Legal News Edition

If I never see the good old days shining in the sun...

I'll be doin' fine, and then some.

American Libel
So a group of DEA agents are suing American Gangster, the Russel Crowe/Denzel Washington buddy pic/crime drama for defamation.

ABC News has learned that a group of former federal drug enforcement agents has filed a class-action lawsuit against NBC Universal today, asserting they were defamed by the blockbuster flick "American Gangster."

Well, ok. Surely the movie wouldn't have been so stupid as to libel a bunch of federal cops, though--

As the final credits roll on the flick starring Denzel Washington as Harlem drug thug Frank Lucas, a screen appears that states three-quarters of the drug enforcement agents assigned to New York were convicted as a result of Lucas' cooperation with "outcast cop" Richie Roberts, portrayed by Russell Crowe in the movie.

There were no such convictions, Drug Enforcement Administration officials told ABC News

Oops. Oh well. At least this one should be over pretty fast.

Source: ABC News/The Blotter

Nuisance Suits from One Big Nuisance
Speaking of lawsuits, the 'Church' of Scientology is threatening a big one against the author of a new unauthorized bio of Tom Cruise, and threatening websites that have clips promoting the book and making Tom look silly.

Man I hate those crazy idiots.

Source: Gawker

Lawsuit Waiting to Happen
Here's a doozy. The FBI, it seems, may have been employing an infamous Neo-Nazi hatemonger and radio demagogue, even as he incited violence against other Feds:

New Jersey radio host Hal Turner is well known as one of the most vicious neo-Nazis in America, a man who routinely suggests killing his enemies.

Railing against President Bush, he told his audience last June that “a well-placed bullet can solve a lot of problems.” He has written that “we need to start SHOOTING AND KILLING Mexicans as they cross the border” and argued that killing certain federal judges “may be illegal, but it wouldn’t be wrong.” In 2006, after he published an attack on New Jersey Supreme Court justices that also included several of their home addresses, state police massively beefed up security for the members of the court, checking on one justice’s house more than 200 times.

Hal Turner is one serious extremist. He may also be on the FBI payroll.

What follows is so far-fetched that if it were a movie I'd probably be laughing, but it seems to be the real deal:

On Jan. 1, unidentified hackers electronically confronted Turner in the forum of his website for “The Hal Turner Show.” After a heated exchange, they told Turner that they had successfully hacked into his server and found correspondence with an FBI agent who is apparently Turner’s handler. Then they posted an alleged July 7 E-mail to the agent in which Turner hands over a message from someone who sent in a death threat against Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.). “Once again,” Turner writes to his handler, “my fierce rhetoric has served to flush out a possible crazy.” In what is allegedly a portion of another E-mail, Turner discusses the money he is paid.

On Thursday, as the E-mail exchange was heatedly discussed on a major neo-Nazi website, Turner suddenly announced he was quitting political work. “I hereby separate from the ‘pro-White’ movement,” he said, adding that he was ending his radio show immediately. “I will no longer involve myself in any aspect of it.”

The FBI declined comment. “Longstanding FBI policy prohibits disclosing who may or may not provide information,” Agent Richard Kolko of the agency’s press unit said. Reached in New Jersey, Turner also declined all comment.

Wowser. But of course, it gets worse... this guy is all tied up in the murder of a Federal Judge's family.

A self-described "white racialist" Internet author is soliciting the addresses of three judges who ruled against white supremacist Matthew Hale, one week after the family of a federal judge was murdered.

One week ago, federal judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow's husband and mother were found murdered in her home. Lefkow is now under federal protection. There have been more than 600 tips to a special police hot line on the Lefkow case, while there have been more than 30 calls to "America's Most Wanted" television show, which featured the case this weekend.

On his Web site, Hal Turner makes references to all three 7th Circuit judges who ruled against Hale in a trademark solicitation case, NBC5's Phil Rogers reported. He then asks readers to provide their home addresses. Turner said he wanted the judges' addresses to apply pressure to them through protests, mail or other external means for their rulings.

"I can understand why people might think that's something to be concerned about," Turner said. "But certainly, I have no malicious intent -- I do not intend to hurt the judges or incite any harm to the judges, but have you to have faith in the American people."

The FBI is investigating Turner, Rogers reported, and paid a visit to him last week.

Turner's Web site is loaded with references to other judges who have been the subject of violence. Turner's Web site has posted a photo of Lefkow with the caption "Gotcha." Turner said he has the judges' addresses, but doesn't know if he will post him on the Web site.

Looks like that investigation led to a JOB INTERVIEW instead.

They really know how to pick our allies lately, don't they? As I said in the title, this is one big, fat class action suit waiting to happen. Employing NEO-NAZIS? You've got to be kidding me, FBI.

Sources: Southern Poverty Law Center
Pam's House Blend

Sue Over Tasty Brains
So I wrote before about a mysterious disease outbreak in Minnesota among slaughterhouse workers who used air hoses to blast out the brains of pig skulls, right?

Well, either it's spreading, or this was a bad idea to start with:

Ill workers at an Indiana slaughterhouse where compressed air was used to remove pig brains have symptoms similar to those involved in an earlier outbreak in Minnesota, federal health officials said Wednesday.

The employees who became ill worked on the killing floors' "head tables," where the animals' heads are processed, Centers for Disease Control spokeswoman Lola Russell said. Both plants shoot compressed air into the skulls until the pigs' brains come spilling out.

"It may be associated with this particular technique of using high-pressure air to remove the pig's brain," Russell said.

Once again, who could ever have guessed that INHALING NEUROLOGICAL TISSUE FROM RANDOM ANIMALS would be a health risk.

Geebus.

Source: Raw Story

More Contempt of Congress
So the Bush administration is blocking California and 15 other states from implementing meaningful emission controls because Big Auto doesn't like the idea of actually competing with Toyota and Honda on cleaner cars; they'd rather continue the Ethanol/Hydrogen/Fuel Cell fantasies.

Sen. Boxer, of California, is demanding to know why the Environmental Protection Agency is opposed to Environmental Protection.. but she's not getting any answers:

Invoking executive privilege, the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday refused to provide lawmakers with a full explanation of why it rejected California's greenhouse gas regulations.

The EPA informed Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., that many of the documents she had requested contained internal deliberations or attorney-client communications that would not be shared now with Congress.

You can't see our super-secret plans! That's why we label them 'super-secret'! Also, we're rubber, you're glue!

In denying California's waiver last month, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson told Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that the federal government is implementing its own national fuel efficiency standard.

Johnson's decision spurred several congressional investigations and a legal appeal earlier this month by California and 15 other states.

Boxer and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., for weeks have asked the agency for more information about why it denied California's plan.

She called the agency's failure to comply with a legitimate congressional request "an insult to the American people and a dereliction of duty."

Scandal Number 51 for Olbermann to track, I suppose. At least he keeps busy.

Source: Raw Story