2012 State of the Union

President Barack Obama delivered a forward-looking and effective State of the Union Address last night.  His mix of principles and policies were clearly and evocatively expressed.  The president's prescriptions for the country are clear and necessary, his proposals reasonable and his principles practically unassailable.  By planting his flag in this firm ground, Obama has served notice that he will present a most formidable challenge to whichever Republican eventually secures the GOP presidential nomination.

Obama clearly staked out a position in favor of wider prosperity, identifying his concern with the 99% instead of the 1%.  Bringing up the example of the great middle class expansion after the Depression and World War II with the promise of a decent living and retirement for those willing to work, the president made clear that the middle class has been stagnating since long before the current downturn.  The "defining issue" of our time, he stated, is to "keep that promise alive."  He asked whether the United States will we be a country where a few do really well while everyone else barely gets by, or rather where "everyone gets a fair shot, gets a fair share and plays by the same rules?"  It's hard to see how his political foes could win an argument with the president on this. 

To support this, he pointed to his rescue of the auto industry and a million jobs when the critics said to let it die.  He proposed ending tax breaks for companies to outsource jobs and grant them for those who create jobs in America.  He called for "no bailouts, no handouts and no copouts."  He sketched out a plan to fund community colleges to train workers for two million jobs that are vacant now, and to help pressed homeowners who are barely making their payments to help qualify for refinanced loans at today's lower interest rates.  He promised aid to students to afford education and incentives to universities to contain costs so people can afford to attend.  He pointed out how, under his watch the U.S. has become the world's biggest natural gas producer and is pumping more oil than under his predecessor.  And he called again for investments in the energies of the future rather than ceding their lead to others.  He pointed out that 8 million jobs disappeared before he took office and in his first few months, and how 3 million have been created since.  Again, it is difficult to see how exactly can Obama lose these arguments. 

He proposed spending half the money saved in ending the Iraq War and in winding down the Afghan War to service the deficit and half to fund a major infrastructure program to provide jobs and enhance American competitiveness.  Explaining things clearly and simply, Obama said, "We need to change our tax code.  We can either continue to extend temporary tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires or pay for everything else.  We cannot do both.  The American people realize that and support what needs to be done."  He called for enacting the "Buffet rule," that no one with an income of a million or more should pay less than 30% tax.  At a time when average working people pay 25% to 35% while multimillionaires like Mitt Romney pay 13% to 15%, it's hard to see how an opponent beats the president by coming out against this perspective.

Infectious optimism infused the speech, along with both frequent pleas to work together and promises to fight back against senseless obstruction.  "I will oppose obstruction with action and I will oppose any return to the policies that caused the problems in the first place," Obama declared.  He placed himself firmly on the right side of the immigration issue, reminding congress what even George W. Bush stood for, and called for for "comprehensive immigration reform now.  You are out of excuses." 

The president closed with a survey of world events, pointing out his many successes in Iraq, the Middle East, in negotiating trade deals that have America on track to meet his goal of doubling exports, and in the effective diplomacy that has now isolated Iran in the world economy and will "take no option off the table" to prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons.  "For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country," and his organization has been seriously degraded.  He also pledged strong support for Israel. 

President Obama has been an effective leader despite Republican opposition and obstruction, as the State of the Union Address underscores.  His ideas make sense to the majority of the American people, and will present a difficult challenge for whomever his chief opponent turns out to be.  There is much more in the speech I could not address in this short synopsis.  To see the entire address, click here.

A Tragic Suicide

On Wednesday January 11 one of our College of the Sequoias students, Eric James Borges, killed himself.  Yesterday a memorial in our theater drew about 250 people to celebrate Eric James's life.  Though he was only 19 years old Eric James had an impact beyond his years.  His death was reported by all the major U.S. networks and newspapers, and even around the world.  You can see a sampling of them here.   

