Prairie Fire Journal

Here it is March 1st, and the Texas Workforce Commission still has not released the unemployment figures for January. TWC usually releases its unemployment report around the third week of the month following the month it is reporting on. The reason for the delay is most likely because Governor Rick Perry doesn't want TWC issuing any bad unemployment news ahead of the Republican Primary tomorrow. In the two years that I've been following TWC's monthly unemployment reports, they have never been this late. Rick you really are a rascal. It will be interesting to see if the January report comes out this week after the primaries.

Long before utility deregulation became a conservative craze, the City of Lubbock had two electrical-utility companies competing for business. That changed recently when Xcel Energy sold off most of its electrical grid within the Lubbock city limits to city-owned Lubbock Power and Light (LP&L). Now there is only one electrical company in Lubbock, and it's owned by the city government.

Xcel Energy won't be totally out of the loop. LP&L has little electricity-generating capacity of its own and buys most of it's electricity from Xcel. Still, LP&L has long claimed that it can provide Lubbock customers with electricty at a cheaper rate than Xcel. In other words, a government-owned utility can more economically meet the needs of the city than can a privately owned utility.

I find it somewhat amusing that in a city as conservative as Lubbock, where the wingnuts are always railing against socialism, that socialism has proven to be a better means of providing electrical service to residents than a private capitalist corporation. The following statement appears on LP&L's website:
LP&L and Xcel Energy have reached a mutually beneficial agreement that will allow LP&L to purchase Xcel Energy’s electricity distribution system within the city and to serve all of Xcel Energy’s Lubbock retail electric customers. Since 1942 Lubbock has been served by both companies, resulting in duplication of electric power services, lines, poles and substations. Both companies have determined this to be an inefficient and intrusive way to provide electricity to the community.

Thanks Lubbock for proving that capitalist competition isn't always the better way.

As the 2010 political races heat up on the Texas South Plains, we are once again presented with the spectacle of conservative hypocrisy. It's a battle between candidates who on the one hand decry big government and deficit spending, while on the other hand grabbiing as much taxpayer money for their respective districts as they can get their hands on.

South Plains conservatives conveniently ignore the fact that if it wasn't for big government projects, most rural areas would still be without electricity. They seem to forget that the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority that provides drinking water to the major cities of the Panhandle-South Plains region exists because of major assistance from the Bureau of Reclamation and from other federal agencies and grants.

South Plains farmers wouldn't have the modern system of paved farm-to-market roads they now use if it wasn't for big government spending. They certainly couldn't have afforded to pay for those roads themselves. And I doubt that too many of those farmers are in favor of cutting government spending on farm programs and subsidies. Yet, the majority of them vote for conservatives who claim to be against big government spending. That is hypocrisy!

South Plains conservatives opposed the Obama stimulus package, but local government officials are tickled pink about any grant money or construction projects coming their way on account of it. Naturally, the same conservative politicians who opposed the plan are taking credit for delivering the assistance. That is hypocrisy!

South Plains conservatives say they want fiscal conservatism to rule in Washington, D.C., but they're all trying to get Texas Tech University to Tier 1 status so the university can snag hold of millions in federal research dollars. Not to mention the millions of dollars Tech currently receives in government assistance. That is hypocrisy!

I could go on, but what would be the point? Conservatives are hypocrites, and their hypocrisy knows no bounds. You can't claim to be against something and then take credit for its success. You can't say you're opposed to government debt but not be willing to give up your government subsidy. But that's exactly what South Plains conservatives are saying and doing. That is hypocrisy!

Texas Democrats have an opportunity to give Rick Perry an eight-month head start on his packing. If enough Democrats will crossover and vote in the Republican Primary on March 2, there's an excellent chance that Rick Perry will be knocked out of the 2010 governor's race before it even begins.

Under the Texas Election Code, a registered voter in this state can vote in the party primary of their own choosing. Just because you voted in the Democratic Party Primary in 2008 doesn't mean you have to vote in it this year. The best opportunity for Democrats to knock Perry out of office is by voting for Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican Primary on March 2, 2010.

Democrats can do this. Knockout Perry at the get-go and that will dishearten his far-right base. If Hutchison wins the Republican Primary, the right won't be as enthusiastic about getting out the vote in November. By using this strategy, whether the Republicans win or the Democrats win the governorship, we will know for certain that Rick Perry will be gone. That in itself is a Democratic victory.

The History Channel (now simply called "History"-- ha! ha!) is history. Killed off by cheaply-produced reality shows pandering to what is apparently a growing audience of 18- to 35-year-olds suffering from ADD. You can add it to a long list of cable networks whose programming content bears little relevance to the channel name. Another casualty of corporate monopoly and monotony. Rest in peace. It was nice while it lasted.

Remember back when Republicans were slamming American auto workers and blaming them for problems caused largely by management? Conservatives seldom acknowledge the economic concessions UAW workers made during the 1970s, when another major crisis not of their making arose in the auto industry. While Republicans were deriding American auto workers and the American auto indusrty as a whole, they held up the Asian management style as the model to follow.

