Tom Rowe -- Schooner Fare -- Garrison Keillor

You, like Garrison, have that rare ability to make people stop rushing around and listen.

Hi Humble Farmer,

Dave Rowe sent me the link to the show (in Sept. I believe) in which you mentioned Tom Rowe's death. (We've had some contact in regards to Denny Breau. I also try to find work for Dave's trio and prior to that Turkey Hollow with Tom, Dave and Denny.)

I've kept the e-mail from Dave in the Inbox for a day I had time to listen to the show and that happened to be today. Your talking about Tom and his wonderful bass playing made me smile and I am so glad you brought that remembrance and tribute to your audience. The e-mail is now in my "read" category so I can bring it out and listen at will. There are several e-mails from Tom in the "read" box as well. About a year ago, someone e-mailed me a file with many photos. When I clicked on the first pictures, the computer went crazy and suddenly there were over 1000 e-mails in the in-box. They just kept coming and coming. Dave Rowe is my computer "help!" person but it was too late to call him. The e-mails were all ones I had deleted during the previous year plus. As I started deleting them again, I saw the e- mails from Tom. They started early in the fall of 2003 when he occasionally mentioned having problems with his throat and went on to his thoughts on the cancer diagnosis and his vow to fight the disease and win. Although my husband and I had never had the inclination to go on a cruise, we signed up for a Schooner Fare "Fan Club" cruise going to the Caribbean in January, 2004. Tom was so excited about this but of course after the cancer was diagnosed, his doctors said, What are you nuts - you can't go on a ship with 3000 people!" I told him in an e-mail that I wished it could be postponed until he could go and that I felt guilty about going. The last thing he said in the last e-mail on December 31 was "Go and have a good time. I command it!" His brother was on the cruise and we all gathered to call Tom from the ship when we had cell phone activity. But, we could not call out for some reason. Tom died shortly after we came back and that December 31 e-mail was the last contact I had with him.

My reason for telling you this is that hearing you talk about Tom made me think of the e-mails from him which I intend to keep (and have printed out.) My computer hard drive overloading and giving me back those e-mails was sort of a gift I think. They comfort me when I think about Tom. I think you should keep on mentioning the "d" word because the couple of lines you say about that person is a sweet tribute to someone who touched your life. And, those tributes will make others smile.

I enjoyed your whole show and could write paragraphs on Garrison Keillor who I've listened to off and on for years. My husband turned on the show starting sometime in the 1980s and finally sat me down to listen to the "Finn who wouldn't take a sauna" story. I was then hooked. When Garrison moved his show to NYC, I thought it lost some of the charm. He's been back to Minnesota for years now and I catch parts of the show pretty often. I've also attended a couple of live shows and met him during a book signing. You, like Garrison, have that rare ability to make people stop rushing around and listen. And, when that happens to me, I realize the world is not such a terrible place and this country is not completely populated by idiots.

Bait trucks - that was a new one for me. We have Alewifes that wash up on the shores of Lake Michigan. The smell is well - a smell. I wonder if David HB Drake who is a Milwaukee area folk singer and goes out on the Denis Sullivan - a lake schooner - has an Alewife song. He should have.

Thanks for a calm hour or so of listening to your show. I hope to meet you and hear you in person - down the road.

Kathy

Tabor pains. Tabor has sucked Colorado Dry

TABOR Pains

The "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" has sucked Colorado dry. It may soon be undone at the ballot box.

By Bill ChaloupkaWeb Exclusive: 10.13.05

Just at the moment the Republican coalition is showing strain over Katrina recovery and Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, a Colorado ballot measure is threatening more harm. Though it's a "purple" state with notable blue and red streaks, Colorado now has a chance to roll back a program long supported by the anti-government movement.

In 1992, amid the populist conservative backlash, Colorado passed a constitutional amendment widely known as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR, a measure which, according to its critics, was designed to starve government. For any level of government -- counties, cities, towns, even school districts -- TABOR stipulated that revenues and spending could only increase in proportion to population and inflation. Any revenues above that had to be refunded back to the taxpayers.

But the population-growth-and-inflation formula stipulated by the law doesn’t take productivity into account, so TABOR had the gradual effect of forcing government spending down, relative to population, inflation, and economic growth. Colorado now ranks 47th in the nation for state tax funds supporting higher education per $1,000 of personal income. That’s the lowest in 40 years, and represents a drop from 34th in 1992.

