The Advocates

 with

Richard J. Garfunkel

 WVOX – AM Radio 1460- 12 Noon Wednesday

January 7, 2009

Wednesday, January 9, 2009, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting my show, The Advocates, on WVOX- 1460 AM on your dial, or you can listen to its live streaming at www.wvox.com . One can call the show at 914-636-0110 to reach us on the radio. My guest on this year’s first edition of The Advocates is Ms. Judy Cheng-Hopkins. Our subject today is the ongoing problem of refugees in the world today, and what is being done about it by the United Nations.

Ms. Judy Cheng-Hopkins is the United Nations Assistant High Commissioner for refugees.  This position, supervises all UNHCR operations in the world. It also oversees the Division of Operational Support which includes the Emergency and Security Service.

Prior to this job, Ms. Cheng-Hopkins was the Director of the World Food Programme Office in New York.  She was also Director for Asia and Eastern Europe in WFP (1997-2000) where she oversaw large and complex emergency operations.  Prior to that, she served UNDP in Africa for 10 years, first in Zambia (1982-1988), then in Kenya (1988-1992) and as Deputy Assistant Administrator for Africa (2002-2003).

Ms. Cheng-Hopkins received a Master of Arts degree in Economic Development from Columbia University (1978), USA.  She has also received diplomas from Université d’Haute Bretagne in Rennes, France and Harvard University, USA. Ms. Cheng-Hopkins is Malaysian.  She is married and mother of two daughters.  She enjoys playing tennis and listening to jazz. She is also married to Dr. Tom Hopkins, who was on this show on April 9, 2008. Dr. Thomas J. Hopkins, who is deeply involved in Development/Strategic Planning, has worked on these efforts all over the world and is the author of an unlimited number of reports, the last being “Capacity Assessment Guidelines: A Systems and Strategic Management review about Somalia and Nairobi.  You can access our interview by going to http://advocates-wvox.com .

Meanwhile the mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the public differing views on current “public policy “ issues. “Public policy,” therefore, is what we as a nation legally and traditionally follow. Over the years the “public policy” of the United States has changed or has been modified greatly. As an example, “free public education” is the public policy of the United States. Also, over time great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction of “public policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs. emancipation, state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces or the “draft.”

Over the next few weeks, The Advocates will host; Michael Cohen, previewing the President Obama’s inauguration, Jill Alcott talking about her work with the environment, author Alida Brill, and her book on pain, Chris Breiseth, the now retired head of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute talking about the Roosevelt Legacy and what it means for the challenges of 2009 and Cynthia Koch, the head of the FDR Library, in Hyde Park and the critical role it plays regarding political and historical research.

Richard J. Garfunkel, The Advocates: http://advocates-wvox.com

Letter to the Editor of the Journal News

December 26, 2008

In the other day’s Journal News we were witness again to the entertainment of another mindless diatribe by one of the most notorious haters that Greenburgh has produced. Mr. Ed Krauss has been railing against Supervisor Paul Feiner for years now. At every opportunity he comes to the Town Board, with his faux expertise to lecture the town on the law, ethics, the park system, insurance liabilities and the like. He has made a career out of constantly accusing Supervisor of imagined improprieties. The people of Greenburgh will not be fooled by this latest distortion of the facts, this latest barrage of inaccuracies and this latest attempt at character assassination. With regards to the new library, Supervisor had suggested a much more prudent and financially responsible course to take when the final library plan was rammed down the throat of the taxpayers by the former Board. The enabling referendum was cynically used as a political lever against the Supervisor. It was timed to characterize his concerns and opposition as being “anti-library” and a virtual book-burner. But his fighting for added use of the “bookmobile” put a “lie” to that specious claim.

