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Saturday, July 01, 2006
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This is just crazy. A New Orleans judge sentenced three people who looted liquor from a grocery store after Hurrican Katrina to 15 years in prison, saying he wanted to send a message.
They were convicted of attempting to leave the grocery with 27 bottles of liquor and wine, six cases of beer and one case of wine coolers, six days after Katrina made landfall. Little, McGowen and Pearson each testified that they were not looting, but they offered conflicting accounts of matters such as who drove to the store.
The looting law under which they were convicted had been in effect for two weeks. Compare their sentence to the year these men got for bribing a federal official in the aftermath of Katrina.
(Via TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime.)
6:54:49 PM 
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OK, so Justin said that first, but it's still fantastic news. But see if you can find the two obviously missing words in this article:
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Futurama" has a future.
Comedy Central has resurrected the former Fox animated series from "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. At least 13 new episodes will be produced -- the first since the series' original run from 1999-2003.
The new batch is part of a deal the cable network made with 20th Century Fox Television last year to pick up syndicated rights to the existing "Futurama" library of 72 episodes. Comedy Central also had an option to air any new episodes produced.
New and old episodes will begin airing in 2008 on Comedy Central. Actors Billy West, Katey Sagal and John DiMaggio have agreed to return as voices for "Futurama."
"We are thrilled that Matt Groening and 20th Century Fox Television have decided to produce new episodes of 'Futurama' and that Comedy Central will be the first to air them," said David Bernath, senior vice president for programming at the network.
"There is a deep and passionate fan base for this intelligent and very funny show that matches perfectly with our audience, and it is great that we can offer them not just the existing library but something they've never seen as well."
"Futurama" isn't the first series to return to air after cancellation. The Fox animated series "Family Guy" returned to the network last year after getting a second wind on DVD and late-night cable.
The missing words are Adult Swim .
It was Cartoon Network that built the audience for Futurama and Family Guy, and even Cartoon Network that helped get new Family Guy on the air. But with Futurama in the same position, Fox sold the new rights to Comedy Central, not to Cartoon Network.
(Different corporate parents: Cartoon Network was a Turner network, so it's owned by Time Warner. Comedy Central was a 50-50 venture of Time-Warner and Viacom, but a few years ago, Viacom bought out Time-Warner's interest.)
It's possible that Cartoon Network wouldn't pony up the bucks for new episodes, and in that case, I'm happy that Comedy Central did. But to not even mention Adult Swim in this is just wrong - Swim made it happen.
(Via Life and Deatherage.)
5:21:50 PM
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From last year: author John Scalzi deftly demonstrates why any Constitutional amendment allowing Congress to ban burning of the United States Flag will only make the people behind it look incredibly, incredibly stupid:
"Protecting" the flag with a Constitutional Amendment won't solve the not-at-all pressing problem of people burning flags for political protest. They'll still do it. They'll simply do it in ways that will now additionally mock the stupidity of those who love the symbol of American freedoms more than they love actual American freedoms. And no matter how expansively Congress defines "the American Flag" there will always be something that is not the flag, but is close enough in its shape and structure to feel just like the flag. And there will be the people who will use that not-quite-flag-like object to protest.
And you know what? Good for them. They're being better Americans than those who would pass a flag-burning Amendment. Real Americans don't take away the freedoms of other Americans.
I agree with one of Scalzi's commenters - I want that last sentence on a bumper sticker.
(Via Life and Deatherage.)
5:18:57 PM
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You probably know the size difference (in numbers) between Earth and the other planets, but if you’d like to see images and compare all, this is specially for you. As you can see on the image, Earth looks kind of small when compared to Jupiter…
But what if we include the Sun and compare all? This is the result
The difference becomes bigger if we talk about Arcturus, the third brightest star in the night sky - See the image
There is also Antares, one of the brightest stars in the night sky that makes the Earth look ridiculous - Check it yourself
Conclusion: The size of our world is small.
Images from Rense
 size, earth, jupiter, arcturus, antares
(Via Gadgetizer.com.)
3:51:40 PM
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Not surprisingly, Bush and his administration have broken all of them. But I bet Bush couldn't even them list them on a dare.
2:33:53 PM
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The book's opening anecdote tells of an unnamed CIA briefer who flew to Bush's Texas ranch during the scary summer of 2001, amid a flurry of reports of a pending al-Qaeda attack, to call the president's attention personally to the now-famous Aug. 6, 2001, memo titled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US." Bush reportedly heard the briefer out and replied: "All right. You've covered your ass, now." -- From "The Shadow War, In a Surprising New Light," a review of Ron Suskind's The One Percent Doctrine by Barton Gellman, in the Washington Post
(Via By Neddie Jingo!.)
12:06:15 PM
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Disgusting:
Two years ago the US military invited Mr Mujahid, a former Afghan police commander accused of plotting against the United States, to prove his innocence before a special military tribunal. As was his right, Mr Mujahid called four witnesses from Afghanistan.
But months later the tribunal president returned with bad news: the witnesses could not be found. Mr Mujahid's hopes sank and he was returned to the wire-mesh cell where he remains today.
The Guardian searched for Mr Mujahid's witnesses and found them within three days. One was working for President Hamid Karzai. Another was teaching at a leading American college. The third was living in Kabul. The fourth, it turned out, was dead. Each witness said he had never been approached by the Americans to testify in Mr Mujahid's hearing.
The case illustrates the egregious flaws that have discredited Guantánamo-style justice and which led the US supreme court to declare such trials illegal on Thursday in a major rebuke to the Bush administration. Mr Mujahid is one of 380 Guantánamo detainees whose cases were reviewed at "combatant-status review tribunals" in 2004 and 2005. The tribunals were hastily set up following a court ruling that the prisoners, having been denied all normal legal rights, should be allowed to prove their innocence. Ten of the hearings proceeded to full trials, including that of Osama bin Laden's aide, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who brought the successful supreme court appeal.
But by the time the review tribunals ended last year the US government had located just a handful of the requested witnesses. None was brought from overseas to testify. The military lawyers simply said they were "non-contactable".
That was not entirely true.
You cannot trust one word regarding anything the government touches. How much do you want to bet they didn't even fucking try?
Thanks to Eschaton commentor s mcfeverish robot slave.
(Via Rising Hegemon.)
9:35:38 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Steve Michel.
Last update: 8/1/2006; 8:55:01 AM.
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