Disneyland Is Not the Happiest Place on Earth for Jose Martinez

Walt Disney created several great rides for the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. One of them is “It’s a Small World”. He moved it to Disneyland, “The happiest Place on Earth,” when the Fair closed. You can’t escape it. The ride has globally spread like a virus, popping up at all the Disney theme parks. You can also take a virtual ride on YouTube. It’s a cute, mellow ride around the various continents and ethnicities with 350 audio-animatronic dolls serenading the passengers in gently flowing barges. This is not Indiana Jones, not even Pirates of the Caribbean – no climbs, no dips, no bumps, no jerks, no plunges. Just a nice smooth ride. Disney entertainment at its best. I’ve ridden it many times when I could afford an annual pass. But then there’s the song, “It’s a Small World (After All).” That’s about it for the lyrics. The Sherman Brothers wrote better songs for Walt Disney, but It’s a Small World is the one you remember. You can't escape it. It plays continuously, over and over, as you proceed slowly through the ride. It starts to knar on you, like a wart that won’t go away. The tune, but mostly the lyrics, keep growing in your psyche until you loathe it. It’s a small, small, small, small world after all. Disneyland varies the music to include Christmas Carols, but the Christmas Season is too short. Disneyland celebrated its 50th Anniversary over 18 months so there’s no reason why it can’t stretch the Holiday Season with the carols from Labor Day till Memorial Day. Let the tourists experience the Full Monte (loop) of the song. Poor Jose Martinez of San Pedro, California – not far from The Happiest Place on Earth. Jose is a paraplegic, who obviously cannot ride all of Disneyland’s wonderful attractions. He suffers from high blood pressure and panic attacks. Space Mountain would be a bad idea, but It’s a Small World is perfect for him. He had not been to Disneyland since he was a child. It was time to relive the memories. And there was Jose and his wife on November 27, 2009 in It’s a Small World near the end of the ride when it broke down. The exit dock was in sight. Relief was at hand. But not for Jose Martinez. As the phrase goes: "No way, Jose." Disney’s employees evacuated everyone else on the boats, but not Jose. They claimed they could not help him because of his disability. They also did not notify the Anaheim Fire Department of his presence. The AFD could have rescued Jose. The exit dock was in sight, but relief was not at hand. Alas, Disneyland could neither rescue Jose nor turn off the music. Joe sat in Hell, listening to 30 continuous minutes of It’s a Small World (After all). That is half an hour of cruel and unusual punishment. It is 30 minutes of severe emotional distress. It is 1,800 seconds of pure torture while the outside clock tick tocks. What would you pay to relieve yourself of this misery? The exit dock was in sight, but Jose could not relieve himself. He had to urinate but couldn’t. Jose suffered a panic attack while the Disney employees violated The Americans With Disabilities. Happy was one of the seven Dwarfs, but Hapless showed up. Bashful was hiding in Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Jose met up with Sneezy and Doc at the Disneyland First Aid Station. The Happiest Place on Earth also has a real operating jail. Jose Martinez exercised his fundamental American rights by suing Disney in Los Angeles. Only Dopey would sue Disneyland in Orange County if an alternative jurisdiction exists. Did a happy ending come to Jose Travails in the Happy Kingdom? Yes, and no. He just won his lawsuit, but the Grumpy Court only awarded him $8,000 ($4,000 for pain and suffering and $4,000 for access violations). That will barely cover his legal fees.

Where is President Obama? The Golden Gate Bridge is Laying Off Its Toll Collectors

