Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts

Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies for Reinventing Government Review

Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies for Reinventing Government
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Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies for Reinventing Government ReviewFor those who live in "Uphill Battle" and who are weary of attempts to improve or change it -- or who have given up entirely and become skeptical and disillusioned -- Banishing Bureaucracy is not pie-in-the-sky theories and generalities. Every precept of reinventing is richly illustrated from the real-life battles of actual people in state, local and national governments. The book focuses on strategies and steps that were used to reinvent government under some very rough circumstances. While the book cautions that there are no set formulas when one tackles the bureaucracy beast, there are five strategies which work. If you think reinventing is a worn-out cliché, no longer applicable to the reality of government, get a copy of Banishing Bureaucracy and look at the transformation of government that is going on behind the scenes. Largely ignored by the media, it should be of profound interest to those seeking good ideas and better government.Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies for Reinventing Government Overview

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Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis Review

Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis
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Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis ReviewI have found this to be a most honest and direct evaluation of the current national situation. It is an easy book to read and demonstrates the unusual honesty of Jimmy Carter as a past president and current world humanitarian. His evaluation of the current administration's shortcomings and intrigue in its selling of the Iraq war to the American public and Congress is most interesting and enlightening. He substantiates his concern for the other detrimental actions of the present administartion throudh his own religeous beliefs and gives an explanation of his separation from the Southern Baptist Convention.Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis Overview

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National Suicide: How Washington Is Destroying the American Dream from A to Z Review

National Suicide: How Washington Is Destroying the American Dream from A to Z
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National Suicide: How Washington Is Destroying the American Dream from A to Z ReviewA must read for all concerned about the future of America. This shocking warning illustrates a government on a mad spending orgy serving the interests of careerist politicians and their clients at the expense of our nation.Gross illustrates this jeremiad with a barrage of facts to back up his opinions. For example,there are 1399 federal funded programs for rural areas spread across 20 different federal agencies,none of which are coordinated to avoid duplication.
National Suicide is a basic source of information for anyone looking to challenge the destructive path that our self-serving political class is following.National Suicide: How Washington Is Destroying the American Dream from A to Z Overview

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Save Our System - Why and How ''We The People'' Must Reclaim Our Liberties Now Review

Save Our System - Why and How ''We The People'' Must Reclaim Our Liberties <u>Now</u>
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Save Our System - Why and How ''We The People'' Must Reclaim Our Liberties Now ReviewI found it to be a thorough description of the what our governing process has evolved to and the problems with the system. The current debt ceiling drama is a great example of the things discussed in the book. Well worth the time.Save Our System - Why and How ''We The People'' Must Reclaim Our Liberties Now OverviewDr. L. Lynn Cleland's Save Our System: Why and How ''We The People'' Must Reclaim Our Liberties Now starts by exploring the systemic problems that plague our political climate, later rips the rug out from under the career politicians, and ends by enlightening citizens to act and vote intelligently.
Is today's America what our Founding Fathers had in mind when they promised ''Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness''? Cleland says it is not and he has the research to prove it. Save Our System is more than just an S.O.S. cry. It is packed with real-life examples, research, riveting predictions, and solutions. Where Cleland really shines, is in presenting our country's pressing issues in an approachable and lucid way.
Save Our System is not a diatribe against one political party or the other. Through its inclusion of all citizens and readers with its nonpartisan tone and hopefulness, it serves as a beacon: empowering ''We The People'' to reclaim our liberties and save our great nation.

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Colorblind Injustice: Minority Voting Rights and the Undoing of the Second Reconstruction Review

