Monday, March 22, 2010

The Standard-Examiner Spills the Beans on Boss Godfrey's "Snoop on The Lumpencitizens Project"

Big Brother or little mayor is watching you!

For the sake of archival consistency, we'll belatedly link Saturday's Scott Schwebke story, wherein the Standard-Examiner finally spills the beans to its general readership about Boss Godfrey's ongoing door-to-door Snoop On The Lumpencitizens Project, whereby the administration is diverting Ogden firefighters from their regular training regimen, to ferret out code and business license violations.

As per usual, Dorrene Jeske is spot on, with another typically direct critique:
Former City Councilwoman Doreen Jeske believes the administration is using the survey not to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, but as an excuse to generate more revenue from business licenses.
"The purpose of the city's carbon monoxide ordinance is to save lives, and it shouldn't be used for other purposes to gain information so they can go after landlords," she said.
And we believe Standard-Examiner reader ihatethenewsite gets it pretty much right, too, with this pithy comment:
firefighter survey
If the city had waited a few more months for the rental survey they could have had the firefighters measure the grass length for compliance with city codes. What will the city do if the firefighters found a different violation when sneaking around homes to look for extra/separate utility meters? What will the city do to residents who admit to not having smoke or CO2 detectors in their home. Big Brother or little mayor is watching you.
Yeah we know, gentle readers. We've already pretty much beaten this topic to death over past weeks in our lower comments threads. Nevertheless, please don't hesitate to again chime in, if you'd like to throw in your additional 2¢... now that the Std-Ex has publicly let the cat outta the bag.

(And we'd also like to apologize for slacking off on our postings over the past couple of days. A seriously debilitating case of March Madness, you know.)

18 comments:

Go Figure said...

Then that would mean that Patterson lied! Go figure. Isn't that how he got his job the first time? What a couple of scumbags living on the 9th floor. I haven't believed in them for years and I'm glad others are finally seeing them for who they really are.

ozboy said...

Coming down with a "seriously debilitating case of March madness" is a sure sign of a seriously compromised character. I have serious reservations about anyone who gets their serious kicks watching serious young sweaty men in seriously short shorts run up and down the floor throwing balls through hoops. Rudi, old Kevin doesn't seem to have any thing seriously goin on that you don't!

RudiZink said...

Very funny, Ozboy.

Ha. Ha.

just a little white lie said...

So, if this is a safety survey, why are the Firefighters skipping known rental units? Arent they required to have smoke alarms, and CO detectors?
Me thinks that Pureheart Patterson is a habitual liar.

Dan Schroeder said...

Speaking of liars, here's an interesting research report from Columbia University:

People with power are better liars

(Via Slashdot.)

Anonymous said...

they came to my house today...I wish I would have refused to answer the questions!

just a little whit lie said...

So from the questions asked, do you think it's a safety survey, or a rental code survey?

blackrulon said...

just a little white lie, Since they asked if i owned the house or rented it and asked how many people lived there it seems like more information than just asking if I had smoke and CO2 detectors in the home. I am curious as to what they plan to use all of the unnecessary informatioin for and how long they plan to keep information on file.

BAT_girl said...

If anyone here is bored with this discussion, try the SL TRIB on that DINGBAT AT GEN Marc Shurtleff and his cohort Hatch:
Utah to sue to stop (FEDERALLY VOTED ON HEALTH INS) reform
http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_14730901

This article was posted today/ 3.22.2010 at 8:12pm and has 395 comments so far.

X Amendment said...

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Why let a little thing like the constitution get in the way of instituting what 55% of the American people don't want.

What bores me is the implementing of policy, regardless of the party affiliation, of those who do it for political gain. It doesn't matter if it was a war in Iraq or a forced health care policy, they are equally wrong. Just because a politician has a (D) or a (R) next to his/her name doesn't make them right, wrong or a ding bat. It's what they say and do that makes them so.

Bob Becker said...

X Amendment:

Two points.

(1) You wrote: Just because a politician has a (D) or a (R) next to his/her name doesn't make them right, wrong or a ding bat. It's what they say and do that makes them so.

Can't argue with that. No sensible person who keeps up with the news, or has even a modest familiarity with American history, could.

2. You wrote: Why let a little thing like the constitution get in the way of instituting what 55% of the American people don't want.

I'm always amused by people who cite polls as a reason the Congress [or President] should or should not do something. Why amused? Two reasons. First, these same people invariably argue that polls don't matter, Presidents are elected to govern according to their best judgment in any given situation, not according to what polls say a momentary and changing public will might be. [We heard that a lot from Republicans during Bush's second term.]

And I also find it amusing since you claim to be a staunch advocate of the constitutional order created by the founders in Philadelphia 1787. They of course did not create a government designed to implement the momentary will of the public. They designed a government that provided for [limited] public review of how the government was doing once every two years for Congressmen, never for Senators [they were not elected by the public until the 20th century], and only sometimes if the states felt like allowing it for the president [the Constitution did not then and does not now require any state to permit the public to vote for presidential electors.]

Those elected to federal office by any means [public election or state legislative selection] would, the founders expected, make their best judgment on all matters that came before them regardless of "public opinion" [which of course they had no way to measure then in any case], and that they would have their performance evaluated once every two years for congressmen, once every four years for presidents, and once every six years for senators. Not every day, hour by hour and vote by vote.

As for the language of the Tenth Amendment, it is a word for word repetition of something in the Articles of Confederation [the US's first constitution]. The articles reserved to the states all powers not specifically delegated to the national government. The Tenth Amendment reserves to the states "all powers not delegated." The founders deleted the word "specifically." They had a reason for doing that.

Dan Schroeder said...

I hesitate to get involved in this off-thread discussion, but on the subject of health care and popular polls, there's no expert more qualified to comment than Nate Silver:

The Fourth Branch

poll watcher said...

Check out this poll.

Ogden City mushroom employee said...

Tonights council meeting should be a good one. Godfrey doesnt want to have negotiations with the employee groups, he wants to change the joint resolution to read that the Department heads will bring matters to him, leaving out the employee unions and the CIty Council.
Godfrey doesnt want to play with Council or the employees.
Whos the bad guy?

Sat through the meeting said...

The bad guy left the meeting early to attend to political duties. Councilman Stevens talked in circles to the point even he did not understand what he way trying to say. The council listened to concerns from the employee groups and councilwoman Wicks moved to deny the resolution that "mushroom" mentioned. That narrowly passed and Schwebke furiously tried to get a story without benefit of speaking to Godfrey since he left an hour before the discussion ended.

Bob Becker said...

I found Mr. Schwebke's story informative. In a nutshell, what seems to have happened is this: The Mayor wanted in the future to have city employees talk with their dept. heads [appointed by the Mayor], conveying to him or her their contract desires. They were then to rely on the Godfrey appointed department head to accurately convey to Hizzonah the employee's wants, and to accurately and vigorously represent their interests to the Mayor. Uh huh.

Wisely, the Council declined to endorse the plan.

A rep. of the firemen noted that the Mayor had a history of breaking his word to the firemen on negotiations in the past.

What it came down to, in short, was a matter of trust. What I suspect Hizzonah still does not realize --- rumors I've heard for some time that he's not not too bright are, it seems, not entirely unfounded --- is that his record of proving by his actions that his word is no good is now coming home to roost. Having squandered, over the years, the trust people normally grant, and really want to be able to grant, to elected officials, even those they did not vote for, he nevertheless now seems surprised that he has little left in his "trust" account to draw on.

Actions have consequences. In this case, nine years of Hizzonah's dissembling, and demonstrating that is word is no good, had the consequence, yesterday, of his proposal being voted down.

Bob Becker said...

Damn damn damn. A rep from the policemen, not the firemen. Sorry.

Note to self: do NOT post on WCF until finishing second cup of coffee.

mushroom employee said...

It's ok Curm

He's pulled the same thing on all city employees. He cant be trusted.

He speaks of transparency, and so on, but we all know he speaks with forked tongue.

Only two more years, I hope.

And by the way none of it was about money, just to be able to meet with Admin, Council and be treated with respect and dignity.

The Mayor states that all employees are not represented by the groups, I find it strange that a guy who recieved 6339 votes out of 12482 votes cast. He represents the majority of those who voted, not those who are registered voters and citizens, especially not me.

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