We won't have Chris Norby to kick lobbyist reform around anymore; Mike Schroeder experiencing painful power subluxations

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New law would shine light on OC lobbyists (OC Reg)

     “Money talks,” the grand jury said, “and the lobbying industry speaks with a large megaphone that drowns out the voices of the electorate.”
     Strong words! We told you yesterday that the Orange County Grand Jury slammed county government for failing to force lobbyists to disclose who hires them, how much they’re paid, and which officials they lobby. With an operating budget of more than $4.4 billion, Orange County is the largest local government entity in California without a program to monitor and report lobbying activities, the grand jury said in its ominously-titled report “Lobbying: The Shadow Government.”

     Evidently, state Senator Joe Dunn and others had urged the county to do something about lobbyists earlier in the year. But the Supes, especially Chris Norby (who is no longer on the board; he replaced Scandal Boy in the state Assembly in January), said nope. “I don’t favor regulation of free speech,” Norby said.

     Government reform advocate Shirley Grindle has said that lobbyists have long exerted unfair influence in Orange County, and for decades, she fought for change. There’s a tendency for supervisors to try to protect lobbyists’ income, Grindle said, because many of the lobbyists are former aides of the supervisors. Or former supervisors themselves.

Moderate Republicans get a big win in conservative Orange County (LA Times)

     The election victory of Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens is being viewed by some political watchers as something of an electoral sea change.. . .
     Fred Smoller, who directs a public administration program at Brandman/Chapman University, said Tuesday's election suggests that the county Republican Party's more moderate flank may be gaining power over a conservative cabal that has long enjoyed a chummy relationship with county leaders.
     "Sandra was not particularly loved by the Mike Schroeders and the traditional power brokers, and she was able to win,'' said Smoller, referring to the former president of the state Republican Party who was an advisor to Carona. "It's not so much a revolution from the bottom as a split within factions of the Republican Party."

     Is Smoller referring to Tea Partiers?  Some think those people shook things up Tuesday--e.g., in OC Republican Central Committee elections, where seventeen incumbents lost and were replaced by at least 10 Tea people.

     Earlier today, Vern Nelson of OJ Blog had this to say about the efficacy of the Tea Partiers and others who seek to overcome the "establishment":

     [C]ould [Hunt’s defeat] augur badly in November for candidates who try to get their votes by appealing to racial resentment?....
     That was a nice thought, but it may be more realistic to remind ourselves that Hunt was beat by an incumbent with strong establishment support, and mediocre establishment-supported incumbents triumphed all over the OC against principled opponents – John Williams, Tom Daly, Ken Calvert, and Gary Miller, just to name a few – this is still much more the rule than the exception.
     I think there are two lessons, one encouraging and one discouraging:
     • Anti-immigrant positions and rhetoric aren’t enough to win you an election even in these dark days (and that just happens to be all Allan Mansoor, for one, has!)
     • It’s as hard as ever to defeat an establishment incumbent, or to make any meaningful political change at all really. While our gun-nut Fringer friends were up in Fullerton waving Hunt signs on the freeway, we pro-democracy activists were Freeway Blogging on the 405 for Prop 15, and both of us failed dismally in our quixotic hopes for anti-establishment change. It is a Sisyphean slog. I’m saying, it’s HARRD WORK!

Only a third of the "online" institutions he’s taught for grant academic freedom

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Another Kind of Academic Career Path (Inside Higher Ed)

