The first day of filing for candidates for statewide office in the spring primary was held Thursday, and a local daily newspaper posted an article about the first day of filing on their website and less than eight hours later, when you try to access that story, this is the message you get
Could be a server error. Could be a temporary glitch. Could be Russians hacking our election process.
Or could it be something else?
Rumor has it that a current Fort Smith Board of Director member is not going to run for re-election to the local board because that member has an eye on a state position that is open, Rumor also has it that said member is going to wait until the last possible minute to file for that state office in an effort to aid a hand-picked replacement to possibly run for that BOD seat and to deter other folks for filing for that seat.
I ain't naming names. I'm just saying. Ain't but three folks up for reelection. One of them is running for mayor. You do the math. (I know "ain't" ain't a word. Save your grammar lessons for someone who cares. My use of the colloquial phrase is for dramatic effect.)
Eenie- meenie-miney-moe.....
In fact, Today in Fort Smith has been given the name of the person that is expected to announce for the BOD seat at the last minute. We'll just sit on that info and see how it plays out. We have no way of knowing if this is a blood-brother, pinky-swear, pact between the incumbent and the incoming -- or if it's part of the "business as usual" program of the powers that wannabe.
The bottom line? They tried to pull the same crap when they named the new members of the Civil Service Commission and they got caught and called on it. And they had to back-pedal. I don't know if they got members they liked or not. I know they didn't get the ones they wanted.
You can thank your ol' Uncle Dennis for that.
Of course, trying to rig the election and keep that lock-step majority in place would not be beyond the ethical considerations of those that have displayed their unscrupulous and underhanded tactics in the past eighteen months.
When you have a judge and a prosecutor tell you that you broke the law --and you keep appealing it on the taxpayer's dime -- you are either a crook or in denial. Or a crook in denial.
We also got some disturbing news (or rumor) about a personnel issue and we have FOIAed the city about the matter. Given the fact that one city director has already said he had heard nothing about it--and he was also in the dark for several months about a crane accident that occurred last summer at the water treatment plant -- I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.
Back to the matter of a story coming up missing on the Daily Disappointment website...it has been pretty obvious that those "journalist" are not going to challenge the city or the county and the liberal coterie because they have skin in the game. State law requires the city and county print all legal notices and ads in the "local daily newspaper of record".
Let's forget everything else. The monies paid out to print delinquent tax lists, bid announcements, legal notices and the various "required" ads is enough to guarantee a fealty loyalty to the "government" from the "press".
Those that play the game gets the gain.
"Hey...it's time to file!....
"Page Not Found! The page you have asked for may have been moved or is no longer available".
Damn Russians.