It's Time

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 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 We Suck It Up and Move Forward

was reading Joel Stein’s Time Magazine essay on the housing crisis. I listened and watched CNBC’s  Rick Santelli  rant and my first instinct is to agree with these folks. Yeah, I think its right that we shouldn’t bail out people who bought houses that they could no way afford, or bought houses as an investment, or were too unaware to read the fine print on the contract and know what was going to happen.  Yes, if I have a good loan, and I’m not selling during this downturn, I’m probably not going to have major issues and should be all right. Of course who knows what the future holds and we’ll see what’s going to happen.

The problem that I see with this approach is that it only looks at the housing crisis as an isolated segment of the economy, but that’s not the way it really comes out. The economists that talk about the financial crisis that we’re in, say it won’t be better until the housing crisis is solved. We can say, O.K., let the housing prices go down, let the market reach its natural level, then everything will be better. The problem with that is that the house mortgages were packaged up in to bonds and other financial instruments that were then sold to investors. The investors have walked away from the market because they have no idea what the final value of market instruments will be. This fear pulled the stock market down to levels not seen in years. The drop in the market has frozen investments in businesses, and it has frozen the loan market, because the banks have no idea what their real values are, they’re holding on to all the capital they can as they try to stay above water, that means business loans , real estate loans, construction loans, and consumer loans are almost nonexistent. That means that people aren’t making or building things, and they don’t need employees.

What all of this means is that my 401K is dropping day by day; my job went away because my customers were afraid to buy products for their stores, because their customers have closed their pockets and are hunkered down waiting for the next shoe to drop. So even though my house loan isn’t in trouble I’m in the soup with everyone else.

Let’s be honest, the correction of the housing market will probably take three to five years, at least ,to correct, and when prices  are dropping by 40-60% , my biggest asset, my house will probably be upside down for quite some time. This will have major effect on my retirement and my family’s future.

Taking all this in to account, I’m behind putting a floor under the housing market, I’m for the government clarifying the financial markets and getting the financial institutions on a stable footing, or closed down. If we can get these things done, people will begin to believe in the markets and will believe that the future makes sense again. We’ll all probably have less money than we had last year, but we’ll get it all back together and we’ll start again, as we have coming out of each correction in the past. So, while it galls me to help the irresponsible, greedy, and downright stupid, I have to swallow hard and agree to get things cleaned up. Of course, we could have avoided the whole thing, but that’s the subject for future blogs.

GOOD LUCK

It's Time For Obama To Step Up

Yes, the Democrats won the election, but they don’t need to try to put all of the things that they’ve wanted for the last eight years in to one bill. Let’s face it, the economy in this Country is too important to be held hostage while the Democrats try to remake the face of government. We all realize that the government needs to spend money to get the economy off its back. There are a group of economists who believe that it needs to be government spending, and there is another group who believes that you cut taxes and let the free market sort it all out. We’ve never had this situation before, so it is all new territory. No matter what, we know that spending money on contraceptives, NASA programs and other special interest groups certainly isn’t the best use of our resources.

                Obama needs to take the mandate for change that was his election, and he needs to set everyone down and pound out a recovery plan that is the best use of the money that needs to be borrowed to make a stimulus possible.

                Let’s remember that this will be borrowed money, it will be an expense that our children and grandchildren will have to pay back. A deficit will weaken our economy in the future. It’s a delicate balancing act between the money needed to get the economy back on track, while not selling away the future. We need to demand that this be done as well as possible.

                As we watch the opening days of the Obama Administration, I think that we’re seeing a great many politicians in a situation that they don’t understand. Obama is going to Congress, talking with them and listening to what they have to say. He’s also saying what he thinks, not making a decision and then going straight forward without listening to anyone. He appears to be confident in his beliefs, but willing to listen to what others have to say.

                I am disturbed that Obama is making rules and then demanding exceptions, for instance his appointment of a former lobbyist to Defense. I’m also concerned that his Treasury Secretary has tax issues, which he clearly knew and didn’t handle. Obama ran on making government transparent, yet he has clear issues which he is asking Congress to overlook in the name of the economy. We all have to believe that there are enough qualified people available that we don’t need to give positions to people of questionable ethics. Let’s make sure that we get people who know their jobs, perform them well, and have ethics we can believe in.

                Part of what will bring this economy out of the ditch that it has driven in to is for the public to have confidence that the government has the ability to make things better, and get us back on track. Obama is a clean slate, a new start, and has a mandate to make changes that will chart the course for the future. He needs to take this power in hand and use it wisely.

