Author: Emmett O'Connell (Page 87 of 176)

Things have been moving, people have been doing things since I noticed a letter to the editor which looked exactly like a blog post I had just read.

First looks like blog author, our own R. Scott, has been changing things to make everything look ok.

The post in question now carries a notice “Source: anonymous email submission,” but I’m 100 percent sure that wasn’t there the first time I read the post last week or yesterday when I noticed the similarity with the letter.

And, why would someone submit a piece anonymously to a blog and then to the Olympian as well? Newspapers don’t take anything on an anonymous basis.

And, R. Scott has changed the original post and since there are ways on the internet to see if you’ve changed something, check it out:

Click image for larger version.

This is a picture of my feed reader, Google Reader, Saturday morning. What it shows is the post in question, its original date July 25, 2008 and when it was last edited (12 hours ago on Friday night).

So, R. Scott changed his post, most likely to add the note of the anonymous submitter after all of this started Friday morning.

It is still pretty likely that the letter was plagiarized. But, if it wasn’t then R. Scott plagiarized the original anonymous version by taking credit for it.

Either way, the fun does not end there. Late on Friday night, R. Scott also published a press release on his blog, which he also quickly took down. Here’s a link to where it was and another screen shot:

Again, click the image for larger version.

Also, here’s the entire press release.

So why send a press release pointing out that Sandra Romero is a board member of Futurewise? This isn’t a mystery to anyone, especially since its actually listed at her own website. And, that Futurewise sued the county for not doing its job… do you think that anyone who has been paying attention didn’t know that already?

Also, since the Olympian reported on the cost of the lawsuit back in April, what’s the point of sending a press release pointing out an already reported fact?

What’s more likely is that R. Scott wanted to point to his “anonymous email submission” in public.

There’s nothing definite there so I can’t say for certain that any of my suspicions are true, but the things that happened in the last few days do nothing to allay them.

The letter was likely copied from the blog. Either the letter writer didn’t think anyone would notice or she just didn’t care.

Letter to the editor in the Olympian this morning:

Romero has cost taxpayers dearly

Sandra Romero is a board member of a powerful special-interest group called Futurewise. Her group filed a growth management appeal in 2005 challenging Thurston County’s comprehensive plan and cost the county an estimated $1.5 million defending against this frivolous claim.

The county commissioners have a duty to administer the state laws and provide for public safety, heath and roads. The commission doesn’t need to be sidetracked by having to deal with lawsuits generated by special-interest groups.

In Romero’s own words, “(The) budget is the biggest problem right now, it is the driver of all of our woes … with almost a $4.5 million shortfall it’s going to be very difficult to get out of it.”

Romero’s special-interest group is responsible for over 25 percent of the current budget crisis, and I’m not willing to send her in to try and fix it. This would be like sending the fox to the hen house.

Please join me in voting for any one of the other three candidates.

Cathy Franzmann, Lacey

Thurston Pundits (written by R. Scott) 10 days ago:

Sandra Romero is a board member of a powerful special-interest group called ‘Futurewise’. Her group filed a growth management appeal in 2005 challenging Thurston County’s comprehensive plan and cost the County an estimated 1.5 million dollars defending against this frivolous claim.

The County Commissioners have a duty to administrate the State laws and provide for public safety, heath and roads. The Commission doesn’t need to be sidetracked by having to deal with lawsuits generated by special-interest groups.

In Romero’s own words, “[the] budget is the biggest problem right now, it is the driver of all of our woes … with almost a 4.5 million dollar shortfall it’s going to be very difficult to get out of it.”

Romero’s special-interest group is responsible for over 25% of the current budget crisis, and I’m not willing to send her in to try and fix it. This would be like sending the fox to the hen house. Please join me in voting for any one of the other three candidates.

Wow. Nothing more I can really say about that.