Dignified Death

The highly respected British conductor Edward Downes has committed suicide with his terminally ill wife at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland. Their son and daughter issued a statement that they "died peacefully, and under circumstances of their own choosing." Downes was 85, almost blind, and well on his way to being deaf. She was 74 and terminally ill with cancer. They were assisted in a comfortable room with beds close together allowing them to hold hands as they peacefully lost consciousness after taking a fatal dose of barbiturates under medical supervision.

Unless violence or a sudden death take us out first, we are all going to fall apart until we cease to function. Some apparently have intense feelings opposing the ability to control how this occurs and in particular, to choose when to check out. Remarkably, these folks are often those who claim to be all about individual freedom and liberty. I'd like to see a world where anyone whose health has declined to where life only prolongs suffering has the choice, and the key word is choice, to enter a clinic where trained professionals can help. Nodding off and not waking up is easier on the kids than eating a Smith & Wesson.

Treason

Most can (and did at the time) understand that the Bush administration had to take strong measures in response to the terrorist attacks of 911. We complained some, but not too much, about what we then had to go through at the nation’s airports. We in general supported the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and few raised any serious objections to the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security. While most know that Bush is an arrogant idiot, we gave him the benefit of the doubt, and his approval rating went stratospheric as the US started to kick ass and take names.

Tragically, demonic forces jumped into the fray with both feet and no shortage of enthusiasm. The attack gave the PNAC boys the Pearl Harbor event they wanted as an excuse to take over the world by any and all means necessary. The Bush brain was already planning to invade Iraq and loaded with code:

IF terrorEvent THEN invadeIraq;

The critical distinction is that between the above and the two lines:

IF terrorEvent THEN investigateCause;
IF investigateCause (terrorEvent) = Iraq THEN invadeIraq;

The PNAC boys had no problem generating enthusiastic support among a salivating army of war profiteers. Unfortunately, still hurting from Vietnam, most in America weren’t so enthusiastic about an unjustified, optional war at tremendous expense not to mention loss of American life. PNAC had its event, but it needed to demonstrate that Iraq belonged in the set of responses. Quickly, it was seen as necessary to collect the information sufficient for a case to invade Iraq.

Without listing all of the details, we now stand on the brink of uncovering not only the monster that the administration invoked, but the dark magic and incantations used to summon it from Satan’s empire. The reader likely grasps this monster’s respect for the rule of law, the Constitution, our troops, our economy, our reputation, our safety, our future.

Should any experienced generals (Shinseki) bring up reality in terms of the occupation, fire them. Should any of the finance people (O'Neill) bring up reality about the cost, fire them. Should sources of information fail to provide the desired data, torture them. Should the desired results remain unavailable, fabricate data and lie to everyone. The lead in a New York Times piece today:

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

The Bush Administration is guilty of far worse than incompetence, stupidity, arrogance, and recklessness.

SOLD

Brief self-indulgent post meant solely as a place marker. The ability to vote in Pima County is history via a signed release promptly requested by F. Ann Rodriguez. The state of Kentucky now endorses the driver's license and license plate, and as of this morning, the Tucson house I enjoyed is no longer mine.

Brick and heavy plaster kept it cooler than the newer spit and kleenex nonsense, and not a square inch of carpet in the entire place. Cool, clean tile and hardwood rule, and NO POOL. I had a pool once, along with the spit/kleenex house and the wife and the kids and the van and the garage and the dogs.

I will miss the Tucson house pictured above, the post wife house that provided extraordinary memories for a coming of age daughter and a couple dozen UHS kids. I miss the cigar shop.

It's been over five years, and I'm starting to get that for the rest of my life, a certain part of me will miss those dogs.

Something Else 2nd Anniversary

Two years ago I published an account of my involvement with a non profit training institute formed in the year 2000 by the city and the county to provide customized training services for local employers. After a horrible start, the institute's board ousted dysfunctional management, and yours truly found himself in charge of a sinking ship with a horrible reputation, many enemies, and losses exceeding $30K / month. After 18 months of trauma and turmoil, by late 2004 SAIAT (Southern AZ Inst. of Advanced Training) was operating in the black. By 2006, it was serving over 100 local employers and 10,000 working Tucsonans. Praise from customers and the community grew. Just as I sighed in relief over a cigar, a man warned me that SAIAT was doomed.

By early 2006, SAIAT was universally praised. The Mayor, TREO CEO Snell, Supervisor Bronson and many others voiced support. They invited me to join the economic development contingent visiting Austin. They invited me to the Tucson Town Hall. They said they wanted to promote SAIAT as a "Business Convergence Center" consolidating other support services with the customized training. In June 2006, I told "Cigar Man" he was full of it, "We train over 10,000 people!"

He remained adamant, "You could train ten million!"

In the fall of 2006 TREO deliberately destroyed the institute by taking its funding. As bankruptcy (and my resignation) rapidly approached, I replayed the tape, did some research, and discovered for myself the charade of overpaid suits that justify their salaries by praising each other. Instead of the slightest results, all that's necessary is the facade: plans, studies, blueprints, models, charts and graphs, words like "world class" and "great workforce." The city and county pay millions to play make believe in an act on a stage.

Those who understand Something Else know that it was a journey, a learning experience, a process of discovery. During the writing and research, a distinction clicked when I read a statement about a completely absurd, ridiculously overpriced leadership program I KNEW would NEVER occur, yet the suits were seriously discussing it as if it were reality. An overpaid Pima Community College official asserted, "I happen to believe deeply that this is how you get things done. You weave people together, you weave organizations together, and you come up with a stronger cloth that way."

A stronger cloth? THAT’S IT!!

GTEC paid a consultant $500,000 for a yellow streak, "GTEC's external marketing effort should position regional attributes to interest cluster company suppliers and customers, as well as new technology companies to want to move to the region . . . ultimately helping to strategically grow and sustain our existing business base."

TREO paid a consultant $250,000 for a pamphlet. Rio Nuevo spent $9 M to think about a bridge. Millions in land were given to friends. City staff tell developers who to pay (Hecker, Eckstrom, etc) if they're feeling friendly. The Downtown Tucson Partnership fired a director so it could hire a friend. In such an environment, using the words of Cigar Man, I was "flying blind with a noose around my neck."

Indeed.

Something Else is available at the link to the left.

Cloth Fatigue

Rob O’Dell has an essentially benign Cloth piece in today’s Star discussing the local rise of Clothmeister Glen Lyons, head of the Downtown Tucson Partnership, which is emerging as the epicenter of Tucson’s Clothiverse, the downtown and economic development initiatives that intertwine richly funded agencies, lobbyists, attorneys, developers, business leaders, and outright crooks.

