West Virginia Political Sweatbox

Listen up, you anonymous commenters on the Sprouse posts.

2009-06-22T22:25:00.002-05:00

I'm getting tired of seeing 20 "anonymous" posts all saying the same things. So, because I can see your ip addresses and know that there's only about 4 or 5 of you, I have to start making rules, because you can't be trusted to act like semi-adults.

First, you can start by using a fucking name, so there's not 50 straight messages by "anonymous," all saying basically the same thing cluttering up my email box.

Second, while Slick Vic is a straight up slimeball, if you are going to post crap about him or his current relationship status, at least put something substantive in it. And just in case you are unsure, "She's a bitch" or "She's a skank" or "She's a phony" or whatever, is not the least bit substantive. We know those things already. You've told us that umpteen times. Plus, it's Vic we are talking about. It only makes sense. If you don't have something useful to post, save the bandwith and go look at porn or play online poker or something.

Lastly, you don't have to go back and post basically the same message on EVERY Vic post I ever made, dating back 5 years. Nobody is reading those posts, but you.

I hear a rumble.

2009-03-26T22:11:00.003-05:00

It might be time for a new post in the very near future.

Distress

2008-05-30T23:49:00.005-05:00

Are they finally turning on each other?

2008-01-29T18:55:00.000-05:00

Ok, I can't let this go any longer. The whole "Heathergate," Heather Bresch, Manchin, WVU EMBA scandal would be something that the ol' Binger would normally be commenting on daily. But I just can't devote as much time to this as I would like. But, for a quick primer, for those who've been living under a rock for the past month here's a quick "get up to speed" lesson. Just go over to the Fifth Column, and read the posts and comments there over the last month or so.

That will give you all the details, and links to those details, to get a good idea of what's going on.

But, as this whole thing is sort of quieting down, in that the "panel" has been picked and are going to start their investigation soon, there are going to be little dribs and drabs, slipping out. Like in today's Daily Athenaeum, where the cracks in the already shaky WVU official position, start to get a little bigger.

Sears, the Business school dean (who did a hilarious "ants in my pants" impression on Bray Cary's Decision Makers show a couple weeks ago), says he resolved this degree discrepancy, based on information given to him by Professor Paul Speaker, and EMBA Program Director, Gerald Blakely.

Now, it appears, that Sears had his mind already made up, when he asked Blakely for the information. In the DA article, Blakely said he provided a summary of the evidence, but it wasn't all developed in his office, to Dean Sears regarding the information on Bresch's coursework. "It was prepared to support his (Sears') conclusion that she had met all the requirements,” Blakely said.

Even more interesting, Speaker said he never spoke to Sears about this. Again, after Sears referred to "consulting with and relying on" evidence from Speaker, AND Blakely.

Blakely quickly denies any part of making the call Bresch earned her MBA, on behalf of himself AND his department. He appears to lay the "call" at Sears, and seems to assert Sears did it, with evidence that was questionable.

Blakely also says, "My belief is that the University panelist is the proper place to find out what’s gone on." To find out “whether Dean Sears is right or wrong or what’s gone on.”

Could they finally be turning on each other? Who's going to start blaming who? Who's going to blow the whistle, to save their own skin?

This is how things unravel. This is how the original "gate" snowballed, and became a part of our lexicon.

We can only hope the same result happens here.

We deserve it.

WVU deserves it.

And most importantly, legitimate WVU graduates deserve it.

Maybe Hoppy needs to re-evaluate his observation skills.

2007-04-11T22:54:00.000-05:00

47 to 5. Take that, Garrison fanboys. The faculty Senate at WVU sent you and your posterchild for all things bad about West Virginia politics, a nice big fat steaming cup of "HELL NO." They voted 47 to 5 to support Nellis for the President's position. That's a resounding defeat. They weren't even close to supporting Garrison. Good for them. Faculty were getting the blow off on the whole selection process anyway, and were smart enough to see what was really going on here. Maybe the fact they got railroaded when Davey Boy became president, caused them to take a little more action this time. They at least get kudos for getting themselves more organized this time.

The reality of this whole situation is probably still already decided, however. The Selection Committee will still pick Garrison, and that will be the choice the Faculty have to live with. It was interesting to see in the Gazette's article on this, that the Student Government reps on the Selection Committee are for Garrison. Well, of COURSE they are. They know that if they support the done deal choice for Garrison, Garrison will be more apt to help those little climbers in a few years when they need a good suckass job in government, or with one of Garrison's business contacts. And the Gazette didn't disappoint in that it spent more time talking about how the student reps were dazzled and wowed by Garrison, as opposed to the actual reasons why the faculty senate voted the way it did. Garrison spoke glowingly of how he thought he had the students' support, but surprisingly lost his voice when asked about the faculty senate vote. The Gazette's preference for Garrison has been well documented by Hippie Killer over at the Fifth Column.

The faculty can make Garrison's life a little more difficult with this vote if the outrage over Garrison is sustained. Or more likely, the outrage over his selection will eventually flame out and he'll coast along, making 300 grand with a house, car, expense account, etc., for a job he's not remotely qualified for, but more than connected enough for. I'd call that par for the course for West Virginia. That's what happened with Davey Boy. Joe Simoni and some other faculty tried to fight the Hardesty selection in the courts at the time, but were rebuffed every time and eventually the hubub died down, and Dave has led the University to........ uh.......... um........now. If there were massive improvements to WVU's academic standing in the last 12 years, I'm pretty sure I've missed it.

Then again, maybe this will be an instance where the politicos and ruling government class will take note of what the people want, and re-examine their search process. That would be the best outcome. But I'm not betting on it.

But the real story here is, how this situation is almost in verbatim conjunction with this blog's stated purpose, going back to my very first post over two years ago where I stated:

In the realm of talk radio, Hoppy Kercheval's Metro News Talkline is probably the most important talk radio show on West Virginia politics, but again, he's a bit too cozy with some of the political elite on occasion.
Hoppy, for almost a solid week now, has done nothing but pimp for Garrison, while in the next breath immediately professing he doesn't have any inside information, and tries to come off as "impartial."

The most egregious act of pimpage, however, came yesterday in Hoppy's column. He fawned over how "well" Garrison did at his Q&A session with the faculty. Oh yes, he managed to handle "every" question with the perfect answer. Let's review Hoppy's column.

Garrison was at his fortress best yesterday afternoon as he stood before over 300 WVU faculty, staff and students and took questions and comments for 90 minutes.

Finally, The Fortress was on his turf, answering the criticisms and questions about his qualifications for the WVU Presidency.

According to Hoppy, who was at the Q&A session, Garrison was at his "best," answering the questions (Hoppy nicknamed Garrison "The Fortress" during his days in the Wise administration).

On his modest academic accomplishments: “I have a different background.”

Well, no kidding. What a BRILLIANT answer. And this is what Hoppy classifies as handling himself well? Saying “Uh, you are right, I don’t have the same education background as almost every other higher education president in the country but I should get this job anyway because of who my friends are,” is a good answer? How is that addressing the issue? Admitting he’s not got the background that faculty is looking for (and is the accepted background in all but a few similar positions in the whole country) you are looking for, is somehow a “good” answer? Hoppy, come on. Don’t patronize us.

On his age, 38: “I have the energy level, the passion, the fire in the belly” to do the job.

Well, there you go. Slam dunk. He says he’s got the energy to do this job. That’s a clincher.

On his connections to the search committee and the Board of Governors: “There is no conflict of interest.”

Who knew that Garrison would use the Jedi Mind trick on the audience? Stunningly brilliant. More telling, however, is that it apparently worked on Hoppy. He should have followed this up with “These aren’t the droids you are looking for.” Obviously, if he says there's no conflict of interest, there isn't one. Who knew it was that simple?

On his priorities: Number one, more pay for faculty and staff.

No shit? He wants more money for faculty and staff pay? He probably wants world peace too. And puppies for everyone. Just how is he going to acquire more money for faculty and staff? Last I checked, he was running Wise’s administration when 10% budget cuts were the yearly norm for Higher Education. With friends like him, I doubt Higher Ed in West Virginia can handle too many more enemies. And I don’t recall any Fanny Seiler columns when he was Tax Commissioner telling everyone how he managed to jack up the salaries of Tax Department employees. Based on this record of acquiring funds for salaries while he was in charge, if I were an employee of WVU, I’d hold off on spending my raise just yet. I know, call me crazy.

On the ever-expanding University: “Growth for growth’s sake is a mistake”

Really? Did he get that off the back of a fortune cookie? Nice soundbite. I’m sure he practiced it over and over in front of the mirror before he took the podium. He probably even believes it. Well, at least we know he won't allow growth for "growth's sake." Whew. That's a relief. I'm sure that was a big concern the faculty had.

Yes, Garrison held his own, not with soaring vision or excessive higher education speak, but with a cool, collected demeanor that showed he has confidence he can do the job, even if some academics think otherwise.

So, “cool, collected demeanor” trumps substantive answers? Cliches and soundbites trump specifics? Jeez, Hoppy, you sure are easy to please. How about, “I just want to give 110%.” Or “We have to play them one game at a time.” Or “We are going to work hard, and do our best.” I guess that would be “holding his own” too?

Garrison was helped by the fact that during the limited time frame some of the faculty questions were self-absorbed monologues that lacked punctuation and purpose. By the time a couple of the questioners finished their painful posturing it was a relief to listen to Garrison, even if he had nothing substantial to say on the subject.

So, some of the faculty questions were self absorbed monologues, and that is bad, but Garrison answers with nothing substantive, and 100% clichéd and political “rah-rah” answers, and that’s good? This is example A of why this State’s media is pathetic. Hoppy lets EVERY SINGLE FREAKING politico on his show give those “self absorbed monologues” as the answers to HIS questions, and then he NEVER challenges them. Hoppy will ask a straightforward question, and the politico gives the equivalent of a “self absorbed monologue,” as their answer, and then Hoppy takes it and moves on. He NEVER pins them down, and they KNOW they can get away with softball answers on his show. Why? Because Hoppy’s livelihood DEPENDS on his access to them. If they don’t go on Hoppy’s show, because Hoppy calls them on their bullshit, then Hoppy has no show. Hoppy knows this, so he never calls them on their bullshit. And he’s going to need access to Garrison if he’s the next President (and Hoppy knows he’ll be the next President, regardless of what he says on his show), so he gobbles up his bullshit too, and prints glowing, fawning, puff pieces on him on Metronews’ website.

A few faculty members said afterward that Garrison won them over, or at least they were not as worried about him as they were before they heard from him. When it was over, most of his critics' cannon shots had whizzed by The Fortress or, if they made contact, barely caused a splinter.

"They whizzed right by, or only caused splinters?" A 47-5 vote in the WVU Faculty Senate would indicate otherwise. Some of them, apparently, landed squarely in his wheelhouse and exploded. Nice job, Hoppy, you completely misread (or misrepresented) the faculty response to the Q&A session. But hey, don't let that get in your way of your constant pimping for Garrison. We know you need access to him for your livelihood. It's just a shame you can't put that aside, once in a while, and give us the straight story, and call "Bullshit" on occasion.

“Uhhhhhhhhh, Mr. Garrison, I have just one more question.”

2007-03-29T21:35:00.000-05:00

Ok, by now, everyone knows that Mike Garrison will be the next President at WVU. Everyone knows it. Garrison has been angling for this job ever since he first shoved his head up Alan Hammock and Bowtie Bob DiClerico’s collective ass. He’s been student body president (yay, WVU student government elections have a such a pathetic voter turn out, you can win if you can manage to get half of your dorm floor buddies to vote for you – and you can easily accomplish that with a couple cases of free beer), he’s been this scholar or that. He’s been to Oxford (though according to comments at The Fifth Column, he dropped out – to me, that makes him a quitter). He’s been a smarmy law student who was on Moot Court, and now evidently, according to HK over at the Fifth Column, he’s playing somewhat fast and loose with his resume about whether he graduated with “honors” or not. You can agree or disagree, but stretching the truth, wouldn’t be something I’d put past Mikey.

