Putnam Pit a link to its web site that every other applicant was granted

Geoff Davidian got a fair trial before a good and honest judge and jury. And it happened in Cookeville

Bettye Vaden's high jinks go postal

'Huffy' John Duffy moves his hand up and down fast after pointing out the genitals of Michelangelo's David to jury.

Thanks to Cookeville attorneys Samuel J. Harris and John Wayne Allen for defending The Putnam Pit against government retribution. Without their work, confidence, belief in the importance of the first amendment and friendship, this newspaper would not exist. They worked unselfishly, without pay, for hundreds or thousands of hours so that The Putnam Pit could be free from censorship and discrimination. Be alone and cuddle up with Cookeville City Attorney Mike O'Mara in his very special chat room

Pick a pair of underpants for 'Huffy' John Duffy

New Putnam Pit poll:

Help 'Huffy' John Duffy put underpants on Michelangelo's David.

 

Bettye Vaden

Former Cookeville City Councilwoman Bettye Vaden, pictured at left,  says she'll bring a federal lawsuit if her picture appears in The Putnam Pit. The threat was made Friday after a federal civil rights trial in which a jury found Cookeville did not violate The Pit's rights by denying it a link to the government's web site.  Click image full size photo

Knoxville law firm Watson, Hollow & Reeves thinks Michelangelo is smut: Would you want a child to see the most famous statue on earth, David, sculpted by Michelangelo, who also painted the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican? Michelangelo's greatest achievements parallel important developments in his life. His sense of local patriotism inspired one of his grandest and most noted works, the gigantic statue of David, which he carved between 1501 and 1504. It was done to inspire the people of Florence who were at the time facing adversity from outside threats to the city. The Biblical character of David was a symbol to the people of the weak, with God's help fighting, the Goliath-like forces who were threatening the city. Not to be inspired by anything so mundane as a Biblical concept, Knoxville lawyer "Huffy" John Duffy, of the pro-establishment insurance-paid civil rights defense firm Watson, Hollow & Reeves, wants you to think it is smut. Tennessee Municipal League civil-rights hit man asks a federal jury in Putnam Pit v. Cookeville, 'Is this what you'd want children to see?" Later, he urged the two-man, six woman Middle Tennessee jury, in so many words, "Forgive me for being a long-winded fool and for making the judge scream at me for going on and on and on and on." He did not ask the jury to contemplate why he was fixated on the statue's genitals.

 

District Attorney General William Gibson offered false testimony for the government's defense in Putnam Pit v. Cookeville, the federal civil rights trial bankrolled by Tennessee Municipal League's Risk Management Pool.

 

Cookeville's civil rights lawyer asks . . .
Is City Manager Jim 'The Hunk' Shipley's relationship with former City Councilwoman Bettye Vaden the target of an attack by The Putnam Pit?
And the answer is . . . NO -- Bettye Vaden's donation of a used mascara to a fund in memory of a murdered Cookeville school teacher is the reason why The Putnam Pit finds her a legitimate subject of journalism.