BS Below and Above
Tucson, Arizona. When SAIAT closed its operations, not one word appeared in the press, not even Inside Tucson Business, which ran a full page editorial and multiple page article when its Executive Director resigned in June of 2003. When a certain blogger resigned in May 2007, the Arizona Daily Star printed a sentence. When the place closed down completely in December 2007, not a peep. Mind you, Tucson Newspapers, which owns both the Star and the Citizen, sits on the council of trustees of Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, Inc. A certain question makes some less than cozy, "Why'd you slash SAIAT's funding 55 percent?"When a business moves into town or expands into new space, it's front page news. Headlines abound and certain suits are quoted in the paper about the city's becoming a particular valley. We're "optics valley" or "semi-conductor valley" or "bio-medical valley." The reality of the average Joe Tucson is resort valley, golf valley, retail valley, and call center valley.
When the bad news occurs, far less is printed, and the suits say little or nothing. The Star did mention the Murata Power Solutions layoff of 76 workers and Hart & Cooley's closure that will displace 140 workers. No mention of Roach. Tucson Copper Hill Estates is filing for bankruptcy. Few realize that just this year over 25 companies have had serious layoffs.
TREO doesn't like to talk to closures and layoffs, and for good reason. When Texas Instruments announced it was eliminating 300 jobs last October, a TREO Senior Vice-President referred to the jobs not eliminated as positive news: "It shows Tucson still offers the company institutional knowledge. And keeping higher skilled, higher wage jobs is part of our economic blueprint." (Citizen, 10/23/07)
Speaking of stupidity, this week Eggplant offered his thoughts, "I believe we are a resilient economy."
Eggplant's speech writers know he cannot engage with intelligent discourse, so they invent statements for him to refute. He starts with "Some say" or "There are those who believe" and then fabricates a flawed or oversimplified assertion, "We are losing the war." Then he then counters the invented assertion with a prepared rebuttal, "But I can tell you we are making progress."
Quoting AP Reporter Jennifer Loven: A specialist in presidential rhetoric, Wayne Fields of Washington University in St. Louis, views it as "a bizarre kind of double talk" that abuses the rules of legitimate discussion.
"It's such a phenomenal hole in the national debate that you can have arguments with nonexistent people," Fields said. "All politicians try to get away with this to a certain extent. What's striking here is how much this administration rests on a foundation of this kind of stuff."
Bush has caricatured the other side for years, trying to tilt legislative debates in his favor or score election-season points with voters.
Consider these statements. The reader has my word every single one took place:
EGGPLANT:
1. Some look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude that the war is lost and not worth another dime or another day.
2. Some say that if you're Muslim you can't be free.
3. There are some really decent people who believe that the federal government ought to be the decider of health care for all people.
TREO:
1. A community of highly educated people, supported by a fully-funded continuum of educational opportunities that responds to the needs of all citizens, while meeting and exceeding national standards.
2. A region where our children and grandchildren can stay and build rewarding careers.
3. Giving our children access to quality education and training existing workers for higher-skilled jobs are paramount to the region’s economic success.
As Cigar Man asserts, it is all about looking good and fabricating a conversation that perpetuates the rhetoric and keeps the clothing on the emperors.
Meanwhile, Canada is looking for workers. A local business can help, and you might get health care.
posted by x4mr at 10:12 AM
4 Comments:
Interesting, as usual. Hillary Clinton I would assert is also engaging in the same kind of talk. That people are so easily manipulated is frustrating.
What can TREO possibly be thinking when it comes to workforce development? Their blueprint actually has language about employer demand driven training, and they shut down the only place in town that did it effectively except maybe New Horizons, and NH only does what turns a profit.
Cigar Man is right. Everything is backwards. People serve their own agenda and THEN find the words to justify themselves.
We want to fire so and so. Find a reason. We want to invade Iraq. Find a reason. We want to shut down SAIAT and steal its funding. Find a reason.
By the way, what reason did TREO create for taking the money?
My sense is that there would be similarly fertile ground for another blog to explore, unearth, and disclose the disparity between rhetoric and performance at one of TREO's sister Regional agencies, the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau. Or perhaps with the dragon having been slain at TUSD, this could be another topic of inquiry for Sustainability, Equity, Development.
If the elected keepers of the public purse-strings were to simply survey the membership of that organization, they would very likely turn up some accountability issues that would give them a place to start in tackling their respective operating deficits.
There is Something Else going on besides the happy haze emanating from the orange and yellow headquarters building downtown.
Just as TREO claims credit for all of Tucson's new jobs, but is not responsible for any of the job losses, the MTCVB claims responsibility for the Match Play Golf Championship, the gem show, spring training, the rodeo, and whatever else it can, while disavowing any responsibility for the loss of conferences and conventions that choose to leave our city.
The Town of Oro Valley has already begun to put the Bureau under the microscope in a way that the city of Tucson has not even contemplated yet. In fact, OV has cut its contribution to the Bureau by about 50% in the last couple of years due to dissatisfaction in its performance and concerns about simply getting the town's money's worth.
The city and county both give MTCVB significantly more than they give TREO. To whom much is given, much should be expected.
Here's a "breaking news" story from Starnet on job training funds:
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/229843.php
I saw that. You might be clear, but it would be easy for some to confuse different grants. The Federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) money provides job training grants for dislocated workers and other specific populations, usually distressed. The article is about this money, and the drop is significant for the laid off worker population.
The Department of Commerce Job Training grants administered by the state of Arizona are a completely different animal. That money is obtained from a slice of the unemployment insurance tax that employers pay, and it can be used to train incumbent (already employed) workers. City OED helped companies obtain millions in training reimbursement using the DOC program. TREO (so I heard) has mostly abandoned providing this assistance.
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