Negotiating from weakness

Matt Rothschild offers the most accurate assessment of the healthcare plan unveiled by the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats yesterday. There are good elements likely to improve the system, but it "isn’t near perfect."

Rothschild offers several points: "it doesn’t allow the government to set the reimbursement rates," giving insurance companies the power "to negotiate those rates with the government." That's a prescription for higher insurance company profits, but not a lot of consumer savings.

And while it creates a public plan, it "would not be open to everybody," meaning that it cannot act as real competition, making it unlikely that it would keep costs down.

And it doesn't cover everyone -- not the undocumented, who seem to be on the outside no matter who's writing the legislation, but about 10 million Americans. That's not just morally indefensible, but foolish. Real reform, as Rothschild points out "must include health care coverage for everybody in America, not just citizens."

He writes about the undocumented, but his argument is valid for everyone left without insurance, that the uninsured "will end up going to the emergency room for costly care when they could have been treated initially, at much less cost, if they had health care coverage."

I suspect that the Pelosi will get through the House and then get watered down in the Senate. If that happens, it will once again show that the Democrats do not know the first thing about negotiating -- which would leave us with weaker reforms than we need, without much of a chance for a second bite at this apple.

It's still a numbers game

It's about numbers, and the most recent number to hit the New Jersey is the registration figure released by Secretary of State Nina Wells (as reported in The Star-Ledger):

New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells said the state has 5.22 million registered voters, down from 5.35 million in 2008 when the presidential race brought a registration surge.

There are still more Democrats than Republicans — 1.77 million to 1.06 million. But Republicans have closed the gap a bit, adding some 5,000 voters since last year. Meanwhile, the number of Democrats dropped by a similar amount.

Nearly half of the voters — 2.51 million — are registered as "unaffiliated."

It's not much of a change, especially when you consider last year's record registration figures. And it seems pretty clear that quite a few of those still registered will be staying home next week. The question is: Which candidate benefits?

Our best just ain't good enough

We will have a public option, but it appears that the plan being worked out in Congress will fall short of what it needs to do -- leaving more than 10 million Americans uninsured, limiting the public option available only to the currently uninsured and mandating that Americans buy insurance from the insurance companies.

As Dennis Kucinich asked today from the House floor, "is this the best we could do?"

"Is this the best we can do? Forcing people to buy private health insurance, guaranteeing at least $50 billion in new business for the insurance companies?

“Is this the best we can do? Government negotiates rates which will drive up insurance costs, but the government won’t negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies which will drive up pharmaceutical costs.

“Is this the best we can do? Only 3% of Americans will go to a new public plan, while currently 33% of Americans are either uninsured or underinsured?

“Is this the best we can do? Eliminating the state single payer option, while forcing most people to buy private insurance.

“If this is the best we can do, then our best isn’t good enough and we have to ask some hard questions about our political system: such as Health Care or Insurance Care? Government of the people or a government of the corporations.”

Howard Dean may be right that this is a step in the right direction, but with a strong Congressional and Senate majority, the Democrats had a responsibility to stand up for us and not for the insurance companies.

Opening night and it's already 'wait until next year'

I almost made it to halftime, last night, before the bricklaying by the Knicks sent me scurrying for cover.

It was opening night for what promises to be a long season, one likely to be full of distracted longing for the kind of superstar the team has lacked since Patrick Ewing was in his prime.

Some thoughts: Mike D'Antoni is the right guy to lead the team through this, to get the most out of a cast of supporting players and those biding their time before they'll be searching for work. Donnie Walsh has a plan, which is a novel concept at the Garden.

The Europeans -- Darko Mlicic and Dano Galinaro -- bear watching and could prove useful when the new era begins next year. Wilson Chandler fits into this category, as well.

What about David Lee? He's certainly worth keeping, but at what cost? He's signed through the end of the year, which means he'll be on the market with the marquee guys. How much of your cap space do you spend on him?

