C-SPAN: Q&A With Brian Lamb- Mick Caouette on Hubert Humphrey: 'The Art of The Possible'

Source:C-SPAN- Brian Lamb, interviewing Mick Caoette about his documentary about Hubert H. Humphrey.

"Film producer Mick Caouette speaks to Q&A about his documentary, "Hubert H. Humphrey: The Art of the Possible." Program from Sunday, February 6, 2011." 

From C-SPAN  

"Producer Mick Caouette talked about his documentary on former Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey. The film is the story of his life with emphasis on his leadership role in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The documentary also features video from his political years running for the Senate, vice-president, and president. The program featured clips from the documentary. Producer Mick Caouette started working on the documentary eleven years ago, and it was released in the fall of 2010." 

Source:C-SPAN- Mick Caouette, talking to Brian Lamb, about his documentary about Hubert H. Humphrey.

From CSPAN

"Mick Caouette is a documentary filmmaker who focuses on U.S. history and Sociology. 

"Hubert H Humphrey: The Art of the Possible" follows Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey through his civil rights work, the Vietnam War and his loss to Richard Nixon.  The film is available at www.shopbs.org and will premiere through APT on PBS fall 2010... 

Source:Mick Caouette- about U.S. Senator and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey.

From Mick Caouette 

"For the last half of the 20th century, America was consumed by two struggles: the civil rights movement and the cold war. For 30 years Hubert Humphrey stood at the center of both. While he is most remembered for his loss to Richard Nixon in the 1968 presidential campaign, Humphrey left behind a legacy that few presidents can match. As a soldier of the New Deal and Great Society, he amassed one of the most prolific legislative records in senate history — from Medicare to the Peace Corps.

But Humphrey’s most significant and enduring achievements were in the area of civil and human rights. This film explores his 1948 speech at the Democratic convention and his pivotal contribution to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In November of 1977, for the first time in U.S. history, Congress held a joint special session to honor a single senator. Special feature – a 1976 Bill Moyer’s interview with Hubert Humphrey."  

Source:Amazon- about former U.S. Senator and Vice President, Hubert H. Humphrey (Democrat, Minnesota)

From South Hill Films

The Art of the Possible, which is the name of a documentary about former Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, I believe is the perfect way to describe Hubert Humphrey. Because that's how Senator Humphrey saw politics and government: serving the people and trying to solve problems that they face. 

Hubert didn't see government as a debating society, where Democrats and Republicans, Liberals, Progressives, and Conservatives, bashed each over the head. With neither party having enough power to destroy the other party. But he saw government as a way to try to solve problems, analyze the issues, examine what the political situation is between both parties and try to find solutions that can pass through Congress and that the President would sign. And Hubert Humphrey had plenty experience at this. Being in Congress for twenty five years and being the Assistant Leader of the Senate from 1961-65. Leader Mike Mansfield's deputy and then Vice President from 1965-69.

Hubert Humphrey was pretty busy in that time period with the civil rights legislation. The civil rights debates actually were going on in the late 1940s. When Hubert Humphrey was elected to the Senate and he made his famous pro-civil rights speech at the 1948 DNC. 

And the 1964 Civil Rights Act where Humphrey had a big role in getting that bill passed. And ending the Senate filibuster from the Southern right-wing Democrats. And helping to bring aboard some Northern Progressive Republicans. 

And as Vice President he had a role in getting the 1965 Voting Rights Act passed as well as Medicare health insurance for senior citizens. But I believe Hubert Humphrey's legacy in Congress was the civil rights legislation. Who without him those bills never get passed.

Hubert Humphrey had the perfect approach to civil rights, because he saw it as about human and constitutional rights. Which trumps states rights, which was of course the argument that the Southern Dixiecrat Democrats were making. That the states had the right to enforce constitutional rights as they see them. Even if it violates constitutional rights of African-Americans and other racial minorities. 

The Republican Party of the 1960s even though they were the opposition party from 1961-69 and were a small minority party in both the House and Senate for the whole decade, deserve a lot of credit in Congress for those bills being passed at all.

Congressional Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen, deserve a lot of credit for getting the civil rights legislation passed as well, because they don't pass in the Senate without Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen, who without him these bills never get passed in this era. 