So, he now gets out of law school, and goes to work for one of the smarmy defense firms, but quickly latches on as Tax Commissioner under Bob Wise. What the hell? Tax Commissioner? What the hell did he know about taxes? He got that job purely because he knew Wise. But he was surely qualified to be Tax Commissioner. Oh yes, he was so qualified he held that job for all of about 10 seconds, before being bumped up to Chief of Staff. Oh yes, he’s just quite the little political climber. But, let’s not stop there, noooooooo. Wise then appoints him to the Higher Education Policy Commission. I’m kind of surprised WVU mentions that. I would be afraid it might set off a fatal case of déjà vu, considering the bullshit maneuver that got Hardesty got the job in the first place. For those who don’t remember, Hardesty was on the Board of Trustees – the precursor to the Policy Commission – and they picked the new president. Of course, Hardesty stepped down as a BoT member, when he applied, but obviously, he had quite a few buddies on that Board. He made it to the top three choices (he and two other no-names, who both had infinitely more experience in higher education than Dave). But the BoT decided to simply sit on the selection, until the other two candidates eventually withdrew their names (after they took other employment) and then said, “Well, I guess we have to go with Dave, he’s the only candidate left. What a coincidence too, because he’s the one we would have picked anyway”

So, we have Garrison as the lock now. That’s really no surprise. Hell, I figured this out about 10 seconds after Hardesty announced his resignation back in August. But, that’s backroom politics as usual in West Virginia, we shouldn’t be surprised.

The other two candidates on the short list, are what one would call “traditional” or “old school” type candidates. Candidates who have spent long chunks of their careers, dealing with the ins and outs of higher ed life. They’ve been in the trenches, and done the dirty work, and knows what actually goes on in a university. One is currently the Provost (ie, the 2nd in command) at Kansas State, and previously served as an academic Dean at WVU. He’s spent 25 or so years in higher ed. The other is also a lifelong higher education guy. He’s been a Dean, a teaching fellow, and is currently a university president. He’s spent 30+ years in higher education administration. These two guys are imminently more qualified to run WVU. They know infinitely more about a university, and it’s primary goal of academics, than Garrison ever will hope to know in 10 lifetimes.

But the REAL insult in this whole mess is more subtle, and totally exposes the “selection” for the total sham this thing is, if you just think about it for a second. Everyone knows Garrison is going to get the job. People like Hoppy Kercheval say stuff like “Oh, well, I don’t know who’s going to get it,” and he’s lying right through his teeth. Then people like Hoppy will hedge their bets by following it up with, “Well, you know the job of a university president isn’t the same as it used to be. It’s more about fundraising and schmoozing, and dealing with the legislature, and blah blah blah.” Maybe so. Maybe that IS the new breed of university presidents. No more working your way up through the ranks of faculty, to a dean’s job, to a provost, and then to a president. No, now all you have to do is be the right politician’s buddy, and viola, instant president material.

So, let’s assume that’s true, the job description now doesn’t lend itself to the “old school” type presidential candidates. And that “new” type of job description is what makes Garrison sooooooo attractive as a candidate, that the selection committee will most certainly use that as their justification for picking Garrison. So, now we come to what I’ll call the “Columbo moment.” For those who are too young to remember, Columbo was this TV detective who would investigate murders or crimes or whatever, and talk to all these people, and then he would go to the main “suspect” and talk to him as if Columbo was convinced the guy DIDN’T commit the crime. And as he got ready to leave, Columbo would then stop and say, “I have just one question……” and this question would invariably be the one question the suspect couldn’t provide an adequate answer to, and prove beyond a doubt that Columbo knew the guy did it and could prove it in court beyond a reasonable doubt.

So, we come to the Garrison “Columbo moment.” Ahem. In my best Peter Falk voice, with my rumpled trenchcoat on and a half-burnt cigar in my hand.

“I’m sure you’ll make a fine president, Mr. Garrison, and the search committee has obviously done its job well. They see in you all the qualities that are now needed as a university president. You are the epitome of the “new” breed of university president, much more suited than the “old school” type presidents to respond to the demands of running a university in today’s world. I’m sure this was an open, and honest search, and you are clearly the best qualified candidate. I wish you luck.

“Oh, I have just one question before I go. If the search committee knows the new trend in university presidents are the same type of candidates as you are, and this is the most important quality for a university president in today's world, why are the other two finalists, old school presidents, and not the same type of “new breed” university president as yourself?”

See, if they truly were wanting someone with the same background as yourself, you’d think they’d have more than one candidate in the entire candidate pool. And then they’d have more than one of those types of candidates in their final three. That is, if they truly had an honest search.”

This whole episode is a perfect example of why West Virginia is a joke.

The Legislature wants to give themselves a pay raise.

2007-02-05T23:27:00.000-05:00

...........And that's all I gotta say.

Since I did get some publicity in this week's Sunday Gazette Mail in their little "Outlook - Personal Technology" extra section in an article about blogging, I figured the least I could do would be give the few hardy souls who managed to find this blog a new entry. Even though the article got the address wrong, if you are reading this, you managed to find it in spite of that, so give yourself a pat on the back.

In last year's hysterically funny HBO Special, "Red White and Screwed," Lewis Black is riffing on the politicians. This is about 2 or so months after Cheney shoots his friend while quail hunting. At one point during his act, Black simply says, "Dick Cheney," and the crowd erupts in laughter, knowing immediately the absurdity of the Dick Cheney quail hunting episode. Black shrugs his shoulders, and says, "And that's all I gotta say." The crowd laughs even harder [check out the clip on Youtube, here].

Black illustrates the pure absurdity of simply mentioning Cheney's name, and the audience is immediately in on the joke. The joke doesn't even have to be said. The mere mention of Cheney's name is both the lead up and the punchline of the joke, all in one.

That is the identical situation with the WV Legislature even considering giving themselves a pay raise. You don't even have to explain the reasons why it is beyond ridiculous. You just have to simply say, "The WV Legislature is thinking about giving themselves a raise," and hilarity ensues. Every person who isn't related to some clown in the legislature, knows immediately the outrageousness of even considering the thought of a legislative pay raise.

But, just like Black, I can't leave well enough alone. He then goes on to do a bit about the actual hunting trip, and it just gets more hilarious. So, I guess I'll have to indulge the Delegate John Doyle's of this world, and reply to their idiocy of giving themselves a raise. Doyle (and many others in the Dome, including Papa Joe Cheerleader himself) will pollute the airwaves with several arguments in favor of the raise. For instance, you'll hear "You have to pay legislators better, because you need to get and keep qualified people in the legislature." So, since the pay sucks now, does that mean the current crop of legislators, aren't qualified or good candidates? I mean, with pay this low (if you buy their nonsense), obviously we aren't going to attract good, qualified candidates. So, what does that say about the quality of the jokers already in there? I'd say it means their quality is already suspect, if you believe their argument for giving themselves a raise. And if their reply to that is, "Well, no, the quality of the legislators now is pretty good." Then the obvious reply to that would be, "Well then, pay must not be much of an issue, if these good qualified candidates signed on for their terms with the pay as low as it is. I see no reason to raise it."

And, let's assume the pay IS too low. I don't see a huge exodus of these "good and qualified" legislators from the Legislature, on their own volition. No, the only time they leave, is a) they get a better gig (i.e., J.D. Beane, and countless others), b) they get beat in an election (which rarely happens), or c) they "voluntarily" step down (so they can run in some other election, i.e., Chris Wakim). Hell, even people like Bob Kiss don't "voluntarily" step down, even though that's how it's portrayed in the media (and nobody in the media has the guts to call him on it to his face - but not here at the Sweatbox). He was essentially forced out, because of the potential flap about his residency issues. Nobody leaves the legislature because of low pay, and for anyone to imply they do, is an insult to yours, mine, and every West Virginian's intelligence.

So, without some evidence of a huge exodus of these great and wonderfully qualified legislators, I can't see how pay would be a problem. It's obviously not bad enough for them to be leaving in droves of their own volition, so again, we are back to "Well, it must not be too bad." Hell, they act like having some turnover in the legislature would be a BAD thing. Hell, we should be thinking of ways to INCREASE the turnover, if their past performance in running this state, is any indication of what's to come. Hell, take away their pay entirely. Maybe more of them would leave.

They'll also trot out the "Well, this IS a full time job, blah blah blah," and "We do so much work during the session, and then we have interims and we are always taking constituent calls 24/7." Uh, last time I checked, nobody held a gun to their heads, and FORCED them to run for office. If they expected this "job" (and I use that term, with the utmost sarcasm I can muster) to be some sort of "60 days, go home, see ya' next year" type thing, then they are morons for not adequately determining the job's demands before they took it. Plus, they TOOK that job, KNOWING what it paid. If they didn't, well, then they are they are bigger morons than even I give them credit for, and they deserve nothing less than a nice little public tarring and feathering for their ignorance.

And lastly, if their pay (like everyone else's on the planet) is somehow tied to performance of their job duties, one only has to look at the current economic state of West Virginia under their leadership and immediately conclude that we might actually be better off just buying some monkeys and letting them run around the Capitol and throw their poo at each other. Hell, it couldn't be any worse than it is now. And it would be infinitely more entertaining.

I mean, there is just NO way to adequately defend their position. That's why the entire joke, start to finish, is simply "The Legislature wants to give themselves a pay raise."

Oh, I just couldn't stay away any longer.

2006-11-30T21:34:00.000-05:00

Hmmmm. Where to start. There's so much I could write about over the last 3 months, so I'll just throw out some short comments on a couple different things.

Let's go with some shots at our old pal Chicago Furlip (Mike Agnello) on 58 Live. Oh, how I loved to hear him squak and squeal like a little baby who got his toy taken away after the mid term elections. I guess they don't teach you how to be a good loser in Chicago. They must teach you how to be just a loser. Oh, yes, Don Blankenship and company were going to come in and clean house. Oh yes. Newsflash. Don's boys, along with Republicans in general got, to quote our very own President, "a thumpin'!!" And Furlip was just all up in arms about this complaint and that. For instance, he complained that Carrie Webster took some unfair shots at her republican opponent. Well boo hoo, freaking, hoo, Furlip. You want to play in the pigpen, don't complain about getting dirty. Yeah, I know, this is so three weeks ago, but I felt I had to comment.

Second, another thing Furlip and company have really done lately, is they are turning 58 live, what used to be a political talk show, into some version of the community bulletin board. Sure, their political views were infuriating, but still, there was an crumb of intelligence involved in that we could at least count on Furlip and company to actually take the right wing talking points memo off the email and read it on air. They now spend more time talking about this canned food drive, or this spaghetti dinner, or this christmas concert, than anything substantive. And it's almost always connected to some church, or some minister is on there shilling for his latest shindig. I have no problem with religion. If you want to practice it, by all means, pray your little heart out, and sing all the songs you want. But please spare me the minute details on a daily basis. I don't bore you with the details of my conversations with the Almighty, why don't you try the same. This has gotten so bad, I'm listening to those two Marshall idiots (along with moronic Delegate Danny Wells) on 1240AM sports in the evening, because at least they talk about the day's relevant sports issues, as opposed to simply shilling the next covered dish dinner and 580AM remote broadcast for 2 hours.

Also, in keeping with this, has anyone heard Furlip's little holiday greeting on the radio of, "Merry Christmas, and Blessed New Year?" See, this jackass can't even do it normal, like everyone else. I've never heard anyone ever say that. It's always, "Merry Christmas, and a HAPPY New Year." But no, Furlip has to revert to his past as a tent show evangelist and throw "bless" in there, which, one can only assume is short for "God Bless." No, Furlip can crow on and on about the "war on christmas" but he has no problem changing his little "holiday" saying to be even MORE religious. If I want to be preached to, I'll watch that guy scream at me on Monday nights from 8 to 8:30 on that local access tv channel.

And lastly, oh, how the whines came fast and furious the other day when Papa Joe suggested tying the table games to seniors' in home health care costs. That way, if you are a legislator against table games they can paint you as against senior citizens. Ohhhhhhh, how Furlip whined and bitched and moaned about "Oh, that's just crap. That's not fair. If you want to argue the merits of table games, just say they'll bring in good paying jobs, we need the money, it'll spur other businesses like hotels and restaurants, etc., and then we can debate that." What a bunch of crap. Agnello doesn't want any debate on table games, beyond, "Gambling's bad, we shouldn't have table games." His plea for a "debate" on the issue is even more disingenuous than Manchin's tying table games to seniors' home health care costs. I hope table games passes and every time I play blackjack at Tri-State, I'll think how much that will piss off Furlip. Hell, I'd play almost for that satisfaction alone.

Oh, who's next. Let's go with Slick Vic Sprouse. First, he can't even man up on his not seeking the minorty leader post. On his own blog, he claims the biggest reason for him not seeking it this term, is because he's not sure if he wants it or not. Are you kidding me? I guess we shouldn't really expect any sort of honesty from Sprouse. He wants it the post. But he knows he's a liability to the party because of his personal life's shenanigans. So much a liability that his party's senators can't vote for him in good conscience. But according to Sprouse himself, that's not the main reason he's stepping down. Riiiiiiiiiiiight. I guess that type of bullshit is about par for the course, for Slick Vic. Honesty and humility, are about last on his list of concerns. He also goes on about "and I don't think I have the votes, either" as another reason for his quitting. Well, he's at least right about that. He doesn't have the votes. None of Republicans in the Senate can vote for him without taking a beating from their own constitutents who think Sprouse is a scumbag.

And then, he has another post on his blog about how Wanda Carney and Betty Jarvis (two recently convicted criminals) aren't really guilty of anything. Well, the public record begs to differ with Sprouse. But Sprouse is the type of guy who also doesn't see anything wrong with not recusing himself from the Senate vote on his fiancee, Ms. Lanning, being appointed to the State Board of Phyiscal Therapy, either, so, I guess you have to again (unpleasant as it may be) consider the source. Ethics is definitely not Vic's strong suit.

Hmmmmmm, we've cracked on several republicans, let's smack the Democrats around. I think I heard Clinton say right after the election, the democrats have a chance, not a mandate, after the midterm elections. He's dead on about that. Another example of how astute a politician he is. I just hope they use the next couple years to pass some meaningful legislation, and not just turn this into a democratic witch hunt for what's left of the current administration. Then again, they are politicians, so I guess expecting them to act like adults is a pretty tall order. Maybe if they screw up too, a viable third party will emerge. But I doubt it. Oh, and please, for God's sake, don't run Hillary for president in '08. You've got some potentially winning candidates if you'd just pay attention. If you are going to run Hillary, just run that loser Kerry instead, and you can at least save money on reprinting campaign signs and just use the ones left over from his last presidential disaster.

What's worse than being greedy? Being ungrateful AND greedy.

2006-08-10T19:05:00.000-05:00

This story has been kicking around for about a week, and not getting too much coverage, beyond a few little news items in the papers.

The Charleston Area Alliance, some sort of non-profit (today's codeword for "scam funded partially by you and me through "grants" of our tax dollars") pro-business facilitator group, hired this Patricia Bradley Pitrolo chick. Not only did they hire her, they created a position specifically for her, and then hired her in at $44,000 in May of 2005. Evidently, the Alliance has money to burn, if they can just create 40+ grand positions on a whim. Of course, this is only a couple months after her husband, Jim Pitrolo, waltzes in with Papa Joe Cheerleader to be his legislative director. Evidently, wifey needed something to do here in Charleston. So, The Alliance, a group that gets a ton of government money to promote "economic development" (I can't begin to tell you how much I hate that collossally overused, cliched, and completely devoid of any real meaning term, so I think I'll just call it ED from now on since ED also means something else - think "Check with your doctor if something lasts more than four hours") creates a position specfically for her. $44,000 isn't a bad salary, especially for someone who's not got the greatest track record when it comes to being honest. From the July 29, 2006, Gazette:

In 1990, Pitrolo, a former delegate from Hancock County, was charged with failing to report on her taxes that she accepted money from a lobbyist representing Tri-State Greyhound Park.
Before accepting a $376 payment, which helped cover expenses for a vacation, Pitrolo had supported a law that would have allowed Tri-State and other racing tracks to get a bigger share of the money wagered by bettors. She was convicted of a misdemeanor, paid a $1,000 fine and served two years’ probation.

The Gazette also said that The Alliance's Executive Director, Bill Goode was unaware of her conviction when he hired her. So, this whizbang Alliance wheels and deals for ED, hoping businesses will spend millions here, and it wines and dines and kisses their asses. Millions, maybe tens or hundreds of millions are possibly at stake. But its Executive Director, hires someone off the street into a position that was created specifically for that person, but he doesn't even know enough about that individual, to know they have a misdemeanor conviction for what appeared to be close to a bribe taking incident on their record? That sounds like the same ridiculous obvliviousness that got Putnam General in its current hot water. Unless it's a lie.

But anyway, $45,000 isn't enough for the former disgraced legislator convicted of shady dealings. No, she needed more. So, within a year, she is making $58,000. In just over a year, she had her salary increased by approximately 33%.

You'd think, that after a place CREATED a position just for you, AND increased your salary by 1/3 after a year's work, the least you could be is content. I know, I know, $58,000 yearly salary isn't enough money to make you secure for life. But the average West Virginian would probably be supremely content with that kind of dough.

But not Patty. Nooooooo, she had to actually quit in a little huff over the fact some of the administrators made more than she did. One evidently was hired in recently at about $90,000, and she felt she was gettin' dissed, yo. Awwwwwwwwww. Poor baby. 58 grand is dissing you.

She abruptly turned in a letter detailing WHY she is quitting. Of course, The Allliance then immediately (and showing its true colors - yellow) hides behind "Oh, we don't have to disclose that letter, it's a personnel matter." Never mind this group evidently gets money from you and me. It gets 150 grand a year from the County, and the City and the State probably kick in some too to help promote ED too (they also get $$ from businesses who are "members" who pay yearly dues - the point here is that they DO get 150g's a year from the county, and like I said, probably some state and city money too).

Cry me a freaking river.

It's not enough her hubby is probably pulling down close to 100 grand. It's not enough that because her hubby is Papa Joe's buddy she got the job created for her in the first place. It's not enough in a year, her salary jumps by 1/3.

No, none of that is enough to make Patty happy. She has to complain she's not getting enough of the free taxpayer money. It's like she found a 20 dollar bill in her winter coat the first time she puts it on one winter, and then she bitches because it isn't a 50.

But what's even more disgusting, is the support she is getting from Worker Tax Danny Jones. Oh, he can't stop raving about how great she is, blah blah blah. He even had a personal meeting with her to see if he could find any way to keep her from quitting. Of course, this is also the same guy who has done nothing but pass his little cash grab and pay his buddies big bucks at city hall, all while claiming the city has no money. And Dave Hardy, the County Commission's rep on The Alliance's board was also quite muted in his criticism of her, same with Kent Carper.

Let her quit. That's 60 grand a year The Alliance can use to hire someone else. If this chick is so freaking good at what she does, and is so freaking invaluable to kissing ass or whatever the hell it is she does, why is she still in the boonies of WV? She should be running some national fundraising campaign or something. WV should be small potatoes for her.

Unless, like I said, her only qualification is who she's married to, and nobody outside WV gives a crap who she is.

Ungrateful and greedy. Just the type of people we need running the show here in WV. With this type of leadership, we deserve to suffer.

I'm still cynical, but.........

2006-06-22T19:32:00.000-05:00

This guy has been on the radio, newspaper, etc. lately pushing this book. Dr. Allen Loughry evidently is a clerk for Justice Elliot "Spike" Maynard. Of course, Maynard is big buddies with Don Blankenship. He didn't finance his campaign, like he did with Justice Brent Benjamin, but evidently, Blakenship and Maynard have at least had dinner at the Chop House together. That alone is normally enough to raise the red flag of cynicism, at least in my book.

But, "Don't Buy Another Vote, I Won't Pay for Another Landslide" appears to be fairly evenhanded (at least at first glance) in its accounts of the scumbags, thieves, clowns, and incompetents of the political arena that have feasted practically unfettered on the citizens of West Virginia. I haven't read the whole thing, in fact I've just started sifting through it, but it does appear to be somewhat non-partisan. It also seems to have at least a small bit of outrage (we love outrage here at the Sweatbox) at the political crap and shenanigans we are constantly exposed to. If you get it (and I do give it the preliminary "thumbs up," subject to change after I read more of it - you can pick it up at Taylor Books) I suggest quickly turning to the later chapters, dealing with the most recent cast of political crooks and clowns (including many that are still in office or at least still on the scene).

For example, the Bob Wise stuff is kind of neat. Ol' Bob even gets a bit salty with his language in an interview with Loughry on page 363 when talking about his own little scandal.

Just prior to Wise's 2005 departure from the Governor's office, I interviewed him at length about West Virginia's politics. I asked him specifically whether he felt that events in a politician's life which create negative attention to State politics and amounts to violations of the public trust, create further apathy among voters. I have to admit that I was glad this was my last interview question for Governor Wise, because his tone changed dramatically. He said, "Quite frankly, I think that's bullshit." He said, "Nobody has come up to me in a year and a half and said anything other than sympathy. But what they're mostly concerned about is am I getting the job done." He then said, "If that's the situation, then talk to Bill Clinton, talk to Rudy Giuliani, talk to a whole bunch of people. I had the press on me a lot more than I had the voters. That's not to any way soft-pedal what I did, it was wrong on a personal basis, but in terms of voter apathy, I think that's crap."

Loughry then thinks to himself the next logical question is, "Are you really that naive?" He doesn't ask it, but he doesn't really need to at that point. Wise's answer is sufficient to show his complete disconnect to average Joe West Virginian. Especially in light of the previous couple of pages where Loughry writes about Wise's reaction to the Clinton scandal, or how the same situation (two married individuals having a fling, one an employee of the other, and using company $$ to facilitate their trysts) would be looked at with extreme disapproval (or worse) in the private sector.

If this is any indication of what the rest of the book contains, I'm sure his chapters on Moore, Wally Baron, et al. (and there's Vic Sprouse stuff in there too), are also equally compelling, and unfortunately, probably quite comical in a tragic sort of way.

I'm still naturally cynical, but maybe, just maybe, this Loughry guy is one of the few who "gets" it.

Do as I say, not as I do. Again.

2006-06-01T19:41:00.000-05:00

Well, the Vic Sprouse thing has reared its ugly head, again. Back in March, in one of my all time favorite posts, "Hoppy to Vic: Lay off the sauce, dude," I reported on the Vic Sprouse marital problems issue. If you don't know, Vic Sprouse the Republican Minority Leader in the State Senate is now going through divorce number three. That in and of itself, is no big deal. However, when you are the legislative leader of the party that is constantly espousing all kinds of bible banging, right wing, FAMILY VALUES rhetoric, to have your leader constantly in relationship trouble, is a bit awkward, especially when it appears chronic marital infidelity is an issue. Supposedly, he left wife #2 for wife #3. Wife #3 is the former Amy Mckinley, daughter of former Republican Gubernatorial candidate, David McKinely. [EDIT: I also now have it on good authority that Sprouse and wife #2 were separated, albeit apparently only briefly, when he began seeing Ms. McKinley, but that other affairs were in fact the reason for the ending of marriage #2. While there is always a bit of "he said, she said/every story has two sides" to these things, the overall point of the post still stands, namely that Sprouse has a chronic maritial infidelity problem while he operates as the leader of the "family values" wing of the senate.] And evidently, he left her for some other local gal just over a year ago. What makes all this even more scandalous (and actually more accurately, just simply sad) than that he just bailed on Amy, he did it while she was only a couple months pregnant with his son.

