The Ann Arbor City Council Should Resign

Sunday June 7, gave a glimpse of the minds of our local government: They do not even take themselves seriously. The Ann Arbor News deserves credit for their front page coverage of the event. From the story:

But while they publicly endorsed the efforts, the same City Council members who backed "Safe Passage Great Lakes Days" in March mocked its significance in e-mails that flew back and forth during the council meeting.

Greden's March 16 missive prompted a dozen messages in which the four council members made sport of environmental or wildlife protection measures that they had passed.

"If only there were sea turtles in the Huron we could keep the streak going," Hohnke wrote.

"Come on," Teall responded, "we can think of something in the Huron to save ... it's the fish, going upstream, after the Argo dam decision!!"

These comments sound more like jabs from political cartoons than council members' thoughts. There is no excuse for this kind of language during a City Council meeting. Why should residents take anything the City Council does seriously, if the Council itself is not serious?

Leigh Greden previously said "there was nothing to apologize fore, unless anyone was offended" until the story broke. His comments were less extreme and possibly misinterpreted.

Hohnke and Teall - who openly mocked their own resolutions during the meeting - should resign. If neither of them has that much courage, the citizens of Ann Arbor should see to it they are not re-elected.

Advice from McGovern

George McGovern has some advice for Obama. First, "Why not order all U.S. troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan by Thanksgiving?" Because that would be destabilizing to the region and put in peril the gains for which so many soldiers have fought and died. Second, cut the defense budget in half, allocating the $250 billion saved to "national health care, improved education, a better environment and restoring our infrastructure" and to "build the fastest, safest and cleanest powered railway system in the world."

McGovern seems to have missed that we recently spent triple that amount on just those kinds of programs. This is liberal spendthrift at its worst.