Weekend Odds and Ends

It's 6pm. Do you know where your news update is? Oh, I found it...

Breaking news! Unchecked executive power abused! News at 11: "The FBI acknowledged Wednesday it improperly accessed Americans' telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006, the fourth straight year of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed at tracking terrorists and spies." My bad!

Take heed, you fucking socialist moonbats! Big Business is looking out for your best interests: "Big industries are waging an intense lobbying effort to block new, tougher limits on air pollution that is blamed for hundreds of heart attacks, deaths and cases of asthma, bronchitis and other breathing problems."

And in related free-market/deregulation news of glory: "Nearly a year after being told to do so, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday he couldn't say when he would comply with a Supreme Court directive and determine whether greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles should be regulated." So what does the Environmental Protection Agency do nowadays anyway?

Meanwhile, the nation's natural resources crisis comes to California.

And in Congress, a decent bill passes amidst the usual rabble: "After more than a decade of struggle, the House on Wednesday passed a bill requiring most group health plans to provide more generous coverage for treatment of mental illnesses, comparable to what they provide for physical illnesses."

Meanwhile, in Pakistan, things are still in limbo after last month's elections.

Finally, in South America, shit continues to get ugly.