Refuse the Juice

The Truth About Advisory Boards

You've probably heard the news that the city is getting rid of some of the citizen advisory boards.  If you haven't... Well, the city is getting rid of some citizen advisory boards.

Does this mean that our local government is kicking citizens out of the legislative process?  No.

Advisory boards were created so that representatives could give ankle-biters and people seeking to improve their resumes something to do to keep them out of their hair (obviously the mayor doesn't have aa problem with that).

The boards have no real authority over anything other than setting the next date and time they meet.  Most of their time is spent arguing over the next date and time they meet.  Some were so caught up in this they didn't meet for something like four years.

The advisory board gives the common ankle-biter or concerned citizen a chance to strut around like a peacock in heat.  They feel like they are really doing something even though they are doing nothing other than wasting the city staff's time.

Some advisory boards actually do things.  The Parks board and the Civil Service Board do undertake some real issues.  The others, not so much.

I'm on the Complete Count Committee that is the citizen advisory board for the upcoming census.  The chair and I are the only people who have perfect attendance.  Out of the 15 or so people on the board, only a small few ever show up and I'm sure at least five have never showed.  I made commitment, I'm going to keep it.  I think some of the other people are involved only as resume fodder. 

The whole concept is to make people feel like they're important so they'll shut up.  It works wonders. 

Getting rid of the few boards that never meet and have no real purpose is saving taxpayers money, while unfortunately setting the former members free to come to city council and badger them to death with their "concerns" during the open comment period of the meetings.

No big loss in the end.

A Little Note on Controversy and this Blog

Jaime A. is pissed.  Very pissed.  He has every right to be pissed. I leveled a very big and serious accusation at him.  However, I did behind closed doors.  He is at fault for letting it get out into the public.

Instead of just throwing my information out there on this blog, I emailed the staff at NPT and let them know what I knew.  They didn't believe, which is fine.  They then told Jaime what I had alerted them to. 

I wrote my piece on this blog chastising Jaime for being "in the can for Norma."  Nobody can deny that. I also made a clear joke about the checks being written to the Obrera chicks and the possibility of him getting one too.  

Not one person with a fifth grade education can deny that he makes a point to mention her in an unbelievably positive light as often as he can.  Want proof?  Below you'll find a breakdown of how many times each of our state delegation was mentioned by frequent NPT contributors and staff in 2009. (thanks to you know who you are for the info.  I wish everybody had a friend like you!)

Marquez
Wright =13 articles
Crowder = 2
Sito = 2
Abeytia =6
DavidK = 3

Moody
Wright = 19
Crowder = 1
Sito = 2
Abeytia = 5
DavidK = 2

Chavez
Wright = 33
Crowder = 3
Sito = 8
Abeytia = 16
DavidK = 3

Pickett
Wright = 28
Crowder = 2
Sito = 7
Abeytia = 3
DavidK = 2

Chente
Wright = 14
Crowder = 1
Sito = 2
Abeytia = 1
David K = 1

Shapleigh
Wright = 26
Crowder = 4
Sito = 11
Abeytia = 7
DavidK = 3

What isn't shown on here is how often Jaime was talking about Norma when no one else was.  I'm talking in the middle of the summer way after session was done and nothing was happening with Norma.  It was as if he was commanded by some higher power to bring up a non-subject in each of his articles.  I've looked at the Times and El Paso Inc. and can't find any news about Norma coinciding with Jaime's "news" about Norma. There's an obvious pattern. 

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Norma was making claims and I related them.  Could Norma being talking out of her ass? Surely.  Does the evidence back up the claim that Norma claims she runs Jaime?  You be the judge.

