Posts from — June 2005

In addition to his own blog which features some great bird photography, and fabulous pictures of a recent trip to the West Coast, Bubba hosts a forum, and is the “godfather” of the Rocky Top Brigade, a loose knit community of Tennessee bloggers.

For personal reasons Bubba has been blogging anonymously. He is a liberal in a conservative area and a small business owner, so there’s a perceived need not mix blogtopia¹ and the real world.

People on Bubba’s forum didn’t like an article in the Metro Pulse. Let’s be clear, it wasn’t Bubba, it was commentators who didn’t like the article. For whatever reason Conley went ballistic and threatened to reveal Bubba’s identity in a front page article in the newspaper with references to Bubba’s police record and credit history.

As far as Bubba is aware he doesn’t have a criminal record and obtaining and revealing his credit history will at least violate Conley’s terms of use with the credit bureau and may be illegal.

Having had to deal with this issue himself, Atrios jumped on it and awarded Wanker of the Day to Brian Conley.

Steve Gilliard joined in with Bully in action.

SKB outed himself, so if you care he writes niche market software for banks. That’s why the talk about criminal records and credit reports are blatant threats and would qualify Conley’s conduct worthy of arrest in the state of New York, and probably most states under extortion laws.

Bubba has written nothing that would be altered in any way by knowing the name on his driver’s license or the occupation on his tax return.

Conley has shown himself to be contemptible. He has certainly not helped his business by attacking Bubba, and if there is justice to be found in the Knoxville business community, he has done himself great injury.

1. yes, skippy coined that term

A short piece on Americans who put their own lives on hold for 6 months to join a Peace Corps program to help the people affected by the tsunami to rebuild their lives.

How do we convince the world that these people represent the real America?

As little as I like PETA for a number of reasons, I don’t think this was anything other than two bad employees. You can’t take radical positions without attracting radical people.

A joint local police and BATF operation with a “no-knock” search warrant and the wrong address, a recipe that has lead to death too often.

The “noise device” is called a “flash-bang” grenade by officers because it is an explosive device that can cause injury and start fires. This is not a good thing to do to a Vietnam veteran as we tend to react badly to loud noises and flashes in our vicinity.

The entire episode was about 4 ounces of marijuana!

…He noted that the annual number of baptisms in the convention had been largely unchanged for decades – a worrisome sign because baptism, he said, was “the first giant step in discipleship, a relationship with the Lord and Christ.”

If you aren’t growing you are dying. Based on all of the reports of the “growing influence” of fundamentalists you have to wonder about the accuracy of the reporting and polls. The SBC are the largest Protestant denomination and by their own records they haven’t grown in decades.

He thinks the Democrats should build a suitable meeting venue to hold these fora when the Republicans are being jerks about allocating rooms.

The problem is that one of the ways in which the Republicans were being jerks was scheduling almost a dozen votes during the Mr. Conyers’s session requiring members to go to the House chamber to participate. To be readily usable the new room would have to be built within the Capitol complex, which would require Republican support, and would have to be under the control of the minority leader.

The Democrats could build or lease the facility, but they would have to hold meetings when the House or Senate was not in session to avoid voting conflicts.

There are problems, but they should do it to escape another Republican limitation.

Gov. Bush wants investigation into Schiavo 911 call, details Jeb’s call to investigate how long Michael Schiavo waited to call for help when he discovered his wife.

The governor could simply talk to a cardiologist and learn that Mrs. Schiavo would have had to begun receiving CPR within 10 minutes of the heart stopping to have recovered as much function as she had. That period is extended when an individual is immediately chilled, as in falling through the ice into 30° water, but in a Florida living room, 10 minutes is about tops.

Apparently Mr. Schiavo has stated different times for the discovery of his wife, and Mr. Bush is trying to waste even more of the taxpayers’ money on this over-investigated, over-litigated, over-legislated case.

Mr. Schiavo appears to have been attempting to get on with his life, and hasn’t seemed inclined to extend this tragedy by filing lawsuits against those who defamed him. Unfortunately I’m beginning to believe that more litigation is the only way he will find closure.

Mr. Schiavo: sue the bastards to the point they are cleaning windshields with their sleeves on corners! It’s the only way they will begin to understand the pain.

[Update] I have been reminded that there were two malpractice trials over Mrs. Schiavo’s collapse. If there had been any error on Mr. Schiavo’s part in summoning aid for his wife, it would have been uncovered during one of those trials which established medical error as the cause of Mrs. Schiavo’s condition.

The Busheviki are realizing that Congress isn’t going to take the heat for things that voters don’t want done. Congress is hoping to get re-elected, which is not a consideration for the White House. Bush can’t help them with his declining approval numbers, so they don’t want to play anymore.

Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester, 617th Military Police Company, Kentucky National Guard, received the award for gallantry during a March 20 insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq. Two men in her unit also received Silver Stars in the action, and several other members of the unit, including another woman, received lesser awards.

I want those fools in Congress who say women can’t be in combat to explain to me why someone who can perform at the level of ability required to win a Silver Star and be alive to wear it, doesn’t deserve the opportunity to be recognized for their abilities.

If you don’t want them to act as Combat Infantry, provide enough Combat Infantry to do the job.

It would be really great if even a few members of Congress or this misadministration would show half of the courage and leadership ability that Sergeant Hester displayed.

[™ Kevin Drum]

Ringo’s Climbing Attempts

Wow, this is easy!

[Edit: Ringo’s dashing around now includes climbing, which is painful on an unclad leg.]

Friday Ark

I assume that most people wander by Eschaton often to see what Duncan is writing about. If you have any ties to real capitalists, read Small Bizness.

Bush doesn’t know, or care, how his policies affect small businesses.

1. Rook’s Rant

At this point in World War II, Hitler and Mussolini were dead, the Emperor of Japan was under house arrest, and American troops were heading home.

Of course, being the largest state, Alaska has to supersize the problem as reported by the AP in Eagle Crashes Into House.

You have to convert your broadband modem from router mode to bridge mode. If you don’t know what that means, you had better have someone available who does know before you start messing with cables.

You have to know how to use ancient tools like telnet if you can’t access equipment with a browser.

You had better know something about electromagnetic wave propagation forms around antennae if you are working at the edge of reception.

You may have to give up programs that you have used for years to make this work.

Oh, did I mention that the first thing you have to do when you’ve got this new equipment installed is download the drivers and patches that have accumulated while the equipment was sitting on the shelf.

This has certainly been a learning experience, sort of like using the Braille method to find poison ivy.