GOOD LUCK

It's Time To Fix Our Community College

     It’s time that this community stands up and takes control of the situation at Solano Community College. A Community College is an asset of great value to any area. This Community College provides a low cost alternative to a traditional four year education for the students of our community. This College provides technical and vocational training for those students who want to transition directly in to the work world. It also provides upgrades and training opportunities for those who have lost their job in the current slowdown, as well as those who want to improve their skills so that they can get a better job. Having access to this College is a great economic asset to our community.

                The students and staff who work at the College also provide a boost to the Cordelia area economy; they shop in those stores, eat in those restaurants, and buy gas at those service stations. There are also students who rent homes in the area to attend the College. All of these acts help our local economy and sales tax revenues.

                We as the taxpayers of Solano County have a huge investment in that College. Through taxes and bond measures through the years we have poured a lot of money in to building and improving that facility. If the College loses its accreditation, all of those investments will be for naught.

                Accreditation is the all important factor for any Community College. The credits that are earned by students who go to these facilities must be transferrable to other Colleges if that student is to acquire a four year degree. In light of the recent cutbacks in the number of students being admitted to California four year schools, Community Colleges have become a way for graduates to continue their education and then transfer to the four year schools in the future. Also, any licenses or certificates that the College gives to students must be recognized by industries to be of any use to the student.

                Apparently, the Board of the College has a history of micromanagement, and poor decision making. They have forced out, or had quit, a number of good administrators; this has led to the Accreditation authorities threatening to pull the certificates of the College. If this were a company faced with this level of malfeasance, there would be changes made. We need to demand the same level of accountability from this Board. They need to face up to their responsibilities and they need to allow people who have the ability to correct the problems faced by the institution. We as a community have too much to lose financially and too much to lose culturally to let this bad situation continue.

GOOD LUCK

 

IT'S TIME TO SUPPORT THE LOCAL MERCHANTS

Its New Years and time to make resolutions, I’ve decided on one resolution that I think everyone should join with me in adopting. My resolution is to buy locally, and to buy from local independent merchants whenever possible. There are several reasons for this decision on my part, I’ve been a small business owner myself, and I know how important every customer is to the small business’s survival. Many small businesses are shoestring operations trying to extract a living for the owner and his family, they aren’t getting rich, and they’re just surviving.  Another reason is that small business people have a passion for what they do, go to any local restaurant and eat a meal, the flavors are better, the food is more authentic. These folks opened a restaurant because they love to cook, they didn’t do a demographic study or have tastings to decide what’s going on the menu, they just did it. I’ve become very disappointed with the loss of local white tablecloth restaurants. Yes, Outback is dependable, but they just don’t have any soul to the food. I remember when there were great local dinner houses, where you could get a great meal, and meet the guy who designed and cooked it.

Yes, if you know exactly what you’re doing and what you need , one of the big box hardware stores is the cheapest place to buy what I need, but, I rarely know what I’m doing, something around the house has broken, I take the piece, and head to the store , hoping to find a replacement. I tend to go to the local hardware store where somebody knows what I’ve got in my hand, and how to reinstall it and make the piece whole again. It ends up being cheaper in the long run, because I don’t have to keep buying things until I get the right part. The local merchants also have the unusual parts that Hoffman or whoever chose to put in to the houses that they built in this area. The big boxes don’t know or care about the unusual; they make money by buying the biggest quantity at the lowest price.

I would even love to see the local butcher come back, they knew what a side of beef was, and where every cut came from, you went in and told them what you wanted to do, and they would give you the right cut for the job. The guys in today’s meat department only know how to open a box, and stack trays of meat in the counter.  I love the local produce stands where I can pick and choose what I want, even go out in the field and pick what I want, that’s great.

If we all shopped and supported these local small business people, we would keep the community vibrant and growing, we would have choices and we would increase local tax revenues. There is a place for the mass merchant or the chain restaurant, I realize that, but I think we sometimes get lazy and lose our sense of adventure and settle for what they have to offer rather than going out and trying new things, and making friends with our neighbors.

GOOD LUCK

 

 

IT's TIME TO THINK ABOUT CHRISTMAS

I know times are tough and people are rethinking their Christmas plans, but in a way I think it may be healthy. Let’s face it, we’ve all let our Christmas card lists get to long, we send cards to people we don’t even know, because they sent us a card last year. We send gifts to people we don’t really know, just to extend our circle of friends. It just seems to get out of control, step by step, and it seems that now that we’re all aware of the economy, and a little worried about the future, we’re reviewing our Christmas and actually thinking about what we’re doing, we’re realizing who and what is important to us.

                In our family, we’ve cut back on the presents to extended family, let’s face it, a lot of the time, you give and get things that don’t make any sense. You have no idea what the other person has or needs, and they’re in the same position with you. We made a pact with these people to donate in their names to Habitat for Humanity. It serves two purposes, it helps the needy and it lessens our guilt. My wife has been baking cakes and cookies to share with her friends, and work mates. They all seem to enjoy that more than some little trinket.

