I can't believe that came from your mouth!
Politics
Political Squabbling
Mexicans Can Cross Rio Grande, But Not Ticks
Oct 13th
This is a hilarious political stunt by a Pennsylvania Republican candidate. Frustrated that illegal aliens are flooding the country on the Mexican Border, Raj Bakta rented three elephants and a 6-piece mariachi band to see how long it would take the Border Patrol to notice that they were swimming in the Rio Grande.
The elephants and the mariachi band swam around for quite a while until the Border Patrol showed up. They detained the elephants to make sure they didnt have any ticks.
From the Houston Chronicle here:
BROWNSVILLE – A Pennsylvania congressional candidate and former reality-TV star used an elephant and a six-piece mariachi band for an elaborate political stunt designed to make a point about border security.
Raj Peter Bhakta, who appeared on The Apprentice, paraded an elephant and the band through the water near the mouth of the Rio Grande Tuesday.
“The elephant never made landfall into Mexico, but I tell you something, he could have made 15 laps back and forth, but no one showed up,” Bhakta, a Republican, said.
Bhakta, who favors construction of a fence along the border, said he was in Brownsville to raise money when he saw half a dozen men swimming under one of the international bridges “with complete immunity” and decided to pull the stunt.
Circus producer James Plunkett said he was hired for the photo shoot and provided three elephants.
Plunkett said his crew entered the Boca Chica beach area in Texas and remained for about an hour. The Border Patrol alerted the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the elephants were detained and sprayed for ticks, then released, the newspaper reported.
Do funny political stunts work? I hope so. Hey Pennsylvania! Vote Raj! Hot Air has a video here.
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Loading ...Galludet University Students Protesting
Oct 12th
Im writing about this for a few reasons. First, Galludet is rather close to my home. Second, my wife is rather fluent in American Sign Language. Third, the students are acting like spoiled liberals and are engaging in illegal behavior, all to protest the new University President. Why are they protesting?
Because she is not “Deaf Enough.” Sigh. The students want to pick their own president, but they don’t get to do that. The school should just close and keep the students’ tuition.
From the AP here:
WASHINGTON – Students at Gallaudet University blocked access to much of the campus for a second day Thursday, escalating their protest against the incoming president they say lacks the skills to lead the nation’s only liberal arts university for the deaf and hearing impaired.
The blockade started around 3 a.m. Wednesday and forced the university to cancel classes for a second day Thursday as about 100 students protested at the front gate. Students blocked campus entrances with cars, tents and human barricades. They said they wouldn’t reopen the school unless the presidential search process was reopened.
The protests began last spring when then-Provost Jane K. Fernandes was appointed president starting this coming January by the school’s board of trustees.
The university’s outgoing president, I. King Jordan, issued a statement late Wednesday warning the protesters of possible suspensions and arrests.
“This illegal and unlawful behavior must stop,” he said.
Students and some faculty feel their input was not considered in the selection process for a new president. Some also felt the field of candidates was not ethnically diverse.
Fernandes has said some people do not consider her “deaf enough” to be president. She was born deaf but grew up speaking and did not learn American Sign Language until she was 23. Those who are against her presidency say she is an unsuitable choice for other reasons.
Just because someone has minority status as a handicapped person does not mean that they are only able to be led or understood by someone equally handicapped. Click here for the appropriate sign for what all of this is…
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Dhiren Barot, British Al-Queda Agent Convicted
Oct 12th
Before the last Presidential election in 2004, President Bush was accused of using the Homeland Security Warning system for political purposes, reminding American Citizens that he was on the job and was trying to protect people- something that his opponent, John Kerry, would not do adequately.
I remember that month. Only New York, New Jersey and Washington DC were on High alert, specifically financial targets. As it turns out, the threat was very real. Homeland Security were protecting us from Dhiren Barot, who intended to launch attacks in the United States.
