Faux News and Senator Santorum...

Sen. Santorum must really be struggling to win his election this November. I thought he was done for (a 38% approval rating 4 1/2 months before an election is never good), but he may just have a few tricks up his sleeve, thanks to Fox News and the typical right-wing spin in Washington.

Today, Fox News reported a portion of a declassified report making a public claim that the US and coalition troops "had found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons." What a claim! I felt the urge to keep reading quickly to uncover the wonderful news that we had found the smoking gun. It states over 500 pounds of mustard gas and nerve agents were found and even more exist. It also talks of the danger the coalition forces are in if these munitions get into the hands of the insurgents. The Republicans were right, the rest of us were wrong. We can't deny our defeat in the political fight regarding the war on terror.

But wait, something isn't right. As I keep reading, I see that Fox followed up with the Defense Department for comment on the report. First, all weapons were produced before the first Gulf War in 1991. Next they are quoted as saying that these munitions "are not the WMDs this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had, and not the WMDs for which this country went to war." And finally, a senior Defense Department official pointed out that the chemical weapons were not even in usable conditions.

So what exactly was Sen. Santorum claiming we had found? Some empty canisters of old mustard gas that can't be used for anything? Or was he trying to create non-existent evidence supporting his "war record" to get some votes for November? This is supposed to get people to vote for him?

I'll give you reasons NOT to vote for him: 1) He believes evolution is fiction; 2) He has consistently voted against the progression of embryonic stem cell research; 3) He believes that scientists have not proven global warming is a man-made phenomenon. He's your perfect Republican. And thank God for it... as long as he stays just as he is, we are guaranteed to pick up a Senate seat.

One final note - while searching around for some info to include here, I stumbled upon the Republicans for Environmental Protection website (if THAT'S not a total oxymoron...). There, they have a scorecard for republicans and their environmental voting record. Basically, the higher your score the more you have voted in favor of the environment. The lower your score, the less you have supported the environment based on your voting record. There are a few high scores and a couple of perfect 100's. However, the vast majority of scores are below 30. And guess what Sen. Santorum came in with?

A perfect 0.

I Spy...

USAToday printed this morning that the NSA is using three major phone companies to generate lists of phone calls made from Americans to Americans within this country. The government agency claims this is to generate calling patterns within the United States to help fight the war on terror.

In response, the President said in a statement at the White House today, "Our intelligence activities strictly target al-Qaida and their known affiliates. We are not mining or trolling through the personal lives of innocent Americans."

But, on October 17, 2002 General Hayden, the recent CIA Director nominee, made the following statement to members of congress, "I have met personally with prominent corporate executive officers.... And last week we cemented a deal with another corporate giant to jointly develop a system to mine data that helps us learn about our targets."

Is this a reference to the news today about the NSA using records of calls made by Verizon, BellSouth, and AT&T subscribers to collect data on calls? Is somebody lying? Is it legal that the US government is doing anything on such a large scale with our phone records?

I don't like it. The fact that I don't talk about anything illegal over the phone is irrelevant. Is it acceptable that by tracking our calls the country may or may not be safer? Is it also acceptable to say that if everyone were put in jail today that there would be no crime tomorrow? Does that end justify those means? Where does domestic surveillance end and how far do we let our government go with its justification? Can the FBI and the CIA camp outside of your house for a week claiming "war on terror business, sir" yet give you or Congress zero information on why? Even worse, do you feel comfortable paying for all of this?

The Republican agenda hard at work, folks.

Down The Toilet...

No blog for a while, still. Just posting a link to an awesome poll graphic. It is of Bush's approval ratings spiraling towards the center of a circle and low satisfaction.

Keep it up folks - the realization that the man cannot pronounce simple words properly in front of the entire world has finally set in. Not to mention an unpopular war, rising health care costs, oil dependency, crumbling environmental protections, a stagnant economy for the shrinking middle class, tax cuts for the rich (did YOU pay less this year? I didn't.), dabbling with our Constitution for political gain, and overall narrow-mindedness that is taking this country down the toilet with their leader's popularity.