Well, that was excruciatingingly dull! And I’m being kind. Really! Yes, I’ve just finished viewing our first installment of ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT. LCTV GONE UN-WILD!!!
Firstly, that wasn’t accessing government. That was travelogue, a tourist’s view of the mechanics of conformist, accomodationist managerialism at its antiseptic best. That’s what you get when apparatchiks have successfully purged the political dimension from analysis of government.
This was an example of institutionalized access to government, politically correct, cleansed of any controversy. “I love you…..you love me…la la la la la la dee.” Enter Barney the Dinosaur in all his glory or possibly next week Mr. Rogers returned from the grave: “Hi Neighbor!”
The philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis once defined institutions as organizations intended to exclude. That’s exactly what we had here tonight on LCTV, the effects of institutionalized exclusion of genuine political interest and questioning.
Did anyone call in? I didn’t hear anyone call in. Did I miss something? Did anyone care to call in? I don’t think so. Did I miss something? Was everyone so riveted to the passionate, earthshaking disclosures of governmental thought and action that they just couldn’t get around to calling in. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. Possibly the phone system wasn’t working? Possibly, though, the producer/Director/Phone Operator fell asleep or died of boredom?
I think Jackie Davis even resorted to talking about the weather at one point. Oh my God: help us all!!!
As Sargent Friday used to say on Dragnet: “Just the facts, Ma’am.” And that’s what we got tonight, just the “facts.” But as in a court of law its only after the finding of facts that the truth be had. Only after the description does the interpretation and critique begin. But when one is allergic to cross-examination and criticism then truth is never to be had. The absence of critique is the space of censorship.
This was the “Truman Show” of governmental reality.
Enter the Matrix.
Well at least my Thursday evenings are now free.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Niagara County Legislature's Conservative/Republicans Choose Politics of Assassination, Divisiveness and Exclusion
The Niagara County Legislature’s rapacious right wing rejected Dennis Virtuoso’s resolution to support the reinstatement of “Tom Christy’s Legislative Journal.” Except for a couple votes Virtuoso stood alone giving the opposition the opportunity to reconcile the government with the voice that has practiced and defended the democratic space and public sphere that’s quickly shrinking in Niagara County, namely Tom Christy.
But Christy went too far and actually asked questions on his show in the interest of truth and understanding that made the Republican advocates of questionable IDA practices, unnecessary PILOTS that increase taxes on families that don’t have the money to fund business bailouts, and the highest taxes in the kingdom, squirm and cringe. Using the LCTV Board of Directors as their front, they axed Christy as a lesson to anyone who demands reasonable discussion regarding the disaster that we so obviously are.
Nothing but the official story can be expected should a new “legislative journal” show emerge sans Tom Christy. Surely we’ll never see Louis Riciutti discussing the nuclear and chemical waste that pocks the landscape. We’ll never see a discussion of the virtual apartheid practiced against Niagara Falls effectively separating it from the county like the Mason-Dixon line. Nor will we see discussion with respect to actually using the natural wonder of the Falls, Gorge and Greenway to create a viable and sensible tourism economy. And its unlikely that the flow of Casino money out of the Falls or the sucking sound of revenue from the parks being drained to Albany will receive much attention. We’ll see some political variation of the Christian channels where true believers confess their faith and the miracles that resulted thereof.
The sophomoric rhetoric on the part of a cowardly and selfish Legislature pleaded that the public speakers didn’t have the facts to make any judgement regarding what went down at LCTV and that the Legislature didn’t have the authority to interfere in the “private sphere” of public media, whatever that meant. It amounted to excuses to not act. It amounted to the contempt that autocratic and authoritarian mentalities exhibit for democratic freedom, openness, inquiry and challenge. The thin skinned Conservative/Republicans ought to be skittish given that their leadership seems to be something analogous to the good that Jim Jones’ leadership did for his followers when he offered the Kool Aid. “Here drink. It’ll take you to heaven.”
So the Conservative/Republicans choose the assassination politics of division, derision and exclusion. They demonstrate that not even a man who wins the Volunteer of the Year Award and gives 10 or so years of his life to openness in government is worth honoring with the right that any good American deserves who has served in good faith, diligently and with honest enthusiasm and humility.
I see no salvation in the partisan politics of Democrats and Republicans. I do not identify with democrats but I could easily loath Conservative/Republicans given the callous and corruptive display of smug indifference and diplomatic violence I witnessed tonight at the Niagara County Legislative Meeting. Niagara County is in deep deep trouble with this caliber of leadership and virtual despotic disdain for the free exchange of ideas and good-natured rapport that Tom Christy created and nurtured on Legislative Journal.
But Christy went too far and actually asked questions on his show in the interest of truth and understanding that made the Republican advocates of questionable IDA practices, unnecessary PILOTS that increase taxes on families that don’t have the money to fund business bailouts, and the highest taxes in the kingdom, squirm and cringe. Using the LCTV Board of Directors as their front, they axed Christy as a lesson to anyone who demands reasonable discussion regarding the disaster that we so obviously are.
Nothing but the official story can be expected should a new “legislative journal” show emerge sans Tom Christy. Surely we’ll never see Louis Riciutti discussing the nuclear and chemical waste that pocks the landscape. We’ll never see a discussion of the virtual apartheid practiced against Niagara Falls effectively separating it from the county like the Mason-Dixon line. Nor will we see discussion with respect to actually using the natural wonder of the Falls, Gorge and Greenway to create a viable and sensible tourism economy. And its unlikely that the flow of Casino money out of the Falls or the sucking sound of revenue from the parks being drained to Albany will receive much attention. We’ll see some political variation of the Christian channels where true believers confess their faith and the miracles that resulted thereof.
The sophomoric rhetoric on the part of a cowardly and selfish Legislature pleaded that the public speakers didn’t have the facts to make any judgement regarding what went down at LCTV and that the Legislature didn’t have the authority to interfere in the “private sphere” of public media, whatever that meant. It amounted to excuses to not act. It amounted to the contempt that autocratic and authoritarian mentalities exhibit for democratic freedom, openness, inquiry and challenge. The thin skinned Conservative/Republicans ought to be skittish given that their leadership seems to be something analogous to the good that Jim Jones’ leadership did for his followers when he offered the Kool Aid. “Here drink. It’ll take you to heaven.”
So the Conservative/Republicans choose the assassination politics of division, derision and exclusion. They demonstrate that not even a man who wins the Volunteer of the Year Award and gives 10 or so years of his life to openness in government is worth honoring with the right that any good American deserves who has served in good faith, diligently and with honest enthusiasm and humility.
I see no salvation in the partisan politics of Democrats and Republicans. I do not identify with democrats but I could easily loath Conservative/Republicans given the callous and corruptive display of smug indifference and diplomatic violence I witnessed tonight at the Niagara County Legislative Meeting. Niagara County is in deep deep trouble with this caliber of leadership and virtual despotic disdain for the free exchange of ideas and good-natured rapport that Tom Christy created and nurtured on Legislative Journal.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
"HARDLINE" THROWS A TEA PARTY FOR MAZIARZ
Well, Senator Maziarz says he likes Tom Christy’s Legislative Journal and even reminds us that he appeared on the show. Hopefully his appearance wasn’t as token as the 5 second lip service sidestep he did on Hardwick’s show. This was again effectively de facto censorship. It amounts to the silence treatment and stonewalling what’s at issue in Niagara County.
