Refuse the Juice

The EP Times is Bi-Polar

Yesterday we talked about the EP Times' "about face" on school taxes.  They all of a sudden are worried about how much money ISD's are spending and who's watching the budget.

Today they are patting City Council on the back for spending $15,000,000 to save $2,000,000.  Tell your wife you want to do something like that and watch how fast she's on the phone with her mother telling her what a moron you are and how she was right about you from the start.

You can read the opinion piece here http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_9901007.

Anytime you start your column with,

"Taking out a loan may not sound too advisable in these troubled financial times."

you know you're about to write something completely idiotic.

There was another option for the city in this case.   They could have simply asked the utility companies to charge them less or else the city would jeopardize their franchise agreements.  No change except the price of the energy you are already consuming.  No need to worry about changing lights, retro-fitting existing structures to incorporate "green" technologies and no change orders.

Change orders?  Yeah - change orders.  Companies like Franklin Controls will practically give away their "study" in exchange for the contract to make the changes.  They estimate a cost for the city and the city accepts it.  Two months down the line Franklin Controls comes back saying that in order to put the LED traffic lights on our existing poles they're going to have to rewire each one at a cost of $10,000 per pole.  That's a change order.

Then they may figure out that the motion sensor lights don't work because there's too much natural light coming and the cubicles block the sensor and they simply don't work.  So they'll need to go ahead and install ceiling mounted "master sensors" that will run the city another $20,000 a floor to install.

This thing is a boondoggle that could have been avoided.  The city could have simply put the pressure on the local utility companies to lower their price.  It would be as simple as asking the electric company to identify something they may want of the city's in exchange for a reduction in rates.  It happens all the time every place but El Paso.

This thing is such a bad idea the "no crew" even voted for it.  My buddy Steve Ortega should have been a little suspicious when Holguin and friends voted "aye" on the measure.

I guess we'll just have to be content with more loans that need to be paid.  Something tells me that if you don't have enough money to buy something, you shouldn't be buying it.  I'm talking about living within your means.  Financing is all well and good, but we Americans have borrowed ourselves backwards and it's not healthy.

For now - the city staff can work in the dark.  It's restful and calming as well as a money saver.

The Big Contradiction that is the EP Times

I swear to God the EP Times' editorial board and staff are made up of the greatest political flip-floppers in history.  If you read long enough they will completely contradict themselves over time. 

The latest example of their tomfoolery is this opinion piece they printed today http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_9890668.

They just found out that the bulk of your tax bill goes to the ISD's.  They also figured out that nobody bothers to say anything about their budgets.  I guess since the paper is just figuring out where our tax money goes, that most little o'l El Pasoans have no clue either.  Maybe that's why nobody is looking at the school district budget.

The contradiction they created was that they were so gung ho for the EPISD bond issue last year they nearly crapped themselves trying to promote it.  I guess they had no idea that it would raise their taxes or that those taxes were already pretty God damned high! Now they are not quite calling for an audit, but almost. 

Where was their inquisitive brain last year? 

We financed computers for 30 years! Computers that will be trash in four!  That's a part of our inflated tax bill!

The EP Times was hearing none of that!  If you dared asked a question about the bond issue you'd be called a mean spirited, child hating son of a bitch.   After all, the $200 million plus bond issue was "for the children."  God knows you stop everything you are doing and you run right out and vote for anything as long as it for the snot nosed, spoiled little brats. 

Screw fiscal responsibility!  We're building a "media room" for our kids so they can learn about whatever it is they learn about in a media room.  Oh wait... turns out that "media rooms" and "multi-purpose" rooms are just places where teachers can dump their kids in front of a movie for a couple of hours while they sit around debating the sexual orientation of the superintendent.  I'm glad we paid for that!

I no longer question why we are so stupid here in El Paso.  Our biggest English language newspaper, and the main source of news and information for thousands of El Paso is no smarter or informed than the average guy on the street. 

Do like the EP Times says and try to get your nose into the school budget process. God knows they aren't going to do it themselves.  The teachers and administration will threaten to boycott their advertisers if they go do their job and look into the school budget.

I take that back - don't go poking your nose around.  You'll only be told that the superintendent needs 50 assistants and 30 assistant superintendents so that the kids will get a better education. 

Don't remind them that each year they are given more money and their scores decline. They'll tell you that it's the parent's fault.

Keep reading the EP Times they're always so good at poking fun at themselves.

Oil Prices Down a Little - Why?

I just got a little note from my media feed that oil is down to $139 a barrel.   This is somewhat good news I suspect.  But why is it happening now?  Good question.

The rise in oil prices is basically due to the idea that demand is out running supply.  Speculators are "betting" on that reality by actually buying up expensive oil hoping to sell it for an even higher price later.  Today they aren't doing so well.  Especially if you bought a few thousand barrels at $145.

OPEC and other oil cartels along with oil producing countries have found a way to sell their oil at a very high price.  They've created a bidding war knowing that the United State is completely reliant on it and China and India are about to be the same way.  They control the output thus they control the price.

What happens when we threaten to take control of our own output?  They try to scare us out of it.  Hence the sudden drop in the price of oil after President Bush announced that he was going to lift the "Executive ban" on offshore drilling. 

