Bacon's Rebellion

Fellow bloggers, I apologize for my absence. If I’d been more attentive, I might have been able to smooth things over before the rupture between Peter Galuszka and the new publishers of the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine took place (see previous post). Here’s what’s going on.

Mike Thompson, president of the Jefferson Institute for Public Policy and a long-time contributor to the e-zine, approached me after I ceased publication and offered to take over. (Read his profile and the list of columns he and his associates have written here.) We thought it would be worthwhile to provide a platform for the contributors to the “old” e-zine should they still desire one. Because of my new obligations, I would not have time to edit it, as I used to do, although I might contribute a column from time to time.

The Jefferson Institute is a Northern Virginia think tank that, like Bacon’s Rebellion, focuses on public policy issues in Virginia. The organization espouses a pragmatic free market/fiscal conservatism approach that I was comfortable with. However, Mike agreed to maintain the open spirit of the e-zine, keeping it open to a wide variety of viewpoints — a key point that I insisted upon and Mike readily agreed to. Although Mike and his team would take over editing and distribution of the e-zine (and posting the e-zine on the website), they have agreed to run any columns past me before publication. I have the right under our agreement to exercise veto rights over any content I deem incompatible with Bacon’s Rebellion brand. I continue to “own” the e-zine. However, the e-zine will bear a tag-line saying, “published by the Jefferson Institute,” or something very similar, to reflect its new role.

It was my intention to announce the new arrangement in concert with publication of the first edition, which is coming out shortly. I will post the columns to this blog for public comment, as I did for the “old” e-zine.

Otherwise, there will be no connection between the e-zine and the Bacon’s Rebellion blog, which I continue personally to moderate and contribute to (although my presence has been diminished of late). Neither Mike nor any of his associates have posting rights to the blog, nor have they asked for them. As far as I know, they do not even participant in the comments section of the blog. Peter is free to continue posting to this blog as long as he wants to.

Some time ago, I issued invitations to participants of the “old” e-zine to contribute to the new publication. Not everyone chose to do so. Norm Leahy, a valued, long-time e-zine columnist and poster to this blog, will not contribute. He is affiliated with Tertium Quids, a conservative, non-partisan advocacy group that has issues with the Jefferson Institute. Several other columnists, including Peter, did agree to participate.

Peter submitted a column, “RIP to Immigrant Bashers” (which he subsequently posted on this blog). Kiel Stone, the first-line editor, made mainly minor, stylistic edits. As I understand it, he passed on the edited column to Mike, who made the call to delete one particular line referring to the King James Bible as being the preferred version of immigrant bashers. When Peter reviewed the edited version, he took exception to the cut on the grounds of both substance and editorial integrity.

I was aware of this issue early Friday morning but did not have time at the time to respond thoughtfully. For the record, had I had a chance, I would have urged Mike not to delete the phrase. While I personally regard the King James Bible as one of the greatest works of English literature, and while I can understand how those who would revere it would find the reference offensive, Peter is free to offend whom he pleases. He has legitimate reasons (based on the mis-use of the KJV by nativist groups) for making his statement, so his statement falls within the bounds of reasoned discourse. The whole point of Bacon’s Rebellion is to include a diversity of viewpoints — including sharply expressed views that may make me uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, while I was at work Friday, a series of emails between Mike and Peter resulted in a breech that would seem impossible to repair. Then Peter went public with his post on this blog, prompting this explanation. So, that’s the story, folks. I apologize for failing to intervene in a timely manner and quietly settle the issue behind the scenes.

As you know Jim Bacon has transferred some or all control (not clear) to the Thomas Jefferson Public Policy Institute, a conservative think tank.

In all the years I have known Jim, I know that he has stood for the finest values in freedom of speech, the media and of ideas. The Institute does not.

At their request, I wrote an article for the upcoming e-zine edition. But I didn’t like their editing and protested. Then they censored the item (I managed to post it as a blog item just before this) for the upcoming e-zine saying the “tone” was wrong. I was also told I was off Bacons Rebellion. I didn’t realize they were my new bosses.

Fellow bloggers, I may not agree with all of you and we’ve had some rather lively exchanges. But I deeply respect all of you and fervently hope you all can maintain the right to express your ideas without filters or “tonality” checks by some politically-charged institute that obviously has its eye on grant money and smooth connections. If this is the case, your good work will become high minded and inoffensive pablum.