Maziarz undoubtedly believes in what he does and is undoubtedly in integrity with his role as legislator and political leader. However, we have to ask the question as to how long one must be in higher office to lose touch with the grass root energy and concerns of the people. Possibly he just isn’t aware of the deeply democratic grass roots concern to have Christy’s show reinstated. But then whose fault is that?
Maybe he’s not aware of the LCTV Board refusing to name who complained about Christy. Maybe he’s not aware of the spurious, self-serving and obviously suspicious re-interpretation of general rules as pretext to deep-six Christy. Maybe he’s not aware of the faux-excuse that some local legislators or officials, still unnamed, were offended by Christy. Maybe he’s not aware that it’s ludicrous that such faux-offence, politically correct moralistic witch hunting has ulterior motives. Since when is asking tough political questions about government offensive? Why is it that the people can be offended if not thoroughly insulted but one dare not ruffle the feathers of a politician? How bogus is this?
Maziarz’s unawareness or refusal to address the issue of many citizens crying out to retain what little voice they have left is a travesty of political justice. His not having at least an opinion as a citizen as to what he might like to see happen, given he likes the show, is sad. Is it only the voice of the business community that is worth addressing? Does he not see the growing, yawning gap between those who are allowed to be heard and those who are not?
Maziarz has done a lot of good and I trust continues to do so. But on shows like “Hardline” we need to hear something more substantive than water-cooler talk about the Spitzer fallout and the tactics, strategies, proceduralist concerns, etc. of formal government. Questions of the concerns of institutional forms should never take front seat to substantive democratic issues of the people, the public sphere and the freedom of the media that makes governmental positions such as his possible and meaningful in the first place.
And why is Hardwick’s show called Hardline? Does that refer to the line you can’t cross if you want to be in the good graces of the political correctness/acceptable topics crowd? Banal gossip and happy talk does not make for political discourse nor seriousness about democracy.
And three cheers for Dennis Virtuoso for standing up for free speech and for hearing the people.
Maziarz undoubtedly believes in what he does and is undoubtedly in integrity with his role as legislator and political leader. However, we have to ask the question as to how long one must be in higher office to lose touch with the grass root energy and concerns of the people. Possibly he just isn’t aware of the deeply democratic grass roots concern to have Christy’s show reinstated. But then whose fault is that?
Maybe he’s not aware of the LCTV Board refusing to name who complained about Christy. Maybe he’s not aware of the spurious, self-serving and obviously suspicious re-interpretation of general rules as pretext to deep-six Christy. Maybe he’s not aware of the faux-excuse that some local legislators or officials, still unnamed, were offended by Christy. Maybe he’s not aware that it’s ludicrous that such faux-offence, politically correct moralistic witch hunting has ulterior motives. Since when is asking tough political questions about government offensive? Why is it that the people can be offended if not thoroughly insulted but one dare not ruffle the feathers of a politician? How bogus is this?
Maziarz’s unawareness or refusal to address the issue of many citizens crying out to retain what little voice they have left is a travesty of political justice. His not having at least an opinion as a citizen as to what he might like to see happen, given he likes the show, is sad. Is it only the voice of the business community that is worth addressing? Does he not see the growing, yawning gap between those who are allowed to be heard and those who are not?
Maziarz has done a lot of good and I trust continues to do so. But on shows like “Hardline” we need to hear something more substantive than water-cooler talk about the Spitzer fallout and the tactics, strategies, proceduralist concerns, etc. of formal government. Questions of the concerns of institutional forms should never take front seat to substantive democratic issues of the people, the public sphere and the freedom of the media that makes governmental positions such as his possible and meaningful in the first place.
And why is Hardwick’s show called Hardline? Does that refer to the line you can’t cross if you want to be in the good graces of the political correctness/acceptable topics crowd? Banal gossip and happy talk does not make for political discourse nor seriousness about democracy.
And three cheers for Dennis Virtuoso for standing up for free speech and for hearing the people.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
BIG BANK BAILOUT WHILE THE PEOPLE "EAT CAKE": A MUST READ!!!
Palast on Spitzer, Wall Street, and Bush
A must-read from Greg Palast. An excerpt is below. Read the whole thing here:
This week, Bernanke’s Fed, for the first time in its history, loaned a selected coterie of banks one-fifth of a trillion dollars to guarantee these banks’ mortgage-backed junk bonds. The deluge of public loot was an eye-popping windfall to the very banking predators who have brought two million families to the brink of foreclosure.
Up until Wednesday, there was one single, lonely politician who stood in the way of this creepy little assignation at the bankers’ bordello: Eliot Spitzer.
Who are they kidding? Spitzer’s lynching and the bankers’ enriching are intimately tied.
How? Follow the money.
The press has swallowed Wall Street’s line that millions of US families are about to lose their homes because they bought homes they couldn’t afford or took loans too big for their wallets. Ba-LON-ey. That’s blaming the victim.
Here’s what happened. Since the Bush regime came to power, a new species of loan became the norm, the ‘sub-prime’ mortgage and its variants including loans with teeny “introductory” interest rates. From out of nowhere, a company called ‘Countrywide’ became America’s top mortgage lender, accounting for one in five home loans, a large chunk of these ‘sub-prime.’
...
When the housing bubble burst and the paint flaked off, investors were left with the poop and the bankers were left with bonuses. Countrywide’s top man, Angelo Mozilo, will ‘earn’ a $77 million buy-out bonus this year on top of the $656 million - over half a billion dollars – he pulled in from 1998 through 2007.
But there were rumblings that the party would soon be over. Angry regulators, burned investors and the weight of millions of homes about to be boarded up were causing the sharks to sink. Countrywide’s stock was down 50%, and Citigroup was off 38%, not pleasing to the Gulf sheiks who now control its biggest share blocks.
Then, on Wednesday of this week, the unthinkable happened. Carlyle Capital went bankrupt. Who? That’s Carlyle as in Carlyle Group. James Baker, Senior Counsel. Notable partners, former and past: George Bush, the Bin Laden family and more dictators, potentates, pirates and presidents than you can count.
The Fed had to act. Bernanke opened the vault and dumped $200 billion on the poor little suffering bankers. They got the public treasure – and got to keep the Grinning’s house. There was no ‘quid’ of a foreclosure moratorium for the ‘pro quo’ of public bailout. Not one family was saved – but not one banker was left behind.
[READ THE WHOLE STORY AT: http://www.gregpalast.com/elliot-spitzer-gets-nailed/#more-1979.
A must-read from Greg Palast. An excerpt is below. Read the whole thing here:
This week, Bernanke’s Fed, for the first time in its history, loaned a selected coterie of banks one-fifth of a trillion dollars to guarantee these banks’ mortgage-backed junk bonds. The deluge of public loot was an eye-popping windfall to the very banking predators who have brought two million families to the brink of foreclosure.
