The True Cost of Lies and Deception
I couldn’t in good conscience let this tragic milestone pass without notice.
The major news services are reporting that as of today, more members of the US military have died in the Iraq conflict (2978) than people who were killed as a direct result of the September 11, 2001 attacks (2973). Unlike the terrorist attacks of 2001, the death toll in Iraq has no end in sight.
Few people would protest the invasion of Afghanistan which resulted from the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Taliban government of Afghanistan sanctioned and supported these terrorist actions. The primary failure of the US Government in Afghanistan is that the job of eliminating the terrorist leadership remains incomplete to this day.
The reason for this military shortcoming is that US military personnel were prematurely withdrawn from Afghanistan for the build-up to invade Iraq. Please forgive me for restating the obvious, but the invasion of Iraq has been a failure both militarily and politically, and has made a mockery of due process:
- The American people were told from the beginning that Iraq was a part of the so-called “War on Terror”. The truth is, Saddam Hussein would have nothing to do with terrorist groups.
- The American people were told from the beginning that Iraq was an immediate threat, possessing (or close to completing) so-called “weapons of mass destruction”. The truth is, Iraq’s military prowess had been shattered by a decade of economic sanctions and internal mismanagement.
- The American people were told from the beginning that the invasion of Iraq was by a “US led coalition”. The truth is, GW Bush doesn’t have a fraction of the maturity, wisdom, or tact that his own father used to assemble an international coalition to liberate Kuwait in 1990. As a result, the vast majority of troops used to invade Iraq were US, unlike the 30 or so nations involved in the 1990-1991 Gulf war. The result of GW Bush’s arrogance and immaturity is that the US went from being a well-regarded country to one of the most loathed governments in the world over the span of barely two years.
- NO coherent plan for post-war Iraq existed either before or after the US invasion. There never was a plan for winning the peace. Apparently GW Bush and his secretive inner circle were convinced that the Iraqi people would welcome the US with open arms, and quickly organize a peaceful democracy. The truth is, Iraq has a history of thousands of years of internal conflict between various competing tribal and/or religious factions. GW Bush and his inner circle ignored numerous warnings of what would happen when these forces were released from the oppression of a totalitarian regime.
And on and on and on and on. This has been discussed many times, in many different places. Today’s milestone has been inevitable for too many years. How many more must die as a result of the arrogance of so few?
From all of us who dared question the wisdom of invading a country that the US had no direct quarrel with, to all of those who called us “unpatriotic” and raised the specter of more terrorist attacks if the US didn’t invade Iraq:
WE TOLD YOU SO!
Sphere: Related Content"How the GOP Lost Its Way"
Today’s Washington Post published an article titled, “How the GOP Lost Its Way“. Although its author is not kind to Democrats, the article spells out in detail what is wrong with the attitude of the Republican leadership toward ordinary people.
Most of us who read this blog are Democrat and liberal. This article provides an excellent opportunity to better understand what the current political leadership has been trying to do to this country. I highly recommend this article to anyone who has even the slightest concern about the direction this country has taken for the last several years.
Here are a few excerpts:
“The immigration reform debate has highlighted a long-standing fissure in the GOP between the elitist Rockefeller business wing and the party’s conservative populist base. Whether the two groups can continue to coexist and preserve the Republican majority is increasingly doubtful as conservatives begin to consider — and in some cases cheer — the possibility that the GOP may lose control of Congress this fall.
The two camps are deeply divided. The business elites are interested in a large supply of cheap labor and support unfettered immigration and open borders. The populist base supports legal immigration but is concerned about lawlessness on our border, national sovereignty and the real security threat posed by porous borders.“
“Far from being driven by xenophobia and intolerance, conservative populists are motivated by a profound respect for the rule of law and by a patriotic regard for America’s sovereignty and national security. Upholding the rule of law and protecting our country’s borders is important to conservative populists and to most Americans.“
“The Republican Party is now unraveling. Sept. 11, 2001, and the war on terrorism stanched a lot of wounds inside the party, but resentment is growing over steel tariffs, prescription drug benefits, a League of Nations mentality, the growth of government and harebrained spending, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, the increasing regulation of political speech in the United States and endemic corruption.“
Most telling is this statement taken from the closing paragraph: “But it may be too late, because conservatives don’t want to be part of the looming train wreck.“
Sphere: Related ContentDiscussion or Distraction?
So the current topic of national discussion is immigration. Congress is arguing about it, the president has commented on it, public demonstrations about it are happening across the US.
Why now?
Just like other recent topics of national discussion, such as same-sex marriage or abortion, this is another issue that cannot be resolved quickly. So why are these the current topics of national discussion?
Consider these important issues:
- Iraq appears to have been in a state of civil war for some time, and the situation there is deteriorating.
- GW Bush’s approval ratings are low, and continue to sink.
- GW Bush has been implicated in the leaking of an intelligence report, one which has since been proven to be inaccurate.
- More and more Republican party leaders are being implicated in an increasing number of scandals.
- The price of gasoline is approaching $3/gallon.
- The Federal budget deficit is out of control.
- The international trade deficit is out of control.
- More and more people are underemployed or have given up on looking for work, making the official unemployment figures nothing but a bad joke.
- The number of Americans without health insurance is reaching epidemic proportions. Meanwhile, the soaring cost of health insurance is seriously depleting the disposable income of most Americans.
So why is the government instead focusing so much on hot-button controversial issues?
Because they hope the American people will forget about the real issues in the upcoming elections, and instead focus on the distractions.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Politics of Fear
Numerous news sources, including this New York Times article, are reporting today on GW Bush’s announcement that a terror attack was blocked in early 2002. I won’t repeat the details, you can read them almost anywhere.
The point is, once again GW Bush plays the politics of fear when his public support is waning. Bush’s approval ratings are still abysmal; renewal of the Patriot Act faces serious challenges; Bush’s illegal wiretaps are being justified in the name of “national security”; and Bush’s proposed budget hurts just about everyone EXCEPT for the wealthiest, while increasing the national debt by an unprecedented amount.
How does GW Bush deal with such critical issues? By trying to distract people, as he has done time and again, using the politics of fear.
Sphere: Related Content"Deficit cracking GOP’s solidarity"
Our local ultra-conservative newspaper actually printed nearly half of this article, which was originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday November 27th 2005. I looked up the original article, and found it raises many interesting points. Here are just a few:
Total spending increases under the current President Bush closely rival those of President Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat famous for conducting the Vietnam War while simultaneously increasing domestic spending.
Discretionary spending rose 48.5 percent in Bush’s first term, according to an analysis by the libertarian Cato Institute, twice as much as in two terms under President Bill Clinton, when spending rose 21.6 percent. Adjusted for inflation, Bush has increased total spending at an annualized rate of 5.6 percent, compared with 1.5 percent under Clinton.
“It’s only a matter of time before we stop talking about cutting taxes for a very long period of time and talk basically about increasing taxes,” Bartlett predicted. “The end of the era of tax cutting is going to put tremendous strain on the Republican coalition, just as the end of the era of big spending put tremendous strain on the Democratic coalition” in the 1980s. “You’re hearing more and more people on the Republican side talking about major losses in the congressional elections next year and about 2008 being a really, really bad year for Republicans.”
In the two months since Republicans pulled their tax cut bills, the atmosphere has only gotten worse. Republicans lost two important off-year gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey. Bush’s popularity has hit new lows, with the public now decidedly opposing the Iraq war. Leading GOP candidates, including Sen. Rick Santorum, a conservative member of the Senate leadership who faces a tough re-election fight in Pennsylvania, have refused to appear with Bush at campaign events.
Sphere: Related ContentHeavy U.S. borrowing with much more on the horizon is stoking concern about a potential financial crisis. Any one of several big economic imbalances — including looming pressures on the federal budget, the zero U.S. savings rate, the historically high trade deficit, a real estate boom that has supported consumer spending — could provoke a sudden financial shift, economists say.
“It’s not unrealistic to think that if we continue to delay — and the Baby Boomers do start to retire as early as 2008 — that sooner or later the lenders to this country may decide it’s not the best place to park all their savings,” said Maya MacGuineas, director of fiscal policy for centrist New American Foundation.
Bartlett warned of a “financial Katrina.”
“It’s just a matter of time before we have some kind of economic event that I think is just going to change the political situation 180 degrees and make deficit reduction the order of the day,” he said. “I don’t know what it will be. I just know that when you’ve got gasoline spilling onto the floor of your house, it doesn’t really matter where the spark comes from.”
When Local Government Spending Gets Out Of Control
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted any information about the proposed publicly funded hotel and convention center project in Lancaster, PA, mostly because I spend so much of my free time working to oppose this misuse of taxpayer dollars. This article was printed in today’s Intelligencer Journal, and explains the current situation very well. The situation must be getting bad: Lancaster Newspapers is one of the Penn Square Partners that this article talks about.
