Bad Deeds for 11-8-2007

The Price of War: Many Homeless are Veterans – More than 25 percent of the homeless population in the United States are military veterans, although they represent only 11 percent of the civilian adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday. “Veterans make up a disproportionate share of homeless people,” the report said. “This is true despite the fact that veterans are better educated, more likely to be employed and have a lower poverty rate than the general population.” Some veterans, like Jason Kelley find themselves in a catch-22, not able to find a job because of the lack of an apartment, and not being able to get an apartment because of not having a job. In addition, he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he said, according to AP. Kelley served in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard. More than 400 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have turned up homeless, and the Veterans Affairs Department and aid groups say they are bracing for a new surge in homeless veterans in the years ahead.

State Department Gives Blackwater Shooting a Free Pass – After an investigation of a February 7th shooting of last year, involving Blackwater guards found Blackwater guards to be at fault, the US concluded differently. Based on information from the Blackwater guards, who said they were fired upon, the State Department determined that the security team’s actions “fell within approved rules governing the use of force,” according to an official from the department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Neither U.S. Embassy officials nor Blackwater representatives interviewed witnesses or returned to the network, less than a quarter-mile from Baghdad’s Green Zone, to investigate.

AT&T Has Secret Room That Sends Internet Data to Government – According to a former AT&T employee, the government has warrantless access to a great deal of Internet traffic should they care to take a peek. As information is traded between users it flows also into a locked, secret room on the sixth floor of AT&T’s San Francisco offices and other rooms around the country — where the U.S. government can sift through and find the information it wants, former AT&T employee Mark Klein alleged Wednesday at a press conference on Capitol Hill. “An exact copy of all Internet traffic that flowed through critical AT&T cables — e-mails, documents, pictures, Web browsing, voice-over-Internet phone conversations, everything — was being diverted to equipment inside the secret room,” he said. Documents he obtained form AT&T showed that highly sophisticated data mining equipment was kept there. Conversations he had with other technicians and the AT&T documents led Klein to believe there are 15 to 20 such sites nationwide, including in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Jose, San Diego and Atlanta, he said.

Fox News Preaches ‘Moral Values’ In Between Clips Of Soft Porn

Giuliani Repeats Claim About Prostate Cancer That Authorities Call “Very Misleading” and “Complete Nonsense.” – Rudy Giuliani insists he was “absolutely accurate” to say that men with prostate cancer have a 44 percent survival rate in England, despite being contradicted by FactCheck.org, major news organizations and several cancer experts. The conservative think tank which published the figure also is defending it. A professor of biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University calls Giuliani’s figure “very misleading,” and the chief of urology at a leading medical school calls it “complete nonsense.” No less an authority than Britain’s health secretary says Giuliani’s cancer statistic is wrong.

Pat Robertson Says Giuliani Presidency Appears in the Book of Revelation – One day after endorsing former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani for president, televangelist Pat Robertson explained his decision, saying that a Giuliani presidency features prominently in the Book of Revelation. The televangelist made it clear that “in order for the Second Coming to occur, the world needs to end, and Rudy Giuliani is just the man for that job.” Rev. Robertson said that he was “confident” that within weeks of his inauguration, Mr. Giuliani would usher in the “end days” that are a staple of Bible prophecy. In praising Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Robertson had critical words for the current resident of the White House, President George W. Bush: “President Bush got us on the road to Armageddon, but it’s taking too darn long — Rudy Giuliani will put us in the express lane.” When asked by a reporter in Iowa about Mr. Robertson’s comments today, Mr. Giuliani replied, “9/11.”

(I hope you could tell this is a joke, but taking into account some of Robertson’s other remarks, you begin to wonder.)
Remember, 11/9 is Ydur day. (9/11 and Rudy backwards!)

Regards,

Jim