When I write about local stuff, you can bet your best pair of pink boots that the same damn thing is happening in your town.

I’ve told you before about the sheriff we had who was so old that we had to carbon date him to decide how many candles to put on his birthday cake.  Well, he retired about a decade ago but didn’t leave office until two years ago.  The new sheriff we elected is younger but he’s so slow that we have to put out markers to see if he’s moving.

Last September 11, Bernice Barclay, a Republican precinct chair and a county employee who works at the Jail Information switchboard, sent an email to all the elected officials in the county asking them to chip in to pay for the Republican Party Christmas Party, which was held at – prepare yourself – The Redneck Country Club.  Hey, that’s an improvement.  They used to hold it at a bank, you know, where they worship.

Here’s the email.  Click the little one to see the big one.

Orignal Email

So, a Democrat, Dr. Oto Cantu, got steamed about this.  He filed a complaint because you cannot use a county employee on county time in a county building to raise money for a political purpose.  The next day, he files a complaint at the sheriff’s department against Ms. Barclay.

In February, after hearing diddle squat about this complaint, Dr. Cantu sent an email to the sheriff’s office asking what happened with his complaint.  He got an answer.  It ain’t pretty.

Upon seeing the complaint, Barclay’s superior, David Marcaurele, sent her an email at 10:57 AM.

Marcaurele’s email to Barclay

At 2:54 PM, she answers.

Barclay’s answer

At 3:03 PM, she gets her punishment.  Do the click thing again.

Marcaurele’s “written counseling” of Barclay

Ouch!  That’s tough.

On September 24th, the county attorney’s office issues an opinion that Mrs. Barclay did not violate the law because it was a Christmas party and that’s not political.  You don’t believe me, do you?

Here ya go – from county attorney Matthew Grove.

Matthew Grove’s lawyering

Grove also finds that Barclay did not intend to benefit from this activity.  We do not know what he did with the money his momma gave him to go to law school.

Now, do I need to add that the only Democrat in this whole episode was Dr. Oto Cantu?

And the case was closed with “written counseling.”

Closure of the case.

Now if Hillary Clinton had done this ….

Pat Robertson is plowing in the pond.

Christian Broadcasting Network host Pat Robertson told viewers on Monday that Buddhism was like a “disease” and that Christians could get “infected” if their coworkers practiced it.

Yeah, it’s contagious.  You can get infected.

Robertson replied by noting that “healthy” people might not contract a “mild contagion.”

“But if you put yourself in the middle of a hospital ward where everybody has the disease except you, sooner or later, you will be infected by it,” the TV preacher warned.

And he knows this is true because he caught the dumb from Franklin Graham.

Rick Perry is prancing all over the country saying that he knows stuff, like how to bottom out an educational system and wreck a state university and keep folks from getting health care.  So, if that’s what you’re looking for, Rick is your man.

He’s also real good at oops.

He spoke at a Virginia Republican fundraiser.

“Thomas Paine wrote that ‘the duty of a patriot is to protect his country from his government,’” Perry said, drawing applause from the crowd during his Feb. 24 event at the Richmond Marriott.

Well, that’s real spiffy but Thomas Paine never said that.

Saying that the quote doesn’t even sound like Paine, Gary Berton says it doesn’t appear in any of Paine’s writings, adding that Paine was oops to the English rule of the states, but …

But in the meantime, he was for a strong central government with redistribution of wealth,” added Berton, who is also the coordinator of the Institute of Thomas Paine Studies at Iona College in New Rochelle.

Best anybody can figure, the quote came from Edward Abbey, an American anarchist, environmentalist and novelist.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Thanks to David for the heads up.

Okay, so here’s the deal.

Forty seven Republican Senators are pen pals with Iran.  And they threatened them if they deal with President Barack Obama.

But the letter takes an even more outrageous approach when the group reminds the Iranians that “the president may serve only two 4-year terms, whereas senators may serve an unlimited number of 6-year terms.” Later adding: “President Obama will leave office in January 2017, while most of us will remain in office well beyond then – perhaps decades.”

The message is clear: Don’t you dare think about dealing with the president, because we will spend the rest of our lives (in some cases, quite literally) destroying you, if only out of spite.

Talk me down, people.  Why is this not treason?

They are damn and determined to start another war.

Thanks to everybody for the hollering.

I live in Texas so I have never said a kind word about OU in my entire life.

That changes today.

Here is the letter the President of the University of Oklahoma issued.  Click the little one to see the bigger one.

I’ll say amen to that and pass the plate.

Remember when Republican Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock decorated his office to look like he just signed the Magna Carta?  Yeah well, he illegally accepted the decorator’s series for free, so there was that.

Now there’s this.

Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., took at least 10 of his House staffers on a $10,053 taxpayer-funded trip to New York last September, where most of them had few official duties, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

He’s all entourage traveling and looking mighty cool with the Indian Prime Minister.

Okay, first of all, imagine the reaction if a Democratic congressman had shown up dressed like a rock star to represent our country?  I can hear Rush Limbaugh’s heavy breathing from here.

Second of all, three other congressmen from Illinois attended this same event and none of them brought staff, much less ten staff members.

He charged his campaign account for their food, where he also has expensive tastes.

$554.15 at Bergdorf Goodman, which has a restaurant. It was called a “JFC meeting expense” on the FEC report.

$1,272.84 at Mercer Kitchen, called “JFC event catering” on the FEC report.

$816.45 at the Delta Grill, called “JFC event catering” on the FEC report.The are no other related New York fundraising costs listed on Schock FEC records.

They are listed as fundraising costs.  His congressional staff cannot be used as fundraisers.

Such a fancy pants!

Thanks to chloe bear for the heads up.