As for me having a "hard-on" for Norma - I wrote about her three times in a year on NPT.  I ding her more often on this blog, but those who travel here know where I stand on Norma.  The innocent readers of NPT who expect a certain clarity and honesty in the content don't deserve to read a weekly piece where I smash someone because I don't like them.  Sito Negron would be the first person to tell you that my fights with elected officials need to stay on my blog and away from Newspaper Tree.  I agree.  In the same respect, an author's "love affair" with a politician should fall under the same guidelines whether the author is being coerced to have that "love affair" through unethical means or not. (love affair is in quotes so that the sensitive parties involved don't think I'm implying that they are having an actual affair, which they are not)

I tried to keep the ugliness behind closed doors. They could have easily told me to go back under my rock and find something else to do.  Instead, they shit their pants and ran around throwing it at me in a very public manner.  Jaime is now dedicating a lot of space to me on his blog, which only drives more traffic to my blog.

Take it however you want.  I don't control the content on NPT and never expect to.  I do, however, let them know when something stinks.  That article stunk.

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Jaime then flew off the handle and was going to close down his blog.  Kind of weird if you ask me given he loves politics, but cited politics as his reason for wanting to close up shop.  That's up to him to decide whether or not he wants to close his blog.  However, I think it was a cry for support, which he undoubtedly got from his loyal readers.

I won't claim that this is hard.  It is not.  Writing my thoughts down is something I've always done.  This blog, my involvement in anything political and my writing are not tied to my ego.  I'm not trying to make a name for myself.  I don't introduce myself as a blogger, columnist or activist because I'm none of those.  I'm a guy who writes some things from time to time and people enjoy it.  The majority of my time is spent helping my parents with their business, being a husband and keeping my wife from throwing away my worn out clothes that I still love.  Holes give clothes character even if that character happens to reside in the armpit area - it's called "breathable material."

The problem with Jaime is that his work and his efforts are all about Jaime.  He wants to be the star. He wants to be connected.  He wants to be recognized.  I don't want any of that and that's why I could give a shit less about who thinks I'm on the take etc.. et al.  Accuse me of taking money every day of the week and I'll ignore it every day of the week. The truth needs no defense.

If I wanted to be some kind of a star, I'd be boasting about being the best blog blah blah blah.  I didn't even go claim my reward and wouldn't give two shits if I was never considered for the award again.  I suggest they give it to someone who will sleep with it at night and carry it around like it's the Medal of Honor.  I've got other things I'd rather be the best at and one of them is napping.

No matter what, you'll come read my blog.  You know you like it.  I built an audience on my delivery, not on some idea that I have secret information.  You already know what I'm telling you, you're just reading it in a different way than you have before.  Just read the catchy title at the top.

I hand off 100 percent of my "scoops."  You will never ever hardly find a "breaking" story on my blog.  I let real reporters handle that stuff.  I don't pat myself on the back for being the first to know anything.  There's nothing sexy being the first to know that some guy is facing a lot of years in jail and it's going to tear his family apart.  I'm past that.  And chances are, even if you think you are the first, you're not. 

Sometimes you might find a tidbit on here that the reporters didn't think was worth noting.  That's not a scoop, that's a tidbit.  Big difference.   Being the first to know that your aunt Cindy has a 34 year-old love child who just happens to be one of the dancers on Dancing with the Stars is a scoop.  Relating the fact that your Aunt Cindy re-gifts Christmas presents is a tidbit. 

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I don't consider Jaime a "peer" or a "colleague" in many senses.  He does different things than I do.  I don't go and get involved in people's elections.  I don't attend every political rally and try to interject my thoughts as something that will make a difference.  I don't hang out socially with politicians or candidates.  I have no friends. I have lots of enemies.  I like it that way... You don't send your enemies Christmas cards and God knows I hate Christmas cards.

I will handicap some races, but most of the time I'll just sling a little mud on the people who deserve it.  I leave the kissing ass part of my life to my relationship with my wife.  She deserves all the praise I can give - there's none left for anyone else.

This blog isn't about bettering the community (is "bettering" a word? I've never had to write it before).  My wife does a lot of charitable stuff for the community and I help her as much as I can.  Unfortunately, I'm a lightning rod for hate in this town.  Nobody wants the evil David K on their board or whatever.  That matters none to me.  I write a check and move on.  They get what they wanted in the end and I'm not bothered with a bunch of unnecessary meetings.  Any of you who are on nonprofit boards etc... know exactly what I'm saying.

