Thursday, May 31, 2007

Mystery senator blocks effort to expand public’s right to know

On April 12, the Senate Judiciary Community unanimously (unanimously!) passed the Open Government Act. The Act was sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). The bill would strengthen the federal Freedom of Information Act, according to the Society of Professional Journalists. The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a similar measure in March — but that bill was blocked from reaching the Senate, according to the SPJ. If approved, the Open Government Act would reduce delays in releasing government records and hold public officials accountable when they break the law.

Imagine...a public official being held accountable by law for breaking the law. Considering the roadblocks the current Administration has erected to prevent the public, journalists, even CIA agents, from learning the truth about everything from what led to the attack on Iraq to what happened in U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ office, the OGA would be a godsend.

Currently, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) allows journalists, everyday citizens, students...everyone, access to public records such as police reports, public officials’ voting records, financial records of public bodies, financial contributions to candidates for public office. The FOIA also allows any citizen access to information regarding campaign contributions. Essentially, the FOIA allows you to know what your government--be it local, state, federal, even your local library board--is doing. Everyday citizens have the right to know how public officials are spending taxpayer dollars and how those decisions will affect you, the guy down the street in the green truck and your dry cleaner, down the line.

“It refers to your right to examine records and documents and to your right to observe – and participate in – your government’s decision-making processes,” according to the Society of Professional Journalists. “Government processes, activities and decisions may affect you directly or indirectly. They determine the amount of taxes you pay and the kinds of government services you receive. Governments and their agencies regulate many activities in your home and business life. Your ability to participate in, monitor and, perhaps, protest government decisions relates directly to your ability to know what your government is doing,” SPJ says.

Unfortunately some governmental bodies make it as difficult as possible for you and for journalists to access the information you need. By putting a hold on the Open Government Act, the mystery senator not only is blocking access to determine who put the brakes on the act, but is making a mockery of the FOIA. The FOIA is one of the most important pieces of legislation ever passed; it offers everyone the chance to make sure their government is playing by the rules, it gives us all the chance to make sure “checks and balances” are being used properly. FOIA gives us all the chance to be government watchdogs.

You might remember a document called “The Bill of Rights.” The very first amendment to the bill reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

By putting a secret hold on the Open Government Act, is this “secret” senator not, in effect abridging the rights of the freedom of the press? If journalists are not allowed to know who put the hold on the OGA, does that not abridge their rights to inform the public of what our government is doing? Obviously, I am biased toward journalists, being one myself. But I also am an American and it just strikes me as unconscionable that a person elected by the public to hold public office would behave in such a way as to make himself or herself look, for lack of a better word, chicken. An as un upstanding (I’m giving this person the benefit of the doubt, here) member of our federal government, why would one choose to so flagrantly mock the Bill of Rights and FOIA?

The simple answer is FOIA does not cover Congress, the federal judiciary or the President. It does, however, cover the Executive Office of the President, according to the SPJ.

SPJ officials say that this is not the first time a secret hold has been used to prevent open government legislation from reaching the floor. In August 2006, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) put a hold on a bill to create a searchable public database of all federal grants and contracts. Stevens' role was revealed only after online public advocates and journalists forced senators to go on the record about whether they placed the hold, according to the SPJ.

Thankfully, another federal law, the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), mandates that meetings of special federal task forces be open to the public. But that has not stopped some such task forces from violating FACA. According to an SPJ report, in July 2001 Congress’ General Accounting Office sued Vice-President Dick Cheney, alleging that Cheney’s energy task force met in secret in violation of the FACA.

Also in 2001, according to SPJ, provisions of the Presidential Records Act were changed by an Executive Order signed by President George W. Bush. That order requires the National Archives to inform a former president (or his/her estate) that records are eligible for release. It also gives the sitting president and the former president the power to block release of records covered by the Presidential Records Act.

Too many, and too often, public bodies and public officials are either ignoring the public’s right to know or doing the best they can to make it nearly impossible to obtain information that is by law available to the public. This has been going on in this country since its conception and continues to this day. Has the public, have we just come to accept that this is the way things are? Has the Patriot Act made us so wary that we’ve become too afraid to actually question the government? If so, what a sad state affairs we have entered. We have a right to know what our government is doing; we have to take back that right.

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Friday, May 25, 2007

Bush passes on step to help curb global warming

President Bush again has rejected a plan that would help curb global warming.

According to a May 25 Reuters News Service report, Bush has rejected a suggestion by German government officials to cut global climate warming carbon emissions. Bush’s rejection of Germany’s bid to get the Group of Eight to cut emissions comes less than one month before the G-8 summit is to be held in Germany. Reuters said, “G8 president Germany wants the meeting [of members] to agree [to] targets and timetables for steep cuts in emissions and increases in energy efficiency in transport and power generation.”

For years, Bush has said he does not believe in global warming, despite scientific research that shows temperatures across the globe are rising, contributing to or causing everything from droughts to the quickening of iceberg melting. In 2001, Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol on cutting carbon emissions, calling the pact “economic suicide because it was not binding on boom economies China and India,” according to the Reuters report. Bush also is adamantly against any binding targets or timetables, the report said.

Reuters further reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Bush ally outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair, want G-8 members to agree to curb the rise in average temperatures this century by 2 degrees Celsius, to cut global emissions by 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 and to raise energy efficiency in power and transport by 20 percent by 2020.

When is the Bush Administration going to realize, recognize and respond to the fact that the United States must take more responsibility in the effort to slow global warming? When will Bush acknowledge that climate changes will only worsen incoming years, affecting not just this country but countries everywhere? When is the Bush Administration going to prove to the rest of the world that the United States - the most powerful nation in the world - is ready to add global warming to the list of wars, the list of evils we must fight?

Global warming is real; the science cannot be denied. Study after study shows that if governments worldwide do not do something now to reduce the effects of global warming, water levels will continue to rise, rainforests will continue to die out, some island countries will completely disappear, people with health conditions such as asthma will become sicker.

During the last century, the average temperature has climbed about 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 of a degree Celsius) around the world, according to a National Geographic fact sheet. NG also reports that the spring ice thaw in the Northern Hemisphere occurs nine days earlier than it did 150 years ago, and the fall freeze now typically starts 10 days later.

Since scientists started keeping records of temperatures, the 1990s was the warmest decade since the mid-1800s. The hottest years recorded: 2003, 2002, 2001, 1998 and 1997, according to NG reports.

Furthermore, if world governments do not work harder together, people across the globe are more likely to be subjected to frequent extreme weather conditions. Intense hurricanes and storm surges could threaten coastal communities, while heat waves, fires and drought also could become more common.

Yet Bush continues to argue that global warming is not the horror the majority of the world believes it to be. So what are we to do? People everywhere must take steps to reduce pollutants of all kinds, by carpooling or by using public transportation to get to work. If possible, those who are able could ride a bike or walk to work.

We must make sure we are recycling everything we possibly can as permitted by our cities, towns and villages. We must start using earth-friendly products to clean our homes, do our dishes, wash our clothes. We must examine the products we use to take care of our lawns and our gardens. Do they contain harmful pollutants, pesticides?

More and more designers and retailers are offering organically made and earth-friendly clothing that is actually biodegradable. We need to read clothing labels to see what materials are used to make them. And we need to recycle our clothes, shoes and accessories, by donating them to the Salvation Army, Goodwill, women’s shelters - anywhere that will take them.

Switching from plastic bags to paper bags at grocery and other stores also will help.

We must do whatever we can, whatever we can think of to help the environment, and we must do it now. If we wait for our government to take the steps necessary to curb emissions, to reduce pollution, to reduce greenhouse gasses, it will be too late.

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Thursday, May 24, 2007

Illinois education system in need of reform

For too many years, Illinois has shortchanged school
children with a funding system that punishes students
in poorer areas and all too often results in poor
performance in public schools. The burden our
education funding system puts on property tax payers
also is a serious problem in this state.

I have come to learn that despite all of this, some
state senators, including Randall Hultgren (R-Wheaton), Chris Lauzen (R-Aurora), Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale), are proposing cuts in education spending. This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and puts Illinois school children at risk of receiving a less-than-adequate education. And, by the way, our students deserve far better than an "adequate" education; our school children need a superior education to compete in today's world.

Rather than cutting education spending, it is time the
state adopt a comprehensive reform package that will
increase school funding, quality and fiscal
accountability to ensure that every Illinois child has
access to a superior education.

With the quality of education in other countries fast
eclipsing the education offered our own students, it
is of paramount importance that Illinois legislators
find some way to improve the education system here,
particularly education funding. It is becoming
increasingly important that children throughout the
state, not just those in more affluent areas, receive
nothing short of the best not just in basic education
(reading, writing, arithmetic). Our students also must
be offered the best in physical, vocational, art and
musical education, as well. Studies have shown that
students who have a well-rounded education fare better
after they graduate high school, whether they move on to college or move into the job market. Illinois school children deserve, and state legislators should demand for them, the very best education possible.

Cutting education spending will do nothing but
undermine the future of Illinois' children.
deserve, and state legislators should demand for them,
the very best education possible.

Cutting education spending will do nothing but
undermine the future of Illinois' children.

Where are all the kids?

I don’t have cable. In fact, my husband and I have only one TV. Not one in every room. Not one in the bedroom. Just in the loft, or TV room or living room or whatever you want to call it.

I don’t have an iPod. I bought a little one for my husband a couple of years ago for Christmas. He uses it when he goes running, which is about every two weeks because of his work schedule. Most of the time it sits in a drawer in a table in the foyer of our modest townhouse. Yes, a townhouse. Not a McMansion that takes up the entire professionally landscaped yard. We don’t really have a yard, but if we did, we’d use it all the time. To play baseball or catch or croquet. That’s what we used to do when we were little (little being children, up to age 13 or even 14 or 15. Back then, anyway).

Kids in our neighborhood don’t play outside; in fact, I don’t even know if there are kids in our neighborhood. I thought I saw a few, but that was only once, last year, so I can’t say for sure. We used to play outside all the time, unless it was raining really hard, with lightning, or a blizzard struck, and then we’d just wait it out so we could go back outside and make igloos and have snowball fights and play until our fingers were frozen and we couldn’t feel our toes and our noses were dripping. We’d play until our mothers called us for dinner and we’d go back outside as soon as the dinner table (remember those?) was cleared, the left-overs put away, the dishes washed and dried (by hand) and put away. We’d play until dusk, when our mothers would call for us again because it was time for bed. And we’d plead to say out just a little bit longer, even though we were being attacked by mosquitoes and couldn’t see because it was getting so dark. We’d play tag or kick-the-can or ghost-in-the-graveyard or climb trees or ride bikes until our legs were wiggly with tiredness. And we didn’t ride bikes with so much gear on that we looked like the Staypuff Marshmallow Man. No helmets, no kneepads, no elbow pads.

And if we fell, we fell. We hit our heads and scraped our knees and we bled and we’d keep playing. That’s what we’d do, all day long, all year long if we could. While our parents talked with our neighbor friends’ parents on the back porch or front stoop. Or over the fence. I don’t even know my neighbors. I mean, I know their fist names, but I don’t know them. Not like when I was little and my parents knew my neighbors’ parents and we kids would all play together and we knew that if we locked ourselves ouf of the house we could go next door and get the extra key or stay there until Mom or Dad came home to collect us. Or, we’d just stay there for dinner and walk, alone, in the dark, home after dinner. Then try to go back outside to play some more.

Sometimes at night we would play records on the record player; that’s all, just play records and listen to the music and try to figure out what George, Paul, John and Ringo were trying to say and why Dad only tapped his foot when we were playing those records and not when we were playing “our records.” The Go-Go’s, The Police, Talking Heads, the Eurythmics. Other times, we’d listen to the radio--when we were really little it was a transistor radio, that if you were lucky, had AM, FM and shortwave. Shortwave. I didn’t know what it was when I was little and I never listened to it, but if you had it...cool. Sometimes we would all dance in the living room, practicing; just in case that boy we had a crush on would ask us to the 8th grade dance.

I wish I heard kids playing outside more often. Maybe it’s just my neighborhood, I don’t know. But that sound, the high-pitched laughing and screaming and even the crying was music, is music. Music to my ears.

When we were older, we’d watch some TV (Little House on the Prairie or the Dukes of Hazzard) or we talked on the phone for hours and hours and hours with our best friend even though we had just been at school with them an hour ago. We didn’t text them or instant message them; we called them, but not after 9 p.m., because that was rude. We’d call and ask to talk to Debbie or Kris or Catherine or Julie. And then we’d talk about everything, anything. Boys. The cute English teacher.The mean gym teacher who was always picking on us to make that jump-shot or hit that softball or catch that foul ball. We talked about everything. Isn’t so-and-so cute? He likes me? Do you think so? Really? And when we were older, maybe 14 or 15 or 16, we’d think and dream and talk about when we might have our first kiss. Oh, that first kiss. Magic. It was magic. We didn’t think at that age about...well, you know. Not until we stopped playing with Barbie or until we were too “grown up” to play tag or catch with our dads did we even think about that. I mean, maybe we’d get a kiss on the cheek from a boy on our birthday.

...Oh, our or birthdays. When we were really little, if we were lucky, we’d get to have friends over and we’d play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey or that game where you’d try to get the clothespins into the jar with the too-small mouth or concentration and then we’d open presents and after that...after that, there was cake, and ice cream, too. Whoopee! Then more games! And then Mom would come and pick us up and we’d go home, sleepy because the sugar high had worn off and we were pooped.

We didn’t play video games or watch movies or anything like that. We played, actual physical games that required energy and elicited giggles and laughter and screaming for joy. And as we got older and we looked forward to (or didn’t) our “Sweet 16,” we were honestly surprised to get a surprise party at a relative’s house with music playing from the record player or tape deck. Goofing around and talking and laughing with our friends in the back yard eating barbequed food until we couldn’t eat another bite. Until the cake and the ice cream came out. We didn’t have birthday extraganzas, where we’d dress in hundred- or thousand-dollar dresses and arrive at some sawnk location while our friends gathered around our limos in black-tie attire to lavish us with expensive gifts while we listened to hired boy-bands.

We were just regular. We were everyday people. Common, one might say. We didn’t try to out-do each other, we didn’t try to get into the society pages or make the news for some reason, be it good or bad. We didn’t drink, we didn’t do drugs. We didn’t carry $400 designer bags or drive or ask for BMWs or Jaguars for our birthdays. We were just regular. But we had really great friends, and we knew our neighbors and trusted them with our house keys. And we played. Man, oh, man, did we play.

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