Insta-Hoglets 14th Dec.

Wednesday is the Humpday - from here its a slide downhill to the weekend. Here are some news items that gave me the hump. The depressing thing is how many of these reports didn't surprise me.

Conservative Christians don't think fighting poverty is a priority. One liberal Christian leader says they "have agreed to support cutting food stamps for poor people if Republicans support them on judicial nominees...They are trading the lives of poor people for their agenda. They're being, and this is the worst insult, unbiblical." Amen.

The prosecutor in the DeLay case has subpoenaed bank records from the defense companies involved in bribe-taker Duke Cunnigham's rise and downfall. He obviously thinks the two are connected. So do several other people.

Can you imagine how the late and great David Hackworth would have reacted to the news that BushCo are now shipping the bodies of fallen heroes as freight? Booman says "Hack, even if you're gone, we need your ever-present conscience and writings to remind us to challenge these heartless thugs every step of the way." and I can only agree.

From Corpwatch comes the list of the 14 worst companies in America. No surprises. The usual suspects are all there - CocaCola, KBR, Dow, Lockheed, the lot. And you know every single one of them is giving hugely to both Republicrats and Demlicans. (Did I get that right?)

From Europe - CIA prisoners in Europe were apparently abducted and moved between countries illegally, possibly with the aid of national secret services who did not tell their governments, according to the first official report on the so-called "renditions" scandal. Again, no surprises, huh?

A secret 400-page Defense Department document obtained by NBC News shows that the Pentagon is already spying on Americans, monitoring peaceful anti-war and counter-military recruitment groups. It makes the provisions of a new Republican bill, as reported by the media back in June, that would give the military greater leeway to spy at home kinda redundant. Like opening the door wider after the horse has set the barn on fire.

From the Washington Post: "The House Republican leadership and the nation's business lobby, usually close allies, are battling each other over the issue of immigration. In a rare schism, employer groups led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are pressing to kill a Republican-sponsored measure that would require businesses to verify that all of their workers are in the United States legally and would increase penalties for hiring illegal employees." Want to bet on which one Bush backs? Yeah, my money is on the restaurant and construction industries too. It doesn't matter which party, the grassroots can yell but corporate money will tell.

I hear that Bush's good friend Wally O'Dell over at Diebold is being investigated, along with CEO Thomas Swidarski, for securities fraud. Is there a single rich Republican left in America who isn't crooked?

Last no-surprise story of the day. It comes as no surprise that the Washington Times thinks Bush should be allowed to torture whoever he decides needs it. Andrew Sullivan points out that by the extreme Right's "logic" torturing the 12 year old daughter of a suspected terrorist to find out what she knows is OK. He also indirectly points out that any Catholic who takes this view is going against the Pope's word. (Yep, even the guy who used to be head of the Inquisition is against torture.) I want to hear how the Catholics on the Right are going to square this with all the yelling they did at Kerry over abortion.