The Daily Dude

Shit Brides Say

2012-01-17T19:39:00.000-05:00

Shit Apathetic Girls Say

2012-01-17T19:36:00.001-05:00

Billboard Irony

2012-01-16T08:45:00.000-05:00

How apt that a billboard touting the job creation skills of reviled Wisconsin governor Scott Walker sits directly in front of a shuttered GM factory that sent 10,000 people to the unemployment line. In every month since last June, the state has lost jobs both overall and in the private sector, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Scott Walker recall petitions are due next week.

Another Russian Space Failure Endangers The Planet

2012-01-15T13:17:00.001-05:00

A failed Russian probe designed to travel to a Mars moon but was stuck in Earth orbit will come crashing down within hours, likely in a shower of fragments that survive the fiery re-entry. The unmanned Phobos Ground, the most expensive since the Soviet era, is one of the heaviest and most toxic space derelicts ever to crash to Earth, but experts say the risks are minimal as its orbit is mostly over water and most of the probe's structure will burn up in the atmosphere anyway.

According to the latest reports from Russian space agency Roscosmos, the Phobos-Ground will crash between 1:50 pm and 2:34 pm EST. The probe could come down anywhere along its orbit that would place it over southern Europe, the Atlantic Ocean, South America and Pacific. The rest of the world, including the U.S. and Canada, is outside the risk zone.

Russia's space chief has acknowledged the $170-million Phobos-Ground mission was ill-prepared, but admitted they were forced to give it the go-ahead so as not to miss the limited Earth-to-Mars launch window. The Phobos-Ground mission is the latest in a long string of failures in the Russian space program.

Its predecessor, Mars-96, which was built by the same Moscow-based NPO Lavochkin company, also suffered an engine failure and crashed shortly after its launch in 1996. Its crash drew strong international fears because of some 200 grams of plutonium on board. The craft eventually showered its radioactive fragments over the Chile-Bolivia border in the Andes Mountains, and the pieces were never recovered.

The worst ever radiation spill from a derelict space vehicle came in January 1978 when the nuclear-powered Cosmos 954 satellite crashed over northwestern Canada. The Soviets claimed the craft completely burned up on re-entry, but a massive recovery effort by Canadian authorities recovered a dozen fragments, most of which were radioactive.

The Phobos-Ground also contains a tiny quantity of the radioactive metal Cobalt-57 in one of its instruments, but Russia has claimed it poses no threat of radioactive contamination.

Colbert PAC Attack

2012-01-15T13:01:00.000-05:00

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

A Decade Of Shame Lives On

2012-01-11T19:54:00.001-05:00

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the opening of Gitmo (the infamous U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay)

Gitmo received its first 20 detainees on January 11, 2002, as part of the initial stages of Bush Jr's global 'War on Terror.' Over the next ten years, 779 prisoners would be transfered to Guantanamo, labeled as "illegal enemy combatants," a definition permitted the U.S. to hold them indefinitely without charges and subject them to illegal torture. Only one of the remaining 171 detainees at Guantanamo faces formal charges.

President Obama had promised to close the facility after taking office -- calling it a "betrayal of American values." Yet almost four years later, the Obama administration has failed to deliver on that promise. "Human rights groups and lawyers for prisoners are dismayed that Obama [not only] failed to close the prison, but [that he] has resumed military tribunals at the base and continues to hold men like [Suleiman] al-Nahdi who have been cleared for release," the Associated Press writes. "Critics are also angry over the president's Dec. 31 signing of the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a provision allowing indefinite military detention without trial."

Today, 171 men remain detained at Guantanamo Bay. 36 are set to face trial on war crimes charges; 46 are considered too dangerous to be released but cannot be prosecuted because the evidence against them was obtained by illegal torture; 57 men from Yemen are held because the U.S. does not want them to return to their unstable country; and congressional limitations (written into Defense appropriation bills) are preventing the release of 32 others.

Special Effects Done "In Camera"

2012-01-07T17:59:00.000-05:00

Check out these cool special effect videos. Everything is done "in camera"-- meaning everything is accomplished while filming and nothing is added post production:

Shit Black Dudes Say

2012-01-06T10:13:00.001-05:00

Shit White Girls Say To Black Girls

2012-01-04T19:56:00.003-05:00

Shit Black Girls Say

2012-01-02T11:23:00.001-05:00

Shit Nerds Say

2011-12-29T19:02:00.001-05:00

Video Games - E3 2012

Shit Asian Girls Say

2011-12-27T22:09:00.001-05:00

Happy Hypocritical Holidays!

2011-12-25T16:21:00.001-05:00

A privileged old man clad in Prada slippers, flowing robes of silken embroidery and an enormous bejeweled golden hat has warned Christians that the true meaning of Christmas was being lost to the pursuit of “superficial glitter.”

Merry Christmas and don't let your children be caught alone in the cathedral!

Shit Girls Say

2011-12-21T20:15:00.001-05:00

NM Woman Goes To Jail- Does Not Pass Go, Does Not Collect $200

2011-10-28T08:11:00.000-04:00

A New Mexico woman repeatedly stabbed her boyfriend after accusing him of cheating during a Monopoly game early yesterday, according to police.

Laura Chavez, 60, and her boyfriend were playing the popular board game at her Santa Fe apartment when the dispute occurred. Chavez admitted stabbing her beau, Clyde "Butch" Smith, with a kitchen knife. Smith told investigators that Chavez first hit him over the head with a glass bottle and then “grabbed a knife and began cutting him, causing injuries to the top of his head, neck, left eye brow and right wrist area."

When cops arrived at Chavez’s building, she was sitting under the porch “covered with suspected blood.” Asked if the blood was Smith’s, she answered, “Yes, I fucked him up.”

Tensions Rise In Tibet As Tenth Monk Sets Himself On Fire

2011-10-27T07:32:00.001-04:00

A Tibetan Buddhist monk has set himself ablaze in western China, the tenth reported ethnic Tibetan this year to resort to the extreme form of protest.

Free Tibet, a UK-based advocacy group, said that the latest self-immolation took place outside a monastery in Ganzi in Sichuan province. The city is about 150km south of Aba, the site where eight of the last nine self-immolations happened since March in protest against religious controls imposed by the Chinese government.

Most people in Ganzi and neighbouring Aba are ethnic Tibetan herders and farmers, and many see themselves as members of a wider Tibetan region encompassing the official Tibetan Autonomous Region and other areas across the vast highlands of China's west. China has ruled Tibet Autonomous Region since Communist troops marched into Tibet in 1950.

The series of self-immolations, at least five of them fatal, "represents a wider rejection of China's occupation of Tibet", Stephanie Brigden, the director of Free Tibet, said.

Chinese government rejected the criticisms of rights groups and exiled Tibetans and has condemned the self-immolations as destructive and immoral.

TSA Now Leaving Rude Notes In Travelers' Luggage

2011-10-26T07:45:00.002-04:00

It isn't enough that TSA creeps are rifling through Americans’ private possessions-- now wise-ass screeners are seeing fit to to make humiliating jokes about the contents, writing a personal message on a TSA inspection note after finding a sex toy in writer Jill Filipovic’s luggage.

After arriving at her hotel, Filipovic was unpacking when she discovered her bag had been individually searched by a TSA screener who, having seen the “personal item,” saw fit to comment, writing “GET YOUR FREAK ON GIRL” on the reverse side of an inspection notice.

While proving themselves adept at identifying women’s vibrators, TSA screeners are notoriously less skilled at actually doing what they’re paid to do – find dangerous items. TSA screeners missed a loaded gun inside a checked bag at Los Angeles International Airport. The .38-caliber handgun fell out of a duffel bag as a luggage ramp crew was loading it onto an Alaska Airlines flight to Portland, Ore.

Perhaps Filipovic should be relieved that the TSA goon didn’t just steal the vibrator-- but then again, they only tend to do that when it’s something really valuable like a laptop, jewelry, precious metals, or cash.

Poachers Kill Last Javan Rhino In Vietnam

2011-10-25T07:39:00.001-04:00

A critically endangered species of rhino is now extinct in Vietnam, according to a report by conservation groups. The WWF and the International Rhino Foundation said the country's last Javan rhino was probably killed by poachers, as its horn had been cut off.

Experts said the news was not a surprise, as only one sighting had been recorded in Vietnam since 2008. Fewer than 50 individuals are now estimated to remain in the wild.

"It is painful that despite significant investment in Vietnamese rhino conservation, efforts failed to save this unique animal, " said WWF's Vietnam director Tran Thi Minh Hien. "Vietnam has lost part of its natural heritage."

The authors of the report, Extinction of the Javan Rhino from Vietnam, said genetic analysis of dung samples collected between 2009-2010 in the Cat Tien National Park showed that they all belonged to just one individual. Shortly after the survey was completed, conservationists found out that the rhino had been killed. They say it was likely to have been the work of poachers because it had been shot in a leg and its horn had been cut off.

An assessment carried out by Traffic, the global wildlife trade monitoring network, said the surge in the illegal trade in rhino horns was being driven by demands from Asian medicinal markets.

Obama Tax Proposal Sticks It To Vacationers

2011-10-24T20:10:00.001-04:00

Bet you didn't know that nearly 20% the cost of a U.S. domestic airfare is taxes. Well, get ready for even more of that.

The Obama administration’s deficit-reduction plan includes a new mandatory $100 surcharge per flight for air traffic control services, which airlines would pay directly to the FAA. The fee, however, would almost certainly be passed along to customers. The plan also raises the passenger security tax from $2.50 to $5 per non-stop flight, and eventually to $7.50.

A recent letter to the speaker of the House, the Senate majority leader and the co-chairmen of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction signed by 116 members of Congress expresses “strong opposition” to the proposal. “Imposing a new fee on the aviation industry in order to raise revenue would have a devastating impact on the aviation industry and fails to achieve our shared goal of improving the economy and creating jobs,” it notes.

The airline industry is unhappy, too. In a campaign that includes newspaper ads and a Web site (www.stopairtaxnow.com), it’s trying to prevent the proposal from taking off.

“Aviation is already taxed at a higher rate than alcohol, beer, cigarettes and firearms — products taxed at high rates to discourage use,” says Steve Lott, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, an industry trade group. “In short, the administration is proposing a huge new tax on the least profitable and most highly taxed industry in the economy, while all its competitors are left untouched.”

