Arizona's Own Espresso Pundit

What do you Think I am...A Congressman?

I received an email from Arizona Action about the Board of the Maricopa County Hospital District voting on a contract that the "may not even have read."  My initial reaction was how irresponsible it was for that Board...wait a second.  That's the Board I'm on....  Dude, that's the contract that we have been working on for months. 

Well, it's a big contract and it's complex, so let me assure you that it's not good enough to simply read it.  We had to hire a lot of really expensive lawyers to help us write it.  That said, once the contract becomes public, I will enter into the record my dog eared, coffee stained, Post It Note covered copy as evidence that I did indeed read the dang thing. 

By now, you should be asking yourself two questions.  First.  How could we have ever thought that Patterson who is totally OCD would vote on the Contract without reading it? 

Your second question should be.  "Dude, isn't that picture like SERIOUSLY airbrushed?"

To the first question, my answer is simply "shame on you."  To the second question, I must concede that I am indeed seriously airbrushed.  I kind of like it.  I have the smooth skin that I had in elementary school without the center parted hair or the Mod Squad paisley pants.  And my gosh, look at those teeth.  I still have that fang-like appearance on account me being born with out Lateral Incisors--I go from Central Incisors straight to Canines, but that shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me--but look how white they are. Wow, thirty years of coffee abuse erased with a few strokes of a mouse.

Please don't think less of me for my Airbrush fantasy.  After all, it's the politician's prerogative to doctor a picture until it has no bearing on reality.

 Hey, I think we actually look alike in those pictures. Now that's technological advancement!

The Polanski Version

A hundred years from now when future historians are trying to determine the significance of the Internet I think they will decide that the most far reaching effect was the elimination of the information monopoly.  I don't know if most of us who grew up in the pre-Internet age even knew that we were captives to an information monopoly, but in retrospect, it's clear that elite opinion set the themes and corporate media followed in lock step.  So while it seemed like we had various sources of news, it was actually like going to a liquor store in Utah--it seems like there are quite a few options, but really, they are all the same. 

A great example of the information monopoly is the case of elite media favorite Roman Polanski.  I've always heard that he was on the lam because he "had sex with at 13 year old girl."  Now that he's been arrested and we have access to other sources of information, we learn that he drugged and raped a 13 year old girl. 

Here's how she described the event.

His victim, Samantha Gailey, told a grand jury that the director had plied her with champagne and drugs and taken nude pictures of her in a hot tub during a fashion shoot. Polanski then had sexual intercourse with her despite her resistance and requests to be taken home, she said.

Looks like rape to me.  And now that the truth is out, even rank and file liberals aren't too happy. 

Think what would have happened if we had had blogs during the New Deal, Tet and Watergate.

How's Your Aspen?

Here's sad news.

Northern Arizona's aspen trees are dying in ever-increasing numbers, tearing holes in the blankets of color that spread across the high country each autumn.

The tree deaths have mystified scientists, though the list of suspected causes is long: drought, disease, insect infestation, wildfire suppression and even the grazing habits of elk.

Forest policy in the United States has been a disaster--which is why I lean libertarian.

Let's face it, after one hundred years of forest "management" we have no idea how to manage a forest.  I grew up watching Smokey the Bear commercials between episodes of Fat Albert and Johnny Quest and indeed for many decades, fire suppression* was all the rage.  Eventually folks figured out that they were simply keeping the forests pristine until they burned to the ground in a massive conflagration that destroyed every seed and caramelized the soil. 

Now we are at least beginning to admit that we have no clue how to manage a forest.  That's because forests, although fairly discrete, are actually complex systems that are well beyond the human capacity to fully understand or manage.  There are too many variables, too many unintended consequences.  It seemed logical to suppress fires--in fact, every management solution seemed like it would improve the system, but each one led to unforeseen problems and then the logical solutions to those problems created unforeseen problems and this morning we read that 95% of the aspens are dying and we simply have no idea why.

Which naturally brings me to the economy.   

Forests are too complex for man to effectively manage but they are small and simple when compared to the economy. 

