A Step in the Right Direction

Yesterday the San Diego City Council Voted unanimous to temporary charge the rules about closed City Council Meetings. What was funny is that a week ago they voted 4 to 4. Council member Jim Madaffer was out of town. I can't tell from this article in the Union Tribune if the language of the policy that they were voting on changed, but if it hasn't, it gives some insight into how council members vote. That is, if they can kill it they would but if it is going to pass anyway, they are all for it. Kind of a fair weather vote method.

The charge in policy is temporary until a three-member Right to Know Committee is up and running to review the policy. The changes are a improvement, I suggest you take a quick look at the in the article HERE. What is most interesting to me is that seems like common sense and I am surprised that Council Member Frye had to put up a fight to get them.

Here are Carl Luna's observations in his Weblog

A Sense of Urgency

More reason to think all this News over Clarke's book is really just election year politics...

From Washingtonpost -

"Few participants in the Clarke Wars seem inclined to look for at least some areas of common ground that might narrow the chasm.

But perhaps there are things everyone can agree on?

For example, Clarke has said that while the Bush administration didn't ignore concerns over terrorism, he felt it didn't consider the threat to be a matter of great urgency before Sept. 11.

And here's President Bush, asked whether he would have ordered Osama bin Laden taken out before Sept. 11, telling The Washington Post on Dec. 11, 2001:

"There was a significant difference in my attitude after September 11th. I was not on point, but I knew he was a menace, and I knew he was a problem. I knew he was responsible, or we felt he was responsible, for the bombings that killed Americans. I was prepared to look at a plan that would be a thoughtful plan that would bring him to justice, and would have given the order to do that. I have no hesitancy about going after him. But I didn't feel that sense of urgency, and my blood was not nearly as boiling."

So they agree? Well, perhaps not. "

Our Town

Unfortunately the city government is in terrible financial shape. What that means to you and me is Fee (aka taxes) will be going up at the same time as services are going down. The worst of all worlds. There is some part of me that understands that if I want a service, police, fire, etc, I can deal with increases to my taxes. I feel like I am actually buying something. Yes it is a sacrifice but I am safer, better served by my government. But when politicians come to me, us, and say "hey you mind throwing in a little extra.... oh and by the way we are going to have to close your local Police Station" I feel like I am being misused.

In developing a budget the City Government has two main responsibilities as I see it. The first is taking care of the present needs of the city and second anticipating future needs. While the timing of economic downturns isn’t easy to predict, economic downturns in general are because they will happen eventually. So why was City Hall so surprised? I think our City Government failed miserably in it’s duly to us.

Here is so budget info from the Union Tribune

Mr. Clake

The Debate about 9-11 and the Bush Administration is again raging. Almost Every editorial page in the country is jumping in on this one. I read the Washingtonpost; Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and some bloggers like TalkingPointsMemo and the Washington Monthly with Kevin Drum. Of all of these I liked Mr. Drum’s comments the most.

-Kevin Drum

'I continue to maintain that how those administrations handled al-Qaeda before 9/11 isn't all that interesting, since it was perfectly reasonable at that time to consider al-Qaeda merely one among many important foreign policy questions.'

I think he is right but the thing I would add is that it is predictable but disappointing that the administration launched a 'typically hyperaggressive counteroffensive'(Washington Post). I think it would be nice if they were like “hey who known…” Because really 9-11 was truly unprecedented.

ssshhh don't let the public know

Just when it looked like the City Council was going to take a step in the right direction they stop short. The City Council failed to make the City Government more open to the public by limiting the closed door meetings. Is it just me, or when you have half of your meetings behind closed doors you are doing something wrong as a City Government? I understand if the city is getting sued and what not that it is important to have closed meetings...but doesn’t it seem like we are getting sued an awful lot lately.

The second thing that gives me pause is that the fight to open the meetings is being lead by Donna Frye a Council Woman. Because she sits in these meetings she is certainly in a position to suggest that they are too secretive. What I don't know but will keep my eyes open for is WHY all the secretive meetings...is something being kept from the public or is it just out of political habit not to let the public know anything in case it may hurt your reelection chances.