Up until Wednesday, there was one single, lonely politician who stood in the way of this creepy little assignation at the bankers’ bordello: Eliot Spitzer.
Who are they kidding? Spitzer’s lynching and the bankers’ enriching are intimately tied.
How? Follow the money.
The press has swallowed Wall Street’s line that millions of US families are about to lose their homes because they bought homes they couldn’t afford or took loans too big for their wallets. Ba-LON-ey. That’s blaming the victim.
Here’s what happened. Since the Bush regime came to power, a new species of loan became the norm, the ‘sub-prime’ mortgage and its variants including loans with teeny “introductory” interest rates. From out of nowhere, a company called ‘Countrywide’ became America’s top mortgage lender, accounting for one in five home loans, a large chunk of these ‘sub-prime.’
...
When the housing bubble burst and the paint flaked off, investors were left with the poop and the bankers were left with bonuses. Countrywide’s top man, Angelo Mozilo, will ‘earn’ a $77 million buy-out bonus this year on top of the $656 million - over half a billion dollars – he pulled in from 1998 through 2007.
But there were rumblings that the party would soon be over. Angry regulators, burned investors and the weight of millions of homes about to be boarded up were causing the sharks to sink. Countrywide’s stock was down 50%, and Citigroup was off 38%, not pleasing to the Gulf sheiks who now control its biggest share blocks.
Then, on Wednesday of this week, the unthinkable happened. Carlyle Capital went bankrupt. Who? That’s Carlyle as in Carlyle Group. James Baker, Senior Counsel. Notable partners, former and past: George Bush, the Bin Laden family and more dictators, potentates, pirates and presidents than you can count.
The Fed had to act. Bernanke opened the vault and dumped $200 billion on the poor little suffering bankers. They got the public treasure – and got to keep the Grinning’s house. There was no ‘quid’ of a foreclosure moratorium for the ‘pro quo’ of public bailout. Not one family was saved – but not one banker was left behind.
[READ THE WHOLE STORY AT: http://www.gregpalast.com/elliot-spitzer-gets-nailed/#more-1979.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
CHRISTY KICKED OFF THE AIR: "PUBLIC SCRUTINY" AND FREE SPEECH DENIED AT LCTV
Last week on the Sunday TV interview show from Albany, Senator George Maziarz was critical of the Review Board for early release of potentially dangerous criminals from incarceration. And rightly so.
He was also critical of the antiquated oversight by the State Liquor Authority of our local wine industry. He said they were clearly standing in the way of the Niagara wine industry prospering and being competitive with our Canadian neighbors. And rightly so.
The Senator emphasized that one thing that could help government and temper bureaucracy apparently in such situations was “public scrutiny” of bureaucratic activities. Truer words were never spoken. And rightly so.
However within his very own county recent harassment of Legislative Journal TV host Tom Christy by LCTV Board of Directors flagrantly flies in the face of the express wishes of our elected leadership. Stringent faux-regulations as to how Mr. Christy must “behave” during his show were imposed. This amounts to (1) an actual gag on free speech, (2) an attempt to control knowledge content by shackling free dialogue with artificial interview rules, and (3) an elitist limitation of guests to elected officials and denial of the host having any say in choosing guests, having an opinion or critically reflecting on the discussion.
Obviously these fraudulent “editorial rules” were a thinly disguised pretext to cloak their real purpose: to suppress speech, control the political content of governmental discourse and widen the gap between the "public sphere of free speech for the people" and the "institutional sphere as staging ground for governmental action, propaganda and control" of Niagara County. And to get rid of Christy.
Today Tom Christy’s program was canceled. Without explanation, excuse, reason or justification. Simply in either an arrogant display of administrative fiat or simply ignorance or indifference as to what serves the people, or possibly fear generated by well placed or powerful politicos, the program was just cancelled. Without discussion, due consideration of the consequences or consideration of Tom’s role in our community, by e-mail no less, brazenly canceled. Why? Possibly because there was a little too much “public scrutiny” for some who do not believe in the democratic process of inquiry, questioning, criticism, self-reflection, accountability and demand for meaningful action and change.
Ironically the very “public scrutiny” that Senator Maziarz calls for is being prevented in his own county. The very organ of public scrutiny is being “downsized” so to speak, contradictory to the very needs of the government and the polity as indicated by Senator Maziarz.
However not only was the ‘public scrutiny,’ that Legislative Journal enabled and facilitated when free and open media interaction was provided, denied without believable reason. But when questioned by Gloria Bryant, a Lockport citizen, as to the straitjacket placed on Christy and when asked to release their governing by-laws and articles of incorporation, LCTV Board of Directors refused to cooperate, denying her access to the information. If that is not enough, they arrogantly questioned her as to why she wished to exercise her right to know. Consider the audacity and elitism of such resistance to providing legally required public information. However this seems to be the modus operandi evolving at LCTV and possibly in Niagara County.
Tom Christy’s “Journal” is the liveliest, most spirited and interactive program of the people in our area. To have expected Tom to only speak to elected officials is an arbitrary but calculated attempt to control speech, information and knowledge. Legislators so used are reduced to mere mouthpieces which have no true voice without the constant and uncensored input of the people they represent.
Only when a polity begins to undergo a move toward such authoritarian-like rule do heinous actions like this take place. Surely Senator Maziarz did not call for “public scrutiny” merely to support his legislative efforts. Surely he recognizes that a republic which loses its democratic foundation is no longer a republic at all and fails to live up to its classical Liberal principle of limitation of government and empowerment of the voices that found and ground this Constitution.
This, my friends, is the beginning of the end of free speech in Niagara County. Unless, of course, you refuse to let these thoughtless bureaucratic wannabees get away with this. Too often recently in Western NY we see officials censoring speech, shouting down citizens in town council meetings and the like. LCTV in fact should be expanding shows like Christy’s and opening our depressed and demoralized polity to new ideas, vigorous self-examination and expanded “mediation” of democratic relations.
We should at times like this throw a new light on the historical fact that so often in the past it has been the voice of the people such as Lois Gibbs, Erin Brokovich, Karen Silkwood and even now locally Louis Ricciuti exposing the reprehensible level of chemical and nuclear pollution in the dump sites of Western NY, who have moved government forward toward meaningful democratic action.
If the citizens of Niagara County do not wish to turn their communities over to the bureaucratic-technocratic managerial elite who wish to control thought and action and suppress democracy, then join this fight and demand the restoration of Legislative Journal and Tom Christy to the democratic airways of Western NY.
Call LCTV and demand your rights. Call the Lockport Council and Mayor’s office. Call Tom and offer ideas and support at 228-3367. Call Senator Maziarz and request his help. Support Dennis Virtuoso at the next County Legislative meeting in Lockport where he will submit a resolution to restore Legislative Journal. This can be the beginning of politics as it should be in Niagara County, a democratic community of “public scrutiny” and the express will of the people guiding and informing government.
He was also critical of the antiquated oversight by the State Liquor Authority of our local wine industry. He said they were clearly standing in the way of the Niagara wine industry prospering and being competitive with our Canadian neighbors. And rightly so.
