Rescission: Reason #127 We Need Universal Healthcare

The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing back in June entitled "Terminations of Individual Health Policies by Insurance Companies." The hearing examined the practice of "post-claims underwriting," which occurs when insurance companies cancel individual health insurance policies after providers submit claims for medical services rendered.

The Committee conducted an investigation into the
practice of health insurance rescission, and the results were alarming. Over the past five years, almost 20,000 individual insurance policyholders have had their policies rescinded by the three insurance companies who testified today: Assurant, UnitedHealth Group, and WellPoint.

Some of these answers are quite shocking.

Protest Outside the Home of Mayor Cammarano

Above is a video of a proteste outside of Mayor Peter Cammarano's home. I copied it from Hoboken 411 the site that covers the protest with the same zest they cover everything: like a vacuous, pee brained Hobokenite. I have not seen this many people gathered in Hoboken since the bars let out Friday night at 2:00 AM. Maybe people in Hoboken really are fed up with their government and they really want a change. The video is a bit crazy and the voters/citizens take it out on a Cammarano supporter.

I knew Cammarano a little bit, I first met him when I helped out with the Menendez campaign and he was so "pumped" for the campaign I knew there was something wrong with him. I said to him: "Menendez?" "Why are you here then" He said. I said the same reason I always support the Democrats because I don't want Republicans to win." He looked at me funny. He asked me what I did. So, I told him I am a prisoner reentry attorney helping to ease prisoners back into society. He looked at me like I had three horns on my head (it is part of the reason I like saying that). The rest of the attorneys looked at me funny too. He wasn't alone.

From then on, however I knew he was just another politician like the rest. He certainly had talent and was smart enough. I saw him at political meetings/voter protection meetings and everyone knew he was gearing up to run for Mayor. He was usually full of shit and said things to just be part of the conversation. He never recognized me though we worked together several times and we had several conversations. But, he would act like he knew me. I usually said something snarky and he just ignored me. He supported Clinton and I was one of the big Hoboken Obama supporters. No one in Hoboken liked that until Obama won and then all of a sudden everyone was a big Obama supporter from the beginning.

A friend of mine always told me: "Wait. He is going to get his. The Guy has skeletons." Turns out he was right. I don't think there is any question he should resign. He is innocent until proven guilty, surely, but there is a difference between being found guilty of a federal crime and doing something morally repugnant. Unless the government is lying through their teeth this guy took bribes and acted like a complete asshole. Whether the government has enough is a question, but the people of Hoboken already have and have had enough.

Several Politicians Arrested in New Jersey

According to NJ.com

Several North Jersey politicians were arrested this morning on Federal Corruption charges. The suspects included newly elected Mayor of Hoboken, Secaucus Mayor, Dennis Elwell, Jersey City Deputy Mayor, Leona Baldini and Jersey City Council President, Mario Vega. Several Rabbis and politicians from New York were arrested as well.

Looks like Cammarano's career just came to an end. More on this as it becomes available and hopefully an insider look at what happened.

Update: Below are videos of the men and women brought in and arrested for bribes and corruption. Harvey Smith, a New Jersey Assemblyman and recent mayoral candidate charged with taking $15,000 in bribes for building projects.

An Assemblyman and the Mayor of Secaucus arrested for $10,000 cash bribes

Louis Manzo, another unsuccessful Mayoral candidate in Jersey City and his brother arrested for $27,500 cash bribes for the campaign.

Leona Baldini, the deputy mayor charged with $20,000 cash payments

Other mayors in Ridgefield, NJ and Rabbis across New Jersey and Brooklyn charged with issuing the bribes and money laundering.

Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega, Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini, and Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt are led into FBI building in Newark

Cammarano, the newly elected Mayor of Hoboken is charged with cash bribes of $25,000 including a cash bribe of $10,000 last Thursday!

Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell led in handcuffs into FBI building

If one thing is clear, the corruption and bribery charges just made it tougher for Corzine to get elected. But, someone who has appeared in local politics in Hoboken, NJ - everyone knows this goes on and no one will do anything about it. For our state to change and for the Democratic party to change, to a party that is interested in progress and the people this had to happen. The question is this enough? Or is a political hit job?

I am not sure, but it seems obvious much of these officials are going down.