Barot used to be Hindu, but he converted to Islam in 1992. He eventually came to be a leader of Al-Queda in Britain, and was planning to blow up several buildings in New York and Washington DC. When he was caught, he had the following in his possession:
- A reconnaissance plan of the Prudential Building in New Jersey
- Reconnaissance plans of the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, the stock exchange and Citigroup, both in New York
- Two notebooks with information on explosives
He admitted his crimes in a British court. He will likely go to jail for life. From Reuters here:
LONDON (Reuters) – A Briton arrested amid a massive U.S. security alert two years ago admitted in a London court on Thursday to plotting to blow up the New York Stock Exchange and carry out “dirty bomb” attacks in Britain.
Dhiren Barot, a Muslim convert, admitted to plotting to blow up the stock exchange and other U.S. financial hubs including the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Citigroup and Prudential in Washington, New Jersey and New York.
“Explosions at these premises were clearly designed to kill as many people as possible,” said prosecuting lawyer Edmund Lawson.
Amid tight security at Woolwich Crown Court in South London, Barot pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder and prosecutors outlined the details of his confession.
He admitted planning strikes on unspecified British targets in a conspiracy called the “Gas Limos Project,” which “involved parking three limos with gas cylinders with explosives and detonating them in underground carparks,” Lawson said.
Barot admitted another plan to detonate at least one “dirty bomb” contaminated with radiological material in Britain. The prosecution said Barot claimed the dirty bomb was not designed to kill but “rather to cause injury, fear terror and chaos.”
We found out about this plot because we forced Khaleed Shiek Mohammed to spill his guts on the other terror plots we had planned. Leftists in this country don’t want us to force confessions out of terrorists because “it makes us look mean to the world.”
I would rather look mean than look dead. And maybe if we look mean enough, people will stop trying to hurt us.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Pages Punked Foley
Oct 5th
Well, according to Drudge, the IM messages that shamed Republican Representative Mark Foley into resigning was a prank by a few pages that were aware of Foley’s proclivities. The messages have been reported to have originated from one of the former pages, so the prior posts on this blog about the source of the messages coming from the House were incorrect. And one of the former pages has retained legal council, undoubtedly to help shield himself from any fallout over this bad prank gone awry.
So the young teens must have said to each other, “lets go ahead and lead this guy on!” They were not only willing participants in the conversation, but they may have been the ones instigating the lurid messages.
Drudge has the siren proclaiming:
According to two people close to former congressional page Jordan Edmund, the now famous lurid AOL Instant Message exchanges that led to the resignation of Mark Foley were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal… Developing…
CLAIM: FILTHY FOLEY ONLINE MESSAGES WERE PAGE PRANK GONE AWRY
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...More IM Traffic from Foley
Oct 3rd
More IM messages were broadcast today on the Internet between Former Rep. Foley and a teenage boy. It appears that Foley tried to engage in cybersex with the teen while he was at his House Offices. He specifically mentions a pending vote.
This is key because it means that a government network was used to carry on this communication. Which then means that the House Intrusion Detection Systems recorded all of the conversations. All IDS systems have signatures available to detect various chat programs. Since the messages are broadcast in clear text, it is childs play to read what staffers and members of the House are saying to people over IM.
I wonder if its possible to use a FOIA request to get the IDS logs for all chat communications in the House? Knowing what I know about network chatting, Im certain that there are dozens of others on the network using the chat programs for naughty talk too.
If Democrats want to breach the privacy of one House Member, I say, expose everyone to the same glaring light of truth. Lets see what everyone else is saying. Idiots should know that IM messages are being recorded on the network anyways.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Kenny the Clown Eyes Mayoral Seat
Oct 3rd
Kenny the Clown wants to be the mayor of Alameda. Instead of giving the mayor a gavel to preside over town council meetings, he can use a honking bulb horn.
Gads I hate clowns. But I think it would be funny if Kenny wins the election. Here is his stupid website.
From the AP here:
ALAMEDA, Calif. – A real clown is running for mayor of Alameda, and even his sister won’t vote for him.
Kenneth Kahn, 41, a professional joker known as “Kenny the Clown,” admits he’s running a long-shot campaign for City Hall’s top spot. Kahn has not previously run for an elected position and has never sat on a public board.
“People ask me, ‘Do we really want to elect a clown for mayor of the city?’” he said. “I say, ‘That’s an excellent question.’”
Kahn’s mother, Barbara, said her son doesn’t have a chance, and Sylvia Kahn, a teacher, said her brother’s candidacy is a “mockery of our system.”
Even a clown’s own family hates him. Clowns are only funny when their stupid over-sized shoes are too big to close the coffin lid on them.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Tracking Rep. Foley’s IM Logs
Oct 2nd
Republican Representative Mark Foley resigned his seat in Congress in shame and entered an alcoholic recovery clinic in the wake of personal AOL Instant Messaging logs being leaked to the press.
Let me first start this by saying that what Foley did is disgusting in that the other person on the chat with him was underaged. Otherwise, had this chat occured between two adults, the leaking of this log is embarrassing and a breach of privacy.
However, there is something really wrong with this because the chat logs are three years old. To leak these logs now is clearly a political dirty trick to influence the election.
The logs here, show the Representative trying to coax his chat partner into cyber-sex, and its clear from the patter that the younger IM’er is a willing participant in the conversation. They chat about masturbation techniques and sexual fetishes. The chat took place with Foley in a hotel room in Pensacola, FL, and the other person at home somewhere in Florida. It also shows that Foley was interested in keeping the conversation private-
Xxxxxxxxx (8:10:54 PM): brb my mom is yelling
Maf54 (8:11:06 PM): ok
Xxxxxxxxx (8:14:02 PM): back
Maf54 (8:14:37 PM): cool hope se didnt see any thing
Xxxxxxxxx (8:14:54 PM): no no
Xxxxxxxxx (8:14:59 PM): she is computer dumb though
Xxxxxxxxx (8:15:01 PM): it makes me so mad
Maf54 (8:15:04 PM): good
Instant Messaging Logs for AOL Instant Messenger is stored by default, on the local hard drive. This means that there were two original sources for this chat. On Foley’s laptop, which he was using in the hotel room, and on the home PC owned by the other party.
If Foley took precautions to keep the IM conversations private, and it seemed he was, he likely purged his local logs. If he did not, he may have allowed a backup copy of his hard drive to be performed at the House Offices. This would have meant that there were three copies of the logs. Or, if Foley were really sloppy, he turned in his old laptop for a replacement without wiping the drive, and the old laptop was either reissued to someone else or it was retired with the data still on it.
There could be one more explanation as well. At the beginning of the exchange Foley experienced a disruption in his connection:
Maf54 signed off at 7:39:37 PM.
Maf54 signed on at 7:40:35 PM.
Xxxxxxxxx (7:40:44 PM): got kicked off?
Maf54 (7:41:24 PM): must have
It took an entire minute for Foley to sign back in. In 2003, there were many vulnerabilities in wireless access points. By sending a specific reset to a WAP, an attacker could kick all connections off of the wireless device and then sniff the network to steal passwords and usernames when users tried to reconnect.
Though it is unlikely, an attacker may have intercepted Foley’s credentials and used them to access Foley’s logs on his system.
So who outed Foley as a creep that tries to have cyber with boys? It wasnt Foley. This leaves the other chatter, or a member of the Help Desk at the House of Representatives. Or maybe a phantom hacker at the Pensacola hotel.
Just remember that you should never put anything on the wire that you dont want the world to see. And if you have to put it on the wire, encrypt it.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Al Gore Blames Global Warming on Smokers
Sep 29th
If you smoke, Al Gore, who used to sell tobacco, says that you are a contributor to his religious vision of the doom of mankind due to Global Warming. You know what that means? Here comes higher taxes on cigarettes.
