Posse Incitatus

Credit Where Credit is Due

John Engler, Michigan’s Republican governor from 1991 through 2002, was an effective administrator who implemented key initiatives including property tax reform, welfare reform, and using tobacco lawsuit settlement funds to create the Life Sciences Corridor, a consortium of universities and research facilities focusing on biotechnology. However, Engler was notorious for his lack of charisma and for “playing hardball” with legislators behind closed doors.  He got things done, but was despised by his political enemies.

By contrast, his successor, the much more photogenic and charismatic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, is well-liked by many people.  But she often is more sizzle than steak — utterly spineless when it comes to making tough decisions, and the poster child for the old “lick-your-finger-and-hold-it-up-in-the-wind” mindset.  Still, I have to give her credit on several initiatives.

One is the hardnosed administrator Robert Bobb, whom she put in place to clean up the mess that is the Detroit Public Schools.  Also, the “Pure Michigan” advertising campaign designed to attract visitors and boost tourism, and tax credits that have attracted Hollywood movie makers to Michigan.

In 1999, Governor Engler and the Republican-controlled Legislature enacted legislation calling for a temporary takeover of the disastrous Detroit Public Schools.  The elected Detroit School Board was ousted, and control shifted to a board with six members appointed by then Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer.  The seventh member was the state school superintendent.

The Reform Board only had five years to turn things around, and couldn’t get it done.  Voters ousted them in 2004 and installed a new group of ineffective board members.  When the corruption, cronyism, waste, mismanagement and high dropout rate got to be too much even for teachers union-loving Granholm, she appointed Bobb to a one-year term as emergency financial manager.

Bobb has already laid off more than 1,700 DPS employees and whacked away aggressively at the district’s $430 million deficit.  Despite his best efforts, the district may have no choice but to file for bankruptcy.  Okay, so Bobb is not a miracle worker.  But at least he’s a realist, not afraid to step on toes while carrying out his mandate, and willing to speak the truth to the many dysfunctional people who’ve had their heads in the sand for far too long.  Kudos to Jen-Jen.

The Pure Michigan commercials, narrated by Michigan native Tim Allen, are well done.  They combine beautiful scenery and urban cityscapes with some nice prose.  Tourism has always been important in Michigan, and recent studies indicate over the past four years an average of $2.82 in new sales tax receipts to the State are generated by every $1 invested to promote tourism. 

Michigan is loaded with beautiful scenery, and Detroit, despite its myriad problems, still has some remarkable architecture and wonderful culture (gorgeous churches, art-deco skyscrapers, the Fox Theatre, Detroit Institute of Arts, Greektown, Mexicantown…).  When my son and I (sometimes accompanied by my wife or my son’s friends) go to a Tigers game, we generally make it a point to enjoy a Greek meal at Pegasus Taverna, or some tacos and burritos at Mexican Village.  It’s not just the food, it’s the atmosphere!

Turning now to the film industry incentive, it offers a refundable tax credit of up to 42 percent of the amount of a production company's expenditures incurred in producing a film or other media project in Michigan.

Since this was implemented about a year ago, several film production studios and acting schools have cropped up in metro Detroit.  “Gran Torino,” a blockbuster starring Clint Eastwood, was filmed in suburban Detroit.  Several other major productions, including “Betty Ann Waters” (Hilary Swank) and “"Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story," (Cuba Gooding Jr.) were or are being filmed in Detroit.

Long story short: Michigan is at a crucial juncture.  With a long-term structural budget deficit, the nation’s highest unemployment rate, declining revenues, and a $1.7 billion budget shortfall looming in Fiscal Year 2010 (beginning Oct. 1), the state could cut spending even more by doing away with the film industry tax credit and canceling the Pure Michigan campaign.

But think of an unemployed worker who’s behind on his bills and suddenly is offered a job 10 miles from home.  Should he sell his car to catch up on his bills and have some spending money? No, of course not.  Then he wouldn’t have a way to get to work and a potential steady paycheck for many months or years to come.  It’s basically selling out the future for a temporary triumph.

Michigan has to gut it out.  We’ve lost an estimated 900,000 jobs since 2000.  Many workers, myself included, are reinventing themselves.  K.N. McBride’s bride, aka Sithkitten (she packs a mean piece!) and I are putting together an amateur film exhibition here in the Lansing area for aspiring film makers and actors looking for an opportunity to be shown on the big screen.  A local theater has given us a great rental price.  We’re lining up sponsors, and hope to also get these short films shown on a local community college TV station.

We won’t make a lot of money on it (I do think we’ll more than break even), but we hope to contribute to the gathering momentum in the movie-making business, and encourage talented, up-and-coming film makers and actors to put their best foot forward.  That’s all we can do, because when the going gets tough, the tough get going.  Relying on the government to come to the rescue is a fool’s game.

Chump Change You Can Believe In

YES WE CAN — Regular readers of the Posse are familiar with where K.N. McBride and I stand on the political spectrum.  We did not vote for Obama, and don’t like a lot of what he stands for.

But there’s always a silver lining.  The same things the hard left loons are criticizing Obama for are things with which we at the Posse are pleased.  Obama retained Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a Bush appointee.  He decided not to pull out of Iraq quickly, has delayed shutting down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, sent more troops to Afghanistan, and will continue using warrantless wiretaps to monitor potential terrorist plotting.  He also is not kowtowing to radical gay groups’ demands on gay marriage; nor will he ruffle feathers in the military establishment about the “don’t ask-don’t tell” policy.

Obama, like both Bushes and Bill Clinton before him, relies heavily on the good ol’ boy network of Goldman Sachs/Citigroup/Morgan Stanley/J.P. Morgan to staff the U.S. Treasury and various economic policy positions.  Alan Greenspan, Henry Paulson, Timothy Geithner, Robert Rubin, and many other key economic insiders all were big shots on Wall Street before serving in Washington. 

There are plenty of things I dislike about Obama and his policies, but I do believe things could be worse.

THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT — Here’s another area where Barack Obama is no different than George W. Bush — or any other heterosexual male, for that matter. The Drudge Report referred to this as the “second stimulus package.” Yes, I guess you could say that.

Hmmm, I wonder what Michelle had to say about this? Methinks she’s not afraid to unload on the celebrity-in-chief.

ROBERT GLIBS — The way presidential press conferences are handled represents a definite change — for the worse.  Never in my life have I seen a more pathetic “spokesman” than the bland, glib Robert Gibbs. He often gives vague, incomplete answers, resorts to sarcasm and arrogance when challenged, and has a painful habit of pausing with “ah” and “um” every third or fourth word.

When I belonged to the Toastmasters speakers’ group years ago, one of the first things they hammered into our heads was to avoid saying “um” and “ah”… If you cannot think what to say, simply keep your mouth shut until real words come out.  Silent pauses are nothing to be ashamed of.

To drive home the point, while we’d give our speeches (which were critiqued during meetings), one of the members was the assigned “ah-counter” for the evening.  He or she had an old metal coffee can and dry navy beans.  Each time an “ah” or “um” was heard, the designated watchdog would drop a bean into the can.  The “bang” - “bang” - “bang” was disconcerting and enough to keep speakers focused on avoiding those worthless utterances.  Robert Gibbs should have joined Toastmasters.

Thin Gruel

I recall what a big deal it was when CNN began broadcasting in the summer of 1980.  Many critics said, “No way is this gonna work. You won’t have enough news to fill the programming 24/7.”  Well, it turns out CNN didn’t fare too badly being the only big fish in a small pond.  Headline news came along a few years later, and it wasn’t until more than 15 years later that Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC and other networks came on the scene.

For a while, I guess CNN was doing all right, but gradually, the more 24/7 networks there were on the air, the more watered down the content became.

My friends and I used to joke about turning on ESPN in the middle of the night and seeing refrigerator-throwing contests (it wasn’t quite that bad, but maybe tractor-pulling, lumberjack contests, billiards, curling, and cricket — definitely not the mainstream fare).

I suppose the cable news channels show reruns of documentaries and special reports in the middle of the night, or reruns of regularly scheduled programs such as "The O’Reilly Factor."  I don’t know, because I’m rarely awake and watching TV at that hour.

