Former Secretaries of State: Get rid of War Powers Act

Since 1973, American Presidents have been able to deploy troops to anywhere on earth for up to 90 days without consulting Congress.  The War Powers Act, passed over President Nixon’s veto immediately following the Vietnam “Conflict,” was meant to encourage the consultation of Congress in making decisions regarding military action.  But instead, it actually gave presidents more free reign.

Former Secretaries of State James Baker and Warren Christopher have come together to voice support for a new statute that states that the president shall consult with Congress before deploying troops to any combat operations expected to last more than a week.  Consultations with Congress would occur through a 20 member Joint Congressional Consultation Committee with leaders from both parties and chairs and ranking members of relevant committees in both the House and Senate.

Both Baker and Christopher stressed to reporters that the recommendation of the bipartisan commission they co-chaired was not a reaction to the Iraq War.

But if this was in place prior to the mess that ensued, methinks we would be in a much different place right now.  Just sayin’.

Pets and Politics

It’s probably not a good thing when a news organization that calls itself “the essential global news network” publishes a story that reads like a piece from The Onion.  From the AP, via Talking Points Memo.

From George Washington’s foxhound “Drunkard” to George W. Bush’s terriers “Barney” and “Miss Beazley,” pets are a longtime presidential tradition for which the presumed Republican nominee seems well prepared, with more than a dozen.

The apparent Democratic nominee Barack Obama, on the other hand, doesn’t have a pet at home.

The pet-owning public seems to have noticed the difference.

An AP-Yahoo! News poll found that pet owners favor McCain over Obama 42 percent to 37 percent, with dog owners particularly in McCain’s corner.

“I think a person who owns a pet is a more compassionate person — caring, giving, trustworthy. I like pet owners,” said Janet Taylor of Plymouth, Mass.

This is the kind of journalism that gets on my nerves.

We have soldiers fighting in Iraq, the economy is falling apart, and the Associated Press thinks that publishing a story examining the connection between animals being domesticated and the presidential election is something worth reading.

This is from the Associated Press’s Statement of News Values and Principles:

For more than a century and a half, men and women of The Associated Press have had the privilege of bringing truth to the world. They have gone to great lengths, overcome great obstacles – and, too often, made great and horrific sacrifices – to ensure that the news was reported quickly, accurately and honestly.

I don’t think I need to point out how absurd this story sounds after reading that.  AP — step it up.

The big 2-4

Happy Birthday to me!

I’ve not reached the point where I’m afraid of that year’s age increase yet.  In fact, I think 24 sounds better, stronger, more respectable than “23.”

Revitalizing Erie

Peter Panepento, writing at the Outside Erie blog, writes about a problem that’s overlooked in the effort to reenergize downtown Erie.

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the efforts to spruce up and revitalize downtown (and that is a crucial effort).

But we haven’t paid much attention to the next ring of development surrounding downtown before we reach the wealthier suburbs.

Many of the vacancies alluded to in Ian’s piece are the direct result of the retail development boom on upper Peach Street and the shift in wealth from the edges of the city into Millcreek, Summit, Fairview and the like.

For decades, places like Liberty Plaza were central to folks who were doing their weekly grocery shopping, their trips to the drug store and to specialty shops like jewelry stores and sporting goods operations.

But many of those folks with disposable income have moved out of that part of town and into bigger homes in the burbs. And the retail explosion on upper Peach Street has attracted all of those dollars.

The stores that remained in the inner ring have slowly struggled and died — leaving behind the carcasses of buildings that have no demand.

I fear that situation will only worsen for awhile. As more anchors like Value City leave town, shoppers have fewer reasons to trek to the remaining stores in those areas.

Soon, the vacancies will creep further out from the inner ring and the sprawl into the suburbs will continue.

First, I think it’s great that we do have people like Peter writing about these issues.  We have seen many downtowns of northern cities, especially those in the Rust Belt, decline over the late ’70’s, ’80’s, and ’90’s.

Too many times there are factions in these local communities that turn a blind eye to the common good and, instead, focus on their own interests in efforts toward redeveloping and modernizing these small towns and cities.  A case in point would be my hometown of Salem, Ohio — it has a lot going for it, probably more than most of the officeholders there realize, but no one can agree on anything, and so it usually misses the boat on many opportunities.

Peter’s blog is part of a larger website called Global Erie, which “[puts] Erie’s brain drain to use,” as it notes on the site’s banner.

One thing that’s encouraging to me is that Millennials are tending to want to live/work back in the city.  Those post World War II suburbs, built when the car was rapidly becoming a staple of American culture and society, are suddenly a bit too far for comfort now that gas prices are $4.00/gallon and higher.  Moving young people back into urban communities (I say urban to include not only big cities but small towns as well) will hopefully inject some new life into these communities.

I’m glad that Peter pointed out that the outside core of big cities like Erie are also waning and get little attention, but I do share Peter’s view that, in Erie’s case, we need to focus on reinventing the downtown.  The success of that effort would then form the tailwind for the secondary effort of revitalizing the outskirts.