The Agricultural Commissioner has a $30 million budget and controls hundreds of jobs. Image from Flickr.

In some major political races, accusations of lying and cheating are being thrown around left and right, but the Dale Peterson for Alabama Agriculture Commissioner campaign isn’t taking any guff. Posted less than 24 hours ago, the Dale Peterson Alabama Agriculture Commissioner commercial has gotten almost a half-million hits on YouTube. This video is sure to lead to some cash advance money for the Dale Peterson Alabama campaign — and raise questions about the Alabama Agricultural Commission position.

The Dale Peterson Alabama advertisement

The video that advertises Dale Peterson for Alabama Agricultural Commissioner seems to make anyone who sees it sit up and take notice. It plays like a checklist of Alabama Republican stereotypes: Riding a horse on a farm? Check. Aviator sunglasses and a big cowboy hat? Check. History of military service and a drill-sergeant voice? Check. Big gun? Check. Standing up for the little guy? Check. It may sound like parody, but this video — for the Dale Peterson campaign — means business.

See the Dale Peterson Alabama video

Why is the Agricultural Commissioner elected?

The Dale Peterson Alabama Agricultural Commissioner advertisement raises questions about the Alabama elections. First, why is the Agricultural Commissioner elected? Most people don’t realize how much money (several million dollars) the commissioner controls. While many states elect agriculture commissioners, in several others it as an appointed position. One argument is that more elections means more electorate involvement and therefore a more representative government. However, the other side argues that with so many elections, voters simply cannot inform themselves about every candidate.

The department Dale Peterson as Alabama Agriculture Secretary would control

The Alabama Department of Agriculture that Dale Peterson is running to head has been around in one form or another since 1883. The head of the department has been elected since 1891 and serves for four years. The Department of Agriculture and Industries is responsible for helping to regulate food, drug and animal feed safety, inspecting weights and measures devices, livestock reporting, agricultural chemicals, environmental impacts and more. The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industry employees almost 675 people and has an operating budget of $30 million.

The teacher who was caught on tape beating a student has not been arrested - but she is under investigation. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Houston, Texas, students thought they were seeing a joke, at first – but when a teacher beats a student, it’s no joke. The teacher beating a student was caught on tape with a student’s cell phone, and it has caused outrage as well as school district and police department investigations. The teacher has been fired and will have to use quick personal loans for her legal representation, if she is charged. Either way, the “teacher beats student” question is raising blood pressures across the nation.

Teacher beating caught on tape

The so-called “teacher beating” caught on tape by a cell phone shows an incident where a teacher beats a student. In the video, the teacher beating shows a young adolescent being backed into a corner, then hit, slapped and kicked by an adult woman. The teacher is allegedly Sherri Davis, a science teacher at a Houston charter school. The entire teacher beating caught on tape started, apparently, because the 13-year old boy had teased another student. While students in the classroom admit that Isaiah Johnson was misbehaving, there is no justification for a teacher beating up a student.

See the teacher beats student incident video — Warning: this video contains disturbing violence

Fallout when a teacher beats a student

When the school first heard about the teacher beats student incident, Sherri Davis was placed on leave. Now teacher beating has been caught on video, she has been fired. Some students in the classroom at the time of the beating have told investigators that there were other teachers and school employees in the room, and they did not step in. Given the fact that teachers tend to be overworked and underpaid, one might wonder why more teachers don’t “just snap.” Both the school and the Harris County Sheriff’s Department are looking into the allegations. It is possible that Sherri Davis will be charged with assault, among other things, for her treatment of Isaiah Johnson. The fine for assault, in Texas, can be as much as $10,000 – about 25% of the average teacher’s salary.

Sources:

CBS News
L.A. Times
UK Telegraph

It took firefighters several hours to control the Pittsboro courthouse fire. Image from Flickr.

In 129 years, the Chatham County Courthouse has probably seen several historical events, but yesterday evening the Pittsboro courthouse fire turned the Chatham County Courthouse into a smoldering shell of its former self. The Pittsboro courthouse fire is receiving quite a bit of attention because the fire threatened tapes that reportedly show former Presidential candidate John Edwards in a sexual encounter. The Chatham County Courthouse was listed on the National Historic Register and had been undergoing renovations. Now, the county will need to look into easy cash loans to repair the building or build another.

