The LePage “Whistle Stop” Express

For a number of years, the Poppycock’s have bee meaning to ride the Maine Eastern train between Brunswick and Rockland, but there’s never been enough ‘push’ to get us to do it.

Well now there is.  Next Saturday, July 24th, there will be a special Maine Eastern round trip train from Rockland down to Brunswick, and back to Rockland.  It’s a chartered train, in the old “whistle stop” style, for Paul LePage’s campaign for Governor of Maine.

You can find the details here: details.  And more info here, including the itinerary: LePage train itinerary

For those of you in the greater Brunswick-Portland and points south region, the requirement to drive to Rockland for an 0830 boarding time, and then having to drive back home after returning to Rockland at about 1500 might look daunting enough to discourage your participation.  But there is another very attractive option that would make the day more manageable.

You could make the drive to Wiscasset and catch the train there at 1015, and then ride it down to Brunswick, make the turn, and get off the train at Wiscasset on the way back at roughly 1330.  This is a much more reasonable drive, and would still give you participation in all the "whistle stops" except for the Rockport origin.  And hours to enjoy all the enthusiasm aboard the train.

Please consider this option as another way to jump on board the "LePage train!"  Maine needs a major change in how it is ‘governed,’ and Paul is our best choice to do so!

Email or call me if you have any questions; but most of all, book a place on the train!

Technorati Tags: LePpage,train ride,Maine

A quickie…on the Constitution

You all know how much I love The Coastal Journal, and its all purpose persona Gina Hamilton, a liberal feel-gooder of epic dimension.

I’ve had her “opinion” piece of July 1st in my stack for two weeks now, and it’s time I make appropriate disposition.  She titled it “The Declaration…or the Constitution?”

If you ever wanted conclusive proof that our population is loaded with folks who can’t see any value or purpose or structural merit in founding principles or similar constraints upon our government, Gina is here to make the point.

To begin with, Gina asserts:

The Declaration of Independence was essentially a call to arms, and carries no force of law.  For instance, although the Declaration refers to a ‘Creator’, the Constitution makes no such reference, and indeed, establishes a strict wall of separation between church and state.

A call to arms?  Fine.  But ‘a strict wall of separation?’  Poppycock, balderdash, and folderol. 

The clear language of Amendment I says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….”  The words ‘strict,’ ‘wall,’ or ‘separation’ are nowhere to be found.  Except in the imaginations of those who find the constraints, well, too constraining.

Next, Gina lets us know that she finds our founding principles lacking in literary merit:

it was the dry, pendantic (her spelling) language of James Madison’s Constitution that we live with today and which truly forms the basis for our grand experiment.

But worry not. as Gina tells us:

the Constitution is a living document that should and does reflect the changing nature of America’s evolution and growth as a society.

In other words, no matter what you think the Constitution embodies, it is no more binding or permanent than is the makeup of your compost pile or tomorrow’s weather forecast.

As a matter of fact, Gina expects that:

The Court that will be seated in October will make many important decisions, just as former courts have done, and will share in the role of driving American society forward.

As you can tell, Gina is convinced that the role of the Supreme Court is to enact progressive social policy.

So what lesson do we learn here?  First, Gina should rename “The Coastal Journal” as “The Coastal Progressive,” since it is her purpose to use the weekly as her personal ideological manifesto.

Second, before she writes, Gina should learn to read, and more important, comprehend what she reads.  And teach her son and heir to do the same.

From all indications, she has not yet reached that milestone.  La Dolce this or that and other cutsie gimmicks notwithstanding.

Technorati Tags: Coastal Journal,Gina Hamilton

He’s back!!!! (Or maybe he never really left…..)

Things have been pretty quiet in Lake Basebegone since Barrister F. Lee Bailey penned his note of withdrawal to the MRRA.  Hence Side hasn’t reported on the subject since these two posts:

Re: Condolences-one last glimmer of hope?

A “Towering” Lake Basebegone Update, May 26, 2010

Imagine our delight, then, when in browsing through the Sunday Portland paper, we found that F. Lee is back in the news, and in more ways than one.

For the past two Sundays, this paper has carried major front page “special report” stories on the Dennis Dechaine case.  Astute followers of the case know that F. Lee took an interest in the case some months ago, and he’s mentioned in the article in that context.

Bailey gets his own related article in the paper, in which we find this interesting passage:

Bailey has business ties in Maine and he is moving to Yarmouth this month from Massachusetts. A longtime pilot, Bailey is a close friend and business partner with Jim Horowitz, the founder of Oxford Aviation.

