Recalls and Witch Hunts
So now the call for punishing legislators who raised taxes has spread to those legislators who did not vote to raise taxes. Calls for recalls have gone beyond the targets of the governor and Republicans who voted for the taxes to include Republicans who voted to put Proposition 1A, the spending limit/two-year tax extension measure on the ballot. Supposedly, there was a deep conspiracy to make the taxes happen and all, or nearly all, Republican legislators are guilty.
Am I the only one that sees echoes of the Salem witch trials and Arthur Miller’s award winning play about the witch trials, The Crucible, in all this?
In the play, presiding Judge Danforth says: “You must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between.”
In Salem, all is black and white, you are either with God or with the Devil, and anyone who opposes the court cannot be an honest opponent.
L.A. Teachers Must Learn A Lesson From the City Election
Tuesday was a wake-up call for public employee unions—the defeat of Measure B in Los Angeles demonstrated that the voting public is fed up with the abuses that come from the raw and unchecked use of their political power. United Teachers of Los Angeles ought to heed the warning just delivered on Measure B as it battles the school district’s student assessment tests scheduled to be administered in two weeks.
Unlike what was at stake in Measure B (guaranteed unionized jobs for electrical workers and harnessing solar power) the high stakes game that UTLA is playing is about our public school kids and their future—ultimately more critical than electrical workers’ expanded employment or when and how we decide to capture the sun’s rays.
For many years, UTLA couched its policy objectives in language that claimed they were really “putting kids first”—more money in the classroom was to benefit kids, not them, etc. But in the latest battle UTLA has abandoned any pretense about kids being their priority, it is really about, as UTLA has asserted in documents directed to their members, “building unity” and “to organize” the work site. It is also guaranteed to harm kids and their education.
CPSIA – Have You Heard of It?
If not, you might want to read on for a bit. On February 10th, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) went into effect. Now – you should realize that anytime government uses the term “improvement,” trouble is probably the next thing coming. The act provides for fines starting at $100,000 per violation and possible jail time for anyone selling items containing lead for use by children age 12 or under. No one denies that lead ingestion can have severe health implications, but this is a train wreck. A lot of people believe that Congress overreacted with this legislation and made matters even worse when they let state attorneys general sue, or even hire personal injury lawyers to sue, to enforce their own interpretations of the law.
The end result of this law is that many businesses, from used bookstores to thrift shops and even libraries, are being forced to throw out inventory, lay off workers or even close their doors. The Motorcycle Industry Council has estimated $1 billion in economic loss from frozen inventory, payroll losses and lost opportunities for sales and service.
The Three Blind Men and The Elephant
The parable goes something like this. Three blind men were trying to figure out what they had encountered when they met an elephant drinking from a stream. The first touched the elephant’s leg and thought it was a tree. The second touched the elephant’s tail and thought it was a rope. The third touched the elephant’s trunk spouting water and thought it was a water hose. A venerable American political party, which shares the elephant as its long-time symbol, is also having this problem right now.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal ran into the Media brick wall when he spoke on Prime Time TV (which he was not ready for) recently and came across as a wooden and strange fellow who was delivering a message that simply did not resonate.
Newly crowned Chairman of the Republican National Party (for now), former Lieut. Gov. Michael Steele, seems to have Foot in Mouth Disease and may experience an early crib death unless he can learn to corral his tongue and focus his message.