I can’t reach Jim. He never would have done this. But be warned.

Respectfully and in friendship (Let’s see how long I have access to the blog)

Peter Galuszka

One of the more curious things about November’s election is how immigrant-bashing somehow evaporated as a Republican issue. Even more interesting is that two of the GOP’s biggest immigrant-bashers – Virgil H. Goode Jr. and Thelma Drake – are toast.

This should be an instructive tale as Virginia moves forward into 2009 and tries to deal with some of the far more serious problems, such as dealing with the worst economic crisis in decades and long-neglected issues such as the large number of Virginians who have no health insurance.

Even the conservative Wall Street Journal’s editorial page noted: “Immigration wasn’t a dominant issue this fall, and other factors contributed to the GOP defeat. But the political reality is that Republicans who thought that channeling Lou Dobbs would save their seats will soon be ex-Members.”

That’s a lesson Goode and Drake learned the hard way. Goode, a 12-year incumbent, was trumped in a squeaker by international lawyer and Albemarle County native Tom Perriello. Drake was dumped by Glenn Nye.

Of the pair, Goode was especially obnoxious. He brought shame and ridicule to the Old Dominion in 2006 by writing on U.S. House of Representatives stationery that unless his hard-right immigration policies, including rescinding current law that children of illegal immigrants born in the U.S. can be U.S. citizens, we will see the influx of undesirables, namely people of the Muslim faith. “If Americans don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there likely will be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran,” he wrote.

So much for religious tolerance. But in his letter, Goode also showed his unspeakable ignorance since the issue had to do with whether a newly-elected Muslim Congressman from the Midwest would be sworn in on the Bible (presumably the King James Version, the preferred one for bashers). Turns out no Congressmen are sworn in “on the Bible.”

Then Goode made idiotic comments that Mexican restaurants shouldn’t display the Mexican flag. What’s next, a ban on the Irish tri-colors outside an Irish bar?

Not that Goode didn’t have other problems. He was linked to a defense contracting scandal that sent fellow Republican Randy Cunningham to prison. The San Diego political and former jet fighter ace in the Vietnam War was convicted for helping get contracts for MZM, Inc., a higher tech national security firm, which gave $88,000 to Goode in political contributions although the firm had nothing to do with Goode’s District. Goode said he redistributed those funds to non-profits.

During his bitter campaign against Perriello, Goode tried to paint the Virginia native and long-time resident of Albemarle County as a Yankee outlander with a funny-sounding, Italian last name. In fact, Perriello is a respected international lawyer and Yale grad who has done lots of work in complex legal issues involving Darfur, Sierra Leone, and Afghanistan. The “New York lawyer,” as Goode’s campaign branded him, won by 745 votes.

Thelma Drake is a kind of Goode-lite. Also an immigrant-basher, she supported such proposals as making it illegal to spend federal money to alert the Mexican government about movements of the Minutemen, a kind of yea-hoo vigilante outfit of anti-immigrant volunteers who, armed with deer rifles, CB radios, night vision glasses and binoculars, take it upon themselves to “patrol” the Southwestern borders.

Now if you want to consider someone who actually knows something about the immigration issue, look at Arizona Governor and former U.S. Attorney Janet Napolitano who has just been picked by President-elect Barack Obama as his candidate for Homeland Security.

Napolitano is not at all in favor of illegal immigration and has the smarts to realize what a complex issue it is. As she told the National Press Club in 2007: “It is too easy for the ‘bad guys’ to enter our country and too difficult for the ‘good guys’ – whose energies and intellects we need – to obtain lawful status.”

Vigilance is needed since in 2006, during one 24-hour period, an estimated 4,000 immigrants would cross into her state illegally. That number dropped by a third with the arrival of National Guard units.

But simply taking a Rambo-stance won’t work. She notes that her state is Mexico’s biggest trading partner by far – representing some $4 billion worth of goods – especially with the bordering Mexican state of Sonora. “I spend more time working with the Governor of Sonora than I spend with any U.S. governor,” she said.

