by Cody Lyon
Here are two short videos of a two CSX Freight Trains crossing, just south of Birmingham in Westover, Alabama. The shots were taken in November, 2010. Train Lovers are encouraged to play these at high volume.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Thanksgiving for Stephanie Anne Lyon Kirkpatrick
Wilsonville, Alabama, November 24,2010
Cody Lyon
We lost my little sister, Stephanie Anne Lyon Kirkpatrick on November 10th, 2010, just ten days after her 38th birthday on October 31st. She died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm (coupled with Mitral Valve prolapse) while jogging, training for a half marathon.
Stef, a pharmacist, died while doing what she loved, running and preparing for yet another competitive event. She leaves behind her husband Jay Kirkpatrick, her parents, me her brother, as well as many friends.
Although Stephanie's far to early departure from this world has left me and my family infected with excruciating pain, simply put, heartbroken, I am thankful for the precious time we shared and the memories she leaves behind with all those who loved her. I'm also comforted on this very sad Thanksgiving by an important fact; During the years Stephanie was here, she made this world a much more beautiful place. Thank you little sister.
I'll miss her terribly as will everyone who knew and loved her.
For those wishing to reach out, donations can be made in her name, Stephanie Anne Lyon Kirkpatrick, to the Shelby County Humane Society in Columbiana, Alabama.
Cody Lyon
We lost my little sister, Stephanie Anne Lyon Kirkpatrick on November 10th, 2010, just ten days after her 38th birthday on October 31st. She died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm (coupled with Mitral Valve prolapse) while jogging, training for a half marathon.
Stef, a pharmacist, died while doing what she loved, running and preparing for yet another competitive event. She leaves behind her husband Jay Kirkpatrick, her parents, me her brother, as well as many friends.
Although Stephanie's far to early departure from this world has left me and my family infected with excruciating pain, simply put, heartbroken, I am thankful for the precious time we shared and the memories she leaves behind with all those who loved her. I'm also comforted on this very sad Thanksgiving by an important fact; During the years Stephanie was here, she made this world a much more beautiful place. Thank you little sister.
I'll miss her terribly as will everyone who knew and loved her.
For those wishing to reach out, donations can be made in her name, Stephanie Anne Lyon Kirkpatrick, to the Shelby County Humane Society in Columbiana, Alabama.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
A view from Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park (video)
by Cody Lyon
The view in the above footage is from Fort Tryon park in Manhattan.
Named after Sir William Tryon, the last British Governor of New York, the 67 acre Ft Tryon Park sits on a commanding ridge in the Washington Heights section, overlooking the Hudson River and the Palisades of New Jersey. The park is home to the Metropolitan Museum's medieval collection "The Cloisters." Ft Tryon park was constructed after John D Rockefeller bought the land as part of an estate purchase from the Billings family for $35,000 an acre.
Rockefeller hired Frederick Law Olmstead Jr.,, son of the Central Park planner to design the park. Rockefeller then donated the park to the City of New York.
Interestingly, the ambitious project's construction commenced during the Great Depression, and reportedly created a number of jobs. Around the same time, the expansion of a 140 feet deep tunnel that allowed for a new subway station along the IND subway line at 190 street, an effort that opened in 1932. After a period of disrepair in the 1970's, today, the park is seen as one of New York City's greatest treasures, a testament to visionary individuals and a city's spirit despite what was a crippling economic depression.
One wonders if even an inkling of such vision exists today.
Riding in new bike lane on Broadway (Video)
Cody Lyon's bike ride in a new Broadway bike near Union Square in New York City's Manhattan.
The city is home to around 200 miles of designated bike lanes with more planned for the future according to information at the New York City Department of Transportation.
The city is home to around 200 miles of designated bike lanes with more planned for the future according to information at the New York City Department of Transportation.
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Intolerance in America and the tragic death of Tyler Clementi
OPINION- By Cody Lyon
The story of 18 year old Rutgers student Tyler Clementi has broken hearts across America, as countless individuals come to terms with the piercing pain and humiliation that could lead such a talented and gifted young man to jump from the George Washington Bridge into the cold, fast moving currents of the Hudson River.
According to most news reports, the New Jersey teenager took his life on September 22nd after he realized his roommate and another dorm mate had pulled what looks to be a cyber-world prank, and broadcast live images of Clementi having a sexual encounter with another man.
But if widely reported details of what happened are correct, the heightened humiliation and shame that drove the distinguished musician to suicide offers further evidence, we still live in a society where vast portions consider homosexuality taboo, immoral or at least, not normal.
Just last May, Gallup, the polling organization, published its annual values and beliefs survey. Results showed that Americans' support for the moral acceptability of gay and lesbian relations had crossed the symbolic 50% threshold in 2010. But, at the same time, the percentage calling these relations "morally wrong" was still at 43%. And, while that's the lowest in Gallup's decade-long trending of the issue, it's still significant.
Gay people are acutely aware of those sentiments, many struggle with internal homophobia and others attempt to project an image of normalcy to the masses in a world where many still consider them abnormal. In fact, a barometer of society's attitudes about homosexuality often shows up in the gay male community itself, for example, when gay men make a point of labeling themselves "straight acting" or "down low," as if the articulation as such, connotes masculinity, once again, normal behavior for men, an attribute society dictates is worth striving for.
More aptly to this latest tragedy, ponder this; While there is no tangible way to measure the pain or embarrassment that drove Tyler Clementi to take his own life, one wonders, would this talented young man have chosen a different path, were he living in a more tolerant and accepting world? Put more simply, assume for just a moment that Clementi's web-cast was heterosexual, not homosexual.
Days after news reports and talking head reactions to the awfulness of this human tragedy saturated the nation, conversations held with reasonably minded people led to similar hypothetical questions. If during similar invasions of privacy, where two individuals had been broadcast having sex, all without their knowledge, and one of those individuals had been either a married woman, or a married man with children, would the level of heightened humiliation be as measurable as what we appear to be assuming Tyler Clementi felt as he took his own life, after the broadcast of a same sex encounter?
There's simply no way to know for sure, but the mere comparisons beg a very important question about American attitudes towards LGBT people, that despite all the remarkable progress we see on the surface, the deeper answers seems pretty clear, and still, are quiet troubling.
Changing hearts and minds is sometimes best left to moments like this horrible tragedy in the Hudson when a young and gifted soul felt he had to leave this earth. The brutal evidence of society's intolerance often shows up in the most hurtful events. This appears to be one of them.
Once the coverage, celebrities and discussion fades, it is imperative that LGBT youth constantly be reminded and understand, that no matter how cruel, painful or embarrassing this big mean cyber world may seem at times, it all gets better with time. We all become better with time.
The story of 18 year old Rutgers student Tyler Clementi has broken hearts across America, as countless individuals come to terms with the piercing pain and humiliation that could lead such a talented and gifted young man to jump from the George Washington Bridge into the cold, fast moving currents of the Hudson River.
According to most news reports, the New Jersey teenager took his life on September 22nd after he realized his roommate and another dorm mate had pulled what looks to be a cyber-world prank, and broadcast live images of Clementi having a sexual encounter with another man.
But if widely reported details of what happened are correct, the heightened humiliation and shame that drove the distinguished musician to suicide offers further evidence, we still live in a society where vast portions consider homosexuality taboo, immoral or at least, not normal.
Just last May, Gallup, the polling organization, published its annual values and beliefs survey. Results showed that Americans' support for the moral acceptability of gay and lesbian relations had crossed the symbolic 50% threshold in 2010. But, at the same time, the percentage calling these relations "morally wrong" was still at 43%. And, while that's the lowest in Gallup's decade-long trending of the issue, it's still significant.
Gay people are acutely aware of those sentiments, many struggle with internal homophobia and others attempt to project an image of normalcy to the masses in a world where many still consider them abnormal. In fact, a barometer of society's attitudes about homosexuality often shows up in the gay male community itself, for example, when gay men make a point of labeling themselves "straight acting" or "down low," as if the articulation as such, connotes masculinity, once again, normal behavior for men, an attribute society dictates is worth striving for.
More aptly to this latest tragedy, ponder this; While there is no tangible way to measure the pain or embarrassment that drove Tyler Clementi to take his own life, one wonders, would this talented young man have chosen a different path, were he living in a more tolerant and accepting world? Put more simply, assume for just a moment that Clementi's web-cast was heterosexual, not homosexual.
