Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post says:

Yesterday, while speaking at the Aspen Institute’s Forum on Communications and Society, I commented on how the mainstream media have, with a few exceptions, been focusing on only one aspect of the Crandall Canyon Mine tragedy — the desperate attempt to rescue the trapped miners — while paying scant attention to investigating the reasons why these miners were trapped in the first place.

I specifically mentioned Sunday’s New York Times piece by Martin Stolz, who had been dispatched to Huntington to cover the story. Stolz’s report was filled with details about the progress rescuers had made through the collapsed mine (650 ft), and the capabilities of the hi-res camera being lowered into the mine (can pick up images from 100 ft away) — but not one word about what led to the collapse, including the role retreat mining might have played in it, or the 324 safety violations federal inspectors have issued for the mine since 2004.

Click here to read more.

My fellow Americans: Yesterday, I briefly surrendered my reigns of power to Vice President Dick Cheney, on account of I had to get a colonasstomy in case the loving God who appointed me ruler changes His mind and tries to kill me with the ass cancer. I know it’s uncomfortable for my adoring public to think of me, their super-macho El Hefe, all drugged up and helpless, de-pantsed, with a ten-foot robot python jimmying so far up my gayhole, it could taste yesterday’s Cheetos – but don’t worry: I’m OK. And to every fucktard standup comic and late show host who’s wondering: NO, they did not find another copy of my Iraq war plan up there! Read more …

This is the most asinine, unbelievable stupidity I have heard all week. Raise your hand if you fooled around with the opposite sex when you were in High School. Yeah, that’s what I thought. me too. Thank God we are normal. Too bad lawmakers, courts and moronic juries in Georgia are not. This is totally bizarre to me.

July 20 — Only a few observers usually show up for arguments before the Georgia Supreme Court. But the gallery was packed on Friday as the seven justices heard two expedited appeals on behalf of a young man serving a mandatory 10-year sentence for having had consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl at a New Year’s Eve party in 2003.

The man, Genarlow Wilson, now 21, was convicted of aggravated child molestation, which was a felony in Georgia in 2003. The state legislature has since made the crime a misdemeanor.

Mr. Wilson, who was 17 at the time of the party, has served two years of the mandatory minimum sentence, which was so harsh it shocked even the jury members who convicted him. State law also requires that Mr. Wilson be listed as a sex offender for the rest of his life. The two appeals the court heard Friday dealt with whether Mr. Wilson’s sentence was constitutional and whether he is eligible for bond as his appeal moves through the legal system.

Why didn’t the girl go to jail? That would make just as much sense to me. Actually, they should throw the pet gold fish in jail too because that makes as much sense.

Full story on The NY Times Website

Here’s another story of the usual practice of politicians, where it’s “Do as I say, not as I do”.

From the beginning of his political career 16 years ago, Senator David Vitter has been known for efforts to plant himself on the moral high ground, challenging the ethics of other Louisiana politicians, decrying same-sex marriage and depicting himself as a clean-as-a-whistle champion of family values.

“I’m a conservative who opposes radically redefining marriage, the most important social institution in human history,” Mr. Vitter, a 46-year-old Republican, wrote in a letter last year to The Times-Picayune, the New Orleans daily.

That self-created image, a political winner here since 1991, when Mr. Vitter joined the Louisiana House, took a tumble Monday with the disclosure that his phone number was among those on a list of client numbers kept by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called D.C. Madam, who is accused of running a prostitution ring in Washington.

Mr. Vitter admitted Monday night to a “very serious sin in my past,” and talk radio and coffee shops here buzzed all day Tuesday with the front-page news, even as the senator remained out of sight. But the fallout was far bigger than local: his admission is also a blow to the presidential campaign of Rudolph W. Giuliani, for whom he is Southern campaign chairman.

Full Story on The NY Times Website

This is just the continuing typical hypocrisy of asshole politicians. They like to get all righteous on everybody, but maybe they should re-read the part of the Bible where Jesus says, “Let He Who Is Without Sin Cast The First Stone”.

AS the election of 2008 approaches with its cast of contenders who bring unprecedented diversity to the quest for the White House, the voting public has been called on to ponder several questions: Is America ready for a woman to be president? What about a black man? A Mormon?

Now, with the possible candidacy of Fred D. Thompson, the grandfatherly actor and former Republican senator from Tennessee, whose second wife is almost a quarter-century his junior, comes a less palatable inquiry that is spurring debate in Internet chat rooms, on cable television and on talk radio: Is America ready for a president with a trophy wife?

The question may seem sexist, even crass, but serious people — as well as Mr. Thompson’s supporters — have been wrestling with the public reaction to Jeri Kehn Thompson, whose youthfulness, permanent tan and bleached blond hair present a contrast to the 64-year-old man who hopes to win the hearts of the conservative core of the Republican party. Will the so-called values voters accept this union?

Mr. Thompson, who needs the support of early primary voters, is expected to formally announce his candidacy any day now. Meanwhile, much of the brouhaha around Mrs. Thompson, 40, is being stirred by photos of her in form-fitting gowns circulating on the Internet.

