Plug Nickel

Insanity

2006-01-20T21:01:00.000-08:00

It's almost cliche to say the definition of insanity is continuing the same approach while expecting different results. I think this pretty much applies to Democrats and Republicans alike at this point with regard to the war in Iraq. The Republicans preach "stay the course," while Democrats are all "bring our troops home." Where are the freaking defenders of the Powell doctrine? That's me. I think we need to beg, borrow, and steal enough troops, resources, and security to get the job done as soon as possible. I agree that defeat is not an option. Malaise is not an option, either. The only option is victory. We need to use whatever means necessary to finish this thing. The fact that Osama can still send an audiotape disturbs me.

This president wants to be a king? I say reign or get off the throne.

Anselm of intelligent design

2005-11-06T06:11:00.000-08:00

Let me take a second to welcome myself back. I wanted to take a few minutes to blog on something whose absurdity is apparent to me, but is always overlooked among most people giving the benefit of a lot of doubts to ID. ID is criticized as not being science because it's claims cannot be verified in a lab. While true, it overlooks the internal conflict of logic within the theory. The theory, to use a common example, posits that, if one looks at a clock, that person would be forced to assume that the clock is so complex that it must have had a creator. The example is then taken back a step. Essentially, if one looks at the creator of the clock, one must assume that creator is so complex she must have had a creator. This argument could go on forever, taking one step back and assuming that the creator, is too complex too have come about independently of any guidance. This my friends is teleology, the study of how we came to be, closely related to epistomology, the study of knowledge, whose root is the same root as for the epistles. Very clearly this is a theological argument. Inasmuch as philosphy is taught in high schools, it's place is going to be in those classes rather than in biology. However, no philosophy professor worth his or her salt would ever entertain a "that than which none greater can be thought."

Is this a find?

2005-09-15T19:11:00.000-07:00

While having been plotting to write about the many subtle satires of Bush a la Iranian film, I happened across Mr. Bush's own assessment of when fingers should be pointed:

"Some one of my visits—one of the reasons I'm visiting here is to ask the question, you know, to people, because if there's moving too slow or people are saying one thing and the other thing is not happening, now's the time to find out."
—Bush, talking about hurricane relief
Source: Federal Document Clearing House, "George W. Bush Delivers Remarks on Tornado Damage," May 13, 2003

This is widely available, though I found it here. I'm too lazy to find an actual link to just that comment, but I trust my avid readers to not be lazy enough to use the search function.

A couple of things

2005-09-08T20:47:00.000-07:00

To all my adoring fan, I haven't written for weeks. But a couple thoughts on Kiss me Katrina. Horseman Mike Brown (not to be confused with that other incompetent Mikey Brown of Cincinnati Bungles fame) has so proved me right that, even if it didn't get tested out, Governor Fletcher appointing someone with no NO law enforcement experience as Chairman of the DHS was an unforgivable act of hubris and cronyism that I'm just glad didn't come back to haunt him.

Second, based on Bush's idea that he didn't know why the poor didn't evacuate, and his further assertion that no one could have predicted how bad it would get, if Nero had been getting his freak on in the Big Easy last weekend, he would have ended up in the Superdome. With his daughters, who I'm sure would have gotten Stockholm syndrome, if'n it's not already too late to go back.

Third, and most important, I believe the best days of the Bush administration are ahead. Look at the emasculation of Clint ton after his brazen displays of manhood: The market went crazy during his second term. The internet bubble, budget surpluses. Hell, America likes it when the POTUS and Congress are so embroiled in trying to out one another's improprieties that the country is left to it's business. I foresee the offer from RUsh: "$1M offered for information on any Democratic member of Congress who neglected a natural catastrophe" Chris Dodd, what about that mudslide at the Hartford Courant festival that claimed the lives of 12 pigs while you stood there and did nothing? NOTHING?!?!?? "Youthful cowardice," you say? We're on to you, buddy. Yeah.

Himicane

2005-09-03T14:46:00.000-07:00

Something strikes me about Bush's defense of his reaction to hurricane Katrina: Based on his arguments, had he been vacationing in New Orleans, he would have been among the stranded there. He doesn't know why the people didn't evacuate, but claims that there was no way for them to have known how big a problem their not evacuating would cause, so, why, then, would they evacuate? It's a circular argument of the most frustrating sort.

Political Appointments

2005-09-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

All my friends said I was beating a dead horse. It was a political appointment, it didn't matter if the person was qualified. I feel a little bit of vindication next to my sadness at the destruction in the South land after feeling Katrina's wrath. Unfortunately, the incompetence of cronyism and unqualified political appointees may end up wreaking more havoc than Katrina.

Do you get it now, libruls? Do you?

A Real American Nero

2005-08-31T05:59:00.000-07:00

By now, everyone is familiar with the pictures of GWB pimping with his Presidential Sealed guitar. Perhaps the comparisons to Nero are just too obvious, though people have been making them for years. Perhaps, rather than scrawl "This Machine Kills Fascists," on his guitar, Bush can color, in crayon, "I love my pet goat." His people will argue that he was in contact with mission control in the Big Easy. I argue that a true leader also speaks out to calm and reassure his people. I'm hearing reports of stabbings and chaos within the Superdome. Not to excuse that behavior, but, in a tragic parody of the BioSphere, these refugees have been thrown back into a state of nature.

Bush guitars while Rome burns. He is a true guitard.

That than which none greater can be thought...

2005-08-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

We're all familiar with the old NewYorker cartoon of the frazzled scientist displaying his work on a formula on a chalkboard, where, to make everything come out just right, he has written, "And then a miracle happens." It's a statement on scientific whimsy and frustration and, sans formula, the basis of Intelligent Design. Intelligent design is a hoax on par with any of the great hoaxes of history, such as the Loch Ness Monster (coincidentally, a main buttress for the beliefs of young earthers everywhere).

Intelligent Design is basically defined by it's attacks on evolution. Evolution cannot explain everything, life is so complex, it requires conception of an intelligent designer to have created life. At this point, Intelligent design proponents bacically concede that evolution governs pretty much everything after the creation of the cell. Even there, there is very little actual debate.

In basing it's conclusions by working backwards from preconceived ideas about the creation of life, Intelligent Design is, ironically, perhaps, the most postmodern creation of metascience, infused with superstition and myth. Dragons may not be considered proof of intelligent design, but the people who believe this are not that far from the folks at the Discovery institute.

The thing that strikes me is that I've seen very thorough dismantling of the intelligent design attacks on evolution, but no thorough dismantling of intelligent design with the same scientific rigor. I'd like to start rectifying that. I have a few questions I think should be posed to all proponents of intelligent design belief. I will do further research and see if I can track down answers to these questions.

1) My biggest question is, who created the creator? If life is so complex as to be impossible without the help of a creator, mustn't the creator also have been created? This seems wholly circular to me. If life had to have a creator, how can the creator escape the same requirement. Is the creator not also intelligent?

2) Where is this creator now? What is this creator's role in the continued evolution of life? How can this be empirically measured?

3) By what scientific means did the creator in fact create life? Was magic involved? Miracle?

4) If the creator is so powerful, why does the creator not create new life or species out of whole cloth and/or in the lab? If the answer to this question is, "life was created perfect," isn't that a display of religious belief? If that is the answer, why have species evolved and died off?

5) If the intelligent design theory was derived from biblical creation, and not the Flying Spaghetti Monster, why are other supposedly "scientific" Biblical concepts like the earth being the center of the universe false?

I will have more questions tomorrow. So far, this stuff is 14th Century baby stuff that the church argued and never really came to a consensus on.

