A SOLUTION TO MEN BEHAVING BADLY; ELECT MORE WOMEN

Published: Sunday, June 19, 2011, 7:26 AM

By The Muskegon Chronicle The Muskegon Chronicle
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Cokie and Steve Roberts

Men who cannot keep their pants up or their ears open are causing two of Washington's larger problems. And the remedy is the same: Elect more women to higher office.
Sex scandals and budget deficits might not seem like similar issues but in an important sense they are. In both cases, male arrogance and ego come into play. And in both cases, that leads to risky behavior -- emailing salacious images to women or jeopardizing the credit rating of the country.
Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, got it right when she told the New York Times: "Women run for office to do something, and men run for office to be somebody." Dee Dee Myers, former White House press secretary in the Clinton administration, added: "There are certain men that the more visible they get, the more bulletproof they feel. You just don't see women doing that; they don't get reckless when they're empowered."
Start with sex. After Rep. Anthony Weiner was revealed as a serial sender of phallic photos, folks tried really hard to compile a list of licentious women. The sinners included Helen Chenoweth, the late congresswoman from Idaho who carried on a long affair with a married man, and Katherine Bryson, a state legislator from Utah who got caught with her lover on a surveillance camera. To fill out the meager roster, historians had to dredge up Catherine the Great, who took many young lovers but died in 1796.
There are many reasons for this disparity starting with time. Men apparently have it, and women don't. One of the great unanswered questions is how Weiner squeezed in so many online flirtations. His colleague from New York, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (the mother of two small boys), once said of cheating: "While I'm at home changing diapers, I just couldn't conceive of it."
Then there's the "reckless" factor mentioned by Myers. Men might feel "bulletproof" but women know life doesn't work that way. They know there's always a price to be paid. Rep. Candice Miller, a Michigan Republican, told the Times: "Every time one of these sex scandals goes, we just look at each other, like, 'What is it with these guys? Don't they think they're going to get caught?'"
Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist, said the same self-confidence that enables a man to run for office could also fuel his sense of entitlement: "It's the Icarus phenomenon. You think you have wings and you can fly up to the sun and down to the water. Sometimes you burn and then you sink."
But sex scandals don't ruin the country's credit rating. The current struggle to raise the debt ceiling is far more serious, but males in both parties are exhibiting the same chest-thumping (or chest-baring) behavior that sank Weiner. Let's be clear, women can be highly partisan warriors (see Sarah Palin and Nancy Pelosi), but as Walsh noted, if their goal is to "do something," rather than "be somebody," women are more likely to submerge their egos, listen to their rivals, and seek pragmatic compromises.
In today's Senate, female members represent one of the few islands of civility. They meet regularly for private dinners, co-sponsor legislation, and have even written a book together. In a recent interview with Christiane Amanpour of ABC News, Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, argued that women "inject less libido, less testosterone" into the decision-making process. "We don't necessarily project our egos into cutting a deal," she explained.
On ABC's "This Week," author Claire Shipman agreed that an overdose of male hormones makes harmony much more difficult. "There's something about a group of men and testosterone, you know, making risky decisions, that's very real," she said.
Torie Clarke, who learned something about male behavior during her years as the Pentagon's chief spokesperson, added: "You can see guys within a company competing with one another all the time, often to see who can get to the top of the food chain, versus women who more often will say, 'I'm going to get in there, and let's get this done.'"
All men are not jerks, and all women are not gems. But females still hold less than 17 percent of all seats in Congress. And if you don't think Washington would be better off with more women in positions of power, answer this question honestly. Can you imagine a female legislator taking a picture of her private parts and sending it to a youthful male admirer? We rest our case.
Steve and Cokie's new book, "Our Haggadah" (HarperCollins), was published this spring. Steve and Cokie Roberts can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com.

MICHIGAN'S FUTURE

On March 16, just 75 days into his administration, Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law PA4, legislation that can deprive local governments of all authority.  Yes, you read that correctly.  This bill can take away the rights of your legally elected representatives -- and your rights as well.

Michigan has had  Emergency Financial Managers (EFMs) for many years.  They could go into a city struggling with financial challenges and work with all parties involved to find solutions.  The bill signed into law on March 16 changed all that. The person representing the state is now an Emergency Manager and is essentially a dictator.

Once a financial emergency is declared, not one local person has any say  in what will happen to that village, city, township, county or school district.  State officials have the authority to make all decisions, via the Emergency Manager.   Yes.   Democracy can be legally  ripped out of our hands. When you wade through all the verbiage, this can essentially be done at the whim of the State Treasurer -- or the State Superintendent for a school district.

