Editorial comments, 2009-02-08

From today's Detroit Free Press:

"President Barack Obama's scolding of the Wall Street execs for passing out $18 billion in bonuses last year was long overdue. Wall Street argues that this level of compensation is needed to retain "good" people. Well, these "good" people failed to understand that you do not give mortgages to people who have no hope of making the payments."

Donald Patterson, Troy

Donald, on the top of your "good people" list should be Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, the Community Reinvestment Act, and other defenders of Fredie and Fannie that first required banks make loans to people that couldn't afford them, then insured them which encouraged banks to make more. Greed, like envy, can't be eradicated by law, but government interference can be voted out of office leaving greed to feed on something other than tax payer money.

"Presumably, the board of directors at Merrill Lynch felt John Thain fell into this "best and brightest" category when he was hired. How bright can Thain be to think that it would take $1.22 million to redecorate his office? Not the entire building, not a floor of the building, but one office! How bright could he be to lead Merrill Lynch to a $15-billion fourth-quarter loss?"

Chris Charron, Eastpointe

The free market allows people to pay whatever they think something is worth--whether it's an executive or a piece of toast with the Virgin Mary's image. The difference in both government and boards of directors is the relative lack of having skin in the game. It's easier to spend other people's money (government) or be derelict in your responsibilities because you've so little skin in the game (boards of directors). The first leads to an expanding government financed by debt and the second leads to overpaid executives detached from the success or failure of their enterprises because their wealth is only modestly impacted by the success or failure of the ships they captain.

When voters start insisting their local governments send pork back to the government (like Ferndale voters should have) then we may become more credible in arguing what executives are or are not worth and whether the stimulus build will stimulate the economy or campaign contributions.

"So the average Wall Street bonus fell to $112,000 in 2008, and they're down about that. Have they bothered to look at the rest of the country -- the way that people are being fired and permanently laid off, and having their pay and benefits cut? I would bet that any of them would trade places with them for just half of their bonus."

Leon Suchorski, Canton

Does each of us want our compensation looked at as closely as Wall Streets? Many non-executives receive incentive pay based on performance. Many work for departments unrelated to mortgages. It is both unfair and illogical to paint all bonuses with the same brush. We should also remember that all pay is relative. No matter what we make we're likely making more money than someone else, and their willingness to do our job for less indicates their belief we're making too much money. Be careful the stones we throw.

"Well, now. The Republicans say they have a better stimulus plan than President Obama's. So, my question is: Why didn't they put it up eight years ago?"

Kenneth G. Maluchnik, Lincoln Park

The stimulus plan should be measured on its own merits, not on whether it's a Democratic invention or opposed by Republicans. If its greatest quality is "because we won," then it is no law at all. It's retaliation. If that is how voters wish government be run then we can't complain about partisanship. Well, we can complain, but our complaints have no credibility, stand without principle, and can be easily ignored by those that govern us.

"[Mitch] Albom's general suggestion -- that the government should somehow stop what he implies is a universal "elitist immorality" among CEOs -- sounds like a call for total government management of business. ... it's unfair to the millions of managers who have improved our lives through good stewardship of their shareholders' assets.

"Our (predominantly) free-market system, even with all of its very real agency problems, has created too much wealth for such a cavalier statement, implying that government intervention would be better."

Jon Boguth, Sterling Heights

Such is the danger of generalizations and isms. Free markets and republican government have created the highest standard of living the civilized world has ever known. Let's not pretend their success is the prerequisite to making a success of centrally-planned economies and socialism, or that the latter is a desireable future of the former.

"When President George W. Bush took office, the national debt was about $5.7 trillion, and when he left office about $10 trillion, an increase of $4.3 trillion. Some have estimated that 40% of the increase is due to Bush's tax cuts mostly to the rich, or $1.7 trillion. Now if tax cuts are supposed to have the great stimulus effect that the GOP claims, why are we in the current economic mess?"