Full Article on The NY Times Website

Most people seem to agree with my thoughts that she will not hurt his potential Presidential run, and could possibly help it. There is one exception, which happens to be a woman, of course.

Karen O’Connor, the director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University, said Mr. Thompson may lose with one key group whose support he needs: Republican women.

“I think women have an innate ‘ick’ reaction when they see a wife so much younger and vital than her husband,” Professor O’Connor said.

I think she is a simple-minded, bitter old woman with no man in her life. Do this test. Find a 40-ish woman that is attractive and ask her opinion of a 65 year old man with a 40 year old woman. I bet you she doesn’t think there is anything wrong with it.

Here’s a good story and a poll for 4th of July week.

The state of Minnesota has passed a law requiring all US flags sold in the state to be of American manufacture. Violations of the law, which comes into force at the end of the year, will be punished by a $1,000 fine or 90 days in jail.

From this month, schools and colleges in Arizona are being forced to equip every classroom with a US-made Stars and Stripes – sometimes known as “Old Glory”.

Tennessee state law already stipulates that any US flag bought with public money cannot be imported from another country, while similar Bills are being considered by legislators in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 

“Nothing is more embarrassing to me than a plastic flag made in China. This replica of freedom we so respect should be made in this country . . . I think this Bill is about jobs, jobs for Americans.”

The Chinese, whose high-speed response to market demands has made US industry look leaden-footed in recent years, appear to have spotted a gap in the market after the 9/11 attacks. In 2000 America imported $748,000 of US flags, mostly from Taiwan. In 2001, however, that figure rose to $51.7 million – mostly from China.

The above excerpted from TimesOnline.co.uk (Ironically British Media)

I think this is simple-minded thinking that gets the "cheap applause" that politicians so eagerly and easily gain from the general populace of no-brain redneck Americans. Anybody that knows the basics of economics and free trade will be able to figure that one out.

I think these laws are stupid and there is no reason for them. What do you think?

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Scarlett Johansson has been approached by politician-turned-environmental activist Al Gore to help promote his forthcoming Live Earth gigs.

The actress was contacted by the climate-change philanthropist during a ten-day visit to Asia with charity Oxfam earlier this year, with Gore leaving a message on her mobile phone to request her support.

The series of green-themed global events will take place on 7 July, featuring performances from Madonna, Crowded House and The Police in a host of cities including London, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney and Tokyo.

This could work. I know if Scarlett Johansson was around, I would try to hold in my farts, and that would help stop global warming.

The White House asserted executive privilege and rejected two subpoenas from lawmakers probing last year’s firings of eight U.S. prosecutors.

“The president has decided to assert executive privilege and therefore the White House will not be making any production in response to these subpoenas for documents,'’ White House Counsel Fred Fielding wrote in a letter to Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont and Representative John Conyers of Michigan, chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.

The White House resistance is likely to touch off a constitutional showdown over Congress’s ability to investigate the firing of prosecutors and the president’s ability to obtain frank counsel from advisers.

“The principles at stake here are of the utmost importance,'’ Fielding said in the letter to lawmakers. “Presidents must be able to depend upon their advisers and other executive branch officials speaking candidly and without inhibition while deliberating and working to advise the president.'’

Source: Bloomberg.com

“The principles at stake here are of the utmost importance,'’ Fielding said in the letter to lawmakers. “Presidents must be able to depend upon their advisers and other executive branch officials speaking candidly and without inhibition while deliberating and working to advise the president.'’

Yeah, I wouldn’t want anyone knowing what I was saying while I was breaking the law either.

Here’s another big surprise… NOT!

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday issued subpoenas to the White House, Vice President Dick Cheney’s office and the Justice Department after what the panel’s chairman called “stonewalling of the worst kind” of efforts to investigate the National Security Agency’s policy of wiretapping without warrants.

The move put Senate Democrats squarely on a course they had until now avoided, setting the stage for a showdown with the Bush administration over one of the most contentious issues arising from the White House’s campaign against terrorism.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the committee, said the subpoenas seek documents that could shed light on the administration’s legal justification for the wiretapping and on disputes within the government over its legality.

In addition, the panel is seeking materials on related issues, including the relationship between the Bush administration and several unidentified telecommunications companies that aided the N.S.A. eavesdropping program.

Full
Story on The NY Times Web Site

"Fighting Terrorism" continues to be the biggest, most over-used excuse to ILLEGALLY trample privacy.

Long-secret documents released Tuesday provide new details about how the Central Intelligence Agency illegally spied on Americans decades ago, including trying to bug a Las Vegas hotel room for evidence of infidelity and tracking down an expert lock-picker for a Watergate conspirator.

Known inside the agency as the “family jewels,” the 702 pages of documents catalog domestic wiretapping operations, failed assassination plots, mind-control experiments and spying on journalists from the early years of the C.I.A.

The papers provide evidence of paranoia and occasional incompetence as the agency began a string of illegal spying operations in the 1960s and 1970s, often to hunt links between Communist governments and the domestic protests that roiled the nation in that period.

Full Story on The NY Times Web Site

And does this really surprise anybody? I can’t wait to see what is divulged in future years about all the spying on our own people that is going on now. It’s starting to seem like privacy is just a fantasy.