Managing the ENTIRE economy is like, totally out of style.   Folks figured out that if you want to actually manage a whole economy, you have to have a lot of control over the populace and when the pesky peasants resist being moved to collective farms, you have to shoot them--you know, for their own good.

Well, a lot of folks tried to manage entire economies in the last century and with persistent cheer leading of the western intelligentsia at newspapers and universities managed to wreck quite a few economies and kill 120 million people.  So that's out.

Now the intellectual elite and the Western Intelligentsia just want to manage sectors of the economy like health care, energy, the financial system--and, similar to forest management--they don't want to actually run the whole system every day, they just want to come in a critical times and re balance it, or prop it up here and there. 

Well, forests are small and simple when compared to the entire economy and they are small and simple when compared to mere sectors of the economy. 

Nationalizing an entire economy takes a totalitarian framework--plus the New York Times acting as cheerleader.  Fortunately, most of those--including the Times--are severely weakened or gone.  We are left with a Republic in which the working coalition of the Democratic Party wants to nationalize 40% of the economy and the working coalition of the Republican Party wants to nationalize 30% of the economy.  All your Tea Parties, Cable TV Mania, health care protests and general acrimony are actually a debate between those two rather narrow visions.

So the next time you read about national health insurance, financial bailouts, economic development or "stimulus" money, ask your self this question.

"How's your Aspen?" 

Footnotes:  For an excellent analysis of complex systems, read Michael Chrichton's (of Jurassic Park Fame) thoughts here. 

If you are looking for a great story about fire suppression in Arizona, read Fire on the Rim by Steven Pyne. I originally picked up "Fire on the Rim" because I thought it was a history of Los Dos Molinos, but after my initial disappointment, I discovered that it was a wonderful book. 


 

The Mother of All Public Records Requests...

Surely you recall the Desert Divas.  That's the ultra expensive VIP Prostitution ring that police busted last year. 

Back in February, it looked like the case was going to break wide open...Prosecutors were naming names

Today, Phoenix police offered to the media a list of thousands of names in two hefty PDF documents.

Unfortunately, the list was a bust...so to speak.  Prosecutors did indeed name names, but they didn't provide addresses.  That meant that none of us had any idea if "John Smith"  was THE John Smith that you know from the office, or tennis, or church.  Without the addresses, the list was essentially meaningless.

So I went to Phoenix Police and said I wanted the whole list....you could hear the laughter from quite a distance.  Every media outlet in the state wanted the full list and Phoenix PD wasn't going to provide it. 

I pointed out that the clients on the list were neither victims or witnesses and that the record was obviously public. 

The Phoenix PIO who called back, said simply, "Good Luck".

After a few months of dead ends, I finally went to my Secret Weapon--Sal DiCiccio.  Councilman DiCiccio thinks that if information is public that it should actually be available to...you know...the public.  DiCiccio sent his right hand guy, former Tribune writer Hal DeKeyser to take care of it and by golly, they stone walled him too...but persistence pays off. 

I got a call last week that the list was available on CD.  Well, you are the public too,  So here's your copy. 

(The fun part is the special request section.  I didn't realize that people actually paid extra for "Ghetto Booty."  Go Figure.)

Das Boot

So here was the plan.  Scottsdale School's Fall Break is in mid October, so I reserved a campsite on the South Rim of Grand Canyon for me, my son, a buddy of mine and his son for October 13th.  Then I rented a room in the lodge on the North Rim for the 14th and reserved a campsite at the Bright Angel campground in the bottom of the Canyon for the 15th. 

That means we'll get up bright and early on the 14th, hike through the Canyon and then up the North Rim--26 miles and a 9,000 foot net elevation change.  Then we have dinner at the lodge, spend the night, have breakfast and hike back down the 15 miles or so to Bright Angel Campground, spend the night and then hike out--52 miles and 18,000 feet in three days. 

Fast forward to last Saturday and I'm on my first full gear training hike and break my ankle, like in the first mile; not far enough to even break a sweat.  I spent Monday getting fitted for my six weeks in the boot---and a couple hours on hold trying to cancel reservations that took me months to get. 

So now I'm grumpier than usual, but nobody cares if they tick me off because I'm really slow.   

What Part of "Governance" Don't You Understand?

