Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

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Obit watch: June 3, 2011.

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

I’m really sorry, but I don’t have a damn thing to say about Jack Kevorkian. Not even snark.

I also can’t say much about James Arness. I want to say I’m a little too young for “Gunsmoke”, but it ran until 1975, when I would have been 10. I can’t understand why I don’t have any memories of it. It may have been something my family didn’t watch, but if so, I don’t recall why.

Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt has also died, and that’s kind of an interesting story. Pratt was a Black Panther leader who was convicted of murder in 1972. His conviction was overturned in 1997; the judge ruled that the prosecutors at Pratt’s murder trial had hidden evidence that could have pointed to Pratt’s innocence. (“Pratt maintained that the FBI knew he was innocent because the agency had him under surveillance in Oakland when the slaying was committed in Santa Monica.”) Pratt later settled a lawsuit over his conviction for $4.5 million.

Finally, by way of Popehat: Joel Rosenberg, author and firearms rights advocate, died yesterday. Condolences to his family.

Posted in Books, California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, Law, Obits, Politics, TV | Comments Closed

What goes better with booze than politics?

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

Long day, but I did want to bring you the latest development in the Shade-Tovo race.

The story is kind of confusing, perhaps because some people are obfuscating what’s going on. But the brief version is that a dozen bars on West 6th Street have put up signs offering drink specials during the early voting period (which starts next week.) The signs are also offering unspecified prizes and transportation to the polls. The signs also endorse Ms. Shade.

There are some interesting questions. For example:

Posted in Clippings, Politics | 1 Comment »

Quirks.

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

Bruce Malkenhorst was convicted of misuse of public funds last week.

As part of Malkenhorst’s plea, he got three years of probation, as much as $35,000 in fines and penalties, and he must pay Vernon back $60,000 in restitution.

Keep those numbers in mind.

Mr. Malkenhorst was the city administrator for the corrupt city government of Vernon, California, a city government so corrupt that the state legislature is trying to disincorporate the city.

However, Mr. Malkenhorst, as city administrator, is not an elected official.

Why does that matter?

Mr. Malkenhorst, as a non-elected official, gets to keep his retirement pension. California law only allows for the revocation of pensions for elected officials.

Did I say “retirement pension”? I meant, “his $500,000 a year retirement pension“.

He pays about $100,000 in fines and restitution, gets three years of probation, and still comes out $400,000 ahead just in the first year.

Nice work if you can get it.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: May 30, 2011.

Monday, May 30th, 2011

Former Texas governor William P. Clements, Jr.

I always thought Clements was an interesting character. He was the first Republican governor elected since Reconstruction; as a matter of fact, his campaign was the first (and only) political campaign I recall any of my family members volunteering for.

On the other hand, I wasn’t aware until many years later that Clements was involved up to his ears in the SMU scandal. (A Payroll to Meet is the definitive book on the scandal and Clements’ involvement, but don’t pay $245 for it.) On the gripping hand, I’m not sure Clements and SMU did anything that UT and A&M were not also doing at the time; SMU was just unlucky to get caught, and unlucky enough to be the test case for the “death penalty”. (Notice how the NCAA hasn’t used the “death penalty” since then?)

Posted in Clippings, Obits, Politics, Sports | Comments Closed

33 in the Shade.

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Randi Shade’s first ethics complaint was dismissed on Friday; somehow I managed to miss that. (Previously.)

Ms. Shade has responded by filing a second ethics complaint against her opponent, Kathie Tovo. We’ll see how that works for her.

Posted in Clippings, Politics | 1 Comment »

Links to make Lawrence happy.

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Because I live for his happiness.

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Politics, Roads | Comments Closed

Random notes: May 19, 2011.

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

Things have been kind of slow the past couple of days. Please accept this random collection of crap in lieu of actual content.

Today’s update from our “the street finds its own uses for things” file: “Mexican organized crime groups are using ultralight aircraft to drop marijuana bundles in agricultural fields and desert scrub across the U.S. border.”

Speaking of Neuromancer, there’s more talk about it finally becoming a film, with Vincenzo Natali (“Splice”) directing. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Back at the ranch, the City of Austin

…must retest more than 2,000 firefighter applicants amid concerns that some of them could have obtained confidential questions that they were asked in oral interviews.

