Man, I’m Ready For The Weekend

It’s been a heck of a week, and it’s not quite done. But at least the next 48 hours aren’t all about sitting at the computer and writing. In fact, the blogging will likely be a little light.

To recap … every day has been 18-22 items for Aero News. In case you’ve never been a writer, that’s a lot of content to find, massage, upload, find art, and try to get it all exactly right. I haven’t been as successful on that last bit as I’d like, but getting closer. And by exactly, it’s not just the writing, but all the small details of manipulating a pretty intricate content management system. It’s challenging, but darned interesting. Of course, the subject matter is something in which I’m pretty interested, so that makes it not so much of a chore. If I was writing about something I didn’t care about … I’d go nuts.

Then, there are the two columns for The Jacksonville Observer, which everybody in town should be reading. And not just my stuff. I have a pretty free reign about what I write, but that means I have to come up with the topics, too. There’s nothing like a deadline and a blank screen to put your brain in complete lockdown. But so far, I’ve managed to keep cranking it out.

Wednesday, we kicked off The Jacksonville Observer Radio Show. I know I’ve written a lot about it, but damn was that fun. I’ll be seeing the Mayor again on Tuesday when I guest-host “People and Politics”, the cable show normally hosted by Attorney Eric Smith. Not a paying gig, but it’ll be fun to be back on TV. Of course, some may think it’s the Tom and John Media Tour, but that’s just kind of how it worked out. They’re likely fairly different audiences anyway.

Today, I did take a couple of breaks, one to go to a chiropractor about the ongoing pain in the neck I’ve had for a couple of weeks, and this nagging lower back thing that seems to kick up when I stand for a long time, or push the lawnmower. We’ll see how that works, but doing nothing certainly wasn’t helping.

The other was for a cigar and scotch at the very civilized hour of 3:00 pm at Ron Allen’s house.

So that was kind of the week. And tomorrow, it’s RAM with The Improv Effect, and then we’re going to beat feet down to the central Florida Coast to hopefully FINALLY see the shuttle launch. My cousin Mike will be down there at his timeshare in Cocoa Beach, and that should be close enough until I can get a media credential to be on the space center. THAT’ll be cool.

Sunday, we have to work in the townhouse. After our flakey buyers flaked out completely and didn’t close, we’re getting it in top shape so someone will find it irresistible. It’s darn close to that now.

So, no rest for the weary.

But if you notice a couple of days with no blogging, you’ll know why.

At some point I’m going to have to get a column out for Austin, and that might have to be tonight.

Oh well …

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Technorati Tags: Thoughts,Life,Work,Play

Media Blitz

And I’m not talking about Michael Jackson.  Although the taxpayers of Los Angeles should not be forced to pay for that circus of a memorial service. Whether or not he deserved it is another matter entirely. Only heads of state should get that kind of treatment at taxpayer expense. If you want to throw a big hoo-rah, for what ever reason, throw it yourself.

Of course, I don’t pay taxes in California. Maybe they’ll cool with it, but I digress. And that’s the last an only Michael comment I’m likely to make.

My media blitz was yesterday getting through the first JORS, which will become the Blog’s official shorthand for The Jacksonville Observer Radio Show. A couple of statistics that have come my way.

My furthest away listener (that I know of) was in St. Paul, Minnesota. My friend Beth Talisman, who was actually my boss at C-SPAN a long time ago, tuned in on the interwebs to listen. She’s a staunch liberal, and a very close friend. You may see us banter back and forth on Facebook from time to time. But when we worked together on The Weekly Radio Journal, we really made a damn fine radio program. She’s out of the business entirely now, loving her now-not-so-new nursing career. I’m still hanging on, kind of by my fingernails, but hanging on.

Second was probably my daughter Jenni, who’s in Springfield, Virginia right now. I’m sure she’s never head me on the radio in that kind of format, but I’m thrilled she was listening. Sometimes I think maybe this new-fangled internet thing might come to something after all.

Austin pulled some of the stats after he posted the show online today. 38 plays so far, from either the WBOB site or from The Jacksonville Observer. One more, now, since I went and listened to the first few minutes a while ago, but I promise, only one of those clicks is mine.

