On September 9, 2008, I noted the passing of School Board member Bill Anderson.

On September 10, 2008, at or around 12:49 a.m., I updated the original post with the death announcement that appeared in The Free Lance–Star.

On September 11, 2008, at or around 3:24 a.m., I updated the original post by posting the full obituary for Mr. Anderson that appeared in the paper.

Today, September 23, 2008, at 12:17 p.m., I received the following e-mail [emphasis mine]:

Brian Baer <bbaer@fredericksburg.com>	Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 12:17 PM
To: [redacted]
Hi Tim, I’m writing to notify you that you have violated The Free Lance-Star’s copyright by posting an entire newspaper obituary for William Anderson on your blog. Here’s a link to our permissions policy – should you see other content in the future on fredericksburg.com that you want to take: http://fredericksburg.com/News/Web/permissions Thanks in advance for changing the post. Have a great day. - Brian Baer online managing editor, The Free Lance-Star

Yeah, folks, that’s real.

My first reply to Mr. Baer:

The last time I checked, the obituaries are sent to your paper by the funeral home, ipso facto, you have no copyright claim to them. Otherwise, you should pursue legal action against Storke Funeral Home for their website.

You folks aren’t the brightest, are you?

And thanks for the blog post.

“Paper complains about use of obituary”. Classy.

A follow-up reply I sent to him:

And isn’t it a violation of federal law to fraudulently claim to have the copyright authority over published works?

And sure enough, it is!:

Just so you know Mr. Baur, 17 U.S.C. § 506 (2007) reads, in part:

(c) Fraudulent Copyright Notice.— Any person who, with fraudulent intent, places on any article a notice of copyright or words of the same purport that such person knows to be false, or who, with fraudulent intent, publicly distributes or imports for public distribution any article bearing such notice or words that such person knows to be false, shall be fined not more than $2,500.

I will be forwarding this e-mail, both electronically and via snail mail, to the local United States Attorney for the Richmond Division for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Further e-mails from you or anyone else at your organization will result in me seeking judicial relief for harassment and/or stalking.

Thank you,
Timothy Watson

What a rag…

Actually, saying that is mean to rags, they serve purposes unlike this paper.

What a rag. They can’t seem to get by without going to, and taking stories from, my and other’s lowly little hate-blogs.

On September 14, 2008, I published a post about how the fine folks at Germanna Community College decided to spend money to send staff to India to find IT internships for people at the college.

On September 21, 2008, The Free Lance–Star published a story talking about how great the whole trip was. The college spends $12,000 that’s supposed to go to “professional development” to send staff on a trip to India, and it’s a great thing!

You gotta love when a newspaper caters to whomever is in a position of power.

I’ve heard of this mythical place to the north called “Novaville”, it’s supposed to contain hundreds — if not thousands — of technology companies that need interns.

So instead of getting local technology companies involved in the college, they think that students have thousands of dollars to go to India for an internship during a sagging economy. According to priceline.com, a round-trip to India is going to cost you at least $1,100 in airfare alone (and that’s if you schedule it for January, five months in advance).

For that cost, you could pay for 12 credit hours at Germanna instead.

I just hope they don’t plan on setting up any internships in Delhi since “a top tourist spot” just got hit by a suicide bombing that killed 60 people and wounded 150 more (CNN). “India ranks among the countries where terrorism is most common” as well, according to the United States State Department (Ibid).

They really don’t seem to have problems like that in Novaville.

And The Free Lance–Star didn’t just happen upon that trip-to-India story on their own. There were visits to my blog from the paper at around 9:47 a.m. on September 15, 2008 going to the post I did. Then there were dozens of hits from the Virginia Community College System that started at 11:20 a.m. on the same day — going directly to that post — as if someone had e-mailed them a link.

Further, this trip to India happened two months ago, and the news story about it doesn’t even appear on Germanna’s homepage anymore.

Of course, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.

Take for example, the resignation of Caroline County Finance Director Garland Adkins: The story was originally posted on Tom James’s blog on October 11, 2007, with quotes from, at the time, a non-password protected employee page.

On October 14, 2007, The Free Lance–Star published a story announcing Adkins’s resignation citing the employee page. No mention of Tom James’s blog was in the story. Are we to believe that someone from the paper just happened to wonder onto the county’s employee page?

On June 15, 2008, I published a post pointing out that Haymount had been bought out for $21,500,000.

On June 22, 2008, The Free Lance–Star published a story about Haymount being bought out.