The Senator emphasized that one thing that could help government and temper bureaucracy apparently in such situations was “public scrutiny” of bureaucratic activities. Truer words were never spoken. And rightly so.
However within his very own county recent harassment of Legislative Journal TV host Tom Christy by LCTV Board of Directors flagrantly flies in the face of the express wishes of our elected leadership. Stringent faux-regulations as to how Mr. Christy must “behave” during his show were imposed. This amounts to (1) an actual gag on free speech, (2) an attempt to control knowledge content by shackling free dialogue with artificial interview rules, and (3) an elitist limitation of guests to elected officials and denial of the host having any say in choosing guests, having an opinion or critically reflecting on the discussion.
Obviously these fraudulent “editorial rules” were a thinly disguised pretext to cloak their real purpose: to suppress speech, control the political content of governmental discourse and widen the gap between the "public sphere of free speech for the people" and the "institutional sphere as staging ground for governmental action, propaganda and control" of Niagara County. And to get rid of Christy.
Today Tom Christy’s program was canceled. Without explanation, excuse, reason or justification. Simply in either an arrogant display of administrative fiat or simply ignorance or indifference as to what serves the people, or possibly fear generated by well placed or powerful politicos, the program was just cancelled. Without discussion, due consideration of the consequences or consideration of Tom’s role in our community, by e-mail no less, brazenly canceled. Why? Possibly because there was a little too much “public scrutiny” for some who do not believe in the democratic process of inquiry, questioning, criticism, self-reflection, accountability and demand for meaningful action and change.
Ironically the very “public scrutiny” that Senator Maziarz calls for is being prevented in his own county. The very organ of public scrutiny is being “downsized” so to speak, contradictory to the very needs of the government and the polity as indicated by Senator Maziarz.
However not only was the ‘public scrutiny,’ that Legislative Journal enabled and facilitated when free and open media interaction was provided, denied without believable reason. But when questioned by Gloria Bryant, a Lockport citizen, as to the straitjacket placed on Christy and when asked to release their governing by-laws and articles of incorporation, LCTV Board of Directors refused to cooperate, denying her access to the information. If that is not enough, they arrogantly questioned her as to why she wished to exercise her right to know. Consider the audacity and elitism of such resistance to providing legally required public information. However this seems to be the modus operandi evolving at LCTV and possibly in Niagara County.
Tom Christy’s “Journal” is the liveliest, most spirited and interactive program of the people in our area. To have expected Tom to only speak to elected officials is an arbitrary but calculated attempt to control speech, information and knowledge. Legislators so used are reduced to mere mouthpieces which have no true voice without the constant and uncensored input of the people they represent.
Only when a polity begins to undergo a move toward such authoritarian-like rule do heinous actions like this take place. Surely Senator Maziarz did not call for “public scrutiny” merely to support his legislative efforts. Surely he recognizes that a republic which loses its democratic foundation is no longer a republic at all and fails to live up to its classical Liberal principle of limitation of government and empowerment of the voices that found and ground this Constitution.
This, my friends, is the beginning of the end of free speech in Niagara County. Unless, of course, you refuse to let these thoughtless bureaucratic wannabees get away with this. Too often recently in Western NY we see officials censoring speech, shouting down citizens in town council meetings and the like. LCTV in fact should be expanding shows like Christy’s and opening our depressed and demoralized polity to new ideas, vigorous self-examination and expanded “mediation” of democratic relations.
We should at times like this throw a new light on the historical fact that so often in the past it has been the voice of the people such as Lois Gibbs, Erin Brokovich, Karen Silkwood and even now locally Louis Ricciuti exposing the reprehensible level of chemical and nuclear pollution in the dump sites of Western NY, who have moved government forward toward meaningful democratic action.
If the citizens of Niagara County do not wish to turn their communities over to the bureaucratic-technocratic managerial elite who wish to control thought and action and suppress democracy, then join this fight and demand the restoration of Legislative Journal and Tom Christy to the democratic airways of Western NY.
Call LCTV and demand your rights. Call the Lockport Council and Mayor’s office. Call Tom and offer ideas and support at 228-3367. Call Senator Maziarz and request his help. Support Dennis Virtuoso at the next County Legislative meeting in Lockport where he will submit a resolution to restore Legislative Journal. This can be the beginning of politics as it should be in Niagara County, a democratic community of “public scrutiny” and the express will of the people guiding and informing government.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
OPEN LETTER TO GREG LEWIS AND CHA CONSULTANTS
I would like to see serious effort put into publicizing the Niagara Communities Comprehensive Plan(NCCP) meetings. The Clough, Harbor & Associates consultant, Walter Kalina, a highly paid “consultant,” who spoke at the first public meeting, appeared embarrassingly far less than enthusiastic about increasing publicity to get the people involved to participate let alone educating anyone as to how this process can or should work. Very little money, he indicated, would be put into publicity or education. Why? This is unacceptable if not outrageous to anyone, unless of course you are one who is passively, unconsciously sleepwalking your way through life while our government drifts dangerously away from its democratic moorings. Where was Greg Lewis at the first public meeting of the NCCP project??? Why were only 25 people there? We are planning a possible future and 25 people minus a County Manager and only one County Legislator in attendance, Jason Murgio.
This planning process can be a great thing. It could be in itself quite an educational experience in democracy. However it will take more than the appointed few, and the other usual suspects of local government, to turn out to plan a possible future for Niagara County. Those leading this planning process are morally obligated to take responsibility to publicize this project and educate the people regarding exactly what this planning project is all about, how it’s done and how people might participate. Or it’s business as usual. Insular! Hermetically sealed “government” behind the backs of the people. Business as usual!
The first public meeting two weeks ago at NCCC was negative, pessimistic and cynical. Twenty five people or so showed up. The attitude of virtual despair at that meeting can only be overcome if some effort and enthusiasm is shown on the part of our putative leadership and hired consultants to further involve, motivate and help our people to participate.
If this is going to be more than an insider governmental process, then representation needs to go far, far beyond the appointed representatives of the so-called stakeholders. Or it’s business as usual.
For the most part, I fear, the appointment of stakeholders is an inside job. I’m sure some will think the appointees are enough in number and qualitatively representative. I hope they are adequately representative of the people of Niagara County essentially and as a whole. I don’t believe that they are. Right now it appears as business as usual. Of course it does not appear this way to the insiders. But business as usual never appears as business as usual to the insiders. To them it’s just the way it is and just the way it has to be.
I asked one councilman from North Tonawanda, Kevin Brick, appearing on Tom Christy’s Legislative Journal on LCTV, about this project when I called in to the show. He knew very little about the NCCP planning project of a substantive nature, if anything at all. When I asked who the representative was from North Tonawanda, he didn’t know. How are the citizens supposed to know if the councilmen don’t know???
Did the Mayor of NT do a search for a good representative? Did he bother to consult or inform the people as to this process that “we” are involved in. Who knows? I heard nothing. Did he send out notice asking if anyone was interested in representing North Tonawanda? Not as far as I know. Is this government degenerated into bureaucracy at its worst?! Business as usual? I hope not. There is much reason to believe it is.