But the story doesn't end there. When their son (Maxwell) was born, he was born a couple months premature, with CHARGE syndrome, a rare condition that has many associated physical, and developmental obstacles for Maxwell to overcome. When Mrs. McKinely-Sprouse was pregnant, but separated, she moved to Washington State to be near her sister, and Maxwell was born out there last summer. She has documented her experiences with Maxwell and about CHARGE syndrome on her blog (which was mentioned in the Charleston Gazette the other day), and interspersed in her blog entries are several comments about her current dealings with Slick Vic regarding their upcoming divorce hearing. Evidently, (according to Mrs. McKinley Sprouse) Slick Vic only wants to pay what the court requires him to pay. Needless to say, the medical costs for Maxwell are in a word, staggering. You can read all about the physical, emotional, and financial struggles surrounding Max and Amy on her blog. I don't need to reproduce them all here. But I will say some of the comments on her blog lead one to believe that Slick Vic feels that Maxwell's extraordinary medical costs shouldn't be his burden, and that somehow, governmental aid, or welfare type programs should pay for his son's medical costs. That's awful convenient, considering Slick Vic can't ever seem to shut his trap about cutting this tax, or that tax, or reducing government, or cutting this program or that. The Fifth Column nailed it. He's the epitome of the "I got mine, you get yours" republican.

But, back to the "scandal." Who exactly is the "new woman" in Vic's life? According to some comments posted in another local blog, the trail leads to Lesleigh Lanning, who apparently is connected to the legislature. Of course, I'm going waaaaaaaaaay out on a limb here, and this is all based on information gleaned from another blog's comment section. If this information is incorrect, I'll be more than happy to take the information down, and issue a very heartfelt public apology to Ms. Lanning. But based on the information I have available at this time, it's pretty solid.

So, you ask, "Bing, aside from all this gossip, how the hell does this relate to West Virginia politics?" It's like this. When you have people who are supposedly running the State, like Sprouse, and they are constantly talking the talk to the everyday peons, they better damn sure be walking the walk, too. It's the same crap you had in the Rick Staton and Lisa Smith situations. You have the politicians telling the public they need to do this, or need to pay that, or act this way, or not do that. And then you find out, the legislators themselves, are doing just the opposite. And some of the loudest, and most shrill lecturing comes from the republicans on stuff like "family values." If this whole "famliy values" line of rhetoric is so damn important, and respecting "family values" is such a great way to go through life, why in the hell, is the leader of the party that can't shut up about "family values" constantly bed-hopping on his wives? Here you have one of the legislative leaders of the party, doing the complete antithesis of what he's telling everyone else they should do. That kind of blatant, rank, outright hypocrisy, is a direct insult to the public, or at least it should be. I know it sure as hell pisses me off.

We are talking about Sprouse, who's a republican, in this post. But, the democrats do it too. So all you repubs, before you go firing off your hate emails and cluttering up the comment section with your "but, but, but the democrats........" crap, read the "And the NIMBY of the year award goes to...." post and figure in crap like how Dianne Feinstein is adamantly pro gun control, but has a concealed weapon permit. That kind of shameless, brash, arrogance and hypocrisy should be insulting enough to the public that these idiots get their asses thrown out of office, regardless of party. This "do as I say, not as I do" crap doesn't play when everyone is an adult. Maybe the voters will finally decide they don't like constantly being told to sit at the little kids' table, when Vic is up for re-election again. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until 2008 to see.

Mollohan the Albatross, Mrs. Microphone, and other assorted odds and ends.

2006-04-24T23:02:00.000-05:00

Well, again, there's just so much stuff that needs mentioned, I'd feel like I was doing myself a disservice if I limited myself to just one issue. And even then, there's more deserving targets, than I have time to adequately address. Maybe I'll give you a bonus entry later this week.

So, let's start with Nowhwere Man's (Alan Mollohan) recent decision to step down from the House Ethics Committee. I just love how when this story broke, he refused to do this, and said all kinds of crap about how it was all trumped up, wrong info, politically motivated, blah blah blah. The amount of indignation shown by Nowhere Man, far outstripped the amount of substantive defensive comments, other than "Hey, we got lucky in real estate." And now, amazingly, he decides to step down. I forget where I read it (I think it was the NYTimes, when this story first broke, but I can't seem to find it right now), but the gist was that Mollohan on the ethics committee was an albatross around Nancy Pelosi's neck. And this was just a day or two after the story broke. And now he decides to step down? Maybe there was some truth to the baggage this was creating for Minority Leader Pelosi.

Is Chris Wakim the answer to Mollohan? Who knows? Maybe he's a gangster or something; he’s got big ties to the gambling industry and/or video slots (which, has never really bothered me - we need more gambling, not less, in this state). So, he might be a crook too. Those businesses always seem to be slimy. But at least he'd be a different crook. Mollohan has been there for 20 years, and as far as I can tell, besides funneling federal dollars to companies that don't seem to do anything other than pay his buddies and campaign contributors hugeass salaries, he hasn't done anything. He's a poster boy for term limits.

Moving right along. Betty Ireland. We had her seemingly daily check in with Chicago Furlip (Michael Agnello on 58Live) on Monday to tell everyone how great a job she's doing (I swear I think Ireland has a microphone bolted to her chin, because she's always talking into one) with training everyone about these new voting machines. Which, now we find out, aren't quite all squared away. King Kent Carper is all wound up and outraged as evidenced in Phil Kabler's article in Sunday's paper. Evidently, the place that sells these machines (ES&S) is in trouble in several states, for missing deadlines and errors in their product, and its delivery of machines and/or applicable software to the states. Of course, all the states are under the gun to comply with the federal legislation aftermath of the Florida 2000 idiots who couldn't read a ballot, and as usual, some states are cutting it close getting their stuff from ES&S on time. Plus, there appears to be some problem with the ability of disabled people to use the current machines in the current "early voting" phase, for some reason. It was funny to hear Ireland squirm when Milquetoast Johnson on Furlip's show point blank asked her if WV was in compliance with some new federal law (maybe it was the Help America Vote Act - HAVA, I forget). Ireland said she "believes" that anyone who wants to go vote in early voting will be able to do so. She didn't simply say, "Yes." That was more telling than anything else she blabbered about the whole time. Johnson even asked her again, point blank, and she gave the same clichéd, careful, and purposefully ambiguous answer. There's only one word for her constant media whoring: Pathetic.

And we also have an indictment against Wanda Carney and Betty Jarvis. The background is here, here , and here. Well, there evidently is enough evidence to charge them with a misdemeanor, so says the Mingo County Grand Jury. Of course, Wanda's lawyer, Jason Huber was publicly commenting how this is all some sort of witch-hunt, and the fact it's "only" a misdemeanor is telling. We'll see. In other Wanda Carney news, the recently "settled" lawsuit that Carney had with the City of Nitro that she was publicly trumpeting not too long ago as some sort of "victory" for her, was a joke. She didn't win anything. I saw a copy of the final order. The City of Nitro essentially doesn't admit to anything AND, the only "real" thing that is agreed to by the City is to pay her lawyer's (Huber, again) fees. But to hear Wanda on the radio, you'd think this was the second coming of Brown v. BOE Topeka.

And lastly (as it's getting late, even for creatures of the night), let's look at the Democratic State Senate race between Dave Higgins and Erik Wells. Higgins was a big supporter of Danny Jones' Worker Tax, as a Charleston City Councilman. That's a death sentence as far as I'm concerned. And he's for a NASCAR track in Kanawha County? He should just change his name to Pan DerMan. I wonder if he wins, will he immediately proposes a dollar per week tax on everyone who works in WV to help pay for that NASCAR track?

Of course, the fact that Erik Wells needs to go out and get a real job before he runs for anything, doesn't make him a guy I'm going to feel comfortable with either. Plus, he's married to Natalie Tennant. Call me a pig, but I just can't vote for anyone remotely related to the only woman Mountaineer Mascot at WVU. I don't want to see guys in the WVU Pom Squad, and I don't want to see a female WVU Mountaineer. The WVU students knew how to properly show their "support" to Tennant when she was the Mountaineer. She was showered with cups, ice, paper, and a healthy chorus of boos whenever she approached the student sections at basketball or football games. Plus, she's related to some past WV political bigwigs somewhere, and I think she's been mooching off the state in some politically appointed flunky position since they both had to quit their "read the teleprompter" jobs, and she couldn't beat Ken Hechler for the right to take on Betty "Where's the nearest microphone" Ireland in 2004.

This is just too good.

2006-04-09T22:49:00.000-05:00

I don't have time for a big, normal sized entry about this topic (but one is in the works), but I'll just throw this one nugget out there, because, well, it's just too good, and you should be able to get the point in with a minimum of ranting.

According to recent reports, our very own Nowhere Man, Alan Mollohan, allegedly is funneling federal money to several non-profits in West Virginia. The allegation is, in short, that those non-profits then somehow funnel some of the cash back to him, in the form of campaign donations or in some sort of related business deals. It was all in the Wall Street Journal last Friday. I'll dissect all the details later, but this is just too good to pass up.

The supreme irony here is that one of them is The Institute for Scientific Research (ISR). The ISR was in the news back in the fall for the exorbitant salaries that were/are being paid to their top corporate officers. Look at that name: The Institute for Scientific Research. Do you think the employees at a whizbang, techie type place such as ISR, use email? I'd bet my meager paycheck they do. Hell, my mother has email, and she can barely figure out how to turn on the pc.

Yet, Mollohan is supposedly a big supporter and helps acquire federal grant funding for the ISR?

Alan Mollohan's Wikipedia entry states that he has the distinction of being the only member of Congress, without an email address.

Only in West Virginia, folks.

Scattergun return.

2006-04-06T19:58:00.000-05:00

Well, as you can see, I haven't updated in almost two months. For some reason, I just didn't have the outrage I normally do. Maybe it was the weather. However, now that the weather is heating up, I've noticed a change in my outrage level. So, with that, I give you a scattergun approach to several little items over the last couple months that have pissed me off, but not enough to warrant a full entry.

Let's start with Betty Ireland. How many more damn times do I have to hear about her having the voting machines on display for people to use and get used to. I mean, for Christ's sake, it's a bubble-in sheet, or a touch screen. They act like it's some sort of space shuttle launch. I don't care if some 80 year old is scared they can't understand it. If they have enough brain cells to read and punch a stylus on the punch card systems, they can figure out the bubble-in sheets. And if they can't, well, they shouldn't be voting.

Ireland was at the WV Power game Thursday, all over the radio again, with her demo voting machines, blah blah blah. I just hope, that after the election, we don't have to constantly hear about what great work she's doing educating the public on how to fill in a scantron sheet, or touch a computer screen. If she spent one-tenth the time she does crowing about how she's educating the people on these new machines, on actually cleaning up the elections in WV, we'd all be better off. Give it a rest, Betty. You'll strain your arm patting yourself on the back every day.

Moving right along, let's take a look at what Papa Joe Cheerleader was doing last week. Oh, that's right, while he was up in Morgantown, celebrating Randall McCloy's release from the hospital, the state complex's elevators were all shutting down. I haven't commented much on the mine disasters, but the absolute, total, grandstanding by Papa Joe during the Sago thing, was absolutely disgusting. And to then go up there with a specially made West Virginia road sign, called "Miracle Road" to give to Mr. McCloy? Are you kidding me? Could this BE any cheesier? Methinks not. He has absolutely no shame whatsoever. Get a TV camera there, and Papa Joe will be front and center.

While Papa Joe was "signing," the capitol complex workers were climbing. Papa Joe gets an F for effort there. Yeah, I know. Big surprise.

Hmmmmm. Let's see. Oh, the elections are coming up. Dave Higgins running for State Senate wants to build a NASCAR track in eastern Kanawha County? I wonder if he can't get any money for it, will he look to create legislation to impose some new sort of worker tax to fund it? In case you didn't know, Higgins, on Charleston's City Council, was a staunch supporter of Dannyboy's Worker Tax. Yeah, he needs more access to statewide taxpayer money. Like I need a hole in my head.

Logan's Law. You have got to be kidding me. To all you clamoring for Logan's law to be passed "to protect the children," let me just say, that even if Logan's Law was in place, little Logan would not have been protected. It would have not prevented what happened to him. So, if you want to just jack up the sentences on people who hurt kids, just say so. I don't have any problem with that. Don't give it some cutesy little name, that implies that to not pass it, would not protect children. That's cheapass, election-year rhetoric. You hear that, Sprouse? If you truly are concerned about protecting kids, maybe you should clean up your own mess before grandstanding on Logan's law.

