Viewsday

Fields and borders

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:27:05 -0500

American farms have long been tended by foreign hands. The H-2A farm worker program is the vehicle that shuttles thousands of temporary workers to U.S. fields, and as we noted on our editorial page, it is failing both workers and employers. Earlier this year, the Bush administration pushed to loosen the program’s regulations, easing requirements that the employer make an effort to fill job openings with nonimmigrant workers first before trying to hire through H-2A. But United Farm Workers, a pro-immigrant labor group, argued new rules would hurt workers on both sides of the border by driving down labor standards. Meanwhile, employers seem to be finding ways to exploit cheap labor outside the law: The estimated number of undocumented farm workers far exceeds the number of workers authorized under the federal government's program (78,000 last fiscal year).

Anger management

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:34:18 -0500

People looking for something to be angry about these days needn't look hard: The economy is tanking, housing and health care costs are crippling, and jobs are vanishing. Yet the McCain campaign has in recent days, deliberately or not, begun distilling that frustration into something more vague and volatile: sheer projectile rage hurled at Obama, Democrats, the Weathermen, socialists, terrorists and other assorted enemies. “Get them” seems to be a recurring theme. As in, “He's a damn liar… Get him. He's bad for our country,” as one woman cried at a Pennsylvania rally. Or: “It's time that you two represent the rest of us. So go get 'em,”—the task one man laid out for the McCain ticket at a feverish Wisconsin gathering. The McCain camp has generally stood by as the angry atmosphere has intensified on the campaign trail. Meanwhile, various liberal outlets accuse the McCain team of provoking bigoted fear and hatred out of desperation, and even mainstream voices like CNN have have warned of race-baiting.

Bloomberg forever

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:38:27 -0500

It's not surprising that hard times can strengthen the gravitational pull toward an incumbent politician. But to stay in office, Mayor Michael Bloomberg must walk a delicate line as he tries to dismantle New York City’s voter-backed term limit system. Despite the Mayor's popularity and the economic uncertainty besieging the city, his plan to extend his regime has already ignited intense controversy. Chafing at his backdoor power brokering and the disruption of city government dynamics, critics—from the grassroots and the political inner sanctum—fear an end-run around the democratic process, (“an attempt to suspend democracy,” as one opponent put it.) The New York Times editorial page, on the other hand, calls term limits "profoundly undemocratic, arbitrarily denying voters the ability to choose between good politicians and bad." And certainly, even people opposed to the Mayor's political maneuvering on the issue want to get rid of term limits, too. But does Bloomberg really deserve a shot at another four years in Gracie Mansion?

The registration clock is ticking

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:23:19 -0500

In an editorial earlier this week, we mentioned that Friday is the deadline to register to vote. So why are we saying it again? Two reasons: 1) In this pivotal election, it's well worth repeating. 2) Online, we have more room to explain your options and to give you some useful links. Let's start with folks who have not yet registered. You can go to the Nassau County Board of Elections in Mineola or the Suffolk County Board of Elections in Yaphank. But the easiest solution is to mail in a registration form. It must be postmarked no later than Friday. You can get the form at post offices and libraries, but you're already online. So there's no need to burn gas. Just download this form, fill it out and mail it. If you somehow miss this deadline, both boards are holding local registration sessions at various locations around the Island on Saturday. Call your local board to find out where. But, really, there's no reason to miss the deadline.

Ask not…

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:19:26 -0500

Tuesday night’s debate tested a key presidential skill—the art of avoiding saying what people don’t want to hear. Both Barack Obama and John McCain deftly deflected one of the evening’s trickier questions: “[what] sacrifices will you ask every American to make to help restore the American dream and to get out of the economic morass that we're now in?” Addressing sacrifice in in mathematical terms, McCain referred non-specifically to "some programs that we may have to eliminate," the predictable demons of waste and earmarks proverbial GOP boogeyman, to liberal critics) and a broad spending freeze for everything except "vital programs" (seemingly at odds with his spontaneous mortgage rescue plan). Obama rolled out generic tips that seemed more suited for a public service announcement than the Oval Office: weatherizing your house, getting involved in community service. Doesn't sound so bad, does it? That's the problem, according to Eric Black at MinnPost:

“Tell me who, other than the defense contractors who might want to defraud the Air Force on a tanker deal, will have to sacrifice under either President Obama or McCain, according to this answer.”

Putting off the ritz

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:48:31 -0500

Our legislators in Albany are always fighting against the misperception that Long Island is a wealthy suburb that gets more than its share of state aid. So Forbes’ list of the country's 100 most expensive ZIP codes, which includes 10 from Nassau and Suffolk, isn’t exactly welcome -- particularly given the state's and region's current fiscal crisis. Yes, Long Island has its Gold Coast enclaves. And the Hamptons, which are funded primarily by New York City dollars. But the glare coming off these glitzy districts shouldn't blind anyone to our struggling communities. Don't expect Forbes to come out with a list of those, though.

American sunset

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:33:04 -0500

With financial markets in turmoil, the country's once-solid economic footing is slipping fast and possibly bringing the rest of the world down with it. Critics have long anticipated the end of the American empire, but could the current crisis finally mark the end of U.S. global dominance? The German magazine Der Spiegel recently declared that the financial meltdown has brought our proverbial chickens home to roost:

"This is no longer the muscular and arrogant United States the world knows, the superpower that sets the rules for everyone else and that considers its way of thinking and doing business to be the only road to success. "A new America is on display, a country that no longer trusts its old values and its elites even less: the politicians, who failed to see the problems on the horizon, and the economic leaders, who tried to sell a fictitious world of prosperity to Americans. "Also on display is the end of arrogance. The Americans are now paying the price for their pride."

But are others paying for our pride as well? According to new international polling data from the Pew Research Center, the vast majority of 23 nations surveyed perceive the U.S. economy as greatly impacting their own, and a large portion see this influence as negative.

The second-to-last word

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:28:15 -0500

The verdict on Tuesday's debate is subdued: another competent but status-quo performance from both canddiates, little that was particularly brilliant or unexpected, and no game-changers. The economy was front and center, but the candidates primarily repeated familiar talking points. McCain aired a seemingly new proposal to ease the burden of strapped homeowners (which some say is more or less a rehashing of the congressional bailout plan). Obama showed some rhetorical flourish when describing health care as a fundamental right and sparring with McCain on Pakistan. Mostly, though, it boiled down to physical and emotional factors. Noam Scheiber at the New Republic saw McCain as "old, cranky, and downright tired as he trooped around the stage” in contrast to Obama's relatively youthful bounciness and "professorial" air. C.R. Hardy, blogging at National Review, dismissed Obama as insufficiently avuncular, and not "familiar" enough, compared to McCain:

"I remember Obama saying (many times) 'here’s what I would do.' McCain, without saying it, told us who he will be. He will be kind, he will smile, he will remember your name. He will follow rules. He will not insist on the last word. And he will be familiar."

But for political junkies who have been obsessing over the campaign for two years, there were no big moments. (Except maybe "that one.") Andrew Romano at Newsweek called the debate “a remarkably flat (even boring) event.”

From prison to refuge

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:24:20 -0500

Over the past several years, hundreds have been imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay military base, and many have been released after the government decided they were not a threat after all. Yet detainees have continually faced a tortuous, opaque legal process in seeking to exercise the most basic constitutional rights. A turning point came Tuesday, when U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina issued a landmark ruling demanding that the Bush administration release 17 prisoners. The men, members of the Chinese ethnic Muslim Uighur minority, have languished at Guantanamo since 2002, even though the government declared in 2004 that they are not so-called “enemy combatants.” The problem is not that the Uighurs pose a national security danger. Rather, the government simply can’t find a place to send them. China, where they are considered separatists and threats to the state, is off limits, because they would likely be tortured if repatriated. The government has failed to convince other countries to take them in, though it did manage in 2006 to send five other Uighur detainees to Albania, where they have continued a rootless existence cut off from their communities. Despite the new ruling, the U.S. government wants to keep the 17 men off American soil, and has labeled a separatist group they were allegedly associated with, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, as a terrorist organization. Human rights advocates say the United States has a responsibility to release the Uighurs promptly and allow them to live in America under a parole arrangement.

Character points

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:18:27 -0500

As the presidential campaigns count down to the election, the negativity keeps dialing up. Not surprisingly, the McCain team, facing an increasingly bleak outlook for November 4, is working especially hard to turn character attacks into political gain. Much of the hostility has been stoked by Sarah Palin's vitriolic words on Obama's ties to William Ayers, a former Weather Underground radical who decades later networked with Obama in Chicago's liberal circles. Palin conveniently shortened that description to "terrorist." Salon's Walter Shapiro dismisses the new tack as a predictably desperate ploy, though he notes that with the Obama camp pushing McCain's Keating Five scandal, neither candidate is immune from the absurdity.

"Confronted with America's incredible shrinking stock portfolio, both the McCain and Obama campaigns reacted with the maturity that the financial crisis deserves. McCain and Sarah Palin tried to foster the impression that, if elected, Obama would name 1960s radical Bill Ayers to head the newly created Department of Molotov Cocktails. And the Obama campaign countered by releasing a searing video titled 'Keating Economics.' "

But will the Ayers card play well with the Joe Six Pack contingent? Even the conservative National Review's David Frum doubts McCain will win any new converts with the months-old Ayers narrative: "Negative campaigning only works when it offers a new data point to support a convincingly drawn hostile image." But there's also that slice of the GOP base that wants McCain to dig deeper--and invoke underlying biases even more explicitly--by resurrecting Obama's controversial former pastor Jeremiah Wright (a move that Palin herself elliptically suggested via the New York Times' Bill Kristol).

Flanagan votes no confidence in MTA chief Sander

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:09:46 -0500

In a recent meeting with Newsday's editorial board, state Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport), said that Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief executive Elliot Sander should not keep his job. The senator was responding to a question about whether Sander is working out, after nearly two years at the helm. Flanagan said, "No. [But] that's a management decision for the MTA board." Flanagan is the new (since July) representative from the Senate on the MTA's capital program review board. As such, he will be voting on a five-year plan for maintenance and expansion that the agency plans to submit to the governor on Dec. 5.

Still waters

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:40:10 -0500

The State of New York is challenging the Environmental Protection Agency over its move to loosen rules for handling polluted water. The “water transfer” rule, issued by the EPA in June, would allow polluted water to be moved more freely through an exemption from permitting regulations under the Clean Water Act, the main law that protects the country’s waterways. Environmentalists are outraged, fearing that industry will be given more leeway to mix water contaminated by farm wastes or chemicals with pristine sources, including water that we drink and fish from. So why would federal environmental regulators think this is a good idea? According to the EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin H. Grumbles, the exemption “gives communities greater certainty and makes clear they have the flexibility to protect water quality and promote the public good without going through a new federal permitting process.” Environmentalists harbor little hope that polluters would use their new “flexibility” to improve local water quality. Instead, they say, the new rule would allow water transfers that could introduce toxic pollutants and invasive species into untainted water bodies and sensitive habitats. New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced last week that he is filing a lawsuit to fight the rule change, joined by environmental groups and several other states. “Some of New York’s most prized water bodies – including the Long Island Sound, Lake Champlain, and the Hudson River – could be harmed by the EPA’s illegal rule,” he said in a statement. The Long Island Sound recently got lackluster marks from the EPA itself for water quality and chemical contamination. Grumbles defended the rule by arguing that "Clean Water Act permits should focus on water pollution, not water movement.” Opponents are hoping that after eight years of the Bush EPA's regulatory logic, the courts will decide that it's best for polluted waters to simply stay put.

Rescuing homeowners

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:31:37 -0500

The common complaint about the newly minted federal bailout plan is that it rescues Wall Street but ignores Main Street. There are signs, however, that Main Street is due for a little relief -- though not necessarily from Congress. A massive settlement in a lawsuit against the mortgage giant Countrywide promises a lifeline of more than $8.5 billion to borrowers drowning in the mortgage meltdown. The lawsuit, brought by several states including California and Illinois, charged Countrywide with duping people into bad subprime and adjustable-rate loans. The agreement basically compels Bank of America (which has absorbed Countrywide) to help potentially as many as 400,000 borrowers avoid foreclosure. The measures center on renegotiating loan terms and adjusting rates to help homeowners manage payments. The company will also rein in the risky lending practices that helped stoke the crisis, like doling out minimally vetted "no doc" loans. The program, set to begin in December, offers a model for dealing structurally with the crisis, which some say is frightfully absent from the new bailout legislation. Though the act does require the Treasury to act to mitigate foreclosures, some say the bill's language is toothless.

The war economy

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:03:51 -0500

The latest labor data report suggests that the only thing steady about this economy might be the disappearance of jobs. And there are signs that economic opportunities for youth and marginalized groups are evaporating: Unemployment has ticked up for 16 to 19 year olds. Meanwhile, more adults without a college education are finding themselves shut out of the workforce. In the midst of all this, one sector has managed to prosper: the armed forces. Over the past fiscal year, military recruiters have seen significant success in getting people to enlist, despite a backdrop of a deeply unpopular war in Iraq and intensifying violence in Afghanistan. Could lean times be increasing the military's appeal? The Associated Press reports that the Army and Marine financial incentives for signing up have grown by 25 percent, providing recruits with as much as $40,000, along with educational and housing benefits. While the monetary benefits are certainly tempting, it's hard to know to what extent economic hardship drives people toward the military (there's an ongoing debate about how class background intersects with military enlistment).

Money consciousness

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:46:17 -0500

Last night's debate gave Sarah Palin a chance to appear competent on foreign policy, which has been shaky ground for her on the campaign trail. One issue she touted as part of her short track record on global affairs as Alaska governor was legislation to pull Alaska's investments from companies tied to the conflict in Sudan. Sudan is much farther from Alaska than Russia, but if the legislation is enacted, Alaska would join many other states that have launched divestment initiatives aimed at companies with business ties to Sudan. The divestment movement's popular momentum builds on broader economic sanctions imposed on Sudan by the Bush administration as violence and human rights violations have escalated. After the debate, New York Times columnist and Darfur activist Nicholas Kristof gave kudos to both Palin and Biden for advocating international intervention to stop genocide. The Sudan divestment bill that Palin mentioned, however, is in fact moribund for now. After Palin's administration initially wavered on the legislation, it died in the House, according to a Democratic lawmaker who sponsored the bill, Les Gara.