Anderson@Large

Specter to Bush: You’re Not the Boss of Me

Sen. Arlen Specter’s challenge of President Bush, the self-proclaimed decider-cum-decision-maker, has triggered a long overdue debate about the War Powers Clause.

Specter, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and editor of the Yale Law Journal, schooled Bush, a C student, on the U.S. Constitution:

I would suggest respectfully to the president that he is not the sole decider. The decider is a shared and joint responsibility.

While Specter has had his moments, including kowtowing to Bush and Karl Rove to secure the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee and trashing Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing, he has been a voice of reason and moderation.

Specter’s decisive rebuke of wannabe King George is a reminder that “debate is the price of democracy.” And democracy begins at home.

Love Letter to Miss B

The past few days I’ve been too distracted by “the decision maker” to write about the memorial service for Ruth Brown organized by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.

The service was held last week at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church.  Dr. Calvin O. Butts III, Abyssinian’s pastor, presided over the celebration.

Dr. Butts’ church is located just a few blocks from the Apollo Theater.  And let me tell you, the family and friends put on quite a show – a show that was planned by “Miss B” herself.

I knew it was going to be a special evening when I rode up in the elevator with Little Jimmy Scott, who later sang “So Long.”

The performers included Maxine Brown, Sandra Reeves-Phillips and Chuck Jackson.

The program included video clips, and tributes from Bonnie Raitt, Mable John and Hal Jackson who, among a long list of accomplishments, played trombone on Miss B’s signature song.

The tribute ended with Ruth Brown’s band, along with Paul Shaffer on keyboard, playing “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean.”

Rodney Jones, her longtime musical director, said:

Ruth Brown expressed her love for God through her music. We in turn expressed our love for Miss B through music.

So long, Miss Rhythm. You are loved and missed.

Bush Is So Over

They call it “Stormy Monday” (and here) but the latest Newsweek poll should get your week off to a hopeful start.

The poll found:

The president’s approval ratings are at their lowest point in the poll’s history—30 percent—and more than half the country (58 percent) say they wish the Bush presidency were simply over, a sentiment that is almost unanimous among Democrats (86 percent), and is shared by a clear majority (59 percent) of independents and even one in five (21 percent) Republicans.

With Bush widely viewed as an ineffectual “lame duck” (by 71 percent of all Americans), over half (53 percent) of the poll’s respondents now say they believe history will see him as a below-average president, up three points from last May.

Clearly, the American people have made their decision about “the decision maker.”

New Orleans Bushwhacked

In his 5,600-word State of the Union address, President Bush didn't say squat about the state of New Orleans (here and here).

To be sure, words aren’t Bush’s forte.  But any Katrina survivor could have told him in eight words the state of things in the Crescent City: I got it bad (and that ain’t good).

As is her wont, Rep. Maxine Waters had a few choice words for Bush. Waters told Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!:

As a chair of the Subcommittee of the Financial Institutions Committee on Housing and Community Development, I was very, very pained that the President seems to have forgotten about the catastrophe in the Gulf Coast. Those people who were sitting in their homes in New Orleans and sitting outside of New Orleans in Texas and other places, wanting to come home, could not help but have felt left out, forgotten, disregarded, listening to the President talk about the State of the Union.

What is the State of the Union? What is the state of the Gulf Coast that suffered that awful catastrophe and all of that disaster? And the President of the United States didn't even mention it. I know they felt terrible about that and wondering who cares. Who cares about their future and getting them back into their homes and jobs and getting their schools and their healthcare system up? It was a terrible -- not mentioned by the President of the United States.

With Democrats now in control, Bush no longer has the last word. So, on Monday, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will hold a field hearing in New Orleans to find out what's going on with the recovery efforts.

The hearing will begin at 9 am CST. For info on witnesses and location, click here.

March for Peace

On Saturday, United for Peace & Justice will lead a march for peace in Washington, DC to send a message to President Bush and Congress:

We say to the growing Congressional group who are outraged at the President's actions and are committed to honoring the people's mandate and end this senseless, illegal war that we stand with you, behind you and in front of you. We call on Congress to take the actions within its legal power, to make history and steer this country towards sanity, rationality and stability, to end the war now.
         

Congress has the power to set the framework for bringing the troops now. We welcome the recent debate in Congress over using the power of the purse to block the President's escalation plans. The next step must be for Congress to use its power of the purse to stop funding the occupation of Iraq and to begin funding the safe, speedy, and orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

In Bush’s war of choice (here and here), the American death toll is 3,063, including 63 killed this month alone.  Another 22,834 have been wounded.

The cost of Bush’s war?  More than $360 billion (and counting).

OK, how many more reasons do you need to be there?  For transportation info, click here.

State of Our Union

It wasn’t easy but I watched President Bush’s State of the Union address.

I watched it at Marble Collegiate Church following a community dialogue organized by Generation Engage. Using Apple iChat the conversation was broadened to include young activists in Richmond, Va., and Raleigh, N.C.

The conversation was led by former presidential speechwriters Ted Sorenson and William Safire.

As befitting two “people of the word,” the banter between Sorenson and Safire was lively, informative and provocative, particularly when Safire likened Bush to Harry Truman.

Safire on Bush:

One of the best things about Bush is he doesn’t get depressed by poll numbers.

Sorenson had a different take on Bush:

Bush’s address will confirm my thesis that political discourse has declined since John F. Kennedy.

By show time, I was primed for Bush whose Iraq war has put the world in an uproar and “the danger zone is everywhere.”

Bush babbled on that “it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. Let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory.”

While Bush may not be depressed, he’s depressing the hell out of war-weary Americans. Unlike the clueless commander in chief, they have “a worried mind” for good reason.

State of Disunion

Tonight, President Bush will deliver his penultimate State of the Union address (and here).

Bush on TV is less interesting than watching paint dry.  But I will tune in to see an unpopular president, whose approval rating is at a new low, face a skeptical Congress and a doubtful nation.

I also want to see the expression on Bush’s and Vice President Cheney’s faces as they share the podium with Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her House.

Given the givens, it might be prudent to have a cardiac defibrillator close by Cheney.