Public enemies

June 14, 2014

This article in our El Paso Times deserves comment.

According to the article an off duty Border Patrol agent allegedly saw three people allegedly pointing what allegedly looked like an automatic rifle at a building.

I guess we can skip the issue of how three people work together to point a single rifle.  I certainly hope that one of them was not in front of the alleged automatic rifle.

The culprit

County sheriff’s deputies arrived and chased the three.  The alleged automatic rifle turned out to be a paint gun.

Two of the alleged building killers were held  “on suspicion of terrorist threat and evading detention”.

Imagine what they would have been charged with if they had actually squeezed the trigger.

There was a time when you did not get arrested until you had actually committed a crime.

There is a better way to handle youngsters.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

4 Comments | County Government, El Paso Times, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

elchuqueno.com and our El Paso Times

June 13, 2014

This post in elchuqueno.com nails it in my opinion.

I hope that you take the time to read it.

We deserve better

Brutus

35 Comments | Ball park, City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Not thinking

June 5, 2014

Our El Paso Times published this article June 1, 2014.  The Times explained in the article that they had received “handwritten notes from several city representatives and others that were taken during the May 8 interviews with the four finalists, as well as during the City Council executive session that followed.

Knuckleheads

Executive session discussions are supposed to be private.  Notes taken by participants during executive session are subject to disclosure under our open records law.  Not destroying personal notes before leaving the meeting makes them subject to public disclosure.

I suppose that if I wanted to leak what had happened in the meeting then keeping written notes would be a good technique to use.

The Times article was accompanied by this graphic:

citymanagerexecutivesession

You should be able to click on the graphic to enlarge it.

Doodle

The doodling at the bottom of the page is illuminating.  It appears that the city representative was scribbling her initials like some daydreaming teenager.

This brings up the possibility that we may see a scientific phenomenon soon–a person who disappears through total self-absorption.

We deserve better

Brutus

 

5 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

How many times?

May 7, 2014

How many times are we going to see the Times shamelessly using it’s power to tell half truths in order to try to sway public opinion?

Their editorial the other day lamented the slim pickings that have been provided to us with the four finalists for the city manager position.

They wrote about the candidate from out of town that appears to have had “ethical lapses” (to use the Times’ term).

They also wrote about one of our deputy city managers who bungled the police payroll issue a couple of years ago to the tune of a couple of million dollars.

Not one word

They did not write one word about our current chief financial officer who has appeared before council time and again providing wildly inaccurate financial data.

Could that be because she is the chosen one?

Hypocrites!

We deserve better

Brutus

11 Comments | City government, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

What a cad

May 4, 2014

Our central appraisal district executive director is trying to stiff the public in a way that other local government entities do.

The Times has filed what is commonly called an open records request asking to see the travel records relating to the executive director for the last year.

The district wants to charge the Times $404 for the 80 documents.  They claim that the clerical work required to comply with the request is the cause of the exorbitant charge.

If the district’s accounting records are in such disarray that it truly takes 22 hours to assemble the documents, then we need a new accounting system and a new boss at the district.

If the high charge is designed to discourage the Times, then we need a new boss at the district.

Unfortunately many in local government think that those who make open records requests are the enemy.

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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