So don't get some delusion that my blog is a "public service," because I'm not.  If you all stopped reading tomorrow, I'd still be writing next week.  Writing is my hobby and this blog helps me practice for the things I write for other blogs and other projects.  It's like taking batting practice - it's necessary, requires tight pants and sometimes people show up just to watch you do it.

You might be asking; "Why are you always in some public fight with people?" 

I'm an extremely confrontational person and I'm usually in a fight with people who know a little secret you don't.  I would guess that 99 percent of the world's population is extremely conflict averse.  They'll do anything to avoid conflict.  They'll let people run them over with lies, cut in front of them at the grocery store or steal their lunch out of the office frigerator (that's Texan for "refrigerator")and never say a word because they are scared to death of confrontation.

People like Jaime and the Strelz know they can push people around because they won't fight back.  I, however, won't be pushed around (this excludes my wife).  In the past people have made very bold moves against me and thought I'd sit there and take it.  When I didn't, they got very angry.  They don't like people who stand up for themselves. 

I also call bullshit when I see it.  It doesn't make people like me very much.  Nobody wants to be called an asshole, especially people acting like assholes.  Our so called "community leaders" have raped El Pasoans for many years.  I, like many others, am very tired of it.  I will risk a lot to put those who lie, cheat and steal from us in their place. 

My unwillingness to be cool with Larry Medina, Norma Chavez and the likes of other slime balls in this town has caused me more trouble than if I would just kiss their collective ass and move on.  I get my own personal satisfaction knowing that those slime balls are reading this very sentence right now and are madder than Chente Quintanilla at a tofu buffet. 

I will remain... and I'm done with this subject.  This has been way too much talking about me.  I'm not the story, everything else is.

I Don't Have a Valid Argument - so You're RACIST!

If it isn't Jimmy Carter, it's some local blogger or talk show host pulling the race card just about the time they run out of ideas.  It's a time honored tradition that has never turned out the way the practitioners have wanted it to. 

I say your bill is going to cost too much and you know that I'm right, so instead of conceding the known facts and countering with a new proposal, you just call me a "racist" and walk away.  That's wonderful. That's how things should work. 

Actually the race card is sure sign of weakness in one's argument.  When backed into a corner a person will grasp at anything to help them save face.  Calling people you may have never met "racist" seems to make the person with the weak argument feel better about themselves temporarily.  Knowing that whatever issue you are wrong on must eat them alive in the long run, though.

I like how many assume that because it just so happens that a crowd that is overwhelmingly white gets together to protest a health care bill, that it's a racist effort.  Using that logic, anytime the NAACP or the Council of La Raza meet, their ideas are inherently racist. After all, any one group of people of the same make and model gathering to express a common idea means it's a racist idea, right?  Don't backtrack now race baiters - if true for one, it is true for all.

Which brings me to a point that will anger many of those who call me racist because I don't like Nancy Pelosi's health care plan.  Did you know that the entire power structure inside the House and Senate who wrote the bills, approved them in committee and are now "whipping" up support for them is 99 percent white?  Yep, if a gathering of white people always come to a racist conclusion as has been stated, then the health care bill is racist.

Now you see the fallacy in your argument.  A group of 535 white men gave you your civil rights bill.  More than 600,000 white men died for the cause of emancipation during the civil war.  I can go on and on, but I think the gaping holes in the "you're racist if you don't like the President's policy" claim to get my point across.

Just remember what racism really is.  Remember that true racists import that view into every aspect of their lives.  A true racist will patronize a business if they see it's owned or patronized by a race they don't like.  A true racist will refuse to serve or help someone of a race they don't like.  A true racist does not hide their dislike for someone of another race behind legislation.  A true racist will tell you how they feel about other races.

Get a better argument, not bigger cop-out. If your opponent is citing facts, you need to defend your position with reason and facts, not insults.  If what you are defending is a good thing, it will always stand on its merits.  If not, you need to find something better to defend.

