The Transportation Safety Agency announced on Sunday that it is standing by the June 18 decision of agents at the Northwest Florida Regional Airport to conduct an intrusive patdown inspection of a 95-year-old woman with leukemia who is in a wheelchair, which culminated in the elderly woman removing her Depends undergarment so that the agents could inspect the diaper for contraband or weapons.

The 95-year-old woman was en route to Michigan to visit relatives before moving in to a nursing home. Her daughter, Jean Weber, was traveling with her, and told reporters that she burst into tears watching her mother be subjected to the indignities.  Because Ms. Weber started crying, the agents then moved on from the 95-year-old woman and subjected her daughter to an intrusive patdown, which resulted in such lengthy delays that Ms. Weber missed the flight to Michigan, and her mother traveled without her and without any underpants all the way north.

[CNN, LAT]

Our guest columnist is… You!

Dear Editor,

When Rick Scott ran for Governor he promised to create jobs and turn our economy around. I voted for Rick because he’s always been a businessman, not a politician. While politicians usually disappoint us and rarely keep their promises, Rick is refreshing because he’s keeping his word. His policies are helping to attract businesses to our state and get people back to work. Some of the special interests are attacking the Governor for making tough decisions, showing leadership, and doing what he told us he would do. Rick Scott deserves our unwavering and enthusiastic support. How can we expect to elect leaders who will keep their word and do what’s right for our state if we don’t stand up for those with the courage to set priorities, make difficult choices, and actually deliver on their promises made?

Please note that you may change the text before emailing the Florida newspaper of your choice. Not that you would do anything inappropriate.

Email a Newspaper Editor [Rick Scott for Florida]

Rick Scott cares! He really does care! [Orlando Sentinel, via Political Wire]

Alternate headline: The Turns of the Screwed.

Because:

1) Newt’s six-figure Tiffany’s tab provided Our Great Nation with general amusement.

2) Newt’s six-figure interest-free Tiffany’s tab raised America’s Eyebrows when we learned that The Wife was a congressional staffer while Tiffany’s lobbied her committee.

And now — drumroll, please — Turn #3:

Read more »

We were only mildly amused by Newt’s Tiffany’s bill. Until now:

At the same time Tiffany & Co. was extending Callista (Bisek) Gingrich a virtual interest-free loan of tens of thousands of dollars, the diamond and silverware firm was spending big bucks to influence mining policy in Congress and in agencies over which the House Agriculture Committee — where she worked — had jurisdiction, official records show.

Filings by Tiffany’s lobbyist, Cassidy & Co., and other government records show that the firm’s spending on “mining law and mine permitting-related issues” in Congress, as well as the Forest Service, the Interior Department, and Interior’s Bureau of Land Management shot up sharply during the period when Callista Gingrich was chief clerk at the House Agriculture Committee.

Those interest-free Tiffany’s debts were up to a cool half-million. Newt says he had a “standard, no-interest account”, but so far nobody can find evidence that Tiffany’s offers no-interest accounts.

And Tiffany’s ain’t talking.

If you would like a Tiffany’s charge card, you’ll enjoy 21 percent interest on the balance. Which amounts to around fifty large on a quarter-million debt. Which, in turn, until we hear otherwise, means Callista got a nice 50K bribe while she was working for Congress.

Gingrich wife worked for committee heavily lobbied by Tiffany [SpyTalk, via Political Wire]

Harold Camping, who has brought much joy to our world with his end-of-world prediction, is now issuing an EMERGENCY CLARIFICATION:

The fun begins at 6 p.m. Saturday — wherever Saturday begins first.

So, according to these calculations, the Rapture will actually begin like a rolling brown out across the globe at 11 p.m. PST on Friday, May 20th. “Everyone will be weeping and wailing because they’ll know in a few hours it’ll come to their city,” said Camping.

The “6 p.m.” kickoff has been noted already, but in trying to track it down last night, we couldn’t source it to Camping himself — just an NPR story about a follower. Now we can confirm that Armageddon will target Earth like a rotisserie.

And what special plans does Brother Camping have for Mankind’s Blessed Destruction? Same as the rest of us: He’ll be watching CNN.

The Rapture Is Not Saturday — It’s Tonight [Atlantic]

Simply amazing: photographs only NASA can take.

While everybody’s excited about the new “.xxx” Internet red-light district soon to flood a series of glandular tubes near you, an enterprising company has been diddling Ma Bell:

Records obtained by The Associated Press show that over the past 13 years, a little-known Philadelphia company called PrimeTel Communications has quietly gained control over nearly a quarter of all the 1-800 numbers in the U.S. and Canada, often by grabbing them the moment they are relinquished by previous users. As of March, it administered more 800 numbers than any other company, including Verizon and AT&T.

And many, if not most, of those 1.7 million numbers appear to be used for one thing: redirecting callers to a phone-sex service.

We can’t help but consider the news adorably quaint: With free video online to satisfy every exquisitely perverted urge imaginable, who the hell spends money on phone sex anymore?

Porn Company Is Amassing 1-800 Numbers [AP/ABC, via TPM]