The Golden Gate Bridge, the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, one of the seven modern wonders of the world, San Francisco’s and perhaps California’s most famous landmark, is going electronic. Today was the last day for the toll collectors on the Golden Gate Bridge. They will be replaced tomorrow by automation. The good news for the laid off tollbooth collectors is that they can now breathe easier. They will no longer be inhaling the toxic exhaust of the cars and trucks passing through their tollbooths. The new fee for using a transponder with Fas Trak or credit card is $5. It’s $6 for the equipment to read the car’s license plate and then send a bill. The estimated savings by laying off the 9 full time and 28 part time collectors is $16 million over 5 years. The District increased the speed limit through the toll plaza to 25MPH, up from 15MPH. There should now be fewer bottlenecks on the bridge. The estimated cost of installing the fully electronic system is $3.2 million. The estimated deficit for the District over the next 5 years is $66 million. People are being laid off to save money. Yet the Golden Gate Bridge, which opened in 1937, has long since paid off its bonds. Nor does it cost a small fortune to maintain the bridge and keep it painted orange. The Bridge tolls contributed 68.7% of the District’s revenues in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012, but expenditures for the bridge only equaled 25.6% of the budget. The Golden Gate Bridge is a cash cow. The Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District is another story. It is a fiscal black hole. or more accurately a red morass. The directors of the Bridge District would not rest on their laurels by paying off the original bridge bonds. Like any bureaucracy, they had to find a new purpose in life, a new meaning for their existence. They settled on mass transit, a guaranteed money-losing proposition. The Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District purchased the money losing Greyhound Bus commuter service from San Francisco to Marin County, turning it into the money losing Golden Gate Transit Bus Service (GGT). The GGT generates 8.3% of the District’s revenues, but consumes 44.5% of the expenditures. Not satisfied with the money losing bus system, the District then inaugurated a picturesque ferry service between Larkspur in Marin County and San Francisco. It only ran a 5.7% differential between the revenues and expenditures. Roughly 38 million vehicles crossed the Golden Gate Bridge in FY 2012, compared to 6.5 million bus passengers and 2.2 million ferry riders. The District laid off the toll collectors to further subsidize the mass transit operations. The bridge collector cutbacks are not a new development. Bridges shifted from collecting tolls both ways to one side only with doubled tolls decades ago. (Parking lots are increasingly automating their fee collections.) Why isn’t President Obama complaining about the displacement of the toll collectors, public employees all? He is seemingly opposed to this type of technological advance, especially when it results in the layoffs. He said in a June 14, 2012 in an interview with NBC’s Ann Curry “There are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become more efficient with a lot fewer workers. You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM, you don’t go to a bank teller, or you go to the airport and you’re using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate.” He almost sounded like a Luddite, complaining of automation. He sounded ignorant of economic efficiency. The tollbooth collectors can now join the ranks of parking lot attendants, elevator operators, and switchboard operators. Even Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid cannot blame this one on sequestration.

UCLA is Now the Graveyard of College Basketball Coaches Ohio State received the well-deserved reputation seven decades ago of being “the graveyard of football coaches.” UCLA with the firing of Coach Ben Howland on Sunday has now earned that sobriquet for basketball. Schools with exceptional success in an athletic program instill an expectation of continued success in the fan base. God help the succeeding coaches over whom the Sword of Damocles hangs. Winning in not enough. Winning big is insufficient. National championships, preferably with perfect seasons, are expected. Nick Saban has finally filled the shoes of Bear Bryant at Alabama. None of the six coaches between the Bear and Sabin measured up, not even Gene Stallings who won a national title in 1992. Ohio State had 5 coaches in 11 years before woody Hayes was hired in 1951. Woody won 5 national titles before being fired in 1978. His successor, Earle Bruce, was fired in 1987, as was John Cooper in 2000. Neither won a national title and both had losing records against Michigan. Jim Tressel won a national title in 2002 and dominated Michigan. He too was fired in 2011. If history is any guide, Urban Meyer’s years are numbered. Other football powers, Texas, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, USC, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, Washington, and almost all the SEC will pull the trigger on coaches who don’t measure up. Historic basketball powers, such as Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina, have the same attitude. UCLA has achieved the Ohio State legend in basketball. John Wooden won 10 national titles in 12 years between 1964 and 1976. The great Adolph Rupp and Mike Krzyxewski have only won 4 each. The infante terrible Bobby Knight won three at Indiana. John Wooden’s record will not be broken in this era of “one and done” for the superstars. Pat Summitt at Tennessee came close with 8 titles for the Lady Vols, but she’s retired for medical reasons. The UCLA family expects basketball excellence. It is suffering from a case of excessive enthusiasm. Ben Howland did not win enough in the past five years, so he gets a $2.3 million buyout for next year. John Wooden never earned more than $30,000 and Woody Hayes $43,000. They represent a different era, one which was is not obsessed with multi million dollar athletic budgets – an era based on tradition and fundamentals rather than prime time. Win big and fill the seats. The five coaches who immediately followed Wooden lasted a total of 13 years. The pressure to win was too great. Nothing less than a national title was acceptable. The succeeding coaches of Jim Harrick, Steve Lavin, and now Ben Howland were fired. Harrick was not saved by winning a national title in 1994-95, the year before his termination. Pete Dalis, UCLA’s athletic director, wanted to fired Harrick for some time, and finally found an excuse in a recruiting violation. Some terminations are for conduct, such as hitting players on the opposing team (Woody Hayes), his own players (Bobby Knight), player misconduct (Tressel),or otherwise becoming an embarrassment to the institution (Tressel). Sports Illustrated published a year ago a feature article which dammed Howland and the UCLA basketball program. It is not pleasant reading, and is perhaps responsible for UCLA falling short of 10,000 tickets sold in all but 5 home games. Ben Howland stopped winning big and filling the seats. The players have increasingly quit, literally and figuratively, on him over his decade at UCLA, during the off season, during the season, and more recently during games. UCLA basketball has not been UCLA basketball for 37 years.

