It’s a Pinto
Drug needle
I have heard several folks criticizing local and federal law enforcement for their failure to stop the importation of drugs found in a Chinese garment worker’s car recently. I do not agree. Trying to stop this kind of thing at the border seems almost impossible.

While 176 grams sounds like a lot (and is a lot if it is being used by a relative who is destroying his family with it) it is really a tiny amount size wise. About 6 ounces of anything, illegal drugs, shredded carrots or beach sand is a pretty small package and could be hidden most anywhere.

Before finding fault with DEA or FBI or CPA or DPS think about how difficult it would be to find that needle in a haystack. Interdiction of large quantities is probably possible because of the physical size of the contraband package. How on earth would you expect to find something that small on a regular basis? I’ve heard of drug smelling dogs but would that work on something sealed airtight and really tiny in size? My guess would be probably not. Any experts in the field willing to give an opinion?

So it seems that solving the problem by reducing demand or by curbing illegal usage would be a far more profitable use of DPS/FBI/CPA/DEA personnel time than trying to find that tiny needle in the haystack of incoming people, baggage, merchandise, ship and air cargo.

Congratulations are due to the patrol officers who were observant enough to catch this guy during a routine traffic stop and get him and the drugs off the street.
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Up the wrong tree
Recently a group of people assembled at fishing Base to vent their frustrations at the power outages that have plagued our island for the last few months. Why the leaders of the event waited to protest until after the problem was temporarily solved by the Aggreko generators is a mystery only they know the answer to.

What they want is reliable and affordable power. That is a laudable goal. The way they want to do it is a throwback to the failed mechanisms of yesteryear. Individually and collectively they are calling for and insisting that ‘affordable’ power is a right assured to everyone. It is not a right; electric power is a commodity and has a price like any other good or service.

They are asking for a regression to the old days that they themselves in the next breath call for an end to. Then as now the local government owned and operated the power plants. Here on Saipan there used to be relatively reliable power and it was affordable as well, it was cheap in fact based on what it actually cost to produce it. It was cheap because the rate paying customers were not charged as much as it cost to make the power. The difference was made up for by government subsidies. They took all the money paid by the ratepayers into the system and used it for operations, plus they took more funds wrested from other sources and threw them in on top to keep the lights on. Little or nothing was spent on a decaying infrastructure as we all know and now it has come home to roost. They kept rates artificially low and that was the problem, not the solution. So to call out now for artificially lowered rates is irresponsible and won’t work this time any better than it did last time.

We should look to someone other than our government’s Administration, this one or any other one, to come up with answers to the affordability question. Likewise we should look elsewhere to find a professional operations company if we don't want to see this emergency fiasco repeated endlessly into the future. Rate setting and reliable operations should be done by a responsible and professional third party company or co-op, not the government. Let’s leave upside pricing oversight to a well trained Public Utilities Commission and downside pricing to real costs and reasonable profits. We will all pay less and have the reliability we all want to boot.

Privatize CUC with a completely open, no strings attached bid process. Then we have a chance for reliable affordable power. Begging another government group to take the reins from this government group is begging for more of the same.
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Which color horse?
Last week’s Sour Grapes had a section about the importance of consistency of purpose between the local Administration and the new Officer we are about to elect called a Non Voting Delegate. As a side issue in that piece I wrote, “Our elected Washing Rep is still in office though he is running for another office and the Constitution says he should resign.” Pete, and a couple of other people have sent me emails offering a different interpretation and claiming that he need not resign. Pete had a copy of that email printed as a Letter to the Editor citing his reasoning. Hopefully you read it.

Pete claims that the new federal law that mandates the new NVD office was written so as to define his old job to be the same as the new job he hopes to be elected to even though they are completely different. Maybe that is true.

Note that Pete A. currently works for the CNMI and is paid by the CNMI treasury. His title is “Resident Representative to the United States”, he is an elected and paid lobbyist for the CNMI. The new position he hopes to be elected to is the “Delegate to the House of Representatives”, a different animal entirely. Whoever wins will be paid by the United States Treasury. This is clearly a different job with a different title, different responsibilities, different authority and a different paymaster. To say he is running for the same office is not factual and at best constitutes semantic pandering. Note also that the office term of Washington Rep does not even expire until 2010. Maybe the reason for the language calling an apple an orange is so there are not two representatives from the CNMI floating around Washington at the same time, and not so the current Rep does not have to resign before running for a different job.

So it is a matter of interpretation whether the current Resident Representative should resign to run for the Non Voting Delegates office. However, the time frame is so short now that I guess it doesn’t make much difference so I won’t continue to beat this different colored horse of an argument any longer.

