truesee's Blog

Bank night deposit angler comes up empty

RICHARD WALKER

T&D Staff Writer  

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:56 pm EDT

Vanity Fair article casts doubt on Tiger's honesty, connections

Jay Busbee

Last week, Tiger Woods took his first public questions since the Thanksgiving accident that sent his life — and, indeed, the entire golf world — into a tailspin. During his two five-minute interviews with ESPN and The Golf Channel, he repeatedly assumed all blame and indicated that he had no assistance or enabling from his inner circle.

It was an interesting claim, given that Woods was the embodiment of a multimillion-dollar corporation and that dozens, if not hundreds, of people had a vested interest in keeping his image pristine. How could someone as visible as Woods commit all the "transgressions" he did, risking untold millions in sponsor dollars, without some assistance, or at least some people willing to look the other way?

Now, an article in the latest Vanity Fair scheduled to hit newsstands nationwide next Wednesday asks that very question, casting doubt on Woods' honesty and forthrightness. 

Writer Mark Seal spoke to several of Woods' mistresses and many current and former insiders, and the picture he paints of Woods is vastly different from the one put forth in his public interviews and Feb. 19 statement to the press.

According to Seal, Bryon Bell, Woods' childhood friend and president of Tiger Woods Design, was instrumental in setting up at least some of Woods' liaisons. Seal quotes mistress Jamie Jungers as saying, "Every time I would fly out to see [Woods] or schedule itineraries or anything, I would always go through Bryon."

Mindy Lawton — she's the Perkins waitress, for those of you keeping track — also had contact with Woods' inner circle, according to Seal. Lawton and Woods carried on an affair that was apparently caught on camera by the National Enquirer. When Lawton told Woods that The National Enquirer was aware of their "interaction," he connected her with his agent, Mark Steinberg. Lawton said Steinberg told her, "We'll take care of it."  That "taking care of it" allegedly included Woods suddenly giving an uncharacteristic cover-story interview to the Enquirer's sister publication Men's Fitness. When reached on Thursday by Yahoo! Sports, IMG declined comment on the Vanity Fair story.

Incidentally, Lawton said that Woods was so cheap that he only bought her a chicken wrap from Subway. Take that for what it's worth.

But Vanity Fair indicates that it wasn't just Tiger's inner circle covering up for his behavior. Famous names like Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan brought Woods along for gambling junkets to Vegas. He'd stay at the Mansion at the MGM Grand, in a one-bedroom suite that ran $5,000 a night. And when he'd bet, he'd bet big -- up to $150,000 a hand of cards.

Barkley and Jordan have had well-documented problems with gambling. Barkley has claimed gambling losses of up to $10 million in the past, and in 2008 had to repay a $400,000 debt to the Wynn Casino. Jordan's gambling was the subject of an NBA probe in the '90s.

 Not coincidentally, former Woods advisor John Merchant had no regard for Jordan's influence on Woods: "Stay away from that son of a [profane], because he doesn’t have anything to offer to the [profane] world in which he lives except playing basketball," he allegedly told Woods at the time. More recently, he told Seal, "Are they his black role models? You’ve got to be kidding me." (After the accident, Barkley noted that Woods had changed his number and wasn't returning Barkley's calls.)

 Certainly, Woods has said all the right things upon his initial return to public life. And we're very close to the point where Woods starts just playing golf again. But if he's still concealing or playing with the public's trust, the public goodwill that's slowly coming back could vanish in a hurry.

Anger rises over bill to father of slain Marine

Support, money sent to help pay court costs in Westboro suit

Robbie Whelan

Baltimore Sun reporter

7:42 AM EDT, March 31, 2010

Outraged that the father of a dead Marine was ordered to pay some court costs incurred by a group he had sued for picketing his son's funeral, people from across the country have launched a grass-roots fundraising effort to help the grieving family.

"I was appalled," said Sally Giannini, a 72-year-old retired bookkeeper from Spokane, Wash., who had called The Baltimore Sun after seeing an article about the court decision against Albert Snyder. "I believe in free speech, but this goes too far."

Living on a fixed income, Giannini said she could send only $10 toward the $16,510.80 that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Snyder to pay to Fred Phelps, leader of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., an anti-gay group that travels the country picketing military funerals. The group says military deaths are God's punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality.

