Point a Camera At a Cop

And in three states, at least, you can go to jail.

That would very much be a "content-sensitive" prosecution. As the writer noted, they are not going to prosecute someone for taking video of a cop rescuing somebody. It is only when the cops are engaged in some degree of police fuckery that these laws are going to come into play.

Massachusetts, Illinois, and Maryland ought to be ashamed of themselves.

So, is Maryland going to prosecute the person who shot the video of a bunch of badged-up thugs in Prince George's County beating up a college kid?

The badged-up thugs walking our streets ought to try and remember, from time to time, that they are not part of the KGB. They apparently intend to break the law quite frequently, otherwise why enforce such a statute?

Out of Touch

I had the Weather Channel on to catch the forecast. Al Roker mentioned that the Today Show will have some dude named Justin Beaver and that the have a huge crowd waiting outside of Rockefeller Center to see him.

I presume that Beaver is the latest no-talent teen-aged heartthrob.

The Fuckery of the Obama Administration; BP Edition

Could the Administration be any further in bed with BP?

Coast Guard officials told ABC News that BP refused to allow them to release the more startling images, arguing they were proprietary. But at the time, the agency was doing little to convey to the world what the images were showing. Coast Guard Admiral Mary Landry was sticking with estimates, calculated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which put the spill's size at about 5,000 barrels a day for several weeks. Coast Guard officials said they were focused on the response, and advised the public not to worry about just how much oil was pouring into the water.

At this point, Dick Cheney is probably raising a glass of his favorite vintage of "Blood of Virgin Girls" and toasting the Obama Administration for continuing his policy of being one with the oil industry.

After all, the government has basically given BP the ability to control the police and to try to keep reporters and photographers away from oil-soaked beaches and animals.

It's time this fuckery ends. If we had wanted an administration that was in bed with the oil industry, we would have elected Grandpa McCain and Bible Spice. The people that the Obama Administration is looking out for are not the people who voted for him, who would ever vote for him or who would give him a lot of money. I know that I gave Chimpy a lot of grief for always pandering to his base and most of the time I'm glad that Obama seems to see himself as president of the country rather than, as Chimpy did, president of only his political supporters, but jeez! Obama does need to have a care of those of us that brung him.

He needs to have a thought for those of us who are not part of the oil industry and who voted and gave money and worked to put him where he is now; the same people who are appalled at the cavalier attitude towards safety that British Petroleum has made part of its corporate culture. Jon Stewart pointed out the other night that if Exxon were to have a safety record that was seventy times worse than it is now, BP would still be ten times as worse as Exxon.

I don't know why President Obama has been so willing to hook up with BP on this. Somebody needs to go into the Oval Office and give him a dope slap.

Wake the fuck up, Barry. Those guys are not your friends and they never will be.

So,...

I'm sitting here, watching the season premiere of Burn Notice, and they ran a commercial for some drug called "Lyrica". They went into the side effects and about the first ones were "depression, suicidal thoughts or actions."

Right. If you take Lyrica and you go to blow your brains out, don't forget to call your doctor!

Go TacAir!

This little nugget has been floating around for a very long time. It may even to back to the Vietnam War.

Whatever, it's still fun.

General of the Air Force
Washington, DC

Dear Sir,

I am writing this letter in the hope that you can provide me with some information.
I would like to become a fighter pilot and wondered if you could recommend some course of study that will help me achieve my goal. I am in very good condition and have excellent eyesight. I am sure I can be a fighter pilot but I need to get a little head start on some courses to study.
I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
D.J. Wingnut
-------

Dear DJ,

Obviously, through no fault of your own, your young, impressionable brain has been poisoned by the superfluous, hyped-up, "Top Gun" media portrayal of fighter pilots. Unfortunately, this portrayal could not be further from the truth. In my experience, I've found most fighter pilots pompous, back-stabbing, momma's boys with inferiority complexes, as well as being extremely over-rated aeronautically. However, rather than outright dash your budding dreams of becoming a fighter pilot, I offer the following alternative.

What you REALLY want to aspire to is the exiting, challenging, and rewarding world of TACTICAL AIRLIFT. And this, young DJ, means one thing-the venerable, workhorse C-130!

I can guarantee no fighter pilot can brag that he has led a 12-ship formation down a valley at 300 ft above the ground, while trying to interpret a 9-line to a new DZ, avoiding pop-up threats, and coordinating with AWACS, all while eating a box lunch, with the engineer in the back taking a piss and the navigator puking in his trash can! I tell you, DJ, TAC Airlift is where it's at. Where else is it legal to throw tanks, HMMWVs, and other crap out the back of an airplane, and not even worry about it when the chute doesn't open and it crushes the General's staff car! No where else can you land on a 3000' dirt strip, kick a bunch of ammo and stuff off the ramp without even stopping, then take off again before range control can call to tell you you've landed on the wrong LZ!

And talk about exotic travel-when C-130s go somewhere, they GO somewhere (usually for 3 months, unfortunately). This gives you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the culture enough to give any local population a bad taste in their mouths, not something those strat-lift pilots can do from their airport hotel rooms!

