Senate elitists: Don't lend us your earmarks

Senate elitists: Don’t lend us your earmarks

   Once again, the elitists in the United States Senate just don’t get it.

   Or, maybe they just missed the results of the recent midterm election.

Those results, by the way, brought about a new majority across the way in the U.S. House of Representatives.

   This past Tuesday, those self-anointed elitists rejected a proposed ban on those nefarious congressional earmarks showing, yet again, that their lobbyist friends and funds are far more important than good, common-sense government.

   Sen. (and doctor) Tom Coburn, who introduced the proposed ban on earmark spending, said this was the only way to rein in out-of-control spending.

   While Sen. Coburn has earned a good measure of taxpayers’ respect, his very statements that this is the ONLY way to rein in “out-of-control” spending is alarming. In other words, without a law to prohibit it, Congress simply must spend like the proverbial drunken sailors on shore leave. It’s not their fault; they just can’t help themselves. To our money.

   But as a wise man once noted, at least those drunken sailors are spending their own money.

   Not surprisingly, but nonetheless disappointing, Ohio’s Sen. George Voinovich was one of eight Republican elitists who voted in favor of earmark spending. Ever the opportunist, Voinovich won’t have to answer for this vote. He’s retiring (thank you very much) and doesn’t have to face the voters or, more importantly, the taxpayers.

   The heretofore reasonable Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma also voted against the ban. That was a bigger disappointment than the predictable Voino vote.

   On the other hand, two Democrats – Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.) – who will likely face tough challenges in 2012 voted in support on the earmark ban.

   The politics of convenience reigns. Damn the torpedoes, er, earmarks, full speed ahead.

   To their credit, two outgoing Senate Democrats, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin did the right thing and voted for the earmark ban.

   (And I still say that Indiana’s Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, a Democrat, would make a darned good presidential and VP ticket in 2012. Hoosiers believe it. So do I. It won’t happen, of course. While Daniels is considering a 2012 presidential bid, Bayh is looking at replacing him as Indiana governor.)

* * *

Is U.S. ceding

parts of Arizona?

   Col. Oliver North has been writing a lot this year about the U.S.-Mexico border problems in Arizona. HCP columnist Eric Deters touches on this growing concern in his column this week.

   According to Col. North, “Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman – a multibillionaire who heads the Sinaloa drug cartel just across Arizona’s border – commands an army of more than 11,000 shooters equipped with machine guns, automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and armored vehicles. That’s more than twice as many troops available to the U.S. Border Patrol, Arizona Department of Public Safety, Indian Affairs police and county sheriffs on Arizona’s border.”

   In Arizona, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who’s more than 90 miles north of the border with Mexico, says: “Our deputies are outnumbered and outgunned. We’re up against drug runners carrying AK-47s,” the Soviet-era weapon used by al-Qaeda terrorists and the Taliban.

   Col. North continues: “After one of his deputies was wounded by an AK-47-toting border crosser, Sheriff Babeu requested funding to purchase AR-15 rifles for his department. The county turned him down for lack of funds. He told us, ‘My deputies shouldn’t have to buy their own weapons to protect themselves and the public.’”

   Sheriff Babeu says the U.S. is ceding parts of Arizona to the drug runners.

   In Cochise County, Sheriff Larry Dever has some 6,000 square miles to patrol. His county is larger than the state of Connecticut.

   “His jurisdiction is home to Tombstone, scene of the legendary 1881 shootout at the OK Corral and it shares an 82-mile border with Mexico,” Col. North said. “Last year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than 550,000 people were arrested trying to enter the U.S. illegally. Nearly half of them crossed the border in the ‘Tucson sector,’ which includes Cochise County. Yet, Dever has fewer than 90 sworn deputies.

   “Instead of getting weapons, military reinforcements and help protecting America’s southern border, Arizona’s sheriffs and Gov. Jan Brewer received from the Obama administration: a lawsuit, when a federal judge in Phoenix decided Arizona could not enforce certain provisions of SB 1070, which allowed state law enforcement officers to ascertain the citizenship of individuals stopped for legal infractions.”

   As comical as the U.S. Senate’s refusal to ban earmark spending is, the lack of border security is downright knee-slapping hilarious. Comedy Central certainly doesn’t have far to go for its material.

   The only trouble is, this stuff is more frightening than funny. No one with an ounce of common sense is laughing.

   If a 90-mile infringement of American soil by a violent drug cartel is acceptable today, what’s next? Eh, el Presidente?

* * *

Let’s advertise public jobs

for county’s unemployed

   It wouldn’t seem right to close this week’s offering on government action (or inaction) without an observation or two on our own local

government.

   Last week, as we first reported at www.highlandcountypress.com, the Highland County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution for two part-time positions with the Department of Job and Family Services at their Nov. 24 commission meeting.