But no one will be hit harder than passengers, experts say. “The airline industry will figure out some way to pass this tax along to the consumer,” says Thomas Cooke, a federal taxation expert at Georgetown University’s business school. “It’s incredibly unfair to air travelers.”

In fact, air travelers are paying more than their fair share in taxes, including a Sept. 11 fee of up to $10 per round-trip ticket, to fund the TSA, as well as a cargoload of other taxes, including passenger ticket taxes, international departure taxes, a jet fuel tax, an aviation security infrastructure fee and an immigration user fee.

What pisses travelers off more than anything is that the money would go to reduce the deficit, while the balance would fund something that passengers aren’t exactly clamoring for — a larger Transportation Security Administration. If you were wondering whether anything in the administration’s current budget-reduction proposal would benefit air travelers-- don't bother.

“There are zero benefits,” according to tax expert David Selig. “The only thing that gets raised are air travelers’ stress and frustration levels. Higher taxes provide travelers a stronger incentive to either stay home or find an alternative means of transportation, which ultimately costs airlines in the end.”

This proposal might make sense if it actually helped air travelers in a meaningful way (it doesn’t) or if you could make the argument that the airline industry is responsible for the current deficit (it isn’t).

Swiss Voters Display Common Sense Not Seen In The U.S.

2011-10-23T10:50:00.002-04:00

Switzerland's right-wing People's Party has seen its share of the vote fall unexpectedly after parliamentary elections, defying forecasts of an historic increase.

It had campaigned on a tough anti-immigration platform, and had predicted it would receive an unprecedented share of the vote. But with the count nearly complete, it was set to get less than 27%. Its calls to limit immigration strictly are now likely to be quietly ignored, according to reports.

The right-wing People's Party had been emboldened by recent successes in campaigns to ban minarets, and to automatically deport foreign criminals. But voters gave the party something of a slap in the face-- fewer votes and the loss of seven parliamentary seats.

The party's single campaign theme-- restricting immigration-- did not seem to find favor. Switzerland's foreign population may be almost 25% but its unemployment rate is less than 3%. Voters know many Swiss businesses, and their health service, depend on foreign workers.

3 Years Into Obama, Healthcare Still A Travesty

2011-10-22T13:17:00.001-04:00

Citing rising costs, Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, told its employees this week that all future part-time employees who work less than 24 hours a week on average will no longer qualify for any of the company’s health insurance plans.

In addition, any new employees who average 24 hours to 33 hours a week will no longer be able to include a spouse as part of their health care plan (although children can still be covered).

This is a big shift from just a few years ago when Wal-Mart expanded coverage for employees and their families after facing criticism because so many of its 1.4 million workers could not afford or did not qualify for coverage — rendering many of them eligible for Medicaid.

This news only reinforces the desperate need for a national health care option for Americans. The "free market" for health care is anything but free and is still leaving over 50 million uninsured (who knows how many millions more are under-insured).

Bigoted Bone-Bag Brewer Beaten By Bolton

2011-10-21T21:05:00.001-04:00

A federal judge has dismissed Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's lawsuit that accused the Obama administration of failing to enforce immigration laws or maintain control of her state's border with Mexico.

The Republican governor was seeking a court order that would require the federal government to take extra steps, such as more border fencing, to protect Arizona until the border is controlled.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton said Brewer's claim that Washington has failed to protect Arizona from an "invasion" of illegal immigrants was a political question that isn't appropriate for the court to decide. The judge also barred the remainder of Brewer's claims because the issues were dealt with in a 1994 case by Arizona and can't be litigated again.

Keeping Up With the Khaddafis

2011-10-21T08:13:00.000-04:00

Muammar No More

2011-10-20T19:14:00.000-04:00

Shock Over Chinese Indifference To Injured Tot

2011-10-17T19:03:00.003-04:00

Chinese media and internet users have voiced outrage at a hit-and-run incident involving a two-year-old child left injured in the road as passers-by ignored her. The toddler was hit by a van in the city of Foshan. Surveillance footage showed the van hitting the little girl, pausing briefly while she was under the vehicle and then driving off, running over her legs.

The video then shows about a dozen passers-by, including cyclists, a motorcyclist and a woman and child, noticing the little girl lying injured in the street but ignoring her and walking on. Several minutes later she was hit by yet another vehicle. A rubbish collector finally stopped to helped her, but she was already seriously hurt. The child, named Yue Yue, was taken to hospital for emergency surgery but was later pronounced brain dead, according to reports.

The little girl had wandered off unattended while her mother went to collect some laundry. The drivers of both vehicles have now been arrested, but the incident has also triggered outcry among Chinese citizens.

Some commentators have said they understand the dilemma for the passers-by - that if they helped out they might incur costs or be blamed for the accident. Chinese media widely reported an incident from last January in which elderly men who fell in the street were left alone because people did not want to get involved. Those reports cited an earlier case in which a man who helped an injured elderly lady to hospital was then found by a court to be liable for some of her medical costs.

Another recent case which attracted considerable attention throughout China was one in which an elderly woman believed to have fallen in the road accused a man who stopped to help her of hitting her with his car. "There's been so many cases where people have been treated unjustly after doing good things," one Chinese commenter said.

Death Cheney-Style

2011-10-10T07:07:00.003-04:00

Fifty-six-year-old monk Kazuaki Kinoshita and the girl's 50-year-old father Atsushi Maishigi were accused of what police described as "waterfall service": strapping the victim Tomomi Maishigi to a chair and dousing her face with water.

According to reports, the two men poured water over her as an "exorcism" with the father holding the girl down while the monk chanted sutras. Miss Maishigi's mother called an ambulance after her daughter fell unconscious, but it was too late. She was confirmed dead early the next morning. "The cause of death [was] suffocation," the police official said.

Reports said the girl's parents had turned to the monk after the youngster had suffered several years of mental and physical ill health that doctors had not been able to resolve. The monk, who belongs to a religious group deriving from a Buddhist sect, said that the girl was possessed by an evil spirit. Her parents had taken her to one of the group's facilities equipped with a water pump and made her go through the dousing practice about 100 times prior to the fatal incident.

Brown Beer Bottle Bonking Bags Bestowal

2011-10-09T09:56:00.000-04:00

Certain Australian beetles will try to copulate with discarded beer bottles, but they have to be of the right type - brown ones with bobbly bits on them. This fascinating observation made almost 30 years ago has finally landed entomologists Darryl Gwynne and David Rentz with an Ig Nobel Prize.

The Igs are the "alternative" version to the rather more sober Nobel awards announced in Sweden next week. Other recipients this year of the prizes run by the science humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research included the mayor of Vilnius in Lithuania, Arturas Zuokas. He was honored with the Ig Peace Prize for demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars could be solved by squashing them with an armoured tank.

The Chemistry Prize went to an inventive Japanese team that worked out how to use wasabi (pungent horseradish) in a fire alarm system. The group even has a patent pending on its idea. Understanding why discus throwers get dizzy was the topic of the study that won the Physics Prize.

The American awards were handed out on Thursday at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre, in what has become down the years a slightly chaotic but fun event where people throw paper planes and a little girl berates the winners. More details and a full list of winners can be found here.

Chavez Now Seizing Private Homes

2011-10-08T10:46:00.000-04:00

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced that his government will expropriate homes on the Caribbean resort islands of Los Roques, saying the structures were built on plots bought in shadowy business deals.

Chavez has nationalized hundreds of privately owned companies since taking office in 1999, but this is the first time he has targeted private homes for expropriation. Chavez offered no details regarding the planned seizures of private homes and quaint inns, known in Spanish as "posadas."

The president said the government would build state-run inns on Los Roques, which is an archipelago of tiny islands offering snorkeling and scuba diving along numerous coral reefs and deserted white-sand beaches.

Chavez's government has nationalized hundreds of businesses including cement makers, retail stores and steel mills as part of his drive to establish a socialist economic model in Venezuela. Authorities have also seized large swaths of agricultural land deemed idle by officials, turning parcels over to poor peasants.

Still On The Job(s)

2011-10-07T18:50:00.001-04:00

Hitler Hates The New iPhone 4S

2011-10-05T20:51:00.003-04:00

Gulf Residents Still Suffering From The BP Oil Spill

2011-10-04T07:33:00.001-04:00

Just weeks after BP's oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico began on April 20, 2010, Fritzi Presley knew something was very wrong with her health. The 57-year-old singer/songwriter from Long Beach, Mississippi began to feel sick, and went to her doctor.

"I began getting treatments for bronchitis, was put on several antibiotics and rescue inhalers, and even a breathing machine," she said. The smell of chemicals on the Mississippi coastline is present on many days when wind blows in from the Gulf. Presley's list of symptoms mirrors what many people living in the areas affected by BP's oil spill have told Al Jazeera in its detailed report.

"I was having them then, and still have killer headaches. I'm experiencing memory loss, and when I had my blood tested for chemicals, they found m,p-Xylene, hexane, and ethylbenzene in my body."

Presley lives three blocks from the coast with her daughter, 30-year-old Daisy Seal, who has also become extremely sick. Both of them had their blood tested for the chemicals present in BP's oil, and six out of the 10 chemicals tested for were present. Daisy Seal has had skin rashes, respiratory problems, and two miscarriages, which she attributes to chemicals from BP's oil and toxic dispersants.

"I started having respiratory problems, a horrible skin rash, headaches, nosebleeds, low energy, and trouble sleeping," Seal said. "And I now feel like I'm dying from the inside out." Seal, who already has an eight-year-old son, has had two miscarriages in the last year.

The 4.9 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf last year was the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, affecting people living near the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Compounding the problem, BP has admitted to using at least 1.9 million gallons of toxic dispersants, which are banned by many countries, including the UK. According to many scientists, these dispersants create an even more toxic substance when mixed with crude oil.

Dr Wilma Subra, a chemist in New Iberia, Louisiana, has tested the blood of BP cleanup workers and residents. "Ethylbenzene, m,p-Xylene and hexane are volatile organic chemicals that are present in the BP crude oil," Subra explained. "The acute impacts of these chemicals include nose and throat irritation, coughing, wheezing, lung irritation, dizziness, light-headedness, nausea and vomiting."

Subra explained that exposure has been long enough to create long-term effects, such as "liver damage, kidney damage, and damage to the nervous system. So the presence of these chemicals in the blood indicates exposure". Testing by Subra has also revealed BP's chemicals are present "in coastal soil sediment, wetlands, and in crab, oyster and mussel tissues".

