News Roundup for 1/27/09

Gets all his spy stuff from Goodwill

-Headline of the day-
"Secret military files discovered on used MP3 player."

Some guy in New Zealand bought a used MP3 player from an Oklahoma thrift store "at a bargain basement price." The bargain was more than he bargained for. He wanted to download the existing songs to his computer and got a little bit of a surprise.

According to the report, "The 60 files on the player contained the names and personal details of American soldiers, including ones who served in Afghanistan and Iraq... There was also information about equipment deployed to bases and a mission briefing." The Pentagon won't comment until they complete an investigation.

"The government isn't doing a good job of protecting the information that it collects," Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington told CNN. Y'think?

There was a time when spies had to go through all sorts of crazy, dangerous stuff to get classified files. Now all they have to do is go to the neighborhood Goodwill store and buy some old electronics.

And you thought James Bond movies went downhill after the fall of the Soviet Union. Wait until he starts scouring pawn shops and Salvation Army stores for old flash drives and MP3 players.

Yeah, that'll be thrilling... (Raw Story, with video)


-On second thought...-
Remember that new Dassault Falcon 7X private jet that Citigroup was going to buy with bailout money?

Yeah, they're not going to buy it now. Turns out that spending $50 million on a luxury jet after getting $45 billion in bailout bucks wasn't the wisest public relations move. It seems people expected them to do crazy things like make loans with that money, just because that was the entire purpose of the bailout.

Citing "pressure from the White House," Citigroup is backing away from the deal and saying they won't take delivery of the plane.

Now they're just going to have to pinch pennies and take one of those four other corporate jets they have. This will be a tremendous hardship, since I understand the ice machines in the wet bars are slow. (Think Progress)


-First the spill, then a leak-
Way, way back when this guy named George W, Bush was president, there was this big toxic coal ash spill in Tennessee. You might remember it. "Spill" isn't such a good description as "flash flood," since the ash was walled up in a big artificial lake that broke open and flooded the countryside with mercury and various other poisons. 2.6 million cubic yards of it.

The power company responsible for the lake of poison, Tennessee Valley Authority, immediately came out with a plan to deal with it -- in the form of a now-leaked memo of talking points. That's right, a massive toxic sludge spill was primarily a PR problem.

If someone says "catastrophic," you counter that it was merely a "sudden, accidental" "release of this large amount of material." If someone mentions "toxic metals," you correct them and say "inert material not harmful to the environment."

"Don't let your dogs or your pets get out. Don't let them drink the water. Keep your kids away from it. Don't breathe it. If you have any contact with it, spray it off," resident Sarah McCoin was told, then was assured, "It is not a hazardous material." I guess it's not "hazardous," so much as "really, really bad for you."

So don't worry, no one's going to suffer long term health problems because of this massive poison flood. They'll enjoy longevity challenges as a result of a limited accidental discharge of inert materials.

Feel better now? (AP)