   Debbie Robbins, executive director of the Highland County Department of Job and Family Services, had requested two part-time positions, up to 30 hours per week for each position, at a rate of $10 per hour, up from $8.50 an hour.

   At the meeting, I asked if the positions would be advertised locally, and was informed that both positions would be filled by students from Southern State Community College.

   In normal times and under normal circumstances, such an arrangement would probably be acceptable with no questions asked.

   But these aren’t normal times. Highland County has been and continues to be among the top three Ohio counties in unemployment. We’ve all read the reports for the past two years or so.

   At last week’s meeting, commissioners were told that another 681 county residents will lose unemployment benefits this month. Commissioners also said the county could lose up to $1 million in revenues next year, as state funding and sales tax collections are expected to decline.

   This week, commissioners received correspondence from Robbins that some 1,931 Highland Countians will have exhausted all unemployment benefits by April 2011 – more than 30 percent of these workers have dependent children.

   With all due respect to the college students and with all due respect to the county officials, it only seems reasonable that the very agency that has the county’s unemployment documentation right in front of it might want to offer employment for two of these 1,931 without benefits prior to handing the proposed $10-an-hour jobs to two pre-selected college students – with absolutely no advertising of the positions.

   Granted, the two jobs are temporary, but so are unemployment benefits.

   It strains the imagination to think it is in the county’s best interest to avoid advertising for any public job, much less one that could pay as much as $10 an hour to start – more than 30 percent higher than minimum wage. Without a doubt, there are many local private-sector businesses who are not hiring at $10 an hour, neither college student nor experienced professional.

   The fact that this request came on the day before Thanksgiving was, well, a bit questionable. To be fair, maybe that’s just the way the timing came about.

   By and large, this newspaper has had and continues to have great respect and admiration for Debbie Robbins and commissioners Shane Wilkin, Gary Heaton and Tom Horst. They’re all good public servants. They have a solid track record of making good decisions. But as one who’s met with and receives resumes from highly capable, college-educated, yet unemployed, local residents, I have to question this proposal.

   In the end, commissioners approved the resolution for JFS staffing, but changed the proposed pay rate from $10 an hour to $9 an hour. They did not offer an immediate explanation, other than to say “We thought $10 an hour was too much.”

   Whether the jobs are for $10 an hour or $9 an hour, let’s encourage a more widespread application process in the future, should such jobs become available.

   Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.

Once again, the elitists in the United States Senate just don’t get it.

   Or, maybe they just missed the results of the recent midterm election.

Those results, by the way, brought about a new majority across the way in the U.S. House of Representatives.

   This past Tuesday, those self-anointed elitists rejected a proposed ban on those nefarious congressional earmarks showing, yet again, that their lobbyist friends and funds are far more important than good, common-sense government.

   Sen. (and doctor) Tom Coburn, who introduced the proposed ban on earmark spending, said this was the only way to rein in out-of-control spending.

   While Sen. Coburn has earned a good measure of taxpayers’ respect, his very statements that this is the ONLY way to rein in “out-of-control” spending is alarming. In other words, without a law to prohibit it, Congress simply must spend like the proverbial drunken sailors on shore leave. It’s not their fault; they just can’t help themselves. To our money.

   But as a wise man once noted, at least those drunken sailors are spending their own money.

   Not surprisingly, but nonetheless disappointing, Ohio’s Sen. George Voinovich was one of eight Republican elitists who voted in favor of earmark spending. Ever the opportunist, Voinovich won’t have to answer for this vote. He’s retiring (thank you very much) and doesn’t have to face the voters or, more importantly, the taxpayers.

   The heretofore reasonable Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma also voted against the ban. That was a bigger disappointment than the predictable Voino vote.

   On the other hand, two Democrats – Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.) – who will likely face tough challenges in 2012 voted in support on the earmark ban.

   The politics of convenience reigns. Damn the torpedoes, er, earmarks, full speed ahead.

   To their credit, two outgoing Senate Democrats, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin did the right thing and voted for the earmark ban.

   (And I still say that Indiana’s Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, a Democrat, would make a darned good presidential and VP ticket in 2012. Hoosiers believe it. So do I. It won’t happen, of course. While Daniels is considering a 2012 presidential bid, Bayh is looking at replacing him as Indiana governor.)

* * *

Is U.S. ceding

parts of Arizona?

   Col. Oliver North has been writing a lot this year about the U.S.-Mexico border problems in Arizona. HCP columnist Eric Deters touches on this growing concern in his column this week.

   According to Col. North, “Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman – a multibillionaire who heads the Sinaloa drug cartel just across Arizona’s border – commands an army of more than 11,000 shooters equipped with machine guns, automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and armored vehicles. That’s more than twice as many troops available to the U.S. Border Patrol, Arizona Department of Public Safety, Indian Affairs police and county sheriffs on Arizona’s border.”