Intelligencer Journal
Saturday, October 22nd, 2005
City center price tag jumps again
Total now $8.8 million above what developers have said they can afford
BY DAVE PIDGEON, Intelligencer Journal Staff
The projected price of the proposed hotel and convention center in downtown Lancaster has jumped by $3.8 million, according to documents obtained by the Intelligencer Journal.
The total estimate is now $137.8 million, or $8.8 million above what developers have said they can raise for construction.
Also, hotel developer Penn Square Partners is asking the city to reimburse it for $7.06 million in development and maintenance costs and to purchase the Watt & Shand building, where the hotel and center are to be built, according to the documents.
The reimbursement request in April was $6.8 million.
If developers are to obtain state funds crucial to the hotel, the city must take ownership of the Watt & Shand building and coordinate construction financing.
The documents obtained by the Intelligencer Journal outline final agreements between the city and Penn Square Partners, which call for the city to lease the 300-room Marriott Hotel for 20 years to the partnership.
The final agreements — negotiated for six months — are expected to be voted on during City Council’s meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Southern Market Center.
Phone calls seeking comment from Penn Square Partners president Nevin Cooley, Lancaster County Convention Center Authority executive director Dave Hixson and several members of City Council were not returned Friday night.
Convention center authority chairman Ted Darcus said he was out of town for several days and did not know the estimated cost of construction had risen for the second time in three months.
“I don’t know if it’s due to litigation or cost of materials,” Darcus said. “It’s something to be looked at and come back and say, ‘Do we have a solution?’ ”
Penn Square Partners, the convention center authority and the city plan to build the hotel and a 220,000-square-foot convention center at the Watt & Shand site.
At the start of this year, project developers said $129 million in private investment and public funds was the most they could raise for construction.
In July, the convention center authority announced construction price estimates had jumped to $134 million, and for several weeks afterward the authority and Penn Square Partners sparred over which was to blame and which ought to fill the gap.
No solution has been announced.
The city would become a partner in the project through its Redevelopment Authority in this way:
·The redevelopment authority would be the official owner of the hotel and be in charge of reimbursing the partnership for eight years’ worth of maintenance, development and acquisition costs.
The city would back a $12 million construction bond and half of another worth $24 million, the latter to be paid off by Penn Square Partners’ lease payments.
Developers are hoping to use annual grants from the state to retire the $12 million bond, but those grants would be subject to yearly approval by the Legislature.
Should the partnership or the Legislature fail to provide the money, the city would be responsible for the debt.
·The final agreement calls for Penn Square Partners to not pay property taxes because of the public ownership of the hotel and instead pay the city $200,000 yearly in lieu of taxes.
The partnership estimates making at least $2 million in annual profit from the hotel after paying the city.
Redevelopment authority solicitor Frank Mincarelli said he expects two Lancaster County commissioners opposed to the project to sue in Commonwealth Court to force Penn Square Partners to pay property taxes.
If they do bring litigation after Tuesday, Mincarelli said, they won’t win.
“I don’t think they can raise (the property tax issue) until the hotel is built and the county assessment (board) determines its tax status,” Mincarelli said.
Lancaster County Commissioners Dick Shellenberger and Molly Henderson have criticized project developers for wanting to use more than $90 million in public money and putting most of the financial risk on the public sector.
Shellenberger and Henderson have maintained that exempting Penn Square Partners from paying property taxes violates state guidelines governing the allocation of state funds.
County special counsel Howard Kelin on Friday called upon the city to hold the partnership accountable for paying taxes.
“Penn Square Partners has yet to explain why it can’t afford to pay its taxes like everyone else,” Kelin said. “If the city would join the county and the (School District of Lancaster) in asking that question, the public might finally get some answers.”
As part of the agreement, if the partnership is required to pay property taxes, the city would pay them instead.
·The redevelopment authority would reimburse Penn Square Partners by forgiving $5 million in loans it has given the partnership for the project since 2000 and by obtaining a $2 million grant.
Penn Square Partners is requesting the city reimburse it for the following:
·$1.25 million for what the partnership paid in 1998 to own Watt & Shand.
·$3.11 million (or $111,060 more than it asked for in April) for fees related to architecture work, engineering, development and legal fees.
·$2.7 million (or $352,537 more than it asked for in April) for fees to secure, insure, maintain and decorate the building.
Sources have said once the real estate transfer takes place, Penn Square Partners will have no money invested in the project until it pays $10 million when construction begins.
Sources said if Penn Square Partners walks away from the project before construction begins, it will have lost no money, and having no risk makes it more tempting for the partnership to give up on the project.
