Speakers broke so have no clue on sound quality. Hey, when did having no clue stop me from expressing an opinion?"
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Arizonans Band Together to Counter Westboro Baptist Church
[Plans by the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, to picket the funerals of Saturday's shooting victims are being met by a concerted effort by citizens and lawmakers to keep protesters at bay.
State lawmakers Tuesday passed legislation that makes protests illegal within 300 feet of any home, house of worship, cemetery, or funeral home just before, during, or after a ceremony or burial.
Tucson residents also sprang into action when news of the planned protests spread. Many intend to meet the picketers with human barricades and some say they will wear oversize “angel wings” to shield mourners from seeing the protesters along the funeral routes.
Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies are preparing to implement extra safety measures at the various funeral sites in the next few days to ensure that the protests and counterprotests don't get out of hand.
“We’re going to take every precaution we can to make sure there is no violence,” says Deputy Renee Carlson of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. “We’re going to make sure that everybody is safe at these events.”
The controversial church, which is comprise mostly of the Rev. Fred Phelps and members of his family, believes that God is punishing America for its growing acceptance of gay rights by killing US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The group also protested the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards.] emphasis added.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0111/Funeral-protest-Arizona-rallies-to-foil-Westboro-Baptist-Church
Sometimes, good people get a draw against bad.
Pic of counter protester at a previous Westboro protest.
Sometimes, good people get a draw against bad.
Pic of counter protester at a previous Westboro protest.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
"We can’t say we weren’t warned about shooting"
[We cannot walk away from this one.
We cannot blame one nutjob for the shooting of 19 people Saturday in Tucson, Ariz., and wash our hands of it.
We cannot pretend that this is only about him and not about us.
Worst of all, we cannot say we were not warned.
For more than two years, sensible people have been pleading with their fellow Americans to tone down the rhetoric, to quit with the demonizing, to end the fear-mongering.
In what kind of country, the sensible people asked, do political leaders across the board not condemn a sign at a rally that reads: “We left our guns at home — this time”?
In what kind of country do people show up at presidential speeches with guns on their hips?
In what kind of a country do callers to radio shows routinely smear those with whom they disagree — beginning with our president — as “traitors” and “un-American,” while pandering hosts say only, “Thanks for the call.”
If we continue this way, the sensible people warned, something will happen.
And now something has happened.] emphasis added
http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/3220146-474/giffords-cannot-tucson-ariz-saturday.html
http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/3220146-474/giffords-cannot-tucson-ariz-saturday.html
"How can you say you don't understand? This is [America] Babylon... Whoo Hoo!" Transplants - California Babylon
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Poltroon as Profanity: WTF Orlando Sentinel and Mike Thomas?
My Dear Mr. Thomas and Sentinel letters editor:
(Tried to post below in comments on your column but got flagged for profanity so please consider as letter to the editor.)
Again admit you make great points on dropping DROP and legislators providing for themselves with extravagant pensions, but these do not make up vast majority of public servants working for my state of FL.
Nevertheless, why your obsessive, conitinuing rants against firefighters? Find it particularly appalling you wrote firefighters "Have too much time on their hands." Time on their hands between saving people's lives? Mad because Sam Zell looted Tribune employee stock plan to buy the Tribune company?
"Public employees earn less," when compared to private sector employees in comparable jobs. To which private jobs ought we compare firefighters? YOU CAN'T. Who else will run into a burning building to save me or you and your family? Why not write on JEB!'s cutting taxes by 8 BILLION dollars per year for rich people by eliminating document stamp taxes for stock sales and inheritance taxes in Florida?
Have a nice day.
Sincerely:
Dan Hill
PS: Guess I could change my closing imprecation to "buffoon," or to quote the noted philosopher, Bugs Bunny, "Maroon." Will that last get flagged for excessive ire or irony?
