Missoulapolis

Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned: I hate my neighbors. They all seem to have embarked on a neighborhood uglification program. (All, except the ones to the south, who take great care of their place.)

First, the east neighbors have stopped watering their lawn. Or, the last occupants moved out leaving the kid in charge and he doesn’t know about that watering thing. Yet the lawn care company comes every Monday to mow.

BTW, I don’t care about the stupid lawn - just the maple trees and spruce that some good soul (Royal McConkey?) planted 25 years ago.

Second, the north neighbor Mullan Trail Homeowners decided to rip up the prairie grass they planted in their common area to grow hay, or so I hear. So ol’ Farmer Brown came to town and dragged the place last spring. We figured he’d plant something…but nothing happened. Never saw him again. The June rains came and went, still no seeding. So now we have a freaking desert out back.

Professor Borgmann at UM would say, it offends my sense of rationality. Well done, HOA.

Third, to the southwest, we have the lovely and talented Dino Estates/River Walk subdivision. Nice, eh? It used to be a field of long meadow grass that made nice little waves in the wind. I don’t think they’ve sold any lots since the place was “improved” a couple years ago.

Actually I think we have the excavators (Jensen, of course) to thank for the mess.

Last, regardez the emptying basin to the west, one of three built to control lower Grant Creek flooding. Two months of lakeside living is almost worth it.

…oh, and BTW, the middle flood basin quickly filled up with Missoula’s No. 1 noxious weed, Whitetop. Coming soon to an open space near you.

Yes, Missoulapolis stills loves those Krazy Komments she finds on the Internets!

Here are just a few excerpts from a June 15 WSJ Room for Debate blog post called Student Debt, Fool’s Gold?  And oh, the pride, the folly, the delusion, the remorse, and the harsh judgmentalism (!!!1!)  that follow in (by now) in over 300 comments.  It is definitely a good read (and even a chuckle or two if you enjoy someone bragging that he “recieved a great education.”).

First, a sampling of sad sacks.

I was a young widow with children. I worked two jobs, and finished undergraduate and graduate school. I was so proud of my accomplishments. It is now 15 years later, and still, I have NEVER gotten a full-time job. I have had part-time, temporary, and bouts of no jobs. I am now 50 years old, and owe more in student loans than what I borrowed 15 years ago. I am middle-aged, have no savings or assets, but I have my Ph.D.

You go, girl! I mean…Doctor.

I have approximately $100,000 in student loan debt, even after landing a 3 year prestigious fellowship that paid for tuition, living costs and research… this was for a PhD program that I eventually dropped out of due to the burdens of a growing family - I took a masters instead.

So a master’s degree is the booby prize now? Who’d a thunk.

The worst decision of my life was taking out loans to attend undergrad and grad school. Despite receiving a full-tuition scholarship for law school, my debt load is crushing. I live worse than high-school drop-outs I know, despite graduating with honors and having a full-time job. Student loans have ruined my life, as they have for tens of thousands of others. They leave that bit out of the brochures at the guidance counselor and student aid offices.

But you’ll be making all that money in the future, yes?

My wife and I inherited some money a while back and we decided to use it to pay off that long term debt. Thinking everything was on track with my 20-year loan, I soon found out about a year ago that my balance was now $85 more than what I originally borrowed so many years ago.

This one is by far the best:

During this same period, though, we had one child right out of school. This hamstrung my wife’s career focus in some ways, as we decided for her to stay home. She then decided to go into a field that required another bachelor’s, so she spent 3 years obtaining this second degree, but this time from a private school that saddled us with $55k in debt…

Making matters worse, we had our second child too soon after her graduation for my wife to establish herself in her field-most importantly, she never completed some essential training necessary to remain a viable candidate for future employment. That was two years ago. She is ready to re-enter the workforce, but employers are treating her as someone completely unqualified and she cannot find work…

One possible solution for this is more education. I am considering an executive MBA…but with a cost of $100k or so, we would be highly leveraged…

Yes, by all means get an another degree!  

There are calls, of course, for government to Do Something!

We need a movement to demand affordable education that is federally funded and moreover, after graduation federally created jobs…as a recent global justice movement put it, “people over profits!”

…and the usual pieties:

As parents and society, we would be better off if our children and more people are college-educated. The challenge for federal and local governments is to make college much more affordable than it currently is. One way to achieve this is for citizens to pay more tax and channel the additional tax revenue to make public colleges and universities much more affordable for every high school student who wants to go to college. As citizen, we must make our choice between higher tax and affordable higher education.

