Part-Time Pundit

DI Column Up: Vote Yes To Help Champaign’s Poor

My latest column is up. It’s on a referendum to increase the township tax rate to increase the budget to for general assistance. It’s also a swipe at the News Gazette.

Column: Vote yes to help Champaign’s poor
John Bambenek
Posted: 7/7/06
Come November, a referendum on the ballot will ask voters if they support increasing the property tax rate levied to support Champaign Township. The increase will fund greater support and general assistance to the poorest members of our community. The News-Gazette editorial board has come out against this increase.

After interviewing Township Supervisor Linda Abernathy at length, I was unable to find any significant waste or misuse of spending. The township has only two functions - general assistance to the poor and property assessments.

The general assistance provided by the township is welfare of “last resort,” meaning that it is available to only those who are getting no help anywhere else and have no assets to their name. In short, they are the poorest of the poor in the community, many of which are living on streets and under bridges.

While there has been an increase in spending under Abernathy, there was one fact that escaped the News-Gazette editorial board. The court had ordered the township, along with other government agencies, to spend the cash they had on hand instead of saving it in their general funds. In addition to the court-ordered draw down of funds, there has been an increase of the number of unemployed people seeking assistance. Somehow helping more poor people doesn’t quite seem like rampant spending abuse.

The argument is that the township is a “relic of a bygone era” (much like one can describe the News-Gazette) and the functions should be assumed by the county government. One could argue that the states could be dissolved and the functions be assumed by the federal government, however, we constructed the U.S. system of government to include state governments. The same is true of townships. State law establishes townships and what functions they should perform and there is no movement to dissolve townships. Saying that the township should be deprived of needed funds because we can redo our governing structure is nonsensical.

It is true that the township operates largely invisibly to most voters; however, that is a sign that it is doing what it is supposed to do and not acting like an agency out of control. The township performs two functions and two functions alone. They haven’t tried to expand their power or interfere with voters’ lives. Ms. Abernathy was easy to reach and willing to spend about an hour on the phone for an unscheduled interview. That’s hardly the behavior of an unaccountable bureaucrat. It is clear that those who think the township is unaccountable are just too lazy to pick up a phone.

While the city of Champaign is busy trying to figure out how to use eminent domain to take over utilities so that they can expand their base of power into areas they don’t belong, the township is providing assistance to people who have no where else to turn. If providing help to these people is expensive, it is only because as a society we’ve pawned off our personal obligation to help those in our community on the government.

This is one of the very few tax increases that I support and find no fault with. Come November, join me in voting yes.

July 7th, 2006 Posted by John Bambenek | Chambana, DailyIllini, Law / Legal Issues, Local, Politics | no comments

DI Column Up: Welcoming in our New Health Conscious Overlords

I’m also late on posting my latest column, “Welcoming in our new health conscious overlords” on the Champaign-Urbana smoking ban. I was on vacation, sue me.

Column: Welcoming in our new health conscious overlords
John Bambenek
Posted: 6/30/06
Capitalism has failed in Champaign. More than a hundred years of economic prosperity in the United States has proven to be a sham right here in the twin cities.

Generously, the elites from the Coalition to Protect People from Themselves (as the Champaign-Urbana Smoke Free Alliance was known before they apparently got a public relations consultant) have lobbied for city regulations because we can’t trust evil mega-corporations and Big Liquor to meet the demands of their customers. That whole supply and demand thing is really a device by Big Business to keep us “sheeple” as little more than indentured servants pulled around by the whims of board room elites.

Using statistics only slightly cooked to make their point, they showed the city councils that more than 76 percent of people in Champaign-Urbana support governments taking control of all decision-making powers of consumers. Now, at long last, I can enjoy the local hookah bar without having to suffer through the evils of second-hand smoke.

Cigarette smoke is the only weapon of mass destruction that we have to fear. Patrons of campus bars need not worry about the alleged public health concerns of roofies, or for that matter, the entirely mythical raging venereal disease epidemic on campus. It is of critical importance that we fight to stop second-hand smoke so 18-year-old freshmen can binge drink in Kam’s without having to worry about lung cancer when they are passed out in a pool of their own vomit.

The several smoke-free establishments already in Champaign-Urbana are not enough for the coalition. It is important that every establishment caters to the desires of clients who will never frequent them. We need to make C.O.’s as comfortable for 50 year-old townies as possible. We’d hate for them to be coughing while they are busy ogling at freshmen girls in tight, black bar pants.

