the number during the last year of the Johnson administration.

• Between 1960 and 1978, the steel industry lost 20 percent of its total jobs, almost all in production; and in the next few years, the shutdowns accelerated.

• Between 1987 and 1995, one in twenty New Yorkers inhabited  a homeless shelter at least once between 1987 and 1992

• The unemployment rate tripled in one year from 4 percent in 1929 to 13 percent in 1930; by 1932 it doubled to over 25 percent.

• In 2008, 39.8 million people were counted as poor in the United States—an increase of 2.6 million persons from 2007, and nearly the largest number of persons counted as poor since 1960.

• Over the course of 2008, the unemployment rate increased from 4.9 percent  (January 2008) to 7.2 percent (December 2008); by March 2010, , the unemployment rate was  9.7percent , down from a most recent high of 10.2% in October 2009

***

Significant Labor Legislation in the United States

• 1913: Congress creates the U.S. Department of Labor. (USDOL).

• September 1, 1916: The Keating Owen Act bans child labor; while the U.S. Supreme Court in Hammer v. Dagenhart rules the child-labor law to be unconstitutional on June 3, 1918.

• September 7, 1916: Federal Employees Compensation Act; established Office of Workers Compensation Programs in the U.S. Department of Labor.

• 1919: The International Labor Organization is organized as an extension of the League of Nations

• March 5, 1923: Montana and Nevada become the first states to enact old age pension laws, well before the federal Social Security Act of 1935.

• July 7, 1930: Congress authorizes the Department of Labor to begin gathering labor statistics.

• March 3, 1931: The Davis-Bacon Act (also known as the Prevailing Wage Law) becomes the first federal law to secure a minimum wage for nongovernment workers.

• July 21, 1932: Emergency Relief and Construction Act created employment through a public works program.

• July 5, 1935: The National Labor Relations Act (also called the Wagner Act, named after U.S. Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York) gives labor unions the right to exist and collectively bargain with industry.

• August 14, 1935: The Social Security Act creates two social insurance plans to help meet the risks of old age and unemployment.

• June 25, 1938: The Fair Standards ACT (FLSA) is passed , which created a Wage and Hour Division in the U.S. Department of Labor; mandated a 40 cent-per-hour minimum wage by 1945; required a maximum workweek of 44 hours, with a reduction to 40 hours by 1940; established an overtime wage rate at one and a half times the regular rate of pay

• June 10, 1963: The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (an amendment to FLSA) makes it illegal to pay different wages based on gender to those doing substantially the same work.

• July 2, 1964: President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which includes Title VII banning discrimination in the workplace on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.

• August 20, 1964: The Economic Opportunity Act was passed. The Act was the first official legislation on the War on Poverty, giving power to the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), which created the Job Corps, Head Start, Neighborhood Youth Corps and the Community Action Program to help combat growing poverty in America.

• December 15, 1967: The Age Discrimination Act is passed, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of age in job applications procedures, hiring, firing, or promotion.

• December 30, 1969: The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act was passed, which set mandatory health and safety standards for underground coal mines.

• December 29, 1970: The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 gave state governments the option of regulating workplace safety and healthy by submitting a state plan to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for approval.

• December 10, 1981: Veteran's Employment and Training Service (VETS) maximizes training and employment opportunities for veterans and disabled by ensuring that legislation involving veterans is carried out by local public employment services and private enterprise

• January 14, 1983: The Migrant and Seasonal Worker Protection Act protects rights, pay, and working conditions of migrant workers.

• February 5, 1993: The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) allows workers to take unpaid leave from work when they or someone in their family needs medical care.

• August 17, 2006: Pension Protection Act is signed into law, to protect workers and retirees and to encourage continued sponsorship of pension plans.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

Source: U.S. Department of Labor; ``Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-Class History’’,  Eric Arnesen (Editor), ``A Social History of Welfare in America'' by Michael Katz (Basic Books); ``A People’s History of Poverty in America’’ by Stephen Pimpare

Is Obama Ready Again for Prime Time?

 

 For someone who sparkles on stage under the klieg lights as much as President Obama does, it might seem odd that he suddenly suffers from stage fright when it comes to holding a news conference.