                We talked with our grown kids and asked them to make us something, and we’ve given them gift cards to use. All three are out of the house, and working to make it on their own, so hopefully, the cards will help them with their needs. Also, asking for something home -made challenges them, and will also keep their credit card balances under control. I think every parent worries about our children’s financial situation, so again less Holiday guilt.

                We went through the Christmas card list and if we don’ feel like we have a connection with them, they’re gone. I think that this will delete about a third of the Christmas card list.

                My wife and I decided on filling Christmas Stockings for each other, and we decided on a group gift, a new Blu-Ray DVD player. Again, it was something we wanted, and Christmas was a great excuse to get it, I’m one of those guys that hold out on buying gadgets until they have been thoroughly debugged. I’d have waited until 2025 if I had my way, waiting for the last improvement. Of course, I’m still using a pager, I’m waiting for the cell phone, computer, TV combo to be perfected.

                The outcome of all these changes are that we have a lot less stress this year. I feel like we’ve actually taken the time to realize the real meaning of Christmas, and we’ve helped others in the process. Of course, I hope the retailers are able to survive.

GOOD LUCK

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

IT'S TIME TO CHANGE POLITICS

I can’t believe it has happened again. Another politician is indicted for malfeasance in office. Another Governor goes to jail. Isn’t it time that we stop standing and accepting the fact that we expect politicians to be on the edge of being crooked. Why does this happen?
                It seems that as politicians climb the ladder of office, they have to raise more money to campaign, and that means that they have to make deals to get the money. They get in to office and people are coming to them with requests for things that they need for themselves or for people they represent. They can’t give the politician money directly, but they can come up with creative ways to funnel money to them. They can give family or friends a job; they can give money to foundations that the politician has set up or many other ways to get money to them.  The politicians have written the laws in such a way that these schemes are barely legal.

                I think the first thing that needs to happen is that political campaigns need to be publically financed. The campaigns need to be shortened to 4-6 weeks so expenses can be cut. I realize this will cost media outlets millions of dollars, well too bad. We need to take the money out of politics and this would certainly help.

                We need to have our legislators stop trying to find ways to skirt the issues and they need to put hard and fast rules on what is right and wrong in office. If a legislator is indicted, they need to be put on leave and lose any control over lawmaking until their case is closed.  We aren’t finding guilt, they just sit it out until they are cleared, or convicted.

                I’ve never been a proponent of term limits because I’ve always felt that it was our responsibility as voters to decide, good people shouldn’t be kept out of office just because they’ve reached a certain amount of time in office, but I’m beginning to change my mind. We have people who go in to politics right out of school, and never get out of the system. These people move from office to office never having an outside job, they depend on friends and supporters to help them stay in office and to help them pay their bills. I realize we don’t pay politicians enough, but then we don’t expect them to steal to stay in office.

                We need to solve these problems and we need to do it quickly. People have little respect for government as of now, and it isn’t going to get better until we make it better ourselves. We need to stop complaining and make the changes we need. We can’t accept this level of service from our politicians.

GOOD LUCK

It's Time for Us to Know the Future

The Obama team needs to step up and start laying out their plans for the future. The stock market drops each day that they feel that no one is minding the store. It’s obvious that the Bush team is leaving the field. They’re not going to start anything new, as they know that whatever they start, they won’t be there to see it through, and they feel that they Obama Administration will probably undo, whatever they start.

                I know it’s unusual, but it seems important that the Obama Cabinet be announced right away, vetted, and approved ASAP, they then need to move in to the office with their Bush counterpart, and begin to discuss the changeover. They should then decide on moving forward, and announce that to the public. The public deserves to know what’s going to happen so they can begin to feel comfortable about the future.

                It seems that the biggest thing hurting this economy presently is uncertainty. Businesses are cutting back; for fear that the economy is going south. People are afraid to spend money because they, or someone in their family are afraid they might not have a job. We need to all understand that the sky isn’t falling, that we’ll go through a correction, and it will be worse if we all fear that it’ll be worse. Consumer confidence runs the economy and we need to all understand that what we do is more important than what the government does.

                As a country we need to continue to explore alternative energy sources. As we work through the science needed for these sources, we’ll spend money on research and construction, which will help the economy. We need to put government funds in to infrastructure improvements; again, this will lead to employment and money being leveraged through the economy. It seems better to put the money closer to the people, rather than giving the money to multinational corporations and Wall Street.

                Let’s all calm down and believe the future will improve. Yes, we need to be conservative, many of the credit problems that put us here were based on unbridled consumerism, but if we all keep our credit purchases in control, don’t go out on a limb, and remain in the market, we’ll come through it in great shape. It’ll take time, but the sky won’t fall, and we’ll get back to normal, whatever that may be.

GOOD LUCK