Rachel Corrects the Record

After a tangle with Pat Buchanan Rachel corrects the record on race. What Pat Buchanan mouthed is shameful.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

What Was Once Racism is Now Political Dialogue

Pat Buchanan was on the Rachel Maddow show last night which I missed. So, the first thing I did on the web this morning is see what was said. It is long and Rachel really allows him to say what he wants, and what he says is that "white people are discriminated against in the United States" to paraphrase.

I think it is important to hear because this is why the hearings on Sonia Sotomayor were important because the Republicans were playing to these fears of "white working class people" that they are the aggrieved not people of color who have been discriminated against for 400 years in this country. It exposes the very real fear of many Americans about the election of Barack Obama and this Supreme Court nominee. Buchanan makes no bones about saying it out loud. Twenty years ago this would have been called racism. Today, in 2009 we have leaped back so far this is political dialogue.

For the record, I attended CUNY law school in Queens, NY easily the most diverse law school in the nation based on race, ethnicity, gener and sexual orientation. It isn't even close when you do the comparisons. The value of that classroom, to hear the voices of so many who are underrepresented in the mainstream dialogue will serve me for the rest of my life. Without it, I almost attended many other law schools, I do not know if I would have learned the same breadth and depth of knowledge and experience, in my opinion the most important part of being a lawyer is empathy, just as Barack said that he wanted in his choice for the Supreme Court. Empathy can bring down nations, cultures, my professor of Political Communication from Salem State theorized it is the very thing that brought eastern Europe back into the fold.

Criminalizing Poverty: "We Get the Government We Deserve"

Two National Homeless advocacy groups singled out Los Angeles as the meanest city in the United States for the criminalization of poverty and homelessness. It's so called "Safer City Initiative" punishes people for having a roof over one's head. Instead of criminalizing torture or say widespread theft of the American pocketbook via banks, financial institutions and Congress, we punish poor people and the homeless, for what? Being poor. Welcome to disreality. To the right is tent city in Orlando.

Some of the other initiatives that serve the national interest are making it illegal to sleep or sit on a sidewalk, prohibitions against begging or god-forbid panhandling, selective enforcement of loitering and jay walking sought to put homeless behind bars making it more difficult to find a job once released. The Ten Meanest cities in order based on this study are: (some may surprise you)

1) Los Angeles

2) St. Petersburg, FL

3) Orlando, FL

4) Atlanta, Ga

5) Gainsville, FL.

6) Kalamazoo, MI

7) San Francisco

8) Honolulu

9) Bradenton, Fl

10) Berkeley

Four Florida cities, yikes. All warm climates outside of Kalamazoo. What's going on there? And cities that are perceived as "progressive" such as Berkeley and San Francisco that have some of the more draconian measures against homeless are on the list. When I visited San Francisco for the first time it shocked me how many homeless were on the streets and how mean the daily papers were about it. I guess progressive doesn't mean kindness to the poor anymore.

It always struck me as ridiculous that our policies regarding the homeless were so counterproductive. It hit me while living in Hartford, CT while I was working in a homeless shelter, a place I ate my meals five times a week with mostly homeless men, and women who usually had children in tow, many of which had a mental incapacity, that we make it illegal to beg for money or even a meal, yet it isn't illegal to be poor. In fact we like poor people, more to go around for the rich. Now, in the midst of the greatest economic crisis in 70 years what is our solution for the poorest of the poor? Jail time. I am thinking this is where the heads of banks belong, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzalez for you know - stealing money from the public trust and fucking war crimes.

What singles the debate out the most for me is the provisions in the LA budget which is spending 6 million a year to pay for 50 extra police officers who patrol "Skid Row" while budgeting just 5.7 million for homelessness services.

L.A.'s motto might as well be: "Poverty is a crime and we seek to prosecute." Maybe California doesn't deserve a bail-out. Maybe we are all exactly where we should be, the country completely defunct and out of control, the oligarchs in control of the purse strings, and we are angry that a Puerto Rican Supreme Court nominee who climbed her way out of the Bronx to the Federal Bench said she thinks she might make a better decision than white men on a court of law because of her background. Is that really in debate anymore? As Professor Jenny Rivera, one of Sonia Sotomayor's many fedral law clerks used to say to us at CUNY: "Wake up people!"