You have to understand that Bush's move on the offshore drilling is only part of the action needed to get it really started - Congress still needs to act.  If the oil producing cartels and countries can lower the price enough over the next few days by spreading news that they are going to pump up their output they can probably convince Congress to table the issue.  Of course, as soon as Congress says that they won't act, the price of oil will go right back up.

The last thing these oil producing entities want is the United States providing itself with its own oil close to home.  It's cheaper to bring a barrel of oil from off of the coast of Florida to an American refinery than it is from Saudi Arabia.  We can do it for cheaper and they know it.

Real action on ANWR and the offshore drilling will be held for just before the election.  Both parties know there is nothing to gain politically by making a move this far out from election day.  Voters would forget their good work by November if they acted now.  There's no sense in helping us out unless there's a usable political payback, right?

That's the sad state we are in.  There is no confusion as to why the prices are high and what could be done to lower them.  The media goes along blindly believing that this is "a complicated" matter requiring lots of different kinds of solutions.  We know better.  It's just a matter of political timing.

Come October we'll make the move in Congress to open ANWR and drill off of our coasts and the price will drop quickly.  The oil producing cartels and nations can't afford the competition.  A $60 barrel of oil will still make them plenty of profits and keep the Americans buying.  We won't have to actually drill in Alaska or off of the coast of Florida, we'll just have to threaten that we might.

This will happen again and again in our future.  We're only getting dumber as a society and becoming less likely to think about the solutions to problems than we are to bitch about them.

Best Small Cities to Live - Pay Attention

I understand that we are much larger than these cities and most of these are dependent on a larger metroplex.  They are suburbs to the city.  That shouldn't keep you from looking at the stats and then looking at ourselves. 

What categories do we need to improve in?  Where should we focus first?

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2008/top100/index.html

The Powers That Be

Joe Muench, Columnist for the El Paso Times had a good column this weekend.  You can read it HERE.

I like his thoughts on the certain political factions in town.  It something that the democratic party never talks about in public. Reyes, Chavez, Shapleigh and Jones keep their deep dislike of each other held closely, but we all see it.

The only issues I have with Muench's column is that he overstates Shapleigh's power, understates Reyes' and gives Chavez way too much credit.

1.  Shapleigh has become so polarizing and patronizing that many of his minions are backing away from him.  Some of his mantras/ideas are becoming so for out there that it's getting hard for his followers to claim him. 

Representative Byrd, Ortega, and O'Rourke are all in trouble right now for their progressive ideas.  Being "Shapleigh Campers" isn't helping their cause.  In a time when citizens are seeing red over tax bills it's probably not a good thing to attach yourself to the guy asking for more and more taxpayer funded entitlements.  Ortega and O'Rourke have made a clear effort to try and be their "own guy" for a while now.

Shapleigh is also making a few enemies by his unwillingness to give credit to others.  He calls the Paul Foster School of Medicine the "Medical School of the Americas," knowing full well that that is wrong.  This does not bring favor to him from the big money guys in town.  Shapleigh thinks he can rely on the Mission Valley to vote him into office and doesn't need the power players with all the dough. 

He's dead wrong.  Chavez runs the valley and she hates him.  It's curtains for Shapleigh if he has to rely on the Valley to win from now on.   Not even Veronica Escobar can save him.

Shapleigh does have his eye on Reyes' congressional seat, but was dealt a severe blow when our congressman was named chairman of a major committee.   He'll just have to wait.

2. Norma Chavez is a match head doused in gasoline.  She's popular with the voters, but isn't making any friends among the other politicos in town.

Muench indicates that newly elected Marisa Marquez and Chavez are on speaking terms - they're not.  Norma Chavez reportedly flew into a rage when she found out that Marquez was being courted by the Shapleigh campers and was seen hanging out with them.  Marquez is not an ally anymore.

Chavez's "fight first, fight second and ask questions third" style is absolutely the reason she's so popular in El Paso.  We love a good fight and she delivers. 

Chavez will always be a force on her own, but will not sustain political relationships.  She's way too reactionary to create calculated longterm relationships with other powerful people.

She will run for or congress or Shapleigh's seat.  Either one would piss Shapleigh off and that's fine for her.  She has a real problem with Shapleigh constant need to take credit for everything.

Chavez obviously has a score to settle with Reyes because he ran his sister against her.  You don't challenge the queen for the crown unless you're ready to be hunted down and dealt with.

Chavez can win a congressional race with her east side and lower valley popularity. She'll only last one term in congress.  Washington will eat her alive, unfortunately.

3. Reyes is on his way out.  He has most of his family sewed up in nice Washington jobs and the few that are left here in th region are great at extorting money out of people using Reyes's office. 

Reyes wants out of the game.  He's got a nice place in DC and when he retires that's where you'll find him.  He's got nothing left to win here in El Paso. He walks away a champion much to the dismay of Chavez and Shapleigh.

4.  The Jones network is almost dead.  Luther seems to be able to slide in his candidates in low turnout districts like east side.  His success won't last that much longer. Besides, there's no cold hard cash being exchanged anymore so the fun is all gone for Luther and his buddies.  What's the point of having an office if you can't make some cash off of it?