It's rare that I read a newspaper story that is jaw-droppingly bad; maybe I've just become jaded, or maybe the papers are getting better---probably the former.  Occasionally, however a reporter misses the point so badly that you have to wonder if there's any adult supervision left in the industry.

Republic Reporter Alex Bloom has such a story--unbelievably leading on B1 above the fold--in Tuesday's Republic.

The Maricopa Community Colleges governing board is under investigation for allegedly micromanaging, putting the district's accreditation at risk.

 "Investigated" for "micromanaging"?  That's simply ludicrous.   Dude, The Maricopa County College system has an Elected Governing Board.  We are not talking about some citizens advisory panel that has decided to sow some wild oats.  The Maricopa Community College Board is responsible for managing the entire Community College system.  If you have any doubt, check out the enabling statute.  That's where you will find and exhaustive list of thing the Governing Board is either allowed or required to do.

Some of them are big things like:

Appoint and employ a chancellor or chancellors, vice-chancellors, a president or presidents, vice-presidents, deans, professors, instructors, lecturers, fellows and such other officers and employees it deems necessary.

Some of them are rather...shall we say, "micro."

Visit each community college under its jurisdiction and examine carefully into its management, conditions and needs.

But can't we argue that things are going really well and it would be more efficient for the Board to hire a good management team and then simply make sure they are doing a good job.  Sure.  In fact, I'm very familiar with that model.

But that's not what we have with the Maricopa County College system.  Check out this Tribune series from the Fall of 2006.

Today the Tribune continues a four-part in-depth review of some spending practices at the colleges within the Maricopa Community College District. What has been uncovered is downright frightening.

Higher education writer Ryan Gabrielson reports on five internal audits that uncovered gross mismanagement, fraud, theft and nepotism. In some cases, the auditors have directly recommended bringing in the police to further investigate misdeeds of instructors and program administrators.

Micro management?  It looks to me like the district wasn't getting any management. 

Not only did reporter Alex Bloom miss the real story--the district has a history of gross mismanagement and the Executive Team is chaffing because the Governing Board that is ultimately responsible is taking a more active role--but it's clear that that Bloom didn't even notice obvious warning signs.

Check this out. 

The anonymous complaint, submitted May 1, alleges that the board micromanaged, accusing it of acting autocratically without employee input in decision-making.

Management gets one anonymous complaint and calls a five member accreditation team in from Chicago?  Doesn't that seem a bit strange to you? 

Until now, the reader can reasonably ask whether Bloom is just incompetant, or if he's actually writing a hit piece against the Board.  After you turn the page, there's no room for doubt.  Bloom includes profiles of the Board in his article and it's clear by the way he wrote it that he is simply using the profiles as a means of mocking the Board Members.

Bloom uses the profile of Board President Colleen Clark, as an excuse to rehash this old story. In which he describes Clark as"

A conservative Christian, Clark is the women's ministry team coordinator at Gilbert's East Valley Bible Church and a project manager for the Illinois-based Abstinence and Marriage Education Partnership. 

He goes on to add that she was arrested for DUI in July. 

Is that relevant to this story?   Of course not.  And it obviously has no place in her profile.  How about listing her qualifications, or asking her why the Board thinks it should play a more active role in the District management?

Bloom's profile of Board Member Debra Pearson contains this missive.

She has been known to campaign in a "Xena: Warrior Princess" costume.

That is so misleading that we can have an interesting academic argument over whether the statement is objectively false.

Indeed, several years ago, the Republic Political Insider Team went through every legislator's financial disclosure forms and highlighted the offbeat expenditures.  It seems that Pearson was in a rural parade in which participants wore costumes and she went as Xena.  She (appropriately) used campaign money to buy the costume.  The Republic has mocked her ever since. 

Does that have anything to do with this story?  Of course not.  In fact, I would argue that Bloom chose the phrase "has been known to campaign..." in order to give the impression of ongoing activity.  He wants you to think that she went door to door, or showed up a meetings in a Xena costume. 

So instead of the real story about a mismanaged multibillion dollar state agency and the elected board that's trying to reign it in, we are treated to weird allegations of "investigations" over "micromanagement" and implications that the Board is run by a drunk Christian and a crazy woman who walks around dressed as Xena.

