Toledo city prankster: Our mayor’s a moron
When last we heard from Toledo mayor Carty Finkbeiner, he was cussing up a storm over the nation’s backlash against his anti-Marine words and actions.
He’s as unpopular at home as he is with the rest of the country. The Toledo Blade reports on an internal prank:
A Toledo city hall prank at the expense of Mayor Carty Finkbeiner created a downtown whodunit yesterday.
For several hours during the day, the telephone voice mail greeting for the city’s purchasing hot line was, “Carty Finkbeiner is a complete moron.”
Katerina Bekyarska, a spokesman for Mr. Finkbeiner, said the outgoing message was changed immediately after it was brought to her attention. “Someone obviously went in and – trying to do a joke, not a very good one – went in and recorded the message,” Ms. Bekyarska said.
A security code is needed to access any of the city’s voice mail systems and change an outgoing greeting, she said. The system automatically transferred callers to an attendant after the greeting. The message was changed about 2 p.m. to start with the city’s usual telephone greeting: “Thank you for calling Toledo, the most liveable city.”
Ms. Bekyarska said she had no idea whether it was a city employee or someone else who recorded the greeting. “We are looking to see if there is an issue that needs to be addressed with our phone lines and if they need to be better protected,” she said.
The automated hot line is used to record messages about outstanding bids and awarded contracts for the purchasing department.
Mr. Finkbeiner did not have a comment on the recording, Ms. Bekyarska said.
At least not one that’s printable in a family newspaper.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Trackbacks
- Saturday Afternoon The Heck With The Laundry , An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
- | BitsBlog
- John McCain’s Memory Problems
- Roscoe’s Public Notes » Blog Archive » links for 2008-02-25
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories: They don't support the troops
Ed Driscoll
» Charges Filed In Kenneth Gladney Case
Riehl World View
» Bet: Ratings Fail - Oprah/Obama Christmas SpecialMudville Gazette
» The five-year planNewsBusters.org
» Oprah To Do Primetime Christmas Special With The ObamasNewsBusters.org
» To Kos, Taliban's Real Crime Is Being Un-PCRiehl World View
» Dowd: Dem Elites Displeased With Obama As Palin Rises
I’ve learned that sometimes telling the truth can get you into trouble
The most liveable city? for who?
Keep us up to date when they catch the perp and severly over-react….
“Prank Phone Message? — 50 Years!!!”
Thank you for calling Toledo, come and raise a fruckus with a complete moron, Mayor Carty Finkbeiner
Fixed it
“If you know the number of your party’s extension, you may press it now….
For Ekaterina Gordeeva, press 1.
For Katerina Bekyarska, press 2.
For Katerina Witt, press 3.
For Funky Winkerbean, press 4.
For Eric Cartman, press 5.
For Carty Finkbeiner, press 9.”
Truth is a conplete defense.
Your forgot the part about:
1. For Spanish press 1
2. For Arabic press 2
3. For Vietnamese press 3
4. For French press 4
5. For Korean press 5
6. For Japanese press 6
7. For German press 7
8. For Russian press 8
And, oh yeah, for English press 9
Heck, that could be his new campaign slogan. Toledo is so liberal, he would still get elected, go figure
BTW: does the recording say the most ‘liveable’ or most ‘liberal’ city?
So is best friend, Farty Kinkbeiner.
BTW, what the heck was going on at Ellis Island the day the Finkbeiners inprocessed? I thought the clerks were supposed to fix names like that.
That’s funny, I don’t care who ya are!
As part of my job I sometimes administer the telephone and the voice mail system. It would be easy for someone in that position to do something like this. I’ve never changed someone’s voice greeting, but I have been known to change a co-workers phone display language to French or Spanish and see how long it takes them to notice it. I’ve had it done to my phone as payback. It’s all in good fun.
Between that and Carty, no wonder everybody is moving to Sylvania….before too long even Tony Paco’s is gonna head for Sylvania…
That mayor deserved that one. Serves him right.
I thought it was funny.
I LOL’d at the whole thing.
I agree with everyone else: Truth is the ultimate defense.
I am Spartacus!
No, I’m Spartacus!
What is funny is that the next bill that congress votes on will have a 20 million $ earmark for Ohio phone security upgrades… ha,ha,ha…wait & see.
Toledo is a toilet by my standards.
We have far too many Third World Cities in the U.S.