Pathways of exposure to the dispersants are inhalation, ingestion, and skin and eye contact. Symptoms of exposure include headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pains, chest pains, respiratory system damage, skin sensitization, hypertension, central nervous system depression, neurotoxic effects, genetic mutations, cardiac arrhythmia, and cardiovascular damage. The chemicals can also cause birth defects, mutations, and cancer.

"In 'Generations at Risk', medical doctor Ted Schettler and others warn that solvents can rapidly enter the human body," Dr. Riki Ott, a toxicologist, marine biologist, and Exxon Valdez survivor, said. "They evaporate in air and are easily inhaled, they penetrate skin easily, and they cross the placenta into fetuses. For example, 2-butoxyethanol [a chemical used in Corexit, an oil dispersant] is a human health hazard substance; it is a fetal toxin and it breaks down blood cells, causing blood and kidney disorders."

"Solvents dissolve oil, grease, and rubber," Ott continued. "Spill responders have told me that the hard rubber propellers in their engines and the soft rubber bushings on their outboard motor pumps are falling apart and need frequent replacement. Given this evidence, it should be no surprise that solvents are also notoriously toxic to people, something the medical community has long known."
In March the US National Institutes of Health launched a long-range health study of workers who helped clean up after BP's oil disaster.

According to the NIH, 55,000 clean-up workers and volunteers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida will be checked for health problems, and participants will be followed for up to 10 years. The study is funded by NIH, which received a $10 million "gift" from BP to run the study. BP claims not to be involved in the study, which will cost $34m over the next five years.

But the study focuses mainly on people who participated in the clean-up. John Gooding, a resident of Pass Christian, Mississippi, began having health problems shortly after the oil spill started. He has become sicker with each passing month, and has moved inland in an effort to escape continuing exposure to the chemicals.

"I can't live at my home address anymore because it's too close to the coast," Gooding said. "I'm hypersensitive to the pollution, and there is a constant steady chemical smell coming off the Gulf. Even both my dogs had seizures and died."

The U.S. Coast Guard held an Area Contingency Plan meeting in Biloxi, Mississippi recently to discuss the lessons of the BP disaster. Coast Guard Captain John Rose was asked what has changed regarding the Coast Guard's dispersant use policy since April 20, 2010.

"We were pre-authorized to use it before, but now we have to get permission from the higher-ups. But it is still in the plan for how we will respond to oil spills in the future," he said. During the meeting, Captain Rose continuously referred to the use of dispersants as a "scientific tool" that is "effective in keeping oil from reaching beaches and wildlife".

Transparency In Government: Another Broken Obama Promise

2011-10-03T07:23:00.000-04:00

The Obama administration has closed public access to its database of disciplinary action against doctors and other medical professionals, basically because reporters were getting too good at using it.

The Department of Health and Human Services compiles a National Practitioner Data Bank to centralize reports on malpractice cases and licensing board actions against individual doctors and health care companies. The idea is to make it harder for practitioners who've been hit with disciplinary actions or malpractice judgments to move to other states and get new licenses.

Four times a year, HHS has published a version of the database to the public. Because the database is supposed to be confidential, it's scrubbed of names, addresses and other information that patients, lawyers and reporters could use to identify who's in it. Still, because it provides a wealth of aggregate information, the quarterly summary has been a regular source of medical stories for a quarter-century. (As recently as June, the database was generating stories like this one, reporting that half of U.S. malpractice payments involve patients seen outside a hospital.)

Or at least it did until this month, when HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration added this sentence to the databank's Web page: "The NPDB Public Use Data File is not available until further notice."

The Kansas City Star says it's largely to blame, reporting that HRSA took the action "shortly after it learned The Kansas City Star planned to use its reports" for a story on doctors who have frequently been accused of malpractice but who have escaped the attention of the Kansas or Missouri medical boards.

An HRSA spokesman told the Star that while the agency was bound by federal law to keep the data confidential, reporters had been able to "triangulate on data bank data" to put names to reports.

Hard News

2011-10-02T07:56:00.002-04:00

China: You Can Check Out Any Time You Like-- But You Can Never Leave

2011-10-01T19:48:00.000-04:00

In the year-plus since he was released from jail, scientist Hu Zhicheng has been free, free to drive from his Shanghai apartment to his office two hours away, free to get acupuncture treatment for chronic back pain, free except to leave China and rejoin his family in America.

Twice Hu went to airports to board flights out of China only to be turned back by border control officers. A China-born U.S. citizen and award-winning inventor of emission control systems for autos, Hu has written to the police who investigated him for infringing commercial secrets and even met face-to-face with the prosecutors who dropped the charges for lack of evidence. Yet he has not been allowed to leave, nor told why he can't leave. "My priority is to go home and be with my family," said Hu, slight, soft-spoken and reserved. "I know how much they have suffered."

An acclaimed inventor of catalysts in the U.S., Hu returned to his native China in 2004 to grab opportunities in a rocketing Chinese auto market that was short of experienced innovators. Hu worked for several different companies in the intervening years, and eventually he got caught in the crossfire when a trademark dispute sprung up between his current company and a former employer.

Trade disputes that would be civil suits in the West often become criminal cases in China. Chinese companies often cultivate influence with local officials and often coerce law enforcement to take their side when deals with other companies go awry. When Hu sensed that a former employer was trying to make him a pawn in a trade dispute with his current employer, he moved his family to Los Angeles.

Hu and his wife believe that the company which accused him of taking trade secrets persuaded authorities to keep the travel ban in place. In China, sometimes punishment goes on even when the law says stop.

Police in the eastern port of Tianjin where the dispute occurred said its case against Hu was closed long ago. With no apparent charges or investigation pending, lawyers said Hu should be free to go abroad under Chinese law.

Since his release, he and wife Hong Li refused repeated requests for interviews, hoping that quiet lobbying of Chinese and U.S. officials would bring him home. Their frustration growing, Hu finally agreed to be interviewed, providing the fullest account of his predicament. "My life is miserable. What do they want from me?" said Hu.

Left in limbo, Hu has been consumed with trying to find out why he cannot leave and with seeking treatment for a herniated disc in his spine, a problem that arose soon after he left jail. He feels outmatched by a well-connected local company, having lived outside China for so long and having failed to cultivate the contacts Chinese prize for smoothing business. "I'm used to the U.S. and following the laws," Hu said. "Clearly China is a different place."

Cruel Religion

2011-09-30T07:11:00.000-04:00

GOP Debate Factoids

2011-09-29T21:42:00.001-04:00

Bob Dylan: Painter or Plagiarist?

2011-09-28T20:12:00.004-04:00

Copyrighted photos on the left, Dylan's "original" art on the right-- you be the judge.

Fukushima: 200 Days Later

2011-09-27T21:41:00.002-04:00

What’s emerging in Japan six months since the nuclear meltdown at the Tokyo Electric Power plant is a radioactive zone bigger than that left by the 1945 atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While nature reclaims the 12 mile no-go zone, Fukushima’s $3.2 billion-a-year farm industry is being devastated and tourists that hiked the prefecture’s mountains and surfed off its beaches have all but vanished.

The March earthquake and tsunami that caused the nuclear crisis and left almost 20,000 people dead or missing may cost 17 $223 billion, hindering recovery of the world’s third-largest economy from two decades of stagnation.

Fukushima schoolchildren are now being bullied at their new school in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo for “carrying radiation,” according to reports. Produce from Fukushima’s rich soil is also being shunned. Peaches, the prefecture’s biggest agricultural product after rice, have halved in price this year. Beef shipments from the prefecture were temporarily suspended and contamination concerns stopped the town of Minami Soma from planting rice. Land around the Fukushima reactors will lie fallow for two decades or more before radiation levels fall below Japan’s criteria for evacuation, the government recently announced.

While scientists knew back in March that radiation contamination would create an uninhabitable zone in Fukushima, information to the public has come intermittently, which created widespread distrust of politicians and scientists. This resulted in conflicting public commentary, making it harder for residents to decide whether to stay or leave.

The coastal town of Minami Soma this year canceled its annual qualifying stage for the world surfing championship, part of a waterfront that lured 84,000 beachgoers in July and August last year. The beaches, now destroyed by radiation and the tsunami, saw no visitors during the two months.

The area’s biggest festival, Soma Noma Oi, a re-enactment of samurai battles, attracted 200,000 visitors last year. This year 37,000 came. Of the 300 horses typically used in the event, 100 were drowned in the tsunami and another 100 were evacuated due to radiation.

Facebook Pissing People Off Globally

2011-09-26T07:34:00.001-04:00

Although the soundtrack is in Korean, they pretty much capture the new Facebook changes spot-on:

It's Time For (Class) War

2011-09-25T20:21:00.000-04:00

Careful, Comrade- Your Dictatorship Is Showing

2011-09-24T13:20:00.003-04:00

The Aussies Tell It Like It Is

2011-09-23T07:13:00.000-04:00

An amazing editorial on the Greek financial crisis from the Sydney Morning Herald:

Greece may be far away, it may be a small economy, but it is dragging down the value of your pension because its problems are a drag on the global market. The root cause of the problem is simple. The national sport of Greece is cheating. Cheating across every tier of society.

Greece needs to be thrown out of the euro zone. The crisis is coming to a head, as it must, but we will all pay. It is merely the most extreme manifestation of a failure of democracy by the European Union. The Greeks are being forced into a humiliating and unsustainable austerity program, which is contracting their economy into a depression. Feel no sympathy for Greece. The Greek government lied its way into the Economic and Monetary Union in 2001, presenting false data, and ever since Greece has been a cancer in the euro zone.

Ostensibly, the national sport of Greece is football, but even football is compromised by the real national sport of cheating. Two years ago, the governing body of European football, UEFA, sent the Hellenic Football Federation dossiers detailing a pattern of illegal betting and match-fixing involving dozens of games. Some of the biggest clubs in Greece were involved. The Hellenic Football Federation, like so much of the rest of Greek society, preferred the path of delusion, delay and denial. It did not respond. It did nothing. After 18 months, UEFA officials went to the Greek criminal justice system. News of the meeting broke in the media. The Greek government had to begin a criminal investigation.

It was a metaphor for the nation which Transparency International rates as the most corrupt in Europe. Greece has the highest rate of tax evasion in Europe. So pervasive is this problem that the nation is bankrupt. Confronted with a need to cut spending and raise revenue, the government has been crippled by an inability to raise taxes because the tax system is so rotten and the culture of evasion is so ingrained across everyday life.

