Donald Hall is the nation’s new poet laureate, replacing Ted Kooser. Hall,
The New York Times describes him as “a poet in the distinctive American tradition of Robert Frost” who has “been a harsh critic of the religious right’s influence on government arts policy.”
Congratulations.
(Photo is from Hall’s page at the American Academy of Poets Web site and was taken by Hugh Chatfield.)
The proposal to privatize a portion of New Jersey’s toll highway system — as bad an idea as it is — is not exactly unique. As The Washington Post writes today, selling off toll roads has become a growing trend around the nation.
Indiana has already leased a portion of the Indiana Toll Road to investors, placing it “at the leading edge of a nascent trend in which states and local governments are exploring the idea of privatizing parts of the United States’ prized interstate highway system.”
The idea goes beyond projects, such as Northern Virginia’s Dulles Greenway, in which states have turned to private companies to build or widen toll roads. Now, they are considering selling or leasing some of the best-known and most-traveled routes across America.
The trend started 1 1/2 years ago, when Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) pushed through a 99-year lease of the Chicago Skyway, nearly eight miles of elevated highway across the South Side, for $1.8 billion.
Since then, a New Jersey lawmaker has proposed selling a 49 percent interest in the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway. New York Gov. George E. Pataki (R) is trying to persuade the legislature to let investors rebuild or replace the Hudson River’s Tappan Zee Bridge. In Houston, Harris County officials are studying leasing 57 miles of toll roads.
Locally, Virginia transportation officials announced last month that they would lease a debt-ridden toll road outside Richmond, the Pocahontas Parkway, to a private firm for $522 million.
The idea, basically, is to bring cash to the table to ensure that the roads are maintained and that new projects might be able to go forward. And, as in the case of New Jersey, to find ways to offset shrinking revenues from other sources.
Will companies take good care of highways? Will toll roads become too expensive to drive? Will investors pluck profitable routes, leaving others to crumble? What will happen to public toll-road workers — including 600 in Indiana who have been promised interviews by the new operators, but not the same job?
And there are potential budget implications — will the lease produce recurring revenues and, if not, what wil that mean for future budgets? And what about accountability? Who will residents and taxpayers turn to with complaints should privitization turns into a fiasco? Obviously, it will be the states’ governors and legislators who will have ceded control of one of the most basic functions of government to private entities.
I wish I’d have written this Philadelphia Inquirer editorial.
As Thomas Jefferson wrote, certain basic rights belong to all people simply by virtue of being human. At Gitmo and other “war on terror” prisons, that principle is being trampled. The damage being done to American values in the name of safeguarding American lives may be hard to calculate. But it’s real.
Long before the triple suicide, the sorry saga of Guantanamo called into question whether the White House’s lawless policy on detainees was doing more harm than good to Americans’ security. Gitmo may be a better recruitment tool for al-Qaeda than it is a source of useful intelligence.
It should be beyond debate that it’s wrong for a democracy that extols human rights to hold men indefinitely without charge or due process.
The Asbury Park Press offers some tough talk on pay-to-play, as a top Democrat calls for a relaxation on rules put in place two years ago. The Democrat — state party Chairman Joe Cryan — says the rules are drying campaign funding. The Press responds this way: “Hey, Joe! That was the whole point: To prevent contractors from making political contributions to candidates in exchange for government contracts.”
Hard to argue. But Cryan’s basic point — that the shrivelling campaign accounts will leave the field only to those candidates wealthy enough to fund their own campaigns — is worth considering.
But the answer is not to gut the current rules. As the Press points out:
Pay-to-play is a scourge that has cost taxpayers in this state billions of dollars in inflated no-bid contracts. It also has helped produce public policy driven by what’s best for large campaign contributors rather than what’s best for the citizens of New Jersey.
The answer is to tighten them while crafting a real and effective public-financing scheme.
News for Bob Dylan fans — a new disc is due by summer’s end.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bob Dylan (music) will issue “Modern Times,” his 44th album and first new set in five years, on Aug. 29.
According to Columbia Records, the album features 10 new Dylan originals he recorded this winter with his touring band–guitarists Stu Kimball and Denny Freeman, multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron, bassist Tony Garnier and drummer George Recile. Dylan sang and played keyboards, guitars, and harmonica.
The “Modern Times” tracklisting includes “Thunder on the Mountain,” “Spirit on the Water,” “Workingman’s Blues” and “When The Deal Goes Down.”
Hank Kalet 