There’s more. As critics have long noted, TABOR's spending limits pave the way for even nastier crashes whenever a recession shows up. Since recessions drive government revenues down, the TABOR limits are also driven down. But once economic growth resumes, TABOR prevents government spending from returning to its pre-recession levels, even if the revenues are available to fund it. Remember, government revenues and spending can only increase from the previous year’s numbers, not from a higher number a year or two earlier. This came to be called the “ratchet down” effect.

When a serious recession hit telecom- and tech-heavy Colorado early in this decade, that ratchet kicked in. The result: It could take nearly a decade of small and incremental increases for spending to match pre-recession levels, even if the state’s economy booms. To make matters worse, the effects are concentrated, not spread evenly. Transportation and higher education were particularly hard-hit, since other big-ticket items were excluded. Public schools and many local governments were somewhat protected, because they had carved out specific exemptions from the TABOR limits. Meanwhile, other large state outlays -- such as medical costs -- are federally mandated. The Bell Policy Center, a Denver think tank, estimates that state support for higher education will actually decline to zero by 2015, presumably to be replaced by skyrocketing tuition bills and accompanied by a decline in the quality and variety of programs. From 1994 to 2001, the percentage of Colorado’s roads in poor condition rose from 65 percent to 73 percent. Colorado, a big state with lots of roads, now ranks sixth-worst nationally in what it spends to repair its roads.

In 2004, Republicans controlled Colorado’s legislature and the governor’s office. In the spring, they failed to fix TABOR, despite an effort by moderates and Democrats. In November 2004, the hard right paid the price. A well-targeted campaign turned both houses to the Democrats for the first time in decades, capping Colorado’s “purple” year. In several crucial races, the legislature’s inaction on TABOR was a featured issue. Though it was narrowly a red state in the presidential race -- 52 percent of voters went for Bush -- Colorado went blue further down the ballot, electing Ken Salazar to a U.S. Senate seat and his brother, John, to the U.S. House. Republicans previously held both seats.

Within days after the election, Governor Bill Owens, until then a darling of the national conservatives, said he’d work with the newly powerful state Democrats to fix TABOR. Owens and the legislature put two measures on the November 1 ballot. Referendum C, the first of the two, is a TABOR fix, which would effectively stay the spending limits for five years, allowing the Colorado to retain and spend funds TABOR would otherwise have forced to be refunded. Referendum C’s companion, Referendum D, would provide bonding authority to build transportation and education infrastructure -- authority that TABOR does not now allow.
The split in the Republican Party started soon after Owens' change of heart, with the most radical government-cutters angrily denouncing their fellow Republican. An odd struggle ensued, with moderate Republicans, Democrats, and much of the business community supporting the two referenda, citing the importance of state programs to economic development and quality of life. Radical Republicans, squawk radio, and national anti-tax conservatives like Grover Norquist, on the other hand, predictably oppose the referenda for anti-government reasons. More liberal groups, including the Colorado Progressive Coalition, had hoped for a flat-out repeal of TABOR, but have nonetheless joined the campaign for reform, probably because it’s what’s possible at this time.

Just a few weeks in front of the November 1 election, it’s hard to say who’s winning. Both sides are well funded, but the Rocky Mountain News has reported that the pro-Referendum C forces -- backed by the state's wealthy business community -- have a substantial fundraising edge, perhaps by a more than 4-to-1 margin. Their campaign is glossy and centrist. Their opponents got off to a good start with an aggressive summer ad campaign, but have now bogged down in squabbles of their own. Two Republicans running to replace the term-limited Owens as governor a year from now have bickered over the anti-Referendum C campaign, which may work to its supporters' advantage. Still, anti-referendum television ads and telephone push polls are now appearing more frequently, and that could tighten the race.

No statewide polls have been published since summer, and even if polls were available, they probably wouldn’t be very credible; it’s difficult to predict who will vote in an off-year election that features only a smattering of local issues to attract voters. The pro-Referendum C campaign obviously believes its core supporters -- well-educated business Republicans and the entire Democratic base, including teachers and public employees who are reliable voters -- will turn out in numbers sufficient to overwhelm a significant base of populist conservatives.
The stakes in this fight go beyond Colorado. TABOR supporters are trying to pass similar measures in other states, including Wisconsin, Maine, and Maryland. A loss in Colorado would surely damage that project. If radical Republicans fail to punish the moderates, their coalition suffers. In Colorado, with the governor’s office and a competitive U.S. House seat open next year, this purple state could start painting itself a brighter shade of blue.