Days after news reports and talking head reactions to the awfulness of this human tragedy saturated the nation, conversations held with reasonably minded people led to similar hypothetical questions. If during similar invasions of privacy, where two individuals had been broadcast having sex, all without their knowledge, and one of those individuals had been either a married woman, or a married man with children, would the level of heightened humiliation be as measurable as what we appear to be assuming Tyler Clementi felt as he took his own life, after the broadcast of a same sex encounter?
There's simply no way to know for sure, but the mere comparisons beg a very important question about American attitudes towards LGBT people, that despite all the remarkable progress we see on the surface, the deeper answers seems pretty clear, and still, are quiet troubling.
Changing hearts and minds is sometimes best left to moments like this horrible tragedy in the Hudson when a young and gifted soul felt he had to leave this earth. The brutal evidence of society's intolerance often shows up in the most hurtful events. This appears to be one of them.
Once the coverage, celebrities and discussion fades, it is imperative that LGBT youth constantly be reminded and understand, that no matter how cruel, painful or embarrassing this big mean cyber world may seem at times, it all gets better with time. We all become better with time.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
MTA - Smart Card future Feature story (GOTHAMGAZETTE.COM)
From my story on the NYC Transit's fare collection technology at Gotham Gazette.com:
excerpt:
...Indeed the messages ticking across the tops of two of the three machines informed MetroCard buyers, this machine "does not accept bills at this time." One of the three also advised, no single ride tickets. All three card dispensers did welcome plastic.
New York's time consuming and often inconvenient fare collection lags far behind that of many other large cities, according to experts. Some might say the dysfunctional MetroCard vending machines reflect deeper systemic problems at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, one of the world's largest public transit agencies.
Change, though, might be on the way. Within the next few years, transit riders might be able to simply tap their cards and go, rather than having to swipe -- and sometimes swipe again and again. In addition, rather than purchasing a ticket from the transit authority, they could have their fares automatically debited from their bank accounts or charged to their credit cards....
Link to full story:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/Transportation/20100922/16/3370
excerpt:
...Indeed the messages ticking across the tops of two of the three machines informed MetroCard buyers, this machine "does not accept bills at this time." One of the three also advised, no single ride tickets. All three card dispensers did welcome plastic.
New York's time consuming and often inconvenient fare collection lags far behind that of many other large cities, according to experts. Some might say the dysfunctional MetroCard vending machines reflect deeper systemic problems at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, one of the world's largest public transit agencies.
Change, though, might be on the way. Within the next few years, transit riders might be able to simply tap their cards and go, rather than having to swipe -- and sometimes swipe again and again. In addition, rather than purchasing a ticket from the transit authority, they could have their fares automatically debited from their bank accounts or charged to their credit cards....
Link to full story:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/Transportation/20100922/16/3370
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
The R&R brought by Legal Marriage
By Cody Lyon
The executive director of a non profit organization that’s been campaigning since 2003 to end exclusion of same sex couples from what it says are the ‘the rights and responsibilities conveyed by legal marriage’ said a Tuesday resolution by the American Bar Association “signals a growing consensus” among the nation’s lawyers that “marriage is a fundamental right that belongs to every citizen.”
“Freedom to Marry’ founder, civil rights attorney Evan Wolfson, said in a statement that the ABA has “strongly declared that there is no good reason to continue excluding same sex couple from marriage.”
In its resolution, ABA urges, “state, territorial and tribal governments to eliminate all of their legal barriers to civil marriage between two person of the same sex who are otherwise eligible to marry.”
The resolution comes just a week after a federal judge in San Francisco struck down California's Proposition 8 as unconstitutional. The California ruling has opened up a Pandora’s box of both supporting and opposing opinions on whether or not same sex marriage is a constitutional right.
For example, Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, who participated at a press conference organized by a few Senate Republicans in Washington Wednesday signaled many in his party are taking the Court ruling by an openly gay judge into the political arena.
Smith said “It simply doesn't get much worse than this: you have a biased judge imposing his personal views contrary to the wishes of the majority of the people of the state.”
Of the ABA resolution, Doug Napier, an attorney with the conservative Alliance Defense Fund told ‘One News Now’ that "once again the American Bar Association is purporting to represent American lawyers, when in fact they only represent about a quarter of American lawyers,"
With its 400,000 members, ABA provides law school accreditation, continuing legal education, information about the law, programs to assist lawyers and judges in their work, and initiatives to improve the legal system for the public.
Founded in 1881, the ABA was founded by one hundred lawyers from 21 states who had gathered in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
In just under 130 years ago, ABA grew into the nation’s largest voluntary professional organization. The resolution on same sex marriage was approved by the 560-member ABA House of-Delegates during its annual meeting held this month in San Francisco.
The resolution’s lead sponsor was the New York State Bar Association under auspice of the ABA’s Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities. Created in 1966, soon after a number earth moving court rulings related to the civil rights movement, the ABA ‘Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities’ provides leadership within the ABA and the legal profession in protecting and advancing human rights, civil liberties, and social justice
The full resolution approved Tuesday states that “the assertion that separate systems for classes of citizens can satisfy constitutional equality guarantees, as long as identical legal rights are conferred, invokes the long-repudiated reasoning in the court case Plessy v. Ferguson.
In that case, the Court upheld separate railway cars for African-Americans because “when the government… has secured to each of its citizens equal rights before the law, and equal opportunities for improvement and progress, it has accomplished the end for which it was organized. However, as our constitutional tradition and history has made clear, only full marriage equality comports with our constitutional standards that separate is not equal.
With that, ABA says see Brown v. Board of Ed., 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
The executive director of a non profit organization that’s been campaigning since 2003 to end exclusion of same sex couples from what it says are the ‘the rights and responsibilities conveyed by legal marriage’ said a Tuesday resolution by the American Bar Association “signals a growing consensus” among the nation’s lawyers that “marriage is a fundamental right that belongs to every citizen.”
“Freedom to Marry’ founder, civil rights attorney Evan Wolfson, said in a statement that the ABA has “strongly declared that there is no good reason to continue excluding same sex couple from marriage.”
In its resolution, ABA urges, “state, territorial and tribal governments to eliminate all of their legal barriers to civil marriage between two person of the same sex who are otherwise eligible to marry.”
The resolution comes just a week after a federal judge in San Francisco struck down California's Proposition 8 as unconstitutional. The California ruling has opened up a Pandora’s box of both supporting and opposing opinions on whether or not same sex marriage is a constitutional right.
For example, Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, who participated at a press conference organized by a few Senate Republicans in Washington Wednesday signaled many in his party are taking the Court ruling by an openly gay judge into the political arena.
Smith said “It simply doesn't get much worse than this: you have a biased judge imposing his personal views contrary to the wishes of the majority of the people of the state.”
Of the ABA resolution, Doug Napier, an attorney with the conservative Alliance Defense Fund told ‘One News Now’ that "once again the American Bar Association is purporting to represent American lawyers, when in fact they only represent about a quarter of American lawyers,"
With its 400,000 members, ABA provides law school accreditation, continuing legal education, information about the law, programs to assist lawyers and judges in their work, and initiatives to improve the legal system for the public.
Founded in 1881, the ABA was founded by one hundred lawyers from 21 states who had gathered in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
In just under 130 years ago, ABA grew into the nation’s largest voluntary professional organization. The resolution on same sex marriage was approved by the 560-member ABA House of-Delegates during its annual meeting held this month in San Francisco.
The resolution’s lead sponsor was the New York State Bar Association under auspice of the ABA’s Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities. Created in 1966, soon after a number earth moving court rulings related to the civil rights movement, the ABA ‘Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities’ provides leadership within the ABA and the legal profession in protecting and advancing human rights, civil liberties, and social justice
The full resolution approved Tuesday states that “the assertion that separate systems for classes of citizens can satisfy constitutional equality guarantees, as long as identical legal rights are conferred, invokes the long-repudiated reasoning in the court case Plessy v. Ferguson.
In that case, the Court upheld separate railway cars for African-Americans because “when the government… has secured to each of its citizens equal rights before the law, and equal opportunities for improvement and progress, it has accomplished the end for which it was organized. However, as our constitutional tradition and history has made clear, only full marriage equality comports with our constitutional standards that separate is not equal.
With that, ABA says see Brown v. Board of Ed., 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Biggest reason some Right Wing groups Oppose Kagan nomination?
by Cody Lyon
analysis
Now that Alabama Senate Republican Jeff Sessions has won a weeklong delay on any final vote to confirm Soliciter General Elena Kagan as a supreme court justice, a right leaning, tea party affiliated organization called Judicial Action Group or Jag, also based in Session's home state, is reportedly buying up commercial time for a new video ad aimed at swaying three important senate votes to 'no on Kagan.'