Able Danger

2005-08-23T20:08:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows how I hate to write about national politics, as Kentucky and Ohio Politics are so deliciously absurd, but I couldn't help but talk about Able Danger. First off, Able Danger sound like an anagram to me, but I haven't been able to figure out for what.

It also appeared to me, at first, from this NYT story, that the right was leaking this story for the following line:

Colonel Shaffer went public with his assertions last week, saying that analysts in the intelligence project were overruled by military lawyers when they tried to share the program's findings with the F.B.I. in 2000 in hopes of tracking down terrorist suspects tied to Al Qaeda.

I thought the decision to disallow sharing of information between Able Danger and the FBI that was made by military lawyers would surely be used to smear these lawyers in the continuing 1002 Arabian Night at Abu Ghraib.

It further seemed Clinton, ghoulish spectre, he, or Jamie Gorelick was actually to blame for 9/11 helping to clear the apparently besmattered conscience of our wingnut friends. The smear was apparently scurrilous, but there's more.

Liberal blogs spent many pixels pointing out the many inconsistencies in the stories of those who revealed Able Danger. Again, the stories escape me, but here is the offending passage, from the Times story referenced above:

The former contractor, James D. Smith, said that Mr. Atta's name and photograph were obtained through a private researcher in California who was paid to gather the information from contacts in the Middle East. Mr. Smith said that he had retained a copy of the chart until last year and that it had been posted on his office wall at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. He said it had become stuck to the wall and was impossible to remove when he switched jobs.

Now, it turns out the worm may have turned and the real story is connected to what Al Franken dubbed Operation Ignore in his latest book. Apparently, this Zelikow fella, who was on the 9/11 commision and also gave the order to shut down Able Danger in March of 2001, may have had a hand in Able Danger being declared not historically signigicant. I don't know if the sources look any more credible, but the attempt to blame things on Clinton sure has backfired.

If someone were smart

2005-08-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

there would be a lottery over who will resign first, Feltcher or Toast. Many democrats are wanting to savor Taft's flapping in the wind, but I'm more in favor of swift vengeance, force him to resign in shame, perhaps making him cry or at least rubbing his nose in the scat he's left on his reputation.

Why has everyone forgotten that the point of government is not to the winner go the spoils, but to protect, defend, uphold, and serve the constitchints.

Had Taft a shred of decency, he would have already resigned. It strikes me that Taft's best argument for keeping his job is to convince everyone that he is incompetent. What a delicious corner to be in. Abortions for some, miniature flags for all!

Blogging while the C-O-V burns

2005-08-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

As I write this, I have been searching porn while the FDKY (covington branch) have been doing something or other outside my window. That's a pleasant feeling. I know the stretched a fire hose about 30 or so yards down the street, as I think someone may have left an 88 Ford Escort stripped and on blocks in front of the closer fire hydrant. I don't think they ever inflated it.

Reading the blogs the last few days, I think we're really starting to see the worm turn with regard to Bush. I remain steadfast that the only reason we are failing is that the putze in power are so incredibly incompetent. Seriously, I'm incredulous. They could do a better job replacing Rumsfeld with a magic 8 ball. Bush probably just needs to stay on vacation while we get some grownups to take control.

More and more people are demonstrating against the war. I don't agree with their message, but live under what is seemingly a delusion that they will be able to convince our dear leaders to remove their collective head from the collective rectum and stop screwing around. We've basically given up at this point.

Chicken Little

2005-08-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

Taft, the farmer eating chicken piccata at brunch with the fox he appointed to guard the henhouse, apparently lied about the nature of those meals.

Tom Noe yesterday asked Gov. Bob Taft to issue a public statement correcting his accusation Thursday that Mr. Noe "made a great effort to conceal" his role in the state's $50 million investment in rare coins.
If Mr. Taft does not acknowledge that he made a "simple mistake," then Mr. Noe "will help people to understand that it was incorrect," said Mr. Noe's attorney, William Wilkinson.

Noe is about to sing like a canary. Either way, I think we need to talk about a third bird, as in Taft's goose being cooked. Hell, the Ohio Republican party is a freaking aviary!

Just had a thought

2005-08-20T05:46:00.000-07:00

I was reading a post on dailyKos about the relative decline of the US in power in the world and how it parallels the winding down of the British empire in the early part of the last century. The thing that really strikes me is that the notion of the US as the last remaining super power, the greatest nation on earth is most important to the Christian Nationalists who would undermine that power by denying the truth of evolution, and opposing stem stell research, the absence of which will inevitably hasten the decline of America.

The last century, we were first. The first and only to put a man on the moon, the creator of the polio vaccine, the first to have nuclear capapbility. We were an engine. The Christian Taliban wants us to become insular and withdraw from the world into a womb of Christian Nationalism that nurtures and affirms their beliefs in the same way the multiculturalists would support and affirm the beliefs of all cultures.

I got to tell you, I think both approaches are wrong. I always refer to how immigrants should view the US as the free refill rule. In Europe and other countries, they often don't have free refills (or ice for that matter), but they have a wide array of cuisine. You can open your Ukrainian restaurant here, but you gotta have free refills. There is an American culture which at it's heart is secular but used to be called Civil Religion. You follow traffic lights. Have regular business hours. Start movies when advertised. You may not speak English at first, but that's always the goal. Serve free refills. Read the Dawahare's story and you'll understand.

Serur Frank Dawahare was born in a small village near Damascus, Syria, on August 18, 1888. He was the oldest of six children. He had one sister and four brothers.

Around the turn of the century Serur fled Syria to escape religious persecution. He came to America speaking no English and having very little money. He took a job in New York City in a sweat shop. There he met Selma Cury, whom he married.

So what, you say, this guy would today be looked down upon and called a potential terrorist by Bill O'Reilly? Perhaps, if not for the fact that the assimilated and built a large regional department store chain that prospers even today:

Serur's sons would shine shoes, sell newspapers, and on the fourth of July, were out selling flags. They embedded in all their children to be honest and work for what they wanted. It had to be team work.
Serur and Selma had eight sons and three daughters. They were very patriotic. They named three sons after presidents of the United States of America. Woodrow Wilson Dawahare, Warren G. Harding Dawahare, Herbert Hoover Dawahare.

In the 70's and 80's the chain followed a cautious expansion plan. The 90's have seen a new expansion bringing the total to 29.

Today there are 10 members of the third generation working in the business, one member of the fourth generation. The company plans to continue opening around three stores each year.

At one time, this is what it meant to be American. I have no problem with emmigration as long as the immigrant realizes that the reason he or she came here was to take advantage of America's promise and the only way to truly do that is by becoming American first.

Animal Farm

2005-08-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

Here's my Orwellian take on Ohio's governor Taft, golf outings, and Tom Noe's rare coin fund. Not only is the fox guarding the henhouse, he's having the farmer over for a chicken dinner a couple times a week. I'm putting this in a letter to the editor, but I thought it was clever enough that it was worth a Plug Nickel first.

Back with a vengeance

2005-08-19T20:03:00.000-07:00

I was watching another insipid piece on 20/20 tonight about how bad personal hidden cameras are on Gotcha! with John Stossel. This isn't the first segment on the evils of home hidden cameras on a show whose journalism relies solely on hidden camera investigations. Insipid. Then I realized that more people probably watch this shit than watch the Daily Show. I guess more also watch 20/20 than OReilly, but that is also a big steaming pile of feces. I'm just saying.

