We'll "prosper through doors"—and experience the Fall of Peevitude

Big things are happening in the world of community colleges, I guess.

On Tuesday, Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur spammed the district community (SOCCCD) about President Obama’s “significant announcement” concerning community colleges. Attached were emails, including one from California cc hotshot Scott Lay. Lay laid out Obama’s initiative, which is “aimed at increasing the number of degree and certificate attainees in community colleges by 5 million over the next ten years.”

In an attached Washington Post article, White House officials identify the “heart of the program” as

grants, which will require colleges to compete by designing innovative new programs or revamping their existing curricula. The grants are similar to the "Race to the Top" funding that Education Secretary Arne Duncan has proposed for the K-12 school systems. ¶ "We're going to take a careful look at how well these things work, and only the ones that demonstrate results will receive continued funding," said James Kvaal, a special assistant to the president for economic policy.

The Lay Man couldn’t help but note the cacophony against which this chirpy tune is being played:

Nevertheless, the new federal funds won't be arriving at community colleges in time to save the 250,000 students expected to be pushed out or to stall the deep cuts to student service programs for our most vulnerable students.

Yeah, Mr. Buzzkill, things seriously suck.

On Tuesday, the OC Reg was on the case, reporting that

Orange County community colleges applauded President Obama's pledge today of a $12 billion infusion for job training and other programs even as they acknowledged the struggle they face in balancing budgets in a tight economy.

Some familiar names appeared in that piece. Former Saddleback College President—and current NOCCCD chancellor—Ned Doffoney was quoted as saying that “This landmark initiative will show Americans new ways to re-invent and prosper through the doors of our community colleges. We welcome the possibilities.”

Re-inventing (and prospering) through doors? I like Ned, but he really oughta consult the metaphor mechanics over in the English department before taking his slogans on the road.

The Reg notes that OC community colleges seem particularly dedicated to developing “job skills” programs. That’s where our own Chancellor, a staunch Republican, chimed in:

South Orange County Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur, a former chemistry professor, said career tech is central to the mission of community colleges, and the more funds available to those programs across the nation, the better. ¶ “Only then can we remain competitive,” said Mathur, who helps lead several county efforts on technical education.

Yeah. He’s a leader. And a former chemistry professor. And one of the biggest assholes on the planet.

The Reg describes draconian belt-tightening efforts in local districts. But efforts in the SOCCD aren’t as severe:

Mathur said South Orange County expects to weather the 2009-10 cuts with a combination of spending reductions and a cap on the number of class sections, even as it continues to build its reserves.

This summer, deans have been scrambling to make all of this work for the Fall. And the Spring. (The future: watch some instructors take heat for loading too many students into their already over-loaded classes. Watch students grumble and snipe about not getting into classes. In general, welcome the Fall of Peevitude.)

SOCCCD EXCEPTIONALISM:

As you know, the SOCCCD is not in the same fix as most other cc districts, owing to its “basic aid” gravy train. We’re sitting on shitloads of moola, but, if you think about it, that’s doesn’t mean we should accommodate the thousands of students turned away from UCI, the CSUs, and local community colleges. Everybody hates us because of those basic aid bucks, and it’s just a matter of time before they find a way to screw our pooch. (Plus, potentially, basic aid bucks can undergo significant reduction.) We need to prepare for these possibilities.

Suddenly taking on lots of new students might put us in a real spot, fiscally, when things change down the line. We don’t seem to be doing that.

Some (indeed, many) would look upon SOCCCD Pooch Screwery with glee. Heck, watching us crash and burn and squeal might be enough to kick-start positivity (not to mention “re-invention”) throughout the state. Could be.

Let’s hope Mathur and the trustees know what they’re doing. I guess they do.

It’s a good thing reality isn’t an Ancient Greek play. Otherwise, we’d marry our mother, kill our father, quit our job, and get caught in Argentina with some babe. We’d spend eternity as one of those Geiko eyeballs, blinking at money we ain't got.

Ouch

OC Weekly’s Matt Coker (FORCED VACATION VOTE FOR UC IRVINE FACULTY, STAFF IS TODAY) reports that “the University of California Board of Regents is poised today to force furloughs on more than 108,000 members of the UC faculty and staff, including those at UC Irvine”:

University employees would be required to take anywhere from 11 to 26 furlough days under the plan…. More furlough days and steeper pay cuts would be mandated on higher earners, reports the UC. The full board's vote on the plan is expected at 11 a.m. today….

