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Arizona's First Political Blog
E-mail Anonymous Mike at zonitics4-at-yahoo.com By Anonymous Mike, pseudonymously.
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Sunday, January 27, 2008
The Unbearable Lightness of Jon Talton Back when he was a columnist for the Arizona Republic, Jon Talton provided local readers with a relentless critique of the Valley of the Sun which stated that... 1) The community and region we live is going down hill because... 2) We all wanted to live in houses with yards (sprawl) 3) Our local officials were bunch of narrow-minded right-wing kleptocrats in bed with the "real estate industrial complex" that provides the sprawl that allows us to have affordable houses with yards. 4) That life would be better if the vast majority gave up the idea of having houses with lawns (sprawl), spend large sums of public monies to provide inducements for the creative class and leading technical industries and educational establishments to move to downtown Phoenix, and if we just recreated a leadership elite under the aegis of something like the old Phoenix 40. 5) That we were too stupid to listen to him because for strange reason we liked having low taxes and houses with yards. Btw.... he was the business columnist for the paper. For some strange reason (again), after years of recycling the same themes over and over, the paper let him go. He sold the house he owned for 6 years, with a lawn located by downtown Phoenix, for $895,000 which is more than twice what he paid. I thought he would take his anti-Sun Belt schtick to some new hick burg like Tampa-St.Pete or Albuquerque or maybe become a roadie in the Richard Florida traveling Church of the Creative Class. I thought this was his niche in life, to live as a new urbanism missionary of old out in the wilderness of Sun Belt sprawl. I was wrong, instead he took all that housing equity and moved to Seattle. He now has his own blog where he writes: Now I'm not a 22-year-old HTML kid and have little interest in writing about Britney's panties. So no newspapers are calling. Strange Robert Robb doesn't write about Ms. Spears and her delicates and yet he is still employed by your old newspaper. However I digress; the point is that no one wants to put an economically-illiterate business columnist on their payroll. So he's stuck... he fancies himself as a blogger who writes "commentary and analysis too dangerous for the corporate media" but in reality blogs the same old stuff he used to write for pay at the Republic. Even his occasional piece for the local Seattle paper smacks of recycling. Part of me misses him. He not only provided constant fodder for this blog, but he personified the folly of much what passes for political leadership and economical development in this state. Many thanks to El Gringo for the link to his blog. I'll sleep better at night knowing that Jon Talton is back on the air. Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Laying Low at STA I know there are some readers of this blog who attend St. Thomas the Apostle church in Phoenix and those readers also know that I go there as well. If those readers are looking for me to comment on the ongoing controversy at STA's school, my reply... is not yet and perhaps never. I really don't enough of the details yet and while I have some strong suspicions about why things happened the way they did, I don't know enough to make much more of a public stand than to give Father John my support and prayers. If you are not up to speed at what has been going at STA, last week the pastor informed the principal that her contract would not be renewed. Said principal was not only well beloved but also led the only school in the state, public or private, to win a national Blue Ribbon award for academic excellence. Needless to say, the parish is abuzz with "excitement." You can follow the controversy in the Arizona Republic or at a town hall at Parish Hall tomorrow at 6:30 PM. I The few things I will say.... 1) This reminds me of a few months ago when my family and I were camping in the north country and for Sunday services, we attended a church in the nearby town. Afterwards I went to get a cup of coffee at a nearby gas station and walked into a group of angry parishioners holding their weekly, informal gripe session about the priest. Their sense of urgency and passion touched my heart but I had to remember that I was only hearing half of the story and I had to keep neutral. I keep them in my prayers but dealing with a worked-up laity is not the proverbial saucer where issues may be poured to cool. Add in good old fashioned school politics and well... 2) If you are looking for a topic to write a book or a Ph.D. dissertation concerning leadership, my guess is this would be a good one... it's up to you to pick the angle. 3) My guess, and it's only guess, is that this has been brewing for a very long time. Sunday, January 20, 2008
Radar Love Governor Napolitano's proposal to implement statewide photo radar as a revenue-generating initiative to partially close the estimated $1.7 billion budget gap for FY2009 has drawn alot of attention in the media. Espresso Pundit has a good take on the dangers of government using enforcement as a revenue generating measure. I on the other hand have a more prosaic concern Will this thing actually generate the level of revenue claimed by its supporters? Not a small concern because the initiative is being forwarded as a way of forestalling budget cuts. The Governor is proposing to install across the state 100 photo radar cameras at a total cost of $35 million. Let's take that cost as a given. She then claims that those 100 cameras will generate $125 million in revenue each and every year; providing the FY 2009 budget a net revenue (after subtracting start-up costs) of $90 million. Can it be done? $125 million net per year works out to $1.25 million per camera. The key term here is net because many there alot of costs involved in operating the systems and collecting revenue, ask some East valley cities who run photo red-light systems if their programs are the cash cows everyone think they are (they aren't.) The closest existing system to the one the Governor is proposing is the Loop 101 photo radar system installed by the City of Scottsdale and assumed by the Arizona Department of Public Safety. I have been unable to find financial data on how the system has fared after DPS took over operations but during the 9 month start-up period Scottsdale recorded a net revenue of $800,000 for the entire 6 camera system. You can do the math, but what Scottsdale earned is alot less than $1.25 million per camera. The second issue is timing. The Governor has already included a full year of revenue in the FY 2009 budget, which starts July1st. That means the budget has to be passed, equipment purchased and installed, and the whole system tested and brought up to speed by then in order to have any chance of making what already seems to be overly optimistic revenue projections. Given these problems and the ones that Espresso Pundit has already identified, I would hope the Legislature would give the Governor's proposal a full hearing. Thursday, January 17, 2008
