BartBlog

Nick Juliano, The Raw Story, September 24, 2007

In a move ostensibly aimed at providing “better science education” in Louisiana schools, Sen. David Vitter has secured $100,000 in taxpayer dollars to fund an anti-evolution effort spearheaded by a religious group politically connected to the alleged prostitute-soliciting Republican.

Vitter secured an earmark in an upcoming labor, health and education financing bill for the Louisiana Family Forum, which The New Orleans Times Picayune reports has “taken the lead in promoting ‘origins science,’ which includes the possibility of divine intervention in the creation of the universe.”

The group was founded by Tony Perkins, a former Louisiana state lawmaker who now leads the conservative Family Research Council. The Louisiana Family Forum works to “present biblical principals” on public policy issues, and until a reporter questioned them about it, the group’s Web site included a “battle plan to combat evolution,” which argued the theory “has no place in the classroom.”

Despite Vitter’s admission earlier this year that he used a Washington, DC, call-girl service and allegations that he frequented prostitutes in New Orleans, the first-term Republican has maintained the support of religious conservatives in his home state.

In a YouTube clip posted by user “lafamilyforum,” the group’s executive director Gene Mills defended Vitter from comparisons to Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, who was arrested in a restroom sex sting in June.

“The media’s going to do whatever it can to smear any of the family values guys, and unfortunately Vitter has been elevated into that role, not because of what he has done on the family values front, which is commendable,” but because of the prostitution allegations, Mills said. He went on to praise the fact that “Vitter has repented of the allegations. He sought forgiveness, reconciliation and counseling.”

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Howard Witt, The Chicago Tribune, September 24, 2007

HOUSTON – No sooner did tens of thousands of African-American demonstrators depart the racially tense town of Jena, La., last week after protesting perceived injustices than white supremacists flooded in behind them.

First a neo-Nazi Web site posted the names, addresses and phone numbers of some of the six black teenagers and their families at the center of the Jena 6 case and urged followers to find them and “drag them out of the house,” prompting an investigation by the FBI.

Then the leader of a white supremacist group in Mississippi published interviews that he conducted with the mayor of Jena and the white teenager who was attacked and beaten, allegedly by the six black youths. In those interviews, the mayor, Murphy McMillin, praised efforts by pro-white groups to organize counterdemonstrations; the teenager, Justin Barker, urged white readers to “realize what is going on, speak up and speak their mind.”

Over the weekend, white extremist Web sites and blogs across the Internet filled with invective about the Jena 6 case, which has drawn scrutiny from civil rights leaders, three leading Democratic presidential candidates and hundreds of African-American Internet bloggers. They are concerned about allegations that blacks have been treated more harshly than whites in the criminal justice system of the town of 3,000, which is 85 percent white.

David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, last week announced his support for Jena’s white residents, who voted overwhelmingly for him when he ran unsuccessfully for Louisiana governor in 1991.

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Michael McAuliff, The New York Daily News, September 24, 2007

WASHINGTON – In the latest sign ofhow unsettled the Republican presidential race is, Newt Gingrich says he’ll run if supporters come up with $30 million in three weeks.

“I don’t see as a citizen how you could turn that down,” Gingrich said yesterday on “Fox News Sunday.”

The fiery and controversial former speaker of the House has been a polarizing public figure.

Still, he believes he can mount a White House bid just a few months before voting starts because the GOP faithful have yet to solidify behind a candidate. Rudy Giuliani remains the leader, at 30% in the latest Gallup Poll, just 8 percentage points ahead of already-stumbling actor Fred Thompson.

Gingrich has tasked longtime adviser Randy Evans with launching the ambitious fund-raising bid next Monday, and reporting back in three weeks.

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By LISA J. ADAMS, Associated Press WriterSat Sep 22, 12:10 AM ET

A bootmaker to world leaders, including President Bush and Vicente Fox, is in a Colorado jail, charged with money laundering and conspiring to illegally smuggle the skins of protected animals into the U.S. to provide exotic footwear for high-end clients.

The arrest of Martin Villegas — and Mexico’s raid of a warehouse filled with hundreds of cowboy boots and belts made from endangered species — has raised questions about how much Fox knew of the scheme and whether the former Mexican president purchased illegal boots himself.

Notice how nowhere in the story is the same question asked of Bush? How many endangered species does he like to walk on?

Reuters, September 22, 2007

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas (Reuters) -A Kansas military cemetery has run out of space after two burials in the last week, including that of an Iraq war casualty, officials said on Thursday.

“We are full,” said Alison Kohler, spokeswoman for the Fort Riley U.S. Army post, home of the 1st Infantry Division.

U.S. Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, both Kansas Republicans, on Thursday sent a letter to William Tuerk, the under secretary for memorial affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, urging for full funding for a new cemetery for Fort Riley.

“While a new cemetery would not be completed in time to alleviate this situation immediately, it is vitally important,” Roberts and Brownback, a Republican presidential candidate, said in their letter.