And the other big issue that gobbled up a huge chunk of the legislator's time was the parental notification bill. For crying out loud. It's never enough with the pro-life crowd. They got their Lacy Peterson bill passed last year (another example of stupid cutesy naming of legislation, because the proponents think the masses are too dumb to understand the law). And this year, they spent seemingly weeks debating the parental notification bill. We should just change our motto to "West Virginia: We’ve taken re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, to a whole new level."

However, one good thing comes from the legislature on an election year. They typically have a do-nothing session. That means they generally can't screw up as many things as they do during a non-election year session. They should just cancel the sessions in election years, and save the taxpayers the cost of them spending 2 months doing nothing.

Oh, and Shelly Moore Capito took money from Jack Abramoff? No way!!! A West Virginia politician named Moore engaged in receiving money from questionable sources and a felony conviction somewhere in the mix? I think Yogi said it best. It's deja vu all over again. The apple does not fall far from the tree.

And the latest shenanigans from the Mingo County DOH office? Supposedly (according to the Gazette) Truman Chafin didn't like the way some bridges and roads weren't getting done, so he orchestrated the re-assignment of the DOH supervisor over to Logan county, supposedly until after the election. I'm sure that's the first time that's ever happened in Mingo County.

Truman also got a case of the ass over the cheesy lawyer ads? Hell, those are some of the funniest damn commercials on TV. Truman needs to back the hell off. The State Bar doesn't need to be wasting time, and its seemingly infinite resources worrying about whether some lawyer's radio jingle is "in good taste." I wonder what kind of "taste" it takes to orchestrate the removal of a DOH supervisor, because he won't pave your buddy's road, or build a bridge to his house, ahead of previously scheduled projects. Truman complaining about lawyer jingles is like a serial killer complaining about cartoon violence on TV.

The Charleston Crybaby.

2006-02-12T21:42:00.000-05:00

Well, there's just been sooooooo much activity over the last 2 weeks, It's almost hard to know where to start.

For today's post, let's just go with Thornton Cooper v. Danny Jones and the Charleston worker tax. I think Danny Jones should try out for some pro wrestling circuit. He could be nicknamed The Charleston Crybaby. On Jerry Waters' radio show the other day, he had Thornton Cooper on to discuss Dannyboy's worker tax. The wrangling over getting this thing on a ballot, has been absolutely ridiculous. I guess if Dannyboy had done his job the first time, and followed the proper procedures, we wouldn't be worrying about it. But he didn't. He tried to ram through his little cash grab extortion scheme, and whoops, evidently, he's not a dictator. He's got to jump through some hoops. I know this will come as a complete shock to Dannyboy, but thankfully, we have the courts to keep an eye on these jackasses.

The current state is that the Charleston residents get to vote on the user fee ordinance, but Danny is trying his best, to make that as difficult as possible. He keeps saying "well, we'll have to have a special election and that will cost all this money." Well, I go back to what I said earlier. If he had followed the rules to begin with, we wouldn't need a special election. Any extra taxpayer dollars that are spent (including all the lawyer fees Charleston paid to their lawyers), are having to be spent ENTIRELY because Jones didn't do his job. The extra dollars expended for this, are nobody's fault, but Jones'. But he'll be on the radio and tv and in the newspapers whining that it's Cooper's fault for bringing the lawsuit. Well boo hoo hoo. Imagine that, a politician has to follow the rules.

But the best part is the absolutely disgusting show of immaturity and petulance by Jones after Cooper was on Waters' show. He then called in and complained that Cooper was "a freakshow" and "a jailhouse lawyer." So, the mayor of the state's largest city, is reduced to 3rd grade name calling to try and defend his dictatorial actions? He then proceeded to chide Cooper for being a government employee (Cooper retired from the Public Service Commission as an attorney), stating something along the lines of "well, thank god for state government so Cooper could have a job and suck down a government pension." And what the hell had Jones done in his life? He's been Sheriff (sucking off the government teat). He's been in the House of Delegates (sucking off the government teat). He's been Regatta Director (sucking off the government teat). He's been "sanitation director," where he got lots of press for riding around on a garbage truck, like he's some sort of blue collar guy (who happens to have been born wealthy, and never really needed a job in his life). And now he's Mayor. At least Cooper got a job and managed to hang on to it, instead of jumping from job to job. And I bet Jones will get a government pension too, before it's all over. Every one of you state employees that live in Charleston, should remember what The Charleston Crybaby said about Cooper.

Jones simply personally attacked Cooper. Jones derided him for working for state government because Cooper sued the city, and actually won his case on a procedural point showing that Jones didn't do his job.

Now, about getting the issue on the primary election ballot. We now have the optical scanner vote machines. And evidently, Cooper wants to put the entire ordinance on every ballot. But, evidently, we can't do that. We can't print the 5 pages or whatever, of the ordinance for every ballot. But, we've got all these new high tech whizbang voting machines. And yet, we can't vote the way we are supposed to. Here's a thought. If it's not actually possible to add 7 pages to the ballot, just give you an EXTRA ballot for the user fee ordinance. A paper one. With 2 boxes on it. One box for "yes," one box for "no." You make an X in the one you choose. You could count those ballots by hand, in just a couple hours. I don't mind waiting until 10 or 11 pm to find out if it passed. I don't need election results at 8pm. Our country worked damn fine, for a couple hundred years, not knowing the actual results of the elections for sometimes WEEKS after the election. But Kent Carper and others have lamented that if we do that, the paper user fee ballots might not get counted for an hour or two afterwards, and the possibility for tampering exists. Are you kidding me? We now can't have ballots wait an hour or two to be counted? How the hell did we stop tampering before now? Did the possibility of tampering not exist before the optical scanner machines? Don't insult my intelligence, Kent. Put them in a locked room, and leave them there until you can count them. This isn't rocket science. Hell, I don't care if I go to bed that night, and not know the answer. I can find out in the morning.

All this "oh, but we can't DO that on these new machines," crap is hysterical. Well, guess what? If you can't do that on the "new" machines, your "new" machines, suck.

The top 6 reasons why West Virginia is pitifully last in just about everything.

2006-01-27T00:52:00.000-05:00

From left to right:

That big black hole is Congressman Alan Mollohan. He basically became Congressman when his dad vacated the same office. Gotta love that free name recognition (especially in a state where we elect people like Glen Gainer Auditor). His new nickname should be "Nowhere Man." He doesn't actually exist on the internet as his Wikipedia entry points out (and is backed up by his House webpage - check out how to contact him), he's the only member of congress who doesn't have a public email address.

Next to Nowhere Man, is our illustrious Governor, Joe Manchin, aka Papa Joe Cheerleader. Known for tirelessly cheering the State on, in the face of overwhelming (or maybe more appropriately, oblivious to) facts to the contrary. Of course, where would he be without the tutelage of his late Uncle A James, the most famous wearer of fireman hats in West Virginia's history? I know where the rest of us would be - about 300 million dollars to the good from where we are now.

Next to Papa Joe Cheerleader, is our very own, Robert "Sheets" Byrd. Who knows how much money he's salted away in his 60 plus years in Washington for himself? Pretty good for a guy who spent the 1940's being a member of the KKK. Of course, he says he's no longer a racist. He just likes to still use the "n" word from time to time, he voted against the only two black US Supreme Court nominees in history, and has said the KKK basically gets a bad rap.

And next to Sheets, is our very own (well, once he came here from New York and bought his way into politics) Jay Rockefeller. He's got more money than he'll ever be able to spend in 100 lifetimes, thanks to his family's ownership of Standard Oil. Evidently he couldn't hack politics in his home State of New York, so he went somewhere he knew he could simply buy his way to the top.

And next to Jayboy, is our very own Shelly Moore Capito, who is still closely advised in the background by her convicted felon, bribe-taking father, Arch Moore. I'm sure he's given her lots of advice like "Don't do money exchanges at gas stations," and "public money is yours to steal as you wish" and "before you say anything, always make sure they aren't wearing a wire," and lastly "Never, ever, under any circumstances, show any remorse for anything you've done. Even if you are convicted."

And lastly is our very own, Nick Rahall. He seems to think there's nothing wrong with his sister being the chief lobbyist for the country of Qatar, where she's paid $15,000 per month to look out for their interests. I wonder how much of that money ended up in Nicky's pockets. Nicky is also a chief enemy of anything that even appears to be pro-Israel. He was the lone US Congressman voting against a resolution calling for the end of the Arab boycott of Israel. He also met with Bashar Asaad and with Saddam prior to the invasion of Iraq, among other questionable actions regarding terrorism. He's got all the time in the world to hang out with some of the world's most disgusting dictators and terrorist supporters, but he can't be bothered to defend the lone democracy in the middle east?

Now, with these 6 jokers in our deck of cards, is it any wonder we keep going bust?

We get exactly, precisely, what we deserve: a nice big fat kick in the nuts.

2006-01-11T23:17:00.000-05:00

The latest federal indictment of former State Senator Lisa Smith for tax evasion, filing false election reports, and mail fraud, is just another example of exactly why this State's government, is a complete, and total joke.

What do the following incidents have in common: Lisa Smith's indictment, Greg Stowers' indictment and guilty plea, Logan Mayor Tom Esposito's indictment and guilty plea, the rest of the southern West Virginia politicos recently indicted and their pleas, Jerry Mezzatesta's ethics violations from 2004, Hank Marockie's nonsense, Arch Moore's conviction, and most every other political scandal we have had?

Does anyone notice a trend here? The trend is, that they all end up in FEDERAL courthouses. Nobody ever brings state criminal charges against these clowns, and when they do, it's a complete joke (like the Mezzatesta crap, where he wont' even pay his ethics fine). It's always the feds who try and clean up this mess. Why do we always complain about our State government being corrupt, when we elect the idiots who are supposed to be enforcing the laws on the corrupt officials?

There needs to be an independent agency, who's sole job it is, to investigate these types of political shenanigans. Forget the "ethics commission." They are even more pathetic than the jackasses they are supposed to be watching. The legislature could, if they wanted to, create a truly independent investigation wing, with some real teeth. They could do it. Hell, they created the Turnpike Authority, and gave it independence to the point it can raise the tolls, and the legislature and the governor run around saying, "Well, there's nothing we can do, they don't have to run that stuff past us. They are independent."

We can't even police our own crooks. Our politicians sit back and act impotent, and the only time anything gets done, is when the federal government gets involved. We act like we are supposed to be taken seriously as a state, and shed the barefoot hillbilly image, but our government is so corrupt, the only time anyone gets their head cracked, is when the feds step in. We are essentially 100% dependent on the Feds to make sure we have a decent and clean state government.

If the legislature can create something like the TA, they could sure as hell create an independent "SBI" (State Bureau of Investigations) or something. I know they are leery of giving the Attorney General's office prosecutorial power, because he's a politician too. That's why it needs to be done in some other independent agency (I guess the ethics commission is an attempt at that, but it's so pathetic, it's actually an insult to the average West Virginian it's so impotent). The Legislature and the Governor could do this, if they had the political balls, a backbone, and a real desire to provide good government to the people. As it is, they show themselves for what they are: gutless, pandering, pathetic, cowardly pigs simply gorging themselves at the public trough.

When Bill Charnock was elected Kanawha County prosecutor, the Mezzatesta thing was still kicking around. I remember Charnock talking about how he was going to go after "political corruption." He hasn't done squat. He's run around busting meth labs (and don't get me wrong, they need busted), and talked about what a great job he'd done (while, simultaneously, being caught for running his prosecutor campaign on the state's time and dime - so I guess we really shouldn't be surprised at his less than stellar record regarding political corruption). Why hasn't Charnock filed charges against Smith for filing those false reports? She must have filed them in Charleston, with the Secretary of State, so that'd be in his jurisdiction. Why hasn't he done anything about it?

