An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for 10 August 2008
Legend Gone
Isaac Hayes, Memphis soul legend, dead at 65
Legendary soul music performer Isaac Hayes died this afternoon after he was found unconscious in his Shelby County home. He was 65.
A family member found the entertainer next to a running treadmill at about 1 p.m. Sunday, said Steve Shular, spokesman for the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.
Hayes, born Aug. 20, 1942, was rushed to Baptist Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:10 p.m.
Prayers with the family and friends.
How Cool
The ultimate ‘arms race’!
Thanks Ro woman.
Dirty Dealings
Records reveal lucrative dealings for mayor’s friend
When it comes to landing City Hall subcontracting jobs, Reginald French has a golden touch — a $1.4 million touch.
A close friend of Mayor Willie Herenton, French has been paid at least that much, and possibly much more, for a variety of jobs, including a particularly fortuitous deal to install fiber-optic cable at two city police stations.
A bud of ol’ Willie’s, eh?
Newly disclosed records tell how French, a onetime prison guard, landed the $68,000 cabling job in 2006 despite lacking experience or equipment for the work.
No experience, no equipment, yet he was given the job? What is wrong with this picture?
Undaunted, French then hired a cable installation firm — for $30,000 — to perform the work.
So, the city could have saved $38,000 if they had just hired the cable installation firm out right? Is it any wonder that cities are getting hard up for cash when they have folks like Harenton in office? Yet, they keep right on voting ‘em in, year after year. Reckon it really is a case of ‘you get what you pay for’.
News of French’s role in the police cabling job comes amid a federal probe exploring connections between Herenton and several associates, including French, who’ve won lucrative City Hall contracts.
Harenton should have lost the last election. Do the people in Memphis not know enough to pour piss out of a boot? Well, Harenton has sure wizzed in their boots, alright.
Memphis attorney Scott Kramer was more loquacious, calling French’s cabling payments unnecessary and wasteful. While apparently legal, French’s involvement in the deal reflects larger concerns involving abuse in city contracts, he said.
Gee. Y’think?
“It appears to us that Reginald doesn’t do anything except pocket money.”
French, who received $1.4 million over a 32-month period ending in March 2006, dismissed Kramer’s assertions, and his suit, as baseless.
“I stand by (my) work,” he said. “I run a legitimate company.”
Where have we heard such claims before? Hmmmm…. Oh yeah….the movie “The Godfather” comes to mind.
Such assertions about French — that he acts as a middleman paid merely to supply city government with computer programmers and others with specialized expertise — have surfaced repeatedly. A Dallas computer-programming consultant claimed last fall that he was told he had to go through French if he wanted city work and that French later cheated him out of $80,000.
And yet, because he is Harenton’s bud, he continues to do business with the city? Hmmm….
“You’ve been on my trail for a long time,” French told a reporter. He was referring to news stories about not only his subcontracting work but his past life as an officer who was fired from the Collierville Police Department and a later role as a criminal defendant found guilty of slitting a rival’s tire.
Must be a Dhimmicrat. They’re known for tire slashing.
Despite that history, French was hired by Herenton as a top City Hall aide who was soon forced to resign following a sexual harassment claim. French became a business consultant selling access to government officials and eventually wore a wire for the FBI’s Atlanta office in a corruption probe there — only to reinvent himself again as the owner of a technology firm with rich success winning subcontracting jobs for the city of Memphis.
You’d think the mayor of a city would choose his ‘friends’ a little more wisely. I wonder if he get kickbacks from these ‘lucrative’ payouts? Just a thought.
Herenton maintains he has pulled no strings for French or anyone else.
Uh huh.
Spending spree
Flush with money through a subcontract with the city of Memphis, Reginald French’s firm, Integrate Technologies, has issued checks paying:
$1,684 to Parker Consulting in 2006 for robo calls, apparently for French’s unsuccessful campaign for Shelby County sheriff.
$700 to a landscaping firm in 2006.
$13,700 for bonuses to himself in 2006.
$5,000 for loans to himself in 2006.
