A reader tipped me to this story and the really bad news: Asheboro City Council member, Keith Crisco is going to be Governor-elect Beverly Perdue's Secretary of Commerce.
I'm nauseated. I really am. Now I'm going to have to go fill that $100-plus prescription for Prevacid that state-supported Blue Cross won't pay for. Bev must have had too much to drink at that fancy shin-dig back in September.
On the other hand, maybe it's good news. Maybe it will get Mr. Crisco the hell out of Asheboro long enough for the rest of us to recover from the mill-town screw he and others like him put to our town and the more ordinary (translation: "wrong") people in it.
From the N&O: To run the Department of Commerce, Perdue picked Keith Crisco, who until this morning was president of Asheboro Elastics Corporation. Crisco joked that his job would be quite different.
"As of this morning I was worried about keeping underwear up," Crisco said.
(Well that's just a DAMNED lie. Now that the Rockola smells like a Roman vomitorium, he's also been working pretty hard to put the annexation $crew$ to the residents of Dave's Mountain.)
Perdue said his experience as a business leader on a global stage will benefit the state.
"He understands global. He did that and does that," Perdue said.
Well, sure he does, Bev. Have another drink.
This is what a Dave's Mountain resident said had to say about our man Keith in the wake of the Courier Tribune's white-wash of Asheboro's recent dubious civic achievement (for those who don't yet know, being named #4 in the nation on Forbes' list of "dying" towns).
Keith Crisco had his comments about we no longer have a manufacturing economy. He didn't say part of the reason was he had moved his production to El Slavador . . . and Bill Redding said Acme McCrary had a new plant in the Honduras but it didn't affect Asheboro.
They won't say they are looking after themselves and Asheboro can do the same.
I'd say those are pretty much my sentiments.
But hey, Bev. Go ahead and name one of the mill-town kings who helped KILL a town to your cabinet (Do you even read the papers?). Did you/your advisors not imagine this headline: Governor-elect Appoints Prominent Businessman & Councilman From "Dying" Town As Commerce Secretary?
Makes sense to me. Certainly Obama-worthy.
So much for that "change" everyone was talking about.
From the Charlotte Observer: A former White House fellow during the Nixon administration, Crisco said he supported the use of incentives to attract new companies to set up shop in North Carolina.
Well of course he does. It's not Keith's money, after all. It's yours and mine. But he can use it buy some more very important friends (it's called net-working).
Just look how well state & government incentives (loan repayment for service) worked in the case of Dr. Mary Johnson - in terms of recruiting and retaining (key word) Pediatricians to Asheboro to "serve the under-served". It was all very (what is the word?) "transparent". Oversight was spot-on. Not.
Neither Keith nor Governor Beverly could give a rat's tail about the doctor who got that higher education they say they value so much and came home and got screwed for doing the right thing by a patient.
I'm the "wrong Johnson".
Just like another North Carolina Breck Girl, Bev can't be bothered to answer my letters. And when I show up at Asheboro City Council meeting to pour my guts out, Keith would just as soon I languish ignored, alone and forgotten . . . as a Pediatrician foolish enough to get in Bob Morrison's way. Gotta fly those MRI's and CT scanners disguised as spaceships - it's great for hospital's bottom line. Good for economics. The powers-that-be can't be bothered with the ugly truth - or what the law says should be its consequences.
The kids I could've been seeing at my thirteen-year-old practice can rot in line for the new PA at the Merce.
As an aside, I did not know Crisco once worked for Tricky Dick. Figures.
What was the line? Only Nixon could go to China? Now Keith can - on our dime. After all, he & his omnipotent buds already brought Mexico here.
That and imported liquor. Asheboro's arrived. We're global.
Hey, can we appoint someone to the Asheboro City Council now who actually gives a damn about ordinary people? Just asking.
For those who are wondering, I'd like to have something up from the Courier Tribune. But as usual, apart from putting up a photo of Perdue and Crisco (with her gazing adoringly up at him in an icky way), it comes in dead last for reporting "breaking news".
I'm sure they'll do some "in depth" coverage tomorrow . . . and tell us all how Keith being in Raleigh will give Asheboro a "friend" in state government.
Yeah. I believe it's called a "conflict-of-interest". Do "ya think" all the other little towns needing life support in North Carolina will appreciate Keith playing favorites?
Of course, like it matters in Raleigh. The reader who tipped me had this to say, If he's not a crook, he will be after he gets to Raleigh. We have the best government money can buy in this state.
Yes, and once again, we ordinary/"wrong" types are screwed.
1/6 Update: Drum roll: The Courier's love-fest featuring all the "right people" (even the Republicans - Harold Brubaker can really dance a beautiful dance when the masters call). It's called "team-work".
There were no dissenters to the appointment. The "coverage" was all "positive" . . . basically a press release that looked like it had been drafted by Bonnie Renfro. There was certainly no real local journalism going on.
Those of us with the knives in our backs (Crisco had a particular killer stroke with preachers) will smile and wave when Councilman Two-Face leaves.