Snyder sued Westboro because its members waved signs saying "God hates fags" and "God hates the USA" at the 2006 funeral in Westminster of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who had been killed in Iraq. A federal jury in Baltimore awarded Snyder $11 million in damages in 2007, saying Phelps' group intentionally inflicted emotional distress on the family. The award was later reduced to $5 million, and eventually overturned on appeal.

As news of the order to pay some of the court costs spread through the news media and online, strangers were moved to send money and set up funds to support Snyder's court battle. Tuesday night, commentator Bill O'Reilly of Fox News Channel offered to pay the court costs owed by Snyder, according to WBAL Radio.

Mark C. Seavey, new-media director for the American Legion, also posted a message Tuesday on his Legion-affiliated blog, The Burn Pit, urging readers to donate to the Albert Snyder Fund. The American Legion's message was picked up by conservative political blogger Michelle Malkin, who called the Westboro protesters "evil miscreants" and urged readers to donate.

"Regardless of how you feel about the merits of the Snyders' suit, the Snyders deserve to know that Americans are forever grateful for their son's heroism and for the family's sacrifice. We shouldn't stand by and watch them bankrupted," Malkin wrote.

Money from donations will go toward covering the money owed to Phelps, and beyond that, toward preparing further appeals, Seavey said.

"As soon as we heard this, we just knew that it was going to go through the roof, and people were going to be upset. We seized on it," Seavey said. "On an issue like this that cuts across political lines, it's relatively easy, and it's the kind of fight we want to wade into because it's not right or left, it's right or wrong. We're going to do the best we can to make sure that Mr. Snyder doesn't have to deal with this. We're going to make sure he doesn't have to pay a red cent."

In a phone interview Tuesday, Snyder said he was "exhausted" by the long legal ordeal but heartened by the outpouring of support. He said he has received about 3,000 e-mail messages from people across the country who planned to contribute.

"It kind of restores your faith in mankind after dealing with this wacko church," Snyder said. "Win or lose, I'll know that I did everything I could for Matt, and for all the soldiers and Marines who are still coming home dying."

From Web sites to Twitter pages, people were galled that the grieving father of a fallen Marine would have to pay a group that uses such inflammatory tactics. A Facebook group called "I support Al Snyder in His fight against Westboro Baptist Church" had drawn nearly 12,000 members by the end of the day Tuesday.

In September, the 4th Circuit Court threw out the Baltimore jury's award to Snyder on free-speech grounds. A month later, Westboro filed a motion to recoup court costs from both the original suit and the appeal, for a total of $96,740.21. Friday's judgment covers only some costs from the appeal.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed this month to hear a new appeal of the case, which experts say is being closely watched by 1st Amendment advocates. If the Supreme Court sides with Snyder, he won't have to pay Westboro.

"The most alarming part is that [the 4th Circuit] sat on it for months, and only ruled on it after the Supreme Court agreed to hear it," said Sean E. Summers, Snyder's York, Pa.-based lawyer. "The other troubling fact was that we were trying to raise about $20,000 to file a Supreme Court brief. Now we have [to raise] another $16,500. ... There are definitely extenuating circumstances, given that Mr. Snyder doesn't have the resources to pay."

Snyder, who lives in York, does in-house sales for a small electronics firm and, according to court filings, earns $43,000 a year.

Gene Policinski, executive director of the First Amendment Center in Nashville, Tenn., predicted that the Supreme Court will not address issues of where protesters are permitted to demonstrate, as it has in the past in the case of abortion protesters. Instead, he said, the case is important because "it has the potential to define whether we're going to create a new exemption to freedom of speech that is emotionally distressing."

"You can imagine that Martin Luther King and others inflicted emotional distress on people, if they were committed to segregation," he said. "I shudder to think if those people were armed with the weapon of suing him because the issue itself was repugnant to them."

For some supporters, the issue is not so much the right to free speech as the right to a peaceful burial of fallen troops.

Alice M. Johnson, 56, of Lynbrook, N.Y., said she donated $50 to Snyder's cause. Since 2008, Johnson has been a member of the Patriot Guard Riders, a group that sends supporters to troops' funerals to shield their families from protesters.

"I agree that people have the right to free speech," she said, "but that should not be allowed ... where people are laying their children to rest who died for their country."

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/03/30/2010-03-30_horndog_high_teachers_alini_brito_cindy_mauro_to_be_charged_for_alleged_lesbian_.html

Wanted: Happiness Boss - And $80,000 Is No Joke

2:27pm UK, Monday March 29, 2010

Mark Langford

Sky News Online

The job of bringing joy to the world is up for grabs as a newly-formed charity seeks a director of happiness.

The successful applicant to the Movement for Happiness must have a vision of society in which people are motivated by more than just money - although, to be on the safe side, the job is offering a far from miserable salary of $80,000 a year.

The movement has been formed by Lord Layard, of the London School of Economics, who became known as the Government's "happiness czar" for his work studying income and its effect on our well-being.

The other co-founders are Anthony Seldon, Master of Wellington College; and Geoff Mulgan, former head of policy at 10 Downing Street.

They believe that increases in material wealth in the West have failed to deliver a happier society.

"We hope it will become a mass movement, extending far beyond our borders, with members who are committed to trying to produce more happiness in all spheres of life," Lord Layard told The Times.

In an advertisement for the post of director (who will "need to have proven leadership ability") the founders said: "We hope this movement will help to shift our culture away from selfish materialism towards more rewarding forms of social engagement."

In the meantime, however, there is the prickly question of how much to pay the director.

Lord Layard has previously said bigger salaries do not necessarily lead to greater contentment.

Evidence from the United States, he said, had shown that increases in salary beyond $60,000 do not lead to significantly greater increases in happiness.

"We have got to be able to pay a proper salary," said Lord Layard.

"We would not be ruling out $80,000 for the right person. They would have to believe in the message - to change the culture away from feeling that your main job in life is what you can get, to what you can contribute - and have some sort of imaginative flair as well as organisational ability."

Lord Layard is a founder director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE and runs its Well-Being Project.

He argues there seven influential factors on our wellbeing: family relationships, financial situation, work, community and friends, health, personal freedom and personal values.

LINK TO STORY 

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Movement-For-Happiness-Founded-By-Lord-Layard-Anthony-Seldon-Geoff-Mulgan-Seeks-A-Director/Article/201003415587196?f=rss

GOP fires staffer over $1,946 topless club visit

CHARLES BABINGTON

Associated Press Writer

848 AM EST

WASHINGTON – The Republican National Committee has fired a staffer who helped organize a $1,946 visit last month to a sex-themed Hollywood club, and the GOP says it will recoup the money from a donor who also participated.

The episode is the latest in a string of questionable spending by the RNC as Republicans prepare for a costly election season in which they hope to take dozens of House and Senate seats from Democrats.

An RNC internal memo says the Feb. 4 outing to Voyeur West Hollywood involved several members of the "Young Eagles" GOP group who had been in Los Angeles for a meeting. An unnamed staffer, who had been warned that such activities did not qualify for reimbursement, has been fired, said the memo from RNC lawyer Ken McKay.

The club features topless dancers and bondage outfits.

RNC spokesman Doug Heye said the committee will be reimbursed by Erik Brown of Orange, Calif., the donor-vendor who billed the GOP for the club visit on behalf of the attendees.

Brown did not respond to an e-mail and phone message seeking comment.

Since November, the RNC has paid Brown's company, Dynamic Marketing Inc., about $19,000 for printing and direct-mail services, campaign spending reports show. He has contributed several thousand dollars to the party.

The most recent financial disclosure report said the RNC spent more than $17,000 for private planes in February and nearly $13,000 for car services. Heye said such services are used only when needed.

McKay's memo says the RNC is committed to using donors' funds efficiently and responsibly.

The $1,946 for meals at Voyeur West Hollywood was the most eye-catching item in the monthly report. RNC Chairman Michael Steele, whose spending decisions have angered some donors in this midterm election year, had nothing to do with the nightclub expenditure, Heye said.

The conservative group Concerned Women for America said the RNC should disclose more about the episode.

"Did they really agree to reimburse nearly $2,000 for a bondage-themed night club?" group president Penny Nance asked in a statement. "Why would a staffer believe that this is acceptable, and has this kind of thing been approved in the past?"

Much of the most lavish spending by the major political parties is associated with fundraisers, which often target wealthy people.

The RNC spent $144,549 for rooms at the Four Seasons Resort in Jackson Hole, Wyo., in 2009. On March 19, 2009, it spent $31,980 for catering by the Breakers Palm Beach in Florida.

