First he expected us to believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman, now outgoing Senator Arlen Specter wants to take away our God-given right to download Adam Sandler movies.

Nineteen U.S. Senators have voted to accelerate the ominous "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act." The ostensible  purpose of the bill is defeating intellectual property theft.⁽²⁾ Excuse us for thinking that handing control of website addresses to the Attorney General's office is quite insane.⁽¹⁾

A lot of people think the C.O.I.C.A. is unconstitutional, overly broad and just as damn crazy as we do. Not among them is our very own lame-duck Senator Arlen Specter and funny-man turned unfunny-Senator Al Franken. Coming from a super-lefty guy so eager to embrace net-neutrality and squelch corporate media takeovers, Franken's stance on the C.O.I.C.A. is especially puzzling.

Just how chummy is Major Tom Corbett
with the gas drilling industry?

Philadelphia's City Paper has done a nice job of tracking the antics of bat-shit crazy, incoming governor Tom Corbett. Pennsylvania is the only state that doesn't tax gas extraction, something unlikely to change under Corbett's reign. Maintaining a clean water supply has never been a particularly pressing issue in a state criss-crossed with sulphoris yellow rivers. Most of the legal precedents used to protect Pennsylvania's water supply are based on Colonial-era common law. Modern legislative reform is not going to be on the agenda of someone playing footsie under the table with the state's nascent gas drilling industry.

"...(Musto) sold his office to the highest bidder"
- Peter Smith, US Attorney

On the eve of his retirement, longtime Pennsylvania State Senator Raphael "Ray" Musto was indicted by a grand jury on six different counts of fraud, bribery and accepting kickbacks. Musto is charged with accepting cash and favors from a mysterious entity identified only as "Company A."  Peter Smith, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, says Musto: "...knowingly sold his office to the highest bidder."

Steve Corbett: "Are You Afraid of going to Jail?"
Senator Ray Musto: "Not a bit..."

"Lesley Stahl was so impressed by the fancy Cadillacs of the noveaux-rich, good ol' boys, she appeared eager to jump in the back seat for some "exploratory drilling" of her own..."

"60 Minutes" and Lesley Stahl dropped anchor at some prominent natural gas drilling sites around the United States for a look at the good, the bad and the ugly facts behind hyrdraulic fracking. Stahl looked positively smashing in a shiny purple blazer with matching earrings while chewing the fat with Aubrey McClendon, head honcho of Chesapeake Energy. McClendon swears we have two Saudi Arabia's worth of energy right here under our feet in the good ol' U.S. of A.

McClendon really liked that little factoid, he emphasized it a little too eagerly. I'm not sure too many people are interested in living on top of even one Saudi Arabia...no offense to our Saudi friends and all that.