We must do more to encourage this democratic process. It could be amazing. Or it could be business as usual. Democracy, when nurtured at its source, must be nurtured at its “grass roots.” Think about that metaphor. The nutrients must come in through the roots, the people, all of the people. Democratic governmental process is “for” the people, but if not “by” them, then at best it’s just “about” them and not “of” them.
Wake up Niagara County! Your tax money, your representation and your governmental rights are being pissed away. This plutocratic oligarchy is pretending to be democratic but is nowhere within the most meager limits of democracy. The specialists, experts, managers, bureaucrats and patronage appointees are devolving toward a centralized administration of the few over the many. It is a “show” of the forms of democracy without the specifics and particulars of democracy’s substance. Business as usual? Not if you demand to be involved, accounted for and respected.
This planning process can be a great thing. It could be in itself quite an educational experience in democracy. However it will take more than the appointed few, and the other usual suspects of local government, to turn out to plan a possible future for Niagara County. Those leading this planning process are morally obligated to take responsibility to publicize this project and educate the people regarding exactly what this planning project is all about, how it’s done and how people might participate. Or it’s business as usual. Insular! Hermetically sealed “government” behind the backs of the people. Business as usual!
The first public meeting two weeks ago at NCCC was negative, pessimistic and cynical. Twenty five people or so showed up. The attitude of virtual despair at that meeting can only be overcome if some effort and enthusiasm is shown on the part of our putative leadership and hired consultants to further involve, motivate and help our people to participate.
If this is going to be more than an insider governmental process, then representation needs to go far, far beyond the appointed representatives of the so-called stakeholders. Or it’s business as usual.
For the most part, I fear, the appointment of stakeholders is an inside job. I’m sure some will think the appointees are enough in number and qualitatively representative. I hope they are adequately representative of the people of Niagara County essentially and as a whole. I don’t believe that they are. Right now it appears as business as usual. Of course it does not appear this way to the insiders. But business as usual never appears as business as usual to the insiders. To them it’s just the way it is and just the way it has to be.
I asked one councilman from North Tonawanda, Kevin Brick, appearing on Tom Christy’s Legislative Journal on LCTV, about this project when I called in to the show. He knew very little about the NCCP planning project of a substantive nature, if anything at all. When I asked who the representative was from North Tonawanda, he didn’t know. How are the citizens supposed to know if the councilmen don’t know???
Did the Mayor of NT do a search for a good representative? Did he bother to consult or inform the people as to this process that “we” are involved in. Who knows? I heard nothing. Did he send out notice asking if anyone was interested in representing North Tonawanda? Not as far as I know. Is this government degenerated into bureaucracy at its worst?! Business as usual? I hope not. There is much reason to believe it is.
We must do more to encourage this democratic process. It could be amazing. Or it could be business as usual. Democracy, when nurtured at its source, must be nurtured at its “grass roots.” Think about that metaphor. The nutrients must come in through the roots, the people, all of the people. Democratic governmental process is “for” the people, but if not “by” them, then at best it’s just “about” them and not “of” them.
Wake up Niagara County! Your tax money, your representation and your governmental rights are being pissed away. This plutocratic oligarchy is pretending to be democratic but is nowhere within the most meager limits of democracy. The specialists, experts, managers, bureaucrats and patronage appointees are devolving toward a centralized administration of the few over the many. It is a “show” of the forms of democracy without the specifics and particulars of democracy’s substance. Business as usual? Not if you demand to be involved, accounted for and respected.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
FIVE 800 LB GORILLAS LOOSE IN NIAGARA COUNTY
Whether the Niagara Communities Comprehensive Plan is too messy, too expensive or simply a way of legitimating a “comprehensive plan” whose recommendations have already been reached in some hidden agenda, the process should continue. Despite the naysayers who may obstruct, exploit or attempt to enervate the project, something quite good can come from this democratic process. Possibly the Republican juggernaut of Niagara County finds it potentially just a little too threatening to its local hegemony to allow such a potentially authentic democratic process to succeed. For the same reason it chooses to conjure up reasons to gag or eliminate Tom Christy on LCTV’s Legislative Journal, and prevent him from giving voice to others such as Louis Ricciuti who has tried to inform us about the extent of nuclear pollution in our backyards. (cf. “The Bomb that Fell on Niagara” in the Buffalo publication, ArtVoice.)
The Tonawanda News editors also jumped on the naysayers bandwagon regarding the county communities planning process, complaining that such a process should already have taken place. But it hasn’t. They want the citizens to hold their legislators feet to the fire if they voted for this project. But this seems to imply that they don’t get that this is more than a project for the legislators. This is about the people entering into the process. In fact is it not the case that it is so often the citizen seeing the problem and bringing it to the legislators, the courts or the press that can lead to real change. Witness Lois Gibbs, Erin Brockovich, Karen Silkwood and so many more citizens who must plead and fight for change while our local pusillanimous parliamentarism fails to produce.
Duvalle & Co at Tonawanda News conclude their editorial rallying the people to “take back control of their county” but fail to see that this project and process has the great potential to enable that to happen. Why quibble over the cost when the benefits could be so great. The Republican business crowd seems not to wince a bit when they throw money at our problems through the IDA’s PILOTs. Isn’t this just another form of ‘throwing money at the problem?’ The only solution some people seem to know is the mantra of cutting taxes. It seems this tax break theory should have long since been discredited. William Greider in Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of Democracy in America maintains that since the 1920’s, of all the tax breaks given the rich at the Federal level only one time did there result any appreciable increase in investment in American business and industry. I wonder where the money went? Switzerland, Monaco? Or, maybe instead wherever the desperate and starving will work for slave wages?
Despite the various voices who believe we shouldn’t need to spend thousands of dollars to get the municipalities to talk to one another, the fact is I don’t think we have yet proven ourselves really capable of it in a creative way. We need to use this process to educate us in democracy and do so by using the planning project’s real problems as the training ground. But simultaneously it will be the staging ground to demonstrate that democracy can solve real problems. And if networking does in fact begin and a dialogue is established, then possibly we can begin creating a communion of communities out of the municipalities. We might actually engender a participatory democracy. As has been pointed out elsewhere, the towns and villages may retain their identities or traditions, if you will, yet still find a way to cooperate to integrate and streamline administration, infrastructure and services. The by-product may be an education in democracy for us all not to mention potentially reducing costs. That is, the internal unity and relatedness may be the greatest outcome in the long run even if no recommendations are acted on immediately.
If the process of the project is sufficiently publicized and thus involves the communities in a shared narrative, it may well loosen up the power structure which seems to have a stranglehold on Niagara County. Why would one want to stop a process with such potential? Probably only to protect one’s power and network of patronage. If in fact the Republican power structure here is, as I’ve read in the Tonawanda News article recently by Jill Tierreri, so influential if not domineering, then it may itself be interested in this process given that it has gotten so little done for the county. Yes, a fair number of lucky followers are rewarded and some few others benefit but the county as a whole continues to sink, losing population and languishing in despair. Such power as we suffer here has not necessarily translated into creative productivity.