Recent Photo Ops Don't Show the Full Picture

Politics make for strange bedfellows. So do photo ops. Photos this past week show Pope Francis and Argentina President Cristina Kirchner warmly embracing each other with a slight kiss from the Pope bestowed on the President. Imagine they kissed and made up. Photos show another warm embrace between President Obama and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with broad smiles and effusive praise. All is right in the world. President Kirchner and Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio did not like each other. It’s fair to say they held each other in contempt. The Cardinal was outspoken in his opposition to her social agenda, including gay marriage. The Cardinal called her policies an “attack on God’s Plan.” She called him “medieval” He will be even more orthodox in ascending to the Papacy. Yet, President Kirchner was the first foreign leader to greet the new Cardinal Francis. She asked him to help convince England to return the Falkland Islands (The Malvinas) to Argentina. Popes can work miracles, but it’s almost 4 centuries since a Pope had a direct line to the British government. Imagine the John Lennon song “Imagine.” Imagine the Pope and the Argentina President really kissed and made up. Imagine if President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu either like or even respect each other. Imagine if President Obama had not insisted Israel revert to the 1967 borders. Imagine if President Obama hadn’t told French President Sarkozy what he really thought of the Israeli prime minister. Imagine if President Obama found time to meet with the Prime Minister rather than David Letterman in New York during the United Nations General Assembly. Imagine if the President had broken bread with the Prime Minister rather than ostracizing him. Imagine if President Obama had not so enthusiastically supported the Arab Spring, pushed out President Mubarak of Egypt, or did not send hundreds of millions of dollars and F 16’s to the Muslim Brotherhood government of Egypt. Imagine that President Obama had a coherent foreign policy. Imagine if President Obama responded with alacrity to Benghazi rather than feckleness. Imagine that the people of Israel really believe President Obama. Imagine you can believe photos.

