Lucifer in the flesh

MoonHowler

 

CNN.com:

Washington (CNN)Former House Speaker John Boehner called Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz “Lucifer in the flesh,” in a withering interview at Stanford University published Thursday.

In it, he repeated many of the same attacks he used last month while calling on his successor, Paul Ryan, to seek the Republican nomination.
“Lucifer in the flesh,” Boehner told Stanford’s David Kennedy, a history professor emeritus, according to the Stanford Daily. “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”
Boehner also said he was “texting buddies” with GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump and friends with former House colleague and fellow Ohioan, John Kasich.
Cruz was a thorn in Boehner’s side when Boehner was Speaker of the House. Between Cruz and  Tea Party Republicans, Boehner threw in the towel.  He is rumored to have called them all jackasses and probably a lot of other things.
How many mainstream Republicans feel like John Boehner does?  What exactly is a mainstream Republican?
I am of the mindset that those who feel betrayed really don’t understand the meaning of compromise.  No one party usually gets it own way on everything.
lucifer

Georgia O’Keefe, Michigan schools and vaginas

MoonHowler

 

okeefe

Washingtonpost.com:

Any serious discussion of Georgia O’Keeffe’s work is bound to touch upon her provocative use of feminine imagery.

The great American painter is celebrated not only for her renditions of Southwestern landscapes and New York skyscrapers, but also for her iconic, colorful flowers. Despite repeated denials by the artist prior to her death 30 years ago, critics have long held that those flowers were overt allusions to female genitalia.

Allison Wint, a substitute teacher at a middle school in Battle Creek, Mich., told the Detroit Free Press that she was hoping to provoke a thoughtful dialogue about historical interpretations of O’Keeffe’s work on Friday when she used the word “vagina” during a discussion with eighth graders.

Now, Wint claims that the verbal reference to female anatomy — a word she freely admits to having used — has cost her a job at Harper Creek Middle School.

“Yes, I did say that word; however, I was saying it in the context of art history,” she told CBS affiliate WWMT. “I wasn’t being vulgar.”

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Skeptical justices hear McDonnell case

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

Supreme Court justices on Wednesday seemed prepared to overturn the 2014 corruption conviction of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and perhaps make it harder for prosecutors to bring charges against politicians who provide favors for their benefactors.

Justices on both sides of the ideological divide expressed concern about federal corruption laws that could criminalize what they variously called “routine” or “everyday” actions that politicians perform for campaign contributors or supporters who have provided them with gifts.

“For better or for worse, it puts at risk behavior that is common,” said Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who along with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. suggested that the federal corruption laws are so vague that they might be unconstitutional.

[As McDonnell awaits Supreme Court, another governor watches from prison]

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Aspergers man charged with child porn

MoonHowler

 

 

NBCWashington.com:

A Virginia man who has Asperger’s syndrome spent four days in jail after being indicted for downloading child pornography, but his grandparents told News4 he didn’t know what he was doing was wrong.
The time 27-year-old Mikey Dejerolme spent in jail in Stafford County left him shell-shocked, his grandparents said, and he emerged acting like a 6-year-old.
“About the third night there, he did not think he was going to make it out,” said his grandmother, Nina Dejerolme. ”He’s not very forthcoming with emotion but that night he told me goodbye and I love you.”
Now he often won’t let go of his grandmother’s hand.

Nina and Tony Dejerolme, who raised Mikey Dejerolme since he was a toddler, think charges should not have been filed.
In April 2015, deputies knocked on their door. They found child porn on Mikey Dejerolme’s computer.

His grandparents said they’ve determined he followed a peer-to-peer link while downloading music. While he is intellectually bright, he is like a 12-year-old emotionally, his grandparents said.
“I explained to Mikey that was bad what he did and it’s illegal and he can’t do that,” Tony Dejerolme said.
Ohio Victim May Have Been Target of Facebook Threat
“I made a mistake in having those [pictures] on there,” Mikey Dejerolme told News4. “I didn’t like them.”

