You do the crime, you do the time… that is unless your lawyer knows a senator

Orrin Hatch, of all people, was able to get R&B producer Dallas Austin a ‘get out of jail free’ card after Dallas’ recent conviction for coccaine possession in Dubai.

Granted, 4 years in a UAE jail for possession of 1.26 grams (that’s about 1 and 1/4 raisins worth) of coke seems a bit harsh but it’s their country, they get to make the rules.  This whole deal turns on the fact that both Hatch and Austin retain the services of one Joel A Katz, an entertainment lawyer in Atlanta.  So Austin phones home, Katz calls Hatch and Hatch calls Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and WHAM!, Austin is released.

I’m sure this had nothing to do with Hatch’s support of the DP World bid to to manage several American ports.  Nah….

I’m also sure that Hatch’s campaign fund will get a few hip-hop bling thrown it’s way.  That just makes me laugh.  Maybe he just wants a new record deal.

Politics sure does make strange bedfellows.

CNN.com – GOP senator helped hip-hop producer dodge coke sentence – Jul 8, 2006

U must b joeking

So it seems that this idea goes back to the likes of Carnegie (Yes, the guy that built all those libraries) and Roosevelt (Teddy, not Frankin). Whilist these two certainly have a few neurons twitching between their ears the idea of altering the spelling of the English language because ‘it’s too hard to learn’ is clearly targeted at those who smoked way too much weed.

What’s next? Changing our systems of weights and measures so that they are based on a simple base 10 system? Wait… Oh… right.

BTW, get a load of the the woman’s name in the caption in the upper left. Seems like she should start her crusade a bit closer to home.

Push for simpler spelling persists – Boston.com

Camphone photostream added

I love my phone. Ok, so love may be a bit strong but I really, really like my phone. One of the many trécool features is a 0.3M pixel camera. Yes, I know, the 0.3M pixel is pretty pathetic in today’s world of 5-10M pixel cameras but there is no beating this little gem for portability and spontaneity.

I’ve combined this with the mondo-popular Flickr photo sharing service and the new Shozu camphone publishing service. Shozu provides a downloadable application for my (and other) phones that will automatically post my camphone shots to Flickr. It does require an Internet data plan for your phone and since you will love this service to death, an unlimited data plan is recommended. 😉

In addition to uploading pics directly from your phone, it will also download any comments posted on your Flickr pics back to your phone and display them in the album. Sweet.

This is a long introduction to a new feature of my blog, a view of my Flickr photostream on the left sidebar. You can click on any of the images to be transported to my Flickr site and an enlarged version of the pic. The sidebar will display the 3 most recent camphone shots I’ve uploaded with the most recent at the top.

Ain’t technology grand?

Did the calendar reset to 1-April?

With the ‘global struggle against extremism’ still in full swing, our country trillions in debt, the assalt against privacy and a presidency in ruin Congress sees fit to spend it’s time on… wait for it… movie ratings.

It’s no wonder to me that the British consider us ‘no longer a symbol of hope’.

I weep for the future.  Hell, I weep for the present!

CNN.com – Christian film’s PG rating troubles Congress – Jul 3, 2006