Nov 20 2009
To read the headlines there is no reason to believe President Barack Obama achieved a lot during his trip to East Asia, with stops in Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea.
At the same time, it was a very essential get-to-know-you tour, featuring meetings with critical U.S. interlocutors in their home capitals in a part of the world that is of great importance to the United States.
One critical stop was in Japan, which has a new government headed by a new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama. That government has replaced a longtime U.S. political partner and is taking a fresh look at aspects of its political, military and economic relationship with America. Mr. Obama's visit softened any anti-American cast that the changes under consideration might have taken.
China was probably the most important stop for Mr. Obama. It appeared that he let the Chinese leadership blunt, partly through the format, some of the criticism that he might have handed out there. He didn't say much, for example, about China's abysmal human rights record, its intolerance of religious and regional opposition in the Tibetan and Uighur regions, its fiddling with the currency exchange rate or even its heavy-handed roundup of dissidents.
Mr. Obama's reticence could be attributed to the fact that China holds billions of dollars in U.S. Treasury bonds and will need to continue doing that if Mr. Obama's government is to stay afloat financially.
Or, to put forward a more generous analysis, perhaps Mr. Obama was pursuing a different kind of diplomacy from the big-hat-no-cattle approach of President George W. Bush -- making nice in public while driving home his harder points in private. If that was the case, visible results of his trip could appear down the line, quietly.
One fruitful area would be closer coordination, if not agreement, with the Chinese on climate-change strategy. That issue is of great importance not only to the United States and China, but also to the Europeans and other Asians. Prospects for the December Copenhagen summit on climate change don't look promising at this point. At the same time, the agreement announced by Mr. Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao on a series of initiatives bodes well for gradual, general progress.
In general Mr. Obama's time was well spent on his Asian tour. It is possible that the real dividends will be paid quietly, later, the results of a more private, subtle diplomacy that he is practicing.
Nov 20 2009
You might call them the invisible 600. That's the estimated number of children in Allegheny County without permanent housing, about half of whom are school-aged.
To call them "homeless" might suggest that they live under bridges or in abandoned houses. While that is not the case, their daily situation still poses challenges, even for something as basic as how to get an education. The 600 generally live in one of 17 women's shelters, where their mothers have gone for protection and support after suffering domestic abuse.
Local experts say that perhaps an equal number of children live by "couch surfing," moving from home to home of relatives and friends because their parents cannot find an affordable, permanent living arrangement. While these children face similar obstacles to getting an education, they are harder to track and identify.
The problem, of course, is not unique to Allegheny County. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that in the 2007-08 school year more than 794,000 homeless children were enrolled in public schools. You can call them the "lucky" ones. Those who are not so lucky are the ones whose lack of permanent housing conspires to keep them out of the classroom.
Fortunately, some concerned and determined people will take a major step today toward addressing the issue locally by holding a summit on the educational needs of homeless children. The idea was spearheaded by Joseph Lagana, who founded the nonprofit Homeless Children's Education Fund 10 years ago after retiring as executive director of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit.
He and allies at the summit like The Pittsburgh Foundation, the county Department of Human Services, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, the state education department, Duquesne University, the Education Law Center and the intermediate unit will seek to exchange information, raise awareness and coordinate school and social services that can extend to homeless children the same educational opportunities given their peers.
This is important work and the group's success will accrue to the families and society alike. After all, every child deserves an education, even those who are still looking for a place called home.
Nov 20 2009
Not every cancellation of a proposed store is big news. But the announcement by Kuhn's Market that it was dropping plans to build a full-service grocery in the Hill District was.
When the Hill House Association, the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority and Kuhn's Market announced a partnership to bring a quality grocery store to the neighborhood more than a year ago, it was hailed as the most serious attempt in decades to address a hole in the fabric of the community.
Residents on the Hill had even begun to count on it. A revival of sorts has been under way, sparked by the construction of the Penguins' arena in the lower Hill. Along with townhouses with great views and proximity to Downtown, there's nothing more appealing to potential urban homesteaders than being able to shop for groceries nearby.