For those keeping score at home, the last formal presidential news conference came on  May 27th of this year-which if you remember- dealt primarily with the BP oil spill and the hardship being felt by residents in the Gulf Coast.

Two years into office, President Obama has held a grand total of 36 press conferences, according to Dr. Eric Ostermeier, author of the Smart Politics blog at the University of Minnesota, averaging 1.86 press conferences a month, which places him 10th on a list of presidential rankings of press conferences; below JFK , Bill Clinton and both Bushes (41 and 43), while above Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter as compared with presidents from Herbert Hoover through the present. For the record, Ronald Reagan has held the least amount of press conferences, totaling 46 with a monthly average of 0.48, while FDR held the most with 881, averaging 6.05 a month.

Of course, these numbers include joint press conferences and trips abroad. So many don’t really consider that a true representation of how many press conferences the president has held.

To get a better sense of the solo formal press conferences and to find out how many press conferences have been held in prime-time, I poked around at the database maintained by Gerhard Peters at the American Presidency Project, (UC Santa Barbara) and found that President Obama held six formal press conferences in 2009 and three in 2010; four of those nine press conferences were in prime-time, the first on February 9, 2009 and the last prime-time formal press conference came on July 22, 2009.

When Obama first broke from the gate, he seemed to be shattering the old rusty tradition of rarely watched afternoon press conferences by opening up the line of questioning to reporters in prime time. And viewers seemed taken with these evening exchanges. Nearly 50 million viewers tuned into the president’s prime time press conferences on February 9, 2009, then about 40 million on March 24th, 2009, according to Nielsen Media Research.

It all seemed to be going so smoothly for the White House. Obama was breaking new ground by holding press conferences in the evening, giving him maximum attention, when the young and old, the far left and the far right and those important independents in the middle would be home to watch Obama engage the press with aplomb much like FDR and JFK were so famous for.

It all came crashing down on July 22, 2009, when President Obama made the fateful decision to cut his answer short to Steve Koff of The Plain Dealer so that Lynn Sweet of The Chicago Sun-Times could ask the final question of the evening. Instead of ending the press conference on health care and his planned trip to the Cleveland Clinic the next day, the president ended the evening answering a question about Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr., and race relations in America in which Obama wandered off message to say the Cambridge police acted ``stupidly’’ in arresting the popular Harvard professor for disorderly conduct. 

I’m sure this isn’t exactly how Robert Gates, Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod drew it up for the president on the blackboard before he walked out in the East Room of the White House on that muggy July evening.

As most will recall, the Skip Gates question was a fiasco for the White House that took attention away from their push for health care reform, while Obama backtracked on his statement which culminated in a beer summit at the White House with Gates, Obama and the arresting officer, Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley.

It was another teachable moment, to be sure. The biggest lesson the White House learned from this teachable moment had nothing to do with Gates, Crowley, police departments, or race relations in America for that matter; but rather to keep the president out of prime time news conferences at all costs. And if Rahm and Co. thought they could get away without holding any daytime news conferences they’d probably go for it.

The White House strategy now seems to be place the president in a more controlled setting, by granting exclusives to likes of George Stephanopoulos, Diane Sawyer, and Brian Williams; while having the president tour the country to town hall meetings, ostensibly to listen to the concerns from middle America, but in reality these pep rallies are nothing more than dog and pony shows to get the presidents picture splashed on the local page one’s and on the evening news.

The question the White House has to start asking themselves is if keeping the president away from a prying press corps is helping or hurting the president in the long run?

The conventional wisdom is that Obama is at his best when delivering issue-oriented speeches, like health care, and the Middle East, but as soon as he drifts away from the text written in front of him, trouble lurks, such as when he’s caught off guard answering questions about race in America or mosques being built two blocks north of Ground Zero.

Alex Jones, Director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University doesn’t think the Skip Gates fiasco is the reason Mr. Obama steers away from formal news conferences. ``But I don’t know what their thinking is’’ Jones wrote me in an email. `` It is a mistake, to my mind, because one of his real problems has been getting his message out, and that is the most effective way.’’