PPS: Standing offer to buy y'all a round of beers at my local, the Fillin' Station.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Sometimes Good Wins: "Egyptian Muslims Throng in Thousands to Protect Christians"
[Thousands of Muslims honored a promise made by their leaders and showed up at Christmas Mass or at candlelight vigils outside Egyptian churches on Friday, offering their bodies as human shields against any acts of terrorists. The observances were tense, in view of the New Year’s Day bombing of a cathedral in Alexandria, which killed 21. The Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7. Among those Muslims making this statement was beloved comedian Adil Imam. Since the 1990s Imam has been active in combating radicalism, memorably in his film “Kebab and Terrorism” (Kebab wa Irhab).
Father Marqus, the Bishop of Alexandria, said that in his entire life he had never seen the degree of solidarity of Muslims with Coptic Christians that he has witnessed in recent days. He said that Muslims attending the funeral of the Christian victims of the New Year’s Day bombing had treated them like Muslim martyrs, pronouncing ‘God is Great!’ in mourning, and had erupted in applause at the condemnation of the terrorists. He said that the bombing was like an aqua regia solution that would assay the metal of the Egyptian people and reveal their golden nature. The act of terror, he said, will have the opposite effect of the one intended, and will instead increase the love of Christians and Muslims for one another.]
http://www.juancole.com/2011/01/egyptian-muslims-throng-in-thousands-to-protect-christians.html
Father Marqus, the Bishop of Alexandria, said that in his entire life he had never seen the degree of solidarity of Muslims with Coptic Christians that he has witnessed in recent days. He said that Muslims attending the funeral of the Christian victims of the New Year’s Day bombing had treated them like Muslim martyrs, pronouncing ‘God is Great!’ in mourning, and had erupted in applause at the condemnation of the terrorists. He said that the bombing was like an aqua regia solution that would assay the metal of the Egyptian people and reveal their golden nature. The act of terror, he said, will have the opposite effect of the one intended, and will instead increase the love of Christians and Muslims for one another.]
http://www.juancole.com/2011/01/egyptian-muslims-throng-in-thousands-to-protect-christians.html
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik on Shooting of US Representative Giffords
[The sheriff pointed to the vitriolic political rhetoric that has consumed the country as he denounced the shooting that claimed several of his friends as victims, including U.S. District Judge John Roll...\
"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous," the sheriff said. "And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."
...An uncle of the 9-year-old girl {killed} told the Arizona Republic that a neighbor was going to the event and invited her along because she had just been elected to the student council and was interested in government.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGRESSWOMAN_SHOT?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-01-08-16-57-15
Found at http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/pima-sheriff-clarence-dupnik-calls-out-vitr
"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous," the sheriff said. "And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."
...An uncle of the 9-year-old girl {killed} told the Arizona Republic that a neighbor was going to the event and invited her along because she had just been elected to the student council and was interested in government.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGRESSWOMAN_SHOT?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-01-08-16-57-15
Found at http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/pima-sheriff-clarence-dupnik-calls-out-vitr
The World as I Knew It Just Ended
Congressman Gabrielle Giffords, D-AZ US-8, shot in the head.
From Sarah Palin Facebook page: [We’ll aim for these races and many others. This is just the first salvo in a fight to elect people across the nation who will bring common sense to Washington. Please go to sarahpac.com and join me in the fight.
From Sarah Palin Facebook page: [We’ll aim for these races and many others. This is just the first salvo in a fight to elect people across the nation who will bring common sense to Washington. Please go to sarahpac.com and join me in the fight.
Stand tall, America. Real change is coming!] emphasis added
Nice touch with the crosshairs, Sarah. No way you could have possibly known such imagery and rhetoric would drive some of your loyal loonies to actual violence. (Sarcasm)
Why do elected RepubliKKKans use such overheated rhetoric? At long last, have they no shame? No shame at all. Gabrielle Giffords, Dem Az, shot in the head.
IN THE FREAKIN' HEAD, YOU FOOLS!!!
http://www.facebook.com/notes/sarah-palin/dont-get-demoralized-get-organized-take-back-the-20/373854973434
20/373854973434
The World Probably Won't End on 21 DEC 2012; send me $5 to find out why
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html
Just kidding on the ducats, mocking millennium scams fooling peop's into parting with their $.
Just kidding on the ducats, mocking millennium scams fooling peop's into parting with their $.