The Supervisor was wholly in support of an orderly and calculated upgrade of the library, the sale of the extra land for needed senior housing or an assisted living facility, and the creation of an income stream to the town. That is the public record. He also wanted expert oversight of the library’s construction, but that was rejected by the former Board with support from people like Ed Krauss. The profligate spending of the reserve fund by the previous Board that created two years of zero tax increases flew in the face of reality and the protests of the Supervisor. When the economic profile of the region started to slide, Greenburgh was faced with a large tax increase that included the extra costs of the new library. Supervisor Feiner warned us this then, and Mr. Ed Krauss, who supported the library, and the referendum is well aware of that fact.

Richard J. Garfunkel

“The Advocates”

 With

Richard J. Garfunkel

 WVOX – AM Radio 1460- 12 Noon Wednesday

December 24, 2008

Neil Goldstein, who is the Executive Vice-President of Energy Alternatives for the 21^st century, had served as Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress from January 2002 until the middle of 2008. Mr. Goldstein also previously served at the American Jewish Congress from 1983-1987, first as Director of the New York Metropolitan Region and later as Assistant Executive Director. Mr. Goldstein is a graduate of MIT and has served on many committees, which include being on the New York State Advisory Committee on Human Rights and the Nanuet Board of education, along with his work with AIPAC, Chief of Staff for Representative Jerry Nadler and work with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Meanwhile, the mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the public differing views on current “public policy “ issues. “Public policy,” therefore, is what we as a nation legally and traditionally follow. Over the years, the “public policy” of the United States has changed or has been modified greatly. As an example, “free public education” is the public policy of the United States. Also, over time great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction of “public policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs. emancipation, state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces or the “draft.”

Richard J. Garfunkel

“The Advocates”

 With

Richard J. Garfunkel

 WVOX – AM Radio 1460- 12 Noon Wednesday

December 17, 2008

All archived Shows at:

http://advocates-wvox.com

Wednesday, December 17, 2008, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting “The Advocates” on WVOX- 1460 AM, or you can listen to the program’s live streaming at www.wvox.com.  One can call the show at 914-636-0110 to reach us on the radio.  Our special guest is Mr. Nick Taylor, the author of “American –Made, The Enduring Legacy of the WPA, When FDR put the Nation to Work.” Mr. Taylor was last on The Advocates on July 16^th of this year.  On December 9, 2008, Mr. Taylor wrote an Op-Ed contribution that was published in the NY Times, “FDR Knew How to Spend Carefully,”    (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/opinion/09taylor.html?_r=1& .)

Today we will be talking about the comparisons between March of 1933 and the emergence of the New Deal, and what the new Obama administration faces regarding our economic malaise.

Nick Taylor has written ten books of non-fiction, both solely and in collaboration, on a wide variety of subjects.  His history of the Works Progress Administration, American-Made – The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work, was published last February to wide acclaim.

Taylor’s other subjects include tournament bass fishing, the Mafia, and life in a small church. His memoir, A Necessary End recounts a baby boomer’s growing concern and care for his parents in their final years.  His story of an intrepid Israeli’s journey into the German neo-Nazi underground, In Hitler’s Shadow, written with Yaron Svoray, was adapted as the HBO feature movie, The Infiltrator, starring Oliver Platt.  His account of a Mafia family in the government’s Witness Protection Program, Sins of the Father, is currently under a motion picture option.  Laser, published in 2000, tells the story of the laser’s true inventor and his thirty-year fight to win the patents that would make him rich.  And he worked with astronaut and Senator John Glenn on the bestselling, John Glenn: A Memoir.

His pro bono work includes four years as president of the Authors Guild, the oldest and largest organization of published writers in the United States, which advocates for authors’ rights.  He is a native of western North Carolina who today lives in Greenwich Village with his wife Barbara Nevins Taylor, who is an investigative reporter for Fox TV’s New York stations Fox 5 and My 9 News.