     Some people think they’re qualified to teach online courses because they know how to use e-mail, but there's a lot more instructors need to master to run a Web classroom, a longtime trainer of new instructors said Thursday in a presentation at the American Association of University Professors conference meeting here this week. ¶ “They don’t know how to use Word, they don’t know how to use Excel,” said Bob Barrett, a professor at the American Public University System who has trained online instructors at several institutions. “Statistics on a computer? ‘No, I’ve always done them on paper.' "
     As many brick-and-mortar colleges shed untenured teaching staff, and online programs – especially those run by for-profit institutions – continue to hire, teaching in a virtual setting is becoming the new reality for many more academics. Thursday's presentation was one of several on online education at this year's AAUP meeting.. . .
     Barrett acknowledged that some instructors are irritated by the regimentation, but audience members pushed harder. Protecting academic freedom is, after all, one of the AAUP’s core missions. “How do you observe academic freedom for someone who’s teaching online?” one woman asked.
     Barrett said that only a third of the online institutions he’s taught for grant instructors academic freedom. “The rest are, you go by the instruction modules that are given, do not deviate from them. They have people who will come in and look at what you’re doing, will look at what you’re introducing, will comment on things that are a little bit different.” A few attendees shook their head in dismay.

Gosh, I think I see the future, and it ain't good.

High-School Graduation Rates Dip Slightly for Second Straight Year

     An annual report, published today by Education Week and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, shows that high-school graduation rates dipped slightly for the Class of 2007. Only 68.8 percent of students who started as ninth graders in the 2003-4 academic year had graduated four years later, according to the report, "Diplomas Count 2010: Graduation by the Numbers -- Putting Data to Work for Student Success." That's down slightly from 69.2 percent for the previous high-school class and marks the second year of decline in the national graduation rate.

OK, this cannot be good!

Courage update

     Today, the OC Reg offered a Courage update.
     The lovely three-year-old German Shepherd is doing quite well.
     You'll recall that, in April, Courage was found starving and near death.
     The sweet-natured dog is now flourishing in a new home.

Speakin' of critters, Tammy Bruce had this on her blog today. It's pretty funny.

Funeral and memorial details

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     Earlier this afternoon, the Reg’s Martin Wisckol posted about Paul Wagner’s funeral.
    According to Wisckol, Don Wagner’s campaign manager, Scott Voigts, sent these details:

    “The public is welcome to all services.
    “The funeral for Paul will be at 11 am this Friday 6/11 at St. Thomas More, 51 Marketplace, Irvine (on Irvine Blvd across from Target);
    “Right after the funeral, he will be buried at the El Toro Memorial Park, 25751 Trabuco Road, Lake Forest, CA 92630-4348 (Irvine Blvd. becomes Trabuco; just past Lake Forest on the left). There will be a short graveside service.
    “The Memorial Celebration will be on Sunday June 13 at 11 am at the Irvine Valley College Performing Arts Center (reddish funny shaped building on the IVC campus at Jeffrey/Irvine Center).
    “The family is very grateful for all the prayers and support they have received.
    “Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to the Indiana Veteran’s Home, 3851 N. River Road, West Lafayette, Ind. Paul and a group of his Purdue friends spent countless hours putting together fundraiser’s to pay for a banquet at the home honoring the veterans, and was (like everything else he did) very passionate about it.”

"It's a wake up call"—with tea?

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     On the morning after Tuesday’s election, I noted that, by my count, seventeen incumbents of the OC Republican Central Committee had been replaced. That number seemed awfully high to me.
     So I contacted a friend who is familiar with party politics in Orange County. I asked: “I just got through posting about Padberg, Bryson, and Williams' fate re the Central Committee. I also noted that seventeen incumbents were sent packing. Is that unusual?”
     She wrote back: “Oh, yes, VERY unusual! The electeds and incumbent CC members generally get a free ride to re-election. This time, not so much. I think it's the anti-incumbent, tea-party attitude that drove them out.”
     That sounded right.
     Later, I wrote: “How come the tea party crowd wasn't more of a factor in the Sheriff's race? [The tea-averse Sheriff Hutchens trounced the Tea Party candidate.] I find this all very confusing. Cause and effect is always difficult [to understand], but in politics, sometimes it seems impossible.“
     She wrote back: “I think the tea partiers were very enthusiastic about Hunt. Both of them were quite excited.”
     Very funny. Later, she wrote: “I really think the tea partiers are over-rated and their numbers are seriously inflated. Look, you probably know some Republicans. Do any of them take the tea partiers seriously? I think most find them to be an embarrassment.”
     OK. But then I come across this piece in today’s Voice of OC by the estimable Norberto Santana, Jr.:

The Tea Party Gets Hardwired into Orange County GOP

     …"The asterisks were falling off the map," said the 46-year old [Mike Munzing] and newest member of Orange County's Republican Central Committee, referring to the mark used to identify incumbents on the list of candidates for the committee.
     By the end of the night there were noticeably fewer asterisks than there had been just hours before. The most apt symbol to replace the asterisks...a tea bag.
     Munzing was among at least 10 tea party activists elected to the central committee, based on ballots counted so far. While they still seem a long way from a takeover, the tea partiers will definitely make things more interesting on the committee.
     They were mixing things up even before Tuesday's primary by calling for forensic audits of the party's books, criticizing a new headquarters purchase and questioning establishment candidates like Congressman John Campbell for voting on things like cash for clunkers and the bailout. And in the process they've irritated some influential party regulars.. . .
     "We've become Democrats light," Munzing said of the Republican Party. "(President G.W.) Bush was big government.". . .
     "Who is a tea party person?" said Jon Fleischman, a vice chairman of the state Republican Party who also was elected to the OC Central Committee this week. "I consider myself to be a tea party person.". . .
     "I welcome them with open arms," he said.
     But he also noted a warning that many other party leaders echo. "The most important thing to remember is what's the purpose of a central committee?"
     For Fleischman, that's "driving an agenda and being the conscience of the party.". . .
     Other regulars predict that when these types of activists show up, they're always more interested in adopting meaningless resolutions rather than the hard, plodding work of political organizing. Many activists show up for a bit and then never return.
     Yet other committee members say the tea party folks are exactly what they have been waiting for.
     "I think it is maybe time for some change. Or at least a shakeup that modifies the approach," said Bruce Whitaker, who also was reelected this week to the central committee.
     "It's a wake up call."

     It could be that my friend is right, and, once again, reporters are making too much of what is really a minor and transient phenomenon.
     Hope so. A year or so ago, I started writing about what I thought might be the beginnings of the "Stupid People Movement" (The Worrisome Specter of a Million Yahoo March). So far, Stupids seem to be going strong.

Summer trivia, part 2

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An old joke:

Q: What do you call 100 lawyers at the bottom of the sea?
A: A good start.

     Last time, I noted that Mr. Tom Fuentes once appeared in an episode of A&E’s “Biography” series—namely, the episode about the life of actor Buddy Ebsen.
     I have no idea what Tom said, but I imagine it was something like this:

“When I travel across this great laaand and encounter the good citizens of this blessed county, I often come upon those fine and simple people who remind me of Buddy and the joy he brought them with his ‘Barnaby Jones’ character, and his abiding love of God. And country. And the Balboa Bay Club….”

     Today’s tidbit of ephemera is even less substantial, if that is possible. For I have come across a new book of articles, edited by Desna L. Wallin, Ed.D. that contains an essay by that esteemed “scholar,” Raghu P. Mathur, Ed.D., the Chancellor (for twenty more days) of the SOCCCD.
     The collection is called Leadership in an Era of Change: New Directions for Community Colleges. Even a cursory examination of the book’s contents immediately reveals that it is the sort of work that future generations will scrutinize and puzzle over. No doubt, they will regard it much as, say, contemporary scientists regard medieval alchemy.
     Only it will be far less interesting.

     (I cannot resist noting that the title of Wallin's book, and the title of each of its many chapters, and even the title of its freakin’ epilogue all share the same idiotic format:

Bu duh bu: vuh vuh vuh

     Can a group of intelligent beings arrive at such a practice? Would any set of beings with IQs above that of a pumpkin ever embrace the idiotic custom of entitling everything—EVERYTHING—with a verbal monstrosity comprising a phrase, a colon, and another phrase?
     Absolutely not.)