It was remarked to me on the phone the other night, my mentor giving me advice on a job search: She said: "I am tired of always being disappointed in our leaders, we should all be in the streets, but in the end you know, we get the government we deserve." Tough to disagree with that.

A New World Order

I have lived in Brazil for the last five years. The experience has been, to say the least, enlightening. I have begun to understand a country that is in many ways very similar to the US, but in others, completely different. Brazil is a power in South America, and one of the world`s emerging powers, but is still a developing country. It has been a colony like the US, but has nver really outgrown some of its colonial past. Inequality, one of the developing world`s banes, is still huge in Brazil.

But things are changing. One of those things, which most of the world up until now has lived on, is a certain economic dependence on the US. A poor country like Brazil would provide raw materials in exports, and import about everything else. The exchange was not very even-handed, and the big economy, namely the US, would name its price on everything from coffee to rubber to sugar.

Writing in Vanity Fair, Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stieglitz discusses how the Thirld World may view the future of their relations with the US. As he writes: In much of the world, however, the battle between capitalism and socialism—or at least something that many Americans would label as socialism—still rages. While there may be no winners in the current economic crisis, there are losers, and among the big losers is support for American-style capitalism...Colonialism left a mixed legacy in the developing world—but one clear result was the view among people there that they had been cruelly exploited.

Stieglitz makes a startling point when he describes how many of the same people who were put in charge of dealing with the crisis in Asia in the 1990s are now trying to get the US out of the huge hole it got itself into...a hole created by the same policies that the US hel over countries like Argentina and Brazil. The hypocrisy is not going unnoticed around the developing world.

The contrast between the handling of the East Asia crisis and the American crisis is stark and has not gone unnoticed. To pull America out of the hole, we are now witnessing massive increases in spending and massive deficits, even as interest rates have been brought down to zero. Banks are being bailed out right and left. Some of the same officials in Washington who dealt with the East Asia crisis are now managing the response to the American crisis. Why, people in the Third World ask, is the United States administering different medicine to itself?

Many in the developing world still smart from the hectoring they received for so many years: they should adopt American institutions, follow our policies, engage in deregulation, open up their markets to American banks so they could learn “good” banking practices, and (not coincidentally) sell their firms and banks to Americans, especially at fire-sale prices during crises. Yes, Washington said, it will be painful, but in the end you will be better for it.


It isn`t as if all of these countries don`t want to America back on its feet. They have seen, as he writes, 200 million of the world move into poverty as a direct consequence of the crisis. But what they aren`t so keen on is the need to revert to some American-led paradigm in the future. And they are already changing the way they do things. From China to Brazil, countries in the developing world are taking concrete steps to de-link from the US, and create their own power structures.

As Stieglitz writes: We are no longer the chief source of capital. The world’s top three banks are now Chinese. America’s largest bank is down at the No. 5 spot. The dollar has long been the reserve currency—countries held the dollar in order to back up confidence in their own currencies and governments. But it has gradually dawned on central banks around the world that the dollar may not be a good store of value.

These steps are not what really worries Stieglitz, however. As he writes, he is more concerned about ideas. These countries may just give up on any concept of market economy: The former Communist countries generally turned, after the dismal failure of their postwar system, to market capitalism, replacing Karl Marx with Milton Friedman as their god. The new religion has not served them well. Many countries may conclude not simply that unfettered capitalism, American-style, has failed but that the very concept of a market economy has failed, and is indeed unworkable under any circumstances. Old-style Communism won’t be back, but a variety of forms of excessive market intervention will return. And these will fail. The poor suffered under market fundamentalism—we had trickle-up economics, not trickle-down economics. But the poor will suffer again under these new regimes, which will not deliver growth. Without growth there cannot be sustainable poverty reduction. There has been no successful economy that has not relied heavily on markets. Poverty feeds disaffection. The inevitable downturns, hard to manage in any case, but especially so by governments brought to power on the basis of rage against American-style capitalism, will lead to more poverty. The consequences for global stability and American security are obvious.