This is Odd, but I Agree with Quintana

The El Paso Times made a lot of progressives happy over the weekend and again today when they brought up the subject of Rep. Quintana's slow moving forgery case.  To say that they want to see her eviscerated in a public square is an understatement.

Her argument is that she should be able to get into a program for first time offenders generally referred to "pre-trial diversion."  A program I went into when I was arrested for DWI. 

Their argument is that she should be held to a higher standard because she holds office and therefore charged with capital murder and crimes against humanity.

I feel especially close to this case because I just happened to be on that flight in question.  Okay, it really has nothing to do with me other than it was coincidental and she chided me as I entered the plane.

While agree that elected officials should be held to a higher standard, I do believe that only pertains to their actions as a public servant.  They should not be denied defensive driving for a speeding ticket because they happen to be elected to an office.  If they are corrupt and hurt the public with their actions - throw the book at them.  If they screwed around with a former employer and the case resides between the two of them and the public wasn't involved in any way - let her be treated the same as any other first time forger.

She made a mistake (allegedly) and she should be given the usual treatment for that mistake.  Had she forged Mayor Cook's signature... well that's a different story. 

Give the woman the normal pre-trial diversion and move on. 

Her political opponents want a trial and a conviction that keeps her from running again. They are taking no chances when it comes to running their next version of Jimmy "Poindexter" Suerken against her.  And that's smart.  I was talking to a person over at the elections office and she told me that she counted all the votes from that district using just her fingers and toes.  Slim margins come from low turnout.  She could win again. 

I say they give her the program option and let her run her race.  I hate winning by forfeit and they should too. 

Screwing the Poor in the name of the Poor!

David Crowder correctly broke down yet another anti-business and anti-growth measure passed by the city council yesterday.  You can read it HERE.

Somehow city council thinks that by limiting development that people will live better lives inside the city.  By taxing people for purchasing a new home, they are putting a barrier in front of home-ownership.  And why?  So taxpayers don't have to pay for new amenities like libraries, police stations, lift stations etc...

They assume incorrectly that our taxes go up as we grow.  They should actually go down in reality.  Financing infrastructure is cheaper when you have more people paying for it.  Getting this through these people's collective head has proven impossible. 

Part of their goal is social engineering.  They want everybody to live the way they live.  They think you should do as they do and not be free to live how you want to live.  They don't like you choosing to live in the type of neighborhood of your choosing.  This is a dangerous road for us to be on.

They hate the large tract homes subdivisions because they wouldn't choose to purchase a house there.  They overlook the fact that plenty of other people are happy to buy a house in those subdivisions.  They should not impede consumer choice under the false guise that it's unfair to the taxpayers living in older neighborhoods.  If there was intellectual honesty to be spread around here, they'd admit that growth relieves tax burdens for the older neighborhoods.  Without growth, those in the older neighborhoods will have to pay a higher and higher percentage of the total costs for the utility updates and upkeep in their neighborhoods.  Introducing 1,500 or so new taxpayers would relieve them of that high burden. 

But screw that - you're going to live the way city council tells you to live or you can move your ass to Las Cruces where they pay less in taxes and get more house for the dollar... wait... that would be bad for El Paso, right?

The bad part about zero growth is the economic law of scarcity.  Once we move in a bunch of military and the work force needed to support them along with any other normal growth, we're going to have a shortage of housing inside the city limits.  Places that used to rent for  $400 a month will go up to $600 because that is what a market with scarce housing will bear. 

As the prices of rents increase  in the city, the lower income folks will be forced outside the city limits where the lack of utilities, well maintained roads and other non-desirable living conditions keep the price of rent way down.  What happens then?  Colonias.  We've seen this happen before.

Once you push the poor out to the outskirts of the county, your county taxes are going to go up.  Remember, we have to eventually make sure these people get water, sewer and public transit along with fire, police and ambulance services.   Don't forget that we will pay out of our pocket to put streets, curb and gutter and storm sewer amenities in those colonias as well.  That all comes out of your tax dollars.