This situation is absurd.  Charges need to be dropped.   Sadly, this could happen to anyone.  Mikey is 12 emotionally.  12 year olds are curious.  How many pre-adolescents get into unsavory stuff on the internet and take a good look because they are curious?    Mikey should be treated as though he were 12.  Charges should be dropped and the grandparents will monitor his computer activities.

Why waste the tax payers money prosecuting this young man?

Speaking of Bob McDonnell….

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

Along with the state officials and law professors who are happy that the Supreme Court this week is reviewing the corruption conviction of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell, add inmate No. 24775-001 at the federal prison in Oakdale, La.

He is otherwise known as Don E. Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, whom many of those same people supported when the justices decided — twice — that his conviction did not warrant an extended review.

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McAuliffe restores voting rights to felons

MoonHowler


 

In a nutshell:

Washingtonpost.com:

McAuliffe’s restoration of voting rights will apply to former nonviolent and violent offenders. Anyone who has been convicted of a felony and has completed his sentence and been released from supervised probation or parole is eligible. The new voting rights apply to felons convicted in another state and living in Virginia.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe will allow more than 200,000 ex-cons in Virginia to register to vote in the upcoming presidential election, one of the biggest actions taken by a state to instantly restore voting rights.

The change applies to all felons who have completed their sentences and been released from supervised probation or parole. The Democratic governor’s decision particularly affects black residents of Virginia: 1 in 4 African Americans in the state has been permanently banned from voting because of laws restricting the rights of those with convictions.

“Once you have served your time and you’ve finished up your supervised parole. . .I want you back as a full citizen of the commonwealth,” McAuliffe said. “I want you to have a job. I want you paying taxes, and you can’t be a second-class citizen.”

The governor called the instant restoration of rights to these Virginians the natural next step to his incremental streamlining of a process that has already given 18,000 nonviolent felons their rights back. With the signing of Friday’s executive order, McAuliffe eliminated the need for an application for violent felons who had completed their sentences up to that moment.

 

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“Damaged masculinity,” guns, and mass shootings

MoonHowler

There were 374 mass shootings in 2015, according the crowd-sourced database Mass Shooting Tracker. Watch this motion graphic and hear the 911 calls to get a complete picture of the human toll. (Gillian Brockell,Julio Negron/The Washington Post)

What was Eric Harris of Columbine notoriety without his killing instruments?  His journals give us insight into his mind.

Washingtonpost.com:

Harris was born with a birth defect in his leg. He also had a chest deformity that required surgeries just before high school. He had a noticeable, sunken chest. His hopes to follow his father into the military — to be a tough guy, a Marine — were likely to be unrealized.

Guns, he reasoned, could give him power and control.

“I am (expletive) armed,” he wrote in his journal. “I feel more confident, stronger, more Godlike.”

What was he without guns?

“The weird looking Eric kid,” Harris wrote.

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School board to re-write school naming and renaming policy

MoonHowler

Bristowbeat.com:

Prince William School Board members are considering a policy change to change how schools are named or renamed.

The agenda item is a response to the renaming of Godwin Middle School. There was no regulation to guide the board through that process as  regulation 854-1 does not mention anything about renaming schools.

It does dictates how to name a new school or facility, saying community committees must be formed. Those committees present their recommendations to the school board, and the school board then names the schools by majority vote.

Wednesday, Gainesville school board member Alyson Satterwhite asked the board to extend the regulation to include the renaming existing schools and facilities.

“I felt like we needed to put something into policy, so if a renaming came up again, we would have a policy to follow.”

School Board members all agreed with Satterwhite that the community should be involved in any future school renamings, but some went a step further, suggesting other changes to the regulation as well.

Good on the school board for having this discussion, even though it is too little too late.  Their ineptitude last March caused irreparable fractures and damage  in our community.  However, the time to move on upon us.  How do we go forward?

Several members suggested that schools should not be named after living people.  Good idea.  It becomes a popularity contest.  Ms. Jessie disagreed, saying that the school would have never been named for Fannie Fitzgerald had the rule been written policy  that only the deceased could be considered.  How nice that Ms. Fitzgerald knew she had been honored.  She and the other 3 black teachers who were the trailblazers when PWC schools integrated  absolutely should be remembered for their bravery.

