Yet another story of ILLEGAL immigrants dying due to heat-related dying due to heat-related illnesses. This is becoming almost a daily occurrence. Read through the back articles of this blog if you want to know my stance on this issue. Zonitics shares a similar opinion.

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Just when the Catholic Church scandal is starting to fade from the front page of every newspaper in America, along comes something like this.

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Steve Earle's song about John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban," has stirred up a lot of emotion here in the blogosphere. However, the reason I dismissed it as quickly as I did was the source of the story - The New York Post. The Post put such a spin on the story that it would only anger those that would normally be offended by something like that. However, the Post is known for doing just that, and is really not a good source of hard news. Two words come to mind - BUSH KNEW. Yes, that's where that headline came from. Their regional sports coverage is great, however.

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UPDATE: Cocaine has been found in John Entwistle's bloodstream.

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I thought I saw this on The Drew Carey Show.

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Somebody tried to file suit against Vice President Cheney for his dealings with Halliburton, but he decided that it was OK to pull rank:

A group suing Vice President Dick Cheney says it was rebuffed by the White House when it tried to provide legal notification to the vice president about the lawsuit.

Judicial Watch said its process server was threatened with arrest by the Secret Service on Monday after the server telephoned the White House from one of the outside gates and was unable to find anyone who would accept a copy of the lawsuit.

Judicial Watch alleges fraudulent accounting practices at Halliburton Corp., the company Cheney ran for five years. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the oil service firm's accounting for construction project overruns.

Cheney counselor Mary Matalin called Judicial Watch's announcement Friday about the process server a ''PR stunt'' and said the vice president's private attorney would have accepted the legal papers.

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After bankrupting the federal coffers, the Clintons now want the taxpayers to pay their legal bills.

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How many children are going to disappear this summer? Or is the media just taking notice this time? Today we're in St. Louis, where authorities found the body of 6-year old Casey Williamson.

Cassandra Williamson was reported missing Friday morning from her father's home. Police said the suspect, a 24-year-old local transient who had slept on the couch, later told them the girl's body was at an abandoned glass factory a few blocks away.

Late Friday night, Cassandra's parents went to the crime scene and identified the body, said James McCrady, a St. Louis County Medical Examiner's Office investigator. The parents, hugging and crying, later were chauffered away behind the coroner's van carrying their daughter's body.

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The first stage of the president's homeland security package has passed the House. Now it's on to the Senate.

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If this says what I think it does, is Congress proposing that the recording industry be able to LEGALLY hack my computer in search of downloaded MP3 files? Intellectual property is one thing, but there's something called security which Congress and the entertainment have conveniently overlooked in their quest for cash. My advice to anyone who has MP3s on their hard drive - get a good firewall and keep it up.

Slashdot has also commented on this story:

Although the bill wouldn't allow copyright owners to alter or delete files on your machine, they would be allowed to DoS you in essentially any other way. Let me restate that: the MPAA and RIAA are asking that they be allowed to perform what would otherwise be federal and state criminal acts and civil torts, and you will have essentially no remedy against them under any laws of the United States.

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The House voted to expel Representative James Traficant mainly due to his conviction on bribery and racketeering charges. The cable talk shows may never be the same, unless he wins re-election.

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Gleaned from an article on immigration in the WaPo:

Sgt. Joe Gentile, a spokesman for D.C. police, noted that D.C. residents are not required to carry identification in public.

And this is in the city where our government is housed. Hrm.

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Zacarias Moussaoui is apparently now NOT pleading guilty.

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UPDATE: They have arrested two suspects in the Erica Pratt kidnapping case.

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A man is suing the fast-food chains, saying that they are responsible for his obesity.

Caesar Barber, 56, said Thursday that the fast-food chains — McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC — were responsible for his girth and heart attacks he had in 1996 and 1999.

“I thought when they said 100 percent beef they meant it,” the 272-pound Barber said. “I thought the food was OK.”

Barber — who says he suffers from diabetes, as well as high blood pressure and cholesterol — said if he knew fast food was unhealthy he would never have eaten it.

His attorney, Samuel Hirsch, said the restaurants are responsible for Barber’s poor health because each deceived his client into believing the food he was consuming was healthy. The restaurants, Hirsch said, should list ingredients on their menus.

“There is direct deception when someone omits telling people food digested is detrimental to their health,” Hirsch said, adding that the case is similar to those filed against the tobacco industry.

In those cases, cigarette makers were found to have purposefully withheld information that showed smoking posed a health risk.

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If you didn't catch Samantha Runnion's funeral on television last night, you missed one of the most moving services I have ever seen. The Register has some pretty good coverage of the event. Check out the key speeches and photos, if you're interested.

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Court TV reports of what can happen when two people REALLY want that parking space: (via Protein Wisdom)

An argument between two handicapped men over a hospital parking space escalated when one man whipped out a sword, prompting the other to pull out a gun.

Lee Damron, 48, was arrested for aggravated assault on March 13 for his bizarre and menacing behavior, authorities said.

Eyewitnesses in the crowded parking lot of Oak Hill Hospital told police that at about 3 p.m., Damron pulled near a disabled parking space, which was partially blocked by another car. Richard Cavalier, 59, the driver of the other car, had an appointment and had partly pulled into the space so that he and his wife could get his wheelchair out. Cavalier indicated to Damron that he planned to park in the spot, but Damron kept honking and eventually took the spot anyway.

Profanities were exchanged, followed by Damron stepping out of the car, holding onto a black cane with a golden snake head. Bystanders looked on with amazement as Damron then unsheathed a sword from the cane and proceeded to approach Cavalier. Cavalier immediately pulled out a 9mm handgun from the car and raised it slowly. Damron turned and ran through the hospital's sliding doors.

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From the IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN DEPARTMENT: I have finally reached the point of technical support burnout. After what seems years of doing technical support with not much advancement in my career, I've finally burned out doing my job. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and learn how to write code.

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The Erica Pratt kidnapping may have been motivated by drug and gang activity.

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No posts today, as I am celebrating my 40th birthday.

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