You don’t mind paying more taxes, do you? It’s for such a worthy cause.

Finally, some common sense:

…if education is merely the means to meaningful skills that lead to work you will find satisfying, then there are plenty of truly “affordable” options that won’t require anyone to take on massive debt. But if you are trying to buy status by going to a school you can’t afford, then quit whining when the bill comes due. No one held a gun to your head and forced you to spend money you didn’t, and likely won’t ever, have. You made the
choice. Just because the system doesn’t give you what you want at a price you can afford, doesn’t mean it’s broken.

Buying status. Ouch.  More tough love:

Parents - get your lazy kids to start studying mathematics and science, or get ready to enjoy their company in your home when they are 27. Why would someone take on tens of thousands in debt for a liberal arts masters degree? What a scam!

Some catcalls:

Look on the bright side all you debtors…..when you are old and gray (and still paying your loans since they are tied into the Treasury) you will still have fond memories of all that binge drinking you did, all those drugs you took, and all that sex you had. So stop whining and get another job.

A view from inside:

As a professor at a private university in the North East - it pains me each year to see students who really cannot afford to attend the school do so by leveraging their future salaries. There is an assumption that regardless of cost now- their jobs in the future will provide the income necessary to repay those loans and support a lifestyle that is also above average.

This has been going on for years. However, a new trend that is even more troubling is the percentage of students who then compound their undergraduate loans with masters level loans. Schools are not without blame; they push their graduate degrees because they are generally income generators.

And just how good is all this eddication?

I work for a professional services firm. We aspire to only hire the best and brightest - undergraduates with degrees in economics who achieved above a 3.6 GPA, MBA students from the top 20 schools, lawyers with technical expertise in business or tax law.

And guess what we have to do now?

We are offering REMEDIAL WRITING COURSES to our new employees. Our clever HR department calls it “integrating the new generation.”

LOL! Few commenters mention this option:

…it seems that most of you are saying it is beneath you to consider the military, even if it means no debt for college. I think the silence on this topic says much about our country, the people in it, and the ethics we hold dear. God help us!

Naturally, there is a great hue and cry to make student loan debt dischargeable in bankruptcy again. Well, except for one wet blanket with a good memory:

…in the mid-70’s and possibly the early 80’s there was blatant bankruptcy abuse in which many graduates, particularly doctors and lawyers were able to have all of their educational debts fully discharged under the bankruptcy code. Their (morally bankrupt) theory was that they hadn’t yet started to make much money so why not file bankruptcy. That way when they started making money they could keep it all for themselves rather than go to the trouble of paying back those pesky folks that lent them the money so they could become professionals. So…any of you that are unhappy about not being able to file bankruptcy in order to discharge your university debt can thank these folks for abusing the system so much they changed the rules.

Then, someone who has succeeded - gasp - sans degree!

I’m in sales & in a good year I can earn 90k-97k yet I don’t have a bachelors degree. The lack of degree only presents a problem if I change jobs. I’ve learned to not tell co-workers I don’t have a bachelors as they get really annoyed when they see I’m top biller for the month…

The bottom line is this:

I still hear people quoting Joseph Campbell, “Do what you love and the money will follow.” Ha. These people are not the ones who have to pay back student loans. I followed my interests into a dead end M.A. Welcome to the secretarial pool.

Heh. The lunch room is down the hall on the left…here is your time card…

I do think Congress should make the loans dischargeable again.   Wouldn’t that be swell?  Then, watch the student loan spigot dry up.

That will put an end to the Higher Ed bubble for awhile.

Yesterday Calculated Risk pointed out the flaw in a lame attempt to disassociate house inflation from the rampant consumption that went bust last year. The survey purported to show that house price inflation didn’t have all that much effect on spending; no, no it’s not all that.

There are two parts here: 1) how do changes in house prices effect consumption, and 2) how does access to the Home ATM effect consumption. On the second point, I think the answer is MEW had a significant impact on consumption … I frequently heard from auto, RV, boat, motorcycle, and home accessory retailers that their customers were borrowing from their homes during the boom to buy these products. All of these areas have seen sharp declines in consumption as MEW had declined.

This severe decline in consumption was easy to predict - and it happened. Meanwhile these authors dismiss it as simply “a theoretical possibility”.

The point of the exercise? To foster enough economic happy talk that you, the consumer, let down your guard and start buying again - for the good of the order and all that.  This latest study was brought to you by the most academicky of academics, so it must be true!

Which brings us, again, of Mickey Kaus’s cogent observation in September 2007.

