Travis Comment

Tucson, Arizona. The blogger Travis posted the following remarks eight comments deep at the Framework Bifurcation piece posted here Saturday. Well, I'm impressed.

What bugs me… especially when we’re talking in x4mr’s latest post about the dumbing down of America… is how we collectively tolerate the bad leadership happening around us at the local level.

I don’t perceive that there’s any sort of conspiracy within the "ranks that be" (referring to Tucson leadership, including politicians, appointed jobs, the economic development crew, and even those referred to as "power players"). Also, we have to note that the "ranks that be" is fairly fluid. Some players are more powerful in some areas and not others. The cast of characters changes with elections, job changes, and other horizons. And, though they are influential, they are by no means a single force or all on the same song sheet.

From having followed the blog for a while, I’m able to see that many of x4mr’s readers are quite intelligent… and at least two I’ve been able to identify are actually part of or connected directly to the "ranks that be".

The truth is, anyone here could go be a part of the "ranks that be". It takes a bit to make all the connections… but anyone here could go down and offer to help as a volunteer w/ TREO or any number of projects connected with the city or county… First they ask you to be part of a committee… you work your way up to committee chair. Play your cards right and you can eventually get asked to serve on a board. Might be with the symphony or the zoological society or a downtown development group (does Rio Nuevo exist anymore?). Money certainly lubricates (though proverbially silver-spooned, Glassman still had to build friends/ fans/ supporters), but, by nature, it’s political. You make your connections, do your favors, build a circle of friends/fans/supporters, you show effectiveness, and you get there.

But, the other truth is, anyone here could have a "bowflex body", too. You eat right, exercise (it’s not 20 minutes, but an hour a day), and it just happens. But we get lazy and distracted and it doesn’t happen. It’s not our focus. Easier in theory than actual practice… because we’re human and don’t have the motivation to achieve it. Life gets in the way.

Let’s look at someone who always made the pariah… like a Don Diamond or a Don Bourn or (to a lesser extent) Don Pitt. The Dons. They’re able to work the system NOT because of a conspiracy… but because they’ve had lots of practice and have a body of experience in how to do so. It’s to their advantage. It’s smart business. And they dedicate an army of consultants, lobbyists, attorneys, PR flacks, etc. to get this done. And even THEY get screwed in the process sometimes. But, because they’ve figured out how to make it work, it looks like there’s a conspiracy from the outside. This is especially true when we blanket label a group like this… instead of parsing down to what’s really going on. We give up the ability to make a difference… or work the system to our own advantage… in favor of a label and the ability to not have to think beyond that.

This is part of what makes x4mr’s blog interesting… he’s digging down. Economic development is a mess in Tucson for a number of reasons… and a group like TREO really has little effect on those reasons except to talk about them a lot. What do you need to be effective in this arena?

First, you need sharp, tough, and motivated entrepreneurs (who are also lucky). TREO can’t do anything about that. They are patently NOT entrepreneurs. They’re politicians. Entrepreneurs are weird birds… tend to be antisocial (they’re inventing stuff the rest of the world generally thinks is stupid until they suddenly make a pile of money… then it’s genius). In fact, I would hazard that TREO would pretty much drive off a real entrepreneur. Someone like Bob Breault was an entrepreneur… but he’s on the other side of the success curve where you become a dignitary. TREO has lots of those. Many of them also think that because they made one business go, they're genius about all of them.

Bob also knows how to work the system to his advantage (make no mistake, I admire this and Bob works very hard on Tucson’s behalf). Like many involved with economic development, all the trips he goes on market Tucson AND himself. Smart. Click, Finley, the Dons… they also gain business advantage by working participating in these arenas. This doesn’t at all dismiss what they do for Tucson. I mention these folks in particular because they do a phenomenal amount for our city. But that participation is ALSO why they do so well at business.

Lots of educators participate in this blog… did you know Finley was a teacher and school principal before she took over her husband’s distribution business upon his death? She’s an incredible supporter of anything education. (She was also a huge influence on one of x4mr’s favorite congresswomen deciding to run for that office…)

Click puts a tremendous amount of money and resources into all kinds of causes, especially helping train the disabled for jobs (and employing them). (Though I don’t know for sure whether he puts money into the Goodwill effort x4mr mentioned… he basically created his own foundation to do similar work.)

I’ve already mentioned that some of the Dons are putting money-where-mouth-is in helping get downtown to take off. That’s not just ‘cause they could make some money at it. That money might actually do better somewhere else… but they actually cared about seeing downtown take off. Once cheered, now they’re used as convenient political skeet.

(As a note, I don’t have anything to do with commercial real estate in Tucson. In fact, I’m pretty unpopular with at least one of the Dons. Something to do with his wife.)

Second, to attract business, you need a favorable combination of tax advantages and available workforce. This is where Tucson struggles… and, though the TREO staff, board, and advocates would tell you all about this, they’ve been really ineffective at doing anything about it. I think that has a lot to do with the frustration with the situation. It’s all so mired in politics, bad decisions, and churn that it does nothing… which results in "cloth talk" and glossiness… but not much changes. Look at the TREO board… virtually the same crowd for 20 years (GTEC being TREO’s predecessor). You know the adage about insanity being doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting different results…

Talk to anyone who develops or brokers commercial property in Tucson… they’re the first line in bringing a company in. (Buildings being are first thing they need.) Some of them sit on TREO’s and other related boards… which is supposed to help them see what might be coming. But nine times out of ten, as a regular part of their business, they see it before TREO does. They bust their asses to gather data and tour properties for the scouts for these businesses. And they hear back all the time… we found a better tax situation elsewhere… and you just don’t have the workforce we need.

