Siegelman To Be Released!

Some justice is finally served. Breaking news…

 Siegelman To Be Released From Prison Pending Appeal

ATLANTA, Ga. — The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted former Gov. Don Siegelman’s request to be released from prison pending the outcome of his appeal.

Siegelman is currently serving a 7-year sentence in the Oakdale Federal Correctional Complex in Louisiana following his 2006 public corruption conviction.

Acting U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin confirms the 11th Circuit granted Siegelman’s release in a fou- page order which states Siegelman had raised a “significant question” about his conviction.

Siegelman was convicted of accepting $500,000 in campaign contributions from HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy in exchange for giving Scrushy a seat on a state hospital board.

Scrushy is serving a similar sentence at a federal prison in Texas.

McCain wants to give even MORE of your jobs away

McInsane is either a freaking lunatic or unabashedly pro-business and anti-American worker.He is a fool in any event, and should not even be considered presidential material. Jeezus!

McCain eyes U.S. free trade deal with EU

Reuters
Wednesday, March 26, 2008; 4:23 PM

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The United States should build on the North American Free Trade Agreement by negotiating a new free trade deal with the 27 nations of the European Union, Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Wednesday.

“I am an unashamed and unabashed defender of NAFTA. I am an unabashed supporter of free trade agreements. In fact, it would be interesting … to have a free trade agreement between ourselves and the European Union,” McCain said in a speech to the World Affairs Council.Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have threatened to withdraw from NAFTA if Mexico and Canada do not agree to renegotiate the pact to include stronger labor and environmental provisions and to address critics’ concerns about investment provisions of the longstanding pact.

Clinton also has vowed a “time-out” from new free trade agreements if elected president.

But McCain was enthusiastic about potentially uniting United States in a huge free trade zone with Britain, Germany, France, Italy and other members of the EU which has expanded into Eastern Europe and parts of the former Soviet Union.

“They are one of the largest economic blocs in the world, if not the largest … I think to head a free trade agreement with the European Union would be a great thing to happen,” McCain told reporters on board a plane bound for his next campaign event in Monterey, California.

“I notice that some of their environmental standards and labor standards are higher than ours, not lower. So it would be very interesting to see how … the opponents of free trade agreements in general would react to that,” the Arizona senator said.

The Unites States and the EU already have low tariffs on most of the manufactured goods that cross the Atlantic, and recently began an initiative aimed at eliminating regulatory barriers that impede commerce.

However, both sides have preferred to deal with the contentious agricultural issues within the context of world trade talks, rather than negotiate a bilateral free trade deal to completely phase out tariffs on each other’s farm goods.

At the same time, some members of Congress have called for a services free trade agreement that would reduce or eliminate barriers to trade and investment in areas such as banking, insurance and telecommunications.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; writing by Doug Palmer; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

WTF Thursday: He Got Knocked Up

Pregnant ‘man’ says it feels incredible

A married American man, who was born a woman, has shocked people around the world by announcing that he is pregnant, British press reported Wednesday.

Thomas Beatie, 34, previously known as the lesbian Tracy Lagondino, had a sex change operation, but kept his female reproductive organs. He also had an operation to change his outward appearance to look like a man, the Sun Tabloid reported.

Beatie wrote about his experience in the U.S. gay magazine ‘The Advocate,’ saying it felt “incredible” to be a pregnant man.

Beatie said he was fertilized using donor sperm because his wife Nancy, 45, cannot have children due a hysterectomy 20 years ago.

Beatie said he was due to give birth to a girl on July 3 and told the Advocate that he will be his daughter’s father and Nancy will be her mother.

Beatie admitted that his friends and relatives were shocked and said his brother called his unborn child a “monster.”

When asked, one of his neighbors called the pregnancy a “hoax,” saying “I saw him a few days ago, he didn’t look pregnant,” U.S. TV station ABC News reported.

“Some Humans Ain’t Human” causing “Love, War and the Ghost”

h/t Firedoglake:

h/t C&L: