Consistency missing in new "tone"

     Doug Howard, president of the board of commissioners, says the tone has been set with the budget proposals set forth last week, but if he thinks the news is good, he doesn't listen too well to business people.
     Education takes a draconian hit, and the only reason for doing it is to be able to show this board was serious about a tax cut, even if it is a relatively inconsequential two cents. This is just short-sighted thinking, political in nature, and will lead to the very thing that true conservative business owners hate the most: Long-term unpredictability.
     It will punish teachers, lower-level school employees, students and parents for no purpose other than allowing these neo-cons to posture.
     I can appreciate the difficult task facing county government leaders. They have diminished revenues with which to pay some fixed or rising costs. Hard choices have to be made, and should be made, but these five commissioners are actually taking the easy way out. They're beginning with the tax-cut notion as the goal, when true financial leadership would be to effect the give and take required to keep priority items like education with the tax rate held steady.
    And they are breaking promises. The decision to deep-six the Wheeler building commitment with Access Carroll is another action that looks good to those with no comprehension of the needs and realities, and no ability to see the difference between cheap and frugal. There is no real financial gain, and to compound the folly, Howard says he was unaware of the agreement made by the county government that made it possible for this valuable agency to get outside grants.
     Now those grants are in jeopardy. Other choices have the effect of turning down finances that are available without burden to the local taxpayers; they're giving up good deals because they have patrons who want to see reversals and are counting on average citizens not being able to see the folly of this board's decisions.
     Apparently, there is no vision in this board. No flexibility to make gradual and incremental changes, either in additions or cuts, to ensure some predictability, some consistency over time. Indeed, part of the rhetoric is to demonize vision as "too liberal".      Which leads you to believe that perhaps the goals were just the opposite of consistency. No less than three people of varied political but well-informed, experienced perspectives in local governance told me in the last ten days that the current board's primary objective seems to be to reverse anything that was accomplished by previous boards, as if that would make them heroes in the eyes of their constituency.
     There is no doubt that they have their supporters. And they do listen to them. Then,  Howard says for the record that they have received a lot of support for their actions.
     He was quoted in one report this week that the board has listen to people who showed up to speak at meetings. He added that he does not give much credibility to "repetitive e-mails that were clearly just from letters," and he obviously did not have much respect for the reservations expressed by elected school board members and professional staff, there or in the county office building.
     Essentially, they listen to those who agree with them, and dismiss those who are concerned about the direction in which they seem determined to take the county.
     That direction is back to where the county was 10 years ago. Neil Ridgley summed it up well in a Times guest column Saturday. You can read it on-line.
     Here's the irony: I ran against Neil for commissioner in 2002 because I thought some of his ideas went too far. Then I suggested the county hire him because I knew there would be push-back from those whose ideas go too far in the opposite direction. As zoning administrator, Neil was incorruptible; as sustainability coordinator, he was able to apply his ideals to what others of us thought a more reserved, pragmatic approach.
     Gradual, consistent, incremental changes in policy and execution, was an approach that was at first a concern for the development community, and then embraced by most of it when they learned the true potential outcomes.
      As one spokesman for the development industry told me early in my first term in office, "We can work with whatever rules the county sets forth, as long as we can count on dependability and consistency."  I listened, and took heed. I also listened to those whose experience, backgrounds, objectives and needs were different than what I may have surmised before getting educated.
     The actions of this board play to a certain slant, politically, but the long-term consequences will be negative. That's poor management, bad leadership, and bad for business as well as the rest of the population.

This is real News! Front page stuff!

    Sarah Palin defends Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker! Donald Trump leads field for presidential nod!
    Super rich pay less in taxes! Half pay no tax at all!
    Local Tea Party activist sends out email: 100 show up to defend prayer at county meetings!
    Headlines have a way of attracting people who want to be part of them, whether on the national scene or locally. Because politics, you see, is about PUBLICITY! Duh.
    Substance? Hardly matters. It's the instant polls that drive the issues.
    If things play out like this, we could see some interesting tickets in the next elections.
    The Donald will never be President, but then I said the likes of Sarah Palin could never win a spot on a national GOP ballot. Shows what I know about politics. I expect things to make sense, silly me.
    What might the Tea Party crowd cobble together to run against the real Republicans?
How about Palin for President, Scott Walker (I hate unions but I like big-bucks contributors) for VP, and then put The Donald in as Secretary of State. He's a real take-charge guy, who said this week that he'd tell OPEC to lower oil prices, because we're Americans. He said he'd just go in and take Libya's oil. Americans are entitled to it, because we use a lot of it. If Qadaffi doesn't like it, The Donald will bray, "You're fired!"
     He will be so full of himself that he will go to the remoteness of Afghanistan and find Osama Bin Laden, who he probably thinks is Obama's twin brother, and try to tell him he's fired, too.
     Short career. But very colorful.
     The party flag, instead of saying, "Don't Tread On Me," will be be changed to say, "Don't Educate Me," which will get wild support from those who equate education with progressives and liberals.
     For Tea Party press officer, I nominate Orange County, California republican leader and Tea Party activist Marilyn Davenport, who got national recognition this week by sending out a photo-shopped picture of a chimpanzee family with a child who's face was -- well, it was the President of The United States of America.
     She said she was sorry; didn't stop to think it might be inappropriate, but then she quoted the Bible, and explained, "I'm just an imperfect Christian, trying to live a Christ-like life."
      Well, okay, then.