Bill Chaloupka is Chair and Professor in Political Science at Colorado State University. He previously taught at the University of Montana, Missoula. His most recent book is Everybody Knows: Cynicism in America.

St. George Maine Bed & Breakfast The humble Farmer

You have seen the 16 foot granite monument on my front lawn and you’ve seen it on my web page. I put that granite monument there to make it easier to find my house which you know is in St. George on Route 131. There is a 5 foot steel monkey on the top of the monument blowing a five foot chrome bugle. If the monkey is not blowing a bugle, you have stopped at the wrong house.

I erected this granite monument 25 or more years ago because my father worked in granite and I had faith in granite. There was a saying at the Clark Island Quarry: Granite is Forever. So because my father worked with granite and both of my grandfathers worked with granite and even my great grandfather Willliamson worked with granite I figured that I knew about granite and that I could count on it to do what I wanted it to do.

But --- all the experts sneered when I erected this erection and said, “Hey boy, you got to put some pins in that granite or she’ll fall down.” But I didn’t put in the pins because I figured that granite was forever.

But I noticed a crack in the joint last week and when I put a 6 foot level on it I saw that it had moved to the northard four inches. So --- I had to ask Steve Lindsay to come up and drill two 16 or 18 inch holes into it and put in two bronze pins. I’ve got it on video and I hope to get it on my webpage in case anyone wants to see how to fix theirs.

We hooked a come along onto the top and pulled it four inches to the southard so it was straight before Steve drilled the holes.

I want you to know that asking for help was a difficult thing for me to do --- because Steve was one of the experts who told me 25 years ago that the monument wasn’t going to stand.

For at least four generations my family put its faith in granite. Twenty-five years ago I also put my faith in granite, but in my incompetent hands, it let me down.

I can empathize with the millions of disillusioned Americans who have recently been forced to change their political affiliation.

A SHAMEFUL RETREAT FROM AMERICAN VALUES

Dear Humble,

I am sending you an essay by Garrison Keillor that I hope you can read on the air or put it in whine and snivel. If you thought habeas corpus was a dead body, think again!

Marta (Little Deer Isle)

A SHAMEFUL RETREAT FROM AMERICAN VALUES

By Garrison KeillorTribune Media Services

I would not send my college kid off for a semester abroad if I were you. This week, we have suspended human rights in America, and what goes around comes around. Ixnay habeas corpus.

The U.S. Senate, in all its splendor and majesty, has decided that an "enemy combatant" is any non-citizen whom the president says is an enemy combatant, including your Korean greengrocer or your Swedish grandmother or your Czech au pair, and can be arrested and held for as long as authorities wish without any right of appeal to a court of law to examine the matter. If your college kid were to be arrested in Bangkok or Cairo, suspected of "crimes against the state," and held in prison, you'd assume that an American foreign service officer would be able to speak to your kid and arrange for a lawyer, but this may not be true anymore.
Be forewarned.

The Senate also decided it's up to the president to decide whether it's OK to make these enemies stand naked in cold rooms for a couple days in blinding light and be beaten by interrogators. This is now purely a bureaucratic matter: The plenipotentiary stamps the file "enemy combatants" and throws the poor schnooks into prison and at his leisure he tries them by any sort of kangaroo court he wishes to assemble and they have no right to see the evidence against them, and there is no appeal. This was passed by 65 senators and will now be signed by Mr. Bush, put into effect, and in due course be thrown out by the courts.

It's good that Barry Goldwater is dead because this would have killed him. Go back to the Senate of 1964 -- Goldwater, Dirksen, Russell, McCarthy, Javits, Morse, Fulbright -- and you won't find more than 10 votes for it.

None of the men and women who voted for this bill has any right to speak in public about the rule of law anymore, or to take a high moral view of the Third Reich, or to wax poetic about the American Idea.

Mark their names. Any institution of higher learning that grants honorary degrees to these people forfeits its honor. Alexander, Allard, Allen, Bennett, Bond, Brownback, Bunning, Burns, Burr, Carper, Chambliss, Coburn, Cochran, Coleman, Collins, Cornyn, Craig, Crapo, DeMint, DeWine, Dole, Domenici, Ensign, Enzi, Frist, Graham, Grassley, Gregg, Hagel, Hatch, Hutchison, Inhofe, Isakson, Johnson, Kyl, Landrieu, Lautenberg, Lieberman, Lott, Lugar, Martinez, McCain, McConnell, Menendez, Murkowski, Nelson of Florida, Nelson of Nebraska, Pryor, Roberts, Rockefeller, Salazar, Santorum, Sessions, Shelby, Smith, Specter, Stabenow, Stevens, Sununu, Talent, Thomas, Thune, Vitter, Voinovich, Warner.