Given that we still suffer from water pollution, chemical pollution, the threat from the nuclear waste sites, a city at the falls that is largely an embarrassment and a highway that scars the rim of the gorge preventing us moving forward with consequential restoration of the natural ecology – the five 800 lb gorillas – one would think that the leadership might benevolently want to loosen the reins on power and empower the process in which creative thought and action can begin in good faith. Given that all we’ve really got is the natural aesthetic power of the Falls and Gorge to revive the area as the class act it could be, why should we not stop allowing ourselves to be the doormat for America while, contradictorily enough, presuming to be a world class tourist destination equally worth visiting? Is it that if we started making the kind of noise that might lead to a serious clean-up and restoration that the world would find out that Niagara is a hazard zone. Visit beautiful Niagara Falls and, oh by the way, bring your gas mask and Geiger counter with you. And don’t eat the fish you’ve caught in the river. Let’s leave the denial behind and finally pay the piper.
It seems that we should seriously now consider the recommendations of Niagara Heritage Partnership et.al. Their plan offers a coherent strategy consistent with a vision that is concrete and positive. It offers relatively immediate productive possibilities while generating open-ended future projects and possibilities. This plan renders visible the jewel in the crown that is Niagara. It could be the unifying moment of the County’s Comprehensive Communities Plan. It integrates business, ecology and education. What are we waiting for? Check out the proposal at www.nfwhc.org and sign the petition at www.niagaraheritage.org.
The Tonawanda News editors also jumped on the naysayers bandwagon regarding the county communities planning process, complaining that such a process should already have taken place. But it hasn’t. They want the citizens to hold their legislators feet to the fire if they voted for this project. But this seems to imply that they don’t get that this is more than a project for the legislators. This is about the people entering into the process. In fact is it not the case that it is so often the citizen seeing the problem and bringing it to the legislators, the courts or the press that can lead to real change. Witness Lois Gibbs, Erin Brockovich, Karen Silkwood and so many more citizens who must plead and fight for change while our local pusillanimous parliamentarism fails to produce.
Duvalle & Co at Tonawanda News conclude their editorial rallying the people to “take back control of their county” but fail to see that this project and process has the great potential to enable that to happen. Why quibble over the cost when the benefits could be so great. The Republican business crowd seems not to wince a bit when they throw money at our problems through the IDA’s PILOTs. Isn’t this just another form of ‘throwing money at the problem?’ The only solution some people seem to know is the mantra of cutting taxes. It seems this tax break theory should have long since been discredited. William Greider in Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of Democracy in America maintains that since the 1920’s, of all the tax breaks given the rich at the Federal level only one time did there result any appreciable increase in investment in American business and industry. I wonder where the money went? Switzerland, Monaco? Or, maybe instead wherever the desperate and starving will work for slave wages?
Despite the various voices who believe we shouldn’t need to spend thousands of dollars to get the municipalities to talk to one another, the fact is I don’t think we have yet proven ourselves really capable of it in a creative way. We need to use this process to educate us in democracy and do so by using the planning project’s real problems as the training ground. But simultaneously it will be the staging ground to demonstrate that democracy can solve real problems. And if networking does in fact begin and a dialogue is established, then possibly we can begin creating a communion of communities out of the municipalities. We might actually engender a participatory democracy. As has been pointed out elsewhere, the towns and villages may retain their identities or traditions, if you will, yet still find a way to cooperate to integrate and streamline administration, infrastructure and services. The by-product may be an education in democracy for us all not to mention potentially reducing costs. That is, the internal unity and relatedness may be the greatest outcome in the long run even if no recommendations are acted on immediately.
If the process of the project is sufficiently publicized and thus involves the communities in a shared narrative, it may well loosen up the power structure which seems to have a stranglehold on Niagara County. Why would one want to stop a process with such potential? Probably only to protect one’s power and network of patronage. If in fact the Republican power structure here is, as I’ve read in the Tonawanda News article recently by Jill Tierreri, so influential if not domineering, then it may itself be interested in this process given that it has gotten so little done for the county. Yes, a fair number of lucky followers are rewarded and some few others benefit but the county as a whole continues to sink, losing population and languishing in despair. Such power as we suffer here has not necessarily translated into creative productivity.
Given that we still suffer from water pollution, chemical pollution, the threat from the nuclear waste sites, a city at the falls that is largely an embarrassment and a highway that scars the rim of the gorge preventing us moving forward with consequential restoration of the natural ecology – the five 800 lb gorillas – one would think that the leadership might benevolently want to loosen the reins on power and empower the process in which creative thought and action can begin in good faith. Given that all we’ve really got is the natural aesthetic power of the Falls and Gorge to revive the area as the class act it could be, why should we not stop allowing ourselves to be the doormat for America while, contradictorily enough, presuming to be a world class tourist destination equally worth visiting? Is it that if we started making the kind of noise that might lead to a serious clean-up and restoration that the world would find out that Niagara is a hazard zone. Visit beautiful Niagara Falls and, oh by the way, bring your gas mask and Geiger counter with you. And don’t eat the fish you’ve caught in the river. Let’s leave the denial behind and finally pay the piper.
It seems that we should seriously now consider the recommendations of Niagara Heritage Partnership et.al. Their plan offers a coherent strategy consistent with a vision that is concrete and positive. It offers relatively immediate productive possibilities while generating open-ended future projects and possibilities. This plan renders visible the jewel in the crown that is Niagara. It could be the unifying moment of the County’s Comprehensive Communities Plan. It integrates business, ecology and education. What are we waiting for? Check out the proposal at www.nfwhc.org and sign the petition at www.niagaraheritage.org.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
NIAGARA COMMUNITIES COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
Have you heard of this plan? I’ll bet not. Actually it’s a year-long effort to create a plan, a County-wide brainstorming process to figure out what we need to do to improve life in Niagara County. More concretely, it's a series of meetings of representatives of supposedly all the "communities" and "stakeholders" in Niagara County. These representatives constitute the Steering Committee. There will also be 4 more open-to-all public meetings apparently of an informational nature but also open to comments and questions on the part of the public regarding the progress of the process.
It’s just getting under way although the representatives for the steering committee have already been chosen. I'm not sure how often they will meet. If you did hear of this project, I fear that it appeared as another HoHum technocratic endeavor that begins and ends with a lot of talk by business, managerial, and bureaucratic types but nothing happens.
That was the fear that a few people at the first public informational meeting expressed quite vociferously with sharp overtones of anger, cynicism and pessimism. Nevertheless, this project is a countywide comprehensive plan to serve as a concrete vision of our future that will include specific recommendations at its conclusion next Fall. New York State does not require this planning process but encourages it.
The meeting was held at NCCC last Wednesday, Feb. 27 in the Fine Arts Auditorium. There were roughly 25 people in attendance. If there are about 250,000 people in Niagara County that’s about 1 in every 10,000 people in attendance. There was a “stakeholders” meeting earlier in the day. I wasn’t invited. Were you?
I’ll take responsibility for not knowing anything about this until I saw it in the paper last week. But I suspect that even if I did know about it at the start, I still wouldn’t have been able to get myself invited. I jest of course. Why should I be invited? What “stake” do I have, mild-mannered insignificant philosophy professor that I am.