The Story in the Union Tribune

City Charter

The Major is looking to change the city charter so that the Mayor is truly the Executive officer, not just the Chair of the City Council. Here is an Article summarizing the change and some political background. I don't know how I fell about this... but I think I am leaning with the mayor. It seems like a good idea to elect the person who is truly in change. The current system use a City Manager who is in charge of creating the budget, and the presenting it to the City Council for a vote. The City Manager recently quit. This is all a reaction to the realization that the city is face Huge budget problems.

City Council

Moveon.Org

Moveon.org's new ad is great. You can find it here. It is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld getting caught blatantly contradicting his past statements about overstating the Iraq threat. In five years we can debate if the invasion of Iraq helped or hurt the world, but in the mean time it is a shame that the administration is so blatantly lying about what they said to get us in that war.

McCain-Feingold

With all the talk about how dirty this President race is going to be I thought this was and interesting article from Factcheck.org. It talks about how the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law includes a provision to require candidates to be in their own ads and say that they approve of the message. Although it can be seen as one more restriction on free speech I like the idea, it is nice to know who is making all the personal attacks. Of course there are problems with the idea. Outside groups can still say whatever they want, which is how it should be.

I though this section was funny.

"The conservative, anti-tax Club for Growth ran one ad in which an Iowa couple said Dean "should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading . . . body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont, where it belongs."

Why do the hate Volvos, the new ones are kinda sporty....

Comedian commentary

Comedian commentary on the campaign:

"Late Show with David Letterman":

"George Bush, his campaign is really doing much much better and he's shot right up in the polls since he captured Martha Stewart."

"John Kerry says that foreign leaders want him to be president, but that he can't name the foreign leaders. But that's all right because President Bush can't name them either."

"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno":

"President Bush was touting his economic record in Ohio last week, a state that's lost 225,000 jobs since Bush took office. If President Bush really wants to tout his record, let him do it somewhere where the Bush economy has actually created jobs – like India or Thailand or China."

"Last week John Kerry was overheard calling his Republican critics 'the most crooked, lying group I've ever seen.' So obviously he's never had to hire a general contractor to redo his kitchen."

"John Kerry wants to debate President Bush once a month. Listen, if Bush couldn't make it to the National Guard once a month, he's not going to go for this."

Funny Quotes

By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Thursday 11 March 2004

"I'm a firm believer in feeding people their own words
back to them, when it's appropriate."
– Trent Lott

As we hurtle headlong into the silly season, a
high colonic for the mind is in order. There is going
to be a lot of back-and-forth between the candidates
regarding who said what and when. Feast, in that
context, upon this small collection:

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important
for the President to explain to us what the exit
strategy is."

- George W. Bush, discussing Kosovo, Houston
Chronicle, 04-09-99

"I said on my program, if, if the Americans go in
and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has
nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will
not trust the Bush administration again."

- Bill O'Reilley, on ABC's Good Morning America,
03-18-03

"I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave
enough so we can have two on every campus - living
fossils - so we will never forget what these people
stood for."

- Rush Limbaugh, Denver Post, 12-29-95

"If the Supreme Court says that you have the
right to consensual gay sex within your home, then you
have the right to bigamy, you have the right to
polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the
right to adultery. You have the right to anything. All
of those things are antithetical to a healthy, stable,
traditional family and that's sort of where we are in
today's world, unfortunately. It all comes from, I
would argue, the right to privacy that doesn't exist,
in my opinion, in the United States Constitution."

- Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), Associated Press,
04-22-03

"I would warn Orlando that you're right in the
way of some serious hurricanes, and I don't think I'd
be waving those flags in God's face if I were you.
This is not a message of hate; this is a message of
redemption. But a condition like this will bring about
the destruction of your nation. It'll bring about
terrorist bombs; it'll bring earthquakes, tornadoes
and possibly a meteor."