From Drudge-
GORE: CIGARETTE SMOKING ‘SIGNIFICANT’ CONTRIBUTOR TO GLOBAL WARMING
Fri Sep 29 2006 09:04:05 ETFormer U.S. Vice President Al Gore warned hundreds of U.N. diplomats and staff on Thursday evening about the perils of climate change, claiming: Cigarette smoking is a “significant contributor to global warming!”
Gore, who was introduced by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said the world faces a “full-scale climate emergency that threatens the future of civilization on earth.”
The only solution to ending the human based effects on Global Warming is to eliminate humans. I hereby call for all humans that believe that they are contributing to Global Warming to become immediately “Carbon Neutral” by committing mass suicide. Its the only way. Please? For the planet?
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Andy Purdy Out at NCSD
Sep 26th
Andy Purdy is signing off at his position at National Cyber Security Division, where he has been serving as acting head of the Homeland Security Office which oversees US-CERT.
Purdy has come under criticism for pumping one-fifth of the budget of NCSD over to Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, of which Purdy remains an employee.
I remain critical of CMU/SEI because after absorbing so much money, they have returned very little production and output for US-CERT.
From SiliconValley.com here:
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Bush administration’s cybersecurity chief, who worked under an unusual agreement with a private university that does extensive business with the office he manages, is leaving his job.
Donald “Andy” Purdy Jr. will step down as acting director of the National Cyber Security Division, part of the Department of Homeland Security. A government spokesman, Jarrod Agen, declined to comment on Purdy’s plans, but colleagues circulated an invitation to his farewell party next week.
Purdy worked at Homeland Security under a two-year contract with Carnegie Mellon University that expires Oct. 3. Under the contract, the government paid Purdy $245,481 in salary and benefits each year, not including travel reimbursements; Carnegie Mellon paid him an additional $43,320 a year.
His contract drew congressional scrutiny after The Associated Press reported in June that Purdy’s cybersecurity division has paid Carnegie Mellon $19 million in contracts this year, almost one-fifth the unit’s total budget.
Purdy, who controlled a budget of about $107 million and as many as 44 full-time federal employees, said at the time he was not involved in discussions over his own office’s business deals with the school.
Earlier this week, the government announced it has selected trade industry executive Greg Garcia as the department’s new assistant secretary for cybersecurity and telecommunications. He will oversee the division and the hiring of Purdy’s successor.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe Slams Eco-Religionists
Sep 26th
This Senator is getting sick of the whole Global Warming alarmism and the efforts by the religious zealots of the Eco-Left to distort science in the name of their religion. He gave an amazing speech on the Senate floor.
You should read the whole thing here. Its long, but I’ve taken some of the salient points and put them here.
Since 1895, the media has alternated between global cooling and warming scares during four separate and sometimes overlapping time periods. From 1895 until the 1930 s the media pedaled a coming ice age.
From the late 1920 s until the 1960 s they warned of global warming. From the 1950 s until the 1970 s they warned us again of a coming ice age. This makes modern global warming the fourth estate s fourth attempt to promote opposing climate change fears during the last 100 years. Recently, advocates of alarmism have grown increasingly desperate to try to convince the public that global warming is the greatest moral issue of our generation.
The National Academy of Sciences report reaffirmed the existence of the Medieval Warm Period from about 900 AD to 1300 AD and the Little Ice Age from about 1500 to 1850. Both of these periods occurred long before the invention of the SUV or human industrial activity could have possibly impacted the Earth s climate. In fact, scientists believe the Earth was warmer than today during the Medieval Warm Period, when the Vikings grew crops in Greenland.
It is very simplistic to feign horror and say the one degree Fahrenheit temperature increase during the 20th century means we are all doomed. First of all, the one degree Fahrenheit rise coincided with the greatest advancement of living standards, life expectancy, food production and human health in the history of our planet.
The Little Ice Age, which resulted in harsh winters which froze New York Harbor and caused untold deaths, ended about 1850.
