I can't believe that came from your mouth!
Archive for January, 2006
Cisco is Looking Good
Jan 31st
I am in Raleigh NC at the Triangle Research Park facility of Cisco Systems. After two days of demonstrations of new technology and capabilities, I must say that Cisco Systems is looking very good. Which, to me, was a BIG surprise.
I began the two-day conference with low expectations, because I use Cisco products in my job, and frankly, the tools, utilities and software is weak, buggy and slow. I expected more of the same from the new software demonstrations. I was pleasantly surprised at what Cisco has been doing.
When Cisco was the market leader, they took comfort that the competition was years behind them, and they saw no need to develop or market a good GUI based firewall or router administration tool. After all, that’s what the Command Line Interface was for- just SSH to the host, make your config changes, and you are fine.
Then, along came Checkpoint. Cisco didnt adapt to the competition by introducing a good GUI. Then came Raptor/SGS, and Cisco responded with VMS, a buggy java-based interface that made firewall adminsitration a pain. It was STILL better to use the CLI rather than to use VMS. Along came Netscreen with their easy-to-install appliance and intuitive GUI interface, and I think Cisco got the picture. With their competition catching up to them, and often beating them, Cisco went back to the drawing board.
Cisco is replacing the clunky VMS with the CS-Manager, which is cleaner, easier to navigate, more intuitive, and even supports an interface for their Intrusion Prevention Systems. It makes working with multiple devices in an enterprise a breeze, and even has a feature that allows you to build VPNs between systems by dragging a line between devices in the GUI. In fact, given this new interface, it would be rare to need to use CLI.
However, not all of their new tools were the results of hard work at the drawing board. Why create when you can buy? Some Cisco engineers realized a long time ago that what security enterprises really needed was a log correlator to make identification and management of security incidents a breeze. So they left the company, started their own company called Protega, and created a SIM. There are already several correlation engines on the market- including ArcSight, and Symantec’s SIM and others. But Cisco liked the protega product so much they bought the company. And they rebranded the product as Cisco CS-Mars.
The MARS product can work with any vendor FW or IDS, but if you run a Cisco shop, this is the product you need to track security incidents on the enterprise. Unlike other SIMS like ArcSight, the Mars does not get carried away with normalization of security incidents. You can still see exactly what the incident was, down to the session level. With a click of the mouse, you can also apply an ACL to the best security device to remediate the network vulnerability or block the attacker. You can even apply a new rule to the IPS to drop the attack too.
I was very impressed with Cisco and their new direction with their technology. I asked the sales engineer giving the presentation “Where have you guys been? Its about time you engaged the competition on this!”
The SE sheepishly replied “I know, I know, but we’re back.”
Indeed they are. The Cisco CS-Manager is in final beta release and should be in full release within 60 days. The CS-Mars is available now. And the two will work great with each other.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!)
Loading ...Britney Has a New Fragrance
Jan 31st
Well, Britney has a new fragrance, available for a limited time. Run, don’t walk to your nearest cosmetics counter. According to VH1′s Best Week Ever,
Its been announced that Britney Spears’ Curious perfume brand is releasing a limited edition fragrance called “in Control” in April.
The fragrance will combine the essense of yearning with the zest of romance, and the desire for a man to come home and feed the baby.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Liberal Loses; Airport ID Checks Constitutional
Jan 27th
The 9th Circus Circuit Court of Appeals got it right today. They told a Liberal Activist, and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation that yes, you need an ID to fly, and NO, it does not violate any contitutional rights against unreasonable searches or any supposed “right to travel.” From the AP here in WAPO:
SAN FRANCISCO — An appeals court on Thursday dismissed a legal challenge to federal airport regulations requiring passengers to show identification before they board planes.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims by Libertarian activist and millionaire John Gilmore that the policy constituted an illegal search and violated his right to travel freely.
After reviewing the government’s identification policy in private, a unanimous three-judge panel said the policy was not overly intrusive. The review was done in private for security reasons.
The court said Gilmore could leave the airport if he didn’t want to show his ID and had other ways to get around besides air travel. It also rejected assertions that the act of showing identification was an illegal search of Gilmore, who made his millions as a founding employee of Sun Microsystems.
He said government regulations should be disclosed in writing to the public. While millions of passengers willingly show their IDs at airports, Simpich said there is no way to know whether the regulations call for impermissible searches because the government, and the court, won’t make them public.
The court rejected the argument, saying airport signs and airline workers give adequate notice that an ID is required.
The court noted that the secret regulations allow passengers to fly without providing an ID if they submit to searches. The court dismissed assertions that such searches are unreasonable.
Justice Department lawyer Joshua Waldman argued that demanding identification “promotes the right to travel by protecting everyone’s safety.”
Gilmore is a classic elitist propellor-head. He can postulate right-sounding reasons why the government should not be involved in copyright protections, cell phone tracking, and even airport identification, but he ignores the real practical dangers of threats against Americans. Had the ruling gone the other way (and who knows with the 9th?), Gilmore would be responsible for removing a first line of defense against terrorists on American soil by allowing unrestricted air travel to all. And no, not everyone is allowed to travel freely, nor should they be.
Just because Gilmore is anti-government does not mean that he is a Libertarian as the article suggests. His stance on drug legalization, copyright protection by copyright holders, and even simple behavior as a netizen corrals him squarely into the Liberal Elitist group. Rules do not apply to him, he is smarter than everyone else, and there is a perfect digital utopia out there, and dammit, he is going to bring it about, regardless of his impact on other peoples’ safety and rights.