But during the day, and in prime time, the cable news networks have a bad habit of trying to squeeze every last drop out of stories.  Remember the wall-to-wall, 24/7 coverage of Natalee Holloway’s disappearance from Aruba when she was there on a high school graduation trip a few years ago?  Then there was sensationalistic coverage on Caylee Anthony, a poor Florida toddler who ended up dead because of her stupid, party-animal mother; the eerie BTK serial killer Dennis Rader; Scott Peterson, who murdered his pregnant wife Laci; the monster Stephen Grant, who sliced and diced his wife, kept the torso in his garage, scattered body parts in a nearby park, and even slept with his children’s nanny while his dismembered wife lay in the garage.  Am I missing any cases? Sure, but we don’t have room to discuss them all.

In each and every one of these cases, the networks trot out an endless parade of guest commentators, psychologists, forensic experts, psychics, cops, clergy, social workers, you name it.  Ditto for political coverage, in which countless talking head pundits try to spin their views, which often are utter B.S., and pollsters galore break down the political landscape with what they think is an exact science, but which seems unduly influenced by the way questions are worded and the demographics of the respondents.  (Besides, who ever said politicians — sometimes called “poll-a-ticians” should be ruled by Gallup? Most residents of the 13 American colonies opposed declaring independence from Great Britain.  Good thing popular opinion didn’t rule, eh?)

What we end up with are blowhards, windbags, endless speculation, folks on opposite ends of an argument shouting each other down, the “Brady Bunch” squares I alluded to yesterday, and sometimes, like in the Michael Jackson case, graphic details we’d just as soon do without.  Yesterday, for example,  a CNN reporter went into gory specifics describing the condition of Michael Jackson’s body — track marks on his arms, his emaciated frame, white skin, and bald head.  Enough already!

This is all in the guise of “news,” but it’s really more aptly described as “infotainment,” although lots of the “info” part we could do without, and the “tainment” part debases the viewer almost as much as the reporter.

If you want to make soup, but all you have is one carrot, one potato, a half an onion, and a partially gnawed chicken drumstick, you can add lots of water, chicken bullion, and maybe some olive oil.  You will end up with a full pot of mostly broth and not much of substance.  That seems to be the recipe for cable news in 2009.

The Circus is Over

What do you get when you put Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Magic Johnson, Mariah Carey and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee together at one event?

Answer: A freakin’ three-ring circus.  A bunch of ego-centric, narcissistic prima donnas fighting to get in front of the camera and bathe in the vacuous celebrity worship.  If you value your life, stay the heck out of that space between Jesse Jackson and a TV camera. That’s a dangerous place to be!

The Michael Jackson memorial, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, was truly a circus — made for TV, the paparazzi, and our celebrity-obsessed culture.  Forty-seven theaters in 24 states showed the event live, according to the Los Angeles Times. There was even a letter from Nelson Mandela read aloud, and yes, performers did sing “We Are the World.”  I'm surprised Martha Quinn from MTV didn't put in a cameo appearance.

Mariah Carey, as beautiful as she is, should not have shown up for a memorial service dressed like a cocktail waitress, but that’s the way the Hollywood types roll.  The City of Los Angeles, despite facing a $500 million budget shortfall, may be on the hook for the estimated $3.8 million cost of police and emergency services, although efforts are being made to find private donors.

As I stated in a previous blog, I have a lot of respect for Michael Jackson as an entertainer, composer, dancer, and singer.  I give him props for donating time and large sums of money to charities.  But I also fully acknowledge he was a deeply troubled and mentally ill man, a tortured soul with a drug addiction. 

His love of and desire to associate with children was creepy, and who knows what really went on behind closed doors.  But he did suffer through a dysfunctional childhood (some suspect he was abused by his father) which may explain his desire to think and live like a child to recreate what he never had.  He may also have been the victim of gold diggers trying to strike it rich. Janet Arvizo, the mother of the alleged molestation victim in the 2005 trial in which the singer was acquitted, admitted lying in the trial, and a year later was charged with welfare fraud.  She’s not exactly Miss Integrity.

The overkill during Mr. Jackson’s memorial service, and the wall-to-wall coverage by cable news networks, was over the top.  I stayed away as much as possible; my gesture to the memory of Michael Jackson was putting on a Motown CD and listening to “Never Can Say Goodbye” while I prepared dinner.

Out of curiosity, I turned on Headline News for a minute just to see how they were handling it.  Something Laura Ingraham mentioned on her radio program was right there on the screen: Not 2, 3, or 4 boxes of talking heads being interviewed from different locations, but no less than SIX! Laura said it reminded her of the squares on “The Brady Bunch.”  Couldn’t agree more.