Jim Karavite, Royal Oak

Due to President Bush's tax cuts, the treasury enjoyed record-breaking revenues. The tax cuts were unqualified successes. The deficit didn't come about because revenues dropped, but because spending grew disproportionately to revenue. This is why even Conservatives disliked Bush--he abandoned fiscal conservatism and in trying to reach-across-the-aisle he literally stepped across it. Bush was fiscally more liberal than Clinton, which is why some conservatives believe Clinton was a better Republican president than Bush ever was. Theres little doubt no small amount of vicarious fantasies were involved as well.

"Any member of Congress who doesn't pay his or her taxes, hires illegal aliens, drives an import, is convicted of a felony, votes for a personal raise during the 'recession,' or bounces checks regularly should be removed from office. Period. No exceptions."

Dennis R. Green, West Bloomfield

It's hard to believe these are the best 535 candidates. Americans have elected quite a crew of taxs cheats, bad business managers, sex offenders, and other criminals to represent them. Apparently, Detroit doesn't own the franchise.

"With the economic downturn this state is in, am I surprised that there are those who wish that President Barack Obama's policies fail? That, instead, they hope more people lose their jobs and homes? That the bridges and roads continue to fall apart around us? That women have no right to decide their health care?

"I was hoping for bipartisanship in Washington. But again I guess it will be politics as usual."

Pete Kier, Ortonville

It is politics as usual, and Pete's letter is evidence of that. True, some hope Obama fails. Other's hope certain bills fail. Bad policy is bad policy regardless who sponsors it. I hope the stimulus package fails because it is laden with pork. McCain doesn't have to be president to call-out members sponsoring pork, and Obama's message of change seems only to be a message. Nothing will have changed if he doesn't campaign against all the pork. Again, politics as usual.

"How can the GOP rebuild when the entire basis of their philosophy has been proved wrong? Low taxes, less regulation -- look where these have led. Free trade -- ask nearly anyone in Michigan about that. War first, diplomacy second -- didn't work out so well. Telling everyone else to take responsibility while not taking it yourself for your own mistakes while in office -- not appreciated. The GOP will literally have to do a 180 to recover. This may be a while."

Michael Ross, Southfield

Michael, the philosophy is still intact and hasn't been proven wrong. What has been proven wrong is that when Republicans abandon their principles, Republicanism (and conservatism) get an undeserved black eye.

Remember, there were Democrats in congress as well, and congress had to approve Bush's spending plans--and both parties are responsible for that. Stopping partisanship means we stop blaming individuals (except for individual bad choices) and hold all our representatives responsible. In Michigan that begins with Levin and Stabenow--both responsible for passing spending bills.

Republicans will have to make a 180-degreee turn, but that turn is a re-turn to conservatism, not away from it.

"Do you think people like John McCain, who owns eight properties, really care about Joe the plumber? Why can't we the people, who have invested the $700 billion to aid the financial markets, get a little injection into our IRAs and 401(k)s when things turn around? We would like to share in this new American socialism."

Robert E. Burkett, Westland

Technically, we haven't invested $700 billion into anything. I believe most of the money will be borrowed from the likes of China and other buyers of treasury bills. The same is true of the $800 billion stimulus bill, which is more about borrowing than stimulating. Both are IOUs written by our elected representatives our children's children will have to pay, and the interest will create an economic drag and sap more money from our federal budget.

There's no correlation that someone with eight properties doesn't care about the little guy. There's a difference between caring for the little guy out of your own pocket and caring for them out of someone else's. There's no virtue in the latter. For the religious, there's no reward for voting to compell charity from your neighbors' pockets.

It was lack of government oversight that allowed the banks to get us into this mess in the first place.

Lawrence Luty, Livonia

Banks have plenty of oversite, it's the government that's lacking oversite. Bank's don't want to lose money, not do they want to make loans to people without jobs. Regulators changed the rules, regulators required loans to unqualified borrowers, regulators created the institutions that insured sub-prime loans. Yes, they had noble intentions, but noble beurocratic intentions do not make for good banking business. Especially when those intentions are less noble and designed to get votes are appease special interests rather than serve the interest of our country--which should be their first priority.