On the other hand, the case does reveal that you can fly Naked.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Meg Ryan Adopts Chinese Baby Girl
Jan 27th
Meg Ryan flew all the way around the World this past week to adopt a Chinese Baby Girl. From the USA Today here:
NEW YORK (AP) Meg Ryan has adopted a baby girl from China. The 44-year-old actress recently traveled to China for the adoption. She and her new child are now home in California together, Ryan’s publicist Stephen Huvane confirmed Thursday.
This means that no one within 2 rows of Meg Ryan and her baby got to sleep on the 22 hour flight back to the United States. The adoption means that Ryan is now the mother of two children; she has a 13-year-old son with ex-husband Dennis Quaid.
It also means that it is now becoming fashionable for Hollywood Women to have little Asian Babies. One Hollywood insider was reported to overhear Meg tell Angelina Jolie to “Bring it ON!” in their race to adopt foreign children. What does this mean for the other current trends in Hollywood? It means that younger women will replace those tiny yippee dogs they carry around in their Prada Bags with little Asian Babies.
Paris Hilton, shaking the skeletal remains of a small dog from her Louis Vuitton handbag, was quoted as saying “I’m going to be the first to get a North Korean baby. That’s Hot.”
Ryan, the blonde actress of Joe Versus the Volcano and Proof of Life, has enrolled herself and her older son into Mandarin Chinese language classes because she was worried that she wouldn’t understand the baby’s language when it grew bigger.
China has a very strict rule in which families may only have one child. Any woman who wishes to have a second child will face a state-sponsored abortion. And to carry on the family name, boys are the preferred sex. This policy results in a plethora of unwanted Chinese girl babies. Meg reportedly got the “pick of the litter” at the Chinese Orphanage.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Fidel Throws Up Flags to Protest Blinky Sign
Jan 27th
Old Fidel hasn’t been this worked up since his last baseball team defected. You see, the United States Interests Office, located on the 5th floor of the embassy of Switzerland in Havana, Cuba, has been running a blinky light scrolling marquee sign with quotes from Abe Lincoln, Martin Luter King jr, and Anti-Commie Polish Prez Lech Walesa. Such information about freedom cannot be tolerated, so Fidel ordered all of his peasants to march in front of the mission (some reports say a million people took place in the march, but I doubt this claim since Cuba lacks the ability to move that many people). I wrote about this here.
Since this display of Fidel’s ability to make his peasants march failed to stifle the blinky sign, Fidel threw another tantrum and decided to work 24 hours a day to erect a series of tightly packed tall flagpoles that he hopes will shield the poor commie peasants from the injurious impact of the sweet, blinky words of freedom.
ABC News has part of the story here-
Cuban President Fidel Castro, after marching more than a million people by the building earlier this week, has ordered construction workers to extend an open-air stage in front of the mission right up to within yards of the gate. He plans to mount huge flags on the stage to block the ticker from view, a construction ministry source said.
The stage is called the anti-imperialist tribunal and was built during the tug of war between the United States and Cuba to have shipwreck victim Elian Gonzalez returned to his father from Miami. The venue is currently used for political and cultural events.
Cuba plans for the flags to fly by Saturday, the birthday of the country’s founding father, Jose Marti, leader of the Caribbean island’s independence war against Spain.
“We have five days to do this job, working 24 hours a day,” a construction worker said on Tuesday when Cuban flag-sporting bulldozers and other heavy construction equipment began ripping up half of the U.S. diplomatic mission’s parking lot.
Castro has waxed furious over the electronic sign, which he charges is a gross provocation aimed at torpedoing already fragile bilateral relations.
“It is clear when they decided to do this outrageous act and they could not have had in mind anything but a provocation to destroy fragile relations,” Castro said Wednesday while visiting the construction site.
Castro charged the Bush administration had turned the Interests Section into a command post to “organize and direct the counterrevolution” and funnel money and supplies to his opponents.
The Chicago Tribune has more about the quotes here:
“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent,” the quote by Lincoln read.
Also passing slowly on the 5-foot high ticker, which is on the building’s fifth floor and is illuminated only at night, is a quote by French philosopher Voltaire that reads, “Man is free in the moment he wishes to be free.”
And what do the Cuban’s think? Well, whatever they think, they refuse to say, much less give their name for fear of being identified as a counter-revolutionary- Again, from the Tribune,
Few Cubans say they have seen the ticker because island officials have blocked off traffic around the U.S. Interests Section building in recent days.
Even before that, Cuban officials prohibited vehicles from stopping in front of the Interests Section, a modernist building on the Malecon, Havana’s sweeping seaside boulevard.
“You have to drive fast on the Malecon, and it was impossible to read,” said Llanes, a Havana taxi driver who refused to give her last name out of fear of being identified.
And not everyone thinks this is a good idea for the US Mission to do this. Who opposes it? Why a Jimmy Carter-era Democrat, of course! Again from the Trib-
But Wayne Smith, the former top U.S. diplomat in Cuba during the administration of President Jimmy Carter, said the sign would only further aggravate relations between Cuba and the United States.
“Instead of tackling real issues they are doing this,” said Smith. “It’s theater of the absurd.”
Theater of the absurd? I like it. Castro is terrified by the red blinky lights. And the folks running the US Mission are COOL.
“Thanks for the info” goes to Michelle Malkin and the Babalu Blog.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Crack Dealer Entrepreneur
Jan 26th
I admire the fact that people try to be inventive to get ahead in their careers. Advertising is an important factor in getting your products to the streets. Provided your product is legal, that is….
But a Crack Dealer handed out Business Cards! Nice use of advertising, but the CEO of this one man operation had to do the perp walk out of his Leavenworth, Kansas Headquarters. From the AP here:
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. – The business cards got a response, but surely not what their owner had in mind when he had them printed up.
They came to the attention of Leavenworth police, who used them to make a drug arrest last week.