Lyons is thriving among the set of folks raking in massive amounts of money to forward rhetoric inside of a charade wrapped around a zero. Perhaps DTP’s rise is filling a vacuum left by TREO, the economic development agency that hasn’t produced any results in over four years. Lyons has forged a tight allegiance with Council Member Nina Trasoff, firing a director so he could hire the wife of a Trasoff staff member. He is also working city manager Letcher and the council for a sweet "consulting" gig for "assistance" regarding Rio Nuevo projects. In return, the partnership can serve as a means to circumvent nuisances (like the law, public approval, etc.) in terms of granting gigs and giveaways to friends and family.

Speaking of sweet gigs, it will be interesting to see how (if at all) Lyons addresses the current altercation between the Rialto Theater and DTDC developers Martin & Stiteler. Rialto president Michael Crawford has formally asked the DTP board to chime in on the theater’s behalf, while Nina apparently sides with the DTDC (which held a fundraiser for her campaign). The DTDC was poised to get millions in free land from the city, but after a delay has decided hard ball yields a better bottom line. Perhaps Lyons can figure out a way to pay DTP board chair (not kidding) Larry Hecker a quick $50,000 for legal advice on the dispute. Lyons can also advise potential developers how much to pay "lobbyist" Dan Eckstrom in exchange for consideration in land giveaways or other Rio Nuevo payouts.

Ugh. Now out of Tucson a full month, I’m getting Cloth fatigue. The events now occur like re-runs. It’s the same nonsense, again and again. Clothmeisters rake it in as they present a plan, a blueprint, a concept, an idea, a projection, an org chart, and then start over. When something actually does occur, such as a solar energy company moving to town (imagine), or an expansion of a firm that’s doing well, they take credit for it.

The comments following the piece, not subject to editorial opinion or the constraints on the reporter, are more interesting than the article itself.

I always like to see others use the Cloth distinction, as Larry does in the first comment:
Glenn Lyons is a puppet for the cloth. He shines Hecker and Lynns shoes and kisses Nina's ring. The cloth wasn't interested in his redevelopment experience, only his willingness to take orders and hand out the fat.

One has to love Teddy:
RIO NUEVO STYLE-HIRE A CONSULTANT. THEN HIRE A CONSULTANT FOR THE CONSULTANT. THEN HAVE A MEETING TO PLAN TO MAKE PLANS TO HAVE ANOTHER MEETING TO DISCUSS HIRING A CONSULTANT FOR THE CONSULTANT'S CONSULTANT. THEN HAVE A MEETING TO PLAN TO MAKE PLANS TO PLAN A MEETING WITH THE CONSULTANT'S CONSULTANT TO PLAN TO MAKE FURTHER PLANS TO PLAN MORE PLANS. ALL AT 150K A POP. TIF FUNDED.

This captures the other angle:
Lyons is close friends with Trasoff's chief of staff. Trasoff's chief of staff is married to Lyons deputy. Also, the incoming chair of the partnership board (Hecker) is Trasoff's campaign treasurer. As someone said the other day, something smells. Other merchants have told me that Lyons no longer lives in Armory Park because he and his wife did not feel safe living there. Which is ironic and very upsetting to us because we've seen a dramatic decline in security and maintenance downtown ever since Lyons took over. It is clear that security and maintenance have suffered at the cost of these higher salaries.

A certain anniversary rapidly approaches. One of the goals I set for myself some time ago was to fully distinguish the Cloth and the characters that feed at its trough. Various blogs and the comments following O’Dell’s article give me cause to believe the distinction has been delivered. My days of paying attention to the swine snarfing YOUR MONEY (not mine anymore) are drawing to a close.

Penguin Milk

The official toxicology report will confirm or refute what has now become the strong front runner in the list of possibilities regarding the demise of Michael Jackson. While ancillaries like Demoral or Oxycontin may appear in the report, the heart stopper reflects a deeper pathology, the need to be put down with the tools of anesthesiologists who produce the unconsciousness appropriate for surgery.

In my early 40’s I had a routine colonoscopy, where standard practice involves a safe but effective dose of Diprivan. I curled up on the bed as instructed, and the nurse put a syringe into the IV receptacle a few feet above the needle in my hand. I could feel the liquid (the drug produces a sensation on injection) entering my arm. I glanced at a clock that read 8:47. The stuff does not mess around. Experiencing almost no passage of time at all, I suddenly found myself on the same bed in the same place, and the clock read 9:51. The nurse told me that they had wheeled me from the room into another room, performed the 20-30 minute procedure, during half of which I WAS CONSCIOUS. I remembered zip, nada, zilch. Because it looks like milk, Diprivan is known by the medical community as "milk of amnesia" or "Penguin Milk."

The idea that I was conscious and interacting with people 40 minutes earlier, yet had awoken with no recollection or even the sense of the passage of time was unsettling. We are talking about a serious drug. This ain’t no Jack Daniels, and the very presence of such a drug at someone's residence is most telling. Imagine finding yourself in a place where the simple routine of an evening's sleep requires an anesthesiologist. Jackson was no speedballer enjoying hedonistic recreation. He suffered from a brutal addiction developed over time addressing pain, insomnia, and the pressures of a life that despite his resources never felt under control, let alone at peace.

I'm not sure who was in the room with the elephant. Over time, the energy is likely to drill into the dysfunctional inner circle of economically dependent staff unwilling or unable to confront and stop a downward spiral. Never underestimate the power of denial. Some spoke out, notably Deepak Chopra and a nurse that refused to give Jackson what he wanted, protesting, "You could die!"

I don't wish to come across as overly judgmental because this particular conversation is difficult and painful. It's tough to be the friend of an addict. Tough love is tough. That said, it cannot be denied that Jackson's inner circle failed. He died because those with admission to the inner sanctum could not muster what is necessary to stop what hindsight quickly shows as inevitable. We know they failed. What we don't know is the extent to which anyone tried, if they tried at all.

Rialto Theater Email Campaign

Sparing the reader details, I currently lack certain technical tools, so the following will not preserve the format of the email. The text itself, however, is verbatim. The following was sent by the Rialto Theater to the community to generate support in its battle with the DTDC, which recently served the theater with an eviction notice. As I wrote a few days ago, I am not sure I follow the heavy handed approach the DTDC is taking in the situation.

I have my doubts that the email list extends to "tens of thousands" but it's a safe bet that a LOT of people got this message. The theater did offer the DTDC $1800 /month for the space until a final solution could be arranged, but this was rejected. The Tuesday, July 7 Council meeting has a good chance of featuring more fireworks than any of holiday festivities this weekend.

This afternoon's Jim Nintzel Tucson Weekly Article

THE EMAIL:

FIGHT THE POWER!
SAVE THE RIALTO THEATRE

Update on Our Situation and a Call to Action

On July 2, the Rialto Theatre Foundation was served with a 10-day eviction notice for the Green Room and Office building at 211-215 E. Broadway and the storefront at 316 E. Congress (just west of the lobby) that we use for storage of supplies and equipment.

