….wouldn’t “Mitt Romney’s Weather Machine” be a great name for a band?
In other news…
October 29th, 2012Millions and millions of dollars.
October 29th, 2012Bal Harbour is a village in Florida. They have a population of 2,574 people, and a police force of 27 officers.
Now they are the subject of a Department of Justice investigation.
Yeah. Thirty. Million. Dollars.
1. Wait, “stationed in Southern California“?
2. “Though the village tapped into forfeiture funds to pay the two salaries, federal law prohibits police from relying on those dollars to cover the payroll of cops who work seizures.”
More:
Whaaaaaaat? “in more than a half-dozen states and Puerto Rico”?
This bears a lot more exploration. What are Bal Harbour cops doing operating outside of the village, much less in other states? And how and why are they getting a cut of seized assets for these operations in other states?
And what did the cops do with the money? Well, lots. Computers (Apple computers, no less), beach parties, a boat, a truck, a nuclear submarine, tacos…oh, wait, strike those last two. I was confusing Bal Harbour with Deadpool.
The biggest pay — $624,558 — to snitches over the past four years.
And:
(Hattip: Reason‘s “Hit and Run”.)
(Soccer) Field of Schemes.
October 29th, 2012NYT story: “state of the art” soccer field is in progress. Initial cost estimate is $210 million. Current projected cost is $1.4 billion. Primary sponsor has pulled out of the project, leaving local government entirely responsible for the cost.
Punchline: the soccer stadium is in St. Petersburg. As in, Russia.
(Subject line hattip: if you’re not reading the “Field of Schemes” blog, why not?)
More EarthQuest updates.
October 28th, 2012Promoted from a comment left by Heather Dobrott:
The judge in Ohio dismissed the remaining third-party defendants including myself. Holbrook’s bid to attack the Texas taxpayers commenting on Earthquest has been ended in Ohio!
Earthquest and its dubious consultant, Don Allen Holbrook, are getting excellent coverage on Click 2 Houston:
I’m delighted that the legal troubles of the folks like Heather asking questions about EarthQuest seem to be ending, and that other media outlets are starting to ask questions about EarthQuest as well.
The Burgess Meredith Catastrophe.
October 28th, 2012Last night, after the SDC, some of us decided to watch movies over at Lawrence’s.
The main feature of the night was “Kiss Me Deadly” (the Criterion edition
But before we started that, we felt like watching something short. I’d brought over the first season of “Night Gallery
Frankly, it wasn’t very good. The parts where they stuck closest to the original story are also the most talky parts, and the changes they made don’t enhance the story; actually, I think they make it weaker. Somebody who is doing an anthology series for television ought to go back and revisit this story. I think you could make a fine adaptation of it today, with a minimal budget, using CGI and a script that sticks closer to the story.
But I digress. The major point here is that “The Little Black Bag” features our old friend Burgess Meredith again. I knew he was a prolific actor, but it seems like he’s showing up everywhere these days in the stuff we watch.
So the idea came to me: how about a Burgess Meredith Video Night some night? After all, the late Mr. Meredith was not only prolific, but he was a fine Cleveland boy, so why not a night devoted to his work?
What would you put in it?
- I’m kind of embarrassed to admit this, but it turns out Lawrence and I have never actually seen “Time Enough At Last“. In my case, it just never seemed to come around when I could watch re-runs of the original “Twilight Zone”. I believe those episodes are available on Netflix Instant, though…
- Lawrence suggested “Rocky“. I’ve never seen it, and I have to say that I’m less wild about it than he is. I don’t know why.
- In that vein, I’m going to say: probably not “Grumpy Old Men” and “Grumpier Old Men”.
- I am somewhat interested in seeing “Magic“. though. Besides Burgess Meredith, it also has a William Goldman script, which pushes another button of mine.
- “The Manitou“, just because that’s supposedly completely ridiculous at a MST3K level.
- I’ve never seen “The Day of the Locust“, either, and I’d like to. Plus: it has Donald Sutherland! And William Atherton! And the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black!
- Speaking of batshit crazy, “Skiddo“?
- I’ve never read any of Allen Drury’s work, and I may want to read the book first, but I’d also be interested in seeing “Advise and Consent“. Look at that lineup of actors: they don’t make that kind of movie any more.
That’s probably more than enough for one night. We could always pad things out a bit, too, with episodes of some of the many, many television series he did guest bits on; at least, the ones that are actually on DVD or Netflix.
Any other Burgess Meredith roles I’m missing? Feel free to leave them in comments.
Things I did not know (a continuing series of infinite length).
October 26th, 2012Going to Montana soon…
October 25th, 2012And yet, the cries for gun control continue.
In other news: gee, I really miss Frank Zappa.
Just guessing here…
October 24th, 2012I’m thinking it is the kind with big sharp nasty teeth, myself.
Yo! Omar’s covering up!
October 24th, 2012Remember James Kwon, “Maritime Director” of the Port of Oakland? Mister “Spent $4,500 on strippers at Treasures”?
New developments: Mr. Kwon has a boss, “Executive Director” Omar Benjamin.
Would you like to guess what Mr. Kwon is saying? Yes: not only was his boss at Treasures, but Mr. Benjamin actually authorized him to pick up the tab. Mr. Benjamin and Mr. Kwon are both on paid suspensions from their positions.
Also, the receipt in question “listed a half dozen directors and vice presidents from BNSF Railway as being in attendance”. This is interesting, because the port claims they followed “‘a standard protocol of redacting the names of all persons that appeared on the reports’ – except the person named in a media public-records request” in explaining why Mr. Benjamin’s name was redacted from the receipt. So if they redacted all the names, how were the BNSF directors listed?