Hubert Humphrey tends to get lost when we are talking about great politicians and public servants for whatever reason. But without him a lot of important legislation never gets passed. And a lot of Americans would've been denied their constitutional rights as a result, just because of their race. Which would've been a disgrace in a liberal democracy like America. 

You can also see this post on WordPress. 

You can also see this post at The Daily Press, on WordPress.

Hoover Institution: Uncommon Knowledge With Peter Robinson- Thomas Sowell: 'Explains The Great Depression'

Source:Hoover Institution- Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson & Thomas Sowell.

"The Master Conservative Economist of our time explains what happened in the Great Depression; quite to the contrary of what you may have been led to believe.  Go to fora.tv for the complete video."

Source:Hoover Institution

For all the great things that Franklin Roosevelt did as President of the United States. Leading America as we saved Europe from Nazi Germany, pulling the country out of the GreatDepression, establishing the America's version of a welfare state which is really more of a safety net and I'll get into that later, as well as saving American capitalism even though he was very progressive if not a Democratic Socialist on economic policy, its not the New Deal that pulled us out of the Great Depression.

Its really our involvement in World War II that did that. Because of all the money that the Federal Government borrowed to fiance that war and people we put to work in our war effort. With the draft and all of the resources that it took to fight that war and all of the company's that we put to work building our supplies to fight that war. And all of the people that the war took out of our workforce and were sent to Europe and other places to fight that war. Leaving jobs for a lot of unemployed workers at home.

Democratic Socialists, like to point to the New Deal and government spending that pulled us out of World War II. Well they are half right, because it was government spending, but not on the New Deal, but our military. Where you can make a pretty good case, that World War II is where our military industry was formed. Because pre-World War II, America had a pretty small military compared with size of our country and economy. But by the time World War II ended, we had the first, or second largest military in the world.

We were pretty close with Russia and President Truman and President Eisenhower made our military every bigger.  Countries like Japan, Germany, Russia, Italy and Britain were the military powers of the world pre-World War II. But only Russia and Britain was still a military power after World War II. Because Europe took such a huge beating in World War II. And America came in and saved their necks (to put it mildly) so they could rebuild. We saved Europe from Nazi Germany and then helped Europe rebuild themselves with the Marshal Plan.

What the New Deal did was save American capitalism, but it also hurt it I believe especially in its efforts to deal with poverty in America. And its not everyday, week, month, or year that I agree with former Speaker Newt Gingrich on anything. (Including the weather) But he's right at least about one thing, the New Deal and Great Society did create what Speaker Gingrich calls a "Culture of Dependency" letting people go on these anti-poverty programs indefinitely without empowering them to become self-sufficient. But the positives of the New Deal are that it created a safety net for American capitalism. For people who fall through the cracks in the economy.

It helped people on hard time sustain themselves until they started working again. Things like Unemployment Insurance and Disability and Welfare Insurance, as well as Social Security so people would at least have a floor in retirement that they could count on. Pre-Great Depression, America pretty much had no such thing as a safety net or welfare state. If people lost their jobs, or didn't have a retirement, they were pretty much at the mercy of their families, or charity to help them out and support them. So to that extent the New Deal has been very positive.

Senate Democrats: Leader Harry Reid- 'GOP Games Put Families Affected by Natural Disaster at Risk'

Source:Senate Democrats- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat, Nevada)

"Nevada Senator Harry Reid calls on Republicans to support funding for FEMA. Without Republican support, Reid says the agency tasked with helping disaster-struck communities across the country get back on their feet will be out of luck." 

From the Senate Democrats

I heard Senator Mary Landrieu (Democrat from Louisiana) last week on the Senate floor say something to the effect that the Federal Government can't plan for disasters. Meaning that they can't budget for them and put money aside to deal with them. Now if I didn't care I would've laughed at that statement, because America gets natural disasters every year. That comes from being as huge of a country as we are and the area that we are located in. We are prone to just about every natural disaster the world knows about. We get them every year and we have a general idea of the amount of damage they do and how much it costs to clean them up. 

This idea (or joke) that the Federal Government can't plan ahead for these disasters, is bogus. (To be overly generous) And sounds like to me an excuse for not planning ahead. 

The Federal Government could either put money aside, prioritizing, cutting back on things you don't need or need as much or finding new revenue. When you don't prioritize, you don't have priorities. In other words: when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. When everything is important and then nothing is important. 

