I love the music they used for this video

SC State Attorney caught with stripper

Another day, another scandle related to sex.  Roland Corning, age 66, was pulled over with the following items in his car:  an 18 year old stripper, sex toys and viagra.  As creepy as all that is (and holy shit is that not creepy) both Corning and his “friend” were released without charge. 

The comedy portion of this tradgedy is that Corning, when confronted by the officer, flashed a badge indicating that he worked for the state Attorney General’s office.  The officer then called his wife, who also happens to work at the Attorney General’s office, to confirm this.  She confirmed it and then informed her supervisors, who have terminated Corning’s employment.

That’s what Edward Kimmel displayed at the Washington Tea Party Rally last month.  I can only hope that I show this kind of fortitude when I’m older.

Found this as godhatesprotesters

Ever wonder why more people are working two jobs and yet more people are falling behind in our current economy?  It’s a topic I’ve written on before, although in much less depth than the video I’ve attached below.  Elizabeth Warren breaks down the changes in our spending and saving habits over the past thirty years and illustrates what’s changed.  The video is 60 minutes long and well worth your time.  It’s worth noting that this lecture took place on March 8th, 2007.

One of the interesting topics touched upon, yet not fully explored in this video, is the impact of the suburban lifestyle on our current economic situation.

ESPN’s The Body Issue

I’m a subscriber to ESPN the Magazine.  It was a way to use up some extra airline points from an old credit card so don’t judge.  Anyway, I got the Body issue in the mail on Friday and naturally had to check it out.  After the initial shock of opening the magazine to a naked Zdeno Chara (seriously, 6’9” hairy, naked, white guys are not to my taste at all) I found it pretty interesting. 

It’s seems much less exploitive than the SI swimsuit issue, which makes no apology for being pure boner fodder*.  The Body Issue featured actual athletes with a wide range of body types from the gorgeous track star Lolo Jones to a Sumo wrestler named Byambajav Ulambayar.  They showed the impact that athletics can have on the body, with mangled hands, feet and other extremities. 

The most compelling shot to me was of Sarah Reinertsen.  She is the first amputee to compete in and complete the Ironman Triathlon.  Her pose screams athlete first and foremost.  Then it shows what a challenge it must be to learn to compete with a prosthetic leg.

Meant to write about this last week when I first saw it on Balloon Juice but didn’t get around to it.  My Senators, Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham are objectively pro-rape.  My proof for this is their vote on the Franken amendment to HR3326. 

HR3326 is a Department of Defense Appropriations bill.  Franken’s amendment is a requirement that none of the funds appropriated go to contractors who require that sexual harassment and/or assault cases be handled through arbitration rather than the court system.  As for why such an amendment is necessary, I would refer you to the case of Jamie Leigh Jones. 

Jamie Leigh Jones was gang raped while working for KBR/Halliburton.  Rather than handling this like a normal human might (hospital visit, cooperate with police investigators, etc.), they locked her in an shipping container for a day until a sympathetic guard allowed her to use his cell phone to contact her father for help.  Ultimately agents had to be dispatched from the embassy in Baghdad to remove Ms. Jones from KBR custody.

When Jamie filed suit against KBR, they claimed that her contract forced issues like this to be taken to arbitration.  This would keep the whole proceeding behind closed doors and in an environment that grossly favored KBR (according to some reports they won >80% of the decisions that went to arbitration).  In the meantime they had “lost” her rape kit, which was eventually “recovered” minus the photographs taken by the doctor to document Jamie’s injuries.

To sum up a long ugly story, Jamie Leigh Jones was horribly raped, KBR tried to get away with covering it up and did nothing to pursue the actual rapists and Senators Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham think that is awesome.

This would get me to take the stairs more often.

Found at the Bad Astronomy Blog

Funny video on the writing of “I Gotta Feeling”

Thanks to my favorite columnist for sending along the link

First start with this picture.

Are you amazed yet?  Because you can go to the “artist’s” website and find out that he’s got captions for each of these figures if you roll your mouse over them.  However, that’s not what I’m saluting, because shit like this drives me crazy.  Seriously, have these fucks even read the constitution?  Has this artist read the actual writings of the founding fathers pictured in this piece of “art”?  For fuck sake, Jefferson rewrote the whole damn bible specifically so he could delete all the miracles.

No, what I am saluting is this brilliant takedown of the piece of work above.  This much concentrated snark is a true national treasure that should be preserved so that future generations can also point and laugh.

This has already been highlighted on Wonkette and Balloon Juice but the original painting is so batshit crazy that I feel compelled to write something anyway.  I know the people who think like this are only a vocal minority but they seriously creep me out sometimes.

Heard this on NPR Monday and wanted to write something about it.  A self described anarchist, Elliot Madison, was arrested in Pittsburgh on September 24th.  On Thursday, October 1st, the FBI raided his apartment in Queens.  His crime was reporting the activity of SWAT teams during the G20 summit in Pittsburgh via Twitter. 

A criminal complaint in Pennsylvania accuses him of “directing others, specifically protesters of the G-20 summit, in order to avoid apprehension after a lawful order to disperse.”

Mr Madison participated in a group called the Tin Can Comms Collective.  The group gathered information on police movements in the streets and broadcast them on Twitter with messages such as:

“SWAT teams rolling down 5th Ave.”
“Report received that police are ‘nabbing’ anyone that looks like a protester / Black Bloc. Stay alert watch your friends!”

If I had heard this story before 2004 I would have been much more sympathetic to the Police in this instance.  In all likelihood Mr Madison was helping people, who were breaking the law, escape from the police.  However, my view on how the police handle crowd control and protests changed dramatically as a result of the 2004 Republican Convention. 

The New York City police where given leave to take the gloves off and use extraordinary means to curb protests during the convention.  The result was the arrest of ~1700 people.  The vast majority of those people committed no crime.  Take a couple of minutes to read this account of one individuals experience during that mass arrest.  While that may be the most extreme example is isn’t exactly an outlier either. 

I probably wouldn’t care for Mr Madison’s politics, if I ever bothered to learn what they are.  I’m almost certain that I’d disagree with many of the other ways he may choose to practice those politics.  However, what he did in this instance is understandable and a sign of things to come.  The police have demonstrated a willingness to ignore the rights of peaceful protestors and even innocent bystanders.  If it is necessary to evade the police in order to exercise our legal rights then so be it.  What it boils down to is this.  In order to safeguard the right to gather and protest for the best of us, we must defend that right for the worst of us. 

Some additional Stories on the 2004 Republican Convention arrests

Updated:  I had incorrectly reported the date of the FBI raid as Monday the 5th rather than Thrusday the 1st.