Setting that aside, though, BNSF says that they’ve checked travel records and spoken to their people, and there’s “no evidence its executives were at the party, or even in Houston at the time”. (If they were in Houston, it could have been perfectly legit, as there was a conference going on.)
The way the press is treating this story also strikes me as odd. Both the SFChron and the HouChron seem to be treating this as more of a gossip column item (the HouChron even reprinting, word for word, the SF paper’s story) instead of a story about political corruption, while the Oakland paper seems to be totally silent about the entire issue.
Is it the strippers? Do the papers just not take stories that feature strippers seriously? Remember: it was a stripper that brought down Wilbur Mills.
Random fun: October 24, 2012.
October 24th, 2012Remember our old friend Randy Adams, former police chief of the California city of Bell, who was seeking a $510,000 a year pension based on his contract with the city?
Ask not who the fail whale tolls for: it tolls for Randy Adams.
Adams still has the option to appeal the ruling. In the meantime, instead of collecting $510,000 a year, his pension will be a mere $240,000 a year.
Glen Berger is writing a book. “Who?” Glen Berger, one of the writers of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”. Mr. Berger’s book currently bears the title “Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History”.
And in other news, the NYT would like for you to shed some tears over the death of poor pitiful Dan Fredenberg.
What did Mr. Fredenberg do?
Harper shot and killed Fredenberg. The DA declined to prosecute, stating that the shooting was justified under Montana’s “Castle Doctrine”. This greatly upsets the NYT, and many of the morons who read the paper and leave comments.
But there are some inconvenient facts.
- Mr. Fredenberg was drunk at the time he was shot.
- Mr. Fredenberg entered Harper’s home; he wasn’t standing in the driveway or out on the sidewalk.
- Mr. Fredenberg and his spouse had a history of mutual spousal abuse (physical and verbal), according to the local DA.
- Mr. Fredenberg’s spouse was having a relationship of some sort with Harper. She denies it was sexual, but states that they were “intimate”.
- Mr. Fredenberg and Mr. Harper had “once clashed at Fatt Boys Bar & Grille in Kalispell”.
- Ms. Fredenberg and Mr. Harper were driving around the block that evening shortly before the incident; they were pursued by Mr. Fredenberg, which led to the shooting.
Was Mr. Harper supposed to wait until he was attacked by a drunk man who he’d previously had an altercation with, in the privacy of his own home? Apparently, the NYT thinks the answer to this question is “yes”.
Castle Doctrine didn’t kill Mr. Fredenberg: poor judgement killed him.
Finished with my manager…
October 24th, 2012They haven’t even started playing the World Series yet, and Ozzie Guillen is out as the Florida Marlins manager.
In his one season with the team, it went 69-93, finished last in the NL East, and Ozzie managed to tick off the local Cubans (and get himself suspended for five games).
How about a little musical tribute to Mr. Guillen on a Wednesday morning?
The Quick and the dead.
October 23rd, 2012This was on FARK, but it touches on so many things covered here, and is such a fascinating story, that I wanted to make note of it.
Thomas Quick was perhaps the most prolific serial killer in Scandinavia. During the 1990s, he confessed to over 30 murders, and was convicted of killing eight people.
Except his name wasn’t Thomas Quick. It was Sture Bergwall.
And he was being fed diazepam while he was confessing to the murders.
And he probably never killed anybody. There is a total lack of physical evidence linking him to the crimes. In several cases, he was convicted based only on his confessions, and in spite of the fact that there was physical evidence directly contradicting those confessions. (For example, in one case, recovered DNA didn’t match Quick/Bergwell’s DNA.)
And he was probably being fed information – information he used to build his false confessions – by the cops. (Henry Lee Lucas, call your office, please.)
There’s a book on the case that, as far as I can tell, does not have a US publisher. I’m hoping it finds one, as this is a heck of a story. (There’s also a good story behind the book; the author was a prominent documentary filmmaker/”investigative journalist” who started looking into Quick’s case, discovered the inconsistencies and other issues, and ended up having Quick/Bergwall tell all to him. As I understand it, this was the author’s first book. He died of cancer three days after finishing the manuscript.)
(Is this, like, a thing in Scandinavian countries? Dying before your book is published?)
TMQ watch: October 23, 2012.
October 23rd, 2012Before we start in on this week’s TMQ, we want to note a story from today’s New York Times that bothers us. We think it is appropriate to talk about here, as it deals with things TMQ has been hammering on as well. After the jump, we’ll get started…
Weirdness.
October 23rd, 2012
This is a “chocolate pudding parfait” I purchased from our little lunch spot/snack bar downstairs at work.
It kind of looks like they had some issues with the topping.
Indeed, I might even go so far as to say that they were having…whipped cream difficulties.
(Thank you. I’ll be here all week.)
Formula 1 is slightly less heckish.
October 23rd, 2012I wrote previously about the proposals to close large swaths of downtown streets, including Congress Avenue, so people could party when Formula 1 came to town.
We have a deal. The Congress Avenue proposal (from an independent promoter) has been dropped, and that festival is merging with the official F1 “Fan Fest”.
Unfortunately, Congress Avenue is still going to be closed, but it looks like the closures will be for a shorter period than under the original “Experience Austin” proposal.
This sounds like a fine idea to me, assuming there is an F1 race here in 2013. I wouldn’t recommend counting that chicken until it hatches, though.