RE: Re: My Pal Ronnie
I should probably clarify that I'm just a native son watching the action from Forsyth.
Interesting. You certainly seem to have a lot of inside information for one who is an external observer.
No, I enjoyed the letter because - as usual - the mudslinging in the Stokes News' 'Letters to the Editor' is the always most entertaining part of the paper regardless of who's doing the slinging.
Ah, my mistake. Having been both a pitcher and a catcher of that mud, I can understand the amusement. I used to pay a lot of attention to what was written in the Stokes County Fishwrap. Then one day it dawned on me that two-thirds of the people who live in Stokes County don't even know the paper exists, much less read it every week. It is simply a vessel for the political illuminati to use when rhetorically shooting at one another. I guess it beats the real thing. As I'm sure you're aware, the real interest is in who doesn't write in. As I said, Buster utters it and Ron Carroll's lips move.
Aside from all that, though, Carroll's letter was an interesting little bit of propaganda. He spent over a third of his ink on Sandy McHugh, yet the letter was really aimed at the Turpins (I noticed you ducked my question about which campaign promise they broke). He uses the fact that most of the people reading the letter will be ignorant of the budget process in county government. He claims that the Turpins didn't offer an alternative budget. That's a straw-man.
In county government, the county administrator or manager produces a draft budget. The commissioners meet and consider the draft budget. They may make changes, they may not. Not every county board does a line-by-line assessment of the budget submitted by the manager. Stokes County boards are highly responsible because they hold work sessions and evaluate the entire budget. In the process of evaluating the draft budget, I can assure you that the Turpins offered cuts and alternate suggestions in order to reach a revenue-neutral tax rate. Obviously, they were opposed by three other members of the board. Ron Carroll's straw-man goes up in flames.
In years past, assessing the budget was made more difficult since Ron Carroll and Frank Sells never submitted a legal school system budget. That meant over half the county's budget was unaccounted-for. There was no stomach before the Turpins came along to force that issue. I understand that no one forced it this year, so they were back to a half-invisible budget. So Ronnie-boy decries a defective process that he helped to create.
One final note, Ron Carroll has been flying that alternate budget straw-man for years. Back when I ran for the Board of Education (thank you, Jesus, I didn't get elected), I publicly criticized Ron Carroll's budget. How do you suppose he answered the criticism? You guessed it, he invited me to submit an alternative budget. Of course, he had no intention of making enough information available for me to do that, but then that's the nature of a straw-man, isn't it?
There's a combination county government and county politics lesson all rolled into one. I'll put it on your tab.
Okay, maybe I should've said one of their best; I was mostly referring to Andy's cousin, Robert Mitchell.
Robert is a definite improvement over "the usual suspects." He shows promise. If only we could get him past this odd Jimmy Carter worship.
Interesting. You certainly seem to have a lot of inside information for one who is an external observer.
No, I enjoyed the letter because - as usual - the mudslinging in the Stokes News' 'Letters to the Editor' is the always most entertaining part of the paper regardless of who's doing the slinging.
Ah, my mistake. Having been both a pitcher and a catcher of that mud, I can understand the amusement. I used to pay a lot of attention to what was written in the Stokes County Fishwrap. Then one day it dawned on me that two-thirds of the people who live in Stokes County don't even know the paper exists, much less read it every week. It is simply a vessel for the political illuminati to use when rhetorically shooting at one another. I guess it beats the real thing. As I'm sure you're aware, the real interest is in who doesn't write in. As I said, Buster utters it and Ron Carroll's lips move.
Aside from all that, though, Carroll's letter was an interesting little bit of propaganda. He spent over a third of his ink on Sandy McHugh, yet the letter was really aimed at the Turpins (I noticed you ducked my question about which campaign promise they broke). He uses the fact that most of the people reading the letter will be ignorant of the budget process in county government. He claims that the Turpins didn't offer an alternative budget. That's a straw-man.
In county government, the county administrator or manager produces a draft budget. The commissioners meet and consider the draft budget. They may make changes, they may not. Not every county board does a line-by-line assessment of the budget submitted by the manager. Stokes County boards are highly responsible because they hold work sessions and evaluate the entire budget. In the process of evaluating the draft budget, I can assure you that the Turpins offered cuts and alternate suggestions in order to reach a revenue-neutral tax rate. Obviously, they were opposed by three other members of the board. Ron Carroll's straw-man goes up in flames.
In years past, assessing the budget was made more difficult since Ron Carroll and Frank Sells never submitted a legal school system budget. That meant over half the county's budget was unaccounted-for. There was no stomach before the Turpins came along to force that issue. I understand that no one forced it this year, so they were back to a half-invisible budget. So Ronnie-boy decries a defective process that he helped to create.
One final note, Ron Carroll has been flying that alternate budget straw-man for years. Back when I ran for the Board of Education (thank you, Jesus, I didn't get elected), I publicly criticized Ron Carroll's budget. How do you suppose he answered the criticism? You guessed it, he invited me to submit an alternative budget. Of course, he had no intention of making enough information available for me to do that, but then that's the nature of a straw-man, isn't it?
There's a combination county government and county politics lesson all rolled into one. I'll put it on your tab.
Okay, maybe I should've said one of their best; I was mostly referring to Andy's cousin, Robert Mitchell.
Robert is a definite improvement over "the usual suspects." He shows promise. If only we could get him past this odd Jimmy Carter worship.
posted by Anonymous | 12:44 PM
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