The visa system is in desperate need to revision, she said. For example, according to today’s system, the Dominican Republic, with 8 million people, is granted per capita more visas than Mexico with a population of 100 million. “No wonder it takes, on average, more than 10 years to get a legal immigrant visa from Mexico – talk about an incentive to cross illegally.”

Mind you, these are the ideas of a woman who actually knows something about the immigration issue, not Goode nor Drake. To both of them: good riddance!

Peter Galuszka

The economic and political ‘news’ via MainStream Media during the week before Thanksgiving 2008 provided a strong incentive to give fervent thanks. But perhaps not the thanks that some think.

First some context:

In the early 1970s EMR’s and his Clustermates worked hard to elect a “reform / change” candidate for County Executive in Howard County, Maryland. Our candidate won. EMR received a plum political appointment (an unsalaried commission chairpersonship) and a broad range of very useful experiences.

The citizens of Howard County, however, did not fare as well. The new County Exec spent the next four years proving that he would NOT do what his opposition warned he would do if he was elected – and what those who voted for him hoped he would do if he was elected.

There was no Fundamental Transformation under the new Exec. He was not reelected to a second term because he had only partially satisfied those who voted against him in the first election and frustrated those who voted for him. He tried to satisfy all the voters instead of taking the actions that were necessary to achieve a sustainable trajectory for the Communities that are all or part in Howard County.

The time frame was a pivotal one in the evolution of the Washington-Baltimore New Urban Region. The Planned New Community of Columbia, MD is located in Howard County. Due to county actions and inactions, many aspects of James Rouse’s vision for Columbia were least-common-denominatored into oblivion and lost forever. Now Reston is cited as THE place in the Washington-Baltimore New Urban Region which demonstrates that there is an alternative to dysfunctional human settlement patterns. See superficial but accurate story “The Often-Imitated Reston Eyes Future With Trepidation,” 28 November 2008 in WaPo. (We say “superficial” because to really address this issue would require the entire Section A ‘news hole.’ That is not possible. See THE ESTATES MATRIX.

EMR lived for nearly a decade in Columbia (1972-1980) and in Reston (1980-1988). Both have become less than their potential but the biggest lost opportunity occurred in Columbia while “our” candidate was County Exec. During that time there was an opportunity to use Community actions in the context of the 1973 OPEC Oil Embargo to provide examples that could have been springboards toward a sustainable future. The opportunities were squandered.

Fast forward to the last week of November in 2008. The handwriting is on the wall.

There is a palpable optimism in Greater Warrenton-Fauquier, in the Commonwealth of Virginia and in the US of A. Citizens believe they have reason to hope there will be “change we can believe in,” change for the better. This optimism is evidenced by the celebration in Grant Park, the demand for tickets to Inauguration events and in animated conversations on Main Street.

There are signs of optimism are based on some of the President-Elects initial statements and promised nominations. The stock market was up before Thanksgiving on the speculation that there will be more bailouts.

It should be noted that not all the views are positive. There are those who fear real change and they are portraying the prospect of Obama led change with a negative spin. Politics-As-Usual advocates are filling partisan blogs with demeaning observations on every action, rumor or illusion that can be misinterpreted to generate fear. The most frightening head line? Karl Rove says Obama is doing a good job because he is picking “experienced” political operatives.

But what is REALLY happening?

The optimism is based on the assumption that the next administration, lead by an economic team of retreads will return the economy to one driven by Mass OverConsumption driven and that these actions will ‘save’ and create jobs for the unmotivated and under-qualified consumers.

The problem is that every action to build consumer confidence and increase consumption will make it harder to achieve sustainable trajectory for First World civilization.

Buying new Autonomobiles will only reinforce dysfunctional human settlement patterns. Bailing out mortgages on Wrong Size Houses in the Wrong Locations will only encourage more unsecured lending and the development of even more dysfunctional settlement patterns.

While the recent ‘team’ announcements generate optimism about a bigger cornucopia of even more bailouts, citizens should have grave reservations about the appointments announced to date.
These are the same politics-as-usual ‘players’ who made the decisions that put the economy in meltdown.

They do not understand the importance of human settlement patterns. They do not understand the roll of Autonomobiles in creating the Mobility and Access Crisis. Members of the transportation team (Downey, Garvey, Heminger, Oberstar and the rest) have spent their entire working life making the mistakes that have resulted in a failed and crumbling Mobility and Access System.

