Archive through February 04, 2003
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TV ClubHouse: Archives: 2003 March: The daily rant. (Archive): Archive through February 04, 2003

Grooch

Thursday, January 16, 2003 - 02:04 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Fanny, I felt it was my duty to inform you about this butt juice potential diaster.

I cannot even imagine being a flight attendent and being asked to do this flight.

I know the company that they mentioned in the article. I will see if my husband can find anything out about it and get you a tail number.

I just thought of something gross. One of the things that my company repairs are airplane seats. I am so grossed out know about the thought of one of those chairs coming in to be fixed. Ugh!

Grooch

Thursday, January 16, 2003 - 02:05 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Maris, that letter sounds exactly like the Nigeria scams. What is sad is that some people actually fall for it.

Fanny

Thursday, January 16, 2003 - 02:11 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Grooch, I appreciate your efforts. :)

And that's exactly what I was thinking...the Nigeria scam all over again.

Llkoolaid

Thursday, January 16, 2003 - 02:11 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Butt juice, eeeew, that is the nastiest term I have heard in a while.

Zachsmom

Thursday, January 16, 2003 - 02:12 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I recieved something similar Maris..

Attn.,

First, I must solicit your strictest confidence in this transaction. This is by virtue of its nature
as being utterly confidential and "top secret". We are top officials of the Federal
Government Contract Review Panel who are interested in importation of goods into our
country with funds that are presently trapped in Nigeria. In order to commence this
business, we solicit your assistance to enable us transfer into your account the said-trapped
funds.

The source of the fund is as follows: During the regime of the last Military transitional
government of Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, government officials set up companies and
awarded themselves contracts which were grossly over invoiced in various ministries. The
present democratic government of President Olusegun Obasanjo set up the Contract
Review Panel and we have identified a lot of inflated contract funds that are presently
floating in the Central Bank of Nigeria ready for payment. However, by virtue of our position
as civil servants and members of this panel, we cannot acquire
this money in our names. I have therefore been delegated as a matter of trust by my
colleagues in the panel, to look for an oversea partner into whose account we would
transfer the sum of US$31,320,000.00 (Thirty-One Million, Three Hundred and Twenty
thousand United States Dollars) in which we hope to use in purchasing Agro Allied
equipment, and to enable us to own properties and invest in the stable economy of your
country. Hence, we are sending you this email message. We have agreed to share the
money thus:


1. 20% for the account owner (you)
2. 70% for us (the officials of the CRP)
3. 10% to be used in settling taxation and all local and foreign expenses.

Due to our poor Telecommunication system and for purpose of strict confidentiality you are
to respond via Fax No: 234 17590503 or e-mail: edbrume1452@techemail.com Please
acknowledge receipt of this message for proper briefing on the safe modality for the
execution.

Yours faithfully
Dr. Edward Brume

NOTE: PLEASE QUOTE THIS REFERENCE NUMBER (EB/06/02) IN ALL YOUR
REPONSE.

Maris

Thursday, January 16, 2003 - 02:15 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
well Zach at least my conman is giving me 30%, you are getting screwed by Mr. Edward Brume. Maybe you should write to him and tell him that Mr. Thomas Baker is giving you 30% of 45 million and you are going with his offer. LOL.

Goddessatlaw

Thursday, January 16, 2003 - 02:15 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Maris, Z-mom, I would absolutely trip if I got something like that on an email. I'm glad I've seen it here so I'll know to send it directly to the FBI if it ever comes my way.

PS rotflmao, Maris.

Maris

Thursday, January 16, 2003 - 02:16 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
yep Goddess, dont go out in a rush to bid on that island on Ebay.

Zachsmom

Thursday, January 16, 2003 - 02:20 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
LOL..you're right Maris..If I go with Mr.Baker I will recieve an extra $7,236,000..little more pocket change..lol

Maris

Thursday, January 16, 2003 - 03:05 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
boy those fibbies are fast:


Thank you for your submission of information via the FBI.Gov Web site.
In as much as the FBI receives reports of this type of activity on a
regular basis there is no need to forward any such additional emails to
the FBI.

A review of the information you provided revealed that you are being
approached over the Internet to participate in one of many variations of
an advance fee scheme being perpetrated by individuals from various West
African nations, particularly Nigeria. Victims have lost substantial
funds in the past and all requests for travel to foreign locations
should be ignored. The United States Secret Service (USSS) has
developed an excellent, detailed description of this fraud scheme, which
can be accessed at http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml. If you
have been victimized by one of these schemes, please forward appropriate
written documentation to the USSS, Financial Crimes Division, 950 H
Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20223, or telephone (202) 406-5850. We
encourage you to share this Web page with family and friends. Your
continued cooperation in this and other matters is greatly appreciated.

You do not need to forward the emails to us. If you have not, simply
delete them from your computer. Also, if you know that you are
receiving spam mail, it is advisable not to open them, because even if
you do not reply, your email address has been validated by the sender.
And, you may get other spam mail.

For your information, the Internet Tip Line (ITL) was created on
9/11/01, in response to the terrorist attacks upon America. We quickly
established a mechanism for the public to submit information to the FBI
via the Internet, and we received our first tip at 10:31 AM that first
day. Director Mueller has since made the ITL a permanent part of FBI
operations, and we have thus far received over 500,000 tips from around
the globe, from which thousands of leads have been sent to FBI Field and
Legal Attache offices for action.

Initially, almost 100% of the tips received were related to the
terrorist attacks; now, approximately 45% of all tips received are
related to almost every other FBI criminal program, e.g., drug
trafficking, organized crime, money laundering, pyramid schemes, child
pornography, fugitives, bank robbery.

Our operation is completely automated and paperless. Submitted tips are
received immediately, reviewed within minutes and prioritized by trained
Professional Support personnel, and action leads are set by Agents
within the hour, as appropriate.

I encourage you to share this information with your family, friends, and
co-workers, and encourage them to not hesitate to submit information
they may deem of interest to the FBI.

Sincerely,

David N. Rushing,
Supervisory Special Agent
FBI Headquarters
Washington, D.C.


_______________________________________
The FBI does not maintain an email address to submit information or
attachments to directly; therefore, please do not reply directly to this
message via your email client. The FBI maintains an automated system
that is designed to track all information received to ensure that all
tips are addressed in a timely and efficient manner. Therefore, please
visit the FBI.GOV Web site again should you have occasion to submit
additional information.

Jed245

Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 06:13 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
bump again, remember gossip or something like that :o)

Grooch

Thursday, January 23, 2003 - 07:24 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I am convinced this woman is insane.


Prosecutors find 100 uncounted ballots in Oliphant's office

By Scott Wyman
Staff writer
Posted January 23 2003

State prosecutors have found a tray of unopened absentee ballots that the Broward County elections office never counted during the September primary, sources told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Wednesday.

The ballots were postmarked as early as a week before the election and appeared to contain all the necessary information to have been deemed valid votes, the sources said. Prosecutors found about 100 ballots in a mail tray inside a file cabinet at Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant's Fort Lauderdale office during a search late Tuesday afternoon.

County officials were stunned by the discovery and said it would likely be a key piece of evidence in the ongoing investigation of Oliphant. It also could renew pressure on Gov. Jeb Bush to remove Oliphant because he said last week that he would do so only if he is presented with clear evidence of misconduct.

"If this turns out to be true, I'd be very upset about people losing their right to vote," said County Judge Jay Spechler. He served as chairman of the election canvassing board during the primary and voted against certifying the results because of his concerns about the conduct of the election.

State Attorney Mike Satz's spokesman, Ron Ishoy, declined to comment, and Oliphant could not be reached.

Prosecutors launched their wide-ranging investigation in mid-December, subpoenaing records and beginning to interview election office employees. The investigation has focused on charges of misspending raised in a county-ordered audit and the possibility that hundreds of absentee votes were never counted during the primary.

Faced with mounting concerns about Oliphant's rocky tenure, investigators promised last week that they would expedite their work. That appears to be happening, sources said, with at least five employees being questioned in the past two days.

Sources said that prosecutors came to Oliphant's office late Tuesday, just as she was wrapping up her meeting with county commissioners over her budget problems. The prosecutors demanded to see any ballots contained in a specific file cabinet.

Mary Hall, Oliphant's absentee ballot supervisor, brought the tray to them, the sources said.

The ballots were postmarked locally between Sept. 4 and Sept. 9, enough time to reach the office by the end of business on Election Day -- Sept. 10. The ballots contained the appropriate information to be counted: a witness name and address and a voter signature, the sources said.

Allegations have circulated for months among top-level county officials that hundreds of absentee ballots were not counted in the September primary and had been thrown away. The concerns were so strong that Spechler asked Sheriff Ken Jenne to order his staff to collect absentee ballots received by mail on the day of the Nov. 5 election.

