Terrorist Cleric Killed

SANAA, Yemen -- In a significant new blow to al-Qaida, U.S. airstrikes in Yemen on Friday killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American militant cleric who became a prominent figure in the terror network's most dangerous branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits for attacks in the United States.

The strike was the biggest U.S. success in hitting al-Qaida's leadership since the May killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. But it raises questions that other strikes did not: Al-Awlaki was an American citizen who has not been charged with any crime. Some liberal groups have questioned the government's authority to kill an American without trial.

The 40-year-old al-Awlaki was for years an influential mouthpiece for al-Qaida's ideology of holy war, and his English-language sermons urging attacks on the United States were widely circulated among militants in the West.

But U.S. officials say he moved into a direct operational role in organizing such attacks as he hid alongside al-Qaida militants in the rugged mountains of Yemen. Most notably, they believe he was involved in recruiting and preparing a young Nigerian who on Christmas Day 2009 tried to blow up a U.S. airliner heading to Detroit, failing only because he botched the detonation of explosives sewn into his underpants.

Yemen's Defense Ministry said another American militant was killed in the same strike alongside al-Awlaki – Samir Khan, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani heritage who produced "Inspire," an English-language al-Qaida Web magazine that spread the word on ways to carry out attacks inside the United States. U.S. officials said they believed Khan was in the convoy carrying al-Awlaki that was struck but that they were still trying to confirm his death. U.S. and Yemeni officials said two other militants were also killed in the strike but did not immediately identify them.

Washington has called al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the branch in Yemen is called, the most direct threat to the United States after it plotted that attack and a foiled attempt to mail explosives to synagogues in Chicago.

In July, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said al-Awlaki was a priority target alongside Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's successor as the terror network's leader.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said American forces targeted a convoy in which al-Awlaki was traveling with a drone and jet attack and believe he's been killed. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, began as a mosque preacher as he conducted his university studies in the United States, and he was not seen by his congregations as radical. While preaching in San Diego, he came to know two of the men who would eventually become suicide-hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The FBI questioned al-Awlaki at the time but found no cause to detain him.

In 2004, al-Awlaki returned to Yemen, and in the years that followed, his English-language sermons – distributed on the Internet – increasingly turned to denunciations of the United States and calls for jihad, or holy war. The sermons turned up in the possession of a number of militants in the U.S. and Europe arrested for plotting attacks.

Al-Awlaki exchanged up to 20 emails with U.S. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, alleged killer of 13 people in the Nov. 5, 2009, rampage at Fort Hood. Hasan initiated the contacts, drawn by al-Awlaki's Internet sermons, and approached him for religious advice.

After the Fort Hood attack, al-Awlaki moved from Yemen's capital, Sanaa, into the mountains where his Awalik tribe is based and – it appears – grew to build direct ties with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, if he had not developed them already. The branch is led by a Yemeni militant named Nasser al-Wahishi.

Yemeni officials have said al-Awlaki had contacts with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused would-be Christmas plane bomber, who was in Yemen in 2009. They say the believe al-Awlaki met with the 23-year-old Nigerian, along with other al-Qaida leaders, in al-Qaida strongholds in the country in the weeks before the failed bombing.

The cleric is also believed to have been an important middleman between al-Qaida militants and the multiple tribes that dominate large parts of Yemen, particular in the mountains of Jawf, Marib and Shabwa province where the terror group's fighters are believed to be holed up.

Yemeni security officials said the U.S. was conducting multiple airstrikes a day in the south since May and that U.S. officials were finally allowed to interrogate al-Qaida suspects, something Saleh had long resisted, and still does so in public. The officials spokes on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence issues.

See Chick's THE SKYLIGHTER.

Obama Crowd Boos Pro-Jesus Shouts, Cheers Marijuana Shout

A heckler shouting about Jesus Christ interrupted President Barack Obama at a fundraiser before security dragged him out.

It happened at the House of Blues in Los Angeles Monday night.