These spaces-about 3,500 square feet-are critical for the ongoing operation of the Theatre and are owned by Don Martin and Scott Stiteler, owners of the Rialto block. The Theatre has used these spaces for the last four years. The rest of the Rialto block is vacant. The Rialto building is a gutted shell with a boarded-up storefront and the back building was little more than a bombed-out shell before the Foundation spent about $70,000 improving it for its offices and green room. These spaces will sit vacant if the eviction effort succeeds.

Rialto Theatre Foundation attorneys had been attempting to negotiate a rent deal with the owners of the Rialto Block after they made demands for back rent and exorbitant rental rates on the spaces on June 23.

On Thursday, the Rialto block owners abruptly terminated negotiations and demanded that the Theatre vacate the spaces by July 13 in a letter from their attorney to the Foundation. The Foundation had offered to pay $1,800 a month on a month-to-month lease during a cooling off period while permanent solutions were pursued, but the owners rejected the offer.

The actions of the Rialto Block owners are malicious and vindictive toward the Rialto Theatre and the Tucson community it serves.

Why are Martin and Stiteler openly attacking the Rialto Theatre and trying to cause it harm? At its June 16 meeting, the Tucson City Council discussed the proposed development agreement from Downtown Tucson Development Company (DTDC), the entity owned by Stiteler and Martin. Among other benefits to the developers, they were seeking $4.3 million in direct taxpayer subsidy for their development plans, including getting options on valuable parcels of land.

The council had many concerns about the agreement, some of which had to do with adequately protecting the Rialto Theatre. The council voted 7-0 that the developers take another three weeks to refine the plan and come back on July 7 for another vote. It was a reasonable request considering the magnitude and complexity of the proposed agreement.

The developers immediately and angrily announced that the deal was dead and said they were walking away from further negotiations. They blamed the Rialto Theatre for "killing" the deal, and Council member Nina Trasoff called the Rialto Theatre "selfish."

As a result of the City Council's vote, the Rialto block owners are now striking back at the Theatre in an irrational and harmful manner. It's not fair, it's not just and it must not be tolerated by the City of Tucson.

What Can Be Done to Protect the Rialto?

Council member Steve Leal has put an item on Tuesday's City Council study session agenda. In his July 1 memo to the City Manager, Steve writes: "I would like the Mayor and Council to consider using our condemnation authority at 320 E. Congress, 316 E. Congress and 211-215 E. Broadway and then contribute the property to the Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District for the use of the Rialto Theatre Foundation to pursue its mission.

We could borrow the funds from our reserve fund. This can be paid back after we sell the Volvo property. Additionally, we should consider using the remainder of the proceeds to stabilize and develop the Arts Warehouses with WAMO."

This is the only answer to resolve this nightmare situation.

Any other outcome puts the Rialto Theatre in extreme jeopardy. Forcing the Theatre to move out of its office, lose its green room and storage space will cause irreparable harm to the Theatre's ability to operate.

Using its power of eminent domain, the City would pay fair market value to the owners for the spaces through a condemnation process, and the Theatre would be able to move forward with planned improvements and continue to successfully operate. The Theatre will pay rent to the Rio Nuevo District, as it currently does under its operating agreement.

Some council members have expressed concern that taking the small amount of property via condemnation will send a negative message to the business community. But we wonder, as members of the Downtown business community ourselves, what is the message being sent if the Theatre isn't protected? The City must not stand by and let its asset-the Historic Rialto Theatre-be damaged by parties that are actively seeking to destroy a Downtown business that benefits the entire community and directly contributes to the success of other Downtown businesses. Supporting one of Downtown's only success stories is a pro-business action.

The community has so far invested $2.26 million in the Rialto, and the nonprofit Rialto Theatre Foundation has invested more than $1 million. This is YOUR Theatre that is under attack. The actions by Stiteler and Martin to harm the Rialto Theatre warrant a swift and decisive response by the City Council.

What Can You Do? Plenty!

The best thing you can do to help save the Rialto Theatre is to call and email as many Tucson City Council members as possible with your strong message of support. Do it now!

Three weeks ago, you answered our call and hundreds of you responded in a dramatic show of support.

We thank you for all your efforts and we need you to do it again. We need EVERYONE who cares about the Rialto Theatre to encourage as many people as possible to respond immediately.

The simple message: I support Councilmember Leal's call for the City of Tucson to acquire the spaces the Rialto Theatre needs and ask you to do the same. The City must protect the Historic Rialto Theatre for the benefit of the entire community.

You should also state why the Rialto Theatre is important to you.

Please consider doing one or more of the following ASAP:

1) Call the Mayor and Council Comment line ASAP at 791-4700 to voice your support for the Rialto Theatre.
2) Directly contact the members of the Tucson City Council via phone or email and request that they support Councilmember Leal's call for condemnation of the property through eminent domain.
Karin Uhlich, 791-4711, karin.uhlich@tucsonaz.gov
Regina Romero, 791-4040, regina.romero@tucsonaz.gov
Steve Leal, 791-4231, steve.leal@tucsonaz.gov
Shirley Scott, 791-3100, shirley.scott@tucsonaz.gov
Nina Trasoff, 791-4601, nina.trasoff@tucsonaz.gov
Rodney Glassman, 791-4687, rodney.glassman@tucsonaz.gov
Mayor Walkup, 791-4201, robert.walkup@tucsonaz.gov
3) Come to the City Council study session on Tuesday, July 7 at 2 pm and show your support for the Rialto. This is really important!

PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL FAR AND WIDE.
SAVE THE HISTORIC RIALTO THEATRE!

DTP Likely to Score TIF Trough

Downtown Tucson Partnership’s Clothmeister Glen Lyons has been conniving to get his organization a hefty slice of the TIF kitty for months. The $Kaching! occurs when the corruption lands him a sweet contract to "manage" Rio Nuevo. I speculated in Conniving Cloth last April that some acronym was gunning for the TIF trough. It’s just too much money to resist. A few weeks later at Conniving Cloth II it was clear that the DTP was indeed the front runner in obtaining a most lucrative gig, probably multiple millions per year, to make a few presentations and attend some meetings.

Not long after city manager Mike Hein’s departure and the announcement of Shelko’s ouster from Rio Nuevo, the city dispatched Jaret Barr and Fran Lasala to the DTP, each drawing about $100K salaries although, as in most cloth gigs, they actually don’t have any responsibilities. Lasala is just running out the clock, now within a few years of retirement, or perhaps as is often the case with these characters, the double dipping scam where they retire at almost full salary, but then take back their job and essentially make double pay. Kendall Bert raked in a fortune doing this with TREO.

Framer and the tea party group including Rep. Frank Antenori, the only elected official who appears to see the Cloth for what it is, confronted the Rio Nuevo board when it tried to have a closed door session to give the TIF trough to the DTP, causing the cancellation of the session. Perhaps they have only delayed the inevitable. Trying to keep the Cloth off TIF money is like trying to keep stink off a turd, and sure enough, today Andrea Kelly has a article in the Star telling us about city manager Letcher’s plan for a "new team" that will run Rio Nuevo. Who is the new team?

