It's Time

It's Time for NASCAR to Be Worried

I went to the NASCAR race at Infineon last Sunday and it made me realize that NASCAR is in real trouble. In past years, even at  8:00 in the morning, you ran in to bumper to bumper traffic getting to the track, This year we drove right in and in to a line only about 15 deep at the ticket booths. Usually you are met with businesses giving goodie bags of promo stuff, again, nothing like that this year.  When we got on the property, there were not the vendors that you usually see.         

                The track had cut ticket prices in half and that still left them with a little more than half the usual crowd. The cut in prices meant that there were no support races on Sunday, and little to keep our attention until the start of the race, which was later than normal because of the needs of television. Once the cars hit the track, it was obvious that sponsorship was not the same as past years. Normally, the second tier teams are sponsored by local businesses, and again, there was little of that this year. Some of the normal local hot shoes weren’t in the race. Jim Ingelbright and Scott Pruett who always seem to have a ride for the Infineon race, weren’t there. The only reason Boris Said made the race was because he put together his own program. It was disappointing to not have the threat of a road course ringer taking the weekend. It never happens, but in the past, the threat was always there.

                When the winner was decided, Casey Kahne and Richard Petty Motorsports, the first win in 10 years for Petty, the discussions were not celebrations of the victory. The discussions were all about the future of Richard Petty Motorsports, the Petty family has always been the royalty of NASCAR, but Richard was forced to be the face of a team he has no real input in their decisions. He couldn’t answer many of the questions, because the Gillets, the real owners, hadn’t discussed their plans with him. It was really pretty embarrassing to see a pillar of NASCAR not knowing the future of his own team.

                It appears that all the factory money is drying up, at the same time as commercial sponsorship is drying up. Next year go out to Napa Airport on Thursday, and I bet you won’t see near as many private jets sitting on the tarmac. I also believe that the worry on qualifying won’t be who’s going home, but who will come out to fill the field. Without factory money, there will be less engineering and speeds and competition will suffer. The days of four car teams will be over, and I think a number of teams will consolidate and hope for the best.

                The crowds aren’t in the stands, the TV ratings are down, this leads to the sponsors not seeing the value of being in NASCAR. This will lead to the teams throttling back, and the spiral goes on. Teams will be happy that they have the COT as they try to survive. The series will become a spec series and  equality will reign, for better or worse.

               

It's Time To Give People a Fair Chance

Someone needs to explain to me how we can derail a Supreme Court nomination before we’ve ever held the hearings. All sides are fast and furious with sound bites and video clips that buttress their position; they all want to paint Sonia Sotomayor and she is in a position where she can’t answer her critics. When there are hearings these questions can be asked and the public can hear the candidate answer the questions, I’m tired of hearing the same people beat the same drums time and again.

                With the Internet, You Tube and other technology, no one can say anything that can’t be pulled up and brought back to haunt them, it will become increasingly impossible for anyone to stand up to scrutiny when they are selected for a public position, because something they did or said years ago is in the ether on the net and it’ll be there forever. When the opposition gets ready they just Google the candidate and collect what they need. Even now, many great candidates for positions are walking away because the inquisition isn’t worth the position. We’ll get people who have never taken a position on an issue, or said anything controversial because they’ll have nothing to be caught on. The most hypocritical thing is that the people with the loudest voices and the most strident rhetoric couldn’t stand up to scrutiny themselves, and they’re sitting on the outside of the political arena throwing stones at the combatants.

                Of course, is what a Supreme Court nominee says all that important? We all say things in situations that aren’t necessarily what we believe, we want to endear ourselves to an audience, and sometimes that’s not smart. In the case of Sotomayor we have over 3000 decisions to review and that would appear to be the best way to decide if Sotomayor  has the credentials and the temperament to become a Supreme Court justice. It would appear that since we’re asking her to become a Justice, her body of work in performing her job should be the deciding factor.

                Some of the population believes that as a Justice you are totally impartial and objective in using the Constitution, and that’s the way it is. If that is true, then why do we need nine Justices?  It would seem that we should get one Solomon and give them the power to make the final decision on cases and let it go. The number of Justices isn’t written in the Constitution, and has been changed at different times by different Presidents.  It would appear that these Presidents felt that they needed more than one point of view. There have been seats that have been historically reserved for a certain religion or a certain sex or a certain ethnicity, and that seems to have been accepted. Presidents have picked replacements because they felt it was important to get these points of view, and to satisfy power groups, it’s still the same. Both Democratic and Republican Presidents and Senates have accepted this and the opposition has fought against it, that politics.

