After The Rain

So, the whole thing is over. At round 10:30 this morning, Michael Rodriguez - escaped Clearfield County Jail inmate and fugitive for a little over 18 hours - blew through a roadblock in a stolen pick-up, busted his tires over spike strips, and crashed into an embankment.

However.

The media is only reporting that Rodriguez was injured, but able to walk to the staging area for LifeFlight. This is nothing compared to what I've heard: Rodriguez was indeed injured. I've heard broken legs and broken ankles, but in either case, something's broken.

Now, if Rodriguez is suffering from even one broken leg/ankle, he's also been through a pretty nerve-racking ordeal, and probably would have not been in any condition to put up any resistance.

And yet, I've been told that Rodriguez was forcibly removed from the pick-up, slammed to the ground face first - hard - and a boot was put into his neck - right after he was in a fairly nasty crash. Any emergency services worker on the planet will tell you that just moving an accident victim is tricky business and shouldn't be done lightly.

Furthermore, I've also been told that they spent a moment beating Rodriguez up a bit, probably to "teach him to not run again." After all, he had the gall to break out of jail and cause them to do their jobs! Oh noes!

After all that, he was then forced to walk UP A HILL to the extraction area where LifeFlight would take him to the hospital. So that's a reported two broken legs/ankles, one rough trip out of the vehicle, one rough meeting between ground and face, one boot to the neck to hold him down, a bit of the old Rodney King treatment, and then a Green Mile march up a fucking hill to the landing zone.

Something is seriously wrong here, people.

For the folks coming to this site from Buffalo: Obviously, you either know or know of Rodriguez, otherwise you wouldn't be searching for him. Whatever you do, don't stay quiet. Don't let Bill Shaw and the local authorities bully you. Speak up. Demand an investigation.

While Rodriguez was a sick puppy (burglary and assaulting his ex-girlfriend, among a probable laundry list of other violent crimes), no person deserves to be fucked with like that, especially after an accident. Seriously: What if Rodriguez died as a result of direct police action AFTER the crash? This place would make national news in a heartbeat if that had happened.

Thankfully, he's still alive as of yet, and the national eye can still be turned this way. If there's even a hint of possible police brutality, fan that motherfucker until the flames grow too high to not be noticed.

Clearfield County has long been in need of a good housecleaning: The corrupt elements here would surprise you. This is the second escape in three years from Clearfield County Jail: Sam Lombardo's job is in trouble, as are those of whatever COs were on duty at the time. And if local and State police are involved in any brutality, that creates a seperate fire. If the two meet and begin burning as one, then you just might see comissioners, attorneys, and judges in the other public eye: the one that doesn't like you or what you're doing very much at all.

As local residents, we have the right to know just what the hell is going on with the people we trust to protect us. If they're doing stuff that made national pariahs out of so many before them, then we need to know about it, and we need to make it stop. We need to weed out the corrupt and arrogant elements of our own local government if we even think we have a chance at making it as a community.

Otherwise, we'll still be overseen by incompetent fools who think it's all just a popularity contest and an easy paycheck at the expense of the "little people..."

The Real Triad of Corruption

Clickey make biggie go pop-pop. In the words of a great Fictional American - "That's all I have to say about that."

And When The Band You're In...

Wil has a new post up, and it pretty much sums up how our generation (and certainly I) feels about what's going on in Washington right now. The madness has to stop, and it has to stop sometime. Go check out his letter to Chris Dodd, and take time out to notice that - hey - some people in Congress are willing to do what we elected them to do.

Philipsburg 2: Electric Boogaloo

So yeah, the Borough got back to me on those tickets, and boy, did they really show their ignorance and stupidity. How anyone in this town could possibly believe that the people "leading" them could even remotely be competent is beyond me. Far, far beyond me. We're talking Voyager 2 beyond.

If there was ever an indicator that the Borough's agents are completely retarded, it was on the front of the envelope. On it was my correct license plate number, but under that, the word "Blazer."

Blazer.

Fucking BLAZER!!!

OK, now, it doesn't take a genius to tell the difference between an Chevrolet Blazer and a Ford Explorer, which is what I drive. Nevermind the fact that there's a Ford logo and the word "Explorer" on my tail hatch, and a big ol' Ford logo on the grill (not to mention the two "Explorer" plates down the sides). It's a Blazer.

Sure as shootin', Cletus, it's a Blazer.

(Yes, I hate Chevy, and I associate it with people who could have walked right out of Deliverance. Sue me for being biased, because a colony of toothless hillbilly freaks drive rustbuckets with the Chevy name on them and glorify drivers of Chevy vehicles in NASCAR. Ask them to trade in that 1983 Celebrity on a different make and they'll probably pull some sort of weapon on you and ask you if you're "plum loco.")

But anyway, back to the letter. Yeah, Blazer. Strike One. Anyhow, I open the envelope and pull the actual document out and look at it. The first thing that hits me is that it looks like some stupid teenager with an ancient copy of Micro$oft Word hurried this out. Different font sizes, completely unnecessary, used for emphasis of points that would be just as visible if the font were actually uniform.

I mean, come on! This is supposed to be a government agency, a public service! Try and look professional, why don't you, so people actually respect you and take you seriously! Christ on a fucking stick anyhow! The Federal government may spend extreme sums of money on simple crap like putting out documents, but at least those documents are uniform, for crying out loud.

You people look like today's college kids turning in papers in Internet slang. Sad, sad, sad.

Now, on to the contents of the letter. Obviously, I've edited out my license plate number for privacy reasons, but the text is otherwise exactly as it appears in the letter. While I can't duplicate the logo for the borough's sad-sack letterhead, it's still essentially as-is. I have made no changes or exaggerations, other than the changes already mentioned. Font sizes are relative to how they appear on the letter as well.

Now, witness ignorance at it's best, and your tax dollars in action:

PHILIPSBURG BOROUGH
P.O. Box 631
4 North Centre Street
Phone (814) 342 3440
Fax (814) 342 5608
ordinancedept@iqnetsys.net

Date: 12/12/07


To Whom It May Concern:

####### is the Plate on your Blazer.

On 12/07/07, 12/10/07and12/11/07 you recieved parking tickets for parking 2AMto7AM on your vehicle. You paid the first ticket so we know you are aware of the violation. Our office doesn't like giving tickets unless we are forced to. Please find another place to park your vehicle overnight on the side streets that are not posted for 2AM to 7AM signs or we do have permits available. Contact our office so we don't have to issue any more parking fines. We will resume the tickets effective 12/17/07, if you continue to violate the signs posted on the streets.

Thank You
W(illegible) D. McDonald 140046 (handwritten signature)
Philipsburg Borough Ordinance Officer

Now, who wants to be the first to point out the errors in this letter? First of all, they continue to insist that I drive a Blazer. Is it really that easy to mix the two up? I don't think so, they both look pretty damned distinct to me. With the blazingly obvious aside, it's time for me to play English Teacher and correct their homework. First, the list of errors:

1. No dashes between the prefixes and suffixes of the phone and fax numbers
   
2. No spacing between 12/10/07, "and" and 12/11/07 in line one.
3. Should be a comma after 12/11/07 on line one.
4. No spacing between 2AM, "to" and 7AM on line two.
5. Should be a comma after "ticket" on line three.
6. "The" in "overnight on the sidestreets" is not necessary.
7. Should be a comma after "signs" on line six.
8. The sentence beginning on line four and ending on line seven is run-on, and should be divided.
9. The comma after 12/17/07 is unnecessary.
10. Should be a comma after "Thank You" in the closing.
    

Ten blatant grammatical errors. I thought you people were supposed to be "professional!" Well, now the Borough of Philipsburg is a laughing stock, for all the world to see. So, folks, here I present to you the letter as it should look, if it were typed by a monkey with a lobotomy, or someone more competent:

PHILIPSBURG BOROUGH
P.O. Box 631
4 North Centre Street
Phone (814) 342-3440
Fax (814) 342-5608
ordinancedept@iqnetsys.net

Date: 12/12/07

To Whom It May Concern:

Plate #: #######
Vehicle Make: Ford
Vehicle Model: Explorer

On 12/07/07, 12/10/07 and 12/11/07, you recieved parking tickets for parking 2AM to 7AM in a zone posted against such. You paid the first ticket, so we know you are aware of the violation. Our office doesn't like giving tickets unless we are forced to. Please find another place to park your vehicle overnight on side streets that are not posted for 2AM to 7AM signs. We also have permits available. Contact our office so we don't have to issue any more parking fines. We will resume the tickets effective 12/17/07,if you continue to violate the signs posted on the streets.

Thank You,
W(illegible) D. McDonald 140046 (handwritten signature)
Philipsburg Borough Ordinance Officer

And there you have it, with my emphasis on the proper identity of my vehicle. Not really that hard to make it look like a human actually typed it, is it? Fonts are normalized, grammar is corrected... Was it that difficult? Nah! If I can do it, anyone can do it! Fuck, I've read blogs by foreigners with even the slightest grasp of English grammar that look better. Since this is a Government Document, and is therefore in the Public Domain, you peons can feel free to copy and paste my template for future use by your offices, should you decide you want to look like an actual, professional Government Agency.

You know, it might help your image, what with the wasting money on the Front Street Project and not being able to pay for a police force. There's also the matters of the personal infighting and bickering, and all the controversy over filling one stupid Borough Management position, and your mismanagement of the Rowland... But I digress.

Now, how shady is it that it's not mentioned anywhere in the borough, on any sign or any publicly viewable space whatsoever, that there are parking permits available. In Pittsburgh, my adopted home, the signs clearly show what permit zone it is, letting the public know that permits are indeed available should you reside in that zone and wish to park without fear of tickets.

Philipsburg? No, they'll only tell you if you think to ask about it at all (with no helpful hints or information even suggesting they're available), or after they give you a couple of expensive parking hits and start fucking with your license.

Dirty pool, old man. Dirty pool indeed.

Philipsburg, this is your wake up call. Someone with the stones to take you to school and expose your smug stupidity to the rest of the world has arrived, and he's not happy. The fact that you're an insignificant little shit town that no one really looks at or cares about at all will no longer allow you people to get away with this type of shinnanigans. There is a whistle blower among you, and he won't shut up.

Either clean up your act, or I will continue to post examples of how you people make complete fools of yourselves. Even your precious Philipsburg Journal will be pilfered for any shred of evidence that you people are nothing but a bunch of stuck-up, ignorant, self-righteous losers who want nothing more from their jobs than the paycheck and the pat on the back, along with anything else you can get away with on the side. You people are pathetic, and should be ashamed to even try and call yourselves "Public Servants."

Granted, I've done shit I'm not proud of. But at least I can pony up and admit that I fucked up. I don't just idle myself and continue with bad practices. Maybe you all could learn a lesson from the kid with the big mouth and the International Soapbox to get it heard...

Multitasking 101

Ever the human multitasker am I, and this post has three bits of news you all might enjoy, depending on your leanings on each matter. And awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay we go!

First up, more on the Corruption in Iraq: Witness some corruption? Blowing the whistle by telling the government? If you do, the government will imprison you and make your life a living hell. Very nice, eh? Fark Thread Here.

GONZO IS GONE-ZO! Yes, Dickhead General Alberto "Gonzo" Gonzalez, the assbag behind the crackdown on our beloved Porn and other such stupid agendas, has finally tended his letter of resignation to the White House. Sadly, he'll probably be replaced by another idiotic, unqualified pundit, but the point is, GONZO IS GONE. That's all that matters! Fark Thread Here (and a big one at that, too).

And finally, this isn't as important, but I figured I should say something about it. In case you might have noticed, I've revamped the blog a bit. Google has implemented some new features for Blogger, and I kinda like them! A quick rundown of improvements:

1. My individual article pages are fixed, the sidebar has returned! I don't know how I goofed that up before, but that good has since been rectified. Whew!
2. I've cleaned up the sidebar a bit, too. Blogger now has widgets that allow me to customize what's in what section, as well as what section goes where. The new WYSIWYG editor is pretty OK, I must say!
3. The introduction of Tags! I was going to try and put these in Rancho Relaxo, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to code them. The switch to Blogger didn't fix that right away, but now that Blogger has tags, I get a tag cloud! That's my shit right there! Now finding posts with certain topics is a breeze instead of digging through the archive. Only drawback: I should probably go back and tag my old entries. That'll take a hot minute...
   
4. There are spots to input graphical stuff, so I'll be bringing back my old page graphics from the first design. It'll all be back soon, hopefully, along with some new stuff in the footer and sidebar sections.
   

Well, that about covers it for today. So go out and raise your glass to the departure of Gonzo! I know I'll be doing something to that effect, minus the alcohol...