Been writing

2005-08-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

My legions of loyal fans may be wondering why I haven't posted in a while. I've been writing, just not posting. I want to avoid any litigation and I've found it hard to write anything diplomatic about the clowns in Frankfort. Therefore, I've written, but not posted. MOre soon. Too many dumbass activity going on.

The Daily Show Santorum interview

2005-07-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

John Stewart has gotten lots of flack for what some people considered a ball tickling interview of Rick Santorum. I vehemently disagree. It was the kind of interview a civilised person would conduct. The gay issue was clearly pretty much off the table, but Stewart asked difficult questions in a reasoned tone of voice. Santorum's answers were contradictory and muddled, but delivered in a reasoned tone, also. As much as I like the fire and brimstone of an Al Franken, to actually be listened to in the cultural dialoque, you have to speak soft enough for people to listen. Stewart took apart Santorum's arguments, I think, even more deftly than he did Bernie Goldberg's. He made his points without demanding that Santorum respond.

Veruca Salt named Press Secretary

2005-07-23T05:59:00.000-07:00

This story from the Herald is part of the continuing trickle to come out of Frankfort and the choicest quotes have appeared elsewhere, but this little snippet caught my attention:

Whites said the Fletcher administration did provide Stumbo with a written "wish list."

"It was their wish list for what they wanted the attorney general to do" in regards to the investigation, Whites said. "But no prosecutor would have signed it."

Isn't that just precious? A wish list. I have to give Stumbo props, his strategy has been to make the administration look as foolish and toddler-esque as possible, and it has worked.

Feltcher needs to bend over and take it like a man

2005-07-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

As regular readers of the PlugNickel may know, I think a lot of this deal in Frankfort is about Stumbo's preternatural ability to cast Feltcher and the lovely lads as effeminate catrati lacking even the most basic testicular fortitude to admit wrong. After all, the WSJ editorial page is, surprise surprise pimping for the gov (they must have gotten that picture from Feltcher's "fat year" at summer camp. An awkward time of being awakened to confusing yet exciting feelings...) and the governor once again fell clumsily into Stumbo's trap by declaring that, unable to step up to the plate like a man, he announced he is not ruling out taking the easy way, ahem, out. I'm talking about pardons, Patches.

Strategery

2005-07-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

I think I'm starting to get it now. The pattern of hiring people with no relevant experience was, in fact, apparently on purpose. This story from the Herald indicates that Feltcher's choice to surround himself with "the lads" may have been a clever strategy to later blame their abuses on their inexperience (read incompetence) and not his and Pence's unconscionable power grab. I mean, I always heard the ignorance of the law was no excuse, but I don't have a high-priced, in-state law degree.

I ask, who's to blame, the incompetents, or the feltcher who appointed those incompetents? I'm sort of glad Stumbo has an illegitimate child. At least we know someone in Frankfort has balls. Tell Fletcher to take a Midol and and a quart of Hagendaas and stop his whining.

Need I remind everyone that Fletcher has, once again, been very wishy washy? Hell, Ern, throw it at the wall and see what sticks? To paraphrase JibJab, he flip flops more than John Kerry.

For an incredible post on this story, go to here.

Rufus=W

2005-07-18T20:07:00.000-07:00

I reading the inside of the backpage of the Personal Journal on Friday, you know, where De Gustibus is, you know that column written by that horribly prejudiced English chap? Tony and Tacky? You know! Well how about that? I looked on the Journal website and it's actually the Taste Page. The Taste Page. Well. on Friday they ran a piece on how Harry Potter Vol V, I don't remember the technical name, was a big allegory to Churchill and Hitler in WWII. They hypothesized that The Half-Blood Prince would further recall those glory days by, well, read this excerpt:

So what's next for Harry Potter? Will Dumbledore replace Fudge as Churchill did Chamberlain? My own theory is that young Harry will come to represent FDR's America: a powerful, immature force that eventually tips the balance of power.

But whatever the case, Ms. Rowling deserves special marks for bringing a bit of history to an already delightful enterprise and teaching us a lesson, ever more relevant to the moment, without seeming to do so. It's almost magical.

It seems pretty clear to me, being a slow reading muggle only to about page 400, that chapter 16, at least Rufus Scrimgeour is a stand in for W, beseeching Harry to help the effort through appearances, but not actions. Throwing otherwise innocent folks in jail to appear to be doing SOMETHING! is part and parcel of the Bushies. Once again, you read it here first. Growling does not a lion make.

Eminem

2005-07-17T13:43:00.000-07:00

I picked up Bernie Goldberg's diatribe on cultural retardation at the local Jo Beth today and I must admit, it's much worse than it came across on The Daily Show, as bad as that was. He includes such non-entity straw men on the right like Michael Savage, who, though he is malicious, does not have the power to be malevolent and nobody really cares about him, and David Duke, who I was surprised to find was still alive, so invisible has he become. I searched, but was unable to find Andrew Dice Clay. On the left, as Mr. Stewart noted, is Barbara Streisand, Tim Robbins, Alec Baldwin, and any number of minor figures in the political dialogue who just so happen to be fairly minor figures in the cultural dialogue.

Then there are the fairly apolitical people like Ludacris, Eminem, and Courtney Love, whom he dismisses with a one word ad hominem attack much like those he decries through the rest of the book: "HO."

I read an article in the New York Times about a kid who got sent to a reducation camp for gay men in Memphis, one of my favorite cities in the world. I found it maddening because, aswholly ridiculous an idea as a reeducation camp for gay men may sound, the reporter made every effort to explain and understand how the parents felt to produce a typically even-handed story.

No such attempt at understanding is made by Mr. Goldberg. Especially of the mainstream culture. For him, it's all about vulgarity. For instance, as anyone who knows me fairly well knows, I'm a huge Eminem fan. Mr. Mathers was once quite raw, narcissistic, and immature in dealing with his anger and frustration. He fantasized about committing violence to women, esp. his ex wife and mother. He also included, as anyone who has actually cringed while listening to the segments, homoerotic fantasies about ICP having homoerotic fantasies about him.

As his albums have progressed, everyone seems to ignore the fact that, not only has he ditched much of the anger and frustration for scatology, he's matured and accepted the responsibility of fatherhood, he now raps about being co-dependent with Kim and protecting his daughter. He raps about how there are those in the music industry and bars who are craven and try to use him for sex and to make a cultural point (like Goldberg). His "Mosh" video made perhaps the most poingnant statement about why the powerless should oppose Bush. In the end, instead of violence he chose civic duty and exercising the right to vote.

In short, I'm not sure why Goldberg included Slim Shady ca. 1999 in his book and I have even more trouble understanding if he is making the point that Marshall Mathers is screwing America from the right or the left. It seems to me that Eminem increasingly represents what is right with America as he escapes from what is wrong with America.

I think the message Goldberg sends most is that the people who are hurting America the most are the people who don't understand what the culture is. When he started talking about the Bigot channel on the Daily Show, Stewart should have pointed out that bigotry still exists in America but the Ku Klux Klan now sells itself as Focus on the Family and other hate groups.

If we choose not to pay attention to those folks, we may all be forced to watch the Bigot Channel.

Not one?

2005-07-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

Lots of posting tonight, and I am even ignoring a story about a lawsuit filed by, in part, Club Venus, a fine adult establishment just around the corner where I have been a patron in the past. I didn't see anything untoward happening, though, through the magic of geometry (the angle of where I was sitting) and a not very well concealed mirror, I did see some titty with very exposed nipple. FOR SHAME! Strange, my eyes were not burned out by an angry God.

Anyway, that probably should have been another post, altogether, but I found a quote at the end of this story I thought I just had to comment on.

