To the Weekly Standard

Letter to Fred Barnes

11-24-08

Maybe this Blog should be called The Weekly “De-Standard.” I just read Fred Barnes' recent silliness where he actually wrote in print that FDR prolonged the Depression to allow WWII to bail us out. That's some stretch of the imagination. I am sure Mr. Barnes will now go down in history as either the most original thinker since Socrates, or the biggest moron allowed writing something under his/her own name. As to the GOP's future in the in the coming days, the more the wing-nuts control things and promote Sarah Palin as their Joan of Arc, the larger the Democratic majorities will grow. The numbers show that there are many more vulnerable GOP Senators (19 out of 33) up for election in 2010 then Democrats and the control of the House will definitively not change. My sense is that the damage engendered by the lamest presidential duck since Hoover has tarnished his name and that of the GOP far into the future. As usual, the GOP acolytes not only wish Obama to fail, but will work hand in glove to make that happen. That is why the Democrats will have a 60 vote super majority, with or without, the magic number or Joe Lieberman. They will get some decent crossovers from Snow, Collins, Specter or a few others. These folk will not want to be drinking Kool-Aid with Fred Barnes, Rick Davis, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, and the other American Neanderthals. I look for a successful new Congressional session and a steady march to recovery along with the proper reform, oversight and regulations to harness in the manipulators that still abound within the banking and brokerage survivors.

Richard J. Garfunkel

“The Advocates”

 With

Richard J. Garfunkel

 WVOX – AM Radio 1460- 12 Noon Wednesday

November 19, 2008

All archived Shows at:

http://advocates-wvox.com

Wednesday, November 19, 2008, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting my show “The Advocates” on WVOX- 1460 AM, or you can listen to the program’s live streaming at www.wvox.com. One can call the show at 914-636-0110 to reach us on the radio.  Our guest is John Cavanaugh who is currently serving as executive director of Building Bright Futures, a private sector/public sector partnership designed to create a national model for urban educational excellence and equity in the Omaha metropolitan area. Our topic today is, “How can we start American children off on the right path to learning?”

Mr. Cavanaugh is a fourth generation Nebraskan. A lawyer by profession and a graduate of The Creighton University School of Law (1972) Mr. Cavanaugh served in the U.S. Army (1968-69, was elected to the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature in 1972 before being elected to the United States House of Representatives from the Second District in Nebraska. He served from 1976 until 1980.

Among his civic activities Mr. Cavanaugh served for 20 years as a trustee of the Platte River Whooping Crane Habitat Trust and received a Presidential appointment as chairman of the Czech and Slovak American Enterprise Fund. Mr. Cavanaugh currently serves on the Board of Directors of Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs. He and his wife are the proud parents of seven children. 

This past Friday night, November 14, 2008, Mr. Cavanaugh’s daughter Maureen opened her art exhibition, “Stay With me,” at 31 Grand, 143 Ludlow Street, NYC, NY 10002.

The opening was very well attended and seemed quite successful from this reporter’s vantage. Special guests, fellow Nebraskans, and friends of the Cavanaugh’s, Mr. Ted Sorenson, former speech writer and advisor to the late President John F. Kennedy and Bob Kerrey, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the current President of the New School, and a former Governor and US Senator were in attendance. 

Meanwhile, the mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the public differing views on current “public policy “issues. “Public policy,” therefore, is what we as a nation legally and traditionally follow. Over the years, the “public policy” of the United States has changed or has been modified greatly. As an example, “free public education” is the public policy of the United States. Also, over time great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction of “public policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs. emancipation, state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces or the “draft.”

One can find my essays on FDR and other subjects at https://www.richardjgarfunkel.com. One can also listen to all of the archived shows at: http://advocates-wvox.com. Next week I will be off in Arizona for Thanksgiving with Linda, Dana and Jon. The Advocates will return on December 3^rd with Allegra Dengler who will talk about, “The National vote undercount, and is your vote being counted?”

Richard J. Garfunkel

Letter to the Editor of the Journal News

November 12, 2008

In this era of the ultimate “lame duck,” a term attributed to Horace Walpole in 1761, in a letter to Sir Horace Mann, who George W, Bush embodies, we have seen some interesting phenomena emerging. One is that there seems to be a gigantic undercount in various districts and states, especially in Alaska. With all of the evidence on the ground, polling, and statistical estimates, turnout seems to be flat. Is our system really that broken or has there been some serious vote fraud? On the other hand the country is being entertained by all of the media attention being fawned upon Governor Sarah Palin. Can anything be more laughable that the “talking heads” are seriously posing the thought that Governor Palin is not only a “leader” in the Republican Party, but has the potentiality of being a legitimate candidate in four years for Presidency? For a moment I thought that Matt Lauer and others were scurrying to the Yukon for another episode of Saturday Night Live. Could it be that Sarah Palin and Tina Fey are one in the same? Here we are in the midst of the most dangerous economic meltdown since the early days of the New Deal, and the networks are falling all over themselves to interview a failed candidate who reportedly didn’t know the countries of North America or whether Africa was a continent. Maybe we haven’t yet awakened from the afterglow of November 4^th. I suggest that Sarah Palin and her comical group, be left alone to count all the “missing” ballots while she is contemplating the falling oil prices and its affect on the Alaskan economy and her real legacy.