The public, however, would be left owning the Watt & Shand building and several blighted structures at the construction site and holding millions in bonds and loans it would have to repay.
Darcus said Penn Square Partners will not walk away from the project.
“I would be surprised,” he said. “They don’t take this lightly. I just don’t see it happening. I’ve seen that they’ve been in it for seven years.”
Penn Square Partners includes general partner Penn Square General Corp., a High Industries affiliate, and limited partners Fulton Bank and Lancaster Newspapers Inc., publisher of the Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster New Era and Sunday News.
Dave Pidgeon’s e-mail address is dpidgeon@lnpnews.com.
© 2004-2005 Lancaster Newspapers
PO Box 1328, Lancaster PA 17608, (717) 291-8811
The Long-Term Cost of the War In Iraq
This excerpt from an article on MSNBC caught my attention. I am posting it here because it spells out exactly what many of us have feared for quite some time.
Sphere: Related ContentAt the same time, some Pentagon officials now acknowledge that the two-and-a-half-year insurgent war has turned Iraq into a terrorist training camp.
U.S. intelligence indicates Islamic militants from several African nations - Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan and Somalia - travel through Syria into Iraq, where they get hands-on training in roadside and suicide bombings, assassinations and kidnappings as well as counter-surveillance and counter-intelligence against military targets, constantly changing their tactics to counter American defenses.
“They can change within seven to 10 days,” says the U.S. Marine commandant, Gen. Michael Hagee, “That’s pretty darn good. We’re going against a thinking enemy.”
And Pentagon officials now fear those freshly trained terrorists are taking the deadly lessons they learn in Iraq to other countries. U.S. intelligence indicates many of the militants are returning home or slipping into Europe, where they may join existing terrorist groups or create and train new cells of their own.
That’s exactly the opposite of what the Bush administration had in mind when it invaded Iraq.
“Instead of going in to eliminate Iraq as a source of terrorism, Iraq now has a stronger terrorist presence than it did when Saddam Hussein was in power,” says NBC News terrorism analyst Roger Cressey.
A new army of terrorists now being trained could remain a threat long after the U.S.-led war in Iraq is over.
© 2005 MSNBC Interactive
Convention Hotel Risk Transferred To Taxpayers
In my previous articles, I outlined how a proposed hotel and convention center for downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania has changed from an ambitious public/private partnership into an extravagance funded completely by taxpayers. Both the local School Board and the County Commissioners have started questioning the proposed financing package. As a result, the mayor of Lancaster City, Charlie Smithgall (R), prompted by State Senator Gib Armstrong (R) and State Representative Mike Sturla (D), pushed a package of ordinances through Lancaster City Council on 12 April 2005 that will allow the Lancaster City Redevelopment Authority to purchase the proposed hotel site from the Penn Square Partners. The intention is that this will remove the former Watt and Shand department store property from the tax rolls, and supposedly make the proposed convention center hotel eligible for “Act 23″ grants from the State of Pennsylvania.
This package of ordinances commits the City of Lancaster to “incur debt in connection with the Project” “not to exceed Twelve Million Dollars” “together with interest” “not to exceed twenty-five (25) years” (Administration Bill 6-2005). Interestingly, Administration Bill 6 also states “This city specifies that the estimated useful life of the facilities to be acquired and/or constructed as part of the Project is at least 30 years” as well as “All other ordinances or parts of ordinances which are inconsistent herewith shall be and the same expressly are repealed.” Administration Bill 12 commits the City of Lancaster to “lease rental debt” “not to exceed Twenty-four million dollars” “together with the interest payable” “over a term not to exceed twenty-five (25) years”. It further states “this City shall guaranty, unconditionally” “full and prompt payment of Debt Service”. It also notes that possibility “that occurs because the Authority must apply amounts to the payment of real estate taxes on the property subject to the Lease.” Furthermore, “this City shall and does pledge, irrevocably, its full faith, credit, and taxing power” to pay these debts, plus interest.
However, the costs to the taxpayers of Lancaster City could far exceed the numbers quoted in these ordinances. The Lancaster County commissioners commissioned the law firm of Kegel Kelin Almy & Grimm LLP to perform a legal analysis of the “Taxability of Marriot Hotel” (click here to read the entire report). This report references a number of legal precedents to predict the hotel property CANNOT be exempt from real estate taxes, which could cost Lancaster City taxpayers up to an additional $17.7 million, or even more if property taxes rise more than predicted, or if the completed hotel property is appraised for more than $28.3 million (this for a building that will cost an estimated $60 million to build!). This means that the taxpayers of the City of Lancaster could be responsible for more than $53.7 million plus interest, all for the benefit of Penn Square Partners.
