Bent Corner

The Federal Communications Commission along with the Justice Department is taking the Janet Jackson Superbowl boobie incident to the U.S. Supreme Court. In case you have somehow forgotten, during the 2004 Superbowl halftime show, Janet Jackson’s right breast was momentarily exposed in what was later described as a wardrobe malfunction.

The FCC fined each CBS station broadcasting the Superbowl a $550,000 fine for indecency.  CBS understandably has been fighting the fines in court.  The Third Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the fines this past July.

This is one of those things that makes me embarrassed to be an American. When did we as a people decide that a woman’s exposed breast was indecent? It’s just a boob. Half the people in the world have (or at one time had) two of them. They are no more indecent then an elbow or a knee.

Remember that Missouri woman that pretended to be a 14-year old boy so that she could bully a vulnerable 13-year old neighborhood girl and it resulted in the girl killing herself? That woman is finally going to trial.

Lori Drew, 49, posed as a teenage boy named “Josh Evans” so that she could tease and humiliate Megan Meier. Megan had struggled for years with depression and school bullying. The woman’s daughter and Megan were friends until something happened between the two.

U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien said that one of Drew’s plans was to print out the conversations between “Josh Evans” and take it to Megan’s school and let people make fun of this depressed 13-year-old girl.

Missouri officials had earlier declined to charge Drew with any crime. Federal prosecutors in California claimed jurisdiction because MySpace has operations in Los Angeles County. She’s being charged with four different crimes including conspiracy. The Four charges each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Personally, I hope she gets the maximum and dies of colon cancer in prison.

From the The Patriot-News:

When Walter Andre Sharpe Jr. signed for a certified letter from Dauphin County Domestic Relations in 2001, he didn’t know he was signing on for a seven-year nightmare. Since then, the Philadelphia man has been thrown in jail four times, lost his job, become estranged from his four children and spent more than $12,000 to support the child of another man.

It finally stopped in May 2007 when a judge reversed a finding that he was the father. But the same judge has since ruled that Sharpe is not entitled to any compensation, not even the money he was forced to pay to support the child.

Sharpe’s attorney, Tabetha Tanner, said the county Domestic Relations office “stole” Sharpe’s identity by exchanging his date of birth, address and Social Security number for that of the father.

The agency fought Sharpe’s attempts to have DNA testing and said it determined he was the father “after reasonable investigation.”

Well, it certainly sucks to be Walter Sharpe. Not only did he have to pay $12,000 for a child that is not his, he wont be getting any of his money back. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of something like this happening. The courts almost never allow someone who paid child support to get their money back even when it has been determined that the child support was fraudulently taken.

Let this be a lesson that you should never sign for a certified letter. No good can come out of it.

I would imagine nearly cutting off your ex-wife’s head and getting away with it has got to give you a real feeling of imperiousness when it comes to the American justice system. If OJ Simpson thought that he could do anything and get away with it, he thought wrong.

He was found guilty on all charges in the robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas casino hotel room more than a year ago.  He now faces life in prison.

The irony in all this is that the verdict came down 13 years to the day after he was acquitted of killing Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Now that’s what I call karma. Technically though I think karma plays out it your next life.  I’m not Hindu or Catholic or Jehovah Witness, so I don’t really know.

Maybe this will finally settle the argument that what happens in Vagas doesn’t always stay in Vegas.  Then again, it looks like OJ will be spending the rest of his life in a Nevada prison, so maybe what happens in Vegas does in fact stay in Vegas.  Maybe they should change it to What happens in Vegas stays in a Nevada state prison.

It sucks to be OJ.

The worst commuter train crash in Los Angeles Metrolink history may have been caused by the engineer not paying attention because he was sending a text message. Robert Sanchez, the engineer that was driving the train when it ran a red light and hit an oncoming freight train, had sent a two line text message to Nick Williams, a teenage train enthusiast.

Evidently Sanchez befriended a group of teenage train enthusiasts and would teach them about trains. [Los Angeles Channel 2 News]

I blogged a while back about the time I tried to purchase a Sportster 5 Sirius satellite radio from my local Hagerstown Best Buy. I was paying cash. The person at the register refused to sell it to me unless I gave her my personal private information. I refused to do this so they refused to sell it to me. They told me that Sirius requires them to record the personal private information of anyone buying on of their radios.

I contacted Sirius and they informed me that this was not correct. There was no requirement to gather the personal information of the people that were buying their hardware.

The Best Buy employee lied.

There now appears to be one more reason not to give your personal information to an employee at Best Buy. Amanda Hopkins, a former Best Buy employee in New Mexico has been indicted by a grand jury on numerous felony counts of credit card fraud. She worked as a customer representative at Best Buy. Her duties were opening new accounts for customers. She obtained customer credit information and used the information make numerous purchases on their accounts.

Best Buy doesn’t trust their employees so why should you? Every Best Buy I have been to has a person standing the exit checking the receipts of customers that purchase high value items. The reason? They are afraid that the person who ran the sale did not charge the right amount. They worry that their employees with have friends or family members come in and buy something and they won’t charge the correct amount. Instead of scanning the iPod player or the Blu-Ray player, they’ll scan a DVD movie or a pack of gum.  By all appearences, it looks that you paid for what you were purchasing.

Two local residents were arrested and charged with drug crimes on Tuesday after the Washington County Narcotics Task force executed a search warrant at their home.  They found two pounds of pot, along with nine marijuana plants.

On January 31, 2008, Washington County law enforcement officers executed a search warrant in the home of Robert A. McKee.  They seized two computers, 30 videotapes, and printed materials from his home that officers described as being child pornography.  At the time of the search warrant and the discovery of child porn, McKee was an elected delegate to the Maryland House of Delegates.  He was also the executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County.

Robert McKee was not arrested.  Robert McKee has yet to be charged with any crimes.

I don’t understand how possessing marijuana causes you to be immediately arrested and charged with a crime, but possessing child pornography does not.  Which is worse, marijuana or child porn?

Robert McKee was forced to resign from the Maryland House of Delegates and from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County.

A month later.

The city of Denver is rolling out all the stops for the upcoming Democratic National Convention including a secret jail for unruly protesters.  What exactly would get a protester arrested in Denver?  My guess that a lot of protesters will be arrested for “resisting arrest” or some other equally trumped up charge.

The old warehouse located on city owned property features make shift jail cells constructed from chain link fencing and barbed wire. It supposedly will be able to process 60 arrestees an hour.

If this doesn’t make you feel proud to be an American, nothing will.  Let freedom ring!

Link

Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s former driver, was convicted of supporting terrorism, but he was acquitted of conspiracy to murder. He was sentenced to only 66 months. Since he has already been held down in Guantanamo Bay for 51 months, he technically could go free in five months.

A jury of six US military officers, and not a judge, imposed the sentence.

After Hamdan completes the rest of his sentence, he will still be considered to be an enemy combatant.

Hamdan admitted to working for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan from 1997 to 2001 as his driver. He made around $200 a month.