(h/t E)

File this under our nominee for dumbass criminal of the year:

Topeka Police Department officers responded to the KWIK Shop at 4500 S. Topeka Blvd reference an armed robbery. An individual making a delivery to the business called 911 and reported the robbery. A description of the suspect and a vehicle involved was provided to the 911 operator.

The vehicle involved in the robbery was described as white stretch Hummer Limousine last seen east bound on SE 45th Street. An officer traveling west bound on SE 45th prior to the robbery being dispatched past the vehicle at SE 45th and Adams. The vehicle was located in the area of SE 37th and California where the suspect was taken into custody without incident.

Open thread below...

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Rick K. and the Allnighters! Actually, I really posted this video because of the drummer, Steve Moore. I want to jam with that guy!

Open thread below...

(NSFW - Language)

From the movie Idiocracy. We're already there.

"Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most and left the intelligent to become an endangered species."

Open thread below...

In early April, CNN's Erik Erickson said he refused to fill out a U.S. Census form and that he would pull out his wife's shotgun if there was an attempt to arrest him for it.

Well, it appears that a woman in Yuba City, California decided she didn't want a census worker at her house either so she pulled out a gun when one showed up at her house -- and she paid for her stupidity with her life.

A routine visit by a U.S. Census Worker on Thursday evening turned deadly when Yuba City police officers shot and killed a woman they said had first threatened the worker with a gun, then later confronted officers with a shotgun.

Sutter County authorities have identified the woman as Victoria Roger-Vasselin, 67, and arrested Lionel Craig Patterson, 51, who was with Roger-Vasselin at the house on Mariner Loop when the shooting happened.

Sonny Le, a census regional spokesman, said the worker, a Yuba City resident, showed her badge and introduced herself to a man who answered the door. From inside the house, the worker said she heard a woman saying that they do not want to participate in the census survey.

When the census worker tried to further explain the process, she said she saw a gun pointed at her.

Officers arrived at the Mariner Loop house about 10 p.m. Pavey said a man answered the door with a handgun. Officers successfully persuaded him to give up his gun, but a brief struggle ensued at the entryway when the man resisted arrest, Pavey said.

As an officer was trying to handcuff the man on the ground, the woman came outside with a shotgun. Officers ordered her to put down the gun, but "she ignored the order and continued to advance with the shotgun pointing at the officers," Pavey said. Two officers fired. Roger-Vasselin died at the scene, authorities said.
Read on...

I can hear the sound of right wing nutters' heads exploding all across the country already. I have no doubt someone on Fox or the usual suspect in the world of hate radio will deem this a government execution of a brave American who stood up against President Obama and his evil, socialist empire.

I abhor violence of any kind, and while tragic, this woman acted foolishly and ended up paying with her life. Perhaps we'll find out in the coming days and weeks whether she was suffering from some form of mental illness or that her actions were motivated by political or media influences.

Remember the CEO of LifeLock who always gave out his Social Security number in their ads? Surprise, surprise - his identity has been stolen at least 12 times over the past few years! From Wired:

Apparently, when you publish your Social Security number prominently on your website and billboards, people take it as an invitation to steal your identity.

LifeLock CEO Todd Davis, whose number is displayed in the company’s ubiquitous advertisements, has by now learned that lesson. He’s been a victim of identity theft at least 13 times, according to the Phoenix New Times.

Buyer beware. Open thread below...

The effectiveness of boycotts can be debated. Glenn Beck and Fox News have been hard hit, especially in the UK -- which proves that it never hurts to try.

Low on gas, I risked being stranded the other day to avoid spending money at a BP station. BP also owns AM/PM and ARCO stations so you may want to avoid them if you don't want to inadvertently give them your hard earned dollars.

Planning to change your oil soon? Castrol oil is wholly owned by BP and if you own a boat, BP sells fuel and lubricants for those as well. I'm not a fan of any of the big oil companies, but I have chosen not to spend one thin dime with BP and encourage others to follow suit.

A couple people mentioned this video at Open Thread last night: Are you an aspiring tea party protester looking for high quality markers to draw Hitler mustaches on President Obama? Can't spell words like fashism or soshulism? No problem. Crayola has colors so bright and patriotic, no one will ever notice!

This lovely bit of comedic satire was brought to you by The Full Ginsburg.

Open thread below...

Drill baby drill!

Officials had previously said the environmental damage appeared minimal, but new challenges have arisen now that the platform has sunk.

PS Our sister site Newstalgia has its weekly round-up of world coverage here.

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Google has begun the process of choosing communities in which to test their ultra high-speed fiber network projects. One of the cities in the hunt is Topeka, Kansas. Topeka's Mayor renamed the city "Google" for a month and the search engine giant even went so far as to rename their site "Topeka" as an April Fool's joke.

There is a group calling itself Think Big Topeka that has been pushing hard to attract Google to their city, but a local member of a national, right-wing front group attempted to inject the Tea Party movement into the project as well as her own private company - and failed:

Former House Majority Leader Shari Weber was fired as executive director of the Kansas chapter of an organization dedicated to training tea party activists and other novice political aspirants in the art of campaigning for elective office.

Her departure from the Topeka office of American Majority, led nationally by a son of former U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun, was linked to an attempt to piggyback her start-up online employment company to Think Big Topeka's effort to have the capital city named host of Google's experiment with an ultrafast fiber-optic Internet system.

Jared Starkey, owner of a Topeka software development company and part of the loose-knit group promoting Topeka's bid for the Google project, said Weber approached several people participating in Think Big Topeka with an idea for promoting her company, Cyber Job Centers, by drawing upon goodwill emerging from City Hall on behalf of Think Big Topeka.

Starkey said he was concerned Weber was attempting to co-opt Think Big Topeka for personal gain. He said it didn't make sense for Weber to privately advance the notion of obtaining local taxpayer funding for Cyber Job Centers while publicly leading the Kansas chapter of an organization dedicated to limited government and free markets.

"I told her that Think Big Topeka was not a political organization and not a political tool," Starkey said. "They were very persistent." Read on...

Did you catch that? A person who makes a living training Tea Party wannabes was trying to get taxpayer dollars to advance her own company. I'm SHOCKED! I'm also shocked that Weber was actually let go for something that should have pleased the Tea Party gods. I applaud Starkey for calling her out. Who knows, perhaps Google will reward him and the city of Topeka for keeping the teabaggers out of their project?

R.I.P. Meinhardt Raabe. Meinhardt played the role of Munchkin Coroner in The Wizard of Oz. He was 94 years old and believed to be one of the last surviving "Munchkins." :(

Open thread below...