I credit a lot of that to some good old fashioned promotion. We did station promos, of course, but didn’t know we were getting the Mayor until after we’d cut the promo. Austin did some guerilla marketing at the Tea Party at the landing, having a couple of people hand out flyers promoting both The Observer and the show. I blasted my Facebook, Outlook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  Andie blasted her contact list, and I know Austin promoted it heavily on The Observer site.

All in all, not bad. And thanks to everyone who has sent e-mails either before or since the show. It means a lot to me. You can find a link to the show here if you’d like to listen.

And speaking of media blitzes, Lenny Curry, chair of the Duval County Republican Party, has been in the middle of one following the Tea Party. A few looney toons showed up carrying signs depicting President Obama as Hitler. Somebody got a notion in their head that the GOP had paid for the event and sanctioned the signs. Neither is true, of course, but some people never seem to let the facts get in the way of a good story. It was picked up by totally unbiased The Huffington Post and from there, MSNBC “talent” Keith Olberman got a hold of it … long story short Olberman wound up naming Curry as “The Worst Person In The World” the other day.

Of course, Olberman didn’t bother to check out who had actually paid for the rally, that there were Republican, Democrats, and Independents in the crowd, or even how to pronounce “Duval”.  “du VAHL”, Olberman intoned. Not “DU vahl” as we say in these parts. Of course, he doesn’t live here, has probably never even slowed down here on his way to Boca, or where ever he might go in Florida.

But more to the point, all those people who are so adamant about condemning Curry and the GOP for what they didn’t do seem to have conveniently forgotten the invectives hurled at President Bush and Vice President Cheney for so many years. Bush was often depicted as a Nazi by the extreme left, and Cheney drew comparisons of Josef Stalin and Darth Vader. Don’t believe me? You don’t have to. Do a quick Google image search on “Bush Hitler”. I couldn’t bring myself to post an example. President Bush was called every name in the book, particularly as people became more enthralled by Barack Obama.

Pot … Kettle … Black.

Nah, that’s too easy to forget. Or they think it’s OK.

Now, neither President Obama nor former President Bush deserve to be compared to Adolph Hitler. I had my disagreements with President Bush, and I certainly have some with President Obama, but Hitler? As the now-seemingly articulate guys on ESPN said last season “C’MON, MAN!”

I really hope they bring back that segment.

No matter where you are on the political spectrum, there are going to be people you think are just beyond the pale. But do you condemn an entire political party for the views of a few outliers who may or may not even be welcome? I don’t know any mainstream Republicans who would welcome those who carried the signs with open arms, and Democrats shouldn’t either.

Olberman has the constitutional right to say what ever he wants, to be as outrageous as he thinks he needs to be to draw ratings to make money for the investors at MSNBC. But for everyone who defends Olberman, remember Rush Limbaugh has exactly the same constitutional right. In the end they’re both doing the same thing … using their opinion to draw the largest possible audience so the advertisers on their shows will spend money and they can make big piles of money.

On that score, at least, I think, Limbaugh is winning.

But Lenny Curry the “Worst Person In The World”?

That’s a stretch even for Keith. And if he’d have done the least little bit of legwork, he’d know it too.

 

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Technorati Tags: Local Radio,Live Radio,WBOB,Party Politics,Talk Radio,Talking Heads,Thoughts

First Show Rocked On WBOB

We debuted The Jacksonville Observer Radio Show this afternoon on WBOB, and it exceeded my expectations. The good news is, the people at the station seemed to be really jazzed about it, and it felt soooo damn good to be back on the radio again.

Austin shot a couple of these for me, but took more with his point-n-shoot. We took this just a few minutes before the show got underway. I kind of got the rock star treatment, which I’m not used to, but could. Still, I’m thinking this talk radio thing could be a whole lot of fun.

Mayor Peyton arrived at the studio about a minute before 5:00, but with a 6 minute newscast, that wasn’t much of a big deal. We sat down, rolled the intro, I asked my first question, he spent the first 6 or 7 minutes talking about the budget … and then the phones got going. It’s a good thing we did this first show with “limited commercial interruptions”, because we needed all the time we could get.

The calls were good, mostly. Respectful and well thought out questions, for the most part. There was one guy who kind of rambled and I had to bring him back on track, but only one, and he was towards the end of the show. Otherwise, well, I couldn’t have been more pleased.

Of course, the trick will be sustaining it. We were able to pull out the big guns for the first show, and we’ve got some ideas for shows in the future, but with me having to be in Wisconsin the 4th week of the show, I’ll have to pre-tape something for that last week in July.

Oh … the content. Well, the Mayor defended his proposed property tax millage increase eloquently, I though. Having been on the committee for the JCCI study on the budget which, I think, is giving the Mayor at least some of his political cover for the idea, I’m of an open mind about it. When a caller asked about fees, Mayor Peyton said, and rightly so, that Jacksonville has had the luxury of NOT paying garbage and other fees, while those of us at the beach have just lived with them for some time. One of the callers asked about his recent trip to the Paris Air Show, to which Mayor Peyton replied that for the $3000 it cost the city to send him to Paris, he met with executives of 15 companies that are potential tenants at Cecil Field. Meeting with them individually would have been far more expensive. And so it went. I just to just over half of my prepared questions as well, which isn’t too bad.

But for me, just to be there, in the chair, with a microphone in front of me, a bank of telephones, and a guest I know I can talk to … well … for a guy like me it just doesn’t get much better than that.

This really has some potential. Every project I’m working on right now has potential. I’m guest hosting a cable television show next week for Eric Smith, but that’s a one-shot deal for a start. I guess, in a way, it’s just very gratifying to know that what I’ve been doing for more than half my life wasn’t for nothing. I’ll admit to some butterflies driving to the station today. And there were a couple of times when the show seemed to drag a bit to me, but I don’t think anyone else noticed. The audio will be posted on The Jacksonville Observer site in a couple of days, so if you missed it, check it out there.

And now, as the TAPS guys say on Ghost Hunters as they drive away from whatever haunting they’ve been investigating …

On To The Next.

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Technorati Tags: Radio,Live Radio,Talk Radio,WBOB,Mayor Peyton,Work,Thoughts

 

No Term Limits For DCSB

This is a bit of a shock. The city’s General Counsel’s Office says school board members are constitutional officers, and therefore are not covered by the term limits law passed by voters back in 1992. Like the Sheriff, Tax Collector, Property Appraiser, Supervisor of Elections, Clerk of the Courts, there are no term limits for members of the School Board.

This has to come as a big surprise to all the members of the school board who did not seek re-election because they assumed they were term limited. And with several people already having announced they would seek what they thought were open seats on the board.

Board members who had been elected in 1992 were allowed to serve their two full terms, even if that took them beyond the assumed two term limit. So the members who were first elected in 2000 were those who mistakenly thought they had to leave after 8 years. And nobody is sure exactly how this misunderstanding wound up being common knowledge. In 2002, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that constitutional officers were not bound by the term limit law, but since the school board was not specifically addressed, everyone apparently assumed that since they are locally elected, they were bound by the law.

Not so much.

So what does this mean? Well it means that the school board members who thought they had to leave after 8 years have no legal requirement to leave. Current chair Tommy Hazouri told The Times-Union that he would honor the 8 year limit because that was the understanding the voters had when he was elected. Board Member Stan Jordan said the same thing. But the perhaps more interesting question is how this misunderstanding came to be accepted fact. Maybe it doesn’t matter, but what other surprises are lurking in the woodwork?

I don’t know either. They’re lurking.

 

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4th Photos

Once again for the 4th of July we were at the penthouse bar at Casa Marina where the view of the fireworks is spectacular. It was a lot of run, other than the cloud of gnats that invaded our little corner of the bar right at dusk. I only lost one beer to the bugs. But it was a delightful place to have an h’or dourve, a beer or two, a cigar, and enjoy the show. The cool thing was, the h’or dourves, beer, and valet parking were all included in the price. A little steep, I’ll grant you, but last year we paid $5 less just for the privilege of being in the bar, so we kind of thought it was a deal. Nor did we need the valet parking, because our faithful Beaches Trolley got us from Florida Boulevard to 8th St. N. and back for just a couple of bucks … which also meant no worries about having a couple of beers.

With the tide on the beach cresting an hour before the fireworks started, there wasn’t a lot of sand, which still didn’t deter folks from having their own little shows on a very crowded beach. I can remember a couple of years nearly getting hit by bottle rockets on the beach, which adds to the value of being 25 feet above the sand on the beach. We did see some less-than-sober people in the sea oats on the dune, one flying a kite, the other climbing up to the very top of the dune to fire his mortar. We kept hoping the Jax Beach police would come by and roust them off the dune, since the sea oats are protected, but they must have been busy with more serious drunks. There were a lot of inebriated people at the beach last night, which is pretty common when the 4th falls of a weekend. Again, another reason to perch high above the sand. But the best reason was for the view when the Rockets Red Glare got underway about 9:30.