$300 in 2003 as payment to Dewey Clark, a friend who turned government witness and testified against former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell in his 2006 corruption trial.
$250 for an ice sculpture in 2005.
$1,351 for liquor for a party in 2005.
Hey, I don’t know how to do anything. Maybe I can get a job working for the city Memphis, too?
No Obamarama :(
While perusing my usual sources of political cartoons, I noticed an extreme lack of Obama ‘toons. What’s up with that? What had replaced him? Why, John Edwards of course! Now, as humorous as the ‘toons are, I’m not going to post ‘em. I don’t care. No one should care. This is an issue he and his family are going to have to deal with on a more personal level. Move on. He’ll never be elected to anything, so why bother with it? Other than the fact he’s a lying, cheating, sleaze ball, ambulance chaser, is there really any reason to keep pursuing the story?
Two Americas? Yeah, one for politicians, and one for the REAL America.
The Future Of Airline Travel
Morning Coffee 08/10/08
Iconic stone arch collapses in southern Utah park
Henderson said the arch was claimed by forces that will eventually destroy others in the park: gravity and erosion.
“They all let go after a while,” he said Friday.
He said it’s the first collapse of a major arch in the park since nearby Landscape Arch fell in 1991. No one has reported seeing it fall.
Contrary to what some folks might think, we don’t control what the planet does. Prime example here. I’m surprised there weren’t a group of “save the arch” whackos out there trying to prop it up.
Oklahoma man says he was badgered to pay for baby that wasn’t his
The Oklahoma Department of Human Services has accused a former Tulsa high school athlete of being the father of a baby girl born to a Lawton woman – a woman he never met, according to The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman.
The department had Micheal Thomas, 21, declared the father of a daughter born to Tiffany Dickson. A legal action claims the department badgered him until he dropped out of college and gave up a football scholarship. The agency also took a portion of his pay and seized $290 in state and federal income tax refunds.
Proof he wasn’t the father, yet they still stole money from him? Something is seriously screwed up in that department, and I say a head or two should roll, with a set number of dollar bills attached! They should also go after the woman who made the claim initially. Gubmint has way too much power to dig into a person’s finances, when they have no reason. Nor, do I believe, they have a right. DNA is a wonderful thing. Use it!
Iran unmoved on nuclear stance in face of sanctions
Iran will not back down on its nuclear stance despite the threat of tighter sanctions, Iranian media quoted a government spokesman as saying on Sunday.
Britain, France, Germany and the United States are considering imposing sanctions that go beyond existing U.N. measures against Tehran over its nuclear programme, a British diplomat said on Friday.
As we’ve seen many times in the not too distant past, sanctions don’t do diddly in trying to get a tyrant to cease and desist…..anything! The people suffer, but not the gubmints. Bomb the crap out of the facilities, and let ‘em start over from scratch. Then bomb that too, until they get the idea.
Resegregation fears outstrip Metro plan’s reality
Metro’s school rezoning plan will make more schools less diverse when it takes effect in 2009, but it’s still a long way from the pre-desegregation numbers its opponents have cited.
Since widespread busing ended, Metro schools gradually have become more segregated, looking more like the communities they’re located in. Pockets of busing still exist, which accounts for some of the current racial balance.
Busing has been a miserable failure. Instead of bringing races together peacefully, it has created even more problems. I’m of the mind set, if you have a school, right across the street, why on earth should your child get up 2 hours earlier to catch a bus that takes him/her across town? Haven’t we gotten past all this forced BS? Neighborhood schools have always been better for the neighborhood, and the kids.
Gay unions gaining global favor
If California were an independent country, it would be among a “Group of 10″ economic powers, with a population greater than Canada’s or Australia’s.
So, when California moves on something as controversial as same-sex marriage, it affects not only other U.S. states, but countries around the world.
So, the world is following California into the pits of hell. Does this make it right? Don’t think so! Personally, I think it’s time for them to secede, or, we could just kick ‘em out? 
Edwards Ex-Mistress Rules Out Paternity Test
The ex-mistress of former presidential candidate John Edwards said Saturday she will not participate in DNA testing to establish the paternity of her daughter.
