Defining a compassionate conservative

I hate home owners associations

I'd never thought about home owners associations until we bought our first house in Austin. We'd gone through financing, inspection, resolution of inspection issues and were at closing when one of the documents we had to sign if we wanted our house was the document selling our soul to the local home owners association.

Now my guess is that when originally conceived, home owners associations were probably a fairly harmless little thing. But not today. Today, home owner associations are bureaucratic, red-tape manufacturers with the power to fine you and prevent you from selling your house if you don't conform to their rules. I can't believe anyone who believes in private property rights or individual freedoms actually thinks these things are a good idea.

The worst thing about home owners associations are the nattering ninnies who run them. These people have far too much time on their hands and appear to be, in my opinion, not the brightest bulb in the set of lights. Let me give you an example.

We just got our HOA Newsletter. It appears to have been mostly written by a man named Erik. One of the articles Erik wrote was about the horrible problem of people parking their cars on the street overnight. He wanted to remind people that the HOA Board is now enforcing a rule that says no cars may be left on the street overnight. He also detailed the reason for the rule.

"Parking on the streets is considered unsightly and hurts our property values."
and
"Cars parked on the street block the view of drivers, placing people at significant safety risk, especially children running or biking from the sidewalk."

So I'm now to believe that my property value is going down because there are potential buyers scouting my sleepy little neighborhood in my sleepy little suburb at 2:00 AM? That's silly. I'm sure that 100% of the people scouting my neighborhood for a house are doing so during daylight or evening hours when parking on the street is allowed!

And while I understand that cars parked on the street may block some views and be a hazard to children I'd argue that the bigger hazard to the kid walking or on a bike are the parents at home who are letting that kid walk and/or bike at 3:00 AM.

I would rather pay taxes to the federal government than pay my HOA dues.

Running for President without a brain or any common sense.

And some people think our current President is dumb. Read this quote from brand new Republican Presidential Candidate Fred Thompson as reported by the New York Daily News.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa - Freshly minted GOP White House hopeful Fred Thompson puzzled Iowans yesterday by insisting an Al Qaeda smoking ban was one reason freedom-loving Iraqis bolted to the U.S. side.

"They said, 'You gotta quit smoking,'" Thompson explained to a questioner asking about progress in Iraq during a town hall-style meeting.

Thompson said the smoking ban and terror tactics Al Qaeda used to oppress women and intimidate local leaders pushed tribes in western Anbar Province to support U.S. troops.

But Thompson's tale of a smokers' revolt baffled some in the audience of about 150 who came to decide whether the former Tennessee senator is ready for prime time.

"I don't know what that was about," said Jim Moran, 72, who had driven from nearby McCook Lake, S.D.

America's got talent???

Uncle Sam's Grad School

Did you know that the Department of Agriculture, USDA, runs a grad school?

I don't remember where I first found out about this but it drives my friend Turk crazy. And I have to say that I agree with him. I'm not sure how or why USDA thinks operating a grad school is falls within the mission of the department.

I was reminded of the school when I attended the National Conference for State Legislators in Boston earlier this month. The USDA Grad School had a booth in the exhibit hall and were handing out trinkets and trash to all those who stopped by for a conversation.

The school says it is self-sustaining. I assume that means they don't get a direct appropriation from Congress but a quick look at their board of directors and they are almost all Federal Government employees.

What does the school teach? Well, here's a list of the classes they pimp on their website.

Federal Appropriations Law, Clear Writing Through Critical Thinking, Introduction to Supervision, Pre-retirement Planning, Project Management for IT Professionals, Contracting Basics for COTRs, Paralegal Studies, Project Management, Information Technology, Introduction to Photography, Travel Writing, Personal Finance, Effective Business Writing, Intensive Spanish, and Intermediate Accounting.

Here's what I want to know. Just how important is "travel writing" to running a farm? I mean, this is the USDA that is running the grad school. My assumption is that the classes might have an agriculture hook to keep things relevant.

Don't feel bad if you live outside of DC and want to take a class. This must be the world's largest grad school. They've got an opportunity for everyone no matter what state you live in. I checked on Colorado and there are 56 courses scheduled to be offered in Denver in the next 12 months. None of them, not a single one, has anything to do with Agriculture.

Maybe USDA should focus on things like the security of our food supply instead of trying to run a grad school.

Bring the troops home

I'm one of the few Democrats I know who thought invading Iraq and getting rid of Saddam was the right course of action to take. I didn't come to that conclusion because I agreed with the President. Instead, I've come to believe that America must lead the world in eliminating genocidal dictators. Our ouster of Saddam was the right thing to do – it just happened 15 years too late.

Iraq was and is a killing field. Estimates are that Saddam executed more than 300,000 Iraqis during his reign. We let that happen. Presidents from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton lacked the moral fortitude to stand up to this murderer. It was more convenient for Americans to ignore what was happening on the other side of the globe than do what needed to be done and commit our military to getting rid of Saddam.

Unfortunately, the only President willing to take on Saddam is George W. Bush. While Bush should get a small amount of credit for getting rid of Saddam the fact is that Bush did it for the wrong reasons. And his management of the war effort has been absolutely incompetent.

America suffers today because the Republican leadership in Washington is more interested in the game of politics, gaining and keeping power, than in the art of leadership. George Bush, Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich and Denny Hastert don't have a clue how to govern.

