Dear Commons Community,

Now that Governor Rick Perry has entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination, we are going to be hearing a good deal about his accomplishments in Texas.  He will likely present his economic successes especially job growth as a major reason why he is the right person for president at this time.

Today, NY Times columnist, Paul Krugman, reviews the economic situation especially the unemployment picture in Texas in his column entitled “The Texas Unmiracle.”  He presents evidence that the Texas experience  “offers no useful lessons on how to restore national full employment”.   He points to the data that shows:

“In June 2011, the Texas unemployment rate was 8.2 percent. That was less than unemployment in collapsed-bubble states like California and Florida, but it was slightly higher than the unemployment rate in New York, and significantly higher than the rate in Massachusetts.”

Krugman goes on to establish  that Texas is a leader in low-government regulation and low-paying jobs – “almost 10 percent of Texan workers earn the minimum wage or less, well above the national average — and these low wages give corporations an incentive to move production to the Lone Star State.”

Krugman’s conclusion  is that what has worked for Texas will not work nationally.

“The point is that arguing from this experience that depressing wages and dismantling regulation in America as a whole would create more jobs  involves a fallacy of composition – every state can’t lure jobs away from every other state.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

There is much to blog about in today’s news.

First, as was expected, Texas Governor Rick Perry officially entered the Republican nomination race for president.  We will hear a lot of that “old-time religion” on steroids.

Second, Michelle Bachman won the Iowa Straw Poll where about 17,000 people paid $30. each to cast a vote.   She garnered 29% or about 4,900 votes – not sure what this means nationally.

Third, Maureen Dowd has one of her zinger columns today entitled, Power to the Corporation.  She takes aim at corporate America and how it has usurped  and has essentially bought  the American political system. Her conclusion:

“The back-door money infused by Karl Rove, the Chamber of Commerce, the Koch brothers and others elected a slew of radical Republicans. Thanks to that Congressional wrecking crew, America’s credit rating has been downgraded and its economy has been hurt.”

Lastly, for me, the most insightful piece was Tom Friedman’s column entitled, A Theory of Everything (Sort of).  He revisits his “world is flat” thesis and reflects on the riots and protests going on in Europe and the Middle East  – “From Athens to Barcelona, European town squares are being taken over by young people railing against unemployment and the injustice of yawning income gaps…”.   He establishes that significant parts of the problem  are global competition and information  technologies where “the world has gone from connected to hyper-connected.”  In order to survive in this environment, young people are going to have to study harder, work harder and compete harder.   Furthermore, these world forces are driving much of what is happening economically, politically and socially in the world today.  His conclusion:

“We are increasingly taking easy credit, routine work and government jobs and entitlements away from the middle class — at a time when it takes more skill to get and hold a decent job, at a time when citizens have more access to media to organize, protest and challenge authority and at a time when this same merger of globalization and I.T. is creating huge wages for people with global skills (or for those who learn to game the system and get access to money, monopolies or government contracts by being close to those in power) — thus widening income gaps and fueling resentments even more.

Put it all together and you have today’s front-page news.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

 
I was sadden to see the passing of Daniel McCracken, professor at City College.

The NY Times obituary comments that:

“For years, Mr. McCracken was the Stephen King of how-to programming books. His series on Fortran and Cobol, a computer language designed for use in business, were standards in the field. Mr. McCracken was the author or co-author of 25 books that sold more than 1.6 million copies and were translated into 15 languages.”

For those of us working in computer facilities in the 1960s, McCracken was one of the few authors who provided insight into how to program large mainframe computers.  This was quite significant because there were hardly any  courses available in colleges and the programmers’ manuals provided by computer manufacturers such as IBM, Sperry-Univac, or Burroughs were tomes that were for all intents and purposes indecipherable. In 1969, I remember using McCracken’s A Guide to Fortran Programming to help me and several colleagues  program an IBM 1130, Lehman College’s first computer.