It was just over a year ago in June 2009 that Sessions, the Judiciary Committee's Ranking member vigorously questioned the record of then Supreme court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, focusing attention on Sotomayor's affiliation with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. After Sessions raised those concerns, another right leaning organization called "Judicial Watch" released a report on Sotomayor's record it said shows PRLDEF supports a “radical legal agenda. That campaign failed and Sotomayor went on to see confirmation.
The more recent video campaign is specific, aimed at two Democrats, Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, as well as Republican Senator Lindsay Grahm of South Carolina. Each video has basically the same script, however, each is tailored to either one of the the three Senators, for example, viewers are urged to call and tell Senator Ben Nelosn to vote no on Elena Kagan.
The "Judical Action Group" video features an urgent toned voice claiming Kagan, as professor and Dean at Harvard Law School, 'advocated judicial activism and favors foreign law over our constitution." The ad also says Kagan "welcomed law firms representing terrorists" and "banned our military recruiters" from the school's campus. Kagan also "welcomed law firms representing terrorists' and "took $20 million in Saudi Money to establish a center for Islamic Studies and Sharia Law." The video, set against still photos of Kagan and hightlighted text of the charges leveled in the video, does not offer any sort of context or tracable sources as to where the charges extend from.
On July 12, JAG issued a press release saying it was launching a “Nelson & Kagan” ad campaign by co-hosting a
press conference that day in Omaha, NE. The group confirmed the effort is meant "to put pressure on Sen. Nelson to vote “No” on Kagan." JAG said it was co-hosting that event with Jennifer Hulsey of Tea Party Express, Doug Kagan of Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, and Benjamin Smith (former Navy seal) of Move America Forward. They say similar Pressers and TV ad buys will occur Tues in Little Rock, AR and Thurs in Columbia, SC.
Judicial Action Group is a 501(c)4 non-profit corporation with offices in Washington, D.C. and Birmingham, Alabama. Founded in 2006, the 501(c)4 status (unlike a tax-deductible 501(c)3 status) allows JAG to engage in unlimited lobbying, 'maximizing its influence.' The group is part of a larger coalition of right leaning groups including the web umbrella, Freedom Federation.' That particular coalition of activists calls itself "a federation of multiracial, multiethnic and multigenerational faith-based and policy organizations and leaders committed to plan, strategize, and mobilize to advance shared core values to preserve freedom and promote justice" Featured along with Judicial Action Group on the Freedom Federation website, several other widely known Right Wing groups including better known groups like Family Research Council, American Family Association, Eagle Forum and The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
Leading JAG is president Phillip Jauregu,a partner at Birmingham law firm Jauregu & Lindsey who Jauregu's biography says represents various clients ranging from small business, to corporate entities, to individuals, such as former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore. Judge Roy Moore, a hero in right wing circles gained national attention when as Chief Justice, he placed a washing machine sized replica of the biblical ten commandments in the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court. When challenged and eventually court ordered to remove the replica, hordes of fundamentalist Christian groups from around the nation descended onto the capital Montgomery to pray, protest and hold vigils.
Moore was eventually ordered out of office and Jauregui led the legal team that eventually lost an appeal that resulted in the removal of then Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore from office, over his refusal to remove the granite replica.
Jauregui's JAG says it believes that the present state of the culture war created the need for a Special Forces unit that single-mindedly devotes itself to one mission: "defeating judicial activism." On its website, JAG says it serves this vital niche.
But, some saw Jauregui client Roy Moore as an activist judge. In a November 2003 Court of the Judiciary hearing, Alabama's Assistant Attorney General said Moore's defiance, left unchecked, "undercuts the entire workings of the judicial system. He said what message does that send to the public, to other litigants? The message it sends is: If you don't like a court order, you don't have to follow it."
Recently, Moore made a run in the 2010 Republican primary for Governor. Winning just 19% of state votes, he placed fourth.
The 40 year old Jauregu also served as Assistant Legal Advisor to Alabama Governor Fob James, the Alabama governor who gained attention by opposing the teaching of evolution in the state's public schools. James' son, Tim James recently also recently made a run for Governor in the same race as Moore. He gained national attention of his own through television ads decryiny multi-linguil drivers license exams. James, like Moore, lost in the election, placing third in the primary.
As the Sotomayor nomination came closer to vote, in June 2009, JAG's Jauregu as President of JAG, joined a large group of conservative activists who wrote and signed a letter to Republican Senators urging that they fillibuster then nominee Sotomayer. But, many in that same group of activists had signed a similar letter a few years earlier during the Bush Administration "opposing" the use of filibusters during Supreme Court nominations.
That said, more recently, Jauregu's JAG has made the opposition of Kagan as a supreme court justice a priority. JAG's website points visitors to research and analysis by Alliance Defense Fund, American United For Life, Family Research Council and the Aiken ScotusBlog.
Perhaps more telling, an article detailing Jauregui and apparently the worry of many Right Leaning groups titled 'Do Ask, Do Tell - Whether Kagan's Public Policies are Improperly Dictated by Her Private Affairs.'
Here, Jauregui worries that "Kagan’s decision to bar military recruiters from Harvard was either a horrible legal decision, or a use of her office to impose her personal views on the military."
Then, Jauregui writes "if media reports that Kagan is a lesbian are true, then her decision to bar military recruiters from Harvard has every appearance of growing from her personal preferences and practices. Obama says that he wants justices who have empathy and know what it is like to be gay. Well, it is relevant for Americans to know whether such a preoccupation of knowing how it feels to be gay, led Elena Kagan to ignore the law and ban the heterosexual military from Harvard because it conflicted with her own personal feelings and practices."
No word as to whether or not, Jauregui wondered if he thought Judge Roy Moore's defiance over a large replica of the Ten Commandments in the state Supreme Court building might indicate that the the former chief justice intended to impose "his" personal views on the state's highest court.
Meanwhile, the video targeting the votes of the three Senators makes no mention of Kagan's rumored sexuality
analysis
Now that Alabama Senate Republican Jeff Sessions has won a weeklong delay on any final vote to confirm Soliciter General Elena Kagan as a supreme court justice, a right leaning, tea party affiliated organization called Judicial Action Group or Jag, also based in Session's home state, is reportedly buying up commercial time for a new video ad aimed at swaying three important senate votes to 'no on Kagan.'
It was just over a year ago in June 2009 that Sessions, the Judiciary Committee's Ranking member vigorously questioned the record of then Supreme court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, focusing attention on Sotomayor's affiliation with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. After Sessions raised those concerns, another right leaning organization called "Judicial Watch" released a report on Sotomayor's record it said shows PRLDEF supports a “radical legal agenda. That campaign failed and Sotomayor went on to see confirmation.
The more recent video campaign is specific, aimed at two Democrats, Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, as well as Republican Senator Lindsay Grahm of South Carolina. Each video has basically the same script, however, each is tailored to either one of the the three Senators, for example, viewers are urged to call and tell Senator Ben Nelosn to vote no on Elena Kagan.
The "Judical Action Group" video features an urgent toned voice claiming Kagan, as professor and Dean at Harvard Law School, 'advocated judicial activism and favors foreign law over our constitution." The ad also says Kagan "welcomed law firms representing terrorists" and "banned our military recruiters" from the school's campus. Kagan also "welcomed law firms representing terrorists' and "took $20 million in Saudi Money to establish a center for Islamic Studies and Sharia Law." The video, set against still photos of Kagan and hightlighted text of the charges leveled in the video, does not offer any sort of context or tracable sources as to where the charges extend from.
On July 12, JAG issued a press release saying it was launching a “Nelson & Kagan” ad campaign by co-hosting a
press conference that day in Omaha, NE. The group confirmed the effort is meant "to put pressure on Sen. Nelson to vote “No” on Kagan." JAG said it was co-hosting that event with Jennifer Hulsey of Tea Party Express, Doug Kagan of Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, and Benjamin Smith (former Navy seal) of Move America Forward. They say similar Pressers and TV ad buys will occur Tues in Little Rock, AR and Thurs in Columbia, SC.
