Therefore, do you agree that retired government employees should be re-hired given the scarcity of employment opportunities? I don’t!!!

Bottomline, retirees should remain retired!!! The GOP Precinct 1 Chairperson, herself, is a former retiree… How can the GOP from this precinct convince the voters to embrace its platform when people like Ana Teregeyo continue to leech of the government. The acronym GOP has a totally different meaning in CNMI politics. In these parts, it is defined as: The GREEDY OLD PARTY!!!

What is Tina’s dog’s name?
Hint: It’s not “DINNER”

DoctorsAnonymous Survey, Sep 2007, http://www.edisaliar.com

Tina, take care and keep your head up. In the wise words of Tupac, “Baby, don’t cry, baby keep your head up, even when the road is tough, keep your head up..”

You ask how 20 independents, 20 people who are not from the same party can come to some agreement. Well, I participate in a great many meetings with a variety of different people. We all come to the table with an assortment of ideas, and we come to agreement on many things. If you have a group of good people, with good intentions and no personal agendas that involve profit (monitarily or otherwise), that group can produce good and just work.

What if I tried to run through a forest in the middle of the night… blindfolded?

Sounds ridiculous to even begin such an attempt. But what if I did not know what a forest was? That there were sharp twigs to rip at my skin or knock out my eyes, stout trees to knock me unconscious, roots to trip me up, and fallen leaves to hide all other manner of dangers?

What if I had no choice? What is running through the forest blindfolded was part of the Legislature’s decision to make this the “public experience?” Seems to me it would be nice not to be handicapped by a blindfold, you know?

But I am blindfolded. At first by the law, followed eventually by the desire to please the bosses, certainly by acquiescence, fear of loss of job, and until I am just dumb enough not to know the difference.

My blind run through the forest inevitably scars me and I lose my bearings. Hell, I never had any bearings. I didn’t even know I was in a forest. But I can hear others bouncing off of things in the night and comfort myself in the knowledge that I’m only human, that I’m not perfect. So I forge ahead, at twice the speed, ignoring the pain and the damage I am doing to my body.

Or, I sit down in the middle of the pain, the frustration, the deception, the regret and give up and complain about the unfairness of it all, railing against the injustice of it all. How could the Legislators of my choosing have forsaken me and set me up with such an unyielding law? Why was I not given the right to be fully informed? What kind of sick joke is this, anyways?

==========================================================

The intriguing thing is that, as I run through the forest banging off of unseen objects, the blindfold begins to fray, to slip and some light begins to filter through. It is no longer complete darkness that envelops me. Fragments of shadows from the larger trees come into relief much as a mountain does at the day’s first light. Still, I manage to stumble on roots and occasionally (much more frequently than I would desire) smack dead on into the same damn trees. Being particularly wrongheaded, I continue to “fix” the blindfold and feel comfort in that until the next low hanging branch levels me as I barrel past.

===========================================================

“Tina! What is my government trying to do to me? Why is my elected representatives so unyielding in keeping the public’s affairs secret?” I cry out.

“Take off the blindfold.”

“Huh? What blindfold? Isn’t this part of the public experience?”

“Umm, no. I keep trying to find ways to get it off you and you keep putting it back on. Hate to break the news to you, but that wasn’t my idea.”

“Look Barbara, you have everything you need to get through this forest. Stop for a second, trust me, take off the blindfold and turn around for second to look at what you have run through.”

“Holy cow, you mean I’ve trampled all those bushes, all those trees, and formed that (dare I say it?) perfect circle? I’VE BEEN RUNNING IN CIRCLES? YOU KIDDING ME?”

[chuckling] “Umm, yep. Don’t get me wrong, from where I stand, there is a certain beauty to the endless fields of perfect circles I see created by our citizens. And hey, I’m always up for a good chuckle, but I have to admit, that looks pretty painful. Is it?”

“HELL YES… hey Tina, is my circle really a good one?”