Sylvester J. Williams, 21, of Leavenworth, was charged Monday with possessing crack cocaine with the intent to sell it, Maj. Patrick Kitchens of the Leavenworth Police Department said.
Kitchens said Williams remained in custody Wednesday on $75,000 bond.
He said police had heard for some time that Williams had been selling drugs in the area. “Then we heard that he was handing out business cards,” the officer said. “In the course of our investigation we were fortunate to come up with one, and we gave him a call.”
Kitchens said the business card had an image of what appeared to be an alarm clock being hit by a boxing glove and said: “For a quick hit on time call the boss.”
“When he answered, we agreed to buy some crack from him, we went up there, and we arrested him,” Kitchens said.
The arrest was made Friday.
“It makes our job considerably easier when they advertise and let us know where to get ahold of them,” Kitchens said.
I can see him now, standing around the Board Room table, talking with his fellow crack dealers about his new business cards, reminiscient of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho-
“Picked them up from the printers yesterday…that’s bone, and the lettering is something called cylian braille.”
“Look at that subtle, off-white coloring….the tasteful thickness of it…. oh my God, it even has a watermark…”
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Bush Rigs Camera; Misses Troll Reporter
Jan 26th
President Bush held a news conference today and seemed very disappointed that a camera he had rigged to fall on the head of annoying reporter and wrinkled troll, Helen Thomas, failed. It was a dissapointing Wile E. Coyote moment. He played it off well though, using humor to hide his frustration at missing his attempt to “conk” the Troll on the head. From the AP here:
WASHINGTON – President Bush’s first news conference of the year was just a camera strap away from becoming hazardous to reporters.
As the president began his opening statement, a camera that the news service AFP had hung from the ceiling dropped and nearly fell on the heads below. It was caught by its strap, and Bush stopped and looked at it dangling precariously.
“Are you wearing your helmets?” he joked to reporters sitting in the White House briefing room.
Bush was full of quips during the 45-minute news conference, poking fun at the media and deflecting some of the heat when questioning got intense.
Yes, Bush acknowledged, he had his picture taken with admitted criminal Jack Abramoff.
“Having my picture taken with someone doesn’t mean that I’m a friend with him or know him very well,” he said. “I’ve had my picture taken with you at holiday parties.”
Helen Thomas was snubbed by the President during the press conference, even though she raised her hand and went “Ooh! Ooh!” I’m certain the president snubbed her because she is always stuck on stupid. She asks the same dumbass questions over and over again, and she has the annoying habit of looking like a bitter old troll. Maybe she should go back to living under a nearby bridge and harrassing billy goats.
This is from Drudge-
President Bush today again avoided taking a question from White House doyenne Helen Thomas during his 45-minute press conference, even though he took questions from every reporter around her front-row, center seat.
“He’s a coward,” Thomas said afterward. “He’s supposed to be this macho guy. He’ll take on Osama bin Laden, but he won’t take me on.”
Thomas, who worked as the UPI White House reporter for 57 years and is now a columnist, raised her hand every time the president was concluding an answer to a reporter’s question, but he never called on her.
She had a few questions in mind, though. “I wanted to ask about Iraq: ‘You said you didn’t go in for oil or for Israel or for WMDs. so why did you go in?’”
She also had another question at the ready, just in case, this one about the president’s contention that a 28-year-old wiretapping law known as FISA is out of date, which prompted him to order the National Security Agency to conduct a secret electronic surveillance program that Democrats contend is illegal.
“You keep saying it’s a 1978 law, but the Constitution 200 years old. Is that out of date, too?”
Afterward, Thomas sat sullenly in her chair in the White House press work area, huddled in her leopard-print winter coat.
Aww… The Troll’s feelings were hurt. Even though the UPI folded up and locked its doors years ago, Helen still remains. And if you think I’m being mean about calling the old battleax a troll, take a look at this. One photo is a model for a Troll from the Lord of the Rings Movie. The other is Helen Thomas. Can you pick out the real woman?
Update: The Political Teen has a video of the news conference here.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Bot Herder Pleads Guilty
Jan 24th
There are only about three games in the information security world if you are a bad guy- You either sell crap with spam emails, install programs or trick people to steal identity information so you can open up lines of credit (or sell the information!), or you build Bot Nets to either kill internet sites, or bribe people so you won’t kill internet sites.
It turns out that someone that built a BotNet, which is a group of hacked computers that have software that allows them to be controlled remotely as a massive group, sold access to the botnet to other bad guys to send out spam and also used it to click on his stupid ad banner on his fake website to rip off an ad company of about 60 thousand dollars.
From Security Focus Here:
Jeanson James Ancheta of Downey, Calif. entered a plea of guilty to four of the original 17 charges in the case, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. The four charges include two counts of conspiracy, damaging government computers used for national defense and accessing protected computers to commit fraud.
According to the plea agreement, Ancheta used automated software to infect Windows systems and to create botnets–centrally controlled networks of compromised PCs–to which he sold access. Computers at the China Lake Naval Air Facility were among those compromised by the bot nets investigated in the case. He also used the bot nets to garner affiliate revenue from adware, the agreement stated.
“Ancheta admitted generating roughly $60,000 in advertising affiliate proceeds by directing more than 400,000 infected computers that were part of his botnet armies to other computer servers he controlled where adware he had modified would surreptitiously download onto the zombies,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in the statement.
The guilty plea marks the latest success for investigators’ attempts to track down and prosecute bot herders, the name that security researchers have given to people that control the networks of compromised computers.
The four charges could result in a maximum of 25 years of prison time and fines of $1 million, if the judge in the case rules that the sentences should be served consecutively and levies the maximum fine.