Eleanor Clift, a Newsweek columnist and an occasional panelist on the McLaughlin Group, on the other hand, thinks the Skip Gates question has everything to do with Obama avoiding news conferences like the plague.  ``Obama wants to stay on message’’, Clift wrote, ``and not hand his critics and the 24/7 media something else to batter him about’’. An hour long press conference serves up too many side issues that could end up as major distractions.’’

While there is plenty of debate whether it’s been wise to keep the president away from going eyeball- to-eyeball with the press on a more regular basis, one thing is certain: the gulf growing between the president and the voters seem to be getting wider. Sticking to a ``Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’’ policy with the media seems to be hurting the president more than he thinks.

With the jobless rate near 10 percent, our policy in Afghanistan and the war against Al Qaeda still fuzzy to many Americans, and a majority of voters (especially independents) disapproving of the way Obama is performing in the White House, the sooner the president gets back to answering tough questions directly from the press with more regularity, the more it will drive home the point that this president isn’t running away from its original billing;  that of being an administration of transparency and open government.

It’s time for Mr. Obama to turn the page.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

Obama Shifts Focus from Iraq to Afghanistan

 

   On the night of March 19, 2003, U.S forces initiated an aerial assault on a location in Baghdad believed to be where Saddam Hussein was meeting with top Iraqi advisors, thus marking the beginning of the U.S. war in Iraq.

On Tuesday, seven years later, President Obama will announce the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom, while outlining the administrations renewed combat in Afghanistan. Despite the end of the war in Iraq, 50,000 U.S. troops will remain to ``advise and assist’’ the Iraqi forces until the end of 2011 as outlined by the U.S.-Iraq Security Agreement

In order to assess the amount of forces deployed in the theaters of Afghanistan and Iraq, along with the total amount appropriated for both wars, I compiled some dollar figures and troop estimates based on data from the Congressional Research Service, the Department of Defense, and the Congressional Budget Office.

• Total war funding for Iraq increased markedly after the fall of 2002 to $53 billion during the invasion year of 2003, then nearly tripling to $131 billion in FY2007, and peaking at $142 billion during the surge in FY2008.

• With the adoption of a withdrawal plan by President Obama in February 2009, total war costs for Iraq have declined, dropping to $96 billion in FY2009 to $66 billion in FY2010 and $51 billion in FY2011, when troop levels are trimmed to 43,000.

• War costs in Afghanistan in FY2003 and FY 2004, approached $15 billion, growing to about $20 billion in FY2005 and FY2006, with troop levels at about 20,000.  Funding then jumped to $39 billion in FY2007, and $44 billion in FY2008, as troop levels increased to over 30,000 as the conflict grew more intense.

• The cost of the Afghan war has risen considerably since FY2006, having increased from $19 billion in FY2006 to $60 billion in FY2009

• If the pending FY2010 supplemental request is approved,, total war costs will total $1.1 trillion, including $751 billion for Iraq, $336 billion for Afghanistan, and $29 billion for enhanced security.

• Average troop strength in Iraq will decrease from 100,000 in FY2010 to 43,000 in FY2011, while troop strength in Afghanistan will grow from 84,000 in FY2010 to 98,000 in FY2011.

• Not until FY2011 will average strength fall by 20 percent to 145,000 as the withdrawal in Iraq gathers speed and troop strength in Afghanistan levels off.

• In FY2010, additional troops in Afghanistan cancel out scheduled withdrawals from Iraq, with average troop strength remaining at about 185,000 in both FY2009 and FY2010.

• Under CBO projections, funding for Iraq, Afghanistan and the Global War on Terror could total from about $1.56 trillion to about $1.88 trillion for FY2001-FY2020.
 
• In FY2010, Afghan war costs account for 62 percent of war costs; 38 percent in Iraq, exactly opposite of what it was the previous year.

• In FY2010, the cost for Afghanistan increases by $45 billion or 75 percent from FY2009; representing a 140 percent increase over the $44 billion in FY2008, while the cost for Iraq drops by about one-third from $96 billion to $66 billion.

• During 2009, troop levels declined slowly in Iraq, while troop levels rose steadily in Afghanistan, growing from about 33,000 in January 2009 to about 45,000 in June 2009.