Meanwhile when the Tribune looked at the District, it found a pattern of "gross mismanagement, fraud, theft and nepotism"  you know, real news.  Maybe that's why the Tribune wins Pulitzers and the Republic...well, I shouldn't go there.

Speaking of micromanagement, there is one power that the Board hasn't exercised to the full extent it should. 

8. Remove any officer or employee if in its judgment the interests of education in this state require the removal.

It looks to me like the Board should decide that it would be in the best interest of education in this state to get a new management team. 

...and it would be in the best interest of journalism in this state if the Republic got a new reporter (and editor) but I'm not holding my breath. 

Quel Dommage.

Apparently this is causing quite a stir.

President Obama dismayed America's allies in Europe and angered his political opponents at home today when he formally ditched plans to set up a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Golly, Eastern Europe is going to have to provide its own defense?  You mean that they aren't going to be able to rely on United States bases, fighters, ground troops and missile defense?  No "Star Wars" for the East? 

So are you telling me that Eastern Europe won't be able to divert its defense savings into social programs and build a welfare state  while its intelligentsia, media, leftist politicians and increasingly radicalized students disparage the United States' foreign policy, capitalist economy and support of free trade?  You know, like France and Germany did after we fought the cold war for them?  Wow, finally an Obama program that I agree with.  Now maybe the Czechs and Polls wont' end up like the French.

Sure, the Europeans ridiculed Bush's "swagger" and his cowboy attitude in favor of the Arugula eating metrosexual lawyer President...but which one would you rather have watching your back in a bar fight? Maybe Europe will learn what Israel has already figured out--the United Nations isn't going to save you. 

Our mostly ungrateful allies are beginning to realize that a lot of the stability that the world has seen since 9/11 was based on the understanding that the cowboy President might just open himself up a can of Unilateral Regime Change.

So let them defend themselves.  Let them buy their own planes, draft their own sons and secure their own borders.  Because the only thing defending Europe got us was a stern lecture and a good deal of mocking. 

Europe got the President it wanted, let's see if their respective countries survive intact until the next election.

San Francisco on the Salt

The first time I heard of Dana Kennedy was last May when she scored a coupby bringing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Phoenix. 

Pelosi's appearance will benefit the Arizona branch of Emerge, a labor-backed group that recruits and trains Democratic female candidates for offices ranging from school board to Legislature, as well as schooling women in the inside mechanics of running campaigns.

"I'm still pinching myself," said an elated Dana Kennedy, who runs the local Emerge chapter.

Well, I guess the candidate recruitment is going pretty well, because the second time I heard of Dana Kennedy was when she announced that she was challenging Sal DiCiccio for the District 6 Phoenix City Council seat.

DiCiccio beat her handily, but he didn't get enough votes to avoid a runoff election.  In covering the results, Republic Reporter Scott Wong--to his credit--identified Kennedy as the "spokeswoman for the AFL-CIO" in the follow up story, but he made no mention of her being recruited by the "labor-backed" EMERGE group.  I thought it was funny that Wong let Kennedy get away with this quote.

"This becomes a race between Sal DiCiccio and the developers and Dana Kennedy and you." 

Dana Kennedy and you?  No, I think it's more like Dana Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Jimmy Hoffa and you...with a little help from their friends at ACORN.

Sure, that's the team Phoenix needs.

No Free Wunsch

Well, we are a year into the financial crisis and it's a good time to take stock. 

Congress has issued a report on the results of the GM and Chrysler bailouts and the results shouldn't surprise anyone.

According to the report, most of the $23 billion initially loaned to General Motors and Chrysler late last year, prior to their bankruptcy filings, will likely go unpaid, leaving U.S. taxpayers on the hook.

I think it's now clear that the bailouts were more about saving the union than they were about saving the companies.  However, some politicians actually believe that they can "create jobs" by "investing" in certain projects or sectors. 