As part of the plea agreement, Ancheta will forfeit more than $60,000 in proceeds, a 1993 BMW, and various computer equipment. In addition, the defendant has agreed to pay nearly $15,000 in restitution to the government, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a statement.
The California man will be sentenced on May 1.
400,000 PC’s, working in concert, can easily keep most websites off the Internet, if they are not distributed via load balancing software or working with a content provider like Yahoo or Akamai. With this kind of power, what does this kid do? Take down the city paper’s website? Cause Wikipedia to blink out? No, he uses them to click on his website’s banner to generate pennies per click. He likely got caught when the ad content provider noticed the sky high bill on his stupid garage band’s website.
This genius was certainly not a criminal mastermind. I also hope he doesn’t get some lame job with the FBI in order to pay his 15k restitution.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Castro Leads Protest Against a Blinky Sign
Jan 24th
Cigar smoking tyrants can’t stand free information, especially when it is in the form of red blinky lights that scroll across a ticker-type screen.? So he buses in thousands of people and makes them walk along the street and call Americans “cockroaches”, and those protesters better comply too, if they know what’s good for them.?
?
From Reuters, here:
HAVANA (Reuters) – President Fidel Castro sent hundreds of thousands of Cuban marchers past the U.S. mission in Havana on Tuesday to protest a five-foot-high (1.5- meter) ticker that streams news and human rights messages across its windows.
Castro accused the Bush administration of “perfidious” provocation of a new crisis between Havana and Washington.
As he climbed the podium to send off the march, the U.S. ticker flashed “Conservatives win elections in Canada” and other headlines in bright red letters behind him and in full view of the marchers.
The headlines were followed by quotes from Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity movement that toppled Poland’s communist government and led to the collapse of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe.
“They have turned on the display. How brave the cockroaches are. Little Bush must have sent the order,” an angry Castro said.
The communist leader, who turns 80 in August, was dressed in his trademark military fatigues, but did not join the march past the U.S. mission on Havana’s Malecon seafront, as he has in previous protests.
“The government of the United States … is planning to force a rupture in the current minimum diplomatic links with Cuba. The gross provocations by its Interests Section in Havana can have no other purpose,” Castro said in his speech.
The ticker began displaying messages across 25 windows of its fifth floor on January 16 when it flashed “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up” from U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr’s famed 1963 speech.
Shortly before the march kicked off, President Fidel Castro addressed the people to point out that the island?s response to US provocations would be ?entirely peaceful, but we shall strike back with all the strength of our moral fortitude.?
U.S. diplomats said the display is aimed at breaking the “information blockade” or censorship in a country where the media is state-run.
An earlier version of this story reported about how all of the thousands of protesters got there, which was by bus, and it also mentioned that there were supposedly 1.4 million cubans involved in the March.? I think they must have Million Man March syndrome (the main symptom is to lie about your number of attendees), because there aren’t enough buses on the whole island to hold 1.4 million people.?
And I like how he vows to use “Peaceful” responses to the outrageous attack of free information!? Oh No!? We Americans are powerless against “Peaceful Responses!”? Castro can make thousands of citizens walk down the street because he got pissed off.? Wow, that sure shows US!
Also, the people HAD to march if they wanted to eat and not be put on an enemies list.? I wonder if Elian Gonzalez got to attend this little rally?? Also, the sign announced that the US was going to allow Cuba to play baseball in the World Baseball Classic, which the Cuban government has not announced to its citizens.? The reason Cuba doesn’t want its people to know about the games?? Maybe because it doesnt want more defections.? See more about the game here.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...China Engages in Apparant Cyber Warfare
Jan 24th
According to the Register, China attempted to exploit a Zero-Day exploit in the Windows MetaFile vulnerability by sending HTML encoded emails to members of the House of Parlaiment. If the attack had worked, it would have likely installed a back door to the systems that would allow the Chinese to sap information or even remotely control the computers.
From the Register Here:
Chinese hackers attacked UK government targets during the Christmas holidays using the Microsoft Windows Meta File (WMF) exploit. The attacks – initiated before Microsoft’s patch against the vulnerability was released on 5 January – came in the form of contamination emails that originated in China, according to email filtering firm MessageLabs, whose clients include the UK government. It’s unclear if independent hackers or the Chinese government initiated the attack.
Contaminated messages posed as information about a secret rendezvous are were sent to around 70 people in parliament and elsewhere in the UK government, ZDNET reports. Attackers tried to dupe intended recipients into opening an infected attachment containing the WMF Setabortproc Trojan but the infected emails were blocked by MessageLabs’ email filtering system. Some of the attacks were aimed as departments in the UK government dealing with human rights abuses, The Guardian reports.
The WMF-themed attacks are the latest twist in an armada of specially crafted Trojan horse attacks dating back over a year. Last June the UK’s National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre (NISCC) warned that approximately 300 UK government departments and businesses critical to the country’s infrastructure have been the subject of Trojan horse attacks, many reportedly originating in the Far East. “The attackers’ aim appears to be covert gathering or transmitting of commercially or economically valuable information,” NISCC warned.
Okay, the article won’t say whether or not this was from an independent hacker Group, or if this was the work of the Chinese Government. I will say this was the Chinese Government, and more specifically, the PRC Red Army. How can I say this? Well, since the penalty of cyber crime in China is DEATH, (see this for more info) I can say that the odds that this was non sactioned activity by a Chinese Citizen is very low. That would therefore mean that the Chinese Government is the most likely culprit in this situation.
And if this attempt failed, how often do the Chicoms succeed? And good job of MessageLabs in identifying the threat and eliminating it.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Canada Takes a Conservative Turn
Jan 24th
After the 2004 election of George W. Bush, there were scores of stories in the papers detailing the hopes of the liberals here in the United States to leave this country behind and move to Canada, because in the eyes of the liberals, Canada was the right thinking kind of country.? They granted more rights to homosexuals, they disagreed with the US about Iraq, abortion on demand was widely available, they made great strides in socialized medicine, and they liberalized the use of marijuana.? 