May he rest in peace.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Timothy Egan, former Times correspondent, was a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that wrote the series “How Race Is Lived in America.” He is the author of several books, including “The Worst Hard Time,” a history of the Dust Bowl, for which he won the National Book Award, and most recently, “The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America.”

In today’s NY Times, he has an opinion piece on Governor Rick Perry and his likely entrance into the Republican Party presidential nomination race.  He does not paint a pretty picture of Perry particularly his “tendency to use prayer as public policy”.

“To Jews, Muslims, non-believers and even many Christians, the Biblical bully that is Rick Perry  must sound downright menacing, particularly when he gets into religious absolutism. ‘As a nation, we must call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles,’ he said last week.”

Egan makes the following suggestion:

“As a lone citizen, [Perry is] free to advocate Jesus-driven public policy imperatives.  But coming from someone who wants to govern this great mess of a country with all its beliefs, Perry’s language is an insult to the founding principles of the republic.  Substitute Allah or a Hindu God for Jesus and see how that polls.”

I highly recommend this article and may God save us from the Perrys of the world.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Earlier this week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced that the New York City public schools will be introducing a new sex education curriculum that will be mandatory across the system.  The curriculum includes lessons on how to  use a condom and the appropriate age for sexual activity.   The city’s mandate calls for schools to teach a semester of sex education in 6th or 7th grade, and again in 9th or 10th grade.    Parents will also be allowed to have their children opt out of classes that deal with birth-control.

A  NY Times article stated that:

“It’s obviously something that applies to all boys and all girls,” said Linda I. Gibbs, the deputy mayor for health and human services. “But when we look at the biggest disadvantages that kids in our city face, it is blacks and Latinos that are most affected by the consequences of early sexual behavior and unprotected sex.”

Implementing sex education in New York City will not be without problems and opposition.  Archbishop Timothy Dolan of the Catholic Archdiocese has already issued a press release stating that:

“The decision of the City of New York to mandate sex education classes, including teaching grade school children about sex and condom use, is troubling. Parents have the right and the responsibility to be the first and primary educators of their children.  This mandate by the city usurps that role, and allows the public school system to substitute its beliefs and values for those of the parents.”

In my opinion, this change is long overdue and better late than never.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The NY Times reported on page one today that The Department of Justice and four states (California, Florida, Illinois, and Indiana) on Monday filed a multibillion-dollar fraud suit against the Education Management Corporation, the nation’s second-largest for-profit college company, charging that it was not eligible for the $11 billion in state and federal financial aid it had received from July 2003 through June 2011.   The $11 billion accounts for nearly all the revenues the company has realized since 2003.

Education Management, which is based in Pittsburgh and is 41 percent owned by Goldman Sachs, enrolls about 150,000 students in 105 schools operating under several names including Art Institute, Argosy University, Brown Mackie College and South University.   The Time article quotes a former federal prosecutor:

“The depth and breadth of the fraud laid out in the complaint are astonishing,” said Harry Litman, a lawyer in Pittsburgh and former federal prosecutor who is one of those representing the two whistle-blowers whose 2007 complaints spurred the suit. “It spans the entire company — from the ground level in over 100 separate institutions up to the most senior management…”

The suit also names Todd Nelson, the chief executive of Education Management, who previously headed the University of Phoenix. At Phoenix, he signed a $9.8 million settlement with the Department of Education, which had found that Phoenix had “systematically and intentionally” violated federal rules against paying recruiters for students. Phoenix never admitted any wrongdoing in either that settlement or the larger whistle-blower settlement two years ago.

The article also mentions that  in 2003, Education Management’s chief executive was Jock McKernan, a former governor of Maine who now serves as chairman of its board. Mr. McKernan is married to Senator Olympia J. Snowe, a Maine Republican whose 2010 financial disclosure form lists Education Management stock and options worth $2 million to $10 million.

The American Educational-Industrial Complex just keeps on giving.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

What started as protests against the killing of a young man and father by police has escalated into full-scale rioting, looting and arson throughout London and beyond.  Mark Duggan, the shooting victim, has been portrayed as a gang member and drug dealer by the police and a loving father by the mother of his three children.  The circumstances surrounding his death are still being investigated but questions have been raised as to whether police acted too hastily in drawing and firing their guns.