Now we have the situation where Japanese automaker Toyota is involved in an ongoing recall and Congressional investigation concerning millions of its vehicles sold in the United States. It started with a sticking gas pedal and has now spread to possible electronic control malfunctions and braking problems on many, if not most, of the company's vehicle models. This could likely rival any automobile recall in American history.

But let one thing be clear, this problem was not caused by Toyota's rank-and-file workers. It was caused by engineers and top management who apparently didn't have their eyes on the ball like they claimed they did. As a result, Toyota assembly lines have been shutdown and sales at American dealerships have practically come to a standstill.

The economic tsunami that all this portends is only too real. Thousands of Toyota workers will likely find themselves in the unemployment line, not to mention the devastating economic impact this will have on dealerships, parts suppliers and communities who depend on those assembly lines for their well being.

This couldn't have happened at a worse time and may likely become the trigger that finally plunges the nation into depression. It looks like the Asian management model has some major issues of its own. Unfortunately, the working class will suffer the most, again, because of management's mistakes.

With all the i-hype these days about Apple products, the Mac computer is still inferior to the PC when it comes to playing the various video formats available on the internet. I can download the K-Lite Codec Package for Windows Media Player and it allows me to play virtually any video or audio format available on the internet on Windows Media Player.

On a PC you can play Apple Quicktime video on Windows Media Player, but Mac users can't play Windows Media Video on a Quicktime Player. That's what has always been the problem with Apple; they insist on being so proprietary in their offerings that they leave the user with limited capabilities as compared to a PC. There is a Quicktime codec pack called Perian that's available for Mac users, but it still doesn't support wmv format and is limited in other formats as well.

For versatility, choice and cost, I'll take a PC over a Mac any day when it comes to video.

Nobel laureate economist and editorialist Paul Krugman wrote this on December 28, 2008:

No modern American president would repeat the fiscal mistake of 1932, in which the federal government [under president Herbert Hoover] tried to balance its budget in the face of a severe recession. The Obama administration will put deficit concerns on hold while it fights the economic crisis.

Boy, was Krugman wrong. A little over a year later, Krugman and a multitude of progressives have grown frustrated over Obama and the Democrats handling of the economy. And now Obama wants to freeze government spending, except for the one trillion dollars spent annually on two wars, the Pentagon, and homeland security.

What we have now is a recipe for economic disaster that will certainly sink America into a deep depression. That's what happened when Hoover tried it. Look around and see that the economic situation is getting worse. I talk to local merchants who say their business has dropped off significantly the past year. People who have jobs have had their hours reduced or fear the possibility of layoffs in the near future.

These well-founded fears are having a very negative effect on the economy. We need jobs and wage growth. There has to be a massive government effort to restore confidence and economic stability. If the federal government now decides to pull back and balance the budget at this critical time of economic distress, the future of America is indeed imperiled.

Obama is making a terrible mistake. Either way, I've heard enough rhetoric. I'll believe you have the right answers when I see some results. As the saying goes, "the proof is in the pudding."

While the U.S.-led rescue and relief operation for Haiti has had its shortcomings (some of which I have commented on in this blog), that doesn't mean that any other country in the world was able to do any better. Brazil has been critical of the way the U.S. has operated the Port au Prince airport, but I didn't see them stepping up and taking charge of the situation when presented with the opportunity to do so.

At the time of the Haiti earthquake, Brazil had about 7,000 military personnel stationed in Haiti as part of the U.N. peacekeeping force. Where was Brazil's government the first day of the earthquake? Brazil was in as good a position as any other country to get the airport operational for aid and rescue flights into Haiti. What happened?

What happened is that Brazil simply lacked the resources and ability to do what the U.S. was inevitably called upon to do. Brazil is a wannabe power-player on the world stage, but the reality is that Brazil is itself a developing nation with a large impoverished population. That being said, Brazil is in no position to be criticizing others who stepped up and did what it could not do.

In its latest defense of totalitarian censorship, the Chinese dictatorship claimed that it's protecting China from "information imperialism." This grand prouncement came from the thug regime in Beijing on the heels of Google's announcement earlier this week that it might pull out of China if the government did not relent on its internet censorship rules and stop hacking into Google accounts.

For over 20 years now, Western capitalists and governments have operated in China under the delusion that as the dictatorship opened up its economic markets, it would also open up on issues of human rights as well. That has not happened, and it will not happen as long as the West continues to enable China's tyrants by looking the other way while the totalitarian oppression of the Chinese people continues.

Let's see if Google really pulls out of China, because the thugs in Beijing aren't going to budge an inch. They know that at the end of the day capitalist greed will prevail over the cry for human rights. Nothing short of a massive divestment by Western captialists will change the behavior of China's dictators. And we know that ain't gonna happen anymore than the Red Army staging a coup to establish democracy.

Unfortunately, freedom and democracy are still an unrealized dream for the people of China.