- Pat Robertson, speaking of organizers putting
rainbow flags up around Orlando to support sexual
diversity, Washington Post, 06-10-98. For the record,
Orlando remains undestroyed by meteors.

"Environmentalists are a socialist group of
individuals that are the tool of the Democrat Party.
I'm proud to say that they are my enemy. They are not
Americans, never have been Americans, never will be
Americans."

- Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Alaska Public Radio,
08-19-96

"When you strip it all away, Jerry Garcia
destroyed his life on drugs. And yet he's being
honored, like some godlike figure. Our priorities are
out of whack, folks."

- Rush (currently under investigation for drug
use) Limbaugh, on the death of Jerry Garcia, 08-20-95.

"I don't understand how poor people think."

- George W. Bush, confiding in the Rev. Jim
Wallis, New York Times, 08-26-03

"Get rid of the guy. Impeach him, censure him,
assassinate him."

- Rep. James Hansen (R-UT), talking about
President Clinton, as reported by journalist Steve
Miner of KSUB radio who overheard his conversation,
11-01-98

"We're going to keep building the party until
we're hunting Democrats with dogs."

- Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), Mother Jones, 08-95

"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did
not go to the New York Times building."

- Ann Coulter, New York Observer, 08-26-02

"Homosexuals want to come into churches and
disrupt church services and throw blood all around and
try to give people AIDS and spit in the face of
ministers."

- Pat Robertson again, The 700 Club, 01-18-95

"And there is, I am certain, among the Iraqi
people a respect for the care and the precision that
went into the bombing campaign."

- Donald Rumsfeld, defenselink.mil, 04-09-03

"Emotional appeals about working families trying
to get by on $4.25 an hour are hard to resist.
Fortunately, such families do not exist."

- Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), House Majority Whip,
during a debate on increasing the minimum wage,
Congressional Record, H3706, 04-23-96

"Chelsea is a Clinton. She bears the taint; and
though not prosecutable in law, in custom and nature
the taint cannot be ignored. All the great despotisms
of the past - I'm not arguing for despotism as a
principle, but they sure knew how to deal with
potential trouble - recognized that the families of
objectionable citizens were a continuing threat. In
Stalin's penal code it was a crime to be the wife or
child of an 'enemy of the people.' The Nazis used the
same principle, which they called Sippenhaft, 'clan
liability.' In Imperial China, enemies of the state
were punished 'to the ninth degree': that is, everyone
in the offender's own generation would be killed and
everyone related via four generations up, to the
great-great-grandparents, and four generations down,
to the great-great-grandchildren, would also be
killed."

- John Derbyshire, National Review, 02-15-01

"I know this is painful for the ladies to hear,
but if you get married, you have accepted the headship
of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the
household and the husband is the head of the wife, and
that's the way it is, period."

- Pat Robertson again, The 700 Club, 01-08-92

"Probably nothing."

- Jeb Bush, during his losing 1994 bid for
Florida Governor, when asked what he would do for
black people, quoted by Salon on 10-05-02

"The homosexual blitzkrieg has been better
planned and executed than Hitler's."

- Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-CA), The New
Republic, 08-01-94

"When lawlessness is abroad in the land, the same
thing will happen here that happened in Nazi Germany.
Many of those people involved in Adolph Hitler were
Satanists. Many of them were homosexuals. The two
things seem to go together."

- Pat Robertson again, The 700 Club, 01-21-93

"Why is this man in the White House? The majority
of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there?
And I tell you this morning that he's in the White
House because God put him there for a time such as
this."

- Lt. General William G. Boykin, Deputy
Undersecretary of Defense, New York Times, 10-17-03

"We need to execute people like John Walker in
order to physically intimidate liberals, by making
them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise,
they will turn out to be outright traitors."

- Ann Coulter, at the Conservative Political
Action Conference, 02-26-02

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply
want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into
the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

- Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax
Reform, NPR Morning Edition, 05-25-01

"I don't agree that you need an enormous number
of American troops. Saddam's army is down to one-third
than it was before, and I think it would be a
cakewalk."