Now, I don’t have exactly the right lens for shooting fireworks. I was shooting with a 55-200 zoom, pulled all the way back to get as broad a view of the sky as I could, but I really need Nikon’s new 35mm f1.4 lens to do it justice. Hopefully by next year I’ll have one, bought through Broad Reach Communications. I’ll need it for shooting airplane cockpits anyway, so it’s a legitimate business expense. Still, I got pretty good results looking up into the night sky. The pier is only about a block and a half from Casa Marina, and when those big mortars go, they fill up the sky, which last night was just a black velvet canvass for the bombardiers. There was only one mishap, when it looked like one of the mortars tipped over and shot sparks off the pier into the ocean. You could see the bombardiers springing from the area in silhouette in the glow, but they quickly got things back to right, and the show continued. But it was a timely reminder of just how dangerous that business is. What’s the old saying? It’s all good fun until somebody loses an eye. With several-thousand-degree manganese and other metals and chemicals spraying around, you can see how that might be a possibility.

I like this one because they look like palm trees hanging in the sky. There’s even one without any fronds on it, which I think must be because I got it just before it bloomed.

For 18 minutes the mortars roared and the sky was lit in celebration of the nation’s 233 birthday. It’s a little unfortunate, it seems to me, that by the time we get around to this ubiquitous symbol of the celebration of our independence that the people who have been drinking all day on the beach are sunburned, tired, and in too many cases three sheets to the wind. It seems that a portion of the population has lost sight of what the fireworks represent, and how far out on the proverbial limb our Founding Father’s were when Thomas Jefferson wrote “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” To declare independence from the British crown knowing a fight would be coming, and then learning that governing was more difficult than campaigning. But everything we are we owe to those men, and all those men and women who have come behind to defend our claim to freedom and independence. It is a wonderful reason to celebrate, to have a party, to gather with family and friends, or in some cases strangers with whom all we had in common were the place we shared. For many, though, it was just another excuse to overindulge at the beach. The good news is, they have the freedom to do that as well.

Of course, if one needed a reason to ride the trolley to and from the beach for the fireworks, I have it for you here. Nothing like 100,000 or so of your closest friends trying to get off San Pablo Island, or at least back to their homes, at the same time. The trolley we finally go on … within two stops of where we would eventually get off, was packed, which I think is great. It was a little reminiscent of riding the Metro back from the National Mall after the 4th of July in DC, which we attended more than once. But there, it’s closer to half a million of your closest friends. We’ve ridden our bikes down to Jax Beach in previous years, and that’s kind of taking your life in your own hands as well. There are a lot of people on bicycles that ride them once or twice a year, and they might have over-indulged a bit as well. We were happy to have the trolley.

And that’s the 4th of July at the beach. Please check out the full photo set on Flickr, if you like. I may sound a bit curmudgenly about the whole thing, but I’m really not. If I thought people should spend the 4th sitting quietly at home reflecting on what the Declaration of Independence means, I’d have done that myself. I love the spectacle of the fireworks, and frankly, the people-watching can also be a lot of fun … from the 3rd floor balcony at Casa Marina.

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Technorati Tags: 4th Of July,Photography,Photos,Beach Living,Life,Thoughts

Happy 4th Of July

The 4th of July weekend is on us. Time to again celebrate our independence from Great Britain with illegal fireworks and mattress sales. It seems like that’s what it’s come down to.

Of course every holiday seems to be about mattress sales, or big car blowouts. A way to separate you from your money. President’s Day or July 4th or Memorial Day or Arbor Day … it’s the lowest prices of the season.

But this is the most American of holidays. A day set aside to celebrate something uniquely American, and yet in some ways not. Many nations have won their independence from England. We just happened to do it more violently than some, and earlier. We were lucky enough to be in the Bahamas last year for Bahamian independence day … July 10th rather than the 4th, and the people of the islands celebrated quietly, with their families. No fireworks, no furniture sales. We did find that we couldn’t buy an Bahamian flag for our golf cart.

Much has changed in the 233 years since we the course of human events caused us to dissolve our political bonds with King George III. When we declared that “All Men Are Created Equal”, and endowed with “Certain Unalienable Rights. And among those rights are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

That pursuit of happiness has been somewhat more difficult, given the state of the economy today. The pressures are enormous on everyday people.