Those aren’t the only times it has occurred, but I’m too lazy to track the other articles involved.

Hell, if they don’t have anything better to do, people from The Free Lance–Star will kindly point out when I use the wrong tense of a verb.

Frankly, why should I allow them to take stuff that I post on my blog, and use it for commercial profit?

I’m not making money of this site. Sure, I have ads on the page but it doesn’t offset the cost of the hosting package.

That’s why, beginning at midnight tonight, access from that rag of a paper will be blocked.

We can do it, we have the technology.

Actually, it’s pretty easy, just a few lines in the .htaccess file and boom, we’re done.

No worries, no one outside the people at the paper will be affected.

I guess they will have to find another source for news in the area.

Gary Wilson in his infinite wisdom said that hotels and other businesses will bring in money to the county…

What hotels and other businesses?

The only hotels that have been built that are going to be around the State Fair are in Hanover County!

The majority of people that go to the State Fair are going to take Interstate 95 to Route 30 and go to the State Fair that way.

If that’s the case, they will not pass a single business in Caroline County except for the fair itself.

If they opt to stay the night, it’s going to be at a hotel in Hanover County. The closest hotel or major business in Caroline County to the fair is at Carmel Church.

Further, if someone wanted to set up a hotel or business on the east side of the fair inside Caroline County, they would need water and sewer treatment.

The lucky bastards at the State Fair are going to get their water and sewer via Hanover County via Caroline County.

If the fair goes bankrupt, Caroline County will be responsible for the bill due to the way the deal was set up. Apparently, Hanover County has a brain and doesn’t trust the State Fair as far they can throw them.

Of course — according to the same terms of that agreement — the pipes that will provide services to fair can, in no way, be used to provide water or sewer treatment to anyone except for the fair.

That means anyone hoping to start a business on the east side of the fair in Caroline County is SOL (and I’m not talking about the Standards of Learning).

And hey, look, another de facto monopoly for Hanover County. Bravo.

And then there’s the problem of inadequate infrastructure in the area.

The majority of the people going to the fair will be coming from Interstate 95 to Route 30. Route 30 at the fair, and to the west of the fair, has been expanded to four lanes.

What about east of the fair?

It’s the small crappy road it’s been for years.

What happens when people from the Middle Peninsula and the Northern Neck go down Route 30 and there’s 10 mile backups?

I’m sure the home owners are going to love the fact that won’t be able to get out of their driveways in that area.

No new businesses in those areas either!

And what about Carmel Church?

If Carmel Church is where the all the money making for the County is going to occur, where’s the infrastructure to handle all those people?

Hell, the I-95 exchange at Carmel Church can’t handle the traffic it gets now — something the people at The Free Lance–Star should know since that fact gets readily pointed out during Board of Supervisors meetings.

How is the exchange going to handle 60,000 more people?

And why is it the county wanted a special tax on admissions at the fair — presumably to offset the costs associated with fair — which has yet to pass in the General Assembly even five years after the fact (link)?

There wasn’t much left, of course.

The word “fawning” as defined by Merriam-Webster:

1 : to show affection -used especially of a dog
2 : to court favor by a cringing or flattering manner

The word “puff piece” as defined by Wiktionary:

1. A journalistic form of puffery; an article or story of exaggerating praise that often ignores or downplays opposing viewpoints or evidence to the contrary.

This, however, sets a new level for fawning puff piece about the State Fair.

I guess the paper was too lazy to go out and find anyone that might have any opposition to the fair.

Does The Free Lance–Star think that Caroline County residents are too stupid to handle a back and forth debate in a news article?

After all, I’m sure all those reporters and editors at the paper think Caroline is full of banjo-playing yokels. You know, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen a banjo in person — much less one in Caroline County.

But anyway, the paper is usually too busy talking about the important and pressing issue of the use of golf carts in subdivisions.

I’m sure Caroline residents were dying to read that article.

Here’s the basic point of this fawning puff piece: The State Fair of the Virginia will bring in gazillions of dollars to the county and anyone that says otherwise is a idiot.

Hmm…didn’t people say the same thing about the Fredericksburg Expo Center?

And what’s happening with that now?

Oh wait, the Fredericksburg Economic Development Director said the expo center was “horribly underutilized” and just like everything else, they needed government subsidies — specifically $50,750!

That was in July 2007.

In January 2008, the Fredericksburg City Council was considering giving the Expo Center another $225,000 a year for three years. The only thing that stopped that from happening was Kalahari expressing interest in buying the Expo Center.