It's Time To Look At Education

First, I want to say that I’ve always been an advocate of neighborhood schools. My children went to H. Glenn Richardson School and Dover for Middle School, and I loved both sites.  Both schools had strong teachers and a committed administration. I’m sorry to see them leave the community. There are several reasons that they, along with the other schools are being closed, and I really do support the tough decisions that had to be made.

                The closing of facilities has been coming for some time. I was on a District Committee discussing attendance boundaries four years ago, and when you looked at the numbers you could tell that there would need to be an increase in school age population or some schools were going to have such low attendance that they might be in danger of not being viable. We had built two new schools, and rehabbed the District Office back to an Elementary School, so we had an increase in Elementary School seats. One may ask why we built schools when we didn’t really need them. Well, in the byzantine maze of State funding, they were giving away money to build schools, and we had just passed a Bond measure which gave us money that could be used to build the schools. Also, the District had made promises to certain geographic communities that they would get a school as part of the negotiations to get the Bond measure passed. Another factor was the fact that the District had negotiated for the school sites and had the land to build. The final factor was that, in projecting future development, the District believed that these schools would be needed, in the future, for projected growth. Given the numbers and the community’s appetite for new schools it was a no brainer.

                Like everyone else, the District believed that the growth in our community would continue, unabated, and that they were being smart in their decisions. The future also looked rosy for the State of California increasing their support of public education, so the schools would be supported until the community grew in to them. Then the world crashed in on Fairfield, like everyone else. Building permits dried up, development stopped, income from fees dropped dramatically, and then the State dropped their support for schools. With development stopping, the projected students were no longer coming to the District and the future turned very dark. With the new budgets cut to the bone, and still not coming close to being in balance, the tough decisions had to be made, and here we are.

                The positives for the future are that, in most cases, the students will be in better facilities than those they left. The District will be in better shape financially, and hopefully they have looked further out than next year, and these moves will allow them to be in better shape to weather the uncertain future. Hopefully these tough moves will allow the District to not have to make even more unpopular decisions.

               

It's Time To Support Education

 Every time there is a budget controversy with the State, education gets cut and shorted. It doesn’t matter that we already are near the bottom in spending per student. Historically we have always shortchanged education, and now we’ll do it again.

                A young friend of mine is a teacher in our District, and she’s on the pink slip list. This person has gone to school for years to get her degree, she has taken sabbaticals to build up her bankroll, so she could afford the education. She still lives with her parents, because she has run up loan debts and she’s trying to pay them off. She worked as a sub waiting to get on with the District, and finally she got a position, now she could be out of work.

                I really believe it’s time that we look at what’s important to education, and that’s committed, educators in the classroom. We can look at sports, music, and other events, and sure, they are important, but if we only have X number of dollars, the first point should be to keep teachers teaching the basic educational requirements

                The Board has to cut costs, they don’t have any more money and the future doesn’t look good. We need to make systemic changes that’ll help put the schools on a solid footing looking in to the future. We always make short term decisions, even though we have long term problems. Elementary attendance is dropping in our District, the State has long term financial problems, and while they promise to repay the down years in the future, it probably won’t happen.

                I have been a parent who has been active with my children in extracurricular activities and I understand how important these programs are to our children’s development. I’ve supported the programs and did fundraising and begging to raise money to keep these programs viable. I think we need all agree that in tough times we, as parents need to step up and take on the responsibilities for these programs. We need to take them off the District books, and support them. Football, swimming, theatre, band and other programs need to be funded by outside sources, and if that means cutting the programs back to a lower profile, then so be it. If, for some reason a student can’t find the resources to participate, then we need to scholarship them and help them to be part of the program. We need to find grants, and other outside money to support the programs.

                Transportation, after school programs, and other extracurricular activities all need to find a way to pay for themselves. The basic thrust of my argument is that we need to strip down education to the basics and the classrooms need to be inviolate. When more money comes down the road, we can funnel more support to the programs, and they can ramp back up to their former glory.

                When we cut these programs back and give them to booster groups or to outside agencies we’ll cut back on District staff and expenses to support the programs, and that’ll cut down the Administration, which is something everyone wants to see.

                Let’s all be honest, we’ve wanted the government to spend more, provide more, and tax us less, and that’s put us where we are. It seems quite often government cuts the most visible to make us all pay for refusing to give them more money. Education is too important to mess with.

It's Time We Discuss The real Issues

It’s time that we have a discussion about the actual subject on several issues. I really believe that people get around issues by reframing the issue, and obscuring the subject.  The first is “Gay Marriage.”

                To me, we’re not discussing gay marriage, we’re discussing gay rights. Marriage is a spiritual commitment between two people who commit to live their lives together. This has nothing to do with the government; the only thing that the government has to do with marriage is to give people, who enter in to this commitment, certain legal rights and privileges based upon their commitment. A civil ceremony is just a validation of this commitment; a church wedding is a spiritual consecration of this commitment. I don’t think that many in the gay or straight community are fighting to get church recognition of these unions. The vast majority of the gay community has split with their churches well before they get to the point of marriage. The government has no right or any inclination to tell the churches that they have to have these weddings. The thing that gay couples are looking for is the ability to move out of the shadows, and live their life in the open; they want the same rights and privileges as straights that have a union. The gay community shouldn’t be considered second class citizens just because of their lifestyle; they should be given the same legal rights by the government as others. As far as I’m concerned, they should have the same legal standing as other couples, the churches should have the right to not bless these unions, if that is their belief.  By not recognizing these unions are we going to change the lifestyle? I think not, the gay lifestyle has gone back to Biblical times, and been discussed in the Bible, so I don’t think it will, or should go away.

                My second concern is the “Torture” discussion. Is there any doubt that we shouldn’t torture enemy combatants? We signed off on the Geneva Conventions and agreed that our expectation was that our soldiers wouldn’t be tortured, nor would we torture others. What has changed to make this different? I realize our Homeland was hit on September 11^th, and innocent individuals were killed, but in all wars in the past, innocents have been killed by all sides. We have never had someone bring war to our shores. Since terrorists have hit the Homeland, does that make it O.K.? As my Mom always said, two wrongs don’t make a right.  We need to continue to hold the beliefs that we have had in the past, and keep our pride. The people that have died defending our rights did that so that we could keep our beliefs. Part two of this discussion is what constitutes torture? According to the Geneva Convention is weatherboarding torture?  Are the other “Enhanced Interrogation “techniques torture? If they are we shouldn’t do them, and the people who ordered them should be held accountable. Didn’t we hold the Nuremburg Trials to address these issues in WWII in Europe? If the techniques aren’t torture, by the rules, then we were right to use them. The enemy did far worse things to our people and I have no problem going to the wall to fight them.

 

 

It's Time for NASCAR to Think

Last week I went to a Q & A at Infineon Raceway and what I saw were the reasons that NASCAR is so successful, and some reasons why NASCAR should be concerned about the future. First the good.

                Jimmie Johnson and his wife came to the Raceway to spend time with fans that had bought tickets to a special section set aside for his fans. The tickets were basically a half price offer, and as an incentive the ticket included the Q & A. The Raceway and NASCAR both realized that their fans were in a tough financial environment and that to sell out, they needed to help the fans to be able to afford the tickets, so they stepped up and reached out to the fan. The fans responded, there were over 600 fans in the stands on a Thursday afternoon, at high noon, to spend time and hear Jimmie speak. The fans came from as far as way as Yakima Washington to spend a half hour with Jimmie. We all set on a sunny hillside and were close enough to reach out and touch one of the stars of the sport. What other professional athlete from any other sport would be this accessible?  Do baseball or football or basketball stars sit in the stands and talk with the fans? Not that I’ve seen.  Jimmie stood for pictures with fans and signed memorabilia that fans brought. Again, rare for this to happen, other than in a staged event where the fans pay to play. The drivers and the tracks realize where the money comes from and they are working to keep the fans involved and feeling valued.

                A couple of things that were said during the Q & A made me concerned for the future of NASCAR. Jimmie Johnson is a multi millionaire and looks the part, clean cut, well dressed and polished. He was also there to pick the wine that would be served to the winner, WINE at NASCAR? Budweiser must have had a fit. One fan asked a question regarding training that Jimmie had gone through in getting to the top of NASCAR, and he explained that he had been taken classes in public speaking and sponsor relations and worked with PR people to be a better spokesman for the sport. Hardcore NASCAR fans like their heroes to be authentic, down home guys. Does anyone think that Richard Petty, David Pearson, or Dale Earnhardt went through PR Boot Camp before they became the stars of the sport? I know that Tony Stewart has PR people, but apparently he doesn’t do well at listening. Kyle Bush doesn’t censor his comments when he gets out of the car. NASCAR seems to have a rough and tumble history and the fans still have that expectation of their drivers. The gentrification of NASCAR is starting to bother many of the fans of the sport. The drivers are losing their connections with the fans, like the stars of other sports.

