This Saturday we spent the afternoon with Marc Soucy and Nancy Jenkinson from Boston. They were down in Westchester on a serendipitous trip to see some of the sights. Linda had suggested Kykuit, the Westchester home of the Rockefeller Clan which is situated right on Route 9 in the Village of Sleepy Hollow, which previously had been known as North Tarrytown. Kykuit was built by John D. Rockefeller in 1902, and has been the home to four generations of the Rockefeller family. Kykuit means “high point” in Dutch and has breathtaking views of the Hudson River. Kykuit is home to beautiful furniture, paintings and sculptures. The grounds contain wonderful terraces, fountains, gardens, and a large collection of 20th century sculpture. Kykuit also has a large collection of antique cars and horse drawn vehicles.

Meanwhile, Sleepy Hollow is a village in the Town of Mount Pleasant, which originally was named North Tarrytown which was a product of the merger of the neighborhoods of Beekmantown and Sleepy Hollow in the 19th Century. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, about 30 miles north of midtown Manhattan and just north of Tarrytown, which is the Town of Greenburgh. The village decided to change its name in 1996 when residents voted to have it changed to honor the Washington Irving story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

After our usual tennis games in Armonk, our trip back to our home in Watch Hill, our showers and change of clothes, we headed over to Kikuyu to meet the Marc and Nancy and led them (in their car) to the Hyde Park, and Springwood, the ancestral home of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The trip usually takes one hour and the Taconic Parkway was smooth sailing until the exit for Route 55 West. After reaching Poughkeepsie, it’s only another four miles up Route 9 to Hyde Park and the Roosevelt homestead and library.

We toured the Henry A. Wallace Center, the Rose Garden and the graves of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, walked around the mansion, named Springwood, and looked down the valley towards the Hudson, which was blocked from view because of the trees near the banks of the river.
The estate, which also comprised about one square mile of land at the time, was bought in this condition by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s father, James Roosevelt, in 1866 for a price of $40,000. At this time, a stable and a horse track had been built already, which was important to James Roosevelt since he took a great interest in horse breeding. From right after the purchase until his death 34 years later, James Roosevelt had many improvements of the house carried out. He enlarged the servants’ wing of the building and added two rooms. He also had a spacious carriage house built in the vicinity.

In 1915, Franklin D. Roosevelt together with his mother Sara undertook a final major enlargement and remodeling of the home. Franklin D. Roosevelt contributed many ideas for the new design, but since the building work was paid for by his mother Sara, she had to find compromises which also took the financial aspect into account. She commissioned the design work the firm of Hoppin and Koen from New York City. The size of the house was more than doubled by adding two large fieldstone wings (designed by Franklin D. Roosevelt), a tower, and a third story with a flat roof. The clapboard exterior of the house was replaced with stucco and most of the porch was replaced with a fieldstone terrace with a balustrade and a small columned portico around the entrance. These alterations gave the exterior of the house the look of a mansion in Colonial Revival Style. The interior retained much of the layout of the old family home and was designed primarily with housing Franklin D. Roosevelt’s growing collections of books, paintings, stamps, and coins. The remodeling work was finished within one year in 1916. Franklin Roosevelt also changed the appearance of the surrounding land by extensive planting of trees. Between 1911, when the large scale planting started and Roosevelt’s death in 1945, more than 400,000 trees were planted on the estate.
After eating lunch at the Nesbitt Café, which was ironically named after the White House’s director of “cuisine,” Henrietta Nesbitt, whose food never really agreed with the President, we headed over to the FDR Library.
By the way, Henrietta and her husband, Henry F. Nesbitt, had been neighbors of the Roosevelts in Hyde Park, New York. Eleanor Roosevelt and Nesbitt met through the formation of a local chapter of the League of Women Voters. Mrs. Roosevelt, heavily involved in her husband’s campaign for governor of New York, asked Nesbitt to make baked goods for the Roosevelt’s growing social functions at Hyde Park. When Franklin Roosevelt was elected to the White House in 1932, Mrs. Roosevelt asked both Nesbitts to work for them in the White House. Henry Nesbitt tracked the household accounts as chief steward. Two sets of books had to be kept as the government only paid for state dinners and receptions; all other meals were charged to the Roosevelts. After Henry Nesbitt’s death in 1938, Mrs. Nesbitt took over these duties with the help of an assistant.

Mrs. Nesbitt proved to be an indefatigable worker and her position involved not only care of the house, but oversight of the servants, meal planning, and the purchase of supplies from her command post on the ground floor of the historic residence. The Roosevelts were socially active and entertained over 10,000 persons during the 1937 season at the White House.

Nesbitt became a minor celebrity through her position and gave newspaper interviews about her menus. She also appeared on a radio program with other White House staffers to discuss the running of the presidential mansion. Her plain home-style meals were never widely appreciated at the White House and both President Roosevelt and visitors complained about the quality and variety of foods that were served. A 1937 New York Times article stated “any man might rebel against being served salt fish for luncheon four days in a row.” Roosevelt had a food rebellion the prior week and said that the “kitchen had better not send him any more liver for a while and he is also getting pretty tired of string beans.”

After our lunch we headed over to the FDR Library and Museum which was conceived and built under President Roosevelt’s direction during 1939-40 on 16 acres of land in Hyde Park, New York, donated by the President and his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt. The library resulted from the President’s decision that a separate facility was needed to house the vast quantity of historical papers, books, and memorabilia he had accumulated during a lifetime of public service and private. Prior to Roosevelt’s Presidency, the final disposition of Presidential papers was left to chance. Although a valued part of the nation’s heritage, the papers of chief executives were private property which they took with them upon leaving office. Some were sold or destroyed and thus either scattered or lost to the nation forever. Others remained with families, but inaccessible to scholars for long periods of time. The fortunate collections found their way into the Library of Congress and private repositories.

After we toured the museum portion of the library, which is in the midst of not only putting together an new exhibit on the 75th anniversary of the passing of the Social Security Act in 1935, but a long-awaited renovation, we all decided to head north to Rhinebeck and the site of the Clinton-Mezvinsky wedding.