The man positioned himself up in front of the stage and started shouting loudly right after Obama started talking. The heckler proclaimed that "Jesus Christ is God" and a Christian God. According to Real Clear Politics, the outburst was met with boos from the crowd at the event.

Obama stopped talking. Then after a moment the crowd started chanting "Four more years! Four more years!" and drowned out the heckler.

As he was taken out by security the man called out that Obama is an antichrist.

Later, another, more-friendly heckler shouted out, "Don't forget medical marijuana!" Obama responded: "Thank you for that."

See Chick's SIN CITY.

Bristol Palin Confronts Obscene Heckler

Bristol Palin got mighty chapped Thursday night when a heckler called her mom a "wh--e" at the Saddle Ranch bar in West Hollywood.

The former first daughter of Alaska had just finished a mechanical bull ride when a man yelled obscenities and spurred a bizarre caught-on-tape exchange over Sarah Palin's record and the man's sexual orientation.

"Did you ride Levi like that?" the heckler yelled, referring to Bristol's estranged babydaddy Levi Johnston. "Your mother's a wh--e."

Bristol Palin, 20, quickly made her way through the crowd to confront the unidentified 47-year-old man.

"What did you say?" she asked as a camera from Hollywood.TV kept rolling. "Your mother's the f---ing devil, dude," the man replied.

"Oh is she? What did she do wrong?" Bristol Palin asked.

The man then called Sarah Palin "evil" and said she'll end up in hell if such a place exists.

"Is it because you're a homosexual?" Bristol Palin asked. "And that's why you hate her?"

The man said he was gay but wanted to know why she called him a homosexual.

"Because I can tell you are. That's your big boyfriend right there," she said.

A bystander tried to break up the heated exchange, to no avail.

"She lies about what, sir? She lies about what, seriously? I'd love to hear. Can you give me one example, because you haven't yet?" Bristol Palin continued.

"Everything about Obama. She lies," he replied.

"Really? Sir, sir listen. You haven't given me one example. So if you're going to call my mother a whore, I'd love to hear one example," the former "Dancing with the Stars" contestant said.

The man refused to back down and made a crack about the recent rumor that Sarah Palin had a fling with former NBA player Glen Rice just months before her marriage to Todd Palin.

The alleged one-night stand took place in 1987 when the former Alaska governor was a sports reporter fresh out of college, according to Joe McGinniss' book "The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin."

"You know what, you don't look anything like Glen Rice. I thought you would," the heckler said, escalating the dispute even further.

"You're right, I'm half African American. You caught me. You caught me sir," Bristol said as she threw up her hands.

The dust-up seemed to be over, but footage then cut to Bristol Palin approaching the man one more time.

She's seen snapping her fingers in the air and saying "Let's go" as the man gets even more agitated.

"You're f---ing white trash from Wasilla. Your mother ran that city into the f---ing grave," he screamed as Bristol Palin and a crew purportedly filming her new reality TV show made their way outside.

See Chick's DOOM TOWN.

Texas Ends Final Meal Feasts

Texas inmates who are set to be executed will no longer get their choice of last meals, a change prison officials made Thursday after a prominent state senator became miffed over an expansive request from a man condemned for a notorious dragging death.

Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was executed Wednesday for the hate crime slaying of James Byrd Jr. more than a decade ago, asked for two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts. Prison officials said Brewer didn't eat any of it.

"It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege," Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, wrote in a letter Thursday to Brad Livingston, the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Within hours, Livingston said the senator's concerns were valid and the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their final meal was history.

"Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made," Livingston said. "They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit."

That had been the suggestion from Whitmire, who called the traditional request "ridiculous."

"It's long overdue," the Houston Democrat told The Associated Press. "This old boy last night, enough is enough. We're fixing to execute the guy and maybe it makes the system feel good about what they're fixing to do. Kind of hypocritical, you reckon?

"Mr. Byrd didn't get to choose his last meal. The whole deal is so illogical."