Richard J. Garfunkel

“The Advocates”

 With

Richard J. Garfunkel

 WVOX – AM Radio 1460- 12 Noon Wednesday

November 12, 2008

All archived Shows at:

http://advocates-wvox.com

Wednesday, November 12, 2008, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting my show “The Advocates” on WVOX- 1460 AM, or you can listen to the program’s live streaming at www.wvox.com. One can call the show at 914-636-0110 to reach us on the radio.  Our guest today is Thomas Nesi, author of Poison Pills : The Untold Story of the Vioxx Drug Scandal.  Our subject today is the six reasons why consumers need to be cautious about new and heavily marketed pharmaceutical drugs! Thomas Nesi is a communications professional with more than thirty-five years experience in medical communications and strategic planning. He is a published author and professional lecturer as well as a medical film-maker.  

Mr. Nesi has worked for leading pharmaceutical companies and medical schools as media and marketing advisor, general consultant and competitive research analyst.  His work has been extensively produced and published and includes the noted ABC television special Fight For Life and the hard-cover and paperback book The Fire Inside (W.W. Norton, 1997.)  Tom has lectured at Harvard Medical School and the University Medical Center of Princeton on medical marketing, bioethics and public relations practices. 

TJN Communications, the company he founded in 1990, has done work for AstraZeneca LP, Pfizer, JJ/Merck, Glaxo and Pharmacia among many others.  Tom was an editor, reporter and consultant to Medical News Network and organized medical coverage of meetings such as the American Heart Association.

Nesi has a B.A. degree from Columbia University and a Masters Degree from the University of Southern California

Some of the following questions that Tom Nesi will address:
1.       What makes the story of the pain control pill “Vioxx” so special?
2.        Why was this particular medicine developed and why did it attract so much attention?
3.      Who or what institutions were responsible for keeping the drug on the market long after there was evidence it could cause heart attacks?
      4    Have there been significant reforms since Vioxx was removed from     
          the market?
 Meanwhile, the mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the public differing views on current “public policy “issues. “Public policy,” therefore, is what we as a nation legally and traditionally follow. Over the years, the “public policy” of the United States has changed or has been modified greatly. As an example, “free public education” is the public policy of the United States. Also, over time great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction of “public policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs. emancipation, state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces or the “draft.”

One can find my essays on FDR and other subjects at https://www.richardjgarfunkel.com. One can also listen to all of the archived shows at: http://advocates-wvox.com. Next week we hope to have former Congressman John Cavanaugh talking about his education initiative.

Richard J. Garfunkel

Letter to Newsmax

11-6-08

I am the host of a radio show in New Rochelle, NY called The Advocates, website – http://advocates-wvox.com. It is a show devoted to “public policy” and one can access all of the broadcasts, if they wish, at the above website. I would call myself a moderate, traditional New Deal Democrat. I stay active in local politics and I am called, now and again, to be a “talking head” commentator on politics. I read NEWSMAX, on my computer, and quite often I find its content alarmist. I have nothing against traditional values, the nuclear family and certainly the rule of law. I believe fervently in an active two-party system, which allows our society to have not only meaningful debate, but checks and balances.

I have been happily marries to the same woman for 39 years. In my forty plus years of running a business, raising two smart Ivy Leaguer children, and being active time in politics I have seen the deterioration of the GOP in Westchester County, NY. I believe that decline has come about because of narrow, flat-earth thinking. On just has to look at the map of the United States and understand where the culture, the ideas, the advancement of science and literature comes from. It is from the coastlines, the so-called blue states, and the people who are more cosmopolitan, worldly, diverse, tolerant and educated. Yes, we have our problems in the core center cities, we have our mindlessness also. We have problem schools and violence also. But overall, the Reagan moral and cultural revolution has led to two distinct conclusions, concentration of wealth in fewer and few hands doesn't work in the long run, and the moral high road of the rural and interior sections of America doesn't exist. Whether it is a debate over guns, choice, gay-marriage, drug use, cloning, stem cell research, censorship, education, or separation of church and state, both sides, and arguments for and against, have some merit. But there is no evidence that the interior and rural areas are immune from rape, violence, sexual abuse, illiteracy, or anything else. In fact, statistics show that these “red state” areas have much higher rates of abuse and problems then the coastal regions.