It sounded like a liberal utopia, and Americans were supposedly fed up with the US and were going to flock to Canada in droves.
Well, as it turns out, all of the things that made Canada a liberal Utopia pissed off the general populace of Canada, and they overwhelmingly voted in a Conservative Prime Minister to Parlaiment.
From Reuters here:
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada took a tentative step to the right in Monday’s federal election, ousting the Liberals after 12 years in power and voting in a fragile minority Conservative government, television networks said.
Preliminary official figures at 12:20 p.m. (0520 GMT Tuesday) showed the Conservatives winning or ahead in 125 electoral districts compared to 102 for the Liberals of Prime Minister Paul Martin.
The result was a personal triumph for Conservative leader Stephen Harper, a 46-year-old economist who forced through the creation of the party in December 2003 by uniting two squabbling right-wing movements.
“I have just called Stephen Harper and I have offered him my congratulations. The people of Canada have chosen him to lead a minority government,” Martin told supporters in his Montreal electoral district in a concession speech.
“Canadians voted for hope over fear and accountability over corruption … Tonight is the beginning of a moment of reckoning for the Liberal Party,” senior Conservative Jason Kenney told reporters in the western city of Calgary.
Harper vowed to clean up government, cut the national sales tax, clamp down on crime, cut waiting times for health care and improve strained relations with the United States.
The Conservatives have no natural allies in Parliament and will therefore need to govern on an issue-by-issue basis with the backing of other parties.
“Minority means we have to be constructive, and we have to be working together and finding common ground,” deputy Conservative leader Peter MacKay told CTV.
It was the first time a right-wing party had won an election since 1988, when the then Progressive Conservative government beat the Liberals.
Martin, 67, had tried hard to convince Canadians that Harper was an extremist who would try to strip away personal freedoms such as gay marriage and abortion.
My question is-? If Canada is no longer a liberal utopia and Mecca of Multiculturalism, where will the angry US liberals try to flee to when they lose another election?? Venenzuela?? Cuba?
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...21st Century Spy Techniques Revealed?
Jan 23rd
And are they using Bluetooth to pass docs?Looking at the picture, it looks like a Pocket PC type of a device, along with some type of generator, battery or other power supply.
From the Associated Press article here.
Moscow
Russia’s main intelligence agency on Monday accused four British diplomats of spyingusing electronic equipment hidden inside a fake rock in a park as well as funneling funds to non-governmental organizations.
The announcement came a day after state television channel Rossiya broadcast footage purportedly showing four British Embassy staff using electronic equipment concealed in the rock in Moscow to receive intelligence from Russian agents.
Sergei Ignatchenko, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said the situation would be resolved “at a political level,” the RIA-Novosti news agency reported, an apparent indication that the Russian government could expel the diplomats.
The intelligence agency also said a Russian citizen who allegedly had contacts with British agents had been detained and confessed to espionage, according to the Russian Interfax news agency.
Rossiya said the diplomats had downloaded information onto handheld computers from the electronic gadget hidden in the rock, a process that worked at a distance of up to 65 feet and took only one or two seconds.
In 1996, Russia and Britain engaged in a spying dispute launched by Moscow, each expelling four diplomats.
Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the magazine Russia in Global Affairs, predicted the spy scandal would increase tensions between Moscow and the West as Russia chairs the Group of Eight this year.
Except for the fact that the Brits messed up by using a portable plastic rock, the idea was pretty cool. Instead of using a dead drop to pass spy information on paper, they used a hidden storage device that was connected to wireless technology to pass the information. This could be done with bluetooth or even standard wireless technology, but it was likely something similar that does not give off its signal in a noisy manner, like announcing its SSID or Bluetooth services. But Bluetooth typically has a range of about 65 to 100 feet, depending on the signal strength. The information exchange could have been as easy as synchronizing your Palm, and it could be done as you walked down the city street.
As far as the spying itself, well, the Cold War may be over, but the business of information gathering goes on. The four diplomats are lucky to only be expelled. If this were the 1980′s, the diplomats would likely face a firing squad.
On an unrelated fun note, I just started reading Clancy’s Teeth of the Tiger, which is about Jack Ryan Jr. getting into the spy business. So far its a real page turner, and it really dovetails into current events regarding the Bush Wiretapping uproar. i got it for 5 bucks in hardback at the local bookstore, but Amazon has it for about $7.50.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Check Out Gogol Bordello
Jan 22nd
I went to the CAKE concert last night at the 930 club in Washington DC. CAKE was on their “Unlimited Sunshine Tour”, featuring Gogol Bordello and Tegan and Sara.
First, the 930 Club, which gets some great bands, is a facility that has cruddy accoustics, and is located in the middle of urban blight central in Washington DC. The buildings surrounding the club are either condemned or SHOULD be. Once inside the club, you are met with darkness, extremely high priced beer, and a balcony section that provides a pretty good view of the band. However, the same balcony would become a firetrap in an emergency since there is only a narrow staircase as an exit for the thousand-plus patrons that they allow upstairs.
CAKE was excellent. It would have been nicer if they were amplified a bit more. I had to struggle to hear them over some very loud drunk women who were chatting it up as if the concert was a mere social setting such as the neighborhood Applebee’s rather than a rare appearance in the region by this band.
Tegan and Sara were okay. There were many technical flaws to their performance, but this was due to the lousy accoustics and what seemed to be a rookie soundman at the mixer board. Sara’s microphone was way too low, and her guitar was way too loud, and the reverb off of the walls really muddled their sound. I am not a big fan of their music, but they did cover their hits.
