Thought Crimes? Oh Really

There is a story making the rounds you can expect to see the religious right latch onto in their desperate attempts to paint the pending Hate Crimes Legislation as something that will make “thoughts” illegal. They’re even calling it the “Thought Crimes” Bill. This is about the case of a 16-year-old teen in Crystal Lake, Illinois who was arrested for passing out a flyer?

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Miracle on DOJ Street

Steve Benen, in a post at Crooks and Liars makes an excellent point about the U.S. Attorney firings. It seems that all these high ranking Justice Department officials have been asked who created the list of the U.S. Attorneys to be fired, and none of them know. I guess given Bush’s divine dispensation, it just floated down from heaven.

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Good Old Fashioned Christian Morality

Campbell County authorities arrested a Liberty University student for having several homemade bombs in his car. The student, 19-year-old Mark D. Uhl of Amissville, Va., reportedly told authorities that he was making the bombs to stop protesters from disrupting the funeral service.

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Your Papers Please.

The Department of Homeland Security will move forward with plans to implement the REAL ID Act despite widespread opposition from citizens and state legislatures. But DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said Tuesday that even the states which have already passed laws or resolutions against the act would eventually come around and implement the national identification standards, because the citizens who now oppose it would start demanding it.

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Civil Penalties if Authorities Merely Misinterpret Your Intentions

Sen. Kennedy’s bill, S. 735, the so-called Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007. The act would, among other things, attach civil liability to anyone whose actions were misinterpreted by authorities as being a hoax and who didn’t immediately notify those authorities about the actual nature of the incident.

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D.C. Madame, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, One Smart Cookie

This is gonna be a lot of fun to watch. Pamela Martin says she wasn’t a pimp, but ran a legitimate and legal escort service. The government, it appears, has not gone after a single one of her johns (wonder why), so she’s going to illicit their help in her defense.

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Religious Right Uses VA Tech Killings to Slam Gays

Special place in hell for these homophobes. Ex-“American Family Association” attorney Joe Murray rips the religious right for their un-Christian level of hate. Joe’s article is brilliant and difficult to excerpt, so here’s a large chunk – read the entire thing:

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VA Tech Shootings-My Perspective

Let me start by extending my heartfelt sympathy to the students and staff at VA Tech, and the parents and friends of all those killed and injured in that horrible string of events. It is something that will certainly give us pause, and hopefully cause us to once again reflect on fragility of life.

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