The US of A has grossly OVER INVESTED in and OVER-SUBSIDIZED Air Travel capacity on the assumption that demand will grow without regard to the total cost and environmental impact. Rising costs – including finally paying for environmental impact – is putting air travel out of the reach of most. The inconvenience of anti-terrorism measures makes air travel a pain for all but those who fly in private planes. “See The End of Flight As We Knew It.” (As an aside, there is painful irony in United Airlines betting on rising fuel costs in the short run. Why again are ‘futures’ not just another form of anti-Community gambling?)

The US of A has grossly UNDER INVESTED in functional IntraRegional and InterRegional shared-vehicle ground transport that would support functional and sustainable settlement patterns.

The US of A has grossly OVER INVESTED and OVER-SUBSIDIZED Autonomobility on the false assumption that Large, Private Vehicles could provide Mobility and Access in spite of a laundry list of obvious problems. See THE PROBLEM WITH CARS.

The vast majority of citizens live in a handful of MegaRegions – conterminous New Urban Regions – for which the Autonomobile and Large, Private Vehicle Roadway Systems is the problem, not the solution for Mobility and Access.

The transport infrastructure is failing – there is a Mobility and Access Crisis and the facilities are falling apart. Big construction projects to produce jobs will just mean more investment in the wrong systems and will not provide sustainable Mobility and Access and will not support unsustainable human settlement patterns.

The new economic ‘team’ still does not understand the impact of the housing market on the economy. Few admit the impact of the Wrong Size House in the Wrong Location in the Affordable and Accessible Housing Crisis and the Mobility and Access Crisis.

Here is a quote from Chapter 22 of BRIDGES now in final draft:

“Out of all this, three clippings stand out:

1. “Bernake: There’s No Housing Bubble to Go Bust” in WaPo Business Section 27 October 2005

2. “Housing Cool-Down Is ‘Orderly,’ Fed Chief (Bernake) Says” in WaPo Business Section, 19 May 2006

3. “Fed Chief (Bernake) Says Housing Problems Won’t Spread to Rest of Economy” on Page C4 of the 29 March 2007 New York Times.

The first quote was from a few days before President Bush nominated Bernake to be Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The bottom line is that the “leaders” at the federal level did not have a clue what was happening.”

They still do not know what happened or what will result from pumping more cheap money into shelter related Enterprises before everyone understand the importance of evolving functional human settlement patterns.

The economic rescue squad is burning
through the $700-billion bailout war chest but handing it out to whom so ever threatens to go under. Student loan sharks are the latest ‘victims.’

Here is a great vignette: In the 30 November Wapo (Close to Home) a state senator from Maryland says: “Effective Stimulus? Think Local, Mr. Obama.” Jim Bacon frequently rails about municipal Agency waste and here is a specific. Senator Rosapepe wants federal money to help pay for CROSSING GUARDS.

The reason crossing guards are needed is because children cannot walk safely to school. Why? Dysfunctional human settlement patterns. See note on Columbia and Reston above. Both these still Beta Communities demonstrated how to have safe pathways to schools, the library and the store – including “eyes on the path” – forty years ago. Columbia’s system deteriorated because the School Board scrapped Neighborhood schools and build too many too large shopping venues as noted in The Shape of the Future. Wherever one turns it is THE SETTLEMENT PATTERN STUPID.

The head line reads “The Car of the Future – But at What Cost? Hybrid Vehicles Are Popular, but Making Them, Profitable Is a Challenge.” What nonsense! There is a sure way to make any product profitable: Raise price to cover expenses plus profit. But for Large, Private Vehicles – regardless of the source of power – raising the price means far fewer will be able to afford Autonomobiles. That means the Autonomobile Enterprises will not be able to use most of their overbuilt capacity based on the false assumption that Autonomobiles would provide Mobility and Access.

And all that new technology? The more complex the vehicle, the more it costs. Most citizens would need nothing more than their feet, a bike, a Segway, a Vespa or a Golf Cart for all their travel IF THERE WERE FUNCTIONAL SETTLEMENT PATTERNS.

EMR noted in a recent blog post:

“The cost of energy in all forms – and all goods and services that use energy – is going up.