I’m a little surprised that they had over 2,000 applicants in this most recent batch. I’m also wondering exactly what those questions were…

I also wanted to touch briefly on our fun city council elections. Yes, we had city council elections last weekend. Three seats (out of a total of six) were up this year. Two of those seats were retained by the incumbents (Chris Riley in place 1, and Laura Morrison in place 4) by pretty large percentages (66 and 73 percent of the votes, respectively.)

Place 3 is held by Randi Shade, who is finishing up her first term on the city council. Shade was initially a favorite to win re-election, but there was a controversy over some emails she sent, one thing led to another…and Shade got her butt kicked, badly, finishing second in a four-way race. Shade just barely managed to get into a runoff with the first-place candiate, Kathie Tovo; Tovo pulled in 46 percent of the vote, and it seems unlikely that the supporters of the other two candidates (former city council member Max Nofziger and Kris Bailey) are going to throw their votes to Shade.

(Tovo was also endorsed by the local alternative weekly; the way I read their endorsement, though, it was a close decision between Tovo and Shade. I’ve been unable to find endorsements from the last election on the alt-weekly’s crummy web site, so I don’t know if they endorsed Shade last time around.)

Tovo’s supporters are already calling on Shade to concede and spare everyone the cost of a runoff. Shade’s response? She’s filed an ethics complaint against Tovo. I’m looking forward to watching this one play out. Note to self: vote early.

This just in: remember the SWAT officer who flipped his cop car and was charged with drunk driving? Yeah, he’s out, pending the decision of the arbitrator. Our buddy Art also suspended six other cops who were supposedly at the party with him. Unclear from the current Statesman article is what the grounds for suspension were, or how long the suspensions were for.

Edited to add 5/20: Here’s a better Statesman article with more details on who was suspended for how long and why.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Cops, Law, Movies, Planes, Politics | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: May 17, 2011.

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Harmon Killebrew. (What a great name. Why don’t parents give their kids names like “Harmon” any more?)

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political ambitions.

Posted in Clippings, Politics, Sports | 2 Comments »

Snark.

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

A University of Texas student was held at gunpoint and robbed by two men near a campus garage early Thursday morning, a police spokeswoman said.

Good thing we didn’t pass that concealed carry on campus bill, eh?

Posted in Guns, Politics | Comments Closed

The end of the beginning.

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

The news came by way of an email from Andrew “Junketeer” Wimsatt as I was leaving for work this morning.

I’m still digesting the events, but here’s some preliminary thoughts:

  • Barack Obama just insured his reelection in 2012.
  • You know all those Carter/Obama comparisons? Yeah, Obama just made sure those are going to get dropped by the side of the road too. “Hey, at least the Obama administration managed to successfully execute a military operation!”
  • I want to ask “How do we know? Could it have been just another bin Laden clone?” Answer: “DNA tests confirmed his identity later in the day“. Question: how do we have his DNA?
  • What does this do for US/Pakistan relations? It seems clear that Pakistan has been hiding bin Laden for years, and I find it hard to believe the government of Pakistan was not somehow involved.
  • So we’ve still got to worry about the Muslim Brotherhood, Ayman Zawahiri, and every other two-bit terrorist organization out there.
  • “After what the president described as a firefight, they killed Bin Laden.” Makes you wonder; was Bin Laden shooting back, or did they kill his guards and then execute him? Did he have any last words? Did the folks who shot him have a cutting remark appropriate to the situation?
  • Somebody’s going to get a NYT bestseller out of this.
  • A whole bunch of somebodies will never have to pay for a drink for the rest of their lives.
  • And there’s going to be a whole lot of posers.

It isn’t over yet, folks. I think we can take a day to celebrate (is this how folks felt when Hitler’s death was announced?), but this isn’t the end.

(Speaking of the end, subject line hattip.)

Edited to add 1: “American officials said Bin Laden resisted and was shot in the head.” Heh. “What’s the last thing that went through Bin Laden’s mind before he died?” NYT obit here.

Edited to add 2: Lawrence disagrees both with my use of insure (which I think is justified, in the sense of “killing Bin Laden was like purchasing an insurance policy against defeat in 2012”) and the substance of that position. (Check the trackbacks for the link.) I’ll admit that was a quick take, without the benefit of sober reflection. I’ll also admit this is why I usually leave the geopolitics to him. However, I think my position is defensible depending on who runs against Obama in 2012. Trump? Obama could run campaign ads consisting of nothing but 30 seconds of a still photo of Bin Laden with head wound and win. On the flip side, if the mission commander suddenly outs himself and declares for the Republican nomination in 2012…

Edited to add 3: Because it just isn’t a celebration without cake. Thanks to Borepatch for the inspiration.