If, as he writes, there is not faith or trust in the overall system of trade and interconnectedness, or some some sense of shared values, things will not get better. If the US preeaches anti-protectionism, but puts made in USA clauses in proposals, nothing will improve. Countires around the world will close their doors to each other, and according to Stieglitz, democracy itself will be the next victim: In the developing world, people look at Washington and see a system of government that allowed Wall Street to write self-serving rules which put at risk the entire global economy—and then, when the day of reckoning came, turned to Wall Street to manage the recovery. They see continued re-distributions of wealth to the top of the pyramid, transparently at the expense of ordinary citizens. They see, in short, a fundamental problem of political accountability in the American system of democracy. After they have seen all this, it is but a short step to conclude that something is fatally wrong, and inevitably so, with democracy itself.

Brazil, in a specific example, exports only about 12% of its goods to the US. It has suffered much less than other countries around the world. It seems to have learned lessons that the US taught, but never took to heart. How can American companies, and its government expect the world to take anything that comes with made in USA at face value?

Our Lady of the Blessed Tree

In Limerick, Co. Ireland thousands of people have flocked to a tree stump asking authorities not to remove it. Why? Because they think the Virgin Mary is in it, or is actually it, I can't figure out which. It is on the grounds of a church, mind you, which could make it more possible? The local parish priest, however advised people "not to worship a tree." Sound advice in my opinion.

But, the parishoners are not taking it. Over 2,000 people have signed a petition not to remove the "blessed tree." Noel White says, "nature has a funny way of showing it up and letting it be a freak of nature...but surely whatever it is - it is a good thing to have so many people coming out to pray, especially young people saying the rosary in the church. "Maybe it is our Lady's way of getting us back to the church," he finished.

The Limerick Diocesan response is one of incredulity it seems, "While we do not wish to detract from devotion to Our Lady, we would also wish to avoid anything leading to superstition. A vigil was held in the evening for the blessed tree. We were not planning on visiting Limerick on our visit to Ireland. We might have to change that and see "Our Lady of the Blessed Tree."

Are Governors Doomed to Fall?

I have never read the book Freakonomics, but I got to thinking about what the book is about (I've heard). The book, from what I gather, links seemingly unconnected realities, creating or attempting to prove a causal link between one and the other. For example, people who eat low-fat diets are more likely to commit murder.

So, in light of the endless list of governors, such as the back-in-the-media Sarah Palin, I began to wonder if there would bew any way to link the demise of certain individuals to the fact that they made the decision to run for governor and then, somehow, got elected. In other words, the question I would like to know the answer to is this: is there an unusually high percentage of governors who have been forced to resign or been involved in some scandal when compared to other public positions, especially in politics?

Does being governor have the potential of ruining your life? Or is it just that, especially recently, and especially in the God-fearing GOP (but not only...remember New Jersey's own McGreevey hiring his Israeli boyfriend and then having his world explode?), governors just don't know how to avoid getting themselves into a whole heap of trouble?

Is there any governor who is immune to this epidemic of ineptitude and infamy? Is being governor contagious? All I know is that if I am in a statehouse in the next few months, I sure as hell will be wearing a mask. Forget swine flu...the real thing to worry about is getting to close to a governor.

Notes on Politics

It is has been a crazy few weeks, Michael Jackson finally buried, Sarah Palin also figuratively buried by her own doing. Does she actually have an advisor giving her sound political advice? Mark Sanford on the other hand still surviving barely by the skin of his soul mate. If these were Democrats they would be gone, long gone by now, but somehow they cling to God and insanity and the press kind of likes to have them around. If you are Edwards or Spitzer you are trash, not that I am, mind you making excuses for these bumbling fools.

But, John Ensign really takes the cake doesn't he? I mean your chief advisor's wife? Did you hear how it went down? He invites his advisor and his family to move into his house because their home was broken into, then Ensign (see below a letter Ensign wrote pleading with himself to break up the relationship) proceeded to break into his family. These Christian types really get to me, I end up feeling bad for them. They delude themselves so into believing in something so much, the "devil" creeps in and wham your in Argentina crying for your soul mate, or banging your best friend's wife while your wife, children and best friend are next door. Or you are so deluded that you believe "quitting" is actually fulfilling your term as Governor.

The Democratic party is so bad, however they can't even pass a sound economic policy, a healthcare bill, prosecute torture, while the opposition party is in complete shambles, falling apart at the seams, and they control the White House, all of Congress, and have a supermajority in the Senate. They still want to please the Republicans. The stimulus isn't working? Oh, really? Well, maybe 42 percent of it shouldn't have been tax cuts that most people either don't know what to do with the extra $8 a week, or if you happen to be one of the lucky rich people you stick it in your yacht. The country is falling apart and all anyone can talk about is politics. Or policy in the context of politics.