As far as recommendations for your course of study, I offer these: Take a lot of math courses. You will need all the advanced math skills you can muster to facilitate the calculation of per diem rates around the world, and when trying to split up the crew's bar tab so that the co-pilot really believes he owes 85% of the whole thing.

Health sciences are important, too. You will need a thorough knowledge of biology to make those educated guesses of how much longer you can drink beer before the tremendous case of the shits catches up to you from that meal you ate at that place that had the belly dancers in some God-forsaken foreign country whose name you can't even pronounce!

Social studies are also beneficial. It is important for a good TAC Airlifter to have the cultural knowledge to be able to ascertain the exact location of the nearest titty bar in any country in the world, then be able to convince the local authorities to release the loadmaster after he offends every sensibility of the local religion and culture.

A foreign language is helpful, but not required. You will never be able to pronounce the names of the NAVAIDs in France, and it's much easier to ignore them and go where you want to anyway.

A study of geography is also paramount. You will need to know the basic location of all the places you've been when you get back from your TDY and are ready to stick those little pins in that huge world map you've got taped to you living room wall, right next to that gigantic wooden giraffe statue and beer stein collection.

Well, DJ, I hope this little note inspires you. And by the way, forget about that Academy thing. All TAC Airlifters know that there are waaay too few women and too little alcohol there to provide a well-balanced education. A nice, big state college would be a much better choice.

Good luck and see you on the SKE scope!
Maj. Hunter

Boston Weather

Smokey.

I Am Shocked, Shocked, to Learn That....

BP is allegedly only doing the bare minimum to stop the deep-sea gusher and clean up the oil that they think they can get away with.

The dispersant that they are using, Corexit, is reputedly the most toxic one available. So BP is deliberately poisoning the Gulf of Mexico in order to make sure that the oil is less visible. The oil is still there.

Robert Reich has been writing about why it may be necessary to take over BP for the short term. His blog is worth reading.

On a lighter note, the Daily Show is back and this was their lead item:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Spilling Fields
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

And their second story:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Cenac - The Spilling Fields - Oil Leak Containment Ideas
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

mASSport Is a Friend of General Aviation?

That's what AOPA says, based on this article about KORH:

Massport would like to attract more airlines, but the authority’s initial effort will be to promote general aviation, [Airport Manager Andrew] Davis said — namely providing services for corporate jets and planes carrying sports teams.

I've had some little experience with Massport before. For Massport to be considered to be "general aviation friendly", then "unfriendly to general aviation" would involve the use of surface-to-air missiles. There was nothing in the article to suggest that Massport is interested in seeing any aircraft fly into KORH which are smaller than a G-IV or a BBJ. On the contrary, Massport's unofficial policy for a very long time has been to discourage piston-engined airplanes from flying into their airports.

Beyond that, what chowderhead there is trying to market KORH as an alternative airport to anyone flying into Boston? Besides Logan Airport (KBOS), there are three airports close to Rt. 128: Bedford Airport (KBED), a former fighter base that is capable of taking very large jets, while Beverly Airport (KBVY) and Norwood Airport (KOWD) can handle smaller jets.[1]

KORH is a long way from downtown Boston. The only people who are going to choose to fly into KORH to go to downtown Boston are those who are too stupid to read a map.

[1]There was an airport that would have been perfect, the old South Weymouth Naval Air Station with a long runway, but the asswipes in the Commonwealth closed it as soon as the Navy left in 1997 and as far as I know, nobody's done shit with it since.

Gaza Blockade

Three thoughts worth a read: Galrain, Stratfor and Galrain's thoughts on that.

BP; the "P" Stands for "Poisoning"

As a general note here, can we all agree to stop using the term "leak" to describe what is going on?

It's not a leak, it's a frakking gusher. At 25,000 barrels or so of oil a day, that is over a million gallons of oil a day. That's not a leak. That's roughly like filling two Olympic-sized swimming pools with oil each day and dumping them into the Gulf of Mexico, and then adding several tons of toxic chemicals to break up the oil.

Oh, that's right. BP CEO Tony "I would like my life back" Hayward says that the reason that the fisherman working to clean up the oil are getting sick is because they are eating bad food, not because BP's dispersant is poisoning them.

"I'm sure they were genuinely ill, but whether it was anything to do with dispersants and oil, whether it was food poisoning or some other reason for them being ill," Hayward said. "You know, food poisoning is clearly a big issue when you have a concentration of this number of people in temporary camps, temporary accommodation. It's something we have to be very, very mindful of. It's one of the big issues of keeping the army operating. You know, armies march on their stomachs."

It's about time that we consider using Grabthar's Hammer on BP. It is clear that they went into drilling a well this deep with little thought or planning for what to do if the well failed. It is also clear that BP seems to be continually amazed that anybody gives a shit about both what they have done and what they have failed to do.

Oh, and while I am on the subject of the environmental fuckery of the oil companies, it may be worth paying attention to the large-scale and long-term pollution of the Niger delta by Exxon/Mobil, Shell and other companies.