BTW, these folks will also be the first to groan and roll their eyes at TREO’s taking credit where they really did nothing. Did you know that TREO has kept the terrorists away since 9/11?

Also BTW, Tucson’s transportation issues are another factor named by company scouts on a regular basis. This includes a dearth of direct flights to major markets… and the Tucson Airport Authority really can’t do all that much about it. It’s chicken-egg. Airlines can’t afford to put flights in until there’s enough traffic to support it (and we have a top-10 airport just 90 minutes up the road). You can’t get the traffic until you have the flights…

As for workforce, another chicken-egg. Look at where graduates go for jobs after finishing at the UofA… undergrads and higher. To one stay in Tucson as other than a restaurant manager is surprising. Some try and tire of the crap that’s expected of them for half the pay of a larger market (where there also happens to be more of a social life, another major factor in their decision). There’s just not that much here for them. (And I’ll counter on the call-center thing… a lot of the reason call centers were based in Tucson was that the area is geologically and weather inert… no earthquakes or hurricanes to knock out your customer service line.) To have a qualified workforce you have to have a qualified company to keep them around. How do we jettison the fops and actually do something here?

So, my question is… how do we develop better leadership in Tucson that can take these issues on with some effectiveness? (And how do we do this without driving out the real leaders we DO have… unfortunately, leaders and fops don’t separate quite as easily as oil and water. The fops attach with leech-like jaws.) And that’s the hard part… some of this change takes a lot of time and sacrifice. A lot of the talk masks this. A lot of the talk is excused because it feels like we’re doing something when progress is glacial.

There’s some smart discussion happening on this blog. There are a number of individuals among those ranks (the good leaders) who will read his post and go, "Yeah, tell me about it..!" Who can we identify and encourage as good leaders? (That’s harder than complaining about things.) A lot of real leadership gets drowned out in the bullshit and drama of politics. A lot of real leaders (The Fox’s Herbie being an example) get tired of public positions. They get torn down, burned out at having to battle so hard to really lead. They can make a lot more money applying the same talents private position… and still have time for life.

Who can we pinpoint as a real leader? Who can we pinpoint as a fop… and run out of town (or at least push out to a job where they’re not in our way)? And an even bigger challenge, who from this discussion is willing to step forward to take action and be counted among those leaders? Who’s already doing that?
3/31/2008 12:44 PM

I won't try to add to this magnificent contribution right now, except to underscore two key points. First, Travis could not be more spot on when he points out that a proper understanding must recognize that overly lumping groups / people together obscures the reality. Yes, I am highly critical of TREO, but as I wrote at the end of Something Else, TREO is not a thing. It has components and parts, as do other organizations and agencies. Second, I could not agree more with Travis that it is easy to criticize and blame. Constructive content and suggesting solutions prove far more challenging.

I am working on a piece that tries to at least start (as Travis has here, in my opinion) productive discourse. For example, why is the press sitting on the boards of institutions they are supposed to be covering as objective journalists?

Special thanks to Travis for taking the time to contribute to the conversation. At least one blogger is most appreciative.

Infotainment and US Anti-Intellectualism

Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times has an excellent opinion piece today called With a Few More Brains. Rather than re-write, I'll just quote directly:

A 34-nation study found Americans less likely to believe in evolution than citizens of any of the countries polled except Turkey.

President Bush is also the only Western leader I know of who doesn’t believe in evolution, saying "the jury is still out." No word on whether he believes in little green men.

Only one American in 10 understands radiation, and only one in three has an idea of what DNA does. One in five does know that the Sun orbits the Earth ...oh, oops.

"America is now ill with a powerful mutant strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism, and anti-intellectualism," Susan Jacoby argues in a new book, The Age of American Unreason. She blames a culture of "infotainment," sound bites, fundamentalist religion and ideological rigidity for impairing thoughtful debate about national policies.

He notes how Bill Clinton deliberately disguised his intelligence for fear of alienating the American populace. Politicians who come across as too intelligent suffer at the polls. (WTF!) Susan Jacoby asserts, "Our country is barely smarter than a fifth grader - no wonder it's drowning in religious fundamentalism and political ideologues on both sides."

Jacoby's earlier book, Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism was named a notable book of 2004 by The Washington Post and The New York Times. The Times Literary Supplement (London) and The Guardian named it Outstanding International Book of the Year.

The article concludes with:

The dumbing-down of discourse has been particularly striking since the 1970s. Think of the devolution of the emblematic conservative voice from William Buckley to Bill O’Reilly. It’s enough to make one doubt Darwin.

There’s no simple solution, but the complex and incomplete solution is a greater emphasis on education at every level. And maybe, just maybe, this cycle has run its course, for the last seven years perhaps have discredited the anti-intellectualism movement. President Bush, after all, is the movement’s epitome — and its fruit.

INDEED.

Framework Bifurcation

Tucson, Arizona. As I've posted, TREO is having a shin dig on Thursday to take credit for all economic development progress the community has made since "its inception." Jobs created and capital investment figures will be presented. They will skip the layoffs and closures. The University of Arizona, arguably the brightest light in the entire city, recently obtained a significant and substantial Bio 5 Grant. An anonymous commenter assures us TREO will take credit for this achievement.

