02 December 2015

[TPC] - Newton Co. BOC recap & JaNice Shocks the state

The Chronicles
2 December '15

Newton Co. BOC recap & JaNice Shocks the State

Well...last night was the first Tuesday of the month so 'round these parts that meant it was another installment in...hell, don't even know what you'd call it at this point. As a hero of mine always says - hey, it's good, cheap entertainment. But in the grand scheme of things, it's really not that cheap, right?

Our esteemed board took up the latest mess at the landfill. It's a mess. Everyone blaming each other. The latest crisis/fire was the topic last night. It looks like certain folks were on tap to try to get thrown under the bus and, by all accounts, they were ready for it. The thing is, and I truly believe this, like most things we're seeing - this is really more a failure of the system itself. It's a bad model.

Ditto on an attempt to cast blame about the handling of the county attorney situation. Here's just a quick PolySci 101 tidbit - when an issue is on about a 90/10 split and you're on the wrong side of that, it wouldn't be wise to try to work that issue especially if you were going to align with a certain person who has, at this point we truly believe, absolutely no political capital whatsoever with any group or demo. Seemingly not a good move.

But to revisit a train of thought from earlier - it really is a bad situation right now. For the record, Newton Co. has been illegally operating for, what...almost two years. I truly believe all one would have to do would be to file something in any state court. But would a judge take it up? So when you try to run a government that's in violation of your charter, I guess it seems intuitive that it probably wouldn't work too good. My word...

In terms of the proposed development at Stanton Springs, the Board tabled it. And that seems like a smart, prudent move. Now, nobody can try to sue them, and it gives them, and the public, the time to really study up on things. Well done, BoC. Well done...

JaNice, FTW!

JaNice Van Ness is the new Senator-elect for district 43. So...is it true that Senate district 43 went over 2 to 1 for Obama in 2012? And now we see a dynamic Republican win the dang thing? Wow. Just wow...

Obviously JaNice Van Ness is a very special lady. She's smart, honest, articulate, and a hard worker. She's made for a great candidate, and many believe that she'll make an even better Senator. I'm just glad that friend of the program Aaron Brooks and a few others made sure to get this on the radar of the folks at the state level. And I'm so glad that so many energetic and engaged folks helped JaNice on the ground. There really is no substitute for good ole fashioned politickin.'

As an aside, I, along with others, have wondered if political consultants are really just becoming slack-jawed dullards who would fit right in with the management of WKRP. Or Butts-Mehre for that matter. That one mailer, and who it was sent to, seemed like a bad decision. And as many have said before, a lot of times - good, dynamic candidates win in spite of their consultants. There seems to be a lot of tone-deafness out there. And that makes sense as many in that racket are firmly in the political class and really have no intuition or feel for the grassroots.

Hope all is well out there. Have a happy Wednesday!