Newspeak and Webspeak, Diseases of
Different Hosts in Schoolcraft County

I read the following, as my public comments during the
01/28/09 meeting of the Schoolcraft County Board of
Commissioners, not including the last paragraph due to
board established time constraints.

Commissioner Dan LaFoille spoke up immediately following 
my comments and apologized for stating as fact that 
which was not true, regarding ex-Sheriff Maddox's
"vacation time" roll-over. County Clerk McKinney denied
that which I stated, and referred to it, in a disdainful
manner, as a form of "internet speak", associating my
comments, by his choice of words and context, with the
meaning of government sponsored "newspeak", in George
Orwell's novel, "1984".

The irony of that association was not lost on me, and,
once again, indicates the differences between predator
and prey, regarding perception, knowledge,
understanding, and goals.

In Schoolcraft County, for those that wish to read
local mendacity, where the uncontested, manipulative,
and misleading self-serving "newspeak" statements of
public officials are to be found, in abundance, I
suggest reading local newspapers. For those that
wish to hear isolated spoken newspeak clips, spend
your life listening to local commercial radio
stations. For those that wish to view the theater,
and witness unedited newspeak, in context, and all that
which is not published, in any media, attend a city
council, or county board meeting, or any other public
body meeting.

For those that really want to make a difference, and
wish to understand the context of various self-serving
written, audio, and video newspeak clips, demand that
ALL government business public meetings take place in
a local government facility, at appropriate times for
the public to participate, with recorded live cable
and television coverage, with legal public notice posted
on the local cable channel and government internet
sites. At minimum, demand that ALL meetings should be
recorded to digital audio media, readily, rapidly, and
economically duplicated, and stored; and provided to
those that bring to city hall, or the county clerk's
office, appropriate storage media to which the public
record may be copied.

For those that wish to make a difference, demand that
public meeting documents, and documentation, be recorded
and stored in a searchable non-proprietory friendly
digital format, to a computer accessible digital storage
media, readily transferable to portable economical
digital storage media, such as a USB flash drive,
provided by any resident of the county. 

To a great extent the public records of the City of
Manistique, and Schoolcraft County, are only available
via the technology of ancient Egypt...


If I can do it small scale, without pay, on a
sub-poverty income, the City of Manistique should be
able to do it for a fraction of the 10% "administration
fee" it skims off the public enterprise fund accounts
it manages. If it can buy a multitude of goods and
services for city employees, and politically favored
residential and business areas, you might suppose it
could supply a little value to the general public kept
in the comparative hit-and-miss dark ages of public
newspeak communication.

Schoolcraft County, equally as predatory as the City
of Manistique, could match my investment with little
pain, if those that run the show wanted the public to
know and understand that which they pay for. Most
likely, it will take forever, at prohibitive expense,
for Manistique and Schoolcraft County officials to
reinvent economical, functional, recording and
duplication devices, techniques, and services, for
public records; the details of which some children
master in their spare time.

It is at the discretion of the commissioners to
determine spending priorities, and you may rest
assured that among those that sanction corruption,
transparency in government is at the bottom of
the list of priorities.


Regardless of County Clerk McKinney's denial, and my
less than perfect memory, I remember his affirmation of 
LaFoille's erroneous statement, because I concentrate
on understanding words spoken, and their source, 
meaning, and implications. My forte is understanding 
concepts, not perfect recall. Unfortunately, with no 
recording of the 12/29/08 meeting, it is "He said...
He said..." while Under-Sheriff Mike Gray sat in the
audience, silent.


"At the county board meeting of December 29, I was told 
by Commissioner John Zellar that I should, in effect, 
let sleeping dogs lie, and consider the corrupt reign 
of Sheriff Maddox as history, and cease my concern with 
that public official who took a heap of public money, 
that he had no right to, with the permission and 
sanction of the Schoolcraft County Board of 
Commissioners. At that same meeting, County Clerk 
McKinney attempted to neutralize my concerns by confirming
that Ex-Sheriff Maddox had rolled over his vacation to 
be able to work at Lowes, full time, while he was paid 
to be the acting sheriff of Schoolcraft County.

Is there any member of this board that will point me to 
the recorded minutes of the county board meeting during 
which Maddox's services were determined to be so 
necessary that he was denied his right to take 
vacation, and his vacation time was rolled over into 
the following year? Beyond McKinney's unsubstantiated 
claim, I know of nothing to that effect.

To the best of my knowledge, it is the prerogative and 
duty  of the county board, and no one else's, to make 
the necessary decisions to roll over the vacation time 
of one whom I have reasons to believe was one of the 
most broken and incompetent public officials in 
Schoolcraft County.


Relative to issues of public safety, and emergency 
management, I became aware, through the rumor mill, 
last year, that Tom Kitzman had earned the ire of at 
least one commissioner in the building business, 
because Kitzman was doing his job regarding certain 
township building standards he has the responsibility 
to enforce. Then I heard that Sheriff Maddox had made 
it others' business that he intended to be boss of the 
county 911 and emergency management  "empire". Then, 
recently, I understand Kitzman was taken to task for 
not applying for snowmobile grants that he was unaware 
of, knowledge of which the complaining commissioner 
chose to keep to himself.

Then, today, I became aware that an appointment of a 
county emergency management coordinator is on the 
agenda. My question to the board is the following, 
"Have I any reason to believe that, tonight, the 
Schoolcraft County Board of Commissioners is 
considering the ousting of Kitzman based upon the 
personal malice and aspirations of others, rather than 
issues of Kitzman's competence as a county employee?