I'll watch -- until the bad play stops me,

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The nightmare begins

I can't watch the World Series this year, not with the two teams I hate most playing against each other. Root for the Yankees? The Phillies? Baseball is over, as far as I'm concerned. I'll watch the Knicks, knowing they're not supposed to be very good -- and thinking about a 2010-2011 season with LeBron James, Chris Bosch or Dwayne Wade in the orange and blue.

Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie Sophie channels our old Big Kahuna

Annie and I have had dogs since 1985, when we brought home a little furball that would grow into a giant, furry lapdog. His name was Benny -- named because he peed on Annie's sister in the backseat of our car on the way home as we passed the Bennigans on Route 1 -- and he was a gentle giant.

Benny loved to play ball and take long walks when he was a pup, back when Annie lived in an apartment in Plainsboro and then when she was renting a house in Brunswick Acres. He was an amazing pup.

When she moved into the Kendall Park ranch we now live in, Benny developed an interesting quirk -- one we always laughed about. He would hide in the bathtub during thunderstorms, just run into the bathroom in the center of the house, climb in and try to burrow deep. It was understandable, I guess, because the bathroom is the only room without an external wall.

I was reminded of that this morning by Sophie. She burst into the bathroom while I was in there, nosed around and climbed into the tub. Sophie had never done that before -- nor, for that matter, had Rosie. And the only time they've been in that bathroom or tub was for a bath, so I'm not sure what would possess her to do what she did.

A little later, Annie was vacuuming and I was doing something in the bathroom when Sophie came running in and jumped back into the tub, lied down and tried to burrow herself into it as if to hide. I ran for a camera, but she ran out. She did the same thing a little later and I managed to catch this photo.

It's funny, but we have always said that Rosie has some of Honey in her (Honey was a bit manic and mischievious, always getting into something and always wanting to play) and Sophie has some Benny (laid back and mushy, loving nothing more than comfort and lovings, though sometimes a bit irritable if disturbed from her rest). It's not an exact match, of course -- these two dogs have their own, individual personalities.

But Sophie did me a great favor today, bringing a little bit of Benny back after nine years without him.

RIP, Jack Wiler, a unique voice

Jack Wiler had a way with words.

The poet, whom I met a couple of years ago when he read at the South Brunswick Poetry series (he read again last year), was a poet who used his gifts with the language to understand and make us understand the illness -- AIDS -- that ultimately took his life.

His sensibility was by turns raw and angry, and tender and spiritual and savvy. His book, Fun Being Me, should be a must read for New Jersey poetry afficionados.

Check out one of his poems here.

Here is the info on the memorial services:

Saturday, Oct. 24, 2 p.m.-6 p.m. at the Greenfields Fire Hall, 31 Budd Blvd., West Deptford, NJ 08096.

I wish I could be there, but I just can't -- too many memorials already this weekend.

So, RIP, Mr. Wiler.

Ruminations, part 1

The dogs are watching a squirrel out the back window, oblivious to the intersections that have me lost in thought this morning. Today, I am 47, older than the sports heroes I grew up worshipping, older Jack Kerouac was when he died, older than my imagination allowed when I was younger.

But birthdays are just calendar pages and the age question is not one that has plagued me much over the years. Birthdays are joyous, celebrating the anniversary of coming into the world, but I am lost in a different kind of thought this morning, knowing that this year's celebration is marked by the darkness of death.

Annie's Aunt Jean died on Tuesday, the anniversary of our dog Honey's death, and will be buried tomorrow. Today, we head to Long Island to pay our respects, to see her family. So my birthday, once again, will be spent in mourning.

I don't offer this to be selfish. It is just an observation. And perhaps, it is wholly appropriate that the two poles of our existence meet like this, that we are made to live with death as we celebrate life, that the reminder that all of it is part of the larger whole....

Dispatches: Power to the people

Dispatches is up -- on the preservation of the VanDyke farm.

Missing moosh

One year today. It's hard to believe. And, you know, even with the crazy pups, I still miss my moosh.

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Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie A perfect pair sometimes

Sometimes, these two can be so cute, sitting together on the couch after a brisk walk. Then, other times, they try our patience and make us wonder what we were thinking.

In the end, I wouldn't trade either of them for anything.