Mr. Taylor will address some of the following questions:

Mr. Taylor will address some of the following questions:
·        Are there any real comparisons between 1933 and today?
·        Can President –Elect Obama hope to live up to FDR?
·        Does Obama need another Harry Hopkins or Harold Ickes?
·        Are we better off letting the automobile industry collapse?
 Meanwhile, the mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the public differing views on current “public policy “issues. “Public policy,” therefore, is what we as a nation legally and traditionally follow. Over the years, the “public policy” of the United States has changed or has been modified greatly. As an example, “free public education” is the public policy of the United States. Also, over time great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction of “public policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs. emancipation, state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces or the “draft.”
 
One can find my essays on FDR and other subjects at https://www.richardjgarfunkel.com and one can also see and hear all of the archived shows at: http://advocates-wvox.com.  Over the next few weeks will be talking about predictions for 2009!
 
Richard J. Garfunkel

Letter to the Journal News

December 16, 2008

Speaking of shoes and how times have changed!

In 1651, writer George Herbert (not a relative of George Herbert Walker Bush) wrote “For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost.” Of course in our more modern era, Ben Franklin and others added on the extra line that for, “want of a rider the battle and thence the war was lost.” On October 12, 1960, Nikita Khrushchev, the Premier of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party’s First Secretary pounded his shoe on his desk during a debate at the United Nations. This boorish action was universally condemned as conduct unbefitting a head of state. Most Americans and our Allies mocked Khrushchev’s crude behavior. His actions, and later statements, that the Soviet Union “would bury us” were widely seen as exacerbating the Cold War. Besides the fact that American no longer makes shoes, the world was “entertained” the other day by an Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at George W. Bush, our lame duck leader. Was there American or worldwide indignation over this “shoe” incident? No! Throwing shoes at someone in the Muslim world is tantamount to a very high-level insult, and not only did the Iraqi people and their Arab brothers applaud this audacious act, but some have offered millions for one of those shoes! How remarkable is it that our president is now the target of “shoe throwing” and no one cares “a fig” here in America. As a result, this “Saturday Night Live” style event has become a world-wide “YouTube” joke, and the Arab-Muslim world finds it great theater. Maybe we all have learned a lesson about the calamitous career of George W. Bush, and that his long-awaited departure can only improve our standing abroad.

Richard J. Garfunkel

“The Advocates”

 With

Richard J. Garfunkel

 WVOX – AM Radio 1460- 12 Noon Wednesday

December 10, 2008

All archived Shows at:

http://advocates-wvox.com

Wednesday, December 10, 2008, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting my show “The Advocates” on WVOX- 1460 AM, or you can listen to the program’s live streaming at www.wvox.com.   Our guest today is Mr. Anthony Rudel. Our subject is radio and how it evolved from a play toy of amateur enthusiasts to being the voice of FDR.

 With the publication of Hello, Everybody! The Dawn of American Radio, Anthony Rudel’s careers as a writer and broadcaster have been united.  Rudel began his radio career on October 15, 1977 when, at age twenty he became the youngest on-air personality in the history of WQXR AM and FM, the Radio Stations of the New York Times. Rudel remained at WQXR for nearly ten years, after becoming Vice President of Programming.  While at WQXR Rudel wrote his first book, Tales From the Opera, published in 1985.
After leaving WQXR in 1986 Rudel held positions in the arts world, including stints at the New York International Festival, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center.  He then worked for Hearst Magazines before leaving to launch Classic CD Magazine, the first title in the US to include a free CD.

In 1994 Rudel moved to SW Radio Networks to create the first nation-wide classical music network with a ‘younger appeal.’ The format was highly successful in markets as diverse as Tulsa and Monterey.  While at SW, Rudel wrote Classical Music Top 40.

In 1998 Rudel began his career as a radio and music consultant and has worked for many of America’s leading public and commercial radio stations.  In 2001 he wrote Imagining Don Giovanni, a novel published by Grove Atlantic, and in 2003 began a career as an adjunct professor of communications and writing at Manhattanville College in New York.

