Yonkers Tribune

ED KOCH COMMENTARY: My Statement of Support for the Reelection of President Barack Obama By EDWARD I. KOCH

The campaign for president – to be decided in the election in November 2012 – is going to be decided, most people believe, by the state of the economy and its impact on each of us as we enter the voting booth.  I believe while the economy will hold a high priority with the voters, they will consider domestic policies and foreign affairs as well.

ED KOCH COMMENTARY Apocalyptic Event Threatens Israel’s Very Survival By EDWARD I. KOCH

NEW YORK, NY -- The Government of Israel Should Take All Reasonable Measures to Assemble a Consensus of Israeli Opinion Makers In and Out of Government to Support the Government In Its Response to an Apocalyptic Event Threatening Israel’s Very Survival

The issue of how to deal with the threat of Iran manufacturing a nuclear bomb is a matter affecting Israel’s very existence and, therefore, a first priority for the leaders of the Jewish state.  In deciding Israel’s approach to this issue, and in particular, whether Israel has the military capability to eliminate the Iranian program and should do so, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu must not ignore the opposition and arguments of those who have held high positions in the Israeli government before him as well as during his prime ministership. 

Ed Koch Commentary: The Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost By EDWARD I. KOCH

The chickens are coming home to roost in the Middle East.  The experts who supported the removal of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, e.g., The New York Times’ Tom Friedman and many others, are perhaps now wondering if they were right to do so.

Hosni Mubarak was certainly an authoritarian ruler.  His government brooked little or no dissent; there was no competing party at the polls; and the judiciary was beholden to Mubarak’s government.

Ed Koch Commentary: Tragedies Beyond Belief By EDWARD I. KOCH

Within the past week, three incidents of depravity have been the subject of news coverage.  Of course, in the world at large, many outrages have occurred, but these three affecting young people had a special impact, and I would like to bring them to your attention.

On March 20^th, The New York Times reporter Stephen Castle wrote, “A young man in the care of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands was surgically castrated decades ago after complaining about sexual abuse, according to new evidence that only adds to the scandal engulfing the church there.”

Ed Koch Commentary: Let’s Get Out of Afghanistan , Now By EDWARD I. KOCH

 

There is no rational reason for us to be in Afghanistan.  Our original goals were to end the government of the Taliban which had given Osama bin Laden a base from which he could launch worldwide terrorist attacks and commit his greatest horror and catastrophe: the blowing up of the World Trade Center towers in New York City and the killing of near 3,000 innocent civilians.

 

As a result of the valor of our troops and the ability of the U.S. military leadership, we have driven the Taliban from its former role in the government of Afghanistan and not long ago, our special forces in a heroic and masterful raid into Pakistan, killed Osama bin Laden in his hideaway which was probably known to Pakistan’s government authorities and in effect concealed and protected by the Pakistani government. 

Ed Koch Commentary: Epigrams, Comments and A Wiser Insight From a Child By EDWARD I. KOCH

 

I am now in my 88^th year, having celebrated my 87^th birthday last December.  I occasionally sit at my desk and experience a reverie, my mind thinking back to past events over my lifetime.

 

There are also nights when I lie in bed in the wee hours of the morning, unable to sleep solidly through the night as I once was able to do.  I’m told the inability to sleep soundly through the night comes with the passage of time and aging.  Recently, as I lay awake, I wondered which pithy statements, if any, that I made through the years will survive my death.

Ed Koch Commentary: Planned Parenthood, Worthy of Continued Financial Support By EDWARD I. KOCH

 

I’m back, having had a wonderful vacation of 7 days in the Caribbean and having the special experience of going through the Panama Canal.  I transversed it, by entering the canal from the Pacific side.  Some call the creation of the canal the ninth wonder of the world.  The original canal, still in use, is being supplemented by a wider canal now being built which will handle much larger ships not capable of going through the existing canal.  It takes 9 hours to pass through the canal and its locks, saving 14,000 miles were the ship to go around the tip of South America.

 

Ed Koch Commentary: The Flatter Tax By EDWARD I. KOCH

 

I don’t believe class conflict is harmful to our country, as long as it is limited to elections.  It is also helpful if the charges made by both sides in this conflict are factually correct. 

The Republicans are the party of the wealthy.  Its membership, however, is made up primarily of people who do not fit that description and are not in the 1 percent of our population with an income of $380,000 and above.  Those people, not part of the 1 percent, have an expectation of someday becoming part of that small group which pays just over a fourth of all federal taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center.  It also may be that even if they don’t expect to be part of it, they hope their children will be, and they want to protect the prerogatives that come with wealth.  The major political tenet of these people is – success comes to those who strive to make it and do on their own.  I truly believe that is the meaning of Newt Gingrich’s statement that President Obama is “the most effective food stamp president in history,” and “I would like to be the best paycheck president in American history.”  Mitt Romney decries these criticisms of Republican philosophy as “the bitter politics of envy.”

Ed Koch Commentary: The Need for a Federal Czar to Oversee the Development of the Nation’s Oil Reserves By EDWARD I. KOCH

Legislation to Fingerprint Food Stamp Recipients     

Ethanol is produced from some agricultural products.  It is a form of alcohol which is added to regular gasoline in order to make us less reliant on foreign supplies of oil, from which gasoline is derived.

The subsidy to create ethanol was first provided 30 years ago and ended December 31, 2011 when Congress decided not to renew it.  The federal subsidy paid over the last 30 years to growers of corn was $20 billion.  Providing that subsidy for corn meant that farmers devoted their corn crop for ethanol use, driving up the price for corn used for food, including animal feed.  That in turn hugely drove up the cost of meat coming primarily from cows.  My recollection of discussions concerning ethanol derived from corn is that it was the least efficient way to manufacture ethanol and that using certain grasses (not part of the food chain) provided more ethanol using less energy and the fuel (oil) required to produce that energy.

Ed Koch Commentary: Interesting Court Decisions By EDWARD IRVING KOCH

A really interesting decision of a federal appeals court in Atlanta, Georgia, was reported in the Times of December 28, 2011.  An employee at a Tyson chicken plant sued the company alleging racial discrimination and seeking damages for the act of a plant manager who “called adult black men working there ‘boy’” The Appeals Court, in a 2-to-1 decision, initially overturned the trial court’s finding in favor of the plaintiff, stating that “the uses [of boy] were conversational and non racial in context.”

Ed Koch Commentary Newt Gingrich: Liberals’ Nightmare By EDWARD I. KOCH

I have watched about a half-dozen events involving the Republican presidential candidates, including their appearance this week before both the Republican National Jewish Coalition and the Iowa debate moderated by Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos.   

In the beginning of the early debates, I was not very impressed with any of the candidates’ grasp of the issues being discussed.  Either my standards have lowered over the passing months, I was not really listening, or they have increased their comprehension of the issues.  I believe it is the latter. 

Ed Koch Commentary: Power to The People - They Have It Now but Haven’t Used It By ED KOCH

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday.  Its very name, “Thanks Giving,” a day to give thanks, makes it unique.  For 364 days a year, we take for granted how lucky we are to live in this special land we call America, a country of amazing energy and variety. When Thanksgiving arrives – which we usually celebrate as a five-day holiday weekend, taking off the day before and three days following - we generally spend it with family and friends. 

Ed Koch Commentary: Mr. President, Stop the Great Bank Heist By ED KOCH

A New York Times editorial of November 9, 2011 sounded the alarm concerning what I would refer to as the Great Bank Heist.  The robbery, however, is not of the banks, but by them, with the Obama administration, I regret to say, helping them, in effect, to rob the public. 

Banks and the government are intent on reducing the liability of the banks for their fraudulent and negligent conduct that led to the Great Recession.  The two articles that best describe what is going on are the Times’ editorial and a joint statement written by the attorneys general of New York and Delaware, Eric Schneiderman and Beau Biden, which appeared in Politico on November 6, 2011.  The two attorneys general wrote: “We recognized early this year that, though many public officials — including state attorneys general, members of Congress and the Obama administration — have delved into aspects of the bubble and crash, we needed a more comprehensive investigation before the financial institutions at the heart of the crisis are granted broad releases from liability.”

Ed Koch Commentary: Committee In Support of the Proposed Udall Amendment to the U.S. Constitution By ED KOCH

Remember the maxim, “Money is the root of all evil?”  It is certainly true with respect to our electoral politics.  While it is necessary for candidates to raise funds for election campaigns, the fact is the system is now out of control. The vast sums pouring into politics today has corrupted our elections, and decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court have made it impossible to protect the electoral system from the corruption of money.  Vast sums contributed directly and indirectly to candidates, the unlimited spending of a candidate of his or her own wealth on his or her own candidacy, the use of ancillary organizations to direct funds indirectly to campaigns, and most ominously the unlimited spending in support of any candidate in any election by corporations and unions, taken together have distorted our system.

Ed Koch Commentary 1,163: Some of Those Making the Laws Are Corrupt, And Some of Those Enforcing the Laws Are Corrupt By ED KOCH

What this country needs is a Congress and a President who will investigate the corruption that Americans feel is rampant. The Occupy Wall Street crew, unfocused and inarticulate, unwashed and motley, nevertheless has captured support because of the uneasiness of Americans, conservative and liberal, that our lawmakers at every level of government have been compromised, if not purchased and that money not only talks, money rules, and the average American feels used and powerless.

We look around us and see corporate America – particularly the banks and Wall Street securities firms – that were responsible for bringing us to our knees as a result of the Great Recession which they brought on, now richer, bigger and more powerful than ever. This, while 15 million Americans remain unemployed and many in their 60s and 70s knowing they will never work again. Many more know they will never again attain the wages they once commanded and their former lifestyles are gone forever. Among the greatest victims are those who graduated from college and still have found no jobs available.