Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

Wiretap decision — a win now, but uncertainty later

The New York Times editorializes on the wiretap decision and points out that it faces an uncertain future when it gets to the conservative Sixth Court of Appeals — and political attacks from Bush loyalists in Congress and on cable news (when the Ramsey story fades).

In the meantime, we need to organize politically to take advantage of the momentum.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Distorted views

I suspect — and I’m obviously no expert — that approaches to the Middle East like this are seriously flawed, making assumptions about groups like Hezbollah and Hamas that just don’t stand up to reality. The assumption that seems to be unlying this editorial in the Times is that Hezbollah has no legitimacy — something that seems contradicted by nearly everything I read. We may not like it, but we will probably have to deal with Hezbollah and Hamas if we want a resolution in the Middle East.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Take that, Mr. President

From The New York Times: “Federal Judge Orders End to Warrantless Wiretapping“

In her ruling on the wiretapping program, District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor criticized the president for overstepping his constitutional authority, writing that the program violates the First and Fourth amendments:

“It was never the intent of the Framers to give the president such unfettered control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights.”

A victory for the Constitution, I’d say.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

The AG steps aside

Zulima Farber did the right thing — but not without some kicking and screaming and possibly for the first time — in stepping down yesterday as attorney general. This was an absurd situation that has left the entire state looking bad.

The governor handled this well, considering how difficult of a situation he faced. Critics would have liked him to act more quickly, but that’s just politics. He ran Farber through an investigative process and then did not waste time once the independent panel found she violated several ethics rules. (The reality, of course, is that the governor made a grave mistake when he appointed Farber.)

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.