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Heavenly rock 'n' roll

One more song -- yes, "Heaven." Yes.

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I have never seen this

I have never seen this before, all three brothers jamming on the same guitar at the same time ("I'm a Man").

Los Rockin' Bros.

The guys are incendiary -- "Ola Mamacita," an impromptu "That's Alright Mama," "Evil Ways" and "Crazy Dreams" -- wow.

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Hot hot hotter

"She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" -- Tex-Mex Beatles!

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Acoustic brotherhood indeed!

Los Lonely Boys are on fire -- "Heart Won't Tell a Lie" to open.

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A night at McCarter with the Texans Five stars for Escovedo

Alejandro Escovedo played a short, but brutally efficient set, inluding several from Real Animal and something from a stage production with which he was involved. There were several highlights, to offer an understatement, inluding an aggressive and explosive "Chelsea Hotel" that, while featuring two acoustic guitars, a violin and toms, offered a taste of what Escovedo must sound like with a full band.

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Alejandro live

"Sister Lost Soul" is one of his prettiest songs, done tonight with a truly dramatic arrangement.

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Alejandro's opener

Alejandro Escovedo's on -- opens with "Five Hearts Breaking" Perfect for me because it was the song that first attracted me to his music.

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A night at McCarter with the Texans

Hacienda, a San Antonio band that sounds like country Beach Boys and British Invasion pop, opens. So far so good.

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Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie Ridin' in my car

I left the office a little early today to check on the pups -- after their little episode Saturday night, we thought it best.

I picked a good day to do so -- sunny and the temperatures are coming back up to normal.

Annie worked normal hours, which meant she'd need a ride -- which meant that the dogs got to go for a much-needed and long-overdue ride in the car. They seem to be enjoying it.

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Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie It's going to get better, I know it will

Things are rarely as dark as they seem when you're stuck in the moment.

The dogs are sleeping on the couch and chair behind me, having spent a couple of hours in their pen while I was at a poetry reading and Annie was out with her sister.

After last night, we were scared that we couldn't leave them together -- they went at each other at we were unable to break the tension afterward -- but Pat, the trainer, called this morning and talked us down.

Rosie and Sophie, she said, are like teenaged sisters. They'll fight over almost anything and then move on. At the same time, we have to minimize their opportunities. So all toys are now put away and to be doled out only when we want them to play. If they get territorial, the toys get taken away.

And we need to make sure we make them work, both physically and intellectually, both to tire them out but also to address their innate need to work.

Annie and her sister Susan took them for a 25-minute walk before and Annie and I played a few attention-span games before I showered and left.

I think we're both still anxious, but it is better. We will get through this. The dogs will get through this.

Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie Why can't we break this cycle?

I am at a complete loss on this. We've been working pretty hard at reining in the dogs (pictured from the other day), making it clear that we are the alphas, the pack leaders and keeping them under control.

And yet, tonight, while Annie and her sister were in the office, the dogs went at it. I'm not clear on the details, but it appears that Sophie went for a ball and Rosie reacted, but that may not matter. What matters is that we broke the fight up quickly, but we have not been able to de-escalate the bad energy and it is going on two hours.

Sophie is acting scared and defensive; Rosie is being the aggressor.

The night started well. Both of them listened when my brother and sister-in-law were over with the kids and they played with the kids. But maybe there was too much excitement for them, maybe we should have done something to help calm them more when Mark and Ana left. I just don't know.

It was probably less than 30 minutes after they left that the dogs went at it.

We broke them up, separated them and slowly brought them back together. But Sophie remains in defensive mode and Rosie went to bite and was barking. It is scary and both of us are shaken.

Annie has Sophie in the bedroom and I'm in the living room with Rose. We have two gates separating them and we'll see if a night apart calms things. Both of us are terrified that something broke tonight that we won't be able to fix, that we may have to -- well, I don't even want to think it at this point.

I just want them to get along.

Rosie is starting to fall asleep on the chair and I'm going to lie down on the couch. I hope that both of us get some sleep tonight, but I just don't know if that's possible.