You keep using that word...

Except for BAMN supporters' falacious and specious rants, the most frequent observation about Domestic Terrorists in Ferndale (posted February 3, 2009) in Tif's and my in-boxes are concerns about the word terrorism.

Webster's New World Dictionary defines terrorism as: the use of force or threats to intimidate, etc. [ibid] esp. as a political policy.

It's possible the colloquial use of the word terrorism has moved beyond Webster's, Princeton University's, or others' definitions. None of the definitions I read required violence, murder, assault, or property destruction. Threats as a means to coerce is a good enough definition.

To make our case for us, BAMN's national coordinater, Donna Stern, couldn't help but make more threats in The Woodward Talk regarding attempts to stop their intimidation:

The topic of police intervention led Stern to deliver a taut reminder that BAMN is well aware of its civil liberties. “If Ferndale (tried to stop us from protesting), they would be in violation of our freedom of speech and our freedom of assembly (rights), and we would sue,” she said. “Just because you don’t like what we’re doing doesn’t mean you have the right to block democracy.”

Maybe the problem with describing BAMN's actions as terrorism isn't with the word terrorism. Rather, it may be because the terrorists we're most familiar with; Hamas, al-Qaeda, Timothy McVeigh, as well as eco and animal-rights activists, have taken terrorism to extremes previously thought unconscionable. Sure, al-Qaeda may represent the vanguarde of uber-terrorists, but their pushing the envelope doesn't make BAMN's threats and intimidation any less coercive, it only makes other terrorists more blood-thirsty and desperate.

If you'd like to suggest another word than terrorism to describe BAMN's threats to Ferndale businesses to join their fight against a 3rd party or risk pickets, boycotts, harassing customers, and economic penalties to business and employees, I'm anxious to hear from you.

Domestic terrorists in Ferndale

Words are important. They have meaning. When used indiscriminately we either fail to communicate or dilute the meaning of the words we misuse.

Domestic terrorism is an appropriate and fitting description of BAMN's protests in front of Western Market, Como's and other Ferndale businesses. Before continuing let's look at some definitions.

Princeton University's WordNet on-line dictionary defines it:

terrorism practiced in your own country against your own people. "the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City was an instance of domestic terrorism."

The method of domestic terrorists, or terrorists in general, isn't to attack their enemies directly, it's to cause enough collateral damage that civilians, the ones paying the terrorists' prices, force their enemies to give in. BAMN doesn't really have a fight with Western Market, but they're hoping that slandering the owners and employees of the store, shouting at shoppers, and ultimately hurting them economically, that Western Market will give in to their demands and hang BAMN's posters accusing the Ferndale School District of segregation.

Wikipedia has a good introduction to their definition of terrorism:

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion.^[1]

As far as the definition of terror is concerned, the owners of Western Market, Steve and Tony Selvaggio, are justifiably scared. They're scared their customers and employees will be intimidated and harassed. They're scared disruption to their business may cause them to fail to meet financial obligations to their families and employees. They're scared that in our battered economy the employees they've come to treat as family may be unable to get new jobs if they're forced to lay them off, or that BAMN's slander may be irrepairable.

Terrorists should not be negotiated with.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

-- Edmund Burke

For reasons that infuriate me beyond words (and should also infuriate businesses) both Ferndale's DDA and Chamber of Commerce are incapable of defending businesses or supporting them against BAMN's attacks. Neither, I suspect, have they put as much effort into brain-storming how to protect Ferndale businesses or our city's reputation as they have increasing dues or taxes.

I oppose BAMN's methods. I oppose BAMN's tactics. I oppose BAMN's disregard for others' rights.

BAMN may wrap themselves in Dr. M.L. King's imagery, but their fruit has fallen a long way from the tree.

Please join Tiffani and me and stand up for Ferndale businesses', residents', and vistors' rights to work, live, and shop in Ferndale without intimidation. Please download the graphics I've attached to this post, print them at home, and display however you wish to demonstrate your opposition to BAMN's extortion, coercion, and yes, their terrorism.

