Columbia Missourian FRIDAY & SATURDAY, February 26-27, 2010 — Page 5A

Write.
Reflect.
Respond.

TODAY’S QUESTION
Do you think you’ve seen more potholes this year than
during other winters? Where are you spotting them?

A
bout a year ago, I was living on Rosemary Lane in the East
Campus neighborhood, and my street was plagued with pot-
holes. Every time I pulled out of my driveway, I was faced
with an obstacle course. I gritted my teeth and dreaded hear-
ing my bumper drag against the pockmarked pavement as my tires
pushed my Mazda out of the divots I couldn’t dodge.
Looking for a solution, I did what any Web-savvy college student
would do. I searched “potholes in Columbia, Mo.” on Google. Just like
that, the first result was exactly what I needed — an electronic form to
report my pothole problems to the Public Works Department.
I did my best to accurately describe each pothole I battled daily. I
noted the address of the house nearest to the pothole and which side
of the street. For a few, I even reported the depth of the hole (to me,
this made the problem seem more profound). Sure enough, as I was
walking to class just a few days later, I had the pleasure of seeing a
crew filling these potholes. I personally thanked them for their speedy
response and gleefully told my roommates that our street had just got-
ten a makeover.
Now, the winter weather has again wreaked havoc on our streets and
potholes are popping up around the city.
During the cold weather, state and city-maintained roads can only be
patched with a temporary mix composed of asphalt and oils. This mix
works best because the permanent mix can’t be kept hot long enough
to be effective in cold weather.
The severity of the depth and size of a pothole is the most important
factor in determining when it will get filled, according to John Schupp,
a Missouri Department of Transportation area engineer. After that,
priority is determined by the amount of traffic, location and resident
complaints.

— Kourtney Geers
Can you help us map some potholes?
Go to tinyurl.com/PotholesInColumbia to contribute to the Google Map we’ve
set up to tell residents where the potholes are. Or e-mail the location of a
pothole to us at news@ColumbiaMissourian.com, and we’ll map it for you. If
you include a photo of it, we’ll post that on the map too.

