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So while we've been hashing over the 'issues' surrounding the golf course, one group has been hanging pretty much in the background and not taking much heat.

That would be the Golf Association Board.

The relationship between the golfers, the concessionaires (the Chiaramontes), the city, and the Golf Association Board is somewhat convoluted. On the one hand, we have a contract between the city and "the concessionaires". That's the deal that gives them the dollar a year rent for all that city-owned ('taxpayer-owned') property; the subsidized utilities for that property; and which allows them to keep all of the profits from the pro shop, the restaurant, the cart shack rentals, the cart rentals, the driving range, and the rental of the apartment out there. Shoot, there might even be more.

But what is the board doing to smooth things out?

Not much. They're just letting it all ride. They apparently see nothing wrong with the way things are run out there. They don't see it as their responsibility to bring the golf course management more into line with the way other courses are run. They don't see it as their responsibility to see that the course and club are run as a business.

Nope. They apparently believe it is the responsibility of the taxpayer to fund their playground.

Their leader said, at the last council meeting, that they have been 'good stewards' of our tax dollars.

I obviously disagree with that statement.

The golf board has just been floating along, expecting We the Taxpayer to take the load for them. It's a lot easier to blame the city administration for so-called 'inadequate funding' than it is to take the heat for running the thing as a business, which would almost surely mean the golfers would end up paying more for their fun.

That seems to be coming to an end. The contract is up for renewal. The current contract expires at the end of this year. Will council approve 'more of the same'? Maybe, but I have my doubts about that. The golfers are a noisy bunch but there are a lot more people who are wondering why they've been coddled for so long. Remember - this isn't about closing the golf course or about letting it fall apart. It's about ending the taxpayer-subsidized playground atmosphere out there; it's about ending that sense of entitlement the golfers seem to have.

I would suggest that the board quit their collective whining and get to work on an arrangement, on a proposal to the city, that is more business-like and more professional. Otherwise, I would expect the city governing board - City Council - to end the current relationship, put out a real RFP, and hire a professional that can run that place as a business and not as some good old boys' Fun in the Sun private resort.

I would also suggest that the La Junta Chamber of Commerce pull its head out of wherever it has it stuck and get on the bandwagon to make that golf course pay for itself. That nonsense we had from Mr. Klob goes a long way towards explaining why the Chamber is so ineffective.

One more thing ... we city employees are not second class citizens. We pay our taxes, sales, property, and income. We even pay Governor Ritter's "fees" (yuk yuk wink wink nudge nudge). We have as much right as anyone else in saying what we believe to be wrong, as well as what is right, with our city. Even those of us who live in The Holy Land or in North La Junta or out in the country still pay a substantial amount of taxes into the City of La Junta; some of us own property in the city, and almost all of us shop there. With sales tax making up just under half of the city's fiscal intake and property taxes funding La Junta's schools, we really aren't interested in the attitude that we have to shut up and put up with this foolishness.

The KC Chiefs have been declared the winners of the 2010 SuperBowl because they have been trying hard, even though they are 0 and 4.

From the DNC:

“The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists - the Taliban and Hamas this morning - in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize,” DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse told POLITICO. “Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize - an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride - unless of course you are the Republican Party.

“The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It’s no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore - it’s an embarrassing label to claim,” Woodhouse said.

Wait a minute ... the Taliban are 'terrorists'?

Since when?

Obama war council focuses on Al Qaeda

I thought we were going to have a cup of coffee ... maybe a beer ... no, wait, the Taliban are fundamentalist Muslim murders, so no alcohol as they have high moral standards ... I thought we were going to have a cuppa Java with the Turbaned Moonbats? Now they are 'terrorists'? The DNC must not have gotten the memo.

These are the people the Nobel Committee passed over in favor of Obama's non-accomplishments:

Sima Samar, women's rights activist in Afghanistan: "With dogged persistence and at great personal risk, she kept her schools and clinics open in Afghanistan even during the most repressive days of the Taliban regime, whose laws prohibited the education of girls past the age of eight. When the Taliban fell, Samar returned to Kabul and accepted the post of Minister for Women's Affairs."

Ingrid Betancourt: French-Colombian ex-hostage held for six years.

