Poisoning the Well - the concept to remember ~~

~Poisoning the Well ~

The current state government strategy on private prison growth in Arizona

 

This sort of "reasoning" involves trying to discredit what a person might later claim by presenting unfavorable information (be it true or false) about the person. This "argument" has the following form:

1. Unfavorable information (be it true or false) about person A is presented.
2. Therefore any claims person A makes will be false.

This sort of "reasoning" is obviously fallacious. The person making such an attack is hoping that the unfavorable information will bias listeners against the person in question and hence that they will reject any claims he might make. However, merely presenting unfavorable information about a person (even if it is true) hardly counts as evidence against the claims he/she might make.  This is especially clear when “Poisoning the Well”  is looked at as a form of ad Homimem in which the attack is made prior to the person even making the claim or claims. The following example clearly shows that this sort of "reasoning" is quite poor.

 

Hence another example: Translated from Latin to English, "Ad Hominem" means "against the man" or "against the person."

An Ad Hominem is a general category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person presenting the claim or argument. Typically, this fallacy involves two steps. First, an attack against the character of person making the claim, her circumstances, or her actions is made (or the character, circumstances, or actions of the person reporting the claim). Second, this attack is taken to be evidence against the claim or argument the person in question is making (or presenting). This type of "argument" has the following form:

1. Person A makes claim X.
2. Person B makes an attack on person A.
3. Therefore A's claim is false. 

The reason why an Ad Hominem (of any kind) is a fallacy is that the character, circumstances, or actions of a person do not (in most cases) have a bearing on the truth or falsity of the claim being made (or the quality of the argument being made).

Start thinking on your own ~ do your own fact finding or use credible resources to do so~ taking a politician’s word or those unelected bureaucrat’s messages at full face value is foolish and often misleading of the matter at hand.  

Arizona people are smart and articulate. They are educated and realize their contributions to this state is what makes this one of few that has developed into a paradise for many to come here and forget those things they ran away from ~ don’t let local politicians snare you into their way of thinking and give them free reign with their own mandates and policy making.  Source:

 

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/poisoning-the-well.html

 

Apathy in the Grand Canyon State

The use of the electronic media to avoid face to face confrontations allows them to be insensitive, arrogant and bolder in their actions and evade those looking for an honest answer. Their responses are based on practiced diversions / distractions that provide no information but rather a dead end to the request made for more public information on these matters. Hiding behind their press agents and media liaisons, they escape the stressors of state business by hiding, pretending that “all is good and life is good” and that under their guidance and leadership, “things are normal and “all is well.”

The current events inside Arizona have changed dramatically since 2009. The fact is that government, under the control of a Republican governor and supported by a Republican majority in the state legislature, has spewed hate and dissent among their constituents by dividing the communities and not listening to their crying voices when it comes to state service related policy-making in educational, healthcare and basic human resource services as well as state public safety priorities such as law enforcement, child protection and prisons.

Today every agency under the direction of a politically appointed puppet by Janice K Brewer prepares politically-correct engineered media responses that have deliberately disregarded public opinion or concerns. As a result, they are deliberately disengaging its constituents and failing to address their problems. Education, child protection, health care and the treatment of the mentally ill are at the forefront of such concerns but are totally neglected or ignored by our elected and unelected bureaucrats or leaders.

Our state citizenry, embattled and engulfed as well as overwhelmed by their own financial difficulties and burdens while adding personal stress, have chosen to remain silent on many of these serious and hot issues by not contacting their legislative representatives like before as they feel perhaps like many other citizens do that their voices are being ignored. Ignored by our leadership for self interest and reserved profit sharing lobbyist that hound their office space at the Capitol and sell them their own interest in the name of private enterprise and profit makers.

Certainly, our state’s financial conditions will worsen. Our budgets won’t be able to sustain current priorities and non-priorities as the economy shows no signs of recovering. Our state leaders, the ones who were hired or elected to get the job done in a most effective and fiscal manner, are too busy for their constituents, as they engage in the blind encouragement of gluttony, entertainment and filling their own pockets with the taxpayer’s money through channeled funds and private corporations.

