Thursday, February 11, 2010

SNOWGATE 2010
CONTINUES...

FIRST MAINSTREAM MEDIA
CRITICISM OF
MONTGOMERY COUNTY,
STATE OF MARYLAND'S
STORM RESPONSE

Post Columnist Says O'Malley, Council are
"Losers" After Massive Failure of Government

Our exclusive coverage of Snowgate 2010 continues. You'll hear happy talk on TV. "We're all in this together." "Stay home if you can." "This is unprecedented." "Record-breaking snowfall."

No member of the mainstream media has criticized county or state government yet for the complete disaster caused by Snowgate 2010: a deliberate failure to plan ahead for a likely storm scenario, and a deliberate choice to idle personnel and equipment during and after the first storm in some bizarre hope of saving money for other, favored government programs in a tight budget year.

Until now.

It's a small step for man, but when it comes to rare media criticism of the ineffectual elected leadership we have, Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney's few negative remarks are a giant leap for man/woman-kind. But before I get to those remarks, I'd like to make a few about you and I, and the real world we've been living in over the last week.

You, living in the real world, know that Storm 1 was about 2' of snow. And that Storm 2 put less than that on top because county and state government failed to allow its personnel to clean up Storm 1. Ergo, you recognize that this was not a "record-breaking" single storm.

You, being intelligent, recognize it was not the 72" Snowpocalypse the government, local and national media started crowing about yesterday. Being smart, you know that figure combines every snowfall since December and presents it as a single storm total. Wouldn't suggest any of these folks take a lie detector test; they're just not that good at it.

And you know, when you hear Gov. Martin O'Malley tell you to shut up and "Stop this!!!," that he not only is making a political blunder, but clearly hears the footsteps of his Democratic primary opponent and former Gov. Bob Ehrlich. And the angry voices of his constituents, who broke through the mainstream media lapdog's SnowTV lovefest, using new media like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Buzz. And told the real story the government, papers and TV prayed you'd never piece together.

But you were smarter than that, and you kept turning to RobertDyer.net for the real coverage of Snowgate 2010!

So now that one member of the mainstream media has now entered the real world and spoken out, however briefly, I leave you with his quotes:

McCartney said elected officials were "losers" in the aftermath of the storms:

"[They did] a pretty lame job overall of clearing the streets and getting
the area ready to resume business before the second storm hit... ...[A] lot of residential streets hadn't seen a plow by Tuesday afternoon, three days after the first storm ended...Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda [was] only partially usable."

Man, when a liberal columnist in the Washington Post is criticizing the Montgomery County council and Martin O'Malley, you know they've really blown it.

They always ask, what happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force?

Well, we just found out what happens when Big Snow meets Big Government:

Snowgate 2010.

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