In conversations regarding economic development, I have encountered two what appear to be completely opposite perspectives.

In one corner we have Economic Development Guy, a confident and knowledgeable professional in town who espouses the view that our lack of genuine progress in economic development (i.e. results that are not already going to happen anyway by virtue of being where we are) is intentional and designed with intent to serve those in influential positions. His perspective is that all is fine if you are in the right circles. The system works and produces the desired results for those who operate the controls. The Larrys and Jims and Dons and the rest enjoying the top of the mountain adeptly manage the affairs of the community for their own interests. I refer to this perspective as the Competent Controllers.

In the other corner, Cigar Man asserts the opposite view. From his perspective, our economic development efforts are run by inept morons. Progress proceeds in spite of, not because of, idiots incapable of producing any measurable results. The incompetent and arrogant buffoons bungle around and talk nonsense to each other as screw up after screw up occurs ad nauseam. I refer to his view as the Cloth Fest.

At some point we must shift from discussing the problem to considering solutions. Until then, who is right?

Competent Controllers:
1. The persistence of the clowns getting away with their antics
2. The lack of any press coverage of the antics and board incest
3. Swine stuffing at the trough with no accountability for results
4. Closure of the only source of subsidized customized training for employers
5. An economic development guru promoting the creative class visits Tucson
6. Economic Development individuals awarded credit for results they did not produce
7. Tucson employers continue to enjoy a cheap labor pool

Cloth Fest:
1. Losing the baseball teams.
2. The downtown building fiasco mentioned by commenter Travis
3. The atrophy of BusinessLINC
4. Closure of the only source of subsidized customized training for employers
5. Flying a con artist to Tucson to promote gay bohemians
6. The clowns brazenly claim credit for results they did not produce
7. Tucson employees continue to suffer in low paying jobs

Build It and They Will Leave

Tucson, Arizona. The Arizona Daily Star has a Patrick Finley piece today about the departure of the Chicago White Sox to a park in Glendale and the all but inevitable exodus of the remaining baseball teams from Tucson. The Diamondbacks and the Rockies also want out. Why? Ask a different person and get a different answer. Spring training in Tucson was a great idea and a lot of fun. I enjoyed watching Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling pitch from a seat right on the first base line in the third row. So what if the beer was six bucks? Some would assert that those responsible for economic development would recognize spring training as a valuable resource to be supported and managed with a degree of competence and ability to produce results.

Apparently not. An anonymous comment at the thread about the TREO feast next week asserts they are going to take credit for a large University of Arizona Bio 5 National Science Foundation Grant. Liza has suggested that TREO invented the internet, and an email advises they are the masterminds behind post-it notes, bluetooth, and chicken nuggets, "Parts is parts!"

I ran into "economic development guy" again. He and Cigar Man do not see things the same way. Either that, or they see things the same way but have completely different frameworks for explanation. Econ Guy is entirely functionalist, asserting that TREO is performing its mission perfectly, which is to maintain status quo and produce glossy nonsense. Established profiteers in posh positions seek to perpetuate a system that works well for them. Everything is terrific for certain Larrys and Jims and others and no one is to change a thing. Econ Guy confirmed that while not alone, this blog did play a part in influencing the TUSD board to select a superintendent who had experience in education.

I asked him what was so functional about the loss of spring training after spending $37M on a ball park. I asked him what was functional about the imminent failure of the Fox Theater after spending $13 Million to renovate it. That's $50 million dollars. He laughed, "Check your premises," producing a flash back to Atlas Shrugged. I just looked at him, and he cut me a "I thought you were supposed to be smart" expression. Then he sighed, "Who makes money?"

I made a face and he smiled, "The system is about serving the taxpayers."

Then he winked, "Some of them."

Crashing Cloth

Tucson, Arizona. A certain blogger and friends have obtained tickets to the "invitation only" cloth fest TREO will hold at the Westin La Paloma on Thursday, April 3rd, at 4 PM. Roach and his band of do nothing goons will be on parade in suits taking credit for every investment, every job, every lease, every loan, every sale, and every new tenant into any space anywhere. If you bought a burger at In&Out last week, that economic development was the result of TREO's spectacular performance. Nothing in this town economic happens outside of TREO's awesome horsepower.

Supporters are encouraging me to attend and confront the insect right at the podium about his theft of funds allocated to other agencies.

They want a scene like Harrison Ford at the banquet in The Fugitive where I walk to the front of the room during scum's address and confront the SOB about his crimes. Over thirty people currently attending have promised they will stand and cheer as I step on stage and demand an explanation.

Should I do it? You only live once.

Two Standards and The Nail

The current sequence of events in the presidential election have caused me to consider the existence of a disturbing pathology that makes it virtually impossible for anyone extraordinary to stand a chance in politics or many other endeavors. The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.

Unfair standards, scales, and expectations develop that derail and destroy the superior candidate or performer. I assert this occurred in the race between Gore and Bush in 2000. The country knew Gore had a brain, in depth knowledge of the world, an understanding of foreign policy and global respect. If Eggplant managed to get through a debate without wetting himself, he did "pretty good." The contrast in standards was shocking. Gore could provide answers with twice the insight, twice the grasp of the facts, and infinitely more clarity. So what if Eggplant was a moron? The country knew Eggplant wasn't really that good at the word stuff. He was "down to Earth."