The discovery comes at a time when officials are reeling from the Tuesday confrontation with Oliphant.

Supervisor's report

This was to be the week when Oliphant finally explained how she would rein in her runaway spending and correct the mismanagement uncovered by the audit. Instead, Oliphant's long-awaited report to the county was filled with questionable information about the new voting machines, her finances and who is to blame for election missteps. It included an "austerity budget" -- a deficit-reduction action plan -- that was actually a request for an extra $2.9 million.

The information in the four-inch-thick report added to the exasperation that county commissioners felt when they left Tuesday's meeting with Oliphant. During the session, Oliphant gave only vague answers to questions even as she asked for more cash, telling the board she will have no money left as of May 31.

"It's like the theater of the absurd," a frustrated Commissioner Lori Parrish said Wednesday.

Oliphant said in her report that the public should give her the benefit of the doubt about her operations.

"It is ... disenchanting when it appears that this elected official is continuously placed under the microscope, especially in such early stages of my tenure," she wrote. "My energy, heart and mind remain committed to the tasks at hand."

Voting machine woes

Many of Oliphant's comments in the report were directed at the ATM-style voting machinery that the county purchased last year to replace the old punch-card ballots.

She alleged that the county had encountered widespread problems with the machines, that the machines were to blame for her cost overruns and that other counties also had problems.

"This equipment vendor has done an impressive job in shifting blame and responsibility from themselves," she wrote.

Writing about the extra money she said she had to spend because of the equipment, she said: "Although it is true we exceeded our [fiscal year] 2001-2002 budget, I stand behind the decisions this office made."

Her comments directly contradict other information.

The county-ordered audit said Oliphant went $1 million over budget because she hired more people than allowed in her budget, handed out double-digit pay raises and spent more than planned on office renovations. The auditor never mentioned any overspending caused by the computerized voting machines.

And a county review found that the machinery performed as expected with only minor glitches. Many of the problems voters experienced in the September primary were because poll workers weren't trained adequately in running the machines, and only limited problems were found when county employees managed the equipment in November.

Other elections supervisors in Florida are largely pleased with the performance of the touch-screen machines and said their elections costs have not increased significantly because of the machines' use.

"It is grossly unfair of her to push the cost off on the voting system," said Kurt Browning, who also purchased machines from Election Systems & Software as Pasco County's elections supervisor. "It is not true."

Oliphant went on the offensive against commissioners in the report. She blamed the County Commission for underfunding her office, cutting her budget, causing chaos by changing precinct lines and refusing to pay for her voter outreach program.

"Too many changes occurred since I took office and the staffing limit put upon this organization by the commission doesn't allow me to properly do my job as supervisor of elections," Oliphant wrote.

She added that the county had "cut budgets and refused services" only to end up "condemning the supervisor for necessary cost overruns." She wants to hire 21 new employees.

Staffing levels

The commission did not cut her budget last year but agreed to increase her spending by $478,260 to $5.8 million, as she requested. A comparison of her staffing with Florida's other urban counties shows it is in line with other elections offices.

Oliphant has one employee for every 15,000 voters. Palm Beach County has one for every 20,000, Miami-Dade County one for every 13,000, Pinellas one for every 17,000 and Hillsborough one for every 19,000.

While the commissioners signed off on the new precinct boundaries, Oliphant was responsible for drawing the lines and sought the commission's approval. The new map caused problems last year as thousands of voters were assigned new polling places.

And although Oliphant's report states that the commission "won't provide my office with staff positions to continue with voter education and registration drives," the commission has not been asked about continuing the program. Oliphant killed the project last year as a belt-tightening measure, saying it had served its purpose of educating voters about the new machinery.

"The report was very accusatory with no explanations and lots of excuses," said Commissioner Ben Graber, a one-time supporter of Oliphant who now wants her to resign. "It's on par with what we've learned to expect from her."

Crossfire

Thursday, January 23, 2003 - 07:39 am EditMoveDeleteIP
From what I've read, I am not sure what is more amazing. The fact that she has not resigned, or the fact that she has not been fired.

Grooch

Thursday, January 23, 2003 - 07:45 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Only Governor Bush can remove her and he says he won't unless he has proof that she has done any wrong doing. Otherwise we have to wait for her reelection and vote her out. Which she just may throw out all the votes against her.

She will never resign. And some towns are looking into doing the elections themselves and not using her department.

