There was an interesting letter to the editor in the February 2008 issue of REASON magazine in response to an earlier article about prohibition (and its subsequent failure). Donald Boudreaux, Chairman of the Economics program at George Mason University, wrote that while the decision to ban alcohol in 1919 was partly driven by greater wartime centralization of power in Washington and hostility to the Irish and Italians, the main spark was the national income tax.

Prior to the 1914 creation of a national income tax, taxing alcohol was second only to taxing imports as a source of federal revenue. During World War I, the income tax was a huge cash cow, and thus by 1919 the liquor tax revenues were only a tiny portion of the budget and thus the government could accomodate the demands of the prohibition crowd.

By 1933, the Depression had caused income tax levels to fall by more than 60 percent from their 1930 level. So the government ended Prohibition so that they could once again tax alcohol.

It’s an interesting idea. With the upcoming US budget crisis that will get progressively worse, I wonder if there will be a decision to legalize marijuana and tax it. If the public opinion swings to support oil drilling off the coasts given $5/gal gas, I wonder if public opinion will do the same with marijuana, especially it the taxes would alleviate cuts in programs or the need for higher taxes.
It probably will depend on whether the public opinion is changed enough to take on the entrenched interests that profit from the current situation.

Got some pictures of Beijing Olympic Garden via email. So I looked around on web and found a website that has them. (There a lot of sites that show these pics). Pretty cool stuff.

Olympic Gardens

Well, it seems that San Francisco and Oakland are engaged in a competition for the “what on earth could they be thinking?” award. Here’s what is news lately:

SAN FRANCISCO:
Juvenile probation officers, citing the city’s immigrant sanctuary status, are apparently protecting Hondurans caught dealing drugs. And it gets worse. One of the origins of the problem is a 1989 city law defining SF as a sanctuary city for immigrnats, which apparently either prevents or discourages city officials from cooperating with the federal immigration authorities. I assume the “good” intent of the law was to protect illegal immigrants from being deported unjustly. There are some that argue that you need something like this, otherwise illegal immigrants will be reluctant to go to the police to report crime, be reluctant to help the city or follow any laws, etc. I don’t know if I completely agree, but I do acknowledge there is something to be said for that. There also have been cases where people have been deported, but then face persecution, arrest and abuse in their home country upon their return.

I assume that whomever drafted the law did not exclude cases where the illegal immigrants have been arrested for a crime. If you want to protect someone who’s honest and doing the right thing (although here illegally), that’s one thing. But I can’t think of any reason to protect someone that is arrested for a crime.

So what apparently is happening is that Honduran youths have been brought to the US, or have come on their own. In SF, they have been found selling crack cocaine in the city. Upon arrest, they claim to be under age 18, and have other Hondurans who claim to be their relatives. So the juvenile authorities have handled the cases in juvenile court, which is shielded from public view, and apparently the federal government’s view. Since they can’t send the violators to the California Youth Authority (by law), they have in a number of cases bought airline tickets to send the violators home to the Honduras. A juvenile officer accompanies them to Houston to make sure they get on the plane out of the US. This allows the violators to re-enter the US in the future, whereas if they were deported, federal law prohibits them from coming back.

It’s an amazing waste of taxpayer money for the officials’ time and the plane tickets. Just unbelievable.

OAKLAND:
Not to be outdone, the city of Oakland boasts a city manager that tips off relatives in gangs about police investigations, and keeps her job as well. At least so far.

It started out almost two weeks ago, when Oakland police, with state and federal assistance, arrested 56 suspected gang members. Among them was William Lovan, who is a nephew of Deborah Edgerly, the Oakland City Administrator. A few days after the busts, the story came out about her involvement in the case. On June 7, her nephew was being questioned by police outside a West Oakland liquor store. He told police he had locked his keys in inside the minivan that was running, and there was a gun inside. Apparently he or someone called Edgerly, because she showed up and began demanding to know why the van was being towed. Unhappy with the response, she called the assistant chief of police to complain, and was told that it was part of the bigger investigation.

Well wouldn’t you know it, she then calls her nephew later on, tells him the police are investigating him and his associates. So Lovan calls the gang leader and tells him that he has word “from the top” that the police are closing in.

Edgerly started with the city in 1987 and was one of the main city players the last couple of years. She was able to get the Police Department to change their training requirements to help her daughter try to become an police officer. So far the daughter is unsuccessful, after failing three times at the academy, although she continues to work at the police department as a civilian employee. It’s a little bizarre that she’d push for her family to be police yet sabotage the police elsewhere.