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5 comments:
It is a terrible shame local people know him as the evil sneaky politician helping to kill a town for his own personal benefits BUT, the local news paper prints a different perspective. What a favor the news media could do if they printed the real truth about Keith Criscoe and how he has treated people in his own back yard. Then the rest of the people in this State would know.... only fair.
The newspaper in this town is fundamentally useless.
The husband-wife relationship between David (publisher of the Courier Tribune) and Bonnie (head of the Economic Development Corporation) Renfro is a MASSIVE CONFLICT OF INTEREST that no one has ever called them on.
As a result, nothing that any of the "right people" ever do is wrong - even when it's criminal.
That's why we have poor kids lined up to see a PA at the Merce Clinic . . . when (if some proper investigative reporting had been done eleven years ago - or even six years ago) they could be seeing well-established Board-certified Pediatricians willing to do some pro-bono work (sort of the "non-profit" hospital's job, but I digress - they've got to make money).
Bob Morrison DESTROYED Pediatrics as a cohesive/strong specialty in Asheboro.
But hey, Keith developed a wellness program for his mill-workers so he can keep them on the line.
Screw their kids. Bob Morrison is one of the right people and must be protected. He has to be able to retire to his newly-rennovated house in style and comfort - parachute intact.
We've all got to be "team players" and keep it positive - lest we harm anyone's bottom line.
I'm so sick of these people I could scream. How did this happen to our town?
Why/how did everyone go to sleep as ethics and small-town values were shown the door?
I suggested a mass cancellation of newspaper subscriptions after the paper helped ram the alcohol referendum down our throats (it's over and done - I know - but I don't have to like it).
After this latest journalistic performance, I would suggest it again. A HUGE part of the reason Asheboro is dying is that the town is run by yes-men.
David Renfro needs to JUST GO AWAY.
I would also encourage readers and disgusted citizens to write/e-mail Renfro's employers at the Stephens Media Group. Contact info can be found at the following link: http://www.stephensmediagroup.com/contact.html
His job performance is not consistent with their mission statement.
If the owners of The Courier-Tribune located in Las Vegas,NV was furnished enough information of all the cover-ups and facts of stories “purposely” left out, perhaps the publisher might be terminated. Seems small town newspapers always print what best boost the image of their own politicians and the Asheboro City Council of course is no exception. Visual Fact: Certain city political officials are seen frequently visiting the local news papers publisher – I guess the good ol’ boys are the only ones allowed in the private secured entrance to Renfro’s office.
Something I can not quite understand:
1. Keith Criscoe: Owner of Asheboro Elastics Manufacturing.
2. Keith Criscoe: Asheboro City Councilman
3. Criscoe Closes manufacturing mill(s) leaving many jobless.
4. Criscoe opens manufacturing facilities in El Salvador and 2nd in the Caribbean
5. Criscoe Calls field sales reps. Takes away sales commissions of new accounts they obtained thereby making them “now house accounts”. Again… jobless people
6. As an Asheboro City Councilman he publicly says “we must attracted new manufacturing jobs with incentives to the Asheboro area”. For that the local news
paper paints him as a “Saint”.
7. As an Asheboro City Councilman, he has help achieve Asheboro’s status in being labeled #10 in the nation on the poverty level list.
8. Criscoe/democrat… close personal friend of Senator Jerry Tillman/democrat. Criscoe now gets an appointment as “Secretary of Commerce” by Gov. Elect Bev.
Purdue/democrat.
We know God works in mysterious ways, well… so does politics.
My first memories of Crisco are from when he served on the school board - and was one of the banes of my Mother's (and her colleague's) existence.
If memory serves, he was on the school board during the dictatorship (excuse me, tenure) of that long-ago School Superintendent . . . I think his name was Mathias. All the "right people" loved him. He could do no wrong. But a lot of the people who worked for him were miserable.
Even way back in college, I was one of the "wrong people". Angered by the way Matthias was treating Teachers, I wrote a letter to the Editor (this was in what I like to call "the Light Age" - when the Courier printed letters and didn't have word limits) that blasted the Schoolmaster's policies and tactics. It lit a spark - and was the beginning of the end of his tenure.
The "right people" have long memories. I've often wondered if the Blue and White walls I've run into with regards to my case are "payback" from long ago.
Over the last five years, I've appeared twice before the Asheboro City Council - begging for help in getting my case against Crisco's good buddies, Morrison and Eblin, prosecuted. He has sat there and glowered . . . would barely even look at me . . . and when he did, it was clear he thought I was scum.
I am actually afraid to protest too much. Because I want Crisco to go. Maybe the Asheboro City Council can then regain its moral footing (it' not just about alcohol) - and we can somehow get our town back.
Relevant to the comment left by "BMS", a reader/friend has reminded me that Jerry Tillman is a Republican (I missed it in the comment).
He also pointed out that it was just a practical matter. Tillman pretty much had to be a Republican - in order to get elected to anything beyond Councilman/Commissioner in Randolph County.
There are a lot of Democrats pretending to be Republicans in Randolph County.
And (apart from the unprintables), my friend added that it wasn't even a great disguise - because these days you can't much tell Democrats and Republicans apart in Raleigh - they're all in the "good-ole" club.
Now they're just admitting girls. So "progressive".
Cue Harold Brubaker dancing.
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