THE DAILY BLADE: War Breaks Out At Crawford Peace House
The Crawford Peace House, “an oasis across the railroad tracks from downtown Crawford, Tx,” according to its Web site, was founded four years ago to offer “a culturally diverse environment for spiritual growth and intellectual understanding that gives hope to humanity by providing peaceful alternatives to war.”
Unfortunately, all that spiritual growth and intellectual understanding going on over there has not resulted in a single position paper or treatise that specifies or explains what those peaceful alternatives might be. Too bad, because the peace activists headquartered at the two-bedroom, one bathroom white-clapboard house are at each other’s throats over charges of money mismanagement and threats of lawsuits. According to The Associated Press:
The Crawford Peace House recently lost its corporate charter with the state, and a former member who now has rights to the name is threatening legal action because the group continues operating.
Sara L. Oliver and some others are calling for a state investigation as to why only $14,700 is now in its bank account, saying tens of thousands donated during Cindy Sheehan's 2005 war protest are unaccounted for.
"There are people who have said, `Don't say anything because you'll hurt the peace movement,'" Oliver said. "But if the peace movement isn't pure and transparent and holy as it can be at its heart, then it's just like George Bush: lying, thieving, conniving, backstabbing bastards." …
Sandra Row, another former member, said up to 75 people have left the peace group over concerns about financial issues or hurt feelings. She said in the summer of 2005, she saw buckets of cash donations in the Peace House - some of which went to pay veterinarian bills for the cat living there. But some demonstrators who bought tents, lanterns and other supplies never got reimbursed, she said.
Crawford Peace House co-founder John Wolf claims the organization kept meticulous records and has posted the non-profit group’s tax returns from 2004 to 2006, as well as the 2005 and 2006 Texas Franchise reports. None of the documents posted online have been signed by an officer, a fiduciary or a paid tax preparer, so it is unclear whether they were ever filed. The franchise tax report, for instance, was not filed with the Texas Comptroller's Office - the reason CPH lost its corporate charter.
As any taxpayer knows, when you sign a tax return you attest “under penalty of perjury” that the document and any supporting schedules and statements are “to the best of my knowledge and belief … true, correct and complete.”
Until the financial finger-pointing is sorted out, perhaps Nancy Pelosi can broker an end to hostilities.
Spring Cleaning
Updates on a few items The Stiletto has written about over the past few months:
† Scooter Libby: Not waiting until the outcome of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby’s expected appeal of his felony conviction on perjury and obstruction of justice based on conflicting and confusing evidence, the D.C. Bar has suspended his license to practice law, pending the conclusion of a proceeding by Board of Professional Responsibility to determine whether Libby should be disbarred. You’ll recall that the AR Supreme Court did not suspend Bill Clinton's license to practice law in that state until a full year after an April 1999 contempt of court citation by Federal District Judge Susan Webber Wright for his "willful failure" to obey her repeated orders to testify truthfully in the the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. In contrast, Libby’s license was suspended in just two months.
† National Archives Theft: Denning McTague, 40, an intern with the National Archives and Records Administration pleaded guilty to purloining 164 Civil War documents worth an estimated $30,000 and unloading about half of them on eBay. It turns out he didn’t sneak them out by stuffing them down his pants or shoving them in his socks. Instead, he secreted them between the sheets of a yellow legal pad. McTague’s sentencing is scheduled for July 12th.
† No Child Left Behind: Currently, special education students (second item) with the most severe cognitive disabilities are allowed to take an easier test that counts towards a school's annual progress targets under the law. The Bush administration wants to triple the number of disabled children who may take the alternative tests.
† Judges Gone Wild: St. Clair County (IL) Circuit Judge Patrick Young, 58, who collided with a pickup truck last December was convicted of drunken driving and sentenced to two years of court supervision; he is also required to pay $1,500 in fines. His boss, Judge Jan Fiss, 64, who was riding in the front passenger seat and was observed dumping out a can of beer by a cop, pleaded guilty to illegally transporting alcohol and was sentenced to two months under court supervision. The judges, both Democrats, continue to serve on the bench.
In Deep Doo-Doo
A Chinese woman in Nanjing who was hanging wash from a sixth-floor balcony leaned over too far and tumbled from her perch. As it happens, the building’s septic tank was being emptied for the first time in ages and her fall was broken when she fell into a squishy pile of doo-doo more than a ½-foot deep. Even though the woman was unhurt, The Stiletto still thinks this story has a crappy ending.
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