Among those at Tuesday's arraignments was Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville. He said Nighbert, who is from Williams' Senate district, "is as good a friend as I have in the world."

Williams repeated complaints made previously by Fletcher and many leading Republicans that no similar investigations had occurred during years when Democrats controlled both the governor's office and the Attorney General's Office.

"For 20-something years, not one Republican was ever hired under the Merit System," Williams said. "I guess these whistleblowers had sand in their whistles."

Oh, really? Not one? Not one Republican was ever hired into a merit system job? While I find that hard to believe, I don't see why the political party would have even been tracked. I used to be a Democrat, I applied for a state position, I didn't get it, now I guess I should be as pissed as if I were a Republican. Basically, this ass is blaming Democrats for the Republicans not enforcing the merit system in KY. I find this offensive. Grow some balls.

Out of Character

2005-07-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

I don't usually link to stories with well-meaning, poorly worded headlines, but tonight I couldn't resist. ( Having just posted on the subject of ingesting feces, I must say I'm favor scatological humour.) The headline for this story is "Rep. Davis touched by children in Iraq." I've been a supporter of the Catholic Church here in Noky, but I have to say, Davis certainly didn't have to travel all the way to Iraq for this to happen. However, he probably didn't have to sit through mass over there.

Pedophilia jokes aside, it's really quite a heart rending article about the power of anecdote to make up for a lack of hard data.

Petting Zoo a terror threat?

2005-07-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

Today's Herald posted a story declaring the petting zoo at the Bluegrass fair in Lexington had been found to be too dangerous and was being scrapped. I don't know for sure, but I wonder if the previous exercises demonstrating the use of goats as a means to spread bio agents turned out to be perhaps, too terrifying.

Looking for the money quote, the Herald does not disappoint:

"Animals wallow around in feces," Atkinson said. "Then kids touch the animals, kids stick their fingers in their mouths -- and the fun begins." Contact with animals is a rarer cause of E. coli infection -- such illness is more often caused by fecal contamination of undercooked ground beef or by ingesting human feces, resulting from a lack of handwashing after using the bathroom.

I guess I'm a guy who still finds it funny to talk about feces, especially when 'wallowing' is also discussed.

The definition of "is?"-- I know it when I see it.

2005-07-12T20:34:00.000-07:00

Finally. I'm looking forward to being able to see many Republican partisans, including some of my friends and excluding many others, feel the gut wrenching sensation of seeing one of their own ask what someone means by 'is,' or, in this case, 'name.' I recall myself not fully defending Clinton, but being disgusted by the whole sordid affair, but secretly and possibly not so secretly gleeful at his semantic footwork.

However, knowing how thoroughly he was bludgeoned for his semantics, I'm waiting for those friends to stand up and condemn him as SHAMEFUL!

On a lighter note:

2005-07-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

CNN has begun it's wall to wall coverage of the Hurricane. Hopefully no white women are lost or displaced in or by the hurricane. In the midst of all the overkill, we have this story in Kentucky's only real statewide paper, near the top of the online page. This may be of supreme importance to the people at PETA, but a story about how pets are scared by fireworks featured so prominently seems just a little ridiculous. Maybe I just need perspective. I'm going to the pharmacy tomorrow and see if I can get some.

I can't stay angry long

2005-07-09T05:15:00.000-07:00

I've been silent about the silence of the Maysville Ledger Independent, my hometown paper, regarding the merit system scandal in Frankfort. The argument, I think, had been that the Associated Press really hadn't picked up the story and the paper didn't have the resources or contacts to have a full time reporter in Franfort. While any story on flip flop Feltcher would be correct at some point, as he seems to have firmly established his position on all sides of the issue, I offer my admiration to Ledger for it's integrity. (I apologize for the delay, I was overcome by a coughing fit) However, while few in Maysville read the Courier or Herald, I'm sure the Ledger has access to the internets and could reprint a story or two on the inside pages. They have not. A search only turns up 5 stories about Governor Fletcher, none of which concern the merit system. The searches don't go back very far, but the indictments of 5 different men apparently didn't make the website. I'll have to check some of the print copies. FOR SHAME!

I was going to say all that came above, but I went to the Ledger site today and found this charming little story about Maysville's storied past in semi pro ball. In addition to the rejuvenation of Maysville's downtown centered around the Russell Theatre, my fondest desire is to see semi-pro baseball return to the city's downtown. There's a name for the park ready made- Casey Stengel Field, for the 'lustrious player and manager who began his career there, and a macot, the Rivermen, same as the first team. It could be in the pioneer league like the Florence Freedom. Then, what larks...

Nero Golfs while Rome burns

2005-07-08T21:37:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone remembers what happened to the last governor (former governor, I guess, at the time) who went golfing during a period of turmoil (I would call facing self-kidnapper Wallace G. Wilkinson in a primary a time of turmoil), but I'll remind you. When John Y Brown ran for Governor in geez, I don't know, 1992? He went golfin on the day of the primary and got his ass kicked by the man who will one day be remembered as the man who founded e-campus.com and ran Dave Thomas into an early grave. (You have my favorite color of hair: Red. My mom had red hair, but not my real mom, cause I'm adopted.)

History is maybe repeating itself.

Is Feltcher getting Wishy Washy?

2005-07-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

Be forewarned, the following article has extreme wishy washiness, flip flopping, and general testicular atrophy all around. If this guy Feltcher had to run against another Republican, which a little bird told me Massa Mitch has in mind for the next election, he wouldn't last a minute. If Feltcher thinks a general admission that "mistakes were made," will mollify Stumbo, he's suffering from lad induced dementia. After weeks of calling the probe "politically motivated," he now admits that Stumbo may have a point. Here's his mea culpa:

In interviews yesterday, Fletcher said "management mistakes" were made but insisted they were not on purpose. He said all administrations, including his, make mistakes.

He said his administration did not have a job referral system, but will implement one.

"To break a law, you have to be intentional," he told reporters at a stop in Paintsville. "As far as I know, no one broke a law because there wasn't a willful act to violate the merit system."

Now, I'm no expert on testicular fortitude (ask my ex wife), but I think what we are seeing here is Fletcher going this way and that. Stumbo has made Feltcher his, to use a technical term "bitch."

It gets better. Though many have speculated both privately and publicly that the Lads (Kiddie Korps is too, um, how do you say, oh yes, juvenile), and Sexy Sadie have more than just political connections, the C-J seems to come right out and obliquely refer to it:

A spokeswoman for Fletcher said none of the three have been disciplined.

Oh wait, I thought it said, "one of the three." I guess none of them have been naughty enough.

Who's guarding the henhouse?

2005-07-07T20:29:00.000-07:00

I'd been meaning to blog about this article for quite some time, but a little bit of a mental breakdown in the family distracted me for a while. At any rate, I'm so thankful that I have nothing to be afraid of in the world outside my head, as this story confirms:

A state letter awarding Anderson County a Homeland Security grant was routine -- except for a handwritten note that said Gov. Ernie Fletcher's adviser on political appointments had given his approval.

Well, that's not so bad. I'm sure it was a highly qualified, paid advisor with a history in Law Enforcement.

Dave Disponett, [the advisor in question] is an Anderson County resident, treasurer of the state Republican Party and a volunteer adviser to Fletcher. Until recently, he had an office in the state Capitol.

Um, a volunteer? Had an office in the Capitol? Surely the administration was contrite about this haphazard way of doling out $26000. Surely.

Alecia Webb-Edgington, acting director of the state homeland security office, defended the distribution of grants, including Anderson County's.

