This week's index: An overused word; women's economic recovery; spin machine; gerrymandering; classical music; jazz, too; economic disparities; the Constitution's “two-year” House; child labor; future defense budgets; a short Filipino history; fracking update; drone warfare

The most overused word bandied about today? Is there an alternative? Absolutely not!

Refreshing economic news? Well, yes, for women in the US workforce. A story from the Wall Street Journal reports they have recovered all the jobs they lost during the recession. Men have not. The primary reason for the labor-market milestone: Women tend to hold jobs in health, education, hospitality and retail, all sectors that have weathered the economic turmoil of recent years comparatively well. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303755504579203833804047994

The “Spin Machine,” is now an indispensable tool in the tool box of every elected politician, one readily available given modern technology. The machine will magically “explain” to the unschooled all manner of political facts and actions. Why was the ACA not ready on time? How did Governor Christie manage to win so “big” in NJ. Why is the as-yet undeclared candidate, Hillary, so busily raising money? The machine can explain – and always with seeming credibility. http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/obamacare-spin-machine-white-house-99768.html

     Five points from the White House spin machine regarding ACA: (1) Only 123...; (2) the website stinks; (3) if only Republicans would cooperate; (4) George W. Bush did it, too; (5) it gets better. Point 1 refers to the number who signed up in the first month Mitt Romney's version of ACA was on line when he was governor in MA. Point 2: it is useless to argue with all those disappointed/dispirited would-be customers. Point 3 raises the historical question: how many Republicans lined up wishing FDR well as he introduced his “socialist” New Deal programs? Point 4 refers to George Bush's problems with the roll out of Medicare Part D. Point 5: darn tootin' it will get better! In the meantime, there is more than enough egg for everyone's face at the White House.

From one of those NPR stories (you know, when you park the car but do not turn off the radio) comes this resurrection of a little used, but succinct, one-word characterization of the ACA's problems: botched!

Gerrymandering. This is the heart of one article explaining “how” the Republicans garnered control of the US House, despite receiving 1.4 million FEWER votes than their Democratic opponents in November 2010. The culprit, of course, was “Unscrupulous Republican gerrymandering following the 2010 census...” As the TV ad says, “But, wait...”. By definition the other party's gerrymandering is always held to have been unscrupulous.

No matter how much the Democrats might wish it had not been true, the fact remains that after November 2010 numerous state legislatures were so comfortably controlled by Republican majorities that malicious, unscrupulous gerrymandering was the inevitable, however inconvenient, outcome.

     The charges that some of these same state legislatures then engaged in passing laws to suppress voter turnout is definitely a horse of a different color and will no doubt be subjected to rigorous judicial examination.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-republicans-rig-the-game-20131111

Classical music. My introduction came when I was a freshman (1959) at Penn State University. Live classical music was not often heard in central PA. The Nittany Valley was not close to any large airport and philharmonic orchestras tend to travel with a lot of baggage. It was always a tossup amongst Cleveland, Pittsburgh, or Philadelphia.

     So, in the fall of 1959, the Cleveland Philharmonic made the long trip by charter bus over US 322. The local joke was that after partying one Friday night, some PSU civil engineering students laid out the route by following a rattlesnake over the Alleghenies from Cleveland to New York City.

Undeterred, conductor George Szell brought his orchestra, though one can readily imagine that he was taken aback when he was led into the evening's venue – PSU's venerable, tired field house -- which offered more seating than the school's auditorium. You could pack 6,000 rabid wrestling or gymnastic fans into that small arena; basketball games were never sold out unless Jerry West and the WV Mountaineers were coming to town.

     Mr. Szell led the orchestra through the first movement of a now forgotten piece, then, dramatically paused, turned to the audience and apologized for having to re-tune, stating the obvious, “....the humidity in here is simply awful.” Indeed, his orchestra may have set a record for re-tuning that night. Nonetheless, I was hooked on classical music and enjoy Denver's classical station daily.

