“Community Organizers Are The New Oilmen.”

Great article in the Washington Post recently about the effect that Barack Obama’s election has had on community organizers. That “hope” that Obama kept talking about seems more realistic now, especially for organizers toiling in the trenches.

All I know is that the annual convention for the organizing network that my neighborhood organization belongs to is coming up at the end of March. For years, we have been trying to get Congress to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA): strengthening the rules guaranteeing lending equity in low-income neighborhoods and extending new regulations over the “shadow” banking industry of sub-prime lenders that has remained beyond the reach of CRA. We made no progress.

Now, in discussions with House and Senate staffers working on banking issues prior to the convention, we aren’t being asked to justify the need for stronger regulations and more expansive equity rules, we’re being asked for the language we want in the bills and the names of neighborhood folks that can testify at hearings on their behalf.

As the Washington Post states:

There’s never been a better time to do what they do: Be an obscure, idealistic, possibly burned-out toiler in a broken neighborhood or a starving country hollow, those American battlegrounds where faith is fragile and clear-cut victories are rare.

And to quote another noted philosopher, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister:

I WANNA ROCK!!!

Open Letter To Andrew Card, former Bush Chief of Staff

Andrew Card is upset that Obama, unlike Bush, doesn’t require a suit coat and tie in the Oval Office.

Dr. Mr. Card:
On a recent show of Inside Edition, you state:

The Oval Office symbolizes…the Constitution, the hopes and dreams, and I’m going to say democracy. And when you have a dress code in the Supreme Court and a dress code on the floor of the Senate, floor of the House, I think it’s appropriate to have an expectation that there will be a dress code that respects the office of the President.

Rather than have a President whose clothes respect the Presidency and the Constitution, I would much rather have a President whose actions show respect for our nation’s cherished institutions and ideals–or do we need to revisit Bush’s role in secret wiretaps of citizens, extraordinary rendition and secret CIA prisons, authorizing torture and suspending rights of habeus corpus?

Oh, and by the way . . . FUCK YOU!

The Inaugural, As Viewed From My Couch

Favorite moments:

At the We Are One concert, Bruce redeeming his horrendous version of “The Rising” with a soul stirring duet of “This Land Is Your Land” with Pete Seeger and they sang ALL the lyrics, including the radical last stanzas:

“In the squares of the city – By the shadow of the steeple
By the relief office – I saw my people
As they stood there hungry, I stood there wonderin
If this land’s still made for you and me.”

Chorus [this land is my land…]

“There was a big high wall there – that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted – it said private property;
But on the other side – it didn’t say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.”

Chorus [this land is my land…]

“Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking – that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.”

Rev. Joseph Lowery’s amazing benediction: spiritual, populist, humorous and moving.

Obama, entering onto the Capitol podium, stopping to embrace and acknowledge Rep. John Lewis, a man who withstood the beatings of police during the first Selma to Montgomery march and rose to the House of Representatives.

Bob Schieffer on CBS wondering why Presidents even run for a second term since everything important is done in the first year of the first term and the second term “is when everyone goes to prison.”

David Brooks and Mark Shields on PBS who simultaneously remarked upon ex-Vice President Dick Cheney’s strained back from picking up boxes he was moving: “must be government secrets” and both LAUGHING at Cheney.

Free At Last

“I Want To Become A Community Organizer”

Barack To HUD Employees: “No More Roy Bernardi Appointments.”

Prior to the election, Barack Obama sent letters to career federal employees in seven key agencies to outline how his administration would roll back the policies of the Bush Administration. Obama sent the letters at the behest of John Gage, President of the 600,000 strong American Federation of Government Employees. The letters were signed by Obama and stated forcefully his intention to reverse the policy of the Bush Administration to cut funding for enforcement, hire political cronies and politicize agency’s missions.

The best line cited in the article came in Barack’s letter to HUD employees:
“I am committed to appointing a Secretary, Deputy and Assistant Secretaries who are committed to HUD’s mission and capable of executing it.”

In other words: No more Roy Bernardi-types, the former mayor of Syracuse who rose to the number two spot at HUD due to his political connections, despite having no discernible management skills and a record of mismanaging Syracuse’s HUD-funded programs while Mayor.

Barack Still Committed To White House Urban Policy Office

The news is that Barack Obama is still committed to creating a White House Office of Urban Policy. He had committed to do so on the campaign trail, but with new fires breaking out daily in the economy, this wasn’t thought to be a priority.

This is what cities need. A commitment to ramping up funding for Community Development Block Grants, as well as someone able to argue for urban interests across the spectrum of agencies: housing, education, agriculture, environment, commerce etc.