Ralph Nader was right. These guys all do look the same. Yeah, Obama isn't giving us a bad name, but we still are running two to three wars, keeping state secrets, giving away our money to all those who already have tons of it and still are totally homophobic.

The Donkey and Elephant better watch out, a third party could come out of nowhere and steal the 2012 election. I gotta good mind to run myself. As R. Thelonious would say: Assclowns.

Goodbye to Family Values?

When I was a young whippersnapper (is that how it`s spelled?) many, many years ago, in the `80s, I remember hearing the term family values for the first time. It was, of course the height of the Reagan administration, and every time you turned on the radio, or watched the nightly news, there was some Senator, Congressman, or Reagan himself throwing around the catchphrase of the Republican party. It seemed that Republicans had found the formula for success: distort the image of the opposing party not by focusing on the issues, but by building fear of a destruction of the false image of some halcyon day when, as the Ramones put it: we`re a hapy family. All of the world`s problems, and especially those of the disaffected in the US, could be summed up by just saying that those poor people lacked family values.

Whatever that meant. The didn`t have the moral fiber, the structural basis to succeed like the Republicans knew best.

That hammering of a lie lasted for decades, somehow. No matter how much reality flew in the face of all those who tried to pretend that they were above the fray of it all, Congress member who would later be indicted would still cite those beloved words, presidents who would later be found to have sold arms to supposed enemies would continue to froth on about a thousand points of light, and their sons, who were somehow elected, would go on about personal conversations with God. Then they would oversee torture, extraordinary rendition, the allowed destruction of New Orleans, the death penalty for the mentally ill and the further destruction of the Earth...and an invasion of a sovereign nation.

All of this was excused, and not linked to a lack of those same family values.

But now, what with an ever-cascading litany of scandals in the Republican party, from foot-fondling in public bathrooms to showcasing 18-year old pregnant daughters, to mistresses from Nevada to Argentina, does the Grand Ole Party have a leg to stand on, or better a soapbox to yell from? Where are the family values? Or do some people get a pass...like the entire Congress? How can the last two decades have come to this? Where is the Christian Coalition when we need them? I don`t hear much from them these days.

I wonder why? And I wonder when, if ever, I will hear those special words, family values, uttered again. This side of never would be too soon.

Memories of New Jersey: The Eighth Grade Dance

After reading Kid Radical`s post on Michael Jackson, which so elegantly summed up his youth in relation to the phenomena that was MJ, I got to thinking about eighth grade.

I did not grow up in a mill town like KR, but in a small commuter suburb, Rutherford, about 30 minutes outside the greatest city in the world, New York. The town was, in some ways, millions of miles away from the Behemoth Apple, however. For example, Rutherford is a dry town, meaning that, even today, alcohol cannot be served. Some restaurants have cleverly worked ways around that ordinance, but that is beside the point. Rutherford`s nickname is the City of Trees. There are quite a few. And the public schools, while not idyllic, are sheltered to a large extent from the tensions of a major city.

I grew up in a small town on the edge of a really big one. But it was easy to forget that the really big one, New York, even existed...especially at a school dance.

In eighth grade, was going to Pierrepont School, which was about seven blocks from my home. I would walk there every day, and was usually late. (one month I got in-school suspension for my oft-repeated tardiness and had to perform hard labor, lugging sand bags for the kindergarden sand boxes. ) I really don`t remember how often we had school-run dances, but I do remember, I think, that we had Halloween dances. And it was at one of those yearly affairs that I remember the legend of Michael coming into play.

Walking into the school gym was, at the time, a nerve-racking affair. I was 13, starting adolescence, and overall, a nerd (still am). I don`t remember my costume, but if I was 13, it was 1990, and Jackson-fever was in full-effect. I do remember feeling like everyone was staring at me, and I quickly searched the room for some familiar face to sidle up to. That of course being another guy, because the one thing I will never forget is how segregated these dances were.

Of course, I did not grow up in a small town in Georgia, so that segregation was not along race lines. It was completely along gender lines. Boys and girls you see, at least at the outset of any school dance, never, never, grouped together. It just didn`t happen. And that meant I headed immediately into the growing lump of boys stading by the bleachers, trying to look cool, while the opposing lump (the girls) pretended not to stare over at the boys.

