Common Sense with Paul Jacob

Choices. Gotta love ’em. But they can be a kick in the pants, too.

A few weeks ago I chose to criticize Subway for a kids’ essay contest that didn’t allow homeschoolers to participate. And I pointed out two misspellings in its printed rules. And, wouldn’t you know it, my readers detected several typos in the email version of my rant.

Radio listeners missed out on this bit of hilarity.

Subway had spelled “United States” as “Untied States,” and added an extra “t” to another word. I had used the wrong kind of “bear,” and left out a “c” in another word. Once an email’s out, it’s out . . . but right away I made sure the website had it right.

Since Subway’s instructions were printed, they had a harder time of it. But they were quick to correct the chief error I had chastised them for: Not allowing homeschoolers to participate in their contest.

When Subway realized that customers were angry, the company did more than confess to the lapse. With remarkable speed, Subway found a way to allow homeschoolers to compete.

This was a far more important problem than any typo. My proofreaders may have fallen a bit short in the homonym department, and someone at Subway got his or her fingers tangled. But leaving a contest open to everyone is very, very basic.

Thankfully, unlike in government, such mistakes tend to get fixed fast in the private sector. Why? Customers can choose to go elsewhere, taking their money.

That’s the kick in the pants.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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.

It takes a network of restaurants to feed the Senate, badly.

In 44 years, the dining hall and mini-chain of cafeterias and coffee shops have been profitable only seven. This year the operation will run in the red to the tune of $2 million.

And come lunchtime, folks working in the Senate regularly run over to the House to eat. One critic says Senate victuals are “so bad that the . . . House ‘Taco Salad Wednesday’ trumps any type of entree they have to offer.”

In the House, though, the cafeterias have been privately run for decades. House staffers never flee to the Senate at lunchtime.

Solution? Privatize the Senate restaurants as well. Senator Dianne Feinstein just pushed through legislation to do that. She doesn’t think “taxpayers should be subsidizing something that doesn’t need to be.” She notes that current restaurant management never even bothers trying to break even, knowing their deficits will be covered.

Feinstein has opponents. Another Democrat, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, says it’s hypocritical for his colleagues to condemn privatization of workers generally, but then “privatize the workers here in the Senate and leave them out on their own.”

So, what should we do, Senator? Communize the whole economy so no responsible adult is ever “out on his own”?

Menendez is right about the contradiction, but not about how to resolve it. Amtrak? The post office? Both should be out on their own. Along with Senate food service.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.