See also UC regent panel backs budget-cutting plan (SacBee)

There must be limits to moral generosity

• CSU FEE HIKES

Gary Robbins at the Reg’s College Life blog informs us that CSU student fees are liable to go up again:

Barely two months after it increased students fees by 10 percent, the California State University system is considering raising fees by about 20 percent to help California balance a budget deficit projected at $26 billion.
…
May’s 10 percent increase raised fees for full-time undergraduates by about $306. The roughly 20 percent increase would add another $672 to student bills, says Claudia Keith, a spokeswoman for the CSU, which has about 450,000 students. The university system says a full-time undergrad would pay about $4,962 — or more than $1,200 than a year ago — if the second fee increase is imposed.
…
The CSU must save $584 million for the 2009-10 academic year. The new fees will cover part of it. But the system is in the process of arranging to have all of its employees take two unpaid furlough days per month to save millions more….

• OLBERMANN PUTS DRAKE ON SHIT LIST:

Local pastor Wiley Drake named 'World's Worst Person' (OC Register)

...Southern Baptist Pastor Wiley Drake is certainly one of Buena Park's most famous denizens.

Cable channel MSNBC host Keith Olbermann gave Drake more exposure this week when he named Drake the "World's Worst Person." In video aired on the station on Monday, Olbermann's cited Drake's admission that he prays for the death of President Barack Obama as his basis for the selection.
…
Drake, who had not heard about the broadcast before phone calls from reporters, laughed when he heard about the "honor." ¶ "At least I'm No. 1. He could've hurt my feelings and made me No. 3.," Drake said.

According to the Reg, Drake says that it is his duty to make these dark prayers, cuz Psalm 109 “asks for punishment for evildoers.”

• WHAT THE PSALM SAYS. Here’s the King James Bible version of Psalm 109 [edited for length]:

Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;
For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful … they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.
…
Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.
When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.
Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.
Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.
…
Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them that speak evil against my soul.
…
For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
…
Help me, O Lord my God: O save me according to thy mercy:
That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, Lord, hast done it.
…
Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.
I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.
For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.

• THE PSALMIST'S "IMMORALITY"

Now, I’m not one of those people who thinks that humans have an innate sense of justice or morality that is true and correct. Such people (some of them anyway) will no doubt condemn the writer of this Psalm for his violations of the True Innate Morality.

I have no interest in condemning our psalmist. No doubt, in offering this psalm, he does not violate his world's morality, which, of course, is not mine. Nor is it yours. Nor is it Drake’s, I hope.

For that morality is repellant to us. The psalmist asks the Lord to torment, not just his enemy, but the wife and children of his enemy. For instance, he asks the Lord to arrange for these children to become beggars. He asks that the Lord show no mercy toward them.

Admirable, eh?

Our psalmist seems to be asking that God grant what nowadays is called a revenge fantasy. This particular fantasy goes beyond the torment of the psalmist’s enemy, for he asks that the torment of his enemy by understood by all as the Lord’s work.

Excellent fellow!

I especially like the last part. The psalmist seems to be saying: “Lord, do this thing for me and I’ll praise you bigtime.”

If we were to view our lives and values carefully and systematically, I do think that we would identify a (more or less) shared morality. Owing to historical accident, it is, of course, a kind of Judeo-Christian morality that reflects our time and place. It is a shared set of values and ideals that yields such phenomena as my admiring the honesty and integrity of my former father-in-law, Floyd. He is a Montana cattle rancher who is also a Christian and a staunch Republican.

Despite our obvious differences, I can do no other than to regard this fellow as a good and admirable man.

According to our shared morality (yes, dear reader, I'm referring to you and me and the morality we share), it is unseemly to seek an enemy's revenge, and it is especially discreditable to desire or seek the misfortune of his or her loved ones and descendents (and ancestors!).

Further, according to that morality, it is wrong to attempt to bribe a moral superior (e.g., one’s beloved wise grandmother or, say, the Lord).

And surely, among such moralists, it would be strange to suppose that our moral superior would be motivated to assist someone by the prospect of public praise!

Hey, I've been around. So I say this: I would not be surprised if, owing to some odd circumstance, I might encounter Mr. Drake (a few occasional conversations at the Buena Park IHOP) and this would yield a complex admiration of him, too. For it is at least conceivable to me that in much of his life, he is like my former father-in-law: good, honest, just, etc.

