Specter’s Spectacle

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Senator Arlen Specter
Photo by Michael Ruhl

Senator Arlen Specter (Penn.) says that he left the Republican Party because they had stuck their nose into party affairs to the point of breeding extremism. Ironically the Democrats are doing the exact same thing to their newest member. Micromanaging from the highest level doesn’t seem to be exclusive to the Republicans.

Yesterday Specter walked away from the party he has been with for nearly four decades, because he felt they were ignoring moderate voice. Specter announced his decision to defect to the Democratic Party, only the twenty-first time that a Senator has done such a thing since 1890.

President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have both said they will fully support Specter in his 2010 election, but Congressman Joe Sestak (D-Penn.) was not sure that the party establishment should be backing Specter in this way.

“If decisions and candidates are being chosen in Washington, you may just reemphasize that divisive barrier that’s between the parties,” Sestak said. “I think we cannot afford to have a decision that is so important to Pennsylvanians be decided by the party establishment,” and that the voters should be the ones to choose their candidate.

Sestak is rumored to be considering running for the Pennsylvania Senate seat, and would come up against Specter in the Democratic primary. When asked directly, Sestak said he had not decided yet whether or not he would run. Another contender, Representative Allyson Schwartz (D-Penn.) said today that she would not run for the seat.

The republican response has ranged from anger to confusion. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steel likened Specter to Benedict Arnold.

“Clearly, this was an act based on political expediency by a craven politician desperate to keep his Washington power base - not the act of a statesman,” Steel said. “Arlen Specter handed Barack Obama and his band of radical leftists nearly absolute power in the United States Senate.”

Specter responded, “I have not represented the Republican Party, I have represented the people of Pennsylvania.” He was referencing the fact that in the past months there has been an exodus from the Republican Party in Pennsylvania, where over 100,000 individuals changed their party registration from Republican to Democrat.

Specter is defending his position as being one of riding with the tides of his constituency, instead of bowing to the will of a national political party. Critics see it as a survival move of a desperate politician.

Speaking today with President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden, Specter said that staying in the Senate would allow him to carry forward important initiatives for his constituents, speaking specifically about expanding medical research.

Specter would prove to be the 60 Democrat in the Senate, provided that comedian Al Franken prevails in his court case for the Minnesota Senate. Sixty votes, called a supermajority, is enough to override a Republican filibuster. Specter said previously, though, that he was not going to simply back the Democrats automatically, and President Obama acknowledged that, saying, “I don’t expect Arlen to be a rubber stamp.” According to Obama, he and Specter agree in the areas of health care, education, medical research

Bridging The Cultural Divide To Fight Terrorists

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

General David Petraeus
Photo By Michael Ruhl

According to General David Petraeus, an educated American soldier that can bridge the cultural divide with the Muslim world can more effectively fight the War on Terror. This soldier would understand the social context they are operating within, and would understand the broad implications and consequences of military action.

General Petraeus, Commander of U.S. Central Command, discussed U.S. military strategy in the Middle East and South Asia while testifying today before Congress.

“While additional military forces clearly are necessary (in Afghanistan), they will not by themselves be sufficient to achieve our objective,” said the General. America’s objective, he said, is to make sure extremists do not have a haven from which to plan and execute another attack on the level of the 9-11 attacks.

A smarter military can better understand the necessary social infrastructure to facilitate lasting peace within a region. This combined with intelligent military action, international cooperation, the building of infrastructure and a swath of other initiatives will help America secure the region, according to Petraeus. “You cannot kill or capture your way out of an industrial strength insurgency,” the General said.

"We also need to expand just the basic knowledge of Afghanistan among our forces," Petraeus said. He continued that greater knowledge will lead to a "nuanced and granular understanding" that will enable the Army to undertake the kind of sophisticated reconciliation processes in Afghanistan that were important in Iraq.

Congressman Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) agreed that soldiers should be educated, and brought attention to the U.S. Army’s Homestead Program. Dicks said this program involves an Officer taking a year off from active service to live in a country, learn the language, and understand the culture. Retired Army General John Abizaid did a program similar to this. Abizaid was former Commander of U.S. Central Command.

The U.S. Army could not be reached for comment on the current funding of the program, but Dicks expressed concern on the small number of individuals enrolled in it.

