Prosecuting the Dead

"The Arts Council of Northwest Florida misappropriated funds by paying its expenses with money it was supposed to give to local arts organizations, the State Attorney's Office said.

The State Attorney's Office announced Thursday that it was charging the now-defunct council with two counts of making false official statements. No official associated with the group was charged."

Read the Pensacola New Journal, Arts Council of Northwest Florida faces 2 charges

Read the press release, report (page 2), and information (page 4) from the State Attorney's Office charging the 'council' with two counts for making false official statements:

State Attorney's Office, Press Release Re Arts Council

What is the point of the prosecution. And what if no one appears to represent 'the now-defunct council,' figuratively I mean. Why would anyone hire a lawyer?

Talk about a waste of time. So what is the real purpose?

One local blogger says "Escambia County remains “Bubba-ville USA." (Bubba-ville USA includes other parts of NW Florida.)

So is the meaningless prosecution of a dead organization to assuage the public's anger at the misdeeds of the local good ol' boys?

Who's Your Family?

I thought of the question when I read the following in the Pensacola News Journal, Santa Rosa sets fees for Navarre Fishing Pier:

The Santa Rosa County Commission unanimously approved a schedule of user fees for the new Navarre Fishing Pier this morning. That includes annual passes for: adult, $240; seniors, $225, and youth, $200.

Originally, the proposed fee schedule included a family pass for $500, but pier manager Dorothy Slye pulled that idea off the schedule because of the potential complication such a pass could create, including what constitutes a family.

Not such an easy question to answer anymore?

Tune in tomorrow, and we'll try to help the Commission answer the question.

With Washington Bankrupt, Banksters Now Loot Main Street

The "nation's biggest banks are ripping off American cities with the same predatory deals that brought down Greece." Read Rolling Stone, Looting Main Street.

Who needs foreign enemies when ya got the Banksters, with help from their friends the Republi-cons, preying on tax payers and looting the future. Don't you just love deregulation!

And China laughs all the way to the bank.

Is It Collateral Damage, or Murder?

WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting a shooting (they called it indiscriminate slaying) of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff. Reuters had been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the shooting (again they say unprovoked slaying) of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.



WikiLeaks calls it collateral murder. What do you think?

What would you think if a foreign country did that in an American city/town? Is it necessary to point out the harm done to world opinion?

Was the Iraq war worth the cost?

P.S. It reminds me of the death of Victor Steen.

How Now Republi-CONs

Which party will lead the way forward? Read The New York Times, Who’s Up for Building Bridges?

"It takes more than just saying no to thrive in the 21st century."

Religious Evil

UPDATE III: "On Good Friday, the Pope's personal preacher suggested in his sermon that criticism of the Pope reminded him of shameful aspects of anti-Semitism." Read or listen to, NPR, 'Churchgate': The Scandal That Won't Go Away.

So is it bigotry? Read Vanity Fair, The Catholics Aren't the Jews, They're the Soviets.


UPDATE II: "Why is the Catholic Church more prone to self-pity than self-reflection?" Read The New York Times, Devil of a Scandal.


UPDATE: "The Catholic Church, which gave up its credibility for Lent, can’t hide behind smoke and mystique as it faces a cascade of child sexual abuse cases." Read The New York Times, Should There Be an Inquisition for the Pope?

"As an archbishop in Germany, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, expended more energy pursuing theological dissidents than sexual predators." Read The New York Times, Doctrine Preoccupied Benedict as Archbishop.

More Changey Stuff

To allow, or not to allow, proper nouns? Read the Washington Post, U.S. players react to news that new Scrabble version will allow proper nouns.

Get over it people, it's just a game.

Help the Weak Die

What does society do to those who would torment another to suicide? Read the Washington Post, Kids gone wild, parents gone missing.

When it is everyone for themselves, there will be coercion, cruelty, and a lack of empathy.

Does the Pastor Condone Cop Killing?

Chuck Baldwin is the pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida, and was the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election.