Rielle Hunter’s lawyer, Robert Gordon, says his client is a private individual who is not running for public office and that she wishes to maintain the privacy of her and her daughter.
Personally, I’m already sick of hearing about Edwards. Anyone with half a brain already knew he was a worm, and a phony one at that! His reputation is ruined. The woman doesn’t want a paternity test, then as the baby’s mother, she has that right. Move along people. Find some REAL news to report!
Oil fight could trigger a federal shutdown
House Republicans, who’ve been hounding Speaker Nancy Pelosi for weeks over her refusal to allow a vote on new domestic oil drilling, are plotting a high-stakes confrontation this fall that could spark a shutdown of the federal government.
Republicans see an opportunity when Congress returns Sept. 8 and will have to pass a temporary measure to keep the government funded beyond Sept. 30. Democrats are likely to include in the measure an extension of the congressional moratorium on offshore drilling, which would otherwise expire at the end of September.
And a gubmint shut down would be a problem……why? How much money could be saved if they aren’t in session to pass bills that end up costing US more and more? Other than emergency services, and the military, shut it ALL down! Work for the gubmint, go pick tomatoes, or oranges, or whatever. Flip a few burgers. Get out here in the REAL world. A good chunk of what D.C. does should be left to the states anyway!
Ermilo Herrera-Juarez, Gelber Herrera-Juarez and Hugo Benedicto Herrera-Perez, all of Guatemala, admitted Thursday to using fraudulent documents to obtain employment in the United States in violation of immigration laws, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
All three will be sentenced Dec. 2 before U.S. District Judge Leon Jordan.
Each faces a maximum punishment of up to five years imprisonment; $250,000 in fines; deportation immediately upon completion of the term of imprisonment; up to three years supervised release; and a $100 special assessment.
I’ve noticed a couple of problems here. This is August, right? Why are they waiting till December to sentence them? What’s the problem? Can’t the judge just say “off to prison with ya, for the max”? What is that ‘supervised release’ business? Supervised where?
Trail of Cheetos leads to snack thieves in Minn.
Officers were called to the Arlington Recreation Center on July 29, where they found a vending machine’s glass had been broken with a chair. Most of the candy and chips were missing, according to a criminal complaint.
The officers followed a trail of snack debris from the rec centre, around the side of the building and to a nearby home. Inside, they found numerous vending-sized bags of Cheetos and other snacks.
Police arrested three males aged 17, 18 and 19 who soon arrived at the home by car. The two adults are charged with third-degree burglary; the 17-year-old is charged with criminal damage to property.
All three denied being involved.
Can we say……STOOPID criminals?
Darfur withers as Sudan sells a food bonanza
Even as it receives a billion pounds of free food from international donors, Sudan is growing and selling vast quantities of its own crops to other countries, capitalizing on high global food prices at a time when millions of people in its war-riddled region of Darfur barely have enough to eat.
Here in the bone-dry desert, where desiccated donkey carcasses line the road, huge green fields suddenly materialize. Beans. Wheat. Sorghum. Melons. Peanuts. Pumpkins. Eggplant. It is all grown here, part of an ambitious government plan for Sudanese self-sufficiency, creating giant mechanized farms that rise out of the sand like mirages.
But how much of this bonanza is getting back to the hungry Sudanese, like the 2.5 million driven into camps in Darfur? And why is a country that exports so many of its own crops receiving more free food than anywhere else in the world, especially when the Sudanese government is blamed for creating the crisis in the first place?
Darn good question. The obvious answer, the government of Sudan doesn’t give a flying flip about their starving people. I guess the rest of the country doesn’t either, since they choose to ignore what’s going on right under their noses. Cut off ALL aid to the country, or send it directly to the affected areas at least, place an embargo on all foods going out of the country. Perhaps they’ll have to make do with what they’ve got. I’ve got a great deal of sympathy for those who are being murdered, slowly by starvation, but all the aid in the world isn’t going to help one single child if it never reaches him, or her.
Verse of the Day
Hebrews 4:11-12
11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
