Causing Progress

While commenting on the appointment of a Wall Streeter as Secretary of the Treasury, Robert Reich observed “Bill Gates alone owns more assets than the bottom fifty percent of Americans put together.”

With the abolition of the aristocracy tax (a.k.a. the estate tax, a.k.a. the death tax), generations of the Gates family could live in slendor without demonstrating that they add any value sufficient to deserve their wealth. (Consider Paris Hilton.)

However, I have to give the Gates family credit. My understanding is that Bill Gates plans to structure his estate so that only 10% of his wealth passes on to his heirs. Also, his father opposed the abolition of the aristocracy tax because he feared that it would create an aristocracy in America as risk-averse and valueless as the aristocracy in the EU.

Unlike the Bush family, the Gates family seems to care more about America than their heirs.

From the Austin (TX) Statesman (5/24/06): Texas Supreme Court Justice Admonished

For a glimpse of what we might expect from the political operatives appointed to the US Supreme Court by Bush the First and Bush the Second, consider;

Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht crossed an ethical line last year when he quietly assured conservative leaders about high court nominee Harriet Miers’ views on religion and abortion, a judicial review panel concluded.

Hecht also erred in coordinating his advocacy of Miers, a controversial and ultimately unsuccessful nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, with the White House providing daily reports of his media contacts and allowing administration officials to send reporters his way, according to a public admonition by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

In more than 120 interviews Hecht used his solid credibility as a Christian-Republican politician to drum up support for Miers. The White House even recruited him to lobby James Dobson, of Focus on the Family, who infamously stated “When you know some of the things that I know, that I probably shouldn’t know, you will understand why… I believe Harriet Miers will be a good justice.”

As we work our way through the primary season and approach the general elections in November, be sure to research the candidates for judge in your area. Do we really need another former prosecutor running our criminal courts? If Christian-Republicans control the judiciary from municipal courts to the US Supreme Court, where will America find merciful justice?

When experts talk about the cost of rents or mortgages for low income individuals and families, the phrase “deeper affordability” comes up. The question; How do we make homes available to people with incomes lower and lower on the income scale (below the median income for an area)?

For most of us above the median income, the cost of our homes is relative based on the number of acres, bathrooms, detached buildings, and stainless steel applicances. For those well below the median, the cost of a home involves the more basic issues of safety, access to grocery stores, and the day-to-day security of having a place to call home.

During a recent discussion of financing “deeper affordability,” an expert mentioned Low Income Housing Tax Credits as a Federal housing program unlikely to be slashed by the Bushies. Would Bush cut a tax credit that primarily benefits insurance companies and pension funds? That the credit may help low income people have a stable home probably doesn’t factor into the equation when an insurance company ‘pencils out a deal.’ However, like the Earned Income tax credit, it may be necessary to structure a ‘tax credit’ rather than an ‘income subsidy.’

For information about Low Income Housing Tax Credits, check out Novogradac and Company LLC at http://www.novoco.com/resource.shtml Don’t be put off by the fact that this is a CPA firm. Click the Policy and Legislation tab.

What agencies (public and private) in your area provide local financing of low income homes? How are Community Development Block Grant funds allocated?

An editorial in today’s Cincinnatti Enquirer, Top 10 Reasons to Vote Today, highlights a problem across the country; extremely low voter turnout in non-Presidential primary elections. As the editorial points out, primaries contested within only one party or in jurisdictions where registrations heavily favor one party become de facto general elections. In some places, turnout for primary elections may drop to the teens or single digits.

Here are three simple, cost-effective ways to increase voter turnout:

• Make it possible and preferable for everyone to vote by mail.
• Set the election deadline (or voting day) on Saturday.
• Hold all primaries on the same day across the country.

Of course, the traditionalists of the Christian-Republican Party oppose general efforts to increase voter turnout, so election reform will attract opposition. Notice that the Enquirer only endorsed candidates in the Republican primary and did not propose any reforms intended to increase voter participation. So, was the Enquirer’s intention to increase voter turnout, or GOTV (Get Out The Vote) for their favored Republicans?

…so, why isn’t any Democrat running for Commonwealth Attorney in Kenton County, Kentucky? Too scared to lose?

Read the recent American Prospect special report on election reform; The New Ballot Box.

A few years ago MoveOn.org published 50 Ways to Love Your Country. 50 Ways consisted of brief first-person accounts by progressive activists about how each became an activist. Each ‘way’ also included a few, brief MoveOn Tips of guidance. Recently, the less high-profile Earth*Works Action Network released 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Fight the Right. This is the latest in their 50 Simple Things book series. Between Ways and Things, I recommend 50 Simple Things. What it lacks in inspirational witness, it makes up for with some Background, several Things You Can Do, and lists of Resources for each ‘thing.’

Despite the title, the book does not simply focus on opposition to the rightist movement. It provides ideas about positive activities for progressives and liberals to address political, social and economic issues.

The suggested Things You Can Do are grouped under three headings; Simple Steps, It Takes an Effort, and For the Committed. These headings give the reader some sense of the level of commitment, in time and resources, that may be necessary to successfully complete an activity.

Each of the fifty activities usually begins with a fact or quotation, a Background section, some general information, Simple Things You Can Do, and a Resources section. If your attention wanders at the description of familiar ‘things-to-do,’ the authors provide red-meat quotations from some of the nastiest rightists; James Dobson, Ann Coulter, and Tom DeLay.

Thus instructed and inspired, I got involved in ‘thing-to-do’ #32, Volunteer for a campaign. So, Saturday I spent two hours waving a laser wand across call sheets to digitize the results of campaign phone banking earlier in the week

For ten bucks 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Fight the Right provides motivation and activities worthy of your time and energy. Buy it today…and do something new tomorrow.