One other point deserves mention. Some think I bring this up because I don’t like Pete A. Nothing could be further from the truth. I like and respect him. In fact I find him to be an engaging man with enough intelligence and diplomatic capability to do the job if he is elected by the people of the CNMI. I don't agree with his new philosophical position nor do I want to personally back someone who has 'flipped' positions, but he is certainly capable if elected which is also true for most of the other candidates.

Anyway Pete, good luck and thanks for reading Sour Grapes.
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Quote of the week: When you point your finger at the moon, you want others to look at the moon, not your finger. Zen Homily

Riding up the Hill

Hell’s Coconuts
Motorcycle clubs don’t have the best reputations. What with sex and violence biker movies starting in the fifties and hitting a real stride in the seventies and continuing to today is it any wonder that popular culture sees the Harley rider as an anti social and even criminal element. In these films, and there have been scores of them, nomadic groups of
armed thugs do drugs, commit serious crimes and indulge in wanton revelry at every turn.

There may well be (or once have been) groups that deserved such a reputation but today’s biker, individually or in groups tends to exhibit a quite different persona. At the annual gathering of the Harley tribe in Sturgis, South Dakota you are far more likely to encounter a high dollar lawyer or a successful middle aged businessman robed in that biker jacket than you are to find a wandering misfit with a rap sheet. This year’s rally to celebrate the Harley riding lifestyle is the 68th annual event and will play host to about a half million aficionados (as opposed to desperados).

Part of the reason for the move to ‘upscale’ bikers is cost. These motorcycles don’t come cheap and by the time you have bought one, customized it and outfitted it with the latest geegaws you have ten’s of thousands invested. While 15 thousand might buy you a basic model it takes 10 times that amount, 150 thousand, to ride one of the themed customs that come out of the top design shops around the country. For a hundred miles and more surrounding Sturgis the air resounds with the ring of cash registers working overtime during rally week. Riders spend literally millions on entertainment, lodging, bike stuff and biker stuff. It takes a fair amount of cash to attend the rally and it takes a lot of the green stuff to ride a Harley as a hobby, even if you stay in your own hometown.

Here on Saipan we have a group called the Taga Riders, composed of motorcyclists from an array of different backgrounds. The club is small as biker groups go numbering maybe 20 or so. Don’t expect to see them ravaging a local malt shop, terrorizing the womenfolk or robbing the Bank of Guam, however. These guys and gals will be found gathering toys for an annual toys for tots Christmas event, or securing donations for the needy at the CHC hospital, helping the man’amko or doing lots of other positive community services they volunteer for each year. You will see them riding proudly at the Liberation day parade and you will see them around the island from time to time just riding for fun.

The Taga Riders spend part of their Sundays cruising up the sun dappled shady roads in Marpi or gliding the curves on Isa Drive (cross island road). You can see them stopped to enjoy a cold refreshment at one or more local watering holes on any given Sunday afternoon. You can hear the distinctive sound as their Harleys rumble past your Village on their way to enjoy the day with the wind blowing their hair and the sights, sounds and smells of Saipan Island droning past them.

They say you can always tell a happy Harley rider by the bugs on their teeth. This year from August 4th through the 10th in Sturgis there will be plenty of need for toothpicks if the joyous gatherings of years past are any indication. While our club members here on Saipan won’t have the opportunity to ride to Sturgis (unless they are sporting around on the new submarine version of the Electra Glide) they will be there in spirit, I’m sure.

So smile, honk and wave at the Bikers you see as they burble past your windshield. Even if they are off to work instead of riding for fun, you will probably see a great big smile on their faces as they ride the roads of Saipan Island. There are a couple of places to rent bikes, big and small, in Garapan so that rider you smile and wave at just might be a tourist enjoying our fair island by touring on two wheels. They like to be waved at too, so indulge yourself in a friendly gesture of welcome if you please.
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A cut above
I see where Washington Rep Pete Tenorio and Senator Louis Crisostimo both turned in their petitions and other paperwork to be certified candidates for the watching-but-unable-to-vote position of Non Voting Delegate to the US Congress last Friday. I also noticed that neither man resigned their current elected office. The ranks of those coveting the $170,000 per year job are swelling and now include the above two plus John Gonzales, Juan Lizama, Chong Won, David Cing, John Davis and Gregorio Sablan. The others who held public office or government jobs have resigned as the law stipulates. Are Messrs Tenorio and Crisostimo above the law or are they reading a different rulebook?

There is still a bit of time before the August 6th deadline for turning the official documents in to the Election Commission office on Capital Hill so don’t be surprised if another candidate or two shows up on the doorstep wanting to get in on the largesse available to congressional delegates. Can we get to 10?
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Quote of the Week: Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law. -Louis D. Brandeis, lawyer, judge, and writer (1856-1941)