Brewer, a white supremacist gang member, was convicted of chaining Byrd, 49, to the back of a pickup truck and dragging him to his death along a bumpy road in a case that shocked the nation for its brutality.

Whitmire warned in his letter that if the "last meal of choice" practice wasn't stopped immediately, he'd seek a state statute to end it when lawmakers convene in the next legislative session.

It was not immediately clear whether other states have made similar moves. Some limit the final meal cost - Florida's ceiling is $40, according to the Department of Corrections website, with food to be purchased locally. Others, like Texas, which never had a designated dollar limit, mandate meals be prison-made. Some states don't acknowledge final meals, and others will disclose the information only if the inmate agrees, said K. William Hayes, a Florida-based death penalty historian.

Some states require the meal within a specific time period, allow multiple "final" meals, restrict it to one or impose "a vast number of conditions," he said.

Historical references to a condemned person's last meal go as far back as ancient Greece, China and Rome, Hayes said. Some of it is apparently rooted in superstition about meals warding off possible haunting by condemned people once they are put to death.

The Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based anti-capital punishment organization that collects execution statistics, said it had no data on final meals.

Since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982, the state correction agency's practice has been to fill a condemned inmate's request as long as the items, or food similar to what was requested, were readily available from the prison kitchen supplies.

While extensive, Brewer's request was far from the largest or most bizarre among the 475 Texas inmates put to death.

On Tuesday, prisoner Cleve Foster's request included two fried chickens, French fries and a five-gallon bucket of peaches. He received a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court but none of his requested meal. He was on his way back to death row, at a prison about 45 miles east of Huntsville, at the time when his feast would have been served.

Last week, inmate Steven Woods' request included two pounds of bacon, a large four-meat pizza, four fried chicken breasts, two drinks each of Mountain Dew, Pepsi, root beer and sweet tea, two pints of ice cream, five chicken fried steaks, two hamburgers with bacon, fries and a dozen garlic bread sticks with marinara on the side. Two hours later, he was executed.

Years ago, a Texas inmate even requested dirt for his final meal.

Until 2003, the Texas prison system listed final meals of each prisoner as part of its death row website. That stopped at 313 final meals after officials said they received complaints from people who found it offensive.

A former inmate cook who made the last meals for prisoners at the Huntsville Unit, where Texas executions are carried out, wrote a cookbook several years ago after he was released. Among his recipes were Gallows Gravy, Rice Rigor Mortis and Old Sparky's Genuine Convict Chili, a nod to the electric chair that once served as the execution method. The book was called "Meals to Die For."

See Chick's THE FRAME UP.

Peta To Launch Porn Site

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is planning to launch a pornographic
website to promote its animal rights and vegan diet message, a move that critics
say will backfire and ostracize them from mainstream society.

PETA spokeswoman Lindsay Rajt said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles on
Tuesday that the group has applied with ICM Registry to launch the website
peta.xxx.

Rajt says the site will feature "tantalizing" videos and photographs, which will
lead viewers into animal rights messages. She noted that Norfolk-based PETA has
used porn stars and nudity to get its message across in the past, including an
annual speech online in which a PETA representative undresses. That video later
shares a message about slaughterhouses.

She says a pornographic site will allow PETA to reach a broader audience and
that publicity about the site is just as important.

"I think the bottom line is we live a in a 24-hour news cycle where over the
years we've found our racier actions are kind of a fast track way to get people
to stand up and pay attention about the plight of animals," she said.

Rajt says November is the earliest that PETA could receive approval for the
site. Critics say that by resorting to pornography, PETA is alienating itself
from a large swath of the population that might otherwise be sympathetic to its
cause.

"I just don't want to understand why they want to offend people who would
potentially support at least part of their cause. There have got to be other
ways to draw attention to their cause," said Robert Peters, general counsel for
the New York-based anti-pornography group Morality in Media. "Metaphorically
speaking, they're getting in bed with hard core pornographers to prevent cruelty
to animals. That borders on insanity."

Rajt said PETA officials would track the website to determine if people are
viewing the animal rights messages and not just the nudity. Past experience has
shown that they will, she said.

J. Justin Wilson, senior research analyst for the food-industry backed Center
for Consumer Freedom, said moves like this by PETA make them increasingly
irrelevant in mainstream society.

"They don't seem to be changing the debate anymore, I think in large part
because people are writing them off as whack jobs," he said from Washington.
"This is one more example of them being their own worst enemy. If they're trying
to win the hearts and minds of people considering being vegetarians, this is
probably the wrong way to do it." See Chick's WOUNDED CHILDREN.

Ground Zero Mosque Opens

The so-called Ground Zero mosque, where proponents of religious freedom clashed with angry New Yorkers and especially families of 9/11 victims for nearly two years, opened Wednesday.

Instead of protesters, who tried to shut down the Park51 center several times, spectators milled about the center before entering to view a photographic exhibition.

NYChildren, as the exhibit was titled, was as much a tribute to New York City's diversity as a display of mere photographs. It includes snapshots of a city children representative of 160 ethnicities from around the world. The controversial Mosque part of the center wasn't showcased at all (for now).

The photographs were compiled by a 44-year-old Jewish shutterbug from Brooklyn, Danny Goldfield.

Meanwhile, the developer behind the cultural center conceded he was partly to blame for the virulent opposition the project has encountered.

"We made incredible mistakes," Sharif El-Gamal told The Associated Press in an interview in his Manhattan office. "The biggest mistake we made was not to include 9/11 families."

See Chick's WHO CARES?

Pat Robinson Advises Divorce for Husband of Wife With Alzhimer's

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson told his "700 Club" viewers that divorcing a spouse with Alzheimer's is justifiable because the disease is "a kind of death."

During the portion of the show where the one-time Republican presidential candidate takes questions from viewers, Robertson was asked what advice a man should give to a friend who began seeing another woman after his wife started suffering from the incurable neurological disorder.

"I know it sounds cruel, but if he's going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again, but make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her," Robertson said.

The chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, which airs the "700 Club," said he wouldn't "put a guilt trip" on anyone who divorces a spouse who suffers from the illness, but added, "Get some ethicist besides me to give you the answer."

Most Christian denominations at least discourage divorce, citing Jesus' words in the Gospel of Mark that equate divorce and remarriage with adultery.

Terry Meeuwsen, Robertson's co-host, asked him about couples' marriage vows to take care of each other "for better or for worse" and "in sickness and in health."

"If you respect that vow, you say `til death do us part,'" Robertson said during the Tuesday broadcast. "This is a kind of death."

A network spokesman said Wednesday that Robertson had no further statement.

Divorce is uncommon among couples where one partner is suffering from Alzheimer's, said Beth Kallmyer, director of constituent services for the Alzheimer's Association, which provides resources to sufferers and their families.


"We don't hear a lot of people saying `I'm going to get divorced,'" she told The Associated Press. "Families typically respond the way they do to any other fatal disease."

The stress can be significant in marriages though, Kallmyer said, because it results in the gradual loss of a person's mental faculties.

"The caregiving can be really stressful on a couple of levels," she said. "There's the physical level. There's also the emotional level of feeling like you're losing that person you love."

As a result, she said, it's important for couples to make decisions about care together in the early stages of the illness, when its effects aren't as prominent.

Major Upset in NY Seat Due to Weiner, Obama, and Gay Marriage

It sounded improbable on the surface that a New York City congressional district where Democrats have a 3-1 registration edge and have held office for nearly a century could even come close to electing a Republican to the U.S. House.

But voter frustration over the sour economy and President Barack Obama's policies made the improbable a reality, as a Republican political novice, Bob Turner, scored an upset victory in a special election Tuesday over David Weprin, a Democratic assemblyman from a prominent local political family. The surprising results in the Brooklyn and Queens-area district portend a perilous national environment for Obama as he prepares to seek re-election next year.

