Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: 11/01/2004

Friday, November 26, 2004

Baltimore Sun Op-ed: Righting the CIA by Melvin A Goodman

Baltimore Sun Op-ed: Righting the CIA by Melvin A Goodman

Righting the CIA by Melvin A. Goodman Published on Friday, November 19, 2004 by the Baltimore Sun

President Harry S. Truman created the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947 to coordinate the various assessments of the intelligence community and to place the CIA outside the policy community. In this way, Mr. Truman wanted to encourage competitive analysis within the intelligence community and to make sure that policy-makers did not tailor intelligence to suit their interests.

Over the years, there have been many attempts to politicize intelligence. But no government has been so blatant as the Bush administration, which used phony intelligence to justify the war against Iraq and has introduced a new director of central intelligence, Porter J. Goss, to conduct a political housecleaning at the highest levels of the agency.

I joined the CIA in 1966 during the Vietnam War and witnessed a major campaign to ensure that intelligence supported the Johnson administration's troop buildup in Southeast Asia. Working-level analysts correctly estimated the size of the Viet Cong forces and even predicted the Tet offensive in 1966, but time and again, senior officials caved in to Pentagon demands to limit the order of battle for irregular forces and to downplay the strength of Vietnam's military capabilities. After Tet in 1968, the CIA made honest efforts to accurately assess the capabilities and strengths of the enemy.

We are witnessing a similar phenomenon today, with agency analysts trying to improve their Iraqi intelligence reporting after tailoring intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and links to terrorism prior to the war.

[…]

I resigned from the CIA in 1990 because of the politicization of intelligence on the Soviet Union, which was championed by CIA Director William J. Casey and his deputy for intelligence, Robert M. Gates. The overestimates of the strength of the Soviet Union in the 1980s meant that the policy community was completely surprised by the Soviet collapse and missed numerous negotiating opportunities with Moscow.

[…]

Read the entire opinion piece here: Righting the CIA by Melvin A. Goodman Published on Friday, November 19, 2004 by the Baltimore Sun

20041119 Baltimore Sun Op ed Righting the CIA by Melvin A Goodman

Thursday, November 25, 2004

20041124 Happy Thanksgiving WA

Happy Thanksgiving WA

Westminster Advocate

“Happy Thanksgiving”

November 24th, 2004 by Westminster Mayor Kevin Dayhoff (528 words)

Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Birthday Carroll Arts Center. The 850 seat, air conditioned, art deco “Carroll Theatre”, ancestor of the Carroll Arts Center, opened Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1937 near “The Forks”.

Admission to the Carroll Theatre in 1937 was 25 cents for adults and fifteen cents for children. The 10,500 sq. ft Carroll Arts Center is a great example of the adaptive re-use of one of only two existing examples of art deco architecture in Carroll County. Groundbreaking to renovate the old Carroll Theatre was held on a cold February 11th, 2002. The Carroll Arts Center opened April 4th, 2003.

Thanks to Jay Graybeal, I am able to explain more about “The Forks”. Graybeal explained in a 1999 Carroll County Times article, that after the Civil War, Westminster was “divided” into three distinct settlements known as “Dead End,” “The Forks,” and “Irishtown.”

The east end of town was referred to as “Dead End”. “Dead End”, the original Westminster [was formed by combining five villages: “Town of Winchester” laid out in 1764, New London, Winter’s Addition to Westminster, Bedford and Logsdon’s Tavern. In 1768 the Maryland General Assembly changed the name to Westminster. Westminster was in Frederick County until Carroll County was formed in 1837.]

On the west end, “The Forks” was formed near Pigman’s Addition by the road built to Chambersburg, Pa. and another road built to Taneytown.

Graybeal wrote that “[t]he extreme west end of Westminster received the name of “Irishtown” because prior to the Civil War three brothers, Dennis, James, and Terence Boylan, who came here from Ireland and helped build the Western Maryland Railroad from near Glyndon to Westminster, built themselves modest homes on the then sparsely settled part of what is now Pennsylvania Avenue.”

In addition to being thankful to the leaders that founded our community; we are also quite thankful for the artistic and cultural soul of our community centered at the Carroll Arts Center. The vibrancy of the arts and culture is often an important factor used by businesses in their decision to locate in Carroll County.