The leadership of the Republican Party consistently prioritizes partisan politics over public policy. As a result, our conduct of the war in Iraq has been a disaster. Tom Friedman has an excellent column on this subject in today's New York Times. Friedman writes,

One benchmark the Bush team has been urging the Iraqi government to meet is to rescind its broad “de-Baathification” program — the wholesale purging of Baathists after the fall of Saddam — which has alienated many Sunnis and hampered national reconciliation.

But while the Bush team has been lecturing the Iraqi Shiites to limit de-Baathification in Baghdad, it was carrying out its own de-Democratization in the Justice Department in Washington. We would feel that we had failed in Iraq if we read that Sunnis were being purged from Iraq’s Ministry of Justice by Shiite hard-liners loyal to Moktada al-Sadr — but the moral equivalent of that is exactly what the Bush administration was doing here. What kind of example does that set for Iraqis?

And this wasn’t only a Washington problem. Read Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s outstanding “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” which details the extent to which Americans recruited to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad were chosen, at times, for their loyalty toward Republicanism rather than expertise on Islamism. “Two C.P.A. staffers said that they were asked if they supported Roe v. Wade and if they had voted for George W. Bush,” he wrote.

But this degree of partisanship — loyalty over competence — was destructive in a much bigger way. It also deprived the Bush team of the support it needed when things in Iraq didn’t turn out to be as easy as it expected.

Only a united America could have the patience and fortitude to heal a divided Iraq — and we simply don’t have that today. Why? Because George Bush and Dick Cheney asked everyone to check their politics at the door when it came to Iraq, because victory there was so important — everyone but themselves. They argued that the war in Iraq was the central front of the central struggle of our age — an unusual war, a war against terrorism and the pathologies that produce it — but then they indulged in the most rancid politics as usual at home.

They actually thought they could unite Iraq, while dividing America.

As much as I would like our efforts in Iraq to succeed and as much as I would like to believe that we could leave Iraq united, free from terror and on the road to democracy, that just isn't going to happen. Why? Because George Bush and his advisors are incompetent. No matter what we do in Iraq, no matter how hard our troops fight and work to stabilize that country, we will lose because George Bush is President of the United States. It is time to end America's role in this disaster and bring the troops home. The Iraqi people ought to start praying for mercy. Things are going to get much worse for them. George Bush ought to start praying for forgiveness. He's responsible for the mess.

Send the Queen Home

I've read one article about the Queen of England's visit to the United States. I read it because I was interested in how the White House pulls off a big fancy dinner. I really have very little interest in the British royals. I find the entire idea of a monarchy to be absurd.

The article I read was in the NY Times on Saturday. In it, the reporter shared some dos and don'ts as to how people are to behave when hanging out with British Royalty.

Aides to Mrs. Bush shared a few dos and don’ts. The queen shall be addressed as “Your Majesty.” The prince is “Your Royal Highness.”

For women, curtsying is acceptable, but not required. One does not shake the queen’s hand unless the queen offers hers first.

And after Her Majesty finishes her meal, everyone’s meal is finished. (Not to worry, a senior official said of Mr. Bush: “He’s a really fast eater.”)

Will someone please tell the White House we won the Revolutionary War? We aren't royal subjects any more. We don't need to cow-tow to some pompous, old, over-paid, ribbon cutter. We certainly don't need to rush through our meal just so we can finish before the Queen and avoid her having to send us to bed without our dessert.

I'd feel a bit differently if the dinner were in London. But this dinner was in our house. I think it is time for England's Queen to respect our rules.

Altria Arrogance

The Texas Council on Family Violence is having a fundraising champagne reception on May 9th in Austin.

The event will be "A tribute to Ann Richards." Event tickets are $50 while those wishing to join the tribute circle may do so for $100. Altria is one of the 11 sponsors of the event. So for those keeping score, Altria can now claim --

We addicted her
We employed her
We killed her
We honor her

Stupid Stupid Stupid

I went to Wolf Camera yesterday to pick up some picture's I'd taken with my old school, 35 mm film camera.

The guy at Wolf explained to me that their machine that develops pictures is down and that they had called my home phone to tell me and that they'd call me again when my pictures were developed.

I got home, looked at the phone and noticed the voice mail notice light was NOT blinking. Then I looked at the caller ID. I hadn't gotten a phone call all day.

So the guy at Wolf had lied. And what a stupid lie it was. The lie initially made me feel really good about Wolf Camera. I was impressed with their ability to provide quality customer service. But when I realized that they had never called, it made me feel horrible about their company.

What a stupid lie.

UPDATE: I just spoke with the store manager on the phone. It ends up that the employee (the photo technician who doesn't normally do customer service) who was given the task of making the calls didn't make them but told the other employees that she had completed all of them. As a result, Wolf Camera lied to a bunch of people yesterday because their customer service team believed that people had really been called.

So here's my take. This was a case of bad management. Give customer relations jobs to people who are good at dealing with other people and who enjoy that kind of work. I know the sales staff was probably busy selling cameras and dealing with in-store customers. I also know that Wolf had a photo technician sitting around with nothing to do after the machine went down. But asking her to make customer calls was a mistake. It was a job she was not able to perform. Good managers put their employees in a position to succeed. I don't think Wolf Camera did that.