Webb-Edgington said in a statement the office has no record of Disponett supporting a particular homeland security grant.

She said that the grants are awarded "through a highly competitive process and all homeland security grant applications were scored based on their merits."

Obviously, the record of his support now is in State Auditor Crit Luallen's office, as indicated by the former Director of Homeland Security's scrawl to that effect. I think the highly competitive process must have involved delivering donuts and coffee to volunteer advisor Dave Disponett's office. Apparently, the most qualified person to authorize grants was not even a paid staffer. The crossing guard at my little boys school makes me feel safer than these ass clowns. Oh yeah, he has a badge. And it's not made out of tinfoil.

I joke, but this office is responsible for doling out $31M in homeland security grants. Just for shits and giggles, I thought I'd check to see what's in Anderson County. Here is one point I actually stand corrected. The Wild Turkey Distillery is actually in Anderson County, as is Shryrock's Liquor Store. As a purveyor of cultural tourism, the Wild Turkey Distillery does actually rank as a site to see. Still, I'm curious to know how the grant was used and how much the Bardstown Distilleries got.

Gratuitous Outkast quote

2005-07-07T20:20:00.000-07:00

Working on a few things, off to bed, just want to give a shout out to all the Centre Homies who have offered their words of encouragement.

Reposts

2005-07-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

I reposted some of the more interesting pieces I had removed earlier in the week for editing. Have fun!

KY Democrats

2005-07-05T18:37:00.000-07:00

Having been raised a Democrat in KY, I never really thought about the entrenched position the party really had in the state. I worked for Brereton (a juicy tidbit those who seek my identity should see as a significant clue, though I think it's already painfully obvious who I am), who was a relative outsider and Virginia Republican, apparently, but I was totally blind to the abuses of the party. Now that I'm an independent, and, I guess for some time before, I'm disgusted with much of the Good Ole Boy system that existed under the Dems. When I found out via the usually wonderful BlueGrassReport that Ben Chandler's brother-in-law had been a merit system target, my first response was, "Hmmm, I wonder how he got that job?"

All that said, any Republican who rationalizes the misdeeds of their party away with the glib reply that "The Democrats did it, too," is a classis example of hypocrisy on the morally relativistic issue. Like torture, where what we do is not nearly as bad as what other countries do to their detainees, America should not just be held to a higher standard, but an absolute standard. Expediency is not a family value, nor is hiring an unqualified political hack to a cabinet level position or finagling him or her into a merit position job.

Sorry, no exciting links, just something I was thinking about. Tomorrow, why we should annex Mexico.

Thanks

2005-07-04T19:13:00.000-07:00

I just added some blog links, for which I offer my most humble thanks to bluegrassreport and Mark Nikolas. I'll be posting more tomorrow and have, I think some interesting things to say.

Democrats and War

2005-06-28T06:17:00.000-07:00

I'm tired of the only two options in Iraq being to stay the course or to pull out. Democrats are being stupid on this issue. There is a third choice, which should actually be the second: Engage our allies to help with the fight, move in with more troops and secure the place. Rumsfeld's argument is that more troops will only provide more targets for insurgents and increase the level of resentment toward us. This is a fundementally weak position.This assumes that insurgents strike at will now and no matter how many troops we put on the ground, they will always strike at will. I supported the war and think this is one we can't lose, but everything I read from a big picture standpoint suggests terror is winning because we don't have the will to win. Nearly all of the propaganda you read about how things are safer seems to adhere to the idea that the plural of anecdote is data. The visit to one town where the insurgents have been driven out or the rebuilding is working is then extrapolated over the whole country.

The new news? KY Republicans are pussies

2005-06-26T17:29:00.000-07:00

I checked the usual sources this morning, but didn't think there was anything worth blogging about. I checked back this evening and boy did I miss a big story. This story should be headlined, "Republicans are pussies: did not have balls to fire political appointee who wouldn't do the job he was awarded."

In another Jan. 20 e-mail Murgatroyd sent to Druen, he said he was unsure what to do with Holiday if he wouldn't accept his first job.

"So do we have another place to put him where he will work?" Murgatroyd asked. "Otherwise, put him in a corner and we'll ignore him. I just won't have him setting this kind of example in the name of the Governor or the Secretary."

I was unaware that "Murg" was actually a woman or, at the very least, a castrati. FIRE HIM! WTF? Was he appointed for life? What did they do?

Rather than fire Holiday, the administration found him another job -- "administrative coordinator," which pays $42,420 a year.

OMG! You are fucking kidding me! (Pardon my French, but I have never seen anything more in need of a masculine obscenity to wash away the submissiveness of "Murg") But surely the guy has been fired, right?

Transportation Cabinet spokesman Doug Hogan said Holiday "works on a variety of internal projects." He provided one example: Holiday manages a cabinet that encourages employees to give to charities...

Holiday has declined to comment on Murgatroyd's concerns, but he said in an interview he is working in his new job.

"I work hard for the governor and the taxpayers and I will continue to do so," he said.

I bet this guy is working hard for Felcher. I hope he doesn't spread around the Santorum as he does. No one who voted for this ass clown can ever lecture me about security or defense or nationalism. I have printed this story out and will keep it in my back pocket to show whenever the chickenhawks attack.

If this is politically motivated, Stumbo is a genius. Rove called the liberals wusses. Stumbo gave us real world evidence that Rupublicans are.

CentrePiece

2005-06-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

I'm giving away a little bit of my identity, but I don't really care, because this is too good to pass up. I've got some email out to Centre to find out the true story behind this, but I doubt I will get the straight scoop.

There is a story in the new edition of the CentrePiece today, for those of you outside the club, this is Centre College's Alumni glossy mag. There is a story in the mag on Centre in Frankfort (A play, for those not in the club, on the phrase Centre uses to describe its international programs: Centre in Straussbourg, Centre in London, Centre in Aruba[?]) detailing the exploits of Centre grads in Kentucky's capitol. Well, well, well, though there is at least one Keith Hall appointee included, the 'lustrious Hall is nowhere to be mentioned. Now, I haven't seen the CentrePiece, yet, but for it to be mailed and arrive less than two weeks after Hall stepped down from the Department of Homeland Security and not to mention Keith Hall, the consummate self promoter, it seems to me there are a few options for what happened:

1) He knew his departure was impending and the probe was going to go deeper and uncover more unethical dealings and he chose not to add insult to injury, and he declined to be included.

2) The mag was at the printer and a rep from Centre made a frantic call to have the portions about Mr. Hall expunged. This seems the most likely, though least intriguing, option.

3) The mag was already back from the printer and had to be sent back to be reprinted sans the offending passages, paid for perhaps, by a Centre Alumnus. Before anyone goes apeshit over this option and I get caught in an Our Man in Havana type scenario (If you haven't read this Graham Greene classic, don't worry, I have a Greene fetish), this is pure fantasy and not meant to suggest anything. It's just an option that could have happened. As I see it.

Crit Luallen, the state auditor, who just so happens to be helping to bring Felcher down, was featured in the article. My source said it said nice things about her.

Sexy Sadie

2005-06-25T10:21:00.000-07:00

True to my word, I wanted to mention something totally bizarre, but totally in character with Felcher's Kiddie Korps. Felcher apparently had a super secret email address, named after his dog, Sadie. Apparently, this was for use only in times of HOmeland Security emergency, when a Democrat needed to be fired and for cybersex exchanges. The messages had to be decoded with a decoder ring acquired from a clandestine box of Count Chocula. These people are running a state. Granted we may be ranked in the low 40s in most things where a low number is good, but I think even Mississippi and Alabama have their shit together more than this crowd.

