Mayor ‘disappointed’ by increases in midst of city financial pinch
Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner yesterday urged City Council to reconsider the pay raises it recently handed out to six council aides, and one councilman pressed his colleagues to put the matter to a vote.
“I am very disappointed that council would advocate salary increases when the city is currently facing financial hardship,” the mayor wrote to council President Mark Sobczak in a memo forwarded to media outlets yesterday afternoon.
And with the city presently in or entering contract talks with several unions, the council-authorized raises “would certainly impact these negotiation discussions,” the mayor wrote.
Mr. Finkbeiner said he was writing in response to an article in yesterday’s Blade detailing how council’s six nonunion legislative aides last month received significant bumps in their salaries, from 17 percent increases to 38 percent in one case.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080906/NEWS16/809069995
Citizens 'disappointed' by Mayor hiring speechwriter in midst of city financial pinch
Don't worry, there will be some real fine speech presented to us, real soon now.
He will not only be a speech writer, but as reported he will do what else the Mayor deems necessary.
Here, Scout, here boy.
Ready for a walk now?
The problem I've always had with politicians who rely on speech writers is that I'm not absolutely sure whether or not speeches are some form of plagiarism, but if it turns out to be plagiarism, then how and why has it come to be an accepted practice in the political arena but nowhere else?
Why is plagiarism grounds for expulsion from academia but not politics? Just because it's common knowledge that politicians rely on the work of others while trying to pass if off as their own, doesn't mean that it is not dishonest
How does a listener distinguish between the words of a candidate from the words of his/her speech writer? Speech writers rarely, (if ever) are given proper attribution. Maybe they aren't required to be given credit. I don't know. But who is responsible if something goes wrong? The writer or the candidate or both?
Sure, candidates put their stamp of approval on the content of a speech, but I don't think the speech is original if the only role a politician has is to be the editor and performer who merely rehearses his/her lines.
So the question becomes how much of it is authentic (who's words are they?) and how much of it is b.s.?
Should the speaker be believed? If so, why? Suppose a politician gives a quote, good speech, closed quote. So what?
Wouldn't politicians save a lot of time and money by just having the speech writer, actor or stand-in "perform" their speeches?