But today we’ll fly our flags and go watch the fireworks down at the beach. We’ll remember what is great about America. We’ll grill and many will show their exuberance by setting off explosions of their own, reminiscent of “The Rocket’s Red Glare”. Will remember what the fight for independence was all about? Will we remember that it was so we could assemble with the people we want and worship or not as we see fit. For the right to self-governance, and  233 years of peaceful transfer of power. I hope so. We live in the greatest country on the planet. We’ve come farther faster than anyone could have imagined. We’ve been to the moon and we’re planning to go back. We’re what everyone wants to be, even when they say they don’t like us very much. That, or they’re trying to take us down.

But we were born of a fight, and it’s something we know how to do well. We’ve scrapped out way through a lot of adversity, and there’s not a good reason this time should work out any differently.

I told a friend of mine not too long ago that I believed the republic will survive. He disagreed, saying republics don’t have a good history of survival.

I’m of a mind that The United States Of America will be the exception that proves the rule.

 

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Technorati Tags: United States Of America,4th Of July,Thoughts

A Smaller Property Tax Bump

The numbers are in, and Mayor John Peyton will be proposing a smaller property tax increase than originally thought. Why? It seem that the tax rolls came rolling in, and while our property values have gone down, they haven’t decreased as much as originally expected.

This is a good thing in so many ways.

First the official numbers from the Mayor’s Office. A hat tip to whomever it was that got my e-mail to Misty Skipper, who sends out such things. (Shameless plug alert) It’ll come in handy as I host the new Jacksonville Observer Radio Show on WBOB beginning next Wednesday at 5:00. </SP>

Property values in Duval County have dropped $3.5 billion when compared to last year, according to the Mayor’s office news release. That’s a pretty healthy drop, but not as much as originally expected. In fact, it’s less than had been originally forecast when the Mayor went before the public and media and said he’d have to propose a 1.2 mil property tax increase which would have cost the “average” Duval County homeowner $115 a year.

With today’s announced revisions in the property assessments, Mayor John Peyton will propose to the Jacksonville City Council a 9.50 millage rate for the upcoming fiscal year, an increase over the current year of 1.02 mills. This increase is estimated to cost the average Duval County homeowner $97 next year.

The news release goes on to say;

All budget planning to date has been based upon previous estimates and projections by the property appraiser. The receipt of the certified tax roll allows for final determination of revenue lost to the city’s general fund and the setting of the mayor’s proposed millage rate for fiscal year 2009/2010.

Based on the final numbers, the city has an estimated $170 million budget challenge in the upcoming fiscal year.  Of that total, $100 million is driven by Tallahassee-forced property tax reform, $40 million by increased pension costs and $30 million by the global economic collapse.

Mayor Peyton still has a steep hill to climb getting the council to sign off on the increase, but after having watched “Pitchmen” all season, getting under that $100 price point may be critical. And with the lower numbers, it might require only 13 votes rather than 15.

We’re lucky in our little corner of the world that things have held pretty steady here in Neptune Beach, at least according to Realty Track. Looking at the Property Appraisers website, I find for tax purposes my little castle has apparently lost about $20,000 in value over the past year, which I suppose isn’t too bad, considering. It’s still well ahead of what we owe, which is a good thing. But that $97 is pretty meaningless out here, as those of us who live in communities with interlocal agreements are double taxed anyway. We have to pay for our own police force and other city services. and we’ve paid garbage fees for years.

So, the debate may have gotten a little quieter with this new assessment. There is a camp out there that says any tax increase is bad. I can’t say I’m solidly in the camp, but tax increases need to have a solid foundation in fact to be the least bit palatable. A city without the amenities to which we’ve become accustomed wouldn’t be all that great either, nor would one that’s bankrupt. City government does not have a choice as to whether to balance the budget, and it’s a sure bet that cutting the $4,000 or so that was spent for the Mayor to go to the Paris Air Show isn’t going to close the $170 million dollar “challenge” that the city faces.

This could be a critical turning point in Jacksonville’s history. But as former President Bush learned with his famous “Read My Lips” line, one should never say never.

