Not a problem if Bush does it
-Maybe this is why he didn't win-
Forgotten GOP Presidential hopeful, US Senator, and creationist nutsack Sam Brownback was totally indignant upon learning that the Chinese govt. plans electronic surveillance of foreign visitors during the Beijing Olympics.
Brownback says that hotels in China have been threatened with losing their licenses if they refuse to monitor email and web traffic during the games. "These hotels are justifiably outraged by this order, which puts them in the awkward position of having to craft pop-up messages explaining to their customers that their web history, communications, searches, and key strokes are being spied on by the Chinese government," Brownback said.
Hey, no one said it was secret spying, like say, the kind of spying that Brownback's voted for.
In a rare display of actual job-doing, a journalist asked Brownback how this was different from the NSA web-surveillance programs.
"We don't put the hardware and software on hotels," he said. Wait, the Chinese govt. is supplying the bugs? I guess that's Brownback's complaint -- it's socialism or something. He's clearly all for spying on Americans.
According to the report, "He added that the Chinese program can be used 'on journalists,' 'on athletes,' 'on their families,' 'democracy advocates,' and 'human rights advocates'..."
And that's different from the US how, Sam? Hell, we've spied on people who think you shouldn't eat ham.
No, seriously, we have. (Wired, Think Progress)
-Headline of the day-
"Senate Republicans block effort to aid paralyzed vets."
Wow, that's like Dr. Doom evil...
Wait, did I say "Dr. Doom?" Let's go with Lex Luthor; the bill is named the Christopher and Dana Reeve Act, after the guy who played Superman and his wife. The bill, part of an omnibus package, was meant to get legislation past Sen. Tom Coburn's obstructionism (Coburn, a complete lunatic, has made it a habit to put holds on bills for pretty much no good reason).
GOP plans for the future include foreclosing on orphanages, beating up widows, building a super-cannon to shoot puppies into the sun, and, of course, losing lots and lots of elections because of bullshit like this. (Raw Story)
-Bonus HotD-
"Lieberman defends Hagee: His Holocaust comments were 'taken way out of context.'"
Holy Joe believes that the comments that got Pastor Hagee thrown under the Straight Talk Express were taken out of context. Let's look at the comments, shall we?
Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says -- Jeremiah writing -- 'They shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the holes of the rocks,' meaning there's no place to hide. And that might be offensive to some people but don't let your heart be offended. I didn't write it, Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel.
I'm sorry, but unless the words preceding that were "only someone who was batshit crazy would say..." then the context doesn't make any damned difference. And, for the record, they weren't.
Joe Lieberman's nearly perfect record of being completely wrong about everything stands untarnished. (Think Progress)
