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The Photographer-Kicking Legislator And The Illiterate Peasants

The Story

• Colorado state Representative Douglas Bruce has done it again.
• You may remember the last time we checked in with Rep. Bruce in January, he was kicking a Rocky Mountain News photographer during morning prayers at the state capital. [CBS 4]
• (He refused to apologize for kicking the guy and became the first lawmaker to be censured by the House in its 131-year history.)
• This week he was kicked off of the podium after referring to Mexican farmworkers as “illiterate peasants.” [USA Today] [The Gazette]
• See, Colorado is facing a serious shortage of people to work the state’s farms. Lawmakers want to try a new, innovative program to grant foreign workers temporary visas to come to work on Colorado farms. Once the growing season is over, the workers would return to their home countries.
• But Bruce has a thing against immigrants. Afterwards, not only did Bruce refuse to apologize for the slur, he tried to *explain* it.
• Bruce: “I looked up ‘illiterate’ in the dictionary and it means somebody who is lacking in formal education or is unable to read and write. I don’t think these people who are planning to come over here and pick potatoes or peaches are likely to have much of a formal education. I looked up the word ‘peasant.’ The word ‘peasant’ means a person who works in agricultural fields.”
• Bill sponsor Marsha Looper: “I truly believe he is a bigot, and his remark today very candidly explained his position again.”

The Audio

• Rep. Marsha Looper: “This is to allow legal foreign, non-immigrant seasonal workers to come to Colorado then go back home. I would ask you to read the bill, Representative.”
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• Rep. Douglas Bruce: “Thank you, I have read the bill. Twice. The more I read it, the more I dislike it. I would like to have the opportunity to state at the microphone why I don’t think we need 5,000 more illiterate peasants in Colorado.”
• Rep. Kathleen Curry: “Rep. Rep. Bruce, you are no longer recognized in the Well.”
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• Rep. Kathleen Curry: “How dare you.”
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We like the statement from Republican floor leader Mike May: “You’d be hard-pressed to find an American citizen who isn’t the descendant of an illiterate peasant.”

The Science of Brain Farts

• Everyone’s had them — the infamous brain fart.
• What you didn’t know is that scientists have been working long and hard to figure out what exactly they are, and why they happen. This week, the scientists detailed their findings online in the journal Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences. [MSNBC]
• To investigate the incidents, volunteers had their brains scanned as they performed the monotonous task of repetitively pushing buttons that matched images flashed at them.
• “We thought initially that it would be quite remarkable if we were to find abnormal activity six or so seconds ahead,” said researcher Tom Eichele, a neuroscientist at the University of Bergen in Norway. “
• Instead, they found that they could detect changes in brain activity up to thirty seconds before the brain fart occurred.
• Thirty seconds is a lot — enough to prevent accidents that occur while driving a car or operating a piece of machinery in a factory.
• Only problem is that the testing was done with a functional MRI that requires volunteers to be lying down in a tube. Not very practical in the real world.
• Scientists are instead advocating mind-reading hats, using the technology currently being tested for video games that attach electrodes to the head to measure brain activity.
• These caps could emit a loud beep when the abnormal activity occurs, preventing all sorts of accidents if they can fine-tune the technology.

One day, mind-reading hats will be the hot spring trend.

What You Need To Know About Heparin

• It’s been linked to the death of dozens, and it’s leading to a clash between researchers and policy makers in America and China. But...what is it? [NY Times]
• It’s called Heparin. And here’s the deal:
• It’s a blood thinner made “from the mucous membranes of the intestines of slaughtered pigs.”
• Some batches of Heparin, imported from China, contain a “oversulfated chondroitin sulfate,” a contaminate the F.D.A. says comes from “unclean tanks” and “unregulated family workshops” in China.
• The contaminate has been found in Heparin in 11 countries, and has been linked to severe reactions and 81 deaths in the United States.
• China says it’s not their fault, and says, while the contaminant is present, it didn’t cause the deaths.
• Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the Food and Drug Administration: “Heparin should not be contaminated, regardless of whether or not that contamination caused acute adverse events...We are fairly confident based on the biological information that we have had that this contaminant is capable of triggering these adverse reactions.”
• Wouldn’t it be great if we could inspect these Chinese factories before they ship their contaminated product? Well, yeah, but...
• A Government Accountability Office report found that “the F.D.A. would need to spend at least $56 million more next year to begin full inspections of foreign plants” and $15 million/year to keep them inspected.
• Bush’s FDA budget (gasp!) doesn’t provide the funds.
• The scary truth: “At its present inspection pace, the F.D.A. would need at least 27 years to inspect every foreign medical device plant that exports to the United States, 13 years to check every foreign drug plant and 1,900 years to examine every foreign food plant.”

