Crackers Strikes Back

Before we begin our normal article, we would like to remind everyone of the City of Kissimmee Commission Meeting that will be held today at 3:00pm. This meeting is because last week's meeting was canceled because of Tropical Storm Fay. It is also where the commission is going to set the rate for the Fire Fee for the upcoming year. We find it sad that elected officials would reschedule a meeting as important as this during a time where the average citizen cannot speak to the issue. We hope that some people can make it out to this meeting, because after the last meeting where they passed an item that was not on the agenda, we believe that our government needs to be held by a tighter reign.

And now our normal article: Crackers Strikes Back

Like our local political scene has not seen enough mischief with phantom phone calls, stolen websites, and campaign mailers with questionable statements, "Crackers the City Crime Fighting Chicken" has returned to save the day for the County voters in District 3. We have just received copies of a mailer that has been sent out from Steve (Crackers) Burke who now lives in the great state of Montana attempting to help Commission Candidate Tony Ferentinos. In the letter adorned with the taxivist logo for the fringe group known as Ax the Tax and calling himself the "Honorable Steve Burke", he lays out an attack on Wendell McKinnon and Jeanne Van Meter. The letter from Crackers, who claims he is still the "Ax the Tax Osceola Campaign Chairman," even though he lives in Montana, lays out that both Mr. McKinnon and Mrs. Van Meter are pro-tax, pro-government, pro-bureaucratic officials. While we cannot argue with the latter of the statements, if Crackers would have checked the record he would have noticed that both candidates have actually cut taxes during their times in office. They have failed on being able to spend collected tax money in the appropriate areas (homeless bathing fountains, All America City trips, etc.), but both have voted to cut taxes. We suggest that Mr. Burke and our blogger friend from across the great divide focus a little harder on trying to put the band back together and start a blog chronicling their zany adventures.

In other political news, it seems that one City of Kissimmee Mayoral candidate, Jorge Miranda, is looking to sue over the use of the "All America City" logo on the mailer of Mayoral Candidate Jim Swan. What is funny is that it may not matter if the use of the logo follows election laws, but because the logo is copyrighted by the National Civic League who charges anyone who wants to display the logo a hefty fee (even winners), the city may find itself in trouble with the law in a completely new way. Right now multiple candidates are using the logo and we have not been able to determine by their campaign reports if they have paid the NCL for its use. We hope that they do not expect the city taxpayers to pay for its use, and we have to wonder if the claims that Jerry Gemskie and Jim Swan are making about "honesty and integrity" could be challenged if they illegally used this logo. It would also really hurt the "experience" claims they are making if they tried to claim that they used the logo by accident.

Automated calls from an organization calling itself "Citizens for Osceola Values" have been attacking County Commission candidate Fred Hawkins on behalf of sitting Commissioner Bill Lane. The calls basically refer to Mr. Hawkins as a liar which we have not been able to prove or disprove at this time. We believe these calls were made in response to a piece that Mr. Hawkins Campaign sent out that stretched the truth on votes that Mr. Lane had made. While we find it sad that both of these candidates have reduced their campaigns to a school yard name calling session, we knew that eventually it would happen. The best part about the the auto-calls being generated by the Lane Campaign was the response from the campaign manager for Mr. Hawkins. In her e-mail she defends her candidate and claims that she would not have worked for Mr. Hawkins as a paid campaign manager if he broke any of a list of certain conditions. The third condition on her list was "3. He would never tell me an untruth or distorted version of any issues or question." which must be a small problem because of the mailer that the Hawkins Campaign sent out distorting a vote made by Mr. Lane. We guess that when you are on the payroll it is easier to overlook some levels of distortion.

We know there is more silliness going on than we were able to cover in this article, but we just don't have the space to do it. We would remind everyone that tomorrow, Tuesday, August 26th is primary election day, so GET OUT AND VOTE! Just beware of people dressed up in chicken suits.