The Peter Principle states that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence,” meaning that employees tend to be promoted until they reach a position at which they cannot work competently. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve spoken to a dozen or so rank and file voters who will tell you that Faye Barker reached her level years ago, following her first promotion.
That might be a slight exaggeration, it may have only been 10 or so, but as late as 10am this morning when I told a friend I was going to be posting something about the Commissioner of the Revenue’s race today, she screwed her usually smiling face into a frown and said, “Oooh, that Faye Barker woman makes me so mad. She messed up my taxes two years in a row and never even apologized. The last time, she got all snotty and acted like it wasn’t her fault.”
Folks, in this race, education and intelligence really do matter. Really. They matter…a lot.
Robert Kegley is hands down the best candidate for the job. In brief, general conversations I had with him over the summer during his weekly visits to the Farmers Market, (as a customer, not a candidate) I got to know him a little and to see some of his vision for the future of Wythe County. Mr. Kegley understands the importance of networking and the use of technology to increase accuracy and productivity. I have no doubt that Mr. Kegley will continue to build on the excellence begun by his predecessor. I’m also pretty sure that neither Robert nor anyone on his staff will screw up my friend’s taxes TWO years in a row.
One week from today, Tuesday, November 8, 2011, we get to exercise a basic American right that has been the envy of the rest of the world for the last 235 years. We get to exercise that right without fear of retribution or retaliation. There will be no armed soldiers or threatening thugs in the voting booth, just us and our conscience. Voting is not just a right, it is a RESPONSIBILITY. If you don’t vote, you have no voice. If you don’t vote, don’t ever complain to me about our government or elected officials.
Between now and Tuesday, I hope to discuss as many races as possible. First up is the race for Supervisor at Large. The candidates are incumbent Bucky Sharitz (Dem.), Tim Reeves (Rep.), and Freddie Rosenbaum (Ind.).
Mr. Rosenbaum said at the candidate’s forum that we should vote for him because he worked for VDOT for 44 years and supervised some of the largest highway construction projects to ever take place in Southwest Va. Sorry Freddie, if that is your only qualification, I would be more inclined to vote for you if you had spent 44 years in a maximum security prison. The Virginia Department of Transportation is one of the most arcane and inept bureaucracies in the nation. I say this based on my own experience working with them when I was with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the regional planning organization for DC, N.Va, and suburban Maryland. When I asked my son-in-law who is Director of the Budget for the Federal Highway Administration why Virginia didn’t get more stimulus money for highway projects, he shrugged and said VDOT couldn’t get its act together to submit the paperwork in time.
By now, regular readers of this blog should know how I feel about Bucky Sharitz. Bucky Sharitz is not part of the solution to the challenges facing this county, he’s one of the major problems. Bucky should have retired several elections ago. Instead, he’s hung around and allowed himself to become Cellell Dalton’s butt boy. His response to some of the questions at last Thursday’s forum were down right embarassing. Would someone please explain to him that making money from tourism requires a little more than inviting people you meet on vacation at Myrtle Beach to visit Wythe County in hopes that they might decide to buy a home here?
I’ve said for a long time that I intend to vote for Anybody But Bucky. Fortunately, Tim Reeves is a lot more than that. Over the summer, I had a number of opportunities to talk and get to know Tim. I find him to be an earnest and hardworking candidate whom I believe will be a good supervisor. If for no other reason, Tim believes we should have more transparency in local government. Mr. Reeves believes that just because state law allows the BOS to make decisions behind closed doors doesn’t mean that they should. The fact that he also thinks Cellell Dalton has got to go is just a bonus.
Here are videos of part of the Candidate’s Forum from last Thursday evening, complements of Linda Meyer. Unfortunately, her battery died before the evening was over.
Neither rain, nor sleet or snow will keep us from our appointed rounds. Tomorrow is the final day for this year’s Wytheville Farmers Market. Y’all come and bring the young’ns for a little Halloween fun and some trick or treating. And please, buy some of Anne’s baked goods. My girlish figure is going to hell in a hand basket. The Market opens at 9am.
If you run into Linda Meyer in the next few days, you might want to thank her. Linda has decided to perform a much-needed community service. She plans to record the Board of Supervisors meetings and post them on YouTube. Here is the link for the 10/25/2011 meeting:
Though Linda has provided the link in the comment section, I think her efforts deserve a little more prominence. Like Ms. Meyer, Wythe Notes is providing this link as a public service and should not be considered an endorsement of the Wythe County Tea Party or any political party.
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Congratulations to Sheriff Doug King and his deputies on some recent really big deal awards. The Wythe County Sheriffs Department was chosen the number one department in both the state and nation among all departments its size, and number one in the nation among ALL departments, regardless of size, in traffic management and control. There are things about this county that we need to be concerned about, but public safety is not one of them.
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Don’t forget the candidate’s forum tonight beginning at 6pm in the Board of Supervisors meeting room.