The history of the modern environmental movement is chock full of predictions of doom that never came true. We have all heard the dire predictions about the threat of overpopulation, resource scarcity, mass starvation, and the projected death of our oceans. None of these predictions came true, yet it never stopped the doomsayers from continuing to predict a dire environmental future.
The more the eco-doomsayers predictions fail, the more the eco-doomsayers predict.
While greenhouse gas limiting proposals may cost the industrialized West trillions of dollars, it is the effect on the developing world s poor that is being lost in this debate.
Expanding basic necessities like running water and electricity in the developing world are seen by many in the green movement as a threat to the planet s health that must be avoided. Energy poverty equals a life of back-breaking poverty and premature death.
If we allow scientifically unfounded fears of global warming to influence policy makers to restrict future energy production and the creation of basic infrastructure in the developing world — billions of people will continue to suffer.
Political campaign funding by environmental groups to promote climate and environmental alarmism dwarfs spending by the fossil fuel industry by a three-to-one ratio. Environmental special interests, through their 527s, spent over $19 million compared to the $7 million that Oil and Gas spent through PACs in the 2004 election cycle.
Finally, a September 15, 2006 Reuters News article claimed that polar bears in the Arctic are threatened with extinction by global warming. The article by correspondent Alister Doyle, quoted a visitor to the Arctic who claims he saw two distressed polar bears. According to the Reuters article, the man noted that one of [the polar bears] looked to be dead and the other one looked to be exhausted.” The article did not state the bears were actually dead or exhausted, rather that they looked that way.
Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number. They are not going extinct, or even appear to be affected at present.
The American people know when their intelligence is being insulted. They know when they are being used and when they are being duped by the hysterical left.
The ridiculous notion that using energy makes you a sinner and is dooming the earth to catastrophe is literally killing people in Africa. African and other developing regions need real infrastructure in order to keep them safe and healthy. They need refrigerators to keep their food cool. And lighting to read by. And power sources to help their industries thrive. They dont need empty platitudes or admiration about how they are “one with the environment” when their life expectancy is 40 years old.
And by attempting to use polar bears as a cute and fuzzy face to the dangers of global warming is sickening too. They represent the sacrificial lamb of the eco-religionists who must die on the “altar of global warming” in order for the rest of the unwashed energy users to come to salvation. Puh.
Im glad there are common sense Senators in Congress who have the guts to speak the truth for science.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Census Department Cant Count Laptops
Sep 21st
After all of the brouhaha over the Veterans Administration and other federal agencies losing laptops, the Department of Commerce sheepishly raised their hand and announced that they have lost laptops too.
Over the past 5 years. Over a Thousand laptops have gone missing. Most of them went missing from the Census Bureau.
These guys are responsible for counting the millions of us Americans every ten years. You would think that they could count their laptops every year to make sure none have gone missing.
From the AP here:
The Commerce Department has lost more than 1,100 laptop computers since 2001, most of them assigned to the Census Bureau, officials said Thursday night.
The Census Bureau, the main collector of information about Americans, lost 672 computers. Of those, 246 contained some personal data, the department said in a statement. However, no data from any missing computer has been known to have been improperly used, the department said.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Hugo “Church Lady” Chavez Calls Bush the Devil
Sep 20th
Hugo Chavez is a kook. He is paranoid, leftist, and currently the president of Venenzuela. He addressed the UN saying that the podium stank of sulfur because George Bush, “The Devil” was standing there yesterday. Over and over again he said that the Prez was “Satan.”
Check out the pic below… The translators are laughing at the preposterous speech.
“Who invaded Iraq? I dunno, was it…. Satan??!”
“Who caused Hurricane Katrina? I dont know, was it maybe, … Satan?!”
“Who has veto power at the UN Security Council? Is it… Satan?!”
There is video of the comments at HotAir here.
Here is a video of the Church Lady.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...DHS Finally Names Cyber Czar
Sep 19th
Department of Homeland Security has finally nominated a new Cyber Czar to run the Telecommunications and Cyber Security Divisions. It only took them about two years.