Colorblind Injustice: Minority Voting Rights and the Undoing of the Second Reconstruction
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Colorblind Injustice: Minority Voting Rights and the Undoing of the Second Reconstruction ReviewShaw v. Reno is at the heart of Colorblind Injustice: Minority Voting Rights and the Undoing of the Second Reconstruction, historian J. Morgan Kousser's closely reasoned critique of the Court's recent rulings on the constitutionality of "majority-minority" congressional districts-districts created for the purpose of ensuring adequate minority representation in the House of Representatives...
Colorblind Injustice is an angry book. Kousser is convinced that in a series of recent decisions, beginning with Shaw v. Reno, the Rehnquist Court has destroyed the hard-won gains that African Americans have made in political representation. Kousser considers those decisions to be bad law, bad history, and bad public policy, and he hopes "to set voting rights policy straight by getting its history right" (p. 2). In the pursuit of that ambition, he has written an exhaustive study of the recent history of voting rights, a study so carefully researched and intelligently reasoned that it will probably become the definitive work on this subject...
Kousser begins his analysis with a celebration of the achievements of the Second Reconstruction, a period when "the Court's willingness to protect the rights of minority citizens or let Congress do so, along with the stable majority of experienced and sympathetic members of Congress from 1954 to 1994, allowed judges, Congress, bureaucrats, and interest groups to improve federal protections [for minority rights] gradually and pragmatically" (p. 53). In Kousser's eyes, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been central to this process of minority protection, especially Section 5 of that act, which requires states that had prohibited black voting in the past to submit changes in electoral laws to the Justice Department for approval...
In Kousser's eyes, progress came to an end with the Supreme Court's ruling in Shaw v. Reno that two sprawling congressional districts, which were carefully drawn to ensure that they held black majorities, were in probable violation of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the law...Like Javert in Les Misérables, Kousser is relentless in the pursuit of his quarry. He devotes 250 pages of text to careful historical analyses of white politicians' successful attempts since passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to reduce or deny minority representation in Los Angeles, Memphis, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas. Kousser then spends the remaining 150 pages of his book explicating his thorough and scathing critique of the Rehnquist Court's decisions on the constitutionality of the majority-minority congressional districts that state legislatures created in response to Justice Department pressure. In Kousser's eyes, the Rehnquist Court-usually by five-to-four votes-has (1) ignored the relevant historical contexts of the cases it decided, (2) made bad law, and (3) defined central concepts in these cases in a manner contrary to their clear meaning. Shaw v. Reno illustrates all these problems...
Often Kousser's critique of the Rehnquist Court is so extreme and his use of language so hyperbolic that they weaken his credibility. For example, a reader of Colorblind Injustice, ignorant of the Court's history, might conclude that only the Rehnquist Court-and its racist predecessors-made decisions that were "abstract, formalistic, and factually incorrect" (p. 466) and substituted its own public-policy preferences for established judicial precedent...
When Kousser ends his book by comparing the Shaw cases with the Dred Scott decision and Plessy v. Ferguson, arguing that they "all buttressed a seemingly uncertain white supremacy" (p. 465), he goes too far. Dred Scott asserted that African Americans had no "rights which the white man was bound to respect" and that "the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the constitution." Plessy v. Ferguson upheld racial segregation and contained the cynical and racist observation that "if one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane." Whatever the shortcomings of Shaw v. Reno, neither its reasoning nor its impact is comparable to those ugly, vicious, racist judgments...
Historically, African Americans and other minorities have made their greatest political gains through the formation of interracial coalitions. The abolition of slavery was a biracial effort, as were both Reconstructions. After World War II, African Americans in the industrial states of the North and West shrewdly exercised their voting rights in a manner that led to their courtship by politicians of both major political parties. Black votes often decided the outcome of state and national elections, as they did in the 1948 and 1960 presidential races. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed, civil rights leaders and congressional leaders of both parties were present in what was a truly biracial and bipartisan celebration.Colorblind Injustice: Minority Voting Rights and the Undoing of the Second Reconstruction OverviewChallenging recent trends both in historical scholarship and in Supreme Court decisions on civil rights, J. Morgan Kousser criticizes the Court's "postmodern equal protection" and demonstrates that legislative and judicial history still matter for public policy.
Offering an original interpretation of the failure of the First Reconstruction (after the Civil War) by comparing it with the relative success of the Second (after World War II), Kousser argues that institutions and institutional rules-not customs, ideas, attitudes, culture, or individual behavior-have been the primary forces shaping American race relations throughout the country's history. Using detailed case studies of redistricting decisions and the tailoring of electoral laws from Los Angeles to the Deep South, he documents how such rules were designed to discriminate against African Americans and Latinos.
Kousser contends that far from being colorblind, Shaw v. Reno (1993) and subsequent "racial gerrymandering" decisions of the Supreme Court are intensely color-conscious. Far from being conservative, he argues, the five majority justices and their academic supporters are unreconstructed radicals who twist history and ignore current realities. A more balanced view of that history, he insists, dictates a reversal of Shaw and a return to the promise of both Reconstructions.