We're both worried about leaving them alone tomorrow and when we go to work on Monday.

I've Tweeted the trainer, and I think Annie's checked in via Facebook. I'm hoping to hear from her early tomorrow and we'll just take things one moment at a time.

I don't know what else to do.

Treason they say; hokum I say

There is something more than a little troubling about books like the ones pictures, by Glenn Beck and Jerome Corsi and Michelle Malkin, that equate liberalism with treason. It's one thing to disagree -- Ross Douthat and George Will, who I find off base most of the time, at least engage in debate -- but it's another to transform philosophical arguments into concpiracy, which does nothing more than degrade the public discourse. That these treason tracts are the only political books -- aside from the Kennedy memoir -- available at the big box store we're shopping at today makes me just a bit sad.

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Doggie diary: The atory of Rosie and Sophie Watching the television

Rosie and Sophie, as I've said before, like watching "The Dog Whisperer" -- maybe a bit too much. Rosie is good, but Sophie goes after the flat screen. It'd be funny if the TV wasn't in the line of fire.

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Where in the world is South Brunswick?

I know where it is -- smack in the middle of New Jersey, between New Brunswick and Princeton and along four major north-south highways (Routes 27, 1 and 130 and the N.J. Turnpike). But not everyone knows, which this is why you get this kind of misleading press info, published in the Princeton University Bulletin in September after Segal's work was donated to the university:

Segal, a painter and sculptor associated with the Pop Art movement, lived in North Brunswick, N.J., for most of his adult life.

Segal, one of the more prominent artists of the last century, lived not in North Brunswick -- though he had a North Brunswick mailing address -- but in South Brunswick. Frank Chrinko, a former South Brunswick mayor, called my attention to the error, saying that it offered proof that the township needs a single, South Brunswick mailing address. Maybe he's right. Maybe it's time.

Friday Five: Cup a joe

There is something comfortable about the chatter at Small World Coffee in Princeton, like a jazz band pushing its multi-piece improvisation into overdrive.

The chattering din, dozens of voices playing against each other, the individual bits of conversation rising, making themselves known:

"The academic response," says one; "students ask me about that," says another. "I saw him yesterday."

It is a Friday morning, rainy and cold, and I have a meeting in 30 minutes. But I love to sit here and listen and write on those mornings when I'm not teaching or going for a run.

Not everyone would agree, Some might even find it pretentious in its Princetonness, but I find it comfortable and intellectually stimulating.

Small World tops my list of places where I can sit and sip coffee, write or talk and watch and listen -- the Friday Five.

1. Small World Coffee
2. Rock 'n' Joe, Kendall Park
3. It's a Grind, Plainsboro
4. Main Street, Kingston
5. Pierre's Deli, South Brunswick; Teddy's, Cranbury

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Power to the people

I received an e-mail today from a resident over in the East Village area of South Brunswick -- Davidsons Mill, Fresh Ponds and Deans Rhode Hall roads -- thanking me for some editorials and columns I'd written over the last few years and saying that the editorials may have turned the tide on saving the Pulda or VanDyke Farm.


I thanked him, but had to disagree. All I did -- and all we did as a paper did -- was shine a light on something important. It had nothing to do with us and everything to do with an engaged and energized group of residents who showed up en masse at meetings, posted signs on their properties and made clear that there would be political consequences if the council were to ignore them.


Consider the history:


Developer Joe Morris approaches the Township Council about rezoning the 200-plus-acre farm to allow him to build three warehouses totalling more than 2 million square feet on the Davidsons Mill Road property. Mayor Frank Gambatese initially was receptive, because the project would have generated significant tax revenue.


Residents were not happy. Warehouses had been encroaching on their area for years, getting closer and closer to the folks living there -- until a 1990s-agreement with the council yielded what they thought was a hard border. Warehouses were to stay east of the N.J. Turnpike.


They attended meetings, as I said, wrote letters to the paper, formed an advocacy group (East Villages Association), and made sure the mayor and council understood their concerns. They plied a forgotten form of in-your-face local activism that rarely happens these days.

