Blah. I've been on a self- imposed news boycott for the last week or so. Resting, relaxing, actually doing work when I'm at my job, stuff like that. Ignoring the local politics and the exciting dual tax rate and stuff. But I've been pulled back in by forces out of my control!
The forces in question are Tom Donnelly acting like a total idiot and the Sentinel continuing its trend of fellating him at every opportunity. Want to know more? Check out this oddly-capitalized article: Donnelly eyes Wong's Web site changes.
The gist is that Lisa Wong has someone other than herself doing her website now and that person has changed some stuff around. Jackass Donnelly sees this as some sort of scandal, which makes no sense at all. The Sentinel, being the world's worst newspaper, happily reports on all of it. Argh!
Here's some of the stupid article:
Mayoral candidate Thomas Donnelly is questioning changes his opponent, Lisa Wong, made to her campaign Web site recently.Oh my god! A candidate actively involved in a political race made some changes to her website! (Incidentally, they were good changes! It looks much better now.)
Wong took down a section of her Web site titled "Accomplishments" and replaced it with a calendar tab where visitors to her site can view upcoming events.
Apparently Donnelly is desperately seeking out some validation that his stupid "Lisa Wong's slightly less awesome than you think" attacks are working, and he thinks that her website changes provide that validation. Which is so dumb it's laughable.
By the way, Donnelly doesn't have an "Accomplishments" section on his site either. He has a biography thingy that lists some jobs, but that's it. Also, Wong's biography does the same exact thing, but with more detail. You could almost say it lists her accomplishments...
Know what we really have here? A microcosm of the race itself!
Donnelly apparently hates change, because no sane person would give a fuck about this non-issue otherwise. Certainly he'd never change his site!
Donnelly's campaign manager, Joe Engwer, said the Donnelly campaign site has undergone no substantive content changes and instead the site is updated on a weekly basis for events and posting new literature about Donnelly.Yeah, that's something to be really fucking proud of! Stagnation rules! Way to go with that message of change, Tom!
Wong on the other hand did change her site, for the usual reasons that people change websites:
Wong said she has a new campaign volunteer who has made changes to the site, www.votelisawong.com. Wong said the changes make the site more user friendly and are now more consistent in appearance to her other campaign materials.Yeah, so she changed the site to improve it. Upsetting the status quo! Scandalous!
"I'm very happy to have delegated that to someone who knows more about Web sites," Wong said.
I have some totally unsolicited advice for Donnelly, presented in letter form for some reason:
Dear Tom,
Things like this make you look like an idiot. People change websites all the time. Going to the Sentinel and acting like it means something just makes you look like someone who doesn't understand the internet, and furthermore reinforces the belief that you're a cranky old guy who hates change.
You're not doing yourself any favors with the attacks on Wong. You look increasingly desperate and Wong comes out looking just fine. It's really embarrassing to watch, to be honest.
You're probably going to lose this race. Not because you're a bad guy (Though it did suck when you came to my door that one day and walked away to talk to someone you knew in the middle of me trying to talk to you. So you are sort of a dick.), but because you're just not what the city needs.
The least you can do is lose with dignity.
Best wishes,
The Unicow
ps I look forward to reading your accomplishments on your site, if you get some.
Also, here's something for the Sentinel:
Dear Sentinel,
Enough with the Donnelly/Sentinel circle jerks already!
Love,
The Unicow
There, that should fix things!
9 comments:
This crap is getting old!
I wish the candiates would swap strategies, Tom will list all of his accomplishments and Lisa will point fingers and claim that he's fabricating everything.
The result of the election is a forgone conclusion. Let's make the last three weeks fun!
perfect, totally, absolutely perfect. The next thing he'll complain about are the variety of her political signs (I've seen some on stakes, and others on those wire things). Unicow PLEASE send a link to this page to the sentinel.
