In a better world, a member of Congress caught on tape agreeing to obstruct justice at the request of an agent of a foreign power would have stepped down as soon as the news hit the headlines. In our shameless era, however, that isn’t likely to happen. Instead, the spies will get off, Israel will continue to steal us blind, and a trial that would have shocked the American people and portrayed Israel in a far more realistic light than our news media dares will never take place.

How’s that for change we can believe in?

Indeed. A must read, although I have to differ with Raimondo on one point. A trial about this surely wouldn’t “shock the American people”, simply because the American people are too ill-informed and lazy to actually give a crap about who actually runs this country, and what is done in their names. In a “better world” our torturers would be in jail, not on TV, Israel would be the champion of human rights and dignity, not apartheid, and traitors like Jane Harman would be treated as the criminals they are.

But as recent history shows, we loves us some traitors. We keep inviting them on television and actually listen to the vile lies they spew. A better world, indeed.

Judge tosses saggy pants ordinance

RIVIERA BEACH, Fla., April 23 (UPI) — A Florida judge has tossed a town’s ordinance that made wearing pants below the waist an offense punishable with a fine.

Johnson ruled that wearing saggy pants — defined in the ordinance as wearing pants below the waist while exposing skin or underwear — is protected under the liberties guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, no matter how “tacky or distasteful” the fashion choice may be, the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reported.

Excellent. Constitution 1, hectoring jackasses, 0.

“We have lost the ability to be blunt,” Black tells Barrons. He is talking about the person he describes to Bill Moyers as a “failed regulator,” Geithner. “Now we have a situation where Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner can speak of a $2 trillion hole in the banking system, at the same time all the major banks report they are well capitalized. And you have seen no regulatory action against what amounts to a $2 trillion accounting fraud. The reason we don’t see it–aren’t told about it–is that if they were honest, prompt corrective action would kick in, and then they would have to deal with the problem banks.”

This is more than an unfortunate downturn, Black says. It is the result of massive, pervasive fraud, and a deregulatory culture that has nurtured criminal behavior by very highly paid bank executives.

Your tax dollars at work.

When Michelle Obama began planting an organic garden on the South Lawn of the White House recently, there was no doubt she was sending a message, but the message was more subversive and far-reaching than most American media coverage recognized. On March 20, joined by a class of local fifth graders, the first lady lifted the first shovels of dirt onto a 1,100-square-foot plot that will feature fifty-five kinds of vegetables, including spinach, peppers, arugula, kale, collards and tomatoes (but no beets–the president reportedly does not like beets). Various herbs and berries will also be grown in the garden, which is fully visible to the thousands of tourists and other pedestrians that pass by the White House daily. (There will also be two boxes of bees for pollination.)

What made Obama’s message so subversive was something she left unsaid: the food most Americans eat nowadays is not fresh, tasty or healthy.

For more about what crap we’re gulping into our bodies, you need to read this guy.

REPRESENTATIVE Spencer Bachus is one of the few people I know from Alabama. I bet I’m the only socialist he knows, although he darkly claims there are 17 socialists lurking in the House of Representatives.

If we could get beyond such nonsense, I think this country could use a good debate about what goes on here compared with places with a long social-democratic tradition like Sweden, Norway, and Finland, where, by and large, the middle class has a far higher standard of living.

Tell ‘em, Bernie Sanders. Now, socialism sucks, capitalism will always best it- but since we haven’t been a capitalist society in my lifetime, to hell with it, let’s become Sweden. We’re about 50% there already anyway.

And its always good to see one politician call another a moron.

Army: 3 vials of virus samples missing from Maryland facility

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Missing vials of a potentially dangerous virus have prompted an Army investigation into the disappearance from a lab in Maryland.

The vials had been at the research institute’s facility at Fort Detrick, home of the Army’s top biological research facility, for more than a decade. The three missing vials were among thousands of vials that were under the control of a senior scientist who retired in 2004. When another Fort Detrick scientist recently inventoried the retired scientist’s biological samples, he discovered that the three vials of the virus were missing. The original scientist’s records about his vials dated back to the days of paper-and-pen inventories.

Uh, yikes?

State Dept Lawyer: White House Tried To Destroy My Alternative Memo On Torture

As David noted over at TPM, there was some potentially big news in a blog post that was written this morning over at Foreign Policy by Philip Zelikow, a top State Department lawyer under Condoleezza Rice.

My colleagues were entitled to ignore my views. They did more than that: The White House attempted to collect and destroy all copies of my memo. I expect that one or two are still at least in the State Department’s archives.

Philip Zelikow? This Zelikow? What, he suddenly grew a soul sometime around 2005?

Supreme Court Undoes Belton, Dramatically Limits Car Searches

In a stunning 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court today reversed its longstanding bright-line rule which had permitted warrantless car searches after an arrest, even when there was no concern for officer safety or the preservation of evidence. The case is Arizona v Gant.

Writing for the majority in this important decision, Justice Stevens held that the police may only search the passenger compartment of a vehicle, pursuant to the arrest of a recent occupant, if it is reasonable to believe that the arrested person might access the car while it’s being searched, or that the car contains evidence of the crime for which that person was arrested.

Okie doke, how about the rest of the Constitution, when you gonna reinstate that?

Former astronaut: Man not alone in universe

(CNN) — Earth Day may fall later this week, but as far as former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell and other UFO enthusiasts are concerned, the real story is happening elsewhere.

Mitchell grew up in Roswell, New Mexico, which some UFO believers maintain was the site of a UFO crash in 1947. He said residents of his hometown “had been hushed and told not to talk about their experience by military authorities.” They had been warned of “dire consequences” if they did so.

Hmm.

Chrysler Turned Down Loan Over Exec Pay Limits

Chrysler LLC’s financial arm turned down additional government aid after some top executives refused to accept new limits on executive pay, according to a government official with knowledge of the negotiations.

The Washington Post reported on its Web site Monday that Chrysler Financial turned down $750 million in aid on top of $1.5 billion it already has received.

Ain’t no pay limits when you AIN’T GOT A JOB, JACKASS.

Let ‘em fail. And then hopefully the rank and file workers- you know, the ones that actually DO the work, instead of just skimming off the top, well, maybe they’ll wake up. And if so, the executives will have a lot more to worry about than how much they get paid.