Almost every element of society shares in this inglorious achievement. Successive governments piled up debt to pay for social services and pensions. The courts have a backlog of 300,000 tax cases. The tax-collection system is riddled with a culture of bribery. The black economy in Greece, where tax is avoided altogether, is estimated at 27.5 per cent of GDP, about double the scale of the black economy in Australia, and does not include the underground economy of crime.

Ever since the high point for modern Greece, the 2004 Olympics in Athens, it has become increasingly clear that the country was living on borrowed time and borrowed money, a state of collective delusion. Even Greece's two biggest Olympic stars, two medal-winning sprinters, turned out to be drug cheats. They even staged a fake accident to avoid a doping test.

The whole country is heading into a crash now and it is not fake.

Forest Boy Baffles German Police

2011-09-22T07:07:00.001-04:00

Berlin police are investigating the case of an English-speaking teenager who appeared in the German capital saying he had lived the last five years in the woods with his father.

The boy, aged about 17, appeared at Berlin's city hall and was then taken in by a youth emergency center. The boy claims that he and his father took to the woods about five years ago after his mother died and have been living in a tent and earth huts.

The boy - who says he does not remember where the family came from - claims he followed his compass north after his father recently died, reaching Berlin after walking for two weeks. The boy appears to be in good health and police have issued a Europe-wide appeal to try to determine his identity.

Least Favorite Supermarket

2011-09-21T20:54:00.001-04:00

German Politician Wearing Blackface To Portray Obama Sparks Outrage

2011-09-20T19:37:00.001-04:00

A well-known German comedian named Martin Sonneborn is in hot water over a satirical political billboard of him posing in blackface makeup as President Barack Obama.

The billboard is the latest in Sonneborn’s campaign for his satirical political party Die Partei. It’s meant to make fun of the entire German political establishment and go up to the edge of propriety – another billboard is entitled “MILFS against Merkel” and the campaign has also mocked the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party.

In a recent interview, Sonneborn said his billboard wasn’t racist. Sonneborn joked that he was “Germany’s Obama” and added he was mocking the “hype” surrounding the U.S. president. Sonneborn, formerly editor-in-chief of the German satire magazine Titanic, said he wasn’t aware of the history of blackface in the U.S. and didn’t care if anyone was upset. “No, I didn’t know that,” he told reporters. “If Americans associate it with that, then I’m sorry, but I’m not going to take it down.”

But Tahir Della, a spokesman for the Initiative for Black Germans (ISD), which tries to represent the interests of the black community in Germany, called the billboard "unbelievably hurtful."

Dial M For Misguided

2011-09-19T07:05:00.001-04:00

Nigeria's government is trying to assure its people that a phone call can't kill you.

A text message has spread across the oil-rich country, warning that people will die if they answer mobile phone calls from 09141. The widespread fear has forced the Nigerian Communications Commission to issue a public statement saying it is "unimaginable that somebody will die while receiving a call."

Commission spokesman Reuben Muoka stated, "It is only very gullible people that will believe such a rumor."

Text message panics in Nigeria have included rumors of bombings and rumors that acid rain from seasonal dust storms can burn people alive. The campaigns are aided by poor education and lack of faith in the government.

Minnesota Bigots Ignore Gay Bullying, Despite Surge In Student Suicides

2011-09-18T09:48:00.001-04:00

Bullying of gay students is rampant in a Minnesota school district after Christian groups lobbied for a policy that allows teachers and school officials to "look the other way" when bullying takes place.

Conservative Christian groups in the Anoka school district have demanded that the schools avoid any descriptions of homosexuality or same-sex marriage as normal, warning against any surrender to what they say is the “homosexual agenda” of recruiting youngsters to an “unhealthy and abnormal lifestyle.”

Six students brought a lawsuit contending that school officials have failed to stop relentless antigay bullying and that a district policy requiring teachers to remain “neutral” on issues of sexual orientation has fostered oppressive silence and a corrosive stigma. The suit alleges that district staff members, when they witnessed or heard reports of antigay harassment, tended to “ignore, minimize, dismiss, or in some instances, to blame the victim for the other students’ abusive behavior.”

Local bigots have remained defiant in their beliefs, despite a spate of eight suicides in the school district within the past two years-- what most see as proof positive that the current approach to bullying is not working.

Gay children, and some parents and supporters, say these efforts are undercut by what they call the district’s “gag order” on discussion of sexual diversity — a policy, adopted in 2009 amid searing public debate, that “teaching about sexual orientation is not part of the district-adopted curriculum” and that staff “shall remain neutral on matters regarding sexual orientation.” They believe the district’s demand of neutrality on homosexuality is inherently stigmatizing, has inhibited teachers from responding aggressively to bullying and has deterred them from countering destructive stereotypes.

Colleen Cashen, a psychologist and counselor at the Northdale Middle School, said that by singling out homosexuality, the policy created “an air of shame,” and that contradictory interpretations from the administration had left teachers afraid to test the limits, seeing homosexuality and the history of gay rights as taboo subjects. “I believe that the policy is creating a toxic environment for the students,” she said.

But conservative parents have organized to lobby against change. “Saying that you should accept two moms as a normal family — that would be advocacy,” said Tom Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council. “There should be no tolerance of bullying, but these groups are using the issue to try to press a social agenda.”

Chinese Kidnapped From The Street And Forced Into Hard Labor

2011-09-17T09:37:00.001-04:00

Authorities in China are struggling to identify 30 people they rescued from illegal brick kilns where they were being enslaved and abused, according to state-run media reports.

The officials are having a difficult time identifying some of the workers because at least 17 of them are disabled or have a mental illness. "Some of them can't even speak a whole sentence, and they don't act like normal people," according to Liu Weiming, deputy director of publicity in Zhumadian, where the workers were rescued. "Most are staying at a relief station because they can't remember where they are from."

The scandal was exposed by the City Report TV channel who reported that workers were "abducted from streets and railway stations and then sold to bosses at brick kilns for 300 yuan to 500 yuan ($45 to $80)."

Bai Shasha, one of the rescued victims, said he and his father got lost in March and were abducted when several people with knives approached him. He said during the time he was enslaved at the kiln he was regularly beaten with bricks or whips, China Daily reported. Bai also said he and other workers were forced to work all day long without any rest, and then they all slept in cramped confines at night. One supervisor accused of beating the workers with whips is just 14 years old.

Incidents of kidnapping and forced labor are common, with over 1,500 people rescued from illegal brick kilns since 2007.

Least Favorite Pizza Parlor

2011-09-16T07:50:00.004-04:00

Not Satisfied With Taking Away Your Privacy, TSA Now Wants To Take Away Freedom Of Speech

2011-09-15T07:18:00.000-04:00

Attacking the TSA for its privacy-invasive screening procedures has become a favorite activity for many journalists. TSA horror stories are often featured prominently on The Drudge Report and he has taken to calling Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security “Big Sis.”

Napolitano has publicly said people are wrong in describing DHS programs as Orwellian and says that the DHS "wants to be conscious of civil liberties and civil rights protections—and we are.”

Syndicated columnist Amy Alkon would likely disagree with the Secretary, however. After a particularly aggressive TSA patdown earlier this year, Alkon graphically described how she sobbed out loud a TSA agent inserted her hands into her vagina through her pants four times-- each time, moving her fingers back and forth between her labia. She screamed “You raped me” after the LAX patdown and took the agent’s name with plans to file charges of sexual assault. Those plans fell through after consulting an attorney, but Alkon did blog about it and included the agent’s name.

The TSA agent then hired a lawyer who contacted Alkon asking her to remove the post, threatening her with a defamation lawsuit, and asking for a settlement of $500,000. Free speech lawyer Marc Randazza stepped in to assert Alkon’s right to post about her patdown experience, and to defend both her definition of the patdown as rape and, regardless of that, her right to rhetorical hyperbole. More details are here.

China's New Millionaires Can't Wait To Dump Their Country

2011-09-14T07:09:00.001-04:00

Chinese millionaire Su builds skyscrapers in Beijing and is one of the people powering China's economy on its path to becoming the world's biggest. He sits at the top of a country — economy booming, influence spreading, military swelling — widely expected to dominate the 21st century.

Yet the property developer shares something surprising with many newly rich in China: he's looking forward to the day he can leave. Su's reasons: He wants to protect his assets, he has to watch what he says in China and wants a second child, something against the law for many Chinese.

China's richest are increasingly investing abroad to get a foreign passport, to make international business and travel easier but also to give them a way out of China. It is a bothersome trend for China's communist leaders who've pinned the legitimacy of one-party rule on delivering rapid economic growth and a rising standard of living.

Despite more economic freedom, the communist government has kept its tight grip on many other aspects of daily life. China's leaders punish, sometimes harshly, public dissent and any perceived challenges to their power, and censor what can be read online and in print. Authoritarian rule, meanwhile, has proved ineffective in addressing long standing problems of pollution, contaminated food and a creaking health care system.

People In Texas Still Think Al-Jazeera Was Behind 9/11

2011-09-13T07:37:00.008-04:00

Gabriel Elizondo, correspondent for Al Jazeera, was in the middle of a road trip across the United States, talking to people about the effects of 9/11 on American life. In Texas, Elizondo experienced part of that impact firsthand.

On a Friday night, Elizondo decided to stop at a high school football game in Booker, Texas, near the Oklahoma border. He approached Booker High School's principal, explaining who he was and saying that he was driving across the country to talk to people about the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. He asked to film parts of the football game and see if anybody wanted to talk about their views of 9/11 during halftime.

Principal Yauck bounced up from her seat, giving Elizondo a wonderful Texas hospitality smile and commenting on “what an interesting project” he was doing. “So you will need to send me the link of this when it goes on the internet or whatever,” she added.

When she couldn't find a business card, Elizondo gave her one of his. Then came this exchange (from Elizondo's blog about the incident):

“So you’re from Al Jazeera,” Mrs Yauck says in a sharp tone, still looking down at my card. Looking up at me, she adds quickly, “ So what’s your spin on this story?”

“I don’t have a spin,” I say, still smiling to try to ease any sudden tension. “What I told you is exactly what I want to do. Just talk to people, film a bit. That is it. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

“But you’re with Al Jazeera?”

“Yes,” I say proudly, still smiling.

But Mrs Yauck is again staring down at my business card.

“Our superintendent is here, let me just go talk to him and I’ll be right back.”

