media-ocracy

media-ocracy This is a new blog run by Anthony DiMaggio, a political scientist (and friend of mine) who has a lot of very interesting things to say about politics and the media.

ALIEN TELLS LARRY KING TO LEAVE CNN | Weekly World News

ALIEN TELLS LARRY KING TO LEAVE CNN | Weekly World News
That's the only possible explanation.

Let record show: Blago an equal-opportunity disparager :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Gov. Blagojevich

Let record show: Blago an equal-opportunity disparager :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Gov. Blagojevich
$#*+%! | If you can't say something nice...
---------
When you string all these bon mots together like this, it is hilarious. Until you realize that he was elected Governor of Illinois, and then re-elected.

Price cuts mount as condos linger in Chicago - chicagotribune.com

Price cuts mount as condos linger in Chicago - chicagotribune.com
A trio of condo developments — one small, one medium and one large — announced price cuts recently as the market readjusts in a post-tax credit market and lenders show their nervousness about the summer selling season.

----------
I guess the realtors will tell us this means it's TIME TO BUY!

A taxing dilemma: Rising property taxes are strangling some homeowners, especially the elderly (With Video)

A taxing dilemma: Rising property taxes are strangling some homeowners, especially the elderly (With Video)

-----
Pennsylvania is noted for its multiplicity of townships, boroughs, counties and other local government units that along with school districts make for big property tax bills.

When those taxes go up, seniors on fixed incomes feel squeezed. This cohort along with apartment building owners allied in 1978 to pass California's historic Proposition 13 to limit property taxes. That tax revolt spread throughout the nation and is a key driver of local government privatization. Will the Keystone State be the next battleground?

Don’t Know Much About History?

There’s good news for American education. About three-quarters of residents — 74% — know the U.S. declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776. The bad news for the academic system — 26% do not.

------


Do you suppose Zogby polled the 26% who did not know when they conducted the CAI "Happiness" polls? Yes? No? What do you think?

Special districts also suffer from HOA-itis

It's understandable why residents want local control of fire protection, parks and water. Hundreds of special districts sprouted across California to provide such services.

But there's a disturbing downside to the proliferation of all these fiefdoms, particularly independent special districts that have their own elected boards and run their own affairs.

As the 2009-10 Sacramento County grand jury's final report laid out in excruciating detail, because so many operate outside the same kind of public scrutiny trained on city councils and county boards of supervisors, there's an appalling lack of financial transparency, accountability and oversight.

----------

Special districts have been suggested as public alternatives to private local HOA government. Unlike HOAs organized under state corporation codes, special districts are governmental entities authorized by state government codes. As this Sacramento Bee editorial points out, however, special districts often lack an open, responsible and accountable governance ethic and require better oversight. Notably, the editorial describes special districts as fiefdoms, a term often applied to HOAs.

This suggests that the smaller and more local a form of government, the more likely cult of personality instead of rule of law will be the predominating governing standard. Since they are small, they are more able to hide in the cracks and avoid the disinfecting sunlight of public and media scrutiny.

It's worth bearing in mind for those seeking an alternative to private local government. Ditto for those who contend smaller government is closer and thus more accountable to its constituents. In theory perhaps but not necessarily in practice.

Payback Time - Budget in the Red, Illinois Has Stopped Paying Bills - NYTimes.com

Payback Time - Budget in the Red, Illinois Has Stopped Paying Bills - NYTimes.com

For the last few years, California stood more or less unchallenged as a symbol of the fiscal collapse of states during the recession. Now Illinois has shouldered to the fore, as its dysfunctional political class refuses to pay the state’s bills and refuses to take the painful steps — cuts and tax increases — to close a deficit of at least $12 billion, equal to nearly half the state’s budget.

Then there is the spectacularly mismanaged pension system, which is at least 50 percent underfunded and, analysts warn, could push Illinois into insolvency if the economy fails to pick up.

----------------

And I sincerely believe that the Illinois "dysfunctional political class" will not do anything to pull the state out of its death spiral.

State and local gov't workers' job security fades

State and local gov't workers' job security fades

States and municipalities are facing gaping budget gaps. Many have responded by slashing services, raising taxes and, for the first time in decades, making deep job cuts.

And public employees should brace themselves: Some economists say the job cuts could worsen in the second half of the year.