Turner said as much when he stepped before cameras to claim victory Tuesday night.

"This message will resound for a full year. It will resound into 2012," said Turner, a retired broadcasting executive. "I only hope our voices are heard, and we can start putting things right again."

Weprin called Turner to concede Wednesday morning. With Turner's win, Republicans now hold 242 seats in the House to 192 for Democrats. There is one vacancy.

Weprin not only suffered baggage from Obama's low popularity, but also the bad taste left over by former Congressman Weiner who resigned in disgrace, plus Weprin's controversial support for gay marriage. His vote to support the same sex marriages in New York (which passed earlier in the year) was suppose to boost campaign contributions from well off but childless gays, but instead, infuriated many of the socially conservative Jews in the 9th district.

Also Tuesday, Republican Mark Amodei won a landslide victory in a U.S. House special election in Nevada, an important presidential swing state.

The national mood has darkened since May, when Democrats scored their own unexpected win in another New York special election. Then, Democrat Kathy Hochul won an upset victory in a heavily Republican district by stressing her commitment to protecting Medicare, the government health plan for seniors.

Weprin tried to adopt that strategy, warning that Turner would try to cut programs like Medicare and Social Security. But with unemployment still stubbornly high and voters upset with Washington over the debt ceiling negotiations and continued bad economic news, the pledge to protect entitlements was less resonant this time.

Democratic leaders trying to explain their bad night blamed it on the quirkiness of low-turnout special elections.


"The results in NY-09 are not reflective of what will happen in November 2012 when Democratic challengers run against Republican incumbents who voted to end Medicare and cut Social Security while protecting tax loopholes for big corporations and the ultra wealthy," said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel of New York.

Republicans, for their part, seized on Turner's win as reason to push back on Obama's proposed $447 billion jobs program, which he has been promoting at stops across the country.

"Tonight New Yorkers have delivered a strong warning to the Democrats who control the levers of power in our federal government," House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement. "It's time to scrap the failed `stimulus' agenda."

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus added: "Tonight's election proves yet again that President Obama is failing our country. Not only are the President's policies not working, but his non-stop campaigning is no longer winning over voters."

Weprin, a 56-year-old Orthodox Jew and member of a prominent Queens political family, initially seemed a good fit for the largely white, working-class district, which is nearly 40 percent Jewish.

But voter frustration with Obama put Weprin in the unlikely spot of playing defense.

While Obama won the district by 11 points in 2008 against Republican John McCain, a Siena Poll released Friday found just 43 percent of likely voters approved of the president's job performance, while 54 percent said they disapproved. Among independents, just 29 percent said they approved of Obama's job performance.

Turner, a 70-year-old Catholic, vowed to push back on Obama's policies if elected. He received help from prominent Republicans including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose much-praised stewardship of the city after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks was recalled during the 10th anniversary of the attacks last weekend.

Weprin also became embroiled in New York-centric disputes over Israel and gay marriage, which cost him some support among Jewish voters.

Orthodox Jews, who tend to be conservative on social issues, expressed anger over Weprin's vote in the Assembly to legalize gay marriage. In July, New York became one of six states to recognize same-sex nuptials.

Former Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat, endorsed Turner in July as a way to "send a message" to Obama on his policies toward Israel. And Weprin was challenged on his support of a proposed Islamic center and mosque near the World Trade Center site, in lower Manhattan.

The House seat opened up when Weiner was pushed by party leaders to resign after sending sexually provocative tweets and text messages to women he met online.

The trouble for Weiner, who served seven terms, began when a photo of a man's crotch surfaced on his Twitter feed. He initially denied the photo was of him but later admitted it was.

Weiner, who's married, resigned June 16 after two weeks of fighting off pressure to step aside. He apologized for "the embarrassment that I have caused" and said he hoped to continue to fight for the causes dear to his constituents.

Pagen Church Busted For Sex Crimes

Arizona Police on Wednesday raided a Phoenix Goddess Temple by accusing it as a prostitution house and accused more than 30 people that are related to the Phoenix Goddess Temple, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said on Thursday.

