Unequal protection under the law

On Thursday, the House ethics committee recommended that Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) be censured for failing to pay taxes on income he received from a vacation villa in the Dominican Republic. A slap on the wrist, and he gets to stay in office.

Contrast that with the case of Wesley Snipes. The actor was convicted in 2008 on three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file his income tax returns. He has just been sentenced to three years in prison. That's three years of his life taken away for not turning in a form that in essence violates the Fifth Amendment's prohibition against self-incrimination.

There should be equal protection under the law, which means everyone, including Hollywood actors and 20-term congressmen, should be treated the same. But, as Orwell pointed out, some are considered more equal than others.

Barack Obama: Protector of the Innocent

President Obama, speaking in India, reminded his audience that "nothing ever justifies the slaughter of innocent men, women and children." Unless, of course, they are considered collateral damage in undeclared, preemptive wars.

TSA agents molesting kids in public

Former Joint Chiefs chairman: Iraq war 'fiasco' due to Rumsfeld’s 'lies'

(Raw Story) - The US had no reason to invade Iraq in 2003, and only did so because of "a series of lies" told to the American people by the Bush administration, says Gen. Hugh Shelton, who served for four years as the US's top military officer.

Shelton, who was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1997 to 2001, makes the comment in Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior, a soon-to-be-published memoir reviewed at Foreign Policy by Thomas E. Ricks.

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Man claiming police corruption has home searched

(Lake County Leader) - Outspoken Lake County Sheriff's Office critic Terry Leonard was served a search warrant Thursday afternoon by the very department he has claimed is corrupt.

"It's a bullying tactic," Leonard said Friday afternoon.

The 2 p.m. search of his Polson residence resulted in the seizure of computers, electronic storage devices and printed e-mails, Lake County attorney Mitch Young said.

"It is an ongoing investigation," he said. "I can't go into any specifics at this time."

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Firefighters watch as home burns to the ground

OBION COUNTY, Tenn. (WPSD) - Imagine your home catches fire but the local fire department won't respond, then watches it burn. That's exactly what happened to a local family tonight.

A local neighborhood is furious after firefighters watched as an Obion County, Tennessee, home burned to the ground.

The homeowner, Gene Cranick, said he offered to pay whatever it would take for firefighters to put out the flames, but was told it was too late. They wouldn't do anything to stop his house from burning.

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U.S. apologizes for '40s syphilis study in Guatemala

WASHINGTON (AP) - American scientists deliberately infected prisoners and patients in a mental hospital in Guatemala with syphilis 60 years ago, a recently unearthed experiment that prompted U.S. officials to apologize Friday and declare outrage over "such reprehensible research."

The discovery dredges up past wrongs in the name of science - like the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study in this country that has long dampened minority participation in medical research - and could complicate ongoing studies overseas that depend on cooperation from some of the world's poorest countries to tackle tough-to-treat diseases.

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Happy Constitution Day!

Who's to blame for the oil spill?

The federal government, of course. The incompetent fools in Washington provided erroneous information regarding the threat of a potential spill, they wouldn't allow BP to drill in shallower water where a spill could be better contained, and they won't allow local communities to do what is necessary to do to clean up or minimize damage from the spill.



The real reason the feds are capitalizing on this tragedy is the same reason they capitalize on every tragedy: more money and more power. Look for Obama to try to use this to push through carbon taxes, cap and trade, and more government control over the oil industry.

Human experimentation part of Washington's torture program

WASHINGTON (NY Times) - Medical professionals who were involved in the Central Intelligence Agency's interrogations of terrorism suspects engaged in forms of human research and experimentation in violation of medical ethics and domestic and international law, according to a new report from a human rights organization.

Doctors, psychologists and other professionals assigned to monitor the C.I.A.'s use of waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other "enhanced" interrogation techniques gathered and collected data on the impact of the interrogations on the detainees in order to refine those techniques and ensure that they stayed within the limits established by the Bush administration's lawyers, the report found. But, by doing so, the medical professionals turned the detainees into research subjects, according to the report, which is scheduled to be published on Monday by Physicians for Human Rights.

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Crime scene investigator found guilty of evidence tampering sentenced

CASS COUNTY, Neb. (KETV 7) - David Kofoed, the disgraced former Douglas County chief crime scene investigator, has been sentenced to 20 months to four years for evidence tampering.

Judge Randall Rehmeier of Cass County District Court handed down the sentence at 4:36 p.m. Tuesday.

Rehmeier cited Kofoed's lack of remorse and the seriousness of the crime just before delivering the sentence.

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St. Paul police officer arrested on suspicion of violating protection order

ST PAUL, Minn. (St. Paul Pioneer Press) - A St. Paul police officer was arrested Friday on suspicion of violating a protection order placed against him by a fellow officer and former lover.

"A preliminary investigation indicates that Louis Ferraro engaged in on-going contact with his victim in person, by phone, and via other electronic communications," a police spokesman said in a written statement.

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Former U.S. special counsel charged with contempt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. official in charge of protecting whistle-blowers during the Bush administration has been charged with withholding information from Congress, according to court records filed on Thursday.

Scott Bloch, former head of the Office of Special Counsel, was under investigation by federal authorities and a House of Representatives committee over allegations he mistreated employees and obstructed justice by deleting files from his office computer in 2006.

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IRS agent didn't report $41,842 in eBay sales

(Bloomberg) - An Internal Revenue Service agent was found liable for back taxes and penalties for not reporting income on nearly 2,000 transactions on EBay Inc., the online auction site, according to the U.S. Tax Court.

Andrea Fabiana Orellana failed to report $41,842 in income in 2004 and 2005 from sales of designer clothing, shoes and other items, according to a Tax Court summary opinion. Orellana is liable for $12,428 in unpaid taxes and $2,486 in penalties.

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