Atomictumor

I’ve been kinda slacking in my job as part time .Gov hater here in town, I’m afraid.  Last night, Netmom liveblogged a council session that was to determine whether the council was going to man up and fund the school system enough so that they wouldn’t have to cut classes, which is damn near an annual event.  This year, tho, was the first time that the schools had a shot of getting some satisfaction.

In a backwards ass way.

See, the council saw the schools request for a 7 cent property tax increase, and then raised it to a 10 cent one, split 50-50 between the school board and the city budget, which up until now had not been complaining of a lack of funding.

So, the schools still didn’t fully get what they were after, and now shoulder the weight of having a larger property tax in the next year.

The architect for this?

Leonard F—in Abbatiello.

This guy has been bitching and moaning about the school board not answering his questions in the closed door meetings held by the Budget and Finance committee he is on to oversee the financial plans of this city, something thats already backwards, questions that have all been answered multiple times in multiple places (hell, I can answer em), and in the meeting last night he again took the floor to issue a diatribe against the school system and the board of education.

Good thing the jackal is leaving council this term.  If I had to sit and watch more of his obvious bias against the school system, it’d probably drive me crazy.  We get enough of that crap from elsewhere, we sure don’t need to vote it in.

Speaking of which, theres a lot of talk about a certain city council candidate trying to lowball the school board election.  Daco mentioned it, and I took him to task for not citing sources.  Since then, I’ve heard from about 7 or 8 pretty reliable sources, all telling me that there are several elderly folk in town who report being advised to only vote for one candidate in the two-seat school board election, and all needing anonymity for various reasons.

If I had a citation for it, I’d make it a huge deal, as it is, I’m still not sure how accurate it is, but if it is accurate, it totally affects my opinion of this candidate.  Frankly, it puts the candidate into the worse possible light, not only advising on a race she’s not running for, but advising people not to exercise constitutional rights.  Its backwards, its wrong, and if true, is going to have me looking for a rail to run this person out of town on.

See, I’m already all pissed off, and its only 7:30.

Because I’m lazy busy and haven’t posted much lately, AT has given me an assignment. Looks like the ‘tumor has been tagged twice to do a food meme. Okay, I’ll bite.
1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the city/state and country you’re in.

Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
tanabata (Saitama, Japan)
Andi (Dallas [ish], Texas, United States)
Todd (Louisville, Kentucky, United States)
miss kendra (los angeles, california, u.s.a)
Jiggs Casey (Berkeley, CA, USA! USA! USA!)
Tits McGee (New England, USA)
Joe (NE Tennessee, USA)
10K Monkeys (Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA)
Big Stupid Tommy (Athens, Tennessee, USA)
Newscoma (Weakley County, Tennessee, USA)
Russ McBee (Knoxville, Tennessee, USA)

Atomictumor (Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA)

2. List out your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location.

Mediterranean Delight

The Original Time Out Deli

Big Ed’s Pizza

El Cantarito

Magic Wok

Because I’m lazy busy, I’m not going to go into great detail about why I like these places. Just know that they’re all locally owned hole-in-the-wall type of places (which are always the best), three-fifths of them sell beer, and they’re all very tasty.

3. Tag five others.

I’d like to know what other Oak Ridgers enjoy, so here goes: sumgirl, Daco, Netmom, LissaKay and Evan.

Empty house this morn
Kids spending the night elsewhere
Coffee and album

Sand all over floor
Dust it out of bed at night
Beach in Pigpen’s shoes

School is almost out
Spring brings strong urge for a change
Pull out of the rut

Not a cloud in sight
Windows open to the breeze
Its all possible

“WHAT the hell were you thinking?!?!”

*smack*

That was his hand on the bar. Three of the shady looking Norwegians looked over warily, the scent of the kill deep in their nostrils.

“JESUS man. All of the things I do for you, and you go and put THAT on the internet?”

*smack*

Maybe smack isn’t the best sound. See, he has a really big, meaty hand, and it kinda makes more of a WHOOMP sound when it slams against the bar. My beer overturned, and ran down the length of the bar to the sleeping dockworker at the end. She looked up groggily, muttered something about “the last time”, and went back to sleep.

I took a second to watch the vein in his neck, and reflected on what brought me here.

—

I got the email to meet him in one of the gloomier bars on the east side of town, the kind of place where the stale cigarette smoke and the constant Skynyrd combine to make an ambiance that washes out the watered down beer you drink for hours on end. He, like me, isn’t a telephone person, because it creates “traces”. Weird guy, but damn if he isn’t a political genius. They say he was one of Reagan’s insiders back in the day, when Ollie North rode high, and Alexander Haig was taken seriously.

He went by “Sugar Sack Smith”.

He was pissed.

—

“Look, its your website, do whatever you’re going to do, but I spent 3 hours talking to you about this, and I thought we had an agreement. I thought you told me you were voting Hensley, Evans, and Hayes. You said yourself ‘Those are the obvious choices’. Are you stupid? Are you braindead? Where the HELL did Ellen Smith come from? Were you that determined not to look like you were Stan Mitchell’s little brother? What the hell’s wrong with you???”

“Well,” I said “Stan has nothing to do with it. I mean, yeah, he went Evans, Hensley, Hayes, like we were talking about, but that has no bearing on why I changed my mind…”

“You changed your mind because you’re a dumbass. I swear, if you weren’t a single father, I’d feed you to my piranha. Look, I know what you’re doing. You’re being liberal.”

“What? That has nothing to do with it. I think Ellen would be very capable.”

“Its perfectly natural. You’re still stupid. Thats why you’ve got me. Listen, heres the deal. Hayes, he’s the school dude. He’s the ace in the hole to make sure Oak Ridge remembers how good the school system is, and a hope to get over this board vs. council nonsense.
Hensley, he’s the rational environmentalist. He’s on the ball with making sure the greenbelts stay green, the billboards stay out, and people stay off the grass.
Evans, now, he’s the businessman. You need a businessman on the council, son, no matter how much you disagree with much that the Chamber people say, and how much you want to have a utopean small business collective in town, the fact is, son, its not going to happen. The reality of the situation is that any business development is going to need the council, and its going to need somebody that understands business. Ellen Smiths a smart gal, but, like you, she darn near has a knee jerk reaction against business and development.”

“Hell,” he continued “I have knee jerk reactions all the time. Spiders, Mormons, chainsaws. The thing is, I understand that spiders are important in keeping insects under control, chainsaws are important in maintaining production, and Mormons… well, you get what I mean.”

I tried to ignore the whole Mormon thing.

“OK” I finally stuttered out “I don’t disagree. As much as I’d like to endorse Ellen, because I like the cut of her jib, I just don’t know if she’d be an effective politician. She certainly has a place in the city, but maybe not on the council.”

“Thing is, Sugar Sack, I don’t do corrections. I’m like Imus. If I’m wrong, even if I KNOW I’m wrong, I’m not going to admit it. Like during the whole Oak Leaf thing, when I vilified the school board and Dr. Bailey for a week or two. I just won’t do it. I’m stuborn.”

I looked up at him, and found a very large drag queen in his place, looking in the other direction. I looked around to try to find where he made off to, but he appeared to be long gone.

The bastard stuck me with the tab. I paid it off, and drove home.

So, I wake up at 7:30, and get a burst of panic thinking “OH SHIT!  I overslept!  Gotta get to work!  Gotta get the kids to school”

Then I remember that its Saturday, and the combination of the panic, and the wonder that there are days that I don’t have to do this stuff in the morning drives all the sleepy away.

So, I wind up starting my day just about the same time I would have on a weekday.

For the third Saturday in a row.

Sigh.