Rep. Mark Kirk The Moron (R-Of Course)

Republicans never cease to simultaneously amuse and scare me with their ridiculous antics. Congressman Mark Kirk of Illinois is the example for the moment. This shows the ignorance of said Congressman and how that lack of knowledge breeds outright stupidity. When talking about Mexico and the undocumented immigrants coming to the United States, it also makes him look like a xenophobic idiot.

From Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A congressman is pushing a not-so-quick fix in the debate over illegal immigrants from Mexico: free contraceptives.

"A slower rate of growth of Mexico's population would improve the economy of Mexico. It would also reduce the environmental pressure on Mexico's ecosystem. But a slower rate of growth would also reduce the long-term illegal immigration pressure on America's borders," reasoned Rep. Mark Kirk, who also supports stronger border security in the short-term.

In reality, fertility rates have plunged in Mexico since 1980, when an average couple would have five or more children. Now, the country's fertility rate has dropped to 2.5 children, compared to 2.1 for the United States, according to United Nations data.

So much for this London School of Economics grad (are you kidding me???) analyzing all the data before offering his 'wisdom'. Offering contraceptives to people is a good thing anywhere, but when the motive is to cut down on 'illegal immigration' the proposal smacks of racist xenophobia.

Thankfully Reuters includes a slice of reality for its readers in the third paragraph. If Kirk could take those massive blinders off his face he might be able to see that the flow of people into the United States has nothing to do with population and everything to do with economics. If there is more opportunity in Country A and you live in Country B where corruption and poverty is rampant, Country A might be a little more appealing.

Oh, not to let Reuters off the hook, but at the bottom of the little article they try to spin the story for Kirk. Their logic is that with his LSE degree, the proposal might be better accepted because its more fiscally prudent to ship condoms than build a big fence in the desert. Way to go Reuters, what would we do without that silver lining in the story.

FBI Lost Another 320 Laptops/Weapons

I am really getting sick of hearing about the rampant corruption and incompetence in our government run by the Bush Administration. There have been countless stories of terrible mismanagement and here we have yet another inside the governmental bureaucracy of the FBI.

In August of 2002 a Department of Justice report found hundreds of laptops and weapons either lost or stolen over the course of the prior 28 months. Well in the last three years and eight months they lost an additional 160 laptops and 160 weapons. Some of those laptops had confidential information including details of FBI personnel in counter-terrorism and other divisions.

From Reuters:

The 160 missing weapons and 160 laptops disappeared during the 44 months that ended on September 30, 2005. At least 10 laptops contained sensitive or classified information, including one with personal identifying information on FBI personnel.

The FBI could not determine whether an additional 50 missing laptops contained sensitive or classified information. Seven of those were assigned to the counter-intelligence or counter-terrorism divisions, which handle sensitive national security information.

The gross mismanagement and utter carelessness of important documentation must end. It is bad enough that the 2002 report disclosed the loss of several hundred laptops and weapons, the fact that this is still occurring is maddening. Despite the DoJ setting up a system to facilitate the whereabouts of such items, reports were turned in late.

The FBI did an assessment in the case of only a few of the missing laptops to determine the possible damage to its operations and national security, the report said.

It found the bureau did not adequately document its disposal of excess laptops and hard drives to ensure that sensitive or classified information had been erased. The report also found that the FBI failed to consistently ensure departing employees returned weapons and laptops.

Now there is no way to ascertain what information was on those hard drives. The article reports that 10 of the 160 laptops had classified data on them, though there could be an additional 51 systems with sensitive information. The FBI claims 43 of those did not have classified information, but who can really know for sure as their accounting procedures are obviously in the gutter.

Condi (hearts) Fox News

Right-wingers love Fox News for their blatantly slanted view of the world which generally falls off the plane of reality. So it should be no surprise that policymakers and Bush Adminstration officials love Fox too for letting them get away with all of their lies about reality.

Reuters picked up this gem in their open microphone this morning:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice let slip her news media preferences Thursday, saying, "I love every single one" of Fox News network's correspondents and also favors CBS anchor Harry Smith.

In comments overheard on an open microphone between morning television interviews, including one with Fox, the top U.S. diplomat said: "My Fox guys, I love every single one of them."

But Rice told an aide that when she was next in Iraq she would like to do a "one-on-one" interview with CBS "The Early Show" anchor Harry Smith.

"He's a decent guy. I know they are, like, 55 in the ratings, but I like him," Rice said in comments monitored by Reuters on a television feed.

Well who wouldn't love Fox News hacks, they are so....um, willing and able to take anything Bush and his cronies say at face value without practicing that thing called......journalism. By the way the 'I like Harry Smith' bit was pretty harsh when she added that he was 55th in the ratings, ouch!