Maybe the excess is right in tune with the way Michael Jackson lived his life.  But as others have noted, there are thousands of brave American soldiers who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, or who have been maimed for life.  They will never get the adulation and recognition of The King of Pop.  It’s a shame things are so out of whack.

The celebrification of our culture, despite all of the serious threats to our way of life — home foreclosures, rising unemployment, nuclear threats, the breakdown of the family structure, failing schools, a government on the brink of insolvency, a broken political system, and a possible bird flu epidemic, to name a few — does not speak well for our country.

The Roman poet who observed people only need bread and circuses to keep them happy was way ahead of his time.  Indeed, sometimes I think Americans could survive longer without the bread than the circuses.

Circumvention 101

Either the political hacks in Washington, D.C., just aren’t very bright, or they take us for idiots. Or maybe both.

As The Obama-Pelosi-Reid shredder continues to decimate the U.S. economy, businesses large and small across the land are bracing themselves for new mandates on employee health insurance, cap-and-trade carbon legislation, and possibly higher income taxes that would be levied unjustly against gross rather than net revenues.

Businesses have several solutions to these nettlesome government policies, none of which are good for the average Joe the Democrats purport to care so much about: 1) Lay off employees;  2) Don’t hire new employees;  3) Cut current staff members' hours to fewer than 40 per week so as to avoid paying benefits including health insurance; and 4) Outsource work to freelancers and independent contractors.

Industrial and manufacturing concerns may do all of the above to reduce costs, plus move their operations offshore.  India, China, and many other countries will not have strict laws against carbon emissions.  So, just as water flows downhill, industries will take their manufacturing operations overseas.

Utility companies, on the other hand, don’t have that option.  So those that burn coal to generate electricity will simply pass along the higher cost to their customers in the form of higher rates.  Thanks a lot, Democrats!

The Law of Unintended Consequences applies to so much of liberal Democrat policies, and circumvention is always the immediate — and easy — consequence.

Another example that comes to mind is the harebrained “luxury tax” adopted by Congress and signed into law by “Poppy” in 1991.  The 10 percent tax applied to jewelry, cars worth at least $30,000, and yachts worth at least $100,000.  At the time, I was working as an editor for a consumer boating magazine and was in charge of the trade supplement that went out to dealers, manufacturers, and distributors. I could see firsthand how this ill-advised policy devastated an entire industry.

The marine industry was already hurting from a recession.  But the luxury tax really quashed sales of large boats.  Buyers delayed purchase of yachts, purchased used yachts, or bought from foreign manufacturers to avoid paying the tax.  Boat builders estimated about 25,000 layoffs resulted from the depressed sales.

Furthermore, the luxury levies took in $97 million less in their first year than had been projected.  (SHOCKING!) Two years later, following massive lobbying by the National Marine Manufacturers Association and Marine Retailers Association of America, Congress repealed the luxury tax for everything but automobiles.

But were there any excoriating exposes on this miserably failed policy by the Time/Newsweek/60 Minutes/New York Times/Washington Post/Vanity Fair/PBS/New Yorker elites?

Any report on how this misguided legislation hurt the “little man”?

Hell no.

Piece Be With You

We've often heard of churches conducting a "Blessing of the Bikes," so that local motorcycle enthusiasts will have a safe riding season.  Muscular Harleys growl and snort as their often bearded and black leather-clad drivers pull them up to draw round the minister giving the blessing.

Other churchs have held special services encouraging congregants to bring canned food for local food banks and soup kitchens.  Some have even held Gay Pride church services.

Well, then, it should not come as a shock that a Kentucky church held an "Open Carry Celebration" encouraging gun-owning congregants to bring their unloaded weapons with them to Sunday services.

Rev. Kenneth Pagano of New Bethel Church in Louisville, KY told a reporter the service had three purposes: To promote firearms safety and responsibility; to promote Americans' Second Amendment rights; and "as Christians, we wanted to create a venue to share our faith with people."

The church also took donations and raffled off a gun, with proceeds in excess of the gun's cost being donated to charities.

The Louisville Courier-Journal's account is right here.

I guess you could say Rev. Pagano was shooting for some good publicity, and worshipers aiming for their salvation got a little more bang for their buck.