Archives: March 2005
Thu Mar 31, 2005
HIZZONER'S NEWS CONFERENCE
News conference.
The Mayor’s news conference on the last day of March. Great timing. Hizzoner missed April Fool’s Day by a whole twenty-four hours.
Must be Mr. Ellis’ mystical sense of timing.
So what did he have to say?
He made two basic points: (1) he continued his strong verbal defense of his former CFO, Kelly Clark and (2) he accused DA Simms of posturing, of bringing (vaguely worded)charges against Ms. Clark to promote his (Simms) own, personal political agenda.
A ten-year-old might have written this script….it was predictable, kind of quick and easy, and had not a little burlesque. The only thing he didn’t do was to play the race card. Our guess is that tack will come next.
It is increasingly obvious Mr. Ellis is feeling the heat. Despite his still flamboyant manner, take charge attitude, and pit bull attack posture, his appearance is haggard, his temper short, and the usually free and easy way he greets people, working a crowd, is just a little strained.
By the way, you folks who are picking nits need to lighten up and get your focus back. I’m talking the city council folks, the Channel 13 news department, and others whose thongs are in a bind over minutiae like the use of a city car to transport Miss Kelly too and from the LEC when she turned herself in.
It is too easy in times of political crisis for those concerned to lose sight of the grand prize, busying themselves with lesser issues. The grand prize here and now is locating what happened to almost twenty-five million dollars of city funds. Where is it? Can we get it back? Is there criminality involved? Is Macon worth holding on to?
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JIM FISHER
WHEREFORE ART THOU
WHEREFORE ART THOU
Remember Jim Fisher? Who doesn’t?
Well, I know the name doesn’t ring all the bells in Central Georgia. But it certainly is familiar to those who listen to local talk radio.
He is the guy who sojourned from out the cold Midwest into the fair city of Macon and took a job as morning talk host on station WMWR, competing directly with Kenny B. and Jami G., than whom there are none greater.
He lost his job a couple of weeks back because, we assume, it is more profitable in this day of mega media mergers and ‘sister stations’ (some people hate their sisters but that stems from childhood and family issues in this era of dysfunctional prime units), to automate a radio station, relying on satellite feeds. Robots don’t require medical insurance and matching SS payments.
We have, as most know, two radio stations that are devoted to talk radio here in the Midstate: WMAC and WMWR. The former gives us the likes of Hannity, Limbaugh, Savage, and Neal Boortz; the latter responds with O’Reilly, Beck, Liddy, and Laura Ingraham. The only one of these clowns I care to listen to when there is time is Boortz. He’s entertaining and delightfully somewhat unpredictable.
Most of these seem to take their cue from the White House and the Republican National Committee. They deny it (“I disagreed with Bush back in ’98 when he was still governor of Texas’.) But come to a crisis (Election a week away? Terry Schiavo? should we go to war in Iraq?) they march in dim-witted lockstep to a GOP drummer. Boortz is often the exception. He’s the only one of these clowns I care to listen to. He’s entertaining and delightfully somewhat unpredictable. Check http://expage.com/luciusson259 "Neal Boortz Kicks Bill O'Reilly's Pompous Ass".
But here in the Midstate, on 940 AM a station that surrounds them mainly with Clone and Vacuum, there is the one and only KENNY B and JAMI G SHOW, running five days a week from 6:00 to 9:00 AM. This is, perhaps, the best talk radio anywhere in the South East. But our local readers know that already.
So what does have to do with Jim Fisher.
Thought you would never ask. Our version of his arrival last July on these, our miasmic plains, can be found http://expage.com/lukester386 at a time when a Pro Ellis rally was held on the steps of city hall followed a few days later by a recall Ellis rally in the little park across the street from the Mayor’s shrine. It is worth going back to revisite (No, not the park, stupid, the article).
Anyway a late phone call last night informed me that Mr. Fisher had just that day been hired as News Director at WMAC….the same station that carries Kenny B.and Jami G.
Good Luck, Jim, Here is some unsolicited advice: avoid pink shirts in public, don’t be pompous, work hard, try to stay objective when covering the news. You should have a great future at 940.