At times I read Dick Morris's views in NEWSMAX and he is an abject hypocrite who has buffaloed your readers. Your news outlet and the GOP's promotion and featuring of “Joe the Plumber” is farcical. The fact that John McCain mentioned this guy's name hundreds, if not thousands of times, demeaned his whole campaign. His opinions no more reflect anyone but his own uninformed self. Most people have opinions, so what? In a more serious vein, Sarah Palin is one of the reasons that the GOP's future is extremely cloudy. She is uneducated climber, whose reputation among many in Alaska is quite questionable. How social conservatives could rationale her family, her values, her language, her ethics and her conduct is a question that should be answered. Besides her daughter's extra-curriculum activities with a teenage hockey lout, her personal conduct regarding compensation, and many of things in her past, she certainly did not help McCain except with his core voters who needed some “red meat” he could not deliver.

Look for a blood-bath between these two groups in the coming days. Hopefully, as bad, old and out of touch as McCain has now become, his people will win this fight and she will stay where she can do the least damage. If the conservatives let her emerge with her brand of neo-McCarthyism, they will rue the day. My suggestions for a return to a real two-party system, all over the country, is to emerge from flat-earth, creationist thinking, look for a realistic value-based society, and understand that taxes have a place in society. Remember that the famous and revered Oliver Wendell Holmes said that paying taxes is a price for civilization. Get off the foolish “big government” is your enemy argument. Hoover, Nixon and Reagan all supported and believed in big government, their type of big government.

RJ Garfunkel

“The Advocates”

 With

Richard J. Garfunkel

 WVOX – AM Radio 1460- 12 Noon Wednesday

November 5, 2008

All archived Shows at:

http://advocates-wvox.com

Wednesday, November 5, 2008, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting my show “The Advocates” on WVOX- 1460 AM, or you can listen to the program’s live streaming at www.wvox.com. One can call the show at 914-636-0110 to reach us on the radio.  Our guests today are AF Cook and Dr. Lewis J. Perelman and our subject today is what happened on Election Day and what doe sit all mean?

A.F. Cook is an author, sometime blogger, and average American citizen whose recent book, “Democrats in the Red Zone: an Independent voter’s take on the game of political perception” was published in November 2007. Cook wants Democrats to be savvier about how they play the political perception game. She believes Republicans retain an edge in their understanding of American cultural biases, and that Democrats must sharpen their rhetoric and cultivate more mainstream perceptions of their constituencies to gain an upper hand.

In a direct challenge to the organizational culture of the Democratic Party in particular and liberal culture in general, Cook asserts that such a strategic shift will only occur when barriers to inclusion based on class and educational credentials are broken down within those two cultures. Cook believes that America’s voting majority — especially football fans — detests one trait even more than dishonesty: pretentiousness. In her view, the impact of Sarah Palin’s nomination as the Republican Party’s vice presidential candidate clearly illustrates this reality. Ms. Cook lives in Virginia, which she calls a “red state going purple,” and she was a guest on The Advocates on both January 2^nd and September 3^rd of this year talking about politics.

Lewis Perelman has worked for over 30 years—as an analyst, thought leader, teacher, and consultant—on key strategic problems of human ecology: transportation, energy, environmental protection, human capital management, national security, technology innovation, and economic and business development. In 1992 he gained renown for his best-selling book “School’s Out”, which anticipated much of the revolution that the Internet and information technology would end up causing in learning, work, and the keys to business success.
 
Dr. Perelman currently is planning an online symposium for the Public Entity Risk Institute, scheduled for January, on the subject of “Infrastructure Risk and Renewal”.  Reflecting Dr. Perelman's own recent policy work, the symposium will particularly focus on the growing clash between a “green” policy agenda, concerned with environmental protection and efficiency, and a contrasting “blue” policy agenda, concerned with human security and survival.
 
While the “green” agenda often claims to aim at “sustainability,” Lewis Perelman warns that not everything that pretends to be “sustainable” really is. True sustainability, Perelman argues, requires a prudent mix of both the green and the blue goals—not only protection against long-range threats but also preparedness, agility, flexibility, and the capacity to adapt quickly to new circumstances. In one word, resilience.

One of the first analysts at the U.S. government’s 30-year-old Solar Energy Research Institute, and recently a fellow at the government’s new Homeland Security Institute, Dr. Perelman has a unique perspective to combine the green and the blue agendas into an overall scheme of social resilience. He criticizes both the green agenda of environmental protection and the blue agenda of national security for being commonly obsessed with a self-defeating strategy of centralized command and control, prevention, and resistance to change. Instead, he sees an emerging challenge within both the green and blue domains from an    alternative policy paradigm that emphasizes decentralization, distributed responsibility, entrepreneurial initiative, adaptation to change, and overall community resilience.
 

Meanwhile, the mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the public differing views on current “public policy “issues. “Public policy,” therefore, is what we as a nation legally and traditionally follow. Over the years, the “public policy” of the United States has changed or has been modified greatly. As an example, “free public education” is the public policy of the United States. Also, over time great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction of “public policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs. emancipation, state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces or the “draft.”

One can find my essays on FDR and other subjects at https://www.richardjgarfunkel.com. One can also listen to all of the archived shows at: http://advocates-wvox.com. Next week we will have on Tom Nesi the author of Poison Pills, the Untold Story of the Vioxx Drug Scandal.

Richard J. Garfunkel