…on Main Street in my hometown (Concord NH)
Getting 6 to 12 inches between now and Tuesday.
If only the darned tree would just stay up….
Rudy Charged The Taxpayers For His Booty Calls
Can’t be good news for the Giuliani campaign
UPDATE: Uh oh. Major media is picking up on it.
I understand the need, when he was mayor, to have 24 hour security. But if it was so on the up-and-up, why were his proctection expenses billed to obscure city offices, like the Office for People With Disabilities? What did that bureau have to do with his weekend jaunts to see his mistress in the Hamptons?
Better Journalism Please, Part II
AmericaBlog sums it up:
This piece on Obama is just mind-bogglingly awful. Essentially, this is the summary: "There are a bunch of vicious rumors online about Obama. Obama denies them, but some random people interviewed assume they’re true. Because these random people think the smears might be true, we’ll tell you all about the smears, but without saying that they’re all false and malicious. Plus, if they are true, it might torpedo his candidacy!"
Seriously. It’s like, "Random emails say Obama is a Muslim. He says he’s not. But if he is, he’s screwed!" It’s absurd.
The article in question is on page one of the dead-tree version of the Washington Post.
The GOP CNN/Youtube Debate
The right blogosphere is going apoplectic because a couple of the questioners in last night’s debates were (in their words) "plants". Meaning, that the questioners lean toward Hillary or Obama or something.
In other words, the questioners didn’t lob softball questions at the GOP candidates.
Apparently, the "winner" was Huckabee, who looks destined for an Iowa victory, if trends continue.
Distressing News
America Family Association informs us that — and I quote — "Kohl’s has banned Christmas".
I wasn’t aware that Kohl’s had that kind of authority, but apparently they do.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Opens Tomorrow
Preview here.
I’m really too close to it to step back and say whether it is good or not. I’m pretty pleased with it though. I was very lucky to have Kelly Wallace play Grace (the mother who gets saddled with running the pageant) and Sarah King as Beth (Grace’s daughter, and the narrator). Both of them are real pros, and hold the thing together. We’ve got some other outstanding kids, and well, other kids. It’s a fun evening, I think.
Um….Why?
Nine months ago …shopping bags, backpacks and purses were left around the subway system, then stealthily watched by undercover officers. They arrested anyone who took the items and walked past a police officer in uniform without reporting the discovery.
Now, a new version of the operation has started to catch people in public places outside the subways, and at much higher stakes, Criminal Court records show.
Unlike the initial program, in which the props were worth at most a few hundred dollars, the bags are now salted with real American Express cards, issued under pseudonyms to the Police Department.
Because the theft of a credit card is grand larceny, a Class E felony, those convicted could face sentences of up to four years. The charges in the first round of Operation Lucky Bag were nearly all petty larceny, a misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of one year in jail.
OVER the years, decoy operations have proved to be very effective in flushing out criminals lurking in public places. They also have a history of misfires involving innocent people who stumbled into a piece of theater in the routine drama of city life.
You mean there’s not enough crime in New York City as it is? They have to gin some up?
Is This What They Meant By “Shock And Awe”?
As if the threat of getting blown up is bad enough, our soldiers in Iraq have to contend with uniforms with — I am not making this up — "crotch durability problems"….
The Good Book?
What happens when a man takes his family away from civilization in order to raise his children strictly by the words of the Bible? Well, this:
A man who called himself "Papa Pilgrim" and took his family far from civilization to raise them according to his interpretation of the Bible was sentenced to 14 years in prison for sexually assaulting a daughter.
A judge imposed the sentence Tuesday after Robert Hale’s wife and many of their 15 children delivered statements that included intense stories of physical and mental abuse. Judge Donald Hopwood called it "one of the worst cases of domestic violence I’ve seen."
***
Hale, 66, spent much of Tuesday on the stand, denying charges of sexual and physical abuse leveled against him by family members. Hopwood said he simply didn’t believe Hale’s denials because so many witnesses testified consistently.
Hale had been indicted on 30 counts of rape, incest, coercion, kidnapping and assault for crimes against one of his daughters, committed between 1998 and 2005.
On the eve of his trial last December, Hale pleaded no contest to the three counts in exchange for a sentence of 14 years. But he later tried to withdraw the plea. He said he had made a mistake because he had been sick in jail, on medications and was not well-represented by his public defender.
Last month, in a hearing to decide on his change of plea, Hale changed his mind again and returned to a no-contest plea.
Hale insisted that he had a perfect spiritual understanding, his wife, Kurina Rose Hale, testified Monday.
"This is how he justified all his immoral activity," she said.
Hale was accused of persuading one child that she was a "special kind of daughter" and that she must have sex with him.
…Hale locked his daughter in a shed for three days, sexually assaulted her and beat her so badly her face looked like a black and blue basketball, according to another daughter’s testimony.
Another daughter and the abuse victim left the family grounds to notify authorities.
Hale ran from law enforcers for two weeks before he was taken into custody.
Other children testified of prolonged beatings at the hands of the family patriarch, including boys being stretched out over a "beating barrel" and lashed with a three-cord riding crop.
Rap Music Presented In Graphical Form
I guess I would find this page a lot funnier if I knew more about rap music. Still, these made me laugh:
