The OccupyMN crew, having had their tents taken from them on Government Plaza, were going to move to US Bank Plaza — but they were thwarted by a group of power-washers that suddenly showed up and cordoned off most of the US Bank Plaza, right as they were gearing up to move their encampment there. The power-washers didn’t show any signs of leaving any time soon, either.

So, faced with the choice of setting up their tents on the narrow strip of sidewalk still open on the plaza, or making a bid to get some public space somehow, some of them chose to set up in the street — literally — and a few of them were arrested as a result. Per CityPages’ Jessica Lussenhop: Read the rest of this entry →

One of the crowning ironies of the for-profit prison hucksters is that the only way they can achieve their prime directive, turning a huge profit, is by pushing the law until it breaks (as happened recently when a judge ruled Florida’s prison privatization scheme to be unconstitutional, thus sending the share prices of jail-for-pay outfits CCA and the Geo Group into the tank) or lobbying their purchased legislators to make new laws and regulations designed to make criminals out of more and more people.

The latter route has been popular with many states. See, for instance, Minnesota, as described in this story from the Minnesota Independent (hat tip to Bluestem Prairie): Read the rest of this entry →

The New York Post, Rupert Murdoch’s chief American tabloid enterprise (yes, I know, the Wall Street Journal is still technically a broadsheet even after he bought it, but still), and purveyor of stinky turds posing as journalism, dropped a particularly, um, fragrant one the other day:

A well-respected lawyer in the state Attorney General’s Office spends her days toiling in securities fraud — and her nights moonlighting as a dominatrix, The Post has learned.

Alisha Smith, 36, who dresses demurely as a buttoned-down prosecutor, turns up the heat when she becomes perky persecutor “Alisha Spark,” a nom de dom she uses when she performs at S&M events for pay, according to a fetish source.

“They pay her to go to the events. She dominates people, restrains them and whips them,” the fetish source said.

[...]

Yesterday, she was removed from her duties — for which she earns $78,825 annually — after The Post inquired about her saucy S&M lifestyle.

“The employee has been suspended without pay, effective immediately, pending an internal investigation,” said a spokesman for state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

(Of course, if Smith and her boss were Republicans, she’d still be on the job, just like dominatrix customer Diaper Dave Vitter is still on the job — his “job” per his oil-industry bosses being to kill solar energy. But I digress.) Read the rest of this entry →

Henry's the one on the bottom

In the weeks following the Aug. 24 raid of Gibson’s Tennessee facilities, Juszkiewicz has portrayed himself as a poster boy for the excesses of government overreach in the age of Obama, channeling the palpable rage of the Tea Party-set by playing the victim of Uncle Sam’s proctology prowess.

Such rhetoric has apparently (wait for it) struck the right chord with Tennessee Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who has invited Juszkiewcz to sit in during President Obama’s jobs address before a joint session of Congress Thursday evening.

I won’t go into the fact that Marsha Blackburn voted for the very Lacey Act expansion that has tripped up Juszkiewicz, or the fact that no other major American guitar maker seems to have this much trouble following this law, which Gibson’s now been busted on twice. (For more of the facts on both actions against Gibson, click here.) Let’s just look at what Juszkiewicz’ own employees think of him, courtesy of GlassDoor.com: Read the rest of this entry →

That sound you just heard was millions of Americans saying “WHAT?!?”

Keith Olbermann just signed off MSNBC for good — and already folks are wondering if Comcast is behind this.

From the Guardian.co.uk: Keith Olbermann abruptly fired by NBC

Keith Olbermann, the controversial MSNBC cable news host, has his contract abruptly terminated by parent company NBC

Olbermann had two years of a four year contract remaining, worth an estimated $30m, and was the network’s highest rated personality, responsible in large part for MSNBC’s orientation as a liberal, Democratic-leaning channel.

[...]

The Associated Press reported that Phil Griffin, MSNBC’s president, would not comment on Olbermann’s sudden departure. But a spokesman did say that the acquistion of NBC Universal by cable and telecoms giant Comcast, which received regulatory approval this week, had nothing to do with the decision.

From Business Insider: So Why Did MSNBC Just Dump Keith Olbermann? Hint: COMCAST

Why now?
Bill Carter reports at the NYT that Olbermann “came to an agreement with NBC’s corporate management late this week to settle his contract and step down.”

“Late this week” suggests yesterday or today.

[...]

Next question: Is Comcast cleaning house? And if so, will Olbermann enabler MSNBC president Phil Griffin be next? And if so who will replace him?

What do you think?

One of the first fruits of the poison tree that is the Roberts Court’s Citizens United ruling is the creation of the business-funded group MN Forward, the allegedly "bipartisan" outfit whose actual political leanings may be divined by the following evidence: Its head honcho is none other than Brian McClung, who less than two months ago was the deputy chief of staff for Minnesota’s outgoing Republican governor Tim Pawlenty; and its first TV ads have been for Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, who is essentially Pawlenty without the mullet and even less humanity, which is of course why he (with teabagger support) beat out the somewhat less blatantly evil Marty Seifert for the Republican nomination, even though Seifert, the RPM’s favored candidate, was expected to walk away with the nod.

But a funny thing happened on the way to buying yet another corporate-friendly Republican governor. A couple of funny things, actually.

Read the rest of this entry →