Due to a bad drought that’s dried up the hydroelectric plants that supply more than two-thirds of its power, Venezuela has been suffering through its worst energy crisis in the last 50 years. President Hugo Chavez’s solution? Change all the light bulbs! Well, that might not be the only action the country is taking (they’ve also put electricity rationing into effect) but an army of Venezuelan soldiers has been given direct orders from the president to distribute thousands of Firefly energy-efficient CFL bulbs.

Widely regarded as one of the most important of all the founding fathers of the United States, Thomas Jefferson received a demotion of sorts Friday thanks to the Texas Board of Education.

The board voted to enact new teaching standards for history and social studies that will alter which material gets included in school textbooks. It decided to drop Jefferson from a world history section devoted to great political thinkers.

Let the news media show the full extent of war & then maybe people won’t be so gung ho supportive of war

The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a hearing today on Paravant, a previously little-known subsidiary of Xe Services (aka Blackwater). It caps a six-month investigation by the committee, and it promises to be a doozy.

The worst sheriff in the history of our republic, Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona, seems to have made a fatal mistake in his boss hog take over of his county.

More than a dozen armed State Police officers conducted simultaneous raids last week on three popular Philadelphia bars known for their wide beer selections. The cops confiscated hundreds of bottles of expensive ales and lagers, now in State Police custody at an undisclosed location.

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.

I’ve no problem with Israel & I’d gladly trade with them particularly as Marks & Spencer shrimp are delicious & if it were legal I’d gladly buy an Uzi or two. I just don’t want to suffer the blowback from the foreign policy of the British & US governments which are geared towards supporting the Israeli state in its quarrels & as consequence suffering the blowback upon my liberty & security.

In Orange County, California, the city is suing a couple who replaced their front lawn with wood chips to save water. Article includes great quotes like:
“Compliance -- that’s all we’ve ever wanted,” explained City Atty. Wayne Winthers.
“It’s just funny that we pay our taxes to the city and the city is now prosecuting us with our own money,” Quan Ha said.

LINO LAKES, Minn. – Ever since his 1996 Toyota Camry shot up an interstate ramp, plowing into the back of an Oldsmobile in a horrific crash that killed three people, Koua Fong Lee insisted he had done everything he could to stop the car.