     Wallin, who works at a God-forsaken community college in a God-forsaken state, describes her book thus: “In unstable times, effective leaders must not only be able to cope with the environment, they must also be able to shape it. Leaders in today's community colleges must fit that mold. Change leadership can be said to embody four essential characteristics that might be called the four 'A's.'…."
     The four “A’s”? How clever! How heuristically adroit!
     But wait! Surely, one might suppose, nothing worth saying could be captured or communicated in four fucking A’s.
     One supposes correctly.

     Mathur’s name comes up in Chapter 3:

3. Dynamic Leadership Development in Community College Administration: Theories, Applications, and Implications
Matthew J. Basham, Raghu P. Mathur
   In a rapidly changing environment, leaders must create dynamic teams that stretch traditional job descriptions and develop the skills and talents of both leaders and managers.

—Do take it all in, dear reader. And now consider this brief list. It will be familiar to anyone who has ever spoken with a person who has recently achieved—via "distance learning," of course—an Ed.D.

Dynamic
Teams
Leadership/learners
Skills (skill sets)
education delivery
Data (data-driven)
Competencies

     Now, I know from personal experience that many proud owners of an Ed.D are not stupid. Still, I say, only utter fools organize their thoughts around a set of buzz words. These are the people in charge of education reform.

     Some days, I seem possessed by the spirit of the Tea Party. I am drawn to simplistic ideas and specious arguments. I am strangely attracted to torches and clubs and I feel a compulsion to join others like me and to march noisily in search of victims of my blind rage and ignorance.
     At such times, I cannot help but to allow some of my own thoughts to mix with my Tea Partyesque spirit. I picture institutions and “fields” that attract the mediocre and produce “scholars” who cannot write or think or explain (or even recognize) the scientific method but who nevertheless are put in charge of whole systems of education.
     I see them scribbling into the night, producing perverse twaddle about “student learning outcomes” and “the four A’s.”
     I just want to burn it all down.
     There. Much better.
     A good start.

Kids raised by lesbians, etc.

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• Georgia Colleges Told to Check Students' Citizenship (Inside Higher Ed)

     The Georgia Board of Regents has created a committee to come up with a way to have Georgia's public colleges check on the citizenship status of students, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported…..

• CSU trustees may raise student fees 10% (San Francisco Chronicle)

     California State University trustees may ignore a recommendation by their own staff to raise student fees by 5 percent next week, opting instead to boost the price by 10 percent, board Chairman Herb Carter told The Chronicle Wednesday….

• This morning, OC Reg’s “Watchdog” reporter, Teri Sforza, posts her second story about the OC grand jury’s report regarding lobbying of government: Officials spent $1.1 million lobbying other officials.

     When you consider that just about all of OC’s governments – 34 cities, and 28 school districts, and 31 special districts, and four community college districts – employ lobbyists, well, it’s clear we’re talking about millions upon millions of dollars spent just so one branch of government (that’s supposed to be working for We The People) can ask for something from another branch of government (that’s also supposed to be working for We The People).
     The part that irritated the grand jury is that while we can find out how much governments spend to lobby governments, we can’t find out what special interests spend to lobby OC....

• My Kid Raised by Lesbians is Smarter Than Your Kid Raised by Straights (OC Weekly)

     The longest-running study of same-sex couples concludes the children of lesbian parents outscore their peers socially and academically.
     Results of the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study leave no doubt as to the success of lesbian couples as parents, according to a University of California, San Francisco, researcher who has worked on the project since 1986.
     New Scientist has the scoop….

• Gay basher Alexandria Coronado losing to David L. Boyd (OJ Blog)

     It looks like gay-bashing O.C. Board of Education Trustee Alexandria Coronado is going to lose her seat to Taft University President David L. Boyd.
     So far, Coronado is behind by about a thousand votes.
     This is a stunning turn of events given that Coronado is an incumbent and she had the OC GOP machine behind her….