What can an Emergency Manager do?  Lots.  He or she can strip local elected officials of all authority (Section 15 (4) ),  reject, modify or terminate one or more terms and conditions of an existing contract (Section19, (j) ), lock elected or appointed officials out of their offices (Section 17 (2)), terminate one or more terms and conditions of an existing collective bargaining agreement (Section 19 (k), apply for a loan, (Section 19 (s) )order mileage elections (Section 19 (t), borrow money (Section 19 (u) consolidate or eliminate departments (Section 19 (n) ), sell off assets (Section 19 r ).  He/she can even go so far as to dissolve the municipal government.   (Section 19 (cc).  He/she can do all this  -- plus much more -- without input from any local official.  Should this happen in your community, your voice will be silenced.

“Who pays this EM?” you might ask.  The local unit of government.  How much do they cost?  There is no limit.  Detroit’s EM costs Detroit $400,000.  a year.  Benton Harbor must pay their EM $11,000 a month.  Oh, and by the way, the average income of the residents of Benton Harbor is $10,000 -- a year!

This is a 34-page Public Act.  I simply cannot cover it in this limited space.  Be assured, though, that this law has the potential to strip local control from every unit of government in this state.  Read it for yourself.

Our elected officials who supported this bill gave a wide variety of excuses.  “Oh, this will only be used in the direst of circumstances.”

 “Oh, and why then have they trained 400 of these managers?” I asked.  No answer.

“Don’t worry,” some legislators say, “there are 18 check points.”  They forget to mention that only one of those 18 points is needed.  And the last check point?  “The existence of other facts or circumstances that in the sole discretion of the state treasurer (or state superintendent in the case of a school system) indicate financial stress.”

“Oh, this is just to help our communities,”  said another legislator.  Really??  Extortion now helps our communities?  You do what we want, or we deprive you of your Democracy?  Un-american.

This bill could easily lead to selling off communities’ assets.  Will an EM come in to Muskegon Heights and sell off Mona Lake Park to the highest bidder? Will an EM come in and sell off their state of the art high school to a charter school?  There is nothing in law to prevent them from doing that.  Will they want to sell off Pere Marquette a few years from now?  There would be nothing we could do to stop them.

The city council in Benton Harbor, Michigan, has already had its power stripped by its Emergency Manager,  Joe Harris.  Here is what Mr. Harris had to say:

“The fact is that the city manager is now gone.  I am now the city manager.  I replaced the financial manager.  I am now the city manager and the financial manager.  I am the city manager, the financial manager, the mayor, and the city commissioners and I don’t need them.”

There you have it.  Michigan’s new future.


(We simply cannot sit by idly and allow this to happen.  In my next post, I will talk about actions we can take.)

To read this law for yourself:
Go to Michigan.gov
Click on Michigan Government tab
Click on Michigan Compiled Laws (on the right side)
Click on Public Acts (left side of screen)
Put Public Act 4 in the appropriate place
Click on the square next to Public Act

TIME TRAVEL?

I just saw something I thought I would never see in my country.  Students who loved their school and wanted to stay there were dragged  out by uniformed police officers.  Yes, you read that right.  The students do not want to leave their school.  They love it there.  They are learning there.  And uniformed officers dragged them out, while the students screamed in terror.  It should probably come as no surprise to anyone that these students were young, female and black.  This would never happen to white middle class kids.

I feel like I have time-traveled back to the fifties, when black students simply wanted to go to a good school, and whole towns fell completely apart.  I hope there are people out there who care and will stand up for those young people.  Apparently, it is not going to  be their elected officials.

Most people know by now that in Michigan our Republican legislature and governor gave unbelievably broad powers to Emergency Financial Managers (EFM).   These EFMs can not only nullify contracts, they can fire local elected officials and sell off assets.  In other words, EFMs do not have to listen to the people in the communities they take over.  They become dictators.  Local citizens’ hands are tied; they can only resort to begging -- and civil disobedience.

The EFM in Benton Harbor this week stripped all power from the Benton Harbor City Council.  Oh, excuse me, not all their power.  They can still call meetings, accept the minutes, and adjourn meetings.  That’s it.  All other decisions will be made by the EFM.

And in Detroit, the EFM decided to close schools, including the Catherine Ferguson School, a place for young women who are pregnant or have young children and still want to pursue their education.  These young women and their children will grow into adults.  The best case scenario is that they are educated.  I guess that will not be happening now.  An effective place of learning is being closed down by the EFM.  The young women decided to turn to a technique that broke down the walls of Jim Crow in the fifties and sixties.  They had the courage and will to turn to to civil disobedience.  They  held a sit-in at their school.  Their thanks for trying to get an education?  They got dragged out of their own school and hauled off to jail.

I am sick about it.  I hope you are too.

We simply cannot sit by and do nothing when dedicated students are dragged out of their own school by uniformed police officers.

I talked to my state representative about the Emergency Financial Manager bill today.  She seemed to think that because the mayor of Benton Harbor did something wrong, it was okay to take over cities, sell off assets, end contracts.  I was disheartened to think she was returning to the same “blame the victims” mentality that has been used since the beginning of time to oppress people.

There are actions we can take.  There is a rally at Benton Harbor at noon on Wednesday.  The more people that come, the stronger statement we make.

Soon there will be petitions to circulate.  If we can get signatures to equal 5% of the people who voted for the governor in the last election, the law is stopped in its tracks until it is put to a vote of the people.  We simply must stop this travesty.

This week it’s Benton Harbor and Detroit.  Who is next?

WHAT EVER HALPPENED TO TELLING THE TRUTH?

"Not intended to be a factual statement."

Within a matter of just a few days those words have become iconic.  Just to make sure you're aware of the back story here, that is the excuse  Senator John Kyl's office staff gave when asked about a grossly inaccurate statement he made.  Right on the floor of the Senate, Senator Kyl said 90% of Planned Parenthood's funding went to abortions.  When faced with the truth,  that only 3%  went to abortions, his staff came back with that reply.

"It was not intended to be a factual statement."

In other words,  Senator Kyl knowingly lied to the American people on the Senate Floor.  His lie has now been written into the Senate Journal.  Maybe Senator Kyl should put out a disclaimer on all of his statements.  Let us know which ones are  intended to be  lies.

The Colbert report has poked a good deal of fun at this comment.  Many others have joined in the fun, too.  Say anything you want, as a matter of fact.  When someone asks about its truthfulness, you can always just say,  "it was not intended to be a factual statement."

It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.

The truth has become so scarce that someone actually thought this was a sensible thing to say -- and that would explain this egregious attempt to tell a bold-faced lie to the public from the Senate floor.
An entire industry has grown up around the lie that President Obama is not a citizen and thus is not serving legitimately.  Now Donald Trump wants to run for president based on that lie.   Joe Farah of the website World Net Daily, which has promoted that lie consistently, admitted to Salon.com this week that his site publishes "some misinformation."

At what point did some of our Republican leaders decide that lying was acceptable?   

Senator Patrick Moynihan once commented that we are entitled to our own opinions, but we are not entitled to our own facts. I agree.   We base  our own personal decisions on facts; we must have factual information to make our public decisions as well.

That's why something that happened at the state capital recently is so disturbing.  Mitch Bean, director of the Non-Partisan House Fiscal Agency, has been going to member's districts teaching citizens of our state about the budget problems we are experiencing, how we got to this spot and how we might find our way out.   When he speaks, citizens are suddenly informed and empowered, better able to make good, solid decisions.

Interestingly, Jace Bolger, speaker of the House, has now informed Mitch Bean that he can no longer make these presentations in members' districts.  When I contacted Speaker Bolger's office asking why, he didn't even have the guts to respond.

Our forefathers were clear when they put this democracy in place.  We must have an informed citizenry if we are to survive.  That will be difficult with the Senator Kyls, Joe Farrahs and Speaker Bolgers of the world attempting to shut down the truth.

GOVERNMENT SHUT-DOWN ANYONE?

Big drama coming from Washington last week -- will the government shut down, or won't it?  Will our armed services get their pay or won't they?  Will senior citizens receive their Social Security checks or won't they?  The Tea Party was itching for a government shut down, but fortunately, wiser heads prevailed.  Compromises were reached and the government kept on working.  But the challenge is still with us.

 

The rich are still getting richer, the poor poorer, and the middle class is shrinking.

Why?

Because the wealthiest among us -- and the top corporations -- don't pay their fair share of taxes.  It's that simple. This is true at both the federal and state level.  Fair taxes equals good roads, good schools, good health care.  But they have somehow convinced Americans that if the wealthy keep their cushy  tax cuts, we all benefit.  That has never been true in the past, and it is not true now.  Those tax cuts the wealthy receive are making them richer at the expense of the rest of us.

There is a simple solution -- fair and uncomplicated:  a  fair tax code. But it never gets talked about and is never even up for discussion   And why is that?  Because the wealthy corporations own the media.  They simply do not want us to know the truth.  That is why is is important for us to start our own communication systems if  America is to be strong and vital -- and its citizens thriving.

According to Thom Hartman in an April 8 article from Common Dreams, corporations used to pay for 30% of our publicly-collected money.  They now pay for 7%.  No wonder there is a "budget crisis".  And make no mistake, it is one that has been carefully developed over many years. 

So we in this country have a huge problem.  Our founding fathers knew that freedom of the press was critical for a democracy to survive.  And indeed, we do have a free press.  But we also have a press that is corporate-owned  and doesn't really want us to know the truth.  The don't want you to know the wealthy are skating off without equal responsibility, while the rest of us have to have lower quality schools, roads and health care.  And as long as the truth is elusive, we cannot fix it.

That's why it is important for us to educate ourselves and stand strong together.  If those of us who are hurting with this present system come together with one strong voice, we can still get our country back, still have good schools, good roads, and safe drinking water.  But the time for action is now, lest we wait too long.

Let's stay informed, stand strong and assure our government is in the hands of the people, not the corporation.

 

The Triangle Fire, Maine's New Governor and Senator Mark Jansen

Okay, friends, bare with me.  I like to keep these posts short, but this could be a long one.  This week, particularly has seen many things converging at one time.

First, there was March 25, the hundred year anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.
146 people died within the space of 15 minutes that day, mostly the young teen-aged girls who worked in the factory.

Working conditions in that factory were terrible to start with -- long hours, low pay, no safety precautions.  Other similar factories had become unionized by this time.  But not the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.  Its owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris  led the opposition to union organizing.  So their workers continued in  sweatshop conditions without reasonable safety precautions.

Even worse, the young girls who worked in this factory were locked in every day.  Yes, the owners were so fearful of the workers stealing scraps of cloth that they locked them in; the young women were then searched before they left for the day.  In trial, it was revealed that the owners lost a mere $15. a season to theft.  That was why those young women were locked in that day.  That was why they died.

A young New York Social worker, Frances Perkins, was one of the horrified New Yorkers who witnessed this scene -- and the teen-aged girls who went up in flames or leapt to their deaths.  Instead of just saying tsk, tsk, she took action.  She pushed the New York State legislative leaders, assemblyman Al Smith and State Senator Robert Wagner, to head an investigative committee. The legislature then made sweeping changes.  New laws governed workplace safety, wages, hours, and working conditions.

A step forward for the workers in this country.

Francis Perkins later became the first woman on a presidential cabinet when FDR appointed her to be his Labor Secretary.  Together, they brought much-needed changes to America's working men and women.

Well, another thing happened this week.  Maine's Governor Paul LePage ordered the removal of a 36' mural in the Department of Labor. "The mural depicts the brave (and often bloody) struggles of Maine's workers in achieving living wages, establishing a 5-day work-week, and eliminating child labor." (Susan Fagin in a letter to the editor).  Seems this new Republican governor not only wants to metaphorically give hard working men and women a punch to the gut by removing a mural that honors them, he wants to change the names of the conference rooms as well.  One of those rooms was named after Francis Perkins.  Yes, the Francis Perkins who saw to it that those young women did not die in vain and that laws were put into place to protect workers.  He wants her name taken off that conference room.

And what happened back here in Michigan?  Senator Mark Jansen introduced legislation to eliminate MIOSHA,  the agency that monitors workplace safety.  He doesn't want to improve it.  He doesn't want to make it less onerous.  He wants to eliminate it.  Maybe this pro-life Republican Senator would be happy to see us return to the days young women lost their lives unnecessarily in tragic fires.  His callous attitude toward the lives of working men and women cheapens the very movement that claims to promote the sanctity of life.

So these three things converged this week:  anniversary of the New York Triangle Shirtwaist fire, Maine governor wanting to erase that part of history that gave meaning to those young women's lost lives, and a Michigan State Senator wanting to eliminate the department put in place to keep workers safe.  I believe these three taken together can serve as a warning to us.  If we don't stand up and fight for workers' rights, they will be gone before we know it.  Those who stood up for working men and women, instead of being honored as heroes, will be erased from history.  And we could go back to the days when owners locked their workers in, lest the owners lose a few cents.

If this coordinated attack on workers' rights doesn't get Americans to vote in the next election, I don't know what will.