Needless to say, the Superintendent made it clear to Elizondo that he was not welcome to shoot any film or talk to anyone at the game. Elizondo later blogged about the incident, after which the school Superintendent wrote a self-serving response, going so far as to brag about their "Fiesta Night" in an attempt to demonstrate Booker High's spirit of culture acceptance.

Meanest Jokes From Charlie Sheen Roast

2011-09-12T07:28:00.001-04:00

1. “You’re just like Bruce Willis — you were big in the 80s and now your old slot is being filled by Ashton Kutcher.” — Amy Schumer

2. “If you’re winning, this must not be a child custody hearing. The only time your kids get to see you is in reruns — don’t you want to live to see their first 12 steps?” — Jeffrey Ross

3. “Brooke Mueller is not very bright unless Charlie throws a lamp at her. … Mike Tyson, your opponents spent more time bleeding in the corner than Charlie’s ex wives.” — Jeffrey Ross

4. “The only reason you got on TV in the first place is because God hates Michael J. Fox.” — Anthony Jeselnik

5. “Charlie still hasn’t hit rock bottom. He’s looking forward to it though, because he thinks there’s a rock there.” — Steve-O

6. “You dropped out of school faster than Casey Anthony’s kid.” — Anthony Jeselnik

7. “It’s amazing — after abusing your lungs, liver and kidneys, the only thing you’ve had removed is your kids.” — Kate Walsh

8. “Charlie, you claim to have ‘tiger blood,’ but after all the porn stars you’ve [had sex with], it’s probably Tiger Woods’ blood.” — Seth MacFarlane

Michigan GOP Sticks It To The Poor

2011-09-12T07:26:00.001-04:00

Michigan's first-year Republican governor Rick Snyder has signed into law a stricter, four-year lifetime limit on cash welfare benefits, prompting advocates for the poor to warn that tens of thousands of residents will find themselves without cash assistance on October 1.

The 2010 election of Snyder and the simultaneous Republican takeover of the Michigan House gave the GOP a free hand to set its own course on public assistance. The change gives Michigan the Midwest's toughest welfare time limit, according to a survey by The Detroit News. It said there are five-year limits in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. Indiana has a two-year limit for adults — but none for children.

Gilda Jacobs of the Michigan League for Human Services said she expects about 41,000 people to lose their cash assistance payments on Oct. 1 when the state's new budget year begins. That includes 29,700 children, according to the Michigan Department of Human Services. "We're very, very concerned," Jacobs said. "As the days go by, new people will be meeting the 48-month limit. ... More will be falling off that cliff."

Jacobs said it's hard to see how adults cut off from welfare will find a job when Michigan's July unemployment rate was 10.9 percent, tied with South Carolina for third-highest in the nation.

"We still have to preserve a safety net for people who, through no fault of their own, can't find a job," she said, noting that most cash assistance goes to help poor residents pay their rent. "There's obviously a lot of anxiety out there. Folks aren't sure exactly what this means to them."

Michigan ranked 38th in child poverty for 2009, defined as income below $21,756 for a family of two adults and two children. About 23 percent of Michigan's children lived in poverty in 2009, compared with 20 percent nationally. In 2000, only 14 percent of Michigan children lived in poverty. The average age of a child in a family receiving cash assistance is around 7 years old.

GOP governor Snyder has claimed that reducing the number of children living in poverty is a priority of his administration. The Michigan Catholic Conference has objected to the four-year limit. The conference said the effect will be felt for years by society and by children who lose services.

Answer: Yes

2011-09-11T13:48:00.004-04:00

Obama Retreats On Yet Another Campaign Promise

2011-09-10T19:50:00.000-04:00

In a dramatic reversal, President Barack Obama, who had previously pledged to make decisions based on science, scrubbed a clean-air regulation that aimed to reduce health-threatening smog, yielding to bitterly protesting businesses and congressional Republicans who complained the rule would kill jobs in America's ailing economy. The Clean Air Act bars the EPA from considering the costs of complying when setting public health standards.

The regulation would have reduced concentrations of ground-level ozone, the main ingredient in smog, a powerful lung irritant that can cause asthma and other lung ailments. Smog is created when emissions from cars, power and chemical plants, refineries and other factories mix in sunlight and heat.

Withdrawal of the proposed regulation marked the latest in a string of retreats by the president in the face of GOP opposition, and it drew quick criticism from liberals. Environmentalists, a key Obama constituency, accused him of caving to corporate polluters, and the American Lung Association threatened to restart the legal action it had begun against rules proposed by George Bush.

Mexican Gangs Now Targeting School Teachers

2011-09-09T20:43:00.001-04:00

Terror has engulfed schools in the city of Acapulco, Mexico.

Criminal gangs in the resort city have kidnapped at least four teachers in the last two weeks. Another 500 teachers say they're being told to turn over half their salaries or they too will turn up missing. Many students are deeply worried.

In the face of such threats, teachers from at least 80 schools have decided to stop working, just as the new school year is getting underway. The problem is exacerbated by the public's mistrust in local police, so many leads are not reported. Criminal gangs are focusing their activities on the poorest neighborhoods, where the need for public education is at its highest.

Shear Agony

2011-09-08T20:29:00.002-04:00

An Arizona man whose eye socket was impaled with a pair of pruning shears said he experienced excruciating pain during the ordeal and feels lucky to be alive.

86-year-old Leroy Luetscher said he had just finished trimming plants in his backyard when he lost his balance and fell on the pruning shears. The tool went into his right eye socket and down into his neck, resting against the carotid artery. Half the shears were left in his head pushing up against his eye, while the other half was sticking out.

Luetscher said he put his hand to his face and realized the shears had gone into his eye. "I didn't know if my eyeball was still there or what," he said. "I never had pain like that in all my life." Luetscher, whose face was gushing blood, was able to walk to the laundry room of his house and beckon his longtime live-in girlfriend, Arpy Williams, who called 911.

An ambulance rushed him to University Medical Center in Tucson, where a team of surgeons immediately took scans of his brain and came up with a plan to treat him. "You know, if it went a little bit in a different direction, it basically could have killed him or he could have had a stroke," surgeon Dr. Lynn Polonski said. "He's was very lucky that it missed all vital structures and we were basically able to put him back together."

Luetscher said he's not sure he'll be doing much more gardening in the future.

While Perry Fiddles, Texas Burns

2011-09-07T19:46:00.002-04:00

As Texas Governor Perry organizes prayer events and complains about the federal government's response to his state's wildfires, he and his lawmakers have been busy cutting volunteer fire departments by 75%.

As reported by the Texas Independent, Perry and Texas lawmakers have also been called to task for huge cuts to state firefighting resources passed earlier this year. The two-year budget that took effect last Thursday includes a 75 percent slash to volunteer fire departments — from $30 million to $7 million — and a one-third cut to the Texas Forest Service. State Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin) said this year’s fires near the capital city underscore the need to better fund the emergency-services districts stretched thin at the outskirts of Texas’ growing cities.

Texas’ 879 volunteer departments are the first line of defense against wildfires for much of the state. The forest service, with 230 firefighters and 15 trucks, provides statewide support. After that, help comes from the federal government and other states.

Giant Croc Caught Alive In Phillipines

2011-09-06T06:29:00.000-04:00

A giant saltwater crocodile weighing more than a ton has been captured in a remote southern Philippine village following a series of attacks on humans and animals, according to reports.

Measuring 21 feet and weighing 2,370 pounds, it is believed to be the biggest to be ever caught alive in the Philippines. Saltwater crocodiles can live for more than 100 years and grow to 23 feet.

Josefina de Leon, wildlife division chief of the environment ministry's protected areas and wildlife bureau, said it was likely to be the biggest crocodile ever captured. The captured croc will now become the main attraction at a planned nature park in the area.

The hunt for the crocodile in the village of Bunawan began in mid-August and it took dozens of local men to secure its capture. But crocodile hunter Rollie Sumiller, who led the hunt, said this reptile may not be the killer they have been looking for after at least one attack on a human was reported in the area. "We're not really sure if this is the man-eater, because there have been other sightings of other crocodiles in the area," he said.

Labor Day Greetings

2011-09-05T20:29:00.001-04:00

New Spin On Plugging The Meter

2011-09-04T20:25:00.002-04:00

German prostitutes must carry a ticket purchased from a new parking meter-like machine while working the streets or face hefty fines from tax authorities in a new scheme launched in the city of Bonn.

Germany hookers pay income tax, but compliance is difficult to enforce with women seeking business on the street. Bonn's "sex tax meters," from which prostitutes can purchase a ticket for $8 per night, will ensure the tax system is fairly implemented, a city spokeswoman said.

"Inspectors will monitor compliance - not every evening but frequently," the spokeswoman told reporters.

Product Design Failure

2011-09-03T07:32:00.000-04:00

A Letter From Dick Cheney

2011-09-02T07:01:00.000-04:00

Dear Readers:

I was a huge war hawk, happily sending other people's kids to war, but I "had other priorities in the '60s than military service" and got five deferments.

Saddam Hussein was a friend before he was an enemy.

I happily did business with Iran, Libya and Iraq as CEO of Halliburton.

I held secret White House meetings with oil companies to expand their influence and profitability, and suppressed information about the health effects of global warming.

As a Congressman I opposed the Department of Education and economic sanctions against South Africa's apartheid government.

I started a trillion-dollar war based on cherry-picked intelligence and outright lies, including "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us."

I said that "There's overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi government."

I insisted that the war would be over in less than six months.

I warned in late 2004 that if John Kerry won the election, "…we'll get hit again, and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating."

I supported the torture of human beings. I still do.

I stayed on vacation for days after hurricane Katrina hit.

I had no objection to tossing the writ of habeas corpus into the garbage disposal.

I couldn't find Osama bin Laden

I responded to the American people's concern about the Iraq war with: "So?"

I drank a beer and then shot a lawyer friend in the face because I wasn't following proper gun safety rules. I never apologized.

I told the FISA court to go fuck itself---we can spy on Americans without a warrant anytime we feel like it.

I left office with a 13 percent approval rating, for which you can all go fuck yourselves, too.

Now buy my book, suckers!

(Courtesy of the Daily Kos)

New Details On CIA Kidnap-For-Torture Scheme Unveiled

2011-09-01T06:32:00.001-04:00

A trove of new information about the international renditions business has been unveiled by legal action charity Reprieve.

