By Donna Westfall – August 29, 2017 –
Del Norte County Supervisor Bob Berkowitz announced at the last board of supervisors meeting that he will be going to Washington D.C. this September in order to advocate for the county’s policy agenda.
At the meeting Berkowitz said, “My priority will be advocating for funding for the Last Chance Grade Bypass that may require a commitment of over a billion dollars; reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Communities legislation. The expiration of that funding source has cost us over a million dollars in lost revenue for our local roads; keeping our Essential Air Service (EAS) subsidy that insures that we maintain air service in our area; dredging our harbor by the Corps of Engineers, to keep it a viable port to support our fishing and tourism industry.
Berkowitz added that there is no substitute for being where the decisions are being made that have an important impact for Del Norte County.
Berkowitz is no stranger to working with the federal government to get resources to Del Norte County. He was a member of the staff of former Congressman Frank Riggs. During his tenure, as a staff member, Berkowitz, worked to assist the congressman to get funds to build a berm on the Klamath River to prevent flooding from severe storms, and helped to get the legislation necessary so that the Del Norte County School District could build a new school in Gasquet after the old one was destroyed by fire.
At a recent meeting of the board, it was emphasized that it was important that congress and the administration realize how severe our problems are and we need to be in Washington D.C. to make sure that our story gets a hearing by those who will make the decisions.
Yet all I ever hear about is how supposedly “corrupt” the Democrats are. So why don’t we break it down by president and the numbers? Obama (D) – 8 yrs in office. Zero criminal indictments, zero convictions and zero prison sentences. So the next time somebody describes the Obama administration as “scandal free” they aren’t speaking wishfully, they’re simply telling the truth. Bush, George W. (R) – 8 yrs in office. 16 criminal indictments. 16 convictions. 9 prison sentences. Clinton (D) – 8 yrs in office. 2 criminal indictments. One conviction. One prison sentence. That’s right nearly 8 yrs of investigations. Tens of millions spent and 30 yrs of claiming them the most corrupt ever and there was exactly one person convicted of a crime. Bush, George H. W. (R) – 4 yrs in office. One indictment. One conviction. One prison sentence. Reagan (R) – 8 yrs in office. 26 criminal indictments. 16 convictions. 8 prison sentences. Carter (D) – 4 yrs in office. One indictment. Zero convictions and zero prison sentences. Ford (R) – 4 yrs in office. One indictment and one conviction. One prison sentence. Nixon (R) – 6 yrs in office. 76 criminal indictments. 55 convictions. 15 prison sentences. Johnson (D) – 5 yrs in office. Zero indictments. Zero convictions. Zero prison sentences. So, let’s see where that leaves us. In the last 53 years, Democrats have been in the Oval Office for 25 of those years, while Republicans held it for 28. In their 25 yrs in office Democrats had a total of three executive branch officials indicted with one conviction and one prison sentence. That’s one whole executive branch official convicted of a crime in two and a half decades of Democrat leadership. In the 28 yrs that Republicans have held office over the last 53 yrs they have had a total of (a drum roll would be more than appropriate), 120 criminal indictments of executive branch officials. 89 criminal convictions and 34 prison sentences handed down. That’s more prison sentences than years in office since 1968 for Republicans. If you want to count articles of impeachment as indictments (they aren’t really but we can count them as an action), both sides get one more. However, Clinton wasn’t found guilty while Nixon resigned and was pardoned by Ford (and a pardon carries with it a legal admission of guilt on the part of the pardoned). So those only serve to make Republicans look even worse. With everything going on with Trump and his people right now, it’s a safe bet Republicans are gonna be padding their numbers a bit real soon. So let’s just go over the numbers one more time, shall we? 120 indictments for Republicans. 89 convictions, and 34 prison sentences. Those aren’t “feelings” or “alternate facts.” Those are simply the stats by the numbers. Republicans are, and have been for my entire lifetime, the most criminally corrupt party to hold the office of the presidency. So those are the actual numbers. Feel free to copy and paste
TWML, the same statistics could be seen to support the premise that Republicans are willing to indict their own when corruption arises and the Democrats are not. This premise, although opposite to yours, is shown by the identical statistics you’ve shown. Personally, I doubt either premise is accurate under the statistics you’ve shown.