“We truly owe our military members a debt of gratitude and the least we can do is provide them with an honorable burial ground,” the senators wrote.

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On my way home from work, I was listening to the radio and I wound up having to sit through a few minutes of celebrity “news.” (Don’t blame me; the radio doesn’t work right!) Anyway, one of the items of “news” was about how Paris Hilton had been banned from Germany’s Octoberfest due to the clothing that she wore to last year’s Octoberfest. For one thing, I have to wonder how famous one has to be to have their fashion choices remembered a year later. For another, I wondered whether the Germans were actually offended by Paris Hilton or whether they were banning her because they hate her for the same nonreasons as the average American.

Jacques Steinberg, The New York Times, September 19, 2007

Dan Rather, whose career at CBS News ground to an inglorious end 15 months ago over his role in an unsubstantiated report questioning President Bush’s Vietnam-era National Guard service, filed a $70 million lawsuit this afternoon against the network, its corporate parent and three of his former superiors.

Mr. Rather, 75, asserts that the network violated his contract by giving him insufficient airtime on “60 Minutes” after forcing him to step down as anchor of the “CBS Evening News” in March 2005. He also contends that the network committed fraud by commissioning a “biased” and incomplete investigation of the flawed Guard broadcast and, in the process, “seriously damaged his reputation.” As plaintiffs, the suit names CBS and its chief executive, Leslie Moonves; Viacom and its executive chairman, Sumner Redstone; and Andrew Heyward, the former president of CBS News.

In the suit, filed this afternoon in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Mr. Rather charges that CBS and its executives made him “a scapegoat” in an attempt “to pacify the White House,” though the formal complaint presents virtually no direct evidence to that effect. To buttress this claim, Mr. Rather quotes the executive who oversaw his regular segment on CBS Radio, telling Mr. Rather in November 2004 that he was losing that slot, effective immediately, because of “pressure from ‘the right wing.’ ”

He also continues to take vehement issue with the appointment by CBS of Richard Thornburgh, an attorney general in the administration of the elder President Bush, as one of the two outside panelists given the job of reviewing how the disputed broadcast had been prepared.

In a statement CBS said, “These complaints are old news and this lawsuit is without merit.”

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CBS News, September 18, 2007

Saying that God has caused “fearsome floods … horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes,” Nebraska’s longest-serving state senator says he is suing the Almighty to make a legal point.

State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha filed a lawsuit against God in Douglas County District Court last week, saying that God has made terroristic threats against the senator and his constituents, inspired fear and caused “widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants.”

He’s seeking a permanent injunction against God.

Chambers, a self-proclaimed agnostic who skips morning prayers during the legislative session and often criticizes Christians, said he filed the lawsuit to show that anybody can file a legal action against anybody for any reason.

That, he said, was recently illustrated by a federal lawsuit he said triggered his lawsuit against God.

Tory Bowen, 24, sued a state judge who barred the words “rape” and “victim,” among other terms, in the trial of Pamir Safi, who Bowen says sexually assaulted her. Bowen said Lancaster District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront violated her free speech rights.

Chambers said Bowen’s lawsuit is inappropriate because the Nebraska Supreme Court has already considered the case and federal courts follow the decisions of state supreme courts on state matters.

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USAToday, September 11, 2007

AMERICANS’ VIEWS ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT

Beliefs reflected in an Aug. 16-26 survey:

• The First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees: 25%

• Public schools should be allowed to put on Nativity reenactments with Christian music: 43%

• Teachers and public school officials should be allowed to lead prayers in schools: 58%

• Public school teachers should be able to use the Bible as literature in English class: 80%

• Public school students should be allowed to wear T-shirts with messages or pictures that might offend others: 22%

The Constitution establishes a Christian nation
• Agree: 55%
• Disagree: 41%
• Other: 4%

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Sean Murphy, The Associated Press, September 12, 2007

OKLAHOMA CITY — To some Oklahoma football fans, there are things that just aren’t done in the heart of Sooner Nation, and one of them is to walk into a bar wearing a Texas Longhorns T-shirt.

That’s exactly what touched off a bloody skirmish that left a Texas fan nearly castrated and an Oklahoma fan facing aggravated assault charges that could put him in prison for up to five years.

The shocking case has set off a raging debate in this football-crazed region about the extreme passions behind a bitter rivalry. Some legal observers have even questioned whether this case could ever truly have an impartial jury.

“I’ve actually heard callers on talk radio say that this guy deserved what he got for wearing a Texas T-shirt into a bar in the middle of Sooner country,” said Irven Box, an attorney in this city 20 miles from Oklahoma’s campus in Norman.

According to police, 32-year-old Texas fan Brian Christopher Thomas walked into Henry Hudson’s Pub on June 17 wearing a Longhorns T-shirt and quickly became the focus of football “trash talk” from another regular, 53-year-old Oklahoma fan Allen Michael Beckett.

