The Wrong Stewart

Some politicians will do anything get on camera

And some politicians will do anything to avoid television cameras. Florida State Senator Gary Siplin (D-Orlando) jumped over a fence to escape cameras after he was charged by state attorneys for allegedly using taxpayer money to pay for part of his election campaign.

Siplin scaled a chain-link fence behind his senate office in Pine Hills and jumped into a waiting car. Just an hour and a half before, State Attorney Lawson Lamar announced a third-degree felony charge of grand theft had been filed against Siplin, as well as a misdemeanor of using services of officers or employees. He apparently was trying to avoid being seen by Channel 9 cameras waiting at his office.

Source and video: WFTV   Related: VoteLaw

The wrong Jon Stewart

Oops.

An embarrassed charter school has discovered it booked the wrong Jon Stewart for its annual gala. The Da Vinci Academy thought it had made a deal with comedian Jon Stewart, star of 'The Daily Show' and host of this year's Academy Awards, to appear next week. It sent out 500 invitations to businesses and planned for 900 people. But last week, it learned that it had booked Jon A. Stewart, a former motivational speaker, businessman and part-time professional wrestler from Chicago. School leaders said that earlier in the year they had sent out invitations to a number of celebrities, speakers and authors for the school's annual benefit dinner. A Stewart had responded, and through months of discussion there was no indication that they had not booked the Stewart they wanted, officials said.

Source and video: Yahoo!   Related: ThinkFast

Hip-hop is the devil's music

Elder G. Craige Lewis recently presented a lecture entitled “The Truth About Hip-Hop” at Yokota Air Base and Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan and linked hip-hop music to Satan. Lewis is the founder of EX Ministries which boasts the destruction of over 1,000,000 hip-hop CD's worldwide. "It started with heavy metal, but that only attracted a demographic of white, suburban kids. Hip-hop has global appeal. It’s an entire culture of clothes, music and lifestyle. You listen to the music while the lyrics promote killing, drugs, sex, crime, idolatry and violence," he said.

This isn't the first such complaint about a form of popular music and it won't be the last until we all finally come to agree that Satan prefers the cool jazz stylings of John Tesh.

Lewis played a song off Jay-Z’s 'Black Album' backward for the audience to hear the 'Six, six, six … murder, murder Jesus' within the song. The Oscar-award winning group Three 6 Mafia incorporates Satan’s calling card — the three sixes — into its name, Lewis said. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony used a Satanic document as cover art and the lyrics of Ja Rule, Jay-Z and 50 Cent equate the singers to God, which is a Luciferian concept, he said. 'Lucifer was the chief musician in heaven before he fell to Earth and became Satan,' Lewis said. 'It’s ridiculous to see these people thanking God for selling so many records or winning awards. You can’t serve two masters. You can’t dance with the devil and praise the Lord.' He called on parents to destroy their hip-hop CDs and posters and to 'tighten things up' for their kids.

Source: Stars and Stripes   Related: EX Ministries

Bond never liked guns

Actor Sir Roger Moore doesn't like guns. In other news, he's a knight. (Let's hope it was for his UNICEF work, he wasn't even the best Bond.)

I never liked guns, I hate them, I always blink before they go off.

Source: Reuters   Related: UNICEF

Workers fired after attending a pro-immigration rally

Wolverine Packing Co. in Detroit fired 15 workers after they attended an immigration rally. The plant manager says he told them not to attend the rally. The workers, who were employed through the temp agency Minuteman Staffing, say they would have never attended the rally if their jobs were in jeopardy.

'It was not fair,' said Mercedes, a 31-year-old Detroit woman who attended the rally and was fired. 'We went to fight for our rights.' Mercedes is undocumented and asked that her last name not be used.

Source: Detroit Free Press

Meanwhile, here in Madison, WI, three workers were fired from their jobs at Octopus Car Wash for attending the rally. One of the workers had reportedly worked there for three years at $7.50 per hour with no benefits.

DeLay at OMB?