It was so simple, when I think about it. There was a formula to it all. As the dance started, some brave soul, like my friend Roland, who was probably dressed like Michael, and was probably the most popular guy in the school, would start to dance. he really could dance, including the Moonwalk. Then, slowly, other guys would attempt to copy him, moving toward the middle of the gym floor. Slowly, the girls would do the same, with minimum eye contact between either group. As everyone loosened up, the numbers grew.

Until a slow song. When any romantic tune was played, both sides would quickly return to their home bases, and the few, the proud, the cool would go ask a girl to dance.

That was hardly ever me.

The Honduran Coup is Troubling

The Honduran leader, President Manuel Zelaya was swept away yesterday in military coup by those trained at the infamous "School of the Americas." Obama's response, and Secretary of State Clinton's response (although Clinton's was better) appeared tepid in comparison with other world leaders. General Romeo Vasquez is a graduate of the School of the Americas, trained in the U.S. for specific reasons, maintaining ties to the U.S. Military and gradually improve their ranks in their respective countries. Jeremy Scahill indicates it is a major reason why we train these "graduates."

The President of Congress has declared himself the new President, Roberto Micheletti. On the Friday before the coup, the elected President, Zelaya called Micheletti a second-class congressman, a "pathetic congressman" who only has a career because he attached his coattails to Zelaya. To read more great analysis go here. This is surely a left vs. capitalism coup as the ambassadors of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua have been arrested. Conditions are also deteriorating.

The elected President was no radical, he is a business man elected from the Liberal Party in Honduras with respect for indigineous peoples rights, however he did have left leaning economic and social policies. He earned praise from labor unions and "civil society groups" and forged alliances with the Bolivians and Venezuelans, very left leaning countries in South America.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez insinuated the U.S. was involved. Who knows what happened behind the scenes, Obama insinuated the opposite, but from what we know, how the CIA operates, how the military and others operate in this country (similar graduates have orchestrated similar coups) this might not be far from the truth.

And the beat goes on.

Remembering Michael for His Music

On August 16, 1977 I arrived home, nine years old and newly moved to the working class town of Methuen, Massachusetts. My father and mother sat at the table, my father in his signature T and my mother, after calling in sick to her waitress job, tears in her eyes unable to speak. "The King is dead," he said when he finally could. "Elvis died today." "Really?" I spoke. "How?" "A heart attack," he said. Later to be thought induced by prescription drug use. He was older, fat, way past his time, but still an icon. Still, I couldn't believe my parents would cry over him? What for? What did he ever do? He sang songs, so what? Well, June 25, 2009 I now know how they feel.


I turned on the television and there it was: "Michael Jackson, dead." The coverage that will never stop usurping the headlines of the brainless and obviously penis envy Republican party. Still, I was mesmerized for a while, Michael Jackson dead. If you are a nine year old today, I think you might have the same feeling. Weirdo. Jack-O. He got weirder and weirder as the days moved on. Skin color changes, molestation charges, marrying the King's daughter. The King marrying the King I guess. Many might say, what is all the fuss about?

One of my favorite songs as a young boy was "I'll Be There" one of the only "black" records in my house, outside of Nat King Cole. I loved watching the Jackson Five cartoon as well, one of the only cartoons I enjoyed. My mother is probably most responsible for my love of Michael. She adored Michael Jackson at every stage. This was not really common where we grew up. Up until the late 1970's in my hometown the Jackson's were a novelty act. They were still Motown and considered "black music." Michael was the bonified star, but it wasn't rock 'n roll. As I grew up we listened to more and more "hair metal." Ratt, Motley Crue, Twisted Sister and the like. This was what was popular and I listened, not always enjoying it often incredulous at the ridiculousness of this "LA composition."

Michael Jackson was still pleasing the R&B charts with "Off the Wall." I loved "Rock With You," a beautiful song. He won several "black" awards for R&B music at the American Music Awards. I listened with no one else, but my mother. My mother continued to adore Michael Jackson, "his talent is supreme" she would say and I remember specifically when "Thriller" came out she said: "This is your Elvis." It was released in 1982 with much fan fare and his elusive moonwalk at the Motown awards. I listened to "Billie Jean" over and over as a 45 single, not the entire album, and finally MTV relented and allowed "Billie Jean" to be played on MTV, changing the musical landscape forever. This allowed "black music" to be played paving the way for Prince and other black artists like Whitney Houston to be allowed in to the mainstream charts. I still can't believe for the first three years of MTV we were watching segregationist television. By the shear force of Michael's music he changed that.

