Nom de plume: Rivrdog

A few words on the NBA...

...very few words: screw them!

With the NBA Commissioner, David Stern, who is supposed to represent ALL of that level of pro basketball now totally in the tank for the owners only, not the fans, the arenas, all those who've pegged their lives to the game, and with the players being rich enough to pass on an entire season, Stern now declares that's it's "Nuclear Winter"

The only problem for Stern is that he hasn't thought this one through.

If the Player's Union dissolves, Stern has no one to try to impose his will on, and the players will then be free (assuming courts go along with their de-cert effort) to form an entirely new league. New teams, new conferences, all that.

Stern has bitten off more than he can chew.

If I'm a player's rep, I don't decertify right away, but threaten to, and have as my bargaining chip the dumping of David Stern.

BTW, the sports world is gearing up to present even more college hoops, which will be all over your TeeVee, both free channels AND subscription channels. There will be plenty of hoops to watch, and some programs will get rich off of the NBA's demise.

BTW, David Stern, you don't go away empty handed. You get the Maroon of the Month for your bungling of this conflict, which was YOUR duty to resolve, not prolong.

"Flea party" - the filth spreads and turns ugly

When you've spent better than a third of your life wearing a badge and protecting public safety as a Patrol Deputy, you learn certain things.

One thing I learned is that "waiving" the rules for certain disadvantaged members of the society means that you will have a very hard time enforcing them against anyone else, and when officialdom "waives" the rules, they are as good as useless, and might as well have not been written in the first place.

So, Hizzoner the Lying Bonehead Mayor of Portland (ok, I'm being nice to him today!) decided to "waive" the No Camping in Parks rules for the "Occupy Portland" (aka, Flea Party) protesters for the first day they protested, week before last. Trouble is, he didn't say, "you may camp tonight, but be gone by tomorrow noon" or some-such. He put no time limit on his "waiver". Legally, his "waiver" is improper, since the law has no such waiver language in it, and it would have taken the entire City Council, with a three-stage Reading agenda, to get an amendment to the law posted granting Hizzoner such Waiver authority. Perhaps Hizzoner is relying on some "the Mayor is God" rule that the rest of us don't know about.

But I digressed, again.

The Waiver happened, and was NOT conditioned in time, so now the protesters have refused to move. It took police action to sweep them off of a busy street they were blocking (the street carried 8 city bus lines), but that's not the worst of it. Now there's a homeless persons' camp downtown in Old Chinatown, and the idiots down there are citing the Flea Party protest as the reason they don't have to leave and can't be made to leave.

The other biggie you learn as a cop about civil disorder is that it naturally escalates. Just ask the Mayor of Rome, Italy about that. Their Flea Party protest turned really ugly, just as I predicted.

Ok, Chief Reese. You and I were in the same Police Academy, back in the day. You know me to have planning skills, so please make use of this tactical plan I'm offering you.

Pick a dark and rainy night late next week (gives you plenty of time to work out the details), call in the Morning shift 4 hours early, and tell the Second Night (graveyard) shift they are Held Over. Call up all your Reserves, and see if the Sheriff will double-staff the Booking Section in the Jail. Maybe the Sheriff will be nice and declare a State of Emergency to back you up.

Issue riot gear, and at about 0330, sweep the camps. Arrest EVERYONE, and blockade the Courthouse Square so that it cannot be re-occupied. Protect City Environmental as they move in and clear out all the detritus from the camps. Have Flying Squads ready to intercept any escapees who try to occupy other Park Blocks further South. Use the Jail Bus Sally-ports in the basement of the Justice Center (across the street from the camps) as holding areas. Use the entire fleet of Sheriff's Transport buses to transport detainees to Inverness Jail, get them right out of downtown. If they are released on Re-cog, release them out there. Have extra patrols on the city transit buses and Max trains. Make your best effort to deter protesters from re-gathering. Easy enough to do, the releasing Magistrate can order "no lawbreaking" and "diminished 4th Amendment Rights" as conditions of release. "Faces" will record it all and make it easy to re-arrest any who get back downtown. Once re-arrested, they can be held without bail, or on high FULL bail, pending trial.

