A year ago, it was undeniably clear how Americans felt about the war in Iraq.

Most wanted out.

Polls are now showing that attitudes are more ambivalent. President Bush's surge seems to have given Americans a renewed sense of confidence.

Violence in Iraq has been tamped down and fewer US soldiers are dying in combat.

Senators Barack Obama and John McCain are in a squabble-fest about the surge. McCain is desperately trying to focus attention on his role in ousting Donald Rumsfeld and increasing troop strength.

And wordsmith Obama is trying to cling to his position that the surge wouldn't have been necessary if we had not gotten ourselves into Iraq in the first place. Obama admitted on CBS news last night that yes, maybe the surge has worked a little.

McCain has managed to inject some doubt into the public psyche about staying or leaving. Defeat is still synonymous with Vietnam for most Americans, even for many of those too young to remember that war.

McCain talks about our spiraling national debt in one breath and spending billions more in Iraq with the next.

And Obama's theme of change, which worked so well for him during the primary, is being retooled. He's trying to cast a wider net than the MoveOn.org crowd.

Surge-O-Mania has obscured the truth that Obama once spelled out so superbly.

Veterans and their families understand that truth probably better than any of us.

They know the optimism of isolated strategies can be temporary in the bigger picture.

Even if the surge has worked, it hasn't reduced the number of US soldiers returning from Iraq who attempt suicide.

Veterans Affairs puts the number at 1,000 per month.

This video cuts through the hollow vanity of babble about the surge.

What can you get for $7 million? Hosed, that's what.

That's how much County Legislature Democrats say Monroe is losing out on because it opted into an alternative Medicaid cap - the intercept.

"This is not a surprise," said Legislator Paul Haney during a press conference today.

The county will probably dispute the Dems' numbers. Administration officials have consistently argued that, with the intercept, the county will save money in the long run.

Here's the Dems' math. During the first five months of 2006 and 2007, the county racked up 39.22 percent of its sales tax receipts. Through May of this year, the county collected $164 million, up 7.5 percent from the same period last year. Dems project that, by year's end, the county will have generated $419.5 million in sales tax revenues.

Under the intercept, 40.25 percent of that - $168.8 million - would go to the state, Dems said. In exchange for the money, the state waives the county's share of Medicaid costs. If the county would have stuck with the basic state-imposed cap, an incremental increase based on 2005 Medicaid costs, the county would pay the state $161.7 million, they said. Voila! A $7.1 million difference.

Of course, these are projections. Sales tax revenues can vary widely depending on several factors, including consumer spending. Again, the State Comptroller recommended last week that counties reduce their reliance on sales tax revenues, a suggestion he made for that very reason.

It has been five years since the international community became aware of the unimaginable atrocities occurring in Darfur.

But little has happened to change the course of events on the ground. More than 300,000 people are believed to be dead and nearly three million have been driven from their homes and are living in neighboring Chad.

A brief swell of concern led to action about a year-and-a-half ago. But honestly, no one has figured out how to stop the killing, the burning of villages, and the systematic rape of women.

And that realization has caused many in the world community to look away in the hope that it will end on its own.

Darfur has become the 21st century's forgotten genocide.

In what may be more of a symbolic gesture than anything else, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was indicted on crimes against humanity almost two weeks ago.

But as soon as the indictment was read, confusion spread among African leaders over whether an indictment and trial would help or make matters worse.

The Egyptian government warned against the indictment. They were not alone.

And days before the indictment, possibly the worst attack on the people in Darfur was carried out with brutal and defiant intensity. And a similar attack was carried out against aid workers.

As horrific as the situation has become in Darfur, the solution should be plain. But international relationships with the Sudanese government have complicated life for the people in Darfur. A CBS 60 Minutes report, "The Search for Jacob," does a good job of explaining the convoluted relationship that the international community has with Sudan. China has developed a strong relationship with al-Bashir to satisfy its oil needs. And the US has called al-Bashir an ally in the war on terror after 9/11.

Talk about strange bedfellows. Both countries have blood on their hands.

Despite an onslaught of media coverage, celebrity-backed publicity, and United Nations- level talks, al-Bashir and his government have successfully dug in their heels. He has typically accused the West of conjuring up a false emergency in order to intervene in Sudan and gain control of its resources - firmly denying the killings have even taken place.