President Bush and his new chief of staff, John Bolten, are looking outside of his usual circle of corrupt incompetents for a new director of the Office of Management and Budget. Don't worry, they won't compromise on the corruption part:

'This job gives him the ability to curry favor with Congress,' said one insider. Sources said that he is considering former and current House members for the post. One associate even suggested that retiring Rep. Tom DeLay was being considered, though the most likely pick would be from a conservative budget association.

Source: USNews

Big hands

Reason number 9,341 to keep President Bush from being spontaneous:

In introducing Bob Vanderfeltz, a retired dairy farmer on the panel, the president turned to him and exclaimed, "You got big hands," prompting Mr. Vanderfeltz to respond, to roars of laughter, 'I know how to milk.'

Sources: Washington Post

Protests against the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy were monitored by the Department of Defense

Thank heavens someone is on this! I feel much safer now.

The Department of Defense, according to the 16 pages of documents it released, monitored protests against the [don't ask, don't tell] policy at college campuses in New York City, Berkeley, and Santa Cruz. A counterintelligence agent reported on the protests against Military recruitment on campuses had 'a strong potential for confrontation at this protest...' Discounting a theory that the protest was taking place in a separate location from Military recruiting, the agent wrote 'tactics have included using mass text paging to inform others of the location of the recruiters.'

Source: PageOneQ

The "Next Tom DeLay"

When Rep. Tom DeLay was asked who he saw as a worthy successor to his role as the leader of House Republicans he singled out: Rep. Adam H. Putnam of Florida, Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana and Rep. Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina. Rep. McHenry was positively giddy at the thought:

I'm blown away ... I'm so excited that Tom DeLay would say that about me.

Source: Washington Times   Related: Vote Smart, ThinkProgress

Interestingly, McHenry was one of 20 members who voted against reinstating the House ethics rules in place after they were changed in order to protect Tom DeLay, and he voted to table a resolution calling for an investigation of Jack Abramoff. Come to think of it, he does sound like a suitable replacement for DeLay.

Poor Colleges like... Harvard and Princeton

The women's restrooms at some major universities still have urinals in them, a holdover from the days when they were all-male. Perhaps they could add members of the biology faculty to the building committee?

Do the people who run these universities know how urinals in the women's rooms make women feel? Whenever I get the opportunity, I naively ask the powers-that-be why there are urinals in the women's rooms, and why they haven't been removed. They're there because they used to be men's rooms. Removing urinals is very expensive, and we don't have that kind of money. Harvard doesn't have that kind of money. Princeton doesn't have that kind of money. Stanford doesn't have that kind of money. Isn't it really a question of priorities?

Source: Alice Silverberg, San Fransisco Chronicle

No Jo-ke. Lieberman may run as an independent

Sen. Joseph Lieberman is facing a tougher than anticipated primary challengerin Ned Lamont. Lieberman, a standard-bearer for his party just a few years ago, appears ready to abandon said party if he loses.

You know, I feel very strongly that I can do more for the state of Connecticut in the coming six years than any of the Democratic or Republican candidates against me. I hope I don't have to make that choice as it goes on.

Source: Hartford Courant   Related: Eschaton, ConnecticutBlog

Colbert's Tax Tips

See the video here.

If you have a receipt, it's deductible.

Video: youtube.com

Ordering a Pizza in 2010

Check out this hilarious video showing what ordering a pizza could be like in 2010. From the ACLU:

The government and corporations are aggressively collecting information about your personal life and your habits. They want to track your purchases, your medical records, and even your relationships. The Bush Administration's policies, coupled with invasive new technologies, could eliminate your right to privacy completely.

Video: aclu.org

Santana speaks out against the war

Music legend Carlos Santana, speaking in Peru, spoke out against the Iraq war and compared the scale of opposition to the war in Iraq to opposition to the Vietnam war in the 70's.

I have wisdom. I feel love. I live in the present and I try to present a dimension that brings harmony and healing. My concept is the opposite of George W. Bush.There is more value in placing a flower in a rifle barrel than making war. As Jimi Hendrix used to say, musical notes have more importance than bullets.

Video: Washington Post