But then there’s his church and all that noise about praying for the President’s death.

There must be limits to moral generosity.

Sorry Wiley. You're not in Floyd's league.

This Is What It Sounds Like When Moose Cry

As you know, occasional contributor Mr. Eugene Debs is mysterious; his whereabouts are unknown and his intentions are variously incomprehensible, dismal, or opaque. As usual, his new piece appeared on my computer without explanation or signs of entry. Attached to it was a note that virtually begged that we not accept it. —RB

I confess to feeling a mite gypped* that Our Subarctic Lady of Perpetual Betcha has bailed on us. I was really looking forward to the Palin Administration, and not just as a last-chance vindication of the unacknowledged potential of Dan Quayle.

WWIII and — in the second term — marauding caribou-riding neo-barbarians and ubiquitous cannibalism promised to be excitingly atmospheric.

But it looks like we'll have to do without that. And as if that weren't enough, PalinFAIL has had the unfortunate side effect of causing a thought to occur to me, namely, that the long-term intellectual dry rot of the American right is getting a bit out of hand, like a house in which the termites have finally eaten through the load-bearing posts and beams, causing visible slouch.

By way of illustration, No More Mr. Nice Blog has a cogent meditation on the puzzling continued respectability of Pat Buchanan. During the first US election I experienced firsthand —1992 — P-to-the-B-Dog was the rightmost bound of good taste — beyond him there be naught but manticores and Grand Wizards. But Buchanan was at least not a fool; he could express complex ideas, if generally loathsome ones.

The Buchanan/Palin comparison is like Augustine vs. Aimee Semple MacPherson, and besides Palin makes Buchanan look moderate.

Or to put it differently: some time ago I read — well, glossed — "The Naked Communist" (a very misleading title, BTW; I'm stll steamed over the absolute lack of a Valentina Tereskhova centerfold, or at least Ninotchka showing some leg). Fifty years ago, it may have been the angry face of raw Bircher populism, but if you subtract the obvious insanity, it seems by contemporary standards almost charming; wheedling, plaintive, didactic — even the obviously insane parts are oddly decorous, such as the chapter in which Presidents Truman and Eisenhower are politely accused of being Soviet agents. I defy anyone to find a given hour of modern talk radio in which the Democrats are not accused of trying to legalize child molestation; the word "treason" is tossed around so casually as to have lost all meaning, like accusing someone of not separating their recyclables or being a Nazi. As for the gravitas of ideas, that will have to wait for Joe the Plumber's Untitled "Aaaargh, My 15 Minutes Are Almost Up!" Project,** featuring a rare preface by the self-effacing, publicity-shy Newt Gingrich.

Anyway. All of this describes a trajectory; and while the moral arc of the universe may bend toward justice, this thing appears to bend in a direction not known to mainstream topology, into a willful, Borges-like denial of reality (with a quick stopover at Cletus the slack-jawed yokel's shack). Frankly, I have no idea if there is a natural bottom to this phenomenon, though I suppose a candidate need at least be ambulatory and continent. In another generation or two, Palin and Huckabee may be the voices of sanity and moderation, whereas God only knows what rough — but lotioned-up-for-HDTV — beast may be slouching toward New Hampshire, waiting to be served pancakes.

*My dictionary does not suggest that this term has anything to do with Gypsies: "ORIGIN late 19th cent.: of unknown origin." So there. [RB]

**Maybe this is unfair; the modern Left has a gaping lack of vision, too. Gore Vidal is a poor substitute for Bertrand Russell (OK, yes, not an American. Whatever).

A curious OC Reg editorial

Oddly, the OC Reg now seems to be taking John Williams’ side with regard to two scathing reports about his efforts as OC Public Administrator/Guardian that were recently issued by the OC Grand Jury. In yesterday's editorial, ignoring the GJ’s central complaint about Williams—that he promised huge savings but delivered vastly increased spending instead—the Reg pounced upon factual errors concerning minor issues and even suggested that the reports are the result of a “vendetta.”

Editorial: The watchdog vs. the guardian

…Because of the scathing tone of the reports…, we expected the investigation to be filled with allegations of abuse. Instead, the reports focus on detailed complaints about the agency's management structure. In the one case where the grand jury accuses the office of mismanaging a person's $7,100 estate, the jury got the basic facts wrong. The public administrator didn't handle the case at issue….

