Custer Battles Found Guilty in $3 Million Fraud Case

The reason I’m posting about this (Which can be read free here, and with registration here.)is because first of all, they were a Rhode Island based company approximately two years ago. Secondly, I interviewed with them two years ago and now don’t feel so bad telling the story.

When I interviewed it was with Mike Battles. Immediately I knew something was up when i was left in an office and saw a notepad with a long list of company names on it. Shell game immediately jumped to mind.

Anyhow, Battles was antagonistic in the interview. After I left the interview he called and asked if I’d do the job on a contract basis, after advertising the job as full time. I told him to go pound sand, and that I couldn’t wait until they convicted his ass. He took a bit of umbrage but what the hell – I knew he was dirty just interviewing with him. I guess my years at the AG’s office really gave me insight into dirty characters and Battles was one of them.

Well, looks like my little bon mot came true. The boys in the slammer will just love him.

130th Anniversary of Bell’s First Transmission of Speech over Wires

It’s being held in Boston, MA at Verizon’s HQ there. Should be interesting – Verizon is opening up its telephone museum so I’ll be like a kid in a candy store. I’ll try to get some good photos to post here.

In case nobody had mentioned it, not only am I computer geek, I’m also a phone geek. For example, I recently bought this off Ebay because I wanted to have some old school phones that handle multiple lines and intercom:

This of course makes this kind of phone work:

Yes, I’m a geek.

As Usual – Efflluent Rolls Down Hill

Seems that Abramoff is telling his side of the story. The Republican party is littered with cheats and liars. Yet people supposedly voted for them anyway. Of course the blush is coming off the rose but the Democrats are too timid to call the Republicans on the outright thievery committed on the citizens of the United States. Or could it be because the Democrats are complicit in it too?

Here’s a nice example:

On Newt Gingrich:

Newt Gingrich, whose spokesman Rick Tyler tells Margolick that “Before [Abramoff’s] picture appeared on TV and in the newspapers, Newt wouldn’t have known him if he fell across him. He hadn’t seen him in 10 years.” A rankled Abramoff says “I have more pictures of [Newt] than I have of my wife.”

We Thought Nixon was Tricky Dick

Cheney makes former President Nixon look like an amateur.

This article on Truthout tells the tale of Dick Cheney’s involvement with Halliburton and its subsidiary, KBR.

It is one long litany of charges of conflict of interest. Only problem is, he’ll never have to pay for his avarice and deceit. Even if he is impeached and even convicted which I consider highly unlikely while the Republicans control congress, but if the improbable were to become probable and he were through some infinitesimal probability convicted, Bush would immediately pardon him.

This dovetails nicely with the farcical Ethics link I posted a few days back. Sometimes reality truly is stranger than fiction.

But at last reckoning, isn’t Cheney’s approval rating somewhere around 18%? I don’t think he’ll be running for President once Dubya’s term is up. But I could be wrong.

What Part of Separation of Powers does this idiot not get?

Found this while surfing the web this morning and though it would be worth a quick post.

First of all, having three branches of government was done to ensure checks and balances, to be certain that no one branch had more power than the other. But Dwyer, Jr. seems to think he’s King Shit. Someone needs to remind the man that he isn’t.

Honestly – a judge rules in favor of same sex marriage and a legislator tries to get the judge impeached for incompetence and misbehavior. I wonder what would happen if we applied the same rule set to Mr. Dwyer Jr. I can certainly see the misbehavior aspect applying to his stunningly bad PR smear campaign.

A Lego Version of Brokeback Mountain

Just click the picture to be taken to individual views of each scene. I’ve always loved Lego since I was a kid but as an adult I don’t have the time to play with them. I was particularly intrigued when Lego came out with the technical set.

I’ve also seen instances where someone built Babbage’s Differential Engine out of Lego parts. Then of course for the ultra freaky see my earlier post about the college professor that built a relay computer.

Ah, the odd and the weird. How wonderful.

Ohio Candidate Says Homosexuality Should Be Punishable with Death

This guy is a real horses ass. Hopefully he’ll be soundly defeated in the primary because this is just too much.

I’ve always been for the death penatly of politicians who abuse the constitution. This guy would count among those eligible for that penalty.

Another Secular Humanists Throws it at Islam

Watch the video here.

Hopefully this woman isn’t in a place where the fundamentalists can get at her. But I applaud her for going on the tube and tellings the Muslims to keep their shit in check.

Of course we in the U.S. have to do the same to the Christian churches. Be they Catholic, Baptists, Methodist, etc. They too are pushing their agenda on society and must be stopped.

iPods and MP3 Players Causing Hearing Loss

No specific link but I’ve seen it all over the web. I type this as I’ve got a set of earbuds plugged into my head.

Let it be said that I should be stone deaf by now. Been keeping the headphones and earbuds on for thirty years of my life so far. I’d fall asleep listening to WBRU 360, Kiss 108, or WBOS more often than not. I’d do homework with headphones on, I’d pretty much do everything with headphones on.

Now it’s the little MP3 player. Almost always on. My life needs a soundtrack and I don’t want to share it with the world. So headphones it is.

Family Sized Calamari

Now this is one sure to please. It’s the biggest specimen of Mollusca Cephalopoda and it’s only a baby.

Imagine the Calamari you could make out of this. Hmmmmmm.

And if this is just a baby, there are some true monsters roaming the deep that we haven’t seen yet. Lovely.

While I do like Calamari on occasion, I’m more a fan of Mollusca Pelecypoda, namely clams or as we in Rhode Island call them, Quahogs.