Author: Dick

A visit to any VA Hospital is not a picnic. But it seemed my trip to the Dallas VA Hospital this morning was particularly fraught with equine feces. My visit was to obtain a new primary care doctor, as well as get the gears in motion for appointments with a neurologist and that hospital’s pain clinic.

It seemed as if all the non-medical personnel (and some of the medical ones) found it to be a great imposition to answer my questions or help me. “Oh me oh my! I do not wish to impose on whatever it is that you do just to help an old, shaking veteran such as me who is in severe pain!”

Sometimes it is hard not to believe that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs practices what I call medicine by attrition. I refer to the practice of waiting out patients until they die so the VA will not have to expend any energy or precious resources that might interfere with more important matters — such as their pay raises. The VA might as well shoot me.

Fortunately, not all VA employees are like that. But those who aren’t should bitch slap those who are and remind them why in the hell they work at a VA Hospital.

Ahhhh! Bitching makes life a little easier to tolerate.

Collin County Comm. Jack Hatchell

Yes, it does indeed seem like déjà vu all over again. The more things change, the more they remain the same. The more things change, the more they remain things. Whatever.

Here I am back in Collin County, Texas, without a job, just as I was 15 months ago. Meanwhile, the Collin County Commissioners have voted themselves a pay raise. How is that familiar? Well, it just so happens that in the county I left, Jefferson County, the commissioners there also decided to raise their own salaries.

Now perhaps you might think that the 6 percent pay raise Collin County’s ruling board approved by a 3-2 margin isn’t a big salary hike. That would be true in most cases. It certainly isn’t as large as the 17.2 percent raise they first proposed. Commissioner Jack Hatchell had the decency to make a motion for the tentative 6 percent compromise raise for the commissioners court and adding a 2 percent salary hike for other county officials.

Jefferson County commissioners tenatively approved an 18 percent raise for themselves and a 5 percent raise for the county judge.

The rationale for the raises in these two counties appears to be the added stress and strain on commissioners in governing larger Texas counties. Officials in Jefferson County — with a population of about 231,000 — decided to base their prospective raises on an average of counties with like sizes. Commissioners in Collin County, with more than a half-million residents, feel their salary should be about 90 percent of neighboring Dallas County commissioners.

So should local government officials be paid based on population? Obviously some pros and cons exist. It seems as if the larger the population, the bigger the increase of time expended by that official. And like Yogi Berra (or was it Ben Franklin?) said: “Time is money.”

Jefferson County Comm. Bo Alfred

At least Jefferson County Commissioner Bo Alfred had the novel idea that the county’s governing council should be paid more than other county officials because they take more s**t from residents.

But do you suppose the Collin County commissioners will perform 6 percent more work if they get a raise? And what about Alfred and his fellow court members in Jefferson County? Do you see them hopping up and doing 18 percent more than what they have been doing?

Neither set of raises are carved into stone as of yet. So the residents of these two counties — one in North Central Texas and the other on the Gulf Coast — need to do a little “Hmmm” -ing and figure out whether this is a sound move. Will higher salaries attract higher-caliber candidates? Will the increased pay lead to a more efficient government? I have my theories. But I will keep them to myself. I just say it’s all a case of the same things only they are different.

When CBS News announced that Katie Couric was to be the new evening news anchor, I had my reservations. But I have to say I was rather pleased with her initial newscast last night.

Being introduced in a voice over by no less than God himself, Walter Cronkite, the new broadcast showed from the start that it was going to be different from the rest of the pack and set apart from what CBS has done in the past.

Couric showed a bit less of her perky personae in the broadcast debut that had been such a staple of the “Today” show. She was serious when serious was needed and light when the occasion called for light. The new editorial page-style segment and picture features are perhaps a bit gimmicky, but if continued to be done right they could provide a relief from what has become a tiresome format in network news.

Alas, Katie doesn’t yet have the gravitas. Her personality lends itself more to the opening music of “The Devil Wears Prada.” And that’s not really bad — Katie or the song. There is nothing wrong with a little upbeat glamour. And besides gravitas is not necessisarily a congenital trait. After all, Ed Murrow, David Brinkley and Walter Cronkite didn’t start off being the Ed Murrow, David Brinkley and Walter Cronkite that the world came to know.

So I am impressed thus far and we shall see how Katie fares down the line.

Tricky Dick Cheney looks for lawyers to shoot in Marlboro Country.

Veep Cheney is out among the great unwashed these days helping the administration that he runs get out the message that the Iraq war is, to paraphrase Martha Stewart, “a good thing.”

But one could only surmise that Tee Dee is feeling a bit down these days. He has, after all, been the boss of the White House no matter what voters or the Supreme Court who elected Gee Dubya as president said. And sooner or later his role as the most powerful man in the world will eventually come to an end. How it will come to an end is only speculation but here are a few possibilities: 1) Genuine health problems. His is not the best ticker in the world no matter how powerful he is. 2) Fake health problems. Since he has a history heart issues, he can resign at the opportune time and pave the way for the heir apparent to the presidency via a Dubya appointment such as Condi or Karl. 3)He is indicted, faces prison time and resigns. A bit of Agnew Deja Vu.

Ex-presidents get gadzillions to write memoirs or get appointed to all kind of corporate boards. Cheney already has gone the corporate route and why would he want to write a book since he believes so much of his and the administration’s existence should be kept under wraps?

Perhaps our man Tricky Dick will ride off into the sunset with guns a-blazing. Maybe he will become an Old West-style gunslinger and get into barroom shootouts with the first person who slights his legacy or his lesbian daughter. Who knows what the future holds for Veep? After running the world, everything has to be downhill from here on out.

Today I am coming to you live from Allen, Texas. The city of some 70,000 — and about 25 north of Dallas — lies in the vast suburban prairies of North Central Texas. It seems as if the main activity of the city is growth as it had only 10,000 or so people around the late 1980s. One of Allen’s claims to fame is that it was the site of what was believed to be the first train robbery in Texas, which was pulled off by outlaw Sam Bass.

Just what I am doing here (back) in Allen is a subject of a chain of events. At the present time I do not care to get into those events. I will say I am staying once again with my friend Ross and his parrots Gabby and Jake, for how long I am not sure.

Allen is a completely different atmosphere from the funky, coastal, industrial Beaumont where I have lived for the last 15 months. That is not to say either place is bad, merely different.

My task at hand is try to get some sort of life-sustaining gig. It isn’t as easy to do as it once was but it isn’t impossible. With that I bid you a) dew b) a do c) adieu for the moment.