December 2014

No, I do not!  Brutal torture of detainees is against our laws for handling “prisoners of war”, hence the use of “black sites” in other countries to carry out such ruthless, controversial practices.  The Senate report catalogs a wide range of what CIA officials refer to as “enhanced interrogation techniques”, and the report charges that a decade of such harsh mistreatments failed to yield significant valuable information, and that the CIA deceived “the nation about the effectiveness of its techniques”.  The CIA told Congress in 1989 that “inhumane physical and psychological techniques are counter-productive because they do not produce intelligence and will probably result in false answers”, but President George W.  Bush “approved the program through a covert finding in 2002, but he wasn’t briefed by the CIA about the details until 2006”.   CIA Director John Brennan has recently said “the agency made mistakes and has learned from them”.  I agree with President Obama that these past practices, which he had ended, “are contrary to our values…. and should never be resorted to again”.

I have more questions than answers regarding the proposed storm water utility fee.  The city needs to have a study done to determine where and how many repairs are needed, and the City Council is trying to figure out what budget cuts can be made to balance the budget and retain essential services.  The storm waters, when heavy, have been and will continue to be a problem for residents and businesses.  Alderman Peter Schwartzman, Ward 5, is an intelligent guy who brought up the idea of the utility fee, and Jeremy Karlin is another smart, progressive guy who is for the proposed plan, so I guess I support the proposed fee, which is only $35.71 a year for residents, with businesses paying substantially more, their rate determined by the size of their property.  And instead of phasing in the new fee, we need to just institute it now and get the study under way.  That’s my take on it.