Whether In Israel or America, The Right Wing Messes Things Up

Before I begin, let me just make one thing clear: this article is not - repeat, NOT - about Israel, at least not specifically or uniquely. In fact, it's not about any particular country at all. Instead, what this article IS about is the universal truth that, wherever the right wing gains power or exercises significant sway (including the de facto veto power it wields in the U.S. Congress and Supreme Court), it f***s messes things up. Big time.Case in point: Israel, right now, where hundreds of thousands of people, to a large degree young Israelis, are protesting against right-wing policies, economic and otherwise, and demanding social justice. To understand what's happening in Israel - and, more broadly, in any country where the right wingnuts hold significant power (like our own) - I strongly recommend this article, by writer and business professor Bernard Avishai. Here are highlights of Avishai's main conclusions, all of which are integral features of the U.S. Teapublican Party, and also descriptive of what's been happening here economically and politically under Reagan, Bush, Bush, DeLay, Boehner, Can'tor, etc. 1. CRONY CAPITALISM/THE RICH GET RICHER: Israel has a high degree of income inequality, in which, due largely to the Israeli right wing's "freewheeling approach to market regulation − so much like that of American Republicans...The wealthiest 16 families own 20 percent of the top 500 companies." Sound familiar? Well it should: here in the United States, "the top 1 percent control 40 percent [of the wealth]," and rakes in "nearly a quarter of the nation's income every year." That income inequality is growing, year by year, as (to paraphrase Jim Webb) the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class gets squeezed. In both America and Israel, guess who fosters the policies that lead to rapidly growing income inequality? You guessed it: conservatives, the right wing, whatever you want to call them. It's always the same people, engaging in what they perversely call "class warfare" (accusing Democrats of the very thing THEY do, on an enormous scale), but in a Reverse Robin Hood manner, robbing from the poor to give to the rich (who don't need it), using the power of government to reward favored industries - oil, coal, big ag, big pharma, etc. - in exchange for campaign contributions. It's called "crony capitalism," and it appears to be alive and well wherever the right wing wields significant power.

lowkell :: Whether In Israel or America, The Right Wing Messes Things Up

2. LACK OF DOMESTIC INVESTMENT: "Social services are inevitably trimmed...Educational infrastructure is in serious decline...The health-care system is in crisis..." Again, sound familiar? Here, we've got chronic underinvestment in our people and in our physical capital. We've got a health care system that's truly "the best of times" (for very few) and "the worst of times" (for many if not most). Here in the United States, we've also got an "educational infrastructure...in serious decline," due to chronic underinvestment in our "human capital," exacerbated by the misplaced priorities of the right wingnuts. Priorities such as the following item.3. MILITARISM AND ULTRA-NATIONALISM: "The settlement project was, and is, insufferably expensive...One-sixth of the government budget goes to defense, and that fraction is creeping up to incorporate new weapons systems...Incessant war tension, among other things, has degraded the quality of life..." Not an exact parallel to the United States, yet close enough: over the past decade, military spending in this country, including the two unpaid-for wars (and let's just be clear, whether you think they were justified or not, the wars were NOT paid for), has skyrocketed. In 2011, for instance, the U.S. defense budgetwas $693 billion, nearly 9 times higher than our nearest competitor (China), and second to China (among the top 10) as a percent of GDP. As for the "incessant war tension," how about the endless "war on terror" (I say "endless" because how on earth do you ever declare victory on "terror," or "terrorism?"), following on the heels of the decades-long Cold War? Does anyone remember President Eisenhower's warning about an out-of-control military-industrial complex, not to mention the basic concept that money spent on "guns" can't really be spent on "butter" (or education, bridges, health care, whatever)?  Apparently, the right wing continually forgets, or just doesn't want to remember. 4. RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM: "...the long-standing policy of the Likud and Company − a policy Yossi Sarid, when he was education minister, tried to change − to keep ultra-Orthodox yeshivas on the dole...It is Netanyahu and the right, settlers and the Orthodox and Russian Putinists, who live in a bubble." Here, it's not so much subsidies to religious fundamentalists, as the fact that a major political party - the Republican Party - is heavily in the grip of those fundamentalists. This, of course, has repercussions on policy choices, ranging from stem cell research to gay rights to women's rights to environmental policy (remember, if The Rapture is coming soon anyway, there's no reason to worry about trashing the planet), almost all of which are bad. In sum: wherever right-wing philosophy is followed, it tends towards several unfortunate outcomes, including: Reverse Robin Hood economics (class warfare in reverse), ultra-nationalism and militarism, religious fundamentalism, and letting the public good and environment go to hell in a handbasket while enriching the wealthy and powerful. Unfortunately, one of those countries is our own. And another is Israel. In the latter case, hundreds of thousands of young people are taking to the streets in protest to demand social justice. In this country, the populist (although only quasi-populist, as it's funded and directed from above) movement we've got is the bizarro (to quote John McCain) Tea Party. Oh, and note the alliance between the most far-right elements in this country, particularly religious fundamentalists, and the most far-right elements in Israel? Anyway, what I really wonder is why we put up with this here in the United States. Where on earth are the young people (or whatever age), the progressives, the working people, the middle classes, and why aren't they out in the streets protesting the fact that they're totally getting screwed over by Norquist/Boehner/Cantor/et al? That needs to change, if we ever hope to prevent the right wing from f***ing messing up America, let alone if we want to be a great nation, in all senses of the word, for decades to come.