• With the FY2011 budget adding an additional 4,000 support troops in Afghanistan, President Obama has now approved a total deployment from 56,000 to 60,000 additional troops for Afghanistan by FY2011.

• As of June, 2010, the number of troops in Afghanistan (94,000) exceeded the number in Iraq (92,000) for the first time.

• By September 2010, the number of troops in Afghanistan will reach 98,000, according to the time frame outlined by President Obama
 
• DOD’s FY2011 war request assumes average troop strength of 102,000 in FY2011 in Afghanistan, a small increase above FY2010, and 43,000 troops in Iraq.

• Along with U.S. troops, NATO nations currently contribute 41,000 troops, bringing the total for foreign troops in Afghanistan to approximately 139,000

***

Key Dates of U.S. Presence in Iraq

• October 16, 2002: President Bush signs the authorization for use of military force against Iraq.

• June, 2004:  U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 1546, reaffirming the authorization for the multinational force in Resolution 1511, while noting that its presence in Iraq “is at the request of the incoming Interim Government of Iraq.”

• May 1, 2007: President George W. Bush vetoed the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, H.R. 1591, partially due to certain measures that would have limited the U.S. military role in Iraq.

• November 26, 2007:  U.S. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamel Al-Maliki signed a ``Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship’’ between the Republic of Iraq and the United States of America.

• November 17, 2008: U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari sign a withdrawal agreement, which among other provisions, calls for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces no later than December 31, 2011.

• January 1, 2009: The U.S. signs a security agreement with Iraq that requires all U.S. combat troops to move outside of cities by the end of June 2009, while all U.S. troops leave Iraq by December 31, 2011.

• February 27, 2009: President Obama delivers a speech to U.S. Marines at Camp Lejeune, stating the U.S. strategy in Iraq was complete and calls for U.S. troops to be reduced to 50,000 troops by August 31, 2010; and a complete withdrawal by December 31, 2011.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

Source: Congressional Research Service, Department of Defense, Congressional Budget Office

Katrina 5-Year Anniversary Timeline; New Orleans Update

 

 With President Obama planning a trip to New Orleans on August 29th to mark the five year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I compiled a timeline, chronicling the chaos, destruction, and havoc as reported by major news organizations for two tumultuous weeks.

But first an update on New Orleans since 2005.

The New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau is happy to report despite all the infrastructure damage and damage to its reputation as result of Katrina, including the damage incurred from the BP oil spill, the ``Big Easy’’ is once again greeting millions of tourists, hosting conventions and prominent corporate and association meetings, while earning awards as one of the hottest leisure destinations in America.

New Orleans, in fact, is doing better than it ever has. Since 2005 (pre-Katrina) It boasts 300 more restaurants, $400 million of improvements into local hotels,  $250 million of improvements into the Louisiana Superdome and $92.7 million of improvements into the Morial Convention Center.

In 2009, moreover, the annual visitor spending in New Orleans was $4.2 billion; just prior to Katrina, tourists spent $2.6 billion in New Orleans from January through June, 2005.

Hurricane Katrina Timeline: August 28-September 7, 2005

• August 28, 2005: After crossing South Florida and causing nine deaths, Hurricane Katrina pushed its way toward southeastern Louisiana, intensifying into a Category 5 Hurricane with severe wind speeds approaching 160 miles an hour, prompting a mandatory evacuation and sending hundreds of thousands of residents fleeing New Orleans, a city of 485,000 people, and located below sea level, right in the eye of the storm.

The mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, issued a grim warning to residents: ``We are facing a storm that most of us feared''

The storm shut down oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, sending the price of oil soaring to more than $4 a barrel.

Area residents, including scores of tourists without any form of transportation, numbering 10,000, began pouring into the Louisiana Superdome seeking shelter.

• August 29, 2005: Hurricane Katrina landed at 7:10 a.m. Eastern time near the Louisiana bayou town of Burasin, approximately 63 miles southeast of New Orleans, as it battered parts of the city for eight consecutive hours; but according to preliminary reports, the city was spared the devastation it feared, as most of the levees held with only one reported being damaged.

