Inhofe wastes tax payer dollars

Why are so many of the Republican senators such stupid tools? Guess he had nothing to do in his home state. …

COPENHAGEN — Sen. Jim Inhofe flew across the Atlantic and — on little sleep — braved the snow, the cold and the dark to deliver his skeptical message at the international climate conference.

What he found when he got here: a few aides and a single reporter.

The ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hoped to spread two messages in Copenhagen: Global warming is a hoax, and there’s no way the Senate is going to pass a cap-and-trade bill.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30769.html

Holden explains his “no” vote on health care reform

On the surface, his explanation appears reasonable but why did it take him so long? Was he not able to explain his “no” vote on health care reform on the day he cast his vote?

Read Congressman Tim Holden’s op-ed piece from the Harrisburg Patriot-News. Holden’s 17th Congressional District includes Harrisburg, Hershey and Lebanon.

http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2009/12/health_reform_bill_lacks_cost.html

New Hampshire: no more freedom for you!

Craig O’Brien is a guy with a history. A criminal history. Burglary and drinking. Lots of drinking. Maybe even some mental issues.

But the 48-y.o. Craig O’Brien of today is a Maine guy running from the New Hampshire Craig O’Brien of his youth. Literally.

I’d laugh at the story in today’s Boston Globe if the situation it lays out weren’t so f&$%#ing pathetic.

Craig O’Brien has been banned from… Portsmouth. Why? Allegedly for running on the road, for running without his shirt on, for calling a bystander a “sissy,” and for calling the Portsmouth Police Department “communists” and “the KGB.”

Freedom, and the 1st Amendment, is alive and well in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Sharing the roads, apparently, is another matter.

New Hampshire. Land of “live free or die.” Just not in Portsmouth – the Dodge City of the East.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2009/12/02/for_jogger_no_more_crossing_the_line/

Meet Kirk Cameron, Asshat.

Kirk Cameron – a mid-level actor – views himself as a strong Christian. Okay. No problem there.

But when he starts spouting dubious statistics and slanderous claims against college science professors because he wants to be the next Michael Behe or because some little-known outfit called Living Waters wants to insult college science professors using his half fame as proxy, then I have a bit of a problem.

Kirkie Cameron youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM0oBuhTLRI

More on what Cameron and his anti-Darwin creationist buddies at Living Waters are doing can be found at InsideHigherEd. Make sure you read the comments which follow the article.

Jon Stewart on Sarah Palin: there’s nothing there!

This segment still has me chuckling under my breath. She’s all ambition without any gumbo. She’s a steak’n'potato dinner… without any beef or potato.

Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show.

Indoor Track Qualifying Standards for Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania State Track & Field Coaches Association has posted the “absolute standards” needed to qualify for the Pennsylvania High School Track & Field Championships to be held at the Penn State University Indoor T&F facility in State College. Note the different qualifying standards for flat and banked indoor tracks. Note also the requirement that performances be verifiable. A time schedule of events is included at the bottom of the page.

Note also the ban on all “electronic devices.” Punishment is banning from PSU. Soooooo, like, if I bring my cell phone and it rings, will Nittany 5-0 gimme the boot??

PIAA Pennsylvania High School State Cross-Country Championship Results for 2009

PIAA held its annual cross-country championship races – 4 of them – at the old Parkview Golf Course behind the Giant Sports Complex this morning. One race each for girls in AA and AAA, and one race each for boys in AA and AAA.

Full results are already available at the runhigh website – which has scooped the usually prompt folks at the penntrackxc /pa.milesplit / dyestat websites.

http://runhigh.com/2009%20WEB%20RESULTS/R110709AA.html

And photo’s of your winners are here: penntrackxc

Lindsay Kerr of Northwest Lehigh (AA) is upper left in black uniform with yellow stripe. She’s smiling.

Sara Sargeant of Pennsbury (AAA) is upper right in orange uniform.

Steven Welsh of Kutztown (AA) is in lower left in dark blue uniform.

Brandon Miles of Penn Hills (AAA) is in lower right in baby blue uniform.

