It's Friday and I should be happy it's almost the weekend. Yet after perusing the headlines, I'm pissed off. There are so many things, I can't tie them all together with quotes and commentary, so in a rare departure from my usual eloquence , I'll just give you the links and let you see for yourselves:

Yet another boogie-man al Qaeda scare, this time regarding the elections. Wolf!, I say...

KBR - which makes it's living off of tax dollars - creates shell companies in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying taxes. When are we going to make this sort of thing illegal??

Canada tosses conviction due to torture. Well THAT was certainly worth it... :grumble:

Spain does the same thing. What the hell are we doing?? :rage:

Homeland security agents committing the crimes they're supposed to stop. I sure am glad we have the DHS around to keep us safe... :rolleyes2:

U.S. Government has unfettered access to Verizon data. Yep - they've got a cable going in the back door and can listen to calls, read text messages - on anyone... without having to get a warrant.

Domestic Intelligence network being created. Kind of like the CIA but for collating data on Americans. Welcome to 1984.

Blood thinning drug (from China, of course) is diluted with counterfeit version of the drug, resulting in U.S. deaths. So they've moved on from killing pets and children to older folks. Maybe now the old farts in Congress that need these drugs will do something. FWIW - why do we have to import these from China?

Are you sufficently pissed yet too? I didn't even bother with all of Hillary's Republican-style campaign tactics (which is perhaps why I've been in a grumpy mood).

I don't want to send y'all off into the world feeling pissed too, though, so here's one brighter spot of news to end this on a high note:

Carter, Annan plan visit to Israel, Gaza to help negotiate ceasefire:

Can Jimmy Carter work his magic again? I hope so. Perhaps he can convince Israel that peace is another legitimate path to safety...

:peace: