Open Forum Weekend. December 13-14

83

This is the time for you to express yourself on any issue you want to talk about.  Please keep it clean and don’t get personal.

Thanks

Editor

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83 COMMENTS

  1. To simplify shopping, try gift certificates from locally owned Mom& Pop businesses that you frequent. The locally spent here will pass through 7 hands before the government has it all. It’ll save you gas, time, & nerves. The benefit to the community will be much better off, Bentonville has plenty of people sending them money, to forward to China.

    • There was a time when my kids were at home, and Christmas meant giving the electronics and high-end clothes that were a real treat. They’re all on their own and fully capable of getting those things for themselves now, so the gifts I give are more individualized and personal. Buying items of that kind lends itself to local shopping and avoidance of the mall. It’s great!
      The internet works for getting the “must have” things that grandkids want that there parents aren’t getting, so I’ve made my shopping lots easier over the past few years.

    • CCO–you have officially been insulted by one Phillip R. Hooper.

      C&P Sunday, 12/14/14, Community Comment ‘Haynie’s Corner thriving due to investments, effort”: the supplicant Mr. Hooper is gushing about the ‘Neighborhood Stabilization Program’, “created by the George W. Bush administration–landed at the feet of the City in 2008, and saw the construction of some 17 homes near Haynie’s Corner. Evansville’s program was significant for excellent construction standards, and it was designed and implemented as the federal government intended, despite UNINFORMED CRITICISMS BY GOSSIP WEBSITES . . . “.

      Good gossip, CCO, keep it up !

      • Well said! I am certain that those 17 houses have done away with violent crime in the area and have brought in millions in private investment. Right?

      • The article is comical. Thriving does not happen because of a government handout. That would be better defined by the word DEPENDENCE. To thrive, one must be off of the dole, not on it.

      • Does ‘Neighborhood Stabilitzation Program’ = ‘Front Door Pride’, or is this yet another giveaway ??

  2. I was struck by the similarity of the matter involving former Indiana Secretary of Education, Tony Bennett, and the City of Evansville.

    Tony Bennett:

    His office was investigated by the Indiana Inspector General. Inspector General published a 95-page report which found over 100 counts of Wire Fraud, as well as ghost employment. In June 2014, the Marion County prosecutor–using a 6-page report from the Inspector General, found no significant wrongdoing, and fined Bennett $ 5,000 to settle the matter. Now, the Marion County prosecutor claims he never received the 95 page report; former U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett, who is running for Mayor of Indy, has no comment; and the Inspector General for Indiana, David Thomas, is leaving office at the end of the month. Governor Pence came out and supported the investigation of the Inspector General, and said it is the duty of the prosecutors to prosecute.

    City of Evansville:

    We all know this story. A qualified opinion is coming per the taped recording, the State Board auditors laugh at Winnecke’s question about whether the bank recs were done each month. Next thing we know, more delay, and here comes an unqualified opinion, including $ 29 Million of prior period adjustments which relate back to the 2011 year, which carried a disclaimer of opinion. Friend claims he was told by State Auditor that the $ 29 Million was audited (it was not), and Dan Adams grabs a soundbite that the Exit Conference is just “part of the process”. Friend tells Brad Byrd that there is a transcript of the Exit Conference on the dark web.

    In each case:

    The State Agency which was supposed to protect us (Inspector General: ethics; State Board of Accounts: public funds) produce an initial report which was then tampered with/modified. Then key people backed the tampered version (Marion County Prosecutor, U.S. Attorney in the Bennett case; City Administration, Friend and Adams in the City of Evansville audit).

    Finally, the City Administration did the exact same thing again with the McGladrey audit, in which an initial report which called for the immediate firing of Mark Rolley Consulting is suddenly pulled, NOT made available to the public, and then sanitized in exchange for $ 54,000 additional dollars to McGladrey from City Administration to tell it their way.

    • Now , that’s really funny: And as a global analytics group, we do not care. Period. Best start finding power there in the real stuff, as observed globally . BTW, the old town value is scored as a overall sectioned community burden. Because, its base infrastructure has “let down” it’s citizens balances. Historically. Want specifics crying , or keep baying at the Moon, we have that, as well, so, then, so does the national balance recovered so far. No ones fluff can cover that environmental applications stinking mess, they’d best realize that. or the real stuff is going to beat them up beyond any recognition.
      “Fubar” is eminent as the shadow meets the light.

      “Sed quasi umbra transeant lux semper reliquias” . “Tamen cum partibus, ut videtur Parvulum”

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga4EO1mTGBs

    • Two patterns emerge, one of questionable ethics by out State Agencies; the second one of our local yokels tampering with official reports (SBOA audit, McGladrey IT audit). This reminds me of some past practices of hiring a consultant, and then don’t follow their advice because the consultant didn’t just say what the Administration wanted to hear . . .

  3. This is an interesting article that portends were Evansville is headed if we don’t change things fast:

    https://homes.yahoo.com/news/america-s-least-educated-cities–2014-221910831.html?soc_src=copy

    I think it is interesting to note that the least educated city in the country, Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ has a large part of its population engaged in the entertainment/hospitality industry. Those are the jobs that Winnecke seems to be pursuing in his quest to make this a convention city.

  4. I think it’s time that white hetrosexual males start to take a long hard look at the democrat party. It appears that democrats have become the anti white male party and more so if you are a police officer. The governor of Missouri and the mayor of NY have taken the stance that African Americans do not have to follow the laws of their states and police officers have no rights to enforce them. It’s apparently OK for a large Black male to attempt to take an officers gun and use it on him, the white officer does not have the God given right to defend himself. It’s OK for a Black male to resist being arrested. The democrats apparently think it’s OK for our streets to become an open air drug market. Anytime a white male indicates he is a democrat I suggest that he seek psychiatric help and expect a diagnosis of gender dysphoria . Are the democrats going to stand up for those who stand between us and evil or actively seek the guaranteed vote of the 96% that approve of anarchy and civil disorder. Being a white male democrat is something that should be kept in the closet and associated with shame and guilt. Shame is what you do, guilt is what you are.

    • Dare we call it “a war on white males”? Quite frankly any white male who supports the liberal wing of the democrat party would have to be self hating. Women seem to have wised up to the dems idiotic claims that republicans have a war against women.

      • How can that be, I’m not a liberal, I’m not in a union, I’m sexually congruent, I’ve served my country, I take care of my kids, and work and pay tax. Now you go back down to your mommie’s basement and huff your jenkem.

        • Yes, because every one who disagrees with you is gay and a drug addict. People like you are hopeless and the world will be better off without you.

        • POV, the liberal elitists allow no other point of view. They are the first to name call.

        • Remember the “please keep it clean and don’t get personal” request at the top of this forum? You don’t seem capable of honoring that request with your comments. I guess you don’t have any legitimate, factual argument, so you consistently sink to the very bottom.

  5. After Hurricane Katrina How much money was given to the New Orleans area. Remember the civil rights leaders were complaing about it being more african Americans and the the government did not care. How many times since the hurricane have the “leaders” return to either tell the story of recovery or to complain that not enough is being done.

    After Sandy Hook did the government have a special meeting to see what can be done about stopping school shootings and throw a whole lot of money at it ? Nope. How many children died that day. No government intervention or protests (the size of the I cant breathe movement).

    Now after the Brown and Garner decision. How fast did the government react?? They had a special meeting and came out with rules for police officers and that money would be available so that all police officers would be outfited with body cameras to stop the “police violence”.

    In the St Louis area they have more homicides this year that of all of 2013. No government meetings on this. No new money to be thrown at this problem. In Memphis TN a man holding onto his infant son was shot through the window by two men. The man died and his son died. No government intervention. No protests for the man and his infant son.

    I believe that there is a large majority of people that believe Brown and Garner actions are what caused their demise. If you speak out you are called racist and that black lives do not matter. That is not true. ALL LIVES MATTER and that YOU are RESPONSIBLE for YOUR actions. Mr Brown and Mr Garner should have submitted to being arrested and fought their case in court and not on the streets.

    • In the United States of America, we do not give the death penalty for petty crimes. That is what is done under the Sharia Law that all of the right wing, white, heterosexual males and their chattel wives are so stupidly, desperately afraid that Barack Obama will impose.. It is NOT okay for policemen to appoint themselves judge, jury, and executioner of any of the people they are paid to protect.
      How about Akai Gurley and Tamir Rice? I’ll bet you can find a reason for the police to have murdered them, too. If nothing else, you can dismiss it with deciding their deaths were terrible accidents, right?

      • Police Officers have a right and a duty to protect themselves. It is against the law to resist arrest. Mr Rice had what the officers percieve as a real gun. They were in uniform and in a marked police car. The officers were responding to a man with a gun pointing at citizens. Sorry they do not have time to ask excuse me is that a real gun?
        The Akai Gurley incident (this is the 1st that I have heard of it) is disturbing. It is bad from what I have just read.

        • “Mr. Rice” was a 12 year old child who was absolutely along in the park shelter when the police car roared up, and a cop who’d been fired by another department for immaturity and bad judgment, jumped out and shot him twice without any warning. Tamir Rice was on the ground in 2 seconds after the car stopped. He was not “resisting arrest”, he was being 12 years old. The video is very clear about what happened, and the story being told by the police does not match the video in any way. You need to watch the video of the murder of this child and then opine on what “Mr. Rice” was doing.

          • Make that “alone” in the shelter. Most kids don’t expect trigger-happy cops to shoot them for playing with a toy. There was NOBODY there when he was killed, and the 911 call specified that the gun was probably a toy and he was likely a juvenile. Dispatch did not relay that information to the police, but the story that he was with a group of people and put the gun in his waistband when the police drove up is very clearly a lie. Watch the video!

        • Please watch this video and explain to me why a 12 year old child should think in terms of being arrested for being in a park acting like a kid. It should not have occurred to him that because of his skin color he was in danger of being gunned down for acting his age in the post racial America that most right wingers like to try to claim we live in:

          http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/26/tamir-rice-video-shows...

          After you view the video, take a look at the personnel file on the murder and try to defend what he did. Any takers to that challenge???

          • I watched the video several times and think that the police officer was hasty but correct in shooting when the “12 year old child,” who was 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed 195 pounds, reached for his waistband where it appeared he had a real pistol. Tim Dimoff, a former Akron police expert who now testifies for and against police in use of force cases, said the officer’s actions are justified by the fact that Rice continued to move towards the police car; ignored the officer’s verbal warnings to put his hands up; and appeared to reach for what appeared to be a real gun. The reason he was alone in the shelter is that several people who were in the area fled the scene when he started waving his “toy” – one, thanks to modification, that was indistinguishable from a real weapon. He was only shot once also, unfortunately the one shot proved to be fatal.

          • @ Moonpup: I see there is a problem with the link, but you and your expert think that a child who is big for his age is fair game to kill. Do you believe that the two seconds that elapsed was time enough for the kid to process what was going on? Do you see the “group of people” that the policemen claim were present? Do you see him pick the “gun” up and put it in his waistband? Do you even see him reach for his waistband, even though that is not what the officers say took place. Tamir Rice was mortally wounded by an officer who “acted a little hastily” two seconds after they arrived on the scene. I notice you didn’t address the officer’s firing from another department and the fact that Cleveland did not check his reason for leaving his prior job in law enforcement. I’m really not surprised because it doesn’t look good for the policemen.

          • What I am saying is that an adult sized person who pulls what appears to be a firearm from his waistband when confronted by the police is probably going to be shot. When the officers were told that someone was waving a gun around, I’m sure that they weren’t going to go there without having their sidearms drawn. Yes, the officer was fired for “an incident” in which he appeared “weepy” on a firing range. The question is, I agree, why would another police department hire him; evidently his performance with the Cleveland Police Department up until that time was to a standard that did warrant his keeping the job.

      • Gurley is a sad situation. Accident or not the police should not have gone in that building. I see no malice on the part of the police office. Other than that the rest of your post is just plain stupid. Sharia is much more in line with liberal anti Christian hatred. Liberal want to do away with Christian churches and muslims are actively killing Christians. I expected better of you, I’m disappointed.

        • I’m a huge fan of Pope Benedict. He says that Evangelical Christians, virtually all of whom are also far right politically, are no better than ISIS. He is a brave, wise man.

          • You are either a liar or a fool, and most likely both. It was not even Pope Benedict, it was Francis which shoes how bad your powers of recall are. That is not what he said either. What he said is that you cannot judge any religion by its extremists. That is a far cry from equating evangelicals to ISIS.

          • @Truth Watch: I apologize for typing “Benedict” when I meant “Francis”, who did say that extremists are perverting all religions, including Christianity.

            • I agree with your second thought. That is exactly what he said. Pope Francis however did not equal evangelical Christians with extremism. That was you because you are so blinded by hate that you are not a credible witness. When is the last time that an evangelical cut someone’s head off on camera? The pope was correct, but you LKB are not. Try to contain your emotions and your prejudice. If you do you will become better.

  6. So our conversation on race is to start with a protest next Wednesday organized by something calling itself Moral Monday (leftover occupy whatever) and the perpetual victim, NAACP, neither of which has a clue about what happened in the Ferguson grand jury.

  8. I still haven’t heard the Republican commenters on here defending the increased ability to buy the US government and the ability of wall street crooks to gamble with FDI insured money, just two things in the new republican spending bill.

    More on POV the moron, I’m a Democrat not because of race issues, but because I work for a living. I would never vote for a party who in every single decision they make they are looking out for a very elite handful of the rich and constantly work against progress in every sense of the word. The party of Reagan the LIAR is not my party. Once your generation is dead we’ll move forward some as a society, that is if we’re not speaking chinese thanks to your party’s business practices.

      • You have more mistakes than omitting a “C”. . You omitted that the majority of working people are not Union, and that when given a choice, many union people choose to leave.

        BTW, your death wish is charming.

        • Those people who “wish to leave the union” are freeloaders who want union representation and benefits without paying for them.

          • Or they may just be in need of a job in a town under a union chokehold. They also may be struggling to get by on that dwindling union wage that after dues is barely over the minimum wage.

    • Republicans, any comments on Bush’s failed and illegal torture program?

      • Pardon them all. Cheney says, and just said again, ‘no pardon needed, no crimes were committed’. Pardon him twice. They won’t like it but there’s nothing they can do about it, just like the people they tortured.

        • You can sum up Cheney’s response to virtually every question he was asked as “two wrongs DO make a right.”

        • Maybe Cheney should get a Presidential pardon every remaining day of his infamous life. If he was pardoned individually for the deaths of Americans who died because of the war he lied us into, that should cover the better part of a decade. If he and his mechanical heart outlast those pardons, we can start going through the list of those who were maimed at his behest.

      • Charles Krauthammer said it much more eloquently than I, “what was the Bush administration to do? Amid the smoking ruins of Ground Zero, conduct a controlled experiment in gentle interrogation and wait to see if we’d be hit again? Accordingly, under the direction of the Bush administration and with the acquiescence of congressional leadership, the CIA conducted an uncontrolled experiment. It did everything it could, sometimes clumsily, sometimes cruelly, indeed, sometimes wrongly.
        But successfully. They kept us safe.” Please note the “acquiescence of congressional leadership,” translation: Republicans AND Democrats.

        • I’m going to pinch-hit for IE here. Torture kept us safe and Tuesdays cause rain.

        • We could have just beheaded the terrorists on camera rather than to employ the heinous use of water boarding (make them think they are drowning) and the dreaded sleep deprivation. Or we could be really nice to them, maybe even funnel some money their way, and then they will like

          Rome is burning even as I type and the democrats are dragging up old news. It’s a diversion and the media is, of course, pretending it is absolutely imperative that we dwell on that instead of the fact that Iran is within spitting distance of nuclear power.

  9. Really? Surely you don’t think the consequences of his, Cheney’s, and Rumsfeld’s actions disappeared when he left office. People who would dismiss such crimes against humanity don’t have much trouble endorsing the Sharia-like law that allows law enforcement officers to execute minor criminals, apparently, Even in Muslim countries, there is at least a “show trial” before executions.
    You’re in over your head trying to dismiss the wrongs America has been a part of, IE, but go ahead and try. I’m sure you can find some scriptural defense for torture and outright murder.

    • Those Christians who would line up to murder gays quickly dismiss divorce and eating shellfish, just two crimes punishable by death under biblical rule. There are many others they do on a daily basis.

      • I’m still having trouble with their obsessive hatred and fear of Sharia Law. They are the very people who LOVE it in practice, just so long as we don’t call it by that name.

      • Please put the word Christians in quotes if you are to use it in such a sentence. What you are referring to are bigots, zealots, and/or religious hypocrites. They are unenlightened, uninspired and ignorant of the Bible; they tend to “pick and choose” scripture to suit their purpose unmindful of the context of the verse. Are there many who do so? Yes, churches are full of them and that makes it hard to encourage others to come to hear the word of God which isn’t always preached in churches today either; I hear many televangelists preach the “I’m OK, you’re OK” sermons week after week. As to your “biblical rule,” once Jesus came most of the laws were fulfilled and the human inspired ones were invalidated.

      • Ghost,
        Where and when did Christians line up to murder gays? I’m certain you don’t understand that Christians live under a new covenant, ushered in by Jesus (The New Testament) that doesn’t have the dietary restrictions of the old testament. We are no longer living under the law but by grace.

        If you wish to discuss anything having to do with faith you really should know whereof you speak. These ugly little blurbs of yours lend credence to the notion held by many here that you are little more than comic relief because your comments are so inane and unfounded.

        • Oh yeah? The anti gay nonsense is in the old testament. Ellen wanting to have it both ways as usual.

          • Where are Christians lining up to murder gays? That’s quite an inflammatory statement. That may be a common practice under LKB’s beloved Sharia law but I’ve not heard of Christians lining up to murder gays. Please provide a link.

          • If it were sanctioned by the govt as under sharia law, there would be no shortage of christians willing to pull the trigger. Are you that naive?

          • Quite the imagination there Ghost, believing Christians are going to shot you. And that from someone who often gleefully fantasizes about Christians and conservatives dying so his ideology can take over the world.

    • The above was meant as a reply to IE’s moronic statement. Please note: I said the STATEMENT was moronic, and said nothing about the person who made it.

    • Actually LKB, scripture does grant nations the sword because they are judged in the temporal not the external. This latest which hunt has done nothing to right the wrongs or make us safer. These witch hunts are moronic.

  10. Today’s C&P had a large article on the impact Gail Riecken’s decision to run for Mayor could have on the upcoming election:

    ” Winnecke has received thousands of dollars in contributions from organized labor groups, who backed his efforts to build a convention hotel in Downtown Evansville and modernize water meters through a contract with Johnson Controls Inc. Paul Green, business manager for IBEW Local 16, said labor union members may be faced with a dilemma if asked to choose between Winnecke and Rieceken. Green acknowledged he’s not impartial. He is a member of Winnecke’s campaign finance committee”.

    • “I can call or even text Lloyd and ask him to have lunch to discuss something, and he’ll text me back and ask me when,” Green said. ~~ From CP Article

      Winnecke defines lapdog. In fact he should spawn his own special strain, he is currently bringing shame to his native breed, the Shih Tzu.

      • I wonder if the self-important Mr. Green realizes the terrible embarrassment he just caused his candidate. I really wonder if the IBEW will fire him over this faux pas.

        • Hubris caused by an insular clubbiness. They think no one’s watching, that they can get by with anything. Sometimes in such situations the truth seeps out.

      • I do hope Peewee, the 7lb Min Pin who is occupying my lap at the moment, can’t read. He’d be hurt by the comparison of the Poop to the noble beasts who sit on laps and make people smile.

    • Dixie, so Winnecke spent all of our money on crap like Johnson Controls water meters and now he may not even get the Union vote ? Please call the Unions, and ask for a refund ! When we buy your vote you better pony up !

  11. Doing my civic duty yesterday, drinking cold beer on Franklin Street while the ‘Holly Jolly’ was going on.

    At both Gerst & Pistons, I picked up chatter that the Downtown Convention Hotel is $ 20 Million over budget on paper. To clarify, they need an EXTRA $ 20 Million of public money to get the needle to move. So, a public subsidy of $ 40 Million or call it a day.

    Can anyone corroborate ?

    • Again, is the 7 figure sum already drawn by HCW just going to be written off? Will anybody ever be held accountable for all these giveaways? And morons like POV are so blindly partisan they’re A OK with it since Winnie has an R behind his name on the ballot.

    • I’ve been hearing the same thing now for four or five months, but I expect Russ and the Poop are the only people who know for sure.

      • We might be in the throes of the ‘last minute taking’ phase of the project. Any crumbs left on the table are being scooped up. It is a joyous time, a time for reveling and taking.

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