Rhinebeck, the home of a bit over 2000 residents, is only 10 miles north on Route 9. It is a wonderful, small town, artsy community, which is the home of the Beekman Arms Hotel. The village originally started as a European settlement which dated to 1686, when a group of Dutch crossed the river from Kingston and bought 2,200 acres of land from the local Iroquois tribes. Later, Henry Beekman obtained a patent for the land, and saw a need for development to begin. He brought into the area Casper Landsman, a miller, and William Traphagen, a builder. In 1703 the New York colonial assembly approved money for the construction of the King’s Highway, later known as the Albany Post Road and today most of Route 9. The oldest building in the village is the Beekman Arms, built in 1700 and is reported to be the oldest inn in America.

The oldest house in the village is the Benner House, built in 1739. Rhinebeck was finally incorporated in 1834, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself a native of nearby Hyde Park would play a role in the town’s history during the later years of the Great Depression when he oversaw the design process for the new post office. He had long promoted Dutch-style fieldstone as a material for public buildings in the area, and told the architects to use Henry Beekman’s house (burned in a 1910 fire) as their model and some of its remaining stones for the post office. He spoke at the dedication ceremony and helped lay the cornerstone.

It wasn’t easy finding a parking place in Rhinebeck, but eventually we found a open space in one of the municipal lots off Market Street, We strolled around, stopped into some of the shops, talked to the storekeepers, who were quite excited about the Clinton-Mezvinsky Wedding. This wedding put Rhinebeck on the map, and thousands of visitors in the streets, eating at their restaurants, and buying local trinkets. We even stopped by at Gigi’s Trattoria, which hosted former President Clinton the day before. When it was heard that the president was having lunch there, over 1000 folks had gathered in front of the restaurant. When he finally appeared, a great roar of welcome came from the group of admirers and the president signed autographs and greeted all he could.

By the time we left, there were still hundreds of locals, tourists, reporters (Rehema Ellis of NBC was strolling around when I met her) and media hanging around the Beekman Arms and the adjoining area. Everyone was eager to see a celebrity or two. But, all who were invited were already ensconced at the Astor Estate and probably sitting down to dinner.

It was a long day, which started with tennis up in Armonk, so by 6:00 pm we decided to go to dinner back in Hyde Park, at the art-deco Eveready Diner. Which has been featured on the “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVolPZ8Vxj0 .We all had a great meal. I can only remember that I had a cup of matzo ball soup and a strip steak, but every one was quite happy and satiated. It was now close to 8:00 pm and we headed back to Tarrytown, and our friends made their way down to the Mid-Hudson Rover Bridge and their accommodations in Newburgh. By 9:00 pm we were back in Tarrytown, and ready for a well-deserved rest.

I have had the distinct pleasure of hosting Michael Cohen on my show The Advocates over the past few years. I read with interest his piece regarding who were the best and the worst foreign policy presidents.

First of all no one could disagree with FDR being number one. From his warnings regarding the threat from the totalitarians in his 1937 Quarantine Speech, to his battle against the America First isolationists and appeasers, to his embargo of critical material to Japan, to his excellent strategy regarding Germany First, FDR was a master of judgment, strategy and negotiation. He kept the Allied coalition together; he selected excellent commanders on both land and sea, and was willing to forget ideology with regard to his cabinet (Stimson, Knox) and with the creation of the OSS (Donovan). He was the central force behind all of critical meetings from the Quebec Conference, to Casablanca to Teheran and through to Yalta. At the end he was the creator of the United Nations and the Bretton Woods Conference on Monetary reform was critical to the post war economic structure. He had a problem with the London Monetary Conference on gold, but scored high marks regarding his Good Neighbor Policy in Latin America.

Truman had a distinct disadvantage following FDR, but he gets high marks for continuing his policies. His decision to drop the A-Bomb was correct and even though it is impossible to know for sure, I believe FDR would have come to the same conclusion. The Marshall Plan, NATO and the Truman Doctrine give him high marks along with the firing of the recalcitrant MacArthur. MacArthur’s invasion at Inchon and his run up north to the Yalu River was not wrong-headed or against Truman’s directives. The problem was his failure to heed warnings regarding China’s motives that were clearly given him and his poor dispersal of his troops. Truman and the US were almost helpless in regards to the Chinese Civil War, which was almost decades old by 1945. Though FDR did not trust the corrupt Chiang Kai-Shek he was able to work with him because of the Japanese threat to the existence of an independent China, but after the war, Truman was stuck with a loser.

Eisenhower was an overrated president who made many foreign policy mistakes. His going to Korea didn’t change the dynamic of the truce, but it put a lie to the baseless and oft used Republican political cry of, “who lost China?” He was not well enough to be an active engaged president and he failed with the Suez Crisis, and after being bluffed by the Soviets, he let down our allies; the British, French, and yes the Israelis. He embargoed arms to Israel, and also did not capitalize on the aborted Hungarian Revolution. He was embarrassed at the summit over the U2 Incident, and was upstaged by the bellicose Khrushchev. His South American policies reversed excellent relationships developed by FDR’s successful Good Neighbor policies. (Nixon’s disastrous trip to South America in 1958.) He also fouled up the Vietnam situation by not recognizing Ho Chi Minh’s efforts against the Japanese, underestimated their aspirations for a unified country, and half-heartedly supported the French colonial rule, which FDR opposed. The CIA’s coup and their replacing Mossadegh with the Shah in Iran set the stage for long-term problems that have not ended. He allowed the ascendency of Castro, and the planning for the Bay of Pigs.

George HW Bush, deserved high marks for creating the coalition against Saddam Hussein, but failed miserably in the end. His failure to destroy the Baathist regime set the stage for the next round of warfare, which we are still entangled. Over all he was an uninspiring leader who achieved his office by the “Peter Principle.” His allowing Sadaam the use of helicopters enabled him to put down revolts in 90% of the provinces that resisted his totalitarian rule. He was generally seen as ineffectual and naïve.

Wilson’s policy of organizing our first effort as a real world power succeeded. His selection of Pershing was excellent and our effort won the war. But his inability to compromise with Senate “irreconcilables” led to his political failure. He gets high marks for the Fourteen Points, the World Court and the League of Nations, but underestimated the virulence of the Allies toward Germany and the opposition here to foreign entanglements. Conservative German-American revisionist historians in the 1920’s did a lot to sully Wilson’s efforts.

