Birmingham Post-Herald
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OUR VIEWSThe budget messCongress has once again failed to pass the federal budget in time for Sunday's start of the fiscal year.The congressional timetable, even at a leisurely legislative pace, calls for passage by the end of August of the 13 spending bills that run the government for the following year. As of the opening of business Thursday morning, Congress had passed and sent to the president precisely two, both relatively noncontroversial. Congress had planned to have its fiscal responsibilities wrapped up by the end of this week; spend the next week congratulating itself for a job well done; and then knock off Oct. 6 to go home and run for re-election. Instead, Congress was forced to pass a stopgap bill to keep the government running for the first week of the new fiscal year while it tries to get its work done. That may not be enough time and Congress may need one or more additional extensions. A White House spokesman promised that Clinton would sign as many stopgap measures as Congress needs. Of course he will. Not only is the Republican-controlled Congress giving Clinton almost everything he wants, but in their desperation they are giving him even more than he asked for. And that's fine with the president; he won't be around to pay for it. Last spring, Clinton proposed $623 billion in discretionary federal spending; the Republicans said, no, budget discipline requires limiting spending to $600 billion. That's out the window. Clinton will not only get the extra $23 billion but the Republicans could go as high as $60 billion over their spending blueprint. Wherever it comes out, it is already the largest percentage spending increase since the Republicans took control of Congress. The Senate added $4 billion to a veterans, housing and environment bill. The Republicans may add $13 billion to a labor, health and education bill to get the president to sign it. The House and Senate added $3 billion to the Interior bill. A conference committee added $2 billion to energy and water projects, $800 million more than Clinton had asked for. The Republicans complain that with relatively small margins in both houses they are vulnerable to Clinton's veto threats. There's something to that, but the problem goes beyond this president and this Congress. Only three times since 1977 has Congress completed a budget on time.
Whichever side of the aisle you're on in this fight, there has to be a better way. Give back our avenuePerhaps Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House should be left as it is — six charmless lanes of deserted pavement cut off from the life of the city by concrete barriers — as an instructive example of the combination of overzeal-ousness and bureaucratic inertia that so often causes government programs to go awry.But Washington is our national capital and we take too much pride in it to have, at its very heart, what to all appearances is a failed drag strip in a nice neighborhood. A three-block stretch of America's Main Street, where the president's reviewing stand is located during inauguration parades, was closed to vehicles in May 1995 after the Oklahoma City bombing. It was a security overreaction and showed an unbecoming fear, but the city was stuck with the closing, and the 29,000 cars a day that used the avenue — the president did indeed live on a busy street — were diverted into other already congested streets. The National Park Service made promises about landscaping and decoration but except for some large cement tubs that it insists on calling "planters" nothing ever materialized. There the avenue sits, empty. The tourists cluster on one sidewalk or the other because being in the middle of that empty expanse seems to induce a mild onset of agoraphobia. A group of civic-minded Washingtonians has presented President Clinton with a plan for reopening Pennsylvania Avenue. It calls for reducing the avenue to four lanes and adding a gentle curve that is both true to an early design by Thomas Jefferson and takes would-be car bombers slightly farther from the White House. The road would be closed to vans and trucks, a ban enforced by two low-level pedestrian bridges. The plan has been forwarded to the two major-party presidential candidates. The Republicans are in favor of reopening the avenue; the Democrats are silent on the issue, although Al Gore of all people, since he grew up just a few blocks away, should want his hometown street unblocked.
It shouldn't have to go that far. Clinton should accept the plan as a starting point; it gives him a chance to rectify a decision by his administration that left a concrete scar down the middle of a beautiful capital. YOUR VIEWSEnd appointing of justices for lifeWhy should justices who are appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court be allowed to hold such a position for a lifetime?When a president appoints one, two or more justices to the high court, in a way this permits that president to call some of the shots after he or she is out of office. Not only that, it permits that president to call some of the shots after he or she is dead and gone. What a silly and totally ridiculous practice? What can we, as voters do to make this practice history? Why not come up with legislation that would irradiate this inconsiderate practice? There are several solutions to this problem, but I will offer just two.
H. C. Hall StallingVoters take notice! It is the Democrats who are stalling the "Pain Relief Promotion Act" in Congress. Just as a couple of Alabama Democrats stopped Alabama from banning assisted suicide.If Democrat Al Gore wins the White House in November, Oregon's assisted suicide will spread across America even faster than abortion in the '70s. After all, they will have to find a way to cut costs to pay for all their promised government programs. The life they cut, may be your own! Only the Republicans have been willing to protect the lives of the elderly and handicapped. Vote smart, vote life, vote Bush.
