Copyright 2008,
James R. Conner,
all rights reserved.
Page Index
The election results looked impressive as announced: 1,410 votes for the $4.4 million bond to build a new fire hall in Evergreen, 871 votes against. Expressed as percentages of the votes cast, that’s 61.8 percent Yes, 38.2 percent No. Better than three to two in favor; not bad.
Viewed in a different light, however, the result was less impressive.
Ballots were mailed to 4,253 voters. Only 2,283 ballots were returned, and two of those were blank. The turnout, then…
Extraordinary problems can require extraordinary solutions. But must extraordinary solutions require extraordinary, even extra-constitutional, powers? Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson’s proposal for helping troubled banks and financiers puts that question squarely before us.
As someone old enough to remember Johnny Horton's great hit, North to Alaska, using that tune for a satirical ballad about Sarah Palin, John McCain's bizarre choice for his running mate, was irresistable. South from Wasilla probably is best sung gospel style with mixed singers for the chorus.
I was going to post more on the library today, but pressing business kept me busy on other matters. In the meantime, a few comments on the financial upheaval on Wall Street are merited.
Library special report. The Flathead County Library Board has new members, but the old issues — especially whether and where to build a new library in Kalispell — remain. I'm consolidating my comments on the situation, and providing background information, in our new special reports section. Check back on Monday, 15 September.
Bond issues in hard times. Bond issues, no matter how meritorious, become harder to pass during times of economic decay. With banks failing, unemployment increasing, inflation growing, hard working people losing their homes — I think we're in the initial stages of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression — this is one of those times. That's why I'm not optimistic that the bond issues for a new fire hall in Evergreen ($4.4 million), a new county-wide 911 center ($6.9 million), and critial lands conservation ($10 million), will pass.
Updated 9 September. There’s a place for anonymous authorship, but all too often it’s just an excuse for publishing irresponsible writing. That’s why last year I banished the Daily Kos website, a favorite with liberals, from my list of interesting websites. I thought far too many posting on Kos were unsourced screeds by reckless writers hiding behind a jaunty nom de plume. On 30 August 2008, Kos published this despicable, tabloid trash, false accusation that Sarah Palin’s son Trig is actually her grandson. I rest my case.
Update, 9 September. The above link to Kos remains valid, but all pages by the author known as ArcXIX have been scrubbed clean. I’m sure they’re available somewhere else, but you’ll have to find them on your own.
Updated. Hurricane Gustav, now a Category 4 storm and picking up steam, remains aimed at the gulf coast and is expected to make landfall sometime Labor Day (Monday). Residents in the area have begun a reasonably orderly evacuation, indicating lessons learned from Katrina are being observed, and state and federal officials are conducting the before the storm activities they failed to conduct three years ago.
Meanwhile, John McCain, the presumptive GOP candidate, says postponing the Republican National Convention,
Updated to add panorama. It’s hard to learn much from the minutes of the board meetings — which are public meetings — of the Flathead County Library System. Whether by design or inadvertence, the minutes are cryptic, concealing most of what transpired; not even motions are recorded. But sometimes an item, cryptic though it is, blinks red, as did this paragraph from the Library Director’s Report in the minutes for the 28 February 2008 meeting:
Smoke from the Deep Draw Fire west of Elmo rises above the Salish Mountains and streams east in this photograph taken near the KM Ranch Road south of Whitefish yesterday around 1800. Place your cursor on the image to see a grayscale version in which the plume stands out more clearly from the sky.
The problem with robo (robot) calls is not their content. The problem is that they exist at all. The telephone rings. You answer. A metallic voice begins speaking without pause, and it quickly seems, without end. If you hang-up before the call is finished, the robot often calls back to finish the job. And if you're out of ring reach, the unsolicited, unwanted message is left on your answering machine.