Judicial Action Group is a 501(c)4 non-profit corporation with offices in Washington, D.C. and Birmingham, Alabama. Founded in 2006, the 501(c)4 status (unlike a tax-deductible 501(c)3 status) allows JAG to engage in unlimited lobbying, 'maximizing its influence.' The group is part of a larger coalition of right leaning groups including the web umbrella, Freedom Federation.' That particular coalition of activists calls itself "a federation of multiracial, multiethnic and multigenerational faith-based and policy organizations and leaders committed to plan, strategize, and mobilize to advance shared core values to preserve freedom and promote justice" Featured along with Judicial Action Group on the Freedom Federation website, several other widely known Right Wing groups including better known groups like Family Research Council, American Family Association, Eagle Forum and The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
Leading JAG is president Phillip Jauregu,a partner at Birmingham law firm Jauregu & Lindsey who Jauregu's biography says represents various clients ranging from small business, to corporate entities, to individuals, such as former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore. Judge Roy Moore, a hero in right wing circles gained national attention when as Chief Justice, he placed a washing machine sized replica of the biblical ten commandments in the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court. When challenged and eventually court ordered to remove the replica, hordes of fundamentalist Christian groups from around the nation descended onto the capital Montgomery to pray, protest and hold vigils.
Moore was eventually ordered out of office and Jauregui led the legal team that eventually lost an appeal that resulted in the removal of then Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore from office, over his refusal to remove the granite replica.
Jauregui's JAG says it believes that the present state of the culture war created the need for a Special Forces unit that single-mindedly devotes itself to one mission: "defeating judicial activism." On its website, JAG says it serves this vital niche.
But, some saw Jauregui client Roy Moore as an activist judge. In a November 2003 Court of the Judiciary hearing, Alabama's Assistant Attorney General said Moore's defiance, left unchecked, "undercuts the entire workings of the judicial system. He said what message does that send to the public, to other litigants? The message it sends is: If you don't like a court order, you don't have to follow it."
Recently, Moore made a run in the 2010 Republican primary for Governor. Winning just 19% of state votes, he placed fourth.
The 40 year old Jauregu also served as Assistant Legal Advisor to Alabama Governor Fob James, the Alabama governor who gained attention by opposing the teaching of evolution in the state's public schools. James' son, Tim James recently also recently made a run for Governor in the same race as Moore. He gained national attention of his own through television ads decryiny multi-linguil drivers license exams. James, like Moore, lost in the election, placing third in the primary.
As the Sotomayor nomination came closer to vote, in June 2009, JAG's Jauregu as President of JAG, joined a large group of conservative activists who wrote and signed a letter to Republican Senators urging that they fillibuster then nominee Sotomayer. But, many in that same group of activists had signed a similar letter a few years earlier during the Bush Administration "opposing" the use of filibusters during Supreme Court nominations.
That said, more recently, Jauregu's JAG has made the opposition of Kagan as a supreme court justice a priority. JAG's website points visitors to research and analysis by Alliance Defense Fund, American United For Life, Family Research Council and the Aiken ScotusBlog.
Perhaps more telling, an article detailing Jauregui and apparently the worry of many Right Leaning groups titled 'Do Ask, Do Tell - Whether Kagan's Public Policies are Improperly Dictated by Her Private Affairs.'
Here, Jauregui worries that "Kagan’s decision to bar military recruiters from Harvard was either a horrible legal decision, or a use of her office to impose her personal views on the military."
Then, Jauregui writes "if media reports that Kagan is a lesbian are true, then her decision to bar military recruiters from Harvard has every appearance of growing from her personal preferences and practices. Obama says that he wants justices who have empathy and know what it is like to be gay. Well, it is relevant for Americans to know whether such a preoccupation of knowing how it feels to be gay, led Elena Kagan to ignore the law and ban the heterosexual military from Harvard because it conflicted with her own personal feelings and practices."
No word as to whether or not, Jauregui wondered if he thought Judge Roy Moore's defiance over a large replica of the Ten Commandments in the state Supreme Court building might indicate that the the former chief justice intended to impose "his" personal views on the state's highest court.
Meanwhile, the video targeting the votes of the three Senators makes no mention of Kagan's rumored sexuality
Friday, July 02, 2010
Dysfunction Junction and Unemployment Insurance
Dysfunctional Washington and Unemployment Insurance
July 2, 2010, 4:03PM
by Cody Lyon
OPINION
During a conversation with ABC News this past Thursday, Politico.com's Chris Frates told Ron Claiborne that the inability of Congress to pass an extension of unemployment benefits was in part a "battle of approach."
He's referring to the differing approaches by which Democrats and Republicans would fund a $33 billion dollar extension of the expanded safety net for long term unemployed Americans. Democrats are looking to fund the program with emergency funds that would add to the stimulus while Republicans say part or all of the program must be paid for by taking money from the stimulus program. b Long term unemployed include those people unemployed for six months or longer. While many on both sides claim to want to extend the program, the reality is, millions of the long term unemployed are getting cut off from an economic life line over the next few weeks, thanks to the inability of a partisan congress to reach a solution.
To some Americans, this latest `real life' impact roadblock, is yet another reason to view the legislative branch as an increasingly pungent cauldron of dysfunction beholden to the next election and not the good of the people the elected officials were called to serve.
Washington reads like the ugly and mean spirited setting of a novel about corruption. It is a government where hypocrisy laden Republicans are bent on stopping any legislation that's touched by Democrats. Meanwhile, whiny Democrats eager to point the finger at Republicans, have apparently come to relish this role that would be better on the playground. That's where one usually finds the annoying tattle tale child who constantly points out the flaws of the other kids. It seems that the truly sincere defenders of the down trodden are absent. In a nutshell, neither party seems to want to rise above the fray and exhibit the qualities of true leadership on this topic.
By not moving forward with a simple extension of unemployment benefits for millions of unemployed Americans, Republican and Democrat Senators can march up and down main street's across the nation on "Independence Day" and self righteously proclaim they may support an extension, while Republicans claim the 'opposing' party is fiscally irresponsible, or in Democrats case,claim Republicans are increasingly a party that's home to a philosophy based in cold blood. Meanwhile, among many of the parade viewer's will be friend's and neighbors that are impacted by this latest lack of movement. It is a stalemate that will send them even further into the abyss of what's fast turning into a ruthless recession, an economy that the economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman worries may be the beginnings of the `Third Depression."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/opinion/28krugman.html
Pure and simple, during the economic challenges of the past, unemployment insurance extensions were pretty much routine. The National Employment Law Project reported that since the 1950s Congress has not allowed extended jobless aid to expire when the national unemployment rate is above 7.2 percent. In 1973, extended benefits remained in place until unemployment sank to 5 percent.
On Friday, July 2, the Labor Department released a report saying that there was a June drop in unemployment from 9.5% to 9.7%. That number sends the statistic to its lowest point since July, one year earlier.
But as a chilling analysis piece by the Wall Street Journal notes, that decline wasn't due to improvement in the labor market. Instead, jobless Americans simply dropped out of the labor force in droves.
Friday's labor report shows that sectors like manufacturing grew payrolls by just 9,000. That was a much smaller jump than the average of 25,400 jobs over the past five months.
Note, Democrats have resisted calls to take cash from the `stimulus' to fund unemployment checks because they say the stimulus is creating so many jobs. But, contained in the report, numbers showing that the United States construction industry shed yet another, 22,000 jobs this past June. The hope was that when the stimulus package first emerged, America might see tangible WPA like investment in its failing infrastructure that would increase construction hiring by the thousands. There was also hope the investment might produce significant spikes in green technology, innovation and manufacturing, whereby workers might be re-trained for jobs of the future, and more importantly, we'd be weaned away from our dependence on fossil fuels. Some thought, these hard times presented the country with an opportunity to pause, soul search and plant the necessary seeds that would lead us to a new landscape where evidence of new rapid rail systems, windmill energy and bio technological hubs were soon to be the norm of the future. Perhaps the jobs picture would be even bleaker were it not for this attempt at treading water, but that's another story
Meanwhile, Republicans have jumped on the rampant fear of a politically motivated austerity band-wagon. And, as many have pointed out, this latest policy shift by the GOP reeks of corrupt hypocrisy. Remember, it was the Bill Clinton administration that produced a deficit surplus of almost $300 billion according to FactCheck.org. But, these are some of the same people who endorsed huge tax cuts for wealthy Americans, relaxed rules on Wall Street and wars we never could have never afforded in the first place. Any semblance of surplus all got quickly erased by President George W. Bush. So, some might see this latest Republican roadblock as just a bit disingenuous In fact, when President Barack Obama came to office, just as the economic meltdown was getting into full swing, he inherited a federal deficit of $1.2 trillion the day he was sworn in.