Jazz, too. During those undergraduate years, PSU had one of the largest collegiate jazz clubs in the nation, so I was fortunate in being able to hear many of the jazz greats – they came much less encumbered than a philharmonic orchestra. A mere $2 and student ID got you a ticket to see these legendary jazz musicians. In those days, before segregation had ended, jazz greats played the clubs in “safe” US cities, toured northern and western college campuses, and then spent the summer on the European jazz festival circuit. I also have a “quick tune” button for the local jazz station.

America's growing economic disparities. Here is a Progressive Budget Blueprint by Senator Bernie Sanders (I, VT). Some of the senator's points are certainly open to heated argument and discussion, but given the headlines involving the ACA, how can any cost-conscious consumer of health care argue with his last point? Unless, of course, your re-election campaign war chest is being silk-lined by the pharmaceutical industry!

Here are 10 fair ways to raise revenue, reduce spending and create jobs.

1. Stop corporations from using off shore tax havens to avoid U.S. taxes.

2. Establish a Robin Hood tax on wall street speculators.

3. End tax breaks and subsidies for big oil, gas and coal companies.

4. Establish a progressive estate tax.

5. Tax capital gains and dividends the same as work.

6. Repeal all of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax breaks for the top 2%.

7. Eliminate the cap on taxable income that goes into the Social Security Trust Fund.

8. Establish a currency manipulation fee on China and other countries.

9. Reduce unnecessary and wasteful spending at the Pentagon.

10. Require Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry.”

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/budget/

Economist Joseph Stiglitz notes some of the absurdities in America's farm/food programs that help to perpetuate high prices and food shortages at home and abroad. By and large, these programs enrich only a very few agricultural giants here at home. Economists and environmentalists are also taking note of the world-wide effects of America's ethanol program and the Obama administration has just announced lower ethanol levels for our gas tanks. America's present ethanol consumption diverts nearly 40% of our corn from the world's food chain. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/the-insanity-of-our-food-policy/?ref=opinion&_r=1

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/15/obama-lower-quotas-ethanol-gasoline

     Regarding the food stamp cuts, see Nicholas Kristof's article. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/opinion/sunday/prudence-or-cruelty.html?ref=opinion

     In 1967, I was a student at San Diego State University and a group of college educated, politically-savy enlisted men (US Navy) applied for food stamps. Before the end of the day they were called on the carpet by their commander, who lectured them about putting the USN in an unfavorable light. Undeterred – with hungry children and wives at home – these young enlistees went far, far out on a limb and engaged in old fashioned blackmail, telling their commander that they had already contacted the pro-military San Diego Union newspaper which very much wanted their story. They implored their commander to come with them and take the lead in lobbying Congress to raise military pay. To his lasting honor, the commander did just that. He went with them, let them tell their story, and then began the process that in short order caused Congress to pass a much needed military pay increase.

     I knew how desperate they were. In 1964-1967, while stationed in Germany, I knew of enlisted families who gathered regularly in the last days of every month to cook what amounted to soup kitchen meals for their hungry families. There were even wives, known for their culinary ability, who early in the month very quietly broke the law and earned money by serving meals cooked in their on-base kitchens. Forget the rhetoric to the contrary, then as now, there are those among us who are truly in need!

Future defense spending. The following factoid is a harbinger of the imminent change in the way Congress will view the defense establishment. “For the first time [since 1946], there are no....World War II veterans in the Senate. The last — Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) — died in June.” Paul Moore, an assistant secretary of defense in the Bush administration, has rightly noted, “Experience matters in any endeavor [including defense allocations and spending.]”

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/defense-hawks-capitol-hill-congress-99767.html#ixzz2kajz4ymD

