Bad Deeds for 11-12-2007

US Intelligence Deputy Says It’s Time for America to Redefine Privacy – As Congress debates new rules for government eavesdropping, a top intelligence official says it is time that people in the United States change their definition of privacy. Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group that defends online free speech, privacy and intellectual property rights, said Kerr’s argument ignores both privacy laws and American history. “Anonymity has been important since the Federalist Papers were written under pseudonyms,” Opsahl said. “The government has tremendous power: the police power, the ability to arrest, to detain, to take away rights. Tying together that someone has spoken out on an issue with their identity is a far more dangerous thing if it is the government that is trying to tie it together.”

Insurance Company Paid Bonuses for Dropping Sick Patients – A health insurance company serving customers in a half-dozen states set out to drop hundreds of customers and paid lucrative bonuses to an executive in charge of eliminating coverage. More than 1,600 customers had their Health Net policies rescinded between 2000 and 2006 saving the company $35.5 million. Over the same period the senior Health Net analyst in charge of canceling policies received more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting annual targets for revoking the coverage.

$611.5 Billion Could Have Done Some Good – If the Bush administration succeeds in its latest request for funding for the war in Iraq, the total cost would rise to $611.5 billion, according to the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit research group. What could $611 billion have bought?

• 4,000 new high schools
• 40 extremely-large public works projects
• Convert all cars in America to run on ethanol nine times over
• Nearly 14 million years’ worth of tuition, room, and board at Harvard
• Feed and educate the world’s poor for seven years

Democrats Drop the Renewable Energy Standard Out of the Energy Bill and Drop the Tax Title – Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi have decided to drop the renewable energy standard out of the energy bill and drop the tax title. No tax title means no extension of the investment tax credit for wind nor solar, adding up to precisely zero for renewable energy in the energy bill. Pelosi’s offices number is 202- 225-4965
Reid’s office’s number is 202-224-3542. Then you should call your Congressman or woman and get all fired up on this too. News Alert: If You Love Renewable Energy, It’s Time to Freak Out

Conservative Magazine Editor Says, “Waterboarding is something of which every American should be proud.” – To highlight just how depraved some conservatives have become, consider the latest piece from Deroy Murdock, a contributing editor to the National Review. While some on the right have defended waterboarding as a necessary evil in a ticking-time-bomb scenario, Murdock went much further, arguing, “Waterboarding is something of which every American should be proud.” He also said, “In short, there is nothing “repugnant” about waterboarding.” Remember, this isn’t some random crazy person ranting on a street corner; this is a published column in one of the nation’s biggest conservative political magazines. Murdock also claims that waterboarding does not cause permanent physical injuries (and unlikely even temporary ones), but a little fact-checking shows that Murdock doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Congressional testimony from Allen S. Keller, M.D., director of the Bellevue Hospital Center/New York University Program for Survivors of Torture, shows that waterboarding can result in lasting harmful health consequences including death. Torture has also been shown to provide false information. Tortured “repugnant” arguments
“Waterboarding is something of which every American should be proud” This Week At War: Does Torture Work?

Republican Staffers Falsely Accuse Pelosi in Temporary Fox News Blackout – When Fox News programming mysteriously disappeared last week from televisions at the US Capitol, some Republicans on the Hill suggested a far-ranging plot reaching even the highest levels of majority leadership. “I sense Pelosi’s behind this,” said one finger-pointing GOP staffer. Another Republican aide described the horrors of being compelled to watch other networks’ news coverage during the work day. “I was just forced to watch an MSNBC segment on going green by shopping at farmers markets,” the withdrawal-afflicted staffer told the paper. “We need Fox back, stat.” Actually, a Fox engineer explained that there was a technical glitch as the network shifted its feeds from analog to digital.

Fox News Host Disappointed by Implausibility of Suitcase Nukes – The revelation that the suitcase nuke, a nuclear bomb small enough to be easily hidden, is unlikely to exist, left the anchors of the Fox News program Fox & Friends more than a little disappointed. “You mean ’24’ isn’t true,” Co-host Page Kelly inquired, referring to Fox’s national security-themed prime time hit, starring Kiefer Sutherland as CIA agent Jack Bauer. “’24’s my favorite show.”

Pentagon Wants to Create Space Vehicle to Fire Missiles to Anywhere on Earth – Buried in the 621-page House-Senate conference report on the Defense Department appropriations bill — and page A19 of Monday’s Washington Post, is a $100 million request to enhance space warfare. As if it didn’t already have enough work in Iraq, the Pentagon plans to divert funds from an appropriation to improve submarine-launched Trident missiles to develop a “global strike” program which would allow the US to target and dispatch a “precision-guided” warhead anywhere in the world within two hours.

Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Planted Questions in Audience During Campaign Stops – Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign admitted Friday that it planted a global warming question in Newton, Iowa, Tuesday during a town hall meeting to discuss clean energy. Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elliethee admitted that the campaign had planted the question and said it would not happen again. One day later, another person has come forward with a similar story. Geoff Mitchell, a minister who recently moved to Hamilton, Ill., from Iowa, told ABC News that he was approached this spring by Clinton’s Iowa political director Chris Haylor to ask Clinton a question about war funding.

Condi And The Freedom Hating Fly
During Condoleezza Rice’s appearance on This Week, she encountered a pesky little fly who just wouldn’t take shoo! for an answer. (FOXNews’ Bill O’Reilly has opened his own investigation into the matter, stating he has proof this was a trained, far-left, liberal fly, most likely financed by George Soros, the Daily Kos/Media Matters smear sites, MSNBC, Rosie O’Donnell and the Clintons. Not to worry, Homeland Security says Secretary Rice was never in any danger and terrorism has been ruled out. The fly has also been added to the no-fly list. 😉 )

Regards,

Jim