by Matt Marquardt –
This February, your local government was hijacked by the Mason City Chamber of Commerce.
Mayor Eric Bookmeyer, City Administrator Brent Trout, Clear Lake Mayor Nelson Crabb and Cerro Gordo County Supervisor Bob Amosson and others were whisked away to Washington D.C. on the taxpayer’s dime by Chamber Director Robin Anderson and told where to go, how to dress, who to meet with and when. Read the trip itinerary, authored by the Chamber, for proof. They spent a great deal of time standing in hallways. Their longest meeting of the trip was with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a powerful lobby that fights against labor rights, wall street reform, the environment, and health care reform. It has absolutely no care whatsoever how the average Joe in North Iowa is getting along.
Your Mayor and City Administrator made this trip happen, forced you to pay for it, and you should be alarmed.
Today, it has been brought to my attention by several NIT readers that the Globe’s top feature writer has written a story in a bold attempt to brainwash the public on the importance of this lobbying trip to Washington D.C.
I recently wrote a stinging editorial about this obnoxiously wasteful and unnecessary trip. I stand behind my arguments and feel no need to cover that ground again. Read my editorial and the blogs attached to it and decide if you agree.
What is truly amusing is that the Globe is working so hard to justify this waste. Their feature writer, John Skipper, writes a lot of fiction for his “chuckle buddies.” Mayor Eric Bookmeyer says a lame joke at a council meeting, and Ole Skip laughs like it is 1987 and he is watching Eddie Murphy Raw for the first time. He really wants these people to love and adore him, and it is affecting his work, his judgement, his common sense. But, even a sinking ship needs a captain.
It is well known in the community that the Globe has sold out to the Chamber of Commerce and certain personalities at City Hall. It is a hot day at the North Pole when you read anything critical in the Globe about their cronies like Robin Anderson, Trout, Bookmeyer, Cerro Gordo County Supervisors and others. The Globe abandoned any semblance of a “watchdog” (a vital service the media should provide for the public) years ago and has instead morphed into a lapdog.
To the Globe, these people are the pillars of the community and they will be written about that way regardless.
To me, these are people each with a distinct agenda, and more times than not, the average North Iowan is an afterthought. I will write about these agendas in the future.
Ole Skip’s ridiculous story he published yesterday trying to justify the theft of our local government is the crown jewel of his idea that you are stupid. He thinks you will blown away that he actually got Senator Chuck Grassley on the phone to back up the notion that it is “vital” that the Chamber brings a group to D.C.
Chuck Grassley. A multi-millionaire Iowa Senator since 1981, who has had his snout in the public trough for decades and helped lead this nation trillions of dollars in the hole. Ole Skip and Grassley are taking you for a fool. They argue that email, phones and meetings here at home are worthless and will not work. Ole Skip got old man Grassley to back him up, alright. “There’s no substitute for talking with us face to face,” (in Washington) he said over the phone as Ole Skip smiled from ear to ear.
Wow. I don’t even need to go there, do I? Phones and emails are pointless in the year 2012? Somehow holding a meeting here in North Iowa will not work? Apparently the Senator will only listen when a lobbyist is in the room. What a sad day for America and North Iowa if this is true.
NorthIowaToday.com will continue to evolve into the role of watchdog that the Globe has abandoned. If you want real truth, frank and honest talk and dialogue, I invite you to visit this site everyday and leave your thoughts at anytime below a story.
Your local government abandoned you last month and went to work for the Chamber of Commerce. They were told who to meet with and how to dress.
They stood in hallways and sat in saloons and restaurants for hours.
You paid for it.
