Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

From the Times-Sun.

Stupidity awards from the roundtable


By TIM KRUMLAUF

After surviving another election season -- my 29th in the newspaper business (it's a life sentence; don't ask and I won't tell) -- I recently found myself at one of my favorite pubs for an executive stress management and attitude readjustment seminar.

Joining me were fellow members of the panel of judges for the Algonquin Aggravated Stupidity Awards.

In case you forgot, the AASAs panel is quite diverse -- male and female, young and old, retired and still working. We come from all walks of life.

Our merry band gathers often at taverns and pubs throughout Central Ohio where we smoke our pipes and cigars, sip our scotches, martinis and beers and discuss the absurd actions of people, especially elected officials and municipal leaders. Their inanity never ceases to amaze us.

This year, however, it was general election voters who caught us off guard.

The AASAs judges have always believed people get the government they deserve.

This belief is not spawned by a particular political ideology. In fact our panel includes Republicans and Democrats, as well as those who can't make up their minds -- Independents -- and even a Socialist.

We were astounded at some of the choices voters made this year. Rarely have we seen such a number of unqualified and downright incompetent candidates get elected -- and re-elected -- to everything from judge to council to school board to boards of trustees.

Don't even get us started on how they voted for local funding proposals.

Therefore, we are issuing a pre-emptive AASA to voters, who by late spring will find out they are, indeed, getting the government they deserve.

What this means is my 30th general election season will likely involve a straight-jacket, a stun gun and a room with padded walls. Write me often, won't you?

After we tried to figure out what thought process and reasoning our electorate used in making its decision, we determined finding a solution for peace in the Middle East might be easier.

...

Tim, after reading today's Gazette and Dispatch - all I have to say is - you hit the nail on the head with this editorial. Heaven help us all.

test

test for site technical issues

By webmaster one

Getting it right!!

I fully understand Mr. Krumlauf?’s and AASA dismay at the election results here in the Pickerington City Council races. In particular the close race which was between Mitch O?’Brien and Mike Sabatino.

The other problem for Mr. Krumlauf and his editors was that only one of the four Times-Sun endorsed candidates for Pickerington City Council won.

It should be pointed out, at this point, that for years Pickerington was making some very bad decisions when it came to electing leaders and how the city was developing. During the decade of the nineties there was an influence over the Pickerington City Hall that no one in the press recognized. The voters continued to go to the polls and vote back into office the same old group that no one saw what they were doing.

We had land deals being cooked up where the City Manager was speculating in land with re-zoning and we had a Law Director (now in Federal Prison) that did not develop a criminal mind at age 56 when he burnt his Buckeye Lake home down. We had a favored developers getting sweetheart re-zoning deals when no one else could. We had a personnel system at City Hall that abused its employees and was able to keep much of this corruption from the public. This was all happening right under the very nose of the respected press that failed the citizens of Pickerington and the community about what was really happening here locally.

It took the crooks nearly a decade to put in place their very efficient machine at Pickerington City Hall and the press was none the wiser. That took patience and spinning the truth to put in place, all of the players to make their machine work. Was this corruption the result of a very slick group at City Hall or the Press asleep at the wheel?

It was not until the PATA newsletter started being circulated did we really find out about the corruption going on at City Hall. At the same time, our local press was pre-occupied with trying to only print the controversial issues raised by opposing forces in this struggle of the Pickerington electorate to re-take their government.

Although not everything with the PATA newsletters was correct they did make an attempt to back up their claims and assertions with copies of PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. In the couple of years that the PATA newsletter was operating the local press was more interested in printing the opposing views and not checking out and backing up their stories with public documents and facts.

Now the Times-Sun can call the voters of Pickerington Dumb Asses for electing Sabatino back into office but they bare a portion of the blame for printing much of the crap he put forth over the last year or two. Freedom of the press and free speech are allowed and protected in this country but that doesn?’t extend to inflammatory speech like yelling fire in a crowded theater. Mr. Sabatino has been yelling fire for two years now to get his name in the paper. The dumb ass press continues to print it.

Shouldn?’t the press hold elected officials to a little higher standard when it comes to statements they make? Shouldn?’t the press, at the very least, have some common knowledge of the subject matter to ask and challenge these officials in their bogus claims? Would making an extra call or doing a little research before printing a story be too much to ask?






By Dumb ass voter