Pittsboro courthouse fire threatened Edwards sex tape

The Pittsboro courthouse has lately been the center of an ongoing conflict for John Edwards. Official John Edwards campaign videographer — and Edwards’ mistress — Rielle Hunter apparently created this sex tape during the Edwards campaign. Apparently, at the time it was made Rielle Hunter was several months pregnant with John Edwards’ child.

John Edwards aide Andrew Young came into possession of the sex tape, perhaps hoping for an instant cash loan from the tabloids. In February, a hearing held at the Chatham County Courthouse found Andrew Young in contempt of court and he was ordered to hand over the tape, which he did. The John Edwards sex tape was then moved into a “secure location,” away from the Pittsboro courthouse fire.

Cause of the Pittsboro courthouse fire unknown

The Pittsboro courthouse fire began at approximately 4:15 p.m. Thursday afternoon, and it took fire crews more than an hour to control the blaze. The Pittsboro courthouse fire started in the attic, and the clock tower and third floor were “severely damaged.”

The rest of the courthouse sustained major water and smoke damage. Smoke from the Pittsboro courthouse fire was so thick in the rest of the town that the city of Pittsboro opened a temporary shelter for residents affected by the smoke. The courthouse was not completely destroyed, but it will take several weeks of investigation to determine whether the courthouse is worth rebuilding, or if it is no longer structurally sound. Until then, legal actions delayed by the Pittsboro courthouse fire will be moved to other, temporary facilities.

See the Pittsboro courthouse fire video here

Sources:

WRAL News
Carrboro Citizen

Lt. Dan Choi has been an active and outspoken gay-rights activist. Image from Flickr.

Just outside the White House today, openly gay Iraq veteran Lt. Dan Choi and others were arrested while marching to the White House after a Human Rights Campaign rally. No word yet if group members will be getting quick loans to bail out Lt. Dan Choi or the other arrested individuals. The group was marching on the White House in support of repealing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy that discharges openly gay men and women from the military.

Lt. Dan Choi arrested

Lt. Dan Choi was arrested earlier today by the United States Park Police, and he and Jim Pietrangelo were charged with failure to obey a lawful order. Both Lt. Choi and Pietrangelo are scheduled to appear in the D.C. Superior court tomorrow. Both Lt. Dan Choi and Jim Pietrangelo are openly gay. Pietrangelo has been discharged from the military under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; Lt. Choi’s discharge is “pending.”

Lt. Dan Choi has been outspoken against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Lt. Dan Choi originally revealed his sexual orientation on “The Rachel Maddow Show.” Soon after that show, he received a discharge letter from the U.S. Military. His open letter to the President and Congress made international headlines. Since then, Lt. Dan Choi was one of the founding members of Knights Out, an organization of West Point alumni who support LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) members of the military being able to serve openly. Lt. Choi has also spoken at numerous gay rights events.

The history of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

The policy that Lt. Dan Choi and other protesters were marching against today is referred to as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Officially federal law Pub.L. 103-160, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell prevents any openly gay person from serving in the U.S. military while allowing closeted LGBT individuals to continue serving.

The current military loans several hundred gay servicemen and servicewomen time to complete their service, as long as they do not reveal their sexual orientation. As the New York Times reported earlier this month, a bill has been presented in Congress that would repeal this policy and allow openly gay members of the military to continue serving their country. The U.S. Military is currently conducting a review in conjunction with congressional hearings on the issue.

Lt. Dan Choi’s arrest started at a Human Rights Campaign rally

The march that Lt. Dan Choi led to the White House today was not pre-planned. According to The Advocate, Choi reportedly crashed a Human Rights Campaign rally and asked attendees to march with him to the White House. The president of the Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solmonese, did not join in the march. The HRC did release a statement about Lt. Dan Choi’s arrest:

“Today more than 1,000 people showed up at a rally — 500 of which signed up to become more involved in the fight to repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ Joe Solmonese along with (gay Iraq war veteran) Eric Alva and others felt it was important to stay and engage those at the rally in ways they can continue building the pressure needed for repeal. This does nothing to diminish the actions taken by Lt. Choi and others. This is the nature of social change and everyone has a role to play.”

See video of the protest where Lt. Dan Choi was arrested

Image from Flickr.