I grew up as a reporter, so to speak, during the development mania that was altering the face of Central Jersey in the early 1990s. Residents throughout the region got active in an attempt to save vacant land and beat back some of the more egregious projects: Metroplex and Friendship Village, in South Brunswick, for instance, as well as similar projects in other communities.

That engagement, however, had faded -- even on massive intrusions into the landscape, like Route 92, the energy was gone, as opponents left it to elected officials to fight their battles.

The EVA folks, however, refused to back down and the effort resulted in the mayor and council not only backing their opposition to the warehouses, but working to get the county and state involved in the purchase.

Luck played a role, as well -- the cratering of the economy, in particular the housing market, meant that the Pulda/VanDyke property was going to cost considerably less than it might have just two or three years ago ($7.5 million for 188 acres vs. what probably was twice the price tag not all that long ago).

The effort and the result renewed my faith in an active public and should stand as an example for all who desire their elected officials to act. If you want the people on the council, the people in Trenton or even in Washington to do something, make it clear that you are willing to go to the mat and that ignoring you will have real consequences in lost votes and lost political fundraising.

Dispatches: Filibuster the filibuster

The filibuster is the target of this week's Dispatches.

Sick and tired of being sick and tired

I finally went to the doctor Monday, after four weeks of coughing. I haven't been able to run, and sometimes the cough is almost asthmatic -- I can't catch my breath.

But I'm stubborn and stupid and I hate to go to the doctor when it appears to be just a cold.

Instead, I've spent more than four weeks getting little sleep and I broke.

So off to the doctor I went to be prescribed a steroid and codeine cough syup -- which, as I said on Twitter yesterday, makes me feel like a junkie homerun hitter. So, now my head hurts, I'm tired and I still have another four or five papers to grade tonight (plus pulling together a lesson plan and starting a column).

If you don't see more blog entries today, you'll know why.

Waiting for Christie to be specific on his budget is like waiting for Godot

I have a question for Republican candidate Chris Christie: When do you plan to explain how you can cut taxes, increase property tax rebates and balance a budget that already is expected to be $8 billion in the red next year? Because his public comments -- mostly criticism of his opponents tax policies -- leave me wondering whether he understands how budgets work.

Consider: If you cut taxes, you're cutting revenue. That means the state has less money coming in, unless you can find a new source of cash to replace it. If you can't -- or won't -- you will need to make budget cuts to offset the lost revenue.

That's how a family budget works. Think about a two-income family. If one person is laid off or quits his or her job, then that family has to account for the lost money, either by bringing in new money or reducing the amount going out. That person can find a job or a couple of part-time jobs. The remaining breadwinner can get a second job or someone else in the family can go to work. The alternative is making cuts in what each member spends -- driving less, going out to eat less frequently, stretching food or other supplies for longer periods and so on. But the family cannot continue to spend at the same level when less money is coming in.

It works the same way with a state budget.

Christie has been talking about his plan -- a vague promise to cut waste and end corruption. OK. If he wins, I hope he's successful at doing that. The reality is, however, that the waste and fraud he's talking about will not result in enough savings to cover his own promises, let alone the anticipated deficit.

Unless, of course, he has a different definition of what wasteful spending might be (cutting programs with which he disagrees, for instance) or plans to borrow to plug the gap. If those are possibilities, he needs to say so. New Jersey voters need to know what programs might be on the chopping block under a Christie administration.

If he's not thought that out, he needs to explain that, as well, so that voters know he is making bogus promises.

Nobel offers sur-Prizes: What were they thinking?

The folks at the Nobel Prize committee really outdid themselves this year. Not only did they award a literature prize to what appears to be a minor Eastern European writer, they've given the Peace prize to President Barack Obama on the grounds that he has remade the international community.

President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” a stunning honor that came less than nine months after he made United States history by becoming the country’s first African-American president.

The award, announced in Oslo by the Nobel Committee while much of official
Washington — including the president — was still asleep, cited in particular the
president’s efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

“He has created a new international climate,” the committee said.