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Wed Mar 30, 2005
A LESSON FROM TWENTIETH CENTURY HISTORY
Recent biographical programming on the History Channel featuring the life styles of the mad and infamous indicated that, as children, both Joe Stalin and Adolph Hitler exhibited artistic tendencies.
The former liked writing poetry; the latter studied art. The two youngsters grew up to be the numbers one and two among the catalogue of the savage mass murderers spawned during the Twentieth Century.
What is the point of this little snippet of history? Well, just possibly, if you have a boy child who likes to draw or write poetry, you might consider taking these dangerous toys away immediately and give him something less lethal to play with, a new rifle, pistol, or shotgun, for instance.
KELLY CLARK UPDATE: Not much to say here....the downtown rumor mill and all the local conspiracy theorists are all hard at work to entertain you over the next several months with their versions of what is going on in the finance department of wonderful city hall.
Don't forget....this Friday is FIRST FRIDAY.....ELEVENTH HOUR has an open house on Cotton Ave. The word on the street is that yours truly will be there along with several of his reliable sources.
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Tue Mar 29, 2005
KELLY CLARK VISITS THE LEC
You might have missed the news, but a few short hours ago, the DA slapped Kelly Clark with an invitation to appear in person down at the LAW ENFORCEMENT CENTER, donate a copy of her fingerprints to the official county archives, and allow her photograph, both front and side views, be taken by a professional. Further, Mr. DA asked Ms. Clark for a good-faith bond in the amount of $25,000.00, which is almost exactly the amount paid by the city recently in its efforts to persuade her to find employment elsewhere.
Reliable sources at City Hall tell us that the warrant (not indictment) was a pre-emptive strike on the part of the District Attorney’s office to ensure that should the current Grand Jury (How Many Grand Juries Does It Take To Screw In A Light Bulb?), or any other body investigating the convoluted world of city politics offer up indictments, Bibb County would get first crack at bringing the accused to justice.
Of course, there are those who are convinced that the way the process works is to squeeze the underling so that he rolls over on the Capo. Let’s see, boys and girls, Kelly Clark’s boss is (or has been) uh, err, um, it’s on the tip of my tongue.
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Sun Mar 27, 2005
THIS BE EASTER
Easter Sunday!
Raining and wet, here. Thunderstorms and the threat of tornadic activity.
Day long thunder, rain enough to drown the gardens planted just last week.
The entire city seems to be celebrating the resurrection at the church of the worshipper’s choice. He is risen, after all. All we have to do is to define who he is. “That depends on the meaning of ‘he’, to paraphrase a recent American President.
The entire city except us, of course, we; my Pop and I, are atheists. Comfortably so.
And before you get your rosaries or your undies in a bunch, we’re not like those jerks who want to ban ‘under god’ from the Pledge, nor the Ten Suggestions from the courthouse. We’re a kind of live and let live family. Have your religion your way, just don’t try to cram it down our throats.
That’s what should be the ‘American Way’, but isn’t because so many evangelical thumpers of ‘holy writ’ would force us onto their version of the straight and narrow. Puritanism is very alive and well in the Bible Belt.
So we stayed away from church this day and every one of the other three hundred and sixty-four, except in leap-election years. But we don’t look down on those who do the church thing, except maybe he who only attends on Easter and Christmas because that’s the proper (read ‘social’) thing to do, or to show off his new finery. These can be numbered among the hypocritical christians, but that’s their choice and they are free to exercise it.
It’s just that when Councilman Cherrypopper proclaims publicly that he is a devout Episcopalian, say, or Baptist, and visits his chosen temple but once or twice a year, he becomes the object of slings and arrows, of barbs and jabs, of exposure and ridicule in the virtual pages of THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE.
Happy Easter. Do something positive for someone who needs it. A shut-in. A sick child. A resident of an impersonal penal system. A lost dog. Doesn’t matter. The simple act if done without regard to self is enough to propel you up a rung or two on the ladder of humanity.
Happy Easter.
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Sat Mar 26, 2005
RACISM IN THE SCHIAVO AFFAIR???
Overlooked in the Terri Schiavo mess is the singular fact that if she were a black woman, she would not be drawing the media coverage she is. Or Hispanic or Burka robed Muslim.