Our Country Is Upside Down

by Kathy in Blacksburg

Yes, our country is upside downWe're told we all must sacrifice, as if the wanton recklessness, illegal, borderline-illegal, and immoral activities of Wall Street, were not the causal factors. Only the Middle Class and the poor are expected to "sacrifice" so the rich can get richer. Ironically, now just this week talking heads blame consumers for the economy's downturn because we are not confident enough.  Yep it's our fault (snark). Corporatists taught the world how to gut an economy through credit default swaps, leveraged buyouts stripping away value, and giving Wall St a free hand to turn itself into a gambling casino, defraud its investors, and promote fake ratings of said investments. They sold junk and then bet against their duped investors. The economy's also due to US companies' lack of confidence "because of the deficit," says Maria Barteromo (how did she ever get hired? What an idiot!  Or a corporatist drone, as the case may be.) It just goes to show, as Sarah Palin already has, that you don't need to know anything to be a TV commentator.  And, btw, why aren't real economists working on our nation's problems?  Thirty years of evidence disproves supply-side "economics,' but our leaders (even the president) clearly subscribe to it.  The world is upside down.

KathyinBlacksburg :: Our Country Is Upside Down

Adding insult to injury, the insipidly smirking, cocky, and ageist Tom Brokaw went on an ugly tirade showing just how overpaid and nasty that fat cat media talking head can be. He says the economic problems we face are the baby boomers' fault, because, among other things, apparently, they just exist and because they live too long.  This comes from perhaps biggest purveyor of intergenerational myth-making ever. In one brush stroke he tried to obliterate a generation which WAS NOT the stereotype he claims it was. Most of them studied, graduated, got married and had kids. They held jobs.  They were engaged in and contributed to our communities.Contrary to most of Americans in the Boomer generation did not tune out and drop out.  Instead of focusing on the truth, Brokaw spun a narrative for one of his narrow, ageist specials. Why talk about all of the ordinary lives of ordinary people when one can instead portray a whole generation as dropped-out losers. (What an a-hat.) There's money in his water-carrying and it fits the drown-government-in the-bath-tub agenda. In his view, Boomers don't deserve fairness and decency by their government. But, you know, rich boy Brokaw should not have to have his (now decreased) taxes raised back to what they should be.  No, sirree. Remember how Alan Simpson rippped seniors?  The buzzard, ironically named to the deficit commission despite his party's never finding a tax cut they couldn't love, nor a deficit they wouldn't pump up, just can't insult us enough.  His and his partner, Erskine Bowles', Wall Street buddies soaked all of us and brought the economy down, but he blames Boomers, so he can justify slinging catfood at us instead of hash.  Meanwhile, he complains there are 300 million sucking the government's "tits," never mind that voters paid for their programs with payroll taxes.  Also, meanwhile, he takes a comfortable government pension-with no means testing, thank you. Consumers have been hammered by the housing bubble, lost jobs, seen their extended unemployment benefits voted down, can't get health care, will now have a less secure retirement and are under constant threat that when they  are old they will be on their own.  But it's their fault?  And remember that 2 trillion corporations won't use for jobs for the real reason that they don't want job growth under President Obama.  NOT OUR FAULT. Social Security has been put on the table and thrown under the bus by those purporting they would "strengthen" it.  The country is upside down.  The folks doing this pretty much torture the nation's old people by their ongoing threat to take away their old-age pensions, to repeat (because it keeps getting eclipsed), paid for by deductions from their paychecks. These same torturous folks say that, because of the deficit, Social Security "must be cut." As I have said until I am "blue in the face," Social Security has never contributed one penny to the deficit.   