So, maybe there is hope for a return of a Richardson-Bailey economic development “breakthrough” after all.  Bailey’s permanent presence in Maine should provide fodder of one sort or another for future musings on the subject.  And this is the first time we can recall seeing in print that Bailey is a business partner with Oxford Aviation’s Jim Horowitz.  That makes a trio of opportunists of “towering” stature, all here to surprise us with new and spectacular possibilities if we’ll just “invest” in them.

Let the speculation begin.  And we’re glad that Bailey seems to have recovered from his deep depression after Johnny Protocols pulled out of the race for governor.  Which makes us wonder whither goest JP?

Technorati Tags: F. Lee Bailey,John Richardson,Oxford Aviation

Uncle! Slacker alert!

I don’t need to tell you that our activity has been near zero in recent weeks, making your daily grind more monotonous than it otherwise has to be.

An alibi seems in order.  Starting about two weeks ago, I began a fairly major interior project at Chez PC, and as almost always happens, the little details add up to a bigger work load than imagined.  So I’m here to cry uncle and ask that you cut me some slack.

Couple that with high temperatures and grubby humidity over the last week or so, and continuing as we speak, and you have a work environment that slows ‘productivity’ by a goodly sum.  And when you quit for the day, you’re not really up for witty and pithy authoring.

I’ve got a few things in the hopper, but haven’t been able to get myself to finish them.  I’m hopeful that I’ll finish the project sometime next week, and get back to a more or less normal “summer” routine.  Notwithstanding that my daughter and family arrive in very early August.

So, for the time being, Side will be grateful for your indulgence and understanding, and we want you to know that the slower pace is only temporary.  We remain fully committed to offering the other side of things for the long term.

With occasional interruptions by real life.

Technorati Tags: Other Side,Poppycock,slowdown

Sub-prime, adjustable rate teachers’ contract

(Other Side note: what follows is an essay on the recently approved Brunswick teachers contract.  We hope you’ll bear with us as we set the stage for the heart of the issue.)

Much has been written and said about the great ‘housing crisis’ and/or the bursting of the ‘housing bubble’ in the last year and a half or so.  And it’s eminently arguable that this housing snafu, or more appropriately, the home financing snafu, was the underlying trigger and basis for the ‘great recession’ we now find ourselves in, and are having great trouble escaping from.

The story line in Washington and the mainstream media is that unscrupulous mortgage agents were pushing undesirable financing plans on home buyers who had no idea what they were getting into, and that the loans often involved skyrocketing interest rates and balloon payments.  Given the nature of home financing, where your property is your collateral, the deal is that you either pay up or you lose your house.

In most cases, the ‘loan paper’ was an adjustable rate mortgage, with a ‘teaser rate’ at the front end making for a seemingly painless entry into the glory of home ownership, which was seen as universally desirable.  By definition, the consequence of a very attractive front end with such loans is a far less attractive and predictable back end, with serious vulnerability to economic conditions.  This includes the possibility of rapidly increasing monthly payments, or even worse, the need to make balloon payments and refinance in the not too distant future.

The “firemen first” approach to public budgets

Technorati Tags: budgets,Brunswick,bookies

Anyone who’s watched local and state budgeting cycles over the years knows there’s a pretty standard protocol for scaring the taxpayers into coughing up the extra funds to do whatever it is the “public servants” in charge deem is most “vital” for their well-being.

Recently, The Weekly Standard ran a “Scrapbook” note on the subject, and it articulated the finer points of the strategy, and so I can’t resist passing it along to you.  You can find it here under the heading “Obama’s $50 billion wish list.”

It begins with this passage:

President Obama sent a letter to the House and Senate leaders of both parties last week asking for $50 billion to “address the devastating economic impact of budget cuts at the state and local levels that are leading to massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters.”

Here in Brunswick, recent years have shown a preference for using Coffin Pond summer swimming and Curtis Library funding as the strawmen for budget battles, and this year, freshman sports were added to the mix.  Suggesting Library cuts is a sure way to call out at least 50 opponents at a budget hearing.  The “bookies” are nothing if not organized.  And the “schoolies,” especially those engaged in sports, were almost as engaged.