At one point she was a pretty woman. The media tends to alternate footage of her back in happier times when a vibrant, happy young married, posing with her husband neither having a clue about what the future may bring, juxtaposing that with shots of the fragile shell she has become. As sad as is the drawn and haggard public face she now exhibits, the unmistakable message is clear: this one is a white woman. She is in danger. Let’s milk it for all we can.
In the world of the Amber Alert, our pandering Fourth Estate will follow until death or safety do us part the story of an abducted little white child. Compare that to the kind of attention a little African American draws.
There is a kind of unspoken bias in the media that allows it to focus, to dwell in depth on tragedies of the white races, while ignoring the others whether here at home. Check your local newspaper for stories about genocide in the Sudan, an emerging Ebola epidemic in Africa, and pandemic AIDS in the sub-Sahara and China.
“But we have it under control in the white United States!!!”.
Do we really?
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Wed Mar 23, 2005
CHERRY BLOSSOM TIME
SO WE MUST NOT WRITE HEADLINES PUTTING MACON
IN A BAD LIGHT
RIGHT?
THE HELL WE WON'T
THE SEVEN PER CENT NO-SOLUTION: Hot Damnation!!! Gotta hand it to the politically astute residents of Macon’s Ward 2, who this week marched to the polls in underwhelming numbers casting ballots to fill the Council seat vacated by the death of Jim Lee, sorely missed now more than ever.
The forces that might be managed to scrape up something less than seven percent of all persons registered to cast votes. For the math challenged that’s 7% who voted, and 93% of legal voters couldn’t be bothered to get their lazy asses into a polling place.
Poor Mr. Lee, he who faithfully served the people of this district for many, many years must be shedding great salt tears as he gazes down upon the pathetic losers inhabiting his beloved former stomping grounds. “Times they are a-changin’”, sho-‘nuff.
Millions of Iraqis faced gunfire, rockets, bombs, and torture, braving death for the precious right to vote two short months ago. Maybe we ought uproot Ward 2 and ship it to far off Baghdad.
Well done!!! We could declare the entire ward a disaster area, or maybe a break-away, third world country so that its citizens can start getting massive infusions of government aid to rescue them from their own sloth, ignorance, and near-total lack of civic responsibility. Is everybody there smoking crack? Everybody except the nearly seven per cent, that is? Perhaps they can't read. Maybe even the dumbed-down pages of the TELEGRAPH are too difficult for their comprehension, except the sports pages, of course. Just possibly their radios are tuned exclusively to mindless rap, rock and country music, their TV sets injecting nothing into the human experience beyond MTV, BET, and that wonderful ‘reality television’ foisted upon a stupidly uncritical public. It is not beyond comprehension to suppose that most of the residents of Ward 2 are totally unaware that there is a world beyond the confining boundaries of their tiny precinct, beyond their earshot or sight, beyond the burning desire to score the next all important fix.
SEVEN (*&^%^&^% PER CENT!!! What were these brain-dead morons thinking? They don’t deserve any representation on City Council, the school board, or the Board of Directors of the Koznofski School for the Wayward.
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Tue Mar 22, 2005
Terry Schiavo and Kelly Clark
Was asked an interesting question by a neighbor and good friend just this evening.
It won't mean much to you if you have not been following the mess over Terry Schiavo and that other major bone of contention, the war between Macon's Mayor and her City Council over what to do with CFO Kelly Clark. It appears right now that the Council has sufficient votes to offer Ms Clark a hefty severence package in stead of bringing her to court.
So, asked our friend, "Do we take the feeding tube out of Kelly Clark and offere Ms Schiavo a severence deal?"
Things are a tad crazy right now.
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L'AFFAIR SCHIAVO
The shell of what was once Terry Schiavo is once again being dragged through the slime of protracted courtroom proceedings, this time hijacked largely by the anti abortion folks among religious conservatives.
The life or death of this woman is neither a pro nor anti abortion issue. It is a private matter residing largely within a family and, beyond that, in the state where Schiavo resides.
On this we rely primarily on the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which reads in full: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”. This Amendment, much misunderstood since the Constitution’s ratification, makes it quite clear (to us) that l’Affair Schiavo is not a proper matter for intrusion by the Federal Government.
The poor thing has been kept on a kind of life support for fifteen years. The question as to whether nutrient and hydration tubes should or should not be removed has gone to court, state and federal, twenty times as of this morning…one or more sure to come even as this is typed. The ‘keep her alive at any cost’ supporters cry ‘due process’, when exactly that has been used over and over.
