Not that anyone is going to do anything about it—this is, after all, a Republican White House and Congress—but: WASHINGTON – (KRT) – An Army general who has been criticized for his role in the treatment of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has contradicted his sworn congressional testimony about contacts with senior … Read More
In The Mind Of A Killer/Molester/Kidnapper
Joseph Duncan allegedly kidnapped two children in mid-May—8 year old Dylan Groene and his 9 year old sister, Shasta. He did this after murdering the kids’ older sibling, mother, and mother’s boyfriend. And it appears that Duncan later killed Dylan. Fortunately, Duncan was apprehended this past weekend, and Shasta was rescued. Duncan left behind an eerie blog called “Blogging the … Read More
Corruption So Startling, Even GOP Stalwarts Take Notice
You know it’s bad when even GOP senators want to know why the White House is hiding information from Congress on what John Warner called “the most significant defense procurement mismanagement in contemporary history.” Both Warner and John McCain, as well as Carl Levin want to know why the White House is sending redacted emails and other materials to the … Read More
Monkey Cops
A punchline is needed for this. Mesa police want to add monkey to SWAT teamAssociated PressApr. 16, 2005 03:10 PM MESA, Ariz. – The Mesa Police Department is looking to add some primal instinct to its SWAT team. And to do that, it’s looking to a monkey. "Everybody laughs about it until they really start thinking about it," said Mesa … Read More
Hey, I’m No MacGyver, But . . .
It always struck me as odd, this story about the lady who found a finger in her Wendy’s Chili. I mean, everybody heard the story, and went "Ewwwwww…". But the question nobody asked (it seemed) was . . . Whose finger was it? One would assume that somewhere there would be a Wendy’s person with four fingers somewhere, right? Or … Read More
Florida Law and the Right to Kill
No, not another post about Schiavo. It’s about this: TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) – People in Florida will be allowed to kill in self-defense on the street without trying to flee under a new law passed by state politicians on Tuesday that critics say will bring a Wild West mentality and innocent deaths. The Florida House of Representatives, citing the need … Read More
Laura K. Pahl Is A Plagiarist
Laura K. Pahl, a student on the Dean’s list at Lewis University, is going to discover — probably within the next 24 hours (if not already) — that she got severely taken for a ride. A little mean? No, not in my opinion. Back in the pre-Internet days, if we had a paper due the next morning, we pulled an … Read More
Minnesota Rampage
News organizations are beginning to reveal the name of the high school kid who went on a murder-suicide rampage in Minnesota yesterday, but bloggers have known that his name was Jeff Weise. This is a link to a Google-cached page (an page on the web which no longer exists, but has been preserved by Google) in which the kid writes … Read More
Bush Administration Loves Orwell
From WaPo: Administration Rejects Ruling On PR Videos GAO Called Tapes Illegal Propaganda By Christopher Lee Washington Post Staff WriterTuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A21 The Bush administration, rejecting an opinion from the Government Accountability Office, said last week that it is legal for federal agencies to feed TV stations prepackaged news stories that do not disclose the government’s role … Read More
United States Finally Catches Up (A Little) to the Rest of the World
After today’s Supreme Court decision, the following countries are now the only ones in the world that execute minors: United StatesCongoIranChinaPakistan Before today’s ruling the following states allowed minors to be executed: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Texas and Virginia. (Number of Red States – … Read More
Kill the Wabbit, kill the wabbit . . .
Somebody asked me if this — a guy threatening to kill a bunny unless he receives $50,000 — is legal. It sounds like it oughta be illegal, doesn’t it? But I racked my legal brain and, off the top of my head, I couldn’t find any reason why it is against the law. Unless of course, he doesn’t meet his … Read More
Homeland Security For Sale
Not surprisingly (to most of us), it is now becoming apparent that 9/11 was viewed by many Republicans as simply a way to make money for those with connections. No, I’m not talking about Halliburton (although they certainly fit the bill). I’m talking about this: WASHINGTON – As the Homeland Security Department was starting up, Secretary Tom Ridge twice stayed … Read More
The Heat Rises On News-For-SaleGate
Senators Lautenberg, Kennedy, and Reid write to President Bush about the $240,000 in tax dollars given to a right wing journalist to write news stories in favor of Bush’s No Child Left Behind policy. Excerpt: In addition to the illegality of these actions taken by your Administration, we believe that the act of bribing journalists to bias their news in … Read More
The Torture General and the Commander-in-Chief Override
To me, the most troubling thing about Gonzales is not his understanding (or lack thereof) on the "legal" use of torture, but his apparent lack of understanding on the powers of the Presidency. One thing is for sure: what ever "torture" is — and I am willing to concede that we can have open debates about that — the President … Read More
Dirty Tricks
And illegal, too. A GOP registration group called Voters Outreach of America (a.k.a. America Votes) registers voters, but then throws away the Democratic registrations. Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats. "We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped them … Read More