"Dr. Denis Mukwege: Doctor, founder and head of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo. He has dedicated his life to helping Congolese women and girls who are victims of gang rape and brutal sexual violence."

Handicap International and Cluster Munition Coalition: "These organizations are recognized for their consistently serious efforts to clean up cluster bombs, also known as land mines. Innocent civilians are regularly killed worldwide because the unseen bombs explode when stepped upon."

"Hu Jia, a human rights activist and an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, who was sentenced last year to a three-and-a-half-year prison term for 'inciting subversion of state power.'"

"Wei Jingsheng, who spent 17 years in Chinese prisons for urging reforms of China's communist system. He now lives in the United States.

You'll have to admit that there isn't much there, compared to the Obamessiah.

When asked by a reporter what he would do with the $1.4 million in prize money, The One had no answer.

Now it has been announced he will give it to an as yet unspecified charity.

ACORN, perhaps?

It's coming up on the 3rd weekend of October .. it's time for the Mennonite Relief Sale, October 16 and 17, at the fair grounds in Rocky Ford.

Here are some photos from last year's event:

2008 Mennonite Relief Sale

This is one of the coolest events of the year, here in the Valley.

Here's a link to their main site:

Rocky Mountain Mennonite Relief Sale

Note that it kicks off with the dinner, from 5 PM - 7 PM, at the 4-H building on the fairgrounds. Dinner is a BBQ pork sandwich and the country soup bar for six bucks. Last year's was pretty good, almost as good as a Down East Baptist pig pickin'. Some of the booths will be open Friday evening.

Arkansas Valley Fairgrounds
105 N. Main Street
Rocky Ford, Colorado
Free Parking and Admission

Lynn Horner, Chairperson
lhorner at centurytel.net
719-384-8066

Or maybe it's a luxury private jet.

Gotta spread the Word in style, you see.

Benny Hinn, that paragon of Christian virtue, is being investigated for fiscal fraud:

Benny Hinn: Charlatan or Man of God?

Yeah. Of course, the investigators are the same Congressional Clowns who have given Charlie "Income Tax?" Rangel a complete bye.

Remember that quote from the assassin in "Angels and Demons":

"Be careful. These are men of God."

You gotta see the flick.

Then you'll understand the likes of Benny Hinn very well.

Remember this?

Hinn and Hilliard resign Oral Roberts regents posts

How to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 11 days

The salient summation:

The short path to the Nobel Peace Prize: Party, go to meetings, skip church, release federal funding to pay for abortions in foreign countries, party some more.

Good grief.

Good grief, indeed.

Mike Huckabee has something sensible to say about it:

"There will be an outcry from those on the right who will say that Obama's nomination, made two weeks into his presidency, is impossible to justify, but I think such an outcry will sound like right-wing whining," Huckabee wrote. "The better response is simply to allow those on the left to explain what he did in his first two weeks as President that merited such recognition."

Yes. And so far, 'those on the left' aren't doing very well.

As one young Obama fan this morning said, "It doesn't matter what Obama did or didn't do ... he's not George Bush!"

There you have it.

The Nobel prizes. Cheaper than dirt.

Golfsmith's Fall Sale!

Here's the Callaway sale:

Save on Callaway Odyssey

Look at that! You can get a Callaway FT-iQ Tour Driver for only $299.00! That's $230 off the already ridiculously low regular price of $529.99!

There are lots of other deals going, too!

See? If our golfer friends all shop the Fall sale, they'll save enough so they can help take that load off the Chiaramontes, who, according to Chamber of Commerce rep Tim Klob, are actually working for free out at Tamarisk Hills.

It's enough to make me want to suggest to City Manager Rick Klein that he take that city employee COLA raise and donate it to the Chiaramontes!

Speaking of Fall sales, those idiots we have in Congress are looking at a second 'stimulus' package. Of course, they have no idea how to pay for it, and there are hints they might not even try.

Come 2010, let's vote these twits back into the Stone Age.

And Obama is nabbing the Nobel Peace prize. I guess groveling before the Europeans and apologizing for America does have a payoff. There is no truth to the rumor that the Committee was offered ward boss positions in Chicago in exchange for the prize.