During the intense lobbying, name calling and threats, the coalition refused to let the matter be considerded in a referendum. They’re afraid that Big Liquor and Big Burger would hoodwink the 76 percent of people who allegedly support a ban. See, we just can’t trust those lemmings, I mean voters, to be able to figure out a ballot. So not only has capitalism failed, democracy is a failed and antiquated concept here in our little patch of cornfield.

I look forward to the future campaigns of the coalition who will not stop with simply banning smoking. After all, consumers are too stupid to be able to make any economic and life decision for themselves. The brave new day when all restaurants and grocery stories only offer organic and vegan fare will soon be here. Soda will be banned from vending machines to be replaced with fair-trade lattes.

There is too much variety in life and too many choices to make. It is high time that government did something about this and set a “one size fits all” standard upon our private lives. Long live the new oligarchy.

July 5th, 2006 Posted by John Bambenek | Chambana, DailyIllini, Law / Legal Issues, Local, Politics | no comments

DI Column Up: False Religion

Oh yeah, I have a column up,False Religion. Take a look.

February 15th, 2006 Posted by John Bambenek | DailyIllini, Local, Politics, Pro-Life, Religion, University of Illinois | no comments

Union Busting?

Below is an email I intercepted from the local anti-war group (who’s stance against war is more often than not that the wrong people are being killed not that no killing should take place). We have a Hilton coming in, and when they decided to do construction they choose not to go union. The horror!

Of course there are protests against the “union busting”. Now union busting is smashing attempts of employees to join unions. As far as I know there was no attempt by the construction workers to form a union, Hilton simply choose a firm that wasn’t part of the union.

What this protest is, is the “monopolistic” attempt to demand all jobs in various industries have to go to union-approved firms. It’s bad enough that they try to foist unions on people who don’t want them, but now they also insist that all jobs in a certain industry have to go to the union or they are behaving unethically.

=====

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 10:44:13 -0800 (PST)
From: XXXX
Subject: [Peace] Solidarity picket at NOON Friday
To: AWARE peace
Message-ID:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Just a reminder about the SOLIDARITY picket in support
of the Building
Trades this Friday ( 2/10/06 ) at NOON on Kirby Ave.
between Neil st.
and
State st.

Let the mega-corporate Hilton hotel chain know that
the
Urbana-Champaign
community WILL NOT TOLERATE Union busting in OUR city.

See you there, and dress warm.

In Solidarity

XXXX

—– Original Message —–
From: XXXXX
…
Subject: Solidarity picket this Friday at noon!

> **Please Forward**
>
> Union-busting,
> It’s disgusting!
>
> You are cordially invited to join the local Jobs
With
> Justice Organizing Committee in a show of support
for
> the efforts of Building and Construction Trades
Unions
> in town this Friday February 10 at noon.
>
> We’ll meet outside the work site on Kirby between
Neil
> and State St., where Tatman is building a new hotel
> and renovating an old one - one of the largest
> non-union projects in town in years. Signs will be
> there. Dress warm. Look for the big rat.
>
> p.s. The nearby Walgreens construction site is NOT a
> target of this picket. This construction is being
> done union, respecting wages, benefits, working
> conditions, etc.

February 10th, 2006 Posted by John Bambenek | Local, Unions | no comments

DI Column Up: Mass Taxing District

My weekly DI column is up at the DI.

Despite claims to the contrary, I’m not a libertarian. The CU-MTD is just a waste of money.

February 8th, 2006 Posted by John Bambenek | DailyIllini, Illinois, Local, Politics, University of Illinois | no comments

Local C-U Anti-War Protesters Mocked by the Daily Show

If you take a look at the Daily Show and watch the episode “March of the Peaceniks”, you’ll see C-U’s own anti-war protesters mocked by John Stewart…

Awesome.

September 28th, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Local, Military / War, Politics | one comment

What is it with Anti-semites?

David Green, local anti-semite, writes in to the DailyIllini on the occasion of Simon Wiesenthal’s death to spew his hateful diatribe. He has nothing against Wiesenthal, he just can’t stand to let them man pass in peace without taking a swipe at the Jews and the US for being evil regimes. He much prefers us to be happier and more just regimes like Soviet Russia, Saddam’s Iraq, the Taliban’s Afghanistan, Hitler’s Germany, or some other of the joyous left-wing paradises out there.

For reference, this was the column he was writing in response to.

September 28th, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | DailyIllini, Local, Military / War, Politics, University of Illinois | no comments