Drudge Retort: Badgerwest's blog

"Operation Swill" Targets Jersey Bars

badgerwest — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:16:54 -0400

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- At one bar, a mixture that included rubbing alcohol and caramel coloring was sold as scotch. In another, premium liquor bottles were refilled with water -- and apparently not even clean water at that.

State officials provided those new details Thursday on raids they conducted a day earlier as part of a yearlong investigation dubbed Operation Swill.

Twenty-nine New Jersey bars and restaurants, including 13 TGI Fridays, were accused of substituting cheap booze -- or worse -- for the good stuff while charging premium prices.

Naked Bea Arthur Painting Sells for $2M

badgerwest — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:30:43 -0400

During a Christie's auction Wednesday in New York, an anonymous buyer plunked down $1.91 million for a painting of a steely-eyed Bea Arthur with her golden girls on prominent display. "I had a vision in my head of Bea Arthur, and I found a picture of her," artist John Currin said of the 1991 painting. "I was going to put a scarf ensemble on her like that from her Maude days, and I drew the body just to drape it. It was then that I realized that the painting was fantastic as it was. I loved being repelled by those two black eyes and falling back into these wonderful, soft breasts, which draw you back in. I thought about the personae of the middle-aged women that were pictured in this series, and I imagined them as being divorced and cast out, like harlequins wandering the beach."

Army Won't Kill Gulls to Help Terns

badgerwest — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:26:00 -0400

The Army Corps of Engineers announced Monday it will not continue killing gulls that have been eating baby Caspian terns at the mouth of the Columbia River, which is the West Coast's largest nesting colony. The gulls were being killed to keep the tern colony from moving upstream to an island where the birds consumed millions of baby salmon. "What we are seeing is a wider and wider net being cast to manipulate a variety of species -- cormorants, gulls, Caspian terns, sea lions -- natural predators that have coexisted for millennia with salmon," said Bob Salinger of Portland Audubon. "In the meantime, we don't feel the core reasons for salmon declining have been adequately addressed by the corps -- the dams."

NRA Celebrates Mother's Day In Jersey

badgerwest — Sun, 12 May 2013 01:30:02 -0400

A mother and child were dead inside the house, law enforcement sources told NBC News affiliate WCAU. At least two of the hostages inside the structure are children, the sources told WCAU.

Friday Night Insanity Music

badgerwest — Fri, 03 May 2013 21:48:14 -0400

for houston, syria and nat'l clit week

Rat Meat Sold as Lamb in China

badgerwest — Fri, 03 May 2013 20:31:56 -0400

A criminal ring in China has been selling fox, mink and rat meat and calling it lamb, according to a three-month crackdown by the country's Ministry of Public Security on food safety violators. More than 900 people have been arrested, including 63 for the false-lamb scam. The meat was sold to farmers' markets in Shanghai and Jiangsu province, authorities said. "The situation is really grave and has indeed caused great harm to the people," said Pei Xianding, a supreme court judge.

Boy, 5, Kills Sister with Gift Rifle

badgerwest — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:33:07 -0400

A 5-year-old boy accidentally shot his 2-year-old sister to death in southern Kentucky with a rifle he had received as a gift last year, authorities said. The children's mother was home at the time of the shooting Tuesday afternoon but had stepped out to the front porch for a few minutes and "she heard the gun go off," Cumberland County Coroner Gary White said. He said the rifle was kept in a corner and the family didn't realize a bullet was left inside it. White told the Lexington Herald-Leader the boy received the .22-caliber rifle as a gift. "It's a Crickett," White said, referring to a company that specifically makes guns for children. "It's a little rifle for a kid. ... The little boy's used to shooting the little gun."

Army Major Abuses Foster Kids

badgerwest — Wed, 01 May 2013 19:31:15 -0400

A U.S. Army major and his wife from Pennsylvania are accused of abusing their three foster children -- force-feeding them hot sauce, withholding water, and breaking their bones, according to U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman. In one instance, according to court documents, the couple even made one of their biological children stand guard to make sure the foster children would not be able to quench their thirst with water from the toilet.