Chandler is the Soul of the East Valley It is a rare day when I feel the need to criticize the fine work of the ExUrban boys but I can hardly let the anti-Chandler slurs of ExUrbanJon go uncontested. I lived for 10 blissful years in Chandler and only left when I was forced by the bonds of holy wedlock to move to Phoenix. It is unfortunate that even a great city like Chandler has miscreants such as the one that Jon mentions; those who break into homes and curse in front of small children. However we all know that when a Chandler criminal crosses into Mesa for his nefarious work, he raises both the social and intellectual mean of that destination. Once upon a time, the only reason a Chandler resident had reason to travel to Mesa was to get on the freeway or to shop at Home Depot. Given the advance of modern civilization with its plethora of new freeways and new big box stores, there really is no reason for anyone from Chandler (or anyone else in America) to ever travel to Mesa. Let's do a quick tale of the tape between Chandler and Mesa:
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Some Late Christmas Thoughts You probably remember the days when as a kid, you believed that the extent of your Christmas haul of presents was directly related to your pre-Christmas behavior. This theme was reinforced by popular culture that drummed into our heads that the Big Guy (Santa) had a list and we didn't want to be on the naughty side. However the corollary to this rule was that after Christmas, your presents were no longer dependent on your behavior. After all you had possession as every kid knew from extensive experience in playground law that possession is 9/10ths of the law. The potential for homeland anarchy was readily present from the moment the last present was opened. I was thinking of that the other day when I was going over some credit card receipts from last month's gift shopping and it also reminded me of a story. Several years ago, when my oldest boy still believed in Santa, we were walking through the mall on the day after Christmas. While the mood was jolly, my mind was troubled by overhearing the oldest boy tell his younger brother that now it was after Christmas, they no longer had to live in fear of Santa's list. Clearly something had to be done to squelch this impending explosion of riotous behavior and the shopping mall provided a ready solution. Walking through a department store, I commented to my wife on the large number of people waiting in line at the customer service counter. I followed-up with my oldest boy asking him if he knew why all the people were in line. He did not. I told him they were all returning presents that their children had received for Christmas but had lost due to naughty behavior. My boy was momentarily crestfallen but recovered his poise and asked.... "If the gifts came from Santa then why are they returning them to Dillard's?" Wow he got me there. I felt not only my credibility was being called into question but so was his whole belief in Santa. A career of giving testimony in front of angry review boards makes one very nimble so I replied.... "Remember when we saw Santa here a few weeks ago and we told you he was Santa's helper? Well starting the day after Christmas when he no longer has to play Santa, he is responsible for helping the store collect all the toys being returned from naughty children and making sure they get shipped back to the North Pole.... want to go back and meet him?" Not only was it a very quiet car ride home, it was a very quiet household for the next few weeks. Thursday, January 10, 2008
The Expectations Game In the wake of Hillary Clinton's miraculous comeback in the New Hampshire's primary, many folks are decrying it all as an expectations game with the Clinton team artificially lowering expectations of her performance and then reaping the media bonanza celebrating her great comeback. This isn't a recent phenomena. I would guess this has been going on for about 40 years.... ever since Eugene McCarthy came within single digits of LBJ in the 1968 New Hampshire primary. Ever since then, following a given primary primary or caucus, candidates are judged by the media not so much on their actual performance but rather on their performance compared to expectations. That means someone can win a primary but lose it at the same time if they don't win by a margin that meets or exceeds "public" expectations. Who sets the expectations? Well primarily the media with some help from relevant campaign staff. Who decides if the candidate meets the expectations? The media with some help from relevant campaign staff... See a pattern here? Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Lancet Study Disproved El Gringo has a post about the debunking of the 2006 Lancet article that claimed that more than 600,000 people had died in the Iraq War. It's a good read and I suggest you read both his post and the article he links to but to me the article and its description of all the inherent biases and methodological mistakes is moot. At the time the article came out with its claims, my question regarding its credibility was straight-forward.... Where were all the bodies? It sounds all cold-blooded and a bit macabre but the death and disposal of an extra 600,000 human beings above and beyond the normal rate is quite an event. Especially within the compressed 3 year time period studied and in the concentrated areas of Iraq where the majority of the violence took place. Despite the tragedy and dislocation from the effects of war and sectarian violence, there wasn't the secondary effects on the scale you would expect from the Lancet findings However without much discussion as to its accuracy, the media swallowed the Lancet thesis whole. GIGO... and what we know as modern Western society, the supposed product of the Enlightenment, is all the poorer from it One of the things I learned early in my grad school career wasn't that people believe what they see, but rather they see what they believe..... and I'm talking about the pointy-head nerds with the PhDs A 3 Hour Tour With respect to Special Agent Johnny Utah, I have not met a tragic fate over the preparation of delicious pork products but rather spent the past few weeks in southern California. The supposed highlight of the trip was a cruise down the length of the Baja. This was my first such vacation and I had no idea what to expect; all I can say is that if your main goal is to eat and drink too much then the sea-going life is for you. If it isn't, then just take the direct flight to Cabo. BTW, the actual highlight of my trip was yet another trip to Disneyland and for the first time the kids got to come A few observations about being away from it all for a few weeks..... 1) Apparently Hillary Clinton is the Risen Lord because apparently in a little more than the requisite 3 days her political fortunes had died and then were miraculously raised from the dead in New Hampshire. Who said the Right has a hammerlock on religion? 2) No one west of the Colorado River cares about Arizona and its problems. Judging from the lackadaisical way the budget deficit is being handled, I don't think anyone west of 17th Avenue cares as well. 3) I have just found out that the Chinese have named their new aircraft carrier after the Ming-era admiral who took Taiwan. I suppose I should be worried about this. However some of the naval vets in my group said that in case said ship should ever be used to re-take Taiwan, that sunken aircraft carriers make for excellent artificial reefs. |