Media focus, tax Partisanship blinding

codes need changing
T
iger Woods has taken over
the airwaves. Woods’ “apol-
ogy” was the big news of
the weekend. From Ameri-
can talking-head shows to Germa-
ny’s Deutsche Welle TV, Woods was
second only to the war in Afghani-
stan and way ahead of the Presi-
dent’s meeting with his Holiness,
the Dalai Lama. I wonder if his
Holiness and Obama talked about
Woods in their meeting. Maybe
not, but it is the
thought that
counts.
What some
may have missed
were the com-
ments on the
Internet concern-
ing A. Joseph
David Stack III. Who
is Joe Stack? He
Rosman was the joker
who flew his own
Piper PA-28-236
Cherokee Dakota into the Internal
Revenue Service offices in Aus-
tin, Texas. He died, killed one and
injured many others while carrying
additional cans of fuel in his plane
to set the office building a blaze. He
also set fire to his home, allegedly
so the IRS would not seize it after
his death.
What seems to fall into the back
seat were reports by ABC News,
Glenn Beck, the Christian Science
Monitor and others, with either
great displeasure or great joy, that
those who are the most extreme
of anti-federal government are
praising the actions of Joe Stack,
some even calling him a hero. You
can read it yourself on Facebook,
Twitter and a multitude of blogs,
including comments by the Tea
Party Patriots, Ed Encho on the
OpEdNews and Stack’s daughter,
Samantha Bell.
Stack is a terrorist. Woods is an
adulterer. Stack is a killer. Woods
is a person of fame who has gone
wrong. Yet, in the media battle of
Woods versus Stack, Woods wins
every time.
Why are we more concerned with
the domestic impropriety of Tiger
Woods than the domestic terrorism
of Joe Stack? They both demanded
media attention. They both had
their messages heard by the world.
Woods gave a speech on national
television. Stack published his mani-
festo on the Internet. They both
made their points, though one more
dramatically than the other.
Woods broke no law. Woods
betrayed his family and proved
that our image of a squeaky clean,
handsome, billionaire golfer with a
gorgeous wife and beautiful kids is
human. He is not perfect. Each of
you, as I, has at least one acquain-
tance has had an extra-marital
affair or two. That person may even
be you.
Stack broke the law. His problems
started when the IRS discovered he
had unreported income on which
he did not pay taxes. Section 1706
of the 1986 Tax Reform Act dis-
cusses taxes paid by “independent
contractors.” It was proposed by a
Democratic senator and signed by a
Republican president. Efforts initi-
ated to repeal the law began one
year later by that same senator. Yet
23 years later, §1706 is still on the
books and was considered justifica-
tion by Stack for his act.
The discussion on whether Stack
was a criminal or a terrorist is
the current story line. Compari-
sons to the attacks of 9/11 and the
Oklahoma City bombing, even the
Columbine High School massacre,
are being bantered about the media.
However, this is not the true prob-
lem the media has failed to give just
due. The United States Congress is
the true cause of such consternation
between the government and the
people.
I am not saying income tax is
wrong. In my opinion it is not. It is
the price we pay for living in the
“Land of the Free.” I also believe
the so-called “Fair Tax” is anything
but fair and should never have been
allowed to get past the lips of its
sponsor.
I do agree the tax codes have
become so complicated and so inde-
finable that I have received differ-
ent answers to the same question
from multiple IRS representatives.
The elected officials of both wings
of the Capitol need to understand
that, while taxes are a necessary
evil, figuring fair share is near
impossible. Where low- and middle-
income families and small business-
es do not get the help, the rich and
the multinational corporations have
the opportunity to hide their profits
as to not pay their fair share.
Now, if Congress was to get off
their partisan bandwagons and
actually do their job…
David Rosman is an award-winning
editor, writer, professional speaker and
college instructor in communications,
ethics, business and politics. Read
his blog at InkandVoice.wordpress.
com. He welcomes your comments at
ProfDave1011@netscape.net.
Missouri legislators
A
month into their ses-
sion, Missouri’s leg-
islators haven’t done
much but talk. Con-
sidering what they’re
saying, that’s probably
for the best. What’s worrisome is
that at least some of the rhetoric is
likely to result in action, we — if not
they — will have cause to regret.
The most important case in point
was highlighted by Rep. Chris Kelly
in Tuesday’s Missourian. Chris, as
you know, has been promoting for
more than a year now an $800 mil-
lion bond issue to build or repair
much-needed facilities on campuses
throughout the state. Last year, the
House passed the proposal, which
was and still is co-sponsored by
Rep. Steve Tilley, the Republican
floor leader. Parliamentary stalling
killed it in the Senate.
This year, with the need greater,
the construction industry hungrier
and the interest rate lower, leaders
of both House and Senate are saying
no. Chris doesn’t understand their
reasoning. Neither do I. In his essay,
he demolishes their arguments. But
barring a legislative miracle, the
bond issue is as dead as the brains
of its executioners.
There’s more, much more.
Take, for instance, the House
bill that would address a possible
shortfall in the governor’s budget
by requiring him to play the lottery.
Reading Ben Wieder’s report in
Tuesday’s paper, I assumed it was
just a joke until I got to the part
where Republican heavyweights
said they support the bill. Then I
quit laughing. (The bill’s sponsor,
DOONESBURY by GaRry Trudeau
GEORGE
KENNEDY
Our legislators’ words
and actions don’t give us
much room for optimism.
Rep. Mark Parkinson, told Ben he
doesn’t play the lottery. “I think it’s
a self-imposed tax on stupidity,” he
said. Exactly.)
Meanwhile, the budget ax is
poised to fall on those least able to
defend themselves. Last week the
House Appropriations Commit-
tee for Health, Mental Health and
Social Services proposed that fund-
ing be slashed for a range of pro-
grams that help the state’s poorest
and most vulnerable citizens. The
Missourian reported that Sunday.
The committee wants to cut half
the funding for domestic violence
shelters, such as The Shelter in
Columbia, which currently serves
40,000 women and children state-
wide and already had to turn away
9,000 more last year. Also cut would
be $9.5 million from the health cen-
ters that serve the poor, including
the Family Health Center of Boone
County. Not even the pregnancy cri-
sis centers that provide alternatives
to abortion would be spared.
Listening to the Republican lead-
ership, you’d never know it was the
federal stimulus funding that has
staved off such draconian reduc-
tions so far. The balanced budget
amendment they’re urging Con-
gress to support would have made
that assistance more difficult if not
impossible to provide. Of course,
nobody said consistency was a vir-
tue in partisan politics.
They appear unable to solve our
state’s problems, but some legisla-
tors don’t hesitate to wander beyond
their competence. Sen. Bill Stouffer,
who is running for the Republican
nomination to oppose Congress-
man Ike Skelton, is sponsoring a
resolution urging Congress to keep
the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy the
president and his top military advis-
ers want to end. He’s also pushing
another resolution opposing the
“cap and trade” approach to slowing
global warming.
Partisanship also got the better of
Boone County’s Sen. Kurt Shaefer
when he criticized Gov. Nixon for
using $23 million in federal money
to save the old railroad bridge at
Boonville instead of a new cancer
hospital in Columbia. A spokesman
for the governor had to point out
that the money was designated spe-
cifically for railroad projects.
Our state is facing hard times.
Urgent needs outrun available
resources. So far, the legislative
response looks from here to be
short-sighted, partisan and ideologi-
cal. The likelihood that our rulers’
actions will speak even louder than
their words doesn’t give us much
room for optimism.
George Kennedy is a former managing
editor at the Missourian and professor
emeritus at the Missouri School of
Journalism.

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