Still, my friends were not impressed in the mill town I grew up in, Michael Jackson was black. His music was still black and I was an oddball amongst them, listening to his music incessantly at home under cover with mom. Then, the next single released off the album was "Beat it" hyped (especially in my hometown) by the fact that Eddie Van Halen played the guitar piece. My older brother's best friend at the time Gary Lacroix drove to our house, didn't knock and ran into the house calling "Rich, Rich, John!" I came running. "What?" "You gotta hear this." "What, Gary?! Michael Jackson's latest single, "Beat it." He put it on and we were awestruck. Listening to it over and over. Gary had the cassette tape of Thriller and not long we were listening to the entire album. And then the videos of all his songs began playing on MTV of which he became the master - telling stories, some arguing killing radio. "Beat It" in my mind still stands out for its cool choreography and beautiful rhythms and yes, the guitar of Eddie Van Halen. I didn't always understand what was happening and at times it felt foreign, but I knew this thing that we were watching was magical and the future.

At school, soon everyone was talking about Michael Jackson, some dressing like him, girls going absolutely crazy for him, like the old videos of the crowds going nuts for Elvis. Thereafter I was hooked and followed his career, usually alone in my adoration in my "crew." But, knowing I was far from alone, I loved everything he did from "The Way You Make Me Feel" to "Dirty Diana" to "Black or White" to the beautiful song from Free Willy, "Will You Be There." Disappointed in many of the accusations over the past 15 years, cringing at the changes, mostly feeling for someone who suffered a cruel existence under a cruel father. Growing up in front of all of us could not have been easy and I choose to remember his music and his genius.

I have shut off the television and turned on the music.

Hypocrisy Watch

He doesn't want to be more libertarian on gay marriage, but just marriage in general right Mark? So, if we can re-define marriage, i.e. fly to Argentina for a booty call, can we at least allow anyone who wants to marry to marry?

Those Were the Days?

What seems like a long time ago, but wasn`t really, I wrote some short pieces about when I was growing up in New Jersey, and I had a good time doing so. So, I thought I would see if I could reach back into the murky depths of my muddled mind to jot down a few more mundane moments in my life.

I went to high school at St. Peter`s Prep in Jersey City, and took the train from Rutherford every day. I lived about six or seven blocks from the train station in my hometown, but never seemed to find a way to leave enough time to be able to just walk to get the train. Every morning, with about 5 minutes before the train arrived, I would bolt out of my front door and streak down my block, down a short hill, and take a left, past the commuters waiting for the 190 bus to Port Authority and head straight down Orient Way. The whole time I ran, I kept repeating the same words: not yet. It was an attempt to will the train to slow down and not screech to a halt beside the platform before a got there, panting and disheveled. Sometimes I beat the train, and sometimes the train beat me. I remember the satisfying feeling of sitting beside some guy in a suit that had probably been on the train longer than I had been awake...since Suffern or something like that. But I also vividly recall watching the train pull up at the station while I was still almost 3 blocks away, and feeling like crying.

The next morning, the routine repeated itself. One positive side effect: it was hard to get fat.

Think Locally, Buy Locally

I read on the Jersey City Independent this morning a post in conjunction with NEW magazine that when we buy local we contribute to the local economy almost double than when we buy at a chain store. They make the analogy as we are navigating to the commuter station, do we buy our coffee at a local coffee shop or do we go to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. When we eat do we go to the local hang or do we go to TGIFridays. Thank god there isn't much of that in Jersey City.

When we spend $5 at a locally owned business (this is all on average mind you) $3.40 of that will go to the local economy. If you spend that same $5 at a chain store or a non-locally owned business it falls to $2.15 going to the local economy. That is pretty hefty. It also found that locally owned businesses pay higher wages, gave more to local charities and were more likely to purchase needed items from other locally owned businesses.