Crossfire

Thursday, January 23, 2003 - 07:48 am EditMoveDeleteIP
OH, she is an elected official..I did not realize that. Cool, the public will take care of it, if she does not interfere. :)

Jed245

Monday, February 03, 2003 - 09:46 am EditMoveDeleteIP
things that go BUMP in the night :o0

Abbynormal

Monday, February 03, 2003 - 08:14 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
This is going on in my town. 2 high school football players are suspected of drinking at an event. The event took place on a weekend night and had nothing to do with school or football. The 2 teens were suspended for 2 weeks from any type of football related activity.

Fur is flying over this. Parents against school. Parents say what kids do on their own time off school property is none of schools business. School says yes it is, and is looking to discipline more. I believe this will end up in the Alabama Supreme court before its finished.

Jed245

Tuesday, February 04, 2003 - 04:15 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Well Abby. Umm I have two view points on that matter :o) See alot of football players have the hope of going to colledge because of atheletic ability. So I can see how the school would want to discipline them.

See if they are allowed to act in this mannor. Then it will reflect on thier schools reputation. So they want to show the community that they will not stand for such actions. (Well that's more or less the statement I think)

Then again there is the parents side. Which I personally agree with as well. I was once supposed to meet a school bully near my house. I was told by my teacher that if we got into a fight in MY yard. I would be expelled. I see the need for a school to protect the reputation of the student body. But, this is high school and it's school and at the end of the day the parents should be the ones responsible for the children not the school.

Interesting little event though. :o)
jed.

Grooch

Tuesday, February 04, 2003 - 06:43 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Why are they being punished if it is only suspected and not proven?

Jed245

Tuesday, February 04, 2003 - 06:58 am EditMoveDeleteIP
That sounds like good grounds for the parents to really git riled up.

Northstar

Tuesday, February 04, 2003 - 11:50 am EditMoveDeleteIP
This happened to me not once, but twice in HS (this wild child was a slow learner). It didn't really matter that 6 of us were suspended, but when someone narked out the star basketball player, THEN the town's folk got upset (hmm, still harboring resentment maybe? nay). Of course that was many years ago, and in a small town, and well, I guess things were just different then.

Where I live now, the School District disciplines kids even though the "trouble" didn't involve a school event. It happens often actually.

Abbynormal

Tuesday, February 04, 2003 - 12:15 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Grooch, I am going on what the newspaper said and it said suspected. Hmmm. I threw the paper away and it only comes out on Thursday so I'll have to see if anything is new this week.

If I remember correctly it said when the parents allowed their children to play football, they signed some kind of drug awareness act, which allows for the kids to be punished. BUT from what I gathered they are arguing over it does not state anything about off school time or property.

All I know is if they punished every kid who drank on weekends they wouldn't have a team at all.

I can see both sides actually. On the one hand a football player does represent a high school. Playing a sport is a priviledge, not a right. But in order to play you must have the grades, talent and will to practice, so that rests entirely on the kid, I figure he must be doing something right.

On the other hand, the school saying what someone can do when they are on their OWN time, seems a little big brother-ish to me. I certainly wouldn't want a job telling me what I could do on weekends. Of course, I realize I am an adult and these kids are not. Still seems like the burden should be on the parents, not the school.

Lizadee

Tuesday, February 04, 2003 - 12:25 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
My son was caught drinking when he was a junior this was a weekend party
He was playing Varsity hockey he was suspended for 2 wks
He was then caught again and suspended for the rest of the yr.
Now this I think is his fault I did not hold anyone responsible for this except him. How many chances does he think he's going to get ?
He was caught when he was a Senior and he could not even play or tryout for hockey was I pissed or what?
But there was nothing that I could do
Then there was this cheerleader here in town that the same thing happen to and she was the captain of the squad
Parents took school to court and lost
They are lucky cause I would have been mad if the system would have given in
School kids turned against this girl cause she caused such a scene
she ended up having to switch schools cause the kids thought she was ging to be given some special treatment

Squaredsc

Tuesday, February 04, 2003 - 12:50 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
aren't these kids under the legal drinking age. the school wouldn't have to worry about punishing my child 'cause it would be foot in a** time if it was my child. and i would take his butt of the team myself. playing sports is a priviledge not a right.

Abbynormal

Tuesday, February 04, 2003 - 01:08 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Square, I agree. There wouldn't have been a need for a lawsuit, because it would have been handled at home. But I wouldn't necessarily want the school stepping on my toes either.