When is a campaign contribution bribery?
Commmentary by Wyatt Emmerich

If you think about it, all campaign contributions are a kind of bribery. You pay money to a politician and hope he does what you want him to do.

The whole concept of bribery, just like the concept of insider trading, is full of vagaries and contradictions.

Martha Stewart found out some bad news about a stock she owned and sold shares. How is that any different than what anybody else does every day when buying and selling stocks? At what point does having “information” become a criminal act? When you add the vagaries of concepts such as bribery and insider trading to the arbitrary power of the federal government, it’s easy to see how lives and careers are destroyed unfairly.

Wyatt Emmerich
Most average Americans aren’t going to have much sympathy for poohbahs like Martha Stewart and Oliver Diaz who get caught in these sticky and unpredictable traps. Powerful people are rarely the object of sympathy. But lack of public sympathy doesn’t make it right.

The club used by the federal government to squash the occasional poohbah goes by the name of RICO -- Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. However seedy the Mississippi plaintiffs’ attorneys are at rewarding their pals on the state supreme court, it’s no more seedy than the federal government’s abuse of the RICO law.

Click here to continue the story
Delta Running Club to hold first meeting
in Cleveland
The newly-formed Delta Running Club, a group open to all runners and interested parties in the Delta, will hold its first meeting in Cleveland on Thursday, 6 PM, at The Tin Roof Restaurant on Hwy. 61. According to club founder, Jack Criss, over 30 people to date have inquired about the group, some from as far away as Oxford.

"I wrote a column about wanting to form a runner's club for the Delta in the Delta Business Journal a few months back," Criss says, "and the response really surprised me. There obviously was a need for such a group and we plan to get organized and become fully functional at our first meeting here in Cleveland."

Criss says there is no charge to join the Delta Running Club. "This will be a very exciting organization for the many runners in the Delta, at no cost," he says. "We will be looking at offering special membership privileges for those in the club, such as food, clothing and shoe discounts, as well as the opportunity to participate in joint runs and to travel together to various races in the region. We will also be putting out a regular newsletter for our members."

For the immediate future, Criss says the Delta Running Club will be applying for national Track Club membership and recognition, will work closely with the Mississippi Track Club out of Jackson, and will be hosting a Cleveland 10K sometime in the fall.

For more information on the meeting, or the Delta Running Club, please email Jack Criss at jack@coopwood.net
The Delta Jazz Society will be sponsoring jazz every third Saturday in Cleveland
at the Warehouse

The Delta Jazz Society will be sponsoring jazz every third Saturday in Cleveland at the Warehouse (229 North Sharpe Ave. at 8 PM). The group performing this Saturday is the Dudley Jazz Quartet. It's made up of singer, Sandra Dudley / pianist, Bruce Dudley / bassist, John Birdsong /, and drummer, Chad Anderson.

For ticket information call The Warehouse at 846-7223.

Click here for the Bruce Dudley Jazz Quartet bios

Picture of the Week:
Click on photo to enlarge
The Birdsong Camp in Cleveland during the 1927 flood. It was located in the vicinity of Shady Grove Park. Circa 1927.

Courtesy of the Bolivar County Library System.

From Reflections of Bolivar County printed by The Bolivar Commercial

Movies:

American Wedding—R
7pm and 9:15pm

Freaky Friday—PG
7pm & 9:15pm

Bad Boys II - R
7pm & 9:15pm

S.W.A.T.-PG 13
7pm & 9:15pm

Coming Soon:
Seabiscuit
Jason vs. Freddy



 Music

The Pickled Okra
8/15 Hugh and Brandon


Ground Zero Blues Club
8/15-16 Percy Strogher (9pm-1am)

Crawdad's Merigold, MS
No Band

Walnut Street Blues Club
8/14-16 John Horton and Mississippi Slim

 

Click here for the Cat Head Blues Update

Other:

CASINOS

Tunica
Grand Casino - Elvis Fans' Choice Awards - 8/14/2003

Grand Casino - Trent Carlini - from 8/8/2003 to 8/15/2003

Grand Casino -Gerald Levert - 8/16/2003

Gold Strike - Collin Raye - 8/16/2003

Bally's - Jason D. Williams - from 8/15/2003 to 8/16/2003

Tunica Arena & Exposition Center - U. S. A. Outdoors Bass Tourney & Trade Show - from 8/15/2003 to 8/17/2003

Bally's - Kim Harrison - from 8/15/2003 to 8/17/2003

Grand Casino - Miss Hawaiian Tropic Swimsuit Model Search - from 8/15/2003 to 8/29/2003

METEOR SHOWER ASTRONOMY
View the Perseids! Wish on a falling star!
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 2003
9:00 p.m. - midnight with Dr. David Craig
Director, Wiley Planetarium
Delta State University

Winterville Mounds
2415 Highway 1 North
Greenville, MS 38701

Call 662-334-4684 for further information.
Weather:
 
Daytime High /
Overnight Low (°F)
Precip. %
Friday
August 15
Partly Cloudy 
92°/72°
30%
Saturday
August 16
Scattered Thunderstorms 
92°/71°
40%
Sunday
August 17
Isolated T-storms  
91°/71°
30%
Monday
August 18
Isolated T-storms  
89 °/72°
30%
Tuesday
August 19
Scattered Thunderstorms 
88°/70°
40%
Wednesday
August 20
Isolated T-storms  
90°/70°
30%
Thursday
August 21
Scattered Thunderstorms 
89°/69°
40%

Correspondence: letters@bolivarbullet.com
Andy Ellis, Editor. Layout by Tugay Angay, Content Organization by Alisa Kirk.
The Bolivar Bullet - 662-843-2700 - Published by Coopwood Publishing Group, Inc.

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