All of you who love children who wear helmets and ride the short bus to school take heart: They too can grow up and be a Republican candidate for president. I guarantee they’ll act more maturely. Between the CNN and Fox News coverages of the race for the Republican nomination, we no longer need to watch Saturday Night Live or Comedy Central. They have become redundant. The straight coverage is hysterical enough. Herman Cain/Rick Perry is my new dream ticket. Theirs is a fight to see who can out stupid the other. If a box of hammers were to enter the race tomorrow, it would be smarter than these two.
Friends of mine who are in a position to know tell me that insiders at the Republican National Committee believe two things: 1) Mitt Romney is going to be the nominee 2) He can’t win. The plan is to cede the presidency to Obama, maintain their majority in the House, and put their main efforts into winning the Senate. Considering the viciousness of previous Virginia races, next year’s predicted match up between Tim Kaine and George Allen should make cage fighting look like a pre-K play date.
Electoral politics has become so predictable in this country. Candidates don’t tell us what they are for, just what they are against. They paint their opponent as not only the anti-christ but anti-American as well. They don’t want to just beat their opponent; they want to beat him so badly he won’t get up. Ever. Their side is always right, and the other side is always wrong.
Last week’s events in Libya is a prime example. From start to finish, the Obama Administration spent about 2 billion dollars to get Gaddafi. Sure, it was a young Libyan who hauled Gaddafi out of a drain pipe, shoved a stick up his ass (for real) and shot him in the head, but make no bones about it. Obama got him. Working with our NATO allies, the US helped destabilize the Gaddafi regime. Our intelligence located his convoy, and our predator drone and a French fighter pilot shot up the convoy making Gaddafi’s capture possible. Obama brought about the downfall of another despot without having to put a single boot on the ground.
Less than 24 hours later, Sen. Mark Rubio (R-Fl), a rising star in the Republican Party, was on TV criticizing the president for not having done it sooner… in February. Memo to Sen. Rubio: Fuuuuuuuuuuck Youuuuuuuuuuuu!
The time has come to Occupy America, have a Party, serve some Tea, and barbecue our current crop of do nothing politicians.
Thursday evening, beginning at 6pm, the non-partisan Legislative Committee of the Wytheville-Wythe-Bland Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a candidate’s forum in the Board of Supervisors meeting room.
Folks, this is our chance to let the local candidates know how we feel. Any candidate who does not appear without a good reason should not receive a single vote other than their own come November. I can only think of two good reasons: 1) Death in their immediate family after 12 noon on Thursday 2) Their doctor will not release them from intensive care. Other than that, they damn sure better be there. Are you listening, Bucky?
For me, the central issue in this campaign is Cellell Dalton. This guy has got to go. Everyone I’ve talked to sputters and says we can’t fire him because he has a contract. Well, isn’t that special? I say fire the sumbitch and make him sue the county. I would absolutely love to get this guy in court and make him defend his actions. He is a petty little bureaucrat who has hamstrung this county long enough. Anybody, Republican/Democrat/Tea Bagger or Owls, who continues to support Dalton’s employment is not worthy of our support. That also includes Dalton’s Mini Me, Stephen Bear, as well.
First, there was the Arab Spring, followed by the Arab Summer in which millions of protestors in several repressive Middle Eastern regimes took to the streets and overthrew their governments. Here in the United States, we seem to be experiencing an American Fall.The last time something like what is happening across this country occurred was in 1776. Are we experiencing the beginning of a second American Revolution?
Occupy Wall Streeters (Owls) are mad as hell, and they’re taking it to the streets. Watching the Tea Baggers respond to having some of their thunder stolen is a hoot. Amy Kremer, the co-chairman of the Tea Party Express was positively apoplectic the other day on TV trying to point out the differences in the two movements. Tea Baggers don’t litter, for instance. (Ever wonder what happened to all the pinched faced hall monitors and teacher’s pets?) Judging from her appearance and comportment, Ms. Kremer could use a rectumectomy to remove the stick from her ass. Fox News propagandist Bill O’Reilly was aghast at the thought that some of the New York Owls were actually having sex at night in a public park (as opposed to the sex he has in his office which typically climaxes in a sexual harassment law suit.) Reminds me of all the Baptists I know who refuse to make love standing up for fear that folks will accuse them of dancing.
The Tea Baggers say that government and over-regulation is solely responsible for our problems. The Owls lay the blame at the feet of the banks and corporations and not enough regulation in some areas. I’ve been saying for years that it’s ALL OF THEM. Wall Street, the Military/Industrial Complex, Big Energy and the Multi-National Corporations OWN our federal government. Over the years, they have perfected a strategy that consistently convinces the American public to vote against our own self interest. Anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional.
Take the Environmental Protection Agency, for instance. The EPA was created in 1970 under Republican president Richard Nixon. Its express purpose is to work for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people. Take a look at its Mission Statement. Almost from its inception, corporations, especially in the coal and oil industries, and the members of Congress they continue to buy and pay for, have conspired to destroy the Agency by demonizing it as a job killer. Seriously, who do you think has your best interest at heart, the EPA or Massey Energy and American Electric Power? AEP is seeking another rate increase to finally bring their “dirty”power plants into compliance with regulations that they have been fighting and ignoring for 20 years. Don’t get me wrong. Both Massey and AEP do create jobs. Think of all the medical personnel needed to treat the thousands who are sick and dying from the massive amounts of pollution and waste these two companies spew into our environment. Think of all the insurance adjusters needed to deny claims to the working poor who have had their health ruined.
Job creation and protecting the environment are not mutually exclusive endeavors. However, it would make far more sense to hire a fox to guard the hen house than it would be to gut the EPA and rely on the energy industry to protect the environment.
Folks, there is no question that we need to move in a different direction. It has taken several hundred years to get to where we are now. Unfortunately, we can’t have a do over. Nor can we use a chain saw when a scalpel is called for. The Tea Baggers want to throw out the baby with the bath water. The Owls want to make more babies. The answer lies in (gasp!) dare I say it?
I’ve been having the hardest time getting back to writing. Every time I sit down in front of the computer, I start thinking of what I want to write about, which leads me to start thinking about what’s going on in our country, and I get discouraged.
It would be easy for me to knock off a post about the spectacular fall color this year; peak color will occur in the next few days. I could tell you about some of the traveling we’ve done in the past month and I probably will. Things are changing at the Farmers Market, an old restaurant has opened in a new location with a new name, there are lots of fun free things to do on the weekends, and the growing season is coming to a close. I have any number of subjects to choose from, but before I can get to any of them, there are a few things I need to get off my chest.
Like it or not, the presidential election campaign of 2012 is well underway. On the one hand, we have a president who talks the talk, but doesn’t walk the walk. On the other hand, we have a racist and a group of buffoons masquerading as candidates for leader of the free world.
Monday Night Football fired Hank, Jr, because he compared President Obama to Hitler. Ol’ Bocephus, who is not known as the sharpest knife in the drawer, has made a career out of being a redneck good ol’ boy, so what did they expect? Another dull blade who has done the same thing career-wise is Texas Governor Rick Perry, whose family leases a hunting lodge that, until the late 1990s, was called Niggerhead Ranch. The name was painted in large letters on a rock by the entrance. In the two decades that he has served as an elected official, Perry has hosted numerous politicians at the lodge, including George W. Bush. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a president who has even stepped foot on a place with such a name, much less one who leases it. Yet Perry is still considered one of the Republican front runners. As a white, Southern male, I’m not only offended, I’m damn tired of assholes like him.
Last Friday at the right wing Values Voter summit, Dr. Robert Jeffress, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas introduced and endorsed Perry. Jeffress, who is a major voice in the evangelical Christian movement, later referred to Mormonism, the religion of two of the candidates, front runner Mitt Romney, and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, as a non-Christian cult. Perry didn’t immediately repudiated Jeffress (and still hasn’t,) and Jeffress has spent the last few days trying to explain that the term “cult” doesn’t really mean cult. How stupid do these people think we are? You can bet your ass that Perry’s campaign team vetted every single word Jeffress uttered. Perry used a stalking horse to get his bigoted message out. The damage is done, and he has plausible deniability.
Folks, it’s time for our politicians and elected officials to come to Jesus. There are things in this country that are broken and need fixing. In the last few years, American corporations have eliminated 2.9 million jobs in this country. These jobs are gone for good because, at the same time, these same corporations have created 2.4 million jobs outside the country. These same corporations have 1.7 trillion dollars in cash reserves, yet they can’t pay any more taxes because the economy is unstable and they might need to some day on an odd Thursday when the moon is in the right congress use the money to create an actual job in this country.
Banks have 1.3 trillion dollars on deposit with the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve (i.e., we the taxpayers) pays them tens of billions of dollars in interest on the deposit, but the banks aren’t loaning any money because the economy is unstable. WTF? Discouraging isn’t it?
Just once, I’d like to see a candidate stand up for the middle class. Just once, I’d like to see a candidate who believes in the strength of their own convictions and doesn’t pander to every batshit crazy who comes out of the woodwork. I never thought I could ever support someone like Hillary Clinton until now.
Okay, so I’ve been on one of my unannounced sabbaticals. I’ve been doing a little traveling and a lot of goofing off. Anne and I just got back from a house party with some old friends in Northern Virginia, and before that, we spent some time on Oak Island. Mostly, though, I’ve just been vegging and thinking.
A few months ago, I thought the choices facing us in the upcoming election were pretty simple. “Anybody But Bucky” and “Throw the Bastards Out” seemed to be all county voters needed to consider. And to a certain extent, that’s still true. The one conclusion I’ve come to though, is that each candidate must be considered on his or her individual merits. Party affiliation should play no part in anyone’s decision. It is the political parties, Democrat and Republican/Tea Party, that have led us down the primrose path. In the coming days and weeks, we’ll talk about it.
