Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

"All you can say is: unbelievable. Except it's true. She is the vice-presidential candidate of a national political party."

Via Andrew Sullivan's blog (he's quoted in the title of this post.)

Watch and cringe. This is just getting harder and harder to believe:

Watch CBS Videos Online

Some additional links via Jezebel:

Worst Of Sarah Palin's Katie Couric Interview (So Far) [Gawker]
More Painful Palin Excerpts From Couric Interview [Daily Kos]
Palin Problem [National Review]
Wasilla Watch: Sarah Palin and the Rape Kits [New York Times]
Palin Accepted $25,000 in Gifts, Alaska Records Show [Washington Post]
Palin's Preacher Problem [The Guardian]

Franklin alderman swings for the upper deck

Item G.2. on the Common Council agenda this past Tuesday: A proposal by Alderman Steve Olson to suspend elected officials' expense and mileage payments.

I made my opinion clear on this earlier in the week. l found the idea self-serving, to say the least, and I think Alderman Olson was surprised by the reaction he received at the meeting. (He didn't help his cause when, at the outset, after saying "there is so much misconception about what this mileage and expense is ..." he misstated the monthly amount of the expense and mileage payment per official as $300. It's actually $150, quickly corrected by his fellow aldermen.)

Olson framed his argument for eliminating the expense payments as a show of support for those losing their jobs working for the city due to the budget crunch; lead by example. He believes it is "added pay" and that others see it that way as well.

I was somewhat surprised to hear aldermen speak strongly - and appropriately - against eliminating those payments. In addition to the fact that it erodes their professional status, changing the alderpersons' compensation in mid-term is hardly fair; as Alderman Kristen Wilhelm noted, she did a certain calculus to make sure she could support her responsibilities as a city official, including what would come out of her family budget, without taking contributions from local developers given the $8000 yearly stipend that has been in place since 1998.

For comic relief, visit Janet Evans' Righty Blog and listen to the podcast entitled "Aldermen Skowronski, Taylor and Wilhelm oppose the Ordinance and voice their opinions." Cue it to 6:20 and enjoy the rolling gales of laughter that greet Alderman Wilhelm's straight-faced suggestion that, in a community that is the very model of sprawl, Alderman Olson is the only member of the council close enough to city hall to actually walk there. That notion apparently tickled the funny bone of everyone in the room.

Except for Olson, who scowled with the intensity of a man who was expecting ticker tape and instead got pasted with curiously - infuriatingly - well-stated opposition.

It got worse. We were reminded that three of six council members voluntarily returned their expense stipend on an individual basis some years back (they included Mayor Taylor and Don Dorson, who was unseated by Olson and the Franklin Citizens for Responsible Government cadre; the other three aldermen promised to do so as well but ultimately reneged). 

Observation from the meeting: Alderman Olson can barely contain his contempt for Dorson, who is currently working to fund and build the Franklin Cultural Arts Center; it's noticable even to persons who have never before attended a common council meeting.

Taking up Olson's defense, Alderman Sohns sternly resented the suggestion that the motion represented political grandstanding. Unmoved, Mayor Taylor later went ahead and called it political grandstanding.

Olson helpfully reminded all assembled that this was not grandstanding, because, after all, "not once did you hear me mention any of the other things I've done for the city." Not once, ladies and gentlemen.

And, as if that wasn't precious enough, Olson unleashed this gem:

"I have heard from my colleagues that they were going to give $150 out of their pocket, and that they were going to do something; that, my friends, is grandstanding."

Well, no. That, my friends, is conversation. Introducing a motion in open session, noted on a public agenda - with "Ald. Olson" as sole author - and expecting a vote on it days after it slides out of your inkjet printer? That's upper deck.

In the end, the motion was struck down with only Sohns and Olson voting "Aye." Good sense prevailed.

Sarah Palin is no match for... Katie Couric?!?!

You have only to let her speak at length and it becomes more and more clear that in Sarah Palin you're dealing with someone way, way out of her depth. This is a long clip, but worth watching all the way through to see what happens to Palin when her platitudes fall flat and the interviewer - - Katie Couric! - - actually presses for real facts. Better break out the  three-ring binders and study some more ...

