You thought it was bad enough that our government could collect all our data? Behold: a New York federal judge will allow Chevron to vacuum in nine years of activists' email data in its never-ending quest to reverse a $19 million judgment against it for crapping all over Ecuador in the late 1990s. Judge Kaplan says it's not a First Amendment issue because Chevron isn't asking for the metadata of any American citizens -- except that, whoops, their dragnet does sweep up some Americans. Don't judges have to know the facts before they judge? And don't feel safe that Chevron targets mainly non-Americans -- under a Trans-Pacific "Partnership" regime, your First Amendment rights won't mean very much before the "investor tribunals" who'll replace our courts and our laws.

Paul Buchheit puts forth a fairly concise and impassioned case for a financial transaction tax. It might take a few years before a financial transaction tax (Mr. Buchheit talks .01% here, and that's one one-hundredth of one percent, "liberal" media) actually discourages all the unnecessary faster-than-light trading in America -- but it'll raise a good chunk of change in the meantime. Too bad our President listens to Larry Summers (now apparently jockeying for Ben Bernanke's job!) about such matters.

Bloomberg suggests that Mitch McConnell is "shrinking from his longtime role as a broker of high-stakes congressional deals" now that he's getting a primary challenge from his right. Ah, can you think of a single "high-stakes deal" Mr. McConnell has "brokered" over the last few years? Me neither.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) says he and a dozen other Republican Senators would be willing to "shut down the government" so he can block implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Boy, think of how mad they'd be if Mr. Obama had spent six months ramming through a moderate or liberal health care plan! Seriously, though, these clowns think a bajillion Americans would run through a wall to defeat the Affordable Care Act, but unpopularity just doesn't translate directly into rage. And the Clown Car already shot their wad with the "death panels" lie.

And finally, a naked, 42-year-old Iowa man got busted for breaking car tail lights last week, because "red means danger to the republic." Next week, he'll get a ladder so he can bust up some traffic lights -- and then those Commies all around him will take notice!