And all this political showmanship has culminated during what's become the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression. It is a confusing patchwork of American pain that impacts some areas worse than others. But, rest assured, this latest move by Congress is wrecking lives and sending thousands if not millions into despair. How the Senate could simply up and leave the capital for a week long vacation without passing an life line extension to Americans that are facing one of the toughest job markets ever, is outrageous. If either side had truly believed putting food on the table of the unemployed was a moral issue they would have seen to it that is passed. Considering there is one job out there for every five Americans looking, if they truly cared,they would have given and taken, it's called a compromise, and the long term unemployed might have joined those parades on main street this July 4, and cheered the Senators as fine examples of a working Democracy surviving during a time of economic crisis.
July 2, 2010, 4:03PM
by Cody Lyon
OPINION
During a conversation with ABC News this past Thursday, Politico.com's Chris Frates told Ron Claiborne that the inability of Congress to pass an extension of unemployment benefits was in part a "battle of approach."
He's referring to the differing approaches by which Democrats and Republicans would fund a $33 billion dollar extension of the expanded safety net for long term unemployed Americans. Democrats are looking to fund the program with emergency funds that would add to the stimulus while Republicans say part or all of the program must be paid for by taking money from the stimulus program. b Long term unemployed include those people unemployed for six months or longer. While many on both sides claim to want to extend the program, the reality is, millions of the long term unemployed are getting cut off from an economic life line over the next few weeks, thanks to the inability of a partisan congress to reach a solution.
To some Americans, this latest `real life' impact roadblock, is yet another reason to view the legislative branch as an increasingly pungent cauldron of dysfunction beholden to the next election and not the good of the people the elected officials were called to serve.
Washington reads like the ugly and mean spirited setting of a novel about corruption. It is a government where hypocrisy laden Republicans are bent on stopping any legislation that's touched by Democrats. Meanwhile, whiny Democrats eager to point the finger at Republicans, have apparently come to relish this role that would be better on the playground. That's where one usually finds the annoying tattle tale child who constantly points out the flaws of the other kids. It seems that the truly sincere defenders of the down trodden are absent. In a nutshell, neither party seems to want to rise above the fray and exhibit the qualities of true leadership on this topic.
By not moving forward with a simple extension of unemployment benefits for millions of unemployed Americans, Republican and Democrat Senators can march up and down main street's across the nation on "Independence Day" and self righteously proclaim they may support an extension, while Republicans claim the 'opposing' party is fiscally irresponsible, or in Democrats case,claim Republicans are increasingly a party that's home to a philosophy based in cold blood. Meanwhile, among many of the parade viewer's will be friend's and neighbors that are impacted by this latest lack of movement. It is a stalemate that will send them even further into the abyss of what's fast turning into a ruthless recession, an economy that the economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman worries may be the beginnings of the `Third Depression."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/opinion/28krugman.html
Pure and simple, during the economic challenges of the past, unemployment insurance extensions were pretty much routine. The National Employment Law Project reported that since the 1950s Congress has not allowed extended jobless aid to expire when the national unemployment rate is above 7.2 percent. In 1973, extended benefits remained in place until unemployment sank to 5 percent.
On Friday, July 2, the Labor Department released a report saying that there was a June drop in unemployment from 9.5% to 9.7%. That number sends the statistic to its lowest point since July, one year earlier.
But as a chilling analysis piece by the Wall Street Journal notes, that decline wasn't due to improvement in the labor market. Instead, jobless Americans simply dropped out of the labor force in droves.
Friday's labor report shows that sectors like manufacturing grew payrolls by just 9,000. That was a much smaller jump than the average of 25,400 jobs over the past five months.
Note, Democrats have resisted calls to take cash from the `stimulus' to fund unemployment checks because they say the stimulus is creating so many jobs. But, contained in the report, numbers showing that the United States construction industry shed yet another, 22,000 jobs this past June. The hope was that when the stimulus package first emerged, America might see tangible WPA like investment in its failing infrastructure that would increase construction hiring by the thousands. There was also hope the investment might produce significant spikes in green technology, innovation and manufacturing, whereby workers might be re-trained for jobs of the future, and more importantly, we'd be weaned away from our dependence on fossil fuels. Some thought, these hard times presented the country with an opportunity to pause, soul search and plant the necessary seeds that would lead us to a new landscape where evidence of new rapid rail systems, windmill energy and bio technological hubs were soon to be the norm of the future. Perhaps the jobs picture would be even bleaker were it not for this attempt at treading water, but that's another story
Meanwhile, Republicans have jumped on the rampant fear of a politically motivated austerity band-wagon. And, as many have pointed out, this latest policy shift by the GOP reeks of corrupt hypocrisy. Remember, it was the Bill Clinton administration that produced a deficit surplus of almost $300 billion according to FactCheck.org. But, these are some of the same people who endorsed huge tax cuts for wealthy Americans, relaxed rules on Wall Street and wars we never could have never afforded in the first place. Any semblance of surplus all got quickly erased by President George W. Bush. So, some might see this latest Republican roadblock as just a bit disingenuous In fact, when President Barack Obama came to office, just as the economic meltdown was getting into full swing, he inherited a federal deficit of $1.2 trillion the day he was sworn in.
And all this political showmanship has culminated during what's become the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression. It is a confusing patchwork of American pain that impacts some areas worse than others. But, rest assured, this latest move by Congress is wrecking lives and sending thousands if not millions into despair. How the Senate could simply up and leave the capital for a week long vacation without passing an life line extension to Americans that are facing one of the toughest job markets ever, is outrageous. If either side had truly believed putting food on the table of the unemployed was a moral issue they would have seen to it that is passed. Considering there is one job out there for every five Americans looking, if they truly cared,they would have given and taken, it's called a compromise, and the long term unemployed might have joined those parades on main street this July 4, and cheered the Senators as fine examples of a working Democracy surviving during a time of economic crisis.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Toying with a Life-Line for Millions-
Opinion-Cody Lyon
This past Thursday, a number of media outlets were reporting on a Labor Department report that said new weekly claims for unemployment fallen by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 456,000. Most of those same stories included details that total unemployment benefit rolls had fallen by 255,000 to 4.5 million.
The unemployment claims drop was called the 'largest decline in almost a year.' In its story, The Associated Press reported speculation that the decline could be because more people are finding work. But then again, it could simply mean that those individuals exhausted their initial state unemployment insurance benefits. The same report said that a Labor Department analyst said state agencies didn't provide any explanation for the drop.
The news helped send the stock market up around 273 points. Reports said traders were encouraged by the 2225,000 drop in total unemployment benefit total claims the week before.
But later that day Barron's Tiernan Ray reported how East Shore Partners exec Joan McCullough had written in a memo to clients that the big drop-off in unemployment roll benefits coincides with the May 22nd cut-off date set by Congress. She noted that's the point when recipients of regular or extended unemployment are no longer eligible to receive emergency unemployment compensation, if there state even offered it.
link to Barrons -http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2010/06/10jobless-claims-drop-not-as-nice-as-it-seems-says-east-shore)
Barron's said, McCullough's conclusion is that 46% of the unemployed have just passed the threshold of no return. They've dropped off the edge, rather than simply finding jobs, as it might seem at first.
Add to that, just over a week ago the "The Center for American Progress" lamented the fact "there were 6.7 million long-term unemployed who now account for 46 percent of all unemployed job seekers. The think tank noted that because there are nearly six job seekers for every opening available and little net hiring, the chances of getting one of those (jobs) is indeed slim."
Of course, the hope is that some sort of recovery will chip away at that frustrating statistic and offer some nuggets of hope to jobseekers and for that matter, the overall economy. Americans are rightfully confused about the state of the economy and where its headed as each day seems to bring yet another jumbled and conflicting shard of data. But, one likely and sure fire conclusion is this; thousands of unemployed Americans probably will face many more months of frustration in the job hunt.
Right now, jobseekers-to-jobs ratio, which tells how hard positions are to get, remains around 5.6 to 1.
As things stand now, of the 15 million unemployed, over 7 million have been out of work for more than six months, nearly 5 million for a year and over 1 million for two years.
That leads back to the data from last week, and the way it got reported by a number of news organizations. Reading through the lines, some news stories read like desperate PR blitzes that were seeking to offer a bit of good news in a dismal situation. After all, psychology plays a role in all this.
Still, there were stories like the one from Barron's,that in essence challenged the intial market-moving Thursday stories and the way the data got framed. For instance, McCulough aargued 255,000 unemployed individuals have now dropped out of sight from Continuing Claims. According the article, she said "And the New York Times is touting this as a positive? "
It's worth wondering, where the questions that seek a solid explanation for that huge drop in unemployment benefit rolls? That particular statistic, as evidenced by that day's market shift, is the sort of indicator that has the potential to impact perception and move Wall Street.
