Day: February 22, 2011

Some Things Remain The Same

I was one of the fortunate people that after I came back from Vietnam I was lucky enough to find a job, not necessarily a good job, and made my way in society even though carry a heavy load of mental demons….but many of my comrades from that war were not as lucky as I and the homeless rates for Viet Vets was and is shameful….shameful that some of the returning vets were NOT given that attention that they needed to make the adjustment to a civil society…..it has been a blot on the country’s response to the needs of veterans……

We Americans have NO stake in the veterans lives….since it is an all volunteer militarytheir plights do NOT touch but about 10% of the population….we have NO stake….for that reason vets are in essence being ignored…….

From a poll conducted by the USA Today……

About 16% of homeless adults in a one-night survey in January 2009 were veterans, though vets make up only 10% of the adult population.

More than 75,000 veterans were living on the streets or in a temporary shelter that night. In that year, 136,334 veterans spent at least one night in a homeless shelter — a count that did not include homeless veterans living on the streets.

The urgency of the problem is growing as more people return from service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The study found 11,300 younger veterans, 18 to 30, were in shelters at some point during 2009. Virtually all served in Iraq or Afghanistan, said Mark Johnston, deputy assistant secretary for special needs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The people of the country owe these men and women a debt that we are refusing to pay…outta sight…outta mind…….it is shameful and disgusting that a country that sends our young off to die….cannot get the courage to give these vets the respect and the care they so rightly deserve……..

The more things chage the more they remain the same…….

Why Bureaucracy?

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  Political Theory/Political Administration

This is a continuation of a discussion that one of my most avid readers, Quin of Quintessential Havoc (go to blogroll to get to his site)……we have discussed the evils of the heavy bureaucracy that is prevalent in democracies…..but I want to talk about the bureaucracy on the local or state level this time…..

I will talk about my state…Mississippi……(thanx for all the sympathy cards)……..the state has 82 counties….and in some cases the county seats are less than 25 miles apart….the counties were created around land ownership, in most cases or were created in the days of the horse and buggy as the only mode of transportation….those days are gone and so are the days of the necessity for so many different jurisdictions…..

The capital city of Jackson and its suburbs are located in 3 counties…..the Coast, which is about 26 miles long, has three repeated county seats…..Hattiesburg, locate between Coast and the Capital, and its suburbs cover 2 counties, maybe three……my point is, if the state is truly wanting to saving money it is time for some realistic consolidation…..eliminate all the duplication….K.I.S.S. and consolidation is the simplest solution…..

All that is a worthless waste of resources just to keep the “good ol boy” system in place….states are struggling to save money and balance their budgets and still offer the services that the people need….but instead of looking at reality they attempt all sorts of revenue generating schemes that in the long run harm the people that they say they are trying to help…..

Elected officials need to cease all this bantering and pseudo-fixes to the administration of government and look for real solutions….no matter if they are popular or not……eventually a real statesman will appear and do what is necessary….until then…..budgets will be crap and the people will suffer while the politicians keep lying and cheating the people out of their future…….sorry to be a downer……but we need to face reality and stop sticking our heads in the sane and exposing our butts to the politicians….they WILL take advantage……

Another good plan for the people’s money…..where I live the local courthouse decided to build a new parking garage….they tore up an existing parking lot and when the garage was built they gain about 3 new parking spaces…..but it was imperative that it be built…….the old parking lot was perfectly good but they had to have a garage and the couple extra parking spots cost about $1 million each…..not bad if you are a contractor, huh?  God I love this stuff!

Side Note:

One appointment in a memo announcing White House staffing changes sounds like something from a future Harvard Kennedy School case study of what went wrong: Emmett Beliveau was appointed Deputy Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the Chief of Staff.  God, I love this stuff…it just keeps getting better and better……