governor

Son of Pain
$13.98
i first heard him on one the soundtrack to one of tyler perry's movies. this is a really good cd and it's ashame that more people don't know about him.

The Last Governor: Chris Patten & the Handover of Hong Kong
$18.00
The Last Governor is an encyclopedic account of Chris Patten's governorship in Hong Kong (1992-1997). Dimbleby was given unprecedented access to the inner working of HK Government House, as well as back-stage passes to some of its top bureaucrats. The author's view was very clear and he made no apology for it. Patten's adversaries were often dismissed as "apologists" or "self-proclaimed experts". Despite the author's obvious bias, the book was meticulously researched, engaging and a worthy collection for anyone interested in the history of this part of the world. Dimbleby has donated all the research material, including notes, interviews, tape recordings, to the University of Hong Kong for future researchers. A BBC documentary was made based on the same material.

Chris Patten was a very popular governor. Hong Kong people loved him. His affection for Hong Kong was also obvious, I remembered watching the live coverage of the hand-over on Australian TV. I didn't realise it until quite recently - how often does Australian TV cover an overseas "political" event LIVE ? The 2008 Obama's election was a rarity. Patten was a down-to-earth and personable governor. There were numerous stories of him having "egg tart" for lunch at a local bakery, or chatting to shop keepers while casually strolling down the street. I am a little disappointed that Dimbleby didn't say much about the rest of the family though. What was it like for Patten's wife and daughters ? What was on their mind when they boarded the royal yacht after the ceremony ? They were leaving their friends behind, the daughters were leaving part of their childhood in HK. They couldn't have known if anyone of them would ever be welcome back to the Island again. It must have been such raw emotion. One can sense some of this emotion in the writing, the author wrote in his very last paragraph,

"Chris Patten had fought a sustained public and private battle.......It had been a gruelling and often lonely five years. The scale of his purpose and the character of his responsibility had required rare qualities of leadership: a clear vision, an abnormal resolve and a profound sense of public duty. The last governor of Hong Kong had arrived in the colony as a politician, hopeful of success. He would depart as a statesman, knowing failure as well as victory, but in dignity and with honour."

Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr. "Is It Possible to Be a Good Governor?"
$10.00
I am grateful to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University for maintaining and releasing these episodes of WFB's Firing Line. There are some quality issues, due to the nature of the decades old archival video tapes, as well as the a/v technology in use at the time. However, the opportunity to witness these discussions is well worth my time and money. I especially enjoyed this episode with the newly-elected Governor Ronald Reagan. Reagan is often billed as a great communicator, which can be a compliment or an insult depending upon the tone used. Detractors maintain he was nothing without a rehearsed speech, an actor whose strings were being pulled by the minions around him. His Firing Line appearances argue well against this characterization. RR comes off as informed, thoughtful, logical, and seems to think on his feet pretty darn well. While WFB was admittedly a fan of Reagan's, this is not Tiger Beat. These men are having deep discussions of relevant issues of the time. I highly recommend this DVD, as well as the Firing Line debate on the Panama Canal Treaty, featuring WFB against Reagan. The supporting cast features George Will, Pat Buchanan, Admiral John McCain Sr., and a couple of other gentlemen whose names escape me. WFB is always interesting, and it can be fun just to watch him think. He truly seemed to enjoy Firing Line, It's a shame we don't have anything comparable today.

Memos to the Governor: An Introduction to State Budgeting
$16.95
No political figure of his time was more eloquent than the author's boss, Mario Cuomo. When asked to explain his failure to run for President, Cuomo once replied "I speak in poetry, but I govern in prose." The author of this book was one of the key figures composing the prose during his years as Cuomo's budget director.

The author has written a manual targeted for graduate students seeking to get a handle on the art and science of state budgeting. It is good enough, however, for governors, gubernatorial candidates and their staff, budget directors, and key legislative leaders and legislative staff to gain some worthwhile insights from.

This is not the book to learn the ins and outs of the step by step negotiations in New York or any other state. The author is sparing in his use of anecdotes. What he does, and does well, is to take the reader through the long and tortuous process of compiling a budget from the governor's point of view, and allowing the reader to see the obstacles any governor must face in achieving his vision under the American system of checks and balances.

"(B)udget success is the key to re-orienting government," the author writes. "New programs, changed priorities, tax cuts or shifts in tax burdens, a larger or smaller role for government in the state's economy--all these objectives must be won in the budget arena....In these memos, a successful budget is one that delivers on a governor's programmatic objectives, and does so within financial constraints that help achieve or maintain structural budget balance....Budget success also requires careful consideration of long-term strategic goals, a clear understanding of the impact of the business cycle on state budgets, and effective negotiating tactics to get executive recommendations adopted...."

The author, a rather straightforward modern Machiavelli, prepares 8 memos for his protypical governor. He closes with a stern warning. "If you cannot use the budget to state your goals and move state government in the direction you advocate, you are not likely to make much progress towards these goals. As your term ends, voters and the press will find it difficult to say what you have accomplished. If you have mastered the budget and adoption process, you will have a solid list of tangible achievements. Effective use of the budget as a policy and political tool is a necessary, if not quite sufficient, condition of successful leadership in the statehouse. Do everything you can as soon as you can to grab hold of the budget process and make it work for you."

The author's memos are entitled "You and Your Budget Officer," "Budget Strategy," "Preparing the Executive Budget--the Technical Underpinnings," "Choices in the Final Phase of Budget Preparation," "Budget Tactics:Laying the Groundwork for Adoption," "Going Public With the Budget," "The Legislative Phase of the Budget Process," and "Budget Execution."

Anyone holding the office of governor would likely ensure at least moderate success by intensely studying the author's book. A cautionary note is that the author does not spend much time inquiring into, or advising on, the motives of non-gubernatorial actors in the budgetary drama. A governor who really understood the positions of the advocates, the legislators, and the media--and who was able to use that understanding to lead others to achieve common ends--would do even better than one merely following this book.

The author does understand that legislators have district needs, and that legislative leaders are responsive to individual legislators, especially those in swing districts. But the interplay of localized electoral needs with statewide public policy is minimized in the author's accounts. More detailed subsequent writings may correct this.

The author's writing style is dry but decisive, like that of many other budget makers this customer reviewer has known. Every memo is full of good advice, and subtle warnings of the dangers of uncontrolled idealistic fervor to make great changes. "Publication of agency performance measures," the author warns, "may lead to an improvement in service delivery, but public performance measures can also provide quantitative evidence of government's inevitable failures and mistakes."

The author is no Don Quixote. He is a grizzled veteran of budgetary wars.
He identifies with governors and wants them to succeed. He does not identify with legislators, interest groups, and the media. He does not want them individually or collectively defeating a governor's choice of priorities, or, even worse, causing a governor to be defeated. That makes this an excellent book for understanding the gubernatorial mindset as well as the budgeting process.