[The argument from "fishiness"?]

We're not usually given to accepting the "political vendetta" argument, but we do find some things fishy about the double-barreled reports, which complain about excessive management growth, pension spiking and excessively large caseloads by conservators responsible for handling the assets of the clients. For starters, we can't figure out why the grand jury took the unusual step of releasing a second report before the legal deadline had expired for Mr. Williams to respond to the first one. The rationale, according to the grand jury foreman, was that the office continued to engage in the same practices it had criticized: "They basically went on to do the same thing in spite of our report," grand jury foreman James Perez told the Register.

But how could anything have changed even before the [two month] deadline had expired to even respond to the allegations? The second report, which supposedly contained new information, read to us like a rehashing of the first report. Our guess is the grand jury received a leaked copy of Mr. Williams' initial rebuttal to the Board of Supervisors, and lashed out again because they didn't like that he disputed each of their recommendations. Some of those recommendations sound reasonable, especially regarding budget growth. But some of the points had such simple explanations that it makes us wonder about the thoroughness of the report.

For instance, the grand jury raises the issue of "questionable pension practices" because Mr. Williams promoted an employee to a top management position within a year of retirement. But as Mr. Williams told us, he didn't know when that person would retire, and it would be discriminatory to not promote someone because of her age. We agree that the county's pension system is ridiculously generous, but we can't see how this amounts to any deliberate form of pension spiking barring some additional evidence.

On a broader point, we agree with Mr. Williams that a closer look at the grand jury system is warranted. He complains that the grand jurors came into his office with subpoena power, an ax to grind and little to no understanding about how the office operates. "These people struggled to understand all the basic stuff.”….

We have appreciated the grand jury's civil oversight function, mainly because of the desperate need for oversight of government agencies. But grand juries can be abused by those with personal and political agendas, and we have seen the O.C. grand jury insert itself into political disputes that seem far afield from its legitimate purview….

Is it really so hard to understand why the GJ issued a second report before Williams responded to the first? According to the Times,

Jurors intended to issue only one report on the agency. But within two weeks of its release in May, they got a "significant" number of calls and letters informing them that not only had management not changed, but that the situation had worsened. (See OC Grand Jury.)

—That is, contrary to the Reg editorial, there were indications that Williams was actively engaging in further practices of the sort they objected to--or, at any rate, he was acting to make matters worse. “Failure to change things” and “open defiance” are two different things, Reggie. Get it right.

A PROMISE UNFULFILLED:

Again, a focus of the original Grand Jury report was financial accountability:

This report explains how the agency has failed to keep its promise to the taxpayers of Orange County to cut costs and improve services. The annual base salary of management has increased over 96% since 2005.

Indeed, the OC Reg’s first article about Williams’ GJ woes began with this:

Public Administrator John Williams and then-Treasurer/Tax Collector John Moorlach promised county supervisors in 2005 they could save $300,000 over three years by combining the offices of public administrator and public guardian. ¶ Yet Orange County's grand jury says they didn't even come close. ¶ A scathing county grand jury report … takes aim at Williams for doubling salary costs at the agency and engaging in questionable personnel practices. ¶ "The annual base salary of management has increased over 96 percent since 2005," read the grand jury report. ¶ "They have failed to deliver on their promise to save Orange County taxpayers' money."

The GJ offered specifics:

According to the report, in 2005 there were seven employees who had combined yearly salaries of $529,796. By 2008, the number of employees had risen to 10, a spike of 40 percent. And their wages totaled $1, 042,828 annually.

Somehow, the fiscal center of the GJ’s criticism now seems unimportant to the Reg. Why? Cuz conspiracies are afoot: the jury foreman, Jim Perez, was out to get Williams owing to the latter’s trusteeship at the SOCCCD (?!), and he somehow managed to get all jurors to go along with him.

Wow.


Williams and the Reg focus on alleged factual errors in the report. But, on Tuesday (see update of Public guardian fires back), we learned that

James Perez, foreman of the grand jury that published the two reports, said … that Williams was allowed to review both reports before they were published and that he did not raise concerns about their accuracy. ¶ "He made no factual corrections," Perez said. "What he said was, the facts are correct, but I dispute your interpretation of the facts." [My emphases.]

Something doesn’t add up here. Having observed Mr. Williams for many years (especially with regard to the board's "persistent and defiant" violations of the Brown Act), I know him to be an inveterate schemer and liar. He's Karl Rove, but without the brain.