The biggest surprise was Gogol Bordello, which put on a great show, with great music, and a fabulous stage performance. Gogol Bordello is a Gypsy Punk Rock Band. What is so gypsy about it? Along with all of the usual instruments- drums, bass, electric guitar- throw in an accordian and an electric violin, a stand-up bass drum, and even some washboards, and you have the East European sound of Gogol Bordello.
As stated earlier, the accoustics and the sound mixer was bad, but it didnt stop me from enjoying the great music these guys generated. The violinist was snapping his bow strings across his fiddle, and gypsy girls danced, sang, and beat on the standup bass drum while the lead singer was crowd surfing, and singing in a mix of english and Ukranian. The music was vibrant, the performance was fun, and the band is a must see. Check out their tour dates, and if they come to a town near you, you chould check it out.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Moore Views Conservative Canadian Election Win as US Conquest
Jan 20th
Big fat liar Michael Moore took time out from filming his latest propaganda film Sicko to write a post on his website likening a conservative win in Canada to George Bush “conquering” the Great White North.
From MM’s nexus of untruth here: http://tinyurl.com/79kof
Oh, Canada — you’re not really going to elect a Conservative majority on Monday, are you?
Far be it from me, as an American
traitor, to suggest what you should do. You already have too many Americans telling you what to do. Well, actually, you’ve got just one American who keeps telling you to roll over and fetch and sit.These are no ordinary times, and as you go to the polls on Monday, you do so while a man running the nation to the south of you is hoping you can lend him a hand by picking Stephen Harper because he’s a man who shares his world view. Do you want to help George Bush by turning Canada into his latest conquest? Is that how you want millions of us down here to see you from now on? The next notch in the cowboy belt? C’mon, where’s your Canadian pride? I mean, if you’re going to reduce Canada to a cheap download of Bush & Co., then at least don’t surrender so easily. Can’t you wait until he threatens to bomb Regina? Make him work for it, for Pete’s sake.
The Canadians are getting pretty sick of the far left liberal ideals that Michael Moore shares, along with his elitist attitude. Its remarkable to think that fair elections equate to conquest in the minds of a liberal.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Cyber Evidence from Library Convicts Would-Be Terrorist
Jan 19th
The Democrats want to hamstring the law enforcement agencies of this country by killing parts of the USA Patriot Act, including the portions that allow the FBI to search public library computers for evidence of crimes. Well, one dopey moslem, in the country illegally, tried to recruit visitors to http://www.jihadwatch.org/in an attempt to develop a terrorism plan that would make 9/11 look like a ‘headache.’ He did his recruiting from a public library computer. From NBC4, the NBC station in Washington, DC- http://www.nbc4.com/news/6239477/detail.html
Va. Officer: Man Tried To Recruit Him For Terror Cause
Jordanian Lived In OhioDAYTON, Ohio — A Jordanian living in Ohio tried to recruit a Norfolk, Va., police officer for a terrorist cause, the officer testified in a federal hearing.
David Vazquez testified Wednesday in federal court that Mohammed Radwan Obeid told him in an e-mail that he was helping to start an operation that would dwarf the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.
Vazquez said he contacted Obeid through two Web sites, including jihadwatch.org, and contacted the FBI after reading Obeid’s e-mails.
Obeid, who worked as a cashier in Dayton before his arrest last March on immigration fraud charges, was indicted in October after telling FBI agents that he hadn’t used the e-mail account.
He pleaded guilty in December to a felony count of knowingly and willfully making false material representation. He faces a maximum of five years in prison.
Reference librarian Laura Girolamo testified Wednesday that Obeid apparently sent e-mail about gun silencers and constructing hydrogen bombs on a computer at the Troy-Miami County Public Library. She contacted the FBI as well.
Obeid’s lawyer, Shawn Kelly, challenged Vazquez’s interpretation of the e-mail and said he doubted Girolamo could know for sure that Obeid sent the e-mails from the library.
I think the lawyer in this case is stupid too. All email is marked as belonging to its originating email server, and more often than not, from the originating IP address. The email evidence should say when it was sent, at what time, and from which workstation. That the moslem was so creepy that he attracted the attention of a librarian so she would remember him and want to turn him over the the FBI is notable.
Obeid’s attorneys have argued that he visited terrorist Web sites because he was conducting research for a book about terrorism and world religions.
A federal immigration judge ordered Obeid’s deportation in September, and he has not appealed the decision, said Elaine Komis, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
Immigration officials said they believe Obeid entered the United States through marriage fraud. He married a Kansas City woman in Jordan and came to the United States in 2001, according to court papers. The marriage was annulled five months later.
Don’t get me wrong. This man was no genius. He could no more construct a hydrogen bomb than he could eat pork fried rice. He was stupid for using a computer to email people about recruiting them into his nefarious plans, and now he is going to stay behind bars until he can be deported. Good riddance. I say send his Kansas-City wife too!
hat tip to the Jawa Report.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Osama, On the Run, Tried to Call ‘Time Out!’
Jan 19th
21st century caveman and former terrorist mastermind, Osama Bin Laden, somehow managed to smuggle a tape recording of himself out of his hidden “Terror Cave” to weakly call for a “Time Out” in the war on terror to allow him and his fellow terrorists to regroup.
From Reuters here: http://tinyurl.com/7fsbe
DUBAI (Reuters) – Osama bin Laden warned that al Qaeda was preparing new attacks inside the United States, but said the group was open to a conditional truce with Americans, according to an audio tape attributed to him on Thursday.
It was the first purported tape by bin Laden since 2004. Al Jazeera television, which aired the tape, said it was recorded in December.
“The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are complete, God willing,” said the speaker on the audio tape, who sounded like bin Laden.
