Thursday, July 10, 2008

Fun and Black Holes in Dallas County

There are times when observing politics in Dallas at both the city and county level, you have to laugh just to keep from groaning in disgust.

This is one of those times.

From the Dallas City Hall Blog of the Dallas Morning News:

Posted by Kevin Krause


A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.

County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections "has become a black hole" because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud "Excuse me!" He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a "white hole."

That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.
Commissioner Price, put on your big boy pants and do what you were elected to do. Race baiting is not in the job description.

Judge Jones... now where have I heard that name before?

Oh yeah, seems Judge Jones has a problem or two of his own:

Justice of the Peace Thomas Jones is getting a new, more expensive lawyer to represent him before the State Commission on Judicial Conduct – to be paid for by Dallas County taxpayers.

In December, the Commissioners Court approved a $200 an hour contract for former Justice of the Peace Cleophas Steele to represent Judge Jones. On Tuesday, commissioners voted to hire Marc Richmond at a rate of $250 an hour.

Judge Jones is the subject of about six misconduct complaints. The allegations include people not being notified of court hearings and an instance in which a ruling was changed after court was over.
Y'all need to quit your whining, quit your race baiting, and quit making North Texas look stupid. Get on with what you were elected to do.

Catfish and SondraK also commented on this.

Update: Commissioner Price responds here. If that hole gets any deeper, he is going to be needing a bigger shovel.

Update to the update: It gets even better here. "Price also says language such as "angel food cake" and "devil's food cake" are also racially insensitive."

Ride Fast chimes in with Racist Singularities. Head on over and give it a read, maybe I can get back on this "top ten refering sites" list. I have fallen off of late.

8 comments:

catfish said...

Watch out, calling on black elected officials to do their job might get you called a rascit!

I think some people walk around waiting to be insulted. JWP is one of 'em.

Just John said...

Price and Jones should be ashamed of their complete ignorance of the English language, as well as the physical sciences. I wonder if they realize how foolish they've made themselves look?

B Smith said...

This being Texas, is there a brown hole? (For the Hispanics, you see...)

I think some people walk around waiting to be insulted. JWP is one of 'em.
My theory is that, like a lot of folks, he believes (maybe rightly) that this kind of race-baiting is the only sort of thing he can say that anyone will actually take seriously. Hell, it got Sharpton and Jackson where they are today.

John R said...

b smith; You are spot on there. How else would he have been mentioned on Rush's show?

Commissioner Price is famous now.

NotClauswitz said...

The original Black Hole was the Black Hole of Calcutta during the Indian Mutiny of 1756.
It was a small and airless dungeon at Fort William in Calcutta into which the mutineers forcibly packed a large number of English, Dutch, and Portuguese defenders and civilian prisoners, on a hot summer night. They begged for water or escape, grew delirious from heat exhaustion, collapsed from heat stroke, and died of suffocation or trampling. Only a few survived until the next day. In the morning the door was opened and the corpses were thrown into a ditch.
I believe the expression came to mean a place from which nothing emerges alive.

Ride Fast said...

[...] Racist Singularities [...]

Now now. Let's be charitable, lest anyone think we're niggardly.

John R said...

Sorry it took so long to include you sir, I am on it :)

Ride Fast said...

Hoorah, somebody noticed my "top ten referring sites" list.

Here I went and assumed people would be generally trying to get off that list ;-)