This is going to cost some big bucks, and someone ought to keep a tally of it, and use that figure to recall the sorry-ass Mayor. It really IS all his fault, and he is the Maroon of the Month for it.

One-note Christie, Whatta Maroon!

Let's summarize the Blob's speech last night at the Reagan Library.

The Large Guv'ner's bullet-points:

• I busted the public employee unions
• Ronald Reagan busted the PATCO (Air traffic controllers) union.
• Ronald Reagan was great.
• Therefore, I am great, too.
• We're all great, let's celebrate ourselves.
• In fact, we're so great, we're exceptional.

Let me see, if I had used a busted sylogism like that in my college Speech class, I'd have (quite properly) flunked the course (instead of getting the "B" I did get).

Tubby the Tuba plays a better note than that, and would make a better Presidential candidate.

There WAS one bright note, however: the speech happened right at supper time, so I ate very little, which will help me NOT look like I need Christie's tent-maker to make my suits.

Yep, that's an ad-hominem ad-blobinem attack. Sue me.

Rick Perry trips on his Richard

In today's email stack was a Rick Perry item, so I opened it. It briefly discussed the importance of the UN's upcoming vote on PaleSwine, and PaleSwinian statehood. It invites me to go to a linked website to sign a petition to support Israel, so I click on it...

When the page opens, it's a naked solicitation for campaign funds!

Whatta Maroon! This cheap political trick wouldn't fly if the election was for Deputy Assistant to the Assistant Assessor in Hogg County, GA.

How not to win friends or influence people.

Unless something changes over at Perry's Place, I'm done with that dish! Good guy, great record, but can't pick a team to save his butt.

Speaker Boehner has caved, Obama will be re-elected. Whatta Maroon!

With the Speaker caving, "declaring victory" because no new taxes are in the package (not a victory since there is over TWO TRILLION new debt in the package, which Obama will spend between now and next November to buy the election with), I'm officially disgusted.

The one best, non-violent chance the GOP had to forever end the hegemony of bloated Government is now gone, probably forever. Balanced Budget Amendment? Fuggeddabboudditt. The package only calls for debate and a vote, did not make the debt increase dependent on a balanced budget amendment actually getting out to the States.

Nope, this is a pure win for Obama, because the Speaker turned around on his spine of 87 freshmen who would have held the line forever, and instead, Mister Speaker caved in to Big Government As Usual.

The only way to end the hegemony of Big Government now will be by force of arms.

If we are to return to Constitutional Government the way the Founders imagined it would be, we will also have to return to the way the Founders achieved the freedom to write that Constitution, victory by force of arms.

If that revolt actually starts, and I doubt it will, because we now see how easily the most ardent are swayed by the Washington Schmooze, I'll be ready and waiting to join that cause.

The one, best chance to turn the Nation back to it's original goals, back to the style of Government that made us a Great Nation (once, not now) is gone. Boehner sounded great until about 10 days ago, then he began to waffle. Today he went from waffling to surrender.

Mr. Boehner, you get the Whatta Maroon Award today. With it goes a white flag. Keep it handy. Now that Obama has run you off your position so easily, you're gonna need that white flag soon and often.

Norse horror

Definitely a lone haranguer. He apparently left a long and ranting communique, calling on Norwegians to follow his lead and throw off their government chains and join him in the purity of Norwegian essence, or something similar.

Whack job, no organization behind this chillingly-similar call to Hitler's in 1923 at the beer hall he tried his first start with nazi menace in. This lurch doesn't seem associated with any of the nationalist groups prevalent in Northern Europe, so he definitely had his own pace of getting his Final Solution going.

Rep. Wiener, you're a putz, AND a maroon!

...the Putz finally 'fesses, just ahead of Andrew Breitbart outing his 6 online sextees.

Masterful (D)onk-style apology, tears, sobs, sniffles (or were they snivels?), after which some members of the press GAVE HIM AN OVATION!

Now, was that ovation an in-your-face to Breitbart, who was in the room, or was it the lib media showing it's true colors?

History will be the judge.