Shrill

2005-06-25T06:48:00.000-07:00

Felcher's apparently pissed at the AG's office to the benefit of welfare queens everywhere. Though I'm sure this has been "planned" for a long time, the Felcher administration's every move seems to support the assertion that it is vindictive and cronyistic. I've always been told, when you're in hole, the first step to getting out is to STOP DIGGING!

But Pierce Whites, deputy attorney general, said the move is a reprisal against his office for its investigation of wrongdoing by personnel in the Health and Family Services Cabinet. He called the decision an "attempt to gut" the office's welfare investigation unit.

This spring, the attorney general's office launched an investigation into widespread employee embezzlement and lackadaisical checks-and-balances at the cabinet that has cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars. A special grand jury is currently hearing evidence on that matter.

One welfare case worker, for instance, pleaded guilty last summer to writing roughly $430,000 worth of checks to himself and his then-girlfriend, mostly to fund a $1,000-a-day OxyContin habit.

"This is obviously retaliation against the attorney general's investigation into widespread graft and corruption within the cabinet itself," Whites said. "We've uncovered a number of instances where cabinet employees were stealing funds that were supposed to go help Kentucky's neediest citizens."

Felcher needs to resign. Then he can play golf with Ohio's Taft after he resigns.

Shady's back

2005-06-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

There was no blogging yesterday because I couldn't find any stories to blog about. I was told there was a story about the effort to protect Keith Hall's email, but I couldn't find it. Today, the story in the Herald refers to that previous, apparently imaginary story, but this story seems to indicate that the noose is tightening and Larry Forgy may need to keep his trap shut because even he didn't know the extent of this thing.

The administration claims the following exchange refutes the existence of the "hit list," of people they want fired. It seems to me that the person writing the email desperately wants to play with the big kids, but is, in fact, out of the loop. See what you think:

In a Feb. 16 e-mail to Hall, who recently resigned as homeland security director without public explanation, Druen said he was asked by "Murg" about the "hit list" established through Turbyfill's office. "Murg" is an apparent reference to Dick Murgatroyd, Fletcher's deputy chief of staff.

"I told him I didn't have knowledge of a 'hit list,' but would ask Basil," Druen wrote. "He said Basil informed the Sec's of the existence of such a list. I called Basil and he said 'hell no' there's not a list."

No list. Sure.

Disponett, dispensed with

2005-06-23T19:51:00.000-07:00

I know I'm basically just cutting and pasting links, but I suppose that's what this whole blogosphere is about. Dave Disponett, who kind of sounds like a used car salesman, got kicked out of the capitol today, after Felcher was shamed into it. Disponett was named in one of the complaints to the Personnel Board. He also apparently has been taking part in the age old Kentucdky "Tradition," nepotism, the inbred half-sister/cousin of cronyism. Read this story and you'll see the the kind of amatuers our commonwealth has entrusted with providing our Poeleece with something to drive.

Countryside Motors won the contract last year after two dealerships with lower bids were disqualified because they did not meet a bid requirement that the vehicles be delivered with the gas tank half-full.

YOu're freaking kidding me! Were they rentals from Hertz? Where did Mr. Disponsett fit into this? Oh yeah:

Countryside is owned by James "Jimmie" Morgan, the nephew of Kentucky Republican Party treasurer Dave Disponett. Like his uncle, Morgan has been a contributor to Felcher's political efforts, donating a total of $3,000 to his election and inaugural committees. Morgan also was appointed by Felcher to the Kentucky Lottery Corp. Board of Directors for which he receives $5,000 annually. (misspelling mine)

Thanks to BluegrassReport for breaking this story last week. If I'm not mistaken, Thou Shalt not Steal and Thou Shalt not Bear False Witness are still in the Ten Commandments these jokers want in every courtroom in the land. Assuming they keep a laminated card in their wallet in addition to the copy behind their desk, a FAT LOT OF GOOD it'll do!

Mr Nickolas promises a big story soon. I can't wait!

Terror by goats!

2005-06-23T19:34:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the folks over at Fark for this one. The Department of Homeland Security seems to have actually been made more of a laughingstock after the departure of it's director. You can't make this stuff up. Considering these goats are destined for a gyro, I'm not sure what the terrorists would be thinking. The deputy director, Andrew Cline, had these words of wisdom:

The goats "have been infected with a bio-agent. ... Then, the infected goats are at the show and you have people come and look at the goats and pet the goats and then they go home," Cline said, summarizing the day's scenario.

"We try to focus on what really matters to Kentucky," he said, adding, "this is a perfect way to do it." (emphasis mine)

Well, then, I guess that's all there is to it. If they were looking for a distraction from the apparent incompetence of the department, I'm not sure this was the best decision. Sure, Plug Nickel may just be jealous no one threw any political patronage Plug Nickel's way, but Plug Nickel can at least use a pronoun every now and again.

You know, Halloween is just around the corner:

"They'll have to herd cattle into a chute. ... and dress in personal protective equipment," Cline said of the exercises near Versailles today.

I apologize for being a little skeptical, but after the shrillness of Karl Rove today, I'm glad to have this exercise to put it all into context.

Self-destruction

2005-06-22T20:34:00.000-07:00

Now, I suppose it's old news that Stumbo, Luallen, et al have triggered the self destruct button in our fiscally conservative administration. The Courier and Herald both reported that the lawyers appointed by Felcher to do a basically clerical job will be paid $370K.

They've hired several big name firms I've never heard of, but I doubt Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe, the Car Talk counsel, can be far behind.

The only conservatisms they have left is social and moral, and surely it won't be long before they leave the building and catch a bus for the coast.

Hiring Freeze exemptions

2005-06-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

The Felcher administration today released documents that they said showed current auditor Crit LuEllen signing off on Merit System jobs. Crit says they were exemptions from the hiring freeze which gripped much of Patton's second term.

My question is, why would Ms. LouEllen pursue these allegations of merit system abuses with such vigor if she knew she had done the same thing?

Makes no sense to me. I want to see the documents.

Worse than I thought

2005-06-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I fixed the quote below because, though the speech it came from was insincere and riddled with grammatical errors, it wasn't quite that bad.

Due to a colossal error in math and my own expectations of some semblance of propriety, I just discovered this evening that the founding of the institute Keith A. Hall put on his biography on the department of Homeland Security, was actually only announced two and a half weeks before his appointment to head the Department of Homeland Security. I simply don't understand how the media let the governor get away with putting someone who had no experience in law enforcement or military into such an imprtant office.

As Hall claimed in his speech to the DOTCJ,

There is not a state in the country which understands the importance of ensuring
that law enforcement officers have the tools they need to keep people safe more than Kentucky.

He further outlined why:

Kentucky is the heart of the United States. 50% of all goods sold on the eastern
seaboard pass over the roads you will now ensure are safe for your family and mine to travel. 15% of the nation’s electricity is generated here. The word’s largest shipper sends virtually every package in the eastern United States to Kentucky before it is shipped elsewhere. If you fly Delta and wish to avoid Atlanta, and I suggest you do, then you will have to travel through the largest Delta passenger hub, which is right here in Kentucky. All of these reasons are why Jesse Stuart is right in calling Kentucky the heart of our nation.

This last part is true, but his first statement is rendered laughable precisely because he is the one uttering such nonsense. Were Kentucky to have been subject to a terrorist attack, we would have become a laughingstock even more than we are now. Not because we supposedly marry our cousins or don't wear shoes, but because we allowed someone who apparently didn't know his pecker from a pipe bomb to head our defenses.

Shame on you, Felcher!

