Jon Barton, who along with Lance Benton attempted to manipulate election data to represent a higher percentage of voters wanted a governance change than is factually correct, is firing back at me and MGx in another letter to the editor today. Barton is “amused”, he says by my letter pointing out their mathematical errors and ignores his mistakes while portraying me as being “opposed to virtually everything that is not a part of her unique world”. Methinks there is a bit of the pot calling the kettle black here but he goes on to accuse me of vitriolic diatribes against himself, Al Pettit, John Knutson and others. There could be some truth in the latter if pointing out factual and logical flaws qualifies as vitriol or a diatribe.
Barton later praises me as a “clever writer” and a “master at jargon”. Here we must give credit where credit is due. If it weren’t for the dearth of rich inane and absurd material produced by Barton and friends… well I would be just another concerned taxpaying citizen.
PS. Barton alludes to my wind turbine as a “household” device. The business plan has never covered residential use.
For those who have asked, here is my letter as it appeared in The World
A member of the governance advisory committee and proponent of the county hiring an administrator has lashed out in a letter to The World newspaper today. Lance Benton targets Robert Loiselle for his earlier letter questioning the conclusions of the PSU report and accuses Loiselle of being a “shill” for Commissioner Bob Main. Benton also cites the structure and governance advisory committees’ conclusions while failing to mention he was a member of the latter.
Interestingly, Coos Bay Mayor Crystal Shoji questions a state study predicting a decrease in local population because the methodology used to reach the conclusions are not, in her opinion, clear. Neither advisory committee explained its methodology and for this reason amongst many others both final reports are highly suspect in part because too many unexplained assumptions are used as validation for the results.
Benton’s own letter demonstrates a wild unproven assumption combined with flawed reasoning also demonstrated in an earlier letter by another advisory committee member, Jon Barton. Benton writes that “nearly 60% of the voters last election voted for change in county government” which mimics Barton’s earlier claim of “17,000 of 29,000 voters voted for a change”. Both are making a mistake by summing the total “yes” votes for a county charter, Measure 6-143 and an administrator, Measure 6-144 and assuming votes equal individual voters.
Measure 6-143 received 6,356 “Yes” votes while Measure 6-144 received 10,663 for a total of 17,019 votes. Dividing the total votes cast in the election 28,485 into the sum of yes votes in both measures does indeed approach 60% but there is no validation that some voters didn’t vote yes in both measures. Benton and Barton ignore other factors like the significant under votes in both measures or that 6-143 lost by 74.32% and 6-144 by 58.16%. Using their methodology 33,221 of 28, 485 or 117% of voters oppose a change in governance. Averaging the two races against the total votes cast in the November election reflects only a third of the county, 33.76% voted for a change in governance.
Benton and Barton’s reasoning is flawed and illogical and based upon faulty assumptions even in this matter. Why then should anyone take them seriously on more serious issues? As for anyone being a shill, well no one fits the Merriam Webster’s definition, “ one who makes a sales pitch or serves as a promoter”, better than Lance Benton.
Barton is searching for the definition of polysyllabic. I read the World trash can liner article after I posted here. Please, will any reader tell me what Barton (personally) has done for this county other than to divide it writing such self serrving letters to the editor. MG, remember Mark 9:23,as you continue to inform an intentionally uninformed by local politicians public.
I would probably not be reading MGX is there were not occasional input from Al, Barton, Benton. Class, your friends at the world trash can liner who are trying to do whatever it takes to sell their crappy paper, welcomes the word abibliophobia. Recognizing that he is a giant among men, Barton probably welcomes the labels Anencephalous and Cockalorum.
“cockalorum”, I will definitely be using that one at the next opportunity. By the way, did you notice that Barton accused me of “castigating” the mayor when I was actually identifying with her valid concerns about methodology? Maybe Barton is losing his edge…
I did not see any attack on the mayor, just a report on her questioning a bit of analysis. Jon was probably just using her name in his letter to get some of her fans riled up against you, hoping they hadn’t read the story. He either can’t comprehend what he reads or he purposely used her name with that intention. I think it was the latter.
What?! This blog isn’t a spoof??? I thought it was a spoof!
Wait…..thinking here….hmmmmm………..
Nope – it’s definitely a spoof.
2. Thou shall not misrepresent or exaggerate a person’s argument in order to make them easier to attack. (Straw man fallacy)
They employ a lot of red herrings it seems
“Without media coverage, the civic community cannot, even if it demonstrates in the streets and squares, expand its audience of concern. Citizen morale struggles to persist in the face of powerful opposition. Gone is the wisdom of famed newspaper publisher, Joseph Pulitzer who advised his reporters “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
From Nader this morning on Common Dreams.
Barton sprays ‘scat’ where ever he slogs along. Tell us about the $50,000 ‘satellite catchers’ you’ve written grants for all over Oregon Barton? That makes you smart? Naw, not really jonnie, it just makes you the huckster you really are. I believe he sold 30 of them at $50,000 a pop? How’s that working for the Waterfall Clinic folks? Here to treat the poorest among us, or the Walrus, aka jonny barton? How many thousands went down your pie hole on that scheme Barton? At least they had the good sense to keep Fredo, aka al pettit from continuing entertaining the rest of us in public. Welfare Queens one and all, looking down their noses at the workers of this county, and doing everything they can to take those jobs from local folks, all the while telling the ill-informed citizens who have no honest news except this very blog, they are “job creators”, well yes they are, it’s called pan-handling at Fred Meyers.
Follow the money.
I guess he’s right, your virtually against everything he is trying to do to this community. Your not alone. He is crying uncle by getting the portworld to print his tears. He thinks the whole community will get behind him. He is just going to get more people to go to this site by whining like that. His friends are already aware of this site. He’s hoping he can get a few more by writing that letter. That paper is only good for getting the local sports info, nothing else. It just looks like he’s eating sour grapes.
I guess we can expect to see more letters to that editor from Al, Lance, and some of his other cronies. They are out to destroy this site. But they’re afraid to take it to court. That would expose them more than they can handle. So they will just whine to Clark to print their outrage. Will it work?
MGX is amusing, I get a big laugh every time I read Al’s comments