- Kenneth Adelman, Defense Policy Board, to Wolf
Blitzer on CNN, 12-06-01

"The fact of the matter is that this (increased
American casualties) is a sign of the success of our
operation, not its failure."

- Ralph Reed, GOP strategist, on MSNBC's program
'Hardball,' 10-28-03

"There are some who feel that, you know, the
conditions are such that they can attack us there. My
answer is, bring 'em on. We have the force necessary
to deal with the situation."

- George W. Bush, Chicago Tribune, 07-03-03

"The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to
do with the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on
the one issue that everyone could agree on, which was
weapons of mass destruction as the core reason."

- Paul Wolfowitz, quoted by Tim Russert on 'Meet
The Press, NBC, 06-01-03

"Quit looking at the symbols. Get out and get a
job. Quit shooting each other. Quit having
illegitimate babies."

- State Rep. John Graham Altman (R-SC),
addressing African-American concerns about the
'symbol' of the Confederate Flag, New York Times,
01-24-97

"Two things made this country great: White men &
Christianity. The degree these two have diminished is
in direct proportion to the corruption and fall of the
nation. Every problem that has arisen (sic) can be
directly traced back to our departure from God's Law
and the disenfranchisement of White men."

- State Rep. Don Davis (R-NC), emailed to every
member of the North Carolina House and Senate,
reported by the Fayetteville Observer, 08-22-01

"NOW is saying that in order to be a woman,
you've got to be a lesbian."

- Pat Robertson again, The 700 Club, 12-03-97

"My biggest fear is going to be going to the
funeral of some young Iowa man or woman who dies in
this conflict and having their mother or father come
up to me and ask whether or not their son or daughter
died for America, or died to save Bill Clinton's
presidency. I don't know what I would say to those
grieving parents. For that reason I believe the
President must resign immediately."

- Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA), Congressional Record,
H11963, 12-18-98

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths
and how many, what day it's gonna happen? It's not
relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on
something like that?"

- Barbara Bush, said on 'Good Morning America'
the day before the Iraq war started, New York Times,
01-13-03

"I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain
- I don't need to explain why I say things. That's the
interesting thing about being the President. Maybe
somebody needs to explain to me why they say
something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an
explanation."

- George W. Bush, Washington Post, 11-19-02

These quotes, and about a thousand others equally
as preposterous, can be found in a new book by Bruce
Miller and Diana Maio titled 'Take Them At Their
Words.' The next time our valiant conservative
leadership bemoans the "corruption and fall of the
nation," remember that, by and large, these bemoaners
are the clowns who have been running the circus for
the last several years.

Secrecy at City Hall

Council members Frye and Atkins boycotted the city council Secret Meeting to make a point about the culture at city. I just want to say thank you to both of them. While Secret Meetings are definitely necessary because was legal negotiations and whatnot it makes you wonder when every other meeting in closed to the public. And it really makes me wonder when two of the members think they spend to much time in closed door sessions.

from the Union Tribune -

"
Two San Diego City Councilwomen – Donna Frye and Toni Atkins – boycotted morning and afternoon closed-door council sessions yesterday because of concerns about what they say is a culture of secrecy at City Hall. "

Jobs

This is a great graph from the New York Times Editorial Page-

This is a reminder to take economic predictions with a grain of Salt.

Taxes...

I don't like taxes, but at the same time I understand that they are a necessary evil. Sometimes it seems that the Republican Party has decided on the Akins diet of governance. You can eat all the fat you want that not get fat, or you can cut all the taxes you want and still have a healthy government. The only problem is that you still have to pay the firefighters, police and water department. While I applaud the dogged determination to limit everyone’s tax burden, their simplified message of NO TAXES NO MATTER WHAT while resonating with the voters, undermines the real debate which is as much about tax priorities, as it is about quantity.

