Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal Caps Memorable "Lame Duck" Session

Today marked a historic day in American history, as another redoubt of prejudice and discrimination was breached. President Obama's signing of the repeal of the 17-year-old "Don't Ask Don't Tell" military policy on gay service members, wherein some 13,000 serving personnel have been expelled after their gay or lesbian sexual orientation was found out, is a further step along the path that has led the nation through the abolition of slavery, the extension of voting rights to women and blacks and the outlawing of racial segregation. As the President said at the signing ceremony, "We are not a nation of don't ask don't tell. We are a nation of e pluribus unum; out of many we are one."

Once the new policy is phased in over the next year America's forces will see the same changes that have happened with the British, Canadian and Australian forces. That is, essentially nothing of any note will happen at all. Years from now people will wonder what all the commotion was about. Either that or they will look at it in the same way they do now when they think of such controversies as thirty years ago over whether women could serve as police officers or sixty years ago about whether blacks could play major league baseball.

In an interesting side note, there was a pronounced regional cast to the 65-31 Senate vote. In the former slave states the vote in favor was 12 out of 30, forty percent. Senators representing the rest of the country voted in favor 53 to 13, eighty-one percent. Those areas that historically denied people their rights continue to have a residual predilection for doing so. In terms of party, all 55 Democrats and the 2 Independents who caucus with them voted yes. 8 Republicans voted yes and 31 voted no, or twenty-one percent. Republicans as a group were thus twice as opposed to gay rights as Southerners as a whole. That is remarkable.


The rest of the "lame duck" congressional session saw stunning action on a number of Obama initiatives that had been given up for dead after the "shellacking" Democrats took in the November election. They passed by such wide margins it is apparent Republican delays were primarily political rather than over any real substantive issue. Once they had the tax bill compromise they wanted in hand they went ahead and let their members vote as they wished. These included approval of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia. It had been held up 13 times and then passed 71-26.

Another was the First Responders Health Bill that provides $4.2 billion for the police, firefighters, and others who worked ground zero after 9/11 and have developed all manner of cancers and lung diseases. That passed unanimously in the Senate and better than three to one in the House.


A much tougher regimen of inspection, essentially tripling the frequency and giving the FDA authority to order rather than request recalls, was approved in the Food Safety Act. It passed the Senate 73-25.


The lone defeat was over the DREAM Act. It would have provided a path to citizenship for an estimated 1.2 million children whose parents brought them to America illegally if they maintained a clean record and spent two years in college or the armed forces. It narrowly passed the House 216-198 but did better in the Senate, garnering a 55-41 yes vote. Unfortunately, since the GOP filibusters everything in the Senate, it did not get the 60% vote it needed for passage.

Politically, the break in the logjam shows the Republican strategy of obstinately opposing everything Obama and the Democrats have proposed for two years was a smart strategy for them. After yesterday's DADT signing and passage of the other measures, the President's approval rating improved from 41% to 56% in the overnight Opinion Research/CNN poll. Congressional Democrats got 44% approval; congressional Republicans 42%.

Five Years Cancer Free

On December 16, 2005 I went to Fresno Community Hospital to have my cancerous prostate removed. This week, five years later, my PSA test came back with a score of .000001, indicating no recurrence of the malignancy. As my surgeon Dr. Marty Prah said, "We can now consider you cured."

By the end of this year it is estimated that 217,730 American men will have been diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010 and that 32,050 will have died from it. You can find these statistics and a wealth of information on the subject at the Prostate Cancer Site of the National Cancer Institute, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The key to survival is early detection. I owe mine to my primary care physician, Dr. John Coffey here in Visalia. It's really important for men of 50 and over to get annual physicals. This is for a number of reasons, including cholesterol, blood pressure and heart function in addition to prostate health. He felt a bump on my prostate, which a biopsy determined to be prostate cancer. I had not been experiencing any of the usual symptoms such as difficulty urinating or having to urinate frequently or several times a night. My PSA blood test was not yet elevated.