Lyndon B. Johnson forgot FDR’s adage on “guns and butter,” was sucked into the “who lost China” canard by the GOP, and fought an insincere foolish war. According to Art Buchwald, the late humorist and journalist, he could have bought off the North Vietnamese for a fraction of the cost of the war. His policies of containment followed the Truman model, but were unachievable because unlike Korea, Vietnam was not a peninsular and the Ho Chi Minh Trail could outflank our forces by going through Laos and Cambodia. He wasted blood and treasure in an unwinnable effort. As to his other actions, they paled in comparison.

Nixon politically exploited the Vietnam War with his “secret plan” for victory in the same way Eisenhower did in Korea. Nixon’s efforts in Vietnam were worse than Johnson’s. He allowed more of our forces to be killed, he spent more money, and he caused more damage to the region. As to China and the USSR he certainly opened the door to a different level of negotiation. But few people remember that it was Nixon whose Senatorial career and advice to Eisenhower as Vice-President was to not recognize Red China. It was that policy that delayed normalization with them. He supported the failed Eisenhower policy of supporting the French before the Dien Bien Phu defeat. Basically he was a paranoid hypocrite who spent the last years of his life rationalizing his whole disastrous career.

As to JFK being in the top five, that conclusion is disputable. He allowed the Berlin Wall to be built; he aligned himself with the corrupt Catholic minority in Vietnam, organized their downfall and was indecisive about how to handle that country. His “Ich Bin Ein Berliner,” speech got high marks, his South America policy was better than Eisenhower’s and he was able to be well-liked in Europe and the 3rd World. His efforts on Nuclear Arms limitations deserve high marks, but his shortened presidency left too many unanswered questions about the future. His actions in the Cuban Missile Crisis after the disaster with the Bay of Pigs deserve very high marks.

Carter was a poor president and his failure with the Iranian Hostage Crisis showed his weakness, but at least they were released alive. We were sucked into the Iranian Revolution by our past support of the corrupt Shah, and Carter’s ambivalence and his dalliance with him started the mess with the Iranian Mullahs and militants. But, he did get high marks regarding Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty.

Clinton’s foreign policy was under-rated with strong successes in Haiti, Northern Ireland, ending the Balkan War and containing Sadaam Hussein with relatively inexpensive air containment.

Reagan was overrated on foreign policy. The fall of the Soviet Union was on the way long before the expensive and unnecessary 600 ship navy and the foolish “Star Wars” expenditure. The revolt at Gdansk along with liberalization of Hungary which opened the door to the West for East Germany refugees set the stage for the USSR’s collapse.

George W. Bush was our worst president, home and abroad, enough said.

Top Five: FDR, Truman, Clinton, Wilson, and JFK. The bottom five: GW Bush, GHW Bush, Eisenhower, LBJ and Carter.

Last night’s late comedy of errors and loss was not the beginning of the end for the toothless Bronx Bombers, but the last number of games seems to indicate just where they maybe going.. Of course, it just may be another bump on their road to the playoffs, but their glaring weaknesses may have been foreshadowed in their last few games.

If it wasn’t bad enough that they gave up on Lance Bergman who is leading the NL with 26 home runs, look who they got to replace him. Have you heard of Eric Chavez? No? Well he’s a nobody, who’s been on the DL all season. But how about their bench? What bench? Young light-hitting, no threat, Mr. Pena had a tummy ache and is gone. He couldn’t hit his hat. Andruw Jones their over weight, over-the hill, burned out former gazelle is their backup outfielder. Until Cano’s home run last night, he was the last Yankee to hit a homer, which happened before the All-Star break. He’s hitting a hefty 211 and is death on the base paths.

But, what of their other flawed all-stars? ARod, who like many others in the near past, seems to be breaking down in his post de-tox come down from steroids. Before he went on the DL he had 13 home runs in over 300 at bats. I’d be very shocked if he makes a run on the home run record. He may have to play until he’s fifty.

But what of Teixeira who is now sinking under .240 and hasn’t hit a long ball in almost a month. Just throw him any breaking ball at his ankles and he’ll assuredly strike out. He’ll be lucky if he hits another 10 home runs in the remaining games.

I suggest trading him for Albert Pujols. The Cards can’t sign him, the Yankees probably can and the Cards will get a first baseman who’s signed for years. I am sure like Bergman he’ll hit in the NL. As for their other All-Stars, their catcher Martin is now hitting under .224 and he’s gone almost “o” for the summer. Looks like most of his production ended in April. Unfortunately their backup catcher, Cervelli, is batting .200, has no power and cannot throw. Nobodies perfect!

Aside from having an off year, or the reversion to form, Nick Swisher seems to unable to hit unless he’s at the top of the order where he gets decent pitches. Unfortunately Derek Jeter is in the way, and his bat seems weaker than Cervelli’s. Even though I love Jeter, and do not mind that his range at short stop has become a liability, he is sure handed. Too bad he cannot hit the ball out of the infield. He had his chance last night with men in scoring position and he was way over matched. He needs more than two weeks off or another All-Star break, he’s worn out or finished. That leaves us with Robinson Cano, who has great power, a wonderful swing and a terrific arm. Too bad he’s under-performing, seems disinterested, and is way below his potential.

We cannot rely completely on Gardiner’s “punch and judy” hitting and stolen bases and Granderson’s excellent play.

Last but not least is their pitching. Mariano won’t be there forever, Hughes is a big question mark as is Nova. Garcia and Colon may wilt in this coming heat wave and other than Robertson, their bullpen has questions. Boone Logan is a stiff and if they could find another lefty he would have a one-way ticket to Palookaville. The interesting reality is CC Sabbathia’s contract. He has a very expensive escape clause. And even though he has another year left, it is almost like he is in his option year. His next contract request could be a budget breaker for even the Yankees. Who needs a $30 million pitcher on a 4th place team?