He has written for many magazines and is a frequent lecturer on music and broadcasting.  Mr. Rudel lives in Chappaqua, N.Y. with his wife Kristy Rudel and their two daughters.

Meanwhile, the mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the public differing views on current “public policy “issues. “Public policy,” therefore, is what we as a nation legally and traditionally follow. Over the years, the “public policy” of the United States has changed or has been modified greatly. As an example, “free public education” is the public policy of the United States. Also, over time great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction of “public policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs. emancipation, state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces or the “draft.”

One can find my essays on FDR and other subjects at https://www.richardjgarfunkel.com. One can also listen to all of the archived shows at: http://advocates-wvox.com.

Richard J. Garfunkel

“The Advocates”

 With

Richard J. Garfunkel

 WVOX – AM Radio 1460- 12 Noon Wednesday

December 3, 2008

All archived Shows at:

http://advocates-wvox.com

Wednesday, December 3, 2008, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting my show “The Advocates” on WVOX- 1460 AM, or you can listen to the program’s live streaming at www.wvox.com. The show will be taped, so this week and next week there will be no live call-in.  Today I will be talking to Ms. Allegra Dengler about our “national voting system and is your vote being counted?”

 Allegra Dengler was a former Dobbs Ferry Village Trustee, is a member of the Sierra Club, serves on the New York Democratic Lawyer’s Council HAVA Committee (Help America Vote Act), and is a member of the Progressive Democrats of America Election Protection Working Group.  She was a candidate for the Greenburgh Town Board in 2005 and narrowly lost election for Mayor of Dobbs Ferry.  She is constantly working, along with the League of Women Voters, and other groups, to insure that New Yorkers have the proper paper ballots when the current lever machines are replaced under our new law.  Ms. Dengler, who has been an active watchdog regarding the Hudson River and Indian Point, is currently the co-coordinator of the Greenburgh Office of Energy Conservation.

Meanwhile, the mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the public differing views on current “public policy “issues. “Public policy,” therefore, is what we as a nation legally and traditionally follow. Over the years, the “public policy” of the United States has changed or has been modified greatly. As an example, “free public education” is the public policy of the United States. Also, over time great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction of “public policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs. emancipation, state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces or the “draft.”

One can find my essays on FDR and other subjects at https://www.richardjgarfunkel.com. One can also listen to all of the archived shows at: http://advocates-wvox.com. Next week, I will be talking to Mr. Tony Rudel at Manhattanville College, about his new book, “Hello, Everybody! the Dawn of American Radio.”

Richard J. Garfunkel

To the Weekly Standard

Letter to Fred Barnes

11-24-08

Maybe this Blog should be called The Weekly “De-Standard.” I just read Fred Barnes' recent silliness where he actually wrote in print that FDR prolonged the Depression to allow WWII to bail us out. That's some stretch of the imagination. I am sure Mr. Barnes will now go down in history as either the most original thinker since Socrates, or the biggest moron allowed writing something under his/her own name. As to the GOP's future in the in the coming days, the more the wing-nuts control things and promote Sarah Palin as their Joan of Arc, the larger the Democratic majorities will grow. The numbers show that there are many more vulnerable GOP Senators (19 out of 33) up for election in 2010 then Democrats and the control of the House will definitively not change. My sense is that the damage engendered by the lamest presidential duck since Hoover has tarnished his name and that of the GOP far into the future. As usual, the GOP acolytes not only wish Obama to fail, but will work hand in glove to make that happen. That is why the Democrats will have a 60 vote super majority, with or without, the magic number or Joe Lieberman. They will get some decent crossovers from Snow, Collins, Specter or a few others. These folk will not want to be drinking Kool-Aid with Fred Barnes, Rick Davis, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, and the other American Neanderthals. I look for a successful new Congressional session and a steady march to recovery along with the proper reform, oversight and regulations to harness in the manipulators that still abound within the banking and brokerage survivors.

