BTPC welcomes Michele Bachman to the Magic City...

2012 Republican Presidential candidate and batshit crazy congresswoman Michele Bachman is bringing her special kind of looniness through Florence via a bus tour stop on August 18, 2011.

BTPC novelist-in-residence Melvin Udall has recorded a video welcome message for her...

London Calling...send some rubber bullets...

In case you haven't been watching the news, London is BLOWING UP the last several days. Youths in revolt showed up outside a north London police station to protest the shooting of a local man by the coppers.

As one of the rioters stated: I came to get my penny's worth.

Shit is gettin' so bad, our civilized mother country is talking about busting out the rubber bullets and water cannons. That may not seem like a big deal to a red-blooded American, but for a country where the coppers only carry firearms in exceptional circumstances, busting out the Bull Connor gear is at least akin to Defcon 2.

When we were looking at a slideshow of the riots this morning, we couldn't help but think of the Sex Pistol's "Anarchy in the UK."

Since we like a little soundtrack to our civil disobediance, we thought we'd offer some up. Enjoy...

Florence City Council makes an offer somebody can't refuse...

New York, 1920. A young Vito Coreleone had just begun pulling off a few capers with his partners, Clemenza and Tessio. As he drives a truck filled with boosted dresses down the street, the neighborhood rep of the Black Hand, Don Fanucci, hops into the truck.

Young man, I hear you and your friends are stealing goods. But you don't even send a dress to my house. No respect! You know I've got three daughters. This is my neighborhood. You and your friends should show me some respect. You should let me wet my beak a little. I hear you and your friends cleared $600 each. Give me $200 each, for your own protection. And I'll forget the insult. You young punks have to learn to respect a man like me! Otherwise the cops will come to your house. And your family will be ruined. Of course, if I'm wrong about how much you stole, I'll take a little less. And by less, I only mean - a hundred bucks less. Now don't refuse me. Understand, paisan? Understand, paisan?... Tell your friends I don't want a lot. Just enough to wet my beak. Don't be afraid to tell them!

What's this got to do with Florence City Council? Well, read the article in today's SCNOW and tell me it doesn't sound like this city council just made it an offer someone couldn't refuse...

Happy Anniversary One-Vote Victory...

1,469 to 1,468. One vote. That was the margin of victory by which City of Florence Mayor Stephen Wukela defeated then-incumbent Frank Willis for the Democratic primary on June 10, 2008.

Three years ago, the South Carolina Supreme Court issued a ruling which proved that in the state of South Carolina, every vote does actually matter. In affirming the 12th Circuit Common Pleas ruling, the Court affirmed an order from the Honorable Michael G. Nettles which proclaimed:

The factors of this controversy and the applicable law will not allow this court to circumvent the will of the people. The voters have spoken ...

One of our favorite quotes after Judge Nettles ruling at trial?

We thought that once we got into a court of law that the law would take over and we would be successful. That didn’t happen. -- Frank Willis

But, of course, the legal battle did not end there. Frank Willis appealed Judge Nettles decision to the South Carolina Supreme Court and on August 6, 2008 the Supremes told Frank, in the words of the Budweiser commercial, to "let it go, Louie."

A ton of work went into that legal fight and it would be a bit of an understatement to say getting that call while down at trial lawyers was memorable. One of our fondest memories of that whole saga was running into a comp seminar in Hilton Head, drink in one hand, phone in the other, flip-flopping down the aisle to grab the Mayor and pull him out so he could get the news.

Upon that ruling, Frank Willis was quoted as saying, "Once the court rules, that's it -- it's over."

Oh...would that it were, Frank...would that it were. We all know it was far from over at that point. It took three more months of campaigning against a write-in candidate who magically appeared during that election protest period, who spent $300,000 over that time (no...that's not a typo, folks. $300k in 3 months), before it was actually over.

But when it was over, the idea that every vote matters had survived. Wukela handedly won the general and was soon sworn in as Mayor.

Happy Anniversary to one-vote victories.

For a great archive of articles about that whole race, check out the news section at wukela.us.

FOXNews: The Soft bigotry of Overt Racism...

Stay classy, FOXNews.

So glad Obama's race has nothing to do with their coverage of him...

