Today’s poetry podcast is of a poem I wrote in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, focusing on the beginnings of our now endless-seeming war in Afghanistan.
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.
Dispatches: Not easy being green
Dispatches is available — on the controversy about wind farms.
Bad moon on the rise
Gov. Jon S. Corzine made his budget address earlier today, slashing state spending and eradicating most budget gimmicks from the plan. it is not likely to make the unpopular governor very popular, but he deserves credit for doing this during a re-election year.
Consider the above chart, which shows that few governors have been willing to consider spending cuts — yes, Gov. Whitman did cut some departments, but shifted the money elsewhere.
This is not a perfect budget, by any means — the pension deferral is a small version of the kind of gimmicks used in the past — but it is mostly honest (as our editorial will say) and he is likely to pay for it with his job come November.
A warning to heed
The president doesn’t appear that concerned about criticism of his economic message from Warren Buffett or the concerns raised by Paul Krugman today in The New York Times that the stimulus was too small to have the kind of effect needed — which is unfortunate, given that Krugman’s take on the economy is spot on.
Grand old hypocrites
This New York Times editorial pretty much sums up the pure political calculation of the national Republicans — though, the left has been nearly as hypocritical on the filibuster issue.