The constitutionally mandated, two-year US House. This is one constitutional provision that the modern era has most assuredly rendered obsolete – and cries out for change: Article I, Section 2, Clause 1: “The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States.”
     Combining today's “price tag” for a House seat with the two-year re-election cycle requires each representative to become little more than a perpetual money-raiser. As calculated by the “Outside the Beltway” blog, in 2012, each house member's election campaign spent an average of $1.6M. I should be paying my representative, Diane DeGette, her base salary of $174,000 to do legislative business, not spend untold hours raising money for her re-election – and Ms. DeGette has one of the “safer” House seats! http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-win-a-house-seat-about-1-6-million-on-average/
     This old dictum stands the test of time: politics makes strange bedfellows. Consider this money- raising note from last Friday morning's Roll Call. “Three former GOP congressmen, including former National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Thomas M. Reynolds, will co-host a fundraiser for Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins next month, according to the Buffalo News.” Oh, the irony: former Republican House members raising campaign funds for a Democratic colleague. Very curious! Have we gone down Alice's rabbit hole?   http://atr.rollcall.com/ex-nrcc-chairman-to-raise-money-for-democrat-in-new-york/


Child Labor. It is not a closed issue, especially not in American agriculture. The title of the article from The Nation (linked below) asks “Why are children working in American tobacco fields?” To borrow the opening words of monologues by the late Andy Griffith, “Well, I don't know, but I think...” it is probably because their families need the minimum wages they earn. http://www.thenation.com/article/177136/why-are-children-working-american-tobacco-fields
     Just as in an earlier era when coal dust and black lung afflicted young mine workers, so, too, are today's child tobacco field workers being afflicted with nicotine poisoning, variously referred to as “green tobacco sickness” or just “the green monster.” Saliva tests from one Wake Forest University study indicated that at the picking season's end, a non-smoking tobacco worker had a level of nicotine equivalent to that of a smoker. Some growers actually advise their workers to begin smoking in order to develop a tolerance. Urine tests also indicate an increase in the presence of harmful pesticides in workers' blood. More than a few of these young workers are here illegally and, as a result, they and their families are doubly at the mercy of the growers.
     From its earliest years, American agriculture revolved around the storied “family farm” and, hence, has a long history of laxity related to child farm labor. The school year and vacations were even tailored to the growing and harvesting seasons. The color of America's youngest workers may have gone from white, to black, and now largely to brown, but their long, cruel working conditions remain.


After Haiyan, a short Filipino history. Our relationship with this 7,107 island-nation has been long and tortured. In 1898, after having “won” the Spanish-American war, the US fought its first foreign guerrilla war in the Philippines. It was a nasty campaign, replete with charges of war crimes on both sides and, in the end, American assumed sovereignty over the islands. True, we hastened to their assistance when the Japanese invaded WW II began.  Filipinos and escaped Americans fought another guerrilla war, this time against the Japanese invaders.
     After MacArthur's celebrated return, relations smoothed out a bit. Filipino independence was declared on July 4, 1946 (since changed to June 12^th, to honor Emilio Aguinaldo's declaration of independence from Spain in 1898.) Our assistance was again applauded as the we jointly fought and bested a short-lived anti-communist insurrection in 1946-1948.
     Now to the present. What is not so well known is that many Filipinos have dual citizenship. After WW II, young Filipino men who joined the US Navy and served honorably for a six year enlistment were granted American citizenship. Indeed, for years most mess stewards aboard USN vessels were not African American, but Filipino. Our post-WW II relationship yielded two large, strategically located military facilities, Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base, both returned to Filipino control in 1991. These two installations and the naval task force of the USS George Washington aircraft carrier group are at the heart of the typhoon recovery effort.


Fracking update. In Broomfield, CO, votes have been tabulated from all military and overseas ballots and the final results indicate that the city's anti-fracking ban passed by 17 votes. Thus, anti-fracking bans passed in all four CO jurisdictions. Of course, legal fights loom ahead in the contest between state laws and these locally enacted restrictions.


The use of drones (unmanned aerial vehicles). If you are at all concerned about our continued use of targeted-attacks using UAVs, including operations against American citizens, see the story linked below. http://www.thenation.com/article/176869/dirty-wars-continued-how-does-global-war-terror-ever-end
Note, though, that unnoticed amid these headline-grabbing, military-related stories are others illustrating to the usefulness of UAVs in a myriad of peaceful, humanitarian efforts: fighting huge forest fires, search and rescue operations, rapid responses to amber alerts involving lost or abducted children. At this point, for all the public knows, UAVs may be/have been pressed into service over the far-flung islands in Philippine rescue operations.