No effing A, dude!

2005-06-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

Keith Hall, formerly known as Keith A. Hall, apparently had his resignation letter written for him. A brave soldier who fell on his sword for the greater good or an unqualified hack who would eventually become the focus of Felcher's hiring woes? You decide.

Rumors and questions continue to fly around the Capitol. Did Hall know about illegal hiring practices? Did he write in e-mail messages something embarrassing about the administration? Was he fired to protect someone else?

The readers of plug nickel know!

Real evidence of intent

2005-06-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

Some, even on the Democratic side, have argued that the Fletcher administration's abuses of the merit system in Kentucky were just part of a history of patronage. One poster on Dailykos even went so far as to call itabloated bureacracy where patronage is traditional. Well, the Herald Leader has a story in today's paper which seems to suggest that the Republicans weren't content to follow "tradition."

Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration has quietly changed the state's merit system so it can fill thousands of rank-and-file jobs with anyone it prefers, rather than those ranked as the best qualified.

Read the whole thing here.

To sum up

2005-06-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

I wanted to provide a couple of links to give you an idea of the brewing scandal in KY. Unfortunately, much of the scandal seems to exist only in the archives of the states two main papers. At some point, I may pay and cut and paste, but we'll see what the response is.

Basically, KY has a law that requires many jobs to be filled with applicants who pass a test to display their merit. Apparently, the new Repuglican administration has been filling these positions with people recommended by their work for the previous campaign and friendship with Felcher. My main concern has been a story that I think should be more imortant, nationally even, but has not gotten a lot of press: The resignation, and, I suppose, appointment of the Director of the Department of HOmeland security. I think it's good stuff. I hope you do to.

For an overview, check out these links from the Courier Journal

Here's a delightfully droll Op-ed Column that sums up much of the to do so far.

This past week, they finally indicted three people in the firing of a democratic employee in the Transportation Cabinet.

Good article about Quid Pro Quo

2005-06-16T17:44:00.000-07:00

While a bit confusing, this article lays out the apparent quid pro quo and conflicts of interest with Felcher's appointment to the state Supreme Court.
Article

Imaginary institute?

2005-06-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

Keith Hall's abrupt departure from the Dept of Homeland Security may have demonstrated his profound disgust for the Felcher administration's unethical behavior. There is just nothing else to explain it.

Oh wait, I did some research today and found some new info that may not explain his departure, but that makes his appointment much more interesting. I wrote yesterday that he had put one homeland security qualification on his resume. He was Vice Chairman of the National Institute for Hometown Security, ostensibly based in Somerset, Ky, at the Center for Rural Development. I guess the joke was on me, because there is no real evidence that this Institute ever existed. I've found numerous announcements of its opening in November of 2004, but that's where the internet trail stops.

Here's an announcement from nov, 2004. The Center for Rural Development, which was wo house the Institute, only makes reference to it on its website here, in a press release announcing the establishment, dated Oct 22 2004.

The National Institute [was to] be based at The Center for Rural Development in Somerset and will be governed by a 13-member board of directors. Ewell Balltrip was named as Executive Director and will oversee the day-to-day operations of the organization.

Literally, every search result in Google for the quotation "National Institute for Hometown Security" involves the announcement, save two, the citation of Hall's resume, and a reference to The Kentucky Community Critical Infrastructure Protection Laboratory, at EKU. Don't believe me? LOok here. Searching a quotation of the "Kentucky Community Critical Infrastructure Protection Laboratory", returns only 4 results.

I thought, gee, maybe they dropped the National, because, you know, it was based in Somerset, so it was really probably more of a Western Kentucky thing, so I dropped the national and searched. No additional hits came up.

Now I'm pretty confused. A national institute with a 13 member board, an Executive Director and a Vice-Chairman with a $4M budget did nothing that left an internet record in the entire year? Nothing? I mean, wouldn't you think they'd send out a press release? I wonder how that money was spent and who appointed Keith Hall.

The Executive Cirector, Ewell Balltrip, appears to have at least some bona fides:

The National Institute for Hometown Security will be governed by a 13-member board of directors. Funding and the number of employees for the institute have not been determined, said Ewell Balltrip, executive director of the institute and former head of the Kentucky Appalachian Commission.

The Kentucky Homeland Security University Consortium will have 11 initial projects costing $4 million.

That second sentence there that came over with sloppy highlighting, maybe there's info out there on that commission? Same thing, basically, 3 pages of hits, mostly on pages with links already darkened from previous searches. However, it appears tomorrow morning, by chance, UK's president will be talking about this consortium on WUKY. I will be listening.

Stepping back, another thing that strikes me, the budget for the Institue had not been decided upon. Other places seemed to indicate there was a $4M budget for the institute. Hmmm...

I have 2 numbers for Mr. Balltrip, one in Hazard and one in Somerset, that I will be calling tomorrow. Neither the Institute nor the Consortium have a listing in the yellow pages in Somerset. Update: The number in Hazard is registered to someone else, now.

The search continues.

UPDATE: Looking at the partners of KY's Homeland Security Department, I don't see the Institute of Hometown Security.

KY has a Department of Homeland Security????

2005-06-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

Keith Hall, the youngest Director of a state department for homeland security, resigned on Friday June 11. The resignation had nothing to do with the ongoing investigation into merit system abuses in the hiring of state workers. The next Wednesday, he spent about 5 minutes pleading the fifth (apparently) in front of the grand jury investigating the scandal. Not only was Mr. Hall the youngest director of an office of Homeland Security, he also may have been the most unqualified director who was not also having an affair with a governor. I don't have any information nor do I suggest Hall had any kind of untoward relationship with Felcher, but I assume that he at least had security clearance. Here is his experience as obtained from a cached page describing the director:

Mr. Hall also serves on various homeland security related task forces and committees, including serving as Vice-Chairman of the National Institute for Hometown Security.

He has a law degree, but apparently only used it as a lobbyist and aide to Anne Northrup and then congressman and now governor Ernie Fletcher. His only real claim to knowing about terrorism appears to be that he lived in NYC on 9/11.

From a speech to the DOCJT:

I lived in New York in 2001 and I can tell you that after the attack on our
country, none of us enjoyed that freedom. Every time we rode in a subway car, every time I departed New York by plane, every time I heard a loud noise on the streets, New Yorkers’ were struck with fear. My lasting memory of the three years I spent in New York will always be waking up to the sound of bagpipes playing on the 6 am news, reporting on the funeral of another first responder who passed on that day.

Hall doesn't seem to have had any qualifications to get him hired. I wonder what possibly could have gotten him fired? I have a hunch that out of control cronyism probably had something to do with it. His Deputy? Oh they went to the same high school, graduating two years apart. Both had parents in the administration of the school (I'm considering Vice-Principal administration)

Here are one of his deputy's qualifications:

He previously served as the Strategic National Stockpile Coordinator for Kentucky's Department for Public Health.

Maybe I have it all wrong, I'm thinking. Let's do a reality check to see what the qualifications of other directors of homeland security are.

Alabama

To sum up this one:

Director Walker served in the Army from 1981-2002, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. An Infantry officer and Airborne Ranger, he served in both the 25^th Infantry Division and the 101^st Airborne Division (Air Assault). He has more than seven years experience as an Army Congressional Liaison and Government Affairs Officer.

OK, maybe we just got lucky. How about a crappier state without a coast. How about Idaho?

Military, too. Looks like a bad ass. Oh well, maybe I was right.

Delaware? Law enforcement. 3 decades. Crap.

Georgia? Um, please move along, nothing to see here.

Wow! Again.