                Another point was the fact that there was hardly any trash talking by Johnson. The fans gave him many opportunities, they asked about battles with other drivers, Jeff Gordon, Junior, or Tony Stewart and Johnson didn’t rise to the bait, he wouldn’t speak ill of the competition. The fans like a little bravado from their heroes.

                NASCAR’s roots are based in the common man from the Southeast, and that has been successful up until now, why change? The way they have done business in the past has worked for them; they have brought the sport to the pinnacle of success. They were starting to lose fans at the tracks before the recession, and the decline has accelerated during the last year. I realize the leadership has  changed, but they need to listen to the fans.

               

It's Time To Support Local Businesses

Last week there were two articles in the Daily Republic regarding the rise of the Olive Oil business in the Suisun Valley.  The article focused on the Sievers family and their plans for a mill and olive oil grove. I think it’s great that the Sievers are planning this, but there has been a family, that for over four years, have been promoting the Olive Oil of the Suisun Valley.

            Joel and Peggy Quartemont have  been running Sepay Groves Olive Oils and they have been actively promoting Suisun Valley oils to the locals and tourists that visit from their boutique at 370 Chadbourne Road. The Quartemonts are active advocates for their product. They have posters that show how Olive Oil has helped their health. They have a tasting area where they share the tastes and benefits of the different oils that they blend. They also blend vinegars that are extremely tasty.

            The olives that the Quartemonts use come from the Gordon Valley Farms, a local grower; the olives are taken to a press in Sonoma County where they are pressed. The oil then comes back to the store in Fairfield where small quantities are bottled, to keep the oil fresh, and it is sold through the store.

            My wife and I have become steady customers of Sepay. The oils and vinegars are great and they make tasty salad dressings and are a great addition to our cooking.

It's Time To Look At The Future

The automakers are facing a huge challenge. They have to get back to profitability and I don’t think that the public realize how tough this is going to be.  There are a number of things that need to be changed that have nothing to do with cars.

                Legacy costs are the costs for former employees that no longer work for the company. These folks have insurance and retirement costs that are a real drag on the profitability of the companies. Something on the order of $1800 per car is set aside to pay these costs. These costs are contract language agreements made years ago when the “Big Three” were the masters of the automotive universe; they were making money hand over fist, and needed to keep the plants open to keep feeding the public’s appetite for new cars. They had the money and didn’t see anything in the future that would keep them from being able to make the payments. They also had actuary tables that told them that their employees would live “X” number of years and would cost the company “Y” number of dollars. What the automakers didn’t think about was that medical advances would allow people to live so much longer, new and expensive medical procedures allowed retirees to live much longer than the system planned. As they lived longer and addressed ever more expensive medical procedures, the costs to the automakers started to skyrocket.  The pension payments went on years longer than they originally planned. Also, as automation increased, the automakers had excess labor to either retire out, layoff, or retrain, all expensive. The expenses were so high that the automakers set up a program that paid workers to just sit on the bench and do nothing; it was cheaper than the alternatives.

 A number of things happened that changed the equation and cut in to profits. One was the rise of foreign automakers; they built relatively inexpensive, dependable autos and cut in to Detroit’s market share. The new cars had better technologies and were better built; they lasted longer, cutting the number of new cars purchased. Because there were more cars on the market, the automakers had capacity that had to be kept busy, so they dropped profit margins to move cars. Sales dropped, profits on cars that were sold were dropped, and income dropped, less money for the car companies spend. Less money to spend met less innovation and less money for stockholders. This led to lower stock prices, lower capitalization, and it was harder to borrow money. I know this is simplified, but these are examples of how many different factors came together in a perfect storm. Now the government is going to start telling the automakers how to run their business.

The government wants fuel efficient, safe cars built. The automakers have tried this in the past, but the costs led to prices that the public didn’t want to pay. The future may get to a point that the numbers work out for the consumer, we’ll see. The government needs to realize that they are temporary managers of the companies and they have never run a car company. Decisions in this industry take years from the decision being made, to the vehicle being in the marketplace. We’ll see how it all comes out.

