Bad Deeds for 11-28-06

Newt Gingrich said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism
Gingrich talked up limiting free speech at the annual Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment award dinner, which fetes people and organizations that stand up for freedom of speech.

Carbon emissions show sharp rise
The Global Carbon Project says that emissions were rising by less than 1% annually up to the year 2000, but are now rising at 2.5% per year.

Bush Wants $500 Million To Build His Legacy Library
(The Clinton Presidential Library cost $165 million)

Republican committee chairman assured student loan bankers that their interests (not the students’) were in “two trusted hands”
The college student loan industry has been so well connected in the Republican-controlled Congress that a powerful committee chairman once assured its bankers and other financiers that their interests were in “two trusted hands.” That’s set to change, however, as incoming Democratic lawmakers have likened the bankers to usurers and promised to “throw them out of the temple of higher education.” Democrats say that one of their first acts will be to cut interest rates on federally backed student loans from 6.8% to 3.4%.

The GAO says much of the $388 billion spent on contracts last year was exposed to “potential waste and misuse”
After riding high for five years, government contractors are bracing themselves for increased oversight, tighter budgets and stepped-up regulations as Democrats take over on Capitol Hill and vow to keep a closer eye on how companies spend taxpayer dollars. Every company that does business with the government could feel the impact, but contractors that benefited most from work in Iraq and Afghanistan, from homeland security initiatives or from Hurricane Katrina are especially likely to be under the microscope. Big-ticket weapons programs are also expected to garner special attention, and it may become more difficult to get a no-bid contract, according to industry observers.

Regards,

Jim