What genocide?

The one that poisons well water with slain bodies.

Oh yeah. That one.

Executive privilege is running rampant in Washington, DC.

President Bush is evoking it over CIA leaks that led to the outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame.

Vice President Cheney doesn't want to talk about that, either. And he feels he doesn't need to share what happened when he met with energy industry executives.

And Darth Karl Rove says he has executive privilege with regards to Justice Department firings of attorneys who were not Republicans. He has told Congress to go jump in the lake. He won't appear to testify.

Catchy and convenient this thing called executive privilege. The political elite seem to have it and the rest of us don't.

But there is almost nothing that smacks of shady dealings more than executive privilege.

Executive privilege is a balancing act between the president's need for obtaining sound advice and the public's right to know. The argument is that the president, from time to time, may need frank and candid advice to make important decisions.

But some of that information may be too sensitive for the health and well-being of the nation to share with the public.

The president can claim executive privilege, but Congress has subpoena power. Occasionally the two co-equal branches of government have sparred. Nixon and Watergate and Clinton and Monica Lewinsky are the biggest cases in recent memory, and in both, the Executive was attempting to block damaging information from seeing the light of day.

But there is some question of whether executive privilege is real or a kind of mythology.

Executive privilege is not directly mentioned in the Constitution, even though the father of our country - George Washington - was the first to use it.

So what are politicians doing when they evoke it?

In the cases of Cheney and Rove, it could potentially shake the foundations of our society. If Cheney (and Bush by association) worked out some dubious arrangement with energy executives, one that they have personally profited from, the public should know.

If Karl Rove directed the firings of attorneys based on their political affiliations rather than their job performances, he has caused irrevocable harm to our system of justice, and the public should know.

When it comes right down to it, it's hard to find many things that the public doesn't deserve to know.

Look out.

The term "lame duck" is a misnomer. And misleading.

You might think that with approval ratings somewhere near the bottom of Hannibal, Missouri's legendary bottomless sinkhole, George Bush and one of the most incompetent, dangerous administrations in American history are safely neutered. Wrong.

They don't care what you or I think. They've said as much.

The latest: Reuters, on the ABC News Web site, says that the Bush administration is trying to classify "several widely used contraception methods," including birth control pills and intrauterine devices, as abortion.

Philosophers, scientists, and religious thinkers have always struggled with the question of when life begins - at conception or at birth. Thank goodness we now have the Bushies to tell us that it, in fact, begins sometime after the man zips up his pants yet before he makes it out the door.

Never mind that birth control pills do more than prevent conception; they're also used to reduce menstrual pain and cramping and to improve heavy and irregular menstrual bleeding, to cite two examples.

The Bushies have six months left and, much like a dying animal, they're going to use those last gasps to do as much damage as possible. Turn off the lights when you leave. And don't forget to burn down the house.

Watch Iran. Watch abortion. Watch the oil. And watch out.

New York could take a cue from its neighbor to the east.

The Massachusetts Senate unanimously voted to repeal the state's 1913 law that blocks out-of-state gay and lesbian from coming to Massachusetts to get married.

The state already legalized same-sex marriage for residents.

It was a major victory for advocates of same-sex couples and they are hoping that the bill will be approved in the House and signed into law by Governor Deval Patrick.

According to reports in the Boston Globe, the bill to repeal the 95-year-old law flew through the Senate without any resistance, and there were no protestors out in front predicting the end of families, the US, or the world.

That's probably because - despite the usual apocalyptic predictions - the skies in Massachusetts have not fallen since same-sex marriage was legalized in 2004.

Quite the opposite: Massachusetts has discovered that there's money to be made in them there marriages - more than $100 million in annual travel and hospitality revenue.

Where is New York headed?

The Martinez case should have clarified things. At the moment, the courts have said marriages legally performed in other jurisdictions are recognized in New York, including same-sex marriages.

Governor David Patterson directed state agencies to recognize these marriages, though there has been a whole lot of foot-dragging.

Opponents of same-sex marriage are losing the public opinion fight, but the more confusion and doubt they can inject into the legal process, the more they can delay acceptance.