Manchin was Secretary of State from 2000 to 2004. What did he do with regard to the election shenanigans in southern West Virginia? One of his moves was to eliminate his office's election fraud investigator. How in the hell, can you take an individual seriously about their desire to be tough on corruption, when that person takes action that directly removes the resources used in combating political corruption, especially when individual's main job responsibilities, is to ensure free, fair, and clean elections? Former Senator Lisa Smith filed those false campaign reports (see "Fatal Accountability" below) on Manchin's watch as Secretary of State. Why didn't he catch them? How is it the feds are able to ferret this stuff out, but State officials are seemingly more impotent than Bob Dole before the invention of Viagra when it comes to political corruption?

Betty Ireland, has been on the radio umpteen times the last year talking about the "new" voting machines. Jesus Christ. Do we need the Secretary of State spending all her time reassuring us of the "new" machines? Hell, we had crooked elections with the punch card ones, and it didn't have anything to do with the technology. What on earth, does the "new" machines (touch screen, optical scanner, whatever) do to protect us from the Greg Stowers and the other political vote buying scumbags in WV? Why doesn't she spend more time ferreting out the vote buyers, and quit wasting radio airtime and my tax dollars, telling me umpteen hundred times about the fabulous advantages of the "new" voting machines. I had no problem using the punch cards, I'm pretty sure I can touch a computer screen, or bubble in a circle on a piece of paper. Hell, I'd be happy to mark an "x" in a box, if I knew the Ireland was out there, cracking heads of the vote buyers. But, she doesn't do squat about them. Sure, she doesn’t have prosecutorial powers, but the local prosecutors do. And she could be working up the investigations, and then turn the results over to the prosecutors.

The same thing goes with this "legislative auditor" crap that's been kicked around in the media lately. When they find some state worker has been falsifying overtime sheets, there doesn't need to be some formal presentation of the audit findings to the legislature. Take that crap straight to Charnock's office and tell him to start slapping the cuffs on some people. Remember, he's all jacked up for going after political corruption, he said so in his campaign.

When I heard that Smith was charged with all these Federal crimes, the thought came across my mind that "damn, that federal courthouse is getting pretty busy." And then I caught the use of the word "federal." Why no "state" courthouse perp walks for these jackasses (Smith, Stowers, Adkins, etc)? I became curious. For instance, I wondered why Smith was being charged with all these federal crimes, and no state crimes. Hell, I even looked in the WV Code. And you'd be amazed at what I found. I know I had to read it about 5 times to make sure I was understanding what I read, it was so bizarre. It's not complicated, it's just so, ridiculous. Of course, with our legislature, nothing's out of bounds as far as something to protect their own asses, but this was almost too strange to be believed.

In the WV Code, I went looking for the tax crimes section. Usually crimes are in Chapter 61. I didn't find anything there in my cursory examination. I then started poking around in Chapter 11, where the tax stuff is. And this is what I found. The State Tax Department HAS a "Criminal Investigation Division." But its jurisdiction is sort of strange.

§11-9-2a. Criminal investigation division established; funding of same.
(a) Criminal investigation division. -- A criminal investigation division consisting of no more than twelve investigators, of which one investigator shall serve as division director, plus necessary support staff, all of whom are exempt from the classified service, is hereby established in the state tax division for the purpose of assuring compliance with laws and rules pertaining to the taxes, fees or credits administered under article ten of this chapter, including, but not limited to, the provisions of articles twenty, twenty-one and twenty-three, chapter forty-seven of this code, but not including income taxes, imposed on individuals by article twenty-one of this chapter.
(b) Special audits division. -- A special audits division consisting of no more than eight tax examiners, plus necessary support staff, all of whom are covered by the classified service, is hereby established in the auditing section of the state tax division for purposes of assuring compliance with laws and rules pertaining to taxes, fees or credits administered under article ten of this chapter, including, but not limited to, the provisions of articles twenty, twenty-one and twenty-three, chapter forty-seven of this code, but not including income taxes imposed on individuals by article twenty-one of this chapter.

The guys who are supposed to be investigating tax fraud, can't investigate for income taxes. Are you freaking kidding me? The TAX Department's criminal investigators, can't investigate personal income tax cases? Hell, it's no wonder Smith hasn't been charged with state income tax evasion. Nobody can investigate her for that. Can you believe that? Wouldn't that be like saying the IRS can't investigate income taxes? It makes no sense. Unless, you are the legislature, and don't want them poking around the legislators' income tax returns. In which case, you'd catch the Lisa Smiths (and Rick Statons) of the world.

Until the electorate starts electing people who respect the rule of law, apply it regardless of what their friends are doing, and aren't part of the political corruption in the first place, this state is going to continue to be nothing but a bastion of corruption. And until the electorate wises up and starts holding some of these clowns accountable, we are going to continue getting just what we deserve.

A nice big fat kick in the nuts.

Fatal Accountability.

2006-01-11T22:27:00.000-05:00

Well, again, it's just like shooting fish in a barrel here in the Sweatbox. These clowns can't even make it somewhat challenging for the ol' Binger. Former State Senator Lisa Smith, along with her husband, have been indicted on 16 federal (see above blog entry for a further discussion of the relevance of this) charges, ranging from mail fraud, to tax evasion, to filing false campaign reports. Smith rode the anti-gambling wagon to the State Senate by defeating Oshel Craigo for State Senate in 2002. Craigo voted for the Promise scholarship (and therefore, legalizing the video slot parlors), and Smith beat him over the head with it. I just love it when the shrill and sanctimonious, get caught doing exactly the type of shenanigans that they berate others for doing.

Smith attacked Craigo (who's certainly no saint either, but that's for another post) for being pro-gambling. Smith got the bible banging gambling lobby squarely behind her and made a furious campaign, and probably used some smear tactics right at the end on Craigo, to win that seat.

And now we find out she's been ripping off every law-abiding citizen in the State of West Virginia. She failed to pay her taxes, and evidently, had trouble even paying her employees, if the reports in the last 6 months or so have any truth to them. But while she was in the Senate, supposedly handling your tax dollars, she wasn't paying any of her own, or her businesses' taxes either. Again, it's this "I can tell you what to do, and how much tax to pay, but because I'm a politician, the rules don't apply to me" mentality that we so often see here in West Virginia, that really shows how much contempt our elected officials have for the everyday West Virginian. To be able to dictate to the public, how we don't have enough public money for this program, or enough public money for that program, or that we need to pay more taxes to fund this, or fund that. And all the while, they aren't paying what THEY are supposed to be paying. And this very same criticism applies to people like Rick Staton too, so this isn't some anti-republican post, so all you rightwinger republican fanboys out there can just cool your jets. Staton is just as guilty (well, maybe not of the mail fraud, but he's certainly guilty of the failure to pay his taxes part). For her part, Smith is looking at more than 100 years in prison and 4 million dollars in fines. She won't get all of that punishment, but she'll probably get some sort of sentence out of this.

But even better than the mere fact she was ripping off the taxpayers, she was doing it, so she could further her political career by funding her campaign with that money. Money that should have gone into state coffers so the pothole outside your house could get patched, or to buy new textbooks with for your kids, or to provide you with parks and recreational activities, or any number of other public uses, was being used by Smith, to make sure she got a State Senate seat. She stole from you, to make it possible for her, to then tell you what to do with your money. If that is not approaching the epitome of arrogance, I don't know what is.

Why doesn't Smith just come out and say "Let them eat cake" while she's at it?

You know, generally, the French are idiots as far as government goes. They are on something like their 5th Republic since 1800. They never seem to know exactly what they want in the form of government. They make good wine and cheese, but their government is usually just this side of a complete train wreck. However, sometimes, they do manage to get something right. 210 years or go, they knew how to deal with politicians like Smith.

We'll just call it "Fatal Accountability." We are more civilized than that (and now so are the French). Now, we give people like Smith a starchy new wardrobe, and cramped living quarters courtesy of the state.

I think orange might look good on her.

Your Secretary of Tax and Revenue, John Musgrave: "Gimme two scoops, please!"

2006-01-09T21:44:00.000-05:00

Today the Daily Mail (and supposedly the Gazette too, but it wasn't online) exposed a problem that was basically mentioned 3 weeks ago. Remember where you heard it first, right here (if you haven't read that blog entry, I'd strongly suggest reading it now, to help you get up to speed). Papa Joe Manchin is paying his top "executives" monstrous salaries, for state workers, by leaving them in "acting" positions, in clear violation of state law.

The Daily Mail reported, just as a certain blogger did a couple weeks ago, that "acting" Tax Commissioner Virgil Helton was making more than the statutorily required salary, because he was "acting" Tax Commissioner, and he was able to keep the higher salary of the two positions (Tax Commissioner or Deputy Lottery Director of Finance, which has since been filled by a guy making $79,000 per year - so technically, Helton has no "old" job to go back to). However, Helton's boss, "acting" Secretary of Tax and Revenue, who prior to being acting Secretary, was the Lottery Director, was not just getting the "higher" of the two salaries, he's getting both salaries, for a grand total of a $150,000 per year (for the last 2+ years, he was appointed in October of 2003 by Wise).

Now, I'm sure Secretary Musgrave is a nice guy. Hell, he might even know a thing or two about running the Lottery. But, does anyone but me think it's pure ignorance, to be paying this guy for TWO supposedly 40 hour per week, full time positions in state government? If he's working 80 hours a week, pulling 16 hour shifts, 5 days a week, by all means, give him both salaries. But I'm willing to bet a week's pay that he's not spending 80 hours week at the Capitol and down at Lottery HQ. He supposedly would have been doing this for over two years, non-stop.

This brings up a couple of issues. First, if neither job is so essential, that they can be effectively done by some guy essentially working each job half of the time, then why are we paying them 75,000$ per year for each position, regardless of whether it's one guy, or two? If some guy can do both of these jobs adequately in one 4o hour week, there's no need for two FULL TIME positions for these jobs. Just make them one position, or do away with one position.

Secondly, if these jobs are so easy that one guy can handle both effectively at the same time, then they aren't that difficult to begin with, and as such, they wouldn't warrant even the exorbitant (as far as state employees go) salary of $75,000 each. They evidently aren't so difficult some guy can't handle them in 20 hours per week, each. Hell, pay some poor schmuck working for 30k an extra 15 or 20 grand and let them do it. Average Joe Schmoe State Worker making 30k per year would be ecstatic to get a 20 grand raise. Remember, the job isn't so tough you can't do it in 20 hours. Otherwise, Musgrave wouldn't be doing it in the first place. If he had to truly work 80 hours per week to keep on top of both jobs, he'd say "no thanks, I'll just stay Director of Lottery."

And let's just operate on the assumption he's NOT spending 80 hours a week working for us poor taxpayers (in my opinion, pretty fair assumption to make). If that's the case, then he's flat out stealing. He's essentially collecting a paycheck, for work that he isn't doing. He's being paid to be in two places at one time. That's physically impossible. He's taking money, state money, for work that he's not doing. And not only is Manchin not outraged, he's evidently, supportive of this, according to his mouthpiece, Lara Ramsburg. Doesn't anyone but me see something that's just flat out wrong, with giving state employees one paltry raise in 3 or 4 years, that barely covers their cost of increased insurance premiums, while this guy is essentially getting paid for an entire positions he's not even doing? This guy is stealing state money, for a job he's not doing, Manchin sees nothing wrong with it, and State Auditor Glen Gainer knowingly signs the checks for this clown every two weeks. In my opinion, they are both guilty of ripping off me and every other taxpayer in West Virginia.

However outrageous that is, what is potentially even MORE outrageous, is the ambivalent response of Senator Shirley Love (a guy who's previous claim to fame was he hosted a local tv "rasslin'" show on WOAY Oak Hill TV - and you wonder why this state is FUBAR) to this problem:

"It seems to have been a trend in the past. Other governors have done the same thing. I assume he's doing this because they're qualified, overqualified in some instances."

Love then goes on to defend Manchin's plan to pay his top suckasses more money:

"It would give the governor some flexibility in recruiting for those positions. Someone in private industry can make a lot more than in state government. But if you take someone who manages a major company in this country, it's no different than managing one of our departments."

