Goodbye Bush 43; hello Obama 44.  It’s a bright shiny new day, and everything’s going to be different now.

How different?

This different:

• A major Bush rule gets scrapped by Obama (It’s not news, it’s CNN.com)

It wasn’t just a personal preference. In the Bush administration, it was a rule: Jackets in the Oval Office — and now, it seems, one of the first Bush-era regulations to get scrapped in the Obama White House.

See?  Change we can all believe in.

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Maybe the change can start in Clearwater, FL, where bait shop owner Herb Quintero had the audacity to paint a fish on the side of his… um, bait shop:

• Clearwater bait shop wraps itself in the First Amendment (tampabay.com)

A bait and tackle shop has been battling with city officials over a mural on its building that depicts game fish, which the city views as an unauthorized business sign. So the shop has covered up the artwork — with a banner displaying the text of the First Amendment.

[...]

Code enforcement officials say that, because the shop sells bait fish as well as tackle for fishing, its fish mural is essentially a large roadside advertisement.

A “large roadside advertisement”?  Without a permit?

(image from TJIC)

No, seriously.  The Clearwater municipal government is claiming an “OMG ONOZ!” threat to the community.  See, this isn’t about rent-seeking, not really.  It’s about porn!  PORN!

I am shitting thee negative.

Jeff Kronschnabl, the city’s director of development and neighborhood services, says inspectors have cited businesses for their murals before.

He argues that the city has no choice but to enforce its codes consistently and impartially, without making any exceptions. If not, he said, then something like an adult entertainment business could display a large mural depicting its products.

Kronschnabl’s line of reasoning is exactly what you think it is: if the city allows a picture of a fucking fish on the side of a bait shop, strip clubs and porn shops across Clearwater will immediately post giant-sized pussy pics all over the town.  Slippery slope much?

It gets better:

A mural like that would spark complaints. But, Kronschnabl said, if the city cracked down on a racy mural and gave a fish mural a pass, then the city would be trying to dictate the content of murals, and that would be a First Amendment issue.

“If he can do that, then that means everybody else has a right to do that,” Kronschnabl said.

No, you dipshit: everyone already has a right to do that — the same right recognized by the First Amendment.

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Speaking of people freaking out over depictions of naked women:

• Teens send nude pics to one another, face kiddie porn charges (Ars Technica)

So.  A law that was passed in order to protect teenaged women is now being used to send the people it was put in place to protect to prison and brand them for life as sex offenders.  That worked well.

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Where do laws like that come from?  They come from lawmakers like this:

• No, I meant to do that (The Agitator)

See, newly-elected congresscumfuck Eric Massa (D – N.Y., but you’d probably guessed) wanted to make a point about lowering emissions and conserving energy.  He wanted to do it by driving into DC in a hydrogen fuel-cell car, but the one he planned to drive didn’t have the range to make the whole trip.  So what’d he do?

Massa drove one fuel cell car while a hybrid SUV towing an additional SUV followed along. Once he got half way, he switched to new fuel cell car. The empty fuel cell was then towed back by the first SUV. As he continued on his journey, the second SUV followed. Once Massa arrived in DC, the second SUV then towed the second fuel cell car back to NY.

This kind of stupid doesn’t happen naturally, folks.  I think the IAEA needs to check out New York; somewhere in there a breeder reactor’s churning out enriched, weapons-grade stupid.