The RNC paid $18,361 over the past several months to the "Tiny Jewel Box" in Washington for "office supplies," which may have included trinkets or gifts for big donors. It spent $13,622 at Dylan's Candy Bar in New York City.

Some Republican officials and donors have complained about Steele's spending decisions, saying the party should devote every available dollar to trying to win House and Senate races this fall. He held this year's four-day winter meeting at a beachfront hotel in Hawaii, although it often takes place in Washington.

Some donors grumbled when Steele spent more than $18,000 to redecorate his office. Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor, also has received substantial fees for making speeches, even though the RNC pays him a full-time salary.

Steele's supporters say he has brought a refreshing frankness and energy to the party's leadership.

___

Associated Press writer Sharon Theimer contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1364

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/29/patriot-majority-pac-goin_n_516954.html

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1973135,00.html

Senate Republicans Want Another Benefits Filibuster?

From left, Senator John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), Senator Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) and Representative Phil Gingry (R., Ga.)

In the wake of their health care defeat, Republicans in Washington would be wise to remember one famous definition of insanity as repeating the same behavior again and again but expecting different results. After all, there's hardly a politico in Washington, Republican or Democrat, who thinks Senator Jim Bunning's one-man filibuster of unemployment benefits last month reflected well on the GOP. So why are Senate Republicans doing it again?

Granted, this time around the agitator is the much more media-friendly Republican Senator from Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, who — unlike Bunning — is not known for flipping off reporters. Before the Senate adjourns for a two-week Easter recess on Friday, Democrats are hoping to pass another one-month extension of benefits — the yearlong extension has been held up as differences are worked out with the House — to tide over the unemployed until lawmakers can pass a more permanent solution. Coburn's objection is the same as Bunning's: that Democrats are not paying for the $10 billion bill. "I think it's unfortunate that potentially we may go home and not deal with it," Coburn said Thursday afternoon in a speech on the Senate floor. "I don't care how we pay for it as long as it's legitimate, as long as we don't add to our kids' debt. And so I'm open and willing to negotiate on any area of waste in the federal government that we could eliminate to pay for it."

Democrats say that they consider this bill along the lines of (and much cheaper than) President George W. Bush's emergency war supplemental bills, which totaled trillions of dollars and were mostly unpaid for. "We really believe that unemployment situation is an emergency economic situation," Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told reporters Thursday evening. "The Republicans do not accept that they want to cut off unemployment benefits or pay for it using stimulus funds which are being used to create jobs. It's a very shortsighted approach."

Republican leaders have not totally dug in their heels. They have actually agreed to proceed with a vote on the unfunded bill — but most Republicans are expected to vote against the bill, and Dems will need at least one Republican to reach the magic threshold of 60 to overcome Coburn's filibuster and pass the bill. Even if they managed that, however, it'll take at least until Sunday evening to procedurally bypass the filibuster, and many Senators are impatient to go home or depart on long-planned trips abroad (the security for which is expensive to rearrange). 

So, while Reid and Coburn are trying to hash out an agreement — Bunning eventually settled for a vote on an amendment that would have paid for the bill using unused stimulus funds, which failed — other Senators are looking at leaving and then passing legislation when they reconvene April 12. "Whatever we do will be retroactive if we don't get it done now," Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters.

The problem with this solution is that some benefits start to expire April 5. And as the country learned the last time these provisions ran out last month during Bunning's filibuster, that means thousands of Transportation Department workers getting laid off, gaps in unemployment and health coverage for some of the most desperate Americans and bureaucratic nightmares costing millions of dollars for the necessary paperwork to retroactively apply benefits.

Bunning and Coburn both make a valid point: it is hypocritical of Dems to not practice what they preach on the deficit, and this would be the fifth unpaid bill to pass thus far this year. But making the point on the backs of the most needy is probably the wrong way to go about it. Especially when it underscores Democrats' complaints about GOP obstructionism on even the most pressing of issues. "I think Americans — a majority of whom have someone in their orbit out of work — are not very receptive to the idea of cutting off unemployment benefits in the midst of a bad economy," said Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "This strategy is not a winner."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1975474,00.html?xid=rss-politics-huffpo#ixzz0jfGfzE65

Superman comic sells for $1.5M, setting record

AP – In this comic book cover photo released by ComicConnect/Metropolis Comics, a copy of the 1938 edition …

JAKE COYLE

AP Entertainment Writer

Mon Mar 29, 3:40 pm ET

NEW YORK – The record price for a comic book, already broken twice this year, has been shattered again.