Are you kidding me? The old "well, in private industry......." argument? These people need freaking locked the hell up. That argument is so pathetic, it makes me want to puke every time I hear it. Aren't we always hearing that "well, we can't pay public employees what the private sector pays them." Then why the hell does that logic never apply to the top-level suckasses? And the very same legislators who adamantly oppose any state employee pay raises have no problem finding this kind of extra jack for suckasses like this Musgrave character or an assistant band director at WVU that needs a few extra hundred thousand dollars?

And Senator Love thinks we have to have these kickass, overqualified private sector success stories coming in and running these agencies? Well, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised from what comes out of a guy's mouth who announced "rasslin'" matches. Remember what I said above. One guy is effectively doing both jobs, in one 40-hour workweek. If these jobs need such specialized private sector hotshots doing them, don't you think they'd each be a little more time-intensive than something you could do in essentially half a workweek?

You want to get rid of the food tax? Demand Papa Joe Cheerleader and company start cutting some of this waste in state government that ends up in the hands of their suckass buddies.

I actually think I saw this Musgrave clown in Kanawha City the other day. I was at Baskin Robbins and the guy in front of me said "Gimme two scoops. I'm a double dipper."

Greg Stowers: Vote buying turncoat extraordinaire.

2005-12-27T19:41:00.000-05:00

In previous posts (here, here and here), I had mentioned the vote buying scandals in southern West Virginia. One of many defendants (like Mark Hrutkay, "Hound Dog" Adkins, Tom Esposito, and probably a couple of dozen more I'm forgetting, and all of who, should be summarily hung from the highest tree we can find) entangled in the sordid pathetic excuse for legitmate government found in southern WV, was Greg Stowers, of the Lincoln County Stowers clan. He was the Lincoln County Clerk. Evidently he was involved in buying votes. In the comments section of the above mentioned posts, I had all sorts of comments by Stowers' supporters defending him, calling the government crooked, the prosecution politically motivated, etc. One even said we'd be surprised by the outcome of the investigation. Oh, we had all kinds of protestations of his innocence. Nick Casey was out immediately after this story broke back in the spring lambasting everyone for these trumped up charges. Stowers' supporters were calling everyone (including me) some sort disgruntled Stowers' hater (I've never even met the man, and probably won't ever, seeing as how I don't hang out in prisons, and that'll be about the only way I'll get to meet him in the future).

Well, evidently Stowers' fans meant we'd be surprised how fast Stowers would turn snitch on his scumbag friends, when he is looking at some prison time. Evidently, Stowers, and Lincoln County Assessor Jerry Weaver (and two others) are all now going to plead guilty, presumably in exchange for their cooperation (ie, testimony) in ongoing investigations.

Not only did Stowers basically spit in every West Virginian's face by purposefully corrupting the one supposed thing Americans do right, namely govern ourselves freely and lawfully, he's too much of a sissyboy to actually own up to what he did and take the punishment. Given the chance to rat someone out to save his worthless hide a couple more years of being some drug dealer's pin cushion in the slammer, he can't sign himself up quickly enough. And the same goes for Weaver and all the other defendants who've cut plea deals. Evidently, the government's evidence is pretty strong, if all these guys are copping pleas on the eve of their trials. Maybe it wasn't such a politically motivated witch hunt, as some of the comment posters on the above entries suggested. Maybe, these guys are just exactly what everyone thinks of them. Lying, thieving, scumbags, who had and continue to have, absolutely, positively, not one single iota of integrity in their entire cheat-filled existence.

And yet somehow, they keep getting elected.

I put people who violate the public trust, only marginally above child molesters. Only because technically, we can throw the bums out in 2, 4, 6 or however many years their terms are. The public trust, and public office gained by free and fair elections is something that wasn't simply given to the American (and West Virginian) public. Blood had to be shed to be able to engage in this exercise of self governance. And for greedy little punks like Stowers and the others mentioned above to insult those who fought and gave their lives for the chance for this nation to be truly governed by the people, by something as pedestrian and cheap as buying votes, is just this side of a capital offense, in my opinion. And I hope to God, that the next time someone runs for office, and their last name is Stowers, or Esposito, or Moore, or Weaver or whoever, the public remembers how that name, tried to subvert and negate the legitimate right of every citizen to pick their elected officials. And these jackasses did it for just a few dollars, and solely because of their own disgusting greed and primal lust for power.

If these jokers think someone's vote and therefore by extension, the entire free and fair democratic process along with the millions of Americans who've died protecting that process, is priced at just a few dollars, and they are motivated to subvert the process for something as primitive as their own greed, how in the hell can you expect them to respect anything, let alone the public's trust?

"The practices of the past are no longer acceptable. And by that I mean, they are totally acceptable."

2005-12-14T23:18:00.000-05:00

Well, Papa Joe Cheerleader (our illustrious Governor, Joe Manchin) has responded to the latest gutter level scandal of state contract bidding shenanigans, and General Service Division workers falsifying timesheets to steal thousands of dollars of overtime pay. Yes, Papa Joe has responded. Oh, he made it clear, that the "practices of the past, are not acceptable in his administration." Yes, Papa Joe has come in and cleaned up the scum pit that is state government waste and old boy, backroom shenanigans. We are open for business.

However, a quick little examination of a couple facts shows that not only is it still business as usual (in direct contradiction to what he claims in soundbites to the media), it may be that Papa Joe is making it part of his policy.

I noticed in the news today that Troy Body (I think that was his name) resigned his post as "acting" Director of Culture and History. He gave as a reason for moving on to some job in Kentucky, that he'd been in that position for 18 months, and he was still "acting." Evidently, he felt he should have been given the full post. That jogged my memory about something I noticed the other day. I had been poking around on some local news sites, and I was rereading the "I Team" report about sexual harassment in state government on the WOWK-TV website. I noticed, that Tax Commissioner Virgil Helton, is listed in that article as currently the "Acting" Tax Commissioner. It was kind of odd, because that story also involved a letter he had written in regards to that sexual harassment case, way back in the spring, as "Acting" Tax Commissioner.

So, I checked, and sure enough on the State Tax Department's website, he's the Acting Tax Commissioner, being appointed to that post on January 17, 2005. It also says he used to be Deputy Director of Finance and Administration at the Lottery Commission. So, I went to the Lottery website and was poking around looking for his name there, and managed to find a news release just last month where some guy was appointed to fill the Deputy Director for Finance and Administration position that was held by Virgil Helton before he was named Acting Tax Commissioner in January of 2005. This guy's name is James Toney. Well, thanks to the wonders of the State Auditor's Office, you can find out any state worker's salary.

I asked the Auditor's office how much Mr. Toney was making. Mr. Toney makes $72,000 per year. I then asked how much Mr. Helton makes. He makes $80,208 per year. However, I remember hearing one time that agency heads and super secretaries' salaries are set by statute. I thought they were like even numbers or something, so the "208" part of his salary seemed weird. I also thought I remembered some rumblings about these top level administrator's salaries last spring when the judges got their pay raise. I seemed to remember some of the agency heads and other top-level administrators were in line to get raises in some of the judge's pay raise proposed legislation. So, I went looking for that code section. It's code section 6-7-2a. It lists the salaries of about a zillion different agency heads and super secretary positions. Funny thing is, that the tax commissioner is required by statute to be paid $65,000. But, Mr. Helton, is making $80,208, over $15,000 more than the law stipulates. One can only assume the $80,208 is what Helton was making at the Lottery. Because his current post has a salary of $65,000, required by law.

So, I thought, I'd poke around in the code and see what the deal is on these "acting" directors/commissioners/whatevers. The "real" directors/commissioners are supposed to be "confirmed" by the senate. I knew that much. But I wondered if there was some sort of time limit or something on the "actings." I didn't find anything in the code, but I took a shot and tried the WV Constitution, and low and behold, there it is, in Article VII, section 9. Recess Vacancies. The Governor appoints someone to a vacancy, as he did with Helton, while the Senate is in recess. When the Senate has it's "next meeting," the Governor SHALL (i.e., he MUST) make a nomination for that position, and the Senate has to give it the thumbs up or down. Why is Helton STILL acting? The Governor does not have any discretion here. The constitution is clear.

I wonder why he didn't nominate anyone? Why didn't the Governor send Helton's name to the Senate for confirmation during this year's regular session? Or during one of the umpteen special sessions we've had this year? I wonder if his theory is, that as long as Helton is "acting" he can continue to collect his $80,203, and not have to take a $15,000 pay cut? Usually, those "acting" positions are so that they can have someone step "up" and fill it, and if they eventually choose an outside person to be the REAL commissioner/whatever, the "acting" can go back to his "original" job, at his "original" salary. But, Helton doesn't have an "original" job to go back to. That's been filled by James Toney at the Lottery Commission.

So why is he still being paid his "original" salary of $80,208? He should be making $65,000, as required by the law in 6-7-2a. The Governor is directly ignoring the law, and it's costing the taxpayers of WV an extra $15,000, for just one position. And there are several of these "acting" directors/commissioners/whatevers around state government. Helton is just one of them. That Body guy was another. In my quick research I found there's also two "co-directors" of the PEIA, and an acting Director of the Division of Personnel. I didn't do anywhere near a comprehensive search, and some of the positions don't have much info about them on the web, so there may very well be other (in fact, I'd bet on it) "actings" out there.

Sure, the practices of the past, are just not acceptable to this administration. They appear to be mandatory

David Molgaard, City Manager Extraordinaire (or so he says....).

2005-12-09T00:08:00.000-05:00

Well, Charleston City Manager David Molgaard has been on the job approximately 3 years, and now is asking for a raise. Evidently, he's SO good (coughbullcrapcough), that other cities around the country are now clamoring to give him a huge raise if he would only come and be their city manager. In last Friday's Daily Mail, there was an article about this, but aside from that, it seems to have slipped under the radar.

Yes, we have another instance of a top government official trotting out the "but in OTHER states (cities in this case) they pay someone like me X dollars." Of course, that logic never seems to apply when the government workers are the actual workers, like cops, or firemen, or office workers, or whatever. Nooooooooooo, you can't use that logic to justify higher salaries for those types of workers. But when a top-level suckass wants a raise in WV, they immediately drag this argument out without any hesitation. And even more disgusting is, Danny Worker Tax Jones' response. He's all FOR paying Molgaard more money. According to Jones, "Losing Molgaard is not an option," and that Molgaard manages Charleston, "into surplus after surplus each year."

Are you kidding me? Danny Jones thinks the surplus is Molgaard's doing? What about the freaking worker tax that was basically a 2 million per year windfall the last two years? What exactly did Molgaard have to do with that aside from lugging bags of money into city hall from the user fee account? Last I checked, the City Manager didn't have a damn thing to do with it. Danny says, "Hey Dave, guess what? I just soaked the poor working schmucks in Charleston for 2 million per year, have fun spending it." And the surplus is HIS doing? Hell, give me half that additional revenue, and I'd have Charleston in a surplus too. And if we've got all these surpluses, that are evidently Molgaard's doing, then I don't see where there is a burning need to raise revenue, in the form of the worker tax. Dannyboy can't have it both ways. He can't trumpet the great job Molgaard is doing by leaving surpluses, and then cry poverty to get the worker tax, and the hotel motel increase (and remember, the hotel tax indirectly caused the cell phone fee to double too). Either the city's got extra money, or it doesn't.

Molgaard makes about $79,000 per year, but other "comparable" cities pay their managers sometimes twice that much. Danny Jones' chief leg-humper, Rod Blackstone, was quick with the facts and figures to support giving Molgaard a raise:

Wilson, N.C., which has a population of 45,921, has posted its city manager's position at up to $130,000 to start. Durham, N.C. advertised last year that they would pay its manager up to $145,000. The city of Frankfort, Ky., with its population of 27,741 -- a little more than half of Charleston's -- in a city manager posting listed the salary as $100,000, Blackstone found. In all, 40 southern cities smaller than Charleston all pay their city managers more. The median salary for city managers in the south for cities the size of Charleston is $143,365. The city of Hurricane hired Ben Newhouse as its manager on a $58,000 salary, which works out to be $10 per resident. Molgaard's salary equals about $1.49 per resident, Blackstone found.