Cutting through the blather: Jack White gets it right on the Right

     Jack White's Friday "Other Voices" column in the Carroll County Times is so on point that I may have it framed. He said in one column all that I could ever hope so say about the political climate in this county -- and nationwide. And he said it better.
     My reaction when I read it was, "My work is done."
     The headline they put on it is, "Intolerance pervades the country."  He uses less than 800 words to sum up what is Wrong with the current edition of the American Right, especially the wing-nut factions that are enjoying their excesses for the moment.
     And he does it by avoiding personal attacks or dark accusations to motive -- he sticks to the issues, and turns the words and actions of the local zealots into the ropes that allow them to hang themselves.
     Read it.
     Then see if you can find the Associated Press articles out of Arizona, where the state legislature passed a "birther bill" for Gov. Jan Brewer's signature which would require what the laws on the books already require regarding U.S. citizenship to serve as President.
     Here's a part of the AP story:  "So-called birthers contend since the last presidential election that Obama is ineligible to hold the nation's highest elected office because, they argue, he was actually born in Kenya, his father's homeland.....
     "Hawaii officials have repeatedly confirmed Obama's citizenship, and his Hawaiian birth certificates have been made public. Even though the courts have rebuffed lawsuits challenging Obama's eligibility, the issue hasn't gone away."
     That's because you can cure ignorance with facts, but stupidity is often incurable.
Ignorance is the lack of information; stupidity is the refusal to accept irrefutable facts.
     Ignorance is not so bad; there's the possibility of enlightenment, learning, improvement, progress, even cordial disagreement.
      We all enter life ignorant, and if we learn, we progress. But in the current political environment, if you learn too much, too well, you are viewed by ultra conservatives as progressive, or liberal, even, or socialist.
     Stupidity is exploited by those who gain and hold powers through misinformation, fear, and bias. The fuel is vitriol, venom.
     Look for Arizona to pass the bill. This is the state with the governor whose popularity rests with those who favor immigration laws eerily reminiscent of the Star of David required to be worn by European Jews in the '30s.
     Last week, Gov. Brewer won fans of spending cuts and social reform by proposing that people who are overweight or have diabetes pay more for Medicare and Medicaid, because it is not the taxpayers' fault they need medical care.
     Oh, and if the "birthers bill" passes in Arizona, who will make the final decision on who can be on the ballot? Voters?  No.
     A politician will look out for the public interests.  It would be up to the Arizona secretary of state.
     How's that for keeping government out of your business?   

Less marketing, please, and more customer service

     What the economy needs is less talk and more action.
     Less volume, more message. Fewer promises, more delivery.
     American business is pretty good at marketing, not so good at the follow-through. Thousands of dollars go into network advertising, while the customer service budget is getting cut. That's also true of politics, which is why we're in the mess we have now.
     I get lots of mail from people trying to sell me something, but when the mail order arrives, there will be additional charges. Get a magazine, pay the bill, and before the second issue arrives, you start getting the renewal notices. Which eventually become threats.
     I bought a grill from a big box store. The carton was so damaged, I asked the clerk to open it and we checked to see if it was damaged. It was not.
     At least, not what was in the box. When I got it home and started to assemble it, I realized that important parts were missing. Like one of the legs.
     I called the manufacturer -- sort of. The manufacturer is in China, but there is a US phone number to call, and when I dialed it up and went through the inevitable menu, I eventually got a live human who said the part would arrive in four to five business days.  That was retail business days: The stores that sell defective products are open seven days a week, including holidays, but the people who send you the missing parts are not.
     My local supermarket spends big bucks each week trying to get me into their store -- any market, pick one. Then they pile so much stuff up in every square inch of aisle space you can't get through, especially since they laid off the night restocking staff, which now has, in addition to the aisle displays, cartons of stuff about to be restocked.
     Then, to get me into a good mood, they crank up the volume of some female vocalist who is tossing her lungs into the rafters over tinny speakers which are everywhere, everywhere.
     I don't want to dance. I am not interested in a concert. I want to shop in relative peace and quiet. How about some nice, easy jazz, no vocal athletics, please. Or silence, so I can actually hear the guy in the seafood department when I'm trying to place an order.
    Call a customer service line and get put on hold, and there's the music again.
    Maybe old people get crabby because everybody is talking too much, and nobody seems to be listening.

