smoking gun

This was only a matter of time:

TSA screener Rolando Negrin is facing assault charges in a case that involves the controversial, full body scanners being adopted in airports as part of increased security measures.

The images produced by the powerful x-ray scanners--detailed enough to show breast implants--have been compared to "virtual strip-searching."

Negrin reportedly passed through the screener during a training session on how to use the device, and the revealing x-ray image of him produced by the x-ray prompted teasing from coworkers, "who joked about the size of the man's genitalia," reports The Smoking Gun.

From The Smoking Gun:

"The X-ray revealed that [Negrin] has a small penis and co-workers made fun of him on a daily basis," reported cops. Following his arrest, Negrin told police that he "could not take the jokes anymore and lost his mind.

This case could turn into a great test of the legality of these scanners. I wonder if the ACLU is already contacting Negrin to offer him representation?

In case you have missed it there is a sudden shortage on aluminum foil. It has been bought up by wingnuts in order to prepare their latest hats.

I am talking about the case of a British university’s server being hacked and approximately 160mb of data and email being leaked. The server that was hacked was of prominent climate change researchers:

The computer files were apparently accessed earlier this week from servers at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, a world-renowned centre focused on the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change.

Climate change sceptics who have studied the emails allege they provide "smoking gun" evidence that some of the climatologists colluded in manipulating data to support the widely held view that climate change is real, and is being largely caused by the actions of mankind.

This has got the wingnuts fired up and pulling out zingers like this:

— “If you own any shares in alternative energy companies I should start dumping them NOW,” says the Telegraph’s James Delingpole.

Get ready for the newest chapter in right wing lunacies – the “art fraud” chapter.  Malkin and her minions are on a rampage over what they consider to be “fraudulent art” in the White House.  Here is their smoking gun:

The artist is Alma Thomas and the piece is called “Watusi”. As Malkin can’t help but point out, Thomas is a African America (oohhh shudder).

They are saying that Thomas’ pieces is a copy Henri Matisse’s “L’Escargot” (the snail):

Wow now they do look very similar indeed. As matter of fact they could be the same thing, but only different. Good for Malkin for exposing this this fraud! Let’s take a look at Thomas a little more and see what they say about this fraud:

Well on the My Yahoo/The Smoking Gun module, this is how they show it:

So it's Hillary Clinton's campaign and the adviser is Sidney Blumenthal so they put a picture up of Bill. Very interesting choice there.

One thing is for certain - Bush has used the federal government as a political pawn more than any other President. Here is even more proof of it:

During a whirlwind five-hour trip to bolster an endangered GOP congressman's reelection prospects, White House political guru Karl Rove last week delivered a fiery speech to 500 party activists, then shook every available hand and posed for snapshots like a rock star. He toured suburbs recently trashed by a snowstorm. He also found time to huddle with local strategists.

But the most significant element of Rove's effort to help four-term Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds keep his job may have occurred behind closed doors, when the White House strategist met with a federal disaster relief official contemplating how to respond to the storm. Four days later, Reynolds announced that President Bush would authorize millions of dollars in federal disaster aid for the area.

That is not the key part however. Further down in the article you get to the smoking gun:

Instead, Rove is giving a virtuoso performance designed to prevent the Democrats from taking control of the House and Senate or, if that is no longer possible, to hold down the size of the Democratic victory to make it easier for the GOP to come back in 2008. His plan is three-pronged: to reenergize any conservatives who may be flagging; to make sure the GOP's carefully constructed campaign apparatus is functioning at peak efficiency; and to put the resources of the federal government to use for political gain.

(emphasis mine).

Our first Freaky Friday stop this week comes compliments of The Smoking Gun, where we learn a California man is suing a sperm bank for a hidden camera he found in one of their donor rooms:

Claiming that he found a video camera hidden in the ceiling of a sperm bank's "donation room," a Los Angeles man is suing the firm for negligence and emotional distress. Ken Rigberg, 27, charges that he discovered the pinhole camera during a June 2005 visit to Pasadena's Pacific Reproductive Services. According to Rigberg's Los Angeles Superior Court complaint, a copy of which you'll find below, he "noticed an unusual hole in the ceiling tile" of a private donation room, where he had just finished masturbating into a cup. Upon inspection, Rigberg realized that "there was a hidden surveillance camera on top of the ceiling tile, with the lens of the camera positioned to...capture the activity within the private donor room." Rigberg is described in the lawsuit as a "regular sperm donor" who went to Pacific "to provide an honorable and essential benefit to his community."

Because as we all know, sperm and cameras only belong together on the internet.

Now to Denver where Peter Coors, the CEO of Coors Brewery fell victim to the effect of his own product:

Beer baron Peter Coors' driver's license has been revoked by a hearing officer who ruled the executive had been driving under the influence of alcohol, officials said.

Hearing officer Scott Garber ruled Friday that Coors did not stop at a stop sign on May 28 and was driving intoxicated.

Coors, 59, said he had consumed a beer about 30 minutes before leaving a wedding, the Rocky Mountain News reported Saturday. He faces a July 20 arraignment and has 30 days to appeal the revocation.

"I made a mistake. I should have planned ahead for a ride," Coors said in a statement. "For years, I've advocated the responsible use of our company's products."

Coors' spokeswoman, Kabira Hatland, said Coors was charged with driving while under the influence. Coors' lawyer, Steve Higgens, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Will he go through AA and have to condemn the own product that has made his family famous? This could lead to a very interesting dilemma for Peter Coors.

After reading

Murray Waas's article a couple times, I think this could become the "smoking
gun" that proves Bush & Co. lied our nation into war. Just take the closing of
the article as an example:

Those grievances were also perhaps illustrated by comments that Vice
President Cheney himself wrote on one of Feith's reports detailing purported
evidence of links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. In barely legible
handwriting, Cheney wrote in the margin of the report:

"This is very good indeed … Encouraging … Not like the crap we are all so
used to getting out of CIA."

Just by the tone of Cheney's side note you can tell he was becoming impatient
with the CIA reports. They weren't saying what he wanted to hear - Saddam had
direct ties to al Qaeda and September 11.

The CIA report detailed in the article goes along the lines of something I
have always believed:

One of the more intriguing things that Bush was told during the briefing
was that the few credible reports of contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda
involved attempts by Saddam Hussein to monitor the terrorist group. Saddam
viewed Al Qaeda as well as other theocratic radical Islamist organizations
as a potential threat to his secular regime. At one point, analysts
believed, Saddam considered infiltrating the ranks of Al Qaeda with Iraqi
nationals or even Iraqi intelligence operatives to learn more about its
inner workings, according to records and sources.

Via the

Associated Press

DeLay Appears in Houston for Booking

Rep. Tom DeLay turned himself Thursday in at the Harris County sheriff's
bonding office, where he was photographed, fingerprinted and released on
bond on state conspiracy and money laundering charges.

"He posted $10,000 bond and they have left the bonding office," Lt. John
Martin with the sheriff's department said.

DeLay, accompanied by his attorney, Dick DeGuerin, showed up about 12:15
p.m., appeared before a judge and was gone in less than 30 minutes, Martin
said.

The appearance came a day after a state court issued an arrest warrant
for DeLay and set an initial bail, a routine step before the Texas
Republican's first court appearance Friday in Austin.

He had been expected to appear for booking in Bend County, but went to
Houston instead. Under Texas law he could check in anywhere in the state

How soon before we get mug shots via The Smoking Gun? I want a framed copy of
one.