interesting tidbit

Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) is now the guilty party when it comes to the mystery of who shouted “baby killer” on the House floor during Bart Stupak’s speech.

“Last night was the climax of weeks and months of debate on a health care bill that my constituents fear and do not support,” Neugebauer said in a news release. “In the heat and emotion of the debate, I exclaimed the phrase ‘it’s a baby killer’ in reference to the agreement reached by the Democratic leadership. While I remain heartbroken over the passage of this bill and the tragic consequences it will have for the unborn, I deeply regret that my actions were mistakenly interpreted as a direct reference to Congressman Stupak himself.”

Well OK, maybe not so much an apology to the people, but he says he apologized to Stupak and his colleagues:

“I have apologized to Mr. Stupak and also apologize to my colleagues for the manner in which I expressed my disappointment about the bill,” he said in a statement. “The House Chamber is a place of decorum and respect. The timing and tone of my comment last night was inappropriate."

These kind of outbursts are starting to become a little too common with the GOP. For this to happen just hours after the House GOP leadership tells their caucus to act like adults leaves on wondering what kind of control the leadership really has.

Adding…For even more of an interesting tidbit:

Kos had this interesting tidbit yesterday:

In an interview, Pelosi also said she was puzzled by what she considered the president's minimalist explanation for his confidence in the new surge of 21,500 U.S. troops that he has presented as the crux of a new "way forward" for U.S. forces in Iraq.

"He's tried this two times - it's failed twice," the California Democrat said. "I asked him at the White House, 'Mr. President, why do you think this time it's going to work?' And he said, 'Because I told them it had to.' "

Asked if the president had elaborated, she added that he simply said, " 'I told them that they had to.' That was the end of it. That's the way it is."

Then Aravosis had an interesting follow-up via Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz:

PELOSI: He's tried this two times - it's failed twice. I asked him at the White House, 'Mr. President, why do you think this time it's going to work?'

BUSH: Because I told them it had to.

PELOSI: Why didn't you tell them that the other two times?

Why didn't he tell them (the generals) that the other two times? Why would he have to tell the generals that at all! These are the leaders of the most powerful miitary in the world and you got to tell them their plans have to work or don't? It sounds like Bush really insulted the leadership of our military in order to save face.

But it gets even better now. CNN just reported that Pelosi is now in Baghdad with other Congressional officals, on a "surprise" visit. Since this is so quickly following Bush's latest episode of "who can I scapegoat now?", I wonder if she isn't there asking questions about this. We might be seeing an end to the "impeachment is off the table" talk in the very near future.
 

The number of thefts on this one are not as high but it is still a sign of how little respect the government has for our personal data:

The government agency charged with fighting identity theft said Thursday it had lost two government laptops containing sensitive personal data, the latest in a series of breaches encompassing millions of people.

The Federal Trade Commission said it would provide free credit monitoring for 110 people targeted for investigation whose names, addresses, Social Security numbers - and in some instances, financial account numbers - were taken from an FTC attorney's locked car.

The car theft occurred about 10 days ago and managers were immediately notified. Many of the people whose data were compromised were being investigated for possible fraud and identity theft, said Joel Winston, associate director of the FTC's Division of Privacy and Identity Theft Protection.

"Basically these were attorneys who were going to file a lawsuit, and they had relevant evidence on their laptops," Winston said, noting that the FTC employees did not violate security procedures by storing the password-protected laptops in their cars.

Again - why in the hell is government employees taking this stuff home? The government has a nice intranet and the information should be accessible from that. Leaving a laptop in a car? Why not just leave $1500 in cash laying there. I am sure there are identifying features on this car that shows it is a government employee (parking sticker?). That just adds to how hot of an item this would be.

The article has this interesting tidbit also:

"We will be reassessing what procedures we have to make sure reasonable measures are taken to protect data," he said.