We now see the same occurring. Barack Obama is performing at a level superior to the other candidates, but all the country does is raise the bar on him and let others off the hook. McCain can flounder all over the place as the reader has no doubt seen, and no big deal. Obama's preacher takes front and center before the nation. McCain can accept the endorsement of wacko preacher John Hagee advocating immediate war with Iran and barely a peep from anyone. Care to hear some of the sermons this character delivered? Are we getting the best hits of the ministers Hillary heard over the last thirty years? She also enjoys the freedom from the horde of inflamed, obsessed, fanatical pickers in search of nits.

Are we really going to hyper-analyze and blow up every remark, every word, every sentence, seeking to see if we can find an imperfection? If so, then we should apply it equally to every fu**ing candidate and have the most utterly STUPID, ridiculous and unproductive conversations the country has ever had.

When Bill Clinton was running for president while Eggplant Senior was in the White House, unauthorized access to passport records occurred, presumably to try to uncover something useful in alleging Clinton tried to dodge the draft. Now, under Eggplant's administration, three breaches of security have occurred regarding Obama's passport files. Like father, like son.

If Jesus Christ descended on Earth today and ran for office, we'd crucify him a second time. Can you imagine "Turn the other cheek" in the context of the fear mongering fanatics currently in the White House? They would portray the message as suicide. If this hasn't been produced as a film yet, it should. Surely someone has produced a film or written a novel where Christ returns and the Jesus freaks become the most adamant about killing him for heresy. Iris Murdoch has a metaphor for Christ in A Fairly Honourable Defeat but surely a more direct work has been produced.

Events of the past few years have produced a cynicism difficult to resist. The system does not elect the superior candidates. The system elects the candidates that best preserve the system. Change agents are perceived as threats. Our government does not want a President Obama. McCain and Clinton have been sufficiently indoctrinated, absorbed, and assimilated into the machine so as to never operate outside of its boundaries and expectations.

If my theory has merit, expect the following over the next few months. Obama will face incessant nay saying and fault finding of every speech, every statement, every development. He will face relentless, brutal scrutiny and negatively biased spin. McCain could allege that Iran has usurped control of US Catholic High Schools to abduct virgins for sex slave camps in Tehran. We'd forgive him. After all, he's old. We have already shown we don't need a president with any mental faculties.

Obama Makes History

Barack Obama made history on March 18, 2008 in a speech that will go down in history as one of the most profound and authentic on the issue of the racial harmony so desperately wanting to happen in this country, perhaps the best since Martin Luther King's famous "I have a dream." It sets the depth of his character apart from the insiders who run against him. The nation has a clear choice, and those that reject the pearl are swine.

If the country is too stupid to stand for its own health care, to demand an equitable economy that allows the committed and competent to be compensated instead of exploited, then it deserves to be discarded by the corrupt politicians it elects. Perhaps CEO's make $500 M salaries because we vote for politicians who serve CEO's. Obama can speak to the diversity, both racial and economic, of this nation. He understands the economic suppression of the lower classes to benefit the upper classes.

The speech is history, every word riveting and dripping with the soul of an authentic human being committed to a higher reality. Perhaps the most brilliant line involved the distinguishing of the pastor's paradigm of a static reality. Reality is not static.

The country has been granted the rare and golden opportunity of a superior candidate for president, perhaps the best in our lifetime. If we squander this chance, God help us. My enthusiasm for a Hillary Clinton White House matches that of John McCain. Both represent tired, old school thinking, the manipulation of a childish electorate. What most distinguishes Barack Obama and makes him stand out is his willingness and courage to address the country as adults. The courage, dignity, and leadership to address us as functional and capable of unity instead of splitting and manipulating morons paints a contrast so stark against Limbaugh, Rove, and the rest of the demons.

Barack’s speech had the extraordinary courage to regard the American public as articulate and intelligent enough to respond to an address delivered at a level higher than the fourth grade. On March 18, 2008, Barack Obama demonstrated genuine leadership, an authentic voice of commitment towards a future for everyone, not just the insiders. No election has captured my heart more than 2008. If once again the country does dumb, if the swine toss the pearl to elect more of the swine, I am so screwed.

So are you.

Lake of Fire

Best known for his documentary American History X about white supremacist hate groups, Tony Kaye has produced Lake of Fire, a brutally intelligent and accurate documentary about the abortion debate in the country, the seething rage on both sides, the murders committed, the women involved, the biology of it all, and the extraordinary suffering experienced by everyone.

The film is an excruciating experience that produces outright nausea and the tactile sensation of fear. What SHOAH is to the holocaust, this film is to abortion, and it accurately captures the inherent misogyny of the fanatics as well as the graphic brutality of the procedure. Watching the movie puts a person about as close to the experience of having an abortion as possible without having one, and anyone thinking women make the choice casually have no grasp of the concept. Those who watch will clearly see that the film does not take sides but instead uncovers the deeper constructs of the forces involved.

Extremely thorough, the film includes footage of Flip Benham, Dr. John Britton, Pat Buchanan, Noam Chomsky, Alan M. Dershowitz, Michael Griffin, Paul Hill (the first person executed for murdering a doctor who performed abortions), Emily Lyons, Norma McCorvey (the "Roe" in Roe vs. Wade), John Salvi, Randall Terry, Sarah Weddington, and many others to uncover the deeply unsettling and disturbing psychoses at play.

The film will not change a viewer's position, but it will deepen the distinctions and the awareness of the situation. An incredibly educational production fifteen years in the making, in two and a half hours Lake of Fire puts the ugly right on the table and turns up the lights full blast. It delivers front and center, directly over the plate hard and straight, reality distilled.