Friday, January 7, 2011
You Thought You Had a Bad Divorce
[Faced with warring ex-spouses besieging one another with threats and verbal abuse and dragging their children into it too, Ontario Superior Judge Joseph Quinn resorted to the only tool he had left – a highly unusual verbal roasting.
“Paging Dr. Freud, paging Dr. Freud,” Judge Quinn began a recent judgment that has gone viral in the family-law community. “Here, a husband and wife have been marinating in a mutual hatred so intense as to surely amount to a personality disorder requiring treatment. The source of difficulties is hatred: a hardened, harmful, high-octane hatred.”
Judge Quinn’s 31-page decision boils over with the frustrations of a family-law judge who is called upon time and again to referee bouts between couples who were once in love. He even takes a shot at family law itself, saying that spousal support is “the roulette of family law – blindfolds, darts and Ouija boards being optional.”
And he anticipates criticism of his tone: “The parties repeatedly have shown they are immune to reason. Consequently, in my decision, I have tried ridicule as a last resort.”
In a novel twist, Judge Quinn granted the wife, Catherine, sole custody of the feuding couple’s 13-year-old daughter. However, he ordered Larry to pay Catherine just a dollar a month in spousal support.
Judge Quinn expressed disgust with the way Catherine has induced her daughter to detest her father. “The harm is irreparable,” he said. “Generally, it is unwise to place an immature 13-year-old in charge of her life. Here, however, Catherine and [her current partner] have engineered an alienation that is so complete as to leave the court with no feasible option.”
He said that they cannot attend their son’s ball hockey games without erupting into loud conflict, and that Catherine once tried to run over Larry with a van. “This is always a telltale sign that a husband and wife are drifting apart,” Judge Quinn remarked dryly.
On three occasions, a niece of Catherine’s who is engaged to a Hells Angels biker called Larry to warn him that he would be shot dead, Judge Quinn said. “On Oct. 18, 2007, a nautical theme was added,” he remarked. “According to Larry, ‘Catherine’s sister-in-law yelled out her window that I was going to be floating in the canal dead.’”
Judge Quinn said that Larry, 38, possesses “a near-empty parenting tool box,” and was fond of venting his anger by sending Catherine insulting text messages and giving her ‘the finger’ as he drove by her home. “A finger is worth a thousand words and therefore, is particularly useful should one have a vocabulary of less than a thousand words,” Judge Quinn added.
Catherine gave her children “advanced animosity-tutoring,” and repeatedly denied Larry access to them, Judge Quinn said. He said that on one occasion, Larry and his daughter were thrown out of a McDonald’s restaurant because she was yelling that he was ‘a deadbeat.’
“This is language she would have learned from Catherine,” Judge Quinn noted. “They are the result of persistent, behind-the-scenes brainwashing by Catherine.”
He said that Catherine also warned the children several times that if they attempted to telephone their father, they would go to jail. She also once text messaged her daughter while she was on an access visit with Larry to ask: “Is dickhead there?”
Judge Quinn said that he foolishly called a four-month hiatus during the trial in the hope that Larry and Catherine could benefit from mediation. “It is touching how a trial judge can retain his naivety even after 15 years on the bench,” he said.] emphasis added
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/in-family-court-a-judge-turns-to-ridicule-to-defuse-the-rage/article1841568/
“Paging Dr. Freud, paging Dr. Freud,” Judge Quinn began a recent judgment that has gone viral in the family-law community. “Here, a husband and wife have been marinating in a mutual hatred so intense as to surely amount to a personality disorder requiring treatment. The source of difficulties is hatred: a hardened, harmful, high-octane hatred.”
Judge Quinn’s 31-page decision boils over with the frustrations of a family-law judge who is called upon time and again to referee bouts between couples who were once in love. He even takes a shot at family law itself, saying that spousal support is “the roulette of family law – blindfolds, darts and Ouija boards being optional.”
And he anticipates criticism of his tone: “The parties repeatedly have shown they are immune to reason. Consequently, in my decision, I have tried ridicule as a last resort.”
