Reminder: I told you so

When I wrote

this article during the summer that Auburn was going to a major bowl game I must have received 10,000 emails,

most saying the same thing–basically asking what happened to my brains.
Within the last two weeks, Auburn University has gone from not being listed in the top 25 to being No. 11 in the VCS polls. They have not won eight games yet, only six, but left on Auburn’s schedule is Florida Atlantic, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama and my  guess would be they have a chance to beat everybody on the list except Alabama. This means if this happens, they would win 11 games. In the event they beat Alabama, which I doubt very seriously, and Alabama loses to LSU, Auburn should be playing for the National Championship.
Last week VCS polls almost got it right. I happen to think that Ohio State should be No. 5 and Baylor or Miami should be No. 4. The most surprising team in the country is Missouri. The most ridiculous ranking is by USA Today where they have Auburn No. 17 and ranked Texas A&M and Louisville over Auburn and Auburn just beat Texas A&M last week.
Alabama has made great progress. Once upon a time I thought they would not three-peat but their chances have improved. I hope they play for the National Championship. I’m hoping they would  play Ohio St., Baylor or Miami. They are only two teams that can give them serious problems: Florida State and Auburn.

Who knows what the state of the union is? According to the survey, 54 percent say it’s a bad thing that the GOP controls the House, up 11 points from last December, soon after the 2012 elections when the Republicans kept control of the chamber. Only 38 percent say it’s a good thing the GOP controls the House, a 13-point dive from the end of the year.
This is the first time since the Republicans won back control of the House in the 2010 midterm elections that a majority say their control of the chamber is bad for the country. In other words the approval rating of Congress is lower than a used car salesman. The survey indicates that the approval rating for Congress remains near an all-time low. Only 12 percent of those questioned say they approve of the job Congress is doing, just two points higher than the historic low in CNN polling. And 86 percent give federal lawmakers a thumbs-down, also near the all-time high.
The issue now is the President fixing the Affordable Care Act website, for that is the only thing the Republicans can hang their hat on. The website must be fixed within 60 days or less.

e-mail: jjlewis@birminghamtimes.com

By Hughey Newsome

As the dreaded government shutdown continues and America somehow manages to make it without the assistance of non-essential federal employees, a crisis to end all crises is looming.
In just under two weeks, the U.S. Treasury will supposedly run out of cash to pay its bills.
When that happens, as the mainstream media describes it, the Obama Administration may begin defaulting on the close to $17 trillion of debt due to a lack of cash. Of course, this economy that the President cannot fix forces many Americans to choose which bills to pay and which bills to delay. But our government allegedly lacks the capability to prioritize its payments.
After meeting with Wall Street executives to discuss the impending debt ceiling crisis last week, President Obama appeared on CNBC. He said that not lifting the debt ceiling would lead to catastrophic results. The White House appears determined to monger up fear to achieve their goal of increasing the limit without concessions. Inciting panic in the financial sector only benefits the White House in their apparent pursuit of general alarm and hysteria.
It seems, however, that the financial sector chose not to play along. Then again, Wall Street is not like Hollywood. Investors have skin in the game, along with the skin of their collective clientele. Going along with the President’s agenda — just because — may not be profitable, even though it would serve Obama’s political agenda.
For evidence, observe the performance of federally-issued securities called treasuries. The federal government borrows by issuing such treasuries (essentially IOUs) of different borrowing terms and rates. These securities can then be traded back and forth, with the trading constituting a major financial market. As the price in the market for a security goes up, its yield goes down. One would think that if there was a strong belief that the U.S. was truly going to default, all of the securities already in the market should have prices hitting the floor with sky-high yields.
Alas, that is not the case.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which is a benchmark for economists, fell to a seven-week low as of October 2. In other words, prices on the 10-year note rose. That does not imply that savvy investors are flying away in fear of a default on U.S. securities.
Additionally, the Journal also recently reported how little Wall Street seems to be rattled by any possible doomsday cash-out date. The U.S. Treasuries market, as well as the stock market, seems to be showing few signs of concern over the impending debt limit deadline.  And then Moody’s CEO Raymond McDaniel said in his own CNBC interview: “It is extremely unlikely that the Treasury is not going to continue to pay on those securities” — ruling out fears of default.
Obama has undoubtedly noticed this. After trying to leverage fears of Wall Street to push national concern, he then moved on to one of the more sacred areas of American politics — Social Security. Obama ended the week discussing how a debt limit breach could cause delays in the issuing of Social Security checks.
As a note to all of the furloughed federal employees awaiting an end to the government shutdown, Obama also took the time to weigh in on the mascot for an NFL team. For those keeping score, Obama has spent more time giving advice to the Washington Redskins than he’s negotiated in good faith with the Republican leadership of Congress to end this shutdown and the impending debt ceiling breach.
Then again, it seems shameful to ratchet up fear for the sole purpose of politically beating one’s opponent. Why else would someone try to shake the figurative beehive and then walk away to discuss the name of a privately-owned professional football team and not try to solve the problem they are exacerbating?
Fortunately, for now, it appears that our financial markets have shaken off the invitation to join our politically-motivated president in making mayhem.

Hughey Newsome, a business consultant in the D.C. area, is a member of the national advisory council of the Black leadership network Project 21. Comments may be sent to Project21@nationalcenter.org.

