Monday Musings: February 21. 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011 at 18:08 I hope you’ve been watching what has been happening in the Middle East. It all started with the Tunisian Revolution. Where they don’t have guns. No ‘Second Amendment remedies’ were available to the people of Tunisia.
Facebook brought down a government. And, Twitter.
Same in Egypt - with a few molotov cocktails.
Have the people, like Sharron Angle, given any thought to this? Does that make them question their assumptions about how citizens might alter the course of a government? It seems that caliber and semi-automatic clip size isn’t the only way to effect change.
Of course, America isn’t Tunisia. We’ve never, ever had a dictator who’s been in power - dyeing his hair to appear younger, and hopefully, fool the masses into forgetting how long he’s been there - for 30 years. We don’t have to worry about such things with the Constitutional term limits already imposed on our presidency. Eight years, max. But, listening to the Tea Party, you’d think we were all somewhere else. Different place, time … planet perhaps.
And Sharron Angle is hopping from presidential primary state to state. How bizarre, nee delusional, is that?
The thing that really occurs to me about the Tea Party, much like the old, deposed dictators of Tunisia and Egypt - and maybe Libya and more - is that they just don’t ‘get it’. The power of the internet - techonology - can potentially surpass weaponry.
Just a thought I had.
There was actually some worthwhile reading and reporting in the ever shrinking Reno Gazette-Journal this morning.
The Fact Checker, by Mark Robison, debunked the claim that teacher salaries are about $55,000 … therefore, it’s no big deal if the Legislature cuts them. Right? Wrong. In reality - which isn’t where the Tea Party and most of the GOP reside - teacher pay is about six percent less than that on average.
Teachers, with their education, could earn a lot more in the private sector - even after benefits are factored in. A lot more. But flogging them makes for such good - if useless and non-productive - political theater. So what could the real problem be?
Uh, lobbyists.
In the RG-J today, there was a feature - print only - on “The Industry of Influence”, describing the increasingly large role that lobbyists play in Carson City. I’d give you the links to verify, but the RG-J is stubbornly holding to its title as “The Most Annoying Not Really Online, Make You Buy the Analog Version Or Else Eat Shit” newspaper in the country. Here it is Sunday night, and I can’t bring up any of the articles in today’s paper, no matter what I type into Google. The RG-J ranks right up there with small North African dictators and Sharron Angle: They don’t ‘get it’.
Here’s the ClifNotes version, since you can’t pull this up online: 609 registered lobbyists in the Nevada legislature. 445 of those are paid - it’s their paycheck. 900 lobbyists are projected to be hard at work in Carson City by the end of this current session. There is a 14 to 1 ration of lobbyists to legislators. The City of Sparks is spending $30,000 to lobby. The City of Reno is allocating $73,500. Washoe County had budgeted $117,5000. $500,000 is the amount some of the highest paid lobbyists can make.
I chose the wrong profession. Wouldn’t even have to get stoned and nekkid with a trucker for this.
Is this all a part of ‘belt tightening’? Should I - as a taxpayer - now hire a lobbyist to protect my interests? Do you think this is as out-fucking-rageous as I do? Who stands up in Carson City for me?
My biggest question here - as the GOP and Tea Baggers decry unnecessary spending and the need to trim budgets and deficits - why aren’t the GOP and Tea Baggers up in arms about this? Why aren’t they insisting on robust campaign finance reform that would tell paid lobbyists to go find honorable work? Why is wasting money here alright?
Just think of the number of teachers we could put back on the payroll if we eliminated the lobbyists. Oh, and one other thing: You elected legislators. You didn’t elect those lobbyists. Yet, all too often, it’s the lobbyists that are running your government. How do you like that?
Analysts say that our silly, antiquated Nevada system of a biennual legislature is a part of the problem. Okay, I can sorta, kinda see that. No staff to speak of. But, how does that explain the massive, unelected lobbying industry (shadow government) that’s taken legislatures over in every other state and Congress on the federal level?
How’s that workin’ out?
Here’s another thing I wonder about - why is it that ‘belt tightening’ always begins and ends of kids, usually poor kids, the poor in general, the environment, public employees, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and such. They must not have really well-paid lobbyists. Not like General Dynamics, United Technologies, Rathyeon, General Electric et al. Notice how often the word ‘General’ comes up? Can you say ‘military-industrial complex’?
Worrying about how much some poor kid and his mother might be gettin’ away with (as opposed to a defense contractor and his handmaidens like Rep. John Boehner ) is much preferred to the Senator Muskrat D. Cornpone’s out there. Then they don’t have to think too much about the real issues- when they’re not fighting a re-enactment of the glorious Battle of Who Gives a Rat’s Ass.
The really sad thing is when I occasionally hear a Liberal friend bring up welfare moms as a favorite boogey-man. Sigh. What I want to ask is this: How many welfare mom’s can you fit into the annual national defense contractor budget?
Sheesh. Is it so much to ask that people just think things through a bit?
You might have noticed a couple small changes on the mavenandmeddler.
The Lifestyle & Health tab went away, to be replaced with Skeptical Maven. The blog has to honestly reflect what I’m thinking about, and I’ve decided that talking about skeptical issues - from critical thinking, to logical fallacies, to quack cures - better suits my readers. Or at least that’s what I hope for. For the time, I’ll keep the information regarding health ( and cancer ) that have been living there, and may occasionally add to it, but the topic will be primarily skepticism and related topics. Just use the Search to find old articles.
Oh, if you know a Medicare beneficiary that was all worried over Obama Liberals wrecking their Medicare, ask them how they liked the check they received the other day. And the letter, informing them that - in accordance with the Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare - they got a $250 rebate to help with prescription drug costs. Also, as part of the new law, said Medicare beneficiaries are going to receive a 50% discount on covered brand-name drugs, once the coverage gap is reached, with more savings after the gap is closed completely in 2020. It was appreciated here at Rancho Maven.
Don’t you just hate government helping folks?
Have a good week and stay in touch.
-maven