The Federal Government has moved past prioritizing and has now moved to budgeting. (If you want to call it that) It's actually appropriating, budgeting means putting together a budget: "This is what we need to do, this is the money that we have, if we don't have enough money to cover what we need to do. Then we cut back on things we don't need or we find new revenue." This is how responsible people budget. Appropriating is just approving money to spend on something whether you have the money or not. 

 I don't agree with the House GOP Leadership on everything. (You don't say. Thanks for the tip, Captain Obvious.) Actually, it's rare when I agree with them on anything. But their basic message on disaster relief is sound, that we should help the victims of these storms and fund FEMA to do that in the short-term, but at the same time, we should find a way to pay for our disaster relief by cutting back on things we don't need or already have plenty of funding. Or raising new revenue to pay for the disaster relief. And there are plenty of areas that we can cut back on that wouldn't hurt anyone who doesn't deserve to be hurt or can raise revenue in areas that wouldn't hit anyone that can't afford to get hurt. 

Congress used to pass what's called a continuing resolution (both in the House and Senate) and they would come together and pass one, which lays out how much money the Federal Government can spend. And advises the Appropriation Committees on where to spend that money in the Federal Government. And then the Appropriations Committee would figure how to appropriate the money that the Budget Committees said they could spend. This system worked pretty well and we should get back to it.

VOA News: 'Palestinians Won't Stop Statehood Drive'

Source:VOA News- as the photo says.

"Voice of America (VOA) is the America's largest[1][2][3] and oldest international broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress.[4][5] VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in 47 languages which it distributes to affiliate stations around the globe. It is primarily viewed by foreign audiences, so VOA programming has an influence on public opinion abroad regarding the United States and its people.

VOA was established in 1942,[6] and the VOA charter (Public Laws 94-350 and 103-415)[7] was signed into law in 1976 by President Gerald Ford.

VOA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), an independent agency of the U.S. government.[8] Funds are appropriated annually under the budget for embassies and consulates. In 2016, VOA broadcast an estimated 1,800 hours of radio and TV programming each week to approximately 236.6 million people worldwide with about 1,050 employees and a taxpayer-funded annual budget of US$218.5 million." 

From Wikipedia  

"Palestinian leaders plan to ask the world body for full status as a state, though that has already been assured a block by the United States. Still, Palestinian leaders say, they are undeterred." 

From VOA News

I guess Palestine could call themselves a country right now thats independent of Israel, but I guess someone could call themselves an elephant: doesn't make it true. Only elephants are elephants and only countries are countries. (I hope this isn't a newsflash for anyone) 

At best Palestine as an independent state would be like a much smaller version of Somalia without as many poor people or people starving, but still with the inability to govern and defend themselves. They would be a country without a Federal Government to govern the whole country. With the Palestinian Authority led by the Fatah Party governing West Bank and Hamas not much more than a terrorist organization. A very well equipped terrorist organization sort of like a small military. Much better equipped than the Palestinian Security Forces which is suppose to be part of a government.

Cyprus is divided between two governments as well. A Turkish Government and a Greek Government and somehow they've managed to share one island without destroying each other. But they both have capable government's capable of governing their share of the island. 

Palestine has the Palestinian Authority that has corruption issues and thats not capable of defending West Bank. They don't even have a tax system yet, they get their money through Israel (if you can believe that) the Arab League, European Union, United States and others. 

Palestine is not ready to be an independent country yet they still have some steps they have to take. But calling for statehood and demanding statehood would do a positive thing. It could bring or force Israel to the negotiating table and tell Israel that they are serious about wanting their independence. And get them to negotiate with Israel.

What Palestine has to do is what happened in the Balkans where those states broke away from Yugoslavia. But those states had opposition parties that were capable of governing the whole country. With some help from Europe and America, Palestine is not there yet. They have a responsible government in the Palestinian Authority, that if they had full control of Palestine and not just half of it in West Bank, then Palestine would be much farther along in getting statehood. Something that even Israel wants for Palestine under certain circumstances because they don't want to occupy Palestine forever. 

The Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas are the adults in Palestine. But Hamas is in charge of Gaza and they are not much more than terrorists that want to govern all of Palestine and knock Israel off of the map for a greater Palestine something that of course Israel would never go along with.

So what Palestine needs to be able to do before they can become and independent state, is be able to show they can govern all of Palestine with one central government. Not two state government's, that won't be a threat to their neighbors or sponsor terrorism and where their neighbors wouldn't be a threat to them either.