The Downtown Tucson Partnership, of course. The piece concludes with the sentence: The council is tentatively set to review the contract with the partnership in August.

$Kaching!

Evicting Rialto

Someone closer to the situation can tell you what the Rialto Theater actually does with the small space now making news because developers Don Martin and Scott Stiteler suddenly have their panties in a bunch about the financial urgency of collecting rent for its use.

After demanding the theater pay about $40,000 in back rent, said developers have served a 10 day eviction notice. Apparently Martin and Stiteler have either not read Dale Carnegie or don’t care about making friends or influencing people. I’m not clear these guys come out ahead as one cranks up the scrutiny, but the eviction notice extends the invitation.

While unable to offer the slightest contribution to any negotiations, Clothmeister Glenn Lyons, Director of the Downtown Tucson Partnership, volunteered to entertain those meeting on the subject by fingering his arse while eating a hot dog.

GOP Should Sink Sanford

The Republican Party needs to get South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford to resign immediately and disappear to a remote island south of the equator and stay there for five years. People thought he should quit before today's meltdown on several fronts that is painful to watch and starting to inflict damage that won’t be forgotten a in few days. The notion of having to repay taxpayers for trip expenses last year inflicted a serious enough blow to his credibility, but he has now lowered an already precariously low riding ship by having to contradict earlier statements regarding the number of times he has seen mistress Maria Belen Chapur, including having to admit that he saw her in the United States. The guy has cemented that he is a liar on top of the sheer dereliction of duty in disappearing without emergency contact information or proper delegation of authority in his absence.

Worse, now Sanford is broadcasting his cluelessness by making statements that fly in the face of common sense. After claiming he wants to save his marriage, he tells the press that he has "crossed the line" with a number of women in addition to his mistress. Without getting into whatever line was crossed (he claims it was not sex – that sounds familiar), now the wife has to contend with the fact that transgressions occurred with a collection of women, not just one. Regarding Chapur, he declared, "This was a whole lot more than a simple affair. This was a love story."

Way to make the wife feel terrific, Mark. Why not make her watch the video? Incredibly, Sanford did continue with something as damaging by telling the press, God, and everybody that while Chapur is his soul mate, he is trying to fall back in love with his wife.

UNBELIEVABLE.

I don’t see how any marriage could sustain the damage he just inflicted with that one, sadistic line, the kind of statement made by a sociopath indifferent to the suffering it inflicts, even on the mother of his children. He does not deserve her. If I were Jenny Sanford, I would hire the kind of attorney that buys meat from the slaughter house before it’s dead, the ice-veined vampire lawyer with the beady red eyes. She should deep six this piece of shit. The GOP would be wise to do the same and soon.

Cloth Conundrum

The developer bifurcation between Rialto Theater president Michael Crawford and the DTDC (Don Martin and business ethics superstar (takes after dad) Scott Stiteler) just climbed a notch with a Crawford email to the Cloth Council, i.e. the board of the Downtown Tucson Partnership, about as thread infested a group one will ever find.

Fellow Board Members,

I would like to add the Rialto Theatre/Land acquisition issue to the Agenda for discussion and action.

I would also like, after discussing the current state of the issue, to have the DTP vote on a resolution that recommends to the Mayor and Council that the City/Rio Nuevo District attempt to purchase the 4,000 square feet the Theatre needs to perform its essential functions and if those discussions do not result in the purchase of the property or if during those discussions the owners of that property take action against the Theatre that threaten its existence, then the City should move for immediate condemnation of the property.

To read a very well written explanation of the current status of this issue please read the link below.
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/the-skinny/Content?category=1063733

Also, to see a story done about the Theatre for Arizona Illustrated click the following link.
http://ondemand.azpm.org/videoshorts/watch/2009/6/25/kuat-rialto-theatre/

This is the kind of issue the DTP was formed to take a leadership role on. I hope after discussing the issue that will occur.

Thank You,
Michael J. Crawford
MESCH, CLARK & ROTHSCHILD, P.C.

Crawford is proposing the radical concept that the DTP do something, a jaw dropper in the Clothiverse. The bifurcation also provides a sense of the gaming that can develop in a world of smoke and rhetoric where competence, results, and common sense play no role. The best analysis available is Donovan Durband’s online piece at the Citizen.

In a separate but thematically related article Rob O'Dell notes the profitability of consultants who know how to weave the community fabric.

A Convenient Dawn

Before Twitter
Before Blu Ray
Before DVR
Before Blackberry
Before Facebook
Before Blogs
Before Wi-Fi
Before Bluetooth
Before LCD
Before Google
Before Yahoo
Before DVD
Before cell phone
Before Java
Before PDF
Before HTML
Before TCP/IP
Before Photoshop
Before CD
Before Email
Before VCR
Before Windows
Before Mouse

For a brief period we stood at a border between two worlds. At this border, our magazines were filled with images reflecting the dawn of a new civilization, concepts and ideas that straddled the fence with one foot in each reality.

Prescription X

As anticipated, Farrah Fawcett succumbed to her cancer yesterday with her partner Ryan O’Neil and her attending physician, who insured she was free of pain, right at her side. She was 62. Not remotely anticipated was the sudden demise of Pop Icon Michael Jackson at the age of 50. Estimates run at four to six weeks for what most know is the focal point of the story - the toxicology report.

Jackson has the signature profile of someone who could have serious prescription medication issues. The list of drug related deaths is long and dominated by musicians, actors and actresses, writers and songwriters, performers, and other artists. Consider the following small sample of those who took prescription X. After the name is the age at death and the drugs found in their system.

John Belushi (33) speedball (cocaine and heroin)
Lenny Bruce (40) morphine
Chris Farley (33) speedball
Judy Garland (47) secobarbital
Andy Gibb (30) cocaine, alcohol
Margaux Hemingway (41) phenobarbital
Jimi Hendrix (27) vesperax
Heath Ledger (27) oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam, doxylamine
Janis Joplin (27) heroin
Marilyn Monroe (36) chloral hydrate, Nembutal
Jim Morrison (27) heroin
Morrison’s girlfriend Pamela Coursen (27) heroin
Chris Penn (40) premethazine, codeine
River Phoenix (23) speedball
Anne Nichole Smith (39) chloral hydrate, clonazepam, lorazepam, oxazepam, diazepam, taprimate, diphenhydramine.
Smith’s son, Daniel (20) Zoloft, lexapro, methadone
Sid Vicious (21) heroin
Hank Williams (29) uncertain, most likely morphine and alcohol

And of course we have the original king who reportedly spent over a million dollars per year on medication.

Elvis Presley (42) codeine (10x toxic level), morphine, methaqualone, diazepam, ethinamate, ethchlorvynol, amobarbital, pentobarbital (two types), meperidine, phenyltoloxamine.