Closer to home, it was wonderful to see City Hall kick off Pride Week with gay flags displayed both inside and outside City Hall.

It's been a long time coming. And just another indication that marriage can't be far behind.

The Jib Jab guys are at again in time for the campaign season. Enjoy.

Yikes! No one is jumping out of windows, yet, but the news about IndyMac is frightening.

Customers made a run on the bank last week and into Monday. They were trying to withdraw their funds out of "It's A Wonderful Life"-style fears that they may end up with nothing.

The feds have already closed and reopened IndyMac, and they're telling us that there's nothing to worry about unless you have more than $100,000 in the bank. The FDIC will cover up to that amount.

The run on IndyMac put the spotlight on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two institutions carry about 60 percent of the nation's mortgage debt - the majority of those loans are now questionable.

Who would think that something as liquid as cash in the bank would be at risk? This isn't like an investment in a shoe factory in the former Yugoslavia, or is it?

What's more, the feds are monitoring the health of about 100 banks, but IndyMac wasn't one of them.

New York Senator Charles Schumer is getting blamed for the run on IndyMac after he publicly questioned its solvency. The point of speaking with hypersensitivity to avoid raising fears is well taken, but what if no one is speaking up precisely when they need to? Do we all just think positive thoughts?

In the age of anything-goes deregulation of just about everything, Americans are being asked to trust in government at a time when government appears less and less competent.

When asked if Americans should be concerned about the nation's banking system and the general health of the US economy, Jeremy Siegel, professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, told CNN yesterday that there's good reason for concern: rising oil prices, a weak dollar, and still no end in sight to the housing crisis.

"Things are getting very anxious," he said.

Fortunately, he said, relatively few Americans have more than $100,000 in cash sitting in the bank these days. If that's any consolation.

Just cover your eyes folks, and hope for the best.

Only in Monroe County could higher than expected sales tax revenues be bad news.

The State Comptroller's Office released a report yesterday that showed Monroe County had a 4.38 percent increase in sales tax revenues between 2006 and 2007 - from $384.1 million in 2006 to $400.9 million in 2007. The growth for the first quarter of this year is even higher, the report says.

So why is this bad news for Monroe? County officials opted into a plan - the sales tax intercept - where the state keeps a percentage of the county's sales tax money in exchange for taking over the Monroe's Medicaid payments, and they did it based on historical sales tax growth of less than 2 percent.  

The Comptroller's Office warned of this situation when the deadline to opt in to the intercept approached.

But the report also says sales tax revenues are bound to decrease if the state and country continue to experience an economic downtown. It recommends that counties find ways to rely less on sales tax revenue.

The interesting thing is that's what Monroe has done, intentionally or not.

 

The Rochester Children's Zone changed its name last week to the Rochester Surround Care Community Corporation.

The name change is a little bothersome. It's taken several years to build name recognition for RCZ. A lot of that effort will be lost.

It was also a child-centered name and seemed more focused and easier for the general public to understand.

But some type of name change was necessary, says City Council member Adam McFadden, RSCCC board of trustees chair.

RSCCC was inspired by the Harlem Children's Zone, which was founded by Geoffrey Canada in the mid 1990's. Canada was struck by the number of children in Harlem who were having difficulty in school because they lived in neighborhoods ravaged by unemployment, drugs, and violence. He created a multi-level safety zone for children: better housing, health care, nutrition, and education.

But the folks at the Harlem Children's Zone trademarked their name because several other cities were using similar names, possibly giving the impression that they were affiliated.

"It was presenting them with difficulties raising money," says McFadden. "They were concerned that people would get confused and give to the wrong organization. We just didn't want to risk having a legal problem with them over it."

McFadden is not that concerned by the name change.

"The people who care about this organization will understand," he says.

Maybe. Surround Care is social worker jargon and it swims dangerously close to sounding like welfare, something a large portion of the public doesn't support.

And public support beyond the neighborhood is critical for many reasons.

The main reason: money.

Surround Care will need to begin raising lots of it real soon if it is going to remain viable.

Rochester Surround Care Community Corporation is located at 439 Central Avenue. Its new number is 546-1040.