Do you want to see?

Solarcon Valley

Tucson, Arizona. A group of extremely intelligent and highly educated scientists from the University of Arizona and certain high technology companies gathered at a home on Fourth Street this morning to listen to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and other members of the Congressional Committee on Science and Technology. Most of the conversation at the house involved education (math and science in particular), funding for research, and energy. Giffords chaired a field hearing of the committee on solar energy immediately afterwards.

Started 50 years ago in response to the launch of Sputnik, this committee is the least partisan in Congress (Ralph Hall (R-TX) flew to Tucson for the hearing) and has close ties to education and a certain blogger’s heart. Sputnik and the cold war played a huge role in the Higher Education Act of 1965 and the explosive growth of higher education capacity. We created NASA and invested in cerebral horsepower that fueled the greatest economic expansion and propelled us into world leadership.

At both the house and the hearing, Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) addressed the audience via speaker phone, his ability to attend impacted by airplane trouble. Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-AZ) spoke, pointing out that Arizona has sunlight over 300 days a year. Committee Vice-Chairman Lipinski (D-IL) spoke to the interest in solar power during the seventies suddenly dying in 1980. (He did not mention why, i.e. the election of Reagan and the reversal of pro-education sentiments, pro-solar sentiments, and the idea that government should do something other than favor friends and kill people in other countries.)

At the house event, Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) heaped praise on Giffords, in so many words saying she was the strongest advocate of solar power in the entire Congress and becoming a powerful leader in the committee.

At the hearing they got technical. Mark Mehos taught me a lot, first pointing out that the American southwest has the greatest solar capacity of any location in the world, with enough sunlight to generate ELEVEN TIMES the current electricity production of the entire country. Arizona, Nevada, and more than I thought, south eastern California kick solar butt.

Then Mr. Hansen of TEP discussed the The Solar Grand Plan published in the January 2008 issue of Scientific American. Solar energy uses proven technologies. They work. All of the systems have been developed to virtually bulletproof reliability. The article is quite "the thing" of the solar energy community.

I'll skip the technical details of utility scale solar energy either dispatchable (parabolic trough, power tower, linear fresnel) that use sunlight to create heat to produce steam for turbines vs. the non-dispatchable (dish/engine, concentrating photovoltaic, flat plate) that generate electricity directly.

What happened today was solid cerebral horsepower engaged in intelligent discourse, part of what is desperately needed if this country is to avoid going off the cliff Eggplant has pushed us towards. The hearing was necessarily very structured, but at the house Rep. Giffords fielded intelligent questions from assembled experts. Today confirmed my speculation of four years ago. She is an information and personal development sponge exhibiting extraordinary growth. Tim Bee has no idea what he is up against, and his gripe last week about her denial of Eggplant's surveillance immunity is barking up the wrong tree.

TUSD Board Makes Right Choice

Tucson, Arizona. I am delighted to report that the TUSD governing board has selected Elizabeth Celania-Fagen to be its next superintendent. The board was split, voting 3-2 in her favor. I have already received an email telling me that the other candidate, Rick Myers, slipped from his slam dunk appointment by suggesting that "certain cultures" (i.e. Hispanics) have families that do not value education. Cigar Man posted that the TUSD board learned of this blog and read the thread posted. The Vote:

YES: Alex Rodriguez (Chair), Adelita Grijalva, Joel T. Ireland
NO: Judy Burns, Bruce Burke

What Cigar Man did not know is that I sent an email to the TUSD board with a link to the blog post. I have no idea if it made any difference, but I am glad to see they chose someone whose commitment to education cannot be disputed. I wish the new superintendent the best and hope the TUSD board and District will give her the support necessary to make a difference in a very demanding position.

Congratulations, Elizabeth, and God Bless.

Redacted

Brian De Palma (Scarface, The Untouchables) wrote and directed the experimental film Redacted, an almost unwatchable and deeply disturbing piece about the events surrounding the very factual Mahmudiyah Killings where US soldiers raped a fourteen year old girl, set her on fire, and killed her entire family including her five year old sister. The astute quickly recognize they are watching cinema from the edge with massive doses of meta-content. Quoting filmjack3 at IMDB:

like Godard with his video experiments, Redacted is about its subject but it's also about process.

Like Blair Witch Project, we're seeing things "as-they-happen" by the view-point of a camera that a soldier, Angel, is carrying and using as an in to get into film school someday...De Palma's story indicts the whole process of viewing things through the filter of the lens...there are moments when the characters realize that they're on video, and suddenly they either get irate and continue acting as themselves, or they start to posture for the camera...we get the messiness of raw camera-work from the soldier, the embedded journalists, the news media covering the story, web-casts obviously out of you-tube, and a French documentary crew doing a film on the group of soldiers covering the checkpoint.

The technique is almost a comment on itself, and it's one of the curious ideas behind the experiment of Redacted that makes it interesting. We know that when a security camera or when Angel's camera put on a seat meant to be shut off captures objectively what's going on - like the "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" scene or the plot to go after the family. But there's an inverse to this as well since De Palma is filming this with a script and with actors (who arguably are good at being naturalistic two-dimensional soldiers), since there is a stylization, yet without calling attention to the self-consciousness the audience feels during this.

