Adele Ferguson - Post election views rate comments

ITEM — Governor-elect Jay lnslee says he will obey the directive of the constitution that the paramount duty of the state is to improve education, and promote the creating of jobs in new businesses built around renewable energy supplies, such as solar and wind power.

COMMENT-I don’t expect much in education considering all the recent Democratic governors have kowtowed to what the teachers’ unions want, which is more money and bigger benefits for them. As for energy, I also don’t count on the popularity of solar power in a state nationally recognized for its rain. I’m not sure about the wind. My power has been out three times in the last couple of weeks so I’m sure there’s some around.

ITEM — Everyone else has had their say on why Mitt Romney didn’t get elected and now the man himself has come through with his own analysis. “What the president’s campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government and then work aggressively to turn them out to vote and that strategy worked. The tactic was to give a bunch of money to a group and, guess what, they’ll vote for you. Giving away free stuff is a hard thing to compete with.”

COMMENT-I believe Rush came through with the same reasoning when he said you can’t beat Santa Claus, especially when it means you become the Santa Claus yourself. There was a backlash to Romney’s remarks from Republicans who said you can’t get elected president if you label the voters more interested in handouts than policies. I still say he lost because too many Republicans and Tea Partyites skipped that race because Romney wasn’t 100 percent of what they wanted in a president, and the Chicago thugs in the White House administration used the corrupt politics of Chicago to smear a good man.

ITEM — The former comptroller of a small Illinois city pleaded guilty to fraud for stealing more than $53 million through her job over two decades, money used to fund a luxurious lifestyle that included raising champion show horses. Rita Crundwell, 59, of Dixon, faces up to 20 years in prison but remains free for now and will be sentenced in February. Prosecutors say she used a secret account and fake invoices to divert funds from state tax sharing programs to her own accounts. Apart from owning hundreds of horses, she had a farm in Dixon, a luxury motor home and a vacation house in Florida.

COMMENT — I always wonder when these stories come up, which they do fairly frequently, why neighbors, fellow workers or just plain taxpayers aren’t curious when a public employee, Dixon by the way a city of only 15,700, is living high off the hog but didn’t win the lottery. Remember when that FBI agent was doing the same thing except he got his money from bribes and his peers didn’t become suspicious for years that he was the only one who could afford to drive a Mercedes?

ITEM — Prosecutors in Las Vegas have filed federal charges against a Clark County family judge and five others alleging a $3 million, decade long investment fraud scheme that they say the judge worked on from his chambers. The indictment accuses District Judge Steven E. Jones, 54, and five others of telling investors they had government connections and could use their money to secure valuable water rights in Arizona and land rights on the Las Vegas Strip. Their sales pitch required short term loans or cash.

COMMENT — You’d think that over a ten year period, at least one of the investors would have felt it necessary to visit the sites and see how things were coming along what with infusions of more money being called for all along. Oh well, there’s an upside to everything. There’ s a job opening available now, on the family court bench.

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, Wa., 98340.)