Another board member suggested that schools not be named for people at all.  Still another strongly urged the board to consider people closely tied to the education community.

The discussion has begun.  The community needs to give the school board their thoughts and direction.  There was merit in most of the comments I read.

The topic that was omitted was how to decide to rename schools.  That should be an important consideration and I suspect it will become the 2000 pound  elephant in the room.  I say we do not rename schools.  Should a compelling need arise, we need to do it with dignity and honor.  There was no point in the dishonor that was heaped on Mills Godwin.  It was inexcusable.

Where do we go from here and how do we a avoid the Godwin debacle in the future?

 

Bathrooms: What’s all the hoopla about?

MoonHowler

 

 

pee 2

Why do politicians involve themselves in these issues?

If a girl becomes a boy, unless he has had surgery, he can’t use the urinal.  Therefore, he goes into the stall.  The door is closed, what’s the issue?

If a boy becomes a girl,  then she goes into the girls’ room where there are stalls with doors.  There are no urinals.  Close the door, do your business and leave.  No politician needs to be involved.

If we are speaking of school environment, if the Moon-Howler solution doesn’t work, then build a unisex bathroom with a single stall.  One at a time.  Mission accomplished.

We don’t need 500 rules to govern bathrooms.

For people who want less government interference, the Republicans in North Carolina have really out-done themselves in the invasion department.

elephant pee

Confirmation: 25 years later

MoonHowler

hill

Washingtonpost.com:

As assistant counsel to President George H.W. Bush, Mark Paoletta played a role in the 1991 Senate confirmation hearings for the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

But he’s taking on a new role when it comes to the upcoming HBO movie about the hearings starring Kerry Washington as Anita Hill, the woman who accused Thomas of sexual harassment: Paoletta is now leading an effort to fact-check the flick. Today he launched confirmationbiased.com, a website he thinks will combat what he calls the pro-Hill “false narratives” in the movie, with documents, video footage and other content about the real-life hearings. (Washington and HBO brass say it’s not biased against Thomas.)

While some other Republicans involved in the hearings have preemptively bashed it, Paoletta says his complaint isn’t just a drive-by one — he plans to “devote himself” to correcting the record.

25 years later, the Thomas-Hill affair is still a “he said-she said.”  Will we ever know the real truth? Probably not.

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PG County firefighter shot and killed

MoonHowler
Lowered PG County flag
Lowered PG County flag

Washingtonpost.com:

John E. Ulmschneider always wanted to be the first firefighter at the scene in an emergency. On Friday, his desire to help cost him his life.

Ulmschneider was among the Prince George’s County rescuers who rushed to a Temple Hills-Camp Springs-area house after a call from a man who had been unable to reach his diabetic brother. The caller told firefighters that he feared his brother had suffered a blackout or seizure.

When knocks on the door went unanswered and there was no response as rescuers announced that they were outside, the emergency workers decided to break through the door, officials said. As they did, gunshots erupted from inside, mortally wounding Ulmschneider and injuring another firefighter and the man’s brother.

Authorities said Saturday that they are still working to determine why the 61-year-old man allegedly opened fire. But a county fire spokesman said it may have been a tragic mistake — the man possibly thought that the rescuers were intruders seeking to break into his house.

The man was released from police custody Saturday evening, officials said, and no charges have been filed. Officials did not say whether the man had suffered a medical emergency.

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PWC Schools turf wars

MoonHowler

From Prince William Times:

Issue leads to turf war among board members

By Hillary Chester
© Prince William Times / Apr. 13, 2016

Prince William County School board members fight over who calls the shots when it comes to visiting another member’s district.

Overstepping and a lack of interest by Prince William County School Board members regarding the Godwin Middle School name change were addressed at the board’s April 6 meeting.

Following the March 2 vote to rename Godwin after George M. Hampton, PWCS Chairman Ryan Sawyers, PWCS Occoquan Representative Lillie Jessie, and PWCS Neabsco Representative Diane Raulston met with Godwin faculty. The March 10 meeting focused on the name change and implementation. No information from that meeting has been released.