Now, about that resignation thing. I DO NOT WANT HIM TO RESIGN. I want him to show up every day, where everyone will snicker about him, tell Putz jokes not-so-behind his back, and where he can be held up as the best current example of situational ethics, (D)emocrat-style.

Now, who's got the 13 minutes of audio or video of Breitbart in that room before the Putz showed his face?

I want to see if Breitbart said "I own this putz." If he didn't, he should have. I would have.

Here's the Orange County Register with a fine collection of Putz-work.

If there are any original putz-jokes, please feel free to post them in comments...

Oh, and let's not forget the past two weeks or so of cover-up by the Putz-Wiener. For all of you who can forgive his sexting, can you forgive his lying about it?

I can't wait to hear O'Reilly tonight, he might have been able to squeeze this in. Maybe Leno, too.

Rivrdog to Obama: What part of "Never Again" do you fail to get?

So Obama kowtows completely to the Paleoswinians, and demands that Israel give back all the lands it took from it's neighbors when they brought several wars to the tiny Jewish state.

I got news for Obama: Israel will not be as polite as I'm being here. Most likely they will give our idiot-in-charge the message of "fuck off, mate". I've got more news for Obama: Israel's got enough nukes and the means to deliver them to turn ALL of the Middle East to glass and make it into a place where off-region Muslims like Obama can only reminisce about because it will glow for centuries, were Obama's new policy to ever be forced on Israel.

To Obama, I say, "Well, dummy, you just ended the Middle East Peace process, and guaranteed the success of the hard-liners of Netanyahu's party."

To the Jews of THIS country, I say, "Are your eyes opened sufficiently now to see that your Democratic Party friends are REALLY the new anti-Semites of the world, and isn't it about time you withdrew your support of that political party?"

Only the most die-hard Friends of the Paleo-thuggians can now prop up Obama.

On a related note, a rumor swept DeeCee today (well before the speech) that Hillary might be about to resign, and if she did, Obama would nominate John F. Kerry as the new Secretary of State. Frankly, I hope Hillary DOES resign. By that act, she would instantly become THE most desireable AND electable Democratic Party candidate for President, since Obama just destroyed what remains of his chances with this speech. The current crop of GOP RINOs would have a hard time fighting off a Hillary '12 candidacy. Don't believe me? Just Google Bing-search Hillary '12...

As for Kerry, I'm reminded of the old country proverb, "no matter which way you turn a turd, there is NO good side to it."

Obama, YOU are the Dummy of the Decade. The contest for that title is now closed. You are the Maroon of the Year, and THAT contest is now closed, as well.

Sic Semper Ignoramus

Is it possible?

...to give the Whatta Maroon! Award to an entire COUNTRY?

That might take some research, but let's do an inferential leap and assume it is.

That country would be Merrie Olde Englande.

This would be one reason, plenty enough to earn the award.

This would be another reason.

If I needed a third reason, it would be all the lost production and the expense to Britons of the "Royal Marriage" farce currently in progress.

Whatta Maroon! Monthly Award! - UPDATED

...goes to Fox News noon anchor Shepard Smith, for inventing a new "news action category" (my words).

For the past 20 minutes, from about 11:50 PDT to 12:10 PDT, there had been "breaking" news flashes about a tornado which touched down somewhere near Chattanooga, TN.

There have been quite a few tornadoes this year, so Mr. Smith must have felt he needed to "punch it up a bit". He then invented a totally new term:

"Life-Threatening Weather"

Gotta hand it to Shep, that's an entirely new term. I've studied Weather and Climate for almost 60 years and I never heard that term used before.

So, Shep, this Whatta Maroon! Award is for you, for "punching up the language", even though the word "Tornado" pretty much says it all, don't you think?

How do you "punch up" a Tornado?

******************************************************************************

UPDATE: 042811 0959 PDT: I'll answer my own question. You "punch up" a tornado by showing old file footage out of storm chasers' archives (Fox did that this am before 0800), and by lowering the voice of the commentator two octaves (the "grave event" voice). The commentator kept asking the question, "how could these tornadoes kill so many people" (200+), then talked about everything except the obvious answer: it's because of greater population density, YOU MAROON!