munky.org|v3.0

Shirley Sherrod, former USDA employee, and victim of the Tea Party Movement

The USDA (and the White House) are learning that the hard way. Shirley Sherrod, who had been canned by the US Department of Agriculture because of “racist’ comments, has continued to be vindicated for the harsh way she was booted out because of fear of political reprisals, instead of investigating the truth.

Articles on CNN and MSN highlight the embarassment that was felt because of instead of properly investigating a serious accusation, they moved straight to forcing her to resign.

In case you don’t remember the case, Ms. Sherrod was the USDA’s rural development director in Georgia. A ultra-conservative blogger named Andrew Breitbart, attacked her taking a 1986 speech to the NAACP out of context, portraying her a bigoted black woman, who refused to help a farmer to the full extent because he was white. The reality of the matter, that was a small section of a speech which covered racial tensions that ended up becoming dissolved, and really helped to bring everyone to a better place.

Now that the NAACP has provided the full video of the speech, a lot of people are eating crow. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who forced her out several months back, offered her a position. She declined, however she may be interested as working as a consultant in civil rights work with the agency.

The crow was not limited to Mr. Vilsack however. NAACP to the White House and Obama have had to unceremoniously remove their feet out of their respective mouths. And as for our whiley tea party blogger who underscores how selfishly disturbed that movement is? Sherrod is suing him, as she should. I’m not sure of his intentions, but it underscores how the tea party movement has sought to pervert our ideals, under the guise of returning us to the “christian’ nation that we once (never) were.

Well, it was time to find munky.org a new home. After being with hostmonster for nearly two years, it was time to renew, and unfortunately, being unemployed, I was unable to afford their renewal rates. So I’ve moved to a new server. Although my other sites have so far transferred over fine, munky.org was not so fortunate. WordPress, claiming how *easy* it was to move to a new server, blew up during the transition. Thankfully all of my posts and images made it safely over. Unfortunately, my plugins didn’t move over so nicely. Nor did my theme. Guess it was time for a change anyways.

So munky.org will be getting spruced up over the next week, and hopefully I will begin to start adding new posts on a more regular basis since school is out for the summer.

Anyone who remembers Disney’s The Lion King can understand the circle of life. Well now, I want to introduce you to the circle of broke, that subset of the circle of life that dictates how the poor stay poor.

Flashback to November, 2008. My wife, a 5 year employee of a major employer, was laid off, replaced by a more streamlined (read, cheaper) crew setup, and much of the work done by computers. Step forward to April, when I was laid off after 4 painful months of watching our workload dwindle to nothing, my check included. My wife managed to get a job paying 50% less. I continued on at school, and continued to look for work. At least my unemployment check, with Obama’s gift of $25 a week, helped. Even as we were knocked off our rear ends, we continued to try and climb forward. My wife found a job paying a little bit more, and we moved closer to comfort.

But as you can guess by now, the circle of broke was among us. Things were going alright. I still hadn’t managed to find a job, but my prospects for good paying internships were looking good. My 4.0 GPA was something to take notice of, and a couple of professors were vetting me as a possible grad school candidate, with the hopes of getting paid to go through the NSF. I was a semi-finalist of a major scholarship that would’ve paid me a decent dime to go to school. Then it all falls apart. I wasn’t selected for the scholarship. I wasn’t selected for UNC Charlotte’s SREU. Boston U canceled their SREU. Other programs said thanks but no thanks. My benefit year ended, and when my benefits resumed, I had taken a 40% cut because it was based on my pathetic excuse for 1st quarter pay in 2009. Nobody was interviewing me. Then a break, I got an interview from a place an hour and a half away.

But money kept growing tighter and tighter. Last week, my home phone, cell phone, internet, and tv were shut off because of being 2 months behind. Turns out that that interview I had, they wanted me, but couldn’t reach me and took someone else. ARG!

Then my wife came home today with some more troubling news. Her boss let go of two more people today, and told her she may be next. Really? I hope he at least is nice enough to provide a Sam’s Club size case of KY for the reaming that will follow.

But that’s life. Welcome to the circle of broke. We forever hold on to hope, but unfortunately hope doesn’t sell the bills. Maybe if I could just be a con artist and learn how to sell false hope.

Bank of America Corporate Center - Charlotte, NC

Reading the Wall Street Journal today, an article on the 3rd page caught my eye. Apparently, Bank of America has gotten into the business of home invasions and parrot-napping (NY Daily News).