What happened when he came to your house? Was he really campaigning or did he know you're the Unicow, the way he visited Jason Lefferts who posted his account. (He had to have known the names of the people he was visiting -- I can't believe he was just visiting every house)
Nowoco,
I'm sure Donnelly doesn't know who I am. A few weeks before the primary he was going door-to-door in my neighborhood, with his big truck slowly inching by.
I happened to be outside at the time and he basically came up and gave me his campaign goodies (flyer, magnet, etc). Didn't ask me any questions, didn't engage me, hell I don't think he even asked for my vote. He seemed totally bored and detached from the whole thing.
In the middle of my talking to him (I tried to ask him a few questions) he noticed somebody he knew walking down the street about 100 yards away and walked away from me to go talk to them. While I was in the middle of a sentence. No "goodbye," no "excuse me," he just turned his back and walked away to go be chummy with his friends. It was really rude, frankly.
I got to talk to him for maybe 90 seconds tops. Which was longer than the couple of houses prior to me, at least. I went in afterwards, so not sure about the later houses.
You'd think he'd be more interested in getting the support of somebody he didn't know than somebody I'm sure was going to vote for him anyway, but oh well. Maybe he figured my rather youthful appearance meant I would be voting for Wong anyway. I get the impression he doesn't relate well to people who aren't already part of his little circle. Or maybe he just didn't like my t-shirt. Who knows?
Wong hasn't come to my door (well, not while I was there), but I've heard other people mention having long conversations with her in which she really engaged them. Sounds like a pretty major difference.
He seemed totally bored and detached from the whole thing.
Maybe that's just Tom's personality, but it's how he comes across in the debates, too.
Abe brings up a good point. Wouldn't it be nice to have a charasmatic mayor in office? How about someone Bill Clintonish? Can anyone think of anyone currently holding office that may have those qualities? Do Tom or Lisa? Any candiates?
Just wondering. I would like to get a few laughs while I'm being bullshitted!
Bill Clintonish?
Didn't we have enough of that with the Monica Lewinsky, et al, messes?
I prefer dumb with morals.
Or bright with morals and a plan is even better.
Shalom
I'm pretty sure political candidates aren't allowed to have a sense of humor. That sort of thing offends people. At least it does if it's good.
Also, Rachel... lots of people would call Bush "dumb with morals." I totally disagree with the "with morals" bit of that, but people tend to confuse religiosity with morality. The moralistic "values voters" have fucked up this country worse than just about anyone.
I'd rather have an intelligent, capable guy who gets blowjobs from interns than some supposedly "moral" idiot in power any day.
Anyway, I'm no big Clinton fan, but the guy certainly is charismatic. I doubt we're going to see anyone like that on the local scene, but you never know.
Unicow,
I campaigned for Clinton, so needless to say I voted for him. I took it quite personally when he lied to me. Fessin' up and apologizing would have scored a hell of a lot more points. If he lied about that, what else did he lie about....
As for the Daddy's boy currently occupying Oval Office space, I'm sure he's a nice guy. Never should have been Prez.
There's a HUGE difference between "morals" and "religiosity" and if you check my profile you'll see where I stand on the religious right (or left!) in city hall - (and that includes having a manger on city property by the way. Are you listening city council?)
Morals = values and ethics, not a particular religious philosophy. I know moral atheists.
There are people in this city whom I like and respect and don't believe they should hold public office. But I sure as hell don't want anyone in office I don't respect!
Time to quit now. I'm talking in circles.
Shalom
How does that old saying go, "a leopord does not change his spot" and neither will Tom Donnelly. He is part of the good old boys club and he will not bring change, but more of the same old politics as usual. This fact can be seen on his web site, where he features a photo of the grand opening of the Rollstone Street play-ground. The photo was taken over 10 years ago, this is one of his accompishment. Please you have to have something bigger than that Tom? What have you done for us lately? Nothing! We need change in Fitchburg, not the same old..sameold. Vote for change, Vote for Lisa Wong.
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