Michael Savage, the incendiary radio host who last week characterized nearly every child with autism as “a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out,” said in a telephone interview on Monday that he stood by his remarks and had no intention of apologizing to those advocates and parents who have called for his firing over the matter.

Now main stream media as we know likes to speak before they think. And I think this is the case... should he be fired, NO, thats why we have the freedom to speak our minds... but I think the war on stupidity is far from over...

Late Monday afternoon, Aflac, the insurance company, announced it was withdrawing all advertising from Mr. Savage's show. "We understand that radio hosts pick on any number of targets," Laura Kane, a company spokeswoman, said in a statement, before adding that Aflac considered "his recent comments about autistic children to be both inappropriate and insensitive.”

So now he has lost $$$ for his show and I am 100% positive someone else will pick up the slack... But I really think that it is funny that misinformed people get paid to say anything about everything... Kind of makes me want to start a magazine called, "Modern Jackass," and Mr. Savage would be on the August Ed....

:P

Modern Jackass: Savage Stands by Autism Remarks

The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.

But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong s Ming Pao newspaper.

Funny... Read on...

Free Tibet flags made in China

The Bush administration last week filed responses to a federal magistrate judge's questions relating to ongoing litigation over what critics say is thousands of missing e-mails. Administration lawyers submitted a 22-page legal brief and a 7-page declaration from Theresa Payton, CIO of the White House's Office of Administration. The brief strenuously objected to the demands of the lead plaintiff, the National Security Archive (which filed suit alongside Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), that special measures be taken to preserve hard drives and removable media that could be useful in future forensic efforts to retrieve e-mails.

White House insists it has e-mail recovery under control

Congressional Quarterly (03/09/08); Harkness, Peter

Governing magazine Editor and Publisher Peter Harkness reports there is concern that the federal government is attempting to dictate what policies states, counties, and cities must follow to meet national challenges rather than letting lower-level governments pursue such goals independently. "The White House intergovernmental office is a sham--a purely political operation manned by junior aides whose sole interest is promoting the administration's policies, and not at all about working with state or local officials to solve problems," Harkness writes. "Washington lobbyists now are working for more centralization, with the idea that their industries can cut a better deal at the federal level and avoid a patchwork of statutes and regulations." National League of Cities Director Don Borut calls this trend a move toward "coercive federalism," while the federal government also desires more authority but less responsibility for covering the bill. But Harkness says states are fighting back, and federal officials have been yielding on many key issues mainly because the states have the political imperative. For example, the U.S. Education Department has become more flexible in dealing with the No Child Left Behind law because a lawsuit from school districts claiming that states cannot be forced to do all the required testing unless Washington pays for it has been revived by a federal appeals court, and also because more and more of the Republican suburban base is unfavorably disposed toward the law. (www.cq.com)

States and Localities: 'Shift-and-Shaft' Federalism

CQ MoneyLine reports a 17 percentage point decline on average in donations by the top 10 corporate PACs to Republican candidates during the first 11 months of 2007 from the two years prior to the 2004 presidential election. During the previous election cycle, these PACs donated most of their money to Republican candidates. Despite the decline in funding to Republicans, the report indicates that concerns about business issues have prevented most of them from shifting their donations entirely to the Democrats. Only Bank of America Corp., Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc., and General Electric Co.'s PACs have made such a move.(www.cq.com)
This story appeared in a recent issue of Public Affairs News Monitor. Click here to read the entire issue.

REPS get less in '07 ...

A University of Tennessee coed had a terrifying encounter when she found a convicted rapist hiding under her bed.

Police charged 31-year-old Jason Paul Tims with aggravated burglary.

Investigators said Tims snuck into the apartment of a UT Martin student, and hid under her bed until she fell asleep.

Then, police said Tims sat with the girl and ignored her commands to leave. Police said she eventually got Tims outside the apartment.

Wednesday morning, Tims was being held without bond.

Monster Under Bed Has New Meaning For College Student

Israeli police are on the lookout for a thief with a super-sized chocolate craving.

The robbers broke into a factory in the northern Israeli city of Haifa late Monday and walked away with nearly 100 tons of chocolate spread.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said such a large heist indicated it may have been an inside job and police were searching the area of any traces of the sweet stuff.

Moshe Veidberg, one of the company's owners, told the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot it would require five large trucks to transport the stolen chocolate, which he valued at roughly $415,000.

He said the company's alarm system was deactivated and its surveillance footage stolen as well, leaving the fate of the creamy chocolate a mystery.

Police Searching For 100 Tons Of Stolen Chocolate

A woman accused of groping Santa Claus at a Connecticut mall won't have to serve any jail time if she stays out of trouble.

Sandrama Lamy has been sentenced under an accelerated rehabilitation program that will wipe her record clean if she completes two years of probation.

Danbury Superior Court Judge Susan Reynolds on Wednesday also ordered the 33-year-old to stay away from the Danbury Fair Mall.

In December, Lamy was charged with fourth-degree sexual assault and breach of peace for allegedly touching Santa inappropriately while sitting on his lap at the mall.

Woman Accused Of Groping Santa On Probation For Two Christmases

For the first time in the litigation over documents posted on the Wikileaks Web site, lawyers have appeared representing the owner of the Wikileaks.org Internet domain. He is John Shipton, “a citizen of Australia currently residing in Kenya,” according to a document filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco.

In the document, Mr. Shipton’s lawyers endorsed arguments made in briefs filed by various groups — including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press — contending that an order from Federal District Judge Jeffrey S. White hindering access to the Wikileaks Web site should be withdrawn and the lawsuit should be thrown out.

Freedom of information or just a bunch of crooks?

More Twists and Turns in Wikileaks Case

-- Amid a discussion of trade in 1973, Chinese leader Mao Zedong made what U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called a novel proposition: sending tens of thousands, even 10 million, Chinese women to the United States.

Chinese leader Mao Zedong, here depicted in an Andy Warhol painting, offered women to the U.S.

"You know, China is a very poor country," Mao said, according to a document released by the State Department's historian office.

"We don't have much. What we have in excess is women. So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands."

A few minutes later, Mao circled back to the offer. "Do you want our Chinese women?" he asked. "We can give you 10 million."

After Kissinger noted Mao was "improving his offer," the chairman said, "We have too many women. ... They give birth to children and our children are too many."

"It is such a novel proposition," Kissinger replied in his discussion with Mao in Beijing. "We will have to study it.

Mao offered U.S. 10 million women ...