Thomas told police that when he decided to leave and went to the bar to pay his tab, Beckett grabbed him in the crotch, pulled him to the ground and wouldn’t let go, even as bar patrons tried to break it up. When the two men were separated, Thomas looked down and realized the extent of his injuries.

“He could see both of his testicles hanging on the outside of his body,” said Thomas’ attorney, Carl Hughes. “He was wearing a pair of white shorts, which made it that much worse.”

It took more than 60 stitches to close the wound, and police interviewed Thomas at a nearby hospital emergency room.

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MSNBC, September 9, 2007

SAN DIEGO – Kyla Ebbert says she wants an apology from Southwest Airlines after being told to get off a plane and change her clothes because what she was wearing was too revealing.

Ebbert, 23, told the Today Show’s Matt Lauer that an airline employee asked her to come up to the front of the plane just before the crew closed the plane’s doors.

“He told me, ‘I’m sorry but you’re going to have to catch a later flight because you are dressed inappropriately, this is a family airline and you are too provocative to fly on this flight’,” Ebbert said. “I said, ‘What part is it? The shirt? The skirt? Which part?’ He said, ‘the whole thing.’”

Ebbert said she was on a day trip from San Diego to Tucson for a doctor’s appointment and had no luggage, so she had nothing to change into. She was allowed to stay on the flight, she said, after agreeing to pull up her tank top and pull down her skirt.

Ebbert wore the same outfit on the Today Show that she was wearing at the time of the incident, she said.

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Michael Agger, Slate, August 15, 2007

Perhaps you’ve noticed: The Internet has an obsession with Starbucks. Maybe it’s because the two have grown up together. In 1995, Starbucks had just launched its master plan to become “a third place for people to congregate beyond work or the home,” while the Web had a lot of gray pages with text and “hyperlinks.” Now, the coffee chain has become the new McDonald’s (44 million customers a week), and the Web has become a 24-hour global exercise in collective intelligence gathering. Gourmet coffee culture and Internet culture have fed off each other, and Starbucks in particular has become a punching bag for the indie spirit that pervades the Web. So I wanted to discover who has the upper hand: Does Starbucks dominate us with its convenient locations and potent caffeine, or do we, thanks to the Web, ultimately call the shots?

Exhibit A in the online cheekiness and wariness toward Starbucks is an old monument: the Starbucks Oracle, which went online in 2002. You enter a drink, the oracle spits out a profile. Here’s the response to my regular order, a tall coffee:

Personality type: Lame

You’re a simple person with modest tastes and a reasonable lifestyle. In other words, you’re boring. Going to Starbucks makes you feel sophisticated; you’d like to be snooty and order an espresso but aren’t sure if you’re ready for that level of excitement. … Everyone who thinks America’s Funniest Home Videos is a great show drinks tall coffee.

Sadly accurate. Then I entered Vin Diesel’s drink order: decaf triple nonfat espresso.

Personality type: Freak

No person of sound mind would go to an EXPENSIVE COFFEE SHOP to get a drink WITHOUT CAFFEINE. Your hobbies include going to ski resorts in the summer and flushing $5 bills down the toilet. You are a menace to society.

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Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News, August 17, 2007

(Bloomberg) — A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to a Texas base, U.S. officials said.

The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show.

The owners of C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina — twin sisters — exploited a flaw in an automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or U.S. bases that were labeled “priority” were usually paid automatically, said Cynthia Stroot, a Pentagon investigator.

C&D’s fraudulent billing started in 2000, Stroot, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service’s chief agent in Raleigh, North Carolina, said in an interview. “As time went on they got more aggressive in the amounts they put in.”

The price the military paid for each item shipped rarely reached $100 and totaled just $68,000 over the six years in contrast to the $20.5 million paid for shipping, she said.

“The majority, if not all of these parts, were going to high-priority, conflict areas — that’s why they got paid,” Stroot said. If the item was earmarked “priority,” destined for the military in Iraq, Afghanistan or certain other locations, “there was no oversight.”

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Anna Schecter, ABC News, August 15, 2007

Plans by a Christian group to send an evangelical video game to U.S. troops in Iraq were abruptly halted yesterday by the Department of Defense after ABC News inquired about the program.

Operation Start Up (OSU) Tour, an evangelical entertainment troupe that actively proselytizes among soldiers, will not be sending the “apocryphal” video game in care packages as planned, according to the department.

“Left Behind: Eternal Forces” was inspired by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ best-selling book series about the battle of Armageddon, in which believers of Jesus Christ fight the Antichrist.

The game has inspired controversy among freedom of religion advocates since it was released last year.

“It’s a horrible game,” said the Rev. Timothy Simpson of the Christians Alliance for Progress. “You either kill or covert the other side. This is exactly what the Osama bin Ladens of the world have portrayed us.”

Troy Lyndon, the producer of the game, said the game’s “warfare” is not violent, and that it emphasizes “spiritual battles” over fighting with guns. The game gives incentives to recruit believers instead of killing the forces of the Antichrist, according to Lyndon.

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