When I was elected to the House in 1990, the big "Economic Development" scheme was the Wunsch Stock Exchange.  A guy named Steve Wunsch had created an electronic stock exchange and the Arizona Legislature got the great idea to rename it the "Arizona Stock Exhchange" and subsidize it to the tune of a few hundred thousand dollars a year.  The scheme was supposed to facilitate investors' providing capital to Arizona companies.  Whatever.  The exchange closed in 2001 due to lack of volume. 

Of course, no one much noticed the decline and eventual closure of the Wunsch exchange.  That's because the political class had moved on the next big thing in economic development...call centers.  Dude, I kid you not.  Somewhere between the outsourcing to Pakistan and the rise of the internet, Arizona decided that the next big thing would be call centers...whatever.
 
There were some fun side trips on the economic development pathway, like the time that the state Commerce Department established program to bring retirees to the valley…until someone figured out that when you add up the total cost associated with them, the state lost money on each person who moved here.  But most of the economic development has involved building things that couldn’t get financed privately.

So while the call center hype was dying down, the state planners moved to the next big thing…downtown redevelopment.  In theory, if you build a really nice stadium you will bring in a bunch of jobs…hmm, well, maybe if you spend two billion on a new Civic Center it will generate some revenue…dang.  Of course, the stadium and the civic center are only viable if you build a third downtown Phoenix hotel.  What?  The private sector won’t finance a new downtown hotel?  That’s fine.  The city can build it.  Hmm, I wonder how that’s all going?

Of course it’s not all bad news, the Cardinals got a new stadium out of Economic Development mania…and  if Maricopa County is going to get a stadium—the political process being what it is--then Tucson should get $80 million for Rio Nuevo.*  Let’s see, for $200 million dollars, you can…hmm buy a study with a really glossy cover and a movie theater. ..but if you spell it “Theatre” it’s totally worth the price.

Speaking of the Cardinals, Glendale doubled down on the Cardinals stadium by investing in…Desert Hockey.  Now, I don’t have anything against hockey—especially since it’s the last remaining sport for mid-sized white guys—but Glendale will be lucky to avoid bankruptcy, of course, by the time the garbage is piling up in the streets, the current council and mayor will be long gone.

However, Glendale’s folly  turned out to be Scottsdale’s gain.  It didn’t look that way immediately, but in hindsight,  Scottsdale caught a break when Steve Elman and Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs moved the Coyotes to Glendale in the middle of the night.   That  freed up  Scottsdale Mayor Mary Manross  to invest in…Skysong.  D’oh.  

Speaking of investments, how’s City North doing?  I drove through there recently and , if you are looking to make a zombie movie and need a lot of vacant real estate as a backdrop, I guess it’s doing OK.

Speaking of flesh- eating zombies,  it was really fun to build new Spring Training Stadiums in order to lure teams to Arizona, but the cities are beginning to learn that cannibalism works both ways.   That’s why the Cubs are demanding concessions from Mesa while the Florida Grapefruit League promises  some “investment” of its own.  Golly, you mean that other cities will actually outbid you and you could end up holding the bag on a bunch of incentives while your Economic Development Big Fish goes to a greener pond?    Err, whatever.   Too bad the cities  didn’t figure that out before they spent all that money on all the “motor mile” incentives.

Speaking of Florida—the guy, not the state—the big economic development fad of the last decade  (somewhere between stadiums and bio tech) was luring the so called “Creative Class.”  Economic development guru Richard Florida posited that by luring the sushi-loving, Bohemian “Creative” people, cities could incubate the next generation of Hewlit Packards, Googles and Microsofts—and Richard Florida knew EXACTLY what the Creative People wanted—gay bars and grunge bands. 

Golly, it turned out that the people who actually create things drive Hondas, have a couple kids and are really looking for convenient parking and low taxes.  Dude, who would have guessed that?  Meanwhile, the cities like Tempe that adopted the Richard Florida hipster model learned that the hacky sac playing, moderately stinky street people who gravitated to these new urban playgrounds not only didn’t create anything, they didn’t even buy anything.  So the independent stores that used to line Mill gave way to the chain stores that also couldn’t survive and now we have another back lot for our next zombie film.

Speaking of film, how’s that state tax credit for the movie industry doing?

