Ok, this is just dumb.  Even for San Francisco.

 S.F. bans bottled water for city workers

Is city water better than bottled water?

Mayor Gavin Newsom thinks so. Newsom has issued an executive order banning city departments from buying bottled water, even for water coolers. The ban goes into effect July 1, and will extend to water coolers by Dec. 1.

The move was billed as a way to help stem global warming and save taxpayer money.

“We’re hoping to set the example for the private sector and other cities in getting off the bottle,” said Tony Winnicker, spokesman for the San Francisco public utilities commission.

In a press release announcing the decision, the mayor cited the environmental impact of making, transporting and disposing of the bottles. More than a billion of them end up in the state’s landfills each year, the release said.

When the ban goes into effect, city and county offices will dispense municipal tap water from a reservoir. Winnicker said exceptions will be made in cases where potable water is not easily available or poses health concerns.

I wish I worked for the city there so I could tell him to kiss my bottled water drinking butt.  Honestly this serves no purpose and just makes a mockery of the city.  People should have the choice to drink whatever kind of water they want,

Stupid, but then San Francisco has banned JROTC, wants to ban the Blue Angels and countless other idiocies, including thumbing its nose at the State laws, so this feel good piece of fascism is just one in a  string of them.  Even when DiFi ran the city it made more sense.

Beautiful San Francisco, the Anti Military Fascist City by the Bay.

I shudder to imagine what comes next.  Mandatory screenings once a week of An Inconvenient Truth for all employees?  Hmmm….

Here is how Edwards used fundraising for poverty to help launch his 2008 presidential campaign.

Hat tip to ST via the NYT:

In Aiding Poor, Edwards Built Bridge to 2008

John Edwards ended 2004 with a problem: how to keep alive his public profile without the benefit of a presidential campaign that could finance his travels and pay for his political staff.

Mr. Edwards, who reported this year that he had assets of nearly $30 million, came up with a novel solution, creating a nonprofit organization with the stated mission of fighting poverty. The organization, the Center for Promise and Opportunity, raised $1.3 million in 2005, and — unlike a sister charity he created to raise scholarship money for poor students — the main beneficiary of the center’s fund-raising was Mr. Edwards himself, tax filings show.

A spokesman for Mr. Edwards defended the center yesterday as a legitimate tool against poverty.

The organization became a big part of a shadow political apparatus for Mr. Edwards after his defeat as the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004 and before the start of his presidential bid this time around. Its officers were members of his political staff, and it helped pay for his nearly constant travel, including to early primary states.

While Mr. Edwards said the organization’s purpose was “making the eradication of poverty the cause of this generation,” its federal filings say it financed “retreats and seminars” with foreign policy experts on Iraq and national security issues. Unlike the scholarship charity, donations to it were not tax deductible, and, significantly, it did not have to disclose its donors — as political action committees and other political fund-raising vehicles do — and there were no limits on the size of individual donations.

…

Mr. Edwards mixed policy and politics in a way that allowed his supporters to donate to the causes he believed in — and to the organizations he had set up. He also set up two political action committees, something commonly done by politicians thinking of running for president.

The County should thanks her for exposing the loopholes that make fraud in King County so easy to commit but instead they are punishing her.

Instead of dealing with the law’s obvious flaws, they will bully her with threats and intimidation.  This is senseless prosecution and retribution for poking the sleeping giant in the eye.  Period.

Woman registers her dog to vote; prosecutors growl

Jane Balogh had a pretty good idea who was calling when the phone rang and the caller asked for Duncan M. MacDonald.

Duncan is the dog Balogh registered as a voter seven months before the November 2006 election.

Duncan’s absentee-ballot envelope was signed with a picture of a paw print.

That is the only thing that gave it away, isn’t that ironic?  Had she scrawled a signature they would have accepted it.

“You can’t sign with a paw print,” the election worker told Balogh on Nov. 9.

“I said, ‘he can if he’s a dog,’ ” answered Balogh, a 66-year-old grandmother and Army veteran who lives in Federal Way.