Can someone remind us how many jobs clearing brush in Crawford, Texas gave us the previous 8 years? Oh...that's right, not so many.

John Boehner: Weak, Weak, Weak...

In case you've been ignoring the political circus that is Congress and the President trying to work out raising the country's debt ceiling so that the US doesn't default on our debt, you might have missed the fact this week that John Boehner came out and said publicly that he'd like to see a grand bargain, claiming bold action was necessary. In fact, according to Boehner, it was seeking such bold action which made Boehner want to become Speaker of the House to begin with.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Republican leadership balked at the premise of such "bold action," with House Majority leader Eric Cantor cutting Boehner's hamstring by proclaiming there was no reason to pursue such a bargain, because the rank-and-file Republicans would never go for it.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2012 Republican leadership. To borrow a line from our good friend Tony Blair: they can't even lead their own party. Weak, weak, weak.

In yo face, Grace...

Unless you were in a coma or a WiFi-less sweat lodge, you know that yesterday's big "news" was that Casey Anthony was found not guilty of all the substantive charges (ie., the ones actually dealing with the death of her daughter) in her murder trial yesterday. Anthony was found guilty of lying to law enforcement.

We had fun yesterday making quips about the case, more specifically, making quips about Nancy Grace. For those who don't know Nancy Grace, she is a self-righteous, former "special prosecutor" with the Atlanta-Fulton County DA's office who turned her ethically-questionable style* into a television career, first on Court TV and now on Headline News.

*Grace's conduct as a prosecutor has been criticized by courts more than once, a recent admonition coming in 2005 by the 11th Circuit U.S. District Court:

The three-judge panel on Monday criticized Grace for not following her obligations to disclose to the defendant's lawyer information about other possible suspects. The 11th Circuit also agreed with a magistrate who found it hard to believe that Grace did not knowingly use a detective's false testimony that there were no other suspects.

Grace, however has no shame. She showed no shame after a woman she interviewed for her show committed suicide shortly after Grace aggressively went after her. She relished in tarring the Duke Lacrosse team as guilty during that brouhaha, only to take the night off after the players were cleared and let someone else report the "news." She also got caught plagiarizing for her book, Objection! — How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System. The fact that Grace seeks to blame "celebrity defendants" (which she creates) and the 24/7 media (which she is) for "hijacking" the criminal justice system tells you all you need to know about this lady (without even getting into the fact that it appears she has embellished the story of her fiance's murder).

So, Grace is a bitch, willing to say/do anything to advance her own agenda. Now that we know that, we were eager to see her reaction to the Casey Anthony verdict. Afterall, it was Grace who relentlessly pushed this story for the past 3 years, demanding justice for "little Caylee" and being so convinced of Casey's guilt, that she laughingly refused to refer to Casey by her name, bestowing upon her instead the ridiculous moniker of "Tot Mom." Sunday night, all Grace could talk about was how awesome the State's closing had been. How it had been so good, the defense attorneys and the defendant had even cried. It was a done deal, for Grace. So how would Grace react to the big NG? With dignity and humility? Uh...no.

First, was the graphic accompanying Grace's show last night. The first word: Outrage. Grace proceeded to blame the jury (questioning their intellect, their open-mindedness, etc). She blamed the defense team. (Actually seeming uncomfortably obsessed with what went on at the "Champagne party" the defense team had. Demanding one of her quests tell her what went on there. Then relaying an obviously embellished story to Dr. Drew about how defense attorneys celebrating "was just wrong.") And finally seethed disgust that "Tot Mom" would wind up profiting from all this (wilfulling overlooking the fact that her celebrity was all thanks to Nancy herself).

Listen, it's painfully obvious the publicity and emotions associated with this crime clouded the State's judgment into charging crimes they should have known their evidence would not support. When your case is circumstantial and your own medical expert can't give a cause of death, a murder charge ain't getting over the bar. All these people so distressed over this verdict need to get a life. Unless they watched the entire trial without listening to any talking head opinions (impossible), listened to the judge charge the law, then applied the law to the evidence presented, their opinion don't mean dick.

Nancy Grace is a disgrace. Unfortunately, she lacks the shame that would make most people show humility. This Casey Anthony trial was just latest in a long line of examples.