GOOD LUCK

 

 

It's Time To be Honest

I’m totally with the public; I’m enraged at the bonuses that the AIG guys are getting from the government bailout. I part company with the majority though in that I don’t hold the employees at fault, and I don’t think we should take away the money. The company and their employees sat down and wrote agreements well before the government put their money in the pot. The agreements were signed in a competitive environment, and apparently the company thought this was what it needed to pay to keep assets in place.  Do I think that these agreements should have been signed? No, I think bonuses should be based on the company being profitable, and the employee being part of that profit. Everyone should have “skin” in the game.

Now that we are faced with the payment of these bonuses, they should be paid. The employees were offered the money in return for certain conditions being met, and the employees met the conditions. Pay the money.  Going forward, the rules should be changed to reflect the realities of the current situation, and if employees decide to stay or go, so be it.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in the takeover of businesses by the Government. Before the first Federal monies went in to AIG, they should have made done due diligence and gone through the books of the company and addressed issues that they didn’t feel was proper. If they wanted to change the rules of the game, then it should have been addressed before the money went in. There have been three infusions of capital to the company, and no one said anything until the checks were ready to be cut.  The Government should be no different than any other investor, they should hold management responsible for making a profit, and they should back the company in being competitive.

One of the answers that really bother me is Congress’ proposal to tax away all the bonus money with a tax, after the fact, of up to 100% of the bonus. Are we really comfortable letting the Government pick  and choose what income they want to tax, and at what rate, after we’ve earned the money? Also, would you like to have your pay numbers splashed across the Nation’s newspapers? I know I would not.

If we were to start punishing people by taking away their pay because of the fact that the company wasn’t being run properly, we should start with every level of Government. Did Federal regulators do a competent job of protecting the economy and the people? If not, then maybe we should dock their pay. Congress passed laws that enabled this to happen; maybe they need a pay adjustment. State Government has run California to the brink of Bankruptcy, are we doing anything to punish them for this? Have we ever punished them for not passing a budget on time? If I consistently didn’t complete my work on time, I’d be given direction to improve, and if it didn’t happen, I’d probably be out of work. It seems important that we all be held to the same standards and be treated fairly. That’s all I’m asking for these people.

GOOD LUCK

 

It's Time To See The Good

   

I know the economy is rough, I’m out of work myself, but I’m really getting tired of everything being gloom and doom. I realize bad news sells newspapers, and discussing bad news is a lot more fun than talking about the pluses out there. There is good news out there, retail sales are up, housing sales are up and other economic indicators are turning up. Of course, this is from a pretty low level, but up is good, no matter what. We need to recognize the good things, the biggest issue facing this economy is consumer confidence, and we need to acknowledge and celebrate the good, it’ll help make things better as we move on.

When people talk about the current economic conditions they always compare it to the Great Depression, but when the figures for most indicators come out, they are the worst since the early 80’s, when Reagan took over from Carter. If you ask most people, I don’t think they remember the early 80’s as being that bad. Yes there were problems, but we didn’t talk about the Great Depression during those times.

You have heard several times that the Obama Administration doesn’t want to waste a crisis. I think that there may be truth in that statement, I think that this Administration wants to use this crisis as a permission slip to make a whole raft of changes in how America moves forward. I’m not saying that making these changes is bad or good, as with most things, there will be good and bad coming down the pike. My issue with this approach is that the Administration has a number of balls in the air, and it looks to me, like Congress and the American people don’t have the attention span to give all of these different strategies the attention that they demand. The American people are starting to get confused at all the stuff going on, and I’m afraid that that they will just shut down and pull out of the discussion, and with uncertainty comes closing your wallet and not spending any money.

It seems to me that the Administration needs to focus all its attention on restarting the economy, which needs to be the discussion point every day, on every cable talk show. Be the speaker Democrat or Republican we need to be talking about getting the economy back on its feet. Healthcare is important, as are a number of other issues, but everyone knows that there will be huge battles between the parties over these issues because this is a bedrock belief of both parties. The battle will be long and hard, and the final outcome will be a compromise, the important thing is that the situation is addressed and improved. The way things are today isn’t working; healthcare is becoming a huge expense. We are living longer; we continue to roll up health costs for a longer period of time. As we age we use much more expensive procedures to extend our lives, all of this is costing business and government huge amounts of money. We need to address this, but let’s fix the economy first.