the RATS of moose

The Random Access ThoughtS of a mid-west, approaching-middle-age, nurse starting the next phase of life.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Life and Lawsuits in Maine

I keep telling the medics this.... stoopid will keep us all in business..... Well, it seems that it is keeping a bunch of people in Maine in business also.... On his website www.mainwebreport.com, Lance Dutson keeps tabs on tourism in Maine (among other things, but tourism, or the lack thereof, has taken over for now). For the last 4 months he has kept up a running dialogue on how the Maine Dept of Tourism is mismanaging the promotion of Maine.

Granted, I have only skimmed over the posts, but what I have read seems to point to some pretty significant incompetence by the State of Maine and some really stoopid behavior from state employees and sub-contractors.... to the tune of a $1 million lawsuit filed by the ad agency contracted by the Maine Office of Tourism (MOT). They came up with a new campaign and the mockups got posted on a state website and they contained a sex phone number instead of the real number to MOT. DUH... this is grade school screw-up stuff. An agency who is getting almost $4 million a year from the state shouldn't be doing this stuff.

Lance has posted much, if not all, of the interactions between him and MOT. This excerpt is from February. He is writing to a person at MOT about MOTs request for Lance to not discuss his concerns with anyone BUT MOT. Lance says... "While I appreciate your apparent willingness to address questions directly, it is entirely within the right of any taxpayer to make inquiries into the distribution of state funds. I will continue to pursue the answers to my questions through your office or whatever route will yield a clearer picture of this errant campaign. This has included and will continue to include interaction with the news media and local legislators. " All right, Lance!!!! I love it when the little guy sticks it to an overbearing government office. (And everyone else.... it seems that most of the state/contractor/sub-contractor people involved have asked/told Lance not to discuss this publicly. That makes this all the better!!!) The blog is huge and will certainly be worthy of a couple of hours of my time this weekend (strictly for the voyeurism aspect). Living in the Chicago area, I am constantly bombarded with government corruption stories on all levels... It's nice to know that we haven't cornered the market on stoopid. I didn't know so much crap took place in the halls of government.... like our former governor who has just been found guilty of racketeering. Mayor Daley who will soon be indicted in either the 'trucks for hire' scheme or on the hiring practices (rampant cronyism) or on something else... it's hard to tell what goes on there.... And then there is Cicero... home to all kinds of problems... their old mayor is in jail and the new one has a full-time bodyguard. Then again.... maybe it's just me and my naivete and small town upbringing. I lived in a community of 250,000 total for 4 major cities and a multitude of smaller communities scattered over 200 square miles and don't remember any of this kind of stuff going on. (um... but I was a kid.... so... who knows what was going on) And when I lived in LA... I didn't pay any attention to politics or government. I knew I wouldn't be setting up permanent housekeeping there and didn't really care what happened. I should ask Flaurella.... her husband (the recently run over-check the April 19 post, Lucky Foot Soldiers) is on the city council in a smaller? (I have no clue) town and she regularly reports fireworks. Hmmm.... maybe I should bet involved in politics.... I never know when to shut up...... I could give Ald. Tillman (the Hat Lady of Chicago) a run for her mouth.... um .... money..... heh heh heh...

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