In a novel twist, Judge Quinn granted the wife, Catherine, sole custody of the feuding couple’s 13-year-old daughter. However, he ordered Larry to pay Catherine just a dollar a month in spousal support.
Judge Quinn expressed disgust with the way Catherine has induced her daughter to detest her father. “The harm is irreparable,” he said. “Generally, it is unwise to place an immature 13-year-old in charge of her life. Here, however, Catherine and [her current partner] have engineered an alienation that is so complete as to leave the court with no feasible option.”
He said that they cannot attend their son’s ball hockey games without erupting into loud conflict, and that Catherine once tried to run over Larry with a van. “This is always a telltale sign that a husband and wife are drifting apart,” Judge Quinn remarked dryly.
On three occasions, a niece of Catherine’s who is engaged to a Hells Angels biker called Larry to warn him that he would be shot dead, Judge Quinn said. “On Oct. 18, 2007, a nautical theme was added,” he remarked. “According to Larry, ‘Catherine’s sister-in-law yelled out her window that I was going to be floating in the canal dead.’”
Judge Quinn said that Larry, 38, possesses “a near-empty parenting tool box,” and was fond of venting his anger by sending Catherine insulting text messages and giving her ‘the finger’ as he drove by her home. “A finger is worth a thousand words and therefore, is particularly useful should one have a vocabulary of less than a thousand words,” Judge Quinn added.
Catherine gave her children “advanced animosity-tutoring,” and repeatedly denied Larry access to them, Judge Quinn said. He said that on one occasion, Larry and his daughter were thrown out of a McDonald’s restaurant because she was yelling that he was ‘a deadbeat.’
“This is language she would have learned from Catherine,” Judge Quinn noted. “They are the result of persistent, behind-the-scenes brainwashing by Catherine.”
He said that Catherine also warned the children several times that if they attempted to telephone their father, they would go to jail. She also once text messaged her daughter while she was on an access visit with Larry to ask: “Is dickhead there?”
Judge Quinn said that he foolishly called a four-month hiatus during the trial in the hope that Larry and Catherine could benefit from mediation. “It is touching how a trial judge can retain his naivety even after 15 years on the bench,” he said.] emphasis added
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/in-family-court-a-judge-turns-to-ridicule-to-defuse-the-rage/article1841568/
"Seek Justice"
Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
Isaiah 1:17
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
Isaiah 1:17
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
A Note to My Nieces
This year had fear I'd stereotyped you two in Christmas gifts: books for Helen and music for Mary. Nevertheless, hope y'all divine the love behind my meager gifts.
So sent Mother Jones magazine hoping y'all would share in reading and develop traits that allow you to remain close sisters no matter the passage of time nor family events because having nieces and nephews has helped me survive and stay alive lo these many years.
So try to give y'all stuff from my heart which y'all might treasure later. Ogden Nash always puts a smile upon my face, and still love dinosaur rock of Pink Floyd.
See, even as y'all create your new worlds you must love and come to terms with the past: your pasts, life, family, whatever, (whatever typed with no sarcasm.)
So for this year, sending Wishbone Ash album to Helen 'cause whole "Got to rearrange my world," theme resonates with me. For Mary, Michael Bloomfield Live at the Old Waldorf still sustains me. Dude makes guitar beg, sing, cry, lie, and steal. (OK, threw "lie" in for rhyme but ultimately, most humans cannot lie to themselves if they listen to their hearts.)
All the love in the world:
Uncle Danny
PS to Marie: Survive and stay alive sounds redundant but any fool can stay alive and out of Darwin awards by dumb luck while survive to me means keep going on and trying to see and live positives in Life.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Something Funny for Bonny: Banned Phrases 2011
VIRAL..."This linguistic disease of a term must be quarantined." Kuahmel Allah, Los Angeles, Calif.
EPIC
More than one nominator says the use of 'epic' has become an epic annoyance.
"Cecil B. DeMille movies are epic. Internet fallouts and opinions delivered in caps-lock are not. 'Epic fail,' 'epic win', 'epic (noun)' -- it doesn't matter; it needs to be banished until people recognize that echoing trite, hyperbolic Internet phrases in an effort to look witty or intelligent actually achieves the opposite." Kim U., Des Moines, Iowa.
