The Unholy Alliance, Part Six

As I wrote previously, rural communities all over America are dealing with "smart growthers."

This excellent op-ed piece comes from The Chester County, PA Daily Local News. Chester County is a rural suburn of Philadelphia. The writer touches quite well on the dark side of "smart growth" and the unholy alliance between them and the "pull up the drawbridgers."

Some quotes, again all very applicable to Whitman County:

...occasionally plans for town homes or a strip mall are proposed. Whenever this happens, the locals take up their pitchforks and torches and head down to the township meeting en masse to kill Frankenstein's monster.
...

Elitism - Folks out here aren't exactly wondering where their next meal is coming from. Home prices and land are expensive. The subtext of preserving the "character" of the place essentially boils down to preserving the view from your deck and the class of kids that your kids associate with in school.

Now that the aristocracy has its little piece of paradise, it's time to pull up the drawbridge and keep out the hoi polloi.
...

Racism - Hand in hand with the class angle of deterring development is the nasty little unspoken aspect of race. Right now, the area is lily white. Open the place up to development with affordable country living and who knows what you'll bring in.

Infringement of personal property rights - If individuals can afford to buy up open space and keep it open, I say God bless 'em. The problem is that nobody is rich enough to preserve the "character" of a whole township, so the gentry wants to make decisions about other people's property, not just their own. This is one thing when it comes to limiting, say, a toxic waste dump in the village, but quite another when you're trying to impose a bike trail and pond on a tract home developer.

Another Study, Another PARD Myth Debunked

PARD claims that, "Loss of local business will mean an overall loss of local jobs within three years, despite the addition of new Wal-Mart workers."

Nope, not according to this University of Maine study, which concludes:

By controlling for industry-specific shocks we have shown that the 12 counties where Wal-Mart is currently located have not experienced declines in either retail wages or employment between 1990 and 1994. Retailing, manufacturing, and services all experienced statistically significant wage gains in counties having a Wal-Mart store. Nevertheless, the differences in growth relative to non-Wal-Mart counties were not statistically significant, such that the relative wage growth in Wal-Mart counties could not be attributed to Wal-Mart's presence. This finding is contrary to the claims of Wal-Mart opponents.

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What's $119 Million Between Friends?

The Queen, it seems, is a big lady's roundball fan. She really wants the Sonics (and by extension the Storm) to relocate to a $500 million new arena in Renton. The team wants the state to pick up $300 million of that.

Gregoire apparently is not a big fan, however, of being straight with the state's taxpayers.

It's reported in today's Seattle Times that:

King County elected officials, and not lawmakers, should decide whether the tax package should require a countywide public vote, she said. Democratic members of the County Council want a vote, and Gregoire said she could support that.

Gregoire said repeatedly, and incorrectly, that the package affects only area citizens. "No state dollars are going to be used," she said. "State taxpayers are not interested in paying for a sports stadium."

Actually, the package would continue the county's withhold of a 0.17 percent sales tax that ordinarily would flow to Olympia for schools and other general government purposes. Over the time the Sonics' arena bonds were paid off, from 2014 to 2026, the tax would total $119 million, meaning taxpayers statewide would be financing a big part of the arena.

The governor's staff said later that she misspoke herself.

It wouldn't be the first time.

Europe, Thy Name is Cowardice

This article appeared in Germany's largest daily newspaper, Die Welt.

EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE
(Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer, AG)

A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe - your family name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get out of your head because it's so terribly true. Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives, as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless agreements. Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe, where for decades, inhuman suppressive, murderous governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities. Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and even though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder, we Europeans debated and debated and debated, and were still debating when finally the Americans had to come from halfway around the world, into Europe yet again, and do our work for us.

Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European Appeasement, camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance," now countenances suicide bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians. Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore nearly 500,000 victims of Saddam's torture and murder machinery and, motivated by the self-righteousness of the peace movement, has the gall to issue bad grades to George Bush... Even as it is uncovered that the loudest critics of the American action in Iraq made illicit billions, no, TENS of billions, in the corrupt U.N. Oil-for-Food program. And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of appeasement

How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic Fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really should have a "Muslim Holiday" in Germany? I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of our (German) Government, and if the polls are to be believed, the German people, actually believe that creating an Official State "Muslim Holiday" will somehow spare us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists. One cannot help but recall Britain's Neville Chamberlain waving the laughable treaty signed by Adolph Hitler and declaring European "Peace in our time". What else has to happen before the European public and its political leadership get it?