2005-06-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

Lori, I'm not quite obsessed with the blog, but I have incorporated it into my daily routine. I went to the grocery today and fixed one of the two steaks I bought for dinner along with some frozen mac & cheese. They were only so-so, but the fruit smoothy I made with the purloined magic bullet warmed the cockles as it cooled the nasal cavity in a phenomenon known fairly inelegantly as "brain-freeze." The second steak I marinated in High Life and hope to get some steak sauce and have better luck tomorrow night. In the morning, I will have a whole grain English muffin with butter and kudzu jelly and a fruit smoothy. Diet time, gut!

Nothing happened much in politics today worth blogging about except the Congress passed a resolution of self flagellation for not passing anti-lynching legislation earlier. Reading Freakonomics and from my MA in Southern Studies, I know that lynchings were a failrly rare occurrences in the South, but it was the fear of lynchings that was the problem. I think that fear of terrorism is now a bigger problem than terrorism actually is. Maybe not in Iraq. If the Congress wanted to something to address human rights problems, it could commission an independent investigation to explore not the archipelago, but more appropriately, the diaspora of disappeared Muslims.

This has become tedious. Lori, I'm off to bed. Good night moon!

Apoca-lips

2005-06-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

As I noted yesterday, I was in Nashville. I just got back today. No musical suggestions from Nash Bridges, but I will recommend My Friend Totoro and warn against Shark Boy and Lava Girl. The first was really good, the second, unbelievably bad.

I also realized our friends on the religious right are just KKK members dressed up.

Nash Vegas

2005-06-11T08:33:00.000-07:00

No postings last night, as I was on my way to Nashville, with five hours of driving bliss following a long day of busting my ass at work. I also was not on the night before, as I was out of work sick and I didn't have it in me to blog. I'm in N-ville this morning, having swlept on the flo last night. We're planning to go to breakfast, but apparently Nashville is the world's most popular place for breakfast and all the restaurants have at least a half hour wait. Oh, to be a pancake here! HOpefully in music city, I'll be able to find some recos, but I sort of doubt it. I doubt it.

Brian Lovely and the Secret

2005-06-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

I found it. His new band is Flying Underground. The Secret rocks like XTC and that band Chevy Chase was in. Check out Trouble in the Garden.

Epiphany

2005-06-05T08:26:00.000-07:00

I had an Epiphany this morning that I guess I sort of instinctively knew, having worked very hard to make all of my positions consistent and non-hypocritical. Here it is: The position of the liberal hawks, in general, on the war, is far more grounded in morality than that of the neocons or anyone on the right. The current administration takes a view that war to overthrow a dictator is OK to spread liberty and freedom, as long as that dictator is hostile towards the US, making it therefore, in our interest. This dichotomy is, at its heart, defeatist, counterproductive, and hypocritical. It sets forth absolutes, then makes the US the sole arbiter of those absolutes, which, as everyone knows or should know, is folly, for absolutes are absolute. Only God can change an absolute, which God wouldn't do, because God is infallible and the absolutes were determined to be absolute with the creation of the world.

Freedom and liberty are by our nature absolutes. God created humans with liberty built in. As fallen humans, we are able to make moral choices. We are also able to make immoral choices. The creation of a government to detemine what is allowed and not allowed is purely the creation of man. While it may be guided to some extent by the great law giver Moses, taking dictation from God, the right, which so decries reading anything into the Constitution as far as a right to privacy or the constitutionality of a ban on sodomy or pornography, (arguing that, because these things are not specifically exempted, they are not protected) has no trouble reading a Biblical ban on these things into the Ten Commandments. While it's true my friends on the Right typically take passages of the Bible out of context, ignoring later modifications or downright contraditions (I'm thinking eye for an eye versus if you are struck on the cheek, turn also the other cheek, quite obviously structured, replete with facial references, to contradict the previous maxim), they have held p the 10 Commandments as a particularly concise summary of Biblical law. Never mind that a majority of the 10 are not now law. Let me get back to the war argument.

As a liberal Hawk, I believe overthrowing dictators is job one. Figuring out the best way to get rid of each one is difficult, but the role of the US should be a neverending quest to spread these absolutes.

More later. Have to get this up.

Christian=Gay? He said it.

2005-05-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

I am happy to make at least one post per month. This is apparently the one for May, except the blank post I accidentally just put up.

Last night, as I arrived much, much, too late at a birthday party for my former sister-in-law, one of the party-goers uttered this ludicrous phrase. He asked one of the other mirth-makers, "I've been giving this a lot of thought. Don't you think when a man announces he's Christian, the response is almost like a gay man coming out of the closet?"

After picking my jaw up off the ground and remaining silent in the interest of the party, I have some observations on this question which was, thankfully swept up in the conversation and not ever seriously considered.

1) I think being Christian is actually much more like being straight, an observation confirmed with a right leaning capitalist who also heard the question.by this, I mean that, when I, or you, walk into an unmarked room, I, you, or we are conditioned to automatically assume that the people in the room are, for the most part, straight and Christian. Statistically, that's also the likelyhood. There may be a closeted homosexual here, or a Lesbian couple who come to the pub every now and again to arouse the patrons, but, usually this assumption would not be misplaced.

2) Because I think the previous argument is true, there exists no reason for a man to announce he is Christian any more than for a man to announce, "Yes, I like p*ssy." It's already assumed. The announcement either sounds disingenious or, worse, like someone announcing they sell Amway. It sounds like the announcer is selling something, which, I find, he generally is. How often have you been told by someone that he is a Christian to have him follow up with the question, "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour?" Now, it is not automatically assumed that someone sells Amway, indeed, I would argue we assume just the opposite. However, this announcement is still, for most people, an unnecessary piece of information uttered more for the benefit of the the utterer than for the listener.

3) Of the few people who have come out of the closet to me, not one has asked me if I ever thought about my orientation. I think people who come out of the closet, on the whole and excepting the member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon at my college and those working for the GOP expect to be greeted with dismissal, but are accepted with humanity and Christians just the opposite. A guy who went to college with my brother withdrew from fraternity life for nearly two years because he was gay. When he came out, the rest of the chapter scolded him for den- ying them his company as if something was wrong.

Later the guy who said this referred to Wine coolers as "bitch drinks." Not only is this about as un-Christian as words can be, it's also unpoetic and doesn't roll off the tongue. I prefer "froo froo drinks," which I drink often because they taste good and have lots of alcohol and for which I justly take much abuse. However, my way deprecates only myself and not women.

What a douche. (This, I suppose, could be construed as misogynistic, but I would argue it is basically the same as "ass wipe." in that it refers more to function than a specific gender.)

Too tired, too drunk

2005-04-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

As I write this, I imagine that this title has graced many a blog entry, but I told my friends I would blog the show I went to, so I am. My friend Matt played a gig tonight above the sports bar just down the street. His wife is teaching at the local high school as a long term temp and some of her students were there. I forget what their gang is called, something about an edge. They don't drink or do drugs, but do beat the shit out of kids who do. Another first in the tyranny of the pious. I drink, but am a pacifist. I think this is better than being alcohol free but a total prick.

These kids started clapping off the beat when Matt did a cover of Shout by Tears for Fears. He called them out, saying, "Hey, you straight edgers are clapping like you're drunk! I thought you didn't drink!" At this, they became indignant and angry and stormed out.

The next band had a lead singer who sounded like Natalie Merchant. They did a cover of Bright Eyes; This is the First Day of My Life. Good stuff, but not angsty enough.

The way to defeat the Christian Nationalist movement is to kill it with kindness. Seriously.