I’m sure all those other business owners in Fredericksburg would love some subsidies thrown their way as well.

But I have a feeling they’re not holding their breath in the mean time.

I noticed the reporter for The Free Lance–Star was too lazy to go ask the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office how much it was going to cost to police that area during the fair: The very objection that Sheriff Tony Lippa brought up when the county was first considering the fair and which the supervisors opted to completely ignore.

I noticed the paper didn’t bother asking what the cost of fire/rescue services for the fair were going to be.

Specifically, a fire marshal was supposed to be hired before the fair was to begin: Still waiting on that.

Also, Director Fuzy had requested equipment specifically for the fair and the Emergency Services Commission opted to remove those items from their budget.

Also, in the mean time there won’t be a cell phone tower in the area since Caroline County’s “consultant” — who has a clear conflict of interest — wants Hanover County to have a monopoly over the area.

Oh, I’m curious, how many people have been down to the current state fair grounds?

It reminds me of a certain song by Elvis Presley: Is that what that area of Caroline County is going to look like after 40 years of the fair being here?

He also said if you don’t support Private Obama then you’re a racist pig: The Free Lance-Black Hole strikes again!

FYI: Obama’s a private — specifically an E-1 — now because he said talking about abortion is “above his pay grade”.

So sayeth The Free Lance–Star: Golf carts possible for Caroline subdivision

I guess I have to handle the unimportant news from the meeting:

The county is considering spending $4,500,000.00 for a bloody park. That’s at least another cent on the tax rate to handle the debt retirement for the project.

Meanwhile, there’s still no public safety building nor a new public works workshop.

Meanwhile, Jeff Sili was whining (and boy, can he whine) about spending $61,000 to improve security at the Circuit Court so a sheriff’s deputy or someone else doesn’t get killed by a prisoner who tries to escape. And remember, this is the Circuit Court: that’s where felons are being tried.

You know, I don’t much care for Wayne Acors, but he has his moments, especially when he essentially tells Jeff to STFU.

There was the Belmont hearing with the BOS giving the developer crap after the developer has proffered millions of dollars, including a new fire station.

There was the BOS stealing someone’s subdivisions: Apparently the BOS believes that a rezoning/subdivision applicant should know every letter of the zoning/subdivision ordinance and when the Planning Commission or the Department of Planning & Community Development messes something up, it’s okay to take someone’s private property rights away. Ever funnier was after the applicant’s lawyer got up and said, “we’re going to sue your asses [the BOS]“, Jeff Sili moved to vacant the subdivision, and no one offered a second! In fact, they all gave him a look that read, “are you stupid or just crazy?”. Eventually Maxie Rozell decided it might be important to ask the county attorney before they did anything. After a closed session, they showed the great leadership of doing nothing and letting the Planning Commission handle it.

Oh, and the board finally got around to approving the six month goals “for [the] period of July to December 2008″. Isn’t it currently August or did I miss something?

By the way, if you want to watch all this unimportant news, the county has started to put video of the meetings up online (and thankfully, now I don’t have to do it). The video of this meeting isn’t up as I’m writing this, but it should be up in a day or two:

http://www.visitcaroline.com/boardmeetingsonline.html

There have been cracks made about the media’s relationship with Barack Obama and the fact that they portray Obama as a messiah.

Well, apparently Rob Wittman gets the same treatment from certain people (The Free Lance–Star):

A silver lining? Yes, with Rob Wittman

America is in a time of foreboding, we are told. Global warming is catastrophic, the economy is in a nose dive, our president should be tried for everything, and only more taxation will fix our troubles.

Last summer, the nation’s 1st District had a dark cloud hanging over it, and, try as we might, we could see no silver lining.

But by the middle of December, we had found and elected Rob Wittman to fill our vacant congressional seat. Now, after a close check of his voting record and legislative efforts, we can definitely see the silver lining to last year’s ominous cloud.

The silver lining doesn’t lessen the darkness of the cloud and the hurt it presented, but it does give us hope for the future.

Recently, Rep. Wittman was here talking about energy, and he’s got it right ["Wittman: Congress 'must get it done'," July 5].

We need to drill and build. Now what we need is a couple hundred more politicians just like him to get this situation turned around.

The nation’s 1st District is in good hands. We are indeed very fortunate to have Rob Whitman working for us in Congress.

Keith Angle

Stafford

What in the hell is this guy smoking?

Seriously, police need to obtain a search warrant for this guy’s house and search for meth and/or crack cocaine.

