† Homelessness In The Time Of Obama: The Obama administration has a new strategy to “end homelessness,” reports The Arizona Republic:

 

[T]he 67-page strategy, drafted by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, details a host of smaller projects intended to spur collaboration among federal agencies and with local and state governments.

 

Framed by 10 objectives, the new national strategy aims to end homelessness among veterans and the chronically homeless by 2015 and among children and families by 2020. …

 

The George W. Bush administration's anti-homelessness strategy focused on the chronically homeless and, as a result, said Mary Cunningham, a senior researcher at the Urban Institute, tens of thousands of people are in supported housing today. …

 

"They didn't abandon the previous administration's initiative," she said. "They expanded it."

 

But even supporters of the strategy say a far larger financial commitment to housing assistance will be needed to accomplish the objectives. …

 

Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, said the plan offers a compelling portrait of the causes of homelessness and ways to end it.

 

But that's not enough, she said.

 

"Where it is short, in my view," Foscarinis said, is that it does not make specific commitments with resources that the administration will pursue to actually fund the plan.

 

Notice that thanks to President George Bush’s plan “tens of thousands” of formerly homeless people have homes, demonstrating once again that he was a man of action. But President Barack Hussein Obama’s plan makes no specific commitments, proving once again that he is a man of empty words.

 

† Is Hillary Clinton Campaigning For President?: Presumably speaking with his consent and echoing his opinions, Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s aides (“a handpicked collection of killers, spies, geniuses, patriots, political operators and outright maniacs” who “refer to themselves as Team America, taking the name from the South Park-esque sendup of military cluelessness, and … pride themselves on their can-do attitude and their disdain for authority”) told Rolling Stone writer Michael Hastings that:

 

‡ President Barack Hussein Obama looked "uncomfortable and intimidated" around military brass;

‡ The general never knows “what's going to pop out” of Vice President Joe Biden’s mouth;

‡ National Security Advisor Jim Jones is a "clown" who remains "stuck in 1985”; politicians like Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) “turn up, have a meeting with Karzai, criticize him at the airport press conference, then get back for the Sunday talk shows”;

‡ Special Representative to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke is “like a wounded animal [who] keeps hearing rumors that he's going to get fired, so that makes him dangerous”; and

‡ U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry “blindsided” and "betrayed" McChrystal with  a classified CYA cable leaked to The New York Times that “offered a brutal critique of McChrystal's strategy, dismissed President Hamid Karzai as ‘not an adequate strategic partner,’ and cast doubt on whether the counterinsurgency plan would be ‘sufficient’ to deal with Al Qaeda.”

 

McChrystal and his aides have confidence in only one Obama administration official: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (“[she] had Stan's back during the strategic review. She said, 'If Stan wants it, give him what he needs.’”).

 

Editorial Note: Obama sacked McChrystal for these comments quoted in Rolling Stone (“It undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system.") but he should pay careful attention to the section of the article where the troops say they fear the general’s rules of engagement (fourth item) have made the war unwinnable:

 

One soldier shows me the list of new regulations the platoon was given. "Patrol only in areas that you are reasonably certain that you will not have to defend yourselves with lethal force," the laminated card reads. For a soldier who has traveled halfway around the world to fight, that's like telling a cop he should only patrol in areas where he knows he won't have to make arrests. "Does that make any f**king sense?" asks Pfc. Jared Pautsch. "We should just drop a f**king bomb on this place. You sit and ask yourself: What are we doing here?" …

 

McChrystal may have sold President Obama on counterinsurgency, but many of his own men aren't buying it.

 

† Franken Reverts To Form: Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson describes Sen. Al Franken’s (D-MN) “rant” against Chief Justice John Roberts and conservatives on the Supreme Court at the American Constitution Society last week:

 

Most of the traditional elements of a Franken rant were employed. The attack on motives: The "Roberts court has consistently and intentionally protected and promoted the interests of the powerful over those of individual Americans." The silly hyperbole: "What individual rights are so basic and so important that they should be protected above a corporation's right to profit? And their preferred answer is: None. Zero." The sloppy, malicious mixed metaphor: The Roberts court is putting not a "thumb" but "a fist with brass knuckles" on the "scale" of justice. Franken was clearly summoning all his remaining resources of senatorial dignity not to say something like Roberts is a "lying liar who lies along with his lying lackeys for his lying corporate lying masters."

 

You would never suspect from Franken's speech that the Roberts court, in key cases, has sided with employees who allege discrimination and against corporations. It is never enough for Franken's opponents to be misguided or mistaken; they must want women to be sexually harassed in underpaid jobs while their children die of lead poisoning.

 

† Living In These Mad, Mad, Madoff Times: According to the Labor Department’s American Time Use Survey, last year the average American aged 15 or older spent 17 minutes less time a day engaged in work than in 2007. The Wall Street Journal reports on what they did with the extra time:

 

Time spent in front of the television rose by 12 minutes, to two hours, 49 minutes a day in the two years through 2009. Sleep was the next big gainer, increasing by six minutes to eight hours, 40 minutes a day.

 

The data also show what Americans aren't doing with their extra time: There was virtually no change between 2007 and 2009 in the time devoted to volunteering, religious activities, exercise or education. In sum, time people might have used productively is instead being squandered, says University of Texas economist Daniel Hamermesh.

 

"It's not like we're using the recession to build our skills - the skills are depreciating," says Mr. Hamermesh. "It's a waste."

 

Well excuuuuuuse me!

 

The survey also revealed something women already knew: Men spend more time goofing off while we spend more time cooking, cleaning and caregiving:

 

Men spent an average of three hours, six minutes a day watching TV in 2009, compared with two hours, 34 minutes for women.

 

Women spent a total of three hours, 10 minutes doing chores like housework, childcare and caring for older family members. That compares with one hour, 53 minutes men devoted to these tasks.

 

† What It’s Like To Be The Naked Cowboy: NYC’s Naked Cowboy (AKA Robert Burck) has such a sweet gig that former stripper Sandy Kane (AKA Sandra Brodsky) is trying to horn in on the guitar-playing-while-wearing-undies gig that he made famous, reports The Associated Press:

 

He has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Sandy Kane, who wears a red, white and blue cowboy hat and matching bikini, according to the New York Post.

 

Burck says if Kane's going to make money by posing for photos, he wants her to sign a "Naked Cowboy Franchise Agreement." Most of his licensed franchisees are required to pay $5,000 a year or $500 a month and go through a screening process.

 

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (sixth item, Illegal Immigrants Swamping Small Town America): Like Hazleton, PA, Farmers Branch, TX, and other municipalities nationwide, Fremont, NE, has voted in an ordinance meant to limit the tsunami of illegal immigrants that have come to town to work at the Fremont Beef and Hormel plants. And the ACLU and illegal immigration advocacy groups will again sue to keep the ordinance from ever taking effect while forcing Freemont to spend millions of dollars in court, reports The Associated Press:

 

The legal fight could drag on for years, as it has in Hazleton, Pa., one of the first cities in the U.S. to pass an ordinance targeting illegal immigrants in 2006.

 

"Buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy ride," Hazleton Mayor Louis Barletta said.

 

The Fremont measure, which requires city officials and employers to ensure that applicants are in the country legally, was modeled after the Hazleton ordinance. But that law has been tied up in court and has never been enforced. A federal judge struck down the ordinance, but it is on appeal. …

 

In Fremont, officials are aware of the potential costs. Hartwig distributed information before the vote, noting not only Hazleton's costs to fight lawsuits but those that other towns incurred defending their own immigration ordinances. Farmers Branch, Texas, has run up more than $3 million in legal fees since 2006, and Valley Park, Mo., has seen about $270,000 in fees since 2008, Hartwig's statement said.

 

Fremont officials are assuming that the costs of the ordinance - which includes legal fees, employee overtime and improved computer software - will average $1 million a year, the statement said.

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (seventh item, Israel And The Armenian Question): Journalist and author Mark Arax - whose 2007 article for the Los Angeles Times “revealed how genocide denial had become a dirty little pact between Turkey and Israel and its lobby in the U.S.” cost him his job - writes in Salon that "[s]ome of the most powerful leaders in the American Jewish community have stepped forward in recent days to acknowledge the 1915 Armenian Genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turkey”:

 

[T]he Armenian Genocide has become a new weapon in the hands of Israel and its supporters in the U.S., a way to threaten Turkey, a conniver’s get-even: Hey, Turkey, if you want to play nasty with Israel, if you want to lecture us about violations of human rights, we can easily go the other way on the Armenian Genocide. No more walking the halls of Congress to plead your shameful case. …

 

[E]xperts in the field of Holocaust studies recognized the Armenian Genocide as an antecedent with chilling echoes. And Jewish scholars were openly condemning Turkey’s long campaign of denial, seeing it as the psychological continuation of genocidal trauma.