But what a splendid example of how statistics can be manipulated to support any political position! Thanks!
Nice off topic rant, but what is the point. Are you trying to say Democrats don’t have any skeletons in their respective closets, no corrupt Democrats, no Democrats jailed for what ever reason? Or are you just into numbers where Republicans have the higher number? I am more than certain that many politicians on both sides of the aisle have some pretty unsavory activities to hide, some that have come to light, no doubt many more that haven’t. Corruption kind of goes with the territory, don’t you think? So please spare me the idea that your little rant has in any way given Democrats and yourself the moral “high ground”. For the record, I am neither a Republican, nor a Democrat. The Democratic Party has a ways to go before before they can claim they are morally superior to the other…. One last thing, it pays to be very careful when you are supplying numbers from a very tiny and carefully selected subset of a very large group. Often the group as a whole doesn’t measure up to the subset.
I find myself unexpectedly in our nation’s capitol this weekend. It is a relief from the heat and humidity of North Carolina where I have been for the last six weeks. The town is a veritable hive of activity as this is the last weekend before tourists will no longer clog the streets and school children will be in school for awhile. I find difficult to believe much could have happened last Spring when our intrepid trio came to lobby the Federal Government in the space of a few hours. Seems like it takes forever to move around in this town. I would hope that Supervisor Berkowitz plans on several days to accomplish the task he has set out for himself.
For those of us that have less lofty sights set, I think that a visit to the Nation’s Capital should be a trip every American should take at some time in their life time. The monuments and museums would give many that live in this Country a better perspective of what exactly being an American is all about. It seems that much of our historical roots have become rewritten in the haste to “not offend” or hide things from current or future generations in order to promote political creed rather than utilizing the process that made this Country one of the best places to live in the world. Time for Americans to have a little pride in what they have accomplished in the past couple of hundred years and learn from our past from the mistakes that were made rather than rewrite history to hide them. It is a shame that we have become such a troubled and polarized nation at a time when unity could make things so much better. It is therefore with great pride that I say that the I’m in the great city of Washington DC.
I can see the story in the Triplicate now. “Berkowitz undercuts board Chairman, Chris Howard and Supervisor Gerry Hemmingson in vain attempt to push his third grade math solution before the Federal Government.” Editor Fornoff, behind the cover of a Tony Reed story, will no doubt turn Supervisor Berkowitz’s attempt to restart the nonstarter of the trip to Washington DC by the pair Howard and Hemmingsen, earlier this spring into another farcical trip in support of “pie in the sky” infrastructure funding that has yet to make it through Congress. That is, if he even bothers to acknowledge the novel concept that our elected officials should actually be doing something for the benefit of Del Norte County and not checking to see how good they look in the mirror.
But seriously now, once Howard and Hemmingsen, along with our illustrious Mayor of Crescent City, bumbled their way through DC this spring, not a word of any progress has surfaced with regard to any of Del Norte’s current list of major problems. In fact the list has had some recent additions with the pending bankruptcy of PenAir and the near thing of a 118,000 acres of a wild fire to our north with almost no notice by the Federal Government. I wonder if they, the Federal Government even knew that Hemmingsen, Howard and Inscore had even paid them a one day visit earlier this year?
Hopefully someone with a bit of DC savvy, did I say that, will be able to wind his way through the halls of Congress with more than a map to the national monuments dressed in an ill fitting suit and get some movement. Then using something other than a weegee board, locate someone who can actually aid in the process of fixing Last Chance Grade, and other problems that only someone in the party in power will be able to address, not some junior Democratic congressman from California with no measure of decorum or power.
Of course editor Fornoff can’t make too big of a deal out of the Berkowitz trip in case it actually works. Might have yet another layer of egg on his face to add to the mounting pile if something comes of it. Best just ignore the impending trip just to be safe. Wouldn’t want to give any kind of credit to someone that is not in it to take a free trip to Japan or perhaps DC in the spring time to gape vacantly at the cherry blossoms, would we editor Fornoff. Stay tuned for something other than platitudes.
Can’t wait to hear all about it Bob, if anyone can get things accomplished with that suave personality, you can. Thank you for your service.