Woodstock CT Café

from Frank Corden

Independent, Taxpayer, Con and all others who seem to be routinely participating in a number of thoughtful discussions, I’d like to tee one up that flows from Independent’s comment above regarding a few tough years ahead.

Clearly, we need to get our state and federal budgets under control. As we look at the approach of the Reagan Republicans (and as most recently championed by the Tea Party activist), abandoning regulation hasn’t served us very well. Their collective cry for “smaller government” is too simplistic. There appears to be this sense that by starving government for funds, government will get better.

Rather it seems that a cash poor government is generally headed to becoming a poor government. Case in point, starving the regulatory arms of the SEC, the bank regulators and the food safety inspectors hasn’t made us any richer or safer.

Organizational behavior virtually guarantees a poor outcome. When organizations are starved for resources, in the absence of VERY STRONG leadership, the organizations don’t try to limit what they do, but rather peanut-butter the resources across as many of their previous activities as possible. The result is that the organization tries to “do it all” but instead does it all poorly.

If we are going to reduce government spending and still have well run programs that protect the health and safety of our citizens and the financial future of our country, what we need to do is to settle on the appropriate priorities for government at each level, federal, state and local. Then be rigorous about holding to those priorities.

So, the question I pose for discussion is, “what are the appropriate rolls for the federal government” and “what should we shut down”. In each case of the do’s and don’ts, I like to discuss what rationale we would use to justify the recommendation.

from Frank Corden

So to the point, the only position you (WVG) have mentioned that I took that is contrary to your views has to do with Woodstock Academy. You stipulated to items, one that I supported the efforts of the BoE chair to propose legislation changing the statutory status of WA. The second is a general point regarding WA’s budget actions having a detrimental impact on the K-8 programs.

I was not involved or knowledgable of the chair’s action regarding meeting with State legislators. Further, I don’t recall Sherrie Vogt’s name ever being mentioned during the BoE meetings. With that said, I do believe that the governance of WA is structure in a manner that makes it unresponsive to the needs of Woodstock, the largest sending town. If a change in the statutory status or governance structure of WA is a means to that end, I certainly would seriously consider supporting it.

With respect to the second point, I do believe that the budgetary actions of Woodstock Academy have had detrimental impacts on the K-8 system. The education budget is of a fixed size as defined by the Board of Finance. When tuition for Woodstock students to attend Woodstock Academy increases substantially and those increases aren’t adequately addressed by the budget imposed by the Board of Finance, Woodstock Public Schools takes the hit.

In 4 of the 6 years I served this community on the Board of Education, unjustifiable increases in the WA budget directly resulted in cuts in staff and programs at Woodstock Elementary School and Woodstock Middle School. Read the rest of this entry »

from Independent

Once again, Anon makes an important point about the core workings of our economy. When I was in college, my professor took the class to Sturbridge Village to make this same point. Like the little town in Texas, it is a microcosm of the broader economy.

Economists call this concept the “Velocity” of the money supply - the speed at which money moves through the economy is as important as the total supply of money in the economy. So, “Moneterists” traditionally believed modulation of the cash supply is a sufficient tool to expand or contract growth in the economy, as needed, depending on its Velocity.

“Fiscalists” or “Keynesians” traditionally believed that it is the total amount of spending that matters, and that growth must be modulated through the expansion or contraction of government spending.

The “ISLM Framework” resolved this theoretical divide in the 1960’s, providing a hybrid theoretical framework that accommodates both concepts. This common ground was generally supported by both sides.

What changed beginning in the 1980’s was the rise of classical economists and their theory of pure free market principles to the securities markets; i.e., the belief that all security prices were by definition priced correctly in an open market. The theoretical work of these academics was picked up by key players in the capital markets and politicians and policymakers who favored government deregulation. This became the basis for deregulation of the financial markets and the failure to regulate new financial instruments like derivatives. Read the rest of this entry »

from John 

WVG, Your persistence in your last comment about having been here before jogged my memory. I like the way you make things up as you go along. It wasn’t four years ago as you suggested in one of your first comments (maybe just a smoke screen). It was more recently that you graced the Cafe with your presence and inimitable style (I hope I spelled that correctly ). Since you are using a pseudonym now, we will leave your identity at that. You were wrong on the four year span between your two strings of commentary; no, it was not before we came out of the closet; no, you did not use pseudonyms; no, you weren’t banned; no you are not a valley girl; and yes we put you in wackety rants  for two comments … and “biblion” and “gmx” are prevocative to say the least. As for use of Siberia or Wackity Rants, our friend Con has straighten me out about that practice. It was also interesting that Ernie came back to the Cafe when you did, but that may be just a coincidence. As I said earlier, you are very entertaining and we like to be entertained. Readers sometime forget but the Cafe never forgets.

During your last visit (a couple of years ago), I had the distinct feeling that you were on a mission on behalf of someone else more local or a particular group with a political agenda. As you are from another town, why would you lower yourself to unproductive activity like blogging in Woodstock. I sort of have the same feeling about your presence now. That’s okay though because we all have missions and/or agendas. The Cafe really runs on its own as it has since October 2005 so your contributions are welcomed within reason.

It’s been an education for me to read your commentary about election procedures. I haven’t the time to check anything you have said although you sound convincing. You are certainly in a position to speak with authority though. Maybe Bill will learn something during his tussle with you.

from Frank Corden

Sorry folks. I’ve been traveling over the last couple of weeks and consistent with company policy, won’t use my laptop for personal/political purposes.

Regardless, I didn’t realize a request for clarification would engender such a vitriolic debate.

This shouldn’t have been about me personally. I’m sorry it devolved to that. It’s about the actions and positions that politically active citizens take.

