BP has released a statement denying that the company had any specific role in his release, but acknowledging that they lobbied the British government to enter into a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya. Read more…

Senior staffers at the Securities and Exchange Commission spent hours surfing pornographic websites on government-issued computers while they were being paid to police the financial system, an agency watchdog says.

SEC Staffers Watched Porn As Economy Crashed : NPR.

Given the fact that threats against lawmakers have increased recently since the Health Care vote, this kind of rhetoric and imagery is uncalled for and extremely dangerous. There are better ways to get your point across Palin.

Unfortunately, the leading proposals being discussed in Washington don’t do enough to control costs” and that other industries “need to be called upon to reduce these costs.

There are no measures in any of the bills proposed that would control the rising costs of health care. Especially in the form of tort reform. Why is there no mention of tort reform? Because trial lawyers, those that benefit from frivolous lawsuits, are HUGE contributors to the Democratic party, giving close to 73% of the time to Dems (almost $179 Million, in 2008 alone).

Have provisions to control costs, then I’ll come on board. Until then, you’re all a bunch of posers.

WellPoint CEO defends rate hikes as pressure grows | Reuters.

via AFP: Student detained over Arabic flashcards, lawsuit says.

Even as the biggest banks repay their government debt in what is being heralded as a successful rescue program, four troubled giants of the financial world remain on government life support.

These companies, the American International Group, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and GMAC, are not only unable to repay the government, they are in need of continuing infusions that make them look increasingly like long-term wards of the state.

Things will not be getting better anytime soon.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.

E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.

And we wonder why people are fed up with Congress.

“A loophole in the Senate health care bill would let insurers place annual dollar limits on medical care for people struggling with costly illnesses such as cancer,” reports the AP. The Senate Finance Committee barred annual caps altogether. The merged Senate bill only erases “unreasonable” annual caps. What’s “unreasonable?” Hard to say.

Others we know of recently:

David Letterman

Mark Sanford

John Ensign

John Edwards

and of course Bill Clinton!

Any body else I missed?

Similarly, the government plan fails to address the rising costs of healthcare. No way are they going to discuss putting caps or limits on payouts if they want the healthcare industry on board with the plan.