The election worker told her a supervisor would call, but she never heard from anyone.

After making her point — how easy it is for a voter to register illegally — Balogh will be arraigned in King County Superior Court on Tuesday on a misdemeanor charge of making a false statement to a public official.

If she declines to plead guilty, prosecutors told her in a letter this week, they will file a felony charge of providing false information on a voter-registration application. She doesn’t plan to contest the misdemeanor: “I’m not going to claim to be innocent when I know I’m guilty.”

Bryan Suits had her on the radio tonight, and offered to pay her fine, but she refused.  She knew what she did in civil disobedience was against the law and is willing to pay the price.  But the prosecution against her serves no purpose, and eliminating the flaws that allowed her to do this is not even being considered.

The money question (no pun intended) is what did she know and when did she know it?

Essentially the story is that Hillary’s 2000 Campaign was involved in a fundraiser that violated hard money campaign finance laws.  She claims they did not know, but her accusers claim she did and have a tape to prove it.

‘Smoking Gun’ Clinton Tape Released to Public

The video described in a civil suit as “smoking gun” evidence that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) committed felonies became available on the Internet Friday.

On the tape the former first lady and leading Democratic presidential contender is heard speaking in 2000 with Hollywood mogul Peter Paul, comic book icon Stan Lee, and director Aaron Tonkin about a massive fundraising event for her 2000 Senate race. Paul spent about $2 million of his own money to produce the event but later had a fallout with the Clintons.

If she helped to plan the event, it could legally constitute a direct hard money donation to Clinton’s Senate campaign, rather than to her joint fundraising committee called New York Senate 2000. If that is the case, the donation from Paul would be 10 times the legal limit of $2,000. Knowingly soliciting a contribution of $25,000 or more is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

The conversation appears to show Clinton actively helping to plan the event. The suit alleges that she violated federal campaign finance laws by directly soliciting a contribution from Paul.

“And you know, Aaron, I’m so grateful because I know how hard you’ve worked on it because it’s your constant effort and outreach,” Clinton is heard to say over a speaker phone. “You know, I talked with [celebrity singer] Cher and she was just great. Said she was really so excited. And I hadn’t talked to her so you must have done a really good job selling it to her.”

Rant on for a moment

And the players haven’t even brought suit yet.

 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,285998,00.html

Beleaguered and disbarred former District Attorney Mike Nifong, who prosecuted the Duke University lacrosse rape case, could wind up in jail if a motion is granted asking that criminal charges be filed against him.

The three Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of rape by an exotic dancer filed the motion Friday against the ex-Durham County district attorney who built the case against them.

The 42-page motion asked the judge to hold Nifong in criminal contempt of court — particularly in his withholding of pertinent DNA evidence that would have cleared the college students — and to impose sanctions against him. If granted, the prosecutor could land in prison.

There was no word on when the Superior Court judge would hand down a decision.

After accuser Crystal Mangum alleged that Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans had raped her at a party and physical evidence was collected from her in March 2006, Nifong “began a pattern of official misconduct regarding DNA evidence in this case that violated nearly every rule and law … designed to protect due process and the pursuit of truth in criminal investigations and prosecutions,” the motions states.

 Well we shall see, but I know will have to face the scrutiny of a civil suit before too long.

There is more information at the site.  It makes a disgusting read.  I really do not have a whole lot of compassion for him.  Even a layman like me can see what he did that was over the top.

And our legal system exists on the premise that the representatives of the system are not immune to following the law, or answering to it when they violate the law.

I know he died back in March, but I never got around to posting a tribute to him.

Brad Delp, the voice of the rock legand Boston passed away.  His voice was one of two distcint elements that made Boston so unique.  He also carried the reputation of being an incredibly nice person.  He was 55.

I have two Youtube clips to share.  One is a slideshow tribute and the other a video to Don’t Look back.

Rip Brad.  Heaven’s choir just gained a new soloist.