Angela Iannelli, a 46 year old from the Pittsburgh area, came home to find her door padlocked, her house ransacked, and her 11-year old parrot – Luke – missing. A Bank of America employeed royally screwed up, believed her property to be vacant (it wasn’t, nor was she behind on her payments), and sent a contractor over to install a new lock and “secure” the property. I guess in Pittsburgh, the method of securing a property is to cut the power and water, cut electrical lines inside the house, damage floors, damage furniture, pour anti-freeze into the toilets, and take animals. Maybe the contractor should be lucky it was caught after the fact, because there is a good chance that somebody might have gotten shot.

When Ms. Ianelli returned home, you can imagine what went through her mind. The biggest thing to her was that her parrot was missing. She claims to have stayed with friends until he was returned.

Bad enough that the bank goofed, even worse was the lack of response or helpfulness from the bank when she called. They denied knowing where he parrot was, then eventually was told she could drive the 80 miles to the contractor’s office and retrieve Luke herself.

Needless to say, she is suing the bank for more than $50,000, and she rightfully should. If I had been her, I would’ve wanted to make sure that I received enough to repair all of the damage, pay my lawyer, give myself a little, and, most importantly, had them wipe away my mortgage. Why? Just as we are judged by trustworthiness by the bank (i.e. credit score), we need to have trust in the bank too. Just because they hold the lien doesn’t give them to right to waltz in and out whenever they please, especially when it involves damaging the property.

The bank issued an apology this week after the lawsuit went public. Too little, too late. I’m rooting for you, Ms. Iannelli. Did I mention I have a Bank of America mortgage too?

May 9th, 2011. Judge Strickland has made that the start date for Casey Anthony’s trial. But with the way her defense team works, I bet it’ll be 2012 or 2013. She might as well confess to the damn thing and get a life sentence at this point, jeeze.

She’s also requesting that the state, err, the Florida taxpayers, pick up her tab for legal costs. Uh, yea, sure thing there, let me write a check. And stuff it in a shotgun shell All I can say is I’m glad I’m not a Florida resident. I’d rather piss my money away to political pork barrel spending. Better than giving it to a child murderer.

And for those people who go on with the crap “oh, this is America man, innocent until proven guilty/” yea sure, we’ll buy that. I’m all for that, but when you supposedly haven’t seen your own young child for a month before you file a missing persons report? I don’t care if you are innocent or not, you are guilty. You failed as a parent to worry about your child even in the slightest bit. We won’t go into all of the other things that tattoo a big fat “I DID IT” on her forehead.

Going through, here are some more evidence photos of Casey, including probably one of the few that affect me: Casey playing with Caylee. Just makes this so much more sickening.

I'll sell you my tie

Some people will say so. Most of them aren’t broke so, do their opinions really matter? I mean, I can look at the bright side, I have my family, my health, my house, etc. Ok, well, the health is questionable (large amounts of stress does that to people), stress in the family, and the consistent fear of losing my house and everything.

Simply put, being broke is about one of the worst things that can happen to you. Not because of the lack of money, because it’s true, money doesn’t buy happiness. It’s the fear and anxiety surrounding the future. An unknown future.

For the last year I have been on unemployment, simultaneously looking for work and going to school. I’ve managed to get by, even with all of the income that is no longer coming in (we made roughly 50% less in 2009 than we did in 2008). I was proud of myself, putting us in a position where even with both of us losing jobs and taking substantial cuts in pay, we could still squeak by.

With summer nearing, I began seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I’m a semi-finalist of a major scholarship which would give me a livable stipend (starting at $25,000 a year). I’ve got realistic chances for great internships that would provide decent pay and a wealth of experience. It looked like all of my hard work may be beginning to pay off. All of the restless nights working on school work, studying and forcing myself to understand and apply the concepts, working hard on teams to complete projects and set up conferences. Then yesterday I found out my unemployment benefits are tapped out, a couple of weeks shy of a full year.

Fear, anxiety. How am I going to get by? How am I going to keep paying the bills, keep a roof over our heads, put food on the table. This is where broke is the worst. It isn’t that you aren’t being a man or a woman, doing everything you can to make things right. It’s the lack of any control, knowing you are powerless to fight back.

I’ve applied for my extension, and even though everything appears to be ok, but who knows. I have no power to make them do anything, and now all I can do is hope and wait that that check keeps coming. In the mean time I will keep doing what I do, yet deep down slightly unhinged by the fear.

Oral arguments in McDonald vs The City of Chicago were made March 2nd, 2010

As much as I love Chicago, I couldn’t live there. No point moving to a city where the bad guys (correction, kids) can shoot you, and you can’t do much about it. That’s right, the wonderful 1982 handgun ban. Obviously these kids never got the memo, because murders committed by handguns has only increased since the ban was enacted. Imagine that.

