I realize that US and Venezuela currently need to do business with one another as far as oil is concerned. However, that doesn't necessitate that he accept a book from Hugo Chavez accusing us of being exploitative.
It speaks volumes that President Obama glibly justifies it by saying he enjoys reading, and yet returns the bust of Winston Churchill in the White House to Britain. If Chavez gave him a copy of Mein Kampf or Protocols on the Elders of Zion, would he accept that too? I want my president to behave like he accepts our values, and not cozy up to a dictator who suspends any broadcasters critical of him.
I want a US Commander in Chief, not a world therapist or celebrity. I don't know if he's naive or just doesn't get it.

I had the letter below published in AM New York on 04/01/08. The Farley Post Office is part of a plan to renovate New York Penn Station to its former grandeur before the old station was torn down in 1963.


I'd like to respond to articles last week about Madison Square Garden's decision to back out of plans to move into the Farley post office.
I do not think New York public officials should be blaming Cablevision Corp. (the Garden's owner) for their decision. This is a private for profit corporation. If a were a shareholder, I'd be up in arms if they moved considering how the lack of public funding would raise its costs to 3 billion dollars. Cablevision's business is entertainment, not public transportation.
As far as the proposal to tap the current Port Authority surplus, this scheme would only hasten the day of toll increases for its facilities. How could it possibly justify funding a project whose main beneficiary would be Amtrak? It certainly wouldn't aid New Jersey Transit Rail, who recently nicely renovated its station near the 7th Avenue side of the terminal.



I had the letter in the link below printed in NY Metro on 04/03/08.

http://www.readmetro.com/show/en/NewYork/20080403/1/18/

NY Metro,
It saddened
me to read about the spillover effect in New York from the near collapse
of Bear Stearns. What I find even sadder is how it didn't have to
happen. It's just mind boggling how this entire sub-prime mortgage
crisis came to pass. How could any institutions be so gullible as to
gobble up all kinds of bundled mortgages without asking serious
questions? What's even stranger is how anyone assuming a mortgage would
believe that housing prices always go up. That would be like believing
"God didn't make little green apples. It don't rain in Indianapolis in
the summertime". In a way, I'm glad that foreign investors shunned the
latest auction of U.S. treasury bills. It sends a clear message that
this way of doing business is unacceptable, and the folks that brought
on this crisis had better clean up their act.