Eideard

Attorney Andrew McCullough in Dr. John’s Novelty and Lingerie Shop

Two escort services have filed a federal lawsuit to halt a Utah solicitation law they fear could lead to the arrest of strippers or escorts who are simply acting sexy.

Utah defines solicitation as a person agreeing to sex in exchange for money. A new law that went into effect this month broadened the definition to include any person who indicates through lewd acts, such as exposing or touching themselves, that they intend to exchange sex for money.

It was intended to help law enforcement agents working undercover in prostitution stings, Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank said Friday. He said it would protect officers who were being asked by prostitutes to expose or touch themselves to prove they’re not police because making such requests as a precursor to offering sex for money is illegal under the new law…

Andrew McCullough, an attorney representing the escort services in the lawsuit filed May 9, said the law is so broad that it could allow police to arrest licensed employees of sexually oriented businesses, such as escort services or strip club dancers, for doing their job.

The expanded law includes language that makes a person exposing their genitals or touching themselves sexually an indication that they are offering sex. Those acts are legal in Utah for private strippers.

“Most girls who touch their breasts are not telling you they’re open for sex,” the attorney said.

Sounds like Utah lawmakers have never been to a contemporary rock’n roll concert. Which actually is no surprise.

Or someone might even be scratching – in mosquito season.

While cleanup crews and technical teams continue efforts to stop crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana lawmakers are proposing… prayer.

State senators designated Sunday as a day for citizens to ask for God’s help dealing with the oil disaster.

“Thus far efforts made by mortals to try to solve the crisis have been to no avail,” state Sen. Robert Adley said in a statement released after last week’s unanimous vote for the day of prayer. “It is clearly time for a miracle for us.”

The resolution names Sunday as a statewide day of prayer in Louisiana and calls on people of all religions throughout the Gulf Coast “to pray for an end to this environmental emergency….”

I wouldn’t hold my breath….

Miffed at being asked to undergo a full body scanning at an American airport, a group of Fata lawmakers cut short their visit to the United States and flew back home.

The six-member delegation, which included both senators and members of the National Assembly, boarded a Kuwait Airways flight at Washington’s Dulles airport after the dispute.

They had come to the United States on Feb 28 on a 15-day visit. On Saturday morning, they were scheduled to fly to New Orleans as part of their tour.

But when they arrived at the airport, two of them were marked for random checking, which included a body-scan.

They refused to accept the demand, saying that they would rather go home than submit to the proposed scanning.

Senator Abbas Khan Afridi, a senior member of the delegation, later told journalists that other lawmakers backed their colleagues and told US officials that they too would go home if their colleagues were not exempted…

Mr Afridi said that the lawmakers considered the scanning order an insult to the parliamentarians of a sovereign country and decided to call off their visit.

He claimed that officials at the US Embassy in Islamabad had assured them that they would not be subjected to a body-scan and that’s why they reacted so strongly to the proposed search.

Why shouldn’t they be considered heroes? Rosa Parks refused to comply with bigoted regulations. These lawmakers refused to comply with a regulation which lists a small number of nations whose citizens must accept “special” treatment by virtue of their national origin.

Poisonally, I’d like to see groups of Americans stand up for their human rights and sit down and blockade the fracking TSA in airports all over the country. I think it’s time we all made a point of being fed up with fear-based rules.

Prosecutors have announced criminal charges against four lawmakers over alleged abuse of parliamentary expenses, in a dramatic twist to a scandal that has rocked British politics.

Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, said charges of false accounting would be brought against three Labour members of the elected House of Commons (MPs) and one Conservative member of the unelected House of Lords…

The men deny wrongdoing but have already been barred from standing for Labour at the next vote.

Lord Hanningfield, the Conservative peer who faces charges, also protested his innocence but immediately resigned as a business spokesman for his party and his membership was suspended, a party spokesman said.

The four men were due to appear in court on March 11 and if convicted, could face a jail sentence of up to seven years.

The expenses scandal erupted in May after the publication of leaked parliamentary expenses showing how lawmakers claimed for everything from flatscreen TVs to massage chairs.

What goes around, comes around. What major political parties in the industrial West have escaped the sleaze bug?

Wouldn’t it be great if we could come up with a vaccine against corruption, cronyism and graft?