My point is that it seems the choice of stakeholders while based on a reasonable if not obvious criterion may still be suspect. But why should I be suspicious? After all the brochure says, “Each phase of the process relies on participation by the stakeholder communities and the public for its input.” Ok, fair enough. But in the first place, why distinguish ‘stakeholders’ from the ‘public’? Could that mean, pray tell, that there could be some citizens who aren’t stakeholders but still get to count as part of the “public?” But since the “public” isn’t a stakeholder, that means that they only get to participate in these “informational” meetings. They don’t really get to “plan.” Did anybody consider that with such a criterion, that the public itself is really at "stake?"
Does that mean that the stake-less public gets to be “informed” after the real decisions by the people that matter have already been made? Well, my fear is that the usual suspects or their spokespeople will be on the Steering Committee. Yes there will be some ordinary, average everyday citizens who will represent their communities, at least I hope. Nevertheless I seriously doubt that the representation will really be representative. And I doubt that the “public” will be represented. My last doubt is that the summing up of the whole process at the bitter end by those leading the process will resemble the data gathered.
I have many more doubts and questions. I hope you look into it. After all we’ve apparently spent a lot of taxpayers’ money on this little adventure. One attendee at the Public Meeting asked the speaker representing CLA, the consulting firm running the show, if it was true they were getting over $300,000 for this love fest. Walter Kalina, the consultant representing CLA, refused to answer.
I have my doubts but I am really not cynical. Possibly a skeptic and not really yet inspired. Yet it could be a great thing if it spurs public discourse and stirs a sense of community. Hopefully it will not continue in the spirit of the naysayers who set much of the tone of the first public meeting.
My lingering puzzlement is why I don’t hear about these things until after the players are picked. It reminds me of reading in the paper that Wal-Mart in NT was a “done deal” even before I knew the big-box monopoly was possibly setting up shop on the Boulevard. It reminds me also of reading in the paper that some other “consulting firm” had completed their plans to “improve” Gratwick Park before I even knew they were hired to do so. From what I read of their proposals my cat could have come up with something considerably more creative for much less than the $50,000 bucks I heard NT spent. Ok, ok maybe I’m just out of the loop. But will someone please tell me where/when the “loop” starts?
It’s just getting under way although the representatives for the steering committee have already been chosen. I'm not sure how often they will meet. If you did hear of this project, I fear that it appeared as another HoHum technocratic endeavor that begins and ends with a lot of talk by business, managerial, and bureaucratic types but nothing happens.
That was the fear that a few people at the first public informational meeting expressed quite vociferously with sharp overtones of anger, cynicism and pessimism. Nevertheless, this project is a countywide comprehensive plan to serve as a concrete vision of our future that will include specific recommendations at its conclusion next Fall. New York State does not require this planning process but encourages it.
The meeting was held at NCCC last Wednesday, Feb. 27 in the Fine Arts Auditorium. There were roughly 25 people in attendance. If there are about 250,000 people in Niagara County that’s about 1 in every 10,000 people in attendance. There was a “stakeholders” meeting earlier in the day. I wasn’t invited. Were you?
I’ll take responsibility for not knowing anything about this until I saw it in the paper last week. But I suspect that even if I did know about it at the start, I still wouldn’t have been able to get myself invited. I jest of course. Why should I be invited? What “stake” do I have, mild-mannered insignificant philosophy professor that I am.
My point is that it seems the choice of stakeholders while based on a reasonable if not obvious criterion may still be suspect. But why should I be suspicious? After all the brochure says, “Each phase of the process relies on participation by the stakeholder communities and the public for its input.” Ok, fair enough. But in the first place, why distinguish ‘stakeholders’ from the ‘public’? Could that mean, pray tell, that there could be some citizens who aren’t stakeholders but still get to count as part of the “public?” But since the “public” isn’t a stakeholder, that means that they only get to participate in these “informational” meetings. They don’t really get to “plan.” Did anybody consider that with such a criterion, that the public itself is really at "stake?"
Does that mean that the stake-less public gets to be “informed” after the real decisions by the people that matter have already been made? Well, my fear is that the usual suspects or their spokespeople will be on the Steering Committee. Yes there will be some ordinary, average everyday citizens who will represent their communities, at least I hope. Nevertheless I seriously doubt that the representation will really be representative. And I doubt that the “public” will be represented. My last doubt is that the summing up of the whole process at the bitter end by those leading the process will resemble the data gathered.
I have many more doubts and questions. I hope you look into it. After all we’ve apparently spent a lot of taxpayers’ money on this little adventure. One attendee at the Public Meeting asked the speaker representing CLA, the consulting firm running the show, if it was true they were getting over $300,000 for this love fest. Walter Kalina, the consultant representing CLA, refused to answer.
I have my doubts but I am really not cynical. Possibly a skeptic and not really yet inspired. Yet it could be a great thing if it spurs public discourse and stirs a sense of community. Hopefully it will not continue in the spirit of the naysayers who set much of the tone of the first public meeting.
My lingering puzzlement is why I don’t hear about these things until after the players are picked. It reminds me of reading in the paper that Wal-Mart in NT was a “done deal” even before I knew the big-box monopoly was possibly setting up shop on the Boulevard. It reminds me also of reading in the paper that some other “consulting firm” had completed their plans to “improve” Gratwick Park before I even knew they were hired to do so. From what I read of their proposals my cat could have come up with something considerably more creative for much less than the $50,000 bucks I heard NT spent. Ok, ok maybe I’m just out of the loop. But will someone please tell me where/when the “loop” starts?
Saturday, March 01, 2008
RESTORING THE POLITICAL TO POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
Certainly the practice of attempting to denigrate peoples’ character and show them in the worst conceivable light is clearly the lowest moral road in politics. Americans who understand our democracy are for the most part done with this. Surely we continue to see such practices of character assassination continuing. On the national scene, for instance, most recently Hillary Clinton in concert with shadowy figures on the lunatic red-neck fringe are doing their venal best to destroy Obama’s reputation. The Niagara Times blogger, “Hobbes,” is doing his best to disparage the person of LCTV Legislative Journal talk-show host Tom Christy. At the state level there were recent revelations regarding Karl Roves paying off a Republican lawyer to “find dirt” on a democract (imprisoned, former governor, Don Siegelman) running again for Governor in Georgia, in particular sexually compromising pictures which she never found. Nevertheless the Republican assassination machine eventually got the democratic candidate on trumped up bribery charges. And of course the sad and demoralizing list could go on of other heinous acts of corruption of the democratic and political process.
But America is waking up to the fact that destroying people struggling to practice democracy is really not politics at all. It is violent, elitist and arrogant actions of authoritarian types who prefer to achieve power through whatever force is necessary. But democracy is about creative ideas, rational persuasion and a competitive yet cooperative social self-determination of a people. To keep open this fragile space of freedom between people in the public sphere for the practice of such self-determination is to be political and to create a political space. One herein and hereby engages in debate, critical self-examination, reflective self-inquiry, sharing new ideas and suspending judgement long enough to allow oneself to listen to the voice of the other with whom we must engage and actually hear. That is, actually be affected. As the Old Testament says, “He who does not hear must suffer.”