The film ranks among the most brutal yet about the humanitarian crisis created by the war and the sheer degree of suffering and carnage it has created. Those wanting a taste of Iraq that will not be served on mainstream media as well as a trip into new cinematic terrain may want to take a look.

Those having seen Jarhead or Home of the Brave will find this work cuts far closer to the day-to-day, minute-to-minute gritty experience of reality. You feel like you are there. The film is the first I've seen that shows extended footage of a blog, staying still on the computer for a over a minute while it plays a video. De Palma intentionally gives the viewer time to digest the surrounding blog content, posted by a soldier's wife so he can look at material about his family. Think Web 2.0 meets Blair Witch in Iraq. Prepare to be outraged and disturbed.

SAIAT Associate

Tucson, Arizona. As I was leaving the cigar shop Friday afternoon, a prior SAIAT associate (will remain unnamed) approached the store, someone for whom I have a great deal of respect. He is one of the sharpest people I've met in this town. He produces results. I had not seen him since resigning from SAIAT last May. We started chatting and he offered to buy me another smoke, "Pick whatever you want."

Oh, twist my arm. I'd already had a cigar, so a Spellbound would have been too much. I chose the VSG Belicoso No. 1. He had a Spellbound. We enjoyed our cigars. He turned to me, "Who's Cigar Man?"

As much I wanted to tell him, I kept my promise that I would tell no one. (I have a thing about my word.) While not as involved with the local shenanigans as Cigar Man, he had some interesting news. He has read most of Something Else, and his opinion of TREO matches mine. He told me that when Roach and his overpaid goon squad found out about Something Else, it caused quite the ruckus at 120 N. Stone. Apparently they entertained the scenario that a certain blogger might go postal and invade their facility armed like Neo and Trinity in The Matrix on a pest control mission.

They either hired or seriously considered hiring armed guards to protect their quivering booties. Haaagh!! Huwaaaaagh!!

That's hilarious and ridiculous. I said that I wouldn't. That means I won't, period. What happened at a certain place and time decades ago will remain there forever, but suffice to say that if I were going to do anything, I would not preface it with a large publication articulating outrage towards my would be victims. I would not link to said publication at what is usually ranked among the top ten most influential political blogs in the state.

The articulate use words, not guns. Those who use guns don't talk let alone write. The Associate and I laughed about it. He suggested they perhaps consider me a psychopath. Everyone knows where everyone lives. With hindsight, I could have had a lot of fun with this. Send them all a copy of The Killer Inside Me at their home addresses. A week later I could have dropped by the homes at 3 AM and dumped cigarette butts around their porch and bedroom windows. Someone must have been standing there all night!

Huh. It NEVER occurred to me that they would feel physically threatened. I guess making a living by screwing others can make a person paranoid.

I told him about "Economic Development Guy" who claims the city council (not TREO and PCC - which is Cigar Man's assertion) instructed TREO to take SAIAT's subsidy. Until shown otherwise, we consider the CM claim more probable.

TREO has slit the throats of quite a few agencies, naturally helping themselves to whatever the agency received in public subsidies. TREO inherited some city and county OED functions that actually (believe it or not) did involve doing something, a problematic notion. City OED wrote job training grants, connected businesses, did Business Link, created some training programs, and some other items. A certified ANUS knows the importance of avoiding accountability. Responsibility has to be unloaded on others. They tried to dump the training grants on SAIAT, telling me I could make $500,000 charging for services city OED did for free (Imagine my enthusiasm.) I agreed to do them so long as they didn't butcher our funding.

They didn't like that.

They are trying to unload work on others as well. The Associate shared with me the frustration of those eager to find falsehoods in the story. They can't. The guy knows a lot, and not just about SAIAT. Several approached him, "Is Something Else true?" His response: "Everything I have read is accurate."

Armed guards. I can just see some potential company visiting Tucson, "What are they for?"

Meltdown Scenario Resurfaces

I don't belong to an organized political party. I'm a Democrat.
Will Rogers

Nothing can screw up the Democrats like a Democrat. The White House has been laid at their feet on a silver platter, and the odds that they will blow it just tripled. Occasionally, like the last election in Arizona's CD-8 and LD-26, we see the GOP turn nut job and lose seats they had held for years. Yesterday's results, as the reader knows, are terrible for the Democratic party.

Vermont
Obama --- 91,829 votes 59% 9 delegates
Clinton - 59,854 votes 39% 6 delegates

Rhode Island
Clinton - 106,471 votes 58% 6 delegates
Obama --- 73,609 votes 40% 6 delegates

Ohio
Clinton - 1,207,806 votes 54% 74 delegates
Obama --- 979,025 votes 44% 64 delegates

Texas
Clinton - 1,453,139 votes 51% 78 delegates
Obama --- 1,354,672 votes 48% 70 delegates

Barack Obama is holding his own in delegate count, and last night's results have bifurcated the party between young/new (Obama) and the old establishment (Clinton). I understand the new wanting the flush the toilet. The old are afraid of change. We have the ancient, ultra-establishment McCain, representing the about to die oldest candidate in the history of the country, against an also lifelong politician with "35 years of experience" as the wife of a politician. In fact Mrs. Experience has only ONE term of elected office over her young, truly fresh thinking opponent.

The Democrats were handed millions of young and excited new entrants rallying around an inspiring candidate. They squander this energy to pay homage to an inferior insider with a smaller chance of winning in the general election. Pathetic.