The power of art to strengthen our community is beyond measure. For not only does a strong and vibrant arts and cultural presence strengthen Westminster spiritually and philosophically – it also strengthens us financially and economically.

We are thankful for the vision and leadership provided by the Westminster City Council and staff, Carroll County Government, Maryland State Government, the Carroll County Arts Council, the private-public partnerships and many individual dream keepers and visionary community leaders who have brought forward this vital economic and cultural contribution to our community.

In addition to our families and our health, we have so many things to be thankful. As we begin the holidays, let our Thanksgiving also be revealed in the compassionate support our community renders to citizens who are less fortunate.

Let us reach out with care to those in need of food, shelter, and words of hope. May we remember our men and women in uniform, who are in harm’s way, defending our freedoms. As we gather with our families over a Thanksgiving meal, may we ask for patience, resolve, and wisdom in all that is to come.

© Kevin Dayhoff

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

October 2004 Maryland Municipal League Fall Conference

October MML Fall Conference

November 3^rd, 2004 by Westminster Mayor Kevin Dayhoff (528 words)

Labels: Maryland Municipal League see MML, MD MML Muni League Disclosure, MD Municipal League qv MML, MML, MML Municipal League

By the time you read this, the 2004 Presidential election will be over and hopefully, if there is a merciful higher being, we will have a clear cut winner. Hopefully you voted. Hopefully, it is now safe to watch TV again without getting an instant migraine. Now that it is over, continue the aspirin therapy until the flashbacks of the obnoxious TV coverage of ugly charges and counter charges and counter-counter charges are over. Can you say “Where’s the beef?”

Getting back to local matters, on October 21-23, I had the privilege to join Carroll County leaders such as Suzanne Albert, Laurell Taylor, John Medve, Haven Shoemaker, Jim McCarron, Frank Johnson, Bob Flickinger and Wendy Peters at the Maryland Municipal League’s (MML) Fall Conference. While the MML’s legislative agenda for the upcoming Maryland General Assembly remains a priority, the conference has been greatly expanded in recent years.

This year, over 225 elected officials from 70 municipalities, joined statewide leaders such as Congressman Roscoe Bartlett and Lt. Governor Michael Steele in an agenda that included nine workshops that touched upon issues that are affecting citizens today, including everything from environmental issues, growth and development to the Main Street program. The main issues were growth and planning issues, and that five letter word: ‘water’. The issue just doesn’t seem to go away. Local officials, John Medve and Steve Horn gave excellent presentations on planning issues.

Each year, the MML chooses several priority issues that directly affect the well-being of Maryland’s municipal citizens. The MML then ushers these issues through the legislative process. This year's legislative platform addresses public safety, restoring municipal resources and electric aggregation.

All three issues greatly impact the lives of local citizens, with the biggest priority being the issue of restoring funds that have been lost over the last three years because of problems in the state budget. For the FY 2005 budget, approximately 36% of Maryland’s municipalities instituted or increased cost recoveries or user fees, 45% laid off employees or eliminated cost of living salary increases, 46% delayed construction projects and capital purchases, 48% used money from their savings accounts to pay operating expenses, and 18% increased property taxes.

The most hotly debated issue was municipal electric aggregation. The 1999 electric deregulation legislation specifically did not allow municipalities a reasonable opportunity to pool our citizens’ electric bills in an attempt to minimize the impact of electric deregulation and rising electric bills. The General Assembly has consistently said that it will not even entertain MML legislation to remedy this situation until 2006 at the earliest.

Understanding this, the MML leadership wanted to change the Electric Aggregation Priority to request a Taskforce, instead of remedial legislation. After a floor fight conducted by about 60 mayors, who dusted the cobwebs off the deep arcane corners of Roberts Rules and went on a parliamentary procedure safari trading motion and counter motion for 30 minutes, it was decided to attempt the legislation with a fall back position of a Taskforce. Can you say – more aspirin please?

The conference was time well spent. We learned a lot about cutting edge challenges and creative solutions. It is certainly a never-ending learning curve.

20041103

###########

*****