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May 31, 2007

The L Word

The Memorial Day story in the Times Free Press (Welcome new readers!) about this Web site was interesting for bunches of reasons. The most important of which, for me anyway, was when Ron told reporter Herman Wang that 1) He doesn't visit the site and 2) his 'technology savvy friends and staffers' have offered to try to discover my identity, but he told them not to bother.

The first had us hee-hawing around here because **NEWSFLASH Ron** we have a web-site tracker attached to www.worstmayoever.com and have had from day one. We know who is visiting, for how long and how often they return. On any given day we have 15 to 20 visits from City Hall computers. Now obviously, those aren't all Ron. In fact, they are primarily my fellow citizens, who happen to work for the City and can't stand Ron Littlefield and his caustic staff and come to WME to get a little laugh.

But when Ron goes on out-of-town trips and we get hits from the city he's visiting, I'm inclined to believe it's him. When we get hits from a freaking foreign country, like Japan, at the same time Ron's on one of his patented Asian Vacations, I'm pretty much willing to bet the farm on it! Some of his 'technology savvy friends and staffers' should have warned him about web site monitors before he so glibly prevaricated.

As for the second point, Josiah blogged about it Tuesday morning: here. More than a year ago lawyers from the city approached Josiah trying to muscle him into turning over my identity. Josiah refused (he e-mailed me about it as an FYI after the fact). Josiah refused on principle, but he also refused because he doesn't know my identity. I don't for a second worry about Josiah giving me up, but I haven't revealed myself to him so that he doesn't put his business at risk, if Ron were to get vindictive. It wouldn't be the first time Ron Littlefield put a personal vendetta before the good of the community by making it hard for someone to do business here.

So when Ron told Herman Wang of the Times Free Press that he'd instructed his 'technology savvy friends and staffers' not to pursue discovering my identity, that is just not true.

I loved that he said, for the second time in print in the Times Free Press, that if only WorstMayorEver.com were funny, well, then he'd be a regular reader (nevermind the fact that you couldn't know whether or not something is funny without reading it, and that making the statement was confession that you did in fact, read it). Me thinks Ron doth protest too much. I defy anyone to deny the fact that Ron Littlefield dressed up in turn-of-the-century ladies finery isn't funny! It's like Little People wrestling or watching some dude getting smacked in the nards--it's just funny!

And finally, being called a purveyor of 'nontruth' by a speaker of 'nonwords' like MichMich was good clean fun for the whole family and made my Memorial Day holiday complete.

Let's take a look at this sentence--a direct quote--from the Times Free Press story: "It must be a very sad and miserable person who would have an existence bringing everybody down by publishing such nonsense and nontruth," she said.

Well said, Mr. President. "Have an existence"? "nontruth"? It defies belief, or should I say 'nondoubt', that a communications director would construct such a, to use her phraseology, 'nonsentence' like that. It's an embarrassment to our city and back to my original point here, pretty damn funny. I'm just glad that she's "having an existence" back in the private sector.

But the best part of the whole ordeal is how many new readers have come to visit www.WorstMayorEver.com since the story ran. The statcounter was spinning like a ceiling fan. And the WorstMayorEver e-mailbox has been full since Monday afternoon. Oddly, we've become a sort of repository for Chattanoogans who have issues with City Hall. The cure to all your problems is less than two short years away folks.

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May 24, 2007

Littlefield To Pierce's Posse: Bite Me!

Leamon Pierce's BlueRibbon panel on homelessness submitted their report and it was fairly straightforward. On the topic of whether or not it is a good idea to build the Homeless Hilton, the report said: "Through all the weeks of study, we were unable to find a rationale to support the idea." Essentially, they said, let's make some corrections to the system before we address any new buildings. Fair enough and basically what this blog has been saying all along.

Leamon himself, who having been fool enough to support Ron during the election gets what he damn well deserves with this mess of an administration, said in the Times Free Press, "We haven't had any input whatsoever as to the location. Who makes those hard decisions? The Council did not have the input we should have had up front going into this."

So, having been told, 'Stop, it's not a good idea' by informed citizens who spent weeks studying the situation and 'You've already insulted us, best not do it again' by a Councilman, what did Ron Littlefield have to say?

"We can't stop everything we're doing, any more than we can stop breathing as a community." Beyond the issue of the lazy mind where that metaphor originated (we don't 'breathe' as a community, especially not metaphorically), that statement is simply not true. Yes, you can stop what you are doing. Because if you stop implementing your bad idea, nothing bad happens. Those who help the homeless are already doing so and will continue to do so. How blind to what's going on around him is this man? I know ideas in general are hard for him to come by, but why does he cling so desperately to this bad one?

But the City Council holds all the cards here, right? Isn't it still true that the City of Chattanooga doesn't spend any money that the City Council doesn't approve? I mean if Littlefield chooses to ignore the Iraq Study Group Report...uh, I mean, Pierce's Posse's Report on Homelessness (TM Billy Blades), can't we rely on the City Council to put the brakes on and make Ron do the sensible thing and follow the reports suggestions?

UPDATE: Today's ham-handed 'retraction' of the report by Pierce's Posse is so bogus it's beyond funny. You just know that that version was what was supposed to go out until Ron saw it the day before. Anyone who knows how Ron Littlefield works, knows what happened behind the scenes. The minute that the Times hit the streets yesterday, and the paper chose to emphasize what they did, Ron started hollering and badgered Linda into her 'Oops wrong report!' apology.

Folks, I guarantee you that the statement yesterday was a toned-down version of their real opinion and today's version #2 is that much further from the truth. It obviously reflects division in Pierce's Posse between those who wanted to tell it like it is and those who want to smooth things over with the mayor. I'm guessing they really think Ron's Homeless Hilton idea is bad, but don't want to be hurtful to the cause of helping the homeless. Word to that. I bet the Times newsroom was fun yesterday. The funny thing is that the retraction helped tell more of the real story than the original story did on its own.

Ron Littlefield: Worst. PR Instincts. Ever.

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