Katrina appeared to have inflicted the heaviest damage in neighboring Mississippi, where roofs were ripped off homes and 55 were reported killed, including 50 in Harrison County, Miss, which includes Gulfport and Biloxi.

  Insurance experts estimated the damage would exceed $9 billion, placing it as one of most devastating hurricanes in the United States. The loss of operating casinos in Mississippi alone was costing the state $400,000 to $500,000 a day in lost revenue.

The governors of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi declared search and rescue their top priority, while President Bush promised immediate assistance to storm victims.

• August 30. 2005: Just when New Orleans thought it had escaped the fury of Katrina, 80 percent of the city found itself below-sea-level, after two levees broke, sending a surge of water through the city, 20 feet deep.

Death tolls began mounting at unprecedented levels; Mississippi was reporting at least 100 dead. In New Orleans, thousands of people were said to be stuck on roofs and attics, the carnage had become so devastating that rescue boats were left with no recourse but to push aside dead bodies in order to save the living.

Every few minutes brought new chilling accounts of horror in a city that just a few short hours ago was known as ``The Big Easy’’--looting in the streets (with one police officer shot critically), tens of thousands of homes shattered, no electricity, gas leaks erupting into flames, hospital running out of room for patients, not even the water was drinkable. 

20,000 people were sandwiched inside the Superdome, a facility that normally requires 9,000 tons of air conditioning equipment to keep it a comfortable 72 degrees, had no place to go, no place to bathe, bins were reported overflowing with trash, the stench unbearable, prompting the New York Times to describe the stadium ``unfit for animals.’’  Three patients died in the dome.

The Associated Press reported one woman giving birth while fleeing New Orleans.

The staff of the Times-Picayune was forced from its editorial offices at 9:40 a.m., and could only publish online.

Storm damage estimates increased to more than $25 billion, making it one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in U.S. history, even worse than Hurricane Andrew, which racked up $21 billion in insured losses in 1992.

President Bush freed up some federal aid as he declared parts of Mississippi and Alabama major disaster areas; while the Pentagon ordered six Navy ships and eight maritime rescue teams to the region.

• August 31, 2005: President Bush cut his vacation short from Texas and ordered an additional 10,000 National Guard troops to the Gulf Coast to help with the evacuation effort, making it one of the largest military responses in U.S. history to a natural disaster, as the total number of troops stood at 28,000.

It was announced that the 23,000 refugees shoehorned in the Superdome would be bused to the Astrodome in Houston.

    Mayor Nagin, while acknowledging the death toll might reach into the thousands, called for a total evacuation of New Orleans, describing the city as uninhabitable for the 50,000 to 100,00 who remained, and said the city wouldn't be functioning again for another two to three months.

The Army Corps of Engineers estimated that it would take three to six months to drain New Orleans of the water that flooded the city.

Lawlessness was still in full swing. One man reportedly shot his sister in the head over a bag of ice; and another dozen carjackings were reported by the Associated Press, including a nursing home bus.

    The Red Cross was reporting $21 million had been received in relief aid.

• September 1, 2005: As the Bush administration was fending off heaps of criticism for not responding to the flood victims fast enough; Congress rushed through a $10.5 billion relief and rescue package for victims.

    The slowness of the aid to victims in a predominantly black metropolitan area quickly ignited a political firestorm, when some accused the president of abandoning a region of the country to which he owes no political favors.

``Last year, when the president's election was in question, his response to the hurricanes in the swing state of Florida was tremendously fast,” Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla. told the Associated Press. "Where was he in the immediate aftermath for the Gulf Coast? Where were the trucks of food?"

As the Houston Astrodome filled to capacity, San Antonio and Dallas were preparing to absorb 25,000 more refugees.

New Orleans was still filled with angry mobs, crying for help, and storming the helicopters bringing in food supplies.

• September 2, 2005: Five days after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, medical and food supplies begin pouring into the region on the same day President Bush visited the area to offer support and to defend the government's slow response. Another 10,000 National Guard troops were reportedly being dispatched to the region, bringing the total number to 40,000.

• September 3, 2005: Homeland Secretary, Michael Chertoff told The Associated Press that more than 100,000 people had received humanitarian aid and the Coast Guard had rescued 9, 500 people; President Bush ordered 7,200 more soldiers and Marines to the Gulf Coast, while commenting `in America we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of need."

    Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao announced an emergency $62 million grant to provide 10,000 temporary jobs for displaced workers. Amtrak was also planning to pitch in by transporting stranded residents from New Orleans.

• September 4, 2005: What had long been feared, but only now acknowledged by the federal government, the death toll from Hurricane Katrina is likely to be in the thousands, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt.

    That sentiment was echoed by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who told Fox News Sunday, "We need to prepare the country for what's coming. We are going to uncover people who died hiding in the houses, maybe got caught in floods. It is going to be as ugly a scene as you can imagine.''

    President Bush, still trying to make amends for reacting so slowly to the cries of help from flood stricken New Orleans residents, dispatched his top advisers to the region: Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; while the first lady accompanied her husband to the Red Cross operation center to thank employees for their efforts.

    But the crisis was far from over.

    Chertoff told CNN that the ``we are still in the middle of an emergency. This is not the time when we can draw a sigh of relief''

    New Orleans Mayor Nagin worked the airwaves as well, telling NBC the way the federal government responded to his city helplessness was "a tragedy, a disgrace."

• September 5, 2005: Thanks to sheets of metal and helicopters unloading 3,000-pound sandbags along the 17th Street canal, engineers begin plugging a 200-foot-wide gap of the broken levee that inundated New Orleans with floodwaters nearly a week ago.

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told The Associated Press water was being pumped from the canal back into the Lake Pontchartrain.

    Reports of missing New Orleans police officers continue to be a growing concern for local and state officials.

    Four hundred to 500 officers of New Orleans' 1600-member force have not reported for duty. Two officers committed suicide; and another was shot in the head during the uncontrolled mayhem of the storm.

    While the final death toll from Katrina was far from final, New Orleans Mayor Nagin didn't rule out the possibility it could be as high as 10,000.

    President Bush continued to get pounded for his mismanagement of the disaster response; especially by the staff of the Times Picayune, who published an open letter to the president in the Sunday edition, calling for the firing of every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    Bush visited with victims in Poplarville, Miss., and Baton Rouge, La.

• September 6, 2005: The laborious task of draining New Orleans of an estimated 30 billion gallons of water continued at a snails pace, with the Army Corps of Engineers giving a time frame ranging from three weeks to nearly three months.

    Engineers started filling 45-foot hole with rocks and sandbags, so than more pumps can start running.
    Only three of the 148 drainage pumps were operating.

    With a patch of residents still refusing to leave New Orleans, the Pentagon sent 5,000 paratroopers in an attempt to clear the remaining 10,000 residents from the city; and Mayor Ray Nagin issued an urgent warning that fetid water could carry a disease, while natural gas was leaking throughout the city.

    With the lack of water, sporadic fires were reported throughout the day; and doused by National Guardsmen and helicopters.

    The Associated Press quoted New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass as saying the lawlessness had ``subsided tremendously''; and warned anyone caught looting was looking at up to 15 years in prison during a national emergency.

    Paul Getman, chief executive officer of Economy.com, estimated the economic loss from the hurricane would total around $175 billion.

• September 7, 2005: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, government tests showed the amount of sewage-related bacteria in the floodwaters to be lat east 10 times higher than the acceptable safety level, prompting Mayor Nagin to step-up his evacuation of the remaining 5,000 to 10,000 residents from New Orleans even by force if necessary.

    CDC was reporting three deaths in Mississippi and one in Texas from exposure to Vibrio vulnificus, cholera-like bacteria found in salt water.

    The Associated Press reported 100 military officers and seven armed personnel carriers arrested a suspect who was firing a gun at workers trying to restore cell phone towers in a housing project.

    The Federal Emergency Management Agency had ordered 25,000 body bags. The official death toll was still under 100.

    The number of water pumps working was only 23 or 10 percent of the city's normal contingent of 148 pumps

    Back at the nation's capital, the House and Senate said a joint investigation into the government's slow response to Katrina would be undertaken. ``Americans deserve answers'', said House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert.