FAIL
"Fail is not a noun. It is not an adjective. It is a verb. If this word is not banned, then this entire word banishment system is full of FAIL. (Now doesn't that just sound silly?)" Daniel of Carrollton, Georgia.
WOW FACTOR...
A-HA MOMENT"All this means is a point at which you understand something or something becomes clearer. Why can't you just say that?" Audrey Mayo, Killeen, Tex.
BACK STORY
"This should be on the list of words that don't need to exist because a perfectly good word has been used for years. In this case, the word is 'history,' or, for those who must be weaned, 'story.'" Jeff Williams, Sherwood, Ariz.
BFF
"These chicks call each other BFF (Best Friends Forever) and it lasts about 10 minutes. Now there's BFFA (Best Friends For Awhile), which makes more sense."Kate Rabe Forgach, Ft. Collins, Colo.
MAN UP
"Another case of 'verbing' a noun and ending with a preposition that goes nowhere. Not only that, the phrase is insulting, especially when voiced by a female, who'd never think to say, 'Woman up!'" Aunt Shecky, East Greenbush, NY.
REFUDIATE
"Adding this word to the English language simply because a part-time politician lacks a spell checker on her cell phone is an action that needs to be repudiated."Dale Humphreys, Muskegon, Mich.
MAMA GRIZZLIES
"Unless you are referring to a scientific study of Ursus arctos horribilis , this analogy of right-wing female politicians should rest in peace." Mark Carlson, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
"No one in Washington can pontificate for more than two sentences without using it. Beyond overuse, these people imply that 'the American people' want/expect/demand all the same things. They don't." Dick Hilker, Loveland, Colo
I'M JUST SAYIN'
"'A phrase used to diffuse any ill feelings caused by a preceded remark,' according to the Urban Dictionary. Do we really need a qualifier at the end of every sentence? People feel uncomfortable with a comment that was made and then 'just sayin'' comes rolling off the tongue? It really doesn't change what was said, I'm just sayin'." Becky of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.
FACEBOOK / GOOGLE as verbs
"Facebook is a great, addicting website. Google is a great search engine. However, their use as verbs causes some deep problems. As bad as they are, the trend can only get worse, i.e. 'I'm going to Twitter a few people, then Yahoo the movie listings and maybe Amazon a book or two." Jordan of Waterloo, Ont.
LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST
"It's an absurdity followed by a redundancy. First, things are full or they're not; there is no fullest. Second, 'live life' is redundant. Finally, the expression is nauseatingly overused. What's wrong with enjoying life fully or completely? The phrase makes me gag. I'm surprised it hasn't appeared on the list before." Sylvia Hall, Williamsport, Penn.
http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php
End of the World on 21 May 2011
[If there had been time, Marie Exley would have liked to start a family. Instead, the 32-year-old Army veteran has less than six months left, which she'll spend spreading a stark warning: Judgment Day is almost here.
Exley is part of a movement of Christians loosely organized by radio broadcasts and websites, independent of churches and convinced by their reading of the Bible that the end of the world will begin May 21, 2011
In August, Exley left her home in Colorado Springs, Colo., to work with Oakland, Calif.-based Family Radio Worldwide, the independent Christian ministry whose leader, Harold Camping, has calculated the May 21 date based on his reading of the Bible....
In August, Exley left her home in Colorado Springs, Colo., to work with Oakland, Calif.-based Family Radio Worldwide, the independent Christian ministry whose leader, Harold Camping, has calculated the May 21 date based on his reading of the Bible....
But few churches are willing to set a date for the end of the world, heeding Jesus' words in the gospels of Mark and Matthew that no one can know the day or hour it will happen. Predictions like Camping's, though, aren't new. One of the most famous in history was by the Baptist leader William Miller, who predicted the end for Oct. 22, 1844, which came to be known as the Great Disappointment among his followers, some of whom subsequently founded the Seventh Day Adventist church.
