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The Week Ahead
The big event of the week is the primary election on Tuesday. Voting begins at 7 a.m. and ends at 8 p.m. It’s a very tight race, and candidates will be scrambling to get their supporters out. The top four candidates are all fine people and good leaders. No matter who wins, the city will be in good hands.
On the legislative front, it’s a fairly quiet week with meetings Tuesday and Wednesday, including the International Trade Commission and a couple of appropriations subcommittees. See the legislative calendar for meetings notices and agendas.
By the end of this week it will be mid-September, leaving me wondering where the time has gone. But we should have another month or so of mostly-good weather. The high country on the North Slope of the Uintas is cooling off quickly. It’s flannel-shirt time, with warm days and nippy nights in the low 40s. The chipmunks are gobbling up wildflower seeds as they fatten up for the winter. From here on out, every warm day should be considered a bonus.
Today in Political History
Sept. 10, 1608: Captain John Smith was elected president of the Jamestown colony council in Virginia.
Sept. 10, 1919: New York City welcomed home Gen. John J. Pershing and 25,000 soldiers who had served in the United States 1st Division during World War I. (New York Times)
Sept. 10, 1963: Twenty black students enter public schools in Alabama and Governor George Wallace loses his battle against school integration. (Source: Perspicuity)
Wise Words
“Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”
-- Benjamin Franklin (Source: Quotation Page)
Management Tip
Charts, Titles Mean Nothing
Organization charts are frozen, anachronistic photos in a work place that ought to be as dynamic as the external environment around you. If people really followed organization charts, companies would collapse. In well-run organizations, titles are also pretty meaningless. At best, they advertise some authority, an official status conferring the ability to give orders and induce obedience. But titles mean little in terms of real power, which is the capacity to influence and inspire.
Have you ever noticed that people will personally commit to certain individuals who on paper (or on the organization chart) possess little authority, but instead possess pizzazz, drive, expertise, and genuine caring for teammates and products? On the flip side, non-leaders in management may be formally anointed with all the perks and frills associated with high positions, but they have little influence on others, apart from their ability to extract minimal compliance to minimal standards.
-- Gen. Colin Powell (Source: Coach Thee)
National Politics
Best Stories From . . .
-- Washington Post: "Few things united [New York City] more than the devastating events of Sept. 11, 2001. But, as the sixth anniversary of that dark day approaches, that sense of unity is being seriously tested amid a cacophony of controversies that has left some New Yorkers sniping at each other like family members at a funeral."
-- New York Times: "Fred D. Thompson had one central strategic goal as he formally began his presidential campaign on Thursday: to win over conservatives who are disheartened at their current choice of Republican candidates by positioning himself as the ideological and stylistic heir of Ronald Reagan."
-- Los Angeles Times: "Democrat John Edwards on Saturday accused presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton of defending a lobbyist-driven political system that is 'rigged against regular Americans' and that killed her plan for universal healthcare."
-- Washington Times: Yesterday's Univision Network Spanish-language Democratic presidential debate underscores "a new political reality: Spanish broadcast news has persuasive power, it differs markedly from English-language programs, and thanks to the immigration debate, it has hurt Republicans."
Lighter Side
“There is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement.”
—E. B. White (Patriot Post) |