Serious discussion aside, the referenced WS item simply caused this reporter to smirk in knowing agreement as the narrative unfolded.  Take this paragraph:

This is a classic instance of something Charlie Peters, the retired editor of the Washington Monthly, famously labeled the “Firemen First Principle.” As Peters explained, “The basic idea is that, when faced with a budget cut, the bureaucrat translates it into bad news. . . . In other words, he chops where it will hurt constituents the most, not the least. At the local government level, this is most often done by threatening reductions in fire and police protection.”

The article really hit home though, when it got to the discussion of specifics in the author’s Arlington County, Virginia domicile.  Local officials proposed cutting library operating hours.  Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Read it and laugh (edited for brevity):

….tax-receipts thanks to the housing bubble were increasing at double digit rates before the crash, and the county government therefore went on a bender. Now it whines about austerity. Our local version of “firemen first”  is a cut-back in public library hours, which the County Board has just announced in the name of fiscal discipline. This will, in fact, inconvenience and tick off a significant number of local taxpayers.

At the same time, believe it or not, the county is advertising a number of job vacancies, none of which inspire confidence in prudent fiscal management.

These include:

• Community Inspector II (Recycling)
• New Media Curator, Artisphere Cultural Center
• Affordable Housing Development Specialist/Trainee

These jobs offer salary ranges well beyond what the average taxpayer earns in the private sector, but I suppose that is to be expected. I’m only surprised that there isn’t a position to study the economy of Greece so that its finer points could be brought home to make Arlington County even more prosperous.

Whopper of the week (month? year?) award goes to….drum roll, please….. Bowdoin College!

Every now and then, you sit down with an adult beverage to casually leaf through the latest print media.  And on occasion, in doing so, you come across an item that puts your happy home at risk.

That’s because you run the risk of reflexively projecting an atomized mouthful of said high octane beverage into the immediate area.  If you’re unfortunate enough to have an open candle flame nearby, you could become a “fire-breathing” side-show star, a career move that is definitely not life-enhancing.

I came across just such an item this week in the Forecaster, and you can find it here under the title “Brunswick historic board questions Bowdoin house demo.”

The fun part of this story, for openers, is that it pits two of Brunswick’s elite forces of nature against each other – the Ivory Tower of Bowdoin College, and the preservationists of the Village Review Board.  The very soul of the community lies in the balance, so the stakes are immense.

The Seaward Inn….a Rockport gem

The Poppycocks spent their recent getaway at a truly unique and wonderful place in Rockport, Massachusetts, in the area known as Cape Ann.  It’s near Gloucester, the famous fishing town, and the broader region includes Beverly, Salem, and other fun places.

Our friends from New Jersey joined us at the Seaward Inn, a classic New England “shingle” bed and breakfast, directly on the water in Rockport.  It’s situated on a lovely road that provides wonderful peace and quiet with a view, and the perfect opportunity for morning and evening walks, in which you will take in superb properties and gardens, most with incredible ocean views.

You can find the info on the Seaward Inn here: http://www.seawardinn.com/.

The character, details, and appointments at the Inn are all first class.  And the breakfast is world class.  They have a great chef and an impressive professional kitchen from which to serve cooked to order morning meals.  We only wished they served dinner as well, but they do not at this point. 

The staff is most helpful, the “common areas” are homey and comfortable, and the amenities include fresh baked cookies each afternoon and complimentary tea and coffee available during the day.  Within a day or two we felt like old friends, even though we had not been there before.  But we plan to be there often in the future.

The Inn has been operating for more than 60 years, and the current owner is the daughter of the family that opened it as a tourist destination.

Rockport has a thriving waterfront village that is strong on art galleries, candy shops, and other classic New England offerings.  It took us a bit to scope out the dining options, but once we did, we had some most enjoyable meals.

The finest of these was at a place known as Duckworth’s Bistrot in East Gloucester.  The odd spelling of ‘bistro,’ we were told, is the original spelling in French.  No matter; this reporter rates the place in the top five places I’ve dined at in my lifetime.

Small, cozy, very well run, extremely appealing menu.  And most items available in either appetizer or entree sized portions, which we wish was more common in fine establishments.  The service was superb, and the desserts were beyond belief.  Check out a typical menu here.  And here’s what it looks like:

       

All in all, if you’re looking for a nearby getaway,  the Seaward Inn should fill the bill, and Duckworth’s will leave you wanting more, and more, and more.

And you can trust me on this; I’m not like all the others.

Technorati Tags: getaways,Rockport,Duckworth's

Maine excels in “moochers”

Maine officials love to tout our “quality of place,” which to this reporter means they would just as soon not talk about “quality of employment,” or “quality of prosperity,” or “quality of future.”