But all this news of being stuck in the economic mud poses tougher questions and perhaps too, challenges American society to at least rethink and look more aggressively to what a future economy and workforce can and should be, long term. ,
But, for now, the Senate is debating another emergency unemployment benefits extension, part of H.R. 4213, and once again, there are holdouts in that governing body who say the weekly checks, a lifeline to millions, are to big a cost, in these days of growing national deficit. Others take a condescending view arguing, that the continuous unemployment extensions create America's own real version of the British term, being on the Dole, that they retard job hunt motivation.
But while the deficit looms large and very real on the horizon, it seems almost cruel that the Senate would even flirt with cutting off economic lifelines to so many Americans who, in most cases, arrived at this unfortunate state existence though no fault of their own. Besides that, the benefits are basically a form of stimulus since that money mostly gets pumped back through spending., etc.
And, unless you live in place where the cost of living has plummeted down a cliff, you would be hard pressed to find a laid off American worker satisfied and secure with the amount of money one gets to live on from unemployment insurance. In most cases, the weekly sums are a small portion of what the worker made while employed. For example, in New York State, the highest weekly payment is just over $400. Other states, offer max payments lower than that, a few others, slightly higher. Usually, they provide enough to get by, pay some bills, put food on the table. If it weren't for a current 65% subsidy for COBRA plan payments, which costs roughly the same amount as a month's unemployment benefits, the number of uninsured would have spiked even higher as well. But, that's another sad story.
A study on the effect of recessions on health by Economics Professor Christopher Ruhm, found that because unemployment insurance in the U.S. does not typically replace 50% of the income one received on the job, the unemployed often end up tapping welfare programs such as Food Stamps or accumulating debt.
The sad fact is that the high numbers of long term unemployed continues growing into a scourge in America. It not only decimates consumer power, it tears at less measurable indicators like the psychology of the nation infected by labor insecurity and a large pocket of hopelessness sense born out of the frustration of millions. The hope in all this, is that United States citizens will see immediate relief, but also demand greater investment in the future. There's never been a better moment to call upon the nation's best and brightest innovators, and begin rethinking the ways, places and rules by which we work, produce and buy.
This past Thursday, a number of media outlets were reporting on a Labor Department report that said new weekly claims for unemployment fallen by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 456,000. Most of those same stories included details that total unemployment benefit rolls had fallen by 255,000 to 4.5 million.
The unemployment claims drop was called the 'largest decline in almost a year.' In its story, The Associated Press reported speculation that the decline could be because more people are finding work. But then again, it could simply mean that those individuals exhausted their initial state unemployment insurance benefits. The same report said that a Labor Department analyst said state agencies didn't provide any explanation for the drop.
The news helped send the stock market up around 273 points. Reports said traders were encouraged by the 2225,000 drop in total unemployment benefit total claims the week before.
But later that day Barron's Tiernan Ray reported how East Shore Partners exec Joan McCullough had written in a memo to clients that the big drop-off in unemployment roll benefits coincides with the May 22nd cut-off date set by Congress. She noted that's the point when recipients of regular or extended unemployment are no longer eligible to receive emergency unemployment compensation, if there state even offered it.
link to Barrons -http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2010/06/10jobless-claims-drop-not-as-nice-as-it-seems-says-east-shore)
Barron's said, McCullough's conclusion is that 46% of the unemployed have just passed the threshold of no return. They've dropped off the edge, rather than simply finding jobs, as it might seem at first.
Add to that, just over a week ago the "The Center for American Progress" lamented the fact "there were 6.7 million long-term unemployed who now account for 46 percent of all unemployed job seekers. The think tank noted that because there are nearly six job seekers for every opening available and little net hiring, the chances of getting one of those (jobs) is indeed slim."
Of course, the hope is that some sort of recovery will chip away at that frustrating statistic and offer some nuggets of hope to jobseekers and for that matter, the overall economy. Americans are rightfully confused about the state of the economy and where its headed as each day seems to bring yet another jumbled and conflicting shard of data. But, one likely and sure fire conclusion is this; thousands of unemployed Americans probably will face many more months of frustration in the job hunt.
Right now, jobseekers-to-jobs ratio, which tells how hard positions are to get, remains around 5.6 to 1.
As things stand now, of the 15 million unemployed, over 7 million have been out of work for more than six months, nearly 5 million for a year and over 1 million for two years.
That leads back to the data from last week, and the way it got reported by a number of news organizations. Reading through the lines, some news stories read like desperate PR blitzes that were seeking to offer a bit of good news in a dismal situation. After all, psychology plays a role in all this.
Still, there were stories like the one from Barron's,that in essence challenged the intial market-moving Thursday stories and the way the data got framed. For instance, McCulough aargued 255,000 unemployed individuals have now dropped out of sight from Continuing Claims. According the article, she said "And the New York Times is touting this as a positive? "
It's worth wondering, where the questions that seek a solid explanation for that huge drop in unemployment benefit rolls? That particular statistic, as evidenced by that day's market shift, is the sort of indicator that has the potential to impact perception and move Wall Street.
But all this news of being stuck in the economic mud poses tougher questions and perhaps too, challenges American society to at least rethink and look more aggressively to what a future economy and workforce can and should be, long term. ,
But, for now, the Senate is debating another emergency unemployment benefits extension, part of H.R. 4213, and once again, there are holdouts in that governing body who say the weekly checks, a lifeline to millions, are to big a cost, in these days of growing national deficit. Others take a condescending view arguing, that the continuous unemployment extensions create America's own real version of the British term, being on the Dole, that they retard job hunt motivation.
But while the deficit looms large and very real on the horizon, it seems almost cruel that the Senate would even flirt with cutting off economic lifelines to so many Americans who, in most cases, arrived at this unfortunate state existence though no fault of their own. Besides that, the benefits are basically a form of stimulus since that money mostly gets pumped back through spending., etc.
And, unless you live in place where the cost of living has plummeted down a cliff, you would be hard pressed to find a laid off American worker satisfied and secure with the amount of money one gets to live on from unemployment insurance. In most cases, the weekly sums are a small portion of what the worker made while employed. For example, in New York State, the highest weekly payment is just over $400. Other states, offer max payments lower than that, a few others, slightly higher. Usually, they provide enough to get by, pay some bills, put food on the table. If it weren't for a current 65% subsidy for COBRA plan payments, which costs roughly the same amount as a month's unemployment benefits, the number of uninsured would have spiked even higher as well. But, that's another sad story.
A study on the effect of recessions on health by Economics Professor Christopher Ruhm, found that because unemployment insurance in the U.S. does not typically replace 50% of the income one received on the job, the unemployed often end up tapping welfare programs such as Food Stamps or accumulating debt.
The sad fact is that the high numbers of long term unemployed continues growing into a scourge in America. It not only decimates consumer power, it tears at less measurable indicators like the psychology of the nation infected by labor insecurity and a large pocket of hopelessness sense born out of the frustration of millions. The hope in all this, is that United States citizens will see immediate relief, but also demand greater investment in the future. There's never been a better moment to call upon the nation's best and brightest innovators, and begin rethinking the ways, places and rules by which we work, produce and buy.
Friday, June 04, 2010
Consider the Truths on Jobs Numbers
OPINION Cody Lyon
A number of early news stories on the Friday labor department jobs report were reading as if written encouraged by the spin patrol. Most of the stories opened with news that the US had added 431,000 new (nonfarm) jobs this past May. At a number of media outlets, the good news was reinforced with the line, it's the "largest (job creation) gain in the monthly figure in a decade."
But, after the good news, came a dose of reality that pointed out, 411,000 of those 'new jobs' were for Temporary Census Workers. Those jobs will disappear come August.
In truth, as the Labor Department data shows, big as it is, the private sector of the entire United States only added 41,000 new jobs to payrolls this past May. That leaves the unemployment rate essentially unchanged at 9.7%, a slight drop from 9.9% in April.
Around 15 million workers are now unemployed in the United States. That's more than double the 7.7 million at the end of 2007.
As a Labor Department and National Employment Law Project report highlighted by "TheHill.com's" Vicki Needham noted, the number of long-term unemployed has increased from 1.3 million at the start of the recession and has climbed to 6.8 million, making up 46 percent of all unemployed, up from 15 percent more than 2 years ago.
With all that, it was hard understand how the President and members of the administration can say the job market in the United States is “getting stronger by the day.”
The spin didn't fool the market, as U.S. stocks, already spooked by the debt of Hungary, dove to their lowest closing bell since February.