And a condensed version for those with very, very short attention spans:

Newsweek: Freddie Mac continued checks to McCain campaign chief's firm

ABOVE: Something to hide. (Charles Dharapak / AP)

The inevitable and sad continuation of this post:

But neither the Times story—nor the McCain campaign—revealed that Davis's lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, based in Washington, D.C., continued to receive $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac until last month—long after the Homeownership Alliance had been terminated. The two sources, who requested anonymity discussing sensitive information, told NEWSWEEK that Davis himself approached Freddie Mac in 2006 and asked for a new consulting arrangement that would allow his firm to continue to be paid. The arrangement was approved by Hollis McLoughlin, Freddie Mac's senior vice president for external relations, because "he [Davis] was John McCain's campaign manager and it was felt you couldn't say no," said one of the sources. [McLoughlin did not return phone calls].

Read the rest here.

Good way to go broke quickly: Donate money every time Sarah Palin lies

Via Veritas et Venustas:

Sabotaging effective government from within in Franklin

Long story short: Franklin alderman Steve Olson has proposed that, as a cost-saving measure, the city no longer provide mileage and meals expense payments to the alderpersons serving on the Common Council. (See the proposed ordinance after the jump. It's still warm.)

You have to hand it to Steve Olson; he's an old-school pol, able to recognize and seize a grandstanding opportunity when it presents itself. Who can vote against this without harming themselves politically?

What possible harm could it do?

Plenty.

First, some perspective. The 2008 city budget allots $15,600 for the mayor and alderpersons' mileage and expenses. That's about $2.11 per year per Franklin citizen.

Not per day, or per month, or per quarter - - that $2.11 covers the entire year.

It just so happens that a Vanilla Iced Coffee at McDonald's costs $2.11, hence the photo at left.

What alderman Olson is doing - - besides shining his own apple - - is common among a certain species of "movement conservatives." As an official swept into office by the dubious Franklin Citizens for Responsible Government, we can assume he subscribes to that group's "government is evil" ethos to some extent: All taxes are bad; we should get services somehow for free; take care of your own back yard and to hell with public amenities and needs; etc. 

The strategy, then, goes like this: In order to show how inept government is, you kneecap it at any level possible - - from within. We saw Franklin's Environmental Commission laid low and made inconsequential after its role was reduced and Olson shrewdly nominated for membership an inexperienced-but-outspoken person who he knew would draw unfavorable attention to the EC.

The member of Franklin's Plan Commission with the most professional expertise to offer (and who has consistently been alone in taking principled stands against developer shortcuts and shortcomings)  was effectively removed from the commission before an outcry brought him back. His presence, however, is mitigated by the inexplicable appointment of former alderman Pete Kosovich to the commission.

Inexplicable? Well, maybe not. Kosovich, you see, is also Franklin Citizens for Responsible Government alumnus. What he lacks in city planning expertise he makes up for in loyalty. (Keeping things interesting, Olson actually voted against Kosovich's appointment; Mayor Taylor broke the 3-3 tie.).

I've been listening to tapes of (the politicized) Plan Commission meetings. Not very inspiring, not very focused, and not very productive - - and suddenly there is talk of "redefining" the Commission's role by weakening its ability to regulate development details.

The surest path to more strip malls and unproductive sprawl development is an unfocused plan commission. Great for developers, though; they make their money much quicker and easier without all those pesky "standards" and "long-term integration plans."

Developers of desirable projects avoid unfocused communities.

And now, continuing our seemingly inexorable march toward mediocrity, the very foundations of every citizen's primary relationship to his or her local government is in danger of being changed mere days after a bunch of "whereas's" are spit out of an inkjet printer.

Steve Olson figures that for the price of that single McDonald's Vanilla Iced Coffee, we'll be A-OK with the prospect of further de-professionalizing the status of our principal representation.

That cool refreshing drink will somehow soothe the idea that persons with drive and expertise will be discouraged from public service while folks for whom money is no real concern will govern us - - a governing class of People Who Know Better. Perhaps persons with financial backing. From local developers, for instance.

And perhaps the sugar and caffeine combination buzz will addle our thought processes to the extent that we don't see Olson looking over his shoulder at two new alderpersons who managed to win seats away from comfortably ensconced incumbants, and, in the intervening months, raised the bar a bit in terms of what we expect from aldermen. Rather than simply "being" aldermen, Kristen Wilhelm and Steve Taylor are out there doing; rather than doing what has always been done "because that's the way we've always done it," they are asking the hard (and even unpopular) questions that sometimes make meetings longer than some are used to. They have, so far, demonstrated energy and range far beyond their predecessors.

