LSJ Blogs: People's Politics

april fools day

This is the day of fools and they think they have most of us fooled, but on this day that is also the traditional opener of golf season, I'd like to put my two cents in. First let me tell you of the high regard I have for golf and the lessons it teaches, I know of no other sport where you call penalties on yourself even when no one else sees the infraction, and where you never try to bend the rules in your favor to gain an advantage. You also learn than in golf as in life, it's not always fair, you get bad bounces, other people hit lucky shots, you live with it and keep trying your best.

Reflections on Homelessness

Our readers probably noticed the stories in the past two weeks of the homeless man found dead in a burning van in Lansing.  It was described initially as a suspicious death.  Later, the police indicated that they thought foul play was unlikely.  At that point, the story dropped off the news radar. 

He was identified as Robert Hinkle, age 46.  Rob, who preferred his nickname Pebby, was a friend of mine. And he would not want to be remembered solely by the news coverage summarized above.  He would not want to be remembered as "just" a homeless guy.

We all like to believe that we could never be homeless.   One way we do this is to assert stereotypes about the homeless, so we can feel more distant from them.  We think "I could never be homeless, because I don't do drugs or I'm not an alcoholic or I'm not mentally ill or I'm not all alone in the world."  

But it is far more complicated, and there are far more reasons why people become homeless.

From the same wonderful people who gave us Amtrak

Now that President Obama has fired the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors, are we better off?  Is the union better off?  Is anyone better off?  I think the entire country has suffered a remarkable blow.  It is time for “we the people” to get involved in the charade that is Washington;  The Bush/Obama economic policies have to be reversed.  The future for our kids is at stake.

New powers for Treasury

I give extremely high marks to Obama and his administration for sheer chutzpah.

This is the group that selects a known tax cheat, Tim Geithner, for the highest economic position in the country.  Highest position except for the White House Economic Advisor, Larry Summers, that is; or which one is the highest ranking advisor and do they agree?  They have worked together for years so should know each other well, but do they know what they are doing?  Is it accidental that Obama (or Geithner depending on how you look at it) has not been able to fill the other senior positions in the Treasury Department, estimated to be around 17 people?  Who would want to risk their reputation working for a known crook?

Employee Free Choice Act

The “moderate” republican Arlen Specter, who was instrumental in helping the democrat controlled Congress pass the earmark laden budget bill, has finally come to some of his senses.  He has come out against the ridiculously named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).  The detractors of EFCA call it the “card check” but it should really be called the Union Payback Law.

Retention bonuses and AIG

The fake Congressional uproar over AIG’s retention bonuses along with the MSM support of the uproar makes me believe an explanation of what retention bonuses are and why they are necessary.

First of all, to get my political view of the situation clearly articulated, let’s stipulate that the republicans had nothing to do with the “Dodd Amendment” that was either sponsored by Chris Dodd, or not, that was either changed by the Obama Administration, or not, changed by the dynamic duo Harry and Nancy, or not.  As the republicans, or any conservatives that are left in Washington, couldn’t make any changes to the bill, clearly whatever happened came from the left wing of Congress.  That being said, it seems the Washington two-step of trying to find someone to blame is in full swing. 

AIG Bonus Imbroglio

The latest hypocrisy to come out of Washington is the “outrage” over the $160 million bonuses that AIG is allegedly paying to some of its executives.  The President is even demanding that his administration do everything possible to stop this obscene waste of the American tax payers’ bailout money.  With the demonstrated incompetence of our government to handle money, there should not be a peep out of these hypocrites.

Stem Cell Research

One of the things I disagreed with the Bush Administration on was Bush’s ban on government funding for stem cell research.  My fundamental belief is virtually all basic research is worth pursuing; we don’t know what we may find.  In particular, I believe medical research, where so many phenomenal advances have been made recently, should be pushed with a great deal of energy. 

Ingham County Jail

I recently had the unfortunate occasion to bail a friend out of the Ingham County Jail.  I had not been to the jail in many years, not since I was an Ingham County Commissioner.  Being there again brought back many memories.  I had hoped that my work as a commissioner had improved the conditions in the jail.  Now I'm not so sure.

I didn't run for commission intending to be so involved in the jail operations, but I could see the need for someone on the board to be involved soon after I was sworn into office.  An inmate died of an illness that could have been completely cured with simple antibiotics.  I initiated an investigation.  We ended up settling with his family and changing how we provided medical services in the jail.  But the more time I spent at the jail, the more I wanted to improve things.

I should explain that inmates at a county jail are not the same as prison inmates.  County jail inmates are mainly people who are there for misdemeanor convictions, things like non-payment of child support or writing bad checks or buying marijuana.  These are people who should be able to function in society just fine, perhaps with some assistive treatment programs. 

Then another friend sent me the following blog link from someone who has spent time in the Ingham County Jail.  I thought he raised some interesting points, and wanted to share them more widely.

http://inghamjail.blogspot.com/2008/10/welcome-to-ingham-county-jail.html

Want Justice? Just Buy Your Own Judge.

A West Virginia court case called Caperton v. Massey is likely to have national repercussions in state supreme courts' ethical standards.  Hugh Caperton, head of a small energy company, sued Massey Energy for intentionally and fraudulently driving his company into bankruptcy.  He won $50 million in circuit court.  Massey appealed the decision to the West Virginia Supreme Court. 

Massey CEO Don Blankenship then spent more than $3 million to oust an incumbent supreme court justice, who was not expected to rule in his favor, and replace him with contender Brent Benjamin.  That $3 million was 60% of the funds raised for Benjamin's election.

Caperton's attorneys asked Benjamin to recuse himself from the case.  Benjamin refused.  Caperton's award was overturned by the West Virginia Supreme Court by one vote - Benjamin's.