Dressing the issue up in the guise of the so-called ‘pro-life’ movement, aligning it on the side of a right-wing Conservative Christian element one of whose stated goals is to turn this nation into a kind of theocracy, back to the good old days of Puritan Massachusetts Bay when a narrow interpretation of scripture allowed Cotton Mather and his kind to commingle Man’s and God’s law into witch-killing confusion, is sheer buffoonery.
And so enough congressmen cut short their vacation and ceremoniously in full view of the almighty news cameras preened and postured about abstracts like ‘the dignity of life’, ‘the government’s obligation’, citing generalities from the Constitution where no specifics exist to back up their empty-headed drivel, pandering to hard core religious fanatics, playing to their presumed base presumably found in greatest numbers in those red-hued states. So did the President, poor man awakened at 1:00 AM from a sound sleep to sign a law allowing Schiavo’s case to be argued in court still one more time.
Time to end the farce, folks!!!
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Fri Mar 18, 2005
THE SEVEN PER CENT NON-SOLUTION
HOT DAMN!!! Gotta hand it to the politically astute residents of Macon’s Ward 2, who this week marched to the polls in underwhelming numbers to cast their ballots for the Council seat vacated by the death of Jim Lee, now sorely missed more than ever.
All the forces that be in the universe managed to scrape up something less than seven percent of all registered to cast votes.
Well done!!! We ought to declare the entire ward a disaster area, or maybe a third world country so that its citizens can start getting massive government subsidies to rescue them from their own sloth and ignorance. Is everybody over there smoking crack? Everyone except the seven per cent, that is? Perhaps they can't read. Maybe even the dumbed-down pages of the TELEGRAPH are too difficult for their comprehension. Just possibly their radios are set to music-only stations and their tv sets inject nothing into their sensory experience except Mtv, BET, and stations foisting ‘reality television on an increasingly stupid, uncritical public. It is not beyond comprehension that the residents of Ward 2 are totally unaware that there is a world out beyond the boundaries of their sight and hearing.
Maybe these clowns never heard that Mr. Lee had died....months ago. SHAME! SHAME!! SHAME!!!
SEVEN (*&^%^&^% PER CENT!!! What are you brain dead morons thinking, if anything? You don’t deserve any representation on City Council, the school board, or the Board of Directors of the Koznofski School for Wayward Girls.
We will expand this notion in an upcoming ELEVENTH HOUR
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A NOTE ON THE JACKSON TRIAL
WOW!! Beretta Not Guilty, Martha out on probation, Peterson gets death, and the trial of Whacko Mikie Jacko drags on….and on….and on.
All of this celebrity-trial horse crap is driving the real news off the radar screen.
Lest we forget, there is still a war raging in Iraq, thousands infected with AIDS every day in sub-Sahara Africa, and, closer to home, a do-nothing Congress is afraid to take any real stand in the highly-charged Social Security debate.
But ‘celebrity’ caps everything among the mindless, ratings-driven Fourth Estate. What does Jackson’s butler’s third cousin think about the one-gloved androgyny?
Then there are legions of mindless fans who show up getting as close to the courthouse as they can to ‘show their support’ to the pathetically confused shell of a human being that Jackson has become.
The poor bastard is little more than a puppet tethered to an invisible cord controling his thoughts (if any), movements, and reactions to his fans.
Me….I don’t trust much of anything that comes through the internet, the normal news channels, or the government on any level.
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Tue Mar 15, 2005
A CALL FROM THE RNC
Got a call one weekend afternoon from a nasal-sounding, young, twenty-something idiot who claimed to represent the Republican National Committee. He wanted us to contribute to the RNC to defeat the foes of President Bush and help his agenda progress. If this is the best eager ‘young Republican’ the GOP can field to solicit funds, the party of the mythic jackass has little to fear in the future.
The sound of his voice created an instant and vivid mind picture within my skull. This jerk was less than a year or two past the prime of his pimple-and-pus bearing years, owned an accent that dripped of the ugly, staccato paced patois of Greater NYC, and tried to play the nuance game as if he were a god’s gift to Republican Politics. He identified himself as Ted Dickstein (or something like that) and wanted to talk to the head of the house, Luke Angelo.