Godwin is in the Neabsco district and is represented by Raulston.

Community member Diana Allen spoke during the school board meeting’s Citizen’s Time on April 6. She said Raulston did not serve the Godwin community.

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Bill Clinton and the BLM gang

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

NEW YORK — For days now, Bill Clinton has been attempting to extricate himself from a confrontation with Black Lives Matter protesters, trying both to hold to his position and step back from it. It’s been an awkward dance.

But it speaks to a broader problem for the 42nd president of the United States. Clinton is caught in a time warp, having to grapple with how much the era in which he served, the events that occurred then and the actions he took as president have been reinterpreted and, by many in his own party, rejected.

Clinton is a gifted campaigner and remains a popular ex-president. There are few politicians more skilled at synthesizing and explaining issues or making a political argument, as he demonstrated repeatedly in his advocacy for President Obama in the 2012 campaign.

But this is 2016, not 1992 or 1996, and things have changed — particularly within the Democratic Party. Clinton’s exchange with the Black Lives Matter demonstrators over the 1994 crime bill and in particular Hillary Clinton’s use of the term “superpredators” at the time brought into high relief the conundrum he and she face.

Among other things, that 1994 crime bill instituted tough sentencing provisions that resulted in high rates of incarceration for many young African Americans convicted of nonviolent offenses. That provision in particular is now seen by many people as too harsh. Many of the politicians who supported it then — including Sen. Bernie Sanders — have said it went too far. Hillary Clinton is in that camp. So is Bill Clinton.

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Denmark: So much for decency

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

COPENHAGEN — Lise Ramslog was out for a barefoot amble on the warm day last September that Europe’s refugee crisis came to her remote village in southern Denmark.

The 70-year-old grandmother had planned a simple stroll. What she found in her ­quiet, coastal community were hundreds of exhausted asylum seekers who had arrived on the ferry from Germany only to be stranded without access to public transportation. Some had begun to walk along the highway in desperation.

Ramslog decided on the spot that she would help: She ended up giving two young couples, a small child and a newborn baby a 120-mile ride in her cramped sedan to their destination in Sweden. “When we crossed the border, they rejoiced and cried,” she recalled.

In another context, Ramslog might be known as a good Samaritan.

But the Danish government has a different term for her: convicted human smuggler.

Good grief. Fined for being a decent human being. Had the Danish people been warned?  During WWII, the Danes were amongst the most humane people in the world.  They saved hundreds of Jews.  What has become of the humanitarian state?  Denmark also shielded and assisted those escaping the Iron Curtain.

All of Europe seems to have gone heavy handed in discouraging immigrants, mostly asylum seekers.

Is it fear?  Is it financial?  Or could it be that there were just too many needy people?

The link to the post shows the draconian measures that many European countries are taking to discourage refugees.  It’s a new world but not necessarily brave.

 

Dennis Hastert: Hypocrite extraordinaire (and sex abuser)

MoonHowler

Hastert

Fusion.net:

Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert molested at least four boys over multiple decades, federal prosecutors alleged on Friday.

Hastert, the longest-serving Republican Speaker in history, had already pled guilty to using hush money to cover up abuse allegations, but Friday was the first time the government detailed the full nature of some of the charges against him in a filing for the judge overseeing Hastert’s sentencing. The allegations stemmed from Hastert’s time as a high school wrestling coach in Illinois between the 1960s and the 1980s.

Here’s how the Associated Press described one of the allegations:

Prosecutors say in the filing that Hastert’s known sexual acts against Individual A and other accusers consist of “intentional touching of minors’ groin area and genitals or oral sex with a minor.”

According to the document, Individual A told prosecutors the abuse occurred in a motel room on the way home from wrestling camp. Hastert, the only adult on the trip, told the 14-year-old that he would stay in his room while about a dozen other boys stayed in a different room. Individual A said Hastert touched him inappropriately after suggesting he would massage a groin injury the boy had.

Hastert’s downfall began after federal agents questioned him about several suspiciously large bank withdrawals, as the Chicago Tribune recounted on Saturday.

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