Phoenix police after a six-month investigation arrested 18 individual affiliated with the temple, a suspected house of prostitution operating under the pretence of providing "religious" services.

"They were committing crimes under the guise of religious freedom," Phoenix police spokesman Steve Martos told ABC news. "It's a sad situation when people are trying to hide behind religion and church to commit a crime."

Search warrants were implemented on late Wednesday on locations in Sedona and Phoenix with the cooperation and support of law enforcement officials from the Sedona Police Department and Yavapai County.

Search is going on for more 17 more people who are also charged in connection with the prostitution enterprise, Martos said.

The 20 individual arrested till now have been charged with prostitution or other offenses, police said.

"Although it is not uncommon for criminals to hide their criminal acts from law enforcement, it is particularly disheartening that some would attempt to disguise their crimes as religious freedom," acting Phoenix Police Chief, Joseph Yahner said.

"The First Amendment protection of the free exercise of religion does not allow individuals to trade sex for money, no matter how the transaction is portrayed," said Maricopa County Bill Montgomery. "Thanks to the cooperative efforts of our law enforcement partners here in Phoenix and in Yavapai County, we are now in a position to hold these so-called healers accountable for allegedly running brothels in residential neighborhoods," he added.

Montgomery concluded by stating, "We will protect our community from the impact of criminal enterprises no matter how they may be characterized."

Police during the investigation of the Phoenix temple and two other church-related sites in nearby Sedonas seized evidence which showed that "male and female 'practitioners' at the temple were performing sexual acts in exchange for monetary 'donations', all under the guise of providing 'Neo Tantric' healing therapies," police said.

The "temple" generated tens of thousands of dollars a month, Martos told CNN.

The Goddess Temple founder Tracy Elise was also arrested. She was involved in a similar suspected brothel in Seattle that was shut down by law enforcement in 2009. She faces charges of prostitution, illegal control of an enterprise, pandering, and operating a house of prostitution.

The other individual accused face charges, including conspiracy, working in a house of prostitution and massaging without a license, police said.

The prostitution work has been going in Phoenix since 2009. The matter came to light when residents complained about the temple to the authorities.

A local Phoenix newspaper then visited the place and published an article about the happenings that were going inside the temple in the name of the God.

After the tri-state "Desert Divas" ring in 2008 the Phoenix temple prostitution became the largest bust.

"What's unusual is that they were trying to hide behind religion or church, and under the guise of religious freedom, they were committing acts of prostitution," Martos said.

"We certainly respect First Amendment rights. However, religious freedom does not allow for criminal acts," Martos said.

The temple Web site is not available online. The teachings of the Web site said that "Sex is a holy, sacred and divine healing force at the core (of) our beings. Once we embrace this force instead of deny it, we become successful, happy and powerful manifestos," CNN reported.

Naked women, listed as residing in several states, under a "Goddesses" section were also featured in the Web site.

Out of the 20 people arrested four are men, and two of the four are alleged prostitutes, Martos said. The other 16 individuals are women, he added.

The Phoenix Goddess Temple was founded in 2008 and has been operating at 2728 North 24th Street in Phoenix since July 2009.

See Chick's THE OUTCAST.

Vampire Attacks Homeless Man

"I am a vampire, I am going to eat you," was the last thing Josephine Smith allegedly said before she viciously assaulted a homeless senior citizen sleeping on the porch of a vacant Hooters, according to Florida police.

Smith, 22, attacked 69-year-old Milton Ellis early Thursday morning, biting chunks of flesh from the victim's face, lips, and arms police said.

Ellis managed to escape and call 911, but not before the so-called vampire removed "the top layer of skin" on his arm. He later received stitches for his wounds.

Ellis had invited his soon-to-be attacker to join him at the abandoned restaurant while she waited for a relative from Pensacola to pick her up, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

"He was staying near an overhang near the vacant Hooter's restaurant so he thought it might be a good place for her to stay," Mike Puetz of the St. Petersburg Police Department said.