Over 1500 operational and legal documents were disclosed as part of a lawsuit brought by a company called Richmor Aviation over unpaid bills by the CIA. These documents now offer the first comprehensive overview of the CIA’s unlawful program of kidnapping ('extraordinary rendition’). Reprieve’s evidence shows how:

A complicated billing chain obscured the ultimate end user of the flights -- the CIA.
The U.S. government used the same aircraft – tail number N85VM, owned by Liverpool FC owner Philip Morse -- for over 55 flights to Guantanamo Bay, Kabul, Bangkok, Dubai, Islamabad, Cairo, Baghdad, Djibouti, Rabat, Frankfurt, Ramstein, Rome, Tenerife, the Azores and Bucharest. The plane, a Gulfstream jet, frequently passed through British and Irish airports en route, including Shannon, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London Luton.
Richmor executives used disturbing newspeak to describe the prisoners-- calling them 'invitees'-- as they were shuttling them to torture sites across the globe.
All rendition flights were covered by a "letter of convenience" from the State Department.
Richmor frequently subcontracted for private business jets to conduct the flights. One single flight alone cost the U.S. government as much as $300,000.
The crew of one of the jets involved made expenses claims for items such as $20 sandwiches and $40 wine bottles.
The CIA continued to pay millions to cover its its tracks, well after its illegal rendition-to-torture program was made public.

The documents also add previously unseen detail to several notorious rendition cases, including that of Abu Omar (kidnapped in Milan in February 2003 and sent to be tortured in Egypt)-- a case which culminated in the 'in absentia' kidnapping conviction of 22 CIA operatives by an Italian judge.

According to Reprieve’s Legal Director Cori Crider, “These documents give us an unprecedented insight into how the government outsourced renditions, right down to the complicated paper-trail the CIA used to cover their tracks. This case proves, once and for all, that the reason the government blocked the rendition cases was not to protect sensitive material. It was to avoid embarrassment.”

Cheney Needs To Be Taken To Task

2011-08-30T19:21:00.000-04:00

Now that Darth Chaney will soon be out hawking his memoirs on a book tour, I think it's about time that reporters start pressuring him more on questions that he failed to deal with in his self-serving, history-rewriting book. Some suggestions (several of which courtesy of HuffPo):

How can you possibly not call waterboarding torture? And just how involved in it were you?

Why torture detainees if it doesn't even work?

Do you fear being charged with criminal conduct?

Do you fear being charged with a war crimes?

The United States has prosecuted individuals who engaged in waterboarding, so why is there now an exemption from those in the Bush administration?"

When do you plan to travel outside the United States next?

What do you consider a violation of human dignity, exactly?

Did you tell Scooter Libby to leak Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent to the press?

What agreement did you have with Karl Rove to divide policy responsibilities?

Just how much surveillance do you think the government can do without a warrant?

Who was really in charge the morning of 9/11-- you or Bush?

How much did you have to drink before you shot your friend in the face?

How much did you know about Halliburton's massive bribery scheme in Nigeria?

Why did you allow Pakistan to airlift Taliban and Al-Queda officials out of Kunduz in 2001?

Why did you and Bush fail to capture or kill Bin Laden at Tora Bora?

Why didn't you and Bush take the threat of a Bin Laden attack more seriously the month before 9/11?

Shocking Indifference Of African Leaders

2011-08-29T09:59:00.000-04:00

If African leaders won't help their own, why should anybody help them at all? From the Independent:

African leaders have come under fierce criticism after a much-delayed African Union summit to tackle the food crisis in the Horn of Africa raised less than 4 per cent of the shortfall needed. Only four heads of state – from Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Equatorial Guinea – attended the meeting, designed to gather urgently needed funds to help save the nearly 13 million people now at risk of starvation on the continent.

Only 21 out of the 54 countries in the AU made pledges, with $20m of the $46m promised coming from three states – Algeria, Angola and Egypt. Aid groups say they need $1.4bn to meet the shortfall in tackling the emergency. Jean Ping, chairman of the AU commission, announced the summit had raised more than $350m, but the bulk of the sum was in fact a $300m loan from the African development bank and not a grant at all.

On top of this, the African Union is still dragging its feet in recognizing the National Transitional Council in Libya. Many are even suspicious that members of the AU are still secretly backing the Libyan dictator, as his whereabouts continue to be unknown.

Peace Corps Throws Its Volunteers To The Wolves In Order To Save A Buck

2011-08-28T17:48:00.000-04:00

Four years ago, a Peace Corps volunteer named Erin Bingham was raped in Bolivia. Within hours, agent Julie De Mello was on an airplane from Washington to meet the victim. De Mello, employed by the Peace Corps inspector general as a senior federal agent investigating crimes against volunteers, worked with the 23-year-old victim to sketch the attacker. De Mello went with Bingham to a police lineup, hired a lawyer to represent her, and worked with local police to track down witnesses. De Mello believes her advocacy helped convict the rapist in 2008. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

As profiled by Lisa Rein of the Washington Post, today's Peace Corps response would be a much different story. A Peace Corps volunteer who is the victim of a violent crime is now much less likely to get the necessary support from the U.S. government. De Mello herself left the Peace Corps three years ago, after the agency grounded her and the four other investigators who traveled the world helping victimized volunteers.

What happened? The Peace Corps in 2008 moved the responsibility for supporting volunteers and working with local police from experienced agents to its own in-country staffers, most of whom have little or no law enforcement training. After the change, the rate of prosecutions in sex crimes committed against volunteers has dropped. Despite that fact, Peace Corps officials claim the new system is working, and maintain that the decision to move crime response to local personnel “was made to ensure a proper alignment of functions." (whatever that means!)

Victims and critics say the change was among many missteps the Peace Corps has made in protecting its 8,655 volunteers and trainees. The Peace Corpos has come under fire in recent months for its handling of sexual assaults and the death of a volunteer in West Africa. The young woman, Kate Puzey, was killed days after she told Peace Corps staff that a fellow teacher was molesting students.

Following that incident, Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams acknowledged problems and promised changes at a congressional hearing. Rep. Ted Poe (R-Tex.), chief House sponsor of a bill that would force the Peace Corps to give sexual assault victims more support, said in an interview that he did not know the Peace Corps had shifted responsibility for crime investigations to in-country personnel. “It would seem to me that in criminal cases, you need trained officers responding rather than people who have other duties,” he said.

Former agents and inspectors general at the Peace Corps said they believe that shifting responsibility to the security staff lessened the chances that crimes will be solved.

Peace Corps volunteers always have faced dangers abroad. Volunteers reported more than 1,000 rapes, attempted rapes and sexual assaults from 2000 to 2010, statistics show. Because many crimes go unreported, Peace Corps officials believe the real numbers are higher.

Peace Corps volunteers who become crime victims are now often left to their own devices, forced to deal with police officers who are overloaded with work and undertrained, and without experienced representation, usually get no special treatment. The resulting drop in sexual assault cases that result in prosecutions — from about 60 percent to 46 percent (according to figures provided to a congressional committee) underscores what critics call a serious step back for Peace Corps volunteers.

Volunteers and their families have continued to complain about the problems dealing with local police forces, and some believe the decision to rely on in-country security staffs has seriously hampered their quests for justice.

According to Erin Bingham, her case would have languished without the involvement of a trained investigator. Prosecutors in the small city where she was attacked had never tried someone for rape — let alone used DNA evidence in court. “Julie was so experienced,” Bingham said. “She fought so hard for me in all aspects.”

Maybe the Peace Corps should fight a little bit harder for its own volunteers.

Chicago Jury Says That Recording Police Activity Is OK

2011-08-27T15:06:00.000-04:00

Finally, signs of common sense when it comes to the recording of police behavior. Even though more and more jurisdictions are passing restrictions or outright bans on citizens recording the public behavior of police personnel, an Illinois jury of everyday people has spoken loud and clear on the subject.

A former stripper, who secretly recorded two Chicago Police Internal Affairs investigators while filing a sexual harassment complaint against another officer was acquitted on eavesdropping charges. “I’m feeling a lot better now,” a smiling Tiawanda Moore said after a Cook County jury returned the verdict in a little over an hour. The 20-year-old Indiana woman admitted she taped the [internal affairs] officers on her Blackberry in August of last year. But she said she only did it because the investigators were coaxing her to not go forward with her complaint.

Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said the verdict “reflects a repudiation of the eavesdropping law in Illinois. Clearly, the public believes that individuals should be able to record police engaged in their public duties, in a public space in an audible voice.”

Political Spin

2011-08-26T09:15:00.001-04:00

Gamestop Stores Admit to Stealing From Customers

2011-08-25T22:17:00.001-04:00

Video game retail giant GameStop has been opening up brand new PC game boxes of the critically-acclaimed shooter Deus Ex: Human Revolution and removing packed-in $50 coupons granting free copies of the game to users of the OnLive cloud gaming service.

Why? Because Gamestop, which has its own digital distribution platform, didn't wan't to help promote the competition. A letter sent out to GameStop employees instructing them to "immediately remove and discard the OnLive coupon from all the regular PC versions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution" has been widely circulated, and GameStop has since officially confirmed the practice.

"Regarding the Deus Ex OnLive Codes: GameStop's policy is that we do not promote competitive services without a formal partnership," GameStop says on its Facebook page. "Square Enix packed a competitor's coupon within the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution without our prior knowledge and we did pull these coupons."

GameStop lamely tried to paper over by trying to assure customers that while they're breaking the seal on your new game box, your game itself should be fine. They issued a statement to customers and the public, saying "While the new products may be opened, we fully guarantee the condition of the discs to be new. If you find this to not be the case, please contact the store where the game was purchased and they will further assist."

Nice try, Gamestop. What you're conveniently ignoring is that you are committing THEFT. You are stealing something worth $50-- something which each customer has bought and paid for and you are cheating them out of.

Depending on how many of these units have had the coupons removed, Gamestop's actions could constitute grand larceny. It's possible that Gamestop has now realized that, since they are trying to save face by now refusing to sell the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution altogether.

Hate Is Costly

2011-08-25T06:57:00.000-04:00

I really wish there was more investigation and follow-up on these so-called "money saving" ideas that the GOP ram down our throats. Remember when they cut illegal immigrants out of health care reform? It's turning out (like it was fairly obvious then) that those same immigrants can simply go to the emergency room and get free treatment which costs the states four times as much.

The latest example of a hate-motivated policy dressed up as a cost-saving measure is the one in Florida, where families applying for cash welfare benefits are required to take drug tests first. The law, which went into effect July 1, makes applicants pay for the drug tests up front and reimburses individuals if they test negative. It has been widely believed that the testing itself would cost Florida more than what they would save in cutting welfare money off to drug users. Great idea in the current economic environment!