To go back to the original post, my question of WVG was what actions, activities or positions did Shultz et al take that benefited the schools (note I’ve seen none documented to date on the threads. If you have posted some my apologies, I could have missed a thread), and what actions/positions did I take that were detrimental (again, I’ve not seen any specifics).

WVG, any comment?

For the record my preference was to run again for the BoE slot. I did interview with the Woodstock RTC nominating committee. I did not have the support of the nominating committee and didn’t believe I had the time or resources to commit to a primary challenge.

So it was a personal decision.

from Woodstock Valley Girl

Subtitle: An Ode to ‘Bill’

Fact: Frank Corden never would have been endorsed by the Woodstock Republicans (and by “Woodstock Republicans” I mean, the nominating committee of the RTC, the entire RTC, and a caucus of all Republicans) for the Board of Education this year. He would have been nominated if he were to pull a primary petition, force and win a primary and win that primary BUT Bill, let’s come back to reality, the odds of Frank prevailing in a Republican primary this past September were slim to none, you know it and I know it and so does Frank.

Fact: There are three methods by which to endorse candidate for municipal office, I quoted the statute word for word and you sit there insisting I’m wrong and that I’m “taking things out of context.” “Petitioning” is NOT a method of “endorsement.” Bill, you are obviously too stupid to realize this. Petitioning is a method by which one gets their name on a primary ballot which then determines who gets NOMINATED. Bill, this is why I’ve been asking you to please explain to me the difference between “endorsement” and “nomination” and unfortunately your obstinate attitude and refusal to do so has resulted in you making a complete ass out of yourself because you’ve proven you don’t know the key difference between those terms as they relate to candidates on the ballot.

Fact: Delegates for district and state conventions are chosen IN ACCORDANCE WITH LOCAL PARTY RULES which varies from town to town, some do it by Town Committee and others by caucus. If you don’t believe me Bill, start looking in the legal notice section this month and you will see MANY towns posting legal notices for party caucuses that will be held to “endorse delegates for state and district conventions.” The window for towns to hold those caucuses this year is between March 23rd and March 30th and the legal notices need to be in at least five days before that. Tell ya what Bill, I’ll scan one and email it to the admin who will post it for all to see how wrong you are. Read the rest of this entry »

from Proud Liberal 

Brownie, Conservative judges are the ones who vindicate corporations over the working guy. Take the recent court ruling on corporate campaign contributions and of course, how can we forget eminent domain? Liberalism looks out for everyone equally and I see no harm in that. Everyone deserves a fair trial and are innocent before proven guilty. I wish the sanctimonious religious right acted in such a Christian fashion.

Woodstock Valley Girl, the reason our economy is in the tank is because of capitalistic greed, not jealous liberals. I could care less about the rich. I just want to live simply and peacefully in a country where the working class is treated fairly. Before you start stereotyping people you should do some volunteer work. There are a lot of very good decent people that are on welfare. Not everyone is as fortunate as you (nor as ignorant, thank god).

Mr. Wetzel, I don’t want anything from anybody else, but I am willing to contribute to the welfare of a society so that it remains civilized, it treats people fairly, and provides safety nets for people. It seems to me that you don’t care about any of these things. It seems to me like you would prefer to live in a stressed out dog-eat-dog world where the rich get richer by exploiting the rest of us while you rationalize this behavior by pretending that you are above it all. Well, someday you might not be. You should try doing some volunteer work and maybe you will see how the other half lives.

Bill Loftus (D) will oppose Mike Alberts (R) in the next election.

from Anonymous

It is a slow day in the East Texas town of Madisonville.  It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted.  Times are tough, everybody is in debt and everybody lives on credit.  

On this particular day a rich tourist from the East is driving through town.  

He enters the only hotel in the sleepy town and lays a hundred dollar bill on the desk, stating that he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.  As soon as the man walks up the stairs, the hotel proprietor takes the hundred dollar bill  and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.  

The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to pay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer then takes the $100 and heads off to pay  his debt to the supplier of feed and fuel.  The guy at the Farmer’s Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has lately had to offer her “services” on credit.  The hooker runs to the hotel and gives the $100 to the hotel proprietor to  pay for the rooms that she had rented when she brought clients to his establishment.   

The hotel proprietor then lays the $100 bill back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.  At that moment the traveler from the East walks back down the stairs after completing his inspection of the rooms.  He picks up the $100 bill and says that the rooms are not satisfactory. He  then pockets the money, walks out the door and leaves town. 

No one earned anything.  But the whole town is now out of debt, looking to the future with a lot of optimism.

from Ernest Wetzel

What ever liberal wrote this nonsense (below) must be smoking some good stuff. You’re revisionist history is incredible. Our country has been marching toward socialism/communism since the early 1900’s. The American public educated by our government schools has no basis of history, economics or common sense. They keep voting for liberals/progressives and when it comes time to pay for “services” of government they don’t want to pay taxes. So our government has resorted to borrowing to finance these communist programs and now the bill is coming due. There are plenty of fingerprints at the scene of this crime, you can blame Republicans or Democrats, take your pick. What is really wrong with America is her people. The public is uninformed, uneducated and doesn’t care what happens as long as they can live the good life on borrowed money. Our fiscal and monetary policy of the last 30 years is disgusting and mainly implemented by the Honorable Alan Greenspan. America is bankrupt financially and morally. We are in another Great Depression right now and the public is too stupid to realize it. They still believe, ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC etc. The TARP and Stimulus programs are just throwing gasoline on the fire. I love it when everybody says our great grandchilren will pay the bill.  How stupid are you? The bill is coming due now and over the next 10 years everyone is going to pay by living in poverty. The only consolation I have is that the Baby Boomers, the most undisciplined, immoral, fiscally irresponsible generation is going to get the brunt end of it. Couldn’t happen to a bigger group of idiots, morons I mean.