Smith told authorities that she had no recollection of the attack and could not explain why she was naked and covered in blood, according to local 13-News.

Smith is charged with felony aggravated battery on an elderly person, and is currently being held at the Pinellas County Jail on $50,000 bond.

See Chick's CRUSADERS comic #2.

KY Runs First Lesbian Ad On TV

On September 5th, K-Y -- which promises to make that "big moment even bigger" -- will air its first ever ad campaign to feature a lesbian couple on national television.

In the ad, partners Alex and Emma explain that what's kept them together through the years has been good communication ... and K-Y INTENSE, Emma interjects. (Because a couple in possession of good lube must be in relationship bliss.) Cue the fireworks (literally) followed by a shot of Alex and Emma collapsed in a bed.

As blogger Pam Spaulding wrote, "fundies, bigots and closet cases that will need a fainting couch" after the ad airs, but gay activists will be delighted that their sexual orientation is being mainstreamed by Madison Avenue.

The brand won a 2010 GLAAD Media Award for Advertising for its print campaign: "America's Top Couple" (featuring the ever-lovable Geoffrey and Rusty), is a regular presence sponsor pride events and sponsored the 2010 and 2011 Dinah Shore Weekend, which claims to be the "largest lesbian event in the world." (K-Y even provided the product used in Dinah Shore's 2008 lube wrestling event).

But when it comes to commercials, lesbians had been left out of the mix. According to a K-Y INTENSE press release, however, the times are changing:

Gay male couples have been featured in print advertising since 2008 and now the brand is continuing its tradition of support and visibility with advertising that is inclusive of lesbian couples.

While television ads featuring any gay couple are few and far between -- the LGBT-themed cable channel Logo aired the first featuring a gay male couple -- a Levi's spot -- in 2008. McDonald's made waves in 2010 when its first ad featuring a gay male couple aired in France -- commercials featuring lesbians are rarer.

If the campaign achieves an increase in sales without igniting boycotts of corporate subsidiaries, expect more homosexual ads on television and cable soon. See Chick's THE GAY BLADE.

Mormon Molester Sick From Fasting

The condition of convicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs
was upgraded from critical to serious following his move Tuesday to a Texas
prison hospital for additional treatment after he became sick while fasting, a
state corrections official said.

Jeffs was described by Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle
Lyons as "awake and alert" as he was flown to a Texas prison hospital at
Galveston.

Jeffs, 55, last week was assigned to the Powledge Unit outside Dallas to serve
his life sentence for sexually assaulting underage girls. On Sunday, he told
corrections officers he'd been fasting since his conviction and was ill. He then
was taken to the Tyler hospital, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) from his prison.

"Whenever possible, we send inmates needing medical attention to Hospital
Galveston because it is a secure prison facility," Lyons said.

The prison hospital shares quarters with the University of Texas Medical Branch,
the Texas prison system's chief medical provider.

"This is opposed to conditions at a 'free world' hospital where we must station
correctional officers as security," she said. "Basically, once he was stabilized
at East Texas Medical Center, we then were able to transport him to a more
secure setting where he still will have access to hospital care."

There was no estimate on how long he would remain at the Galveston hospital but
Lyons said the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints was expected to make a full recovery. It also was not immediately clear
how long Jeffs had gone without food before being hospitalized.

An official familiar with Jeffs' condition but not authorized to discuss it
publicly said Monday Jeffs had been in a medically induced coma. Lyons Tuesday
disagreed with that description, but said federal regulations covering release
of medical information prohibited her from disclosing more.

Jeffs was convicted this month after prosecutors used DNA evidence to show he
fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl — one of 24 underage girls whom
prosecutors say he took as his spiritual wives.

He received a life sentence, plus another 20-year term, and isn't eligible for
parole until he is at least 100 years old. He had been in a Huntsville prison
immediately after his trial, then was moved last week to the Powledge Unit.