In his latest column, Baldwin appears to condone killing cops. Read The Hutaree Militia Raid, in which he references and approves of an "excellent column entitled “Casus Belli.” In that blog posting, the writer states "it is not necessarily a crime to kill a police officer."

The writer then cites a very, very old case to argue that a person is "not obliged to submit to an unlawful arrest, and he "had the right to use such force as was absolutely necessary to resist an attempted illegal arrest...." Quoting John Bad Elk v. The United States.

BEWARE, it is a crime to resist an arrest with force, even an illegal arrest.

REMEMBER, where the democratic election of government prevails and the law limits the power of government so that neither life, nor liberty, nor property can be taken by the state without due process of law, there is no justification for violence.

The pastor should be ashamed of himself.

The Large Hadron Collider Will Create a 'Communist Chocolate Hellhole'

So says a traveler from the future. He also claims a future of limitless power, the end of poverty and Kit-Kats for everyone. Read CNET UK, Man arrested at Large Hadron Collider claims he's from the future.

Personally, I prefer peanut butter with my chocolate. But Kit Kat Peanut butter never caught on.

Happy Easter!

All I need to know I learned from the Easter Bunny:

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Everyone needs a friend who is all ears.
There's no such thing as too much candy.
All work and no play can make you a basket case.
A cute tail attracts a lot of attention.
Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day.
Let happy thoughts multiply like rabbits.
Some body parts should be floppy.
Keep your paws off of other people's jelly beans.
Good things come in small, sugar coated packages.
The grass is always greener in someone else's basket.
To show your true colors, you have to come out of the shell.

The best things in life are still sweet and gooey.

Sub Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Usually on Fridays you can listen to me, the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- no political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

I can't make it today but I'll be back next week. Until the next show, post a comment or two.

Bon Appétit

UPDATE III: BBQ RULES : We'll be entering the BBQ season shortly. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity. When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion:

Routine...

(1) The woman buys the food.

(2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert.

(3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - beer in hand.

(4) The woman remains outside the compulsory three meter exclusion zone where the exuberance of testosterone and other manly bonding activities can take place without the interference of the woman.

Here comes the important part:

(5) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.

More routine...

(6) The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.

(7) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is looking great. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he flips the meat.

Important again:

(8) THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.

More routine...

(9) The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces, and brings them to the table.

(10) After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.

And most important of all:

(11) Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.

(12) The man asks the woman how she enjoyed 'her night off' and, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women!


UPDATE II: Reposted for Super Bowl Sunday.

Also, think fat, salt and crunch AKA fried pigskins (actually pork fat). Read The New York Times, For the Big Game? Why, Pigskins.


UPDATE: Manly BBQ needs a Man's Grill! Now this is a BBQ guaranteed to get everyone's attention. It should be towed with the barrel facing backwards, then you wouldn't have to worry about anyone tailgating you! My guess is the owner is from Texas!!!!!!

Ok, ya don't like French, but this ain't French cooking:















Looks yummy.

Called "The Bacon Explosion," but modestly called by its inventors "the BBQ Sausage Recipe of all Recipes." It has swept the Internet blogs and I blog so I thought I'd let ya know.

Get the recipe at: The New York Times, Take Bacon. Add Sausage. Blog.
And invite me to your Superbowl party for a taste.

UPDATE: For more details, see BBQAddicts.com, Bacon Explosion: The BBQ Sausage Recipe of all Recipes.

Some Republi-CON Political Expeditures: Limos, Private Jets and a Lesbian Bondage Nightclub

What a party! Read the Washington Post, The party's over for RNC head Michael Steele.

No wonder I call them Republi-cons.

Stress Relief

Play this at work and you should get a lot of peace and quiet:

Class Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Listen to the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- No political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- Just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

NoBullU will broadcast today from 4:05 to 6:00 p.m. at 1330 AM WEBY and on line, courtesy of Cyber Smart Computers.