The ACLU predicted that this program would be a failure and cost the state of Florida much more money than they would save. In just the few weeks that the program has been in effect, the ACLU has been proven right.

The Department of Children and Families' central region has tested 40 applicants since the law went into effect six weeks ago, and of those 40 applicants, 38 tested negative for drugs. The cost to the state of Florida to reimburse those 38 individuals who tested negative was at least $1,140 over the course of six weeks. Meanwhile, denying benefits to the two applicants who tested positive will save Florida less than $240 a month.

iResign

2011-08-24T21:35:00.002-04:00

"And I Am Telling You- I'm Not Going"

2011-08-24T07:38:00.001-04:00

Never Forget The Day The Lawn Chair Fell

2011-08-23T22:15:00.001-04:00

Tripoli In The Balance

2011-08-22T22:29:00.002-04:00

Saif . . . not exactly safe

Reports are coming in that Tripoli is mostly in the hands of the rebels, but loyalist forces are still mounting resistance in many pockets throughout the capital . . . The only working hospital is overwhelmed with casualties and not enough doctors to handle the volume . . . NATO has been dropping leaflets in the area of Tripoli, The majority of the leaflets were intended to encourage pro- Gaddafi soldiers to lay down their weapons and to join the Libyan rebels and the wider Libyan people . . . Libyan rebels have sent more fighters and weaponry by sea to Tripoli from their coastal enclave of Misrata, about 200km further east . . . As of tonight, here are the known whereabouts of the various members of the Gaddafi clan:

Muammar (Big Daddy): Whereabouts unknown; not believed to have left Libya.

Mohammad: At first captured by rebel fighters in Tripoli, but later escaped.

Saif al-Islam: Not yet captured (as previously reported)-- last seen tooling around the city in an armored convoy.

Saadi: Captured by rebel fighters in Tripoli.

Hannibal: At large.

Mutasim: At large.

Saif al-Arab: Killed by a NATO airstrike in April.

Khamis: At large; unsubstantiated rumors that he was killed.

Bachmann Rewriting History . . . Again!

2011-08-21T09:25:00.001-04:00

Michele Bachmann has, by now, virtually eliminated any doubt over what was obvious a long time ago-- that she is just a pathetic retread of Sarah Palin-- uninformed, inexperienced and error-prone. After most recently confusing John Wayne with a serial killer and reclassifying John Quincy Adams status as a new founding father, Bachmann this week rewrote 20 years' of Russian/Soviet history.

In a radio interview, the Minnesotan loon said, "What people recognize is that there's a fear that the United States is in an unstoppable decline. They see the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union and our loss militarily going forward." Hello . . . earth to Michelle . . . the Soviet Union went out of business almost two decades ago. It's only a threat in that pea-sized brain of yours.

Mid-Air Battle For Armrest Supremacy

2011-08-20T09:40:00.001-04:00

A fight over "arm rest supremacy" aboard an American Airlines flight resulted in two men being investigated by the FBI.

Approximately one hour into a flight from Chicago O'Hare to Los Angeles, three men, seated three across in an exit row, began to struggle over who could use the arm rests. "They're just going at it, throwing elbows, like they're going for position at a basketball game," another passenger said.

According to the passenger, the man in the middle seat then complained to a stewardess that he might have sustained an injury in the scrum and requested the plane be diverted to the nearest airport. "He [the man in the middle] complained that he'd been injured and may have a broken rib and apparently was insisting that the flight be diverted and the passengers next to him be charged with assault," the passenger said. The flight was not diverted.

At that point, an off-duty pilot intervened in the incident-- moving the aisle and middle seat passengers to different seats on the plane, and taking the middle seat next to the window for the remainder of the flight. According to the passenger, all the men involved in the incident appeared to be businessmen in their 40's or 50's. The flight continued to Los Angeles without further incident where the men were met by FBI agents and Los Angeles Airport Police.

Michele Bachmann Tied To Terrorist Bigot

2011-08-19T08:15:00.000-04:00

The man running outreach to faith-based communities for Republican Michele Bachmann's presidential nomination campaign has been tied to the key backer of the "Kill the Gays" bill in Uganda.

The Atlantic reports that Peter E. Waldron had tried to be coy about his identity when confronted, at first refusing to provide his name, but journalist Garance Franke-Ruta discovered that the evangelical pastor was once imprisoned in Uganda for a supposed terrorism plot. While Waldron was in Uganda from 2002 to 2006, the Republican political activist was reportedly arrested with a small weapons cache. The details are murky, but he spent more than a month in prison.

Waldron is also known to have visited the church of staunchly antigay, and dangerous, pastor Martin Ssempa. Ssempa is well known for inflaming violence against gay people in Uganda, even screening gay porn to incite backlash. According to The New Republic reporter Andrew Rice, Waldron regaled Ssempa's congregation with stories and seemed like a minor celebrity. Waldron spoke about his time in the military (which Waldron strongly implied was CIA-related), his visit to the White House, and he bragged about being cozy with the Ugandan president.

Chavez Is Watching Too Much Fox News

2011-08-18T18:45:00.001-04:00

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered the central bank to repatriate $11 billion of gold reserves held in developed nations’ institutions such as the Bank of England as prices for the metal rise to a record.

Venezuela, which holds 211 tons of its 365 tons of gold reserves in U.S., European, Canadian and Swiss banks, will progressively return the bars to its central bank’s vault. “We’ve held 99 tons of gold at the Bank of England since 1980. I agree with bringing that home,” Chavez said yesterday on state television. “It’s a healthy decision.”

Many feel that this latest move to repatriate reserves is timed to occur before arbitration case rulings are handed down, in order to avoid a so-called attachment risk that could freeze international assets, according to Boris Segura, a New York-based strategist at Nomura Securities. The repatriation and diversification of reserves may also cloud transparency of government holdings, which would be a negative for the country’s credit, he said.

Of 17 arbitration cases pending against Venezuela in the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, at least three of them are over mining ventures, including Crystallex International Corp. (KRY), a Canadian gold producer whose Las Cristinas mine was taken over by the government in February. “Today’s announcement is not surprising,” Doug Belander, Gold Reserve president, said yesterday in an interview. “We believe that their objective all along was to take over the entire industry.”

Art Pranksters Stick It To Russian CIA

2011-08-17T21:47:00.001-04:00

The Moscow art group The Members of War (aka Voina) have already become infamous for faking gay bashings at local malls and depicting Russia’s federal museum director in an orgy at a national art event. But their latest action — completed early in the morning on Che Guevara’s birthday — really delivered a big “fuck you” to Russian authorities. In just 23 seconds, the group drew a 213-feet-tall, 89-feet-wide “giant galactic space dick” on the famous Foundry Bridge.

When the bridge rose as scheduled, the enormous cock faced the windows of the Federal Security Service building (basically, the Russian equivalent of the CIA). Voina’s leader got arrested almost immediately and firefighters eventually blasted the paint off, but not before locals snapped a handful of photos. And while this “art protest” seems more like immature “graffiti vandalism” than anything else, subversion’s cool and huge cartoon penises are funny as balls.

Geologists: Get Your Rocks Off

2011-08-16T06:47:00.001-04:00

Economic Downturn Has Unexpected Benefit For Potheads

2011-08-15T19:02:00.000-04:00

The U.S. housing crash has lured some marijuana growers to move their operations south of the border, according to an internal Royal Canadian Mounted Police report.

According to the report, "Some VOC (Vietnamese Organized Crime) groups have moved their marijuana grow operations to the United States where the lower cost of real estate (in some regions) allows them to operate a more profitable enterprise and where they can also avoid police/customs detection at the border."

The report also points out that the "softening of marijuana laws" in some states has made the U.S. a more attractive destination for growers than it once was.

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A!

Not So Fast For The Holy And Hungry

2011-08-14T18:36:00.001-04:00

Governor Rick Perry, whose April entreaty to his fellow Texans to pray for rain failed to alleviate the state’s devastating drought, led some 30,000 worshippers in The Response (informally nicknamed “Prayerpalooza”), a Christian prayer gathering at Houston’s Reliant Stadium.

Though Perry and others urged attendees to fast, concession stands sold nachos and smoothies throughout the seven-hour event. A San Angelo revivalist skipped lunch but eventually succumbed and bought a hot dog around 4:00 p.m. “That’s the agreement I made with God earlier,” he said.

Alternate Newsweek Cover

2011-08-13T19:41:00.002-04:00

Mubarak A Role Model For SF Subway Officials

2011-08-13T09:04:00.001-04:00

Attempting to stymie an upcoming protest against fatal shootings by transit police, San Francisco Bay Area Transit (BART) officials disabled underground cellphone service at San Francisco subway stations for three hours. BART insists the action was legal, but has not given concrete evidence to support the claim. The unintended risk created by BART's actions is that if a commuter needed police or emergency assistance as a result of the protest or a train accident, the commuter would be unable to call 911.

BART has been unusually specific about the method used, saying that it merely turned off the electricity to the cell phone transponders, as opposed to using cell phone jamming technology (this blogger doesn't see why that would make any difference). BART said that they had help from the carriers to execute the cell phone service interruption

Network outage is one of the FCC's greatest concerns, and the agency regulations require that the provider - usually the company to whom the customer pays - tell customers their service is going to go dark. Based on past actions taken by the FCC, such actions as blocking/interfering with 911 call access is considered illegal and usually warrants investigation. From an incident earlier this year:

The FCC is investigating the possibility that a Verizon service blackout prevented subscribers from connecting 911 calls and reaching the local fire department. The inability to complete the calls may have resulted in the destruction of Maryland woman's house...Many residents of Maryland's Montgomery and Price George's counties experienced similar disruptions of service, and the FCC is attempting to figure out the cause.

Let's hope that the protesters file suit against BART and pressure the FCC into launching an investigation into the actions of BART and the local cell carriers.

Long Wait For Dumbo Spunk

2011-08-12T23:13:00.000-04:00

The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium has been waiting for over a year for the South African government to release 16 liters of elephant jism so the zoo can start the first sperm bank for African elephants in North America.

Scientists collected the samples as part of Project Frozen Dumbo, an international effort to help zoos breed and conserve the largest living land animal. The program would enable zoos on several continents to breed elephants without the danger of transporting them thousands of miles. So far, there's enough spooge to inseminate 300 female elephants. Fortunately, scientists expect the frozen samples to last several more years.