The collapse of the Kuhn's deal is disappointing, but it doesn't mean the grocery project is dead. The Hill House Association, which secured $8.5 million for the site at Centre Avenue and Heldman Street, is already in talks with potential grocers to step into the breach.
After the initial drama from the failed deal has passed, it may be that only a few months will elapse before the Hill gets the project back on track. All the elements that would have made Kuhn's Market a successful venture, particularly community demand, are still in place for a new operator.
Like any good consumer, the Hill District will do well if it shops for its next store operator carefully.
Nov 19 2009
Most taxpayers want the same things. They want their dollars to be spent wisely. They want to be treated fairly. They want tax bills to have predictability.
In the last 10 years, Allegheny County's property assessment system has left much of that to be desired. Because of the flare-ups over assessments, some taxpayers feel they and their properties were mishandled. Others feel that when properties are reassessed, there's no telling how high their next tax bill might be.
So it's no surprise that mere mention of reassessment makes many people cringe. We understand where County Executive Dan Onorato is coming from. He switched the county to the base-year method, freezing assessments to 2002 levels and giving taxpayers relative property-tax stability.
But some taxpayers said even that method was not fair because it locked in higher assessments on properties like theirs, which had declined in value. In effect, the base-year method forced them to pay higher taxes.
They filed suit and won their case in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court. Then they won again before the state Supreme Court. As a remedy to years of assessments that had not been updated, the justices ordered a reassessment for the county. The Post-Gazette believed that order, to be truly fair, should have applied to all counties using the base-year method, but the court's ruling was not so expansive.
Now Mr. Onorato is charged with following the court's order. But instead of submitting a plan for reassessing fairly and offering protections to taxpayers fearful of a jump in their tax bill, he turned in no plan at all. As a result, Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. had to design one.
Rather than work with the court to ensure fairness and protection for taxpayers, the county executive, who is now a candidate for governor, has decided to appeal. While we agree with Mr. Onorato on the need for statewide assessment reform and a legislative solution to assessment shocks, his strategy of repeatedly going to court rather than grappling head on with this issue will only hurt the taxpayers he claims to be fighting for.
It will hurt because it puts off the day of reckoning for the county's frozen assessments. The longer that day is postponed, the higher will be some property owners' new assessments and tax bills.
That doesn't sound fair to us, it blows a hole through predictability and if a delayed reassessment ends up costing far more money, it won't be the best use of public dollars.
Allegheny County taxpayers deserve better than this.
Nov 19 2009
Three new numbers have hit the news -- three unrelated numbers that add up to a sick feeling that America may not have its priorities straight.
The first is 49 million Americans, about one in six, went hungry last year. The second is 46 million do not have health insurance, at a time when health-care costs continue to soar. The third is $1 million, the estimated cost of sustaining each additional U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.
Each of these numbers describes a distinct reality. Taken together, they paint a disturbing picture of how American government takes care of its people, particularly the least advantaged.
The 49 million hungry is from a survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that measured the people in 2008 who lived in households that lacked consistent access to adequate food. The number was the highest in the 14 years that the department has tracked it -- with an increase of 13 million, or 36 percent, over the year before. The most shocking fact was that many of the households included children.
The second group, the 46 million without health-care coverage, may well be some of the same people who are going hungry. Their plight has to be seen against the disgusting spectacle of Congress, influenced by lobbyists for the drug and insurance companies and other anti-reform interests, dithering on efforts to improve health-care delivery. If Congress fails to change the horrible status quo, which Americans will see themselves without health care next year or the year after?
The $1 million it takes to keep each additional soldier in Afghanistan has to be measured against the figures on hunger and health care. The war has already cost about $300 billion. Every added block of 10,000 troops -- and Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal is calling for up to 40,000 more -- means another $10 billion per year for the taxpayer. When would that end? When will the government of President Hamid Karzai, fraudulently elected and breathtakingly corrupt, become sufficiently credible for President Barack Obama to decide that Afghanistan can be left to his rule?
It is clear that the nation has choices. How would we like to use our money? To feed America's hungry and assure Americans' health care, or to fund an endless, futile war in Afghanistan? That is the trade-off. It should be obvious to Mr. Obama as well.
Nov 19 2009
Last month, NASA set its sights on the moon. Forty years after the historic Apollo 11 landing and 37 years after the last American shook moon dust from his boot, our lunar neighbor is looming large in the imagination.
This time, the world's scientists are excited by a mile-high dust cloud kicked up when a NASA probe slammed into the moon's surface at 5,600 miles per hour on Oct. 9.
NASA commanded its Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite to crash in a pre-determined spot near the south pole. It was a suicide mission for the probe, but it had a purpose. Following the same trajectory five minutes later was a second probe. It flew through the plume of moon dust and debris kicked up by the first probe and beamed the data back to Earth.
After studying the results, NASA announced what everyone had waited to hear: There's water on the moon. What was once considered just a desolate rock is now seen as a potential source of rocket fuel and thirst-quenching water for a colony. Our "dead moon" may have enough of the Right Stuff to make a leap to the stars possible.
The discovery of water is the first step to justifying humanity's return to the moon, still at least a decade away. How much can ultimately be found and refined there will determine the practicality of moon bases, too.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote: "Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink." But with a little chemistry, astronauts can not only drink this water but also use it to fly to Mars and beyond.
Nov 18 2009
President Barack Obama, on his first visit to Asia as president, made an important speech in Tokyo on Saturday that can serve as a template for U.S. policy toward that region during his term.
The speech was carefully deferential to Mr. Obama's Japanese hosts, although there was every reason to make his seminal Asia speech from there. The United States and Japan are still the world's two largest economies in spite of the visible, growing importance of China.
Mr. Obama cited Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and himself as a "new generation of leadership" and underlined the importance of an enduring but revitalized U.S.-Japanese relationship.
Although Mr. Obama was not the first U.S. president to say so, he emphasized that America is "a nation of the Pacific." He spoke of his own heritage, having lived in Indonesia and having part-Asian family members, calling himself "America's first Pacific president." He called America's alliances in the region, with Japan, South Korea, Australia, Thailand and the Philippines, "the bedrock of security and stability."
Turning to China, he sought to play down any notion of rivalry. He maintained that, "in an interconnected world, power does not need to be a zero-sum game. ... " He said the United States seeks "pragmatic cooperation" with China. Seeking to avoid any appearance of naivete on China's steady expansion of military capacity, he said that aspect of relations was a matter of improving communications between the two militaries.
He stressed the importance of U.S. participation in Asian economic forums such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the East Asia Summit. He cited the need for economic recovery and growth, referring to agreements at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. Addressing Asian concerns, particularly those held by America's Chinese and Japanese creditors, he spoke of the need for reform of the U.S. financial system and the reduction of U.S. deficits. He noted Americans' concern about jobs and linked them to U.S. consumers' ability to buy Asia's exports.
Mr. Obama started the trip well with his speech, and what he said about the United States' interdependent economic relationship with Asia is true -- even alarming for those Americans who like to think of their country as capable of setting an independent course.
What remains to be seen is what he will now do to put actions behind his words.
Nov 18 2009
Health-care reform was always going to be difficult to achieve, but it may yet turn out to be the best that money can buy -- except that it may be special-interest money buying what it wants, not promoting the public interest.
If the public ever lacked for an example of this sad state of affairs, a New York Times story on Sunday provided one. It chronicled how statements submitted by lawmakers to the Congressional Record were remarkably similar -- and not by accident.
More than a dozen members used words written by lobbyists for Genentech, a large biotechnology company that is a subsidiary of Swiss drugmaker Roche. The company propagandists helpfully wrote tailored statements for Democrats and Republicans (the GOP members don't support health-care reform but do like one provision on generic drugs favored by Genentech).