…Why do I pay attention to anecdotal evidence? Because academics are always the last to find out what’s happening. If you wait until a social trend turns up in some professor’s peer-reviewed charts,** you are waiting too long. (Example: Anecdotal evidence always said people spent a long time on welfare. Academics said they didn’t. Until, after a decade or two, the academics looked at their printouts more carefully.)

Ten years from now the economists will tell us what really happened. Maybe.  For now, believe your eyes and ears: If someone is spending way beyond his means, and you can’t figure out where the money is coming from, they’re probably like this guy.

Big deal.  You still can’t use the Last button to go between 8-1 and 13-1.

Someone please explain it to me.

Follow the protests in Iran on Twitter here.

Photos here and here.

Heh. Was I right or what?

Congratulations Will and Vice Chair Lianne Johnson. You’ve got your work cut out for you.

As recently as three weeks ago, Will Deschamps told us local committee people that he didn’t know who he’d be running against for state GOP chair. And then -  boom! - on June 4, Rick Breckinridge of Lake County burst forth with a blog, blog-based e-mail and Twitter campaign opposing him.   At least it seemed sudden to me.

Now realize one school of thought in Montana’s hapless GOP believes the way to win the hearts of those fickle and elusive younger voters is through those Internets and Twitter thingies, if we could just hire some bright web-savvy Young People to do all that for us.

So, along comes a stealth state chair candidate who has brought that very Internet mojo to bear on the members assembling today in Helena to elect a new leader.   The blog looks good and professional, with daily posts and sidebar links to Red State, Hot Air, and the Paulite Campaign for Liberty blog.  And yesterday the PickRickJune12 blog breathlessly announced that Denny Rehberg was following his campaign on Twitter!

Breckinridge promises to bring that same up-to-the-minute technology to the rescue of the state GOP.  From his web site:

As Chairman of our Party, I will communicate with you all year, through direct mail, phone calls, personal visits and other means.

We’ll develop cutting edge online communications and donor development databases that will make “Voter Vault” look as archaic as IBM punch cards

Ouch!

These databases will give you the tools to not only help raise funds for the Party and local candidates in your area, but to also go out and make personal contact with voters and encourage them to join the Montana Republican Party and support our candidates.

But that’s not all, he’s also proposing a 3-Prong Win Strategy for fundraising (more money, always a good thing). Only, his premises are a bit flawed:

…how many of you have been contacted, encouraged to participate locally, or even asked for money since the election?  There’s a good chance that many of you have not.

Uh, if they’re like me they’ve probably been hit up a lot, but whatever…if he’s promising to bring that awesome Paul-style Internet cash-hustling to the Montana GOP, that would be a good thing, yes?

He is also taking a principled stand against rules changes - proposed by the committee Deschamps happens to chair - that would create a smaller state Executive Board and a new State Operating Board consisting of the current state Republican leadership - House and Senate leaders,  Congressmen, and State Land Board members (which would be exactly zero now).  I saw this as a bit of Politburo-style power grabbing myself.   But an  e-mail sent to the voting members and linking his blog post elicited this response from former AG candidate Tim Fox, who is on the Rules committee:

While I certainly understand your need to create some contrast between your candidacy and Will’s, I believe you’ve unfairly maligned Will on this issue. You are correct that Will was aware of the proposed Rule changes, but not until we submitted them to the Rules Committee. Will was not a part of the effort to propose these Rules, and he was not advised that we were working on proposed Rule changes.

Fair enough, but what about those rules changes?  It seems that the E-board is seen as “too big” but there is no practical way to cut it down without hacking someone off.  So, you build something on top of it.   Brilliant.

Breckinridge is a relative newcomer to local central committee politics. From yesterday’s Lee papers:

Breckenridge said he was “appalled” at the condition of local organizing committees in recent election cycles. The former Army officer said they need to be improved so they can effectively help candidates.

“It really lit a fire under me, and got my battle blood up,” he said. “I just said ‘We have to do something about it.’ ”

I.e., he joined central committee in the last election cycle, and found it wanting - of course.  I suspect our own new members found the local cencom wanting, too, as so many of them disappeared quickly after the caucus.   Central committee business tends to run more to rules, continuity, rifle raffles, fair booths, and boring stuff like that, than meetups, Tea Parties and earnest policy talk.

He said he wants to focus on improving the local organizations, raising money and better competing with Democrats at the volunteer level.

“There are people out there and they want to participate. They just need to be guided and directed and given a job,” Breckenridge said. “What we have done in the past, in my opinion, has not been successful as a strategy.”