Regarding issues of appointments at the commissioners' 
last meeting, when were letters of interest solicited 
for the Schoolcraft County Transit Board? It came to my 
attention that a position became vacant for undisclosed 
reasons, and my natural curiosity prompts me to ask why 
the reasons for the opening, and why was I not 
solicited for an appointment. It is quite obvious to 
those that care, that someone needs to help end the 
cowardly behaviour of the County Board that encourages 
the Transit Director's absence from the work place, and 
other outlaw behaviour for which he is well paid."



After Commissioner LaFoille apologized for a false
statement regarding ex-Sheriff Maddox's rolled-over
vacation time, he stated the following, "A department
head and elected official doesn't have vacation.
Nobody holds a department head or elected official to
any standard as far as time off." Shortly after LaFoille
spoke, Schoolcraft County Clerk McKinney spoke up and
stated, "As an elected official Gary Maddox could go
off and golf for two months, and we could say nothing
about it." 

Assuming what was said is true, then any department
head or elected official, in particular Sheriff
Maddox and Director of Public Transit Swanson, could
be absent from the work place, doing other things, while
the taxpayer has no choice but to pay them, and the
overtime their absence creates, and pay for the
consequential problems, including jail deaths, arising
from the lack of appropriate supervision and management
in both departments; and no public official could say
anything about such behavior?

Pure bull feces. 

There is a heap of difference between sanctioning
predatory behaviour, with default silence, and
vocalizing and publicizing the deserved disdain for
a public predator! It is the difference between
"Attaboy!" and "Stop, now!"; especially when you have
the responsibility to ensure that reasonable value
is delivered to those that pay the bills.

If you thought institutionalized corruption is a
hallmark of Third World countries, you are correct,
but it never occurred to me that individuals on the
public payroll, in Schoolcraft County, could be
given the legal right to take public money for little
to nothing in return, with no apparent effort to change
the status-quo, and no official outcry and effort to
promote change, beyond trying to dump on a messenger
for change. At least, Obama made a public promise to
promote change, after public recognition of what is.


Back to concepts, and verbatim details and context, 
regarding those that take public money with impunity, 
and those that sanction such action. When did
ex-Sheriff Smilin' Shifty Shirker's paycheck and
fraudulent claimed expenses become a matter of right,
that the county board must pay? When did Transit
Director Jovial Junky Shirker's paycheck, and claimed
expenses, become a matter of right for being in a
drunken stupor, absent from the work place?

I have little doubt that the county has the
responsibility to hire, fire, and pay its employees for 
contracted value received. I have little doubt that the 
county has the responsibility to pay certain elected 
officials for value received.

I have little doubt that the county is not obligated to 
pay a salaried elected sheriff for deceit, fraudulent
expense claims, or shirking, or working elsewhere, or 
"playing", or politicking, be he salaried, or not. I 
have little doubt that the county is not obligated to 
pay a salaried public transit director for being a
dangerous incompetent, absent from the work place and
supervisory responsibilities, for days, and weeks at
a time, as a consequence of his well known alcohol
addiction.

And how he gets to drive a transit bus at times,
contrary to union contract, is a truly scary thought
that has prompted my wife and I to never request or
ride on one. Additionally, I have every reason to
believe, and act accordingly, concerning much of what
has been told me, in lurid detail, regarding the effects
of some drivers' recreational chemical abuse.
 

If I voted for a sheriff, and he turned out to be a bum,
I didn't vote for the county to pay for the activities
of a bum. I expect the sheriff to be paid for doing
public safety sheriff things, only. The choice, and
responsibility, to pay a bum for doing bum things, is
that of those individuals that comprise the Schoolcraft
County Board of Commissioners.

I may think that the transit director is the "life of
the party", regardless of his political affiliation and
choice of recreational chemicals, but I don't have the
choice to deny him a paycheck for being a brain-dead
professional alcohol addict and danger to public safety;
authorized and paid by Schoolcraft County to be a worse
outlaw than the sheriff.

If predators are paid to practice their skills and
knowledge for a steady paycheck, benefits, and public
accolades, with the default approval of those whose
responsibility is to make them toe the mark, for their
paychecks, then why do anything else? Where do I sign up?
Whose well being must I consider, beyond my own? Paid
by taxpayers, protected by taxpayers, and supported by
taxpayers to do nothing, or as I wish! What a job!

 
For those that wish to hear and consider the meaning of 
the contentious public comments, regarding relevant
Schoolcraft County sheriff and Public Transit business,
newspaper "newspeak", and "internet speak", click here.

Those that wish to know why a recent vacancy existed
in the Schoolcraft County Transit Board, might find
a board member's resignation letter worth reading.
I do not expect any consequence beyond the possibility
that the author be labeled a Citizen Against Almost
Everything, the florid and inane title given by an
ex-commissioner to those that fail to see the existence
of that which others fantasize, too often.

Read and consider Mr. Andersen's well chosen words
regarding his candid observations, and conclusion,
totally independent from mine. It is comforting to
know there are a few in the community that understand,
and willing to state why, others are a serious threat
to the community, without using newspeak phrases of
glowing recommendation. Thank you, Dave.



Responsible "Internet speak" is the bane and disease of
modern predators, and I understand, fully, why
Schoolcraft County Clerk McKinney showed a flash of
rage when he referred to it, disdainfully. The Internet
provides a great forum for victims to be heard, in
considered full measure, for as long as web site
hosting bills and internet access bills are paid. It is
a great equalizer of the opportunity for those locked
out of the existing power structure to be heard, and,
perhaps, considered. It is an effective forum that, to
a significant degree, cost Predator Bush, and his
masters, their place in the sun.

Regardless of its inherent faults, I believe webspeak
is one of the most effective tools to counter the
dominating influence of historical and well established
commercial newspeak sources. Today, webspeak empowers,
to a questionable degree, individuals who wish to
promote the accountability of public predators and
parasites, from local public meetings to the national
elections.