LongmeadowBuzz has been corrupted!

Sadly, the site Longmeadowbuzz has fallen victim to personal politics and has decided to disallow commentary that hits too close to home.

I have created a new version of the site where no opinions will be censored. If its suitable for Blogspot without requiring an "adult content" filter, it will be published here. Also unlike the original Longmeadowbuz, this site will not allow anonymous comments. Everyone who uses this forum will have to be willing to be held accountable for their opinions.

While I may leave this site up longer, I am committed to maintaining it through the June 8th town elections. The original site has become an arm of the Mark Gold campaign and therefore cannot be relied upon for frank and legitimate criticism of Mr. Gold's opposition to the new High School project or of his campaign for re-election.

The following is the post deleted by Mr. Moran.

Why can't Mr. Gold Speak for Himself!?!
The latest effort of Jim Moran to defend his close friend Mark Gold from criticism is absolutely surreal. Borrowing a title from Mr. Wojcik, apparently Mr. Moran thinks repeating discredited claims will somehow make them seem more reasonable. He posts a letter from Mr. Gold, who repeats many of his discredited and disproved assertions and manages to dig himself into an even bigger credibility hole.

Mr. Gold's good intentions have taken him as far as they can. At this point, I'm afraid he's proving to be simply incompetent and obtuse. He continues to lie about and mis-characterize the extensive process in which we are involved. He continues to make assertions that reveal a complete lack of understanding of public finance, the MSBA, and the present economic challenges of our town. He has systematically ducked every opportunity to debate this issue fairly and openly, preferring only Mr Moran's surrogacy and one-way repetitions of an increasingly absurd (and changing) position.

In his latest statement, which one has to wonder if he even authored, given his utter failure to articulate anything coherent in public, Gold writes,"It would have been a far more politically expedient position for me to support this project as it is proposed. However, it is because I have given this project so much thought and reviewed it in the context of my service as a member of the Select Board and within the broader needs of our town that I have concluded that this is not the right project at this time." He gave it so much thought, but consulted no one at the MSBA and had very little productive contact with members of the SBC. Though lacking in any relevant expertise (to say nothing of an actual argument) Gold relied on "the context of his "service on the Select Board." Apparently Mr. Gold relies only on Mr. Gold for information and analysis, something that certainly didn't work out last year when he tried to mangle our town charter by amending it to include an administrative operating procedure. Mercifully, he was forced to withdraw that gigantic example of his incompetence before the Town Meeting.

He also reveals how out of touch he is by writing "Having stated my position on the project, and at the risk of reducing the discussion on the Select Board contest to a secondary referendum on the school project..." First, he STILL hasn't stated his position in public or submitted himself to questioning. Second, he now has several overlapping but not entirely consistent positions on this issue. And third, what he calls a "secondary referendum" is MUCH MORE important than his "Select Board contest." If Gold succedes in preventing Longmeadow from moving forward here, the lasting impact of his incompetence will far outlive his service on the Select Board.

Mr. Gold's return to firmly opposing the high school project in what is now either his 4th or 5th version of his view on this issue makes very clear his lack of fitness for public office. Mr. Moran's insistence on using this website to personally defend his close friend while trying to shield him from accountability for his own views is also very disappointing.

I can certainly understand why Gold, Moran, and Wojcik are frustrated by the efforts of Chris Swanson and others to systematically illustrate all of Mr. Gold's mistakes and mis-characterizations. Unfortunately, simply repeating them and adding additional mistakes and mis-characterizations is not making Gold's embarrassing predicament any better.

For God's sake, and for whatever shred of dignity and credibility Mr. Gold may have left, either try some new spin or just be quiet. Every time you try to help Mr. Gold you further bury him beneath a mountain of incoherence. You can be sure that Gold Position 5.0, or whatever version this is, will be just as thoroughly debunked as all the rest.

My guess is your cute title and graphic on this latest nonsense was wishful thinking on your part. Just think how much easier it would be to fool people if folks like me weren't so darn stubborn about correcting your mistakes.