For those of you who have been following the Tom Parmentier debacle we have some exciting news. Mr. Tree Man has been allowed to return to work as a city employee of Pinellas Park.

Tom will be retuning to work after a three week layoff starting this Tuesday but not before he signed an agreement saying that he would no longer appear on the Bubba The Love Sponge Show. The agreement stated, “You will immediately, and for as long as you are employed by the city, discontinue your participation in the improper, graphic, vulgar and undesirable types of published behavior.”

From what was said on the Bubba The Love Sponge Show last week, Tom The Tree Man will continue as a back room intern as his agreement only states that he will no longer participate in “undesirable types of published behavior.”

As readers are aware, Tom The Tree Man, an intern with the Bubba The Love Sponge Show was fired from his job as a Utilities Technician for the Water Department in the city of Pinellas Park Florida.

The brew-ha-ha started after Tom Parmentier (The Tree Man) participated in wacky stunts as part of Bubba Raw. Bubba Raw is a subscription website operated by Sirius Satellite Radio shock jock Bubba The Love Sponge.

Since his firing, the subject has been relatively quiet on the show, perhaps due to legal reasons as Tom decides his course of action against the city. Not all is quiet though. One fan started a website dedicated to getting Tom his job back. The website has a catchy name….SaveTheTreeMan.com

The site informs readers of the situation, and even includes an on-line Tom The Tree Man Petition that so far has fifty signatures. Since it is unlikely that Bubba will be able to address the issue on the air, or round up the troops of the Bubba Army, we thought we would bring attention to the site and the petition here.

Whether you agree with the stunts or not, Tom The Tree Man was not on city time when he performed them, and he in no way was acting as a representative for the City. In fact, the show had never even disclosed Parmentier’s real name on the air. If you see fit, give the SaveTheTreeMan website a visit and give consideration to signing the petition. No matter what the results, we here at Sirius Buzz wish Tom Parmentier the best.

Bubba picked a hell of a week to take a vacation with all of us wandering what the heck is going on with Tom The Tree Man. His show has been great in covering the latest information surrounding Tom’s firing.

If you are a super-fan and you feel like you need to get your Bubba fix head over to btls and take a look at the infamous Bubba Blog. I have been closely following his blog over the course of the week and there have been no comments on Tom’s situation, leading me to believe they have been told to keep quite by their legal team.

Rest assured that Bubba is in just as much pain as the fans without the show. Big Dick chimed in on the Blog to say “Today he (Bubba) called to “check in.” He is bored out of his mind. The man never has been able to take vacation.”

With the suspension of Opie & Anthony, an organization called People Against Censorship (PAC), was founded by Debbie Wolf. The organization quickly garnered a huge membership (reportedly 12,000 members) from loyal fans to Opie & Anthony.

Censorship is a sensitive issue, and no one wants outright censorship to become commonplace in America. We as a nation pride ourselves on free speech.

Now, to be clear, I have always had an opinion relative to the Opie & Anthony broadcast in question, as well as the actions of fans of the duo. I will outline my opinion, and then address some new developing stories.

1. I feel that what transpired on the broadcast in question did step over a line. The broadcast was not censored at all, and in fact aired in its entirety.

2. I feel that the apology was in order, and that it should have been recognized that there are cases where things go to far. The issue at hand here is often compared to comedy routines, etc. The problem of course is that the Opie & Anthony show is a blend of comedy, edgy material, current events, etc. When listening to a comedian, the listener does not have to adjust to the tenor of the show, it is simply comedy.

3. I feel that Opie & Anthony mocking/belittling the apology was not only a slap at those initially impacted, but a slap to XM as well. It was their commentary on this the apology that got them suspended. Again, no censorship transpired. Their comments were aired in their entirety.

4. Those that feel that Opie & Anthony were marketed as uncensored simply had a misconception about what the real situation was. Rest assured, that Opie & Anthony were not going to pull another “the mayor died in a car accident” stunt, or a session of “love making at St. Patrick’s Cathedral” event. There were indeed lines, and fans who listen to the show with any regularity should have understood this.

5. I felt that fans rallying around a rape and violence against women scene to defend free speech and stand up against censorship was an extremely poor choice. Whether they like it or not, mainstream America sees this suspension as tying back to rape and violence against women.

Now, here is the test of PAC and Debbie Wolf. Over the past week, there has been an issue brewing with Bubba The Love Sponge. The events in question were not even part of a Sirius show, but rather a personally run website of bubba called Bubba Raw. Bubba Raw has no connection whatsoever with Sirius, and is a subscription service which sports wild stunts, and adult themed material.

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Tom Parmentier better known as “Tom The Tree Man,” an intern and regular show/stunt participant from the Bubba The Love Sponge show has been placed on a paid leave from his job with the city of Pinellas Park.

Tom has been a utilities technician in the water maintenance division for the city since April 1998 and is facing being let go because of “conduct unbecoming and that which interferes with the performance of your job.” Is it really fitting that a guy who digs ditches for a living be let go because of what he does with his own time?

Mr. Parmentier participated in stunts such as being shot with a paintball gun, blindfold boxing, having fire ants placed on his genitals, and smelling a man’s rear end. Although some of these stunts may seem extreme they were all done in good fun and more importantly none of them are illegal under any law that I know of. In a day and age where government and city officials have been caught with strippers, prostitutes, and narcotics it seems hypocritical that they would remove a hard working guy from his position for performing stunts that happen on college campus’s across the country on a daily basis.

Continue this discussion on the forums…

Beginning February 23, the “Bubba the Love Sponge Show” will take over the Friday morning slot on channel 101. Bubba will continue to host his show during its regular time of 3:00 PM Monday through Thursday and his new slot on Friday will replay at 3:00 PM.

This is a testament to the success of the Tampa based shock jock as the morning drive is the most listened to time slot. I want to also make it clear that this is an obvious statement that the Fridays Howard has been taking off were not a from time to time thing like he first implied. From now on Howard will be cashing those huge checks for working just 4 days per week, congrats to the master manipulator.

I was listening to the Bubba the Love Sponge show today, and to my dismay Bubba was not in the studio, a lot of the other characters were there but, where is Bubba? I did some digging around and it seems that the #2 shock jock in the world is being sued by an internet porn star.

Hope Miller, better known as Brooke Skye on her adult Web site, is asking for more than $15,000 in damages. Miller’s lawsuit states that Bubba flew in another internet porn star to have sex with her on the show using a sex toy, and that Bubba did not tell Miller that he was planning to do this when she agreed to be on the show. Miller says the toy was too big, but despite her repeated objections, Bubba forced the sex act to continue. Her lawsuit says that the radio host berated her when she tried to back out and threatened to stop promoting her Web site.

I listened to the show in question and at no point did it sound like anyone was being forced to do anything against their will. On top of that Brooke Skye was on the show twice before, and she knew damn well what she was getting herself in to. Lastly she claims that Bubba threatened to not plug her website if she did not participate in the act. Are you kidding me? That is your defense? You were forced to do it because of plugs for your website? What is more important your own safety or a few plugs for your website? People do the most ridiculous stuff I have ever heard on this radio show, and let me tell you, no one is forced to do a damn thing.