Mischaracterizing John McCommas

BIAS ALERT! Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!

Here we go again. OK it's a small thing, but why did the Norwich Bulletin Editorial Page Editor take out the quotes out of this sentence I submitted with my letter to the editor?

This is it -- Case in point, in 2006 State Senator Donald Williams (D-Brooklyn) proposed a bill "designed to ensure truthful campaign advertising and fight negative campaigning".


In the paper today on the other hand it reads: Case in point, in 2006 state Sen. Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, proposed a bill designed to ensure truthful campaign advertising and fight negative campaigning.

It is exactly the same thing except the quotes are missing. I put in quotes and in the newspaper *POOF*. The quotes are gone! Where did they go? Hummmmm? The Twilight Zone maybe?

Now I meant a certain thing when I put those words in quotes and now that the quotes have been removed, the meaning of what I wrote is now different. Was this done deliberatly?

You Betcha!

The quotes I used was meant to mock the original source of the quote, which was Bulletin Buddy Don Williams. I used Don Williams' own words against him -- which was very clever of me if I do say so myself. My Mother always told me I was a clever boy...

Now with the quotes removed I am made to look as if I am characterizing Williams' anti--First Amendment legislation he proposed as being designed to ensure truthful campaign advertising and fight negative campaigning. Who in the world can be against negative campaigning except an hair-splitting old crank like me? I might as well spouted off a letter against kittens and sunshine and walks in the park.

Now when you put those words back in quotes like I had them -- "designed to ensure truthful campaign advertising and fight negative campaigning"....there is a subtle difference!

See? Without quotes this is do-gooder legislation no critic can touch it with a ten foot pool without looking foolish. WITH QUOTES this is Soviet Union-inspired propaganda.

I meant the latter of course. No matter. At least most of my message made it through unmolested and unaltered. But it just goes to prove once again that editors can not resist tempering down the messages critical of them.

Gotcha Mr. Hackett. You got caught again.

Democrats, Media Infringe on Free Speech, Too

For The Norwich Bulletin:

The Norwich Bulletin’s selective standards on free speech’s principals strikes again! The May 23 editorial, “Good came of speech suit,” was right as far as it went, but why won’t the editorial board criticize liberal Democrats when they do the same thing?

Case in point, in 2006 state Sen. Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, proposed a bill designed to ensure truthful campaign advertising and fight negative campaigning. Williams’ bill included speech codes, punitive fines for untrue, or misleading speech, a censorship committee and yet we didn’t hear a peep from the Bulletin. Why not?

Williams’ so called "Citizens Review Panel" would naturally be appointed by incumbents. Williams wants to invent these patronage positions to reward his supporters and further entrench Democrats in office. If ever Williams is threatened, he can use this committee as a tool to discredit any talking points against him.After all, what is misleading or untrue in politics is usually a matter of opinion.

Williams apparently doesn’t trust voters to distinguish the difference, and apparently the Bulletin silently agrees.

John R. McCommas
Willimantic

Meet the Mayor

John Tyler Hammons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
•41st Mayor of Muskogee, Oklahoma
Incumbent
Assumed office May 19, 2008

Born 4 September 1988 (1988-09-04) (age 19)

Nationality: American
Political party: Republican
Occupation
Politician, Student
Website:
Hammons for Mayor.com Office of Mayor Hammons

Mayor John Tyler Hammons (born September 4, 1988) is the mayor of Muskogee, Oklahoma. He was elected on May 13, 2008, as a 19-year old freshman at the University of Oklahoma. Mayor Hammons trounced 70-year-old, three-time former Muskogee Mayor Hershel McBride 70% to 30% in a runoff election. Hammons replaced former Mayor Wren Stratton, who decided to not seek re-election after only one term.

At the age of 19, Hammons is among the youngest mayors in United States history. Mayor Hammons is also Oklahoma's youngest at-large delegate to the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Mayor Hammons is a fourth generation Oklahoman and a member of the Cherokee Nation. Born and raised in Muskogee, Oklahoma, he attended public schools and graduated from Muskogee High School in the Class of 2007. During his senior year, Hammons was MHS student body president and was president of both MHS Young Republicans and MHS Young Democrats.

After graduating, Mayor Hammons attended the University of Oklahoma for his freshman year of college. While there, he selected to major in political science and public administration. The Mayor plans on transfering to Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma in the fall of 2008.