“Oh boy, we’ve got more work to do than I thought… Let me ask you something, Barbara. Why do you insist on running through a forest blindfolded, going in circles, bashing into other people once in a while, running straight into trees and adjusting the blindfold? Look, take the blindfold off or at the very least recognize that you’re wearing one, will you?”

“Well, ok, I’ll do that and see what happens (if you’ll pardon the pun)”

her great smile] “Sure, Barbara. Oh, and one other thing… walk, don’t run. This is not a race and the forest is endless.”

“OK, so let me get this straight, I have always had everything I needed to navigate this government, my elected officials just decided to make it more complicated?”

“Sort of. Don’t worry about it too much. For now, leave the blindfold off, ok? There are some really big trees I’m pretty sure you don’t want to run into in this forest.”

While I, and I am sure many others, find solace in keeping the blindfold on, Tina has taken hers off and she tells us that we can see our way through the forest called the CNMI Government much better with the blindfold off.

Keep the public business open and transparent for all to see and know!

Go Tina, Go Girl!

But most people/most voters do want a clean government. We just need some hard lessons in the reality of what that means. Like no more nepotism. Like a REAL civil service and a lot less “excepted” service. Like our very limited funds going to the most important needs (and an end to what we might like to have but can get along without–like Women’s affairs and Carolinian affairs and Youth Congress, etc.).

I think the judicial branch is the least corrupt branch of government. (There have been some problems there, but a lot less than elsewhere.) So I think the start of the clean-up effort should be either at the Legislature or at the Executive branch.

How to do that? One person at a time. One audit at a time. One prosecution at a time.

And I would like to think that having more educated Legislators (whether college or law grads) will help, although I realize that a corrupt official with a degree may be more dangerous than one without–but I’m hoping that the smart and savvy will be on the lookout for the tricky and sly.

and tina, what is your take on the pozzolan mining that was killed by the “voice of reason”?

???????

Tina, although I have the utmost respect for her courage, is already making enemies of the people she is about to work with. When she makes a harsh and hasty allegation, she should point out who these corrupt officials are and not GENERALIZE!

I do. I’m not singling out Tina. The same questions apply to the other candidates as well. Because this Tina’s website though, I’ve decided to ask her those HOW questions. I thought that in this forum, participants are supposed to “assume nothing and ask anything.”

Tina, although I have the utmost respect for her courage, is already making enemies of the people she is about to work with. When she makes a harsh and hasty allegation, she should point out who these corrupt officials are and not GENERALIZED!

it may not be, but that didn’t stop rampant pillaging has it?

the only solution to our problems is transparency – the people must know what their representatives have done, continue to do, and their plans to expand their plundering of our last finite resource.

any vote other than ‘independent’ will mean that we have not learned from our past!

At least Tina is putting it all out on the line. And the fact is, it is often necessary to “clean house” and start from the bottom up. It does no good to move your Gucci couch into a house full of garbage.

I disagree with Tina on a couple of major issues.. BUT AT LEAST I KNOW HER POSITION ON THE ISSUES. Tina has proven herself as a person of action, a go-getter. In my humble opinion, if you hold Tina up against any other candidate in this or the last election.. Tina not only outshines them all.. she makes the next best candidates look questionable.

I’ve heard Tina’s “How’s” both in her reponses on specific topics in this forum and at her public presentations and appearances. Whether they work or not we’ll have to see.. but the change has got to start somewhere, with someone. If all it means is that many of the old do-nothings will look terrible.. than this is a good start.

In my humble opinion as well, if you have questions about Tina.. then as a conscientious voter.. you must have ENORMOUS questions about most of the other candidates.

With regard to the topic “cleaning up government”, it’s my opinion that you start from the top and work your way down. Just like dusting shelves. When the top perpetrators are dealt with, you’ll find most of the ones below will stop what they’re doing.

We will just be back to being a government that is ALMOST or NEARLY broke. The CNMI government is not set up as a for-profit institution or organization; meaning, savings from one agency will eventually go to OTHER expenses. Using the term “savings” so loosely is no different from saying: All politicians are honest.

My thoughts.

PoliTrix