Posts Tagged ‘MIchigan’

Outrage Weds Part II: Abuse of Privilege

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

What’s worse than finding a welfare cheat? Finding a welfare cheat that is a millionaire who is using food stamps after he was TOLD to continue using them by the welfare office!

AUBURN (AP) – A man who won $2 million on a Michigan lottery show has told a TV station that he still uses food stamps.

Leroy Fick of Bay County admitted he still swipes the electronic card at stores, nearly a year after winning a jackpot on “Make Me Rich!” He told WNEM-TV in Saginaw that more than half the prize went to taxes.

Fick says the Department of Human Services told him he could continue to use the card, which is paid with tax dollars. He told WNEM: “If you’re going to … try to make me feel bad, you aren’t going to do it.”

Of course we aren’t going to make Fick feel bad: he’s a scumbag. But the bigger problem here isn’t that Fick is a scumbag; it’s that the Department of Human Services knew full well that the guy had two million dollars and told him to continue using food stamps. You know, those same food stamps that are paid for by tax payers, the vast majority of which are NOT millionaires and who cannot really afford to be shelling out money out of their pockets to pay for a millionaire to eat for free? Those same food stamps that could be used by lower income families to feed their kids? Yeah, those food stamps. Oh, by the way: Fick means “fuck” in German. Just sayin’. Oh, and Fick is driving around in a new Audi convertible. Have fun digesting that one.

Speaking of welfare and/or the lack thereof, how about cheating a charity show because you’re a child-abusing grifter?

“Extreme Makeover” recipients Chuck and Terri Cerda are the parents of Molly and Maggie, 10 and 8 respectively. Terri, in her appeal to the show, said she suffers from combined immunodeficiency disease, as do her daughters, who had to wear masks to guard against the toxins coursing through the air of their rundown, mold-filled Las Vegas house. You can watch a video of Terri and the two girls posted by the Immune Deficiency Foundation above.

That was before “Extreme Makeover” transformed their abode in March 2009 into “an opulent new home that included high-quality air filtration systems, an elevator, solar-heated swimming pool, gourmet kitchen and floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace,” as The Oregonian’s Steve Mays writes. But it turned out the Cerdas “couldn’t afford the increased cost of operating the larger home. By fall 2009, the house was for sale and the family moved to Oregon.”

Now this in and of itself wouldn’t be too bad because it would just be a case of a family trying to be fiscally responsible by moving to a more affordable house, but there’s a catch:

Several doctors and a hospital social worker began to question Terri Cerda’s insistence that her daughters had chronic health problems when tests and examinations indicated otherwise. In January, Dr. Thomas Valvano, an OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital pediatrician who specializes in suspected child abuse and neglect, reported the Cerdas to state child-welfare authorities, and in February, the state took temporary custody of the two girls.

Six doctors testified that Molly, 10, and Maggie, 8, did not live in constant medical peril, as Terri Cerda claimed.

Valvano went further. The Cerda children, he told the judge, were victims of medical child abuse.

And this is why I prefer to pick and choose what, if any, charities get my money. The people that really need the money and really deserve the money rarely actually ask for it and when they do, it is usually pretty easy to see that they are in dire straits. This woman used her kids and the charitable nature of people to turn a profit. If I were running the show, I would have her hanged in the town square. This is probably why they don’t allow me to run things.

Worse than using children to make money is acting like one to make money:

A key senator has asked the Social Security Administration to investigate how people who live their lives role-playing as “adult babies” are able to get taxpayer-funded disability payments – after one of them was featured on a recent reality TV episode wearing diapers, feeding from a bottle and using an adult-sized crib he built.

Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican and the Senate’s top waste-watcher, asked the agency’s inspector general to look into 30-year-old Stanley Thornton Jr. and his roommate, Sandra Dias, who acts as his “mother,” saying it’s not clear why they are collecting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits instead of working.

“Given that Mr. Thornton is able to determine what is appropriate attire and actions in public, drive himself to complete errands, design and custom-make baby furniture to support a 350-pound adult and run an Internet support group, it is possible that he has been improperly collecting disability benefits for a period of time,” Mr. Coburn wrote in a letter Monday to Inspector General Patrick P. O’Carroll Jr.

Thornton sent an e-mail to the Social Security office threatening to kill himself if his checks stopped coming. I don’t see a problem with this. In fact, I think that is the best possible outcome for the situation.

And finally, what kind of “the people get screwed over because of corruption, greed, and graft” post would this be if we didn’t include Obamacare?

Of the 204 new Obamacare waivers President Barack Obama’s administration approved in April, 38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district.

That’s in addition to the 27 new waivers for health care or drug companies and the 31 new union waivers Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services approved.

Pelosi’s district secured almost 20 percent of the latest issuance of waivers nationwide, and the companies that won them didn’t have much in common with companies throughout the rest of the country that have received Obamacare waivers.

That’s right: Nancy Pelosi’s Congressional District, which covers .003% of the total area of the United States and serves .2% of the US population got almost 20% of the waivers for Obamacare. Yeah, I’m sure that’s fair. Oh, and the big recipients of those waivers were luxury eateries, night clubs, and hotels. You know, the same kinds of establishments (minus the “luxury” moniker) owned by small businessmen and women that will be getting fiscally butt-raped all across the US because of the same Obamacare policies that will deny them those same waivers?

