Thursday, July 6, 2006
Draggin' The Mayor Along on Vacation
Through the wonders of technology, these days you can go
almost anywhere and still remain tethered to home and all that
represents. Sometimes that's wonderful, sometimes it isn't.
For example, while on vacation this week I've been able to plunk down at the end of a fun-filled day and access email, online versions of newspapers and streaming video of city council meetings - like the one Wednesday night.
Using streaming video I had a chance to see our young jailer/mayor whine from the dais about how he just can't understand it when people continue to criticize him for proposing to demolish the municipal golf course long after he says he's given that really bad idea up for lost. He whimpered about the Daily Pilot not printing a letter he wrote in which he made this decision public. Funny, if he'd waited about three hours he could have read that very letter in the online version that night - just as I did. I thought it was a great irony, by the way, that his name was misspelled in the "byline". Editorial license? Probably not, but it was funny, nonetheless.
Well, Mr. Mayor, if you really care about why people continue to criticize you for even proposing this idea, here are a few reasons that I can think of: 1) It was a bad idea from the start. 2) You chose to spring it on your peers on the city council without even the suggestion of vetting it in a study session first. 3) It was an obvious political ploy to find a way to avoid lighting two more fields at The Farm complex. 4) This is certainly not the first time you've done something like this - remember your immigration screening scheme?
I found it amusing and instructive that, once again, our young jailer/mayor's sponsor in the Minuteman mob - the semi-grand pooba himself, Jim Gilchrist - rose to speak during Public Comments to praise and defend Mansoor's immigration screening plan against what he referred to as the "anarchists" in the audience. The best part, though, was his attempt to criticize those in the audience that he said refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag at the beginning of the meeting and to show them up by reciting The Pledge for them. It was illuminating to watch him completely botch that attempt as he forgot the words at the end. Even those young English-learner children in our Westside schools manage to master The Pledge. Perhaps we could get a few of them to coach Gilchrist.
Speaking of racists, our old pal, Your Neighbor, is going after the recently-formed political action committee, Return to Reason, with a vengeance. He dedicated another blog entry to that group today in a feeble attempt to cast doubt on their motives with more of his rhetoric. It sure looks to me like this election is going to boil down to whether people will side with our young jailer/mayor and his buddies, Gilchrist and Your Neighbor and their transparent, intolerant views or those candidates supported by Return to Reason. The editors of the Daily Pilot, in an editorial today, speculated that this campaign would not be full of mud-slinging and name calling. I hope they're right, but if the most recent posts on Your Neighbor's web site are an indication, I doubt we'll see a "clean" campaign.
11:07 pm pdt
For example, while on vacation this week I've been able to plunk down at the end of a fun-filled day and access email, online versions of newspapers and streaming video of city council meetings - like the one Wednesday night.
Using streaming video I had a chance to see our young jailer/mayor whine from the dais about how he just can't understand it when people continue to criticize him for proposing to demolish the municipal golf course long after he says he's given that really bad idea up for lost. He whimpered about the Daily Pilot not printing a letter he wrote in which he made this decision public. Funny, if he'd waited about three hours he could have read that very letter in the online version that night - just as I did. I thought it was a great irony, by the way, that his name was misspelled in the "byline". Editorial license? Probably not, but it was funny, nonetheless.
Well, Mr. Mayor, if you really care about why people continue to criticize you for even proposing this idea, here are a few reasons that I can think of: 1) It was a bad idea from the start. 2) You chose to spring it on your peers on the city council without even the suggestion of vetting it in a study session first. 3) It was an obvious political ploy to find a way to avoid lighting two more fields at The Farm complex. 4) This is certainly not the first time you've done something like this - remember your immigration screening scheme?
I found it amusing and instructive that, once again, our young jailer/mayor's sponsor in the Minuteman mob - the semi-grand pooba himself, Jim Gilchrist - rose to speak during Public Comments to praise and defend Mansoor's immigration screening plan against what he referred to as the "anarchists" in the audience. The best part, though, was his attempt to criticize those in the audience that he said refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag at the beginning of the meeting and to show them up by reciting The Pledge for them. It was illuminating to watch him completely botch that attempt as he forgot the words at the end. Even those young English-learner children in our Westside schools manage to master The Pledge. Perhaps we could get a few of them to coach Gilchrist.
Speaking of racists, our old pal, Your Neighbor, is going after the recently-formed political action committee, Return to Reason, with a vengeance. He dedicated another blog entry to that group today in a feeble attempt to cast doubt on their motives with more of his rhetoric. It sure looks to me like this election is going to boil down to whether people will side with our young jailer/mayor and his buddies, Gilchrist and Your Neighbor and their transparent, intolerant views or those candidates supported by Return to Reason. The editors of the Daily Pilot, in an editorial today, speculated that this campaign would not be full of mud-slinging and name calling. I hope they're right, but if the most recent posts on Your Neighbor's web site are an indication, I doubt we'll see a "clean" campaign.
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