Fort Worth's Public Library & Mayor Mike Moncrief's Reign of Craptacularness

Preserving scenic areas by establishing National Parks and free to use Public Libraries are 2 of the best ideas America has given the world.

We are getting a daily dumping of Ruling Junta propaganda here in Fort Worth regarding our amazing mayor, Mike Moncrief, and all he has done for the people of Fort Worth during his reign.

The Ruling Junta shill's letters to the editor of the Junta's mouthpiece, the Star-Telegram, are long on meaningless fluff and weak on facts. Facts like pointing out what exactly Moncrief has done for Fort Worth that warrants him remaining in office.

I can think of one specific that has occurred during this ethically challenged man's reign. He cut the number of days and hours the Fort Worth Public Library is open. The reason for the cuts? Not enough money.

Here's another accomplishment of the City of Fort Worth's government under Moncrief's sterling, inspiring, leadership. Millions of dollars have gone missing. Just vanished. Now when I first read of this, my first thought was has anyone checked Moncrief's pockets for the missing money? I mean, this is a guy who operates in an ethics free bubble, doing stuff that would have you under investigation, or in jail, in the parts of America that have opted to live under a system of laws. I forget how much money it is Moncrief and his wife have made during his reign, off the various natural gas drillers he is in cahoots with that he does not recuse himself from voting on when natural gas drilling issues are on the table.

So many of those Ruling Junta shills have mentioned how much Moncrief cares for all the citizens of his city. Has he seen the kids lined up outside the Eastside Regional Library, waiting for it to open, later than it used to? Has he seen all those kids, with no computer at home, eagerly waiting their turn at a terminal?

But, what's got me blogging about this right now is I just returned from the Eastside Regional Library. I needed to get some new books to read, now that I've bailed on all the local papers. Except FW Weekly, this week's copy of which I got at the library.

Anyway, ever since the library cutbacks there has been a line when I go to check out. It can be a long wait. Today it was at least 20 minutes. The first time I experienced a line, between when I walked in and was ready to check out, the line had not moved at all. I waited at the back of that line for maybe 10 minutes, then with a couple people now behind me, I got feisty and started complaining. Another librarian then began checking out books.

I like going to the library. I always have. I've never experienced a library as badly run as they are in Fort Worth. I never waited in a line in the Mount Vernon library, the Bellingham library, the Burlington library, the Seattle library or the Tacoma library. Now, what is the difference between those libraries and the Fort Worth one? They are in Washington. The state with America's highest per capita number of book readers and library users. And trust me, if you tried to pull on people in Washington the stunts pulled in the Fort Worth library, it would not be tolerated. You'd have so many people complaining, demanding it be fixed, that it would get fixed.

But, the bottomline is, this type problem would never have been allowed to even develop up in Washington. Paraphrasing Bart Simpson, Fort Worth is used to things being craptacular. You accept craptacular service in your public library, in your trash pickup service, in your road maintenance. And worst of all, you accept a level of craptacularness in your elected officials that not only, would not, it could not, occur in Washington. Moncrief would be in his 5th or 6th year in prison by now if he'd been mayor of Seattle and tried to do business the Fort Worth way.

At the top I mentioned National Parks. Tomorrow I'll blog my crankiness about the craptacular way Fort Worth has managed its parks under Mayor Mike Moncrief's caring leadership.