The American Trial Lawyers Association

Earlier this week, it was reported that the diaper-wearing, prostitute-loving GOP senator David Vitter had a bit of a temper tantrum at a DC airport. Vitter was late for a flight from Washington to New Orleans, and when he arrived at the gate, he was told that he wasn't allowed to go through the security door leading to the plane. After setting off the security alarm, the Louisiana senator proceeded to dress down an airline employee who told him entering the restricted area was forbidden. He invoked his standing as a senator, delivering a "do-you-know-who-I-am" tirade. After the airline worker announced that he was going to get security, Vitter said that they would probably be impressed by his senatorial pin. However, when the worker acted and actually went to security, Vitter quietly slipped away. The TSA has since announced that they will be investigating the matter, and Vitter could be facing fines or other punishments for his infantile tirade. Of course, given his perverted history, any punishment inflicted could actually make him do something like this again.


In other news, Fox News' Sean Hannity has some interesting things to say about torture. Hannity invited Meghan McCain on his show to talk about a court filing by 9/11 defendants detained at Guantanamo Bay. The group of detainees had admitted in the past that they were "terrorists to the bone." Hannity asked McCain why we would want to extend any rights to these people, and before she could even answer his question, he went into a soliloquy about his views on torture, which are apparently rooted in his Christianity. Hannity said of Osama bin Laden, quote, “I don't have any problem taking his head sticking it underwater and scaring the living daylights out of him and making him think we're drowning him… and I'm a Christian.” I'm not quite sure I follow Sean's logic on this one. If he's relying on his faith to justify torturing – which the Bible described torture in numerous different areas – but this argument doesn't hold any water today. In order to base his argument on this, he would have to assume that the world hasn't changed over the last two thousand years, and contrary to what Republicans actually think, it has.


And finally this week, the man who dubbed Vice President Joe Biden a socialist last September for arguing that paying taxes is "patriotic" appears to have some government redistribution ideas of his own. Newt Gingrich, often cited as a Republican prospect for president in 2012, says the state should consider paying teenager girls not to get pregnant. He also says that states should consider paying teenage girls who become pregnant to take prenatal vitamins to forestall paying additional health expenses for neonatal care down the road. Along with his remarks about pregnant teenagers, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives also said that state legislators should consider paying poor children to read and individuals not to smoke. His other ideas include giving tax breaks to grocery stores that open in the inner city; giving bonuses to food stamp recipients who buy fruits and vegetables; and making students walk to school if they live close enough. Admittedly, some of these ideas really aren't that bad, but paying teenagers not to get pregnant? Come on, Newt. How about we actually take that money and put it into sex ed classes, that teach the use of contraceptives. That way it doesn't look so much like we're bribing students to wear condoms.

Labels: Airport, Christianity, David Bitter, DC Madam, Farron Cousins, Fetish, Jesus, Newt Gingrich, Pervert, Pregnant, Prostitute, Sean Hannity, Sex, Smoking, Teenager, Teens, Tirade, Torture

Officials from the Bush White House are no longer advising Karl Rove to claim that he is protected from testifying by executive privilege. In addition, Rove's attorney told reporters at Raw Story that the former advisor will not be invoking the Fifth Amendment to protect himself from testifying. Rove was subpoenaed in 2007 to testify before Congress about his role in the Don Siegelman prosecution, as well as the politicization of the Justice Department. He was then subpoenaed in 2008 for this same testimony. Both times he refused to show. He did however offer to testify, as long as he didn't have to be under oath and the hearings were not public, which Congress refused. He was recently subpoenaed in January of this year, and then again this month. Though it remains unclear what form Rove's cooperation with Congress and Justice Department investigators might take, it seems increasingly likely that Rove will testify to Congress in some way.


In other news, it looks like the United States' war on terror didn't just take away the rights of American citizens, but according to international legal experts, it stripped away the rights of people across the globe. According to Mary Robinson, former High Commissioner for Human Rights at the UN, citizens across the globe have fewer rights today than they did when terrorists attacked on 9/11, largely due to the fact that the US responded inappropriately to the attacks. The harsh U.S. detentions and interrogations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay gave a dangerous signal to other countries that quickly followed suit. A new report found that many undemocratic states have referred to U.S. counter-terrorism practices to justify their own abuses, creating a serious situation that the UN must now deal with. The UN Security Council has already begun investigating prisoner abuse in places like Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, and Germany.


In economic news today, a new report shows that all of those Wall Street banks who begged and pleaded for a bailout so they could lend more money, have actually not been lending anymore money. In fact, since they received their bailout funds, they've actually been lending less money. The Treasury Department said the banks reduced their mortgage and business loans by a median of 1 percent each, while credit card lending rose by a median of 2 percent. The report also said that banks reduced new commercial real estate loans by 19 percent. But don't think that these banks will be reprimanded for not upholding their end of the deal. The Treasury Department has already written off the decrease in lending by saying that consumer demand for loans has decreased, so it really isn't the banks' fault. Basically, what this means is that the banks took our tax dollars, and did nothing to help the economy. They aren't loaning people money, they laid off tens of thousands of employees, and they aren't producing any tangible goods for Americans. They used the money to shore up their investments and pay dividends to stockholders. If you ask me, all of these banks are guilty of stealing money from the government, and the CEOs of these institutions should be sitting in prison.


In other news, a new USA Today report shows that cyber attacks against government computer systems increased by 40% last year. In total, there were 5,488 tracked incidents of unauthorized access to US government computers, as well as installations of hostile programs in 2008. However, rather than taking this as a serious threat, one official from the Department of Homeland Security said that this doesn't necessarily mean there was an increase in attacks, and it could mean that their detection software is catching more intruders. However, if that is the case, that means that 40% of the hacks from 2007 were never detected. President Obama announced last week that his administration will be conducting a review of US cyber security to protect the government's information technology systems from security and economic threats.


And finally today, horny teenagers are getting a new role model to tell them to keep it in their pants – Bristol Palin. While speaking about the birth of her son Tripp to Fox News, Bristol said she now hoped to become an advocate against teen pregnancy. The little Palin went on to say that everyone should be abstinent, but that that idea isn't realistic at all. She refused to give her views on contraception, which makes her an astounding hypocrite. She says that abstinence isn't going to work, but it's the only thing that will work. I'm not sure I follow her logic here. The bottom line is this – studies have been conducted throughout this century showing that abstinence-only education programs result in higher rates of teen pregnancy, than education programs that teach the use of contraceptives. That is a fact. Teenagers shouldn't be listening to a girl who couldn't figure that out on her own.



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Labels: Bailout, Barack Obama, Bristol Palin, Economy, Farron Cousins, Hacker, Karl Rove, Lending, Mortgage Crisis, Political Briefs, Recession, Sarah Palin, Sex, Teenager, Trigg, Underage