How long will it take for the average American to understand that they are being snookered by the “divide and conquer” tactics of the Rupert Murdock, Glen Beck, Wall Street Journal, FOX News, Rush Limbaugh rightists? These dangerous revisionists are playing a very serious game with the future of this country. They have orchestrated their “Theater of the Absurd” with their lead characters, namely Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Rudy Giuliani, the Paul Twins, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich. Has any one really paid attention to what these puppets and fraud say? Gingrich the oldest and most worn out of these front people for the social engineers of the right, is the biggest fraud of the bunch. Just read about this pseudo-intellectual’s so-called books in last week’s NY Times Magazine section. He’s a fraud and always has been. The others deserve absolutely no comment. No one in their right mind could regard these clowns as anything but either tools of others, exploiters or self-delusional dolts.

But, what of the Wall Street Journal, the Bible of the “Plutocratic Right” and their hypocritical drumbeat over spending, big government and deficits. Where were their concern when it came to Reagan and Bush I and II’s spending and their irresponsible tax cuts for the rich? As to their new owner, Rupert Murdock, maybe the world has caught up to his web of lies, deceit, sensationalism and criminality. But just listen to his pal the “law and order” guru, Rudy Giuliani: This was reported this morning on CNN, “Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is urging observers not to rush to judgment about mogul Rupert Murdoch over the alleged hacking scandal embroiling his News Corp. media empire. ‘Give people the presumption of innocence,’ Giuliani told CNN’s Candy Crowley in New Hampshire on Thursday. ‘I think that just how high up it goes is a big question and one we shouldn’t be jumping to conclusions about.’ Murdoch and Giuliani are longtime friends. Murdoch attended the former mayor’s wedding in 2003, and endorsed him in the 1993 mayoral race. Also, a law and lobbying firm in which Giuliani is partner received $100,000 in lobbying fees from News Corp. in 2005, according to congressional disclosure filings.” What else is new? What hypocrisy! This is the guy who wanted Bernard Kerik to be running the Homeland Security Department. Too bad he’s in jail.

Thie Wall Street Journal is an institution that rants about “law and order,” decency, the rights of privacy, the abuse of government, and the “bleeding heart” socialism of the Democrats. This is the editorial staff that decries America’s safety nets. This is the cabal that trashes organized labor, this is the organized business lobby that believes that health care coverage is not a right of all people, but should be earned by paying through the proverbial nose. In other words, for the Murdock-FOX News conglomerate, being poor is the greatest crime. What is their real objective? Is it really jobs and growth, or is it a roll back of all the gains that the Progressive Era, the Square Deal, the New Freedom, the New Deal, the Great Society gave the average person? No let’s go back to even before the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. Let’s go back to the interlocking directorates, the trusts, the monopolies, the price-rigging and the fraudulent Wall Street bubbles. Let’s get rid of wages and hours, minimum wage and child labor laws! Let’s dump the Federal Reserve like the Rand Twins propose. Let’s get rid of FDIC and free the banks to do what they wish. Why not? But why stop at all of that? Let’s go back to the “poor house,” and Social Darwinism. Isn’t America a frontier society, built on the idea of “survival of the fittest?”

The choice is clear, do we trot blindly down the “Yellow Brick” road path that the right-wing proposes of bread, circus, material, racism, and celebrity, or do we still fight for a society that provides access to opportunity, equal justice for all, and the vision of FDR’s Second Bill of Rights.

What is great about baseball is the word “hope.” We all live in hopes, and baseball is played practically every day, so unlike football we don’t have to wait a week. In baseball, on any given day, one’s pitcher can beat the 1927 Yanks. By the way they even lost 44 games. So it’s a long struggle of attrition. One can enjoy a well-played game, and an exciting season, even though it may not result in a championship. This idea that winning the World Series is everything is down right flummery. It takes years to build the right combination of players, and if management can keep them together, a city may just have a contender for years. As for the Mets, as bad as they have been throughout the years, they have been a late inning team. With decent pitching they have made a lot of late inning rallies exciting. But, it is a long season with injuries, slumps and sometimes just bad luck. But it is much more exciting to see the Mets make a decent run. Personally I don’t think they have the horses, and their starting pitching is still quite vulnerable. The Phillies could run away and hide, and don’t count out the Braves.

Unfortunately, baseball, which I love, is living up to its age-old criticisms. There is not enough action. There are too many strike outs, too many homeruns by mediocrities, too much reliance on the pitch count, no more 1-0 complete game shut outs, and too much money concentrated in too few hands. Baseball needs local revenue sharing, and contraction. In fact, as bad as the game is, it is too sophisticated for many fans. There are not enough plays on the field. The Yankees became successful by waiting on pitches, wearing out staffs and getting to below-average bullpens. By the way they are on the decline. Too bad Tampa couldn’t keep its players. The Yanks, with this current line-up could be in 3rd place easily. I look for a mediocre season from ARod, the most overrated player in history, Jeter, who got what he wanted, will not be better. He won’t be around for the option year. He was terrible last year. He grounds out more than Dave (W)infield. Whether Jorge can affectively DH is a question mark. I hope he can! Mariano will run out of gas in August, Joba should be cut! Burnett will be the same or worse. Hughes is a questionable commodity and CC may need the extra weight.

The only saving grace is that their competition is still weak around the league, and the Mets may be worse for another season. At least the Meds finally put an excellent management team together, and got rid of that idiot Omar in their front office. By the way, I believe Cliff Lee would have been a bust for the Yanks. They were crazy with their offer. This guy’s career stats were really no-wheresville and the pressure would have gotten to him. When will baseball learn? Never until half the teams are broke!

Speaking of Baseball!

The Yanks are on their way to another under-achievement year, with the uninspired guidance of Joe Girardi, who should have been eased out after last year. Take my word, as a diehard Yankee fan for 60 years, he will be gone next year if they come in 3rd.

He expects his bullpen to get up every day and throw aspirins and get them over the plate. He pissed away CC’s efforts, and he’s playing by Soriano’s idiotic contract. Let CC throw, he had only thrown 104 pitches. He’s a big and strong fellow. As to the Yanks, they can only hit homeruns early, have no ability to get a clutch hit, or put a team away. In fact, with all that talent on the field, they stink. Jeter will get 3000 hits, finish out this season and the next, and that will be that. He’s over the hill and I love the guy. The thought that this guy will get 3500+ hits is a pipe dream. My guess is 3260 hits at the most. He needs 70+ now and he’ll get maybe 170 if he bats enough this year and next year, he’ll finish with 160 hits or so. The opposition should bring in an outfielder to play just behind 2nd and the other two outfielders to crowd the middle and right field. He cannot get the ball out of the infield and that inside out swing is too slow. My suggestion is that like a lot of older players, he learns to pull the ball. He’s a big and rangy and maybe he’ll develop a bit more power by pulling.