Throwing tax dollars at those dirty places are a Demoncrat Solution.
Toledo rates on the same level as East St.Louis, Gary, Indiana, Pontiac, Michigan and Compton, California or Mogadishu, Somalia. All excellent places for Live Fire Exercises for our Armed Forces to train up to Fight and Win the Global War on Terrorism. Collateral Damage is just an added Value!
Tax Dollars well spent!
The screw the American troops twin cities: Berkeley and Toledo. The liberal’s best.
Hey Mayor Finky(rhymes with) Stinky:
God Bless the United States Marines – Semper Fi.
Sen. Harry Reid wants an investigation as to why the mayors of Toledo, Oh and Bezerkely, Ca. are being treated in an inflammatory way by the citizens of Amercia. He states their only doing their jobs as he see it.
Obama tells them don’t give up HOPE, there can be CHANGE.
C’mon now! What’s the mayor’s real name?
And I think there was a grammatical error in the official phone message. It was meant to say:
I always take a complement even if its not true,or as in the case of Toledo, when it doesn’t make sense!
I suspect that Toledo’s method for selecting mayor is similar to the one used in Monty Python’s Life of Brian to choose which criminal should be set free: Ewect Cawty Finkbeinew!
Anyway, just for fun I looked up “liveable” in the American Heritage Dictionary:
1. Suitable to live in; habitable: a livable dwelling.
2. Possible to bear; endurable: livable trials and tribulations.
So, Toledo proudly proclaims itself “…the most endurable city” in a manner of speaking. Sign me up.
#22:
Actually, I believe livable and liveable are both correct, although livable might be the preferred spelling.
BTW, did you mean to say that you always take a compliment…?
The City Council of where I live in upstate NY voted to condemn the war in Iraq several months ago.
The taxes in Geneva higher than most in the country, forcing more and more long term residents to flee their homes because they can’t afford to keep them. Like all of upstate NY, the economy has been on a down turn for years, since industry has also been forced out by the tax and spend Democrats. Our school district costs more than most, and has an acadmic record to rival DC’s
And through it all our city council expends the effort to condemn an action in Iraq that I guarantee they know little or nothing about – - except what they read on “moveon.org’.
Extraordinary……and I thought moving back here would help us escape this nonsense.
Toledo isn’t unique- – morons are everywhere.
How close was the election when this communist got in?
It really doesn’t matter. Even if he won by 1/10th of a percent, he got in fair and square.
Just like our imminent promotion of either Barack or John to POTUS, Toledo’s leadership represents their “best effort.”
They, like we, get what they ask for.
Not quite true as he got elected at home.
Correction: Carty Finkbeiner is a moron. The people who voted for him are complete morons.
Wow.. Ralph Nader is joining the Presidential race.. kinda late start ain’t it Ralphie?
I live in Cleveland, about 2 hours east of Toledo, and have been to Toledo on a few occasions. It really isn’t a “liberal” city per se. It’s candidly a bit of a ghost town — not many people live there, there aren’t many jobs there outside of government — you get the picture. It is not as bad as Youngstown, Ohio, however.
In any event, there is a huge difference between Toledo and Berkeley, even if the mayor of Toledo is as liberal as the Berkeley City Council.
How can it be late? Ralph could announce the day before the election and have about the same effect. How many people don’t already know who and what Ralph Nader is?
Too funny!
Even as screwed up and crazy as Ralllph is; you have to admit, he’s head and shoulders above the rest of the wannabes we now have in the race.
What’s his position on illegal aliens? I may have found someone I can vote for.
…Uh, just don’t call the Marines. Maybe the Code Pink
gargoylesgals could help you out?Now thats funny that someone changed their phone message.
Prankster should have said.
Thank you for calling Toledo the most livable city, provided/protected by the blood, sweat and tears of Marines.
good call
I’ve been to Toledo…..
Not a nice place to visit…. or live.
The truth hurts, doesn’t it?
I wouldn’t have been this polite.
Is this like saying that Toledo is the most health-conscious city? How ’bout most earth-friendly? Multicultural? Most receptive toward clowns?
I think there’s some issues that need to be addressed regarding your Mayor.
No, it’s not a prank, that’s his real name… oh, you mean the moron part.
[I know I'm late for this party, I just never blog on Sundays.]
If I was told I would have to move to Toledo tomorrow and stay there for the rest of my life………..I would off myself.