Now, if a developer had the city annex his land and he developed it, he would be paying 100 percent of the cost of water, sewer, street, curb and gutter and storm sewer.  Wow - you can either pay for that stuff over the next ten years through increased taxes, or you could have some rich developer do it for you while adding more payers into the tax system thus lowering your burden.  Am I making sense yet?

Furthermore, as rents go up, so do property values.  You're not thinking about this the way they are.  Your appraisal is going to go through the roof once development is stopped.  Oh yes, my friends - you think you're being screwed now, wait until your neighbor sells his house for twice what he bought it for in a market driven by scarcity.

Older neighborhoods will be bought up by the developers and high-rise condos will litter the skyline.  Why rehab an old four story tenement when you can stuff 15 stories of condos on the same lot? 

I'm telling you how this goes because it's happened hundreds of times before all over this great country of ours. 

Growth keeps a great balance in the local market and without it, we're going to get screwed.  More importantly - the lower income folks are going to get screwed.

Buy hey, Keep El Paso Backward  http://www.cafepress.com/kepb

When it's this Obvious - It's a Problem

We've all heard of instances where politicians have gone the extra mile to get good coverage in the local media.  No doubt many reporters and columnist have been approached by elected leaders in an attempt to wine and dine their sensibilities.  After all, a popular columnist can do a lot for a politico with a bruised image.

So when Jaime Abeytia (Lionstar) wrote about how great Norma Chavez was the first 200 times in a row, I was suspicious.  It wasn't until article 201 that I decided he's definitely in the can for Norma.

In today's campaign speech for Norma he took the time to patiently describe how she cut checks to the Obrera chicks who she hired to work at her party.  It was as if nobody in the history of parties had ever been paid for their work and Norma Chavez broke the tradition and made these women millionaires. 

The reality - they wouldn't have even been hired, paid or thought about if the plan wasn't to have Jaime write about it in his article today.  Yep, political expediency was at work there.  The once harsh and abbrasive representative who figuratively exclaimed "it's my party and I can cry if I want to," in response to another Rep's desire to attend her graduation party, is now using Jaime to soften her image.  How cute.

It's unclear right now if he also received a check that day, but we sure do know that he held up his part of the deal.  He used a bunch of NPT's web space to shower her with the praise set only for an adored Pope or King.  Why everybody isn't aware of this is beyond me.

I will admit that her party was worth talking about.  Talking about the fact that she provides free beer and food in order to attract voters is an interesting concept that goes back to yesteryear when the problem got so severe in some places that they had to ban the sale of booze on election day.

The amount of people in attendance was worth noting.  Even the dignitaries (if you want to call them that) were worth talking about.  Getting all sappy and printing some complete bullshit account of her paying poor women for their services was not needed.  Why not a short blurb on how she gave CPR and saved and elderly World War II vet's life?  Why settle for a double when a triple is just 90 feet away?

Of course he puts in a plug for her generous patronage of local vendors.  It's a miracle that she actually found a locally owned Mexican food restaurant among the sea of national Mexican food chains that occupy El Paso... Oh that's right - you can only buy Mexican food in El Paso from local owners because everything is locally owned!  I guess we have to pat Norma on the back for not flying in fajitas from the Rio Grande restaurant in Arlington, Virginia. 

He does not, however, point out that she did not go local when it came to her education.  She, at the expense of the taxpayers of her district, attended the University of Texas (that's in Austin folks).  Apparently when given a choice on whether to buy local or from out of town she's not very consistent when it comes to education. 

Oh listen to me - I went off on a tangent thinking he didn't already know that.  He knew it, she just wouldn't let him write it.

And yes, he'll say "I've been very critical of Norma!"  If by "critical" he means that he points out that people don't get along with her, then I guess he's right.  However, he is not nearly as critical of her as he has been of many other politicos.  He forgets that people remember what type of criticism he reserves for people who aren't his close friends and they compare that to his criticism of his close friend Norma.

The problem here is that he's a weekly a campaign advertisement for Norma.  Or should I say, another weekly campaign advertisement for Norma.  She's on KHRO like she owns it... who knows, she may. 