 

But these same scholars were mostly silent when it came to the behind-the-scenes role that Israel and its lobby in the U.S - the Anti-Defamation League, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, neoconservative think tanks and Bush administration hawks - were playing in this denial. …

 

I wrote the story and filed it. My editor in Washington was pleased. It landed on the weekend budget, a strong candidate for Page One.

 

The weekend came and went, but the story held. I called the editor and asked if there was a problem. He was sorry to say that the story had been killed - on a last-minute order from the managing editor. …

 

Even as the paper was nominating one of my other stories for a Pulitzer Prize, on this story I was an Armenian. …

 

After an ugly public fight, I left the paper. The managing editor was later pushed out when an internal probe showed that my story was factual and without bias.

 

These days, I find myself more than a curious observer of the new cold war that has broken out between Turkey and Israel and its supporters.

 

What to make of the rush of Jewish leaders - from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington to a city councilman named Jack Weiss in Los Angeles - coming forward in the past few weeks to divulge their role in genocide denial? …

 

How to account for these sudden confessions? A pang of remorse? A cleansing of the soul? I’m afraid not. These aren’t confessions, at all. Rather, they are reminders of the debt Turkey owes Israel - and they come with teeth bared.

 

[Hat Tip: Keghart]

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (seventh item, Life Imitates “A Law Abiding Citizen”): Remember all those dangerous felons in IL who were released after as little as a week in jail under the state’s "MGT Push" ("meritorious good time") early-release plan that awarded good-conduct credit to prisoners from the moment they were put behind bars? Well, dozens of parolees have gone missing and corrections officials have not bothered to warn the public, reports The Associated Press, which broke the story about the MGT Push plan in December:

 

MGT Push has embarrassed Quinn as he runs for re-election, although the Democratic governor has tried to blame Corrections Director Michael Randle, saying he didn't know Randle was going to release violent offenders. The administration ordered parole agents in January to begin "intensive compliance" checks on the released prisoners.

 

More than 50 MGT Push parolees are currently on the lam, according to documents from Corrections obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act and analyzed by The Associated Press.

 

While many who go astray are picked up within days, some absconders have been gone for months. Those currently on the list have been missing an average 136 days, or 4.5 months, according to the AP analysis.

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, 10 Reasons Michelle Obama Should Be Proud – Really Proud – Of America): This latest installment in The Stiletto Blog’s ongoing series meant to help instill the necessary pride of country in Michelle Obama’s consciousness to enable her to serve as an unofficial ambassador focuses on the students of trombonist Joe DeMar, who was a jazz band teacher at San Jose's Castillero Middle School until a car accident left him a quadriplegic. Along with DeMar’s brother, they held a benefit concert to raise money for his ongoing medical needs, The San Jose Mercury News reports:

 

George DeMar headlined in San Jose Saturday night, playing Latin rock before a crowd of adoring fans. …

 

"I'm playing with very mixed feelings," said George DeMar, 56, of Scotts Valley. "But my brother? He's not bitter at all. When he was in the hospital, he always told me to have faith. Of all people, I told him, I should be telling you to have faith." …

 

Until May, Joe DeMar was at Valley Medical Center in San Jose. Now he is at his Gilroy home, which is going into foreclosure because he can no longer afford his mortgage payment. And he said his Kaiser Permanente insurance won't fully cover the round-the-clock care he needs, not to mention other equipment, such as a specialized van and bed. He's looking to move to an assisted care facility.

 

Because of DeMar's needs - and the fact that hundreds of his students past and present wrote on a Facebook page that he is the "best teacher ever" - a community of those who love him decided to hold a fundraiser to help.

 

Strapped into a wheelchair, Joe DeMar was at Saturday night's event. …

 

DeMar said he is so thankful to all the students who have come by to pull his weeds, the parents who cooked meals, the people who have lent him music to listen to. …

 

"I'm a man of faith," he said. "I feel so blessed."