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.

First strike

Senate Democrats — along with Republican Chuck Hagel of Nebraska — took the first step toward disentangling the nation from one of the greatest foreign policy mistakes in our history. It was a baby step, to be sure, a purely symbolic move with no teeth, but it stands as the most strenuous objection raised by the legislative branch since 2002.

According to The Washington Post,

The measure declares that increasing U.S. troop strength is not in America’s national interest. It calls an open-ended commitment in Iraq “unsustainable” and says Iraqi leaders and the United States should use political and diplomatic channels to end sectarian conflict and reduce regional interference in Iraqi affairs.

Sen. Richard Lugar, a Republican from Indiana who voted against the resolution, called it the equivalent of a soundbite and warned his colleagues that it

would be “the legislative equivalent of a sound bite,” would allow Congress to wash its hands of responsibility for the war and would weaken America’s standing in the eyes of foreign observers.

“We don’t need a resolution to confirm that there is broad discomfort” with the war, Lugar said. “If Congress is going to provide constructive oversight, they must get involved in the weeds” of the policy.

He’s partially right. Symbolic actions provide an important avenue by which we can frame the debate. But they must be accompanied by real action — in this case, a willingness to use the purse strings to force a phased withdrawal.

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

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

An unfortunate fire

We’ll have a story on this tomorrow, but I thought I’d link to Jim Shackleford’s blog item (he took the photo, which is from his blog) on the fire last week at the Titus Farm in Kendall Park.

Here’s a preview of the story:

Fire damages historic site
Blaze destroys barn on Titus Farm property

By Joseph Harvie
Staff Writer

A suspicious fire destroyed a nearly 100-year-old barn on the Titus Farm in Kendall Park on Jan. 18, South Brunswick Police Department spokesman Detective James Ryan said Wednesday.

The fire was reported at 8:32 p.m. when a nearby resident saw the barn ablaze from his kitchen window, Detective Ryan said. The farm is adjacent to Woodlot Park, behind the wooded area in the northwestern section of the park, and it abuts some homes on Stockton Road.

Detective Ryan said building’s charred frame is too dangerous to enter, but that the fire is suspicious because the barn has no electricity and it was unoccupied.

Township Public Affairs coordinator Ron Schmalz said the only items in the building were tiles left by an artist who worked in the building about 30 years ago and a kiln, which he said had also not been used for 30 years.

According to the township Public Library Web site, a headstone for Thomas Titus, who died July 21, 1819, when he was 65, was found on the site and is now in storage in the township Public Works shed. In December, the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders donated a grave marker to be used in place of the headstone.

Mr. Schmalz said that the township is planning to use the farm as an agricultural museum, and will move items, such as wagons and old-fashioned mowers, from other barns on the site to a more secure location. He said that there were plans to demolish some of the buildings on the site and to erect new buildings to be used as an agricultural museum. Mr. Schmalz said the township would work with its Historic Preservation Commission before any buildings are destroyed.

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

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Some thoughts on the state of the nation

I never watch the State of the Union on television or much of the commentary afterward. The reason is that coverage of the live speech tends to focus on what I’ll call peripherals — how well he does in front of live audiences, for instance, as opposed to the staged Oval office speeches (NBC), George Will’s far-from-impartial commentary on ABC and so on.

The Bush proposals demand more scrutiny — especially his extremely flawed attempt at fixing health care by offering tax breaks that might drive businesses to drop coverage and force the rest of us to go to the market (George Will called that a positive step for the economy); some lukewarm, incremental steps on global warming and the increased use of ethanol (which could drive food costs skyward without addressing the real problem, which is how much we drive).

The healthcare proposal is especially troubling because it uses carrots and sticks — carrots in the form of tax credits for those who have to buy private insurance and sticks in teh form of new taxes on those with good plans. The insurance companies and HMOs who have helped created the crisis get off scot free.

The ethanol proposal seems half-baked, requiring a massive increase in the amount of corn needed to produce the fuel (hence the potential increase in food costs).

I am glad that the president has place increased fuel efficiency on the table, though I wish it were more than the mile a gallon per year he called for.

All in all, the Bush speech — based on my quick reading of the text (I didn’t watch it, instead spending the night drafting out a column on the failure to date of state Democrats to get any kind of real tax reform accomplished) — was about what could be expected from a president whose approval ratings are in the 30s.

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

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.