Nobel observers were shocked by the unexpected choice so early in the Obama presidency, which began less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline.

They gave him the prize based on less than two weeks in the White House?

Does anyone else smell a political rat?

Over on Legal Insurrection, Bill Jacobson has a good observation about the Baucus Health Care Concepts:

Baucus' rosy numbers will fade

This is the thing that the Congressional Budget Office has and is analyzing, telling us that it is 'deficit-neutral'. That is, it will not add to the $1.4 trillion deficit that Obama has run up. Well ... OK ... there was a bit of a deficit at the first of the year. Obama has only tripled it.

Thing is, this Baucus deal is not even a bill. It's a markup document listing a collection of 'concepts'.

As we see in Jacobson's article, many of the assumptions in the Baucus markup are wishful thinking at best, and the CBO recognizes this in its assessment:

These projections assume that the proposals are enacted and remain unchanged throughout the next two decades, which is often not the case for major legislation. For example, the sustainable growth rate (SGR) mechanism governing Medicare’s payments to physicians has frequently been modified (either through legislation or administrative action) to avoid reductions in those payments.

See also:

Why the CBO estimates shouldn't count for much

Now, Senator Olympia Snowe is a Republican sitting on that committee. Though she is a Republican, she is entirely capable of voting for this markup 'Non-Bill'. She voted with the Democrats on other crucial bills, bills that have resulted in a sky-rocketing deficit and terrible wastage of tax dollars.

You might want to give some thought to asking her to vote "No" on this thing.

You can contact her here:

Email Senator Snowe

Here is what I sent to Senator Snowe:

Dear Senator Snowe,

The health care markup currently being considered in the Senate Finance Committee is a non-legislative expression of 'concept'.

It is not a bill.

Please vote "no" on this markup.

Note also that the CBO has identified a number of assumptions that lack any connection with reality in the fiscal sense. This is how CBO has ruled the non-bill to be 'deficit-neutral'. This is an unrealistic ruling. The non-bill can easily, almost certainly, end up expanding the deficit by a considerable amount. I remind you of the $1.4 trillion deficit we now face. Do you really expect us to take up more of a legislative cross to bear?

Congress has not handled our tax dollars in a responsible manner, especially in the last 10 months.

Please vote 'No' on this.

We've changed one of the quotes up in the Blog Banner. We've added a good one from de Tocqueville.

It can be said that there are four documents, or publications, with which every American must be familiar in order to understand how our country came to be and its foundational concepts and principles.

These are:

• The Declaration of Independence
• The Constitution of the United States of America
• The Federalist Papers
• Democracy in America

That last was written by a French nobleman, one Alexis de Tocqueville, on a visit to this country back during the rise of Jacksonian Democracy.

I have been re-reading Tocqueville's work, and am finding that in many cases he was and still is amazingly astute, insightful, and accurate.

I like the edition that I have, even though it is paperback and well-worn. It has a good introduction, by Richard D. Heffner, and points out some of the weaknesses of Tocqueville's observations as well as his strengths. This is good, because as with any literary work, especially those of subjective nature, external balance is often necessary and useful.

In any case, I came across this passage the other day:

Force is never more than a transient element of success, and after force, comes the notion of right. A government which should be able to reach its enemies only upon a field of battle would soon be destroyed.

General McChrystal's philosophies on the conduct of war seem far more consistent with Tocqueville's view than with ... oh ... say the likes of Joe Biden and his desire to do it all by remote control.

In Vietnam, it was Westmoreland's 'war of attrition', with it's increasingly unrestricted use of increasingly heavier weaponry that drove the Vietnamese peasant out of the villages and into the slums of Saigon and other cities. 'We had to destroy the village in order to save it' was a concept that drove the Vietnamese peasant into the arms of the Viet Cong.

McChrystal seems intent on not making those mistakes again.

I can only wonder if Obama deserves such a commander in the field ... or will McChrystal end up under the Obama Express like so many others.

Nope. No, it isn't an Obama fan jumping up and down with joy over the possibility of getting bailed out, or getting more of that Free Federal Munny, or having Obama take over his/her credit card payments.

It's a comment about how the Chiaramontes do everything for free out at the golf course, and how the golf course is the cat's meow compared to such wasted efforts as the library.

Here it is, from a Facebook entry:

Tim Klob my undestanding was they are willing to take a cut on the things like maintenance and improvements. but the current budget isnt even enough for water. yeah they only pay a buck a yr for rent on the pro shop. but figure bill and linda are there 7 days a week mowing lawns, maintaining the city owned golf carts, fixing sprinkler systems, and keeping books. for free. how many people come to town to golf vs. to go to the library?

and here's my post over there in response:

From 1 Jan 09 - 30 Sep 09, 83,510 people passed through the library doors.

Total registered users: 4810. About 1/3 are out of town users. Of course, though most don't stay overnight, those out of towners drop some money while here.

The library is the biggest draw into the city center. You'd think the Chamber of Commerce would know that, and you'd think a sharp business community would be able to figure out a way to exploit it. Apparently not.... Read More

As for that 'free' nonsense - and it is indeed nonsense - I draw your attention to:

http://lajuntablog.blogspot.com/2009/10/mccune-surcharge-for-tamarisk-hills.html

and

http://lajuntablog.blogspot.com/2009/10/water-water-everywhere.html

and

http://lajuntablog.blogspot.com/2009/10/lies.html

Sounds to me from Mr. Klob's comment and from other comments floating around that many golfers are completely unaware of the arrangements out there at Tamarisk Hills.

In addition to keeping all the profits from the cited income sources, Chiaramonte is pulling down somewhere around $20,000 from the golf association.

Given that Chiaramonte pays only a dollar a year rent and his utilities are heavily subsidized by We the Taxpayers, I'd say "free" is a term best left for the wind blowing out the golfers' poop chutes.

You can find the Golf Association's rather pathetic 'budget analysis' here:

Fairway Follies

I'm sure you will agree after looking at those 'budgets' that whoever does those things is either incompetent as an accountant, or if he's a real accountant, is apparently trying to obfuscate what's really going on.

Here's a good commentary on that barfbag, Letterman:

David Letterman Made Fun of Philanderers For Years as he Pursued Own Affairs

Excerpt:
In March 2008, Letterman was taking potshots at Eliot Spitzer, then governor of New York, who was embroiled in an investigation into a high-end prostitution ring. "It's so sunny and bright outside that, earlier today, Eliot Spitzer came out of a brothel squinting," Letterman cracked in a monologue. But in Spitzer's case, he didn't stop at lampooning. During an indignant rant, he called for the scandalized governor to step down. "I mean, can you imagine," said Letterman, "if this happened to me how fast they'd have my ... (backside) out of here?"

Apparently the mainstream media has different standards. They have always tolerated dirtbags like Letterman as well as Congress tolerates theirs.

Our good pal and admirer "Calico" takes exception to our characterization of the water usage out at Tamarisk Hills. He/she says water use has gone down the last three years.

Not according to the water department.

"Calico" also "resents" the characterization of the handout-seekers at council the other night as 'rich white people'.

Sorry, Calico, but I was indeed there and saw not one brown or black face in the crowd. We took photos of everyone who spoke in favor of the handout/bailout/whatever ... all white faces there. Didn't see anyone from the north side of the tracks there either.

Try again. Do a little better next time. But as always, thanks for taking the time to comment ... you've helped make the case for us.

Oh ... one other thing ... the line item for that water in the city budget has gone up 33 percent over the last couple of years. You're hardly getting screwed by the city out there at Tamarisk Hills. You want to see who's screwing you take a look at the contract between the city and the Chiaramontes.

City Manager Rick Klein revealed on the radio this morning that the reps from the City Employees' Association had come by his house this morning.

Why?

To tell him that if the money just isn't there for those COLA raises, then that's the way it is, and they stand behind him nonetheless.

There ya go. Well done, guys. I never enlisted in the Employees' Association because I don't like outfits that smack of unionization. I was once a member of the Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and I was greatly underwhelmed by them. Kind of a mini-UAW. However, I'll join an outfit that stands behind a guy like Rick Klein, and in fact, I just did so.

The ball's in the golfers' court, if we can mix a sports metaphor. Are we going to just see more selfishness, or are they willing to tighten up a bit too?

We aren't holding our breath over it, here at Blogger Central.