What the hell was this “dark” and “ominous cloud” that was hanging over the 1st Congressional District last summer?

This sounds like some stupid narration from the opening of a Star Wars movie:

It is a dark and ominous time for the Republican Party. The charismatic leadership of Senator Obama has put the Republican Party on the run. But from the shadows, comes a ray of hope: Rob Wittman, the former director of field operations for the Division of Shellfish Sanitation for the Virginia Department of Health. Etc., etc…

Sure, Jo Ann Davis passed away in October from breast cancer but that was the fall, not the summer.

And what exactly have Rob Wittman’s legislative efforts been composed of?

Putting a campaign contributor in for $3,125,000 worth of federal earmarks (link)?

Supporting a pork laden, $290,000,000,000, corporate welfare bill (link)?

Putting out information that the House Armed Services Committee held a “top secret briefing” on bombing Iran (link)?

The fact that Wittman thinks so little of our fighting men (and women) that they can’t decide for themselves what they should read and watch (link)?

And the only bill that guy has managed to pass so far was a bill renaming a bloody post office (link)!

Further, would the readers of The Free Lance–Star be interested in the fact the author of this letter, Keith Angle, is the Stafford County Republican Committee’s secretary and Chairman of their Finance Committee (link)?

That seems kinda relevant to the [supposed] independent nature of letters to the editors, right?

UPDATE: D.J. McGuire (The right-wing liberal) has his take here.

…and D. J. McGuire rips them for it.

She joins the distinguished list that includes reporters Ellen Blitz, Jeff Branscome, Frank Delano, Keith Epps, Robin Knepper, and editors Dick Hammerstrom, Laura Hutchison, Phil Jenkins.

From an article written by Pamela Gould about the abduction, robbery, and presumptive murder of Yong Hui Zhang*:

An online check of court records by The Free Lance-Star turned up no criminal charges for either suspect [Jermaine Montgomery or Marcey White] in the Fredericksburg region or in the Tidewater area, Southampton or Sussex.

Well you guys did an excellent job of checking the independent city of Franklin**, the very jurisdiction they were arrested in!

A Jermaine Montgomery with the birthday of September 16th has been charged with the following in Franklin:

A felony charge of credit card fraud which was reduced to a misdemeanor charge of “petty [sic] larceny” which resulted in a deposition of guilty on December 3, 2007 (case number: GC07002067-00).

A felony charge for illegally obtaining a credit card number was dismissed on December 3, 2007 as well (probably a plea bargain involved there) (case number: GC07002069-00).

A pending case for a show cause for failure to pay restitution (case number: GC07002067-01).

On November 30, 2007 he was found guilty of a seat belt violation for a eight to fifteen year old as well as having no driver’s license (case numbers: GT07001731-00 & GT07001732-00). He was found not guilty of operating an uninspected vehicle (case number: GT07001732-00).

And of course, that isn’t the only error in the story unfortunately (or fortunately for me since it gives me something to write about):

Under state law, a slaying in the commission of another felony, including abduction or robbery, qualifies for a charge of capital murder and a possible death sentence.

You would think that a newspaper would do a little due diligence and bother doing some research before they start throwing the words “capital murder” around.

First, not every “slaying in the commission of another felony” is capital murder. You may be thinking of felony murder Ms. Gould. Felony murder (§ 18.2-33) is punished as second-degree murder in Virginia (“punishable by confinement in a state correctional facility for not less than five nor more than forty years” [§ 18.2-32]).

While, yes, a “willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person in the commission of robbery or attempted robbery” is considered capital murder (§ 18.2-31(4)), a capital murder charge for abduction requires the “willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person in the commission of abduction [...] when such abduction was committed with the intent to extort money or a pecuniary [monetary] benefit or with the intent to defile the victim of such abduction” (§ 18.2-31(1)) [emphasis mine].

Just so you know Free Lance–Dog Trainer, you could hire me as an ombudsman or editor to keep you guys straight.

*Get your own link. I refuse to link to that sorry excuse of a newspaper.

**Not to be confused with the county of Franklin, which is located in southwestern Virginia.

They added this tidbit (get your own link):

[Clyde Charles Davenport] was hired in 1988 by then-Sheriff O.J. Moore and left the force in 1997, when Homer Johnson was sheriff.

They have also disabled comments on the story: Thou shalt not criticize The Free Lance–Dog Trainer.

Here are the screenshots for proof (click to enlarge):

The original:

Look, ma, edits: