The Day After

Wow! What a victory for Obama, and really for the whole world. I am listening to the Thom Hartmann show on Air America, and he is taking calls from all over the globe this morning. Everyone, from every nation, is saying the same thing: we are celebrating here. I know that my friends in Uganda, Kenya, Finland and elsewhere are celebrating also. The world still looks to America as a shining example, and the media worldwide have given unprecedented coverage to this election. In Obama's triumph, the world sees hope and freedom, and the expectation that our tarnished image can be restored to its former distinction. I am hearing African-American pundits say that growing up, their parents told them, "You can be anything you want, except President." That wall has come crashing down. It's wonderful. I am grateful that the Republican campaign was not successful in frightening Americans into voting against their best interests, and the interests of people everywhere.

Yes we did.

Is This Important?

On this, the last day before an historic election, I found this. A misspelled word, in very large type, in a McCain campaign television ad. Do you think this is important? Or just a sad reflection of a campaign in the last throes of defeat, overlooking the details? It's probably the latter, but I think it says something about how the country might be run if McCain were to somehow pull off an upset (perish the thought!). When you are governing the most powerful nation on the planet, all of the details are important. How many people looked at this ad before it went out? Does this say something about the dumbing-down of the electorate, now that an intellectually challenged hockey mom can garner popular support as a VP candidate because voters like the fact that she is just like them? I don't know about you, but I don't want to elect someone like me. I want leaders that are much smarter than I am for this very complex and challenging job.

It's important!

Please get out there and VOTE!

Financial Times endorses Obama

This just in: to follow up my post about taxes, the Financial Times, the British equivalent to the Wall Street Journal, has endorsed Barack Obama for president. The piece makes for a very balanced view, useful to hear from an outsider's perspective. It is well worth a couple of minutes of your time.

UDATE: Today (October 31) The Economist, the weekly news and international affairs paper, has also endorsed Obama. Read it here. (Full disclosure: The publication belongs to The Economist Group, half of which is owned by the Financial Times.)

Neither a conservative nor liberal publication, The Economist has in the past endorsed Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Bill Clinton.

"The Economist does not have a vote, but if it did, it would cast it for Mr Obama. We do so wholeheartedly: the Democratic candidate has clearly shown that he offers the better chance of restoring America’s self-confidence."

Tax Confusion

I watch all the news channels--all of them, including Fox, which I endure just to see what the other side is saying. At the moment, McCain and his surrogates are dragging out that tired old GOP talking point: those liberals will raise your taxes! They say Obama is a socialist, Obama will take away your freedom, Obama wants to share the wealth. Well I happen to think that sharing the wealth is a great idea. The United States has grown into the greatest nation on earth through its progressive tax system. Taxation by its very nature is a redistribution of wealth. The wealthier you are, the more you pay, to finance the critical government functions that each and every citizen depends on, those things that individuals can't do for themselves. Firefighters, roads, education, security, clean drinking water, safe working conditions, military defense, and caring for those who cannot take care of themselves, to name just a handful. These are foundational American values. This is "sharing the wealth". It's a good thing.

For the past eight years, Bush has been giving tax breaks to the very wealthiest Americans, even giving breaks to corporations to reward them for shipping jobs overseas. He has abandoned completely the conservative pay-as-you-go philosophy. In the meantime, he has engaged in a very expensive war that has bankrupted this country and severely weakened our military. All the while, real wages have gone down, unemployment has gone up, and millionaires have become billionaires in record numbers.

Bush has irresponsibly traded away our children's futures in exchange for his adventure in Iraq. A responsible leader, before starting a war, should be willing to ask the American people to sacrifice for the effort. This means raising taxes. Bush didn't have the guts to go to the citizens because he knew that we would not be willing to pay for it. But we will be paying for it, for decades to come. And now that the entire financial system is on the verge of collapse, and trillions of dollars in wealth has evaporated overnight, how will we pay the bill?

And now McCain is doubling down on the Bush tax cuts, calling to make them even bigger. The "Joe the plumbers" that McCain claims to be fighting for would actually get a larger tax cut under Obama's tax plan than under McCain's. Don't take my word for it, look at this chart from the Tax Policy Institute as published on the Washington Post website. See for yourself which plan works better for your family. Or go here, for a nifty tax calculator. Don't fall for the spin.

Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty

I have a somewhat different view of poverty today than I did four years ago. Or, more accurately, I see it from a different viewpoint.

In the summer of 2005, my cousin Christina Jordan and I traveled to Idaho for my sister Jill's wedding. I made the trip from California, she journeyed all the way from Uganda. I knew she was doing some kind of charitable work there, but had not gotten involved nor bothered to really find out what she was up to. She showed us some "peace tiles": amazing artworks created by some of the kids she was working with in Uganda, painted on 8" x 8" pieces of plywood, some of them by kids who had never before held a paintbrush. And she told us of her plans and dreams....

The following summer, she and her three adorable boys spent a few weeks (on and off, traveling around a bit) at our house, and we had long discussions about Uganda and her foundation there, Life in Africa. The day after she arrived, I found out that my daughter Megan, then 17, was going to Uganda! Surprise! Her trip was life-changing, both for her and me.

Today I find myself the president of Life in Africa USA, the stateside fundraising arm of LIA, selling handmade jewelry, raising awareness and much-needed funds to provide education and creative activities to Ugandan children, many of them orphaned or otherwise devastated by fallout from the civil war that raged in northern Uganda for most of the past 22 years.

While I never believed that poverty could be solved by throwing money at it, I really wasn't sure what strategy might work. Now I understand that money can help, by financing small businesses through initiatives such as microfinance, and by ensuring that education is available to all. These types of bottom-up strategies seem to me the only way to create real change, as it has now been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that top-down economics leads only to disaster. The battle is exponentially more difficult in Africa, where government corruption is the norm and enriching oneself at the expense of the citizens has been the prevailing leadership strategy for decades.

More to come.....