Revenge Of Fenty

I have known Mike Williams through youth baseball in DC. It was obvious why he was fired. Still is.

Fired city employee suing District for defamation

A former city employee can't sue the District for firing him after he raised concerns about Mayor Adrian Fenty's twin sons playing youth basketball in the wrong age group, but he can sue the city for defamation on claims a city official spread the rumor that Michael Williams was fired for embezzlement, the District's highest court has ruled.

Williams was hired to run the city's youth basketball leagues in January 2008. A year later, he and his staff received a number of complaints that Fenty's twin sons were playing in the "Pee Wee" group when they should have been with the older "Pony" division. Williams claims he alerted the mayor and his staff, but was told Fenty was aware of the violation and he wanted his sons to continue in the Pee Wee division.

When Williams pressed the issue, he was fired, according to the lawsuit he filed in April 2009. The lawsuit alleged the city had violated the Whistleblower Protection Act by firing Williams for shedding light on an issue of public interest. He also alleged the city had defamed him when officials spread the rumor that he was fired for embezzlement.

The D.C. Court of Appeals threw out the allegations that the city violated the Whistleblower act, in part because the public had informed Williams of the Fenty sons' violation, and therefore he had not provided any information the public didn't already know. The appeals court, however, determined Williams can sue for defamation.

A Fenty spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.

On Feb. 23, 2009, then-director of the department of parks and recreation Clark Ray told Williams he was fired because of budgetary reasons. When Williams pressed Ray for the cause, Ray reportedly said, "you are smart and can figure it out," Williams' lawsuit says.

A month later, Williams testified to the D.C. Council that he had been fired out of retaliation for taking issues with Fenty's sons violating the league's rules. Soon after, Williams claims a "senior official of the District of Columbia government ... initiated the publication of the false rumor" that Williams had been fired for embezzlement. Williams was never charged with the crime.

Although the lawsuit doesn't name the official, the appeals court said Williams has the right to use the trial process to find out who it was and then focus his lawsuit on that individual.

fklopott@washingtonexaminer.com

http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/2010/12/fired-city-employee-suing-district-defamation

Marijuana: Just Ignore It

From an interview with Germaine Greer in the January 1972 issue of Playboy magazine:

Playboy: How do you feel about pot?

Greer: I think it's pretty good. It's a relaxing sort of drug. It helps people cool out a bit and see what the connections are between things they were too uptight to see before. It's produced a new kind of mind, I think. People are much more introspective than formerly. In an uncritical sort of way, they're actually observing patterns of behavior without a desire to classify them with all the old household psychology terms. I think if marijuana could replace cigarettes and liquor, we'd be doing everybody a service.

Playboy: Contrary to what you're saying now, haven't you gone on record against the legalization of pot?

Greer: Yes, but my position doesn't contradict what I just said. I've pointed out that, at the present time, marijuana is the people's traffic. When it's legalized, it will be taken away from the people and a situation will develop in which its production and marketing are controlled by the same firms that now sell cigarettes. I've even heard that names like Acapulco Gold and Panama Red have been copyrighted by the cigarette firms and that they've already designed the marketing for marijuana and they're just waiting for the signal to go. And, of course, governments will tax it to death. It'll be as degraded as tobacco is in cigarettes, so that the marijuana just won't be the same thing. Now we smoke fresh marijuana or hashish and we know how to distinguish good from bad. So I say to the kids, "Do you really want to pay even more than you pay now? And do you want to know that smoking marijuana is financing nuclear armaments and wars in Vietnam and all that crap?"

Playboy: But don't you agree that whatever disadvantages legalization may introduce, it would at least eliminate jail sentences for users?

Greer: I don't want them to legalize marijuana, I just want them to ignore it. I mean, they didn't outlaw boiled eggs and then legalize them, did they? They just let you eat them. You know, it's like this silly society to talk about legalizing things that we all simply ought to be able to take for granted.


https://www.playboy.co.uk/the-articles/interview/64877/1/Playboy-Interview-Germaine-Greer/commentsPage/1/contentPage/14

From the Sanity Fear Rally

I think Zappa said that too..........