Someone asked me the other day, "do Urban Enterprise Zones really work?" Here is your answer. Urban Enterprise Zones encourage growth in the local economy and make us spend our dollars locally. The article makes it clear that these so-called UEZ zones are doing the trick. Read more of the article here.

So, when we go and see that Starbucks or even a Dunkin Donuts is close to everything, oh they are so convenient aren't they, know when you buy from them you are contributing to the destruction of your own local economy. But, when you buy locally you improve your neighbor's pocket book, local charities and that purchase helps other locally owned businesses as well. Think Locally, buy locally.

Health Care Bound to Fail

Why is healthcare bound to fail? Because we have representatives that do not represent the public pure and simple. If you want crude analysis on why it is going to fail read Paul Krugman's column on the "centrist" democrats who he blames for the derision. They are certainly to blame, but there seems to be a lot of blame to go around. The Republicans of course flail their hands in the air and scream "Socialized Medicine" the same tactic used since Harry Truman. The Democrats have nothing to add at all. How about that nearly 72% of Americans want a so-called "public option" in their health care (another poll said it was 76%). That doesn't seem to move the elected officials that currently inhabit the most beautiful building in Washington, DC.

It doesn't seem to matter to these sycophants. The entire capitalist system almost falls on its face, we have to prop them up via nationalization and corporate giveaways and still the Republicans and many Democrats cry socialism because we want a health care option that is not the private sector? It is stunning and shocking to me. It is also important to note that the cost that has been so publicly repeated as one trillion dollars could easily be paid by removing the Bush tax cuts, a cost of 1.8 trillion. Iraq? Afghanistan? Shall I go on?

I have no confidence that the public option will be used and be in a final reconciliation bill, my bet is it will be a bunch of nothing, including subsidies and lower costs provisions and we will receive nothing except a temporary measure in deflating healthcare costs and millions still uncovered. Doing it half-assed is not doing it. President Obama campaigned on this, his signature issue besides ending the Iraq war (don't get me started on that one). If he fails and it certainly looks like he will, he may be a one-term President beaten by propaganda and a lack of will on the part of democrats. We are not arguing for Single Payer healthcare here, it is only a request to have competition in the market place, something unfettered capitalism abhors apparently.

It also begs the question of real reform. And I mean campaign finance reform, and I mean publicly financing campaigns completely tearing the money from the system. That is the only way to remove lobbyists and of course our "Public Representatives" out of the public coffers. It is a subject I have been screaming from the roof tops since Bill Clinton's second inauguration, an issue that grows in importance as we see corporations laud more power every year. For a great website discussing Campaign Finance Reform visit the Brennan Center (also a place that wouldn't hire me), tremendous discussions on what is happening around the country. It is not all that hopeless, a groundswell is occurring.

Whatever Works

Entering the cinema to see "Whatever Works" I didn't expect much. I thought the lines delivered on the previews were less than stellar, but it turns out I was wrong. It was a highly enjoyable film with a wonderful cast. Patricia Clarkson steals the show of course (as she usually does), but everyone else was very good. Some leaps have to be taken by the viewer, but I think the film overall is very funny and one of Woody's best in recent memory.

“hid (IN) hoboken” at Eureka Market Art Gallery

“hid (IN) hoboken” at Eureka Market Art Gallery

The hob’art cooperative gallery has announced a new exhibition, “hid (IN) hoboken” opening on June 15th at the new Eureka Market Art Gallery, 259 First Street, Hoboken, which will showcase artwork by many members of the non-profit organization. The Eureka Market is sponsored by Traders of Babylon to encourage the arts and the artists in Hudson County. Liz Cohen, President of hob’art is curating this show.

There will be an opening reception on Friday, June 19th from 6 to 9 p.m. Ndaje, an African Drumming group will perform during the reception. On Monday, June 22nd, at 6 p.m., the Garden State Dance Project, a renowned dance troupe will perform modern interpretive, hip hop, and break dancing. There will be a small entry fee.

During the exhibition, the gallery will be open Monday thru Friday, 9 am to 7pm, on Saturdays, from 9 to 4 pm, and the show can be viewed on Sundays by appointment. The closing date for the exhibit is July 15th.

For additional information, please visit www.hob-art.org and www.romance art.biz. You may contact Liz Cohen at conchart@aol.com or 201-424-1275. The art gallery can be contacted through Traders of Babylon, 201-659-0802, babylon@pipeline.com.