I do get hints and tips about what's going on in the local political world.  I have the personal phone numbers of two elected officials and that's because I saved them when they called me to chew my ass out.  I do not text with any elected officials. I call their offices and identify myself as "that guy David K your boss hates" every time I call.  I do not hang out with elected officials.  I do not plot with elected officials.  They are by and large the enemy of the public and I don't want the enemy influencing me.

Have I been invited out with them before?  Yep, lots of times.  I had lunch with Rep. Moody twice.  We talked politics and he gave me his side of things and I gave him mine.  He gave me zero interesting tidbits to relate.   He called me from time to time to see what I thought the public thought about certain issues being voted on during session.  I told him what I thought and I'm sure he hung up and called another person in El Paso to see what they thought.  That's about the extent of my political hobnobbing.

I would never write anything on the behalf of anyone without being very clear that they asked me to do so.  When I retracted a story about Rep. Holguin a while back, I was upfront about the call he made to me to correct me and his request that I change my post. 

This whole thing with Jaime and Norma has gone too far and I'm a part of the problem.  She's relatively irrelevant at this point.  She may draw an opponent and she may not.  Who cares.  I hear there's a good chance that her behavior last session is going to get her stripped of her committee assignments.  She'll be back to screaming and throwing fits all by herself in her office with no influence over our needs next session.   She'll have plenty of time to party next session as well given she won't have to be in class. (Which makes me wonder why someone is so proud of finishing something in 40 years that usually takes four?  Can you imagine what message that sends to high school dropouts?  They must be thinking - why hurry up and get that GED, if I wait until I'm 50 they'll throw me a God damned parade)

Back to why I'm a part of the problem... The lady is wrong.  The lady does shit toddlers do when they are tired and can't find their favorite blanket.  It makes the whole city look bad.  I should have just let her go after I embarrassed her via the Open Letter I wrote to her on Newspaper Tree.  Many of you indicated that she was down for the count there and I should have just collected my title belt and moved on.  Now she's running a PR scheme through Jaime and it's killing his integrity and making people wonder about the state of the media in El Paso. 

But it's not all my fault... These people have ethics, they just need to get to using them.

Here's What I Don't Get

Adrian Pena pays Betti Flores $10,000 for her vote on a design build parking garage project and they're both going for it.  Justice has been served!  Or has it?

I've never bought anyone's vote before, so I'm coming at this as a novice.  I would figure that if you were willing to put $10,000 on the table for a project, that you'd go the extra mile and buy the other two votes need for a majority.  Buying one vote gets you nothing. You need three to win, two to tie and one to lose.  Remember, Teran couldn't vote on it because Jordan employed his son at the time. 

Did Pena have two other commissioners in his pocket already?  Why take the chance of that $10,000 going to waste?  Somebody had this set up in some way that guaranteed it was a winner.

My theories based on nothing but conjecture

1.  Pena shelled out cash to all three of his votes and we only know about Betti Flores. 

2.  Two of the commissioners had already assured Pena (illegally) that they'd vote for him as long he supported them in the next election.  Betti was the only hold out and she wanted cash instead of support.

I think something is missing here.  And I'm finding a recurring theme with the corruption at that level - Haggerty was always doing something specific and coy.  This is why I don't like the guy.  I know he was implicit in Teran's shakedown of my firm and now I'm seeing signs of exactly what his MO was.  Hopefully the FBI is smart enough to see what he was doing as well.

your thoughts?

Washington Protest - Hover for a Day or Two Please

I'm glad so many of you are about to shit your britches over what is now being called the single largest gathering of people in the nation's capital not looking for a handout.

Congress and the Senate got the message and health care may be dead as well as cap and trade. 

Cry all you want, but it will do you no good.  The majority of Americans are earners.  Only a small few like those who are upset about the protest are moochers.  Don't worry, we'll still find a way to pay you to float through life doing nothing. 

I'll be putting together a whole piece on my experience in a few days and hopefully NPT will carry it. 

Until then I'll try to get some local stuff up on the board here.