Bad Deeds for 7-2-2008

Almost Like Iraq on a Texas Lawn – Last year, a Houston-area man shot and killed two burglars he saw breaking into his neighbor’s house, even after a 911 dispatcher warned him repeatedly against going outside with his shotgun.

Texas had recently passed a law allowing people to use deadly force to protect their own property, as Joe Horn was well aware, but it was unclear at the time whether the law would apply to protecting someone else’s property. However, last Monday, a grand jury cleared Horn of any criminal liability.

MSNBC’s Dan Abrams discussed the case with two Houston defense attorneys, Brian Wice and Nicole De Borde. “Texas law allows you to shoot an intruder in certain circumstances,” Abrams began, “but in the back? While 911’s telling you not to do it?”

De Borde was supportive of Horn, explaining that “in Texas, the law gives you the right to shoot a person, even when they’re fleeing from a property crime, and to kill them. And deadly force was what the grand jury determined in this case was appropriate.”

Is that what Jesus would do? Even if Jesus was in Texas?

 

Guantánamo Bay Interrogation Techniques Were Coped Directly From the Communist Chinese – The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”

What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.

 

John Cornyn’s Senior Staffer Posting Comments Under Fake Name On Liberal Blog – A commenter calling himself “Buck Smith” — who claimed on a the Burnt Orange web site’s comments to be a liberal and who was critical of Texas Democrats and their candidates — was in fact none other than David Beckwith, a senior staffer who works for Republican Senator John Cornyn.

 

Evangelist Tells Senate: My Financial Records Belong to God – Every year America’s best known TV evangelists bring in hundreds of millions of dollars from donors all over the world. But some of the evangelists’ own lifestyles have begun to ring alarm bells and have prompted a Senate investigation into their activities.

Last fall, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, began probing the finances of six TV evangelists whose lifestyles include mansions, Rolls-Royces, and private jets, all paid for out of church funds.

Rev. Kenneth Copeland, whose congregation recently bought him a $20 million private jet to preach the gospel, is holding out against the inquiry, which he claims is “aimed at publicly questioning the religious beliefs of the targeted churches.”

“It’s not yours, it’s God’s, and you’re not going to get it,” Copeland says of his financial records. He has launched a website to publicize his crusade and has received support from several leading conservatives, including Paul Weyrich and Kenneth Blackwell.

 

Fox News Looking for Fact Writer – Notice that they are not looking for a fact finder, but a fact-writer. Also notice, spelling, grammar and context are important, and the applicant must be able to write in a concise, conversational and colorful style, but apparently accuracy of the facts is optional.

 

Fox News Airs Altered Photos of NY Times Reporters to Make Them Look Ugly – On the July 2 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade labeled New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Reddicliffe “attack dogs,” claiming that Steinberg’s June 28 article on the “ominous trend” in Fox News’ ratings was a “hit piece.” During the segment, however, Fox News featured photos of Steinberg and Reddicliffe that appeared to have been digitally altered — the journalists’ teeth had been yellowed, their facial features exaggerated, and portions of Reddicliffe’s hair moved further back on his head. Fox News gave no indication that the photos had been altered.

After putting up the photos of Steinberg and Reddicliffe, Fox & Friends also featured a photograph of Steinberg’s face superimposed over that of a poodle, while Reddicliffe’s face was superimposed over that of the man holding the poodle’s leash.

 

 

 

McCain Backer’s Firm Funded Terrorist Group In Colombia – The co-host of a recent top-dollar fundraiser for Sen. John McCain oversaw the payment of roughly $1.7 million to a Colombian paramilitary group that is today designated a terrorist organization by the United States.

Carl H. Lindner Jr., the billionaire Cincinnati businessman, was CEO of Chiquita Brands International from 1984 to 2001, and remained on the company’s board of directors until May 2002. Beginning under his tenure, Chiquita executives paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known by the Spanish acronym AUC), which is described by George Washington University’s National Security Archive as an “illegal right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the country’s most notorious civilian massacres.”

Following a Justice Department indictment last year, Chiquita admitted to illegally funding the paramilitaries and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. Chiquita’s payments to the AUC began in 1997 and lasted seven years; roughly half of the funds came after the group was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department in 2001.

According to the Justice Department, the payments “were reviewed and approved by senior executives” of Chiquita, who knew by no later than September 2000 “that the AUC was a violent, paramilitary organization.”

 

Tom DeLay: Still Crazy After All These Years – Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has resurfaced, appealing for contributions to the Coalition for a Conservative Majority, which lists him as chairman and founder. DeLay suggested that this be enclosed with any contribution: ”I am thrilled to learn that you have gotten back in the fight against the left by forming “the new organization.”

DeLay, who has endorsed John McCain after expressing misgivings, takes positions to the right of the Republican presidential candidate in his fund-raising appeal. DeLay asks: ”Are you concerned by the growing evidence that there are powerful forces inside our government and out who are quietly moving to have America absorbed into a globalist style ‘North American Union’ with Canada and Mexico?”

 

Bush Hiding Truth: Global Warming Regulations Worth $2 Trillion Benefit – An “intense private battle” has broken out between officials at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Environmental Protection Agency over “the publication of a document that could become the legal roadmap for regulation of greenhouse gas emissions across the U.S. economy.” The White House has been suppressing it since December of last year.

Even after major cuts from the December version, this document makes a mockery of President Bush’s claim in April that applying the Clean Air Act to global warming pollution “would have crippling effects on our entire economy.” In fact, after spending all of 2007 working with the Departments of Transportation and Energy to model the effects of motor vehicle greenhouse gas regulations, the EPA found the exact opposite.

Assuming gas prices in the range of $3.50 per gallon, “the net benefit to society could be in excess of $2 trillion” through 2040. With higher gasoline prices, the benefits of high carbon-dioxide standards would be even greater. The EPA’s findings, completed last year, raise serious questions about whether Bush’s statements to the American public were made in good faith, and why he is now asserting executive privilege to block the Congressional investigation.

 

FOX News Guest Says Oil And Coal Are Good For The Environment– Global warming skeptic Chris Horner, whose ties to the fossil fuel industry were not disclosed by the “We report. You decide” network, made the laughable claim on last night’s (7/1/08) Hannity & Colmes that using oil and coal is good for the environment because they make us wealthier. As Horner said in his snappy little soundbite, “Wealthier is healthier. Healthier is cleaner.”

 

Regards,

Jim