    President Bush was expecting to make his second budget request for hurricane relief, this time for $51.8 billion;  while FEMA director Michael Brown  announced debit cards totaling $2,000 would distributed to those affected by Hurricane Katrina for clothing and other immediate needs.
    The New York Times was reporting more than 319,000 had already filed for federal disaster relief.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
***
 Select Quotes:

    August 28, 2005
    `We are facing a storm that most of us have feared...God bless us.''
    -New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin issuing a dire warning to New Orleans residents of the impending Category 5 hurricane bearing down on the city and urged all residents to evacuate immediately.

    September 2, 2005
    ''Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.''
    -President Bush in Mobile Alabama with words spoken to FEMA Director Michael Brown for the job he was doing in responding to the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Brown ended up resigning for his incompetence 10 days later.

    September 5, 2005, ``We have advised people that this city has been destroyed,” "There is nothing here for them and no reason for them to stay, no food, no jobs, nothing."
    -Deputy Police Superintendent W.J. Riley

September 5, 2005
``We're still fighting over authority. "A bunch of people are the boss. The state and the federal government are doing a two-step dance."
    -New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin

    September 5, 2005 (From The Washington Post)
"Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race,"
    -Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

    September 5, 2005
"They were told like me, every single day, the cavalry's coming, on a federal level,’’…."I have just begun to hear the hoofs of the cavalry.''
    -Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, just south of New Orleans, on NBC's "Meet the Press''

September 6, 2005 (From The New York Times)    
We're making great progress now," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said on the "Today" program on NBC. "The momentum has picked up. I'm starting to see some critical tasks being completed."

***

Update on New Orleans since Katrina:

• June, 2008: The entire St. Charles Streetcar Line reopens, including the S. Carrollton Avenue leg. The St. Charles Streetcar Line had been a New Orleans tradition since the 19th century.

• December, 2008; New Orleans ends the year with 7.6 million in total visitors and $5.1 billion in spending.

• Louis Armstrong International Airport announced that the airport served 7.94 million passengers in 2008, a 5.5 percent increase over 2007.

• January, 2009: The new Mardi Gras World opened on the East Bank of New Orleans, adding thousands of square footage of venue space.

• January, 2009: After a $27 million renovation, The Mahalia Jackson Theatre of the Performing Arts re-opens, which includes a new orchestra shell and enhanced lighting.

• February, 2009: The Mardi Gras reached pre-Katrina crowd levels of approximately one million visitors

• February, 2009: The Lakewood Golf Course reopens to the public after undergoing a $9 million redesign.

• March, 2009: Jazz returns to Bourbon Street, when the Irvin Mayfield Jazz Playhouse at the Royal Sonesta opens to the public.

• April, 2009: New Orleans is awarded the site for the NCAA's 2012 Men's Final Four and the 2010 Women's Final Four basketball tournament.

• June, 2010: New Orleans is awarded the site for Super Bowl 2013, making New Orleans the site of the Super Bowl for the 10th time, tying them with Miami.

• June, 2010: The historic Roosevelt New Orleans, a Waldorf Astoria Collection, opens after a $145 million restoration.

• July, 2009: Approximately 428, 000 music fans attend the ESSENCE Festival, a three-day event at the Louisiana Superdome, featuring musical sensations: Beyonce, Maxwell, Anita Baker and Lionel Richie for the 15th annual festival.

• October, 2009: Broadway returns at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, with the presentation of’ Broadway Across America-New Orleans'', which included performances of ``CATS’’, ``Wicked’’, ``The Color Purple’’ and ``Mamma Mia.’’

• December, 2009: New Orleans ends the year with 7.5 million total visitors and $4.2 billion in spending

• February, 2010: A record breaking 106.5 million television viewers tune into to watch the New Orleans Saints claim their first Super Bowl with a convincing 31-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts.

• March, 2010: $400 million of improvements and modernization projects are being worked on at the New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport with an expected completion date scheduled for September, 2011.

• April, 2010: The annual French Quarter Festival announces a record attendance of 512,000 over a three-day weekend

• August, 2010: Approximately $10.5 million will be spent to upgrade the former Dominion Tower into a sports entertainment venue now known as the Benson Tower, named for Saint’s owner Mr. Tom Benson and his family.

Source: New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau Inc.