It’s Tuesday… You Know The Deal

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Okay, I had this idea last night after seeing this post at Blackfive and I thought it was a pretty good selection, but when my buddy S6R shot me an e-mail requesting this as a Tuesday pick. Plus, she’s kind of an anomaly. It’s not every day that you get to see a smokin’ hot Muslim woman parading around in a bikini and not getting stoned or burned alive or sexually harassed by me. Oh, and she’s also Miss USA. Meet Rima Fakih.Wait. Right religion, wrong picture. Here she is…She is hot. Did I say hot? I meant “smokin’ hot”.She competed as Miss Michigan…but the decision to crown her as Miss USA was black and white.And so it was that she was crowned Miss USA.

This award was not without controversy, however. There are some that say her winning the crown was a PC chess move and there are always the ones who who are blinded by hatred toward her faith and call her things like Miss Hezbollah. To them I ask this one, simple question:When was the last time you not only saw a suicide bomber work a stripper pole, but win the stripper contest thrown at a rock station (Mojo in the Morning)? What, you have never heard of such a thing? Well that’s because she’s about as devout a Muslim as Madonna is a Catholic. So to those critics of the lovely, talented, and apparently pretty flexible Miss USA Rima Fakih, I say this: STFU.

Dude, with names like “Rima” and “Fakih”, she’s got to be… well, you can probably figure it out.

Anyone for Lebanese food? No?

I’ll be in my bunk.

Nanny State Called: It’s About Your Kids…

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

IRVING TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Each day before the school bus comes to pick up the neighborhood’s children, Lisa Snyder did a favor for three of her fellow moms, welcoming their children into her home for about an hour before they left for school.

Regulators who oversee child care, however, don’t see it as charity. Days after the start of the new school year, Snyder received a letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services warning her that if she continued, she’d be violating a law aimed at the operators of unlicensed day care centers.

So this woman is looking after kids her friends’ kids, for free, for a little while before they get on the bus and their state government says that it’s illegal for her to do so? Um, wtf? So, considering how many kids are over playing at my house at any given moment does that make me an unlicensed day care center? I think there might be some kind of document or law somewhere guaranteeing the rights of people to gather. Now what was that thing called again? Hmm… oh yeah! The United States Constitution!

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Yeah, I think that’s one of the big ones. The state is scrambling to get an exception to this law because they, as well as everyone else, know that it’s a big steaming pile of government overextending its reach. This is the problem with legislators… they’re so busy trying to make new legislation so it looks like they’re doing something that they don’t consider the ramifications of the laws they pass. I think Lisa Snyder could easily take this case to a higher court and get the entire law overturned. In fact, I would love to see that happen.

My Penis Just Fell Into Her By Accident, Officer

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Novi Mayor Pro Tem Tells TV Station He Meant To Walk Woman Home From Bar

NOVI, Mich. — Police said they caught a married county official having sex with another woman on the sidewalk in the Detroit suburb of Novi.

Republican Commissioner and Novi former Mayor pro tem Kim Capello was arraigned Tuesday on an indecent exposure charge, which carries up to 93 days in jail. He returns to court June 3. Police Deputy Chief Tom Lindberg said the 37-year-old woman should be arraigned soon.

Apparently both Capello and his soon-to-be-estranged wife are both practicing attorneys… that share an office. Awkward. Awkward.

H/T to TSO

Vacuum Cleaner Sex Update

Monday, April 13th, 2009

You guys remember the story about the guy that got busted for pleasuring himself with a vacuum cleaner at the carwash? Well, he got sentenced to 90 days…

Best line I’ve ever heard from any television reporter-type person ever: “and then you’re there pumping quarters in to keep the magic alive while some guy is hosing off his Camero in the next stall.” I tip my hat to you sir.

RIP Marvin Schur

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

This should have NEVER happened:

BAY CITY, Mich. — Officials in central Michigan say a 93-year-old man who owed more than $1,000 in unpaid electric bills froze to death inside his home – where the municipal power company had restricted his use of electricity.

Neighbors and friends of Marvin Schur want answers as to how this could happen.

“Now that we do know it was hypothermia, there’s a whole bunch of feelings that I’ve got going through me,” said Jim Herndon, a neighbor of Schur’s. “There’s anger, for the city and the electrical company.”

Schur’s neighbor, Herndon, said Schur had a utility bill on his kitchen table with a large amount of money clipped to it, with the intention of paying that bill.

Right now the city said the situation is still under investigation. Marvin Schur was a World War II veteran.

Is this pissing off anybody else as much as it pisses me off? According to the article:

Bay City Electric Light and Power, which is owned by the city, said a limiter was placed on Schur’s electrical line.

The device limits the power that reaches a home, and it blows out like a fuse if power consumption rises past a set level.

From another article I read on the subject, BCEL&P was supposed to show the guy how to reset the limiter after it blows, but they weren’t sure that happened. Not only that, but just how the hell did they expect a frail, 93 year old man to do that kind of thing on his own? Oh, and in 30 below weather to boot? This kind of thing pisses me off to no end. Nobody should be left to die in the cold in their own home in this country, let alone a WW II vet.

H/T to Jimmy

Isn’t It Ironic, Don’t Ya Think?

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

This undated image provided by the Michigan attorney-general’s office shows Daniel Allen Everett. The 33-year-old Clarkston, Mich. man faces two 20-year felonies after authorities say he arranged a meeting for sex with an online contact he believed was a 14-year-old girl and showed up wearing a T-shirt that read: ‘World’s Greatest Dad.’ Everett was arraigned Tuesday, July 15, 2008 in Novi, Mich. district court on charges of child sexual abuse and using the Internet to attempt child sexual abuse.

I wonder what T-shirt he was wearing when he showed up to court, his “I’m A Love Machine” T-shirt or perhaps his “R. Kelley World Tour” T-shirt? Well, no matter what I’m guessing the T-shirt he’ll be wearing in prison will say “Would You Like Salad With That?”