Even when the politicians didn't repeat the words almost verbatim, members at least picked up some of the talking points -- according to Genentech, 42 House members echoed some of their themes (22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, a level of bipartisanship that the bigger debate has lacked).
And surprise, surprise! According to the Times story, Genentech's political action committee and lobbyists have made campaign contributions to many House members, including some of those who filed statements in the Congressional Record. A spokesman for Genentech said, "There was no connection between the contributions and the statements." If he said this with a straight face, he surely risked straining facial muscles, but the rest of us can go ahead and laugh -- or cry.
When ordinary people send form letters to newspapers, including this one, their writings are rejected as unoriginal "astroturf." If authors or journalists borrow material without proper attribution, they are scorned for plagiarism.
Yet when members of Congress do something similar, their corruption is called business as usual. It's shameful just the same.
Nov 18 2009
The passage of the state budget, which involved hard choices forced by a sour economy, has come home with a vengeance. It took an unconscionable time to approve, and it seems all that political anguish bought was pain and disappointment.
There is depressing news all round. The governor's office announced that Friday will be the last day of work for 319 employees. Perhaps that is inevitable, but it will translate to real misery for state workers and their families as they enter the holiday season.
And to the human cost can be added the public cost. The state Department of Environmental Protection will lay off 138 employees or 5 percent of its work force, the largest number of layoffs in any agency. The department had its budget cut by almost $56.5 million -- a 27 percent reduction.
To be sure, there is always some fat in government, but a cut like this to an agency that serves as a vital public watchdog can only spell trouble. With environmental concerns increasingly to the fore as the debate about climate change rages, Pennsylvania finds itself turning away from its future.
At the same time, it is turning its back on its storied past. As was brought home to Pittsburgh earlier by the state withdrawal from the Fort Pitt Museum, these are hard times for the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission, which saw a 43 percent cut in its budget. That pain has now spread to Old Economy Village near Ambridge, Beaver County, the charming, historic site of the Harmony Society founded in 1824. Unless volunteers can maintain the site, it appears headed for permanent closure -- a shocking loss.
The budget from hell has only just begun to sear Pennsylvania.
Nov 17 2009
Attorney General Eric Holder took the "not in my backyard" aspect of the Guantanamo prisoners issue squarely by the horns Friday and announced that five of them would be put on trial in federal court in New York City, not far from Ground Zero.
The five include the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He was reportedly captured in Pakistan, transported to Afghanistan and then to Poland, whence he was finally relocated to the U.S. Naval Air Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be waterboarded a reported 183 times under the direction of officials of the Bush administration.
Mr. Holder expressed confidence that the government's case against the five was solid enough to obtain convictions and said he planned to seek the death penalty for all five.
These trials will not be easy and will inevitably stretch out over time. They also will present security problems, given their high visibility and their venue.
Nevertheless, the United States could not be faithful to its own standards of justice and continue to hold these five and other prisoners at Guantanamo indefinitely, without releasing them or putting them on trial. Neither American law nor principles provide for indefinite detention without trial, no matter how vicious and evil the alleged perpetrators might be. The Bush administration should have faced this problem decisively when the United States began capturing these people back in 2001. The captives should have been sorted by category, which would have enabled some who were legitimate prisoners of war to be put under the oversight of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Instead, the Bush administration put off dealing with the eventual problem of the prisoners' disposition by holding some in Iraq at Abu Ghraib, in Afghanistan at Bagram Air Force Base and at CIA-run "black prisons" in Europe. Hundreds were sent to Guantanamo, to be held for years without being charged. Accusations of torture arose from each venue where prisoners were held.
Now the Obama administration has undertaken the painful process of trying some of them, starting with five in civilian court and five before military tribunals. It will not be easy, but it is necessary that the trials take place, to restore America's reputation as a country ruled by laws that do not imprison people without benefit of a trial, even when that trial will be difficult and painful.
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