Responding to a story in the Dispatch that Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman has decreed that city employees will no longer be permitted to travel to Arizona:
@RickSheridan: Remember when Columbus, OH was an American city? http://simurl.us/s7kfU It’s one place I will not be spending any money. #tcot
Yesterday, I was really angry with Coleman. I still am, but this makes me really sad. Not the last bit, but the question he asks. I live in Columbus and have for about 15 years – about half my life. This is my home, and I’ve always believed that we were a middle-american town with real american values: family, hard work, the rule of law.
[T]he review of Arizona contracts won’t apply to the city’s agreement with Phoenix-based Redflex Traffic Systems, which owns and operates 20 red-light cameras.
A new contract approved by council members this month will double the number of cameras posted at Columbus intersections to issue tickets to red-light-runners.
Rescinding that program “wouldn’t make sense to the taxpayers,” Williamson said.
In other words, Coleman is an unbelievable hypocrite. He will try to punish Arizona, but simultaneously wants the fines generated by the products made in Arizona – money directly from the wallets of Columbus taxpayers. “Wouldn’t make sense to the taxpayers” my ass.
Coleman will get away with it, because no one in Columbus stands up to him. He convinced voters to approve a tax hike with threats of cutting emergency services. About a month or so ago, the city magically came up with $130 million for capital improvements.
Here’s how it goes: The next time there is an election, Mayor Coleman and the city council will point at these capital improvement projects they have started (or completed) as indicators of how successful they have been for the taxpayers and citizens of Columbus. They will fail to mentioned that they paid for these improvements through a tax hike, which was passed under threat of losing our firefighters, cops, and teachers.
The mayor of Columbus bought his re-election with our tax dollars. Now he acts like he has the brass ones to tell Arizona they’re not allowed to enforce the law. A law (pdf), which mirrors and references the federal statutes at least 17 times in its 17 pages.
For me, I’ve purchased an Arizona flag and will be flying it outside my Columbus home. I will also be printing a copy of Arizona SB1070, complete with highlights on the references to the federal law, and mailing it to Coleman’s office. I’m sure, just like the Whitehouse*, he has actually read the law — but just in case.
* okay. That was Obama saying he didn’t have the facts, but he knew the Cambridge police acted stupidly. It goes to a pattern of conduct by the Whitehouse of opening their mouths and proving time and again how incompetent they are.