Perhaps it's even more difficult to understand why so many reporters and even respected economists initially attempted putting a positive spin on things when in fact, the nation's economy is still facing trying times. Truth and Leadership are crucial when faced with crisis of any magnitude, and even in a spin filled culture, people can smell smoke and read through mirrors.
But even more hair raising the fact that so many Americans will lose their only financial lifelines this week as extensions of unemployment insurance benefits expire after the Senate up and went home before passing an extension of benefits. Some in the Senate are warning of impending deficit crisis, which is a legitimate concern, but, in this case of humanitarian aid to fellow Americans, more debt maybe necessary. The House passed the new extension a few weeks ago, but, the Senate left the capital for its Memorial Day holiday break before taking up the issue. The Senate is meant to address the topic when it returns, June 7.
The hope is, the numbers will shrink, the lifeline will become less inflated and the nation, will witness a full recovery.
LINK TO VICKI NEEDHAM at THEHILL
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/101517-americans-face-eight-month-wait-to-find-a-job
A number of early news stories on the Friday labor department jobs report were reading as if written encouraged by the spin patrol. Most of the stories opened with news that the US had added 431,000 new (nonfarm) jobs this past May. At a number of media outlets, the good news was reinforced with the line, it's the "largest (job creation) gain in the monthly figure in a decade."
But, after the good news, came a dose of reality that pointed out, 411,000 of those 'new jobs' were for Temporary Census Workers. Those jobs will disappear come August.
In truth, as the Labor Department data shows, big as it is, the private sector of the entire United States only added 41,000 new jobs to payrolls this past May. That leaves the unemployment rate essentially unchanged at 9.7%, a slight drop from 9.9% in April.
Around 15 million workers are now unemployed in the United States. That's more than double the 7.7 million at the end of 2007.
As a Labor Department and National Employment Law Project report highlighted by "TheHill.com's" Vicki Needham noted, the number of long-term unemployed has increased from 1.3 million at the start of the recession and has climbed to 6.8 million, making up 46 percent of all unemployed, up from 15 percent more than 2 years ago.
With all that, it was hard understand how the President and members of the administration can say the job market in the United States is “getting stronger by the day.”
The spin didn't fool the market, as U.S. stocks, already spooked by the debt of Hungary, dove to their lowest closing bell since February.
Perhaps it's even more difficult to understand why so many reporters and even respected economists initially attempted putting a positive spin on things when in fact, the nation's economy is still facing trying times. Truth and Leadership are crucial when faced with crisis of any magnitude, and even in a spin filled culture, people can smell smoke and read through mirrors.
But even more hair raising the fact that so many Americans will lose their only financial lifelines this week as extensions of unemployment insurance benefits expire after the Senate up and went home before passing an extension of benefits. Some in the Senate are warning of impending deficit crisis, which is a legitimate concern, but, in this case of humanitarian aid to fellow Americans, more debt maybe necessary. The House passed the new extension a few weeks ago, but, the Senate left the capital for its Memorial Day holiday break before taking up the issue. The Senate is meant to address the topic when it returns, June 7.
The hope is, the numbers will shrink, the lifeline will become less inflated and the nation, will witness a full recovery.
LINK TO VICKI NEEDHAM at THEHILL
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/101517-americans-face-eight-month-wait-to-find-a-job
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Alabama, Tim James, George Wallace and Campaign Exploitation
by Cody Lyon
During a chat on politics while home visiting friends and family in Birmingham Ala., one friend remarked that candidates who speak in ‘positives’ rarely do well in campaigns for state office in Alabama. She pointed to the legacy of unfortunate condescension, that use political formulas where candidates steer people’s attention from true ‘center of life’ issues towards hot button social topics.
Of course, this is probably one of the easiest, oldest and cheapest tricks in politics but, fueled on by a media focused on the sensational, it often works, not just in the South, but, across the nation,
And, for some us who grew up or live in Alabama, headlines seem to say this deep-south state has produced more than its fair share of this sort of similar political games.
Over the past few weeks, Americans have met Alabama Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim James, the 48-year old son of former Governor Fob James who was noted in part for blunt language and loud opposition to the teaching of evolution.
The younger James, a millionaire businessman, has inspired news headlines, sneers from liberals and now a barrage of viral videos based on a real television campaign ad where the candidate for governor tackles Alabama’s practice of offering drivers license exams in 12 languages.
During the ad, James looks earnestly into the camera and say’s “this is Alabama. We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it.” One would be hard pressed to find evidence that offering drivers license tests to a variety of languages is a ‘central to Alabama life issue,’ nonetheless, since the ad’s debut, James’ poll numbers have gone up and local interest in the governor’s race has jumped. These days, he’s drawing big crowds as he criss-crosses the state in the ‘common sense’ express.
James’ exploitation of anti-immigrant sentiment is one of the latest incidents in an immigrant backlash we’re seeing in many states like Arizona. But, in Alabama, one can’t help but draw comparisons to other candidates who, especially during times of economic instability, have exploited the insecurity of voter fear and insecurity.
As meticulous research in the book ‘Alabama, Portrait of a Deep South State,’ notes, in the 1960’s, when poor whites who’d recently entered the middle class saw their earning power failing to keep pace with inflation, instead of acting rationally and organizing or joining unions, they often acted in non-rational ways, “through scape-goating, fatalism, or blind rage.” To champion the cause, “they chose George C. Wallace.”
Interestingly, when George Wallace’s first ran for Governor in 1958, he ran with the support of the NAACP. Wallace was defeated by fellow democrat John Patterson who himself, had the support of the Ku Klux Klan. Afterwards, Wallace, who had been vocal in his opposition to the Klan and apparently seen by blacks as ‘fair’ before the first governors race, reportedly told an aide, that he’d been “outniggered” in the campaign by Patterson, and that he’d “never be outniggered “ again.
Then, in 1962, the historically familiar George Wallace was elected. He proclaimed against the backdrop of whoops and hollers during his Montgomery inauguration that he stood in defiance of coming change, proclaiming “segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.”
Earlier, he’d reportedly told a supporter that people didn’t pay attention to his campaign in 1958 when he tried to forward a progressive agenda peppered with talk of all the good he would do like building better roads and schools. In essence, although social change was inevitable, reactionary politics had become his ticket to the state capital in Montgomery.
In truth, Wallace had taken the cheap and easy highway to power, using persuasive political trickery, appealing to base emotions like fear. Although he lived to regret his tactics, begging history to paint him as reasonable, he took the sins of blood stained rhetoric to the grave.
Almost 50 years after the Wallace segregation speech, Alabama has seen remarkable economic and social transformation. It is a place filled with ethnic diversity, thousands of new jobs, many of them brought by foreign investment. But, like other states, Alabama has been hit hard by recession, so the appeal of anti-immigrant sounding rhetoric that we’ve seen in states like Arizona, comes as no surprise.
And although Tim James’ English only ad is a far cry from the dangerous 1960’s rhetoric of George Wallace, James tactic is at the core, cheap and easy politics.
Instead, why doesn’t James produce and star in an ad that taunts the insanity of Alabama tax structures? For example, a 2008 Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy study that says that Alabama’s tax system is regressive, relying on income and sales taxes that are skewed against low income people.
Or perhaps, he could get people stirred up over Alabama’s consistent ranking as one of the top states for dangerous levels of obesity, smoking, diabetes and poverty. Another potential point of contention, Alabama’s localized school systems are markedly disparate, where in a few wealthy suburbs near cities like Birmingham, children are guaranteed public educational opportunity on a par with the best offered anywhere in the country. Meanwhile, inner city or rural areas, the bigger challenge is to simply see a child graduate from high school. And, while dramatizing these social ills, mention that the state’s biggest city, is home to one of the nation’s top ten homicide rates, yes, Birmingham is statistically a much more dangerous than New York City.
Those tidbits touch on a few problems facing today’s Alabama. But those problems are also America’s problems because we all operate under the same umbrella in this Republic of ours. Yet, with all that going on in this economically uncertain time that’s ripe for change, the most enthused political rhetoric spewed onto the nation’s airwaves is negative and marked by blame, finger-pointing and once again, scape-goating. For example, news stories in the mainstream media featuring colorful notes on the tea party movement trump stories on exactly how, why or who led America into the current Great Recession.
Meanwhile, there’s no doubt that Tim James is charismatic, smart and a good businessman who might make a fine Governor for Alabama.
But, like the originally moderate candidate named George Wallace, who made a campaign decision 50 year ago and won office, the political calculation behind James’ English only ad may grab attention now, but ultimately, such diversion mutes hope for healthy open discussion and debate that leads to change for the better of a people. In the end, these tactics block the path to progress into the future.