One organization has recently decided to assess the percentage of a state’s population that ‘access’ some form of welfare, and compare it to the percentage of the population that is ‘in poverty.’  To the extent that the former exceeds the latter, a “moocher index” is computed.

Wouldn’t you just know it?  Maine comes out #3 of the 50 states (or is it 57?) in this index.  Only Vermont, #1, and Mississippi beat out Maine.

You can read about it here.

And now you can ponder why Maine’s economy is in the doldrums, even though we have wonderful places to kayak.  Let’s face it; what’s more important – quiet waters with the cry of the loons, or the ability to make a future for your family?

Technorati Tags: maine,the economy,welfare state

Keeping your views on guns to yourself…

Some might find this infuriating, but to this reporter, the sentiment expressed in the sign hits the bull's-eye, so to speak.

 

Technorati Tags: gun control

“Picking” on teachers….

The Poppycock’s just wrapped up a brief vacation, with friends from New Jersey, on the Massachusetts coast line.  The weather could have been far better, but we had a grand time none the less.  We had some top drawer dining experiences, and the Inn we stayed at was marvelous.  More on that in a subsequent post.

The NJ friends are living the Chris Christie ‘revolution.’  And as fate would have it, the wife was a school nurse for years and years, working amidst public school teachers for decades. You might recall this post from a few weeks ago that featured a YouTube video of the governor commenting on the NJ Teachers’ Union.  

As the men’s discussions inevitably drifted to politics, the subject of Christie and his tussle with the teachers came up, and it became clear that my friend, who is as outspoken as this reporter, was ruffling the feathers of many of their friends (or former friends!) who are or were teachers.

That got me to thinking of the ways in which such discussions get shaped by those in the attitude formation business.  In so many words, anytime someone speaks in opposition to teachers’ contracts and/or other aspects of the relationship between teachers and the public schools, out comes the demonization rhetoric. The ‘schoolies,’ as I call them, are masters at pushing back and making the taxpayers the bad guys, as are union officials.  It’s their job, after all.

To whit:

• “Why are you picking on the teachers?  They’re hard working, dedicated, and supremely competent professionals.”
• “Teachers aren’t paid nearly enough for what they do, and they deserve more respect.”
• “Teachers are only in it because it’s for the children.”
• “We moved here because of the superb schools, and every one of our children’s teachers is a saint.”

Which brings us back to the point that Christie makes: it’s not the teachers, it’s the teachers’ unions.

Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

On many occasions speaking before the Brunswick Town Council, I’ve uttered the following in one variation or another:

1) You can govern, or you can spend.

2) The first law of economics is that resources are limited, and there are competing demands for them.  The first law of politics is to ignore the first law of economics.

The situation we find ourselves in today includes the passage of another town budget that fails to confront the harsh realities we face, and an election in which $100 million in bonds is before state voters, and almost guaranteed approval.  Who can resist the temptation of ‘free money,’ especially when you include a 3 to 1 federal match in many cases?  So what….we encumber Maine residents to the tune of $100 million more, and US residents for another $200 million or more.  It’s only MONEY!

The Ostrich, as you might expect, has offered it’s usual clueless belief in the tooth fairy to back up its support for any and all bonds.  And completely ignored the huge unfunded liability in Maine, and massive amounts of debt approved in prior years.

This reporter has long held certain opinions about who informs their positions with facts, logic, economic principles, etc.  And who doesn’t.

As chance would have it, today’s Wall Street Journal contains a column in which the author describes how “self-identified liberals and Democrats do badly on questions of basic economics.”  It certainly confirms suspicions held by this observer.

Here’s the link: Are you smarter than a fifth grader?  A few key passages follow.

Who is better informed about the policy choices facing the country—liberals, conservatives or libertarians? According to a Zogby International survey …. the answer is unequivocal: The left flunks Econ 101.

The author is a Professor of Economics, and bases his findings on a survey of 4,835 American adults.  He concludes:

Governmental power joined with wrongheadedness is something terrible, but all too common. Realizing that many of our leaders and their constituents are economically unenlightened sheds light on the troubles that surround us.

Do Greece and much of the rest of Europe come to mind, anyone?  Perhaps a cliff that America is getting ready to jump off, ably aided by all levels of government?

Sometimes, the most complex problems boil down to the very simplest of truths, and our failure to acknowledge them.  Or even worse, knowingly defy them.

Technorati Tags: Economics,governing,spending