A race between Obama and McCain is a cakewalk and sets up the blue tsunami scenario that crucifies the GOP. A race between Clinton and McCain is a horse race between ugly horses, two candidates that keep us in the war and do nothing for 350 million Americans and everything for a few fat pigs. McCain openly declares he isn't going to change a thing. Clinton claims she will but it's nonsense. Obama is a change agent intimidating the status quo. Who is the status quo? Exceptions exist, but all you have to do is look at their age. Over 50, Hillary. Under 50, Obama. Rich and established, Hillary. Clueless and gullible, Hillary. Intelligent and educated, Obama.

Eggplant endorsed John McCain today. Wow, that's a real booster shot for the geezer crowd. Let's fire up the draft, bomb Iran, and take over the world.

A Clinton presidency will be no less divisive than Eggplant's. At least she's smarter than Eggplant. Then again, the average garbage disposal and most slices of cheese are smarter than Eggplant. I'm depressed. The idiots will now drag this nomination out at huge cost and bloodletting and forward a wounded survivor against an opponent they could have trounced without breaking a sweat. What a disappointment.

The Uneducated on Education

Inside Tucson Business this week has a Lionel Waxman column attacking Janet Napolitano's call to double the number of college graduates in Arizona by 2020. He doesn't know what he's talking about. In fact, when discussing education and training in this town and state, the depth and breath of the ignorance of many of the speakers is staggering.

The Tucson community recently shut down a customized employee development resource center that provided customized training for local employers. When the press asked the Mayor about its closure, he replied that its customers could go to Pima College instead. When Vaisala needs a one-week customized course on J2EE application development, they should contact the community college.

Waxman's piece declared that only 29 percent of jobs require a "degree," citing the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2004. Yes, let's use the national 2004 job situation to address the Arizona situation in 2020. Remember Arizona is the fastest growing state in the country, and it ranks DEAD LAST in funding for education. Also, those jobs that don't require a "degree" are terrific so long as no one in your family has one. Let someone else work for no pay and no benefits.

Growth of Job Openings by Postsecondary Education Required (Number of positions, Percent Growth from 2006 to 2016)

Apologies for lack of columns (blog HTML is space / table challenged).

Total, all occupations---15,600,000---10.4%
First professional degree---277,000---14.0%
Doctoral degree---437,000---21.6%
Master's degree---409,000---18.9%
Bachelor's or higher degree, plus work experience---592,000---9.1%
Bachelor's degree---3,074,000---16.5%
Associate's degree---1,087,000---18.7%
Postsecondary vocational award---1,072,000---13.6%
Work experience/related occupation---1,310,000---9.0%
Long-term on-the-job training---711,000---6.2%
Moderate-term on-the-job training---2,018,000---7.4%
Short-term on-the-job training---4,613,000---8.8%

Occupational Projections and Training Data, 2006-07 edition, Bulletin 2602 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, February 2006) and Occupational Projections and Training (Data, 2008-09 edition, Bulletin 2702 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, forthcoming).

As globalization and the nature of the knowledge economy shift occupations towards knowledge positions (Reich, 1992), growth will occur more prominently in positions requiring critical thinking skills that correlate significantly with higher education. Some argue that occupational classifications have become obsolete and still reflect hierarchical command control organizational structures no longer suitable in the evolving knowledge economy.

The Governor's ambitions around graduate numbers reflect Arizona's becoming the fastest growing state in the nation. The proposed free tuition for students with B or better grade averages is consistent with the nationwide trend of student directed state financial aid programs towards rewarding merit instead of helping those with financial need. I consider the cost of such a measure more problematic than its fueling grade inflation (a valid concern), and I assert having taxpayers pay the tuition of students from wealthy parents is not tenable. The program should include an income ceiling for eligibility.

The assertion that Arizona taxpayers are already subsidizing higher education more than they should reflects sheer ignorance. Cut subsidies and tuition climbs with matching aid failing to keep pace. In the 50s and 60's cold war pressure and a desire for an educated workforce produced the greatest investment in education in history. We became both an economic and military super power as a result of the knowledge explosion that resulted. Ironically, our brilliant investment produced the extraordinary knowledge economy in which we now fall behind.

Years ago, the country's politicians understood education. Then we elected a president who hated government and sought to dismantle it. His Secretary of Education, William Bennett, declared that the Department of Education should be dissolved. Today, fewer than half of our high school kids know when the Civil War occurred or can locate China on a map. Less than 40 percent can name the Vice-President. Don't get me started on math.

Beginning in the 80s, state appropriations for higher education stagnated, falling dramatically as a share of paying for a student's education at a public university. Wages (except for CEO and top executives) have stagnated and fallen against the consumer price index. Regarding financial support of workforce development, as above, so below. Here in Tucson, TREO CEO Joe Snell said after gutting a training institute's funding, "SAIAT's performance will improve." We reduce a school's funding and expect it to do more.

Waxman declares, "The crisis in our public universities is effectiveness, not affordability."

What does this guy know about the effectiveness of our universities? He talks to graduation rates without addressing the atrophy occurring in our K-12 system. Might the crisis be underfunded K-12 schools with underpaid teachers in overpopulated classrooms that graduate kids incapable of completing college in six years let alone four or five? He also alleges "universities need focus, reform, and competition, not new subsidies and a continued lack of accountability."

He doesn't think universities compete? Seen the US News & World Report Rankings (Ehrenberg, 2001)? What focus and reform is he talking about? SAIAT went bankrupt and closed, Snell's version of improving performance and economic development. Regarding lack of accountability, what is he suggesting? The budgets and salaries are public, the expenses well documented, the academic standards well managed. Growth in the time required to graduate reflects adherence to academic standards in the face of weaker incoming student populations.

Apple Computer once gave TUSD over $1 M worth of computers for labs or classrooms. The machines sat in a warehouse until obsolete because the district had no funds to configure them.

The Tucson Citizen's Opinion Piece today captures some reality, as does its article on the governor's plan.

I've met Governor Nepolitano and have spoken with her. The woman is brilliant and can talk to education like an educated person. She understands that as Arizona's population swells the quality of life suffers if we allow the state to devolve into a retirement community consisting of retirees, wealthy business owners, and a massive underclass of uneducated minimum wage no benefit slaves. Governor Nepolitano is trying to manage the growth of the state. As Peter Drucker said 20 years ago, "Those communities that don't manage growth become slums. Those that try to prevent growth become bigger slums."

Board Games

Leap Year 1988

(Peter Drucker) Tucson, Arizona. Twenty years ago yesterday on Monday, February 29, 1988, management icon Peter Drucker, the "father of modern management" visited Tucson to participate in two events. The first involved a meeting and panel discussion moderated by Tucson Economic Development Corporation's president Ed Butterbaugh and Tucson Tomorrow president Phineas Anderson. The panel discussed the changing world economy and how to be a more effective executive. On growth, Drucker said, "Those communities that don't manage growth become slums. Those that try to prevent growth become bigger slums."

The next day, Tuesday, March 1, 1988 Drucker gave a seminar on Leadership and Special Interest groups at the Westward Look Resort. Admission cost $275 ($500 in 2008 dollars). Drucker noted that special interest groups can become very powerful and exert great influence over elected officials. He cited the Women's Christian Temperance Union, which got Washington to pass Prohibition when less then ten percent of the population supported it.

Drucker wrote many books and coined the term "knowledge worker" and "knowledge economy" long before the explosion of the internet. While serving as Labor Secretary under President Clinton, Robert Reich in 1992 wrote the book The Work of Nations about the knowledge worker. Reich further distinguished knowledge positions and the importance of an educated workforce in a global economy. That same year, Reich dispatched his staff to San Manuel, Arizona to learn about an extraordinary copper company. They were blown away, and Reich flew CEO Burgess Winter to Washington to speak directly to Clinton about union-management relationships. The next year Australian giant BHP purchased the company for $2.4 billion.

Also on March 1, 1988 the Arizona Senate in Phoenix started its trial of Governor Evan Mecham on a variety of charges mostly associated with illegal loans and other financial improprieties, but his office created a lot of noise including a death threat, favors for buddies, and absurd statements like Chinese visitors having round eyes when they see Arizona's golf courses. When asked if Mecham's impeachment would hurt Arizona's economy, Drucker shrugged that a company thinking about moving to Arizona is interested in its education and workforce, not "whether the governor is a crook."

Drucker added that special interests are particularly powerful when the government is corrupt and lacking ethics. In such an environment, the highest bidders and most connected can forward their agendas at will. With the proper connections, one could even get Washington to pass legislation funneling billions of dollars to corporations making record profits. War profiteers certainly did not object to Johnson's escalation of Vietnam. Surely reasons can be found for favoring the connected. A corrupt regime might even fabricate justification for war.

The previous Sunday, February 21, 1988, televangelist Jimmy Swaggart broke down in front of an audience of thousands and confessed he had sinned against his wife. A couple years earlier, Swaggart exposed Assemblies of God minister Marvin Gorman's affair with a parishioner, and then he exposed televangelist Jim Bakker's sexual indiscretions, stating that Bakker was a "cancer in the body of Christ" on Larry King Live. Gorman hired a detective who found Swaggart in a motel with prostitute Debra Murphree. He took pictures. Murphee described her encounters with Swaggart as "perverted."

Super Tuesday loomed before the presidential candidates. Candidate Pat Robertson, competing with GHW Bush to succeed Ronald Reagan, claimed the Jimmy Swaggart exposure right before super Tuesday was a Bush campaign tactic designed to embarrass ministers. Bush became the GOP nominee and would later defeat Democratic candidate Michael Dukasis, who demonstrated terrible campaign judgment failing to understand Lee Atwater's deviant tactics (Willie Horton revolving door), common sense (wishy washy answer when asked for his feelings if someone raped his daughter), and of course, riding around in a tank like an absolute idiot reminding people of the Peanuts character Snoopy.

That May, in Miami, New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Antonio, and Louisville, middle school students squared off in Michael "Cockroach Dundee" Bohdan's annual "Combat Great American Roach Off" to find the largest cockroach. The finals took place in New York the next month. The winner produced one over three inches long.

At exactly high noon on June 17, 1988 a certain blogger-to-be caught his daughter the instant she was born in the house on Second Avenue where John Dillinger hid out shortly before he was captured in Tucson. The following Wednesday at 3:05 PM, the Tucson airport reported the hottest temperature ever in the history of the facility, 112 degrees. Other parts of the city reported even higher temperatures.

On June 28, 1988, IBM Corporation announced it was eliminating 2,800 jobs from its facility on Rita Road. Almost exactly eleven years later, on June 24, 1999, BHP Copper announced the closure of San Manuel operations and the elimination of 2,600 jobs. Eight years after that, a small training institute that supported workforce development was shut down, causing five people to lose their jobs.