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.

No surprises from The Wshington Post

No one should be surprised that the Post is critical of the surge, but remains in the president’s corner. Consider that the paper is one of the war’s original supporters.

It’s impossible not to be skeptical that the necessary political deals and improvements in Iraqi security forces will take place. Unless there is progress that justifies withdrawals going well beyond those he announced last night, Mr. Bush is unlikely to achieve the agreement in Washington on Iraq he said he now aims for. Still, there are no easy alternatives to the present policy. In the past we have looked favorably on bipartisan proposals that would change the U.S. mission so as to focus on counterterrorism and training of the Iraqi army, while withdrawing most U.S. combat units. Mr. Bush said he would begin a transition to that reduced posture in December. But according to Gen. Petraeus, Mr. Crocker and the consensus view of U.S. intelligence agencies, if the U.S. counterinsurgency mission were abandoned in the near future, the result would be massive civilian casualties and still-greater turmoil that could spread to neighboring countries.

Mr. Bush’s plan offers, at least, the prospect of extending recent gains against al-Qaeda in Iraq, preventing full-scale sectarian war and allowing Iraqis more time to begin moving toward a new political order. For that reason, it is preferable to a more rapid withdrawal. It’s not necessary to believe the president’s promise that U.S. troops will “return on success” in order to accept the judgment of Mr. Crocker: “Our current course is hard. The alternatives are far worse.”

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

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Free speech for some but not for all

I’m just not buying this decision. It is OK for a commercial entity to use an inflatable sign to draw attention to itself, but not a labor union or political organization waging a protest? That seems rather inconsistent, though the appellate court seems to think that’s value neutral.

All inflatable signs, other than grand opening signs, are prohibited. DeAngelo contends that the “Township has exhibited an explicit preference for commercial speech, i.e., inflatable grand opening signs, at the expense of all other inflatable signs.” However, a regulation is considered content-neutral so long as it does not differentiate between different speakers or messages.

Seems to me that an ordinance that would allow a car dealership to put up an inflatable elephant to announce its grand opening but does not allow a union to use a giant inflatable rat to protest against the use of non-union labor — or, to demonstrate the impact on the other side of the political aisle, an inflatable sign announcing a group’s opposition to abortion — “differentiate(s) between different speakers or messages.”

But that’s just me.

There’s more: The court essentially ruled that towns have a right to determine how messages can be disseminated. Handbills, fine. Conversations, check. The demonstration — even that’s OK.

But bring in a giant rat to draw attention to the protest — well that’s just not protected speech.

Maybe I’m missing something, but I just don’t get it.

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

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Runner’s diary, Thursday

OK: 24 days and counting until I hit the pavement in Long Beach Island. I did an 11-mile run this morning (listening to Springsteen — “I’m a rocker, baby I’m a rocker…”) in 1:50:34 — that’s one hour, 50 minutes and 34 seconds, or 10 minutes and 3 seconds per mile. Not a bad pace, though the soreness is kicking in about now — mostly abdominal muscles, because I worked them yesterday and the need to keep good posture puts a lot of pressure on them, as well. In any case, here is what I wrote at the end of today’s Dispatches (a longer take tomorrow on the LBI run in The Cranbury Press):

I will be running in the 35th annual LBI Commemorative 18-Mile Run in Long Beach Island on Oct. 7, which raises money for the St. Francis Community Center in Brant Beach. It will be the first time I participate in a race like this — I’ve done a few 5Ks, including the South Brunswick run last year — but the longer distance is a different kind of challenge.

My goal is to finish without walking and to raise some money on the side for the South Brunswick Human Intervention Trust Fund. To that end, I’m asking readers to help by sending me donations, which I will then forward on to the township’s Division of Social Services. Readers who are interested in donating should send checks made out to the South Brunswick Human Intervention Trust Fund to the South Brunswick Post, P.O. Box 309, Dayton, N.J. 08810, attn: Hank Kalet.

They not only will help local families in need, but will give me the extra motivation I may need to finish the race.

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

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.