One of our website readers, appalled at Inyo District Attorney Art Maillet’s pronouncement of his refusal to talk to any news reporter, came up with this idea – somewhat reminiscent of David Letterman’s Top 10 List. In this case, a list of questions we would like to ask Inyo DA Maillet.

We would like your suggestions out there, but here’s a start:

1- Mr. Maillet, did you know in advance that your assistant, Mark Johnson, was going to release 1,000 pages on your political opponent? Did you review the pages? Did you know some of them were confidential documents?
2- Are you aware that several local lawyers have found the attitudes of your lawyers so rude and arrogant that they prefer not to work in Inyo Court? Have you ever discussed this with your lawyers?
3- What does the First Amendment mean to you?
4- Did you dismiss charges against a former MLPD officer, Eric Hugelman?

We can fantasize, right?

Wow. Change churns through life right now. Mattel Toy Company even ditched Barbie for some new, hip dolls call the Monster High dolls – Draculaura, Frankie Stein – you get the idea. It’s all about the vampire, werewolf, monster resurgence. Same guys who hang on to seats in Congress. Monsters rule!

Now, they want to dump the 14th Amendment. Good grief – this is like prescribing decapitation for an appendicitis. Something the proponents might want to do – read the 14th Amendment. They will find that in addition to stating all persons born or naturalized in the U.S., the measure assures that no State shall make any law which counters constitutional rights. Are you people sure you want to dump that? If you do, California could start to dismantle Constitutional rights and you’d have no recourse.

Caught Michael Moore’s movie on Capitalism. One of the most disturbing revelations – big corporations like Bank of America, Citibank and Wal Mart took out life insurance policies on some of their employees, betting that they would die. Some of them did. When their families found out about the insurance bets, they were crushed.

The Chandler family will keep on with the stories. Seems Otis Chandler, the grandson of the LA Times publisher of the same name, has taken the family tradition to the internet. He focuses on book reviews. His site? Goodreads.com. It’s all about books – books you have read, want to read. Books you have written. Nice to know a Chandler loves the written word and devotes web space to it.

Ray Bradbury loves the written word. His science fiction has delighted many over the years. Bradbury will celebrate his 90th

birthday August 22nd. He will appear at the Mystery & Imagination Bookshop in Glendale on Sunday. Bradbury used to spend time up here in the Eastern Sierra. We had a chance to meet him poolside at a local motel one day. Very gracious, interesting man. We in the Bureaucrat Beat newsroom add our good wishes.

One of our loyal readers sent along an interesting bureaucratic article from Huntington Beach. Seems the Citiy Council there will consider a cost recovery program for emergency services in the city. The City could bill those responsible for car accidents, car fires, power line and pipeline damage. Officials in that city reason that local people already pay taxes to cover the cost of their services. Visitors do not. Some say it’s not the right thing to ding visitors. Others say they need to help with what can become enormous response costs. This includes search and rescue missions.

In Huntington Beach, the new ordinance on all this would charge $405 to $1120 for power line incidents. A fire chief response would cost $210 an hour. Should Bishop and Mammoth do the same?
What do you think?

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.