"In the U.S., there is still a significant population, mostly Protestant, who look at the Bible as kind of a puzzle, and the puzzle is God's word and it's predicting when the end times will come," said Catherine Wessinger, a professor at Loyola University in New Orleans who studies millennialism, the belief in pending apocalypse.
"A lot of times these prophecies gain traction when difficulties are happening in society," she said. "Right now, there's a lot of insecurity, and this is a promise that says it's not all random, it's part of God's plan."] emphasis added
Monday, January 3, 2011
Suicide by Pesticide: Hidden Face of Climate Change in India
[Naryamaswamy Naik went to the cupboard and took out a tin of pesticide. Then he stood before his wife and children and drank it. "I don't know how much he had borrowed. I asked him, but he wouldn't say," Sugali Nagamma said, her tiny grandson playing at her feet. "I'd tell him: don't worry, we can sell the salt from our table."
Ms Nagamma, 41, showed us a picture of her husband – good-looking with an Elvis-style hairdo – on the day they married a quarter of a century ago. "He'd been unhappy for a month, but that day he was in a heavy depression. I tried to take the tin away from him but I couldn't. He died in front of us. The head of the family died in front of his wife and children – can you imagine?"
The death of Mr Naik, a smallholder in the central Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, in July 2009, is just another mark on an astonishingly long roll. Nearly 200,000 Indian farmers have killed themselves in the past decade. Like Mr Naik, a third of them choose pesticide to do it: an agonising, drawn-out death with vomiting and convulsions...
"Every suicide can be linked to Monsanto," says Ms Shiva, claiming that the biotech firm's modified Bt Cotton caused crop failure and poverty because it needed to be used with pesticide and fertilisers. The Prince of Wales has made the same accusation. Monsanto denies that its activities are to blame, saying that Indian rural poverty has many causes...
For Mrs Devi and Sugali Nagamma, though, such debates are meaningless. I asked Mrs Devi if she had a question to ask me. "If these industries and factories stop burning petrol and sending poison into the atmosphere will it bring our rains back?" I had to tell her I did not know.]
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/indias-hidden-climate-change-catastrophe-2173995.html
For Mrs Devi and Sugali Nagamma, though, such debates are meaningless. I asked Mrs Devi if she had a question to ask me. "If these industries and factories stop burning petrol and sending poison into the atmosphere will it bring our rains back?" I had to tell her I did not know.]
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/indias-hidden-climate-change-catastrophe-2173995.html
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Convicted Criminal Canned from FL Consulting Contract
Fixing our pension, Mike? Howzabout stopping the state wasting the hard earned pensions of state workers on shady real estate deals?
[TALLAHASSEE — Senate President Mike Haridopolos on Friday abruptly fired a consultant tied to an Alabama banking scandal, a day after the Orlando Sentinel disclosed his contract.
[TALLAHASSEE — Senate President Mike Haridopolos on Friday abruptly fired a consultant tied to an Alabama banking scandal, a day after the Orlando Sentinel disclosed his contract.
The Merritt Island Republican said in a statement Friday that although Winter Park consultant Charles LeCroy had served his time for a corruption probe in Pennsylvania, the potential for further federal legal action against him in connection with an Alabama bribery case could prove to be a distraction.
LeCroy was sentenced to six months in prison in 2005 after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud for engaging in a scheme to make payments to obtain municipal-bond business from the city of Philadelphia, on behalf of JPMorgan.
Haridopolos, a Merritt Island Republican, hired THGC Consulting LLC, a Winter Park-based shell company established this year, for a $90,000 consulting contract in November to provide advice on how to cut costs of the pension system, which has assets of $120 billion-plus. More on that here....
”While his criminal case has been resolved, I do not wish to have the outstanding civil case become a distraction to the hard work we must perform fixing our pension system and balancing Florida’s budget,” Haridopolos said in a statement.] emphasis added
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2010/12/haridopolos-fires-consultant-tied-to-alabama-banking-scandal.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+news/politics/politicalpulse+(Central+Florida+Political+Pulse)] emphasis added
”While his criminal case has been resolved, I do not wish to have the outstanding civil case become a distraction to the hard work we must perform fixing our pension system and balancing Florida’s budget,” Haridopolos said in a statement.] emphasis added
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2010/12/haridopolos-fires-consultant-tied-to-alabama-banking-scandal.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+news/politics/politicalpulse+(Central+Florida+Political+Pulse)] emphasis added
FL Pension Frauds
Lose a $ million here, $ 250 million in another idiotic real estate deal there, and it means the state of FL MUST cut contracted pension benefits for state employees. Jeepers, JEB! must feel so proud.