“Burning thru easy-to-access Natural Capital and borrowing from foreign suppliers has kept the cost of energy and all that energy cost impact artificially low.

“Already the cost of energy has ended The Age of Accessible Air Travel (Terrorism has ended convenient Air Travel at any cost.) See “The End of Flight As We Have Known It.”

“The end of The Age of Autonomobiles, The Age of Big, Scattered Dwellings and other examples of Mass OverConsumption is in sight.

“So is the end of a lot of other things.”

The only question is can citizens come to understand the need for Fundamental Transformations fast enough to implement them before there are not enough resources left to make the Transformation.

The Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday headlines on the economy and the governance transition have been over-washed by the attacks in Mumbai, Bangkok and Wal*Mart. No one will know for months if the stock market ‘good news’ and the cut rate ‘doorbusters’ stimulated the economy but if they did, that just makes things worse.

What does the administration do to “save jobs” in an dysfunctional economy? Stimulating consumption is not the answer.

What is really need are sustainable ways to use the US of A’s greatest surplus resource. That resource is citizens who are not very bright and not very motivated. They:

• Slept through the important parts of high school

• Want to be entertained rather that create their own active, healthful recreation

• Almost all have made location and consumption decisions that they thought were in their best interest, but cumulatively these actions contribute to the growing economic, social and physical dysfunction

Because they happen to be born in US of A they believe “someone” owes them a comfortable life of consumption and entertainment. They are not willing to work at the jobs that those that are attractive to those who are bright, resourceful and were unfortunate enough to have been born in some other nation-state.

There is plenty of challenge and opportunity for the bright and the motivated, it is the vast majority of the Running As Hard As They Cans and most of the Losing Grounds in the bottom 90 percent of the Ziggurat that need reorientation and something productive to do.

Telling a large percentage of the population they are fat, under-educated and slothful is not a way to get elected or reelected. “Leading” the citizens out of their self-created wilderness of sloth, indulgence and dysfunctional ways may not be possible with dwindling resources.

It has taken EMR 40 years to develop the comprehensive Conceptual Framework and the Vocabulary to articulate what should have been obvious to all in 1973. Having those tools in Howard County in 1974 would have been useful. Now the entire nation-state is sliding to the edge and no one is interested in anything but getting back to Mass OverConsumption.

This post opened with a reference to the economic political news during the last week of November and suggested that this news provided reason to give thanks.

Some think a rebounding stock market, lower mortgage interest rates and lower gas prices to encourage more holiday travel were cause for optimism.

Wrong.

The reason for giving thanks this season is:

Most of us born before World War II will be gone before the full impact of sloth, indulgence, consumption and corruption that has led to Mass OverConsumption and settlement pattern dysfunction turns out most of the lights and humans are left with the challenge of making draconian Transformations and few, very expensive resources with which to make them.

EMR hopes you had a nice Thanksgiving too.

EMR

It’s going to take a lot more than cool new commuter bikes like the one pictured here to persuade more people to use bicycles for transportation, not just recreation, in the Richmond region. It would be helpful if Virginia jurisdictions designed balanced communities where a variety of destinations were located within easy biking distance. In the case of my home county of Henrico, it would be helpful to actually have bicycle paths.

But every innovation helps, even if it comes from the people who design bicycles rather than communities. According to the Cycling for Boomers blog, Wisconsin-based Trek, the largest U.S.-based bike manufacturer, this year is introducing two chainless models that replace the clunky, maintenance-intensive chain with a greaseless, rust-proof carbon fiber belt.

The lighter, longer-lasting carbon-fiber composite belts can’t be cut, won’t stretch or slip and won’t leave grease marks around your ankles, says Eric Bjorling, Trek’s lifestyle brand manager. There is one drawback: One of these bad boys retails for $990.

Price aside, I doubt we’ll see many of these in Richmond. The city has some super-cool mountain biking trails around the river, but only a handful of bicycle lanes that could be used for commuting. The western end of Henrico County, where I live, has no useful bicycle lanes at all — despite the existence of several potential routes. One bike path could run along the James River (either on the old canal tow-path or a railroad right of way; I’m embarrassed to say, I can’t recall which, but I have it on good authority). Another path conceivably could run underneath a Dominion electric transmission line — not bad, if you don’t mind a little static cling in your hair. A county bike path network also could tie into bike-friendly University of Richmond. And that’s just in my neck of the woods.

