Friday, October 19, 2007

Some Interesting Bits of News

Today, revelations about current government wiretaps and surveillance continue. Verizon has just revealed to Congress that it supplied customer records to the government more than 94,000 times since 2005. The American Civil Liberties Union has uncovered collusion between the Pentagon and the FBI in circumventing the law to obtain financial and credit information on people in the U.S.

Members of the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church are urging Fred Thompson to support their stance on homosexuality -- a position on which they say the Republican presidential candidate once ''saw eye to eye'' with them. (Miami Herald)

On Monday, President Bush appointed Susan Orr to oversee federal family planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Orr, who is currently directing HHS child welfare programs, was touted by the administration as "highly qualified."

But a look at Orr's record shows that her strongest qualifications appear to be her right-wing credentials and endorsement of the Bush administration's failed abstinence-only policies. (Alternet)

House Fails to Override Child Health Bill Veto

Supporters of a children’s health insurance bill failed, as expected, to muster enough support in the House today to override President Bush’s veto. (New York Times)

theteach

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's bad news all around. The Verizon thing in particular is infuriating and the fact that the Congress can't do ANYTHING useful. Arrgggh. A reminder as to why I'm a happy expatriate.

maryt/theteach said...

Yes, Chris, it's awful, one piece of bad news after another. Maybe I should go in search of some good news...Do you think there's any?

Anonymous said...

*sigh*

Alright, let me see about how I can respond to each of these...or even if I should...

- Verizon:
This company handing information over to the government does not surprise me in the least. I mean, AT&T, Sprint and others have already admited to doing this in the past.
The fact that the Pentagon and FBI are looking for financial and credit information is also not surprising. I mean, it not in the fact that they are circumventing the law - as they do that anyway. The surprising part (to a degree) is that they are looking for this information. I can kind of see to what ends (mostly for hunting down espionage)...but I wonder why they must go around the law for that...

-Westboro Baptist Church:
Stupid Fundys. I hate them...I really, REALLY do. It is that stupid, mindlessness that that is spreading through our society that is slwoly causing it to return to the Dark Ages (see this article I found recently: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/science/30profile.html?_r=1&oref=slogin ) I mean, seriously...20% of Americans think that the sun revolves around the earth? WHAT THE FUCK? Religion teaches people to be subserviant and unquestioning...it kills curiousity and encourages people to NOT ask questions.

-Appointment of Susan Orr:
*shrug* Meh. More "Yes Men" (or in this case, a "Yes Woman") to pander to Bush. When she proves her incompetance, she will be replaced by the next president.

-Failure to override the CHB Veto:
*shrug* Meh. I expected this to happen. There are too many Bush Supporters (or at the least Republican Supporters who go with the Party regardless of what is on the block) to counter Bush in the House and Congress.
My thoughts on both the proposed plan that was vetoed and the revised plan work for me I guess...I mean, I don't have kids, and I am not entirely certain who would apply for it and who would not. So I guess my opinon is fairly neutral overall.

-That Quote you have at the very end:

I agree 110% with this...unfortunatly, the press is as much of a failure as the current leadership across the board is. The reason I say this, is because it is fairly obvious to me that the press is in the back pockets of the politicans in one way or another.

maryt/theteach said...

I'm pretty sure that nobody wants to tap my conversations on the phone BUT that shouldn't matter...the government shouldn't be asking anybody for customer records and nobody should be circumventing the law for financial and credit info.

What the hell do they need that kind of info for??

What the hell is a right-wing abstinence-only person doing being put in charge of the government's FAMILY PLANNING programs? I hope she has to go through an approval process and they oust her!

WHY did Bush veto the S chip program legislation, Anime?