To paraphrase Sir Walter Scott: Mark their names and mark them well. For them, no minstrel raptures swell. High though their titles, proud their name, boundless their wealth as wish can claim, these wretched figures shall go down to the vile dust from whence they sprung, unwept, unhonored and unsung.

Three Republican senators made a show of opposing the bill and after they'd collected all the praise they could get, they quickly folded. Why be a hero when you can be fairly sure that the Court will dispose of this piece of garbage.

If, however, the Court does not, then our country has taken a step toward totalitarianism.

If the government can round up someone and never be required to explain why, then it's no longer the United States of America as you and I always understood it. Our enemies have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They have made us become like them.

I got some insight last week into who supports torture when I went down to Dallas to speak at Highland Park Methodist Church. It was spooky. I walked in, was met by two burly security men with walkie- talkies, and within 10 minutes was told by three people that this was the Bushes' church and that it would be better if I didn't talk about politics. I was there on a book tour for "Homegrown Democrat," but they thought it better if I didn't mention it. So I tried to make light of it: I told the audience, "I don't need to talk politics. I have no need even to be interested in politics -- I'm a citizen, I have plenty of money and my grandsons are at least 12 years away from being eligible for military service." And the audience applauded! Those were their sentiments exactly. We've got ours, and who cares?

The Methodists of Dallas can be fairly sure that none of them will be snatched off the streets, flown to Guantanamo, stripped naked, forced to stand for 48 hours in a freezing room with deafening noise, so why should they worry? It's only the Jews who are in danger, and the homosexuals and gypsies. The Christians are doing just fine. If you can't trust a Methodist with absolute power to arrest people and not have to say why, then whom can you trust?

(Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" can be heard Saturday nights on public radio stations across the country.)

(c) 2006 by Garrison Keillor. All rights reserved.

The humble Farmer on Time Management

You have heard people whine and snivel that they don’t have time to do the things that need to be done. If you are one of these whiners and snivelers, I have a message for you. You must learn how to manage your time. Listen now to what the old master of time management has to say. I have time to clean out the henhouse. I have time to mow the pasture. I have time to shift the cow fence. I have time to clean out my office. I have time to manage my accounts. I have time to fix my monument so it won’t fall down. I have time to thin out the trees in my woods. I have time to get out advertising for my business. I have time to write a book. I have time to make my radio program. I have time to write letters to the newspapers. I have time to answer my email. I have time to put wooden shingles on my outbuildings. I have time to check and reset 27 mousetraps. I have time to ask my wife how she has spent the day. I have time to do any one of these things --- as long as I don’t even think about doing something else.

Jewel Kilcher in Portland --- Tess Gerritson

Ever have to read several pages of a novel before you got into it? Some writing grabs you no matter where you start reading and you can’t get away.

I started to read in the middle of one of Tess Gerritson’s books one day and I couldn’t put it down. And, by the way, we just came back from Holland and the only thing I wanted to buy the entire time I was in Europe was a Tess Gerritson book in Dutch. I found it at a lawn sale, I offered the woman one euro, she wanted one fifty so I didn’t get it.

But I’m talking here about writing and how some writing grabs you. And then there are writers of thick books who feel they can string the reader along for several pages without throwing out a hook that will draw the reader in.

But you cannot do that with newspaper columns or short magazine articles and that is the topic of this rant.

To be fair, my critics have accused me of telling stories that have no endings, which can just as easily be attributed to a cultural lacunae or intellectual lassitude on their part.

Anyway, perhaps because of my occasional contributions, Colin Sargent very kindly sends me his Portland magazine. And in skimming through the articles I was not surprised to read that a celebrity I’d never heard of named Jewel Kilcher was coming to Portland.

But --- even in the fourth paragraph where we learn that she has 500 songs, we still wouldn’t bet our lives that it is she who will be singing them and that it is she who will be playing the guitar.

If Jewel Kilcher is a singer who plays the guitar , why doesn’t the article start off by saying, “Jewel Kilcher, a guitar picking singer, is coming to town.”