Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Opinion

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Sage Views

By Smokey Briggs

Liberals

and skunks

I have never met a liberal who grew up in the country.

You learn a lot growing up in the country. I think that the continued urbanization of America has a lot to do with our total unwillingness to elect leaders who will do the right thing.

Instead we elect politicians who tell us what we want to hear even while the evidence is clearly to the contrary.

Living a little closer to nature than a two-minute hike to McDonalds fosters a more realistic view of the world.

Being an elected official is a lot like having a chicken coop out in the sticks.

If you are going to do the right thing by your chickens you have to make some tough decisions.

Last night was one of those nights.

Mom jumped out of bed at 4:17a.m. and said, "Skunk in the chicken house."

She has a baby monitor rigged that plays into our room and sure enough the sounds of battle were blasting from the little radio.

Before I could pull on my boots she was out the door with the big flashlight.

In these situations mom is the family quick reaction force - lightly armed but fast.

My job is to bring firepower to bear on the subject she scouts out, but it takes a few more moments to mobilize the family's heavy infantry.

She was already at the chicken coop door when I arrived toting the trusty side-by-side, vintage, American-made, 20-guage I bought her for our first wedding anniversary.

Mom propped the door open and backpedaled cursing the intruder that was still in the coop.

We have one hen with small chicks and this hen is all mama in the finest sense of the word. As the black and white intruder exited the coop she was still flogging the murderer with all she had. She had feathers missing - her and that big boar skunk had been going toe-to-toe for a while.

Finally the no-good polecat put a little distance between himself and mama hen and I lined him up down the barrels of the 20-guage.

That was the moment of truth.

It is the moment when liberals back down from the hard choice and tell you it was in your best interest.

Liberals do not shoot the skunk. They back off and let him leave and crow that they saved the day without causing a lot of stink.

What they do not bother to acknowledge is that Mr. Skunk will be back in the next few nights for another batch of chicken.

Conservatives understand reality. They know that if you shoot the skunk he is going to let loose of every gland when he dies and the stench will be horrible.

They also know that a bad smell is better than more dead chicks.

I am a conservative.

Mr. Skunk got both barrels of #6 shot.

The stench was immediate and gagging.

The liberal reaction to nearly every situation is the same. They choose the least stinky path no matter the real consequences and then tell you that avoiding the stink was a great victory. Usually they avoid the stink by raising taxes that will be paid by those who work the hardest and have the least amount of time to gripe about their new burden.

Conservatives know that that real victory is in the final result - stinky or not.

What we also know is that eventually the liberal plan stinks even worse than the smell they wanted to avoid.

The stench emanating from California right now is a prime example - and I'm not talking about the recall election.

The recall is just the stench you get when you shoot the skunk.

The real stinky smell is the smell of death in the economic chicken coop of California that can be attributed to a slew of skunky entitlements, taxes and administrative rules that may smell pretty on paper but are guaranteed poison in practice.

So, good luck to California. I hope they shoot the skunk this weekend - but considering their take on the 2nd Amendment I would not give odds on it.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Smokey Briggs is the editor and publisher of the Pecos Enterprise whose column appears on Tuesdays. He can be e-mailed at: smokey@pecos.net

Our View

Judge Galindo needs to explain

the reasoning behind his budget

Today the Reeves County Commissioner's Court will be reviewing County Judge Jimmy Galindo's proposed budget for 2004.

While the proposed budget is technically balanced - just how that balancing takes place is questionable.

A quick glance through the budget shows revenues going up in several categories that do not seem logical and expenses remaining about the same - in other words there does not seem to have been an attempt to cut expenses when the county is facing what promises to be a very tough economic year.

Most striking to us are projected revenue increases for collection of delinquent taxes, fees collected by district and county clerks, fees charged by the justice courts, and revenue to be brought in by the Reeves County Sheriff's office for housing inmates.

Each of these revenue sources is budgeted to bring in more revenue than was actually brought in during 2002 and more than would seem reasonable given the 2003 collections up through August 31.

Since 2002 the county has budgeted $200,000 in revenue for collection in delinquent taxes. In 2002 it collected $173,000. In the first eight months of 2003 it has collected just $112,000.

Fees for the district clerk and county clerk show similar trends and budgeting.

The revenue line for the sheriff's office for inmate revenue seems to be the most optimistic.

Budgeted at $702,625 in 2002, the actual revenue was $674,288. It was again budgeted at $702,625 in 2003. This year, in the first eight months the revenue collected has been $257,180. It would not appear that this revenue stream will perform to budgeted expectations.

The 2004 figure? In 2004 the revenue is budgeted at $950,149.

Now maybe there are solid explanations for these figures. Judge G 3alindo is the sole budgeting officer for the county and he may very well have the facts and logic to back up his numbers.

If he does, the people of Reeves County ought to hear them today during the Commissioner's meeting - such numbers demand a rational explanation.

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Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 432-445-5475, FAX 432-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net

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