Author: Dick

This is the first day of Sunshine Week. Here is a simple explanation of Sunshine Week from the Sunshine Week Web site:

“During Sunshine Week, participating daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, online sites, and radio and television broadcasters run editorials, op-ed columns, editorial cartoons, public forums, and news and feature stories that drive public discussion about why open government is important to everyone, not just to journalists.”

Working over the past two decades as a journalist, I saw just how difficult it is to obtain access to information that belongs to the public. This difficulty was not just at the federal government level — which has become increasingly sunshine free — but also at the level of small-town cops, city officials and state bureaucrats. The situation has become dire with the present batch of folks running the federal government. To paraphrase Still Bill Withers: “There ain’t no sunshine … “

When I got indignant over some government official not wanting to share that information that was legally the public’s, I sometimes thought that some of the pointy-headed imbeciles I dealt with had the very erroneous position that the information somehow belonged to them. It belonged to the police department. It belonged to Officer Krupke. It belonged to the city council. What a load of wrong-thinking crap!

No, no and more no. It also doesn’t belong to the journalist. It doesn’t belong to The New York Times. It doesn’t belong to Donald Trump either. Public information belongs to the public. And we should demand our rightful access to that information that is for the public’s consumption.

Let the sun shine in, brothers and sisters! Open up those government files and let it shine on in.

Once in awhile I tumble out of the doldrums. It’s more like stumble actually. And I’m not sure the doldrums is what I stumble or tumble out of but that’s better than ending the sentence with a preposition. And it is quite unlike Richard A. Loeb — of Leopold and Loeb infamy — who ended a sentence with a proposition. Be that as it may I discovered an amusing blog that I have recently linked to my blogroll.

I knew I was hooked on reading Thought Alarm when I read the headline:

“Vivi may have approved port deal without president’s knowledge”

That’s thinking outside the shipping container.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton looks up while someone looks on for some reason.
Gale Norton announced her resignation as Secretary of the Interior today. In her letter to President George Bush, Norton said:

“With your support and leadership, your team at Interior has accomplished great work in the face of hurricanes, record-setting wildfires and droughts, acrimonious litigation, and expanded post 9-11 security responsibilities.”

All of which was written with a straight face I’m sure.

It is hard to list all the accomplishments of Norton, no doubt the most babeilicious Interior Secretary. Really, it’s hard to list all the accomplishments. Or any for that matter.

Perhaps Norton will be best known for what she didn’t do but for what someone else said. Yes, I’m talking about that now infamous quote from brainy Jessica Simpson upon being introduced to Norton at a White House reception:

“You’ve done a nice job decorating the White House.”

I leave you with this interesting shot of Jessica Simpson. It is for gratuitous purposes I assure you.

Sorry that it has taken more than 90 minutes to correct the spelling of “epiphany” in my last post. I could have just as easily said: “Hey, I just thought of something pretty wonderful that I hadn’t thought of before!” But nooooooooo. I had to use epiphany in order to sound like something really major happened. As in: “I just had an epiphany, get a crash cart!” Or, “I just had an epiphany. It wasn’t bad but it could have been cooked a little better.”

Actually, I started to correct the mizpellzement as soon as I had seen her in her oh so short skirt doing The Hustle. (Huh?) But as I hit the button to publish I was blinded by a brilliant light that evidently originated from Planet Blogger. A big sign then arose and said: “Cool thy jets.” About that time a work thing came up, followed by a trip to the supermarket, lunch and getting the red beans boiling. Yes, smartass, in that order. Then I checked my blog’s dashboard and it said that I spellzed epiphany the Wright way but my blog page said something different. So I said: “Crap.” Then I finally published the correct spellingzzz of epiphany an hour and a half later.

That is what I’m talking about.

I just realized that I love my job. Granted, I’m not making much money. I’m barely getting by in fact. But my job allows me to stop what I am doing so I might walk outside and watch it rain. Not bad work if you can get it.