But attempting to prevent the flourishing of an informed public by refusing to engage in democratic dialogue with respect to what one feels should not be discussed nor heard by others; by suppressing issues, information, questions and problems that people actually have, is to attempt to destroy the political content of discourse and discussion. By trying to control what is discussed by controlling who gets to talk and how it is talked about is to destroy democracy and the political sphere. Such attempts and efforts are usually on the part of people to whom, in order to stop open, public engagement and dialogue or debate, it must seem necessary if not actually more right, to assassinate character, control the media, dumb down education and dis-inform the public. The alternative would be to engage one’s adversary openly and honestly in the spirit of truth, listening to one’s fellow citizen with the respectful anticipation that someone else may really have something to teach us.
The local issue that Niagara County faces in the attempt of the LCTV board of directors using bureaucratic rules to silence Tom Christy is an example of the de-politicization of politics. Their reason for gagging Christy is to enable objective talk about Government to take place and prevent biased political talk from taking place. However what goes unseen in this repressive tactic of speech control is that the politics will still be there if they continue to have their heavy-handed way. Where is the political bias? It lay in the assumptions that the Board makes that allow them to distort to their seeming advantage bureaucratic rules that then construe suppressing speech as editorial privilege. So these days at LCTV the politics has already taken place before the show starts. It seems the Board is either consciously “playing politics” to achieve political advantage or possibly they are afraid as individuals or as a group to lose the favor of local politicians. And, by the way, these Government officials who are after the purging are going “only to talk about government” are politicians first and foremost. Those, like “Hobbes,” who believe that Government exists independently of “the political” or that the self-justification and vision of such officials are not political acts are suffering from double vision. To believe that the democratic struggle for political self-determination stops when a politician is elected as a Government official is naïve or simply lying.
So, such supposedly Governmental purists would rather take the politically self-destructive road of villifying individuals rather than the high road of building democratic communities of creative self-determination.
Political intelligence in its present state in Niagara County is inadequate. The communities are for the most part failing. Thousands of people have left the area over the past decade or so. To stop any speech is to curtail creative thinking even though it is in short supply and there is nothing we need more.
It is sad that “Hobbes” chooses virtual cyber-terrorist tactics hiding behind a blog non-identity and carrying out the dirty work of someone’s political agenda in the name of preserving the purity of Government discourse on the public air waves. We don’t know who you are. And you aren’t using bombs but to attempt to destroy the free political space of intellectual inquiry and discovery is a form of terroristic violence and tactically proto-fascist.
However when the freedom of the political space between people is suppressed and its pressing subject matter repressed, then the political emerges everywhere. If the space of Government is not permitted to express the tensions, oppositions, differences and possibilities of political existence, then the very forms of Government are subject to dissolution in the medium of “politics through other means,” namely war, violence, corruption and the forceful, manipulative misuse and destruction of speech, language, discourse and dialogue, not to mention mutual distrust, suspicion and cynicism.
On LCTV Legislative Journal is educational. It is not news or mere journalism. It is political discourse as it is mediated and constituted by the forms of institutions which are forms of political expression. To censor politics out of government discourse is to bureaucratize its very being or to strive to wrest from its democratic aspirations a fascist future. I’m not sure which is worse, maybe government conceived on a business and crisis management mode.
But America is waking up to the fact that destroying people struggling to practice democracy is really not politics at all. It is violent, elitist and arrogant actions of authoritarian types who prefer to achieve power through whatever force is necessary. But democracy is about creative ideas, rational persuasion and a competitive yet cooperative social self-determination of a people. To keep open this fragile space of freedom between people in the public sphere for the practice of such self-determination is to be political and to create a political space. One herein and hereby engages in debate, critical self-examination, reflective self-inquiry, sharing new ideas and suspending judgement long enough to allow oneself to listen to the voice of the other with whom we must engage and actually hear. That is, actually be affected. As the Old Testament says, “He who does not hear must suffer.”
But attempting to prevent the flourishing of an informed public by refusing to engage in democratic dialogue with respect to what one feels should not be discussed nor heard by others; by suppressing issues, information, questions and problems that people actually have, is to attempt to destroy the political content of discourse and discussion. By trying to control what is discussed by controlling who gets to talk and how it is talked about is to destroy democracy and the political sphere. Such attempts and efforts are usually on the part of people to whom, in order to stop open, public engagement and dialogue or debate, it must seem necessary if not actually more right, to assassinate character, control the media, dumb down education and dis-inform the public. The alternative would be to engage one’s adversary openly and honestly in the spirit of truth, listening to one’s fellow citizen with the respectful anticipation that someone else may really have something to teach us.
The local issue that Niagara County faces in the attempt of the LCTV board of directors using bureaucratic rules to silence Tom Christy is an example of the de-politicization of politics. Their reason for gagging Christy is to enable objective talk about Government to take place and prevent biased political talk from taking place. However what goes unseen in this repressive tactic of speech control is that the politics will still be there if they continue to have their heavy-handed way. Where is the political bias? It lay in the assumptions that the Board makes that allow them to distort to their seeming advantage bureaucratic rules that then construe suppressing speech as editorial privilege. So these days at LCTV the politics has already taken place before the show starts. It seems the Board is either consciously “playing politics” to achieve political advantage or possibly they are afraid as individuals or as a group to lose the favor of local politicians. And, by the way, these Government officials who are after the purging are going “only to talk about government” are politicians first and foremost. Those, like “Hobbes,” who believe that Government exists independently of “the political” or that the self-justification and vision of such officials are not political acts are suffering from double vision. To believe that the democratic struggle for political self-determination stops when a politician is elected as a Government official is naïve or simply lying.
So, such supposedly Governmental purists would rather take the politically self-destructive road of villifying individuals rather than the high road of building democratic communities of creative self-determination.
Political intelligence in its present state in Niagara County is inadequate. The communities are for the most part failing. Thousands of people have left the area over the past decade or so. To stop any speech is to curtail creative thinking even though it is in short supply and there is nothing we need more.
It is sad that “Hobbes” chooses virtual cyber-terrorist tactics hiding behind a blog non-identity and carrying out the dirty work of someone’s political agenda in the name of preserving the purity of Government discourse on the public air waves. We don’t know who you are. And you aren’t using bombs but to attempt to destroy the free political space of intellectual inquiry and discovery is a form of terroristic violence and tactically proto-fascist.
However when the freedom of the political space between people is suppressed and its pressing subject matter repressed, then the political emerges everywhere. If the space of Government is not permitted to express the tensions, oppositions, differences and possibilities of political existence, then the very forms of Government are subject to dissolution in the medium of “politics through other means,” namely war, violence, corruption and the forceful, manipulative misuse and destruction of speech, language, discourse and dialogue, not to mention mutual distrust, suspicion and cynicism.
On LCTV Legislative Journal is educational. It is not news or mere journalism. It is political discourse as it is mediated and constituted by the forms of institutions which are forms of political expression. To censor politics out of government discourse is to bureaucratize its very being or to strive to wrest from its democratic aspirations a fascist future. I’m not sure which is worse, maybe government conceived on a business and crisis management mode.
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