Timothy O'Connor has a letter to the editor in today's Register-Star about the proposal to move the truck route and the new truck route task force, which seems to have borrowed its title from The Gossips of Rivertown:"Truck Talk."
Mussman on any Task Force is a horrible idea, but what we're witnessing is a quid pro quo either by the administration or by Mr. Moore.
Frankly the political favor is more disturbing to me than where the truck route might end up, let alone that few will question or challenge Mussman's inevitable role.
Thanks to the cunning of those issuing the favor, several aldermen were not even invited to the meeting. (I inquired.) Doesn't that strike anyone as eerily familiar?
Each comment following the truck route letter misunderstands the theme of corruption. Whether they believe they're agreeing or disagreeing with the letter (hard to tell), each fits into the pattern of how the public was meant to react.
The actual content of the letter - which is entirely about political favors and a potential conflict of interest - is supplanted by a manipulated controversy about whether and where the truck route should be moved.
Like water flowing downhill, every dialogue in Hudson automatically conforms to the latest incarnation of the issue at hand; introduce a new detail and nobody notices; introduce a half a dozen and you get the same result.
It turns out that while pompous declarations were being made about moving the truck route to Greenport, the plan was already to keep it within Hudson. Manipulation and cunning, yet nobody bats an eye.
The non-public meeting turns out to have been private. (Aldermen not invited!) Nobody bats an eye.
The hostess of the private meeting - someone with a bad track record who has the greatest to gain by manipulating the outcome - announces a Task Force on which she will invariably serve. Nobody bats an eye.
Of those politicos who seem constitutionally wired to cheat, all that's basically required in order to steer any outcome here is to keep a step ahead of The Gossips of Rivertown.
It's the exact same guile and manipulation, and by the same individuals, which too few were educated enough to comprehend was being practiced on us throughout the GEIS process. (That the few were more knowledgeable than the ones practicing the deceit didn't matter at all for the outcome.)
[Cue: cricket sounds.]
Perhaps future historians will be able to penetrate the deep, incurable hopelessness of this place.
In the meantime, we are inmates because we behave like inmates.
Hey Tim not for nothin' but you kinda of buried your lead. Maybe a title "More About Mussman" which is of interest and why was the DOT at her establishment as she holds no City position and not at a City Meeting?Does anyone know? Do you know anyone that was there? ---------------- the situation, althouth a completly different subject reminds me of one of my more favorite Gossip's Posts
Monday, October 11, 2010 Saturday Night with the Mayor -------------------------------- Attendance at the event at Eric Galloway's house on Saturday, described as a meet and greet with Mayor Richard Scalera, was by invitation only. Gossips was not invited. What is reported here was gathered from reliable sources who had been invited to attend and did. Yes, the report is hearsay, but this is, after all, The Gossips of Rivertown. Anyone who wants to correct, take issue with, or elaborate on anything said is encouraged to do so by posting a comment....
[interesting read then and more so ,in retrospect]
Unheimlich submitted this comment:
ReplyDeleteMussman on any Task Force is a horrible idea, but what we're witnessing is a quid pro quo either by the administration or by Mr. Moore.
Frankly the political favor is more disturbing to me than where the truck route might end up, let alone that few will question or challenge Mussman's inevitable role.
Thanks to the cunning of those issuing the favor, several aldermen were not even invited to the meeting. (I inquired.) Doesn't that strike anyone as eerily familiar?
Each comment following the truck route letter misunderstands the theme of corruption. Whether they believe they're agreeing or disagreeing with the letter (hard to tell), each fits into the pattern of how the public was meant to react.
The actual content of the letter - which is entirely about political favors and a potential conflict of interest - is supplanted by a manipulated controversy about whether and where the truck route should be moved.
Like water flowing downhill, every dialogue in Hudson automatically conforms to the latest incarnation of the issue at hand; introduce a new detail and nobody notices; introduce a half a dozen and you get the same result.
It turns out that while pompous declarations were being made about moving the truck route to Greenport, the plan was already to keep it within Hudson. Manipulation and cunning, yet nobody bats an eye.
The non-public meeting turns out to have been private. (Aldermen not invited!) Nobody bats an eye.
The hostess of the private meeting - someone with a bad track record who has the greatest to gain by manipulating the outcome - announces a Task Force on which she will invariably serve. Nobody bats an eye.
Of those politicos who seem constitutionally wired to cheat, all that's basically required in order to steer any outcome here is to keep a step ahead of The Gossips of Rivertown.
It's the exact same guile and manipulation, and by the same individuals, which too few were educated enough to comprehend was being practiced on us throughout the GEIS process. (That the few were more knowledgeable than the ones practicing the deceit didn't matter at all for the outcome.)
[Cue: cricket sounds.]
Perhaps future historians will be able to penetrate the deep, incurable hopelessness of this place.
In the meantime, we are inmates because we behave like inmates.
Hey Tim
ReplyDeletenot for nothin'
but
you kinda of buried your lead.
Maybe a title
"More About Mussman"
which is of interest
and why was the DOT
at her establishment as she holds no City position
and not at a City Meeting?Does anyone know?
Do you know anyone that was there?
----------------
the situation, althouth a completly different
subject
reminds me of one of my more favorite Gossip's Posts
Monday, October 11, 2010
Saturday Night with the Mayor
--------------------------------
Attendance at the event at Eric Galloway's house on Saturday, described as a meet and greet with Mayor Richard Scalera, was by invitation only. Gossips was not invited. What is reported here was gathered from reliable sources who had been invited to attend and did. Yes, the report is hearsay, but this is, after all, The Gossips of Rivertown. Anyone who wants to correct, take issue with, or elaborate on anything said is encouraged to do so by posting a comment....
[interesting read then and more so ,in retrospect]
Ah, but the Register Star chooses the titles, Prison Alley. And sometimes you just get stuck with something.
ReplyDeleteEven in the big newspapers, journalists are often disappointed by their headline writers. Authors are often disappointed by book covers, and so on.
At least we have a paper that prints our letters. Getting people to read and comprehend those letters is a different problem altogether.
At least one person recognized that the letter was about Mussman in bed with the powers that be, and not about the truck route. Thanks for noticing.
Ah! A few appropriate comments arrived at the Register Star after all.
ReplyDeleteCommenter "tazer" came up with the best proposed title:
"Mussman Privately Manipulates Politicos."
But I would qualify it further: " - Politicos Agreeable to Being Manipulated."