As to ARod he is, and was, a stiff and cannot get a clutch two-out hit. He’ll lead off the inning with a hit or get a homerun when they are up 4 runs or behind by 4 or 5. I see a year with decent numbers, but few game winners or important hits.

Hughes has lost his fastball and Nova can pitch 4-5 innings as long as men don’t get on the bases. I am happy with Jorge’s and Teixeira’s fast starts. Martin is a pleasant surprise, but he will revert to form. Jorge may get bored at DH, Gardener must strikeout less, and Granderson needs also to get his bat on the ball. Cano seems to be sleep-walking early and I am amazed with all this talent, they continue to play boring and uninspired ball.

Recently the public has been barraged by all of the sob story letters written to the sentencing judge in the Vincent Leibell case, which request leniency to the disgraced, former State Senator. The paraphrased quote, “A public office is a public trust,” has been variously repeated from the writings of Edmund Burke, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Disraeli, John C. Calhoun and Grover Cleveland. It means what it says. When public officials violate that trust, the standard of their punishment must be much higher than what is accorded the ordinary felon. Ex-State Senator Leibell was convicted of extortion among other crimes. “Uncle Vinnie” as he was called, used his office for decades, as a conduit for funds to be funneled to his political cronies. The cause of reform regarding Albany’s ethical mess must start with strong medicine for Leibell. He should be sentenced to prison time for his full term and not sent off to Iraq on a goodwill mission. The suggestion from Leibell of that mission, as an alternative for his disgraceful conduct, is beyond humor or consideration and is an insult to the citizenry of this state.

My Thoughts on the Citizens United ruling and the power of money in politics will be discussed on today’s broadcast of The Advocates. I believe on strict limitations on spending for political campaigns, the removal of the influence of tainted money, the shortening of campaigns and, if possible, the public funding of federal elections.

The “right wing” of this country always seems to trash the rights of the many for the rights of the few, by hiding behind “original intent.” Again the Framers had no understanding of the modern world that would come about. As Franklin Roosevelt said, “out of this modern civilization, economic royalists carved new dynasties…The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the Government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody’s business.” (FDR’s speech accepting re-nomination to the Presidency, June 27, 1936.)

Also in his Second Inaugural, the late President said, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” (Second Inaugural, January 20, 1937)

Little really has changed in the minds of many of the old and new critics of the New Deal. But, did we go back to unrestricted capitalism, and therefore trash the SEC, NASD, and the Securities Laws of 1933, 1934, and 1940, wages and hours, child labor laws and the like? No, thankfully! Should we go back to the great enduring capitalistic legacy of the “Triangle Shirt-Waste Fire?” Or maybe we should trash the reform legacy of Ida Tarbel, Upton Sinclair, Sinclair Lewis, and others who revealed to the public the abuses of private capital and power. Meanwhile how many judges did the “economic royalists” own? How many of them came from the bosom of private capitalism and the world of property? (Thankfully Holmes, Brandeis, and Cardozo didn’t!)

President Obama is facing another generation of problems that has come out of an era of greed and profit without a concern for economic sustainability and resiliency. In a sense this all goes back to the real legacy of Ronald Reagan. It is hard to believe that Reagan, who voted for FDR all four times he ran for president, would place a picture of Calvin Coolidge in a place of honor in his office. What had Reagan really learned? Interestingly, as much as Reagan seems to replicate Calvin Coolidge more than Herbert Hoover, George W. Bush seemed to have done the impossible. He seemed to have replicated Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.

In a response to the issue of the Citizen’s United v. Chicago, it seems that a majority on the Supreme Court seems quite comfortable to go back to pre-New Deal thinking about the equality if corporations and individuals. As to unions, special interest lobbies, and others who bundle money for candidates, I also believe in limitations on their political contributions, directly or indirectly. But none of these NGOs and other association can match the financial firepower of corporations, and at least the unions, the NGOs and the interest groups reflect, in most part the feelings of their membership. How can corporations represent their diverse stockholders, who bought shares in their company for the purpose of investment, not ideological bias?

In conclusion, FDR said in his acceptance speech on June 17, 1936, for the nomination to the presidency, the following. His statement goes along way to reflecting my feelings towards society and government and how our leadership should act.

“Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales. Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.”

I wrote a long piece on Saint Patrick’s Day, the life of Saint Patrick and five famous Irish Americans and this vignette is from that long piece. It is about Father Francis Duffy and his influence on Bill Donovan.

Father Duffy, as he was known to almost all New Yorkers in the first quarter of the 20th Century, was the oldest of our group. He, of course, was connected to both FDR and Al Smith through General William “Wild Bill” Donovan, who was a law school classmate of Franklin Roosevelt, and ran for Lt. Governor of NY against Al Smith in 1922. Father Duffy and George M. Cohan also share the distinction of having their statues in Broadway’s theater district. Interestingly James Cagney had a leading role in both film treatments about Duffy and Cohan.

Francis Duffy (1871-1932) was born in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada and immigrated to New York City, where he taught for a time at the College of St. Francis Xavier and where he was awarded a Master’s degree (the school survives as Xavier High School). He became a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, being ordained in 1896. He attended The Catholic University of America, where he earned a doctorate.
After ordination, Duffy served on the faculty of St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, Yonkers, NY, which trains priests for the Archdiocese of New York. He was professor of Philosophical Psychology (a course more related to the Philosophy of the Human Person, than to Clinical Psychology, in today’s terms), functioned as a mentor to numerous students, and was editor of the New York Review — at the time, this publication was the most scholarly and progressive Catholic theological publication in America. Extremely popular with students, Duffy was part of a group of members of the Dunwoodie faculty who attempted to introduce ground-breaking innovations in seminary curriculum, putting the institution in the forefront of clerical education.

