[at-l] The Government and The Environment - TOTALLY OFF

[DTimm65344@aol.com (DTimm65344@aol.com)]

I deal on a weekly basis with beaurocrats and politicians at the State and Federal level (for work and also for civic activities).  Like any organization of more than one person, I find politicians and beaurocrats run the gambit - they are honest, dishonest, industrious, lazy, thoroughly detailed thinkers, and broad brush slackers.

They are people.  Both beaurocrats and politicians have equal chances of operating in job preservation mode.

Politician example - A civic association with which I'm involved is currently suing our state legislature because they were supposed to set up new voting districts by June of last year, have failed to do so based on the census and therefore the lines are as yet undefined, and the net effect is that all the incumbents will be re-elected this fall because opposition candidates have no idea where the lines will be drawn so they don't know who to run against (i.e. - what district they are in).

Beauracrat example:

Everybody remember the infamous dry river bed fish counts in Arizona a few years back where the activity occurred because the program was there to count fish even where there weren't any.  Lots of State game folks walking miles and miles of desert arroyos looking for fish.  And in the coverage on that and other similar "silly" government programs, I never hear a single beauracrat say we should eliminate or limit the program so it makes sense.  I hear lots of them say they think it's silly, but no one pushes to not do the activity or at least those efforts are not publicized.  Why, because they keep people employed and get counted in one's budget.

Black&blue