Oh, and Molgaard won't come forward with the cities' names that have contacted him about stealing him away. But, Danny and his chief leg-humper don't need any specifics. Just the mere possibility that someone may have spoken to Molgaard (and the only one we can trust for this information, is Molgaard himself - how convenient) about being their city manager, will suffice for a full court press to pay Molgaard what other cities will pay theirs.

Of course, when you have basically an unlimited cash reservoir such as the worker tax, also known as taxation without representation, I guess squeezing an extra 15 or 20 thousand dollars out of the budget for Molgaard, won't be such a problem. But if some actual city worker asked for a raise? "Noooo, we don't have any money," would be Jones' answer.

And in keeping with something I mentioned in the Rick Staton entry the other day, this crap about politicians are sacrificing for the public good, has GOT to stop. The Daily Mail article implies that Molgaard left his 15 year law practice to become city manager, and its salary of $79,000 . And as far as I can tell, Molgaard didn't have ANY experience as a city manager before he was hired 3 years ago. I bet there are few (if any) city managers around the country that would be hired in to manage a city the size of Charleston, without any previous experience. And now he wants more money? Well boo freaking hoo. Nobody was putting a gun to his head. He knew what the salary was when he took that job. Besides, everyone is always talking about what out of control government benefits employees get? Well, Molgaard gets those too. Figure them in on top of his salary, and I bet Molgaard makes well over $90,000 per year, if not over $100,000.

That's the same line of crap the politicians use when any of the lower tier government workers use the "but employee x in state y makes more than me....." Molgaard knew the salary when he signed on. If he's got a better offer (and, again, the only one claiming that at this point, is Molgaard himself - how convenient for Molgaard), he should take it, and not try some phantom extortion scheme on the taxpayers for more money. If he can't hack it on $79,000 per year in WV, he probably shouldn't be Charleston's city manager anyway. I say good riddance. There's Greyhounds leaving for North Carolina every day. Be on the next one, Dave.

Do as I say, not as I do.

2005-12-07T21:50:00.000-05:00

Well, well well. Lookee what we have here. Not hardly a blip about this on the local talk radio scene (that I was able to tell).

Wyoming County Delegate Rick Staton, seems to have a bit of a problem paying his taxes and is going to have to declare bankruptcy. He doesn't have any problem spending YOUR tax money, but just can't seem to find any extra at the end of the day, to pay his own.

How convenient. And typical. Remember, Wyoming County is the same place where Bob Graham likes to spend your tax dollars building himself hot tubs, and paying Senator Billy Wayne Bailey 25 bucks an hour to spoon out oatmeal to the Wyoming County Senior Citizens. That is, when he's not driving around in his brand new SUV, purchased for him by the Wyoming Senior Citizen, er, I mean, you and me. And don't forget those new $10,000 roofs that keep getting put on the center every couple of years. I know my parents' house has had 2 new roofs in about 30 years. I wonder why Bobby needs a new one every 5?

It looks like Staton is making about $4,000 per month (take home pay). That's $48,000 take home pay, per year. And he has to pay about 6 grand to his ex-wife per year. So, he gets to keep about $42,000 per year, for himself. I know a ton of hard working West Virginians that manage to live on a lot less than $42,000 (take home) per year. And they also manage to pay their income taxes. Something that Ricky doesn't seem to have the time or the money to do. He owes the state about $1500 in personal income taxes, and owes the Feds about 25 grand in income taxes (personal and business). Funny, he never seemed to have any problem raising my taxes or spending MY money that I paid to the state. I always hear stuff about how people need to live within their means. Hell, I even remember Papa Joe saying that state employees need to learn how to shop at Gabe's, if they don't have enough money to live on. Maybe Ricky could take Papa Joe's advice, and learn how to live a bit more frugally. I know he doesn't seem to mind that everyone else has to tighten their belts, thanks to his actions in the legislature.

But, maybe even MORE disgusting than this scofflaw's blatant disregard for the very laws he votes on, is the fact that his buddy, Bob Kiss (or evidently, any other legislators), doesn't really see any problem with not paying your taxes. In Phil Kabler's column the other day, Kiss stated: “It’s certainly something that’s not unusual among large cross-sections of society.” Kiss then goes on to state, that it's not really a big deal, because when businesses get in trouble, the first thing they decide to skimp on, is their taxes. He then goes on and gives the Mullens' flood of both Staton's house, and law office in '01 as the reason for his getting behind. While that IS a tragedy, he's still taking home, over $40,000 per year. And he still has the time to serve in the legislature? He ran for re-election twice, in 2002 AND 2004, after the July 2001 flood. If he's so strapped for cash, that he's going to declare bankruptcy, maybe he should have stepped down from the legislature, to concentrate on his finances and actually work for a living instead of sucking off the government for his legislative paycheck (not to mention all the expense checks he got for food, lodging, and mileage, that aren't even part of this income analysis). Besides, how can the rest of us be sure he's giving his full attention to his legislative duties, if he's in such horrible financial trouble? I know it would sure as hell worry me to death, to the point I couldn't concentrate on anything else.

And Kiss later gives us this little gem: “In some ways, it’s indicative of the financial sacrifice many make to serve in the Legislature.” Kiss means Staton works more than 3 months a year for the legislature, and therefore, loses all those billable hours in his law office. Well, like I said above, that's easy enough to remedy. DON'T RUN FOR OFFICE. Stay home and get your finances in order. Hell, it's not like someone is standing there with a gun to his head MAKING him run. PLUS, let's not forget, that for the 3 months or so he spends in the legislature, he GETS PAID (plus expenses). So, it's not like the time he's in Charleston, he's doing it out of the goodness of his heart. So Kiss can take this "oh, us poor, poor, legislators are making such a financial sacrifice" crap and stuff it where I'd like to stick Danny Jones' Worker Tax.

This "who cares?" attitude by the number 1 guy in the House of Delegates, is pretty disturbing, along with the lack of outrage from the other members. I'm sorry Staton's run into hard times because (partly) of the Mullens' flood, but the cold fact of the matter is this. These guys are sent to Charleston to supposedly, "do the right thing." And they have absolutely NO hesitation in sticking a gun in my ribs for increased hotel motel taxes, or cell phone fees, or allowing Danny "Worker Tax" Jones to slap a tax on working people who can't even vote on the matter, but they can't even get their OWN financial obligations to the state taken care of? Staton should at the very least be removed from his leadership position as Majority Leader, if he owes the State delinquent taxes.

Like I said, I guess it's just another case of "do as I say, not as I do." I hated it when my parents said that to me growing up, and I sure as hell shouldn't have to take that crap from "my" elected officials. And neither should you.

Did I say mugs? No, no, no. I meant mugs AND pens, AND magnets, AND souvenir seals, AND paperweights, AND rubber wristbands.

2005-11-29T19:16:00.000-05:00

*Sigh*

It's just too easy in this state to hammer State officials. It's like they WANT to be looked at as greedy, scummy, ignorant, buffoons. The really sad part is, that the ignorant electorate in this state keeps sending the same greedy, scummy, ignorant, buffoons back to Charleston.

Betty Ireland was in the news last week over accusations she put her name on some mugs she handed out at some County Clerk's meeting. Evidently, the price of these mugs was about 1300 bucks. Who cares? She gave the mugs to the people at that meeting, as a gift. In all honesty, it's probably wrong to do it. But, was she really hurting anyone? Probably not. I'm not for spending one DIME of taxpayer money on name recognition stuff, but I also know that de minimus stuff is going to occur. This is what I'd call "de minimus."

However, Ireland couldn't simply let it go. She had to quickly defend herself by saying "you know, the PREVIOUS Secretary of State had all KINDS of trinkets with his name on them." Quickly, she pointed out that he had pens and paper and letterhead and other kinds of other crap with Manchin's name on it. She should have said, "You know what, it's probably not a good idea, and I was wrong." And left it at that.

Why should she have said left it at that? Because she wouldn't look like such a complete scumbag hypocrite now. Evidently, she paid about 15 grand for her OWN trinkets (and remember, she's only been in office, about 10 months). According to the Daily Mail, she ordered this stuff within the first six months of her term, and approved the orders herself. She knew about this stuff, last week when she was criticizing other officials for doing the same thing.

I was willing to give her a pass on the mugs. I didn't mention it when it happened last week. But nooooooooo, Ireland couldn't leave well enough alone. She had to go and play politics with it, and say, "Well, the democrats did it." Hell, I even left THAT alone.

Until it was revealed she spent 15 grand of my money on her own trinkets.

If there's a one of you out there that doesn't recognize that D's and R's are both out to stick it to you, and would cut your throat if it would get them elected, please, just take your own life now. For the sake of the rest of us.

What's Papa Joe's take on this? Well, since he has presumably TONS of crap with his name on it, his press hack Lara Ramsburg says it's not his responsibility to crack down on this, it should be the legislature's responsibility. Thanks, Joe. Thanks a ton for your great leadership. He can simply invalidate a law, like the gas tax increase, with an executive order (and we haven't heard the last of that little issue yet - mark my words), but he's helpless to crack down on "electioneering?" Please, don't insult my intelligence.

But there's something even MORE disgusting than this "electioneering." Probably the most disgusting thing about all this, light years beyond Ireland's hypocrisy and Papa Joe's sudden impotence to tackle something like this, is that the Ethics Commission, won't even RULE on whether this "electioneerring" is an ethics violation. They don't even have the guts to rule one way, or the other.

Does anyone else but me remember that about 2 seconds after being sworn in, Papa Joe called a special session to get that snazzy new jackhammer ethics law passed to help give the Ethics Commission some teeth? Did I just dream that whole special session, or did it actually take place?

Ohhhhhhhhhhh, now I remember. They HAD the special session, passed a completely useless ethics update, and Manchin swore he would "fix" the law in the regular session.

We are still waiting, Papa Joe. Why don't you do something other than blow sunshine up our ass? It's been 10 months now.

"I burned down the house, and covered up the body."

2005-11-29T18:18:00.000-05:00

Well well well. Looks like Walter Harmon, Jr., copped a plea. Evidently he DID help dispose of the body of Carla Collins, a federal drug informant. Remember, this is former Kanawha County School Board member Betty Jarvis' nephew (previous blog entries on this here, and here if you want the background). This is also the same guy who is (was) being represented by Mike Clifford, and that is how Wanda Carney, founder of West Virginia Wants to Know, got her nose dirty in this mess. She was allegedly involved in poking around in another defendant's apartment to find evidence that would help Harmon's case. She and Jarvis both got charged with crimes in this Mingogate.

Evidently, that evidence wasn't really so valuable, since Harmon's copped a plea. Evidently he did the things he was accused of. He burned down Collins' house, and threw leaves on Collins' body in an attempt to hide the body and cover up her murder. Collins was helping the Feds in the investigation of a cocaine ring in Southern West Virginia. Harmon is now looking at 20 years in federal prison; sentencing is set for February 17, 2006.

That is all pretty much factual and not too controversial. How this was received by the media in the area, was quite muted. In fact, 58Live and Chicago Furlip (Mike Agnello) didn't utter a peep about it. No, they spent the day talking about the absolutely mesmerizing issue of the 2 dog limit per household proposed in Charleston. They spent the day talking about Secretary of State Betty Ireland and her spending state money on trinkets (see the entry directly above, for a discussion of that issue). Not a word (except from the guy reading the news during the breaks) about ol "Burn 'em and Bury 'em" Harmon. This is actually not surprising given the previous attitude shown by 58 Live, and Agnello in particular, regarding this issue. Furlip previously tried to downplay Harmon's part in this, along with the whole "well, this is all politically motivated" shtick and basically defended Wanda Carney's actions, and Harmon himself to a lesser degree.

Well, now we know Agnello backed the wrong horse in this race. His guy did it. And admitted it in open court. And, predictably, Agnello stood silent on this issue today. This from a radio show that pumped up a Wanda Carney interview a couple months ago, as breaking news (only to have Carney call in and say basically, "Nothing happened, nothing to report"). The station that can't worship Wanda Carney enough basically ignored pretty big news on a case directly involving Carney. If this doesn't show you faithful readers that Agnello is a fraud, I don't know what would. I'm working on another post on this, stay tuned.