In the tape, bin Laden said al Qaeda was willing to “respond” to U.S. public opinion in favor of withdrawing troops from Iraq. He did not specify conditions for the truce, but indicated that it was linked to U.S. troops quitting Iraq.
“Based on the substance of the polls, which indicate Americans do not want to fight Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their land, we do not mind offering a long-term truce based on just conditions that we will stand by,” he said.
“There is nothing wrong with this solution except that it deprives the influential people and warlords in America from hundreds of billions of dollars, — those who supported Bush’s election campaign with billions of dollars.”
Responding to the truce offer, the White House said that the United States “does not negotiate with terrorists.”
This is the funniest call for a time-out in the middle of a battle since Robin Williams’ character tried to call a time out with Jerry Reed’s character in the movie “The Survivors.” If UBL wants to negotiate a real truce, he should present himself to the US’s negotiating team, the US Army!
It should also be noted that UBL parrots Howard Dean and the other democrats that urge US surrender in the war on terrorism, quoting polls and repeating the meme that Bush lied. Of course, like Mother sheehan, he wants the US out of Iraq now!
Hat tip to DB at Sweetness and Light-
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...CSPI Wants to Take the Fun Out of Childhood
Jan 18th
One of my fondest memories of childhood is waking up on Saturday morning with my brothers, and while my parents slept in late, we would make giant bowls of sugary cereal and sit down to watch great Saturday Morning classics like the Superfriends, the Hair Bear Bunch, Land of the Lostand Speed Buggy. We would eat all of the cereal, get worked into a hyperactive tizzy by the cartoons and then fight over the remote control.
Now comes along a nanny outfit of snobbish busybodies that think they can tell the country what to eat, when to eat it and how much they are allowed. And to make it worse, if you are a parent, they think they know better than you do on what to feed your children. And dammit, if they can’t get anyone to take them seriously, they are going to sue companies until they get their way.
From the Reuters News Agency: http://tinyurl.com/9ljus
CHICAGO (Reuters) – A consumer group wants to keep Tony the Tiger from promoting sugary cereals on the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon show, or anywhere else kids are watching.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest on Wednesday announced legal action to try to stop the Kellogg Co., maker of cereals like Frosted Flakes, and Nickelodeon cable network Viacom Inc., from marketing junk food to children.A planned lawsuit will ask a Massachusetts court to stop the companies from marketing junk foods in venues where 15 percent or more of the audience is under age 8, and to stop marketing junk foods through Web sites, toy giveaways, contests and other techniques aimed at that age group.
The planned lawsuit in Massachusetts is the latest attempt to use the courts to try to battle the growing obesity crisis in the United States.
A widely watched lawsuit filed in 2002 accused fast-food leader McDonald’s Corp. of using misleading advertising to lure children into eating unhealthy foods. McDonald’s has called that lawsuit frivolous and parts of the case have been dismissed.
In the Massachusetts case, plaintiffs contend that the two companies are harming children since the overwhelming majority of food products they market to children are high in items such as sugar and fat or nearly devoid of nutrients.
“We have not been served with any legal papers,” Nickelodeon said. “That said, Nickelodeon has been an acknowledged leader and positive force in educating and encouraging kids to live healthier lifestyles, as well as in the ongoing process of encouraging advertisers to provide more balance in their offerings, and we will continue to do so.”
Nickelodeon has also licensed its characters for “good-for-you” products, such as a deal that has SpongeBob characters on packages of Grimmway carrots.
Kellogg could not be immediately reached for comment.
Of 168 ads for food that appeared on Nickelodeon during a review in the fall, 88 were for foods with poor nutritional quality, the center said. Nickelodeon characters like SpongeBob SquarePants were also used on packages of “junk foods” like Kellogg’s Wild Bubble Berry Pop-Tarts, the center said.
Meanwhile, the center also reviewed 27.5 hours of Saturday morning programming and found 98 percent of the commercials promoted what it called “nutritionally poor foods.”
“As a parent, I do my best to get my kids to eat healthy foods,” Sherri Carlson, a plaintiff and mother of three, said in the center’s news release. “But then they turn on Nickelodeon and see all those enticing junk-food ads.”
But I guess Sherri Carlson cannot control the actual food brought into the house, and must think it is cruel to tell her darling brats “no” when they ask for something sweet. What a shrew this woman must be. Rather than being a parent to her own children and minding her own business, she has to sue two great companies, claiming they are colluding to make her brats fat.
In addition to trying to ruin the childhoods of millions of American Children, the group also uses junk science to say that lots of popular foods and additives are bad for you. Granted, Olestra makes you poo, but its not toxic. I don’t like it, so I don’t eat it. The marketplace should decide whether or not foods remain on the shelves for sale, not some nanny group. But they also say aspartame, aka Nutrasweet, is bad for you,which is a lie. For a comprehensive listing of CSPI’s lies, see http://www.cspiscam.com
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Mayor Nagin is Losing It
Jan 18th
The Mayor of the former great city of New Orleans should hire some Oompa Loompas for his Chocolate City.
From CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/17/nagin.city/
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — Mayor Ray Nagin on Tuesday apologized for urging residents to rebuild a “chocolate New Orleans” and saying, “You can’t have New Orleans no other way.”
“I’m really sorry that some people took that they way they did, and that was not my intention,” the mayor said. “I say everybody’s welcome.”
Even if you are vanilla or other flavors I suppose.
Nagin added that he never should have used the term “chocolate.”
Across the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged city, many voiced their displeasure with the mayor’s Monday remarks at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech. One Web site even began peddling T-shirts showing Nagin with a top hat along with the caption “Willy Nagin and the Chocolate Factory.”