There are scads of lightly traveled subdivision roads that could provide bicycle access if only they connected with one another. Of course, pervasive “pod” subdivision development means that most subdivisions dump traffic onto traffic arterials where even Lance Armstrong would take his life in his hands.

From what I’ve been told, any effort to build a bicycle network in Henrico would meet resistance from home owners worried about “strange” people riding through their neighborhoods. Yeah, like a burglar will break into your house and make a getaway with your big screen TV loaded on the back of his bicycle! Maybe the brush with $150-per-barrel gasoline, which will surely return when the recession ends, will encourage people to adopt a broader attitude.

Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, has proffered a partial solution for Virginia’s transportation-funding woes: Index the gasoline tax to the average fuel economy of vehicles on state roads.

According to an editorial in the Staunton News Leader, Hanger has joined the growing number of legislators to worry about the impact of improving gasoline mileage on the primary source of funding for state road maintenance and construction. With the introduction of a slew of new technologies, miles per gallon could well double or triple, and better mileage will translate into commensurately less gasoline consumed and fewer taxes paid at the pump.

Hanger’s idea provides a rationale for increasing the gasoline tax that tax-phobic citizens just might buy. Annual adjustments, which probably would amount to less than one penny per gallon annually, would help extend the life of the gasoline tax as a funding source. Hanger deserves credit for acknowledging the problem and for trying to think outside the box.

But the idea still has flaws. First, the incremental added revenue won’t come close to meeting the needs of Virginia’s Business As Usual transportation policy. Perpetuating our one-man-one-car society requires billions of dollars now, far more than could possibly be milked from this tax. Second, by taxing gasoline consumption, the plan would tax those who burn gasoline, not those who crowd the roads. Such a tax would only accelerate the shift to non-gasoline fuels, most notably electricity.

The biggest problem is that we need to think beyond perpetuating the transportation status quo and think seriously about creating a 21st century transportation system. Funding that system is one critical piece of the puzzle, but only one. Without Fundamental Change in planning land use and transportation policies, Virginia will simply stumble from crisis to crisis — no matter how much it raises in taxes. Hanger’s plan can’t paper over that reality.

The grim news just doesn’t quit. From today’s Times-Dispatch:

On Sunday, I drew attention to a power industry-backed study that forecast widespread blackouts and brownouts within a few years unless more electric infrastructure is built. (See “When the Lights Go Out.”) Although I didn’t endorse the findings of the report, I did say that we need to take such fears seriously. We have much to lose if the dire warnings prove true.

Virginia state government has taken another big step towards transparency thanks to the publication today of the Virginia Public Access Project’s redesigned website. VPAP provides a deeper, richer database of campaign contributions and lobbying activity, and it’s searchable in more ways than ever.

Click on the profile for Attorney General Bob McDonnell, candidate for governor, and you have a choice of tabs for viewing his data by top donors (Mark J. Kington, $28,500), top industries (real estate developers, $63,301), top vendors (Commonwealth Consultants, $56,634), and top services (staff, political consultants, $148,459).

So, you wonder who this Mark Kington fellow is. Click on his name, and you reach his profile. He’s an Alexandria-based venture capitalist (and former business partner of U.S. Sen.-elect Mark Warner, although the database doesn’t tell you that).

Back to the McDonnell profile, and you can click on a tab that provides all previous election results, all campaign financing committees associated with the candidate, and expenditure info as detailed as the fact that he has spent $1,671 at Sine Irish Pub (a great place to grab a beer or dinner near the state capitol, by the way).

Legislator data goes deeper than ever before, providing easy access to the lawmaker’s financial disclosure information: salary (within broad monetary ranges), corporate affiliations, personal liabilities, investments, privately funded payments for trips, taxpayer funded payment for trips, gifts, business interests and more.

Once upon a time, this information resided only in dusty government offices in Richmond. It was a pain to access, even if you were a journalist or lobbyist and had the time to rummage through the documents. As a practical matter, transparency was limited. Now the information is all online where any citizen can get to it 24/7. Let the sun shine in, baby, let the sun shine in.