There is a sort of crusade underway, an especially perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims, focused on civilians, directed against our free, open Western societies, and intent upon Western Civilization's utter destruction. It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than any of the great military conflicts of the last century - a conflict conducted by an enemy that cannot be tamed by "tolerance" and "accommodation" but is actually spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to be, and will always be taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness.

Only two recent American Presidents had the courage needed for Anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush His American critics may quibble over the details, but we Europeans know the truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, freeing half of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror and virtual slavery. And Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair, acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War against Democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after a number of years have passed. In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in the multicultural corner, instead of defending liberal society's values and being an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the true great powers, America and China.

On the contrary - we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to those "arrogant Americans", as the World Champions of "tolerance", which even (Germany's Interior Minister) Otto Schily justifiably criticizes. Why? Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because we're so materialistic, so devoid of a moral compass. For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of additional national debt, and a massive and persistent burden on the American economy - because unlike almost all of Europe, Bush realizes what is at stake - literally everything. While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons" of America because they seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our Social Welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive! We'd rather discuss reducing our 35-hour workweek or our dental coverage, or our 4 weeks of paid vacation... Or listen to TV pastors preach about the need to "reach out to terrorists. To understand and forgive". These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who, with shaking hands, frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when she notices a robber breaking into a neighbor's house.

Appeasement? Europe, thy name is Cowardice.

Seattle Now Officially a "Sanity Free Zone"

Now the Queen says it's an Alaskan Way Viaduct rebuild or else.

Gregoire is making John Kerry look positively statesmanlike.

Despite the Queen's royal proclamation, a meaningless "advisory" vote on the Viaduct in Seattle will proceed next month.

Seattle Mayor Greg "Spending Eastern Washington's" Nickels said, "If the voters say they do not want an elevated structure, we will take whatever action we think is necessary to put that desire of the voters in place." Senator Ed Murray chimed in, "If the state forces an elevated viaduct on Seattle and Seattle clearly has voted against one, there will be transportation warfare," on projects like the 520 floating bridge and I-405.

House Majority Leader Frank Chopp seemes to be the only Democratic adult by saying, "It's a state road. It's a state project. We are trying to carry out the promise that we made to the voters of this state when we raised the gas tax twice, so we are going with the one viable alternative and we are going to try to make it a lot better in terms of urban design."

I hope voters don't get fooled again.

Meanwhile, Washington Republicans must feel like Lazarus. After an old-fashioned whuppin' last November, the Governor's flip-flopping and distraction over the Viaduct, the internecine warfare, and the potential splintering of the Democrat's stronghold, are just what the doctor ordered.

Wal-Mart's Impact on Retail Sales and Pull Factors

PARD claims that, "Based on national patterns, local businesses are likely to lose between 47% and 63% of their sales to Wal-Mart, while receiving little if any 'spillover' of business from those attracted to the new Wal-Mart."

I'm still waiting to see what "national patterns" they refer to or the research behind it.

There is ample evidence to the contrary, however.

A paper by Charlotte Batson of the University of Southern Mississippi titled "The Effect of Wal-Mart on the Stone County Economy: A Look at FY 2004 Retail Sales and Pull Factors" provides hard data, not apocryphal stories.

For example:

After Wal-Mart had been open nearly a year, in FY 2003, retail sales for the city increased by 30 percent, and retail sales for the county increased by 16 percent. During the first full year of Wal-Mart’s operation, FY 2004, county retail sales increased by an additional 24 percent to $134 million, and city retail sales increased an additional 14 percent to $105 million. This compares with an increase in Mississippi retail sales of 8 percent over the four-year period from FY 2001 to FY 2004, an average of 2 percent per year.
...

In Wiggins and Stone County, citizens have been driving out of the county on a daily basis for years to shop for everything from groceries and ordinary items to specialty items to major purchases. Now that Wal-Mart has expanded the merchandise available locally, people are shopping at home much more, as seen in the tremendous increase in retail sales. Those dollars, formerly spent outside the county, are now being captured and the county is reaping their benefit in increased sales tax revenue.
...

The impact on local merchants can vary, however, depending on the degree to which the business is in direct competition with the Wal-Mart or other supercenter. Those retailers selling different products, or businesses located near the supercenter, may benefit from increased local traffic. Finding a niche or gap in the big box’s inventory can also be a successful strategy. Businesses in competition with the Wal-Mart, on the other hand, will face stiff competition on price and sales will likely suffer, at least at first. Even these businesses, however, can compete favorably on niche or specialty products, personalized service and customer relations.
...

