Author: Redactor

Experience counts.

For years I’ve been saying that a person can bring applicable experience to a new job, including a legislative job, and be effective right away. An accountant might get elected and still, as a freshman legislator, look at a state budget and say, “Uh, folks, the government is spending more than it takes in.”

Maybe even a pilot or belly dancer could figure that out.

Incumbent lawmakers also say experience is important. But they’ll add that the only way to get experience relevant to legislation is by accumulating years in a single seat of power. They explain that they can’t learn the job until they’ve been around eight, ten, twenty years or so.

Such confession of incompetence might seem, to most people, more an argument for resigning than for being awarded permanent tenure. Or an argument for term limits. But the self-​serving assertions of American incumbents now receive a powerful boost from overseas. From Cuba. From a son of the sainted communist soldier and mass murderer Che Guevera, head of the revolution.

Seems Camilo Guevera has endorsed Raul Castro’s ascendancy to the presidency of Cuba. Fidel, dictator for decades, has been ill. Earlier this year his brother Raul, one of Fidel’s most important flunkies for almost 50 years, took over. Camilo says “it would stupid not to take advantage of all that experience.”

Hey, that’s just what our “experienced” politicians say! Maybe we can send them to help Raul?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Millionaire entrepreneur Norman Braman, an auto dealer, may not be going as far as I’d like in his campaign against a proposed Miami baseball stadium. But so far as he goes, I’m with him all the way.

My question is — Why should any government entity ever be spending taxpayer money on stadiums? There are tickets and promotions and things that raise mucho dinero for franchises. Top players scoop up millions in salary. If big-​time sports are not financially viable operations, what could be? And if sometimes owners lack as much money as they might like to spend on a stadium, why should a taxpayer who never watches a game have to pay for it?

Miami-​Dade intends to fork over $347 million of taxpayer money plus a $35 million loan. All with no public hearings, no open discussion. No public vote on whether taxpayer money should be splurged on this. Zero due diligence.

So Mr. Braman is suing to expose the shabby politics surrounding the project.

Braman hopes to compel the city to function more responsibly. The evidence so far shows officials have been lazy at best. In one deposition, Miami-​Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez admitted that he had never even seen a financial statement of the Florida Marlins. He never even requested a financial statement.

That’s strike number one. Let’s hope Braman pitches a perfect game.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

We could use a few million-​dollar ideas to help fight juvenile crime.

How about a half-​million-​dollar idea?

The Justice Department gave $500,000 to the World Golf Foundation. The foundation’s beneficiary program is called  “First Tee.” It’s designed to get youngsters interested in that most civilized of sporting passions, golf.

Employees in the Justice Department had rated the program way down on their list. But the administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, J. Robert Flores, awarded the money anyway, ignoring programs that employees had ranked as much more effective.

“We need something really attractive to engage the gangs and the street kids, golf is the hook,” said the questionable administrator in question.

Yeah, right. Remember the midnight basketball leagues, supported as a brainy idea by Bill Clinton? Well, at least lots of inner city kids like basketball. Golf seems something of a stretch.

ABC News interviewed a former Justice Department employee for Nightline. Obviously disgruntled, the ex-​employee called the program a  “waste.”

It turns out that President Bush is the honorary chairman of First Tee. The clear implication? That’s why this golf gig got money while many obviously more practical programs were left unfunded.

Chalk it up to pork envy. Congress can’t have all the insider payola for itself.

Did somebody just yell  “Fore!”? Well, it’s not  “for(e) the children.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.