Bankruptcy court is really confusing and annoying. How do you amass $1.8 billion in debt if you're "making" $275 million a year? Is this basically the corporate equivalent of paying the just the monthly minimum on a high balance credit card for a decade or two? And how can their CEO say that the plan to "shed" $1.2 billion of debt and pay back $600 million when the company "makes" $275 million in a "good" year is putting the company on "solid ground"?

Quoted: In an effort to shed $1.8 billion in debt, popular theme-park chain Six Flags announced Saturday that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy... the company actually performed well in 2008, attracting 25 million visitors and making $275 million. But it could not keep up with its debt obligations.

I can't decide if this proves that waterboarding is incredibly effective or completely ineffective. Or maybe these two guys are just badasses.

Drew, Liz, now that you're both lawyers can you explain why we still need court room sketch artists? And what do they make relative to stenographers, bailiffs and other court room professions?

Quoted: CIA interrogators used waterboarding at least 266 times on two top al Qaeda suspects, according to a Bush-era Justice Department memo released by the Obama administration. The controversial technique that simulates drowning -- and which President Obama calls torture -- was used at least 83 times in August 2002 on suspected al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah, according to the memo. Interrogators also waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times in March 2003. Mohammed is believed to be the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Drew or Liz, is this a bluff? How can that possibly make this a federal case?

Quoted: Investigators said 52-year-old Louis J. Levine invited students to his house on Alton Road in west Nashville, where teenagers were given drugs, alcohol and engaged in sexual activities. They said Levine secretly taped the sexual activity. Hundreds of tapes were recovered at the home...Officials said Levine faces federal charges for child pornography because the video equipment was manufactured in Japan. State charges are also expected.

West Michigan does their best to one-up Monica Conyers and Ken Cockrel. As of this moment, there is no video of this exchange.

63rd District Court: Serious Business.

***
Servaas, unconvinced, told her "You stabbed me in the back."

"That has nothing to do with this," Smolenski told him.

"Yes, it does," Servaas responded. "I can't trust you."

"There's nothing I could do to redeem myself in your eyes," Smolenski told her fellow jurist. "I could save you from drowning in a lake and it wouldn't redeem me in your eyes."

"No, because you wouldn't," Servaas retorted.

"Yes, I would, Steve," Smolenski said.

Couldn't Darius Miles or the NBAPA file a countersuit for collusion? I mean I understand that he probably wouldn't want to because he is getting paid the $18 million regardless, but it doesn't seem like the Blazers have any grounds for following through with this threat.

Quoted: The e-mail, addressed to NBA team presidents and general managers, states that if Darius Miles plays in two more games this season, the remaining $18 million on his contract will be owed by the Blazers.

Three months ago Barack Obama put a couple of calls in to the head of the Illinois State Senate and almost single-handedly orchestrated an override of Gov. Blagojevich's veto of a new ethics bill set to take effect Jan 1. It was that looming deadline that caused Blago to act as recklessly as he did in seeking a payoff for an appointment to Illinois' vacant US Senate seat.

It probably also has a lot do with the reason Blago referred to Obama as a "motherf***er* in taped conversations.

Quoted: Mr. Obama used leverage that he had seldom employed — publicly, anyway — and strongly urged Mr. Jones to bypass Mr. Blagojevich and approve the ethics bill, banning the so-called pay-for-play system of influence peddling in Illinois. When asked at the time how Mr. Obama had come to be involved, Mr. Jones replied, “He’s a friend.” When the Illinois Senate passed the measure by 55 to 0 on Sept. 22, with Mr. Jones reversing his position, Mr. Obama praised the move as one creating “a tougher ethics law that will reduce the influence of money over our state’s political process.” Mr. Obama’s intervention deepened a rift between him and Mr. Blagojevich that had been growing for some time.

You might find this interesting.

Quoted: HB 2211 is identical to bills widely introduced into state legislatures across the nation, where they have met various fates. Texas’s Legislature passed it, and Texas is experiencing serious problems as a result...

So what does it do exactly?

Quoted: The bill requires public schools to guarantee students the right to express their religious viewpoints in a public forum, in class, in homework and in other ways without being penalized. If a student’s religious beliefs were in conflict with scientific theory, and the student chose to express those beliefs rather than explain the theory in response to an exam question, the student’s incorrect response would be deemed satisfactory, according to this bill. The school would be required to reward the student with a good grade, or be considered in violation of the law. Even simple, factual information such as the age of the earth (4.65 billion years) would be subject to the student’s belief, and if the student answered 6,000 years based on his or her religious belief, the school would have to credit it as correct...

Anything else? (rephrased for clarity)

Quoted: If a student chooses to take the opportunity to speak at a school-sanctioned assembly and decides to tell the audience they must accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior or go to hell, then that student would have a right to do so, according to this bill. Especially, if the student held a position of honor and authority (class officer, team captain), and was speaking in his or her official capacity.

So how is this being handled in the aforementioned states that have already enacted this legislation?

Quoted: The consequence of the bill will be to create havoc and promote discord in the public schools. That’s already happening in Texas, where the bill has been law for several months. Denton, Texas Independent School District, responding to the law, has decreed that no students may ever speak in assembly, to graduation, to the crowd at an athletic event or in other group function. As reported in The Denton Record Chronicle Sept. 1, the superintendent there said if no students are ever allowed to speak, then there will be no discrimination and no basis for lawsuits.

Brilliant.

Updating a previous Dot of mine.

Quoted: A federal prosecutor from Florida accused of flying to Detroit last month to have sex with a 5-year-old girl has committed suicide in his cell in the Milan federal prison.