At this point, South African officials have not commented on the delay or responded to press inquiries.

Part of the delay could be due to quarantine issues or paperwork required by international treaty, said Frank Goeritz, head of veterinary services and senior scientist for reproduction management at the Leibniz Institute. "The law and associated guidelines are different from country to country," said Goeritz, a reproductive consultant for Project Frozen Dumbo. "The problem is there is no standard protocol developed because it's a groundbreaking project."

Funny, Yes-- Good Idea, No

2011-08-11T07:59:00.001-04:00

Global Harming

2011-08-10T00:51:00.000-04:00

A U.S. woman has died from asphyxiation after falling head first into a recycling bin. 62-year-old Sheila Decoster was discovered by her husband on Friday evening, upside down in a 65-gallon (295-liter) plastic bin at her home in Toledo, Ohio.

She was clad in her pyjamas and her slippers were on a porch by the bin. She is thought either to have lost her balance and fallen off a porch into the bin or fallen in while trying to retrieve an object, an official said.

No word yet from nut cases Sarah Palin, Texas Governor Perry or Michelle Bachman decrying the horrible evils of obama-style recycling . . . . .

Would Michele Bachmann Have Preferred This Photo For Her Newsweek Cover Instead?

2011-08-09T06:54:00.003-04:00

No Chance Of A Handjob, I Guess

2011-08-08T06:19:00.001-04:00

A Kiwi woman had her hand almost completely severed when a sex romp on a bathroom sink in Croatia went awry, according to reports.

A 28-year-old New Zealand woman was having sex on a bathroom sink with an Englishman in the island town of Hvar when the porcelain broke and the sharp edge of the broken porcelain sliced her wrist, leaving her hand hanging on by just a flap of skin.

The hand was reattached after a six-hour operation by surgeons in the city of Split. Her sex partner fled and Croatian police are seeking him.

Citizens Still Under Attack For Recording Police Activity

2011-08-07T18:55:00.001-04:00

A Las Vegas police officer is facing disciplinary charges after being caught on tape beating a videographer outside of his home. A police department review found that Officer Derek Colling violated police policies when he used "excessive force" on Mitchell Crooks.

According to reports, the incident occurred on the night of March 20, when the 36-year-old Crooks was in his driveway videotaping police as they investigated a burglary report across the street. Crooks said that when he refused to stop filming, Colling arrested and beat him, with much of the altercation recorded by the camera. In the video, Crooks can be heard yelling in pain while Colling can be heard telling him to "shut up" and telling him his decision not to turn off the camera put him in "a world of hurt."

Colling has been on paid suspension since April 1 and could be fired pending the outcome of a review by the officer's supervisors, the newspaper reported. "It seems like they're saying he was guilty, which is what I've been saying," Crooks told the newspaper. "I really hope he gets fired." In the meantime, Crooks' lawyer, David Otto, said he intends to sue Colling and the police department, the newspaper reported.

Douches

2011-08-06T20:46:00.001-04:00

Killer Plant Eats Great Tit

2011-08-05T22:40:00.000-04:00

A Tit in hand is worth two in the bush

A plant has killed and "eaten" a great tit at a garden nursery in England. Nurseryman Nigel Hewitt-Cooper, from West Pennard, was inspecting his tropical garden when he discovered one of his pitcher plants had trapped the bird.

He said he was "absolutely staggered" to find it had caught the creature. It is believed to be only the second time such a carnivorous plant has been documented eating a bird anywhere in the world.

"I've got a friend who's studied these particular plants extensively in the wild and he's never found evidence of any of them having caught birds," said Hewitt-Cooper. "The other documented time was in Germany a few years ago and that was in cultivation, not in the wild. The larger ones frequently take frogs, lizards and mice, and the biggest ones have been found with rats in them, but to find a bird in one is pretty unusual."

The pitcher plant is a genus of Nepenthes from South East Asia which attracts and traps insects in a pool of liquid which it then digests. Hewitt-Cooper said he thought the great tit had been attracted to the plant on Saturday by the insects and landed on its leaf. "I think it must have leant in to pluck out an insect that was floating on the fluid inside, tipped in too far and become wedged and unable to get out."

So Long To the Cinematic Homewrecker Of My Teenage Generation

2011-08-04T20:03:00.001-04:00

Obama Downgrade

2011-08-03T07:13:00.000-04:00

Alabama Newlyweds' Lives Ruined By A Bigoted Walmart Security Guard

2011-08-02T22:21:00.002-04:00

Wal-Mart's false accusation against two Alabama newlyweds caused the wife to be falsely arrested and lose her job, her husband to be deported, and both to lose their car, all their possessions and their house - though Wal-Mart's security video showed they had paid for the $2.90 bag of chicken bones they were accused of stealing.

The lives of Mary Hill Bonin and her newlywed husband (who was not yet a U.S. citizen) changed forever the day they decided to go shopping at the Adamsville, Alabama Walmart. They used the self-checkout counter to save time. The scanner would not register the $2.90 bag of chicken necks, so she asked a Wal-Mart employee for help. The employee checked the machine and told her "it's okay."

The Bonins left and showed their receipt to the greeter, but according to Mary Bonin, things went downhill fast when the security guard accused them of stealing the neck bones. The Bonins told the guard to look again as the item was on the bottom of the receipt. The security guard asked to see the identifications of the plaintiff and her husband, screaming that they were going to be deported. When the guard shouted that the Bonins were illegal and asked what were they doing in this country, the couple asked for a manager-- the guard responded by saying the newlyweds were going to jail.

Bonin and her husband offered several times to scan the chicken bones again, and asked the Wal-Mart guard to look at the security video, saying that the video would show that they scanned the items purchased. The guard refused to look at the video, but an assistant manager did. The assistant manager admitted that the video showed that they scanned all the items, but remained at an impasse with the security guard. The assistant manager then asked the security guard, 'Well what do you want to do?' The security guard said he wanted to put plaintiff and her husband in jail.

The guard refused to let the couple leave the store, going so far as to call the Wal-Mart where Mary Bonin worked and told them that she was being charged with theft. Overruling the assistant manager, the Wal-Mart guard called police, who arrested the couple.

The Wal-Mart guard is also believed to have called INS and had Mary Hill Bonin's husband deported. Mary Hill Bonin was denied bail and was not given an appearance before a judge. Eventually, Mary Bonin was exonerated-- but not after being fired from her job and being ruined financially try to defend against the charges (and losing her house being unable to make mortgage payments while in jail). After all the false charges were dropped, Mary Bonin says, Wal-Mart refused to refund the $2.90 she had paid for the neck bones.

China Caught Ripping Off Yet Another Retail Giant

2011-08-01T19:39:00.002-04:00

Hot on the heels of being forced by global scrutiny to close a string of fake Apple stores, it seems that the next pirate Chinese store fills in the void.

11 Furniture, as the store is known, copies Ikea's blue and yellow color scheme, mock-up rooms, miniature pencils, signage and even its rocking chair designs. Its cafeteria-style restaurant, complete with minimalist wooden tables, has a familiar look, although the menu features Chinese-style braised minced pork and eggs instead of Ikea's Swedish meatballs and salmon.

This knock-off Ikea store is emblematic of a new wave of piracy sweeping through China. Increasingly sophisticated counterfeiters no longer just pump out fake luxury handbags, DVDs and sports shoes but replicate the look, feel and service of successful Western retail concepts -- in essence, pirating the entire brand experience.

22-year-old customer service rep for 11 Furniture, Zhang Yunping, is used to the questions about Ikea. "If two people are wearing the same clothes, you are bound to say that one copied the other," Zhang said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Customers have told me we look like Ikea. But for me that's not my problem. I just look after customers' welfare. Things like copyrights, that is for the big bosses to manage," she said. 11 Furniture's owner could not be reached for comment.

Breast Ironing Rampant In Cameroon

2011-07-31T10:12:00.001-04:00

Every morning before school, nine-year-old Terisia Techu would undergo a painful procedure. Her mother would take a burning hot pestle straight out of a fire and use it to press her breasts.

With tears in her eyes as she recalls what it was like, Terisia told reporters that one day the pestle was so hot, it burned her, leaving a mark. Now 18, she is still traumatized. Her mother, Grace, denies burning her daughter. But she proudly demonstrates the method she used on her daughter for several weeks, saying the goal was to make her less desirable to boys -- and stave off pregnancy.

A study found that one in four girls in Cameroon have been affected by the practice. The U.S. State Department, in its 2010 human rights report on Cameroon, cited news reports and said breast ironing "victimized numerous girls in the country" and in some cases "resulted in burns, deformities, and psychological problems."

There are more than 200 ethnic groups in Cameroon with different norms and customs. Breast ironing is practiced by all of them. Some mothers use hot stones or coconut shells to flatten their daughters' breasts. Doctors believe improved diets have resulted in young Cameroonian girls going through puberty early. Many of them are also becoming pregnant early.

Mothers who want their children to finish school before becoming parents have resorted to this drastic measure, and many see nothing wrong with it. In 2006, a German nongovernmental organization exposed the practice, which at the time was done mainly in secret. Now, charities have embarked on campaigns to educate mothers in Cameroon that sex education -- not breast ironing -- is the solution to ending teenage pregnancy.

One Step Closer To A Federal Police State

2011-07-30T06:22:00.001-04:00

Crime prevention off military bases is the responsibility of civilian police, not the military. In 1878, following Reconstruction, the Posse Comitatus Act was passed. It limited the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement. The statute prohibits Army and Air Force personnel and units of the National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress.

Problem is, the military police in Homestead, Florida don't think that applies to them. Recently, military police from the Homestead Air Reserve Base-– known as Security Forces patrolmen – have begun responding to emergency calls and detaining criminal suspects. The Homestead Air Reserve Base has also established its own crime hotline, saying on its website: “If you know of a crime that has been committed, if you see a crime in progress, or if you see a suspicious person, vehicle, or situation that makes you feel a crime may be occurring, call the Security Forces Crime Stop Hotline.”

The firewall between military and civilian police duties was demolished with the passage of H.R. 5122, also known as the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007. It allowed the president to declare martial law under revisions to the Insurrection Act, and take charge of United States National Guard troops without state governor authorization when public order has been lost and the state and its constituted authorities cannot enforce the law.

The bill was repealed in 2008, but this has not stopped the military, numerous federal agencies, and the Department of Homeland Security from blurring the distinctions between military, federal and local police responsibilities.