I would distinguish between speedball stupidity and the chronic decline into prescription drug hell. Something is amiss with the ultra famous and prescription medication. I can see how someone in the trusted inner circle, perhaps well meaning (and perhaps not), might suggest "one of these" to cope with "the pressure" and the downward spiral begins. Presley's death could almost be considered mercy.

Michael Jackson is a complex subject, so I am asserting nothing. Perhaps medication had nothing to do with his cardiac arrest at 50, but one of his attorneys is already talking about it, and what's up with the disappearance of his doctor?

In any case, I imagine Michael and Elvis could have quite the conversation. Perhaps they are together now and comparing notes.

The Four Stooges

Rob O’Dell has an AZ Star story (6/24/09) that begins with:

City Hall and other Tucson facilities will be shut down for five extra business days over the next year so employees can be sent home without pay to help balance the city budget.

We also have the story where Clothmeisters decided to screw the Rialto Theater for nine or so months of "back rent" in a clear act of retaliation after their sweet cloth $Ka-Ching! fell through. This comes on top of learning that the city dropped $820K on a fourth rate 15 minute infomercial intended to uh, well, uh, impress someone TBD, and of course there’s the $250K TREO paid KMK consulting for a glossy pamphlet now unread for three years. Spring Training is soon to be history, the Gem Show is on thin ice, and Rio Nuevo is a fiasco.

Why does Tucson’s economic and downtown development read like a Three Stooges episode instead of the results occurring in Albuquerque, Portland, or other comparable cities? The answer: Cloth. Instead of producing results on par with these communities, Tucson’s economic (TREO) and downtown (DTP) development agencies squander community funds to serve themselves and their friends. Instead of generating real economic value, they fictitiously attach their budgets to the unrelated investments and expenditures of others in order to fabricate phony "return on investment" figures.

Sadly, local officials (Stooge Exhibit 1) swallow the numbers like babies at juicy nipples, hopelessly intertwined with corrupt government administrators (Stooge Exhibit 2) in a mutual love-fest with the Cloth agencies and consultants (Stooge Exhibit 3) to create a perfect bed where the Three Stooges can have their love fest in a sea of taxpayer dollars. Do I exaggerate? I apply the semantics of the word loosely. Speaking more rigorously, the stooges are the taxpayers (Stooge Exhibit 4). I mean no offense to this last group as until recently I was one of them.

Ask the council what budget cuts were faced by TREO, MTCVB, DTP, TCC, or the DDC. The Cloth budget exceeds $12 M and was not cut by a thin red cent. School districts and food banks will close and and city employees will be tossed in the street before the TREO or DTP budgets drop a dollar. DTP ousted a competent director to hire a loyal Clothmeister at TWICE the salary. With city council permission TREO padded its own cash reserves by stealing funds allotted for a Goodwill program for crippled youth.

UPDATE: Upon re-reading this post, I think I failed to make my key points clear. There are two fundamental ideas I am attempting to present.

1. The cost of the Cloth is real. It is not an abstract concept. The Fitz cartoon shows the extreme, but real damage has taken place. To fully grasp it requires one to have a sense of what the community COULD BE and COULD HAVE BECOME.
2. The damage continues and may be getting worse as programs and people providing genuine value get cut/fired/laid off/discontinued while cloth gigs remain essentially fully funded. The trend is negative. DTP costs more than the Alliance and does less.

Neda Agha-Soltan 1982 - 2009

Neda Agha-Soltan, the unarmed, silently observing 26 year old woman mercilessly gunned down Saturday in the Tehran streets by basij militia, has become front page news at CNN as well as CBS and countless other sites. President Obama commented on the footage, "Heartbreaking." The Iranian regime would have to work long and hard to find an individual more problematic on the posters of its opposition. As intense public interest propels her background to the forefront of public discourse, we find an innocent, harmless, and utterly peaceful citizen of Iran. If the regime guns down a woman like this, they can shoot anyone.

As someone fond of game theory, I am almost encouraged by the regime’s credibility crippling suggestion that the footage of Neda’s death was staged. They further offend and outrage the planet with bully speak about a special court to "teach a lesson."

The genie is out of the bottle. The arrested are martyrs waiting to happen, and a young, beautiful, and unquestionably innocent woman is now the face of a movement brimming with decades of feminine resentment in a country where women outnumber men and the face of the government is an arrogant, misogynist thug. Do they have any grasp of how what they do to the arrested occurs in the new reality?

The regime is kindling wood on top of sawdust. They just lit a match and tossed it on to the pile. Sometimes this happens ridiculously slowly. Then again, sometimes you wake up the next morning to footage of dead officials.

Neda

The specific embed here may stop working as the ongoing cyber battle rages. The video is the real one, so be warned. What got me was the real time blood from her nose and mouth. I don’t think the current regime understands the new reality and the damage it has sustained. Iran’s controlled media now refer to the protesters as terrorists (what irony), suggesting the ayatollahs don’t quite grasp that the genie is out of the bottle. Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei has defended the election results as legitimate in the context of the will of the people, betraying the depth of the paradigm shift. Years ago, the theocracy’s elections followed the will of Allah, not the people.

I prefer to believe the shot was fired into the crowd without a specific target to thinking someone deliberately shot a sixteen year old girl in the chest. In either case, the image of Neda and the footage of her death have provided those seeking change an extraordinarily powerful symbol and focal point. Time will now reveal how long this Titanic remains afloat after slamming into the berg.

UPDATE: The cyber war continues. I have had to change the embed code twice. We are truly witnessing the profound implications of the new reality. They can destroy link after link, but new links sprout faster. Knowledge of what happened to this girl, and of a lot that happens, can no longer be suppressed. My sense is that Youtube searches will continue to find the soul stirring 40 second clip destined for prominence in history. Yes, I cried watching Neda die. May her death contribute to the birth millions of Iranians are risking their lives to obtain.

Blurring Boundaries

The demise of the printed Tucson Citizen may indeed turn out to be an injection of energy into the local blogosphere. I encourage the reader to consider some recent blog material at the new Citizen. One addition worth following is Meet Me Downtown by someone new to the blogs, Tucson downtown expert Donovan Durband, former director of the Alliance before it was clothified. In another case, and I’ll let Art speak for himself, we have a well established blogger taking his The Data Port inside the Citizen domain with, I might add, a burst of renewed energy. Both posted (Art here and Donovan here) material that fortified a Star opinion piece on the Downtown Tucson Development Company (DTDC) deal that went south after Rialto Theater President sent a scathing email to the Mayor and Council.

The interplay between the online newspapers and the blogosphere continues to fascinate. I believe the good blogs, while developing their own style of expression, adhere to (or at least understand) the standards of professional journalism. That said, blogs also have the freedom to operate outside the lines newspapers cannot cross. For example, when the Cloth tried to install a Clothmeister as the next TUSD superintendent, I published a post which solicited quite the thread of comments. I then emailed the comment thread to the TUSD board. It worked.

Now we have blogs republishing comments or comment threads from the online newspaper articles. At the Tucson Choices blog, Downtown Dudette posted a piece highlighting not the O’Dell article itself about the $820,000 video, but one of the comments submitted in response to his story.

The commingling of press stories, blog posts, and the comments posted at each will continue to evolve, and the readership will adapt, returning to what provides value and discarding what does not.

Raytheon Builds Its Own SAIAT

When TREO stole SAIAT’s funding and forced the closure of the training institute, I knew it was only a matter of time before Raytheon, the one company in Tucson (SAIAT’s largest customer) with sufficient resources would replace the loss with a training facility of its own. Conversation already existed about such a facility even with a SAIAT in operation. The ribbon cutting ceremony was Tuesday, and today the Star has a piece discussing the opening of the Raytheon Learning Center on Hemisphere Loop (walking distance from the former SAIAT).

The center features 12 classrooms, a kitchen and two large conference rooms. It also features digital video displays and other high-tech equipment.

Naturally, the article makes no mention of SAIAT and instead projects the image of Raytheon employees taking classes in trailers. While some classes did take place in trailers, the more accurate image is their rental of classroom and meeting space from local hotels and SAIAT (before the Cloth shut it down). Raytheon got the size about right at 10,000 square feet and of course the place has high speed wireless internet, first rate monitors, computers, projectors and screens, whiteboards, copying services, mobile tables and chairs easily moved to alter classroom configurations, and so on.

"This will have lasting effect — it's good for the company, it's good for its employees," Rick Nelson, Missile Systems' vice president of operations, told a throng of Raytheon workers, adding that the facilities are already booked for the next four months.

The major difference between SAIAT and the Raytheon Learning Center is that instead of serving just one company, SAIAT served over 100 local employers to the tune of over 10,000 employees per year. SAIAT also had a rather remarkable cadre of subject matter experts able to deliver first rate instruction in a huge variety of subjects from simple Microsoft Office applications to highly sophisticated quality programs (Six Sigma, etc.) and information technology training (Java, Solaris, MCSE, Cisco..) as well as practical hands on stuff like IPC-610 soldering certification.

TREO decided a flexible training institute of this kind was less important than its own bank account, stealing all of SAIAT’s funding (about $200K) to place in its own cash reserves. Why train 10,000 Tucsonans when you can make a 15 minute video at four times the price?

The Cloth Curse

When it comes to economic and downtown development, Tucson appears to be suffering from some kind of curse that prevents sound thinking and energy genuinely directed towards improving the community. The well meaning and competent are destroyed, over and over again, while the self-serving, corrupt, or inept continue to be rewarded. At least when Robert Gonzales (and later, Steve Weathers) ran GTEC, its performance was reviewed and if it tried to take credit for the results of others, they were called on it. TREO could take credit for Obama stimulus funds and council members would smile and applaud. As bad if not worse, we have the devolution of the functional Downtown Alliance, a productive organization that generated numerous community events and other services, into a worthless crony capital for six figure do nothing Clothmeister gigs while it continues to connive to get paid more to do less.

Now we learn of the Downtown Tucson Development Company (DTDC) and its delicious scenario slated to occur via what has to be either corrupt or appallingly incompetent, or as the curse goes, both. ITB has the expected soft treatment piece, but the deal has all the stench of Rio Nuevo’s $9 M imaginary bridge.

Donovan Durband, Director of the Downtown Alliance before the Cloth boondoggled the place into the thrice budgeted nonperforming Lyons DTP, has a thorough and well written blog post via the new online Tucson Citizen, and the Star has an opinion piece suggesting, "Whoa!" to this deal, and for good reason.

Also crying foul, Rialto Theater President Michael Crawford wrote an email to the Mayor and Council pleading that they defer approval of the document implementing the deal until it is fully understood. What a concept. The Star piece referenced his email and clearly had a copy. Those interested in reading it verbatim can view a simple web page of Crawford’s Letter here.

I don't know why Tucson suffers from such a curse. The likes of Snell, Lyons, Barr, LaSala, and even Hecker are probably opportunists happy to inhale the greatest $Ka-Ching! possible when they see a butt bent over a railing. The causal elements are more likely to include names like Eckstrom. At any rate, Albuquerque, Portland, Austin, San Diego (the list goes on) provide examples of communities free of having their economic and downtown development efforts focused on funneling millions to a small group of anointed insiders. You do know the DTDC organized fundraisers for some of our city officials.

DC

Greetings from the capital here at The Bolger Center just outside of the beltway. The brief trip is the last obligation associated with my graduate work, presenting the dissertation to those who work with federal higher education policy. Believe or not, this is my first time in DC as events until now just never got around to being here. The tourism will have to wait until next time. I must quickly return to the new digs.

Speaking of the new digs, I was walking back from lunch, and no kidding, I saw a totally bleached white squirrel clinging to the side of a tree. I did a double take to confirm my eyes, and sure enough, the thing was 100% albino, red eyes and all.

Did you know about albino squirrels?

Until now I had never heard of them. I naturally inquired, and it turns out all sorts of animals can have the condition, from tigers (heard of that) to deer to horses to fish to (get this) kaola bears and alligators. There are albino alligators. An albino alligator is a notion worthy of a song, but I'd have to drink heavily to figure out the lyrics, let alone the tune. Then I realized someone made a movie with the title, which featured Kevin Spacey's first attempt at directing.

He should stick to acting.

A Shift Beginning

Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) brought the notion of the paradigm shift into the discourse, and skipping the details, its implications extend to the social sciences and humanities as well. Peter Senge’s distinction "mental models" in his classic, The Fifth Discipline (1990), is among the most powerful presentations of the concept.

The 2008 financial meltdown brought about by the systemic betrayal of the nation by long trusted organizations has led to a paradigm shift that remains to be fully understood. In the past we expected corporations to operate in ways that serve the country’s best interests, thinking the market rewarded adept and ethical behavior. We have painfully learned that in exchange for a short term windfall, self-serving executives will (and did) throw both company and country off a cliff. They have eliminated all doubt that they are no longer ethical, responsible, or competent. In light of this, the American public has lost trust in corporate America.

A recent poll asked whether insurance companies or the government should be trusted with respect to health care:

The Government: 92%
Insurance Companies: 8%

Profit ravenous insurance companies seek a system of fat premiums for plans that don’t cover anything. American auto companies have refuted any notion that competence, vision, and merit climb their ladders, and our financial institutions? Scum rises to the top on criteria having nothing to do with generating the long term success of an enterprise, which used to be the chief concern of top executives. Sadly and with tragic consequences, the culture has changed to one concerned only with short term personal gain in an orgy of obscene salaries and bonuses while the building burns. They got theirs, and now a furious nation screams in outrage as the rest of us must pay for their carnage with our life’s work, 401K, pension, savings, employment, home, health insurance, and that of our children. Corporate hot shots raped the nation raw and left it for dead. The country will never be the same, and it will never forget.