When authors in the New York Review fell under suspicion of the heresy of Modernism, Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan, of NY, broke up the faculty and reassigned them to other work.
The New York Review itself never published an article that was suspect, but it did print papers by leading Catholic biblical experts who were part of the newly-emerging schools of biblical criticism, and several of these authors’ other works (which would be uncontroversial today) raised eyebrows in Rome. Duffy himself wrote few signed items in the journal (though he did author parts of it) but was responsible as editor for the entire publication.

Duffy’s new assignment was creating the parish of Our Savior in the Bronx, New York. There, he organized the parish and built a physical structure that combined parish school and the church, one of several innovations he introduced. Throughout this period, Duffy was active in both the Catholic Summer School, a sort of adult summer camp and continuing education system that foreshadowed the explosion in Catholic higher education for the laity today, and in the military — he was regimental chaplain to the 69th New York National Guard Regiment which was federalized for a time during the Spanish-American War.
Already famous in theological circles, Duffy gained wider fame for his involvement as a military chaplain during World War I when the 69th New York (The Fighting 69th) was federalized again and re-designated the 165th U.S. Infantry Regiment. When the unit moved up to the front in France, Duffy accompanied the litter bearers in recovering the wounded and was always seen in the thick of battle.
Lt. Col. William “Wild Bill” Donovan (who would go on to create the OSS in World War II), used Father Duffy’s influence with the men as a key element regarding morale. Duffy went far beyond the actions of a normal cleric. The regiment was composed primarily of New York Irish immigrants and the sons of Irish immigrants, and many wrote later of Duffy’s inspirational leadership. Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur, the commander of his division, admitted later that Duffy was very briefly considered for the post of regimental commander. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal, the Conspicuous Service Cross (New York State), the Légion d’honneur (France), and the Croix de guerre. Father Duffy is the most highly decorated cleric in the history of the U.S. Army.
Major General William Joseph Donovan, USA, KBE, (January 1, 1883 – February 8, 1959) was an American soldier, lawyer and intelligence officer, best remembered as wartime head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). He is also widely known as the “father” of today’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). During World War I, Donovan organized and led a battalion of the United States Army, designated the 165th Regiment of the 42nd Division, the federalized designation of the famed 69th New York Volunteers, (the “Fighting 69th”). In France one of his charges was poet Joyce Kilmer. For his service near Landres-et-St. Georges, France, on 14 and 15 October 1918, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. By the end of the war he received a promotion to colonel, the Distinguished Service Cross and three Purple Hearts.
In the wonderful World War I action film, The Fighting 69th (1940), Father Duffy was played by Pat O’Brien. It starred James Cagney and George Brent and the plot is based upon the actual exploits of New York’s 69th Infantry Regiment during the First World War. The regiment was first given that nickname by opposing General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War. O’Brien, who plays Father Duffy, a military chaplain, attempts to reform the character played by Cagney. “Wild Bill” Donovan, played by Brent, is the regimental commander, who ultimately orders Cagney’s character (Jerry Plunkett) to be court-martialed. One of the characters portrayed in this film is Sgt. Joyce Kilmer, the poet. Alan Hale, Sr. plays Sgt. Wynn, who loses both his brothers due to Cagney’s blunders.
Sergeant Kilmer, who was killed in action, was a great poet, no less a great soldier, wrote the famous poem, “Trees.” Kilmer’s companions wrote: “He was worshipped by the men about him. I have heard them speak with awe of his coolness and his nerve in scouting patrols in No Man’s Land.” This coolness and his habit of choosing, with typical enthusiasm, the most dangerous and difficult missions, led to his death.”Kilmer, who was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for valor, was buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, near Fere-en-Tardenois, Aisne, Picardy, France. Although Kilmer is buried in France in an American military cemetery, a cenotaph is located on the Kilmer family plot in Elmwood Cemetery, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. A memorial service was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan.

The text stated below is the original written by Kilmer.
Trees
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Rouge Bouquet
Joyce Kilmer in France

In a wood they call Rouge Bouquet
There is a new made grave today,
Built by never a spade or pick
Yet covered with earth ten metres thick.
There lie many fighting men,
Dead in their youthful prime,
Never to laugh or love again
Nor taste the Summertime,
For Death came flying through the air
And stopped his flight at the dugout stair,
Touched his prey and left them there,
Clay to clay….
Let your rifles rest on the muddy floor,
You will not need them any more,
Danger’s past,
Now at last,
Go to sleep!

Following the war, he wrote of his exploits in Father Duffy’s Story ( published by George H. Doran Company, New York 1919), a book that grew out of a manuscript originally started by Joyce Kilmer, the poet and convert to Catholicism, who had joined the regiment and had become a close friend to Duffy. When Kilmer was killed in France, he was working on a history of the regiment’s involvement in the war, which Duffy intended to continue, but Duffy was prevailed upon to include his own reminiscences of the war.

He then served as a pastor of Holy Cross Church in Hell’s Kitchen, a block from Times Square, until his death. While there he had one last opportunity to make a contribution to Catholic thought: in 1927, during Al Smith’s campaign for president, the Atlantic Monthly published a letter by Charles Marshall, a Protestant lawyer, which questioned whether a Catholic could serve as a loyal president who would put the nation and the Constitution before his allegiance to the pope (a common thread in American anti-Catholicism). Smith was given a chance to reply: his article, a classic statement of the intellectual ideas behind American Catholic patriotism, hinted at notions of religious freedom and freedom of conscience which would not be spelled out by the Church itself until the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Freedom in the 1960s. In fact, Al Smith had gone to Father Duffy and asked him to ghostwrite the piece and he did.

The last of our great Irish-Americans was the legendary Al Smith, who was known to everyone in his time. Jim Farley first worked for Smith in his NY State Governor’s campaigns. Smith was associated with FDR from the days that FDR entered the New York State Senate in 1911 and became his great rival and sometime critic. Smith was a political opponent of WWI hero William J. Donovan, whose friendship with Father Duffy was legendary. Later of course, Donovan became an intimate of FDR, worked secretly with him regarding early war-time spying and became the head of the war-time OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, which was the forerunner of the CIA.
Richard J. Garfunkel

PS: In a meeting a number of years ago, with Mr. William vanden Heuval, the former Ambassador to the UN and the current President of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, at his offices on 5th Avenue in New York, and I had suggested a the creation of a new “Birthday Ball Celebration” for Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the course of my conversation I learned that the Ambassador was quite well connected with General William Donovan, the legendary head of the OSS, during the 2nd World War and a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at the Argonne Forest. He was awarded the Medal of Honor while serving as an officer with the 165th Infantry, formerly known as the Fighting 69th, which of course was part of the famous Rainbow Division. It was nicknamed the “Rainbow Division”, because it was the first division composed of men from all over the United States. This division was home to the famous fighting Tennessean, Sgt. Alvin C. York, who captured and knocked out 20+ German machine gun nests, single-handedly and captured over 130 of the enemy himself.