Brookings Institution: Ron Haskins- 'Family Poverty a Long-Term Trend'

Source:Brookings Institution- Fellow Ron Haskins.

"Ron Haskins: Since 2000, we've been on a rugged road. More and more families, especially those headed by single mothers have slipped into poverty; and it appears that this will be a  long term trend. More:Brookings Institution." 

From the Brookings Institution

The Great Recession only highlights poverty in America and how big a problem it is, because when the economy tanks it makes it even harder for people in poverty to get out of poverty and find a job that lifts them out of poverty even if they've improved themselves and obtain the skills that they need to get a good job because employers obviously don't hire as much when they have less revenue to spend and less customers. 

What a great recession and high poverty means for as a country is we have to get the economy going again with solid economic growth of 4-5% consistent economic growth of 4-5%. And we need job growth of around and we need around 200K jobs a month for several months. We just aren't doing that right now, we are currently growing at around 1.0% in the economy right now and didn't create one single job net in August. So we need to get the economy going again while we are still helping low-income, low-skilled people move out of poverty by empowering them to get themselves out of poverty. 

To move people out of poverty, gets to education and job training, as well as temporary financial assistance, so when the economy gets going again people in poverty will have the skills and education that they'll need to benefit from the economic expansion. And there are several ways that we can put people in poverty back to work and have plenty of jobs available. 

And there are things that we can do to prevent educated, unemployed workers from falling into poverty by reforming our Unemployment Insurance system. And there are also things that we can do to prevent people living in Public Housing from becoming homeless which is the worst aspect of poverty. 

But we have to do certain things to move people out of poverty. We have crumbling infrastructure that needs to be repaired as well as built to avoid more disasters in the future. And we can reform our Unemployment Insurance system to retrain unemployed workers, so they don't stay unemployed for long periods of times. And get additional job skills as well as keep their current job skills in check and don't become out of place. And put our people in Public Housing to work and get them more skills so they can get their own place to live. And not have to worry about being evicted and becoming homeless. 

This country needs a national energy policy that gets us off of foreign oil by investing in our own natural resources, including oil and gas, nuclear, solar, wind electricity, and others. We have all of these things and we are not using them as much as we should. 

A national infrastructure policy that rebuilds and expands our crumbling infrastructure like with a National Infrastructure Bank. As well as continue helping our people on public assistance and retrain our unemployed workers, so they and other can benefit from all of these jobs that would be created. 

Sitting around and doing nothing as a country and remaining gridlocked, just makes these issues worst.

Associated Press: 'U.S. Poverty at 30-Year High'

Source:Associated Press- a look at poverty in Chicago, Illinois.

"The U.S. census bureau says 46 million people now live in poverty. 70 miles outside Chicago is Pembroke, where 50 percent of the people are unemployed. (Sept. 13)" 

From the Associated Press

46 million people live in poverty in America and thats just the official figure, it's probably closer to 60 million Americans who live in poverty in America. People in poverty are always at risk, especially when the economy is bad take now as an example, because even if low-income people go back to school or further their education or get retrained or a combination of these things, even with the additional skills, they are going to have a hard time finding a good job that can support themselves and their families and get them out of poverty. Because employers aren't going to hire as much with less revenue to operate in a bad economy. If anything employers are looking to cut back their workforce when economic times are tough. 

So to move the poverty rate down, that means having a strong economy thats growing at around 4-5% and creating around 200K jobs a month and we are no where near that right now. We are growing at a dismal 1% in the economy and we didn't create one damn job net in August. The other thing that we need to have a strong economy. 

If low-income people, workers and non-workers to be able to go back to school and further their education finishing high school and going on to a community college to get the education that they need to get a good job, that can support themselves and their families and move out of poverty. 

This is the situation we had in the 1990's when we had record low levels of poverty in America at around 13% officially because by 1995 we had a booming economy with high economic growth with an unemployment rate of 4.5% by 2000. 

We also had a different approach to the so-called War on Poverty with the 1996 Welfare to Work Law, that was about education and work as well as time limits, as well as temporary financial assistance to get the official poverty rate back down to 13% or 10% or even lower, we have to get the economy going again. Where we are growing at around 4-5% or higher and creating 200K plus jobs each month. 