This isn't the first time Jeffs has required hospitalization in the years since
he first was locked up.

He tried to hang himself in January 2007 while awaiting trial on rape charges in
Washington County, Utah, according to court documents. He also threw himself
against the walls of his cell and banged his head, although he later told a
mental health expert he really wasn't trying to kill himself. In the same time
period, he was hospitalized for dehydration and depression.

In 2009, he was temporarily force-fed while in an Arizona jail.

Former church members have said Jeffs likely would continue to lead his
Utah-based church from inside prison and that his followers likely still revere
him as a prophet despite the considerable evidence at his trial showing he
sexually assaulted girls as young as 12. Prosecutors played an audio recording
at his trial of what they said was him sexually assaulting a 12-year-old.

The basic principles of Jeffs' fundamentalist sect are rooted in polygamy, a
legacy of early Mormon church teachings that held plural marriage brought
exaltation in heaven. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the
mainstream Mormon church, abandoned the practice in 1890 as a condition of
Utah's statehood and excommunicates members who engage in the practice.

Muslims in NY Riot over Head Scarf Safety Ban

15 arrested in N.Y. Playland melee over head scarves

Two people were charged with felony assault and two police rangers were injured
during a melee that broke out Tuesday at Playland Amusement Park when Muslim
visitors became angry that the park was enforcing its ban on headgear by
prohibiting the women from wearing their traditional head coverings on some
rides.

Westchester County police and other departments respond to an altercation at Rye
Playland on Tuesday.

The park was crowded with Muslims celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr, one of Islam's two
major holidays.

Police from at least nine agencies converged on the park after county police
sought assistance in responding to the disturbance, which involved 30 to 40
people.

Another 13 people were arrested, most charged with disorderly conduct. All those
charged were released by Tuesday night.

"It's unfortunate because everybody just wants to be home with their families
today," said Zead Ramadan of the Council on American Islamic Relations.

Parks officials "painstakingly" told the organizer about the headgear ban, said
Tartaglia. But he said that the rules might not have been communicated by the
organizer to some attendees.

Three accidents on Playland rides that killed two children and a park worker
between 2004 and 2007 were unrelated to clothing the victims were wearing. But
the headgear ban was among safety rules that went into effect after those
deaths.

"It's a safety issue on rides. If it's a scarf, you could choke," Tartaglia
said.

Accounts of what happened varied, but everyone agreed the dispute began after
parkgoers were told the headgear ban applied to women wearing traditional Muslim
head coverings, known as hijabs.

Tartaglia said once word of that got out there were "a lot of unhappy people."

Tartaglia said park officials were in the process of arranging refunds when
members of the Muslim group got into a scuffle with each other.

Ramadan said he could see both sides.

"The people feel like victims, and the police feel like they were just doing
their jobs," Ramadan said. "Personally I think things got a little out of
control on both sides."

Lola Ali, 16, of Astoria said she witnessed a group of girls and women wearing
hijabs go to park security to confront them about the headgear issue.

She said the women were upset and yelling. She said the security officers
started pushing them away and the girls stood their ground, at which point the
security officers grabbed them, pushed them to the ground and handcuffed them.

Men within the park saw this and tried to intervene, Ali said, and the situation
went downhill from there.

"They were beating down the girls, then they started beating down the guys," she
said of the security officers.

Earlier, a park cashier told a Journal News reporter that a woman wearing a
hijab either pushed or hit a ride operator who forbade her from going on the
ride. She said a police officer tried to restrain the woman and the woman's
husband took offense, at which point a multiple-person fight broke out.

Brooklyn resident Amr Khater, who had come to the park about noon with his
family, said his family was told about the hijab rule by park employees when
they arrived.

"Everybody got mad, everybody got upset," he said. "It's our holiday. Why would
you do this to us?"

Eid-ul-Fitr marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. It is a three-day period
during which Muslims give to charity and celebrate their completion of Ramadan's
requirements with family and their community.