Can we continue to attract and develop quality, unbought civil servants when, in service to a short-sighted grandstand play, even their small stipend is eliminated?

Some perspective:

The Zizzo Group (Boomgaard!) bills at $175 an hour. Count how many Zizzo folks are at the next 27th Street Commission meeting and whip out your calculator. Call an emergency meeting tomorrow to discuss the possibility of dubbing the area surrounding Wal-Mart and Golden Corral the Crap to Go District. Three hours: $1575 on the invoice.

That's a lot of McDonald's Vanilla Iced Coffees.

This is the city where we for years happily disgorged to a City Development Director a $83,137 salary (not to mention benefits). Recently-departed Doug Wheaton was "so busy" in that position that he could not deign to grant me a 15 minute audience to discuss exactly what he and his department do/did on a day-to-day basis. Now that Wheaton has left, the position - - "so busy" - - is not even being refilled.

Sure would like to see that money back.

We can only hope that the motion will be tabled tonight to allow for further discussion. To vote on it tonight - - and the council members dare not vote "no" - - would represent a capitulation to crass political misdirection.

We deserve better. Maybe even fries to go with that Vanilla Iced Coffee.

"The great insight of the Palin VP choice is that huge chunks of American voters no longer even demand that their candidates actually have policy positions; they simply consume them as media entertainment..."

I subscribed to Rolling Stone magazine from 1982 to about 1997, at which point it became pretty irrelevant, music-wise (they were always about 7 months behind the curve). However, after cashing in a strange "$1 for three years offer" apparently designed to beef up the magazine's subscription base, I've discovered, in addition to the magazine's new apparent obsession with the vacuous Fall Out Boy (what is the point of this Pete Wentz guy?), they feature the phenomenal work of political writer Matt Tiabbi. His story in the new 10/2/08 issue (hey, Milwaukee - - Metallica is on the cover!) is entitled "Mad Dog Palin," and it's as excellent as it is scathing.

The article is not online yet, but certain highlights are well worth my labored, four-finger typing transcription.

Read the passage below and ask yourself if you'd appreciate this kind of behavior and malpractice from our own mayor:

Not only did her party just preside over the largest government expansion since LBJ, but Palin herself has been a typical Bush-era Republican, borrowing and spending beyond her means. Her great legacy as mayor of Wasilla was the construction of a $15 million hockey arena in a city with an annual budget of $20 million; Palin OK’d a bond issue for the project before the land had been secured, leading to a protracted legal mess that ultimately forced taxpayers to pay more than six times the original market price for property the city ended up having to seize from a private citizen using eminent domain. Better yet, Palin ended up paying for the f$%#^* thing with a 25 percent increase in the city sales tax. But in her speech, of course, Palin presented herself as the enemy of tax increases, righteously bemoaning that “Taxes are too high” and Obama “Wants to raise them.”

In identifying the Republican Party's bald cynicism, Tiabbi gets it dead right. Depressingly, devastatingly right:

Right-wingers of the Bush-Rove ilk have had a tough time finding a human face to put on their failed, inhuman, mean-as-hell policies. But it was hard not to recognize the genius of wedding that faltering brand of institutionalized greed to the image of the suburban American supermom. It’s the perfect cover, for there is almost nothing in the world meaner than this species of provincial tyrant.

Palin herself burned this political symbiosis into the pages of history with her seminal crack about the “Difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: lipstick,” blurring once and for all the lines between meanness on the grand political scale as understood by the Roves and Bushes of the world, and meanness of the small-town variety as understood by pretty much anyone who has ever sat around in his ranch-house den dreaming of a fourth plasma-screen TV or an extra set of KC HiLites for his truck, while some ghetto family a few miles away shares a husk of government cheese.

And we can't let ourselves off the hook. We get the government we deserve:

The great insight of the Palin VP choice is that huge chunks of American voters no longer even demand that their candidates actually have policy positions; they simply consume them as media entertainment, rooting for or against them according to the reflective prejudices of their demographic, as they would for a reality-show contestants or sitcom characters. Hicks root for hicks, moms for moms, born-agains for born-agains. Sure, there was politics in the Palin speech but it was all either silly lies or merely incidental fluffery buttressing the theatrical performance.

