Using overly burdensome ballot access laws, Oklahoma has effectively banned political dissent at the polls.

A Lancashire man who posted offensive comments on Facebook about a missing five-year-old has been jailed for 12 weeks.

Ocean City, MD is a town with alot of skateboarders that hosts the largest Mountain 'Dew Tour' Skateboarding event of the year. However try to skateboard or rollerblade to the event and you will be ticketed and fined by a 1972 ordinance. For about a week now, the legalization of skateboarding for OCMD has hit the web to bring the issue back to the Mayor and Council. More at: http://www.ocean-city.com/ocean-city-maryland-news/Online-Skateboarding-...

"You’re young, you’ve got your whole life ahead of you, you’re zealous for liberty, and in some capacity or another you want to spend your life in the meaningful pursuit of a better world. What do you do with your life? In this article I’m going to argue that if your goal is liberty, electoral politics is the last path you should consider. Then I will suggest a far more exciting, fulfilling, enriching, and – most importantly – effective path to a better, freer world".

The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for the Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.

After Benghazi, IRS tea party probe: Govt seized AP phone records
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/benghazi-irs-tea-party-probe-govt-sei...

The statement below was read by Pfc. Bradley Manning at a providence inquiry for his formal plea of guilty to one specification as charged and nine specifications for lesser included offenses. He pled not guilty to 12 other specifications. This rush transcript was taken by journalist Alexa O’Brien at Thursday’s pretrial hearing. O’Brien provided Salon with the full transcript.

Daniel Brewington was not happy with the way that Dearborn County, Indiana, Judge James D. Humphrey handled his divorce case, during which he lost custody of his children, and he explained why at length in various strongly worded online commentaries. Largely as a result of those posts, Brewington is serving a two-year sentence at the Putnamville Correctional Facility for intimidation, attempted obstruction of justice, and perjury.

Police arrested the mother who hired two strippers for her son's 16th birthday party. Judy H. Viger was charged with five counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Endangering the welfare of a child is a misdemeanor that can carry a prison sentence up to one year. According to the law, endangerment occurs when a person "knowingly acts in a manner likely to be injurious to the physical, mental or moral welfare of a child less than 17 years old.

It sounds like a criminal operation worthy of the old world of, say, southern Italy (no offense, guys!). Indeed, but this is how it works in the U.S. these days. The looting is legal. The blackmail is approved. The graft is in the open. The expropriation operates under the cover of the law. The backup penalties are inflicted by the official courts.

A mother and her daughter seek to reverse legislation from 1979 and ban boys from playing on female competitive sports teams. The daughter suffered a concussion after colliding with a boy during a field hockey game. Though I can see why the mother would be concerned, I am unable to support new legislation that would allow a girl to play on a high school football team but not allow a boy to play on high school field hockey team.