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The next big faction will be conservative and it will come in on a wave of tax frustration.  There will be lots of "converts" ready to make a huge change in their political affiliation.  Their pocket books will finally squeeze them over to the other party.  Who will be the next political "boss" in town?

The 10th Floor Follies

Looks like a certain administrative assistant on the 10th floor will not be around for Secretary's Day next year.  Rumor has it that this is the third such assistant to go through that specific office recently and this one is leaving without two weeks notice! 

I'm not going to say exactly which council member is burning through our local workforce, but her name rhymes with "Smachel Ventana."

Folks below the 10th floor are telling me that she has been trying to hire random people off of the street.  The rumor is that when she's riding around town on the bus hanging out with her beau (that's Hollywood speak "boyfriend") she's conducting interviews.  Sometimes those people can't even pass a simple background check (warrants).

That little drama got me to thinking about 10th floor staff and how come City Council wasn't required to cut the fat?  If you know the City, you know that much of the assistant staff is gone all day and only serve to spread rumors and gossip about each other and their bosses. Why can't they be cut? 

Why do the departments that actually provide services to the community have to be cut?

What function are the staffers up on the 10th floor really serve?  Can an answering machine do their job?

Who's in charge of doing the hiring?  I looked at the city charter and it seems that the assistants actually work for the City Manager.  Shouldn't she be the one hiring them?

I hope someone can answer these questions.  If you do have the answers, just leave them with my assistant!

A Break from Important Political Gossip - The Food Column

Here are five foods I dislike. 

1. Potato Salad
I'm pretty sure the only problem I have with potato salad is the little piece of celery they put in it.  Celery is what you put in food when don't want people to enjoy it.  I don't mind the other goo so much as I do the damn celery.

I'd be remiss if I didn't ask why people don't simply ditch the potato salad and go to the most popular potato dish of all time.  Why not mashed potatoes?  The base of the dish is potatoes and a shitload of butter (shitload = 3 sticks per medium sized mixing bowl).  You can then add cheese, garlic, bacon or any other hosts of goodies.  The one thing not called for in any mashed potato recipe is celery.

2.  Tuna Salad
I honestly don't know what's in tuna salad, but it's gross. I'm pretty sure it has celery in it too. 

3. Celery
Might as well give the vegetable its own number on the countdown.  I can remember as a kid in daycare (yes, I both abused and abandoned by my parents daily) they would attempt to get us to eat celery by dipping it in peanut butter and put raisins on top of the peanut butter.  They called this "ants on a log."  I often indicated to the day care staff that I would rather eat real ants off of a real log than stick celery in my mouth.

It should be noted that later on in my daycare career I was able to successfully convince the Peter Pan Peanut butter company to take an official stand on the practice of mixing celery and peanut butter.  Peter Pan wrote a letter to all daycare centers saying

"Stop screwing  up our product by serving it with celery.  Our product should be shuttled to the mouth with either toasted bread or a spoon."

4.  Quiche
The famous "egg pie" I hate so very much.  Nothing says gross like a pie made up of eggs and spinach.  Served luke warm and either in pie form or miniature pie form it's never a crowd a pleaser.  The only reason anyone ever eats "egg pie" is that it's mysteriously always served alone.  It's as if "egg pie" made some deal in the international food union stating that it shall be served alone.  I'm no too sure potato salad didn't make a similar deal for picnics.

5. Meatloaf
This food shares its name with a terribly fat and untalented singer, now actor, from the 70's, and oddly tastes what I imagine he would taste like - nasty. 

Meatloaf is much like the tuna salad above, I have no idea what's in it and I don't like it.  Anything you have to smother in something else (think celery) to enjoy is a bad food.  I'm referring to everyone's inclination to put ketchup on meatloaf.

I'm more fond of canned "meat product" than I am of this food.  I have a hard time understanding how meatloaf is considered "comfort food."  I'm not comfortable eating a blob of some kind of ground meet with random thinks like onions in it.  My mom's penchant for making meatloaf with bell peppers is the only reason I moved away from home to go to college.

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Please don't get upset if you like these foods.  I'm not attacking you, I'm attacking the food.  Do not take my dislike for celery personally.  No matter who you are, I wasn't think of you when I was think of these foods.

Blind Item Update - 10th Floor Invitations!

The other day I asked the question

"Who may have broken the law by handing out of a certain kind of invitation to city employees?  Bet you can't guess who it was and what kind of party they were throwing!"

Well the answer is Representative Emma Acosta. 

Here's what we know right now.  City Representatives received invitations through the mail asking them to attend and contribute to Acosta's "retire the debt" party.  I have not confirmed whether the interoffice mail system was used to deliver these invites.  If so, that's illegal. 

I have heard that staff did receive the invitations.  There are ethical questions about city employees being solicited for campaign contributions by someone who is their "superior," even though the City Manager does the hiring and firing now.

If you have any more information I'd like to hear about it at karlsruher@gmail.com.

Smachel Ventana did not contribute to this article, but we're hoping she will.