As Errol Lewis noted in an editorial column in the NY Daily News:

Properly done, an urban-affairs office could be the perfect place to mount a coordinated, all-out attack on the four horsemen of the inner-city apocalypse: street violence, poverty, poor housing and broken schools.

Bruce At Vote For Change Rally in Philly For Barack Obama

“Hello Philly,

“I am glad to be here today for this voter registration drive and for Barack Obama, the next President of the United States.

“I’ve spent 35 years writing about America, its people, and the meaning of the American Promise. The Promise that was handed down to us, right here in this city from our founding fathers, with one instruction: Do your best to make these things real. Opportunity, equality, social and economic justice, a fair shake for all of our citizens, the American idea, as a positive influence, around the world for a more just and peaceful existence. These are the things that give our lives hope, shape, and meaning. They are the ties that bind us together and give us faith in our contract with one another.

“I’ve spent most of my creative life measuring the distance between that American promise and American reality. For many Americans, who are today losing their jobs, their homes, seeing their retirement funds disappear, who have no healthcare, or who have been abandoned in our inner cities. The distance between that promise and that reality has never been greater or more painful.

“I believe Senator Obama has taken the measure of that distance in his own life and in his work. I believe he understands, in his heart, the cost of that distance, in blood and suffering, in the lives of everyday Americans. I believe as president, he would work to restore that promise to so many of our fellow citizens who have justifiably lost faith in its meaning. After the disastrous administration of the past 8 years, we need someone to lead us in an American reclamation project. In my job, I travel the world, and occasionally play big stadiums, just like Senator Obama. I’ve continued to find, wherever I go, America remains a repository of people’s hopes, possibilities, and desires, and that despite the terrible erosion to our standing around the world, accomplished by our recent administration, we remain, for many, a house of dreams. One thousand George Bushes and one thousand Dick Cheneys will never be able to tear that house down.

“They will, however, be leaving office, dropping the national tragedies of Katrina, Iraq, and our financial crisis in our laps. Our sacred house of dreams has been abused, looted, and left in a terrible state of disrepair. It needs care; it needs saving, it needs defending against those who would sell it down the river for power or a quick buck. It needs strong arms, hearts, and minds. It needs someone with Senator Obama’s understanding, temperateness, deliberativeness, maturity, compassion, toughness, and faith, to help us rebuild our house once again. But most importantly, it needs us. You and me. To build that house with the generosity that is at the heart of the American spirit. A house that is truer and big enough to contain the hopes and dreams of all of our fellow citizens. That is where our future lies. We will rise or fall as a people by our ability to accomplish this task. Now I don’t know about you, but I want that dream back, I want my America back, I want my country back.

“So now is the time to stand with Barack Obama and Joe Biden, roll up our sleeves, and come on up for the rising.”

You Tube coverage

Lots Of Bruce Juice

1) Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Nils Lofgren, guitarist for the E Street Band. He underwent double hip replacement surgery and expects to be laid up for a month. This is the same guy who pulled off back flips while doing his guitar solo on Because The Night during the last tour!

2) Bruce and Billy Joel will be doing a benefit concert for Barack Obama in New York City. Only 2,500 seats in the theatre and the pricing is steep. I imagine it’s probably solo Bruce. Rockers are already debating which Barack ‘n’ Roll extravaganza to shell out for: Bruce/Billy in NYC or the Dead/Allman Bros. benefit show at Penn State? I hate to be sacrilegious, but I think I’d go see the Dead and The Allmans. The Dead doesn’t get together too often anymore and the Allmans just keep getting better (what band wouldn’t kill to have both Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes?)

3) It’s official. Bruce will be the halftime show
at the 2009 Super Bowl. Of all the comments I read, the best was from Gary Susman on the Entertainment Weekly blog PopWatch:

As a bigger music fan than football fan, I wish I could say that Bruce Springsteen is bigger than the Super Bowl, that he should have better things to do than play a hasty 12-minute medley of his hits, as a sideshow to a sporting event, for an audience that didn’t show up just to see him. But the truth is, he’s not, and after the likes of the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Prince, Tom Petty, U2, and others have paved the way, there’s no way Springsteen can say he’s above performing at this winter’s Superbowl halftime show.

4) Of course, the Super Bowl gig has spawned a new parlor game in the Springsteen community: You’ve got about 12 minutes, what do you play? My best guess:
Girls In Their Summer Clothes (4:20)
Promised Land (4:33)
Ramrod (4:05)

5) Bruce is also playing a free show in Philly as an inducement/reward for Obama’s final voter registration push on Saturday October 4th.

Obama Locks Down the Crucial Dead Head Vote

Obama Locks Down the Crucial Dead Head Vote

Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun

Looks like Bobby. Phil, Mickey and Bill locked right-wing lyricist
Robert Hunter in the VW van.