Congrats all all the winners. Really enjoyed the morning competition at Hershey. Still do not understand why the course goes right next to a sewage treatment plant!! Stinky-poo!!

John Latschar: the shame of Gettysburg

Well, the National Park Service has finally acted. Finally.

For months, we’ve had to read about an investigation into alleged “misconduct and criminal” activities of John Latschar, Superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park with respect to his relationship with the Gettysburg Foundation. I won’t get into all the allegations – some of which aren’t really known despite the reports in the Washington Post – but some misconduct was found to be substantiated via Latschar’s own admissions.

3,456 pornographic images of the “most sexually explicit” variety were found on Latschar’s work computer (federally owned) after an analysis of his computer’s hard drive.

Latschar’s punishment? Job reassignment within the National Park Service. He gets to hide inside with a new desk job.

The asshat should be fired. Period.

And while the news reports states that the internal Interior Department investigation found “no criminal actions” on the part of Latschar, I feel compelled to point out that downloading 3,456 pornographic images of the “most sexually explicit” variety represents the theft of honest services by Latschar. I well imagine that it took a large chunk of time – during which Latschar was paid – to search for and download all those “most” images onto a computer owned by the taxpayer. And that does not even address those images which might be of the “lesser” variety.

John A. Latschar needs to be fired. And the Interior Department should immediately file charges against him for theft of services. No public employee should escape criminal charges for downloading pornographic images on a publicly-owned computer while being paid by the taxpayer.

Here is the Official Report but it omits reference to the pornographic images.

Here is the WaPo article that goes into detail about the internal memo which describes the pornographic images (said to be in the 10’s of thousands).

Update (sorta). Latschar has friends: boroughvent.com

Death caught on webcam

At around 6:30 on Wednesday night, Meleanie Hain was on the computer using the webcam to talk to a friend. Nearby sat her backpack. Inside the backpack was her infamous Glock 26. Fully loaded.

Then her husband arrived.

The webcam friend had momentarily turned away from Meleanie Hain, only to witness Scott Hain shooting into the spot in which Meleanie Hain had just been. The friend immediately called 911.

Will the webcam footage become available to the public under pennsyltucky’s new Open Records Law? Don’t count on it.

Latest story from pennlive.

Greg Rotz, an open carry advocate, was quoted in one story as confusingly wondering if she was unarmed.

“I’m very curious to know if she happened to have her weapon on her. If she didn’t, and she would have, it might have made a difference.”

Obviously not, Greg. And that’s a problem with how some gun owners view ownership of a firearm. Ownership does not guarantee safety. Nor does the proximity of a fully-loaded weapon within close reach. Her weapon was fully-loaded and nearby. Yet, she is as dead as any unarmed person would be.

Hain often posted on the www.paopencarry.org website. Her nickname? “Shefearsnothing.” If that’s not an irony, I will never know one.

Meleanie Hain: gun-toting soccer mom shot in murder-suicide

The details are unclear at this point, but one thing is certain: the woman who open carried a loaded weapon to a little kids’ soccer game at Optimists Park in Lebanon, PA, is dead.

A neighbor reported that Tyler Hain, the 9-y.o. oldest child of Meleanie Hain came screaming to his house yelling “Daddy shot mom!!”

When police arrived, the gun-toting soccer mom and her husband Scott were found dead at their residence near the intersections of South 2nd Avenue and East Grant Street, not far from the park at which Meleanie Hain was told to remove herself by a current Republican candidate for Lebanon County judge. Her firearms permit was subsequently revoked by Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo but reinstated after a hearing before a judge. She was chided for exercising poor judgment but the ruling stated that she was within her rights under the 2nd Amendment.

Interviewed after her firearms permit was revoked, Hain stated that she was concerned about her safety. She stated her husband worked in a “law enforcement related” job, which the grapevine indicated was as a parole officer in neighboring Berks County. The media stories about the shooting indicate that she and her husband were having a “marital spat” this week. It’s fairly obvious that the “marital spat” wasn’t just a recent thing and that the person who likely made her most afraid for her safety was a person who lived inside her own home.