I cannot conceive of a term to adequately describe the way the taxpayers of Lancaster City are being taken advantage of. All of this to build a “privately-owned” hotel?
You can read this entire series of articles, plus more related news and comments, at: www.lookingatlancaster.com.
Sphere: Related ContentThe truth behind the headlines
The headline in the Lancaster New Era dated Thursday, April 7, 2005 boldly proclaimed in large type “Found: answers to hotel questions”. In my previous article, I had continued the story of the proposed publicly funded hotel and convention center project in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Two of the Lancaster County Commissioners had developed a list of 57 questions about the history and financing of this project, which they felt needed to be answered before they could approve the proposed Tax Increment Financing. The headline and attached article was intended to lead the public to believe that the elusive answers to these questions had been available for some time.
But what is the truth? Some of the answers published in the Lancaster New Era, and on the Lancaster Online web site, had already been characterized by Howard Kelin, special counsel to the Lancaster County Commissioners, as “incomplete” and “deceptive” at a public meeting. The Lancaster County Convention Center Authority had already sent their partial replies to the Lancaster County Commissioners, which published them on the Lancaster County web site. Mr. Kelin analyzed these answers, and found that most were either incomplete, or raised even more questions.
Unfortunately, the article in the newspaper, along with the files referenced by Lancaster Online, address only about 30 of the 57 questions. Many of these answers are worded like “still under negotiation” or “will through some legal mechanism”, or even “The project budget is not set up to make an allocation of the full costs”. There are a lot of “yes, but” answers, and others that refer to reports that are 3 to 5 years old. Unfortunately, answers to nearly half of the questions are nowhere to be found.
The truth behind the headlines? Nowhere to be found.
The original documents can be found on the Lancaster County Government web site.
-Artie See
Sphere: Related ContentConvention Center Hotel turns to BLACKMAIL…
Since my last post about this subject on March 16th, a LOT has happened, especially today. Since this is still developing as I write, I’ll try to summarize as best as I can. The latest information is in part from WGAL-TV, both on the Internet and broadcast, and from Lancaster Newspapers (which owns a share of Penn Square Partners, the “developer” of the proposed convention center hotel in downtown Lancaster, PA.
Penn Square Partners had continued their charade that the project was dead, however at the same time they were negotiating behind-the-scenes with the finance director of the School District of Lancaster. Earlier this week, Penn Square Partners had announced that they would accept the compromise proposal, if the School Board would approve it.
Meanwhile, two of the three County Commissioners (Republican Dick Shellenberger taking the lead, with the agreement of Democrat Molly Henderson) posed 57 questions to both the Penn Square Partners, and the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority. These questions include the mishandling of a $40 million bond issue made by the county for construction of the convention center, of which nearly $9 million in unaccounted for. The LCCCA made an attempt to answer some of the questions, however the Penn Square Partners did everything they could to avoid responding. It all came to a head this past Thursday, at a meeting attended by Republican State Senator Gibson E. Armstrong, Democratic State Representative Mike Sturla, Republican Mayor Charlie Smithgall, Republican County Commissioner Chairman Dick Shellenberger, County Treasurer Craig Ebersole, Penn Square Partners President Nevin Cooley, and Penn Square Partners Vice President Mark Fitzgerald. Dick Shellenberger demanded the answers to all of the 57 questions; after answering a few, Nevin Cooley stated that the answers to any more questions could leave the Penn Square Partners open to a new lawsuit.
Fast-forward to today: Mayor Charlie Smithgall, with Gib Armstrong, Mike Sturla, Redevelopment Authority Chairman Charles Simms, and Republican City Council President Dr. Stephen G. Diamantoni, announced that Lancaster City would purchase the existing buildings and land for $6.8 million, and take it completely off of the tax rolls (PSP paid $1.25 million for the building in 1998, and has made NO repairs since then). Penn Square Partners would then lease the building from the city for an undisclosed amount, build the hotel, then at the end of 20 years PSP would have the option of purchasing the building from the city for an undisclosed amount. There is no word as to where Lancaster City would obtain the funds to purchase this building, in fact the City government is already operating at a deficit.
PSP announced that it would provide Lancaster City with $250,000 each year for 20 years, with payments to increase if the hotel exceeds a 12% profit after debt payments and expenses. The Lancaster County government, which is still demanding answers, will receive NOTHING. It would be up to Lancaster City to decide how much money to compensate the School District of Lancaster, but it was hinted that it would be the $200,000/year that the School Board had initially turned down. WGAL interviewed County Commissioner Dick Shellenberger and School Board member Michael Winterstein, as well as School Board Finance Director Curt Baker; all expressed shock and dismay at this turn of events.
Now here is the first part of the blackmail: the School District was told they will receive *NO* money if they oppose this new plan. Indeed, School Board members are already discussing legal action against the city.
All parties are aware that this arrangement opens up the possibility of multiple lawsuits, especially from the group of hotel operators who had originally argued against the hotel tax that is funding much of this project (and who only gave up when the LCCCA threatened to sue them for harassment!). The second part of the blackmail is this: State Representative Mike Sturla said on-camera that ANY money needed to fight ANY lawsuits would come directly from the funds that otherwise would go to Lancaster City and the School District. This is blackmail, plain and simple: our own public officials are holding the students of Lancaster City and Township hostage to guarantee that the Penn Square Partners never have to reveal what they are doing with OUR tax money.
Lancaster City Council will hold the first reading of the bill authorizing this action tonight, and vote on it two weeks from now. Since most of the City Council members are directly under the control of Charlie Smithgall, that it will pass is a foregone conclusion.
In my opinion, the fact that the Penn Square Partners are refusing to reveal how they have been handling taxpayers funds indicates a real possibility of wrongdoing. Nevin Cooley has even admitted that the information they are concealing will open them to legal action. I am amazed that the Lancaster County District Attorney and the State Attorney General are letting them get away with this.
There are several more meetings of public officials scheduled this week about this subject, so we definitely haven’t heard the last of it.
-Artie See
Sphere: Related ContentConvention Center saga continues…
Penn Square Partners is the private company that has proposed building a “publicly” funded hotel to be attached to a proposed convention center to be built in downtown Lancaster, PA. As part of their ongoing effort to receive more and more public subsidies, in January of this year they gave Lancaster City, Lancaster County, and the School District of Lancaster an ultimatum: Approve Tax Increment Financing tax relief for 20 years, before the “state deadline” of the end of April, or they will pull out of the project they have been pushing onto the public so hard for the last seven years. Their promise is that, in exchange for not having to pay taxes for 20 years, they will “guarantee” payments that are much lower than the taxes they would have to pay on the completed building; these payments would be contingent on the financial performance of the hotel property.
Last evening (Tuesday 15 March 2005), the School Board rejected PSP’s ultimatum; instead, they approved a TIF that still would give PSP a major break on property taxes, just not nearly as much as PSP had demanded. Today, PSP has announced they are pulling out of the hotel project; they have gone as far as to remove their signs from the site. The impression being left by the leaders of PSP is that of little children who don’t get their own way, and take their toys and go home. The president of PSP on TV tonight looked like he was going to stamp his feet and throw a temper tantrum on camera! Of course, they are placing all of the blame on the members of the School Board, who were brave enough to stand up against PSP’s ongoing threats.
Unfortunately, I believe this is just another negotiating tactic on the part of the PSP. I’d like to believe this is the end, but PSP has proven repeatedly that they can’t be trusted.
To be continued…
Artie See
Sphere: Related ContentEconomic Development or Corporate Welfare? Part Two
I apologize to all that I haven’t posted much here since I wrote the original article about the proposed publicly-funded hotel and convention center in Lancaster, PA back on January 7th. A lot has happened since then, and I’ve been spending a lot of time researching, writing emails and messages, plus attending (and speaking out) at public meetings, all in opposition of this project.
A brief review: In 1997, a group of businessmen proposed that a publicly funded convention center be built around an empty downtown department store, to be accompanied with a privately-funded luxury hotel (in an area that currently has only one run-down hotel). The original plan released in 1999 was for a $30 million convention center, to be built alongside a $45 million privately funded hotel. Since then, the total estimate cost of the project has escalated to over $129 million, all of which is either directly or indirectly funded by tax dollars!
Artie See
Sphere: Related ContentA Christian Minister Speaks Out with Clarity and Conviction
Dr. Robin Meyers
Oklahoma University Peace Rally
November 14, 2004
As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City, an Open and Affirming, Peace and Justice church in northwest Oklahoma City, and professor of Rhetoric at Oklahoma City University.
But you would most likely have encountered me on the pages of the Oklahoma Gazette, where I have been a columnist for six years, and hold the record for the most number of angry letters to the editor.
Tonight, I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian.
We’ve heard a lot lately about so-called “moral values” as having swung the election to President Bush. Well, I’m a great believer in moral values, but we need to have a discussion, all over this country, about exactly what constitutes a moral value — I mean what are we talking about?
Because we don’t get to make them up as we go along, especially not if we are people of faith. We have an inherited tradition of what is right and wrong, and moral is as moral does. Let me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in power who claim moral values are on their side:
– When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your deceptions are justified because you are doing God’s will, and that your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are some of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the faith who believe that this is not only not moral, but immoral.
– When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.
– When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn them on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff like that we must never return violence for violence and that those who live by the sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.
– When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.
– When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam, and then question the patriotism of someone who volunteered to fight, and came home a hero, you are doing something immoral.
– When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the gospel, which says that the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test, by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so the strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something immoral.
– When you wink at the torture of prisoners, and deprive so-called “enemy combatants” of the rules of the Geneva convention, which your own country helped to establish and insists that other countries follow, you are doing something immoral.
– When you claim that the world can be divided up into the good guys and the evil doers, slice up your own nation into those who are with you, or with the terrorists — and then launch a war which enriches your own friends and seizes control of the oil to which we are addicted, instead of helping us to kick the habit, you are doing something immoral.
– When you fail to veto a single spending bill, but ask us to pay for a war with no exit strategy and no end in sight, creating an enormous deficit that hangs like a great millstone around the necks of our children, you are doing something immoral.
– When you cause most of the rest of the world to hate a country that was once the most loved country in the world, and act like it doesn’t matter what others think of us, only what God thinks of you, you have done something immoral.
– When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out record numbers of evangelical voters, and use the Constitution as a tool of discrimination, you are doing something immoral.
– When you favor the death penalty, and yet claim to be a follower of Jesus, who said an eye for an eye was the old way, not the way of the kingdom, you are doing something immoral.
– When you dismantle countless environmental laws designed to protect the earth which is God’s gift to us all, so that the corporations that bought you and paid for your favors will make higher profits while our children breathe dirty air and live in a toxic world, you have done something immoral. The earth belongs to the Lord, not Halliburton.
– When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that our killing is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral. We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.
– When you tell people that you intend to run and govern as a “compassionate conservative,” using the word which is the essence of all religious faith-compassion, and then show no compassion for anyone who disagrees with you, and no patience with those who cry to you for help, you are doing something immoral.
– When you talk about Jesus constantly, who was a healer of the sick, but do nothing to make sure that anyone who is sick can go to see a doctor, even if she doesn’t have a penny in her pocket, you are doing something immoral.
– When you put judges on the bench who are racist, and will set women back a hundred years, and when you surround yourself with preachers who say gays ought to be killed, you are doing something immoral.
I’m tired of people thinking that because I’m a Christian, I must be a supporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and gay rights I must not be a person of faith. I’m tired of people saying that I can’t support the troops but oppose the war.
– I heard that when I was your age, when the Vietnam war was raging. We knew that that war was wrong, and you know that this war is wrong–the only question is how many people are going to die before these make-believe Christians are removed from power?
This country is bankrupt. The war is morally bankrupt. The claim of this administration to be Christian is bankrupt. And the only people who can turn things around are people like you–young people who are just beginning to wake up to what is happening to them. It’s your country to take back. It’s your faith to take back. It’s your future to take back.
Don’t be afraid to speak out. Don’t back down when your friends begin to tell you that the cause is righteous and that the flag should be wrapped around the cross, while the rest of us keep our mouths shut. Real Christians take chances for peace. So do real Jews, and real Muslims, and real Hindus, and real Buddhists–so do all the faith traditions of the world at their heart believe one thing: life is precious. Every human being is precious. Arrogance is the opposite of faith. Greed is the opposite of charity. And believing that one has never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith.
And war — war is the greatest failure of the human race — and thus the greatest failure of faith.
There’s an old rock and roll song, whose lyrics say it all: War, what is it good for? absolutely nothing.
And what is the dream of the prophets? That we should study war no more, that we should beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Who would Jesus bomb, indeed? How many wars does it take to know that too many people have died? What if they gave a war and nobody came? Maybe one day we will find out.
Time to march again my friends. Time to commit acts of civil disobedience. Time to sing, and to pray, and refuse to participate in the madness. My generation finally stopped a tragic war. You can too!