And then build on what we were doing in the 1990s by not only empowering people on Welfare Insurance to get a good education and get themselves the skills that they need to get a good job that again can support themselves and their families. But can also move themselves and their families out of poverty. 

But where we are also encouraging low-income workers to further their education by going back to school or furthering their education. Or get additional training at their job so they can move up in their company. As well as empowering unemployed workers to further their education while on Unemployment Insurance. As well as subsidizing their employment that they don't get paid for to work at, again while they are still collecting Unemployment Insurance. So they don't eventually fall into poverty because their Unemployment Insurance runs out. 

Todays report on poverty is bad news for the country and the economy and just more evidence that we need to get our economy going again. It's also more evidence that we need to do more to empower low- income people to get themselves out of poverty. So when the economy gets going again, they'll have the education and skills to benefit from the economy.

VOA News: 'Fears of Greek Default Send Asian, European Stocks Lower'

Source:VOA News- a look inside the Greek Parliament.

"Voice of America (VOA) is the America's largest[1][2][3] and oldest international broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress.[4][5] VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in 47 languages which it distributes to affiliate stations around the globe. It is primarily viewed by foreign audiences, so VOA programming has an influence on public opinion abroad regarding the United States and its people.

VOA was established in 1942,[6] and the VOA charter (Public Laws 94-350 and 103-415)[7] was signed into law in 1976 by President Gerald Ford.

VOA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, an independent agency of the U.S. government.[8] Funds are appropriated annually under the budget for embassies and consulates. In 2016, VOA broadcast an estimated 1,800 hours of radio and TV programming each week to approximately 236.6 million people worldwide with about 1,050 employees and a taxpayer-funded annual budget of US$218.5 million." 

From Wikipedia 

"Asian and European stock prices plunged Monday on fears that Greece may be edging closer to default.  This followed a German official's suggestion that an orderly bankruptcy might be part of the solution to the Greek debt crisis. Greek protesters expressed their frustration on Sunday." 

From VOA News

What's going on in Europe especially in Greece right now, could easily happen to America, if we don't rebuild our economy and get our national debt and deficit under control. We can't do one without the other and America has no business bailing out other countries fiscal crisis's, at least until we get our own financial situation fixed. 

Europe needs to get their own fiscal house in order and if Greece doesn't like the restrictions that the International Monetary Fund and European Union are putting them, then they should go their own course and fix their own fiscal problems. 

The good news is America doesn't at least at this point, need an International Organization or a foreign country bailing us out, we have the ability to do this on our own and the plan is already there. But if we wait and don't take it seriously and our fiscal problems are serious enough now, that we have to not only rebuild our economy but address our fiscal issues at the same time. 

We have the resources and money in our economy and demand if we address it and we just need to put them to work. We have infrastructure repairs and expansion that we need to do that we can pay for in our economy. All of these storms and earthquakes we've had lately, is just more evidence of this that we have fallen behind on our infrastructure and we have the construction companies that can do this work. 

We have all the natural resources that we need to be energy independent, but we are not energy independent obviously right now. Which is why we import so much foreign oil and every time there's a new crisis in the Middle East, we automatically have to respond to it, because it effects our economy with the oil. We need to get to a point with our energy sector, where we are not dependent on OPEC to decide what the price of oil is going to be in America. 

So what we need to be doing is putting people back to work and we have the demand in our economy to create these jobs in the sense that the work is there to do but we haven't tapped into that. We obviously don't have much consumer demand right now, people aren't spending enough money right now to give us enough economic growth to create enough jobs. 

But we do have enough demand in other parts of our economy like in infrastructure, roads, bridges, airports, dams, etc and we could put unemployed construction workers back to work working on these projects and building new projects and we have demand in our energy sector like in oil, gas, solar, wind, nuclear, water. 

But since we don't have a national energy policy that would promote our own natural resources to create the jobs in these areas and we also at the same time have to have a fiscal policy, thats based on paying for things that government spends money on cutting back in areas, that we spend too much on or shouldn't be spending money on. 

And then reform, our social insurance programs and in national security. As well as tax reform, taxing more things but at lower rates. 

America is not Greece but we cold be its twin if we don't get our economy going again and President Obama's American Jobs Act is a good start. 

And the Bowles-Simpson Deficit Reduction plan is a good start with our fiscal policy. But we need to do more in both areas so we can have a strong enough economy. Other wise we'll never get our debt and deficit under control.