   In Arizona, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who’s more than 90 miles north of the border with Mexico, says: “Our deputies are outnumbered and outgunned. We’re up against drug runners carrying AK-47s,” the Soviet-era weapon used by al-Qaeda terrorists and the Taliban.

   Col. North continues: “After one of his deputies was wounded by an AK-47-toting border crosser, Sheriff Babeu requested funding to purchase AR-15 rifles for his department. The county turned him down for lack of funds. He told us, ‘My deputies shouldn’t have to buy their own weapons to protect themselves and the public.’”

   Sheriff Babeu says the U.S. is ceding parts of Arizona to the drug runners.

   In Cochise County, Sheriff Larry Dever has some 6,000 square miles to patrol. His county is larger than the state of Connecticut.

   “His jurisdiction is home to Tombstone, scene of the legendary 1881 shootout at the OK Corral and it shares an 82-mile border with Mexico,” Col. North said. “Last year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than 550,000 people were arrested trying to enter the U.S. illegally. Nearly half of them crossed the border in the ‘Tucson sector,’ which includes Cochise County. Yet, Dever has fewer than 90 sworn deputies.

   “Instead of getting weapons, military reinforcements and help protecting America’s southern border, Arizona’s sheriffs and Gov. Jan Brewer received from the Obama administration: a lawsuit, when a federal judge in Phoenix decided Arizona could not enforce certain provisions of SB 1070, which allowed state law enforcement officers to ascertain the citizenship of individuals stopped for legal infractions.”

   As comical as the U.S. Senate’s refusal to ban earmark spending is, the lack of border security is downright knee-slapping hilarious. Comedy Central certainly doesn’t have far to go for its material.

   The only trouble is, this stuff is more frightening than funny. No one with an ounce of common sense is laughing.

   If a 90-mile infringement of American soil by a violent drug cartel is acceptable today, what’s next? Eh, el Presidente?

* * *

Let’s advertise public jobs

for county’s unemployed

   It wouldn’t seem right to close this week’s offering on government action (or inaction) without an observation or two on our own local

government.

   Last week, as we first reported at www.highlandcountypress.com, the Highland County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution for two part-time positions with the Department of Job and Family Services at their Nov. 24 commission meeting.

   Debbie Robbins, executive director of the Highland County Department of Job and Family Services, had requested two part-time positions, up to 30 hours per week for each position, at a rate of $10 per hour, up from $8.50 an hour.

   At the meeting, I asked if the positions would be advertised locally, and was informed that both positions would be filled by students from Southern State Community College.

   In normal times and under normal circumstances, such an arrangement would probably be acceptable with no questions asked.

   But these aren’t normal times. Highland County has been and continues to be among the top three Ohio counties in unemployment. We’ve all read the reports for the past two years or so.

   At last week’s meeting, commissioners were told that another 681 county residents will lose unemployment benefits this month. Commissioners also said the county could lose up to $1 million in revenues next year, as state funding and sales tax collections are expected to decline.

   This week, commissioners received correspondence from Robbins that some 1,931 Highland Countians will have exhausted all unemployment benefits by April 2011 – more than 30 percent of these workers have dependent children.

   With all due respect to the college students and with all due respect to the county officials, it only seems reasonable that the very agency that has the county’s unemployment documentation right in front of it might want to offer employment for two of these 1,931 without benefits prior to handing the proposed $10-an-hour jobs to two pre-selected college students – with absolutely no advertising of the positions.

   Granted, the two jobs are temporary, but so are unemployment benefits.

   It strains the imagination to think it is in the county’s best interest to avoid advertising for any public job, much less one that could pay as much as $10 an hour to start – more than 30 percent higher than minimum wage. Without a doubt, there are many local private-sector businesses who are not hiring at $10 an hour, neither college student nor experienced professional.

   The fact that this request came on the day before Thanksgiving was, well, a bit questionable. To be fair, maybe that’s just the way the timing came about.

   By and large, this newspaper has had and continues to have great respect and admiration for Debbie Robbins and commissioners Shane Wilkin, Gary Heaton and Tom Horst. They’re all good public servants. They have a solid track record of making good decisions. But as one who’s met with and receives resumes from highly capable, college-educated, yet unemployed, local residents, I have to question this proposal.

   In the end, commissioners approved the resolution for JFS staffing, but changed the proposed pay rate from $10 an hour to $9 an hour. They did not offer an immediate explanation, other than to say “We thought $10 an hour was too much.”

   Whether the jobs are for $10 an hour or $9 an hour, let’s encourage a more widespread application process in the future, should such jobs become available.

   Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.