Counting companies that work with state governments, a total of 900,000 jobs could be lost to states' budget shortfalls, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank in Washington.
-----
Certainly private local government -- mandatory membership property owner associations -- has been adversely affected by the economic downturn as chronicled in the many posts to this blog over the past couple of years. As Evan McKenzie pointed out On the Commons last weekend, precisely because it's private government, there's little publicly available data on associations that makes it difficult to quantify how the recession has affected them.

There's evidence that the economic downturn isn't affecting public and private local government evenly. Texas attorney David Kahne notes in an item I posted earlier this week that economic pain in Privatopia has translated into economic gain for association management and law firms foreclosing on association properties in arrears on HOA assessments. My guess is county tax collectors conducting tax sales to recover delinquent property taxes aren't making much if any money on these sales.

Local HOA's creative way to make money

Kara Kostanich
BOYNTON BEACH---A Boynton Beach Homeowners Association will soon be making money from a neighborhood foreclosed home.

President of Los Mangos Properties Owners Association Kathleen Dougherty said, "it will go back to the people and it will go back to the people and it will be spread throughout the community to pay our bills."
--------

What a concept! By the sounds of things HOAs can either fine people to balance their budgets or rent out foreclosed property and collect the rent.

Is it time to ask whether or not this idea of forced communal living is viable and worth preserving?

Genetic Secrets of Living to 100

A massive genetic study of people who lived for more than 100 years has found dozens of new clues to the biology of aging.

--“It shows that genetics plays an extremely important role at these extreme ages. And it begins to be a not-unsolvable puzzle,” said Boston University gerontologist Thomas Perls. “If we start looking at these genes and what they do, we better understand the biology of extreme longevity.”

--People who’ve reached that mark tend to have lives that are not only exceptionally long, but unusually healthly. Unlike most people, they rarely develop diseases of aging — such as heart disease, metabolic disease, cancer and dementia — until well into their 90s. They’re also more likely to bounce back from disease, rather than entering a spiral of declining health.
That manner of aging is a goal for most people, and a public health necessity. Modern medicine has had success in slowing individual aging diseases, but when one is postponed another soon emerges. Americans are living longer but not healthier.

--------

I wonder if the scientists will look into the effects of HOA living on longevity?

The big question, in my mind though is whether it is worth living to a ripe old age if it meant being stuck in an HOA ?

Public local government beats private local government -- but sometimes it's like an HOA

Grand Jury Blasts City Council

“Major changes” are needed to a South Lake Tahoe City Council that is constantly bickering, routinely drops controversial issues, and operates at a “barely functional level,” according to the 2009-2010 El Dorado County grand jury report.

— “Constant hostility and bickering among members of the City Council and their unprofessional conduct has resulted in a consistent 3/2 split vote creating two 'camps' of Council members. The voting often appears to be the result of Council members pursuing personal agendas rather than operating in the best interests of the City. The bickering and nitpicking between Council members during meetings, combined with hostile comments to media outlets and behind the scenes ‘back biting' has resulted in the failure to address routine and important business entrusted to the Council by the citizens of the City of South Lake Tahoe.

----
Private government such as employed by mandatory membership homeowner associations is a non sequitur. Americans see local government as a public function and expect it to be transparent and accountable. Privatizing government through nonprofit corporation law creates an inherent contradiction and uses the law in a setting in which it was never intended to operate.

Unlike private HOA government, public forms of local government have a well established governance culture and are generally served by experienced, well trained professional staff. By contrast, HOAs are governed by property owners who are typically reluctant volunteers who muddle along from year to year. Turnover is high among board members and contracted, part time professional advisors who may or may not place the HOA's best interests first. This governance gap, I believe, accounts for much of the dsyfunction and abuse of power in HOA governance at the same time HOAs have become deeply ingrained in the structure of local government as the owner of this blog has noted.

That said, public local government isn't perfect. Sometimes their elected bodies resemble amateurish HOA boards as this story out of South Lake Tahoe, Calif. illustrates. However, no grand juries investigate HOAs and issue recommendations on how they can improve such as is the case here.

Missing Links

Sorry folks, I thought I had provided a hyperlink in the titles to the articles I posted. Here they are:

William Gammon: Prosecutor's Not Happy The Accused Child Porn User's Out On Bond
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/06/gammon_child_porn.php

Group Hit In 'Hebrew Race' Discrimination Case
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/mostpopular/24094600/detail.html

Bushnell on the Park Condominium Association placed in receivership
http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news13775.html

Group Hit In 'Hebrew Race' Discrimination Case

A civil rights trial against a homeowner's association accused of discriminating against Jewish members has ended in a settlement that is believed to be the largest in Plymouth County history.

