In the article, "Sagging Pants and First Class Flights: The Priorities of Mayor Moncrief," the North Texas Conservative blog brings to light the Ft. Worth mayor's excesses in office. The title pretty much tells the story to follow. In reality, it is two stories in one; the first being the privately funded fight against baggy trousers and the second being publicly funded, first class flights to Dubai.

The first story is the ridiculous fight against sagging pants that Mayor Moncrief has embarked on. According to the blog, it is basically a public awareness campaign attempting to convince young people to refrain from wearing pants that reveal their under drawers. This part of the article is fairly well written, with plenty of information to back up the writer's opinion that this campaign is a waste of the Mayor's attention.

The second part of the article, concerning the Mayor's trip, is a could have used a little information regarding the purpose of his trip. I believe that this would have provided the reader with more facts to interpret the contended wastefulness on Mr. Moncrief's part. While the travel accommodations seemed excessive, it would have been helpful to assess the cost vs. benefit of his travels. The writer also mentions the travel of DFW directors without explaining the relevance to the story.

I believe that the writer would have been more effective had he split this story into two separate ones; the difference between a privately funded public awareness campaign and a publicly funded trip warrant separate consideration. It seems that the most convincing arguments regarding the misplaced priorities of Mayor Moncrief were made on the sagging pants aspects of the article. The second half merely criticises the excesses of his travel arrangements, but does not effectively argue that the agenda was wrong. The conclusion of the article, that the needs of Ft Worth's residences are not being met, is a completely unsupported contention.