He has? Look, I think he is a drastic improvement over the arrogant fool who sat in the Oval Office for the last eight years, but I can't help but wonder whether the Nobel committee has allowed the previous administration's failures to distort its view of the current president.

The fact remains that he has been office a little less than nine months and has accomplished little on the world stage. He may be committed to nuclear abolition, but so far all we have to show for that is some harsh words for Iran, some general goals and some talking.

On a separate but related point, I find it difficult to accept the awarding of a peace prize to a president who is still considering a troop buildup in Afghanistan.

Olbermann takes on healthcare, sort of

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Keith Olbermann's "Special Comments," his occasional editorial comment, are often pointed and say things that need to be said.

Some on the other hand, miss the mark completely.

Last night's, as Mike Madden writes on Salon.com, just fell flat. It was overly long and offered little to the people who watch his show, the vast majority who support reform. It was a good, old-fashioned venting, one he may have needed to perform, but one that we did not need to hear and that did not move the debate forward. Olbermann, as Madden says, "mostly ignored what's actually happening, in favor of preaching to the choir, rather than explaining the situation."

The entire hour was dedicated to a "Special Comment" -- Olbermann-ese for an editorial -- about healthcare reform. But the point didn't seem to be to pass reform legislation; the point appeared to be to chastise everyone involved in it, on either side, and to declaim about the nature of the system. Where Olbermann could have explained what the legislation would do -- and taken on the myths against it -- instead he spent his time making solemn pronouncements.

The questions he raised and did not raise, the myths he magnified and dismantled, did not get at the basics of an argument that has gone horribly off track (my Progressive Populist column, which will be published later this month, focuses on this) -- the need to expand care to the uninsured and to make sure the insured actually get the coverage they pay for, the need to change how we pay doctors and the need to uncouple health coverage form employment.

Spending an hour spitting venom on a dysfunctional system should have functioned as a call to arms for single-payer, but instead he offered nothing more than an angry salvo in a healthcare battle the contours of which have been decided by politicians without imagination or guts or both.

Off their wing

This can't be serious, right? It can't. But it is. Just another example of how the rightwing fringe has fallen off the edge of the wingnut cliff.

Wrong approach on health care

I know this is supposed to be good news, and I guess it is. But the reality is that the deficit is a red herring in the healthcare debate. It's not about the deficit, but about the way we spend our healthcare dollars.

We spend one out of every six dollars in our economy on health care -- an astronomical number that is almost 50 percent higher than the average industrialized nation. And yet we have nearly 50 million uninsured and we rank on the lower end of the health scales.

We spend plenty. The questions are who gets the money and what we spend it on. Right now, the bulk of the cash flows through the insurance companies, who skim big money from the top before passing it along to Big Pharma and doctors who push unnecessary drugs, tests and treatments.

The Baucus bill leaves this dynamic place.

Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie Couple of hours for a couple of seconds

We finally got to see Cesar Milan, after waiting in line for two hours in the MarketFair. We gave him a copy of a photo of Rosie and Sophie watching his show (above), which he seemed to find funny (who knows -- it may have been all for show). He signed our book and a photo of the dogs. And then we were done.

Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie The parents wait for Cesar

I'm not sure why, but we're standing outside of the Barnes & Noble in West Windsor waiting for Cesar Milan to sign a copy of his latest book, "How to Raise the Perfect Dog."

We'd planned on coming tonight, but not just for the book signing. We thought he was going to give a talk (pointers for dealing with the pups); the crowd was too big, however, and the talk is now a signing.

We knew this ahead of time -- Annie called -- but we came anyway. We (mostly Annie, but a little of me) had already set our minds to it.

We got here just before 7 and probably won't see him until close to 9. (you'd think they'd have set us up inside so we could shop.)

I don't remember the last time I waited two hours for something like this -- maybe Springsteen. I guess Cesar is the rock star of the dog world.

Too bad we had to leave Rosie and Sophie home.

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Hypocritical hawks

E.J. Dionne Jr. compares the penny-pinching ways of anti-health reformers with their profligacy in matters of war in one of the more pointed sentences you'll find in an op-ed these days:

It's also enraging that those who insist on offsetting every penny spent to expand health coverage would never ask the Congressional Budget Office to score the costs of McChrystal's strategy. For the uninsured, they propose fiscal prudence. For war, they offer profligacy.