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Technorati Tags: City Budget,Property Taxes,Mayor Peyton,Jacksonville City Council,Thoughts,Politics

Climate Change Bill

The House of Representatives has passed a sweeping climate change bill that The Congressional Budget Office says will cost the average homeowner $175 per year. OK, so that’s just a little over $14 a month, but honest to Pete, a lot of people just don’t have an additional $14 per month. And there’s no real indication that it makes an iota of difference in actual climate change.

We’ve had this debate before. We’ll have it again. The science isn’t settled and the climate’s going to change no matter what puny efforts we might put forth. It’s just that simple.

Now, I’m all for a clean environment. I’m not going to sit here and write that companies should be allowed to pollute at will. I want clean air and clean water just like any sane, thinking person. And I think saving energy is a good idea. I’m all for bio-fuels as they become available and affordable. I don’t think the price of existing energy should be jacked up to make alternatives competitive. I’ve been reading a lot about a blended bio-jet fuel that is being tested for use in airliners, and I think that’s a good thing. Petroleum is a scarce resource, and once it’s gone … well … they’re not making any more dinosaurs. Conservation and renewables are a good thing.

But don’t tell me it’s about global warming. I’m not convincible.  If that makes me a cretin in your eyes, so be it.

The global climate changes. Slowly, inexorably, and regardless of what we might do. There have been ice ages and times when Greenland was actually green. And as soon as someone somewhere declared “the science is settled”, scientists started coming out of the woodwork to say, in the immortal words of Quick Draw McGraw, “Hoooooooolllllllddddddd On Thar, Baba Louie.” It really doesn’t matter how loud you say it, shouting won’t make it so.

I mean, think about it. If former Vice President Al Gore REALLY believed in climate change, he’d stop flying the private, chartered jets, do away with the motorcades, and find a way to make his Nashville mansion more energy efficient. Former President Bush’s Crawford, Texas ranch is far more efficient, and green, than Gore’s castle. Even Snopes, the famous internet urban legend debunker, says it’s so.

But climate change, and the cap-and-trade scheme that is the darling of the global-warming crowd, is huge business. Forget big oil. Big Carbon Credits are going to put that to shame. At least for oil, there’s a commodity, something you can touch for the money you spend. Carbon credits are just that. Credits. Businesses pay for the right to pollute. Businesses that don’t pollute get credits. Middle men, like, oh, former Vice President Al Gore, who has interests in Carbon Trading companies, will make a big, big pile of money.

Can you say “conflict of interest” boys and girls? Sure, Sure, I knew that you could.

In any event, like anything coming out of Washington, it’s unlikely that it will be the panacea that it’s supporters say it will be, nor will it be the disaster it’s detractors warn against. Is the bill a “Job Creator”, as it’s proponents say? Are those jobs “unexportable”.  I’ve not met a job yet that couldn’t be shipped offshore, or be taken over by foreign investment. But neither is it likely to be the job killer that opponents claim, and the $3,000 per year cost to the “average homeowner” has already been debunked. That debate’s fair, and necessary.

But don’t tell me it’s going to stop climate change. Because no matter how much emissions are cut here in the U.S., if the Chinese, and India, and Russia, and some other developed and developing nations don’t play, we can trade all the carbon credits we want, and the only net effect will be to make a big pile of money for Al Gore. Are you surprised that there’s no real indication that they want to play?

Nah, I didn’t think so.

40 years ago, the hue and cry was about global cooling. The Ice Age was coming. That didn’t work out so well, either. No snapshot of the weather can predict climate 10, or 50, or 100 years into the future. The planet may warm. The ice caps may melt. Sea level may rise. It’s all happened before, long before there was a single man-made emitter of so-called greenhouse gasses. And it seems to me that, on a geologic scale, if those man-made greenhouse gasses make it happen 100, or even 1000 year sooner, well, that’s kind of in the margin of error.

I’m not a scientist, and I don’t play one on TV. But I do know that there are enough credible scientists saying that climate change is a natural order of things that the skeptic in me just can’t buy into the anthropomorphic factor. We might make a fractional difference, but is it measurable? I don’t know. And I can’t just say the sky is falling until I do know.

The bill faces a much more difficult time in the Senate. Also not surprising. In the meantime, don’t stop trying to clean up the air, or the water. Don’t stop researching renewables and biofuels and fuel efficiency. Do it all. Come up with a credible energy policy. Create jobs. Green collar jobs, even. But climate change? Caused by us?