...

Democracy doesn’t require a whole lot of work of its citizens, but it requires some: It requires taking a good look outside once in awhile, and considering the bad news and what it might mean, and making the occasional tough choice, and soberly taking stock of what your real interests are.

This is a very different thing from shopping, which involves passively letting sitcoms melt your brain all day long and then jumping straight into the TV screen to buy a southern Style Chicken Sandwich because the slob singing “I’m Lovin’ It!” during the commercial break looks just like you. The joy of being a consumer is that it doesn’t require thought, responsibility, self-awareness or shame: All you have to do is obey the first urge that gurgles up from your stomach. And then obey the next. And the next. And the next.

And when it comes time to vote all you have to do is put your Country First – Just like that lady on TV who reminds you of your cousin. U-S-A, Baby. U-S-A! U-S-A!

Devastating. And absolutely true.

Time to WAKE UP, America.

And, oh yeah - - that particular issue of Rolling Stone also has a page-long article about Harley's 105th Anniversary Celebration.

Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million - NYTimes.com

Hands up - -  who's surprised by this?

Senator John McCain’s campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.

ABOVE: A 2004 photograph from a report by the Homeownership Alliance, an advocacy group for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, shows John McCain with Ken Guenther, a former chairman of the group, left, and David Lereah of the National Association of Realtors.

Read the rest here: Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million - NYTimes.com

A photo essay on school sprawl in two parts

I've commented here often on the fact that Franklin's schools are great examples of sprawl-planning in action: inaccessible, dangerous to travel to and from except by vehicle, etc.

Kaid Benfield asks in a two-part photo essay:

How in  the world did we get from this...
 

..to this:

Schools used to be the heart of a neighborhood or community.  Children and not a few teachers could walk to class, or to the playground or ball field on the weekend.  This was relatively easy to do, because the schools were placed within, not separated from, their neighborhoods.  They were human-scaled and their architecture was not just utilitarian, but signaled their importance in the community.  Now it has become hard to tell one from a Walmart or Target.

Kaid Benfield's Blog › A photo essay on school sprawl - Part 1: 

Part 2

Consumerist Insiders: Is Walmart Price-Gouging Hurricane Victims?

As someone who dealt with a flooding event back in June, I know all too well what it means to have to quickly purchase items needed for day-to-day existence. You don't have time to shop around (I even bought ethernet wire at Best Buy, which is insane, pricewise) and you are very much at the mercy of decisions made by suppliers and retailers. Fortunately - - except for a run on dehumidifiers - - our local area was not so uniformly hit that shortages or gouging occurred.

Not so in larger weather events, unfortunately. The story below notes that Wal-Mart's sudden price hike on cellphone chargers may have been a coincidence, but anyone who has studied Wal-Mart's sophisticated "just in time" pricing and inventory system knows that nothing happens there by chance. They know how many boxes of Cheerios are on a shelf at store number 2354 in Peoria right this second.

Raise the price to avert shortages? It wasn't long ago that Wal-Mart apologists were back-slapping the retailer for utilizing their sophisticated inventory and stocking system to be pin-point prepared for Katrina. The Wall Street Journal gushed:

Wal-Mart mined its vast databases of past purchases to compile lists of goods most desired after a hurricane. (Among the top items? Strawberry pop tarts.) Because of its advance logistics planning, the big retail chain was able to quickly move in to devastated areas with mini Wal-Marts to hand out goods. Other firms leveraged similar supply-chain capabilities; Pfizer dispensed pharmaceuticals via Wal-Mart and other retailers. "What companies do is solve problems," says Johanna Schneider, an executive director at the Business Roundtable.

Pop Tarts? Check. Wait a minute; are they strawberry? Check!

Ooops - - forgot to order extra .... battery chargers? Guess they would have been "desirable."

From the Consumerist:

Is Walmart Price-Gouging Hurricane Victims? [Insiders]:

(Photo: chasingfun)

A Walmart insider tells us that the price of cellphone chargers nearly doubled on orders from Walmart HQ in the wake of Hurricane Ike. Before the hurricane, chargers cost from $10-$15, but afterwards, they rose to a uniform $19.