So, does the Geneva convention apply to thugs?

   Okay, political pushback in Congress is successful in taking away Presidential powers in the prosecution of terrorists, forcing the trials to be denied in civilian courts and held instead in military courts in Guantanamo.
    Question: Does this mean that the defendants have won the right to be recognized and tried as soldiers, instead of terrorist thugs?  Do they get the respect and protections of prisoners of war?
     Maybe that doesn't matter, compared to the opportunity to make the Obama administration back down. Party comes first, re-election comes second -- well, maybe the two are interchangeable. When it comes to politics, the country comes third.
    
     The war closer to home is the one between reasonable people who really do want to provide leadership and the wing-nuts who insist on shutting down the government, if that's the only way to cut, cut, cut.
     Oh, excuse me; I just used a derogatory term for people with whom I disagree.  Perhaps I should apologize.     
     Nah.
     If anything, we need more people to stand up to the bullying of extremists, and right now, the worst bullies are right-wingers.
     I remember when it was the Left that was throwing its weight around, and I spoke out against them at the time, too. Remember the hey-day of Political Correctness?  You still have it, but not like it was, because more rational people stood up to the argument that if you said one thing, you meant another. The same tactics have been used by the extreme Right and the extreme Left for years. It isn't dialog, or debate, or even a valid argument. It's a war of ideologies, fought with the ammunition of words.
     When I was a kid, the bully for the Right was Sen. Joe McCarthy. "Bombardier Joe," the anti-commie, the slayer of socialism, the 1950s version of later so-called "patriots" who were more American than the rest of us. He was relentless in seeking out those who had shown even curiosity about socialism or communism when the world was in foment, moving from totalitarian kings and emperors to various experiments in more populist and citizen-centered government.
     But like any patriotic movement, ostensibly protecting "The People", extremism on the right, even in the name of patriotism, begins to feed on its' young. Those who stray from the light shed by the leadership are persecuted, and eventually, it becomes apparent to anyone capable of rational thought that diligence can easily slide into fanaticism.
     "Have you no shame, Senator?" was the challenge that brought down McCarthy during hearings that turned over most of the rocks from Washington, D. C. to Hollywood. McCarthy had shown himself to be ruthless, reckless and vindictive, but he still had the power of his senate committee to use, and he wielded that power until one of the oppressed had enough and said, on open microphone, on camera, in a hearing, "Have you no shame, Senator?"
     It was a good question, and timely. I cannot remember who the person was who spoke that line, but in a way, that's the point. Pride, fame and power was counter-attacked, finally, that day. Then others began to ask the same question, and McCarthy was finished.
     It's about time we asked the same questions again in the face of extremism.
     When is patriotism not patriotic?  When it abandons all reason, ignores the patriotism of others, and becomes jingoism.
     When is conservatism not conservative?  When it wastes time, resources  and money. 
















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Donuts for the tea party

     I have to say I can't remember having as much fun in budget discussions as the current board of commissioners seemed to be having on Thursday. It was a party atmosphere, lots of laughter and jocularity as they speculated on the consequences of tax cuts.
     Was that a tea party going on?
     Actually, they didn't consider consequences. They're focused on sending a message, or messages.
     After all, their base is expecting tax cuts and less spending. And the most active and ardent factions of that conservative base are not interested in the consquences. They want more than mere good sense and common sense frugality.
     They want more money for donuts.
     Message number one is for that constituency. We're looking first at how we can cut the school budget and other budgets to give taxpayers back just about enough money to buy a couple of boxes of donuts.
     Message two is, Bread and water for teachers, parents and students.
     Message three is, If you don't like it, Off with your heads. Send your kids to private schools.
     The donut eaters are perfectly happy with the schools the way they were twenty or forty years ago. It was good enough for them and it's good enough today. They paid their taxes when their kids were in school. It never seems to occur to them that in previous years, others with no kids in schools helped fund public education.
    They don't require or expect a good learning environment in well-maintained schools, staffed with adequate and fairly compensated staff.
     Not if it means giving up donuts.