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl Hits on UPMC

The City of Pittsburgh is in trouble. The once Steel City has been drowning in underfunded pension liabilities for over a decade. The unfunded pension liability for the municipal employees is around $1 billion. The cash flow deficit in 2011 was $8.3 million. Over half of the city’s $460 million budget goes to debt, pension and health care expenditures. The city has pledged $730 million in parking tax receipts to the pension fund over the next 30 years. It’s a start, but not enough. The unions, of course, oppose pension reform. The coffers are ravenous. Mayor Ravenstahl keeps searching therefore for additional revenues to feed the beast. He proposed in 2009 a 1% tax on college tuition at Pittsburgh institutions of higher education, ranging from community colleges to The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon. He dropped the proposal after the institutions agreed to voluntarily make payments in kind to the city. He’s still searching. His eyes focused on UPMC, formerly the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The University spun off UPMC in 1998 as an independent non-profit. The University maintains its medical school and control over the academic program and faculty appointments. UPMC has expanded to become the largest employer in Western Pennsylvania with 54,000 employees. 20 hospitals,4,200 beds, and 400 outpatient clinics. The $10 billion enterprise is ranked as one of the top 15 hospitals in the United States. The UPMC also pays property taxes on less than half of its holdings in Pittsburgh because of its status as a non-profit. One of the fiscal problems faced by cities like Pittsburgh is that an increasing percent of the land base is owned by non-profits such as churches, hospitals, museums, and universities. Pittsburgh lost much of its industrial base and corporate headquarters in recent decades, depriving the city of revenues. Pittsburgh’s conundrum is that much of its current economic base centers around UMPH, the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon. They provide the jobs and economic revenues that fuels the region’s economy. He knows though that even if a Andrew Carnegie can move to New York or Andrew Mellon donate his extensive art collection to the National Gallery in Washington, Carnegie Mellon University remains in Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued last year a decision, which limited the definition of charities. The Court held that a non-profit to qualify as an “institution of purely public charity” had to meet five standards: 1) Advance a charitable purpose; 2) Donate a substantial amount of its services; 3) Benefit a large portion of people who need charity; 4) Relieve the government of some of its burden; and 5) Operate entirely free of a profit motive. The Mayor claims that UPMA fails to meet one to three of these criteria. He claims that this battle is like David and Goliath and that ”Enough is enough. Today is the day we start to fight back.” He sounds like he’s trying to bully the medical institution as he did the two famous universities. UPMC claims to have provided $622 million in charity care and other community benefits last year. Mayor Ravenstahl filed actions against UPMC attempting to strip it of its tax exempt status. He wants to claim an additional $20 million annually in property taxes from the medical provider as well as six years of back payroll taxes. He asked the Allegheny County Court to order UPMC to pay the payroll taxes, and will challenge the non-profit’s tax exempt status before the Allegheny County Board of Property Assessment, Appeals and Review. Not everyone likes UPMC and its economic power. The Service Employees International Union, for example, complains that it underpays the blue collar employees while paying excessive salaries to management. Several executives earn over $1 million annually. UPMC issued a press statement after the actions were announced. It starts out “The challenge to UPMC’s tax-exempt status appears to be based on the mistaken impression that a non-profit organization must conduct its affairs in a way that pleases certain labor unions, certain favored businesses, or particular political constituencies.” This battle may get interesting.

Musings on March Madness

March Madness is here – three weeks of bracketmania which disrupt office productivity and cost a University of Washington football coach his job. March Madness - Three billion dollars in bets, enough for a down payment on Sequestration, and three times what the NCAA reaps from the tournament. The student athletes earn nothing. March madness where 64/68 teams compete to be the nation’s best in a year when no team wanted to be Number 1, especially Kentucky the returning national champion which did not even get into the tournament this year. Gonzaga ended the regular season ranked first in the nation, but only because it was the last team standing. Indiana, Duke, Louisville, and Michigan all tasted the sweet waters of numero uno and shot a brick. Indeed, Michigan celebrated its first taste on top since the Middle Ages by going 6-6 in its last 12 games. It’s quite capable of losing to the South Dakota State Jackrabbits in the first round or presumably VCC in the second round. Win one, Lose one, not “We On” is the team’s new motto. Michigan may suffer the infamous Sports Illustrated Jinx since SI named the sophomore guard the Player of the Year earlier today. Perhaps a Jesuit University will win the national title in the Year of the Jesuit. Gonzaga is seeded first in the NCAA’s with Creighton, Georgetown, Marquette, and St. Louis in the tournament. How can you root against Zags, Hoyas, or Billikens? Will Pope Francis come to the finals if it matches two Jesuit schools? Georgetown, Loyola of Chicago, Marquette, and USF have won the title in the past. Perhaps 2013 will be the Year of the Big Conference, nee the Big Ten, but since 10 doesn’t equal 11, 12 or 14, it just goes as Big. The Big Conference was widely regarded this year as the best basketball conference with its top seven teams in the NCAA’s having beat up on each other in internecine games. The Big Conference has been disappointing in the NCAA’s in recent years, just like the football bowl games. Michigan State won in 2000 and Michigan in 1989. Indiana and Wisconsin were 3-3 in their most recent games and Michigan State 3-4. Minnesota lost 11 of the past16 games. The Big’s Magnificent 7 are not entering the Big Dance on a roll. Whatever happened to the ACC or Big East? The Big East has 8 teams in the Big Dance, its Last Tango. This is the end of the Big East as the seven Catholic basketball schools form a new conference having purchased the Big East Title. The new Big East Conference includes the eastern states of Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin. Maryland, a stalwart of the ACC, is taking the money to defect to the Big Conference, which needs a football patsy to replace the now competitive Northwestern. The Wildcats celebrated their record of never being invited to the NCAA’s by firing their coach. Will UCLA advance to the Sweet 16 or Elite 8 to save Coach Ben Howland’s job? Probably not! Both the Athletic Department and the Business Office want him gone. Pauley Pavilion with a capacity of 13,800 cost $5 million to build in 1965, but $136 million to remodel and upgrade in 2012. The UCLA Bruins only had 5 home games with over 10,000 in attendance this past season. Howland’s buyout is $2.3 million. Do the math. How far short will one and done come this year? The four top seeds are Gonzaga, Louisville, Indiana, and Kansas from the Heartland. The odds are that none will cut down the nets in Atlanta. Wouldn't it be a hoot if Louisville wins this year after Kentucky won last year? Who will be the Cinderella this year? Who will be this year’s George Mason, Butler, VCU, or Gonzaga? Will Boise State do to basketball what it did to football? Who knows? Parity makes every team equal this year. Someone has to win though. Harvard is once again in the NCAA’s. Will it drop the H Bomb this year on an opposing team? Forget season records, average margin of victory, conference strength and strength of schedule, rebounding record, three point shooting, or the assist/turnover ratio, the decisive factor will be which team can consistently make free throws. The winner of the Office Pool will come from the Secretary Pool. She will know absolutely nothing about basketball. Either that or use the dartboard