It would come as a real shock to my Old Man that yours truly was elevated to head of family, paterfamilias, of this house. Surprise! Surprise!! Surprise!!!
Lest we beat the elephant, that mythic totem of the once grand old party, to death, what follows is a transcript of that conversation as recalled from memory.
Ringgggggggggggggggggggggg (ten times. I was alone in the house and seated on the ‘royal flush’ catching up on my Shakespeare when it started. It is so hard to put down any of the KING HENRY’s once you start reading.)
Luke: (picks up chocolate streaked receiver…your humble correspondent had recently finished a heat-softened Kit Kat Bar) Hello.
Dickstein: Hi. This is the Republican National Committee. Can I speak to Luke Angelo?
Luke: Speaking. And who are you?
Dickstein: This is Mr. Ted Dickstein. Luke, we haven’t heard from you in a long time.
Luke: Well, actually, you haven’t ever heard of me much at all. I found myself on your mailing list after I wrote an article called I HATE REPUBLICANS; I JUST HATE DEMOCRATS A LITTLE MORE.
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Fri Mar 11, 2005
DAILY LOG
"Hell, No, I won't go!!!
That’s the obvious tack Ms Kelly Clark is taking re: the vote of no confidence she received Tuesday from the Gang of Fifteen. Apparently she reported for work as usual the following day.
At this very moment (5:00 PM) the City Council is locked deep within its bomb-proof shelter, in secret session, closeted with one or more independent lawyers trying to figure out what to do next.
I don’t like secrecy. Do you? It is too easy for craven fence sitters to cover their asses, avoiding the kind of intensescrutiny the public deserves.
This meeting won't even appear on C-Jack TV, Cable Channel 14.
Ms Clark is a very nice person. She may be over her head in her job as CFO of the City of Macon. I don't know. But she sure has become the flash point between the Ellis Administration and the Macon City Council.
Does the City Council have the legal authority to require her to step down? Guess that is what is being thrashed out at this very minute.
From here it looks a little like another chapter in the unending saga of David and Goliath where the underdog ended up severing the head of the great warrior.
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Thu Mar 10, 2005
RACISM? IN MACON???
It was bound to happen.
But too bad the race card was played during an open City Council meeting with the glare of C. Jack TV bringing it into our living rooms.
Anthony Collins, a city employee, was one of several citizens to speak at last Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Towards the end of his allotted five minutes, he made a comment that the Recall Ellis folks may be ‘racially motivated’. He waived his hand and indicated a number of white faces seated near Ms Heather McCroan.
I held my breath but no ‘bring it on’ was heard…just some low muttering under the breath.
Unfortunately, yours truly was seated among the Recall folks, having come to the meeting with friends who are members of Heather's august cadre. I felt anger….for I am neither a member of that org, nor am I a racist.
Luke is, rather, what you might call an ‘EQUAL OPPORTUNITY BIGOT….he hates everybody equally. Race, religion, sexual orientation, country of origin mean nothing per se….he targets stupidity, ignorance, and non-thinking, pomposity, self-pity, false victimization, modern public education, and parents without the sense nor the balls to keep their kids in line. And that’s just for starters. You can throw in venal politicians (which is most of them), big brother legislation, and anybody who thinks the U.S. Constitution is merely an inconvenient document. I still think ‘socialism’ is a damned dirty word.
I hate Republicans; I just hate Democrats a little more.
And I abominate racism. It is sad that Mr. Collins played the race card, but it bring the reality that Macon is still a racially divided community sharply into focus.
In Macon, racism cuts both ways. There is as much or more distrust of Whitey by Blacks as is the old vice versa. Some of us are still bothered by Council President Anita ‘Don’t Make Waves’ Ponder’s public statement about Black power and White money. Roots run deep.
The controversy swirling around mayor Ellis seems to be polarizing both Whites and Blacks. As was pointed out on the Kenny B and Jami G show earlier this week, racism is on the increase. Sad!.
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Wed Mar 09, 2005
BALLS AND THE MACON CITY COUNCIL b>
It’s happening, slowly, ever so slowly. The Macon City Council is beginning to have a ball.
No. not a party.