Not So Much.

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Technorati Tags: Politics,Climate Change,Congress,Thoughts,Life,Beach Living

Auf Wiedersehen, Billy Mays

Of the four celebrities to pass this week, perhaps the least well known, but in some cases the most well known, has disturbed me the most. Pitchman Billy Mays died unexpectedly last night, cause yet to be determined. He was my age. 50.

It’s been a bad week to be a celebrity. First, Ed McMahon passed. Ed was in his 80’s, had financial problems, and I don’t think anyone was terribly surprised that he passed away. Ed had a great run. 30 years as Johnny Carson’s sidekick, and he defined the sideman. Anyone over about 30 knows instantly McMahon’s signature line HEERRREEESSSSSSSS JOHNNY! It was sad that Ed passed away, but not unexpected.

So, too with Farrah Fawcett. She fought a very public battle with cancer, and her passing was again sad, but one of those things that mostly drew a reaction of “wow, that’s really sad.” She was iconic, and beautiful, Like so many teenage boys in the ‘70’s Farrah Fawcett defined femininity for me and pretty much a generation.

The news Michael Jackson had died was shocking, but he had become such an oddball that much of the reaction was in the vein of “that’s sad, but geeze, he was into so many weird things that it’s really not a big surprise.” For all his brilliance, Jackson had become a caricature of himself. I know he was working on a comeback tour, and we’ll now never know how that would have worked out. Jackson was almost a tragic figure, genius that seemed to be wasted. He, too, was my age.

But Billy Mays was at the top of his game as a pitchman. Even though he was often parodied for his signature lines “But Wait, There’s More!” and “But I’m Still Not Done!”, Billy Mays could proverbially sell refrigerators to Eskimos. I thought he was the same kind of parody of himself until I stared watching “Pitchmen”, on Discovery Channel, I think. Not sure, because we DVR the show and watch it on our schedule.

Watching “Pitchmen” gave me a new appreciation for not only the people standing in front of the camera, but for the care they take in selecting the products and the scientific approach in how they were sold. The spots are called “shows”, not commercials. And at 2 to 30 minutes each, they were shows. Programs with the sole purpose of selling you something for $19.99. Billy and his partner Anthony “Sully” Sullivan didn’t like to break that 20 dollar barrier unless they had something like the counter-rotating saw. The products were focus-grouped, field-tested, and still sometimes flopped. But for some, including the pitchmen, they made millions. Billy Mays drove a Bentley.

Billy was on a commercial flight that experienced a very rough landing Friday. My sister, a former ER trauma nurse, speculates (and it us just speculation, an autopsy is scheduled for Monday) he suffered a slight tear in his heart, and bled out in his sleep. She’s seen in before, and it happened to someone we knew in high school.

But Billy was more than just the pitchman. He seemed to really care about the products he pitched, because it was his reputation riding on every one. And through watching the show, we learned that he supported his friends, tried to be a good dad to his young kids, and helped his extended family as well. We got to know Billy Mays not as a cartoon character with a dark beard hawking everything from Oxy-Clean to Mighty Putty, but a human being. A guy with a job who had lived the American dream, coming from very humble beginnings to being a household name in a very competitive industry. I think that was the surprising thing, and one that made the huckesterism palatable. In fact, it became fun to see a Billy Mays commercial, particularly one that was featured on the show. Knowing what went into selecting the product and making the spot made it somehow more compelling to watch. Of course, I’m sure that’s one of the reasons Billy and Sully agreed to do the show.

So, of the four celebrities who passed this past week, I think Billy Mays is in some ways the most tragic and shocking, and certainly the least expected. I kind of understand the outpouring of grief for a Michael Jackson, who sold millions of records and got years of airplay … three to five minutes at a time. It’s like the passing of Elvis, really, A musical force gone long before he should have been. And with Fawcett, it was just that so many of us dreamed of having her as our girlfriend, obviously an unobtainable goal. But women understood that, and millions of teenage girls in the ’70’s tried to copy her signature mane of blond hair. But it’s Billy Mays, the pitchman, for whom I feel the most loss. Maybe there’s a kinship there as a broadcaster that makes me feel that way, or maybe it’s just that he truly lived the American Dream, or that he was my age, or some combination of all three.

I think for his epitaph, carved on his tombstone, should be the legend “But I’m Still Not Done!”

Auf Weidersehen, Billy Mays.