A copy of the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1 sold Monday for $1.5 million on the auction Web site ComicConnect.com. The issue, which features Superman's debut and originally sold for 10 cents, is widely considered the Holy Grail of comic books.

The same issue sold in February for $1 million, though that copy wasn't in as good condition as the issue that sold Monday. That number was bested just days later when a 1939 comic book featuring Batman's debut sold for $75,000 more at an auction in Dallas.

There are about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 believed to be in existence, and only a handful in good condition. The issue that sold Monday was rated slightly higher than the one that sold in February; it had been tucked inside an old movie magazine for years before being discovered.

The issue was bought from a private collector and then sold by Stephen Fishler and Vincent Zurzolo, the co-owners of ComicConnect.com. It was bought minutes after being posted Monday at the asking price of $1.5 million by "a hardcore comic book fan," Fishler said.

"There's been a lot of attempts to acquire this book over the last 15 years," he said. "The recent activity, I guess, did the trick."

Fishler speculated that the sudden burst of record-priced sales are due to "pent-up demand." Issues of such prized comic books rarely become available for purchase. Rarer still are issues in such good condition.

"I can't imagine another book coming on the market that exists that would top this," Fishler said. "This may be the final say — at least for the next 10 or 20 years — for a record price of a comic book."

___

On the Net:

http://www.comicconnect.com/

Man Falls Asleep During Robbery 
WMDT STAFF
03/27/2010

A 19 year-old man is in custody after apparently falling asleep during an attempted robbery.

It happened today at the Talons Square South apartments in Princess Anne.
Police say Jaimie Goodson forced his way into the apartment, and then bagged numerous items.

When officers arrived, they found Goodson asleep in a bed.
He was taken into custody and is being held on bond.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/michael-jackson/wjw-news-cleveland-ohio-suspect-jumps-prison-fence,0,1127619.story

Congressional disapproval ratings hit 72 percent, now at late-1994 levels

TOP OF THE BALLOT: A side effect of the healthcare process is the highest congressional disapproval since October 1994; members ready for town hall craziness; Tea Party meets its resistance

Highest disapproval of Congress since Oct. 31, 1994

The jury is in, and Democrats did indeed get a slight bump from healthcare reform. But will the sausage-making do them in?

Tucked away inside a new Washington Post/ABC News poll is a key figure — 72 percent. That’s the percentage of voters who disapprove of the job Congress is doing, and the number hasn’t been that high since — you guessed it — the week before the 1994 election.

The Cornhusker Kickback and Gator-aid — two controversial provisions in the healthcare bill — are a couple of attractively named and accessible reasons why people don’t like how Congress operates. And at no point in the last 16 years has that picture been so clear to voters.

Other signs in the poll are more positive for Democrats, though. It pegs President Barack Obama’s approval rating at 53 percent (43 percent disapproval). And the bill itself is up a slight two points from last month. Also, of the 46 percent of voters who approve overall, the group that strongly approves of the bill rose by 10 points, to 32 percent.

Town hall fun ahead

If Democratic members of Congress thought August was fun, wait till they find out what recess is like after you pass healthcare reform.

The at-times violent and vulgar reaction to the passage of the bill last week will be front and center as members return home for a two-week recess. Already, members are dealing with protests at their homes, being spat on and being cursed at. And for the members who have the courage to hold public events, it could only be the beginning.

Democratic leaders have sought to put the issue behind them, complaining that it distracts from their momentous legislative victory. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) on Friday said it was appropriate for his party to call attention to what certain conservative activists are subjecting his members to, but he also declined to elaborate on his comments suggesting GOP leaders had fomented the events.

Look for these kinds of stories to continue over the next two weeks.

Tea Party under attack

The Tea Party is an emerging force in the political landscape, but resistance is building.

Remember Scott Ashjian, the third-party Tea Party candidate who threatened to take double digits in Nevada and keep Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in office? He now faces felony theft charges and is being derided by Tea Party activists locally for being an opportunist.

And over at The Fix, Chris Cillizza has the scoop on Democratic consultant Craig Varoga creating an anti-Tea Party political action committee, called the Patriot Majority PAC. Varoga managed Tom Vilsack’s 2008 presidential campaign.

The group is reportedly looking at getting involved in 12 to 15 races where Tea Party candidates are running.