Thus as this spirit of apathy grows on both the inside and outside of our state, those in power currently enjoy the “good life” as Arizona slowly suffers and crumbles down a lot like Rome did back in the time when Caesar was the emperor and all fell down around them before they realized it too late as corruption and greed had destroyed everything a democratic system stood for while Arizona burned up in flames in what was once one of the best places to live and enjoy a decent quality of life.

Our state leaders are building an empire controlled by them as they invoke the fear of God through immigration and mass incarceration messages. This kind of misbehavior will surely take a huge toll on our economy, our quality of life as well as our mandatory state services as it spreads like a cancer bringing us and the state to its knees and ultimate demise.

State Government ~ Prison Management

When I retired from corrections in April 2010, I proclaimed I had a message about how our state government was misusing and abusing the prison system in Arizona for their own selfish opportunities and profit.  Spending 25 years in the New Mexico and Arizona Department of Corrections, I wrote several books about the corruption, the mismanagement and the flaws of systemic and human errors within the agency and nobody neither listened nor cared about the truth inside our state prisons. I am sure that today, two years later,  after seeing the budge expand beyond the $ 1.1 billion dollar mark, taxpayers are very frustrated and wanting to take back their government from some of these unelected bureaucrats’ that have been making the decisions how we spend taxpayers money lately in all government spending and not just prisons.

The answer to this matter is quite simple, we must hold our governor and state leaders accountable for how prisons are operated, managed and how the budget is used to maintain sound prison operations and services. In fact, the answer has been there all along but ignored by those in power to make this change and work actively to reduce prison spending, prison expansion and prison population while reducing the recidivism rate of prisoners going back into prisons by enhancing the parole officer’s ability to make better decisions regarding technical violations and returning them back to prison to serve their term inside the razor wire making it much more expensive than keeping them under supervision within our communities

Since my retirement, the prison population has shrunk but the budget has increased; the number of staff or correctional officers assigned has diminished and the number of deaths assaults and medically related lawsuits have increased.  In fact, a recent contract bid for more prison beds has been approved although it has already been proven that private prisons don’t save us any money and our prison system is not being managed effectively as there are empty beds within the state system today. Common sense has not prevailed and greed has won another round in the Capitol building.



Today, we read in the newspapers from people or community leaders who have been ignored or abused by this state government. Government has not only harassed and aggravated these people but has threatened them harm either directly or indirectly through family members who speak out. . Hopefully, we can agree to take our state government back from the unelected bureaucrats and return the decision making process back to a democratic system that is willing to listen to both sides, pro and con before making final decisions.

Today you will hear stories that will chill you to the bone. Lawsuits are filed dozens at a time and large organizations have elected to cure Arizona of its prison woes by going out and educate the people how prisons are being run, funded and the motive behind the scenes to make the rich richer and the powerful more powerful.  




Nobody wants to admit the government is failing in their public safety or prison management. The governor has ignored the media and public organizational pleas for reforms and investigations into the prison business deals as well as operational decision making.  My biggest surprise is the fact that nobody from the Attorney General to the Justice Department wants to get their hands dirty by investigating this agency thus making a silent statement of endorsing such prison practices and systemic flaws.




I cannot believe that after all that has been written and all the testimony or documentation provided by reputable individuals or organizations, nobody is angered, upset or outraged if not dismayed what our state government has become in Arizona. Every day, people in our communities read about the tragedies, the horrific prison conditions, poor medical and mental health care and turn their heads away while closing their eyes to the truth.  One must assume that none of these individuals have any family members locked up or they just don’t care.






 Many are just afraid to make noise and break the silence. Others are embracing the hate, the malfeasance and injecting their own brand of justice thinking this is the only way to run prisons, cruel and harsh with toxic results to many families.



Constituents are people and many people in Arizona have relatives inside this huge prison system. Many are lawful residents of this state and belong to that class of people who are paying excessive costs for maintaining their prisons in the same manner that brought California taxpayers and elected bureaucrats to their knees because of the excessive costs of prison and those services associated with mass incarceration methods.

Video - Professionalism ~ Correctional Officers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mcEJDpj0Rc&feature=plcp