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Technorati Tags: Billy Mays,Life,Thoughts

Will Jacksonville Be Better?

“I ran for office to help make Jacksonville better,” Mayor John Peyton said Friday. “I never thought in a million years I’d increase taxes.”

And yet, Mayor Peyton has proposed an increase in the property tax millage rate. 1.2 mils, or about 14 percent. A mil, just in case you’re interested, is a dollar per thousand dollars of assessed valuation, so the new millage rate of 9.6 mils a $100,000 property (and those are difficult to find) would be assessed an annual property tax of $960. Mayor Peyton says the tax increase will cost the average homeowner $115 a year.

One of the things the JCCI Report on the city budget said in its analysis was that for years, Jacksonville had bought government on the cheap. I don’t recall who it was that came up with that phrase. It came from one of the tables in a breakout session on a sticky note, no doubt. But its a phrase that the Mayor has adopted for selling the idea of a property tax increase to the public. On the “FIX IT NOW!” website, Mayor Peyton says:

I want to live in a city that prioritizes public safety, economic development and the St. Johns River. I do not want to close fire stations, libraries, community and senior centers. I do not want to end the city’s recycling efforts. I do not want to eliminate programs for children, cultural and social services or assistance for crime victims.

Of course, there are basically 15 people maximum that Mayor Peyton has to convince.  There are three ways property taxes can be raised in Duval County. From the JCCI Report:

• With a simple majority vote (10 out of 19 Council members), the Jacksonville City Council can adjust the millage rate to the rolled-back rate (“no tax increase”), plus changes in per capita Florida income.
• With a two-thirds majority (13 out of 19 Council members), the Jacksonville City Council can raise the millage rate to 10 percent above the majority vote maximum rate.
• With a three-quarters majority vote (15 out of 19 council members), the Jacksonville City Council can raise the millage rate up to its statutory cap – 20 mills.

Now, since this is a 14 percent increase, it looks like the threshold is 15 votes, and that’s going to be a steep hill to climb. There will be a lot of opposition to a tax increase, and rightly so. For those of us here at the beach, we have the rare privilege of paying double property taxes … from Jacksonville and from our local municipality. In our case, Neptune Beach. Because of the size of our little town, and the relatively low (for the beach) property values, ours is the highest of the beach communities, so I’m not tremendously enthusiastic about an additional $115 in property taxes. Particularly because our income situation has pretty much gone south this past year.

But I digress.

Mayor Peyton is pulling out all the stops, as you might expect. He talks about cuts to police and fire, children’s services, cultural grants, parks, and the like. Things that are in some cases necessary, and in some add a great deal to the quality of life in Jacksonville. He’s talked a lot about reducing the staff at city hall through attrition, mandatory furloughs, and a salary freeze. There is also finally a good deal of discussion about re-structuring the police, fire, and city pensions. Most likely it will be a two-tiered system. Current employees will keep the benefits they were promised, but newer employees would come under a different plan. The federal government did this years ago with the federal retirement program, and it’s fairly common in the corporate world. Corporate America, as you know, has been shedding employees and changing benefits for months. Many have stopped their retirement matching programs. Public sector employees may face those same realities.

Nelson Cuba, head of the Police Union, was quoted in the paper this morning as saying he wanted to hire a “forensic accountant” to go over the city budget with a fine-tooth comb before any changes are made in the pensions programs. I’m OK with that, as long as taxpayers aren’t footing the bill. I do want government to be as efficient as it can possibly be, and we’ve been hearing for years, even in what now look like very good times, that the budgets were lean. Something else that the JCCI report recommended was more transparency in the budget process. But after sitting through a couple of presentations with Mickey Miller during the JCCI meetings, I don’t know how much the average citizen (and I include myself) can really understand unless you can be really steeped in it. It will be challenging no matter what.

Mayor Delaney managed to convince voters to pass a sales tax increase to pay for The Better Jacksonville Plan. But raising property taxes for the purpose of just balancing the budget may be a bit of a harder sell. It will be a politically difficult thing for the council to do, with no guarantee that the results will be positive. Cutting taxes year after year was a good idea while property values were climbing. That dynamic has changed, and possibly for the long term. And from almost any objective vantage point, we can’t do nothing.

  

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Technorati Tags: City Budget,Property Taxes,Mayor Peyton,City Council,Beach Living,Thoughts