I’m betting on Perez, not Williams.

One more thing. If these reports are merely the product of a “vendetta,” then why aren’t Mr. Williams’ supporters defending him? On the contrary, on Monday, Supervisor John Moorlach’s chief of staff was quoted as saying, “We are very troubled….”

It’ll be fun to see where this thing goes next. Stay tuned.

HE'S A SCUMBAG, DON'T YOU KNOW?

Passings: Charles Eastman

When Rebel Girl first started showing up in Jim Krusoe's writing workshop at Santa Monica College in the mid-1980s, she met Charles Eastman, a rather august figure who also showed up week after week to sit in a circle and read aloud his stories and listen to those of others. The writing workshop is a deceptively simple ritual.

It was in Krusoe's workshop that she learned and learned again that there was more than one teacher in that circle - nearly everyone had something to teach.

Charles Eastman was one of those, with his measured advice and his own quietly powerful work and wide-ranging reading.

Truth to be told, Charles frightened her for the first few years, using words that she'd never heard before, citing unknown writers and working week after week at patiently growing a short story, scene after scene. In that workshop where you read your work aloud, Rebel Girl would read hers at home and wonder what Charles would say.

During breaks, while people bought paper cups of vending machine coffee, other students told her things about Charles - facts that were confirmed in today's Los Angeles Times obituary: he was a playwright; he was a screenwriter: his films had big stars in them; his sister was famous too, had written Five Easy Pieces; he, himself, was famously select about what kind of work he did and for whom.

From today Times, Robert Towne, screenwriter of Chinatown:

Screenwriter Robert Towne, who met Eastman in the '60s, recalled how impressed he was by an early Eastman screenplay that never made it to the big screen: "Honeybear,I Think I Love You," the story of a disturbed young man's obsession with a girl.

"For me, it was quite a revelation because it was the first contemporary screenplay I had read that just opened up the possibilities of everything that you could put into a screenplay in terms of language and the observations of contemporary life," Towne said this week.

"It was a stunning piece of work, and I think it influenced a lot of us, even though it wasn't made," Towne said. "Everybody tried to get it made, but Charlie was very particular about how it was going to be made, and in some ways I think he kept it from being made.

"Charlie was an original, that's all. He used language in a way that I hadn't seen used before."

Towne said Eastman was "very particular, very quirky, very much like his sister," who wrote "Five Easy Pieces," starring Jack Nicholson, under the pen name Adrien Joyce.

"I think she was writing about Charlie in some ways," said Towne. "Charlie was just one of those shadowy figures that I think cast a longer shadow over most of us than was generally recognized."

Rebel Girl wasn't Charles Eastman's friend but they did sit in a room together with others, for years and years, and listen to the stories people told and shared some of their own.

To read the rest of Dennis McLellan's obituary, click here.

To see the closing scene of Eastman's film, Little Fauss and Big Halsy, (yes, that's a young Robert Redford) and to listen to Johnny Cash sings its title song, click below.

"Adverse publicity probably didn't help"

I just noticed this report about Laguna Woods Village from two days ago:

• Four Emeritus morning fitness classes at Clubhouse 1 will be discontinued after end of year (OC Reg)

During his Community Activities Committee report at Tuesday's Golden Rain Foundation Board of Directors meeting, Director Bob Hatch announced that the four Saddleback College emeritus fitness classes held Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 12 noon at Clubhouse One's equipment room will be discontinued after the end of this year.

Other emeritus fitness classes will not be affected.

"The fall term will be last term," Hatch later verified.

"The state has reduced the amount of funds the college has, so Saddleback had to determine where their services were most appreciated." Objections raised by some Village residents in having to register for the classes so as to use the equipment room during the 8 a.m. to noon time period may have affected the college's decision, he said, adding that "Adverse publicity probably didn't help." Hatch also emphasized that, as of this time, no plans have been made to discontinue other emeritus classes….

In other news...

• Cal State closes 2009-10 spring admissions because of budget crisis (LA Times)

In a move to cut enrollment because of the state budget deficit, the 23-campus Cal State University system announced Thursday that, with few exceptions, it will not allow students to start at the university next spring. Cal State usually admits about 35,000 freshmen, undergraduate transfers and graduate students in the spring, officials said….

Muscle cars are back, evidently