A ball, uno cojone, grit, guts, a testicle. But only one.
We cannot yet say the gang of fifteen (currently fourteen) has ‘balls’, that would be asking too much, too much at this point in time, but signs of testicular fortitude are beginning to appear.
During their most recent bi-weekly meeting, the day after a dangerously incomplete accounting of fiscal activity 2004 was presented, the Council seemed finally on the verge of being fed up with the financial mess the city of Maconga finds herself in.
By an overwhelming vote, the Council passed a resolution that declared Kelly Clark, chief financial Honcho, has twenty-four hours to resign. If she does not (that’s 7:20PM tonight by our reckoning), she is liable to face legal sanctions. Reverend Jones bravely voted against the majority; Alveno Ross fled the scene apparently unwilling to take a stand, any stand. Don’t want to upset the Mayor and his cabal, do we?
So much for Ms Clark, except we bet she is still functioning (if that’s the operative word) in her office as usual a week or a month from now. A short time later, however, a motion from Councilman Cole Thomason, to afford the same treatment to Hizzoner, Mayor Ellis, was referred to committee in a vote that reeked both of personal cowardice and fear of the folks back in the home ward where every knee bows at the mention of C. Jack’s name.
It is a start, anyway. More and more we are beginning to see some leadership develop in the legislative branch of city government. Less and less does the term ‘rubber stamp’ apply.
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Tue Mar 08, 2005
HEY, IT'S NOT MY FAULT THE AUDIT IS LATE
MEA MAXIMA CULPA: Our apologies for straying beyond local politics in the last article. Yours truly was lulled into a false sense of security when he accepted the mayor’s cheerfully optimistic financial prediction on its face value. Forgive me, Your Holiness, for I have sinned. Well, maybe not ‘sinned’ (exactly); more like ‘acted like an idiot’. Sorry!
POLITICIANS WONDER WHY VOTERS DON’T TRUST THEM ANYMORE. It doesn’t take a pricey pollster to tell incumbents at all levels that the public ranks elected officials well below trial lawyers and those wonderfully empathetic ‘animal rescue’ folks who exterminate almost 93% of all seized ‘stray’ cats and dogs in an ugly facility located deep within Macon’s blighted Brownfields.
In Washington, DC we are fast coming to distrust our dour Republicans who once won power pledging fiscal responsibility, smaller government, and less Big Brother. In Atlanta, we have substituted a regime of heavy-handed Democrats for a GOP cabal using the same tactics as has the Party of the Mythic Jackass since reconstruction. Power corrupts. An elected official’s only real goal, it seems, is getting re-elected, or, baring that, to move up a rung or two on the political pecking pole. Success in the political wars depends more on fundraising than intelligence, opinion, or performance.
And here in Macon it’s about money. And chicanery. And perhaps outright dishonesty coupled with not a little fraud. Certainly something called ‘truth’ has fled in abject terror retreating down the marble steps of city hall, most likely never to return.
Grand jury indictments? I’m not holding my breath, are you? That seems as unlikely as shocking life into the Frankenstein that was once the Recall Ellis movement.
And it is not just the Mayor. Macon City Council must accept its share of blame for the mess we find ourselves in.
This is being typed the day before the full 2004 audit is due to be released. It was early learned that the accounting firm of Clifton, Lipford, Hardison & Parker will issue what is termed a ‘disclaimer’, basically asserting the Ellis Administration’s accounting, reporting, projections and other screw-ups have created a situation that a full and accurate accounting statement based on them is virtually impossible.
We don’t know where the money is going, went, gone. Nobody knows.
Fearing the inevitable criticism of his stewardship, Hizzoner held a press conference Friday last. Mr. Ellis was animated throughout his discourse, joking and hopping around with all the energy of a sugar saturated eleven-year-old. We don’t think the performance convinced many of his critics, but he sure was in top form in the defense of his realm. Blame the accounting firm, blame the city council. All is well in Fiefdom Ellis.
As in the matter of donations to the firefighters’/police officers’ pension fund, The Mayor and City Council are locked in ugly battle. So far, the mayor seems to have outflanked the Gang of Fifteen, cutting the City’s contribution before the Council even knew about it. What’s legal and proper doesn’t seem to mater much. The game goes on; taxpayers will always be the big losers.
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