Congressman Jim Cooper To Hold Series Of Town Hall Meetings On NSA Spying

In the forests of remote Indonesia. a panel of zoologists reported that satire is often used among Komodo dragons to ease tensions and to make political points within a group. The giant lizards, some as long as twelve feet, have long been known for their barbed comments and straight-faced humor.

Meanwhile, in Nashville, Tennessee, Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN) announced that he would be holding a somewhat lengthy series of town hall meetings to learn his constituents' views on NSA and other government spying. Cooper, no stranger to wading into controversial waters, even when his fellow congressmen and women fear to, said that the only way to learn what citizens thought is to simply ask them.

"We're being very proactive on this," Cooper said yesterday. "The old argument is that citizens, voters, will let their elected representatives know when they are for something, or even against it. But in the case of all this government spying revealed recently, no one knew about it, so they couldn't inform their representatives of their position in the matter. It's pretty outrageous. Well, we're going to ask them.

"I want to know; Do you want your telephone calls monitored, or listened to? Do you want your e-mails read? Do you want your letters scanned or read? We're not waiting for voters to write to us; we're going out and find them and get their views. It's simply never been done before in this fashion, to this extent."

Cooper, who noted that he planned to hold at least a dozen separate meetings on the matter, said he personally had no position on spying, somewhat unusual for the congressman known for taking the firmest stands on any and all controversial matters. "Some things are so evenly balanced that I honestly can't decide. On this one, I need the voters to decide it for me."

US Government Falls Due to Wikileaks, NSA Revelations

The United States government fell this afternoon as a result of weaknesses caused initially by the Wikileaks revelations of 2010, and greatly aggravated more recently by the news of spying on Americans citizens, foreign governments, and international associations by the National Security Agency.

Supporters of the secrets disclosed by those revelations had long maintained that such admissions, and the information contained within them, would eventually bring down the Federal government of the US; skeptics had downplayed the possibility. It had been hoped that the recently completed prosecution of Bradley Manning would stem the tide until the arrests and imprisonment of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden could be arranged.

"We didn't make it," CNN legal commentator Jeffrey Toobin, a supporter of the secret-keeping, told the New York Times. "now terrorists are running wild in the streets of Washington, politicians are fleeing back to the heartland, and all appears to be lost. The only thing left to do is to rebuild from the ashes."

A representative of what was left of officials in Washington, DC said that all previously schedule sporting events in the city would take place, since a majority of the occupying terrorists were sports fans, although they preferred soccer.

Tennessee Legislature, Expected To Be The Last On Gay Marriage Train, Lashes Out by Making It Compulsory--For Straights

Even with the recent Supreme Court decisions, and a growing list of states sanctioning gay marriage, several states were clearly expected to bring up the back of the train. Tennessee for one. Long considered one of the most conservative states on the social side of things, Tennessee has often kept laws on its books banning certain types of voluntary sexual practices long after most states had repealed them, and even after courts had overturned them.

Now, however, the Tennessee legislature has chosen to take and boldly different approach to gay marriage, passing a recent aw making such ceremonies mandatory, but only for straight people--even if the straight citizens are already in an historically conventional marriage.

"We realized recently that we were fighting a tide of public opinion," Senator Biff Weinglass said in a television interview Thursday. "Once they convinced the straights that it was a losing battle to fight this thing, we saw the handwriting on the wall, and it was written in big letters. So we're going to give them what they want, and then some. And if they get more than they bargained for, the whose fault is that? Maybe it'll teach 'em not to fall in with the crowd."

Asked about the fact that Tennessee's constitution, as a result of a 2006 amendment passed by the voters, prohibits gay marriages, Weinglass said, "That doesn't mean much. We don't pay much attention to those amendments. We just do what we do, and it either flies or it doesn't. That was passed when the tide was going the other way. It was just a moment in time."

Weinglass denied that the recent measure was a carefully calculated overreaction designed to provoke opposition to the concept of gay marriage. "No, we're giving in on this one. You have to sometimes. The way I look at it, at least we are still in the business of regulating some type of private activity. That's what's most important to me. We don't ever want to lose that."

Man Of A Million Fragments: The True Story Of Clay Shaw, A Complete Biography, Now Available On All E-reader Formats

Now available on Apple, Sony, Barnes and Noble Nook. Amazon Kindle, and all other e-reader formats for $6.99.

A detailed biography of Clay Shaw, combined with a reinterpretation of the investigation by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison into the assassination of President Kennedy.