Cheryl Ciamarra Needed reformsGov. George W. Bush in his Republican presidential nomination acceptance speech wisely addressed the least among us, juvenile deliquents in our society. I think he should again touch on this issue and focus some specific reform points.Publicly I might suggest that federal legislation is sorely needed to manage interstate movements of juvenile deliquents between and among the states by both for-profit and not-for-profit corporations that sometimes have for-profit side contracts. Currently such interstate juvenile movements seems to skirt the requirements of the Interstate Juvenile Compact designed to uniformly deal with same. Here in Alabama it appears, for example, that tracking statistics supported by proper out-of-state court orders that are formally agreed to by the governor of Alabama are lacking. Juvenile justice reform lies mainly in the hands of our juvenile judges throughout Alabama, not in the hands of the Department of Youth Services as many mistakenly believe. If you move juvenile deliquents into, or for that matter, out of Alabama, then the court of proper jurisdiction cannot possibly monitor court decree reform effort compliance. I am stunned at Vice President Al Gore's apparently total lack of attention to this issue. He, too, should speak up on interstate movements of juvenile deliquents as to remedial legislation to contribute to more successful reform education and rehabilitaiton of our nation's least citizens, many of whom cannot yet vote. The perception of making a corporate profit on the backs of juvenile misery has never set well with me.
George L. Singleton 'Just us' at workI've read recently that Logan Martin Lake lawyers could see some money in about six months from a class action lawsuit filed against Solutia Inc., formerly Monsanto, for polluting Lake Logan Martin with PCBs, reducing lake residents' property values.The total amount of the settlement was $43.7 million. $21 million will be spent on remediation PCB projects. This leaves $10,925,000 for the lawyers. ''We're pleased the settlement is going to be implemented," said one lawyer. The injured plaintiffs will receive whatever is left. No. This is not a "lawyer joke." This is our "just us" system at work.
Armond "Si" Simmons Why does Gore ignore U'wa plight?Al Gore claims to care about the environment, human rights and standing up to big corporations. So why has Gore been silent on the controversial efforts of one of his longtime corporate backers — Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum — to drill on the U'wa people's land in the Colombian rain forest? The U'wa are a traditional indigenous people who cannot survive if their homeland is devastated by oil drilling.In fact, the U'wa are so concerned about Oxy's plans that they have been nonviolently blockading the proposed drill site and stating they are willing to die to stop the project. The situation is growing very serious as the Colombia military (soon to be equipped with more than $1 billion in new U.S. military aid) increase its presence in the region. At least three peaceful protesters have been killed and dozens seriously injured in recent months. Why doesn't Al Gore speak out to support the U'wa and stop this human rights and environmental tragedy before its too late? Gore is putting his long-time, cozy relationship with Occidental (campaign contributions, payments on mining royalties, up to $1 million in family stocks in the company) ahead of the environment and the survival of an entire indigenous culture. If Al Gore wants voters to believe he's different he should prove it by speaking out on behalf of the U'wa people and severing his ties with Occidental.
Jim Praytor, Chairman No ordinary JoePrior to being chosen as second banana on the Democratic ticket, Joseph Lieberman was just a regular guy named Joe (of course, no U.S. senator could be classified as ordinary, but, to make a point) until suddenly he becomes front page news.What a difference a day makes. This particular Joe is now a symbol, a debate, and the main topic of conversation! He has become many different things to many different people. To people of Jewish faith he represents pride and a sign of acceptance; whereas, in other minority groups, he represents rejection; "a slap in the face" to women and non-Caucasian males who have been continually overlooked. Resentment, perhaps. To the Democratic Party, Lieberman is their statement of inclusiveness, and to the Al Gore campaign, he is a much needed symbol of decency and morality. To Protestants, Lieberman's public display of keeping his sabbath day holy is intimidating, to say the least. Although they claim to believe in the Ten Commandments themselves, their own observance of the sabbath leaves much to be desired. Thus, his strict adherence tends to have a constant "needling effect" on their consciences. As for the Catholic population, Lieberman brings some unwanted questions from their parishioners, that they'd prefer to forget. It isn't easy explaining that the 7th day Bible Sabbath that Orthodox Jews keep, was not changed by God, but by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 321 A.D., and then made official in 336 A.D. by the papal church in order to coincide with the pagan sun-worshippers holiday, called the "Sun" day. As you can see, Joe Lieberman has indeed become a myriad of controversial complexities! The big question is whether the "shot in the arm" or the "thorn in the side" will be the most effective come Election Day? No matter how the cookie crumbles, Joseph Lieberman will never be just an ordinary Joe ever again.
Marilyn Schnepp LOOK BACKFrom Birmingham Post-Herald files:50 years ago, Sept. 29, 1950Freedom Bell arrives in Birmingham on nationwide tour. After tour, 20-ton bell will hang in Rathaus Tower, Berlin, as symbol of hope to people oppressed by communism.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur returns in triumph to still-smoking city of Seoul and, on behalf of United Nations, restores South Korean capital to President Syngman Rhee. 25 years ago, Sept. 29, 1975Southern Railways freight train plows into rear of another near Irondale. Four crewmen suffer minor injuries in collision.Underworld tipster claims he helped bury missing former Teamsters boss James Hoffa in rural woodland northwest of Detroit.
Sara Jane Moore, 45-year-old housewife, is admitted to plush 12-story federal correctional facility in San Diego for psychiatric study after firing gun at President Ford. |
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