Topics:

Local and regional: is it better to be a dog than a black man in the South, and

Nation and international: why is the Antichrist trying to give us health care, is it just part of the deception, rise up and be counted Confederate Southern Americans (we love our country, we only wish it didn't exist and we still had slaves), the Amish way of forgiveness, and save a life.

But I'll discuss anything. (Disclaimer: the host reserves the right to end any discussion and hang up on you.)

So tune-in, call-in, but only if you can handle the truth!

100 Years Later

UPDATE VII: You hear the Republi-cons say it frequently, doctors are quitting because of health care insurance reform. It is true that doctors are leaving private practice, but to practice with hospital and health systems. Read The New York Times, More Doctors Giving Up Private Practices.

Republi-cons never miss a chance to con the public.


UPDATE VI: The commentator who called the reform bill a Republi-con Waterloo after having warned of the "harm that our overheated talk is doing to" the Republi-cons was David Frum, the former speechwriter for President George W. Bush. And he's been fired from his job at the American Enterprise Institute for not being a loyal enough party member.

There is a good reason the party's color is red.


UPDATE V: Rusty Limballs said that if the Health Care Reform Bill passes Congress, he was going to move to Costa Rica:



Hasta la vista, baby!


UPDATE IV: Who needs the center, it is the end times. Read The Christian Science Monitor, Shock poll: Why do so many Republicans think Obama is a socialist, a Muslim, or even the anti-Christ?

But what happens if the apocalypse never comes?


UPDATE III: The Republi-con formula to win elections -- fear, anger, and hatred = votes and donations, and sometimes violence. Read the Washington Post, Lawmakers concerned as health-care overhaul foes resort to violence.

Those waskly Republi-cons better watch out, history shows that a "nasty public image -- arrogant, mean, small-minded -- [can be] difficult to discard . . . if by exciting your base you lose the center, then you lose the next election too."


UPDATE II: It's déjà vu all over again. The latest health care reform effort is alot like Massachusetts' health care law. Don't take my word for it. Read what the Governor of Massachusetts wrote about the plan in 2006. Read the Wall Street Journal, Health Care for Everyone? We've found a way.

BTW, who was the Governor of Massachusetts in 2006? Mitt Romney. And what did he say in support of Massachusetts' insurance mandate? "I proposed that everyone must either purchase a product of their choice or demonstrate that they can pay for their own health care. It's a personal responsibility principle."


UPDATE: From the Washington Post, Health care horrors:



And to where are those Republi-cons running? To court (coincidentally enough here in Pensacola). Read the Pensacola News Journal, Health care lawsuit in Pensacola court.

Those waskly Republi-cons, running to court, hoping for a little judicial activism where, to paraphrase the CONservatives themselves, the court will substitute its own political opinion for the applicable law and legislate from the bench, and in so doing, take for itself the powers of Congress, rather than limiting itself to the powers traditionally given to the judiciary. Oh does the irony of it all make your head spin.

And the shrill of doom can be heard already. One conservative commentator is calling the reform bill a Republi-con Waterloo, after having warned of the "harm that our overheated talk is doing to" the Republi-cons.

Others, the latest day of infamy in America, comparing the legislation, believe it or not, to enactment of the Fourteenth Amendment to protect the original three-fifths people.

Of course others are singing Hail the Conquering Professor.

But all the "bombastic declarations from both sides about the impending disaster (Republicans) or nirvana (Democrats) being ushered in" are a little early if you ask me, since no one knows whether the reform will work.

Some changes are easy to understand. Read The New York Times, For Consumers, Clarity on Health Care Changes. And ignorance will be bliss no longer at your favorite eatery. Read The New York Times, Calorie Data to Be Posted at Most Chains.

As for why Pensacola, read the Pensacola News Journal, Why did attorneys general file health care lawsuit in Pensacola?, which quotes Jay Wolfson, a health care attorney and law professor at Stetson University and the University of South Florida, who said Pensacola's makeup is attractive to those opposing the health care legislation:

"It's a much more conservative district and more likely to reflect the conservative attitudes of those residents of the state," he said.

With such a right-leaning electorate in Pensacola, McCollum could make great political strides, win or lose, as a result of spearheading the lawsuit, Wolfson said.

"Mr. McCollum is running for election to a new office," Wolfson said. "One cannot pretend that the political incentives for things politicians do are not important."

So McCollum is hoping for an election day boost. But why the Northern District of Florida, and why the Pensacola Division? My guess, 3 out of 3 -- Judges Vinson, Collier, and Rodgers were appointed by Republican Presidents.

I don't know if the odds were better in any other division in the country of getting a Republican appointee. I guess the Republi-cons were hoping for an ill-informed political decision. I doubt that in any case, and especially not in this case.

BTW, Judge Vinson got the case.

So stay tuned, it will be an interesting case.

And I predict the most likely outcome in the district court is dismissal, with court declining to rule in the case because the matter in controversy is a political question. And if there is a decision on the merits at the district court level, the court will likely find the law constitutional under the Commerce Clause.

Bets on the outcome anyone?

(Note: I make no prediction above the district court level, although I'm inclined to believe that even Robert would shy away from emasculating Supreme Court precedent to the extent necessary to rule in favor of the Republi-cons in this case, even considering outlier case of Bush v. Gore, the case that can never be cited.)

"For almost a century, presidents and members of Congress have tried and failed to provide universal health benefits to Americans. The cost of health care has spiraled; in 2008, one in six dollars was spent on health care, and an estimated 46 million people were without coverage." For a timeline of health care reform efforts, see The New York Times, A History of Overhauling Health Care.

Who better on Republi-CON Family Values?

UPDATE: No time to be Governor, the Rogue Diva goes Hollywood. Read the Washington Post, Discovery makes it official: "Sarah Palin's Alaska" to TLC.

Still cashin in, she's reportedly asking for up to $1.5 million per episode.

Still cashin in, the Rogue Diva will let a publisher put her name on a book about a "celebration of American virtues and strengths." Read Entertainment Weekly, Sarah Palin to pen a second book.

You'll find it in the fiction section.

End the Duopoly

UPDATE: For more on breaking "the oligopoly of our two-party system," read The New York Times, A Tea Party Without Nuts.

The writer quotes Larry Diamond, a Stanford University democracy expert, “If you don’t get governance right, it is very hard to get anything else right that government needs to deal with. We have to rethink in some basic ways how our political institutions work, because they are increasingly incapable of delivering effective solutions any longer.”

The writer notes that "[w}hen your political system punishes lawmakers for the doing the right things, it is broken. That is why we need political innovation that takes America’s disempowered radical center and enables it to act in proportion to its true size, unconstrained by the two parties, interest groups and orthodoxies that have tied our politics in knots."

Given the way the health care debate played out, I agree.

And China laughs all the way to the bank.

You've heard me complain about partisanship and America's political duopoly. For one proposed solution to those problems, read The New York Times, To Reduce Partisanship, Get Rid of Partisans, which suggests that states "should abolish party primaries and institute first round, qualifying elections with the top two earning the chance to compete in November."

What do you think?

Class Today at NoBullU on WEBY

UPDATE: As discussed on today's program, read Rueter, Insurer targeted HIV patients to drop coverage.

Listen to the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- No political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- Just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

NoBullU will broadcast today from 4:05 to 6:00 p.m. at 1330 AM WEBY and on line, courtesy of Cyber Smart Computers.

Topics:

Local and regional: is it better to be a dog than a black man in the South and who's afraid of the big slow roundabout?, and

Nation and international: the census, counting or prying?, no complaint with the death penalty in this case, how'd Oscar do, does talk radio make you happier, and save a life.

But I'll discuss anything. (Disclaimer: the host reserves the right to end any discussion and hang up on you.)

So tune-in, call-in, but only if you can handle the truth!