Gentlemen, there are two things I need to clarify:
1. The timing of this is only coincidental to the
elections. I am a regular subscriber of both the
California governor's (my current home) and the
Florida governor's (my next year's home)
announcements.
There are about a half dozen announcements each and
every day (at least business days and maybe more) from
Gov. Davis office and have been since I've subscribed
toward the beginning of this year at http://my.ca.gov
. I subscribed so I would know what was ongoing in my
state, and I subscribed about six weeks ago to FL so I
could get a running start on the issues critical to my
new state.
It is only coincidence that the museum funding ones
hit before the election. There have been lots of key
announcements to all types of issues, and usually
those of a museums nature I post directly to the
MuseNews lists instead of here, but I posted these
because there were so many in succession and I had
posted the one earlier this week having to do with the
Griffith Observatory, so I wanted to be fair.
If any want to get those relating to our areas on a
regular basis, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MuseNews-Art
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MuseNews-General
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MuseNews-History
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MuseNews-Science
I will tell you that the notes from Davis and the
notes from Jeb Bush, also in campaign mode, are not
that different, though you clearly find out a lot more
in California about legislation and the like than you
do in the Florida newsletters. Most of them are
self-promoting. This week's FL newsletter advised
that big brother in la casa blanca will be in FL this
weekend to help baby bro's election.
2. About those over burdened California taxpayers, if
that were a Republican commentary, I will remind you
that Davis' opponent is a multi-millionaire, a scion
from old money (his father was Secretary of the
Treasury under Reagan I believe though it could have
been 41), the owner of PAX TV, under investigation for
bad business practices, and certainly encouraged to
redeem himself by making out-of-pocket contributions
to the Golden State's musea.
But, with that said, how else are you going to fund
the museums? Patrons aren't coughing out of pocket,
and donations in general are down especially post-9/11
when many large corporations and foundations had to
rethink their giving policies because profits had
fallen.
If the musea aren't repaired, the treasures are lost.
If they're not funded, there's no money for salaries,
and the next group bitchfest to follow will be about
low wages and no money to pay for it and why shouldn't
my sacred cow be more revered than someone else's?
There are just so many dollars to go around. The
monies allocated to these musea are a result of a
state-funded initiative and, in fact, there is a Bond
Measure on the ballot Tuesday in Los Angeles County to
pay for restoration needed in our treasure the Natural
History Museum (one of my grandchildren's personal
favorites).
Now I'm going to append a couple of and furthermores:
3. Maybe it's my latent Hippie phase, maybe it's my
undying liberalism, maybe it's the fact that I've
worked my tush off for years, paid my taxes without
bitching, and given personally out of pocket when it
literally meant going without something else because
in my value system, it was the right thing to do, that
I don't have a lot of tolerance about tax bitching in
America.
Until we step back and see what other nations are
paying, until the needs of all the people and the
sacred cows are taken care of--including teaching
people HOW to budget their money and not just
insisting they should get theirs because you got yours
or your daddy gave it to you (they don't teach you
life skills in high school and often the communities
the target of tax appropriations have been
shortsheeted educationally in the first place)--I
don't have a lot of patience for tax bitching.
4. It would be nice to get a thank you once in a
while for sharing information that might be of benefit
and uplifting to some of you here instead of the
contanst sarcastic jabs. I guess you quiet ones that
only pop up to throw a punch just don't realize how
much time it takes to clean something up to share it
with the group.
I would have THOUGHT that the concensus of the group
would be that it was WONDERFUL that somebody gave a
crap about what happened to the institutions we revere
instead of complaining about taxpayer dollars (and
please forgive me Patrick for I know you to be very
reasonable) or ascribing it to electioneering.
We really are a cynical group, aren't we. There are
3000+ of us and we just cannot be pleased.
Excuse me while I move on to more positive things like
trying to help one another. I have information this
weekend to share with the 501 people on MuseJobs (an
outcropping of this list's bitchfests about job
seekers) and a conversation I had yesterday with the
folks at the Japenese National Museum at a job fair
yesterday.
And for that little b*st*rd Hafeezes, who still signs
on to the MuseJobs list and sends cyber bombs when I
speak up here, don't flippin' think about it. I have
a firewall now, constantly updated virus protections,
a cookie crusher, and I just posted to MuseIT last
night the latest version of the federal government's
CyberCrime newsletter on
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MuseIT .
I mean honestly, doesn't SOMEONE on this list know
that jackass, and can't you please let him know he
should take his silly ass little fatwa someplace else?
I've got work to do.
--- P Boylan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> John & Indigo:
>
> From a Transatlantic perspective, it's also highly
> revealing to note the
> timing of this announcement - on 1 November, less
> than a week before your
> mid-term elections.
>
> In the United Kingdom both serving politicians and
> government officials
> are strictly forbidden to announcements any grants
> of this kind, or any
> other government spending initiatives, once an
> election campaign becomes
> official - i.e. after the closing date for
> nominations, which is usually
> about a month befor the date of the election.
>
>
>
> Patrick Boylan
=====
Indigo Nights
[log in to unmask]
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