Even by Kentucky standards, it was stunning. Democratic Governor Steve Beshear standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Evangelical Right to announce a $37 Million tithe in tax incentives to finance a creationist theme park named “Ark Encounter.”
Continue reading “It’s Not Job – It’s Jobs, You Ninny: KY Taxpayers “Jobbed” By Governor/Religion”
Sometimes a story just makes you put down the newspaper, take a deep breath, and scream. The
Warren Commission’s man-you-love-to-hate, JFK assassin, and subject of all manner of conspiracy theories, Lee Harvey Oswald, is the gift that keeps on re-gifting. A LA auction house has the badly damaged pine box, sans body of course, on the block. The coffin was exhumed by Oswald’s widow, Marina, to test yet another conspiracy theory that a body double was actually in the box and not the man with the magic bullet. No dice. The body was that of Oswald.
Continue reading “Holiday Gift For The Assassin With Everything: Oswald’s Coffin At Auction”
In Peshawar, Maulana Yousef Qureshi, the imam of a major mosque is not satisfied with the prosecution of Asia Bibi for blasphemy. He has offered a bounty to anyone who kills her for insulting Islam.
Continue reading “Leading Pakistani Cleric Offers Reward For Anyone Who Kills Woman Who Insulted Islam”
In Hayden, Idaho, one family has a unique way of spreading the holiday cheer . . . or fear. A family has displayed a Klansman snowman with a dangling noose in front of their home and neighbors are calling for action to remove the offensive display.
A day after Amazon was forced to block Wikileaks, the site is again offline in an alleged campaign by the United States to prevent the public from seeing the whistleblower material. This includes a disclosure, discussed last night on Countdown, that the Obama Administration has been misleading the public and actually moved to force Spain to drop its prosecution of American officials for war crimes and torture.
Continue reading “Is the United States Engaging In Unlawful Cyber Attacks Against Carriers of Wikileaks?”
In Indiana, Angela J. Boyd, 38, was in the midst of a moving eulogy at her daughter’s funeral when it was interrupted by her brother in a truly soap-opera moment. The brother stood up to say that his 15-year-old niece was very much alive.
Continue reading “Mother Arrested After Funeral For Daughter Whom She Falsely Claimed Was Raped and Murdered”
Joe Lieberman, chairman of the senate homeland security committee, may be delighted with Amazon for cutting off access for Wikileaks, but its customers are not. There are growing calls for a boycott of the company — particularly as a review of the Wikileaks material has disclosed important information such as the efforts of the Obama Administration to block investigations into torture.
Continue reading “Amazon Facing Growing Calls For Boycott After Cutting Off Wikileaks”
One of the little reported details from the latest batch of Wikileaks material are cables showing that the Obama Administration worked hard behind the scenes not only to prevent any investigation of torture in the United States but shutdown efforts abroad to enforce the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture. This includes threatening the Spanish that, if they did not derail a judicial investigation, it would have serious consequences in bilateral relations. I discussed these cables on Countdown.
Continue reading “Wikileaks: Obama Administration Secretly Worked To Prevent Prosecution of War Crimes By The Bush Administration”
There is an intriguing lawsuit filed in Washington where Greenpeace has alleged that Dow Chemical, Sasol North America and their contractors engaged in a two-year campaign of illegal espionage against it, including taping telephones and stealing documents.
Continue reading “Greenpeace Sues Dow for Unlawful Espionage”
It is time for another entry in the series “Things That Tick Me Off” where I mindless vent my anger or frustration in a theraputic rage. The winner this time is Versailles and its director, Jean-Jacques Aillagon. I recently visited Versailles for the first time and was shocked to find that the director had placed the art of Takashi Murakami through the palace. I will not hide my general dislike of Murakami’s art which seems a mix of Disney and Pez art, but the placement of the large pieces entirely destroyed the historical context and experience for visitors at Versailles.
Continue reading “Things That Tick Me Off: Versailles”
There is an interesting phenomenon developing in California where the foreclosure of mansions is leading to an outbreak of squatters who boldly move in and refuse to vacate. Neighbors say that Dawud Walli is one such man.
Continue reading “Squatters Taking Over Luxury Homes in California”
The U.S. Copyright Group has long been criticized for its tactics in pursuing people for copyright infringement of movies or music. Critics charge that USCG coerces people to settle for thousands of dollars to avoid high litigation costs and penalties. USCG sues thousands of people in a given year to force such settlements in what is legitimately described as a factory operation by Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver. One attorney, Graham Syfert, says he tried to even the playing field by publishing a “self-help” guide on how laypersons can fight USCG. The attorneys at USCG reportedly responded by suing Syfert.
David J. LeBlanc Jr. will be going to jail for five years for a horrific crime of beating a newborn calf to death in front of friends after the New Orleans Saints lost to the Dallas Cowboys last season. Also convicted in the case were Dwayne J. Jenkins, 36, Christopher R. Murphy, 27 and Carnie B. Smith, 29. Smith stole the calf to be beated to death by LeBlanc.
Recently, we have following laws targeting homeless persons — laws that could apply to a wide range of conduct but enforced only against this one group. San Francisco has now joined this group with a law barring people from sitting or lying on public sidewalks from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. This is why the two men on the San Francisco seal are shown standing. There were three but one made the mistake of sitting down.
Continue reading “San Francisco Passes Law Criminalizing Sitting or Lying on Public Streets”
We usually do not track the latest STD data, but this one is quite remarkable. Alaskan officials are reporting a 69 percent increase in gonorrhea in just one year — 2008 to 2009. This is one area where viewers might not want to “follow me there” to Alaska, as touted on the Sarah Palin’s Alaska.
Continue reading “Not Coming Soon To An Episode on Sarah Palin’s Alaska”