"Chamber backs gondola plan," the screaming headline declares. "Project, resort touted a "unique economic development opportunity," the Standard-Examiner editors would lead us to believe.
We dunno about that. The following text incorporates the actual language that the Chamber Board reportedly adopted. Somehow we don't see it as exactly coming off as a "ringing endorsement:"
The board adopted a position statement Thursday in support of Peterson’s concept and initial proposal, describing it as a “work in progress.”What the Chamber Board appears to have done, based on the language provided in the article, is to merely to endorse the fact-gathering public process which the Ogden City Council has previously endorsed. That appears though, gentle readers, to be "just about it. "
“We are committed to continued review and input on the project to ensure the best possible results for all concerned,” the statement says. “The Ogden/Weber Chamber of Commerce pledges to provide accurate and updated information as the project develops and details are refined based on community input.” [Emphasis added.]
What the Chamber Board seems to be saying here is that they're keeping their eyes and ears open just like the rest of the rational citizens of Ogden City and environs. Like the rest of us, they're obviously still awaiting the nuts-and-bolts details, such as how much it will all cost, and who will be expected to pay for it.
Careful readers will notice that the only ringing endorsements actually found in this ridiculous article are those that come from the pack of usual suspects, -- and NOT from the Chamber Board itself.
Dave Hardman is clearly in love with the proposal. Of course, we already knew that. Nowhere is there a mind-numbed gondola lemming more committed to the Peterson/Godfrey landgrab than the slavish Godfreyite Dave Hardman. No well-attended landgrab promotional event ever occurs without Dave Hardman standing up in front of the crowd, with that big "good-ole-boy" grin plastered on his face, preaching about the sheer wonderfulness of the gondola "silver bullet. "
Just for laughs, we hope our gentle readers will read today's Schwebke spin-masterpiece, and carefully compare and contrast the extremely cautious language of the Chamber Board statement with the hyperbolic and frenzied pronouncements of Dave Hardman, Matt Godfrey and Chris Peterson.
If anything, we believe the Chamber Board's own statement actually operates as nothing more than a damnation by faint praise, at this early juncture at least, notwithstanding the mendacious and wholly transparent efforts of some people to spin this story another way.
And what do our gentle readers think this morning?
What is your take on all this?
Update 5/27/06 1:24 p.m. MT: We thank gentle reader Dian a second time today for her diligent contributions to this community blog. The Ogden-Weber Chamber has indeed posted the full text of their Thursday "position statement" on their website, although it is functionally invisible to readers with screen resolutions set to 800x600 and lower (50% of our readers and our humble blogger included.) To read the full text, you may go to their site, and scroll to the right. There you will find a graphic image link.
We've reviewed the full text "statement," and stand by our initial assessment, BTW. Although the statement refers to and incorporates a series of assumptions that might as well have been cut & pasted from the Lift Ogden site, the thrust of the Chamber Board's position remains clear:
They're obviously okay with the basic concept (as are many of our gentle readers,) assuming the assumptions can be proved-out. Still, the Chamber Directors await the all-important details with bated breath, most of which have been INTENTIONALLY withheld to date.
The call for much more information couldn't be more clear -- even from the Ogden-Weber Chamber Directors, who've been mercilessly pushed for weeks by their dipshit "Director," to issue some kind of pro-Godfrey "statement."
Sidebar question: Who the hell is Godfrey-shill Dave Hardman anyway? And how the hell did THIS GUY wind up as the ostensible spokesman for a group of pragmatic Ogden City/Weber County business entrepreneurs like me who put their own money on the line every day, and slave away to make their small businesses work?
So many questions...