Cyprus, Chief Justice Roberts, and ObamaCare

Chief Justice Roberts used the Taxation Clause to uphold an otherwise unconstitutional health care mandate. The Chief Justice, the decisive fifth vote, decided to defer to the President and Congress rather than exercise the Court’s power to declare a law unconstitutional. He in essence granted a blank check to the President and Congress to regulate and tax with our worrying about judicial review. He took the cases of the New Deal to a new dimension. He did not create the precedents for the vast power of the government to use taxation to accomplish political goals, but his decision empowers the President and a future Congress. He affirmed the essentially plenary powers of Congress to impose taxes. The Court has recognized that the power to tax is the power to destroy, but so be it. The Fifth Amendment provides that the government cannot take property without due process of law. However, the government can do so through the Taxation Clause. The Taxation Power can be deliberately used to weaken or destroy a business, industry or activity. The simple test is whether or not it raises revenue. A classic example was the contest between Seattle City Light, owned by the city of Seattle, and the privately owned Puget Power to supply electricity to the residents of Seattle. The Supreme Court upheld a Seattle excise tax on private electricity as a revenue bill even though the clear intent was to give Seattle City Light a major cost advantage. The City succeeded in monopolizing the distribution of electricity to its citizens. The federal income tax was once a nominally high 91% and the inheritance tax (estate tax) reached 55%. We think of taxes being on activities, such as earned income or capital gains. It can also be on property and capital, such as property taxes, auto excise taxes, and inheritance taxes. Cyprus is imposing a tax that is really wealth confiscation. To bail out the two largest banks on Cyprus, the government is proposing a “tax” on bank deposits, 6.75% on deposits up to €100,00 and 9.9% above that, adding up to about €5.8 billion. This wealth confiscation, posed as a tax, is billed as a one time only emergency act, but it threatens to set off a run on other European banks. Cyprus could create another risk of eminent collapse of the world’s still fragile financial system, a threat which we narrowly escaped 5 years ago. Ironically it is being pushed to do so by Germany and the International Monetary Fund, which do not want to bail out Cyprus. A large percent of the European population will resort to keeping their money under the mattress. That will be cheaper and safer than depositing it in banks paying a low interest rate, almost zero, but the state then seizing a share of the wealth. Cyprus’ economy is about €18 billion, but its banks hold deposits approaching €70 billion, much of it by Russians. Cyprus, like Spain, Portugal, and Italy, has suffered an economic meltdown. Its top two banks would be liquidated without a bailout. They face a shortfall of €10 billion out of a total €17.5 billion banking deficit. Argentina three years ago seized about $14 billion in private pension funds, claiming it would stabilize them and pay a higher return to the investors. The actions by Cyprus and Argentina would appear unthinkable in the United States, but not after the ObamaCare decision. In addition, one of the little known provisions in the Dodd-Frank statute, enacted after the financial meltdown, grants the federal government the right to seize any non-bank financial institution or any business engaged in extensive financial operations, whose failure could pose a risk to the financial stability of the country. The Constitution will no longer protect us, thanks to Chief Justice Roberts.