[Doing one thing privately then saying another thing publicly is no way to build trust in a government agency with an already tarnished image. But that is exactly what Ash Williams, who oversees investments in Florida's pension fund, has been caught doing. The decision now for Williams' new bosses — who campaigned on reforming the State Board of Administration — is whether they have the same confidence in Williams as the outgoing governor, chief financial officer and attorney general.
Williams has contended his personal connections to Bayview in no way influenced the SBA's investment in June. He formerly worked at a New York investment firm, Fir Tree Partners, where Bayview's owners are clients and Williams is also an investor. He argued his Wall Street savvy — rather than being a conflict of interest — ensured the agency was making a wise investment for pension beneficiaries.
But government documents obtained by St. Petersburg Times staff writer Sydney P. Freedberg under Florida's open records law paint a far fuller view of Williams' role in the deal. The public record suggests a leader disinclined to follow the very SBA investment procedures he so proudly touts publicly.
For 16 months, SBA staff members had repeatedly deflected overtures from Bayview employees and placement agents. They raised concerns about excess fees, and outside consultants expressed serious reservations about Bayview's experience. But in April 2009, a Fir Tree partner contacted Williams and promoted Bayview. Within a month, Williams scheduled a meeting with Bayview in his office, alerting his subordinates just the night before. Within two weeks after that meeting, SBA staffers had drafted an "approval memo" for a $100 million investment in Bayview that borrowed heavily from Bayview marketing materials and lacked a full discussion of the firm's litigation, reference checks and consultants' views.
While it took another year for the deal to be signed, Williams continued to be involved, including visiting Bayview. Even as the SBA staff continued to raise concerns about Bayview's operation, the deal was signed in June.
Rather than acknowledge the full chain of events when Freedberg began asking questions last year, Williams deflected, telling SBA trustees Gov. Charlie Crist, CFO Alex Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum that he considered Freedberg's inquiry an attack on his personal integrity. He also suggested publicly that SBA staff members were the driving force behind the deal. Public records refute that.
If Williams' personal integrity was not the issue before, it is now. He was hired after the SBA staff had been caught misleading local government investors in the 2007 subprime mortgage meltdown. His job was to reform the agency and restore trust with the public. His lack of disclosure in the Bayview case indicates neither goal has been met. The next board of trustees — incoming Gov. Rick Scott, CFO Jeff Atwater and Attorney General Pam Bondi — will have to decide if they trust Williams to tell them the truth about how he and the SBA conduct business. If not, they should show him the door.] emphasis added
FL Senate President Hires Convicted Criminal
Senate President Mike Haridopolos just figured he might as well hire a convicted crook to loot the state pension fund Who else would have convicted experience of fraud?
[Bad judgment
What on Earth was Senate President Mike Haridopolos thinking when he hired a firm with ties to a legally compromised consultant — to advise him no less on reforming the Florida Retirement System?
He was thinking that Charles LeCroy "is an expert in the field," said a Haridopolos spokesman — never mind that Mr. LeCroy was sentenced to six months in prison in 2005 after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud for engaging in a scheme to obtain municipal-bond business from the city of Philadelphia.
Then there is the massive Jefferson County, Ala., bribes-for-bonds investigation involving Mr. LeCroy. The Securities and Exchange Commission is pursuing a civil case against Mr. LeCroy concerning that one.
Well, that could become a "distraction," Mr. Haridopolos said after the Sentinel reported on it. So last week Mr. Haridopolos asked for Mr. LeCroy's resignation.
We've often called for reforming the state's pension system. But with $120 billion and the future of thousands of retirees at stake, it's astonishing that Mr. Haridopolos would be so reckless in his choice of advisers.] emphasis added
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