Elder abuse at this point has become a Republican and triangulating Democrats' meme. We don't need to keep our promises, says Eric Cantor. Never mind that the government took our money to bind that contract. A promise isn't a promise.  Our country is upside down. A jobs "program creates no jobs.  An education "reform" agenda aims to dismantle public schools.  The Clear Skies Act predictably made our air dirtier.  And Operation Iraqi Freedom has made us less safe and less free. The "recovery" was a "jobless recovery."  Corporations are sitting on two Trillion and deliberately stifling jobs (ie laying off workers). But it's the deficit that's causing our economic woes? The GOP and our own gutless Democrats lie that massive cuts in revenue will add jobs. You and I know there never will be any new revenue. The country is upside down. As Paul Krugman notes it is a lack of confidence in our government's building a growth economy that's responsible. We are in a time when Republicans take pleasure in wiping out programs and motivate each other by watching movies which brag they are going to "hurt some people." The president seems to get a special joy about doing big budget cuts himself. But his latest creation, the budget deal, has made it worse, both for those it hurts and the resulting negative impact on jobs. But somehow that must be our fault too. They'll find a way to blame us. And, in another example, with no sense of irony, the President ripped his base, the very people (including moi) who turned out to support him and cheer him on last time. The President dissed Nancy Pelosi by cutting her out of talks. And he dissed the entire progressive caucus and its Progressive Budget. But somehow he's a uniter.  The views of the majority were excluded from the conversation. And their over and over again expressed opinion that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (among other programs) should not be cut was rewritten by the White House as Americans want "compromise."  Not exactly.  The country is upside down. Ironically, though, corporations "are people" and can spend campaign money like people (but don't have to abide the laws real people must. Take, for example, the apparently dummy company set up for the expressed purpose of donating one million dollars to Mitt Romney.  But real people are strictly limited to the total they may contribute, not that many of us are in the donor class these days. Even fewer Americans are in the donor class now than before GW Bush took office.  And it's not likely to get that much better.  Indeed, given he destruction of the safety net since 2010, things are likely to get much worse.  Corporations  also don't get prosecuted like real people, even when they preside over a firm committing the greatest corporate fraud ever perpetrated against Medicare.  (And the CEO gets to be governor of Florida.) We elect our politicians and for some inane reason we think they will represent us when they go to the statehouses and to our nation's capitol. Ever the dreamers, we believe that this is how representative democracy works. And then we learn that we have no representation at all.  No one has our backs. Given how clearly off track was the administration of George W. Bush, I never believed things would still be this upside down in 2011.  But here we are.  Will things ever be set 'right" again? For all this we hold this country and her possibilities dear. We search for our own possibilities. I do not know what the future holds. I will always consider myself a Dem. I will always vote Dem. But right now, I hear a somewhat different drummer than just party politics.  I am seriously thinking of joining Van Jones' American dream movement. Most Americans need and deserve such an effort because their voices are not being heard. I can still throw a figurative blogging punch at TeaPublicans. And I will here at BV. But things are different now. And, looking at the rubble that is the unfolding deficit bill/SuperCongress disaster, I keep wondering what is left. More of us need to speak out and get involved and not just in election politics, but in change politics. And not the change we can no longer believe in.  Real change.  Re-elect Barack Obama, and a Democratic (hopefully more progressive) Congress, but don't think that's all there is.  It isn't. The country is different now.  It's "democracy" upside down.

S&P Downgrades US Debt Rating to AA+ For First Time in History; Overwhelmingly Blames Teapublicans

Earlier this evening, Standard and Poors downgraded the U.S. long-term sovereign credit rating from AAA to AA+. Why? S&P's reasoning says it all:*"We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and will remain a contentious and fitful process." In other words, the Republicans and Tea Partiers holding the debt ceiling increase hostage to their demands did not go over well with Standard and Poors. Shocker! (not) *"We also believe that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration agreed to this week falls short of the amount that we believe is necessary to stabilize the general government debt burden by the middle of the decade." Again, thank you Teapublicans for absolutely refusing to touch the revenues side of the equation. In fairness, Democrats weren't exactly jumping up and down to deal with health care spending; also, Democrats should have pushed much harder for a public option when they had a chance, as this would have helped "bend the cost curve" of health care spending. But nooooo.... *"The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed." Political brinksmanship?  Gee, who could S&P possibly be referring to on that one? Hmmmm. *"It appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options... only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements, the containment of which we and most other independent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustainability." In this case, there's blame to go around, as neither party was serious - with the exceptions of President Obama and, apparently, John Boehner before he was reined in by his own caucus - about dealing with entitlements. And no, the Ryan Plan, which most every Teapublican voted for, does not count as "serious." It's a complete joke. *"...our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act." This one's clearly the Teapublicans' fault, essentially 100%, and is a big part of the reason why S&P believes the U.S. is not "likely to slow the deterioration of the government's debt dynamics."  In short, thank you, Teapublicans, for destroying America's credit rating! UPDATE: This sums it up very well. Also, Matthew Yglesias has some thoughts.

The Last Thing We Need Right Now is "Austerity"

If you know anything about economics - and I'm not talking graduate-level Macroeconomics; Econ 101 will do just fine! - you know that gross domestic product is comprised of four main elements. Just to demonstrate how non-partisan this concept is, I'm going to quote Too Conservative's "Cato the Elder" on this one:"GDP = C + I + G +(Ex-Im) (Guess what the G stands for?) That's math, not opinion." That's right, gross domestic product is a function of: 1) private consumption; 2) investment; 3) government expenditures; and 4) exports minus imports.  Period. A bit more "Econ 101": In a recession, when "C" and "I" fall, about the only thing that can make up the difference is "G" -- hence, Keynesian economics. And, clearly, unless you flunked Econ 101, you know that cutting "G" during a recession - aka, "austerity" - is THE LAST THING you'd ever want to do. In fact, cutting "G" during a recession would be the EXACT OPPOSITE of what any serious economist would recommend. To the contrary, as Joe Nocera reminded us all the other day: We've all heard what happened in 1937 when Franklin Roosevelt, believing the Depression was over, tried to rein in federal spending. Cutting spending spiraled the country right back into the Great Depression, where it stayed until the arrival of the stimulus package known as World War II. That's the path we're now on. Our enemies could not have designed a better plan to weaken the American economy than this debt-ceiling deal. I'd actually disagree in part with Nocera's final clause, for a few reasons (e.g., spending cuts don't really kick in 2011 or 2012), but I DO agree that the last thing Washington should have been focusing on the past few months is the short-term deficit (instead, they should have been extending unemployment benefits and passing other "countercyclical" policies), as opposed to the long-term, structural debt problem.In fact, despite the howling from a lot of uninformed/duped people out there, those two things are not very well connected. Thus, our short-term deficit is driven by: a) extension of the Bush tax cuts, at a cost of $400 billion a year; b) the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; c) the one-time-only "stimulus," now winding down; and d) the recession itself, which has cut economic growth and, thus, tax revenues.  In contrast, long-term structural debt is driven overwhelmingly by one thing: spiraling health care costs. And guess what this latest debt deal does NOT address? That's right, spiraling health care costs. Great work, guys!

Senate Approves Debt Deal 74-26; Webb and Warner Vote "Aye"

A few minutes ago, the U.S. Senate voted 74-26 to approve the debt ceiling deal reached this past weekend. Both Jim Webb and Mark Warner voted "aye." Below, watch Mark Warner explain his thinking on the debt ceiling deal, his "aye" vote, and also his belief in the need for a "full, long-term solution...to get our debt-to-GDP ratio back in line." P.S. There's a rumor floating around on some of the (far, far!) right-wing blogs, that Mark Warner supposedly won't be running for reelection in 2014. I just checked with Warner's office, and spokesman Kevin Hall told me that is "[c]ompletely not true".

The Package President Obama Should Propose Today

by The Green Miles

I called the office of my Congressman, Rep. Jim Moran, today to ask him to vote against the debt ceiling deal. The GOP got 98% of what they wanted in this deal - let them vote for it. What about the threat of default? Would you rather see the economy & seniors take a short-term hit through default, or watch the economy, seniors, education, transportation, and regulatory protections all suffer permanent hits under this deal? And considering the stock market is down this morning, I question whether we'll even be any better off in the short-term under this draconian 98% GOP plan. Barack Obama lost a battle everyone saw coming but him. If I was Barack Obama, I would immediately propose a plan to reduce the deficit & revitalize the economy that would: Immediately end the Bush tax cuts on income over $250,000 Create a low tax on carbon pollution from the biggest emitters that's gradually ratcheted up over time  End key subsidies for Big Oil, corporate jets, etc.  Use much of the revenue to fund transportation projects, unemployment insurance for the long-term unemployed, and any from a list of dozens of job-creating projects Use the rest of the revenue to reduce the deficit by billions of dollars Would Republicans immediately block it? Of course. But poll after poll shows this is exactly what the public wanted in a balanced deal and got left out. Let Republicans explain to the public why they're voting to fully preserve tax cuts for the rich instead of putting people to work fixing roads and bridges in their own districts. If the president continues to let Republicans drive the narrative of cut, cut and cut as the economy continues to slide, it's hard not to see a Republican president & a Republican Congress being swept into office in November 2012 by voters tired of a president not just unable to create jobs for American workers, but apparently unwilling to go to war for them.

President Obama on Debt Ceiling Negotiations; My Reaction/Rant

So, here's what frustrates me about all this. President Obama, since the beginning of his presidency, has bent over backwards - DOUBLE backwards, actually - to reach out to Republicans, to listen to their ideas, to compromise progressive principles in order to try and get some - ANY! - Republican support for whatever he was trying to accomplish. And the result, time and again? The Republicans have slapped his hand away, spat in his face, kicked him in the crotch, and whatever other metaphor you care to use to describe "worked to make sure they defeated him." What did that strategy get us? For starters, it got us a stimulus that was far too small and not structured properly to do the job, as Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has explained over and over again. Then, it got us endless delays, for no good reason, in passing a health care reform package. Then, even when we DID finally manage to pass a health care reform package, it was watered down from what it should have been (single payer - no; public option - no), and it took up half of Obama's presidency, AND the Teapublican'ts hated it even though it was basically the Republican alternative to "Hillarycare" in 1993/1994 (including the REPUBLICAN idea of an "individual mandate"). On cap-and-trade, which was also originally a Republican idea, what did Obama get for adopting it, as opposed to the far simpler idea of a revenue-neutral carbon tax? Zip (actually, they demonized their own idea by absurdly calling it "cap and tax") On and on we go. Comprehensive immigration reform? Nada. A simple increase in the debt ceiling, as has been done hundreds of times before? Nope. Political success, at least? I refer you to the results of the November 2010 elections, and to President Obama's current Gallup poll numbers. In sum, the repeated attempt to compromise with unreasonable, extreme Teapublican'ts has gotten us two things: 1) bad policy; and 2) bad political results. I mean, how much do they pay President Obama's political "experts" to give him this "advice?" I don't know, but I'll tell you what their advice is worth: ZERO.

Warner's Webb of Drilling Mania

by Progressive86

Nothing says I care about environmental health more than another big oil and gas rig planted serenely in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. What beauty, you might be thinking! What elegance! Look as the infrastructure corrodes and this giant's legs rust and grow barnacles with each passing week. What visual splendor! Of course, think of the view those marine animals must have. Aren't you jealous? I'd imagine the feeling is akin to having an individual Eiffel Tower being placed over my home. Wouldn't you be thrilled? Think of the economic benefits, after all! The first two paragraphs were satirical. But what many of us turn a blind eye to everyday is no laughing matter. Senators Webb and Warner have not assured Virginians that safety issues aboard oil and gas rigs have been appropriately addressed (when that unimportant little incident in the Gulf of Mexico is even mentioned these days), and yet the gallant efforts for more oil and gas in the Atlantic continues. I won't purport to be an expert on rig safety just as I won't allow myself to be played for a political foul. Safety measures cost time and money, in some cases, a lot of time and money. And we all know how the game of capitalism has worked in the U.S.: make profits and then make some more, even if it means cutting necessary safety corners. Maybe Virginians like to drill holes in the ground, period. Not only do Virginia's political "leaders" want to drill holes in the Atlantic, they want to drill holes in southern Virginia. And I'm not even mentioning the preexisting holes that have been drilled in Virginia's soil. So what, you might gab back? In the case of the Atlantic Ocean in particular, drilling holes stands to create a complex host of effects for marine animals living in the area, effects that are still unknown to many scientists and policy "experts." What's the value of disrupting and possible eliminating any number of marine species? Of course, this outcome may or may not happen, but are we really willing to chance it for questionable amounts of oil and gas resources? Between Senator Webb's history writing adventures and Senator Warner's grand visions of becoming president, Virginia seems to have lost its progressive leadership. Maybe it was never truly there to begin with. Or maybe our politicians have themselves been worn down by the political process. Any way you spin the bottle, the results may be the same: a grim future for Virginia's environmental integrity and ecosystem sustainability.

Barbara Favola Gets $2.5k Donation, Votes 5 Days Later to Give Towing Industry $250k More per Year

I could have sworn that Arlington County Board member Barbara Favola, now a candidate for the 31st Senate District Democratic nomination, has been telling people that she doesn't take money from interests with business before the Arlington County Board. As we know, of course, Favola's campaign is being heavily funded by Arlington real estate interests, on whose projects Favola has voted multiple times in the past, and very well could vote again in the future.But be that as it may; we've been over that real estate example again and again, and we're probably all getting tired of it by now. So, let's move on to a different example: this one in which Barbara Favola received a significant sum ($2,500) of money from an industry (towing) and specifically from a company - Advanced Towing Company, which apparently is not fined for violations in Arlington County) - just 5 days before a crucial vote on an important change in fees and other rules governing that industry and to that company. Please click to "embiggen" both images. First is a screen shot of the $2,500 donation from Advanced Towing owner John O'Neill to Barbara Favola on April 21, 2011. Next is a screenshot of Barbara Favola's "aye" vote - actually, she seconded the motion - 5 days after the donation, on April 26, 2011, for the changes in towing fees and rules.

lowkell :: Barbara Favola Gets $2.5k Donation, Votes 5 Days Later to Give Towing Industry $250k More per Year

More information on this vote is listed here. Details on the new towing fees and other regulations that were adopted, 3-2, by the Arlington County Board on April 26, 2011, are available here. Finally, see here for a detailed story on the vote, including the fascinating detail that "the local towing industry will pocket about a quarter-million dollars in additional revenue each year." The article also has a quote from Walter Tejada, who voted no, calling this "'a very significant hit' for those on fixed incomes." So, bottom line: Barbara Favola received $2,500 from a towing company, then 5 days later voted for changes in Arlington County fees that netted that company a significant chunk of "about a quarter-million dollars in additional revenue each year."  Can we say, "the appearance of impropriety?" Can we say, "this is EXACTLY why Arlington County board members aren't supposed to take donations like this?" Argh. UPDATE: Just to get an idea of what people in Arlington think of Advanced Towing, check out Yelp. Typical comment: "Let me join hands with the other wronged souls who pledge alligiance to an eternal vow of justified hatred of the evil enterprise otherwise known as Advanced Towing."

Arlingtonians, Including Rep. Jim Moran, Celebrate Cherrydale Library's 50th Birthday

Yesterday, the Cherrydale Library in Arlington was packed with more than 100 people (standing room only), celebrating its 50th birthday. I was there mainly because my jazz singer wife, Kelly Brown, was part of the program, singing songs which were popular around 1961. However, I ended up enjoying the entire program, which really was a celebration of books, knowledge, learning and public libraries. As Rep. Jim Moran (D-8th) - who, by the way, is superb when it comes to attending community events like this, staying a long time, and really "getting" what it's all about - articulately explained, many unstable/third world countries around the world don't even have public libraries, "because they see libraries as a source of instability and threat to the control of the people, because where the people are able to read and think and decide on their own, government then has to be responsive." Moran added and important point, that "you can't speak for yourself unless you have a voice that you gained through [the knowledge that comes from reading books]." In addition to Rep. Moran, speakers included Greg Embree of Citizens for Cherrydale Library, which successfully fought to save the library from the budget axe; the library's architect, Judson M. Gardner, who was there with his family to celebrate his accomplishment; Elenor Hodges of Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment, who recognized the library for its energy efficiency; historian Kathyrn Holt Springston, who talked about the building of the library, and what Arlington was like 50 years ago; and Cherrydale Acting Manager Carolyn Barton. The program was put together by GMU Adjunct Professor Lisa Sockett, Michael Gessel and Suzanne Embree, and - last but not least - the birthday cake was donated by the superb Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe, which I highly recommend for great breads, cakes, etc. P.S. Please see the "flip" for more video (including Boy Scout Troop 149 presenting colors and leading the Pledge of Allegiance) and photos from the event! P.P.S. I almost forgot to mention that Del. Bob Brink attended this event.