Otis McDonald is challenging this ban in the U.S. Supreme Court. The big question is if the 2nd Amendment applies to states as well. Uh, yea. Hopefully the court will agree with my position.

Now don’t confuse me with the gun radicals, who think anyone and everyone should be allowed to own any gun that they damn well please. Obviously guns should be kept out of the hands of convicted felons, mentally deranged/depressed/etc., and we have no need for fully automatic guns. But we do have a right to protected, or to protect ourselves. It is not the police department’s duty to protect individual citizens. As one Illinois court put it, such a duty “would put the police in the position of guaranteeing the personal safety of every member of the community.” (Detroit News). Banning legal citizens from handgun ownership, yet not giving provisions for the protection of those same citizens. It’s a recipe for disaster.

For the moral crusaders who support the gun ban, put this in your pipe for a moment. Pretend I’m a person planning on killing someone. I shoot them dead. Am I concerned about possessing a handgun? Probably not.

Now consider the other side of the equation. You have Otis McDonald, a 76 year old from Chicago. His house has been burglarized, his life’s been threatened. What can he do to protect himself and his property? They have the guns. Maybe the police can stake out his place for a while, right? Good luck on that one. If you want, go hold your breath and I’ll come and get you when the police arrive.

That’s why all law-abiding citizens in Chicago, especially in the city’s highest crime districts, should be hoping that McDonald wins. In fact, those in other cities with tight handgun restrictions should be hopeful too. If the Supreme Court shoots down this ban, many places are going to have to make some major changes.

As they should. I am a law abiding citizen, and a handgun owner. I am thankful we have  laws here to provide for legal gun ownership. I’m not running around the hood shooting people because I’m an idiot who thinks its cool to be a gangbanger. But it someone tries to come bursting through my door, trying to put my family’s life and property in danger, they need to reconsider. I have a right, an unalienable right, to protect myself. It is a cornerstone that this country was founded on…

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – Declaration of Independence

Gun bans go against this, signing away our rights to hoodlums and gangbangers, anyone who refuses to accept the laws that the common of the people agree to live by.  As law abiding citizens, we have a right to protect ourselves, and a right to reasonably choose how we would want to do so. As the old adage goes, “in order to have peace, you must prepare for war.”

A full transcript of the oral arguments made before the court in the case of McDonald vs. The City of Chicago (08-1521).

More information on the history and implications of this case and the ban in Chicago is available at CNN.

Amanda Knox is driven into court at midnight in Perugia, Italy, to hear the verdict in her murder trial. - WKTV.com/AP

I really haven’t kept up with the Kercher murder case that much, but getting the message that Knox was convicted disturbed me. The few details I remember from the case were that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito supposed had some type of sick and twisted sex murder thing, killing Meredith Kercher then trying to make it look like it had been an attempted robbery. Another guy, Rudy Guede, was also convicted of her murder. He was a known drifter from the Ivory Cost.

What concerns me is where most of the evidence came from. There’s strong evidence to show that Police botched up the sample collection, whether by not wearing gloves or hairnets, allowing evidence to sit for months in the open, even in one case smashing a window. This is obviously not America, since the prosecution’s response to that was that is wasn’t their job to prove the crime scene work was good enough. (Find out more info from CNN)

Since most of the evidence in this case is linked from the botched crime scene work, there isn’t any evidence really to show she did it. It’s all very suspect, and I surprised at how poorly the Italian justice system has handled it thus far, given the amount of international coverage this has received.

Is Knox guilty? I have no freaking clue. Her family has continued to stand by her (unlike my favorite murdering whore, Casey Anthony), and the evidence presented is unreliable, so at its current status, I’d have to say she is not-guilty (note: not-guilty and innocent are two COMPLETELY different things). There is not enough solid evidence to say she was there. The only bits of evidence that appear to be authentic, and they prove absolutely nothing. DNA evidence is harder to use in this case, given the mishandling of the crime scene and body, along with the fact that Knox lived in the same apartment.

At least Italy does have an appeal process, and her attorney has already stated they will be appealing. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like murderers, but I also don’t like people being convicted of murder when dipsh!ts from the police screw up the crime scene and make the evidence unreliable. They also used a old trick of defaming her character. Reminds me of the media sensation Cattle Kate from the Wyoming Ranch Wars. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out

My 85 AE-86. Sold in 2003 - I miss her dearly

Few cars have ever captured my heart as the original Hachi Roku did. For the clueless, I’m referring to the AE-86 Toyota Corolla GTS, a RWD couple/hatchback from the mid-80′s. A major hit with the drift cult car, ranked around the 240sx/sylvia as one of the best drifters of all time. Lightweight + solid chassis + LSD + 4AGE motor + RWD = a smile you can’t remove for a week.