BAMN nominated for annual Basket Crab Award

The Detroit-based community activist group known as By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) has since last fall accused the Ferndale School District of Segregation.

No, you didn't misread that.

BAMN is alleging Ferndale Schools is segregating students. To be honest, I had to look-up the definition of segregation just to be sure I wasn't misreading the newspaper articles. And to make sure we're all on the same webpage together, here's my working definition of segregation for this conversation:

Laws and policies designed to separate black students from white students.

BAMN throws the term Jim Crow around a lot as well. Jim Crow is the common name for laws designed to keep blacks out of white schools, restaurants, neighborhoods, and in the back seats of buses.

One last example for those of you born after 1965: if I were to write, "This is a whites-only article. I've written a separate but equally compelling and inflammatory article for colored people at the bottom of this page," I could be accused of segregation.

Admittedly, it wouldn't work well here because you can choose to read it or not (choice is important later in the article). I would never write such a thing anyway because I haven't time to write separate articles for black and white readers. I do write some for liberals and recent college graduates. Those posts use small words, shorter sentences and simple imagery so they may keep up with the rest of us.

The good news is, BAMN knows our school board is neither discriminating against nor segregating black students. Their own website article betrays this as its Jim Crow arguments are the weakest and least compelling of all the points they make.

The bad news is BAMN also knows racially divisive politics are good for business. It provides a steady stream of press clippings and donations to an organization desperately seeking relevancy. That's partially why I've nominated them for the annual Basket Crab award.

In a Washington Post article, writer Clarence Page describes the award just as I would have (if he hadn't published it first):

"The prize, which I just made up, is awarded to the public figure who best exemplifies the often retold legend of the basket crabs: Every time one of them tries to get out of the basket, the others pull it back in."

The problem with segregation and Jim Crow is it requires people not be given a choice. With Jim Crow, black people couldn't choose to sit in the same restaurant, attend the same theater, or drink from the same water fountains as white people without breaking the law.

In the case of University High School, a magnet school jointly operated by Lawrence Technological University and the Ferndale School District, enrollment is a choice. The 400+ students that attend there do so because their parents choose to send them there. Their parents choose that school because they deemed it a better alternative to their neighborhood public school.

To be more specific, their parents discriminated against their local schools and in favor of University High because that's what good parents do--make decisions for their children between available alternatives. Whether it's the school they attend, the music they listen to, the movies they watch, or the friends they hang out with, it's what parents and other responsible adults do for their charges.

It's called parenting.

If BAMN got its way and University High closed, those parents would no longer have that choice. BAMN would be responsible for removing those parents' ability to choose a better education for their children.

From that perspective, who's segregating now? Now you know why they may win the Basket Crab of the Year award. Whenever a crab tries to escape the Detroit Public Schools' basket, BAMN reaches out and pulls them back in.

BAMN's real issue isn't with Ferndale Schools or University High. And it certainly isn't with Ferndale businesses like Como's, Western Market, or The Record Collector. Their issue is with the Detroit Public School system.

Ferndale resident and possible council candidate, Greg Pawlica, described it this way: "If you want a Whopper you should go to Burger King, not picket Taco Bell because their Spicy Chicken Crunchwrap Supreme isn't a Whopper."

BAMN is tilting at windmills because they lack the credibility, clout , or perhaps the critical evaluation to hold Detroit's own school board accountable. As the dentist Doug Madsen (Tim Allen) said in the movie Wild Hogs while recovering from a stress attack, "I'm in a hospital. It's a lot easier for me right now to blame other people for my problems."

In other news, both good and bad, even BAMN picketers know what the boundaries of Ferndale's DDA should be. They haven't wasted any time visiting business more than a block-or-so from Nine Mile because even BAMN knows where the foot traffic is. Coincidentally, representatives from the DDA are rarely seen that far from Nine Mile as well.


To read more about this specific issue, the Ferndale School District has created this web page with links to BAMN's articles, newspaper articles, and the school district's own responses.

Council tables vote to award $280,000 no-bid contract

At last night's council meeting, Councilperson Gumbleton motioned the agenda item that would award a $280,000 contract to Plante Moran CRESA without bidding be tabled until the next regularly scheduled council meeting.

I agree that some must-bid requirements are ridiculous. The costs for creating, publishing, and reviewing bids can often exceed either the amount of the service or item being bid-for or the potential savings between the high and low bidders.

But in this case, $280,000 (the projected upper limit) is a lot of money and there is little risk a proper request for proposal (RFP) would exceed either the potential savings or the value of the service.

There are many things we may share with Detroit, Eight Mile among them. But awarding no-bid contracts without considering alternatives or entertaining competitive bid process risks Ferndale sharing more with Detroit--like its council's ineptitude and corruption--than we'd like.

Imagine our own Kwame Galloway or Jakie do-you-know-who-I-am? Baker turning a reputable firm like Plante Moran CRESA into a Bobby-Ferguson-like subsidiary. Or relying on wink-and-grin agreements and ignoring the appearance of impropriety. It is also worth mentioning that Detroit's city council suffers little inconvenience to responsibly guard and spend its citizens' money--hiring unqualified relatives and granting undeserved raises to favorites at taxpayer expense and deteriorating service to residents and businesses.

To Plante Moran's misfortune, the city manager's premature solicitation of the management contract means all competitive bidders know the scope and cost of Plante's bid and are certain to under-bid it or provide more services and improved terms. Regardless, Plante Moran isn't new to municipal contracts, bidding, politics, and the risk that no-bid contracts may raise citizen ire.

The subject should appear on council's January 26th agenda. I encourage everyone concerned with responsible government and opposed to our council following Detroit's example attend the meeting. All council meetings start at 7:30 at City Hall.

American Free Enterprise: RIP

It matters little what's taught in college anymore, free enterprise and capitalism haven't existed in the United States for years. Not in the sense that businesses are allowed to compete and survive in the market strictly on their own merits, creativity, and ability to compete for consumer dollars.

You don't need to be a professor or fellow at an ivy league university or institute to appreciate the demise of free enterprise. You can see the effects of government interference right in Ferndale. City Council, at the behest of the DDA, spent valuable time June 23 considering then passing ordinances regulating the size, shape, and fees permitting a potential health risk to civilians: sandwich boards. You know, those little signs shops put on the sidewalk hoping to catch your eye with their lunch menu, specials, promotions and sales.

I'm unsure how Ferndale has survived this long without rigorous standards for sandwich boards. This must be the blight and rejuvenation the state legislature was thinking about when it wrote the laws authorizing DDAs to micro-manage. Between this and other ordinances, millages, expanding the district to tax more business, eventually the DDA will transform Ferndale's character to be as unique and appealing as the inside of Oakland Mall.

Would the car sticking out of the second story at Wetmore's be allowed if the DDA had anything to do with it? I think not. I credit Steffie Loveless, publisher of Ferndale Friends, with the observation that the DDA is slowly removing everything that was once "authentic" Ferndale.

But back to the Big Three, the bailouts requested from GM, Ford, Chrysler, and the UAW is a small part of the expense to government for interfering with the markets in the first place. In addition to CAFE standards, where the government tried to force manufacturers to build cars the public doesn't want to buy, there are numerous safety standards that perhaps the public ought to have voted for with their purchases rather than legislated.

Every large corporation is also a welfare agency of its own--employing people that if they weren't for fear of discrimination lawsuits would have been let-go a long time go. The same goes for minority suppliers--for fear of more government intervention and bad press from Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, the big three could have spent less time propping-up weak suppliers with preferential price and payment terms than with established suppliers. As part of the bailout, the big three should hold a Survivor-like tribunal to vote some of its staff off the island--including management.

When I worked at Comerica there were people we all knew were unproductive by virtue of laziness or incompetence that wouldn't make it to the second episode. The reality is such a thing isn't possible because public opinon wouldn't allow it. The only time such a move might be tolerated would be during bankruptcy--which might be one of the opportunities the big three may exploit--along with the elimination of suppliers that require too much hand-holding. The result would be a stronger staff and a stronger supply-chain.

Wonder if government interference influences the price of things or free enterprise? Ethanol is cheaper to produce from sugar cane than corn, but those quantities of sugar cane are more likely to come from Brazil than midwest corn farmers. So to make corn-based ethanol more attractive (and not just to congressmen and senators) the government subsidizes it. And because the government doesn't think consumers are willing to pay for electronic cars at prices that reflect the cost to make them, they're offering a $7800 tax incentive to new owners.

I've already gone on record as believing embryonic stem cell (ESC) research shouldn't be illegal, but I strongly oppose any public funding for it. If ESC therapies are really as promising as its supporters claim it to be, then some entreprenurial capitalist should be funding their own development of the technology so they may profit from their patents, treatments, and medicines. Adult stem cell therapies have already proven successful without hype. Where ESC is all promise, hope, lobbying, grants, government funding and sympathetic advertisements, adult stem cells are helping people today.

One last example while I'm thinking about it. If Ferndale residents had to pay the whole cost of the totem pole at Woodward and Cambourne, would we have paid the $100,000 cost? No, but since government grants picked-up much of the cost not only did we get fragile monument for only $30,000 but we contributed to earmarks, pork, and wasteful government spending.

So, as citizens, if we think government intervention and social engineering is a good thing in commercial markets, that minimum wage should be set by law and not the market, that the government should manipulate credit-worthiness through Fredie and Fannie whether borrowers have a job or income, then we should applaud the bailouts and be anxious for more of them--because bailouts are the price we're willing to pay for feel-good public policy in commerce than free-enterprise.

Battered Detroiter Syndrome

Amber Arellano wrote an interesting piece in July 7's Detroit news likening Detroiters to wronged-women, who doesn't appreciate themselves enough to know they're with the wrong men and they deserve better.

Detroit is like a wronged woman who deserves a good man and gets nothing but deadbeat suitors, manipulating her, robbing her, taking advantage of her desperation.

Her betrayers are many: the despicable schemers at the Detroit Public Schools who have looted the district of millions of dollars for years, according to a new lawsuit.

Or take school district's leaders who, for years, failed to implement basic procedures to protect their students of the Tammany Hall-like corruption that infects the district. Their incompetence was revealed by a new report conducted by the Council of Big City Schools.

Or take Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who persuaded City Council members last week to approve the beginning of a deal that, if passed in its entirety, will cost the city more than $300 million, according to figures provided to the Detroit News.

These are just some of the headlines of the last two weeks. Almost daily, the litany of offenses grows.

I was immediately reminded of Battered Wife Syndrome. DivorceNet.com's, What is battered woman's syndrome?, explains is like this:

It is also important to understand why battered women stay in abusive relationships. The Court in People v. Aris, 215 Cal App 3d 1194, 264 Cal Rptr 167, 178 (1989) stated that "battered women tend to stay in abusive relationships for a number of reasons." Among those reasons: women are still positively reinforced during the honeymoon phase; women tend to be the peacekeepers in relationships - the ones responsible for making the marriage work; adverse economic consequences; it is more dangerous to leave than to stay; prior threats by batterer to kill self, or children; or to abscond with children; lost self-esteem; and no psychological energy to leave - resulting in a learned helplessness or psychological paralysis.

I've taken the liberty of rewriting it to apply to Detroiters.

It is important to understand why battered Detroiters re-elect abusive politicians and tolerate public administrators. Battered Detroiters put up with it because they are told by their abusers that they're the heart of the metro area; the suburbs are the enemy; whites made them do it; what you may get next could be worse than what you have now, or if you vote for someone else I'll make life worse for you. All this results in political paralysis.

This past November's election swept many republicans from office, but Detroit's representation is mostly unchanged. America will celebrate the election of its first black president, but hasn't Detroit already proved the color of your leaders doesn't change the color of your prospects?