Richard J. Garfunkel

“The Advocates”

 With

Richard J. Garfunkel

 WVOX – AM Radio 1460- 12 Noon Wednesday

November 19, 2008

All archived Shows at:

http://advocates-wvox.com

Wednesday, November 19, 2008, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting my show “The Advocates” on WVOX- 1460 AM, or you can listen to the program’s live streaming at www.wvox.com. One can call the show at 914-636-0110 to reach us on the radio.  Our guest is John Cavanaugh who is currently serving as executive director of Building Bright Futures, a private sector/public sector partnership designed to create a national model for urban educational excellence and equity in the Omaha metropolitan area. Our topic today is, “How can we start American children off on the right path to learning?”

Mr. Cavanaugh is a fourth generation Nebraskan. A lawyer by profession and a graduate of The Creighton University School of Law (1972) Mr. Cavanaugh served in the U.S. Army (1968-69, was elected to the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature in 1972 before being elected to the United States House of Representatives from the Second District in Nebraska. He served from 1976 until 1980.

Among his civic activities Mr. Cavanaugh served for 20 years as a trustee of the Platte River Whooping Crane Habitat Trust and received a Presidential appointment as chairman of the Czech and Slovak American Enterprise Fund. Mr. Cavanaugh currently serves on the Board of Directors of Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs. He and his wife are the proud parents of seven children. 

This past Friday night, November 14, 2008, Mr. Cavanaugh’s daughter Maureen opened her art exhibition, “Stay With me,” at 31 Grand, 143 Ludlow Street, NYC, NY 10002.

The opening was very well attended and seemed quite successful from this reporter’s vantage. Special guests, fellow Nebraskans, and friends of the Cavanaugh’s, Mr. Ted Sorenson, former speech writer and advisor to the late President John F. Kennedy and Bob Kerrey, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the current President of the New School, and a former Governor and US Senator were in attendance. 

Meanwhile, the mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the public differing views on current “public policy “issues. “Public policy,” therefore, is what we as a nation legally and traditionally follow. Over the years, the “public policy” of the United States has changed or has been modified greatly. As an example, “free public education” is the public policy of the United States. Also, over time great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction of “public policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs. emancipation, state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces or the “draft.”

One can find my essays on FDR and other subjects at https://www.richardjgarfunkel.com. One can also listen to all of the archived shows at: http://advocates-wvox.com. Next week I will be off in Arizona for Thanksgiving with Linda, Dana and Jon. The Advocates will return on December 3^rd with Allegra Dengler who will talk about, “The National vote undercount, and is your vote being counted?”

Richard J. Garfunkel

Letter to the Editor of the Journal News

November 12, 2008

In this era of the ultimate “lame duck,” a term attributed to Horace Walpole in 1761, in a letter to Sir Horace Mann, who George W, Bush embodies, we have seen some interesting phenomena emerging. One is that there seems to be a gigantic undercount in various districts and states, especially in Alaska. With all of the evidence on the ground, polling, and statistical estimates, turnout seems to be flat. Is our system really that broken or has there been some serious vote fraud? On the other hand the country is being entertained by all of the media attention being fawned upon Governor Sarah Palin. Can anything be more laughable that the “talking heads” are seriously posing the thought that Governor Palin is not only a “leader” in the Republican Party, but has the potentiality of being a legitimate candidate in four years for Presidency? For a moment I thought that Matt Lauer and others were scurrying to the Yukon for another episode of Saturday Night Live. Could it be that Sarah Palin and Tina Fey are one in the same? Here we are in the midst of the most dangerous economic meltdown since the early days of the New Deal, and the networks are falling all over themselves to interview a failed candidate who reportedly didn’t know the countries of North America or whether Africa was a continent. Maybe we haven’t yet awakened from the afterglow of November 4^th. I suggest that Sarah Palin and her comical group, be left alone to count all the “missing” ballots while she is contemplating the falling oil prices and its affect on the Alaskan economy and her real legacy.

Richard J. Garfunkel