Adios, Dr. Amendariz--And The Questions That Linger

It was a Sunday afternoon execution, off the news cycle, unobtrusive. The resignation was written for him, no doubt, and he signed off. Dr. Al Armendariz, who so reveled in Roman political technique, was treated to, not Roman, but more approximately, Soviet political technique.

He is surely under orders to disa-blanking-ppear, lest he be disappeared by his former mentors whom he now must still regard as his present bosses. Surely a quiet bit of good-bye money has been arranged, just to help him maintain his loyalty, his silence, and to reduce the temptation to, say, write a book about his life in the Obama Administration for release in early October--complete with the requisite book tour and chat-show appearances. He probably didn't need to threaten them too extensively, and he knows that if he were to jabber, and Obama win in November...his wife teaches school and he has children and he'd like a shot at academia again someday...hmmm. Silence is golden, after all, is it not? Who knows, if Obama wins, he could be rehabilitated! It happened in the golden days of the Soviet Union, after all, why not here and now?

Thus: A reading from the Book of Regulatory, Chapter 13, Verse 13.

Al Armendariz, the top environmental official in the oil-rich South and Southwest region, resigned in a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Sunday, saying he did not want to be a distraction for the agency. The resignation is effective Monday.

"As I have expressed publicly, and to you directly, I regret comments I made several years ago that do not in any way reflect my work as regional administrator. As importantly, they do not represent the work you have overseen as EPA administrator," he wrote. "I take great pride in having built a career based on integrity and hard work. These are the principles that guide me personally as well. While I feel there is much work that remains to be done for the people of this country in the region that I serve, after a  great deal of thought and careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that my continued service will distract you and the agency from the 2012 political campaign its important work."

Here endeth the lesson.

The most important bit is in the first sentence--'I've already said I'm sorry, and I'm not really like that, and I guarantee you aren't really like that. Honest, I don't know how those words came to my lips--I must have been channeling Caligula or Hugo Chavez'. 

Of course, the question does linger in the air: How did TheMostTransparentAndIntellectuallyAstute administration in the history of the Republic hire this guy? To work at this level, the candidate has to be vetted and vetted again and background checked and interviewed several times, because he really will wield a lot of power as the energy caudillo of Region 6.  They'd need a guy with the sort of stones and lack of squeamishness needed to crush TheLittlePeople under the boot, someone who wouldn't surprise them with pangs of conscience, someone who could boast about the Romans crucifying villagers at random as a legitimate means of governance.

 

So, we are led to one of two conclusions: Obama and Lisa Jackson, if they were doing their jobs and are the astute people they insist they are, must have known with certainty what manner of man they were hiring. Or, alternatively, they were recklessly negligent to the point downright stupidity to have hired Dr. Armendariz. There really isn't much middle ground of possibility.

So, which is it? Are they venal, or are they stupid? 

Can we afford to have them in power, in any case?

Publix Refuses To Submit To A Shakedown: 'A Penny A Pound'

The local CBS affiliate for Nashville, NewsChannel 5, was on progressive overdrive tonight...crews covering groups of 10-12 ardent Marxists, each gathered for their pet cause. After the fifth story or so, it became a bit comical...

But this one was actually a bit chilling, as it detailed the efforts of one group to shake down a supermarket chain. The truly relevant bit is in the final paragraph of the quote.

It's a protest calling attention to what some say is support of demeaning and unfair working pay for Florida tomato working.

With the help of a translator, Oscar Otzoy, one of those farm workers describes what things are like.

"It's very difficult to be a farm worker. You might work 10 to 12 hours in a day and only come home with fifty dollars," said Otzoy.

He says the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, CIW, is targeting one of the largest Southeastern Grocer Publix, whose headquarters is in Florida.

Otzoy adds with the help of his interrupter, "And we are calling on Publix and other super markets to join in these agreements to help raise farmer worker wages and eliminate the abuses that make possible the extreme of modern day slavery."

The protest is calling for stores like Publix to pay an extra one cent per pound of tomatoes purchased, with the penny going not to the farmers, but directly to the workers.

In other words, fork over a penny per pound of tomatoes sold to us (We'll make sure those oppressed workers get all of it, honest!) and we'll stop harassing you and your shoppers. Until next time, when we decide the poor cucumber pickers need a nickel a pound. There's the cherry pickers in Chile, and the meatpackers in Iowa to think about, too. And, next year, that penny per pound might not be enough, you know.

Nice little grocery business ya got here, Publix! It'd be a shame (wouldn't it, Vito) if all those plate glass windows were to be smashed, or customer's tires were slashed, or a flash mob invaded with cans of spray paint. Right, Gino? Right, Vito?

Yeah, boss, it would be a cryin' shame!! It'd be like what's going on in London. What a shame, boss, what a shame!

What a business model! Damn! Why didn't someone think of that earlier!!! Well, actually, guys like Al Capone did, to great effect. It's why Chicago is, so, well, Chicago.

Publix, for their part, and wisely so, aren't having anything to do with this.

"For us, it is a labor dispute between the growers and the pickers, so we encourage them to get together and resolve the problem, and then charge a fair price for tomatoes and we will pay a fair price," said Brenda Reid, with the regional media and communications department for Publix.

Here's the link to the Student/Farmworker Alliance. Hmmm....this stuff costs money. Where do they get it? Not from the impoverished pickers, to be sure. Hmmm....

Ms. Reid's statement is proper--it's between labor and management in that industry. The SFA's tactic of triangulating against retailers, who buy produce for their restaurants and stores, is thinly-veiled extortion. Some firms seem to have succumbed.

Three cheers for Publix, for standing tall. For doing the right thing.