An impending Cisco announcement has been on techies’ radars for weeks, and this morning the Cisco announcement finally came. Cisco Systems, which supplies hardware to Internet service providers, announced that it has developed a new router, the CRS-3, that can handle 12 times more traffic that previous models.

Cisco announcement: how it affects users

I know one group who will be happy about the Cisco announcement. You know those people who play online games on Xbox live or something similar and trash talk on their headsets? Their mortal enemy is lag, and lag is often caused by too much Internet traffic. Fans of “Call of Duty” and “Halo” rejoice; the Cisco announcement could mean decreased lag if your ISP buys Cisco Systems’ new router.

The new router might help you get approved for an online personal loan faster, but the main motivation behind this new product that led to the Cisco announcement is video. Cisco CEO John Chambers says that gaming, video tablets and 3-D have made video the Internet’s “killer app.”

Does the Cisco announcement excite you?

Faster Internet that can handle more traffic sounds like pretty good news to me, but the people over at CNET say the Cisco announcement simply amounts to “an incremental upgrade to Cisco’s existing product.”

CNET and other online media are saying  that the Cisco announcement was overhyped, but I never heard about it until today. What do you think about the Cisco announcement? Did you know it was coming? Are you disappointed? Excited? People absolutely freaked when Google announced that it would be starting a project to provide faster Internet in certain areas. I guess the Cisco announcement just didn’t meet some people’s expectations.

Technically correct

Apparently, Cisco Systems said that the new product would “change the Internet forever.” Though the CRS-3 router might be a small change according to some, technically making the internet faster and able to handle more traffic is changing it. Of course, the Cisco announcement is just one small blip in the never-ending array of products — like instant payday loans with no faxing — that have, and will, change the Internet forever.

I do believe the guy who wrote this book, Mathew Honan, created Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing Condition. Image from Amazon.com.

During the eight years of Republican reign that preceded President Barack Obama’s election, fans of President Bush often fought criticism of him by saying that the critic was “unpatriotic,” “anti-American,” you know what I’m talking about.

So liberals got a reputation of being unpatriotic, but my how the tables have turned. The new web site “Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing Condition” shoots back at the Republican representative from South Carolina after his decidedly disrespectful and debatably unpatriotic outburst during the president’s health care speech last night.

JoeWilsonIsYourPreexistingCondition.com

Someone started Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing Condition very shortly after Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” while the president was speaking about health care reform, the most important and most expensive issue facing the nation right now.

While Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing condition did become an overnight sensation, the bare-bones site’s creator obviously didn’t need overnight loans to get this text-only, no background site up and running. There are no photos, no headings or borders or any design elements at all, except the underlined, all-caps words in about a 72-point font.

Joe Wilson stole your newspaper

The web site makes ridiculous and obviously false claims such as “Joe Wilson is on your death panel.” They range from silly lines such as “Joe Wilson let his dog poop on your lawn” to more topical ridiculousness like  “Joe Wilson laid off your dad right before his pension kicked in.” At least one claim, though, is simply true: “Joe Wilson yells while adults are talking.”

I get it. The creator of Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing Condition is making ridiculous, false (or at least impossible to prove) and disrespectful claims, just like Joe Wilson did when he yelled “You lie!” at the president. The tag line at joewilsonisyourpreexistingcondition.com says “You dissed America, we’ll dis you right … back.”

I think there is a difference between being disrespectful to the president and “dissing America,” but — damn that site is funny! How can you help but laugh at “Joe Wilson traded the dead batteries in his walkman for the fresh ones in your TV remote“?

The kicker

I have no proof, but given the design aesthetic and undying loyalty to President Obama, I assume that Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing Condition was created by the same man who created “Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle” to promote his book of the same name.

The man’s name is Mathew Honan, and if you spend enough time clicking through laughter-inducing, brief quips such as “Joe Wilson talked on his Blackberry all through your favorite movie” and “Joe Wilson yells Free Bird at concerts,” you’ll find out what the site’s creator really thinks:

“Joe Wilson is an elected official who seems to be using party-line rhetoric as a tool rather than thoughtful debate and is actually hindering real progress in society which is a shame as we’re a smart country and should expect more of the people we elect.”

Watch video: Joe Wilson yells “you lie!” at president

After you’re done reading all the hilarity at Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing Condition, check out the moment that tipped off this madness.