Thursday, August 13, 2009

"Afterthoughts" - Thursday, August 13th

On choosing a new Town Manager for Brunswick

Readers know I've written on this more than once, and most recently, yesterday.

Town Councilors held court on the issue last night. The Forecaster, which is the best source for in depth coverage of Brunswick town governance, has it covered.

Steve Mistler of the Forecaster posted a pithy column on the meeting on their web site. It includes words like "bizarre" (one of my favorites) and this passage:

That suggestion was openly refuted by Councilor Karen Klatt, who noted that Daughtry called Brown on Aug. 5 to offer him the job and that he accepted it.

Daughtry responded that the council's action was not final. She also disputed her own comments to the press about the call to Brown, saying she couldn't "control what's written in the newspaper."

Nothing like a little dispute with yourself, which falls within the larger category of talking to yourself, one would think.

It will be interesting to compare how the Brunswick paper covers the meeting.

HeALthanol and the Common Good

These two subjects juxtaposed themselves in my thinking. Here in our lovely state, Baldacci led the ruling Majority as they enacted Dirigo Health Care in 2003, and it is widely recognized as an abysmal failure. But so what; elected officials have steadfastly resisted putting themselves and state employees on the plan, instead preferring that they drive a Cadillac while the unwashed try to keep a beater truck operating. Such officials, who like to call themselves "public servants," have a "bizarre" interpretation of the common good. Perhaps one day they'll clarify it for us.

Not to be outdone in pursuit of the common good, Federal "public servants" are similarly exempting themselves and their vast army of bureaucratic functionaries from the grasp of the massive reform of health care. Here, however, the rationale is a bit more obvious.

To begin with, if Congress were to subject itself to the "End of Life" provisions of the proposed government health care regime, the Senate would probably find its membership shrinking quickly over the months. In effect, they'd be exposed to a new form of "term limits."

No telling how severely the House membership would decline, but there are more than enough to keep a sizable team of EOL counselors busy; that's for sure.

As I wrote before, "what else do you need to know?"

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