During a chat on politics while home visiting friends and family in Birmingham Ala., one friend remarked that candidates who speak in ‘positives’ rarely do well in campaigns for state office in Alabama. She pointed to the legacy of unfortunate condescension, that use political formulas where candidates steer people’s attention from true ‘center of life’ issues towards hot button social topics.
Of course, this is probably one of the easiest, oldest and cheapest tricks in politics but, fueled on by a media focused on the sensational, it often works, not just in the South, but, across the nation,
And, for some us who grew up or live in Alabama, headlines seem to say this deep-south state has produced more than its fair share of this sort of similar political games.
Over the past few weeks, Americans have met Alabama Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim James, the 48-year old son of former Governor Fob James who was noted in part for blunt language and loud opposition to the teaching of evolution.
The younger James, a millionaire businessman, has inspired news headlines, sneers from liberals and now a barrage of viral videos based on a real television campaign ad where the candidate for governor tackles Alabama’s practice of offering drivers license exams in 12 languages.
During the ad, James looks earnestly into the camera and say’s “this is Alabama. We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it.” One would be hard pressed to find evidence that offering drivers license tests to a variety of languages is a ‘central to Alabama life issue,’ nonetheless, since the ad’s debut, James’ poll numbers have gone up and local interest in the governor’s race has jumped. These days, he’s drawing big crowds as he criss-crosses the state in the ‘common sense’ express.
James’ exploitation of anti-immigrant sentiment is one of the latest incidents in an immigrant backlash we’re seeing in many states like Arizona. But, in Alabama, one can’t help but draw comparisons to other candidates who, especially during times of economic instability, have exploited the insecurity of voter fear and insecurity.
As meticulous research in the book ‘Alabama, Portrait of a Deep South State,’ notes, in the 1960’s, when poor whites who’d recently entered the middle class saw their earning power failing to keep pace with inflation, instead of acting rationally and organizing or joining unions, they often acted in non-rational ways, “through scape-goating, fatalism, or blind rage.” To champion the cause, “they chose George C. Wallace.”
Interestingly, when George Wallace’s first ran for Governor in 1958, he ran with the support of the NAACP. Wallace was defeated by fellow democrat John Patterson who himself, had the support of the Ku Klux Klan. Afterwards, Wallace, who had been vocal in his opposition to the Klan and apparently seen by blacks as ‘fair’ before the first governors race, reportedly told an aide, that he’d been “outniggered” in the campaign by Patterson, and that he’d “never be outniggered “ again.
Then, in 1962, the historically familiar George Wallace was elected. He proclaimed against the backdrop of whoops and hollers during his Montgomery inauguration that he stood in defiance of coming change, proclaiming “segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.”
Earlier, he’d reportedly told a supporter that people didn’t pay attention to his campaign in 1958 when he tried to forward a progressive agenda peppered with talk of all the good he would do like building better roads and schools. In essence, although social change was inevitable, reactionary politics had become his ticket to the state capital in Montgomery.
In truth, Wallace had taken the cheap and easy highway to power, using persuasive political trickery, appealing to base emotions like fear. Although he lived to regret his tactics, begging history to paint him as reasonable, he took the sins of blood stained rhetoric to the grave.
Almost 50 years after the Wallace segregation speech, Alabama has seen remarkable economic and social transformation. It is a place filled with ethnic diversity, thousands of new jobs, many of them brought by foreign investment. But, like other states, Alabama has been hit hard by recession, so the appeal of anti-immigrant sounding rhetoric that we’ve seen in states like Arizona, comes as no surprise.
And although Tim James’ English only ad is a far cry from the dangerous 1960’s rhetoric of George Wallace, James tactic is at the core, cheap and easy politics.
Instead, why doesn’t James produce and star in an ad that taunts the insanity of Alabama tax structures? For example, a 2008 Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy study that says that Alabama’s tax system is regressive, relying on income and sales taxes that are skewed against low income people.
Or perhaps, he could get people stirred up over Alabama’s consistent ranking as one of the top states for dangerous levels of obesity, smoking, diabetes and poverty. Another potential point of contention, Alabama’s localized school systems are markedly disparate, where in a few wealthy suburbs near cities like Birmingham, children are guaranteed public educational opportunity on a par with the best offered anywhere in the country. Meanwhile, inner city or rural areas, the bigger challenge is to simply see a child graduate from high school. And, while dramatizing these social ills, mention that the state’s biggest city, is home to one of the nation’s top ten homicide rates, yes, Birmingham is statistically a much more dangerous than New York City.
Those tidbits touch on a few problems facing today’s Alabama. But those problems are also America’s problems because we all operate under the same umbrella in this Republic of ours. Yet, with all that going on in this economically uncertain time that’s ripe for change, the most enthused political rhetoric spewed onto the nation’s airwaves is negative and marked by blame, finger-pointing and once again, scape-goating. For example, news stories in the mainstream media featuring colorful notes on the tea party movement trump stories on exactly how, why or who led America into the current Great Recession.
Meanwhile, there’s no doubt that Tim James is charismatic, smart and a good businessman who might make a fine Governor for Alabama.
But, like the originally moderate candidate named George Wallace, who made a campaign decision 50 year ago and won office, the political calculation behind James’ English only ad may grab attention now, but ultimately, such diversion mutes hope for healthy open discussion and debate that leads to change for the better of a people. In the end, these tactics block the path to progress into the future.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Thought for the day
With thousands of square miles to choose from, how is it possible, Science can pinpoint where to drill and extract oil, but, when faced with environmental catastrophe, human ingenuity fails to deliver a solution to plug up a hole in the ground....
Friday, May 07, 2010
Interview with Limelight Marketplace Developer Jack Menashe at Portoflio.com
Back Into the Limelight
Cody Lyon
The Limelight Marketplace, New York City retail developer Jack Menashe’s latest vision for a 163-year-old former Episcopalian Church turned legendary nightclub is set to finally open this week as a boutique mall.
Read more: http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/entrepreneurship/2010/05/06/jack-menashe-turns-limelight-nightclub-into-artisan-mall#ixzz0nIvzw2SL
Cody Lyon
The Limelight Marketplace, New York City retail developer Jack Menashe’s latest vision for a 163-year-old former Episcopalian Church turned legendary nightclub is set to finally open this week as a boutique mall.
Read more: http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/entrepreneurship/2010/05/06/jack-menashe-turns-limelight-nightclub-into-artisan-mall#ixzz0nIvzw2SL
You want some design with those Fries? Story looks at McDonald's new Euro Look in NYC (Portfolio.com)
Cody Lyon for Portfolio.com
Curing a Big Mac attack with a visit to McDonald’s has gotten a little more chic in a handful of the fast-food giant’s 250 New York City locations. Diners are treated to egg chairs, wide tables, bright walls, and fresh art deco panels, elements based on a store model created by French interior designer Phillipe Avanzi, the mastermind of similar redesign efforts at McDonald’s locations in Europe.
Read more: http://www.portfolio.com/companies-executives/2010/05/06/will-redesign-boost-mcdonalds-franchisees-bottom-line#ixzz0nIuz28ur
Curing a Big Mac attack with a visit to McDonald’s has gotten a little more chic in a handful of the fast-food giant’s 250 New York City locations. Diners are treated to egg chairs, wide tables, bright walls, and fresh art deco panels, elements based on a store model created by French interior designer Phillipe Avanzi, the mastermind of similar redesign efforts at McDonald’s locations in Europe.
Read more: http://www.portfolio.com/companies-executives/2010/05/06/will-redesign-boost-mcdonalds-franchisees-bottom-line#ixzz0nIuz28ur
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Cody Lyon's Reflections on an earlier time in NYC
Back in the Day (from Portfolio.com)
by Cody Lyon Apr 26 2010
A New Yorker’s reflection of an earlier time in Manhattan, back when nightclubs were more than $300 bottles of vodka and when restaurants weren’t part of chains. Now, those were fun times.
Read more:
http://www.portfolio.com/views/columns/2010/04/26/cody-lyon-on-past-new-york-city-clubs-and-restaurants
by Cody Lyon Apr 26 2010
A New Yorker’s reflection of an earlier time in Manhattan, back when nightclubs were more than $300 bottles of vodka and when restaurants weren’t part of chains. Now, those were fun times.
Read more:
http://www.portfolio.com/views/columns/2010/04/26/cody-lyon-on-past-new-york-city-clubs-and-restaurants
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