Posted in Clippings, Obits, Politics | 2 Comments »

Corruption and cronyism? In Louisiana?

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

According to the WP and ProPublica, lots of folks are getting rich off of BP money.

Unfortunately, it seems like many of those folks were, well…

…documents show that companies with ties to parish insiders got lucrative contracts and then charged BP for every possible expense. The prime cleanup company submitted bills with little or no documentation. A subcontractor billed BP $15,400 per month to rent a generator that usually cost $1,500 a month. Another company charged BP more than a $1 million a month for land it had been renting for less than $1,700 a month. Assignments for individual fishermen also fell under the control of political leaders.

More:

Some of the money also went to overtime pay for more than 40 parish employees, including three who claimed overtime for picking up dog food for the animal shelter. St. Bernard’s homeland security director, David Dysart, a salaried employee, got almost $23,000 for working 497 hours of overtime in less than seven weeks, a fact first reported by the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Dysart did not respond to a query about his overtime.

This is my shocked face:

Shocked face.

Posted in Clippings, Politics | Comments Closed

Random notes: April 13, 2011.

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

The Dallas Stars have fired Marc Crawford. I think I speak for many of my readers when I say “People still play hockey? That’s a thing?”

How much credence should you put in Restaurant magazine’s annual list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants?

The California Legislature is considering revoking the city charter of Vernon, a notoriously corrupt city in L.A. County. But business owners are worried…

Posted in Clippings, Firings, Food, Politics, Sports | Comments Closed

If not now, Sven?

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

I promised folks an update on the fortunes of spamming scumbag Sven Alstrom in his race for a seat on the Lawrence, Kansas City Commission.

Well, the election was yesterday, and…

…Sven finished fifth in a field of five candidates running for three open seats.

Here’s a breakdown by precinct.

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Sven you spamming scumbag.

Posted in Clippings, Politics, Schadenfreude | Comments Closed

Random notes: April 5, 2011.

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

The NYT has discovered the underground trade in “loosies”: sales of loose cigarettes. A “legal” pack, with taxes, goes for $12.50 (thus sayeth the Times); the “loosie” dealer profiled in the article sells loose cigs for 75 cents each, two for a buck, or $8 a pack ($7 if he knows you). And business is good, Mayor Bloomberg.

Tilman Fertitta and the Landry’s chain are trying to purchase McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants. Good luck with that.

Posted in Clippings, Food, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Follow the money.

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

In the comments to this thread, Lawrence notes that former Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker was a heavy contributor to John McCain and other Republican politicians.

The Fiesta Bowl Special Committee Report (as I also noted in that thread) contains a list of political figures and organizations receiving contributions from Fiesta Bowl employees; contributions that were reimbursed by the Fiesta Bowl. This is, of course, illegal. (The report uses the phrase “a Class 6 felony violation”. If you check out the link, a Class 6 doesn’t sound all that awful; but remember, it is a felony, with all the burdens that come with a felony conviction.)

I want to quote this from the report:

Although we have not interviewed any of these individuals or entities, no one we spoke to alleged that any of these candidates had any knowledge that the Fiesta Bowl reimbursed contributions to their campaigns or related entities.

Which is an interesting statement. Why would the Fiesta Bowl be giving money to these people, if they didn’t want these people to know they were giving money and were looking for something in exchange? That’s also strange in the light of quoted statements such as this one:

John: I spoke with Senator Carloyn [sic] Allen and said we would round-up some checks for her campaign: [¶] Checks should be made out to CAROLYN ALLEN 2006 [¶] The maximum individual contribution is $296.00 [¶] I told her we would have them by Friday. Thanks. GH168

(John is former Bowl CEO John Junker. “GH” is attorney Gary Husk, “an attorney and public affairs professional on retainer with the Fiesta Bowl.” “Husk, and his company Husk Partners, were public-affairs consultants or lobbyists for the Fiesta Bowl.”)

Here’s the list of political figures and organizations that received contributions later reimbursed by the Fiesta Bowl. I’ve added notes of political affiliation when I could find it, along with links to websites.

Posted in Clippings, Politics, Sports | Comments Closed

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