Minor a major irritant

Bill Minor's column, aptly titled Absurdity of budget crisis, is the latest entry in a long line of poor journalism. If he can't provide accuracy within his stories, he should at least try to make them interesting. Seriously. Read the latest "absurdity" here.

I've got five minutes, so here are a few thoughts.

He starts with a question and, well, let's be fair - it's a good question:

Question: "What does it tell you about Mississippi's ability to
govern itself when the Legislature couldn't craft and fund the 2010 FY budget within its 90-day regular session and now must be called back into special session to prevent a shutdown of state government after June 30?"

Minor's answer: "MS is evidently incapable of governing itself."
(Whoa, hold your horses Billy! What a pesky thing that democracy is. We elected these folks, so I'm wondering if Minor's statement is an indictment of the elected or the electorate?)

My answer: Let's not attack the fundamentals of our government; instead, let's attack the lack of leadership apparent on both sides of the spectrum. This means the Republican-led Senate and the Democratic-led House negotiators need to do their job. It's time for some leadership, folks.

Well... Bill... if you're going to use Nunnelee in your story, at least spell his name right:

• Minor's spelling: Sen. Allen Nunnalee, (R. Tupelo)
• Correct spelling: Sen. Alan Nunnelee

Let's see - what else? There's the fact Minor quotes Cecil Brown, who is widely known for being "misinformed" (as described by the Governor). I'd challenge Bill to look into the hospital tax issue further - and I think he would find that not only did Cecil Brown vote for the hospital tax back in the 90s, so did Speaker McCoy...along with virtually every other Representative and Senator. Remember, the hospitals ASKED for this tax.... Or, in MHA Prez Sam Cameron's words, "a loan." Sure, if you call putting in $1 and getting $4 back a "loan." (Maybe I can get that kind of "loan" for my house... )

Not enough time to discuss further - but, suffice it to say, Bill Minor is a major irritant. Closely following is all the, ahem, "credible" newspapers that still run his column.