Other sectors have shown decreases, especially in the first year after Wal-Mart’s opening, as existing businesses struggled to adapt to Wal-Mart’s presence. In the second year after Wal-Mart’s opening, however, signs of successful adaptation are apparent, as pull factors in several sectors have increased somewhat, both inside and outside the city limits. Some businesses and sectors have benefited from the additional traffic in town, and services have picked up to serve the people staying at home to shop.

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Washington House Republicans Propose $3.3 Billion in Tax Relief

In Olympia, what do you do with a huge budget surplus?

If you're a Democrat, you dream up more entitlement programs and ways to pay off your politcal allies.

If you're a Republican, you give it back to the people that earned it.

Last Thursday, the House Republicans proposed $400 tax rebates for Washington homeowners, the return of money overpaid by employers and employees into two state funds, and tax relief for agriculture. The tax relief package would total approximately $3.3 billion and leave $1 billion available to cover new spending and a "rainy day" reserve fund.

The full press release can be found here.

Snobbery's Day Off

You probably know Ben Stein best from Ferris Bueller's Day Off and the game show "Win Ben Stein's Money" on Comedy Central. But he is also a lawyer, an author, a lecturer, and a former presidential speech writer. Here's what Ben thinks about Wal-Mart.

Here’s a shocker. I love Wal-Mart. I know it’s almost always on the receiving end of bad press. It ruins neighborhoods. It puts small businesses out of business. It wrecks the balance of trade. It pays its workers poorly and treats them mean. It makes overseas workers into slaves. That's what the news says. The truth is that Wal-Mart is a major blessing for most Americans who live close enough to one to shop there and for the people who work at them. My smart friend C.L. Werner in Omaha made the point really clearly. When a Wal-Mart opens in a town, he said, it's as if everyone in the town got a raise. That's because the stuff at Wal-Mart is so much cheaper than that same merchandise was anywhere else. This is not a trivial thing. Now, don't get me wrong. Target and Sears and K-Mart and J.C. Penney and Brooks Brothers also sell good stuff usually at bargain prices, but they do not have the same reach of stores, the same astounding prices that Wal-Mart offers every day. This makes the people who shop there richer. Price matters a lot to most people.

I am sure Wal-Mart is stiff competition for the stores and supermarkets across America. I feel bad for the people who lose their stores because of Wal-Mart. But not everyone is a store owner. Everyone is a consumer, and Wal-Mart is about as good a friend as the consumer ever had.Is Wal-Mart ruining the balance of trade? Well, let me put it like this: I buy American whenever I can find it.

But there are a lot of things that are just not usually made in the USA any longer. Toasters. Hot pots. Color televisions. Underwear. Since the goods are almost always made overseas, why not buy them at the best possible price? By the way, if someone knows of a good American made toaster, please stand up and shout.

Is Wal-Mart wrecking small towns? Not the ones I see, which are mostly in North Idaho. Those towns are booming. And the closest you get to a town square is the Wal-Mart, where neighbors visit with neighbors in the aisles all day and all night, in air conditioning, out of the rain.

Is Wal-Mart impoverishing third world workers in sweat shops? Heck, no. Conditions in those places are far from ideal. But they are far better than working on the farm or begging in the streets or selling themselves into prostitution or whatever they were doing before they came to work for foreign suppliers of US stores. The gains in prosperity in the developing countries because their people can sell to America through Wal-Mart are astounding. As to the people who work at Wal-Mart, they seem to me to be bright, alert men and women who work there because it's the best they can do in their town or at their age. Plus, they seem happy. The usual clerk at Wal-Mart gives a lot better service than the clerk at Tiffany. I would like it if they were paid more, but they are in a competitive labor market. And what about those greedy stockholders? A lot of them are those same Wal-Mart clerks, many of whom got rich from their stock.

In the real world, Wal-Mart is as much of a boon to the American shopper as the Sears catalogue was long ago.

Jeer at it all you want, all you cool people, but, it's progress, big time.

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The Unholy Alliance, Part Five

Pullman and Whitman County are obviously not the only rural areas dealing with "pull up the drawbridgers."

So is Mesquite NM, as so eloquently described in this July 10, 2006 Mesquite Local News editorial:

Drawbridge Mentality Has No Place Here

It’s become a common scenario all over the country.

People move to popular destinations by the hundreds, snapping up property and establishing themselves as a community’s newest residents.

