Below The Beltway

They’re even turning Halloween into an opportunity to preach to us:
If you’re handing out candy this Halloween, don’t be surprised if a few trick-or-treaters hand you back a chocolate of their own.
For the second year in a row, thousands of costumed children will take part in “reverse” trick-or-treating, handing out samples of Fair Trade Certified [...]

A little fun at the expense of the convicted felon who once described the Internet as a “series of tubes”:

H/T: The Radical Libertarian

Back in the 1960’s a semi-literate idiot named Lee Harvey Oswald was able to murder the President of the United States, so I suppose it’s a good thing that law enforcement is on top of these things:
WASHINGTON — Two young men who are believers in “white power” have been arrested and charged in Tennessee in [...]

Any thought that Alaska Senator Ted Stevens would try to leave the public stage with at least some dignity appears to have gone out the window:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens vowed to fight his Monday conviction on federal corruption charges, a verdict he attributed to “repeated instances of prosecutorial misconduct.”
“I will fight this [...]

Ever since Matt Drudge front-paged it las night, the blogosphere has been abuzz about the story of the McCain volunteer supposedly  attacked for her political views:
PITTSBURGH — A 20-year-old woman who was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield was also maimed by her attacker, apparently because of her political views, Pittsburgh police said.
Ashley Todd, of [...]

It looks like Tysons Corner and Santa Claus have come together in the spirit of the holidays:
Tysons Corner Center and the longtime mall Santa whose dumping triggered a local uproar might work things out in time for the Christmas shopping season after all.
Less than 90 minutes before a scheduled news conference, Santa’s publicist e-mailed reporters [...]

The management at Tysons Corner Center has fired Santa:
Santa just got the boot. And not just any Santa.
Michael Graham has been Santa at Tysons Corner Center for so long that many who visited him when they were young have brought their own children to experience his magic: a real snowy beard, a twinkle in his [...]

Back in 1957, an American pilot was given orders to shoot down a UFO over the North Sea:
LONDON - An American fighter pilot flying from an English air base at the height of the cold war was ordered to open fire on a massive unidentified object that had lighted up his radar screen, according to [...]

Fifteen year old girl takes naked picutre of herself, sends it to a few friends, gets charged with distributing child pornography:
NEWARK — A 15-year-old girl is accused of distributing nude photos of herself to other minors, and one state legislator is questioning whether she should be labeled a sex offender.
The Licking Valley High School student [...]

Apparently, there’s a movement afoot in the woods of northern California and southern Oregon to create a new state:
Some folks around here think the economic sky is falling and state lawmakers in Sacramento and Salem are ignoring their constituents in the hinterlands.
Guess the time is ripe to create a whole new state.
That’s the thinking up [...]