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Dependent on D.C.: The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans Review

Dependent on D.C.: The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans
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Dependent on D.C.: The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans ReviewIt has been said that if you were to put a frog into a pot of boiling water the frog would do it's best to escape, but that if you put the frog into tepid water and gradually heat the water to the boiling point the frog would just sit there until it dies. Never having boiled frogs I don't know whether or not that's true. But, it's a central premise of Charlotte Twight's book that if we were frogs, the government has us in the pot and has gradually brought the water to a point close to boiling.
Ms. Twight details how that happened with several examples including Social Security, federal income tax witholding, health care and education. The most frightening is her description of the rise of federal data collection. The bottom line is Big Brother is watching, he knows where you are and he can come get you anytime he wants because it's basically impossible for you to know all the laws much less abide by them.
Ms. Twight details how politicians and bureaucrats lie, cheat and steal to accomplish the ultimate goal of getting and holding power. She is more polite though and calls it political transaction cost manipulation.
I have only two complaints about the book. The first is that Ms. Twight fails to take into account the full force of government's fellow travelors in the media and special interest groups (ranging from labor unions to recipients of corporate welfare) and their impact on the growth of government. The second is that she doesn't do enough to put the evolution of America's government into a complete historical and philosophical context.
Nevertheless, this is a book well worth reading. If you were to read it in conjunction with "The Myth of the Robber Barons," "Bias" and "America's Thirty Years War" you would have a more complete picture of what is really going on.
But, whatever you do, read this book. It's worth the effort.Dependent on D.C.: The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans Overview

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Broke: What Every American Business Must Do to Restore Our Financial Stability and Protect Our Future Review

Broke: What Every American Business Must Do to Restore Our Financial Stability and Protect Our Future
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Broke: What Every American Business Must Do to Restore Our Financial Stability and Protect Our Future Review
Mumford has captured something that I sometimes dwell on in columns I write in a local paper - and much more eloquently - that our political leaders are not doing what we send them to Washington to do. Their main priority is to stay in office and any thing they may do for their constituents and the country is secondary to that effort. Hence pork, payoffs, closed door deals, etc. Put more simply, the more things you can give away from the federal coffers the better your chances of staying in Washington.
One of his points that really struck home is that he alludes to the fact that we the massive deficit spending has, for all purposes, bankrupted the country - and is getting worse by the minute. (It's called deficit spending. Sound familiar?)
Once, when America was the lead manufacturing power of the world, it may have been OK to borrow. Unfortunately we are now strictly a nation of consumers and have lost the ability to repay our debt.
At some point, like all debt, yours, mine and the nations, (and yes, local state and local government), our debt will be due. He points out some of the scenarios that may occur. None are good.
Another point Mumford makes is that all our terrorist enemies, many of whom are our lenders, have to do to insure our downfall is wait. Sending a few idiots to light their shoes and their explosive underwear will just keep us busy enough for them to wait until we can no longer "pay the tab", and devaluate our dollar with the ensuing worldwide panic that will ensue. That may be the real tactic.
"Broke" isn't all about "doom and gloom". Mumford believes that it's up to business (of all sizes) to solve the problems we're facing and presents practical, nonpolitical and actionable steps that business leaders can do and a turnaround plan.
Business leaders are the one force that has the ability to cause a turnaround!
According to a Scottish-born British lawyer, Alexander Tyler: "A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury..."
Whether or not you think that business can cause the turnaround a Mumford postulates the book an interesting and challenging read.
Broke: What Every American Business Must Do to Restore Our Financial Stability and Protect Our Future Overview
What principled business leaders can do to solve America's current financial crisis

Broke is a startling wake-up call for America and an honest accounting of what our future holds if we don't take charge and change our country for the better. If the business of America is business, then it's up to our business leaders to solve the mess we're in. Broke offers practical, nonpolitical, and nonpartisan solutions that every business leader can implement today for a better tomorrow.
Whether you operate a giant corporation or a local small business, you'll find practical steps to limit future risks, strengthen every business, stabilize the current economy, and help turn the country around. Author John Mumford has spent decades helping business leaders turn around failing companies. Now, he helps them to turn around a failing country.
Presents bold initiatives and concrete steps every business leader can use to create a better future-for their businesses and for the country
Includes practical, actionable steps for every business leader who wants to build for the future, while preserving the best of his or her existing enterprise.
Shows how business leaders can contribute to the solutions for our problems concerning public debt, the environment, and international relations
Offers a turnaround plan for the country ideal for use by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, small business organizations, non-profits and others as the centerpiece of a 2010 campaign for America's turnaround
Endorsed by current and former CEO's, top business school leaders, former governors and senators, and leading journalists

Desperate times call for creative, effective measures, not desperation. If you're a business leader, here's how you can do your part.

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Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power Review

Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power
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Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power ReviewDr. Clark has struck a sensitive nerve in the consciousness of a nation in his 1965 study of black neighborhoods. Revised in 1989 with an introduction by William Julius Wilson, and a foreword by Gunnar Myrdal, it is apparent that other scholars respect Clark's work as well. I was particularly impressed by the self-honesty of his methodology -- he calls it his "involved observer" method, which shows much more concern for the subjects of the study than traditional "disinterested observer" approaches, espoused by so-called "value-free" social scientists. Also recommended are other books by Clark, and most anything by Cornel West, Lewis R. Gordon, Allen Spear, and Alex Kotlowitz. A related book to "Dark Ghetto" is "Racism & Psychiatry," by Alexander Thomas and Samuel Sillen, with an introduction by K. Clark.Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power Overview

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The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York Review

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
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The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York ReviewEveryone knows--or intuitively feels--that American cities had some great opportunities to become enjoyable, livable places during the course of the 20th Century but somehow blew the opportunity. This book explains a major component of why and how the betrayal occurred by focusing on the man who was both the cause and the victim of the betrayal, a powerful bureaucrat little known outside of metropolitan New York, Robert Moses.
The book details Moses' slow rise to power as an idealistic Wilsonian Democrat fighting the entrenched power of corrupt Tammany Hall politics, his novel approach to parks planning (he virtually invented the "parkway," for example), his massive public works (among them the Triborough Bridge and all of New York City's expressways), and his inevitable decline and fall after he refused to relinquish power in old age.
As time wore on Moses became less and less the man of the people and more and more the man of the system of his own creation, and that system was the toll-gathering mechanism of New York's bridges and tunnels. He invented that peculiar institution, the "authority" (as in Port "Authority" or Tennessee Valley "Authority") that is neither wholly governmental nor wholly private, and so lacks the restraints of either; Moses' cash cows kept him in power and gave him an antidemocratic arrogance that is truly breathtaking and, one hopes, will never be duplicated.
This book isn't just for New Yorkers or for those who wonder why New York's roadways are so confusingly laid out. America's other big cities are New York writ small--they went to New York at the height of Moses' power and emulated his methods! That helps us understand the mania for building our now hopelessly overcrowded expressways and devaluing public transportation, whose lack we are just now trying to address by building expensive light-rail and commuter-train systems that should have been in place for decades.
This is an extremely long book and extremely "wonky" in terms of policy discussion but gripping reading nonetheless. It also set the tone for further political biogaphy/psycho-biography, by both Caro and other writers. The depth of research in this book is simply amazing.The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York OverviewOne of the most acclaimed books of our time, winner of both the Pulitzer and the Francis Parkman prizes, The Power Broker tells the hidden story behind the shaping (and mis-shaping) of twentieth-century New York (city and state) and makes public what few have known: that Robert Moses was, for almost half a century, the single most powerful man of our time in New York, the shaper not only of the city's politics but of its physical structure and the problems of urban decline that plague us today.In revealing how Moses did it--how he developed his public authorities into a political machine that was virtually a fourth branch of government, one that could bring to their knees Governors and Mayors (from La Guardia to Lindsay) by mobilizing banks, contractors, labor unions, insurance firms, even the press and the Church, into an irresistible economic force--Robert Caro reveals how power works in all the cities of the United States. Moses built an empire and lived like an emperor. He personally conceived and completed public works costing 27 billion dollars--the greatest builder America (and probably the world) has ever known. Without ever having been elected to office, he dominated the men who were--even his most bitter enemy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, could not control him--until he finally encountered, in Nelson Rockefeller, the only man whose power (and ruthlessness in wielding it) equalled his own.

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