Bad Deeds for 3-10-2008

Republican Sally Kern Says Gays Are a Bigger Threat Than Terrorism or Islam – Republican State Representative Sally Kern of Oklahoma says gays are a bigger threat than terrorism or Islam. (Way to go; insult gays and a religion in just one sentence. – JLV) She added that gays are going after two-year olds in schools. (Hey, how did those two-year olds get into schools? – JLV) She also doesn’t see anything wrong with her comments.

NSA Quietly Expands Domestic Spying Program – The central role the NSA has come to occupy in domestic intelligence gathering has never been publicly disclosed. But an inquiry reveals that its efforts have evolved to reach more broadly into data about people’s communications, travel and finances in the U.S. than the domestic surveillance programs brought to light since the 2001 terrorist attacks.” “According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records.

Democratic New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer Linked to Prostitution Ring – The New York Times reported earlier in the day that Democratic New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer told senior administration officials that he was linked to a prostitution ring. The Times reported that a person with knowledge of the governor’s role believes the governor is identified in court papers as a client of a prostitution ring.

Republican Judicial Challenger Uses Falsehoods, Misleading Statements and Unproven Innuendo in Ads – Falsehoods, misleading statements and unproven innuendo about corruption, rape and murder are being used in a Wisconsin race in which an incumbent justice, appointed by a Democratic governor, has been challenged by a lower-court judge who was appointed by a Republican. An independent watchdog group already has criticized one outside group and the challenger’s campaign for making misleading claims. The ads have drawn fire from others, too. Factcheck.org finds that there are grounds for the outrage.

Astronaut Calls Robot a Monster (Parody of Recent Political Happenings) – Putting together Dextre, the robot, will be one of the main jobs for the seven Endeavour astronauts, who are scheduled to blast off Tuesday. With 11-foot arms, a shoulder span of nearly 8 feet and a height of 12 feet, the Canadian Space Agency’s Dextre — short for dexterous and pronounced like Dexter — is more than a little intimidating, at least for astronaut Garrett Reisman. “Now I wouldn’t go as far to say that we’re worried it’s going to go run amok and take over the space station or turn evil or anything because we all know how it’s operated and it doesn’t have a lot of its own intelligence,” Reisman told The Associated Press last week. “But I’ll tell you something … He’s enormous and to see him with his giant arms, it is a little scary. It’s a little monstrous, it is.” (Will Reisman have to resign? Will he be able to get a job with the Obama campaign? – JLV)

Regards,

Jim