I have been thinking about how we can address the issues raised by GrannyDoc lamenting the loss of detailed interesting and educational diaries, Elinorianne who loves the great human interest diversity, WmTrialawyer who has pointed out the immense span of regulatory policies that are always under the radar but have impact on our daily lives, and now Slinkerdink who wants us to change form.
My big example will be the elephants at the LA Zoo who are almost as big a liability as the elephants of the GOP.
I have lived in LA for over 30 years and I ran for office in 1988 where I learned a whole lot I have never shared before. This will be a long detailed diary, so you are forewarned.
First, I agree with both Elinorianne and GrannyDoc equally and I want both of their arguments accommodated. To loose either part is to loose what makes the Kos community unique. We need our humor and our laughs as much as we need detailed and unique education.
WmTrialawyer in pointing out how the Bush administration is implementing as many rules and regulations as possible in the last 100 days shows us that it is the minutae that often makes the government run smoothly and competently. The many Linda Tripps of the world are often there for the wrong reasons and live a mole existence to be there at the right moment to make fuckups and mountains out of mole hills over genuine mistakes. Watching and keeping track of this requires many dedicated eyes.
Slinkerdink wants new forms and new buttons and more labeling. My instinct is this is the wrong approach. But I may be wrong and this certainly deserves discussion, and that is the whole point of this diary.
My one diary addressing only a part of these issues scrolled off in 20 minutes with 8 comments so I am aware of the difficulties. That diary addressed the possibility of this community setting up a process to do amicus briefs. We certainly have enough lawyers and people and we should have the credibility and the ability to do the research in way never done before. My example is that the California Supreme Court requested information about Prop 8. My subject for the amicus brief was so many of us have expressed being suicidal over gay issues as teenagers that we could submit hundreds of separate letters of these instances attached to our amicus brief. That this issue is a matter of life and death. That it is a picture and the same implications of Brown v. Board of Education with research showing black children refusing to embrace black dolls and the documenting that segregation by its nature could never support equality in any form.
In 1988, I ran for office of mayor in a suburb of LA; one woman against nine men. I knew from the get go I could not win--my goal was to defeat the incumbrants which I did. I will write another diary about that in detail later. The how and why I ran was all about following the money. This election indicates more than anything else that America is moved by nothing like it is moved by money. Everything -- justice and credibility is ruled by money. If Kos was not financially successful for Markos--it goes by the way side.
The elephants of money in the LA Zoo. Today they want 42 million for a six acre elephant compound for six elephants at the zoo. That is 7 million for each elephant. We already own the land. Providing more land is the big deal for the supposed use of the 42 million. We already have the housing. This money is essentially for fences and trees and what else? What is the 42 million for? One of our councilmen also indicates there will an on going cost--for what?
This is done all the time in government. We are so used to seeing big numbers for money in government that we no longer question it. I doubt the keepers make more than 50,000, if we have one full time vet for the six and pay him 150,000 per year, if food cost 100,000 per year per animal--where is all that money going? None of this ever adds up and no one ever talks specifically. These questions are never asked and they are never answered as a result. For the zoo, I can detail instances like this over and over.
The reason I ran for mayor is to answer questions like these. Since they are never asked and answered, I went to the city library where by law a copy of the city budget is kept. I checked it out for 72 hours and went home. With the help of my tax attorney, CPA husband what I found out blew me away and allowed me to defeat the incumbrants and make many many enemies.
When I ran I had already decided to move out of state but kept that information to myself. I took no money from anyone and self financed my campaign. The first time I stopped being a lurker here and registered was over the story of a local woman politician who found a horsehead in her swimming pool. I am sorry guys but you did not have her back. And that is the major issue of turning this country around. It has to begin locally and with committment and often quietly.
I think Kos is one good way of doing this. And this is my proposal. People have to self organize into forums. Open and inviting dialogues. They will not appeal to everyone but if you can get ten to consistently and puplically post the good, the bad and the ugly--that is ten times more than is happening.
I could write pages on the LA Zoo. If I could continually post the Forum on the LA Zoo and people continually subscribed and posted both progress and set backs and those ten people could quietly do research and alternate and go quietly to the public processes the zoo has to go through---We would have ACCOUNTABILITY in a sense tht has never existed before. And those continuous forum threads would be available to anyone interested. And we would only need one more added category--current forum threads listed in alphabetical order.
From what I learned from that campaign, I applied to various cities I have lived in since. Following the money is the answer. So much money is wasted in so many creative ways it is amazing and it is true everywhere. We no longer have the money. What we now have through the net is the way to focus and keep all government accountable. It is only by doing this that we have the real power of the purse which is truly accountability.
So this is my part of the community brain storm I think we are all ready to do.