Kids Taken from Medical Pot Activist

badgerwest — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:30:38 -0400

Lindsey Rinehart, an advocate for relaxing marijuana laws in Idaho, accused the state of taking her children because of her activism. Rinehart was not home when police entered her home with the permission of a babysitter and allegedly found drug paraphernalia and what appeared to be marijuana. Police then contacted the Department of Health and Welfare to remove the children from the home on the claim they were in "imminent danger." "We're taking issue with the 'imminent danger' charge," Lindsey Rinehart said on the steps of the Idaho State Capitol. "I am a multiple sclerosis patient. The reason I had cannabis in my household is I'm a multiple sclerosis patient."

Luntz Rips Limbaugh in Private

badgerwest — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:31:38 -0400

Frank Luntz, the Republican consultant and messaging guru, privately told a group of college students this week that Rush Limbaugh and right-wing talk radio are hurting the GOP by polarizing the debate, according to audio a student in attendance shared with Mother Jones magazine. "[T]hey get great ratings, and they drive the message, and it's really problematic. And this is not on the Democratic side. It's only on the Republican side," he said. "[Democrats have] got every other source of news on their side. And so that is a lot of what's driving it. If you take -- Marco Rubio's getting his ass kicked. Who's my Rubio fan here? We talked about it. He's getting destroyed! By Mark Levin, by Rush Limbaugh, and a few others. He's trying to find a legitimate, long-term effective solution to immigration that isn't the traditional Republican approach, and talk radio is killing him. That's what's causing this thing underneath. And too many politicians in Washington are playing coy."

Only 4 Show For Joint Congressional Unemployment Hearing

badgerwest — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:36:34 -0400

The all-but-complete absence of congressional interest was first documented by National Journal reporter Niraj Chokshi, who tweeted a photo of the hearing. Shortly after the photo was posted, several other lawmakers did trickle in to participate. Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.) arrived eight minutes into the hearing. Once the hearing had been under way for 35 minutes, Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) was also in attendance, according to Chokshi. Eventually Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) also joined, bringing the crowd to four.

Well Regulated Kiddie Militia Runs Amok

badgerwest — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:41:38 -0400

Canyon County sheriff's deputies are investigating an apparent accidental shooting that injured a 10-month-old child in rural Canyon County Monday afternoon.

The child was shot in the cheek, apparently by a 3-year-old child who found a loaded handgun in a vehicle where both children had been placed, investigators said. The shooting happened Monday afternoon, but the county did not issue a news release until Tuesday afternoon.

Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue is urging gun owners to keep firearms locked in a safe place away from children.

Woodstock Singer Richie Havens Dies

badgerwest — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:31:02 -0400

Richie Havens, the folk singer who performed at the legendary Woodstock concert in 1969, died Monday in New Jersey of a heart attack, He was 72. Havens was the first act to hit the stage. His performance of "Freedom" became an anthem of the era. "Everything in my life, and so many others, is attached to that train," he said in 2009. Havens stayed onstage three hours that day because the next act didn't show up. "So I'd go back and sing three more," Havens told NPR. "This happened six times. So I sung every song I knew."

Texans Exploited In Iowa

badgerwest — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:21:48 -0400

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- A now-defunct Texas company that put mentally disabled men to work at an Iowa turkey plant for decades is due in court to defend itself against allegations that it subjected the men to physical and verbal abuse.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing Henry's Turkey Service, of Goldthwaite, Texas, on behalf of 32 former workers whom it housed and oversaw while they worked at West Liberty Foods in West Liberty, Iowa. The commission is expected to seek unspecified compensatory and punitive damages against Henry's for allegedly subjecting the men to abuse that "created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation," court filings show.

The men, long known locally as "the boys," worked at the plant from the 1970s until 2009, when Iowa officials placed them in the state's care and shut down the bunkhouse where they lived after finding unsafe conditions

Nevada Put 1,500 Psych Patients on Buses

badgerwest — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:17:24 -0400

Since July 2008, Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas has transported more than 1,500 patients to other cities via Greyhound bus, sending at least one person to every state in the continental United States, according to a Sacramento Bee review of bus receipts kept by Nevada's mental health division. About a third of those patients were dispatched to California, including more than 200 to Los Angeles County, about 70 to San Diego County and 19 to Sacramento.