Archive for September, 2012

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Banana republicans watch: September 5, 2012.

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

We previously mentioned the lawsuit by former police chief Randy Adams against the city of Bell over unpaid severance.

The other shoe has dropped: the city is suing Adams and wants all the money he was paid, plus “a portion of the $20 million the city estimates it lost as a result of a corruption scandal that led to the arrests of eight former civic leaders.”

The suit also asks that Adams be forced to pay the city’s costs to settle a whistle-blower lawsuit brought by Bell police Sgt. James Corcoran. Corcoran went to Adams with allegations of voter fraud, unlawful vehicle seizures, illegal selling of building permits and two instances of sexual harassment involving Rizzo. According to the lawsuit, Adams became upset when Corcoran told him he had taken the information to the FBI.

Corcoran was demoted, placed on “administrative leave”, and Adams “started an investigation for insubordination”.

After he was told he would be fired, according to the suit, Corcoran retired and sued the city. He recently settled for $400,000 and won back his job on the police force.

Meanwhile, the bankrupt city of San Bernardino is considering…cutting the city’s budget. No, really. (Edited to add: Or maybe not.)

I noticed this article yesterday, but didn’t have time to read it: Lawrence also sent me a link. Basically, police unions in California are behaving like bullies towards people who criticize them.

At a press conference held by [Costa Mesa Councilman Jim] Righeimer to spotlight the behavior of unions associated with Lackie, Dammeier & McGill, Councilman Fred Smith of Buena Park, who has also taken a tough stance on unions, said a uniformed officer approached waitresses and demanded to know why their restaurant had a Smith for Council sign in the window, as their squad cars blocked the restaurant parking lot entrance. Elected officials shared examples of threatening statements and text messages by police union operatives. [Costa Mesa] Councilman [Gary] Monahan has in the past said police have staked out his bar and pulled over patrons as they leave to harm his business.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | 1 Comment »

TMQ Watch: September 4, 2012.

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012

Once again, TMQ’s all-haiku predictions roll around. Let’s jump in and listen for the splash of water…

(more…)

Posted in Clippings, NFL, Sarcasm, Sports, TMQ watch | 1 Comment »

You had me at “bacon”.

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012

The State Fair of Texas has announced the winners of the 2012 “Big Tex Choice” awards for the best fair food this year.

The winner of the “Most Creative” award was Butch Benavides, with the “Fried Bacon Cinnamon Roll”, described on the TM Daily Post site as a “cinnamon roll dipped in a special sweet pancake batter, rolled in crispy fried bacon crumbles, deep fried and sprinkled with powdered sugar.”

The winner of the “Best Taste” award was Abel Gonzalez Jr. with “Deep-Fried Jambalaya”, “jambalaya using shrimp, Cajun sausage and seasonings, then coated in lightly seasoned flour and fried”.

More from the TM Daily Post here. And here’s a link to an article from last week breaking down the eight finalists.

Almost everything that made the finals sounds good to me. I’m not a huge fan of jambalaya, but I might even try that.

Posted in Clippings, Food, On a stick | 1 Comment »

Morning random notes: September 4, 2012.

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012

Would you pay $18 for a 40-minute vinyl record of previously unreleased Charles Manson songs?

Yeah, I wouldn’t, either.

The album’s title, a vulgarity that means wasting time…

I want to come back to this later and elaborate on the idea some, but I’m getting more than a little tired of the mass media being coy in their reporting. (See also: Russian punk bands.)

Vasquez turned to the funding website Kickstarter to raise several thousand dollars to pay to have the album cover printed and 500 copies of the record pressed.

This kind of bothers me, too, but I’m not sure I can articulate why.

Headline in the NYT:

Gotham: A Summer of Easy Guns and Dead Children

First paragraph:

In Harlem, Paula Shaw-Leary talks of her youngest, Matt, who got his college degree in May and was accepted to graduate school…

Matt’s death is tragic, but a 21-year-old man who has been accepted to grad school is not a child.

(Gee, doesn’t NYC have strict gun control laws?)

I don’t think I ever saw anything Michael Clarke Duncan was in, and I wouldn’t say I was a big fan of his work. But 54 is just too young. (NYT. LAT. A/V Club.)

The Frank Lloyd Wright archive is moving to New York City. This sounds like a very good thing:

The models will live at MoMA, which has extensive conservation and exhibition experience. The museum will display them in periodic presentations and special exhibitions. The papers will be housed at Avery, whose librarians will make them available to researchers and educators starting at the end of next year.

(Well, a very good thing for everyone except Mike the Musicologist, who hates NYC.)

Headline from something called “The Root”, linked from the WP site:

Few African Americans at Burning Man

“Word Ends: Women, Minorities Hardest Hit”.

Posted in Art, California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, Law, Media, Movies, Music, Obits | Comments Closed

Random notes, September 3, 2012.

Monday, September 3rd, 2012

Workers of the world, unite! Dyslexics of the world, untie!

In 2009, the two-year-old Southern lifestyle magazine [Garden and Gun -DB ] lost financial support from its first publisher. Its employees, many of whom had relocated from New York City to work here, were left with dwindling buyout packages and the promise of freelance pay. Real estate developers could no longer afford to buy advertisements, and some new prospects said they would not give a cent to the magazine until the owners took “gun” out of its title.

Oh, yes. Garden and Gun. I remember them. I was considering subscribing: that is, until they refused ads from the NRA. Now they can die in a fire, as far as I am concerned.

In other news, the NYT wants you to know that you should be careful buying art online.

My big question for the day: now that Reverend Moon is dead, how long will the Washington Times be around? I’ve gotten the distinct impression that it has survived that long purely because he wanted it that way, and his successors are not as wild about the paper as he was.

Mike Nesbitt has resigned as offensive coordinator at the University of Houston. That would be two days after the season opener, which they lost 30-13 to Texas State.

I’ve been kind of tied up the past couple of days and haven’t had a chance to blog the Austin Police Department acting as agent provocateurs to Occupy Austin story. I don’t really know what to make of it, so instead I’ll refer you to the Statesman story above, and the coverage from Grits for Breakfast here. (The other problem I have with this story is that much of the coverage comes from sources I don’t read and don’t trust.)

Speaking of Grits, he also has an interesting followup on the Texas Highway Patrol Association and other similar scam organizations.

Posted in Art, Austin, Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Media, Obits, Politics, Sports | Comments Closed

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