Bad Deeds for 8/1/2008

US Customs Can Seize Your iPod – US customs have the power to seize your laptop or iPod when entering the country – even with no reason to do so. Although this power has been in place for a while, the truth only recently came to light thanks to a group lobbying for the disclosure of the Department of Homeland Security policies. Apparently agents can seize the items for ‘unspecified amounts of time’ and can share the information with the relevant authorities and private entities for data decryption and the rather ominous sounding ‘other reasons’.

 

Wal-Mart Tries to Scare Its Managers and Supervisors About Democrats – Wal-Mart is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they’ll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies — including Wal-Mart. In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if stores were to be unionized.

 

Republican Senators Filibuster Defense Bill for Their Oil Company Benefactors – The Senate Republicans voted against the troops. Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans have basically been filibustering every bill till the oil companies get what they want. But, surely, they wouldn’t put the oil companies over America’s defense needs when we’re in the middle of two wars??? Wrong. They did. Seriously, they filibustered a bill, S. 3001, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009, which, among other things, provided pay raises for troops, health care and protection from IEDs. The bill needed 60 votes. Thirty-eight Republicans voted NO against moving forward.

 

Sheikh Flies Lamborghini 6,500 Miles to Britain for Oil Change – The £190,000 supercar was put on a scheduled flight from Qatar to Heathrow – then flown BACK after the oil check. An airport worker said: “This car doesn’t have a carbon footprint – more of a crater.” The overall cost of sending the Lamborghini to London for the oil change would have cost more than £23,000. The Murciélago LP640 – driven by Batman in movie The Dark Knight – arrived from the Middle Eastern country on Friday. It cleared customs and was trucked to specialist mechanics in London for the service. On Monday it was flown back 3,250 miles to the oil-rich state where it was collected by the owner.

 

British Territory Used for US Terror Interrogation – According to a former senior American official, it appears another locale can be added to the international roster of interrogation sites — one both more obscure and potentially more controversial than the alleged sites in Poland and Romania. The source tells TIME that, in 2002 and possibly 2003, the U.S. imprisoned and interrogated one or more terrorist suspects on Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean controlled by the United Kingdom. The official, a frequent participant in White House Situation Room meetings after Sept. 11 who has since left government, says a CIA counter-terrorism official twice said that a high-value prisoner or prisoners were being held and interrogated on the island.

 

Homeland Insecurity: FBI Loses 2.6 Laptops a Month – A 2007 Justice Department audit found that the FBI was somehow losing 2.6 laptops per month, many with sensitive or classified information. More than 1,400 Energy Department laptops went missing in a six-year period, according to another audit. So much for homeland security.

 

McCain TV Ad Falsely Insinuates that Barack Obama Canceled His Visit to Wounded Troops Because “the Pentagon wouldn’t allow him to bring cameras.” – A new McCain ad says Obama “made time to go to the gym, but canceled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn’t allow him to bring cameras.”

McCain’s facts are literally true, but his insinuation – that the visit was canceled because of the press ban or the desire for gym time – is false. In fact, Obama visited wounded troops earlier – without cameras or press – both in the U.S. and Iraq. And his gym workouts are a daily routine.

The Obama campaign canceled the visit with wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, Obama says, when he learned that the Pentagon would not allow him to bring along a retired Air Force major general who is serving as a foreign policy adviser to the campaign. Obama says that “triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political.”

 

McCain’s Web Cite Claims That McCain is a “Political Celebrity” While He Criticizes Barack for Being Like a Celebrity – Until recently, this statement was on the McCain website: “A political celebrity, McCain is considered a top contender for the nomination.”

Regards,

Jim