Then the call goes out to end growth, stop construction, and halt the entry of any new residents.

Basically, they want to “pull up the drawbridge” now that they have arrived, keeping others from coming in and disturbing the paradise they have found.

The drawbridge mentality has struck Mesquite, as evidenced by the recent move to halt construction above the Copper Bluffs neighborhood.

It’s ironic that residents of this gated community have started a petition to stop development of a new housing project because of their claim that the construction will “destroy the beautiful mountain ridges, bluffs and natural desert areas adjacent to Copper Bluffs.”

The irony is that they are living in a neighborhood that was only made possible after the land where their houses are now sitting was similarly carved and shaped to accommodate the construction.

It’s become a common cry in Mesquite for people whose homes often sit atop regal perches that were once deemed beautiful landscape features to now rail against the same kind of desecration that might mar their views.

In fact, if developers shied away from every elevated land mass that somebody thought was too picturesque to disturb, there would be no Calais, no Falcon Ridge, no Canyon Crest.

And no Copper Bluffs.

While nobody wants to see hills cavalierly flattened and destroyed, it’s ludicrous to think that a developer would kill his golden goose by turning millions of dollars worth of land investments into something ugly and unpalatable.

More importantly, it’s un-American to tell a legitimate land-owner that he cannot use his land as he sees fit because it might “mess up somebody’s view.”

As has been pointed out before, you can’t buy a view, even when you’ve paid a half a million dollars for your house.

The only way is to get together with other like-minded neighbors and purchase the land, then apply deed restrictions to keep it pristine and untouched.

But the truth is that most homeowners aren’t willing to “put up or shut up” and tie up their own money to protect their surroundings.

Instead, they insist that their governments use tax dollars paid by all of us to buy the land to preserve their high-dollar views.

Or coerce their government officials to use building permit restrictions and zoning filibusters to accomplish the same goals, shutting out new residents hoping to taste that which has drawn the current homeowners to this desert delight.

On Tuesday, that is most likely what will happen, as Copper Bluffs residents are expected to flood the Mesquite City Hall to convince the city council to stop the construction.

Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that nearly every person in that council chamber and the majority of us in Mesquite are living in houses built by visionary developers, those developers will have very few friends to balance the discourse.

In the final analysis, it comes down to a battle between property rights and property values.

This country draws its strength from the exercise of men and women yearning for the American dream of home ownership, and the American right to do with that property whatever their imagination can foster.

Protecting the status quo in the name of keeping property values in an upward spiral has to come second.

If we are to have any hope of returning to the greatness of days gone by, days of land rushes and pioneering and building communities out of nothingness, rights must be more important than money.

Every house ever built in Mesquite has negatively impacted somebody’s view.

That’s not a good enough reason to stop building homes for the next wave of people who will eventually become our next batch of good neighbors.

Let’s make the words “Welcome to Mesquite” more than just an empty Chamber of Commerce slogan.

Keep the gates open.

Keep the moats empty.

And keep the drawbridges down for our future friends.

Type rest of the post here

Think about this editorial the next time you read about the "viewscape" restrictions in the proposed Whitman County rural residential zoning ordinance. If only we had some local politicans bold enough to champion the view that property rights come first over property values.

Invalid Arguments From Alex McDonald

"His crime, as far as I understand it, was walking away from a police officer."

The first problem with this letter and some of the subsequent statements is based on a false premise. You acknowledge that you really don't know what transpired to cause the incident, but you make the assumption it was because the man was black and he dissed a cop. You quickly make reference to race in your opening line of this letter.

I think it is imperative to find out if your first premise is true before painting the police with a broad stroke. You also seem to have a big issue with race. Is race the first thing you see about someone when you meet them? You throw around black and white like it is important and must be said to describe someone.

If you looked into what happened to cause the taser deployment you would find the suspect actually hit the arm of the cop away not once, but twice. After the first time he was warned that doing that was a crime and he did it again. Then when he was told he was under arrest he started to leave. That is not something you can do.

Believe it or not, the use of a taser is lower "force" that fighting someone. So in other words when the cops are going to have to get physical they would tend to use a taser before laying hands on someone. This is because of the amount of after effect. If I were to hit someone they could get cut and bleed. Have a black eye, or even get a broken bone depending on where the hit took place. Using pepper spray causes discomfort and pain for nearly an hour. Plus there is a lot of decontamination time. Using a taser gun lasts five seconds. Once the shock is done the pain is gone and there are no lasting physical cuts or broken bones.

