'Coal Lobby' Warns Wind Farms May Blow Earth Off Orbit

Is wind power too dangerous for America?
That's exactly what these panelists discuss in this hilarious spoof from The Onion.
The video shows a new advertisement from the American Coal Lobby warning that wind farms may blow the Earth off orbit. "We like this planet. Let's not blow it... away," the ad implores.
But as the panel discusses, the dangers of wind power don't stop there. The video also reveals a new documentary, "Terminal Gust," that captures one small town's plight as they suffer from wind whistling into their water supply. "Oh my god, kids could drink that water and get wind in their brains," one panelist cries.
"Unlike coal, we don't know what wind is. We don't even know where it comes from," another panelist exclaims.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/01/wind-farms-blow-earth-off-orbit-video_n_888852.html

Glenn Beck Encounters 'Hostile Situation' In Bryant Park

Glenn Beck went to Bryant Park Monday night for a showing of Alfred Hitchock's "The 39 Steps". But that was not the only showing he saw.
"It was a hostile situation," Beck described of his family's movie night; his wife, Tanya, had wine "kicked intentionally on to her back," leaving her "completely wet," he said on his radio show Tuesday morning. He further said that his wife and daughter were greeted by a man pointing his fingers and yelling "We hate conservatives here!" when they got up to use the restroom.

"If I had suggested -- and I almost did -- wow, does anybody have a rope? Because there's a tree here. You could just lynch me. And I think there would've been a couple in the crowd that would've!" The conservative radio-host recalled.

"I apologize to anybody who had their movie experience wrecked because of the people that found it so necessary to spew hatred," Beck said, "but there's nothing I can do about it."
He noted that he was "...A little surprised that nobody -- nobody -- in the crowd said 'knock it off. Just, stop. Just be cool. I don't agree with the guy, but just be cool.' "
Beck doesn't wish this kind of treatment among anyone, even his enemies. "All through the evening, I wanted to say to you today, please, please, please don't ever treat anybody like that. If Van Jones comes and sits right next to you, please don't treat anybody like that."
Describing the crowd as the "most hateful people I've seen," Beck attributes the unfortunate experiences of last night to a demographic of "arrogant 25-year-olds." He said:

"All I could think of about the people around me all night was I feel sorry for you. I really feel sorry for you... you are so lost... and so convinced that you are absolutely 100% right, and you are helping build a system that is fueled by hate. You're being used and you don't even know it. And by the time you wake-up, it may be too late for you to get out."

Beck also claims that for liberals questioning the existence of an "escape route," the answer is "yes."

Story continues below

"Doesn't matter what happened in the past, brother," Beck said. "Doesn't matter what 'ya thought. Doesn't matter what 'ya even did. What matters is that you're here now."
"My family and I will accept you with open arms."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/28/glenn-beck-and-family-harrassed-bryant-park_n_886208.html

OK.  I can’t stand this guy.  I really can’t agree with; or understand his positions, his perspective, his point of view, his stand on politics, his party affiliation, his chalk board, his hair cut, his voice or the clothes he wears. If he was walking toward me, I would turn and walk the other way.  I don’t like him at all. . . . .  but . . . . .  you don’t treat anyone this way.  His family does not deserve mistreatment and neither does he.  You can certainly disagree with him, but to attempt to degrade him; to attempt to threaten him or harm his family, is small minded and indecent.  Can’t we all just take the high road?  Do we have to act like a mob just because we are a mob?  Glenn; you go see your movies.  Take your family wherever you like and don’t be swayed by this bad experience.  One word of advice though; do not ever suggest to an angry mob that they lynch you.  These people had been drinking and they might have taken you up on it.  Lord help this man; he has to spew bullsh*t even when his life is at risk!

Bristol Palin: I did not 'accuse Levi of date rape'

Since last week’s release of her memoir “Not Afraid of Life,” Bristol Palin has generated a decent amount of buzz. The 20-year-old, who reveals in her book that she first had sex while drunk, clarified on Monday that she was not in fact date raped by baby daddy Levi Johnston.
In an interview with “Good Morning America,” Palin explained that “it felt like” her virginity was stolen from her. But Palin insists this doesn’t mean Johnston forced himself upon her.
“I’m not accusing Levi of date rape or rape at all,” Bristol said of her ex-fiancé. “But I am just looking back with the adult eyes I have now and just thinking that was a foolish decision. I should have never been underage drinking and I should have never gotten myself into a situation like that.”
Palin’s book provides details on her first experience with sexual intercourse, which took place during a camping trip. The “Dancing with the Stars” finalist claims to have woken up alone in a tent the following morning. Considering Palin’s description of “gnat” Johnston, this comes as no surprise. The Candies Foundation spokeswoman claims that Johnston was quite a playboy while they were together and that he “cheated on [her] about as frequently as he sharpened his hockey skates.”
The single mother of a toddler, Palin says she hopes her memoir will encourage females to steer clear of and ditch slimy romantic partners.
“I hope that other women with kind of jerk boyfriends reading the book go ‘you know what? I don’t have to be with this guy,’” Palin said. (Bristol Palin slams McCain family in new memoir)
Palin says that Johnston, whose own tell-all memoir is slated for a September release, claimed to have possibly impregnated another woman the same day Us Weekly published a cover story on their 2010 engagement.
“The magazine was released on a Wednesday, and that Wednesday when it went nationwide, Levi comes home, comes to my condo and tells me that a girl might have his baby,” Palin said. “That was definitely like a punch to the stomach…It’s like, okay, I just betrayed my family for you,” Palin explained, adding that her own family didn’t know about the engagement until the celebrity gossip publication story hit newsstands.


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/27/bristol-palin-i-did-not-accuse-levi-of-date-rape/#ixzz1QWocyh6h

You were drunk.  You passed out, and when you woke up, your virginity was gone and so was your dignity.  When you awakened, Levi was standing outside the tent shooting the breeze with his buddies.  What a great “first-time” experience.  You’re right; you weren’t date raped, you were date-played.  Levi had a plan from the moment he packed his tent and threw the cooler of beer and wine coolers in the back of his truck.  Unfortunately there are far too many young women who lose their virtue to the tactical strategies involving alcohol and the adolescent male’s testosterone-driven ability to connive and persuade.  The good news; you had a child, and that will be your greatest blessing from that doomed relationship.  Move on Bristol and leave Levi to his deer hunting, four wheeling and future conquests.  You deserve better than anything he has to offer!

Lawyers For Loughner: He Spit On Attorney, Threw Chair Against Wall

PHOENIX -- Lawyers for the suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage have provided the first official picture of their client's behavior behind bars, saying he threw a plastic chair against a wall of his prison cell on two occasions and spit on one of his attorneys.
The attorneys for Jared Lee Loughner also say that their client has been held in solitary confinement since his Jan. 8 arrest. His prison behavior was revealed in a request by his attorneys to prevent prison authorities from forcibly giving him anti-psychotic drugs.
Loughner has been at a federal prison facility in Springfield, Mo., where mental health experts will try to make him psychologically fit to stand trial. He arrived May 28 and will spend up to four months there. A judge has twice denied requests by Loughner's attorneys to be given notice before their client is drugged.
Defense attorneys said a prison administrative hearing on June 14 found Loughner was a danger to himself. They don't know whether prison officials have started giving him drugs.
The filing doesn't provide a lot of detail of Loughner's behavior, but does reveal that he threw a chair during a March 28 interview with psychologist Christina Pietz. It doesn't give details of the other chair-throwing incident, nor does it specify which one of his lawyers he spat on more than two months ago.
A message left for lead Loughner attorney, Judy Clarke, wasn't immediately returned Monday afternoon.
At a hearing last month to determine if he's fit to stand trial, Loughner had an outburst in which he lowered his head to within inches of the courtroom table, lifted his head and began a loud and angry rant. "Thank you for the free kill. She died in front of me. Your cheesiness," according to a court transcript. It wasn't clear who he was referring to.
Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the Jan. 8 shooting that killed six and injured 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
If Loughner is later determined to be competent enough to understand the case against him and assist his lawyers, the court proceedings will resume. If he isn't deemed competent at the end of his treatment, Loughner's stay at the facility can be extended.

Story continues below

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/27/jared-lee-loughner-behavior-spit-on-attorney_n_885754.html

 

I’m just a layman but here’s my thought; EST.  That’s right; Electroshock therapy.  There’s a procedure that I once read about, where you, place the patient in a chair, and strap him in.  You then shave his head, place a bag over it, and clamp (using a chin strap) a metal plate to his skull. Next; you tap into the regional power grid and throw the switch.  The success rate for this technique is phenomenal.  Unfortunately the side effect is death and the mortality rate is 100%.  While no one has survived this form of EST it is clear that if they had; there would have been an immediate and lasting change in their behavior. I say we hook Jared up to the machine and permanently alter his behavior! 

TSA Officers Force Elderly Woman To Remove Her Adult Diaper

TSA security officers at Florida's Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport patted down a cancer-stricken, 95-year-old woman and forcibly removed her adult diaper during the search, CNN reports. Could this end up being yet another TSA PR nightmare?

Jean Weber was traveling with her ill mother on June 18 from Florida to Michigan to see relatives "in the final stages of her battle with leukemia" when the incident occurred.

Weber told CNN that while she thinks the officers may have been "procedurally correct...the procedure needs to be changed." Weber noted that her mother had had a blood transfusion the week before.

A Suspiciously "Wet and Firm" Diaper

While passing through security, TSA officials "felt something suspicious and they couldn't determine what it was," so they took Weber's mother to a private room.

A TSA agent told Weber that her mother's Depends underwear was "wet and firm and they couldn't check it thoroughly," so the mother-daughter duo left in search of a bathroom to remove the underwear. Weber did not have an extra pair of Depends with her.

Weber "burst into tears" but her mother was "very calm" even though she was forced to go through the airport without underwear. Her elderly mother was taken to the boarding gate without her as Weber was still going through security.

TSA Defends Search

In response to the incident, the TSA said on Sunday that "While every person and item must be screened before entering the secure boarding area, TSA works with passengers to resolve security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner. We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure."

This isn't the first time the TSA has gotten into hot water over pat down procedures. In April, a video of a 6-year-old getting a pat down at the New Orleans airport went viral, while in May, a video of a baby getting a pat down caused quite a stir.

Last week, the TSA announced they would change the procedures for patting down children.
http://news.travel.aol.com/2011/06/26/tsa-pats-down-elderly-woman-removes-adult-diaper-video/

Are you kidding me?  Are you?  Is this communist China?  Are we going to continue to allow this nonsense?  I for one; will look to train travel next time I need to go somewhere.  I don’t wear an adult diaper (yet) but frankly I don’t need some stranger with latex gloves groping my baggage compartment next time I get on an airplane. When is enough; enough?  When is enough; too much?

Jury Convicts Rod Blagojevich On 17 Of 20 Counts

CHICAGO (AP) -- Rod Blagojevich, who rode his talkative everyman image to two terms as Illinois governor before scandal made him a national punch line, was convicted Monday of a wide range of corruption charges, including the incendiary allegation that he tried to sell or trade President Barack Obama's Senate seat.
The verdict was a bitter defeat for Blagojevich, who had spent 2 1/2 years professing his innocence on reality TV shows and later on the witness stand. His defense team had insisted that hours of FBI wiretap recordings were just the ramblings of a politician who liked to think out loud.
He faces up to 300 years in prison, although federal sentencing guidelines are sure to significantly reduce his time behind bars.
After hearing the verdict, Blagojevich turned to defense attorney Sheldon Sorosky and asked "What happened?" His wife, Patti, slumped against her brother, then rushed into her husband's arms.
Before the decision was read, the couple looked flushed, and the former governor blew his wife a kiss across the courtroom, then stood expressionless, with his hands clasped tightly.
The verdict capped a long-running spectacle in which Blagojevich became famous for blurting on a recorded phone call that his ability to appoint Obama's successor to the Senate was "f---ing golden" and that he wouldn't let it go "for f---ing nothing."
The former governor spoke only briefly with reporters as he left the courthouse, saying he was disappointed and stunned by the verdict.
"Well, among the many lessons I've learned from this whole experience is to try to speak a little bit less, so I'm going to keep my remarks kind of short," Blagojevich said, adding that the couple wanted "to get home to our little girls and talk to them and explain things to them and then try to sort things out."
Blagojevich, who has been free on bond since shortly after his arrest, becomes the second straight Illinois governor convicted of corruption. His predecessor, George Ryan, is now serving 6 1/2 years in federal prison.
The case exploded into scandal when Blagojevich was awakened by federal agents on Dec. 9, 2008, at his Chicago home and was led away in handcuffs. Federal prosecutors had been investigating his administration for years, and some of his closest cronies had already been convicted.
Blagojevich, who was also accused of shaking down businessmen for campaign contributions, was swiftly impeached and removed from office.
The verdict provided affirmation to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, one of the nation's most prominent prosecutors, who, after the governor's arrest, had condemned Blagojevich's dealings as a "political crime spree."
"The jury sent a loud and clear message that Governor Blagojevich committed very serious crimes shaking down a children's hospital, trying to sell a Senate seat and demanding cash campaign contributions in advance before signing a bill," Fitzgerald said. "This is a bittersweet moment."
Referring to the verdict against Ryan five years ago, he said: "I hope that that message is heard this time."
Mentioned at times as a possible future FBI director, Fitzgerald pledged to retry the governor after the first jury deadlocked on all but the least serious of 24 charges against him.
This time, the 12 jurors voted to convict the 54-year-old Blagojevich on 17 of 20 counts after deliberating nine days. He also faces up to five additional years in prison for his previous conviction of lying to the FBI.
Blagojevich was acquitted of soliciting bribes in the alleged shakedown of a road-building executive. The jury deadlocked on two charges of attempted extortion related to that executive and funding for a school.
Judge James Zagel has barred Blagojevich from traveling outside the area without permission. A status hearing to discuss sentencing was set for Aug. 1.
Two legal experts speculated that Blagojevich would probably receive around 10 years in prison, with little chance that he would get more than 15.
Former prosecutor Jeff Cramer estimated that Blagojevich would get between six and 12 years. Another former assistant U.S. attorney, Phil Turner, guessed closer to six years.
Judges have enormous discretion in sentencing and can factor in a host of variables, including whether a defendant took the stand and lied. Prosecutors have said that Blagojevich did just that.
All 12 jurors - 11 women and one man - spoke to reporters after the verdict, identifying themselves only by juror numbers. Their full names were to be released Tuesday.
Jurors said the evidence that Blagojevich tried to secure a high-paying, high-powered position in exchange for the appointment of Obama's successor in the Senate was the clearest in the case.
"There was so much more evidence to go on," said Juror No. 140. Jury members said they listened and re-listened to recordings of Blagojevich's phone conversations with aides. They also acknowledged finding the former governor likable.
"He was personable," Juror No. 103 said. "It made it hard to separate what we actively had to do as jurors."
Still, Juror No. 140 said she found Blagojevich's testimony over seven days at times "manipulative."
"Our verdict shows that we didn't believe it," she said.
After his arrest, Blagojevich called federal prosecutors "cowards and liars" and challenged Fitzgerald to face him in court if he was "man enough."
In what many saw as embarrassing indignities for a former governor, he sent his wife to the jungle for a reality television show, "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here," where she had to eat a tarantula. He later showed his own ineptitude at simple office skills before being fired on Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice."
To most Illinois residents, he was a reminder of the corruption that has plagued the state for decades.
For the second trial, prosecutors streamlined their case, and attorneys for the former governor put on a defense - highlighted by a chatty Blagojevich taking the witness stand for seven days to portray himself as a big talker but not a criminal.
Richard Kling, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law who watched much of the trial, said the defense had no choice but to put Blagojevich on the stand, even though doing so was risky.
"The problem was with some of his explanations," Kling said. "It reminded me of a little kid who gets his hand caught in a cookie jar. He says, `Mommy I wasn't taking the cookies. I was just trying to protect them and to count them.'"
Blagojevich seemed to believe he could talk his way out of trouble from the witness stand. Indignant one minute, laughing the next, seemingly in tears once, he endeavored to counteract the blunt, greedy man he appeared to be on FBI wiretaps. He apologized to jurors for the four-letter words that peppered the recordings.
"When I hear myself swearing like that, I am an F-ing jerk," he told jurors.
He clearly sought to solicit sympathy. He spoke about his working-class parents and choked up recounting the day he met his wife, the daughter of a powerful Chicago alderman. He reflected on his feelings of inferiority at college where other students wore preppy "alligator" shirts. Touching on his political life, he portrayed himself as a friend of working people, the poor and elderly.
He told jurors his talk on the wiretaps merely displayed his approach to decision-making: to invite a whirlwind of ideas - "good ones, bad ones, stupid ones" - then toss the ill-conceived ones out. To demonstrate the absurdities such brainstorming could generate, he said he once considered appointing himself to the Senate seat so he could travel to Afghanistan and help hunt down Osama bin Laden.
Other times, when a prosecutor read wiretap transcripts where Blagojevich seems to speak clearly of trading the Senate seat for a job, Blagojevich told jurors, "I see what I say here, but that's not what I meant."
Lead prosecutor Reid Schar started his questioning of Blagojevich with a quick verbal punch: "Mr. Blagojevich, you are a convicted liar, correct?"
"Yes," Blagojevich eventually answered after the judge overruled a flurry of defense objections.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/27/blagojevich-guilty-verdict_n_885175.html

Well I don’t know what he expected.  You know this is the tip of the iceberg, it’s the ole “where there’s smoke there’s fire.”  I know you heard this before; “he just got caught.”  He was stunned by the verdict?  Really?  This is arrogance at its pinnacle.  300 years of prison time and the experts are predicting he will end up with 6 years . . . . . .  Whaaaaaatttt?  That’s 2% of the jail time he should be serving.  6 years for trying to hold a Senate seat hostage!  Convicted on 17 counts out of 20 and he’s going to get 6 years?  Is the tail wagging the dog here?  You have to wonder what the experts would be predicting for a sentence if Blagojevich was of a different race, a different economic and educational background and from a different profession . . . . . . What do you think?

Defense Says Prison Will Forcibly Medicate Tucson Shooting Suspect

PHOENIX -- Lawyers for the Tucson shooting rampage suspect say federal prison officials have decided to forcibly give him anti-psychotic drugs.
Attorneys for Jared Loughner filed an emergency motion on Friday asking U.S. District Judge Larry Burns to stop them from doing so.
Burns has twice denied their requests to be given notice before their client is drugged. Loughner has been at a Missouri prison medical facility since Burns declared him mentally incompetent to stand trial in May.
Defense attorney Judy Clarke wrote that a prison administrative hearing on June 14 found Loughner was a danger to himself. She doesn't know if they have started giving him drugs.
Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the Jan. 8 shooting that killed six and injured 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/26/jared-loughner-medicate-tucson-shooting_n_884881.html

I suppose a shot in the arm every now and then would be a little annoying, but I doubt it compares to a shot in the head or a mortal wound from a handgun.  Get over it dude; this shot of drugs; you don’t want are the least of your worries.  Your trial can’t go forward until you are found competent.  You can’t be found competent until those drugs start working.  It makes sense your legal team wants to stall the process.