The necessary approach to success involves placing security in the hands of the Afghans, Petraeus said, which means helping them collectively realize that the biggest security threat in the region comes from dissident extremist elements within the country, most notably Al-Qaeda. He emphasized that America’s presence in Afghanistan is not permanent, and that Afghanistan’s government and economy must be encouraged by its citizens.

Credit card spending linked to addiction

By Kayleigh Harvey - Talk Radio News Service

Credit cards could be considered a type of addiction like drugs, the House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law heard today, when discussing “Are Credit Cards Bankrupting Americans?”

While the answer did not resound with a deafening yes, it seems that credit cards and the confusion surrounding the rules and regulations that go with credit cards definitely do not help with the growing number of bankruptcy cases.

Adam Levitin from Georgetown University Law Center said, “It’s possible to drastically simplify credit cards. Most of the of the complexity of credit cards is not to serve any particular consumer desire or need...instead credit cards are complicated for complications sake.”

Levitin added, “There is nothing particularly surprising about high credit card debt correlating with bankruptcy. People who are in bankruptcy have debt. What is important to note is that debt, dollar for dollar, credit card debt has a much higher correlation with bankruptcy than any other type of debt.”

Noting that he was not a psychological expert, Levitin stated that there was a connection between consumer addiction and consumer credit. He said, “It is like drug use in this sense. There is definitely an addictive quality to credit...there definitely are parallels between the way consumers use credit and what we see with addictive products.”

Angered at the current actions taken by credit card companies, who grant loans to people already in high debt, Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) said, “Not only does it enhance if you will, the pain for the bankrupt, but it disadvantages other unsecured creditors and hurts the retailer, because they are receiving a diminished pro-rata share. If your interested about the retailer in America, if you’re interested in commerce in America, you’ve got to take and put this issue into this equation. It isn’t just about the credit card industry. It’s about business in America.”

Helping Prisoners Re-enter The Community Successfully

By Kayleigh Harvey - Talk Radio News Service

The House Appropriations Committee held a Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee hearing today on “What Works for Successful Prisoner Re-entry.”

Speaking before the committee were Representative Danny Davis (D-Ill), Professor James Byrne, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at University of Massachusetts, Lowell and Jeremy Travis, President of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Chairman Alan Mollohan (D-WV) said: “It’s becoming more and more apparent that effective reentry programs are the key to reducing recidivism and the strains on our communities and prison resources associated with recidivism.”

Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) asked the witnesses whether there was “any other country that is doing something really great, that we’re not aware of?”

Professor Byrne suggested looking at the model used in the Republic of Ireland. “I went to a prison in Dublin last year...I was amazed by the work programs...there was 320 people in the prison and every one of them had work and a job, they had a job training program there. The first thing I noticed was the one to one ratio of inmates to guards, I was shocked at that.”

Mr. Travis expanded on this point stating: “America stand apart from the rest of the Western world, worse, in terms of our levels of incarceration, how we treat people while they are in prison and the approach to reintegration.” Mr. Travis suggested that America look at reintegration strategies used in the United Kingdom and Germany.

Congressman Davis said: “Half the people in prison are due to drug related crimes.”

Talking about what should be done now Mr. Travis said: “We don’t link drug treatment, we should make sure that people who have drug addiction and are coming back home, that they go to the head of the list rather than the back of the list for drug treatment. Why do we send someone home and tell them to wait five months for drug treatment, when we knew what date they were coming out and could have planned it so they’d have the continuity at this high risk period.”

Giving Power Back To The People

By Kayleigh Harvey - Talk Radio News Service

Senator Tom Harkins (D-Iowa) and Congressman George Miller (D-Ca) held a press conference to discuss the progress of the “Employment Free Choice Act: Strengthening the Middle Class.”

Senator Harkin’s said: “We are introducing legislation that puts the power back into the hands of the people who are truly the backbone of our country. Today, Congressman Miller and I along with our co-sponsors are introducing the Employment Free Choice Act and we intend to pass this act not in a matter of years, but in weeks or months.”

Senator Harkin’s added: “In 2004 the average CEO made 431 times that of the average worker.

Congressman Miller said: “Under this bill the employees can choose to organize either through the National Labor Relations Board Election Process or through a majority sign up. Under the current law the CEO can veto employees choice when they use majority sign up. Under this bill the employee’s choice will be respected.”

The two said that from discussions they anticipated that the Senate would be first to vote on the Act and Senator Harkin’s said that by the time the vote comes he “believes” that there will be the 60 votes required for the legislation to pass.

The vote in the Senate is expected to take place after Easter recess.