Baghdad Jim Gets Bitch Slapped

And a nice sound it makes, too:

A federal appeals court ruled today that Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., violated federal law by turning over an illegally taped telephone call to reporters nearly a decade ago.

In a 2-1 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that McDermott violated the rights of House Majority Leader John Boehner, who was heard on the 1996 call involving former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The court ordered McDermott to pay Boehner more than $700,000 for leaking the taped conversation. The figure includes $60,000 in damages and more than $600,000 in legal costs.

So when do we get to the trial for aiding and abetting the enemy? And here's a shock, the MSM thinks illegal wiretapping is just peachy when a Republican is the victiim:

Lawyers for 18 news organizations — including ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, The Associated Press, The New York Times and The Washington Post — filed a brief backing McDermott.

Via Michelle Malkin who's not holding her breath for this to appear on any MSM front pages. I think it will show up, but on the editorial pages with lots of "chilling effect" whining.

Public Service Announcement!

From E-nough:

The Department of State advises U.S. citizens traveling or residing in France to avoid areas where crowds are expected to gather, to exercise caution, particularly during evening and nighttime hours, and to closely follow media reports.

...

If you are looking for a true French experience but do not want to risk your life, we suggest staying stateside and making reservations at Le Bernadin in NYC. A battalion of wait staff will hover about your elegantly appointed table without offering any service, the table captain will rush you through your butter poached lobster and crème glacée au beurre noisette to clear out the scut in advance of the after-theater crowd, and all at the same extortionate prices of les grandes tables of France.

Enjoy your French experience!

Well gosh, I thought they'd be glad to see us and just throw another Renault on the carbeque! Heck, they all speak English.

Official Google Blogspot blog deleted by spam filter

Seems that Viking Pundit and Betsy's Page (who suffered the same fate recently) are in good company. Here's the embarrassing admission at the newly restored googleblog.blogspot.com:

The Google Blog was unavailable for a short time tonight. We quickly learned from our initial investigation that there was no systemwide vulnerability for Blogger. We'll let you know more about what did happen once we finish looking into it.

Update: We've determined the cause of tonight's outage. The blog was mistakenly deleted by us (d'oh!) which allowed the blog address to be temporarily claimed by another user. This was not a hack, and nobody guessed our password. Our bad.

Bad indeed and the laughs are echoing around the Internet. You'll see that they aren't exactly admitting that the spam filter got it, but there aren't too many reasonable alternatives and that seems to be the general belief:

Blogger blog?

check

allows trackbacks?

check

exists just for SEO's?

check

nearly all posts contain a link to a site owned by the same people?

check

posts made by non human entities?

check

aha! we have one! Delete it! Delete it!

More details and screenshots here.

That's what I call a target rich environment

Illegal Aliens: Just Mobbing the Streets - Americans Won't Mob:

To the astonishment and delight of the news media, Saturday saw an unprecedented protest by an estimated 500,000 illegal aliens and their advocates in Los Angeles. Smaller rallies were held in cities across the country, opposing efforts to secure the border and finally crack down on illegal entry into America by millions of unscreened foreigners. Apparently, the protests prove what a “divisive” issue illegal immigration is. To me, they simply prove that criminals dislike the prospect of increased law enforcement.

And that the criminals don't want to be separated from the government teat and begrudge the taxpayers their consternation at all the sucking.

But that’s not all the protests prove. They also prove how ridiculously out of control our federal government has let the problem get. Which is worse -- that a half million immigration criminals and their descendants and sympathizers can be found in a single American city, or that the current immigration enforcement system is such a joke that the half million have nothing to fear from openly entering the public streets and arguing against legislation currently before Congress?

It’s as if thieves thought they could form a union to lobby for fewer cops.

Time to do a little street sweeping and truck the collection bin to the border.

The part I liked best was all the news stories quoting illegal aliens whining that it was really unfair that they might have to return to their native dung wallows when they were all having such a swell time in the USA. Don't go away mad, folks! Just go away. You can do plenty of marching back home.

Today's Hoot!

I know it's early yet, but it's going to be hard to beat this one from the NY Post - 'COFFEE-SCALD' POL IN HOT WATER WITH SENATE:

STATE Senate officials are considering an unprecedented "censure" vote against violence-prone Queens Democratic Sen. Ada Smith, who was charged last week with throwing hot coffee in the face of an aide.

As soon as the latest charge against the erratic Smith became public, Senate officials began researching the possibility of expelling or "impeaching" Smith, but concluded that state law does not allow such dramatic action, a senior Senate official said.

State law does require the expulsion of a legislator convicted of a felony, but the latest charge against Smith - like one involving a confrontation with the State Police two years ago - is a misdemeanor.

"This has gone on long enough," said the Senate official.

"She's been out of control for years, and we have to take some action against her to recognize that if she's convicted on this one."

Gosh, what's ole ADA been up to?

In past incidents, Smith - often called the "Madwoman" or "Wild Woman" of Albany - was accused of menacing an aide with a meat cleaver and attacking a guest at a wedding party with a garbage-can cover. She was also once Maced after confronting a traffic officer in Brooklyn.

Sounds like she's the life of the party! This is good so far, but wait, there's more:

Smith allegedly threw "a cup of hot coffee into the eyes" of former staffer Jennifer Jackson of Albany on Tuesday morning.

The court papers said the senator also pulled a hairpiece from Jackson's head, causing a neck and shoulder injury and injury to her eyes.

Smith's office said Jackson no longer works for the senator.

According to the Albany Times Union, the incident happened after the senator returned from a Weight Watchers meeting and said she had lost about four pounds. Jackson responded she thought Smith would have lost more, given her active lifestyle.

Bwahaha! I guess that'll teach Jennifer not to suck up to a nutjob.

TV advertising tanks

If you thought the cheesy propaganda "public service" ads described in my previous post were most likely to appear between infomercials at 3AM, think again:

Television is an increasingly wobbly target for ad spending and will likely soon begin hemorrhaging dollars to interactive and other channels. That's according to a Forrester poll of 133 advertisers who control more than $20 billion in advertising.

The study, undertaken in conjunction with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and presented today at the ANA's TV Ad Forum in New York, found 78 percent of these marketers feel the potency of their television advertising has declined in the last two years.

Seventy percent of those surveyed believe digital video recorders (DVR) and video-on-demand (VOD) will "reduce or destroy" the effectiveness of :30 spots. And once DVR penetration grows to above 30 million households, 24 percent said they intend to cut their TV ad budgets by at least a quarter and reallocate that money to online advertising, product placement and other channels.

The Internet fared particularly well in major advertisers' future plans. Eighty percent said they'll invest more in Web advertising, and 68 percent singled out search marketing as a source of future spending. Smaller percentages said they'd pursue program sponsorships, product placement and online video ads.

Give it a few years and the only TV ads will be the latest Ad Council leftoid propaganda. That's OK - then they'll match the shows.

Are we gonna get any virgin sacrifices or what?

I know it will be tough finding any at the ad agency, but sheesh:

Your favorite TV show has ended. You've just seen the ads for Lipitor and light beer, and here comes another:

Tick. Tick. Massive heat waves.

One after another, the faces of small children appear.

Tick. Tick. Severe droughts.

The kids look and sound serious, maybe even upset.

Tick. Go to www.fightglobalwarming.com. While there's still time.

Yikes! Did some ad exec get lost on a disaster movie set? Not quite.

Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, has teamed with the Ad Council, which has challenged social norms with such public-service campaigns as "Friends don't let friends drive drunk" and Nancy Reagan's "Just say no."

In a series of TV and radio spots that one publicist termed "edgy" - and that a global-warming skeptic called "the ultimate triumph of propaganda over science" - the group is hoping to spawn a massive shift in social awareness that will send millions rushing to turn down their thermostats, inflate their car tires, and recycle their plastic.

More like rushing to the crapper before the show comes back on. Better try again:

Another of the ads to be launched today shows a fragile plant growing near train tracks, then a speeding locomotive. A man appears. "Global warming," he intones over the chugga-chugga of the train. "Some say irreversible consequences are 30 years away. Thirty years? That won't affect me."

He walks off. But behind him - right in the path of the train - is a little girl, blonde curls framing her puzzled frown.

It really is crapper time.

Here's a hint for the big advertising professionals at Ogilvy & Mather of New York who disgorged this offal. As long as you're creating works of fiction, why not spice 'em up a little?

Yeah, that'll work

Illinois Democrats promise not to buy votes:

Democratic leaders in one Illinois county have begun making very clear what other politicians might consider obvious: Party money should not be used to buy votes.

Er, we're talking Illinois and the Democrat party here.

The Democratic Party in St. Clair County has sent out reminders to precinct committeemen that party money can't be used to influence votes.

The refresher course on democracy follows the June convictions of five East St. Louis politicians for vote buying. Prosecutors said they had helped distribute more than $70,000 received by city Democratic precinct committeemen just before the 2004 election from the county Democratic organization.

Looks like the rates have gone up. It used to just be a pack of smokes or a half pint of cheap hooch. Of course, smokes and booze have gone up too.

The committeemen were recently sent a one-page letter from St. Clair County Democratic Central Committee Chairman Robert Sprague saying that money from the county committee should be used only to pay to help get the vote out.

Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. That's what the goodies are for - getting out the vote.

Precinct leaders should "keep a record of all expenses" and "under no circumstances" use party money to pay for votes, the letter says.

Now they'll be sure to record them as "refreshment expenses."

Bras gone wild!

Just in time for Spring Break:

After years of reminding blokes that "our eyes are up here," someone's gone and invented a bra that seems to say "but my breasts are down here." In fact, since it's got LED lights mounted along the decolletage, it can say that quite literally, if you'd like it to.

Actually, it's one of those pesky performance art deals where the artistes figured to cash in on replicating it at $500+ per copy. My only question is whether it will short out in a wet t-shirt contest! If you aren't worried about shocks, they have other light up duds too.

I guess they call this job enrichment

From across the pond comes Bus driver sacked for playing PSP. That's a Sony PlayStation Portable game machine:

A bus driver has been sacked after passengers complained he was driving the bus while playing a portable games machine.

Steve Allcock was playing Grand Theft Auto on his PSP. Passengers could clearly hear the sound effects from the game while he drove the bus from Accrington to Blackburn in Lancashire. When the bus company received complaints it checked CCTV footage and spotted the driver with the games console wedged between his knees.

One unhappy customer told the Daily Record: "He was playing a Grand Theft Auto game and the screams of the characters being shot could be heard all around the bus.

It'd sure put me in a traveling mood.