By Benjamin Todd Jealous

The federal government shutdown is approaching three weeks. At the time of this writing, the shutdown has already furloughed hundreds of thousands of federal workers, frozen social programs for low and moderate-income communities, and significantly slowed down economic growth. The great irony of this temper tantrum over federal health care reform is that it has reminded us just how important the federal government really is.
This manufactured crisis is just the latest battle in a deeply troubling war against the Affordable Care Act. In the three and a half years since President Obama signed the bill into law, the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to repeal or defund it 42 times, while shirking many of its other responsibilities. As millions of Americans struggle with unemployment, untenable student loans and a middling economy, extremists in the “People’s House” have chosen to prioritize political theater over the immediate needs of the American people.
But in an ironic twist, the repercussions of their grandstanding have only served to illustrate the important roles that government plays in our everyday lives.
The stories stream in to Capitol Hill from across the country, only to fall on deaf ears. Free health care clinics for the poorest of the poor are unable to take on new patients. Habitat for Humanity has lost federal funding for new affordable housing projects. On the first day of October alone, more than 19,000 American children lost access to Head Start services, and that number continued to grow until two philanthropists stepped in with stopgap funding.
Striking examples can even be found in Congress’ own backyard. The federal government has not authorized Washington, D.C. to spend its own tax dollars, so the District’s budget is frozen just like any federal agency. The city has frozen Medicaid payments for 220,000 residents, and it is quickly running out of reserve funds to pay for police and ambulance services.
These stories play into the ongoing debate about the size and role of government, which inevitably raises related questions about race and class. Although people of color will be disproportionately impacted by these developments, the truth is that low-income white communities will suffer in far greater numbers. So it is not only ironic but truly tragic that some activists associated with the Tea Party have chosen to inject race into the conversation by flying the Confederate Flag at rallies on the National Mall. They are forgetting that White non-Hispanics, who make up 42 percent of the poor in this country, actually receive 69 percent of all government benefits.
It is time to end this shutdown. We need to continue to put the pressure on our elected officials and demand accountability. Call your congressional leaders. Tell them that enough is enough. The NAACP is strongly urging all sides to put aside partisan politics and come to the table to work out real solutions in good faith.
The Affordable Care Act is here to stay. Extremists in Congress need to admit that other federal programs deserve their funding as well. Every day of this shutdown only reminds us how the federal government provides a safety net to those in need, and a leg up for those vying to make it into the middle class. No amount of pointless grandstanding will change that fact.

Benjamin Todd Jealous is the president and CEO of the national NAACP.

By Steve Flowers

During the summer the U.S. Supreme Court rendered two significant rulings. They were quite different philosophically.
The high tribunal, in a far-reaching landmark decision, rendered same sex marriage legal in America. By granting all legal rights to same sex marriage they gave credence and official sanction to these unions. Their decisions are the law of the land. This is a significant verdict. The Supreme Court is omnipotent. Therefore, when it comes to federal benefits, such as Social Security, state laws like Alabama’s that prohibit same sex marriage are irrelevant. If a gay couple that was married in Connecticut moves to Alabama they are officially married.
In a contrasting decision on an appeal of a case that originated in Shelby County, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling that voided a portion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The decision allows Alabama and 14 other states to avoid the preclearance requirement, which previously required these states to seek approval from the Department of Justice for any changes made in election laws and voting districts.
The high court’s invalidation of Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is not as significant a ruling as the legalization of same sex marriage. However, there was a tremendous hue and cry from civil rights groups and leaders. The decision did not strike down the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It merely offered relief from mundane and non-challenging voting procedures in the south. For example, if an all white county wanted to change a voting location from a church to a school, the county had to ask the U.S. Justice Department for permission. It has been cumbersome and expensive. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed.
In practice, 95 percent of all minor voting changes were approved in a perfunctory manner anyway and it just cost the local government and U.S. government a lot of money. The discrimination provisions of the Voting Rights Act still exist. The Justice Department can still step in and sue. They are doing just that in Texas over the redistricting of their legislative lines. Only the preclearance provision was stricken.
These two contrasting opinions illuminate an interesting alignment of our U.S. Supreme Court. The Court is evenly divided philosophically. You have four hardcore liberal members and four true blue, steadfast, dedicated conservatives on the tribunal. These eight members are dedicated, committed and predictable votes when it comes to left or right wing issues.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan are very liberal. As might be expected, a Democratic president appointed them. Obama appointed Sotomayor and Kagan and Clinton appointed Breyer and Ginsburg.
In contrast, Justices John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito are reliably and unalterably conservative. Republican presidents appointed all four of these men. George W. Bush appointed Roberts, Thomas and Alito and Reagan appointed Scalia.
The ultimate swing vote on the Supreme Court is also a Reagan appointment. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is the decision maker on the Court. He was the deciding vote on both of the aforementioned decisions. The verdicts came down on a 5 to 4 vote with Kennedy being the decisive swing vote.
This philosophical stalemate has made the moderate and unpredictable Justice Kennedy the most powerful man in America after the President. Kennedy is a 77-year-old lifetime Californian. He was born and raised and practiced law in San Francisco. He graduated from Stanford undergrad and Harvard Law School. He is a legal scholar who taught constitutional law. He served as a U.S. Federal Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for 12 years before Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1988.
By the way, six of the nine justices went to law school at Harvard. It almost appears that a Harvard law degree is a prerequisite for a seat on the High Court. Yale can claim two.
The preclearance decision cleared the way for Alabama’s new photo voter identification law to take effect for next year’s state elections. The Secretary of State’s office has devised a plan that will allow for any voters who do not have identification to receive free photo IDs through the Department of Public Safety or local Boards of Registrars.

See you next week.

Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His column appears weekly in more than 70 Alabama newspapers. Steve served 16 years in the state legislature. He may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.