This is from the Union Tribune –

“Ron Nehring, chairman of the San Diego County Republican Party…

"Proposition C represented a further tax increase that would negatively affect the business and economic climate of the city," Nehring said.

The measure was carefully crafted by the Lodging Industry Association and the city firefighters union, and loaded with compromises aimed at appeasing a multitude of interests – especially the tourism industry, which was asking voters to raise the tax on its own customers. The measure set aside the largest chunk of revenue, 2.5 cents for every 13 cents collected, for tourism promotion. “

More on Prop A

This is from the union Tribune -

But voters may have been confused by the competing claims in the dueling television ads of the initiative's backers and opponents. According to the proponents' television commercials, approval of Proposition A would save the backcountry from unfettered, suburban-style development.

The No on A commercials countered that a yes vote on the Rural Lands Initiative would force farming families off the land, opening it up to uncontrolled growth.

Besides significantly stepping up their spending in the campaign, Proposition A backers succeeded in attracting an impressive array of endorsements, including the Sierra Club, San Diego League of Women Voters, American Lung Association, a majority of the San Diego City Council and local labor.

Allied with the opposition campaign were the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, various Realtor organizations, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and dozens of rural community planning group members.

Not Right

From the Union Tribune -

"Yes, it's misleading, even by the standards of election-season campaign literature. But it deserves points for creativity.

In the past few days, residents of the 76th Assembly District have opened their mailboxes and discovered an envelope containing what at first glance appears to be a newspaper article blasting Democratic candidate Heidi von Szeliski.

On closer inspection, the article is actually a paid advertisement by a pro-business group supporting Vince Hall, one of von Szeliski's opponents in today's primary election.

Making an advertisement look like a news article is nothing new. What's unique about this particular mailer is the pains that were taken to make the campaign piece look like an actual newspaper clipping. "

Vince Hall should be ashamed of himself. He just lost my vote. Why does he feel it is necessary to so obviously try to deceive voters? Are we really that dumb... I hope not.

Energy Task Force

This is from THE NEW YORKER -

For months there has been a debate in Washington about when the Bush Administration decided to go to war against Saddam. In Ron Suskind’s recent book “The Price of Loyalty,” former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill charges that Cheney agitated for U.S. intervention well before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Additional evidence that Cheney played an early planning role is contained in a previously undisclosed National Security Council document, dated February 3, 2001. The top-secret document, written by a high-level N.S.C. official, concerned Cheney’s newly formed Energy Task Force. It directed the N.S.C. staff to coöperate fully with the Energy Task Force as it considered the “melding” of two seemingly unrelated areas of policy: “the review of operational policies towards rogue states,” such as Iraq, and “actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields.”

...Vice-President has been unwilling to reveal information about private task-force meetings that took place in 2001, when information was being gathered to help develop President Bush’s energy policy. “But if this little group was discussing geostrategic plans for oil, it puts the issue of war in the context of the captains of the oil industry sitting down with Cheney and laying grand, global plans.”

Now I am not really a conspiracy nut, but this caught my attention. If it is true it would help explain why the Energy Task Force is being so secretive. I can’t understand why they don’t release the task force information. The people who will be mad about who they talked to already hate the administrations record with the environment and the conservatives will like the fact that they got more of their input from the energy industry, so I don’t understand the resistances. I guess the official line is that it will set a precedent that all administration task forces should be open. Personal I don’t see a problem with that, if it isn’t a national security issue, then everyone is happier when they can see what is happening.

Push the Button to Walk

This is from the New York Times Editorial Page, so I don't know if it is True but I though it was funny.

I have always suspected...

"Pedestrians who dutifully pressed those buttons to get a walk signal at busy New York intersections have to be miffed. It turns out the buttons usually won't give them the green light any sooner. The buttons — 3,250 of them — became obsolete with computer-controlled traffic lights. According to the city, fewer than 20 percent are still wired to do the job. The rest are props, teasing the hurried and law-abiding to believe they have some control."