While all this waste seems vaguely comical, it’s by no means harmless.  Politicians from both parties believe that they can make strategic investments to improve the economy.  That’s fine when we are talking about these cute little stadium, grunge band, historic Theatre, civic center and motor mile boondoggles, but we are eventually going to get into real money.

This quote from Monday’s New York Times will give you a flavor for the extent of problem.

Between financial rescue missions and the economic stimulus program, government spending accounts for a bigger share of the nation’s economy — 26 percent — than at any time since World War II. The government is financing 9 out of 10 new mortgages in the United States. If you buy a car from General Motors, you are buying from a company that is 60 percent owned by the government.

If you take out a car loan or run up your credit card, the chances are good that the government is financing both your debt and that of your bank.

Perhaps the most pernicious side effect of  this Economic Development fever is that is that projects are more likely to get funded based on the skill of your lobbying team than the skill of your engineering team.  That means that elected officials are supported and evaluated based on their ability to dole out stimulus money and fund individual companies.  Gone are the days when pork meant a bridge to nowhere, now pork is handed out to individual companies and naturally, those companies work to ensure that their sponsors remain in power.
 
I don’t want to sound too cynical, but if elected officials believe that they are smart enough to make healthy returns by playing around with public money, there’s a fund available.  It’s called EORP—The Elected Officials Retirement Plan.  That’s the separate pension system that the state of Arizona maintains for retired elected officials.   I think they should all get together and invest the fund in a downtown hotel or a start up bio tech company. 

Then they can actually live with the consequences of their "economic development" decisions.

*Footnote:  One funny side note to the Rio Nuevo project is that the Star’s  Rob O’Dell ran a great series of front page stories about what a financial disaster Rio Nuevo has been and the legislature actually read the stories and decided to do something about it.  Then the Star Editorial Board had to write an increasingly frantic series of editorials telling policy makers not to pull the plug because the project was so worthy.

It's also been fun to watch the Rio Nuewvo finger pointing...after all, if a project wastes $200 million, at least a head or two needs to roll.  Here's what happened to the former Rio Nuevo Director.

Shelko's position was written out of the city budget in April by then-City Manager Mike Hein before Hein was fired by the City Council in April. New City Manager Mike Letcher also decided to let Shelko go.

Of course, heads don't actually roll very far in government.  Here's the update. 

Former Rio Nuevo Director Greg Shelko is back working for Rio Nuevo as the board that oversees the redevelopment district voted Tuesday to hire him as a $100-an-hour consultant for a new convention hotel downtown.

Gotta love it.

 

You Lie.

Dan Nowicki has a good story on the coarsening of political discourse, but it lacks context. 

It seems that the mainstream media don't understand that the left treated Bush like Hitler for eight years and are somehow surprised that they have permanently lowered the level of discourse.

Take this uncharacteristically clueless comment from the Gabby Giffords.

"He was called a liar on the floor of the Congress," Giffords said. "It was a little shocking. I certainly never heard anything like that during President Bush's addresses. I know there were a lot of people who disagreed with what he had to say."

Of course she wasn't in Congress in 2005 when Democrats booed Bush's State of the Union Address.  Listen close and see if you hear them yell "you lie."

The hapless Arizona Daily Star (are they still around?) has diccovered the need for "civility" as well. 

Civility aside of course, there's the substance of Joe Wilson's charge.  After all, Wilson's outburst occurred when President Obama was claiming that the new health plan wouldn't cover illegal aliens--during a speech in which he claimed that the overall plan will save money.  Is there anyone who thinks those two assertions are true? 

To be sure, there probably won't be an actual category called "Coverage for the Undocumented," but some portion of the coverage will go to provide care for illegal aliens and, while perhaps not a huge percentage of the total package, the number is likely to be billions of dollars annually. 

And what about the whopper that Obama Care will save money?  The Congressional budget office certainly doesn't think so. 

So the left set a new standard of disruption and protest during the Bush years and they seem legitimately shocked that the right has decided to embrace that standard during the Obama years.  I can understand their dismay--since the right are generally polite and have jobs, radical protest isn't their style.  I guess the difference is that Republican protests will have to be on Saturdays...oh, and there won't be as much litter.