You see, Eric was a budding film maker.  He had a lot to deal with in his short life, and he tried to express it in a few short films.  It is reported his films on You Tube have recorded 250,000 hits.  From the time he was in kindergarten, Eric was recognized as different and persecuted for it.  As he said in It Gets Better, "I was physically, mentally, emotionally and verbally assaulted on a day-to-day basis for my perceived sexual orientation," Borges said. "I was stalked, spit on, ostracized and physically assaulted."  After he came out, he decided to try to help others in the same predicament by joining the Trevor Project, the largest organization dedicated to preventing gay youth suicide.  You can watch his heartfelt appeal to other LBGTQ youth in It Gets Better here.  In it, he counsels other gay youth to weather the storms of abuse they may face, because "it does get better."  How ironic and telling that he succumbed himself to the very despondency he warned against.

Eric James did not have a good coming out experience.  He reported that his family referred to him as "disgusting" and "perverted," and that his mother subjected him to an exorcism in an attempt to "cure" him.  Two months ago he was finally kicked out of the house.  The Washington Post reports that youth who come out and are rejected by their families are eight times more likely to commit suicide than those who are accepted.  You can see another of his offerings, Invisible Creatures by clicking here.  It underscores the theme of the universality of love and affection. 

In Eric James Borges we have lost a good and gentle soul.  Our society loses far too many by crippling people's spirits with hatred and rejection, simply for being who they are.  This is surely one of the great civil and human rights issues of our time.  While legal and societal progress has certainly been made, Eric James's story reminds us there is still much to do.  Let us each resolve to do our part.     

Attack Methane and Soot to Restrain Global Warming Fastest, Scientists Say

An interesting study on a way to reduce air pollution and restrain global warming made the news today.  An international team led by Drew Shindell of NASA says that adopting existing technology in controlling methane and soot could hold back the projected temperature increase by 40% over the next 40 years while saving a likely million lives a year from lung disease. 

Though there is 200 times more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, methane is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas.  Their calculations show it accounts for 28% of the warming effect.  The focus would provide a quicker impact than carbon dioxide in the short term, because the fixes are relatively easy to do.  They entail 14 techniques such as "capturing methane from landfills and coal mines, cleaning up cook stoves and diesel engines, and changing agriculture techniques for rice paddies and manure collection."  These practices "are being used efficiently in many places, but aren't universally adopted," said the study's lead author, Drew Shindell of NASA.

The combined effects would, according to their computer modeling, reign in the projected warming to 1.3 degrees Celsius instead of 2.2 degrees, and increase crop yields by 150 million metric tons a year.  CO2 accounts for 48% of man-made global warming, soot 16% and methane 14%.  CO2 is definitely the main long-term culprit and must be reduced as part of any effective solution, but it stays in the air a long time, while methane and soot disperse more rapidly.  Choking off their infusion into the air would mitigate their contributions to the greenhouse effect quickly.  No matter what is done on CO2, which is produced primarily by burning oil and coal and by deforestation, what is already in the atmosphere will take many decades to be absorbed by natural processes.

Republican Candidates Hit Romney

Things have gotten lively in New Hampshire the last couple of days.  In the Republican primary there tomorrow Mitt Romney is widely expected to win (see New Hampshire polling info) in a state that borders Massachusetts, where he once was governor.  The rest of the field is angling for second place.  Still, the unRomneys have taken a break from savaging each other and are now turning their fire on the frontrunner.

Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry have all lashed out at Romney.  Word is out that Gingrich's "unaffiliated" Super PAC has received a $5 million gift from Las Vegas tycoon Sheldon Adelson to hit Romney for destroying jobs during his days as CEO of Bain Capital.  Romney didn't help himself any on this score by today declaring, "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me."   

The real dynamics of this may play out in South Carolina, where Romney currently polls about 10 points ahead of Santorum and Gingrich.  For the conservatives to have a chance, they really need to narrow the field.  Huntsman doesn't figure to be much of a factor in South Carolina and it will likely be Perry's last stand.  If Romney can hang on there, winning against a crowded field with 30% of the vote, his inevitability campaign may well start to run the table and effectively lock things up in February.  On the other hand, if Perry, Huntsman and one of the others drops out after that, the survivor might have a chance to get Romney in a one on one and start to come up with a win here and there.

Either way, it certainly is interesting to see conservative Republican pols smacking a fellow GOPer for being a heartless businessman willing to sacrifice the livelihoods of regular workers to pad his own profits.  If this seems a productive line of attack for them to take in a Republican primary campaign, just imagine what nominee Romney would likely face from the Democrats in a national campaign.