“Only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.” Martin Luther King,
Sphere: Related ContentWords of Wisdom
Borrowed from a favorite local site:
Historically…those who told the truth about a particular regime have been exiled, jailed, or killed by those in power whose fury has been aroused. To be sure, the obvious explanation is that they were dangerous to their respective establishments, and that killing them seemed the best way to protect the status quo. This is true enough, but it does not explain the fact that the truth-sayers are so deeply hated even when they do not constitute a real threat to the established order. The reason lies, I believe, in that by speaking the truth they mobilize the [psychological] resistance of those who repress it. To the latter, the truth is dangerous not only because it can threaten their power but because it shakes their whole conscious system of orientation, deprives them of their rationalizations, and might even force them to act differently. Only those who have experienced the process of becoming aware of important impulses that were repressed know the earthquakelike sense of bewilderment and confusion that occurs as a result. Not all people are willing to risk this adventure, lest of all those people who profit, at least for the moment, from being blind.
~ Erich Fromm ~
Economic Development or Corporate Welfare, Continued
Recently I posted a commentary regarding the proposed publicly-funded convention center for downtown Lancaster, PA. This week, the Brookings Institution, which is an independent academic research organization, posted a report that blasted the growth in publicly funded convention centers. Titled “Space Available: The Realities of Convention Centers as Economic Development Strategy“, the report uses current and historical data to prove that the assumptions made by the consultant’s reports used to justify these expenditures are almost always wrong. You can download the entire report if you are interested, it is a 557K PDF. I am including a few noteworthy excerpts here:
From page 27:
“Today, a broad cross section of American cities from Richmond, VA to Peoria, IL; Jackson, MS to Tacoma, WA have or are investing millions of public dollars in the quest for convention center access.
They are pursuing an economic development strategy that has already failed in dozens of cities, and holds little prospect of succeeding in most. With the possible exception of a handful of major cities that have long dominated the national and regional economies and a very small number of prime visitor destinations like Orlando and Las Vegas, the grand promises of convention center investment are unlikely to be realized, the strategy doomed to failure.”
From page 28:
“As we’ve seen above, local decisions to invest in a new or expanded convention center or hotel typically rely on consultant’s market or feasibility studies that protray a growing, expanding industry and which ensure that the given locality is quite capable of successfully competing for convention events and out-of-town atttendees - and in the process reaping large financial benefits. Where, as in the last two years, there is clear evidence of a changed market environment, these studies have quite often shifted to a different source of data, promised an imminent market turnaround, or simply ignored the question of competition altogether.”
From page 29:
“The widespread use of revenue-backed bonds to finance convention centers and related projects has long proivided a means of avoiding state constitutional requirements (in the vast majority of states) for voter approval of general obligation debt fully backed by the local government. And even where the voters have said “no” to center bond issues or new taxes - as they have done in Pittsburgh, Columbus, Portland, and San Jose - investments in convention facilities have a way of happening despite the election outcome - as in Pittsburgh, Columbus, Portland, and San Jose. Yet there is no magic to the revenue backing of convention center bonds. Unlike other revenue debt issued for water or wastewater projects, airports or ports, they are not repaid by charges or fees on convention center users. Instead, everyone who stays in an area hotel room, eats a meal in an area restaurant, or rents a car helps pay the principal and interest on center debt.”
From page 30:
“Today, as all cities are obliged to compete with dozens of others, the prospects of real economic development and opportunity based on the convention strategy appear nil.”
Is Iran Next?
From MSNBC, the headline reads:
“Report: U.S. conducting secret missions in Iran”
“New Yorker article says U.S. commandos in place in 10 Middle East nations”
Excerpt from article: “One former high-level intelligence official told The New Yorker, ‘This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign. The Bush administration is looking at this as a huge war zone. Next, we’re going to have the Iranian campaign.’”
Is it just my imagination, or is this whole thing bordering on insanity?
Where and when will it all end? And at what cost?
Since When Are There Limits on Accountability?
I was shocked to read this headline on MSNBC:
The first paragraph of the article states: “President Bush said the public’s decision to reelect him was a ratification of his approach toward Iraq and that there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath.”
SINCE WHEN ARE THERE LIMITS ON ACCOUNTABILITY?
This has nothing to do with politics. If you or I participate in a crime, we can be tried and convicted years later, sometime decades later depending on the severity of the crime. For example, a number of Catholic priests have been convicted for molesting young children many years after the fact, even though they were “re-elected” by the church.
How is the media allowing GW Bush to get away with this? Why aren’t there ongoing investigations into his conduct and actions? Some conservatives claim “the media” is biased against them; instead it appears that the mainstream media is giving GW Bush a free ride.
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