Judge: You Have the Right to Remain Ridiculous
Proving our constitutional freedoms are still intact despite all those Socialists running the country, a New York Judge has thrown out a disorderly conduct charge against one Julio Martinez for doing that stupid pants-below-the-butt-with-underwear-hanging-out-thing. Judge Ruben Franco said Martinez may have offended the fashion police but not "public order and decency," though some of us might argue otherwise.
Sherrod To Sue Breitbart
Former Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod plans to sue Andrew Breitbart for his now-infamous edited video of Sherrod purporting to show she was discriminating against a white farmer. Good move.
"He'll definitely hear from me."
Is There Anything Lower....
.....than insurance companies ripping off the families of soldiers killed in our illegal wars? Nope. An investigation by Bloomberg News finds that Prudential and other insurers reap big profits off death benefits for soldiers by putting the money in an uninsured, so-called "retained-asset account" that only makes them money. For six months after her son Ryan was killed by an IED in Afghanistan, Cindy Lohman saw the account as "a consolation prize I didn't want." When she finally tried to buy a bed with one of its "checks," it was rejected. Talk about blood money.
"You can hold the money in the account for safekeeping as long as you like." - Prudential's letter to Lohman.
Be the One – To Reveal Sleazy Corporate Ties
Calling on always-effective star power, BP and other oil companies are using celebrities and two front groups, America's WETLAND Foundation and Women of the Storm, to hammer home the message that we the taxpayers - not they the polluters - should pay for the Gulf Coast debacle. Actress and New Orleans resident Sandra Bullock, who has become the face of the campaign, has now severed her involvement with it after learning of the connections.
"A Distinct, Unusual and Extraordinary Burden"
Rare Good News Dept: A federal judge has blocked the most outrageous parts of Arizon'a immigration law, scheduled to take effect Thursday. Now it will doubtless head to the courts.
"There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens under the new (law). By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a 'distinct, unusual and extraordinary' burden on legal resident aliens..."
Wikileaks: I'm Reacting to the ****up-edness of It
Jon Stewart explores the Wikileaks revelations of Bradass87, who apparently downloaded all this secret information onto a DVD while lip-synching to Lady Gaga (again!). Stewart thinks that maybe the news that Pakistan, to whom we give millions of U.S. dollars, is helping the Taliban insurgency - ie: we are funding the people who fight against us - is, ummm, news.
On Shame Parades
China is finally ending the barbaric practice of parading suspected prostitutes and other suspects through the streets, vowing to enforce laws in a "rational, calm and civilized manner." Or at least have them include in the shame parade those truly deserving - say, the executives of BP, Sachs and Bank of America, pretty much the entire Bush White House, every decision-maker on Afghanistan... The list is endless. But let these poor women go.
A Singing, Praying, Patriotic Rally, With Pooper Scooper
Tea Party organizers of a rally to protest a planned Islamic Center in Temecula, California have urged fellow patriots to "bring your Bibles, flags, signs, dogs and singing voices" - the latter two because Muslims "hate dogs" and their women "are forbidden to sing." They call Islam "a radically intolerant belief system," but a Muslim organization in L.A. suggests that "targeting a house of worship using tactics specifically designed to cause offense" is kinda radically intolerant itself.