Breckenridge is also touting the enthusiasm created by the Ron Paul supporters who got involved last year in an effort to carry the Montana primary for the former presidential candidate. He also will make a point to emphasize the anti-abortion portion of the party platform, alongside the key message of limited government.

“I think there is some fear of the enthusiasm that Dr. Paul has energized,” he said. “But once we get everything working, I think the finger pointing will stop.”

Aha!  And there you have it.  But for all the sound and fury of his Internet army, Ron Paul did not get a lot of votes.  And in my precinct, where I had to perform the unspeakable acts of calling voters and going door to door, Paul was not exactly the buzz on the street.

Pauls’ supporters instead benefited from a flawed approach to 2008’s early primary season.  It was Erik Iverson’s (one) big idea to have closed caucuses that year, which empowered the Paulites to begin with. Ironically, Deschamps wholeheartedly jumped on and supported the caucus idea and welcomed the new members into the local party. They won the local caucus but only by two votes.

Deschamps told central committee here one of the reasons he is running was because he felt that western Montana and especially Missoula County were being shortchanged the state GOP.  Yet he finds himself as the establishment candidate.

The voting members at the convention will be what is for now the Old Guard of the party - primarily the state committee men and committee women, which are typically longtime members emeriti from each local cencom.

Will the Old Guard be impressed by the late Internet onslaught of Mr. Breckinridge?  Does it reflect a true groundswell of grassroots sentiment?  Is it real or is it Twitter?

Missoulapolis predicts:  Twitter, schmitter.  Deschamps doesn’t have the Internet fu but he has been on the phone, on the road and will win the votes of the actual voting members of the state GOP.

The City of Missoula steps in to treat local drivers for their cell phone addiction.

Yes it’s heavy-handed, intrusive, statist and all that.   But it was becoming increasingly clear that a good number of people were clinically unable to drive without talking or texting.   It became a Pavlovian response: Ignition - grab phone; back out - dial, drive - talk.   What’s an SUV for but talking?   I’m leaving Target now.  I’m on my way to Pet Smart. These poor saps probably wouldn’t believe that in the olden days people would just drive.

Missoulapolis predicts:  Fidgety drivers will next turn to portable DVD players to pass the time.

I heard about the problems with the new vehicle registration system two weeks ago.  It’s all the scuttlement among courthouse workers.  Ironically, it made the wait for new tags much longer at a time when auto sales have tanked.   At least the clerks have something to do.

Counties across the state have experienced problems.

“It’s terrible,” said Ravalli County Treasurer JoAnne Johnson. “We’ve had lines like I’ve never seen.”

Fasbender is adamant that the system will get fixed. He said a new version that would hopefully solve many of the current problems is almost ready to be put into place, possibly as soon as this weekend.

“We’re responding as quickly and appropriately as possible,” he said.

Brenda Nordlund, acting administrator of the state Motor Vehicle Division, said that since the new computer system was installed, tech workers have made various tweaks to help improve the way certain aspects function when problems arise. Over the weekend and through Tuesday, Department of Justice staff members will essentially be implementing more of these fixes.

But something seems to be missing from the story. Who’s responsible? Was there a vendor involved or was this POS developed in-house?   Two other states use similar systems, so my guess is that this was outsourced.

Meanwhile, I also heard that County government is holding its collective breath until this month’s property tax receipts are totted up. House and car sales are in the toilet with no turnaround expected soon. No new County hires, at least for now.  Even the courthouse deli is up for sale. The general fund is down, will special funds be raided to meet shortfalls?

Dick Cheney’s speech to AEI today.

If fine speech-making, appeals to reason, or pleas for compassion had the power to move them, the terrorists would long ago have abandoned the field. And when they see the American government caught up in arguments about interrogations, or whether foreign terrorists have constitutional rights, they don’t stand back in awe of our legal system and wonder whether they had misjudged us all along. Instead the terrorists see just what they were hoping for – our unity gone, our resolve shaken, our leaders distracted. In short, they see weakness and opportunity.

On waterboarding:

It’s almost gone unnoticed that the president has retained the power to order the same methods in the same circumstances. When they talk about interrogations, he and his administration speak as if they have resolved some great moral dilemma in how to extract critical information from terrorists. Instead they have put the decision off, while assigning a presumption of moral superiority to any decision they make in the future.

Now, that does bother me somewhat, because the one nagging doubt I’ve had about “enhanced interrogation methods,” is that a liberal fascist state could, say 10 years from now, expand and turn them on its domestic enemies…in the name of security, of course.

I remain conflicted.