The drive up the old Taconic Parkway was smooth and uneventful, despite the heavy rains that inundated the Hudson Valley. The road that had been started in the 1920’s and repaired, and re-structured many times since, is not unlike most in New York State, it needs a great deal of work, in the wake of a difficult winter.

It would encompass almost forty years to finally finish this winding and picturesque road from the original parkway proposal by Taconic State Parkway Commission chair Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1925 to the completion of the of the final stretch, in Columbia County in 1963. The delays were due to the high priority needs of labor and material demanded by World War II. Throughout FDR’s two terms of governor and his presidency, his vision of the Taconic Parkway went from an idea, to a proposal, then to legislation, appropriation, to the design period and then construction.

In the same way that the Taconic Parkway is a testament to his foresight, vision, drive and determination that FDR possessed, it also foreshadows the great public works FDR, as the architect of the New Deal, would initiate.

Once I reached Route 9, the Albany Post Road, in the City of Poughkeepsie, it is a short uphill drive to Hyde Park, where FDR’s memory still casts his mighty shadow on almost everything from the post office he helped design to the Saint James Church where he prayed, was a vestryman, and where his parents are buried. All along the Albany Post Road, there are banners with his name leading to his father’s old estate, Springwood, where the big house still regally stands, his museum and library still functions and the relatively new Wallace welcoming center hosts tens of thousands of guests each year.

In the preface of his book, In the Shadow of FDR, the renowned historian, William E. Leuchtenburg, writes. “A ghost has inhabited the Oval Office since 1945 – the ghost of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR’s formidable presence has cast a large shadow on the occupants of that office in the years since his death, and an appreciation of his continuing influence is essential to understanding the contemporary presidency.” In the same way that FDR’s memory and shadow still dominates this Hudson River Valley village,

Every day in a thousand blogs, on the editorial pages of hundreds of newspapers and inside and outside the corridors of the Congress, the debate over the New Deal rages amongst the old New Deal liberals, the new proponents of social justice, the environmentalists, the deficit hawks and the revisionist lunatics of the radical right. Whether it is over investing in infrastructure, the rights of civil servants to collectively bargain, the future of United Nations, the Keynesian spending of the New Deal and today, the entitlement safety nets, or the rhetoric of the Tea Party heirs of Ronald Reagan, the philosophy, actions and legacy of FDR are still paramount in our political dialogue sixty-six years from the day of his death.

On that day in 1945, hundreds of thousands of mourners waved good-by to the 32nd President as his funeral train slowly made the three-day journey from his winter home in the hamlet of Warm Springs, Georgia, to the rolling hills of Dutchess County.

The Poughkeepsie Journal told of one local resident, Bernard Kessler, who was a young attorney in 1945, who attended the gravesite service. “It was a sad day for everyone,” he said, “They set up a stone there in the Rose Garden, Everything was beautifully laid out.”

The Journal told of some of the other residents who fathers were friends of the late president. Saul Kessler, Elmer Van Wagner Sr., and Harold and Rosabel Clay, to name a few, were also political supporters of Roosevelt.

Amongst, the local residents, The Journal reported that Elmer Van Wagner Jr., who is 75, remembers his father hearing the news of Roosevelt’s death. The elder Wagner was plowing the family farm, the Vanderbilt Estates, at the time.

Wagner said, “He got right off his tractor, got down on his knees and cried like a baby.” Another resident, Ann Dingee, who is now 79, of Hyde Park, vividly recalls the reaction of her mother Rosabel Clay, on learning of the president’s death. “All I remember is coming home and my mother screaming,” she said. “I remember that like it was yesterday.”

The actual funeral service took place at 10:34 am, with the Reverend Dr. W. George Anthony, the rector of Saint James Episcopal Church presiding and it lasted just seventeen minutes with howitzers in the distance and the roar of planes flying overhead in a farewell salute. At 10:51 an Army bugler played taps.

There are two budgets in the United States: one is the entitlement budget and the other is the Federal or operating budget. The entitlement budget has been tweaked, I believe 72 times. As LJP has stated, most people want their benefits, because most people have older parents, and or sick or disabled friends and relatives. Most people like Social Security and believe that since they have contributed, like their parents and grandparents, they deserve and earned an additional safety net to help or supplement their savings or pension. But in truth, many are damn glad to have SSI because it keeps them in a home, not in the street, and not eating dog food. Many recipients are women who never worked, and their husbands either pissed away their money, never knew had to save, never made big money, never had a defined benefit, or their defined benefit was small, went bankrupt, had a catastrophic illness themselves or in their family, were impoverished by long term care, were flooded out, were a victim of Mother Nature’s wrath or were victims of some other unforeseen problem. In fact, a huge percentage of Americas are one paycheck away from the poor house, and have very little savings.

Let us not excuse Madison Avenue and the boob tube for encouraging the profligate lifestyle. Our savings rate here in the US of A is horrible and the mutual funds, which hold 99% of their 401Ks and 503bs, no less IRAs, go up moderately in Bull markets, and tank in Bear markets. Generally no one knows what are in these funds or how they work. Our schools abhor teaching financial responsibility. The average student graduates high school, then maybe college without any knowledge of insurance, annuities, the bond or stock market, and even how to manage a credit card. The credit card companies thrive on ignorance, and are happy to put usurious, almost loan shark interest rates on most folks because others are constantly behind the “payment 8-ball” and there are many defaults.

Therefore, with regards to the “entitlement” budget, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins wanted health insurance tied to the bill, but with the huge struggle FDR faced, that provision was sacrificed. We probably should have had a “single payer” system from day one. In fact, the Blue Cross/Blue Shield system, state by state, basically served as that type of universal semi-private-public insurance and did not cover office visits and drugs. The system was gutted by insurance (Oxford and many others) raiders, who took away the healthier clients and promised office visit and drug coverage. Part of this tactic was to bundle doctors into competitive groups who would be fed by these pools new clients, provided by businesses. This practice also encouraged doctors to raise rates, to buy expensive machinery, and fatten their pockets by passing along each expense to the insurance companies, who passed it along to the businesses. This fed the inflation of health care. As insurance coverage became more complex, doctors had to hire more staff and computer programs to process the claims. The result was more “pass a longs” to the patient and thus the insurance carrier. The insurance executives didn’t complain. They make millions. The doctors banded into group practices, to lower their costs, shared nurses, shared billing, bought more equipment, and shuffled patients in and out as fast as possible. Care improved for the upper middle classes and above, and become rationed for the lower middle class. Their co-premiums have increased, private coverage is unaffordable, co-payments have doubled, people cannot leave their jobs, and hospitals are going broke. Great sytem!

Meanwhile, with regards to SSI, by 1950 the ratio of workers to recipients was 8-1 and it has been shrinking since, Political leaders, especially Democrats, want to be more inclusive regarding the disabled, orphans, and widows. Is that terribly wrong? In fact, the GOP “fiction writers, inside and outside of Congress,” as FDR termed them, opposed every “decent” step forward. The GOP did not hate big government or the nanny state, it basically believed in Social Darwinism, felt they could game the system better, and despised people other then their own. They never looked at SSI or Medicare, or Medicaid as a responsibility of government and they are basically opponents of liberal democracy. The GOP talked of everyone having to pull their own oar or have to drift out to sea in no uncertain terms. In fact, they don’t give a good goddamn, plain and simple. Also, coincidently, the “uncertain times” have been created mostly by economic “bubbles” caused by the GOP sponsored hand maidens on Wall Street.

Meanwhile the demographics have changed, people are aging, the trade unions which fought for pensions, economic balance and democracy, and fair wages have been destroyed by cheap Asian (foreign) labor and manufacturing here has been gutted. The next target of the union-busters is civil service, and one day it will be the minimum wage, and when people are desperate for jobs, the GOP-supported industrial magnates will be happy to offer jobs at a dollar an hour. Yesterday, McDonald announced that it will hire 50,000 workers on one day! More cheese burgers for the growing obese population that will be rupturing Medicare and Medicaid. Also, the working poor and the civil servant are now less Western Eurocentric and more Black, Hispanic, African, Eurasian and Micronesian. Therefore, why pay taxes to help this different brand of immigrants and foreigners who do the scut work. Even the issue of abortion has been one less of religion and more of demographics. The GOP could care less what the Bishops say. The average old-line Roman Catholic practices birth control and would use an abortion if necessary. Just look at how few children the Irish, Italians and Poles have produced in the past few generations. The hypocritical right-wing is only concerned that more whites still have abortions then non-whites, and if it were the other way they would double the funds for Planned Parenthood and repeal the Hyde Amendment. In truth, there are still many more whites born, but the problem is that the white birth rate is very low and the non-white birth rate is much higher, along with an immigrant population which is heavily weighted to non-whites. So in my view this whole big government, liberal-conservative fight is all about race and demographics. In fact, no matter who the GOP alienates, and no matter what they oppose, the numbers are against them. Their answer is to lock in generational wealth for their heirs, weaken the democracy and become citizens of the world with assets in banks all over the planet. In fact, look at how they blackmail the majority in the Senate and the presidency. They just tell the country, we’ll defund the whole government if you don’t fall into line and give us our tribute. Wouldn’t it be great, if the next time there is a Republican president the Democrats filibuster and defund their government? That reminds me more of the Weimar Republic.

Since business refuses to pay more taxes and there are still incredible loopholes allowing GE, Exxon and others to pay no taxes last year, the temporary answer is raise the payroll tax on the recipient, and consider long and hard, Governor Brewer’s idea to add surtaxes to smokers and the obese in Arizona to fund Medicaid. I am for that. But on the other hand, who encourages smoking and obesity? Certainly not the liberals and the Democrats, who have generally better health habits than the typical Okie form Muscogee. So let’s raise payroll taxes until there is some solvency going forth, and put this one too bed. Then we can look to how to adjust benefits to cover the baby boom bubble!

As to the operating budget, how about a special “war tax” to support our large, expensive standing forces and our need to intervene, here and there, over the short and long term? What happened to the media’s memory of who engaged us in these wars, who didn’t pay for them, who encouraged our spending binge, who decried regulation, who manned the toothless SEC, who allowed the super heated derivative market to flourish? I ask who? The Media depend on a system that pays their owners, shareholders, and spokespersons zillions and when the truth intrudes, now and again, they make it quite clear, “get out of the way, and get with the program!”

I believe in high taxes on the rich. We not only have 400 billionaires, who are paying less taxes then ever, but we have millions Americans who have holdings and earnings way above $10 million to $999 billion. They benefit by a low top tax rate, they have caps on their payroll taxes, have all sorts of deferred income, stock options and pay most of their incomes at the capital gains rate. They utilize tax loss carry forwards, not any differently then what GE did to earn $14 billion and not pay any taxes last year. Just read it in the NY Times. I also believe that everyone who earns money must pay a minimum tax, no matter how many deferments and exemptions they have. The only group who should be exempt from all taxes are accredited students, of any age, up until and through college and to age 22. I would also consider partial exemptions for graduate students and hospital interns. I would tax earnings by college sports programs at the current corporate tax rate. These colleges want to pay coaches millions of dollars, and use cheap labor, let them pay taxes. The abuses by these bowl committees and athletic conferences are disgusting. Just read about the Fiesta Bowl and their practices. If we are so concerned about insolvency, along with cutting government fluff, especially in the defense budget, with crop subsidies, and the oil depletion allowance, cut the staffs of all the departments and the Congress by 50%, lower salaries by 25%, and let them pay their own benefits. Institute a partial draft to take the gangs off the streets, and reduce the professional army to a more manageable level, and return the Reserves and National Guard back to their previous roles. Along with enhanced revenues through higher taxes, closed loopholes, and the shutting of offshore tax shelters we will be more solvent and comfortable with the future.