Sign of the times: Good to know, but so what?

Information wants to be free!

David Askins of the Ann Arbor Chronicle written a very detailed article (complete with bar charts and maps) showing the location of campaign contributers to candidates for city council nomination in the Democratic primary election next month. Nicely done Mr. Askins.

However, unless and until Ann Arbor repeals the party label election form of candidate nomination (i.e., Democrat or Republican) this is all merely pro forma BS signifying nothing. The Republicans don't field candidates any longer in most wards and the other challengers to the status quo are either quirky independents (Bean) or odd ball Democrats (Lesko).

My suggestion is this: Let anyone who meets the residency and other requirements gather a couple hundred signatures from voters in their wards and put them all on a no party label ballot and let the voters pick the top two. Ann Arbor is a surprising diverse city for its size and there are a lot of good men and women who's talents should be available to us rather than the limited offerings of a small cabal of Democratic Party insiders (maybe a dozen) and selected by the small number of Democratic party primary voters (a few hundred).

Sign of the Times...cont'd

Is it just me or is the media hype behind all these "state of ...." speeches more than a little ridiculous? Just what do us mere mundanes and the ink-stained wretches of the Fourth Estate who make their living explaining it all to us expect to discern from listening to these only slightly updated versions of the monarch's throne speeches? Isn't the legislature the first amongst equals in our republican system of governance? They are the ones who actually are supposed to pass the laws we live under, no? They shouldn't be hopping off their chairs barking and clapping like a mob of trained seals seeking a thrown fish.  They combine the worst aspects of lame political oration with a high-school pep rally. Bah.