Former President Dwight Eisenhowers grand daughter, Susan Eisenhower, sat on the panel on the Bill Maher show recently on HBO. Shes a class act, not at all put off by the off the charts talk from Maher. In fact, a Republican herself, Eisenhower had strong words for the party. She wanted to know where the Republican leaders are in all the bizarre behaviors lately. Eisenhower said, Anger is not a public policy prescription. Thank you. We in the Bureaucrat Beat newsroom are weary of the rhetorical rants with no substance toward leadership.

Here’s a case of justifiable anger, it seems. We received a note from Russ Monroe that tells a tale of how the Census trained people, hired people, asked them to be available for six weeks and then made them wait by the phone. Ouch.

Monroe said that 8 people in Lone Pine and 20 in Bishop have waited by the phone with no pay, no work, no nothing. Whats up with this? At the same time, the Census has complained nationwide that theyre not getting enough data.

Here’s a local Catch-22. Seems some Inyo citizens tried to take recyclables to the dump in Bishop. It was closed. They tried Independence, where they live, and the recycling bins were full. They took the trash back to Bishop later and the bins were full there. We were told that when Bishop picks up all the recyclables on Tuesdays, the Independence Dump is closed. Say, what?

That’s what most people say when they try to read the Town of Mammoth Lakes budget. Good grief. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a more friendly read.

Most of the Mammoth Town Council candidates in Tuesdays Forum said they supported a two-council finance committee to give monthly reports to try to break the code of the complex budget. Some called for more transparency, a financial Guru to decipher it all, a snapshot summary, and a real financial forecaster. Okay. Another candidate said, hey, were in the black. Whats the big deal?

Australia has created a major deal for big cigarette companies. An anti-smoking initiative calls for selling smokes in totally plain packages, no logos, with only health warnings on them. Ouch! Hey, the truths the truth about health impacts. The lack of a pretty package tells the story. Hey, were not self-righteous about cigarettes. If laws had not forbidden it, the newsroom would likely remain smoke-filled most of the time, but we do admit they’re bad news.

At this years fish opener press dinner, several people said its bad news that young people are not introduced to fishing, a major chunk of our economy here. Bob Tanner urged fishing for the young and went on to say that regulations that have locked up the backcountry dont help. Said Tanner, You cant wear out the country just by looking at it.

More on DMV. We reported that some had experienced DMVs failure to send out registration renewal forms, leaving car owners delinquent without knowing it. Another local man wrote to say he has experienced DMV tardiness. He points out that its tough to try to pay without the renewal notice since it includes a secret code needed to make payment. This means a mandatory trip to the DMV office, which here in the Eastern Sierra may be somewhat of a convenience compared to major trauma in a bigger city.

Some people accuse DMV of fraud and deceit, trying to collect penalties that they have caused. We don’t know about that. What we do know is all bureaucracy and big corporations try to deliver less and less service for more and more money. No, its not right, but that’s whats up.

With that, this is Benett Kessler signing off for Bureaucrat Beat where we await your word on our lives in the Eastern Sierra and beyond.