Resident Alex Gerhold called Nagin’s remarks “stupid” and “pitiful.”
“He used the wrong dairy product to describe us. We’re more Neapolitan, not chocolate,” Gerhold said. “It doesn’t do the city any kind of justice.”
Nagin’s remarks fall into a line of inappropriate statements the mayor has made, said civil rights attorney Tracie Washington. She said she is “done trying to figure out what our mayor is going to say off the cuff on any given day.”
“It was an unfortunate goofball statement for him to make,” Washington said. “All it has really done is make the city look just a little bit more ridiculous.”
The mayor, who is up for re-election this year, publicly apologized for his remarks at the beginning of a Bring New Orleans Back Commission meeting. He said he was trying only to encourage many of the city’s displaced poor population to return.
Nagin really hasquite a bit to worry about. If the city remains “non-chocolate,” and the residents are angered about his horrible response to Katrina and his ensuing comments, he might lose the election. If he can get enough “Chocolate” people back in town before the election, maybe his job would be safe. However, he may wish to take the same tack that Mayor Marion Barry of Washington DC took in regards to Katrina- Declare “Bitch set me up!”
On Monday, Nagin said God wanted New Orleans to be predominantly black and said he didn’t care what the predominantly white Uptown section of the city had to say about it.
“I don’t care what people are saying Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day,” he said. “This city will be a majority African-American city. It’s the way God wants it to be.”
I guess God wanted the city to be a lake too.
After the statement, he insisted he wasn’t being divisive.
“How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about,” he said. “New Orleans was a chocolate city before Katrina. It is going to be a chocolate city after. How is that divisive? It is white and black working together, coming together and making something special.”
See the video here, and watch how Nagin begins the above statement by being rude to the reporter.
http://www.wdsu.com/video/6162103/detail.html
Nagin says, “Do you know anything about chocolate?”
Reporter: “I’m asking you?”
Nagin: I’m asking you! Do you know anything about chocolate? How do you make chocolate?”
I can’t watch that video without laughing thinking about the delicious drink that is New Orleans! Also notice that Ray Nagin got his school buses working again.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Near Miss of Al-Queda #2?
Jan 17th
This is a story from the AP, and it tries to have an anti-American slant. Bottom line, the US took a shot at the wart-faced #2 (no doody jokes please) of the Al-Queda terrorgroup. Whether or not we missed has yet to be determined. Story is here:
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/16/D8F65KF80.html
Pakistani Ruling Party Demands U.S. Apology
PESHAWAR, Pakistan
Pakistan’s ruling party on Monday demanded an apology for an alleged CIA airstrike that killed at least 17 people, but the country’s prime minister said his trip to the United States this week would go ahead as planned.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and his ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q on Monday condemned the alleged U.S. airstrike on a village near the Afghan border, which intelligence officials have said targeted al- Qaida’s No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri
But Aziz said he was still scheduled to leave Tuesday for the United States, where he said he would talk about security issues but also meet business leaders to encourage foreign investment.
The leader called Friday’s airstrike on a village near the Afghan border “very regrettable” but said, “I don’t think that takes away from the fact that Pakistan needs investment.”
The Muslim League-Q party later issued a statement demanding an official apology from the United States.
Islamic groups, meanwhile, vowed to step up anti-American protests.
Al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant, was invited to an Islamic dinner in the village but did not show up, two Pakistani officials told The Associated Press.
Al-Zawahri sent some aides to the dinner instead and investigators were trying to determine whether they had been in any of the three houses destroyed in the missile strike, one of the officials said Sunday.
In Washington, a U.S counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the information’s sensitivity, said it is not yet known if al-Zawahri was killed in Friday’s attack.
The official said the compound that was hit has been visited in the past by significant terrorist figures. “There were strong indications that was happening again,” the official said.
With media reports out of Pakistan indicating that at least four foreigners were killed, the official said it appears that some damage was done, even if al-Zawahri was not there. “This place had a history,” the official said.
These soon-to-be-dead moslims are known to frequent the area that was bombed. And for those liberals that believe that no one should ever die in a war, especially if you are “innocent,” consider this- Wart-Face was supposed to have a dinner with some people in this village. The hosts of the dinner deserve to die. They admire this heinous man, they wish to feed him and house him and offer him shelter, so they are better off dead. Its like inviting Hermann Goering or Josef Mengela to dinner. You would be better off inviting a couple of cannibals to your dinner and taking your chances becoming theentree rather than having Al-Queda’s #2 to dinner. OF COURSE the man attracts missles, and the Pakastani’s are shocked about this?
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Stolen Moon Rocks
Jan 16th
So, you are finally granted that loan from NASA to uselunar rocks during a lecture. What do you do with priceless samples of stone taken from the surface of the Moon? Why, leave them in the front seat of your car of course!
This stupidity is brought to you by the Virginian Pilot, here:
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=98085&ran=227191
VIRGINIA BEACH Who got the rocks?
Thats what police are asking after someone broke into a car near Oceana Naval Air Station earlier this week and took some rare specimens from the moon.
Police said the theft was reported at 3:24 a.m. Tuesday at a home on Garcia Drive. The car belongs to a NASA instructor.
Lunar rocks are a precious commodity. None has been sold or given away.
NASA had entrusted the stolen rocks to contracted instructors. The specimens were sealed within two plastic disks labeled meteorite sample and lunar sample, said police spokeswoman Margie Long . They were taken along with the silver briefcase they were in.
The rocks grayish lumps are not dangerous, but they are expensive. Lunar rocks are worth 10 times their weight in the highest-quality diamonds.
So stupid people leave priceless stones in an aluminum briefcase in the front seat of their car. And then they act surprised when it gets stolen. I guess even rocket scientists and professors can be stupid.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...