Damn Right

“The only way to leave now is by quitting and that would be an act of betrayal and dishonor — and it’s not going to happen under our watch.

We’re going to get this job done right so that no future generation will have to go back"

-- Vice President Richard Cheney, U.S. Coast Guard Academy

More Bulletin Budgetary Bullshit

Wednesday's Norwich Bulletin's editorial [Griswold voters have opportunity to open dialogue] proves once and for all that either they don't just don't get it, or they think very little of our collective intelligence.

My money is on the latter...

The rest of us know that Griswold voters vetoed the board of education and town budgets because they were unaffordable. Griswold is hardly alone. Swollen budgets went down in flames all over Eastern Connecticut including here in Windham and Killingly.

The editorial on the other hand says "Taxpayers are sending a very clear message: They want accountability. The taxpayers action should not be viewed as a negative, a movement towards forcing the town to make large spending cuts or a demand for lower taxes".

Just exactly what, I wonder, would convince the editorial board that we really really really want lower taxes? How clear must we be before it sinks in? Maybe sky writing?

This is the part that made me queasy: Town officials and taxpayers need to have an "honest and frank discussion about the issues and concerns of taxpayers".

--- Then we all have a quick group hug, we will approve the budgets with minuscule cuts, and its back to spending money like drunken sailors. You know, once the tax-n-spend liberals have carefully explained to us ignorant surfs why the government can't do without the tax increases and why last year's increases just won't do. Contrary to what the Bulletin pretends to purport, they are really only advocating one-way communication.

The editorial takes an attitude that Griswold taxpayers had a "temper tantrum" just as the late Perter Jennings characterized the 1994 midterm elections when Republicans took over Congress:

"Some thoughts on those angry voters. Ask parents of any two-year-old and they can tell you about those temper tantrums: the stomping feet, the rolling eyes, the screaming. Imagine a nation full of uncontrolled two-year-old rage. The voters had a temper tantrum last week....Parenting and governing don’t have to be dirty words: the nation can’t be run by an angry two-year-old."

It's just un-imaginable to liberals that conservatives might win a few battles here and there. It's un-thinkable that we should actually win majorities, that voters may want tax cuts and cuts in spending. When it does happen it is characterized as some sort of mistake or misunderstanding.

It might crack the very foundation of the Norwich Bulletin's political philosophy to admit that some towns this year have actually produced budgets with no tax increases on the first try. Yes it can be done without draconian measures but you won't read any quotes from these towns in the Bulletin.

No way Jose. The Norwich Blunder is squarely in the camp of the public employee unions --- greedy pigs at the trough. OINK OINK!

Choices have to be made and reality-defying liberals both in the press and in the government have to come to terms with the fact they can't have all they want, all the time. This year they will have to tell the unions "NO" to some of those items on their wish lists.

Contrary to what Mr. Jennings thought and the Norwich Bulletin editorial board still thinks, those of us paying the bills are ultimately Mom and Dad -- not them.

And what WE say GOES.

Boycott the Norwich Bulletin?

Here is a new website that is worth looking at. I used to be a news junky. Back in the 1980's when I was stationed in Mayport Florida, I absorbed three papers a day. I could not get enough. These days on my way to work I whiz right by the Norwich Bulletin box I used to buy from. I have become not only discouraged by the news but by the slanted reporting. I still look at the Bulletin from time to time but our love affair is over.


The following is from this new website's "Why Boycott the Norwich Bulletin".

For years the Norwich Bulletin was the hometown newspaper for Windham and New London counties, we have watched how their left leaning ideology has snaked its way into how they view the world and the surrounding communities they are supposed to represent.
Many of us have become tired of the biased news and opinions of the Norwich Bulletin editors and many of it’s reporters. Their half truths, their propaganda, their spin and their lack of reporting both sides of every story has become legend in this region of Connecticut. They are well known for their editing of major points and facts in the submitted letters to the editor, sometimes rendering the authors point useless or making the entire letter the opposite of it’s original meaning. Many of us have cancelled our subscriptions and our hope is to urge more people to cancel their subscriptions until they can become a more balanced source of news. Let the free markets decide if this company is to survive because they appear to be alienating at least half of it’s customers.
We had hoped that when Gatehouse Media took new ownership of the Norwich Bulletin that they would have cleaned house (so to speak) and started fresh with a more evenly balanced group of publishers, editors, and reporters, but that hasn’t happened and until it does, most of us will continue our boycott.
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