Edgerly and Assistant City Administrator Cheryl Thompson showed up two years ago and made threats when police arrested Thompson’s son for disorderly conduct outside a bar. The son was a city employee, continuing a tradition of nepotism. There are nearly a dozen relatives of Thompson and Edgerly that work in the city’s finance and management division. That fact along should set off alarm bells at the city.

Last year, Edgerly overturned Police Department officials who had recommended dismissing Debra Taylor-Johnson, who had vouched for a recent hire. The problem was that employee she vouched for was hired under an alias and had arrest warrants out for identity theft and welfare fraud.

In another case of poor hiring, police last year found out that the mother of the leader of the gang they targeted this month was actually working as a civilian employee in the police personnel record area.

Once the Edgerly storm broke a week or so, our illustrious Oakland mayor Ron Dellums did what he is best at doing. He sat and basically did nothing. Dellums, who was elected mainly because we was famous as an ex Congressman and was black, has been pretty much a resounding failure as a mayor. After a week’s inaction, he first had a press conference with Edgerly where he answered no questions but stated that Edgerly would remain as Administrator through July before retiring. He finally moved Friday to suspend Edgerly, only because of the intense public reaction and press coverage. It remains to be seen if she’ll be able to walk away into retirement with her $150,000 a year pension. Unless Oakland officials develop some backbone, I wouldn’t be surprised if she does.

Link below is to one of Chip Johnson’s stories. He is one of the reporters that broke the story:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/24/BAV811DSGR.DTL&hw=Chip+Johnson&sn=004&sc=538

On May 14, another Mexican died.

In Sacramento, the state Capitol, life continued on. What’s another Mexican, after all?

Her name was Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, a 17 year old illegal. She had come north with her fiancee, 19 year old Florentino Bautista, and found work in a vineyard in near Lodi. On May 14, she was working a 9.5 hour shift for $8 per hour. After hours of working in 100 degree heat, she fainted in Florentino’s arms. Bautista later said, “I was just holding her in my arms. She looked like she was in pain, and she wasn’t reacting to anything. I told her to be strong and that I was with her. I thought maybe she could hear me.”

After she fainted, the foreman recommended she rest in a hot van and be revived with rubbing alcohol before he could take her to a Lodi medical clinic, almost two hours later. She never regained consciousness.

In the past, if you’d driven by many of the agricultural fields in California (& most other states), you’d see workers toiling in the fields, often without any toilets in sight. It wasn’t until 2005 that California implemented emergency regulations that required farms and contractors to provide workers water, allow regular shade breaks, and have an emergency plan in place to help those suffering from heat exhaustion. None of the other 49 states have a heat illness standard. That it took until 2005 to require decent working conditions is a shame, and shows you how money and special interests have trumped common decency in the state Capitol.

Since 2005, there have STILL been over 23 suspected heat-related fatalities. Maria’s employer, Merced Farm Labor, was issued three citations in 2006 for exposing workers to heatstroke, failing to train workers on heat stress prevention, and not installing toilets at the work site. Merced Farm Labor was fined $2,250 in 2006 but has never paid. The state, meanwhile, has let Merced Farm Labor continue to operate despite the failure to pay. The fines are little more than a slap on the hand, and the underlying message is apparently “Don’t worry about it”.

The farms share complicity in this, as they have mostly gone to a system where farms contract with labor contractors for work. The labor contractors are the ones that turn the other cheek when the workers are illegal, and fail to take proper care of the workers. The farms then can plead, “It wasn’t me” when problems occur.

Since Maria’s death, foremen at the vineyard have put water jugs throughout the vineyard. But they are still not providing any shade.

In Sacramento, the Republicans still talk about family values and the Democrats still talk about standing up for the workers.
While the suits talk, the field workers still toil in the heat. You’ll notice that the California Department of Agriculture was up in arms over the supposed threat from the light brown apple moth, but has showed little or no reaction to bodies in the field.

Oh well, I guess it’s no big deal, who cares if another Mexican dies......right?

I was reading an interesting article in the June issue of Spirit magazine (Southwest Airlines) that talked about Wannado City in Florida. In contrast to the Disney, Universal, etc parks there, the Wannado is focused on being a park where there are no thrill rides or water parks. Instead, kids 4 to 12 get to try their hand at any one of 100 professions. This includes firefighter, policeman, detective, banker, doctor, dentist, archaeologist, baker, TV reporter, pilot, grocery clerk, actor, artist, singer, cameraman, nurse, etc. They get currency known as “Wongas” when they enter, and they “work” at various jobs to earn more Wongas to spend on events at the park.

It’s a fascinating idea, and one I think generally worthwhile. I’m putting a few links below to articles about this place.

WannadoCity

WannadoCityNewsVideo