The riots, however, represent more than this incident and are being seen as protests against the government, cutbacks in social programs and less opportunities for employment especially among minority youth according to Kinsley Abrams, Councillor of the Borough of Lambeth.  The rioters moved from one section of London to others including parts of Hackney, Lewisham, Clapham, Peckham, Croydon, Woolwich and Enfield.  Police report that rioters used Blackberries and other portable devices to move  to areas where police are not patrolling in sufficient numbers.  The  rioting has also spread to other cities including Birmingham, 110 miles northwest of London, as well as to Bristol and Liverpool, giving credence to the idea that it is no longer about the killing of one young man but something larger.

We have seen this over and over again in other parts of the world as well as here in the United where one incident can ignite an explosion of violence in response to social injustice and tough economic times.

Tony

Below is a video report on the rioting.

ain.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22

Dear Commons Community,

On one of the morning news shows, Christopher Hahn, was interviewed regarding  Governor Rick Perry’s (R-Texas) prayer meeting at Reliant Stadium on Saturday.  The event has drawn criticism for its Christian theme as well as for one of its primary sponsors , the American Family Association, which advocates against gay rights.  The event attracted about 30,000 people in a stadium that holds 70,000.   Mr. Hahn invoked the Gospel according to Matthew several times specifically with reference to private vs.  public prayer.

I am not fluent enough in the New Testament to recognize chapters and verses so I had to do a search to find the actual reference.  Here it is.

Matthew 6:5:   “Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in temples and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. 6:6 But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. 6:7 When you pray, do not babble repetitiously like the Gentiles, because they think that by their many words they will be heard. 6:8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 6:9 So pray this way:…. [and goes on to reciteThe Lord’s Prayer – Our Father who art in heaven…]

It seems like appropriate commentary to me.

And can I get an AMEN!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Huffington Post has an upbeat article on the “hidden benefits” of playing video games with our children.  The article cites Cheryl Olson, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and co-author of “Grand Theft Childhood” a book about the effects video games have on kids that was inspired by a study of 1200 twelve to fourteen year-olds she conducted with her husband, Dr. Lawrence Kutner.   She advises that we should not treat video game playing as all doom and gloom with children spending too much time on them or being exposed to an overabundance of violence or gore.

She encourages parents to spend time with their children playing these games.   She advises that “Playing together can provide an opportunity to bond and subtly broach more serious issues with your children, without them feeling like they’re in for a serious talk.”

Having a child teach a parent a game can also be a very valuable experience  because “Learning to teach someone else is just a great skill: the mental ability it takes to break down something and explain it to someone else is part of education…”

I enjoy playing with my grandchildren but they tend to be traditional games.    For instance, I bought my grandson a checker set a few months ago and taught him the game.   I also have concerns about whether he and my other grandchildren are becoming addicted to their mini keyboards.  I found this article and its advice has giving me the courage to ask my grand kids if I can play “digital” whatever with them.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Charles Blow’s column in the NY Times today is entitled, The Decade of Lost Children.  He refers extensively to the latest report of the Children’s Defense Fund (July 2011) that paints a sad picture of the state of America’s children.  While black and Latino children fair much worse than white children, the overall situation is not particularly good and because of the recession is getting worse.  From the CDF Report, the bullet points below tell the story.

Tony

How America Ranks Among Industrialized Countries in Investing in and Protecting Children

• 1st in gross domestic product
• 1st in number of billionaires
• 1st in number of persons incarcerated
• 1st in health expenditures
• 1st in student expenditures
• 1st in military technology
• 1st in defense expenditures
• 1st in military weapons exports
• 17th in reading scores
• 22nd in low birthweight rates
• 23rd in science scores
• 30th in infant mortality rates
• 31st in math scores
• 31st in the gap between the rich and the poor
• Last in relative child poverty
• Last in adolescent birth rates (ages 15 to 19)
• Last in protecting our children against gun violence