This was not Obama's regular campaign plane, which is being overhauled. It was a loaner, having previously been used by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY.

How convenient! Anyway, look for our exciting theories on how exactly Hillary almost pull this off in our new screenplay, Prematurely Inflated Escape Slide on a Plane.

I wanted to contact you today and see if Gawker would be able to run a story about a hate crime that occurred early Wednesday morning at the trendy NYC nightclub 1 Oak which is owned by Richie Akiva and Scott Sartiano (dated Ashley Olsen, and Jamie Lynn Siegler) -

Early Wednesday morning (June 18th, 2008) at approximately 2:30AM - two individuals were attacked by a man inside 1 OAK. and were called "faggots" - victim number 1 had to be rushed to the hospital due to massive blood loss. Victim number 2 had no visible wounds at the time.

Victim number 1's friend wanted to call 911, however the two owners of the nightclub, Sartiano and Akiva, told the friend NOT TO. 911 was called regardless. The club owners then wanted to rush the victim into a car when they knew the ambulance was coming. A minute goes by and the attacker was able to walk right out of the club, without security questioning or anyone's interference, even after the victim's friend screamed out "that's the guy!"

The attacker turns out to be someone that frequents the club often and knew the doorman and the staff, since he was able to walk right into the club and said hello to the doorman in the beginning of the night. When questioned, the owners claimed to not know who the attacker was, and provided no information.

Victim number 1 ended up with 5 stitches, a broken nose, busted upper and lower lips, and lacerations around the face. Victim number 2 suffered from acute migraines due to an attack to the back of the head. A police report was filed the next day. However the club owners did not seem concerned, and did not supply the name of the attacker and did not phone the victim to follow up on the progress or the status.

The owners of the club did not seem to care for what happened within their club, and only was concerned that the police was not informed and no press comes out of this, they wanted to retain their public image.

From 1 Oak's PR firm, Shadow PR:

Unfortunately, the situation that occurred at 1OAK was out of the establishment's control. 1OAK is cooperating fully with the necessary parties and hope the matter is resolved immediately. This inappropriate behavior is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.

[Interior pic via Men.Style.com]

In some nations, like China, there are restrictions on blogging in general. Burma has arrested hundreds of people who may be bloggers. Sometimes no one knows if someone has been arrested or not. Also the report doesn't even mention Sheila!

We've covered blogger-arrests (despite the total lack of interest from American blog-readers!) rather extensively recently. Be careful where you tumble log, people.

I knew enough to take the threat seriously. So I took some advice from a senior Japanese detective, abandoned the scoop and resigned from the Yomiuri Shimbun two months later. But I never forgot the story. I planned to write about it in a book, figuring that, with Goto's poor health, he'd be dead by the time it came out. Otherwise, I planned to clip out the business of his operation at the last minute.

I didn't bargain on the contents leaking out before my book was released, which is what happened last November. Now the FBI and local law enforcement are watching over my family in the States, while the Tokyo police and the NPA look out for me in Japan. I would like to go home, but Goto has a reputation for taking out his target and anyone else in the vicinity

Sucks. Adelstein also says that Japanese law enforcement is being uncooperative with the FBI, which is trying to keep potential Adelstein assassins out of the country.

Also: the yakuza makes most of its money from child porn, which is legal to possess in Japan. I now think of the Japanese as both scarier and sleazier than I did an hour ago. Be sure to buy Adelstein's book, so he can buy some guns.

[WP]

"Dave Martin, a 66-year-old retired veterinarian from Solana Beach, was attacked at San Diego County's Tide Beach around 7 a.m., according to the Associated Press. At the time, Martin was swimming with a group that included nine triathletes from the Triathlon Club of San Diego, according to a statement on the Solana Beach city Web site.

"A Solana Beach resident for 38 years, Martin had been with the club for three years and was in the middle of the group when a large shark attacked him 150 yards off shore before vanishing.

"Martin's friends immediately pulled him out of the water and onto the beach."
[ABC News/ AP photo]

"The 42-year-old presenter was in a 'vulnerable' state following the drug death of his fiancee, Natasha Collins, in January. A spokesman for British Transport Police said: 'At this stage the death is being treated as unexplained. The body has been removed from the scene and CCTV from the station has been seized as part of the ongoing investigation.' Sky's Kitty Logan, in Paddington, said: 'We don't know how long the body lay there, or who found him.'"

Speight (left) "was initially arrested on suspicion of murder and supplying Class A drugs, but last month Scotland Yard said he would not face any charges over the death[...] He had been planning a tribute concert in memory of Miss Collins, his best friend said." [SkyNews]

[via Ugly.org]

The phenomenon of (always) stupid (usually) young men—often bored graffiti writers from the outer boroughs—surfing on the outside of subway cars has been admirably covered by the New York media. It's one of those evergreen, slice of life stories that publications can recycle every few years, as events warrant. Every so often, somebody dies riding on top of train, and the populace of the city remarks to itself, "My, how stupid. And possibly tragic."

And the, um, "sport "isn't confined to America. Not by a long shot! The Japanese enjoy surfing on trains and dodging oncoming bridges:

In South Africa, kids like to boogie on top of trains, duck for their lives, then continue to boogie:

In Barcelona, some kids ride on the back of the subway, which is relatively safer. Very relatively:

And to answer my original question, who would be stupid enough to ride on the side of the train? Some guy in Manchester, England, for one! His trip ended as you might have guessed:

In conclusion: Kids, if you want to go subway surfing, keep your activities confined to the inside of the car. There's really only one safe way to do it—as performance art:

[pic via Subway Blogger]