The logic of dictators

Follow the reasoning on this one:

Pakistan grabs a then-18-year-old during a sweep in 2002, less than a year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The teen, as a judge eventually finds, was arrested and held without cause at our Guantanamo Bay prison facility. The judge -- five months ago -- orders the man, now 26, released.

The Obama administration balks. Even if the Yemeni, Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed,

was not dangerous in 2002, they said, Guantánamo itself might have radicalized him, exposing him to militants and embittering him against the United States. If he returned to his troubled homeland of Yemen, the officials feared, he might fall in with the growing contingent of Al Qaeda there, one more Guantánamo survivor to star in their propaganda videotapes.

So American officials first sought to route him to a rehabilitation program for militants in Saudi Arabia. But the Saudis would take him only if he wanted to go — and he did not.

To sum things up: He's arrested and held without cause for eight years, which turns him into a potential terrorist, which creates the cause to hold him. When did we become the Latin America of Pinochet and Peron?
So it wanted to keep him in custody, which the judge overruled.

The

Opening night: Confex rocks

I think it's going to be a hit. The new Confectionately Yours opened today and it looks great.

We've been coming here for years and are friends with the owners, the Gondek family, so maybe we're biased. But dinner was great -- old-fashioned turkey dinner for me, meatloaf for Annie -- and we're stuffed.

Stone table tops in the booths and a spectacular ice-cream bar -- just a warm and inviting atmosphere.

They start with an advantage of a loyal customer base, but the place was packed on a Monday -- the traditional slow night for restaurants.

A good start to what will be a successful venture.

Congratulations, Gondek family.

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Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie Bad dog owners the sequel

What was I thinking, leaving a pair of sneakers in the den over night? Oh, I wasn't thinking and now I need news sneakers.

This is what I meant by us need ing more training. It's not the dogs' fault when they act like dogs. It's ours when we get lazy.

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Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie Going back to dog school

It's back to basics for our dynamic duo.

After our scare on Monday, when they got into a nasty fight that we had great difficulty breaking up, we brought the trainer back in for another round. Pat told us what we already knew, of course: We've spoiled them terribly and let them walk all over us.

Dogs, from everything we've read, look for a pack leader. If we don't provide it, then they fill the vacuum themselves.

That's why, as they approach their first birthday, they've retained far too many of their worst habits and have started developing new ones:

• They jump on people when they first come in the door. They will calm down, but I can see how someone might not want to deal with it. Plus, they have sharp nails that leave marks.


• They've started using their mouths to direct us or get our attention. That is unacceptable, but we had no idea how to address it. Now, when they use their teeth or their paws that way, we stop them and basically reset things.


• They've become more difficult to walk, pulling so hard that Annie often has to let me have both dogs -- not an easy chore. A few weeks ago, while we were walking on Hodge Road, one of the dogs went to the bathroom. Annie took both dogs as I cleaned it up -- which seemed OK at that moment. Until someone nearby let their two dogs out in their fenced-in yard. All four dogs went nuts and Rosie and Sophie pulled Annie across the yard and into a pile of firewood. She was bruised and strained her shoulder, but the firewood probably kept it from getting worse. It all happened in seconds -- like Monday's fight -- but seemed to unwind in slow motion.


• They've been jumping on the counters again, after not doing that for months. Last night, with the trainer here, Sophie stole a loaf of carrot bread Annie brought home. She got to it twice, but we caught her right away. We've got to work on keeping her off the counter.


• They also like remote controls -- we've had to replace three so far and have another two that need to go back. They've chewed on a Blackberry, two laptop chargers and this morning got to a mini video camera.

None of this is acceptable, but it also isn't their fault. It's ours. We have done a terrible job raising our pups and now we've got to work twice as hard to make up for lost time.

You'd think we'd be better at this, given we've had dogs since shortly after we started dating. But it has been a long time since we've had puppies this young and now we have two. I wouldn't trade them, but we probably should have thought a little more about it at the beginning.

In any case, this is a lifetime commitment, like raising a kid. Monday's fight reminded us of that.

More bad news on the economic front

I keep hearing that things are getting better, but the reality is that things are not -- at least not for workers. The Labor Department issued another bleak jobs report today, announcing 263,000 lost jobs in September and an unemployment rate of 9.8 percent, the highest in 26 years.

As The New York Times reports,

the report offered little good news for the 15.1 million unemployed people in the United States. The number of hours worked stagnated. Overtime hours slipped in many industries. And temporary help companies — typically, among the first to rebound after a recession — shed 1,700 jobs.

“People have been celebrating that we’re through the financial crisis, but the underlying issues are all still there,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “We’ve lost trillions of dollars in housing wealth, and consumption’s going to be weak. It’s not the ’30s, but there’s really nothing to boost the economy.”

The reality is that, while things appear better on some fronts than they were a year ago (thanks to a federal stimulus package that pumped some money back into the economy, though it could have been more robust), most of us have no reason to be optimistic.

The economy has been bleeding jobs every month, without interruption, for nearly two years. More than 15 million people in the United States are now unemployed, and more are working part-time jobs for less pay, or have given up looking for work altogether.

“This is still severe,” said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project. “It’s not going to be turning around as fast as people want.”

At the same time, other economic measures are beginning to waver, signaling that the initial phase of the recovery — a sharp rebound from a deep bottom — may be giving way to a long grind higher, marked by uncertainty and pain for many.

With every jobs report comes the sense among workers that they could be next. That makes them unwilling to spend on the kind of discretionary items -- high-tech toys, for instance -- that are now sitting on shelves. If no one is buying them, then there is no reason to manufacture them -- which leaves the people doing the work without jobs.

Hence, the sense of pessimism that greets even the most optimistic pronouncements.

Olympic dream would be a nightmare

Barack Obama is making a mistake in pushing to bring the Olympic Games to Chicago, but not for the reasons the right-wing is offering. His trip to Copenhagen was far less of a distraction from the hard work ahead than the various vacations George W. Bush took over the course of his disastrous eight years.

His mistake lies in the myth of the Olympics as urban renewal. As Dave Zirin points out this week, the argument that the Olympics will create jobs and help Chicago and the nation be more competitive in the world economy is belied by the failures the games have left in their wake.

There is only one problem with this argument: the history of the Olympic Games almost without exception brands it as a lie. As Sports Illustrated's Michael Fish - an Olympic supporter - has written, "You stage a two-week athletic carnival and, if things go well, pray the local municipality isn't sent into financial ruin."

He adds that

To greater or lesser degrees, the Olympics bring gentrification, graft and police violence wherever they nest. Even without the Olympic Games, Chicago has been ground zero in the past decade for the destruction of public housing, political corruption raised to an art form, and police violence. Bringing the Olympics to this town would be like sending a gift basket filled with bottles of Jim Beam to the Betty Ford Clinic: over-consumption followed by disaster.

Elizabeth DiNovella offers a similar argument:

The Olympics could be a financial disaster for the city. The range of taxpayer-linked costs runs in excess of $2.1 billion, reports the Chicago Tribune. The bid committee says much of the costs would be paid by federal tax dollars, but ultimately Chicago “taxpayers would be on the hook for any huge cost overruns.”

Huge cost overruns are a way of life for city projects. Just look at Millennium Park. The park, which is a hit locally and internationally, opened four years behind schedule. “Originally estimated to cost $150 million when plans were unveiled in 1998, the price tag ballooned to about $490 million by the time it opened in 2005,” the Tribune reported in March 2007. “Private donors covered roughly $220 million of the total, the city the remainder.”

Plus, it is rare that the expected redevelopment -- and subsequent increase in business and taxes -- actually happens, especially when public dollars are invested in the project. The money goes out and into the pockets of developers and neighborhoods are uprooted, but the tax revenue generated never makes up for the initial outlay.

The Olympics are just not a good deal for anyone but the people who already have the cash. Let them go to Spain.