At least nationally, the GOP has yet to figure this out or even figure out that it has to figure something out. They STILL think their ideas work, "Just get the government off the backs of GM, AIG, ENRON, Countrywide, Pfizer, ExxonMobile, and prosperity will be had by all."

They still talk like this, advocating corporate based health care and not seeing that Big Pharma and Big HMO also have the cancer infecting GM and AIG only not as advanced. How can a company survive when run by those with little to no regard for its survival? Barring a mechanism that truly causes a course correction transforming the current corporate culture, the government will end up running large corporations anyway, since they have clearly lost the capacity to generate leaders with a conscience or the slightest interest in anything other than their own compensation.

Tick Tock.

Cloth Clash at the Star Corral

Tucson, Arizona. Following up on O’Dell’s piece about cloth trough aficionados Jaret Barr and Fran LaSala, who annually snarf $100K each as cloth operatives, we have the sparring that occurred in the resulting comment thread between DTP Cloth operative Cara Rene and some former downtown supporters, starting with a reference to the volunteer effort once aligned with the DTP’s non-cloth predecessor, the Tucson Downtown Alliance. While they occur as tame to me, some remarks crossed what the Star could handle, and three of those below were deleted from the paper's thread.

#1 – Patrick M.
Yet there is no money to support the old and loyal downtown volunteer program. In fact, they never even bothered to thank them; all 83 of them, for their immediate response to the call for help for the New Years Eve event "First Night". I guess that is called "messaging."

Skipping to #66, we have DTP cloth beneficiary Cara Stuff-n-Puff Rene’s inability to resist chiming in as Lady Rubysky. Rene, a former Citizen reporter and the wife of city council member Nina Trasoff’s right hand guy, is paid $65K to show up (perhaps) four times a week.

#66 - Lady Rubysky (comment deleted by the Star)
Hey #1: Not sure where you are getting your info. But, according to some folks who volunteered for the partnership and that event, it was the former paid volunteer coordinator who was responsible for such things and never seemed to get the job done.

A cousin and friend of mine volunteered for the event and said the volunteer coordinator - who now no longer works there - was incompetent. Hopefully they will find someone better and not just rely on people who have long-time times to downtown. Better to go with people who know what they are doing rather than pander to those who are just furniture pieces.

#67 - Bob K.
The bottom line here is once you are a suck-up to the city the old boys club will always look out for you. Like others have said why do we pay another $200,000 for positions that did not exist until the suck-ups needed a new home? The city is full of suck-ups who have found out just how easy it is to do nothing in Tucson but to get paid at least $100,000.....In low wage Tucson this is big money.

The power player forced out Duncan (a total suck-up but not enough of one) from the downtown alliance and put in the wife of a staffer from Nutty Nina. All the while this is accepted from our gang of morons. The list of directors we pay over $120,000 number way over 100 this is just stupid considering the fact most of them are not qualified to perform the task that they must do.

I agree these city morons could not find money to pay for fireworks but boy they sure can find the grease to payoff total suck-ups. Just keep an eye out for that total fool Shelko he will end up on some sort of board paid by the city (an easy $125,000). Do you ever get the feeling we are getting the shaft as we always seem to be paying more money for less performance?

#70 - Patrick M. (comment deleted by the Star)
Well now Poster #66; Lady Rubysky, who the world of downtowners know to be the one and only Cara Rene, Executive VP of the Partnership and the official director of messaging, who is also the $65,000 a year 4 day a week deputy referenced in this article. Her message herein is clear, and quite aptly telegraphs the modus operandi of the new regime. Which is that knowing the people and places in the downtown community is of no value to them. Poll the merchants and you will discover that an overwhelming number of them have never met RUBY.

The former Volunteer Coordinator, who was in fact not paid, and at one time represented one of the largest land owners downtown, logged in endless hours for the merchants, happens to have 30 years of Event Management expertise with nothing but positive feedback. Such positive feedback that continues to get invitations for he and his platoon of volunteers to staff events directly for the Merchants, events like Dillinger Days, which the Partnership was unable to staff. A couple of hotels, the Gem Show, and Fourth Ave Trolley continue to enjoy the participation of the Furniture Volunteers. It is the communication style of DTP executive staff that is legend, so it would follow that they want to work only with friends and family. Watch closely dear readers as the probability is quite high that Ruby will either be getting a raise or one of her "cousins" will be the actual paid volunteer. Any bets?

All is well that ends well, and not volunteering for such a supercilious group is quite a relief, especially for retired Marines and soldiers, the same relief that has been afforded three of the former staffers who were not able to tolerate the unique communication style of the management and resigned. This furniture has ears, self-esteem and a positive zest for life currently vacant in Rubys world. That furniture is me - the former volunteer, the furniture that many landowners and merchants in the CBD would like in their living room. Many have been friends with the furniture for 30 years. Fine furniture is not aesthetically compatible with the plastic chairs of the DTP anyhow.

I would hope to not dip to the level of ad hominem as did Ruby the former Citizen journalist, who would do well to review the Media Law definition of libel, and its consequent harm realized. The job of sending out thank you letters, that Ruby indicates was never accomplished was in fact preceded by a comment from her General that their was no money in the budget to prepare certificates of appreciation. Wow, maybe $40. A quarter of million in salaries to oversee the canceling of most all downtown events so as to have the money to pay themselves, and they state they have no money for certificates of appreciation! Four former staffers were present to corroborate this comment. Two months after the event Ruby demanded all the emails of the volunteers so she could send the lowest common denominator of 'Thank You' note. The "furniture" was surprised that a former journalist would not know of the impropriety of placing these volunteers on a list serve without a request or their permission.

Were one to go to Middle School mentality with all this, I would say go ahead and interview the other 82 volunteers and get their impression of the time they spent with Ruby and the General. Let’s drop this and move on to forwarding our Downtown with positive people and projects, the kind that the Merchants provide on their own.

#71 – Bob K. (comment deleted by the Star)
Well now Poster #66; Lady Rubysky, who the world of downtowners know to be the one and only Cara Rene, Executive VP of the Partnership ...

Wow this explains why this nut job kept attacking me for my posting about how we have nothing but morons in charge. Thanks for the heads up she is way under qualified and overpaid just like most city managers and directors.

Cloth MO is to trash those it throws under the bus as incompetent. The fallacy of their argument is that conditions deteriorate when they take over. The Fox theater’s situation is worse, not better. The DTP is three times the size of the Alliance and produces less than a third of the results. When TREO destroyed SAIAT, the active upgrade of the skills of over 10,000 Tucson workers every year was replaced with nothing, nada, zip. The Job Training Grant support function has atrophied, and BusinessLink, once most valuable, has all but died. The Cloth continues to inhale larger and larger sums of public funds from both city and county, and it delivers less and less for the community.

While his remarks were directed specifically at Rio Nuevo, Jim Waring, Chairman of the AZ Senate Finance Committee, captures the theme of it all, "You spent $9 million dollars and didn't build anything."

Yes, they did. They built fat salary gigs for Lyons, Snell, Barr, LaSala, Walker, Shelko, not to mention the sweet deals for Hecker, Eckstrom, Kennedy, and the list goes on.

Cloth, Copper, and the Citizen

Rob O’Dell has another Cloth article today noting the recent moves of the Clothmeisters to continuously increase the flow of taxpayer funds at the cloth trough. Glenn Lyons is truly emerging as a Larry Hecker disciple, someone with the ability to rake in massive amounts of money with nothing but rhetoric, corruption, and schmoozing. Lyons DTP is getting, at city taxpayer expense of $200K / year, former Hein lackeys Jaret Barr and Fran LaSala. Lyons boondoggle $130K salary is twice that of his predecessor’s to run a larger agency that produces less. Now fully clothified, the DTP equals the ability of TREO and Rio Nuevo to squander millions on each other and their friends. Once one has the distinction "cloth" such articles are painful to read.

Despite all of the local noise and lip service from politicians including Giffords and Grijalva, the Rosemont mine is moving forward and now addressing $900 M of financing to create an open pit copper mine near Madera Canyon. Without addressing the contribution open pit mining offers to scenic locations, the full scope of the water situation has not been addressed. Yes, they have permits, but has anyone really run the numbers, the real numbers, including implications for costs? The community will end up heavily subsidizing the costs of providing water to that mine. Dig into it and you’ll find that Arizona is the AIG / Madoff of water, a permit Ponzi scheme on a collision with disaster.

What’s up with the Tucson Citizen? It now appears to be a collection of about 20 blogs. Is it any different from Lefty Blogs or other blog aggregators? Is anyone being paid anything? Is there any editing or reporting function accountable to a paid authority such as editor Mark Evans? I’ve noticed that respectable blogger Art Jacobson is part of the effort. Well, good luck to them in sorting out a design and methodology for contributing to the discourse.

2000 Miles

I did not stop in Hatch since chile season occurs in the fall, but no where on earth can more red and green chiles be found. Roasted chiles, seasoned chiles, fresh chiles, jarred chiles, chilied chiles. I didn’t have time to check out the very large dish array about an hour from Socorro, a slight regret because I am sure it is quite a sight and odds of having such an easy chance again are now remote.

I love Albuquerque, which occurs to me as a Tucson improved in every way. 2500 feet higher, its weather is almost perfect, and instead of Cloth, the town has real economic and downtown development, which means superior job opportunities and an infinitely more enjoyable and interesting downtown. The city also has a for real workforce development institute that (imagine) continuously upgrades the skills of the Albuquerque labor force. Individuals who like living in Tucson but are interested in improving the experience in about every possible metric should consider Albuquerque.

Seen the massive windmill farm north of I-40 about 30 miles west of Amarillo? It may be as large as the one in California east of LA. I stopped in Amarillo to check out the steak house that has the 72 ounce steak that is free if you can eat it including the sides in less than an hour. That is like to going to Outback and eating six steaks (disgusting). Why am I not surprised to find the glorification of gluttony in Texas?

Experientially, both the atmosphere and the vegetation start to change in Oklahoma. The moisture starts climbing and the vegetation reacts as the grasses grow thicker and more colorful. This continues as one moves north from Oklahoma into Kansas, serious grass country, and I highly recommend the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve north east of Wichita.

I completely forgot the size of St. Louis and the intensity of its traffic, which reminded me of times long ago in Chicago. Speaking of Chicago, seeing a freeway sign for it evoked quite the twinge – I don’t have the words. Starting this morning, the final day, far to the east of St. Louis and away from its congested thoroughfares, by 8AM I was on the road for the place I now call home. The trek through Illinois started with fields, and upon leaving Illinois, I could tell I was getting close. It started to get beautiful, just jaw dropping spectacular. Flat terrain became rolling hills, and the vegetation exploded into thick rich forests intermixed with luscious green moisture soaked grasses. At times the freeway became a road cut through thick woods.

I will never forget the desert, and it will forever remain a part of my heart and soul. I am now a long way from Tucson, and the distance involves more than 2000 miles.

E Pluribus Unum

The recent discussion of a bad movie based on Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1931) got me thinking. Fueled by speculation of the possibilities arising from the advance of technology, science, and the industrial revolution, the notion of utopia emerged, a world of peace, prosperity, and happiness for all. Examples include Morris News From Nowhere (1890) or HG Wells Men Like Gods (1923).

Utopian visions drew criticism, and Huxley wrote his novel both in reaction to Wells (1923) and expressing his own outrage at the USA’s culture of advertising, excessive consumerism, and promiscuity. During this time many in Europe feared that mass production, materialism, and commercialism might lead to the "Americanization of Europe" and some in America, noting communism, grew concerned about the loss of individual identity against the increasingly powerful state. Huxley’s novel hit mass production (no pregnancy), communism (no god), promiscuity (no monogamy), relatedness (no families), and individual identity (conform and consume, be happy!).

Other key dystopian works emerged from different angles. Orwell’s equally famous 1984 (1949) went darker and aimed more directly at communism than consumerism, a malicious state crushing all in its path, and instead of Huxley’s use of genetic engineering, Orwell recognized the power of thought control through the manipulation of language. Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953) created a world denying citizens the ability to read books. Burgess A Clockwork Orange (1962) addressed the legal system’s use of drugs and psychological conditioning to remove crime as a choice, and Ayn Rand’s masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged (1959), presented a new distinction, the efforts of the inept and unethical to systemically steal the wealth produced by the competent and productive.

The relationship of the individual to the collective society is critical to the whole conversation. While communism is mostly dead or dying, an arrogant and incompetent government can be just as destructive. Under W both traits infected both government and commercial enterprises. We now know what corporations do if allowed (Enron, Worldcom, AIG, Halliburton) and that they cannot be trusted to operate effectively (Detroit, AIG again, etc.). Instead of John Galt we have Ken Lay and Bernie Madoff. Instead of Hank Rearden we have RickWagoner. Where is the competence? General Motors could not be a better example of the boiled frog. Its fat overpaid suits sat in the pot for 40 years, and we think government is the problem? Making money has been replaced by taking money, any way and any how, and leap with your booty before the train wrecks.

Adam Smith’s view that individuals pursuing their own self-interests optimize the interests of the collective was refuted academically decades ago. Now we have seen self-serving individuals inflict incalculable financial carnage on the entire country. The lens of individual = good and government = bad (or vice versa) is obsolete. We need good individuals and good governance. Under the Bush administration, the worst of both raped not only the country, but the entire planet.