“Unregulated family workshops” + “pig intestines” = gross

By the Numbers

Gas Pains

Gas prices are up, and as Americans spend record amounts on gas, ExxonMobile rakes in the profits. It’s enough to get anyone hot under the hood. Here are the numbers; [Reuters] [Fortune]

$100 billion

The amount U.S. households spent on gas during the first quarter of 2008

$40 billion

The amount spent over the same period in 2007

60%

The portion of respondents in a Consumer Federation of America poll who said that rising gas prices “caused them much or some hardship”

$40.6 billion

The 2007 profits of Exxon Mobile

5

The number of years in a row, including this one, that ExxonMobile has been the most profitable country in America

Celebrities: Unfiltered

“I’m late all the time. I have no perception of time. Time is for white people. It doesn’t work with me.”

— Singer Erykah Badu, figuring out how to work race into the fact she desperately needs a Swatch. [Perez Hilton]

Speed Round

ID THEFT

As if you didn’t already have enough problems with your mortgage, now the Lending Tree admits former employees hacked into their computers and stole all your data. [NBC News]

STRIKE THREE

Buy this man some peanuts *and* Cracker Jack! Atlanta Braves’ pitcher John Smoltz just became the 16th pitcher in major league history with 3,000 strike outs. [Sports Illustrated]

QUOTE OF THE DAY

After President Bush bragged about the “astronaut mattresses” on Air Force One, a blasé Rep. Jim Cooper responds, “They’re Tempur-Pedic mattresses. My wife bought us some a while ago. Big deal.” [Politico]

PREACHER, HEAL THYSELF

After posting a sign reading “Obama, Osama, hmm, are they brothers?” in front of his church in South Carolina, Pastor Roger Byrd explained, “In other words, is he Muslim ? I don’t know. He says he’s not. I hope he’s not. But I don’t know.” Barack Obama, for the record, is a lifelong Christian and a member of Trinity United Church of Christ. [WWFF] [Barack Obama]

PIERCINGS

Harrison Ford tells Maxim magazine that he was inspired to get his earring after getting drunk at lunch with Ed Bradley and Jimmy Buffet, both of whom were sporting ear jewelry. [US Magazine]

OFF THE MARKET

Sorry, ladies, but former Tennessee Congressman (and one of People Magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People”) Harold Ford is tying the knot with girlfriend Emily Threlkeld in Miami this weekend. [NY Post]

$100 BILLION

How much we’ve spent on gas during the first quarter of this year. Want some sad context? That’s more than double what we spent ($40 billion) in the first quarter just six years ago. [Reuters]

HE’S OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD

A Roman Catholic priest who floated off under hundreds of helium party ballons was either looking for Oz or a new world record. He went missing Monday off the southern coast of Brazil, leaving behind only pieces of balloons. [CNN]

OH, ARIZONA.

The AZ state legislature is considering a ban on teaching practices that “overtly encourage dissent” from American values, including democracy, capitalism, pluralism and religious tolerance. It would also ban bar public schools, community colleges and universities from allowing organizations to operate on campus if it is “based in whole or in part on race-based criteria,” [Us Magazine]

WE NEVER THOUGHT TO LOOK UNDER THE BRIDGE

Migrants used a cart to ferry themselves from Mexico to the U.S. under one of the most well traveled border bridges. Clever. [El Paso Times]

DOUBLE THE TROUBLE

Paris Hilton wants a double wedding with BFF Nicole Richie. [Page Six]

WHERE DID ALL THE MATZO GO?

As if rising food prices, astronomically expensive gasoline, and depressingly bad reality tv weren’t already ruining your Passover, there is now an official Matzo shortage. Manischewitz started the problem by installing a new oven which wasn’t ready in time for the holiday rush, but other Jewish bakeries haven’t jumped in to ensure that unleavened bread is on every table this week. [New York Times]

NALGENE VS. CANADA

Say it ain’t so! The Canadian government has declared that BPA, a chemical found in nalgene bottles and other ” hard-plastic products used for eating and drinking,” is a toxic chemical. The same day, “Nalgene announced that it’s phasing out production of all water bottles containing BPA, though the company maintained that there is nothing dangerous in the plastic.” [ADN]

STREISAND VS. ISRAEL

Barbara “Babs” Streisand pulls out of Israel’s 60th anniversary celebration next month because of “personal obligations.” Says her publicist, “She celebrates as always the nation’s courage and purpose and flourishing democracy and is saddened that she cannot be there to do so in person.” [AP]

DUMB ALIENS

Stephen Hawking says that “unintelligent life” likely exists on other planets. [AP]

TUBE REGULATION

A Network Neutrality hearing heats up Capitol Hill. Check it out: [AP]

MORE NATURE DOCUMENTARIES!!!!!!!!

“The Walt Disney Co. said Monday it launched a new film production unit called Disneynature to produce and distribute documentary films through at least 2012.” [AP]