Gone Mild: The Funkhouser Administration's Internet Outlet. Mayor Funky's unwavering defender

With Mayor Funky under fire, Dan from Gone Mild launches an adamant defense today.

Additionally, the weather outside is wonderful. Nice and hot just like I like it (sessy) and I need to mow my lawn so I'm gonna be nice . . . On any other day I'd be mean as hell but I'm in a decent mood right now.

Anyway, the bulk of Dan's post is pretty much the standard apologist line declaring that Mayor Funkhouser is going to change the world . . . "Just you wait and see!" Sadly, he hasn't done anything different than any other politico as far as I've seen.

However, there are a few points that I want to contend with, the first one isn't important:

I also know that if Joe Miller (Funk's director of communications) were more like Steve Glorioso, we might never had discussed those issues. They would have been "handled" outside of our view, and (Star columnist Steve) Kraske would never have noticed.

This is neat, notice how Mayor Funky's fans are still running against Kay Barnes whose only real legacy in KC is the bill she has stuck this town with . . .

Still, the VERY LOUD outcry by media watchers and pundits against Joe Miller and the Mayor's wife actually represents area pundits being very nice and not criticizing the Mayor Funky directly.

Put simply, Joe Miller has been raised up as a sacrificial lamb for Mayor Funky's mistakes . . . Call it old school or outdated thinking but I've always believed people need to take responsibility for their own decisions (or at least pass the buck more effectively) . . . The talk of the Mayor's poor efforts at communicating effectively is really just folks finding a scapegoat for Funkhouser's haphazard and inexperienced style.

It's not that I don't believe that Joe Miller is ineffective, amateurish and out of his league as the Mayor's Communications Director . . . But the problem with Funkhoser goes much deeper.

From what we've seen so far . . . Mayor Funky is someone who talks a good game but does nothing, someone who is indecisive, someone who is lead around the nose by his wife, someone who has (so far) alienated a lot of people . . . Most importantly, his own City Council.

And guess, what . . . Mayor Funky hasn't really come to Miller's defense publicly so there is no statement on record that Funkhouser will unwaveringly stand behind his Communications Director who could be gone when the next controversy sheds even more credibility away from the current Administration. He flip-flopped on the Honda, and Miller unfortunately doesn't go as far back with Mayor Funky as Ed Wolf who is now taking the City for a quarter mil a year . . . In fact, trimming the budget by the 80k that Miller is making just might shore up some of the accusations that Funkhouser is all talk when it comes to his fiscally conservative stance. On that front, the word around the campfire is that quite a few people have contended that Mayor Funky's staff is OVER COMPENSATED and actually takes more from the Kansas City's coffers than the outgoing Barnes group . . . I'm sure there are all sorts of ways you can spin the math but it's what people are saying as the perception of the Mayor's promises continue to spiral downward.

Finally, I didn't know that Dan from Gone Mild was an authority on the inner workings of Kansas City's Latino Community?

Check out this bit of nonsense:

A seasoned political pro might have figured out how to get Semler on the Parks Board by cutting a backroom deal with Hispanic "leaders" before the announcement - perhaps by agreeing to put Fierro in as chair and a couple other concessions (probably involving city contract dollars for the "leaders"). The result would be almost the same, but it would happen in back rooms and we would know nothing about it.

In this elitist and ethnocentric passage Dan basically implies not only that the entire Latino Leadership is corrupt but also that every Local Latino submits unquestioningly to the will of prominent leaders in their community . . . Surprising, you usually have to listen to talk radio in order hear these kind of generalizations.

Believe it or not you d-bags: There is no one single leader of Kansas City's Latino Community (at least if you're not counting TKC).

Just the same as the white, Black, Asian and any other community there are a variety of voices which comprise our "leadership." (More on this later.)

Unknown to many, there are anti-immigrant voices among are "Hispanics", there are Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Nationalists, Libertarians and every other stripe of political ideologies among Kansas City's Latinos . . . No one person or group can claim to speak for every single member of our community as Dan implies.

However, the truth is that of the many ideologies among Kansas City's Mexican-American community - The voices for Comprehensive Immigration Reform were able to put thousands of their constituents on the street to support their cause . . . A feat that is unequaled by the Minutemen or any of KC's hate groups.

Following Dan's logic: A few "back door" deals (no homo?) would have kept us all quiet. Sadly, if that's the kind of stereotypical thinking that informs Funkhouser fanatics than they are even more clueless about Kansas City's minority communities than I had initially thought.

FINALLY, Dan slides this one in there that's just priceless: "I'm not really an insider."

And that's just plain funny . . . Not only is Dan the blogfather of The Committee for County Progress new online endeavor but he's also a local lawyer who has done a pretty good job at keeping name out of the papers because his decent standing in local Democrat circles . . . The Pitch folks know his real identity (dun-dun-dun) along with a few others but thankfully he hasn't stumbled on anyone's toes enough to be outed.

Like it or not, the Dems and other liberals in this town stick together much better than the Funkhouser administration that is already in need of impassioned pleas like the one Dan provides today . . . I'm sure the blogger won some points among Funky fanatics with his recent post even though the Funkhouser Administration currently seems to be falling apart at the seams as if they were one of Mayor Funky's cheap suits.