I will agree the use of it looks very frightening. It is because a taser uses two things. It uses pain compliance as well as immobilization for five seconds. You will find that other than those five seconds of discomfort, that people are not hurt and are typically willing to cooperate which really allows everyone (cops and suspects) to walk away without lasting injuries.

"Students thronged around the scene as a multiplicity of white officers surrounded their own."

You make it sound like the cop who was assaulted was a white cop. In fact you are wrong. You should research the incident some more before you make more assumptions and paint the cops with a broad stroke.

"Now I know not all cops are bad cops, but I do know at least one of Pullman's officers was out of line last Saturday night."

If your premise was true, in other words, the only thing the guy did wrong was to walk away from a cop and he got tased, then I could agree with you. But in fact there was a lot more to it than that. You are basing this argument on an invalid premise. Therefore this too is invalid.

"How many white students walk away from Pullman officers every weekend without being tased? I'd be willing to bet quite a few."

This is invalid for the same reason the one above it is. If anyone (I don't need to make issues of race, but that seems to be your MO) assaults an officer you can bet they are going to jail. If they choose to disregard lawful orders you can bet force will be used. In the days of old that would be fighting or using pepper spray. Today that will probably be a taser. Once again, you should get educated on tasers. You will find that people who have been tased and pepper sprayed all will tell you they would prefer to get tased. That is cause the lasting pain is only five seconds.

Because you like to mix race into your arguments in order to try to prove a point, I will assist you with it. On that night two people were tased. Two people assaulted an officer. Two people did not follow lawful orders. Does it matter what their races are? It doesn't to me. It didn't to the officers involved. But to you it does. Because you are very race conscious, I will let you know that one of the two was white. Not everyone considers race like you do. Some people actually deal with the person, not the color of their skin. Those who advocate equality should try it.

"According to The Associated Press, the Justice Department reports 7 million American adults are in prison, on probation, or on parole — America, the world's most prison crazy nation."

So this is being presented to prove what? This does not follow your premises unless we make deductive arguments from your earlier statements. I would deduce that you are trying to show that the white cops are part of the system of institutional racism due to the fact that a black man was tased.

Once again, your premises are invalid. It was not all white cops. It was not because the suspect walked away. And it was not because he was black. So when I use deductive logic from your points I cannot come to any conclusion, as all your premises are false.

"But here's the rub: According to AP, "in the 25-29 age group, 8.1 percent of black men, about one in 13, are incarcerated, compared with 2.6 percent of Hispanic men and 1.1 percent of white men.""

I can pretty much copy and paste my last comment to this location. But let me add something. You are tying to make the case for racism. But you provide no numbers on all the races and their representation in prison. Is that because it would hurt your argument? What is the population of Asians in prison compared to their population in America?

How come you have no outrage over the "sexism"? Men vastly outnumber women in prison. No outrage over that? Is that because you believe that men actually commit more of the crimes in America? Maybe there is institutional sexism and the cops are only looking for men who commit crimes.

Maybe you believe that men do commit more crimes in comparison to women. Maybe it is possible that some races may be "over represented" in prisons, but that is only because there is an "over represented" number of people in a race committing crimes. Using deductive logic in your last two statements you are trying to argue that blacks are over represented, therefore racism exists. But you do not make such a statement about sexism. Also, it must be the case that the racism only exists against one race, because you make no arguments about such racism occurring to Asians. You are not being consistent in your outrage. And this part of your letter is so far off base when the point of your letter you lose people on this.

"America's undercurrent of institutional racism is strong. While white collar crime goes largely unpunished, young black men fill our prisons. Unfortunately for our brothers and sisters of color, the punishment rarely fits the crime."

Punishment? That has nothing at all to do with the cops and the incident at Mikes. That is the courts and judges there. I don't know why you included this statement in your letter at all. It has nothing to do to back up the false premises that you used to start your letter.

Now I am going to make a jump here. I cannot be sure about this, but you may be arguing that the cops, by tasing the suspect were "punishing" him. If that is the case then that too is false. The taser was applied to affect an arrest with the least amount of pain possible. The punishment is left to the judges and juries. It is the roll of the cop to get the suspect off the street and to the courtroom to answer for the crimes he is suspected of committing.

Overall your letter is full of false statements and you build your arguments off of those false statements. You admittedly don't know what happened to cause the incident at Mike's, but you took the time to write a letter to the editor that served to insinuate that the cops in Pullman are racist.

I believe that you wrote a horribly false and very misleading letter.