Dr. Prah is one of the local pioneers of laproscopic prostate surgery. Fresno Community was the first hospital in the area to have a "Da Vinci Machine" that allows the surgeon to make the necessary incisions precisely by remote control. Instead of a long vertical scar down my abdomen as is customary in traditional surgery, I have five tiny marks a couple of inches below the belly button. I stayed overnight one night in the hospital afterward and was able to walk around a bit in a week. In two weeks I was out walking the neighborhood for exercise. The recovery time is about half that of traditional surgery.

At first the follow up appointments were quarterly but now they are down to yearly. The process helped make me more health conscious in general. I have improved my diet, lost some weight and am on a regular program of running, walking, weights and calisthenics. I feel better than I have in years.

So for all the men approaching 50, play it smart and start getting those checkups. Don't let fear or indifference put you in jeopardy, especially if you have people depending on you. You'll be glad you did.

American Public Gets it Right on Education

A new Associated Press poll released December 11 shows American adults have the right idea when it comes to assessing the blame for shortcomings in U.S. education. According to the survey, which got a lot of play in the press today, American adults direct their strongest criticism at parents. 68% assigned "a great deal" or "a lot" of blame to parents when it comes to "problems that affect this country's public schools."

There is no question that society, relatives, neighborhood, socioeconomic status, peers and teachers all have an influence on children, but none matches that exercised by the parent. Encouragement, mentoring and monitoring make a difference. So do time, love, and perhaps more than anything else, example.

As someone who taught at the middle school level for 17 years, I am encouraged by the result of this survey. The first step in addressing a problem is facing the truth. No doubt many of the respondents of the poll were parents themselves. So many of the problems of society at large are, my experience has led me to believe, the result of indifferent, irresponsible or just plain bad parenting.

The popularity of shows such as ABC's "Supernanny" may reflect a dawning realization that many have received virtually no parenting training, don't know what to do in many situations, and are looking for examples. A harmonious and productive society has to begin with a good upbringing of its children. A national conversation on the topic is long overdue.

Dems Should Bite the Bullet

It is clear that the economy needs additional stimulus. Demand remains too low. The national mood and political wind, however, is to rein in spending and work on the deficit. But following that prescription will only prolong the recession by further reducing demand.

That, I believe, is central to President Obama's agreement to compromise with the Republicans on the tax issue. Yes, the GOP get two more years of economically useless and fiscally irresponsible tax breaks for the wealthy who don't need them and one year of estate tax breaks for the wealthy who really don't need them. But Obama and the Democrats get an additional 13 months of unemployment checks for the out-of-work, two additional years of the lower-middle and middle class tax cuts passed in early 2009, and some breaks for actual small business rather than big business. On top of that, a two-year reduction in Social Security withholding by 2% will put an additional $800 to $1000 a year into the pockets of average workers.

The upshot of all this is more money for average folks that will be spent and result in better growth and employment. It's a $900 billion stimulus. This is not the way Dems prefer to do it, that is, with targeted programs and infrastructure spending, but none of that was going to happen with Senate Republicans unbudging. Yes, this will all add to the deficit, but it is projected to increase growth by .7%, 30% higher than the 2.5% annual rate we've been averaging, and reduce unemployment by an additional .5% to 1% over where it would be without this help.

Given that the Democrats could not agree on a larger or second stimulus before they lost their 60-seat filibuster-proof advantage in the Senate, what more could really have been done? And certainly nothing to their liking will get done after the New Year when Republicans take over the House.

There are some things seriously not to like in the compromise. But it will improve the economy and provide real assistance to regular working folks. Democrats in congress had a chance earlier to enact a more liberal set of tax policies but didn't get it done. There's really no one else to blame for that but themselves. They ought to stop crying and pass the compromise. Nothing better is going to come down the pike for a good long while.