The jury awarded the Prescotts $600,000 for the violations of their civil rights and an additional $150,000 for nuisance. Together, with interest, the judgment is in excess of $1.2 million.
The jury awarded Scott J. Hyman $850,000 for the violations of his civil rights and an additional $100,000 for nuisance. Together, with interest, the judgment is in excess of $1.3 million.

In addition, within weeks of an association member's comments that "someone is going to burn him (Hyman) out," Hyman’s home in Middleboro, Mass., was torched and burned to the ground, according to Minchoff. There is an ongoing arson investigation.

------------

I am guessing Zogby never polled the Prescotts or Scott Hymen to find out if things were going well in their neighborhood and if they were happy with the HOA.

William Gammon: Prosecutor's Not Happy The Accused Child Porn User's Out On Bond

William Gammon, the attorney who's pushed for aggressive homeowners' associations in court and in the legislature, is out on bond on charges of possessing a pornography stash described by an investigator as "one of the largest collections of extremely young children he had ever seen."

According to the [ICE] special agent, Gammon's collection consisted primarily of young males and females under the age of 12, with many being infants 2 to 3 years old. The images and videos showed the young males and females, some as young as 3 months, being vaginally and anally penetrated, bound, gagged, and bleeding from their orifices. One particular image showed a 6 month old female on her back, with her hands and feet bound, a red gag in her mouth, her genitalia spread, and a message written across her abdomen saying "lick me here," with an arrow pointing to her genitalia.

--------------------------

Oh, how absolutely horrible. It is sickening, really sickening. How can people do that to children?

Bushnell on the Park Condominium Association placed in receivership

"It is the first time, to my knowledge, that a receiver has been appointed for a condo association in Connecticut," Starble said. "It is an extraordinary measure, but it was made necessary by extraordinary circumstances. My clients applaud the court's decision to provide an equitable temporary remedy for home owners who have been the victims of egregious breaches of fiduciary duty. As a result of the actions of Bushnell Regency, the Association finds itself in financial distress and with a building in disrepair. To be clear, this situation is not a result of the economy; it is a result of one company's actions."

------------------------

Protecting property values, I presume.

http://theweek.com/article/index/204550/the-illegals-russian-spies-living-in-america

It sounds like the plot of a Cold War thriller: Russian spies living in the suburbs, using invisible ink, code names and "dead drops." The FBI says it's been going on for years.
---
I wonder if this alleged plot of suburban Soviet-style espionage involved penetrating the HOA power apparatus to get a real insider view of how local government is increasingly organized in the U.S.A.

http://www.gpb.org/news/2010/06/29/not-so-neighborly-associations-foreclosing-on-homes

David Kahne, a Houston lawyer who advises homeowners, says that in Texas, the law is so weighted in favor of HOAs, he advises people that instead of hiring him, they should call their association and beg for mercy.

"I suggest you call the association and cry," he says.

If a homeowner misses a couple of association dues payments, the s250 or s500 they owe often becomes s3,000 after the association's lawyers add their legal fees, Kahne says.

It's not the HOA that has to pay the lawyer's bill but the delinquent homeowner. If the homeowner wishes to contest and loses, the owner is on the hook for legal fees that could run deep into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Kahne says that as the economy has gone under, HOA management companies and lawyers have been making millions off homeowners through this foreclosure process.

"We're having literally thousands of lawsuits filed over very small amounts of money," Kahne says. "And those very small amounts of money rapidly become large amounts of money when the association attorneys add their bills."

----
These are the worst of times and the best of times in Privatopia, USA. Texas attorney David Kahne reports as the HOA foreclosure machine grinds up delinquent homeowners and auctions off their properties for a relative pittance, the community association industry is enjoying a bonanza of legal and other fees. And as with mortgage lenders, homeowners in arrears can only beg for forbearance since they don't have the law on their side in most states that allow nonjudicial foreclosure by HOAs, Kahne notes.

Kagan Declines To Say Gov't Has No Power to Tell Americans What To Eat

Welcome guest blogger Fred Pilot

I am pleased to welcome Fred Pilot as co-guest blogger (with Shu Bartholomew) during my more-or-less absence for vacation. Fred has been sending me articles practically daily for years, and he is one of the most knowledgeable and perceptive people you can find anywhere on these issues. I am honored to have Fred on board.

Thanks, Fred and Shu!