I owned one for a short time many moons ago. It wasn’t in the greatest condition, but I was planning on getting it nice again and maybe running it in some SCCA races. Unfortunately, parenthood came about and the car was sold as a parts donor. Such a waste.

For many years now, Toyota has moved away from fun, sporty cars, instead going after that “other” part of the market (i.e. what i became). It’s a shame that since the Supra met manufacturer doom, the sportiest ride Toyota has produced may be a tie between the Corolla XRS, Matrix XRS, and Camry SE’s. I take that back, the king may have to be the new Tundra with a 5.7L v8 with the optional TRD Supercharger. The ONLY Toyota in the flock to do sub 5 second 0-60′s (4.4 seconds) and a 13.0 flat 1/4 time. Since when did the trucks become the performance leaders?

An AE-86 replacement considered from the early 2000's

Well, Toyota has been changing their game. First the ISF – I know it’s a Lexus – has shown that the company can mix luxury and performance. Obviously, the LFA supercar is another sign that Toyota wants speed. This car, which will cost more than $350,000, is a beast. But unfortunately, it is far beyond the reach of most buyers.

The current FT-86 Concept. Let's hope Toyota/Subaru builds it

But Toyota does have something for us, something so sweet and sultry my mouth is watering right now thinking about it. Currently dubbed the FT-86, it is a RWD coupe being designed and built in partnership with Subaru (read more and see more at jalopnik.com). Power is expected to be in the 200-250 HP range (definitely above the AE-86′s output). The current show car interior is a bit, unusual, but will probably settle down for final production.

The only sin I see Toyota making is that they are considering calling it a Celica. A celica has never, and should never, be considered this type of car. Naming it the FT-86 means these guys know the roots after it, so give it its proper name: the Corolla GTS. The hachi roku reigns.

A mug like this is screaming to Toyota to build it

Rear 3/4 shot of the FT-86 concept.

Casey Anthony reppin her new colors

It’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to read up on the case, but something sparked my interest today, so I went to the Casey Anthony headquarters to find out what’s been going on.

So apparently Roy Kronk, the prosecutions star witness, may be a blessing for Casey. He supposedly has a shady past according to his ex-wife, including abuse and duct-taping. In a video interview, she believes that he murdered Caylee. She has also been unable t0 provide proof thus far that she’s telling the truth instead of attacking her ex-husband. It’s a point to consider, but there needs to be further investigation.

Casey’s attorney, Jose Baez, also says he’s found two searchers who claimed to have searched the place where the body was found, and didn’t find anything. This was prior to the body being discovered. Baez wants EquuSearch – the non-profit group who handled the massive search for Caylee – to turn over all of its records, since the people he found were not on the list EquuSearch gave him. We can see the wheels spinning in Baez’s head, trying to show that Kronk murdered Caylee, then planted the body after the area was searched and then tipped off the police.

Unfortunately for Anthony, that take in the story has Texas-sized loopholes. Just remember that Kronk is supposedly an individual with wild-lashes, not well planned schemes involving hiding a decomposing corpse for over 5 months, just to plant it. The pieces of the puzzle just don’t fit right.

Roy Kronk - the meter man who discovered Caylee's body

Baez has also requested that all video of Anthony at the jail be destroyed, and that further videotaping be disbarred. I’m unsure if those wishes have been granted.

Baez also now believes that Florida’s death penalty procedure is unconstitutional, and that Anthony should be exempted from that possible ruling because of that.

So what does everything boil down to? Take a look at the original story. Casey Anthony filed a missing persons report 31 DAYS (yes, days) after Caylee supposedly went missing. She said she returned home to find her nanny (who never existed) and daughter missing. The body shows up 5 months later in an overgrown lot, discovered by a man who is a possible woman beater. There is compelling forensic evidence in her trunk to show that Caylee’s body had been placed in it, taped and bagged.

Honestly though, you can throw all of the technical evidence out. All that was important was the 31 days she waited to file a missing persons report. Anybody with kids knows what I’m talking about. There is no way I would come home, find my daughter and the nanny missing, and not freak out. We’re looking at more like 31 minutes, not 31 days. Then again, I, like Casey Anthony, do not have a nanny, but at least I don’t blame things on mine.

Even if she personally did not kill her child, she is just as responsible as the person who did. And yes, I do believe in the death penalty in the right cases. And she’s earned her trip to the chair. Unfathomable disregard for your own child’s safety, not to mention life…

Need anymore proof of her guilt. Even her family, the ardent supporters that they are, didn’t even come to visit her on Thanksgiving.