Sunday, September 18, 2005

Something Smells Alright

This editorial, When Texas politics begin to smell, open window, today in the Statesman leaves me wondering what the point of it was. The only thing I smelled was a cop out. It describes why the Comptroller, Governor and possibly every other elected official in the state - legislators and judges too - are taking money hand over fist from interested parties and this MAY cause them to go against the public interest. Ya think? Their only suggestion for how to make the situation better is to require more disclosure from "taxpayer representative" groups. This doesn't seem like much of a fix to me. Another "band-aid" I would say.

I find it funny that a newspaper would be talking about the fact that if only the people were more informed about who was paying off their elected representatives then maybe they would elect better representatives. How about you folks at the Statesman and other media throughout the state holding their feet to the fire? Isn't that what the press is supposed to do? There is no telling how much cronyism and corruption there has been in Williamson County when it comes to the whole toll road mess that is going on. The Comptroller put out a report detailing the corruption in our own area earlier this year and recommended two of the board members of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) resign. I have seen very little about this in any print or television media in the area.

The non-existent presence of any media in Williamson County to challenge those currently running this county also abets these people immensely in getting a free ride. I applaud the Statesman for pointing this out in an editorial but the public would be better served if the paper would use some of it's resources on a multi-part expose on the corruption run wild in our state and local governments. Then the public would definitely smell something.

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