The next person to stick his neck out in this position will be Greg Garcia, the Vice President of a Policy Think Tank called ITAA (Information Technology Association of America).
As the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Cyber and Telecom, Greg will be in charge of US-CERT which has received tons of criticism for poor execution of its mission to secure the nation’s cyber infrastructure. In truth, US-CERT does in fact work to alert technology chiefs about new cyber threats, but these alerts are almost always aged by 8 to 24 hours because of internal red tape and processes. An RSS alert feed from many reputable private organizations, like SANS, CNET and even the Register keeps me up to speed on threats in a more timely manner.
US-CERT has also introduced the CME program, or the Common Malware Enumeration system to clearly identify malware by a common identifier. Often the big Antivirus Companies would rush to press with the latest catchy or not-so-catchy name of a new threat, worm or virus, and it would sometimes get confusing when talking to other techs about the virus when everyone was calling it something different. No more confusion between different names of a worm or virus should exist now that CME is in place.
Once Greg gets settled in, his best bet will be to organize US-CERT based on the model of similar Response teams in the Military. This would put US-CERT at the top of an heirarchical pyramid in charge of all of the Federal CSIRTS. Right now the Federal CSIRTS are required to merely report about incidents and problems within the respective federal agencies. And while it is the law that they report under FISMA, many agencies are still confused about what to report, how often, or are outright neglectful in their reporting. By requiring all federal agencies to stream security logs to US-CERT, the US Government can reduce the burden of reporting and they will be able to correlate attacks against the government across agencies.
The biggest roadblock to making this happen is the Carnegie Mellon half of US-CERT which lobbies Congressmen and Senators on Capital Hill against allowing the government (and US-CERT!) to look at its own data- on grounds that doing so is an invasion of privacy. And with Cargegie Mellon University gobbling up well over a fifth of all funding for the National Cyber Security Division, including the mega-salary of Andy Purdy, the current stand-in Cyber Chief and employee of Carnegie Mellon, these roadblocks will remain in place.
If there is a coordinated cyber attack against the Federal Government today, US-CERT will have to rely on the kindness of other agencies to inform them that such an attack is taking place. Because after squandering hundreds of millions of dollars, US-CERT has effectively tied a blindfold around its own eyes so it cannot see the attack happening. Greg Garcia must overcome the crippling effect of US-CERT’s own blindness and somehow make the agency effective in stopping cyber attacks. Otherwise, we will be looking for a new head of NCSD again very soon.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Trouble in Thailand
Sep 19th
Thailand is the only country in SouthEast Asia that was not colonized, and was never conquered. It has a long history and it has a colorful population. It has a King that loves its people.
But what happens when you put a new constitution together and then elect a far-left leaning liberal Prime Minister? Someone who proposes instituting Sharia Islamic Law in the southern half of the country to appease the terrorists that murder thousands of your own countrymen? Someone who was rumored to be plotting the overthrow of the King?
You get tanks and an army that was loyal to the Thai King storming your national capital to restore some common sense. Its time for the Thai people to re-examine their constitution to prevent vote tampering, and they must get tough on the radical muslims that are trying to take over the southern half of the country.
From CNN here:
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) — Tanks rolled through the streets of Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday amid reports of an attempted coup, witnesses tell CNN.
Members of the Thai military are attempting to seize power but Thailand’s leadership expects everything to return to normal soon, Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai told CNN.
Thailand operates as a constitutional monarchy, with the king as head of state and the prime minister leading the government. The country is an ally of the U.S. and contributed troops to the U.S.-led military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thaksin has been under considerable pressure to step down.
Elections in Thailand are scheduled for November after the country’s constitutional court ruled April’s vote was unconstitutional.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...China Says: Bring Out Your Retards
Sep 15th
China is going to lock up all of its retarded citizens in Beijing in order to make the city prettier in time for the Olympics. This is a preposterous breach of human rights. This means that not only is a government willing to spend millions to arrest and house retarded citizens, it means that it also maintains a list of retarded and mentally disabled people.
From the DailyMail here:
The newspaper also said that the city was considering hospitalising all mentally ill people and expelling many of the city’s one million migrant workers.
Beijing has previously enacted extraordinary measures to reduce the chances of protest or spruce up the grimy capital’s appearance.
In 1993, during its failed bid for the 2000 Olympics, Beijing expelled beggars, forced the handicap to stay at home and closed smokestack industries when International Olympic Commission inspection teams visited.
This begs the question: If they have a list of retarded citizens, how many other lists of “undersirables” do they maintain?
I have a link to the Fragile X Research Group. Click it now.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Governator Hacking Update
Sep 12th
It appears that the political opponents of Schwarzenegger were the ones that obtained the file. The question now remains whether or not it was obtained legally. The democrat says it was legal. Pardon me while I harumph.
From Drudge:
Democrat Phil Angelides’ gubernatorial campaign acknowledged Monday that it downloaded the digital audio file containing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s controversial private remarks on ethnicity, but said it did nothing inappropriate and accessed the recording through the governor’s “publicly available” Web site, it was reported Tuesday.
But Schwarzenegger’s legal affairs secretary, Andrea Lynn Hoch, said earlier that the access was “unauthorized” and that an internal audit discovered the six-minute audio file was hacked from the private computer system of the Governor’s Office on Aug. 29 and 30.
Angelides campaign manager Cathy Calfo confirmed to the SACRAMENTO BEE that her staff used one computer to access the audio clip on those days. But she said her staff did not hack into the Governor’s Office server and that the file was widely available on Schwarzenegger’s Web site.
I think the file was indeed illegally accessed. And yes, it was downloaded from the website. Both can be true. A staffer from the Democrat’s office used a SQL injection technique to move the files to a public directory on the webserver so it could be downloaded. SQL injections are illegal, and its a federal crime.
If this crime was directed from the Political Opponent, then the crime also becomes conspiracy. They need to get a lawyer. If this was done by a staffer illegally, he will get fired. But leaking the data to the press was also illegally transmitting the data, and Im certain that Angelides was complicit in this crime. How could he deny knowing that the data was leaked to the press or its original source?
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Schwarzenegger Servers Hacked
Sep 11th
According to the California State Police, servers at the state capital were hacked by external persons and data was stolen. Included in the data were taped conversations in which Arnold described a Puerto Rican lawmaker as “hot blooded.” This tape was given to the Los Angeles Times in an attempt to embarrass the Governor.
The State of California owes it to its residents to keep their servers secure against intrusion. And this also marks a rare instance of true political based hacking if this crime turns out to have been politically motivated.
From the SFGate here:
California Highway Patrol officials have opened a criminal investigation into “multiple” breaches and illegal downloads by outside hackers into the computers of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office, after an embarrassing private taped conversation was leaked last week to the Los Angeles Times, administration officials told The Chronicle.
The governor was criticized last week after the Times reported that during a conversation in March with Susan Kennedy, his chief of staff, and Gary Delsohn, his speechwriter, Schwarzenegger referred to Latinos and African Americans — specifically Republican Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, who is of Puerto Rican descent — as having “hot” blood or a passionate temperament.
According to a senior administration official who spoke Sunday with The Chronicle, a preliminary investigation showed that an outside individual or individuals had apparently hacked into the computer servers of Schwarzenegger’s office and downloaded the tapes.
“The state’s computer system was breached from individuals using outside computers” on three separate occasions — Aug. 29, Aug. 30 and Sept. 4, the official said, describing the breach as “a very serious matter.”
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Never Forget
Sep 8th
The Five Year anniversary of the September 11th attacks is drawing near. There is a war going on against Islamic fascists and there is a mini war going on here at home. ABC is under fire for an upcoming movie on 9/11 by Senate Democrats who are threatening the network with revocation of FCC licenses if they show the movie on television. Democrats think that they are going to take over the House of Representatives in November, and some of them have promised to try to impeach Bush for trying to keep the country safe.
People seem to forget what happened just 5 short years ago. I found this pic on the net and thought it was reverential. It shows the people who were victims on that day.
Manny Papir looks at a wall of photographs of those killed on Sept 11, 2001 at the new Tribute WTC Visitor Center, Wednesday, Sept 6, 2006 in New York. The center, built to offer visitors to the attack site a glimpse into the lives of the people who were lost and the towers that once stood there, opened to private visits from victims’ families, Sept. 11 survivors and recovery workers on Wednesday. It opens to the public on Sept. 18, officials said.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Will Morva Cop Killer
Aug 21st
Im blogging about this for a couple of reasons. First, I am a proud Virginian, and this happened just over the mountains from where I live. Second, there are stories that Democratic Governor Tim Kaine sent in an overpowering force of men to catch this guy, which is odd to me because it seems that the press may be trying to spin Kaine as being tough on crime.
Third, because Will Morva seems like a monumentally stupid person. He was originally jailed almost a year ago for attempted robbery of a convenience store in Blacksburg. His trial was continued twice and he spent almost a whole year in the county lockup awaiting his day in court. Just before trial, he went to the local hospital for a sprained wrist and ankle. While there, he overpowered a cop, took his gun and shot and killed a security guard at the hospital.
Then Will Morva ran. He was spotted on a trail near Blacksburg, near the Virginia Tech campus, and Morva shot and killed a policeman trying to apprehend him. He was finally captured today after a massive manhunt involving “considerable” State Police resources, courtesy of Gov. Tim.
Why did this idiot Morva not just go to court and plead guilty and hope for time already served? Did he have a long prior arrest record? I dunno. What should have been a small time robber turned into double murderer. Virginia is very quick to execute its cop killers.
From the AP here:
BLACKSBURG, Va – Police say they have captured a fugitive suspected of killing a hospital guard and a sheriff’s deputy near the Virginia Tech campus.
Police had swarmed the campus and ordered everyone inside Monday as heavily armed officers with dogs and in helicopters searched for the fugitive.
The Montgomery County Jail inmate, William Morva, 24, had escaped from a hospital where he had been taken for treatment of a sprained wrist and ankle early Sunday.
Monday morning, Sheriff’s Cpl. Eric E. Sutphin was closing in on Morva along a trail just off the university campus when Sutphin was fatally shot, the sheriff’s department said.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said he dispatched “considerable” Virginia State Police resources to the 2,600-acre campus and assured students’ parents that every effort was being made to minimize the danger.
According to police, Morva overpowered a sheriff’s deputy, took the deputy’s gun and then shot an unarmed hospital security guard, authorities said. The hospital guard was identified as Derrick McFarland, 26. The deputy was in stable condition with injuries he suffered in the attack.
Im glad that the Blacksburg Police had all the help they needed. But will Governor Kaine use this much manpower to catch all of the fugitives in VA?
Update: It seems that Morva was wanted in a string of armed robberies from last summer. He was definitely facing several years behind bars. He could have still had his sentence dramatically reduced for good behavior and time served.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Stupid Tobacco Ruling
Aug 18th
The Government is suing tobacco companies for conspiring to make smoking addictive and wanted 130 BILLION dollars in fines.
What they got instead is a ruling that cigarette makes must change the brand names. They can no longer use words like “mild, light or ultra-light.” No fines were imposed because tobacco companies had already agreed to prior settlements with the government.
From the AP here:
Tobacco firms deceived smokers
WASHINGTON – A federal judge says the nation’s top cigarette makers conspired for decades to mislead the public about the health hazards and addictive nature of smoking, but she says there’s not much she can do to make them pay.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler sided with the government Thursday in its seven-year-old civil racketeering case against the tobacco industry. However, she rejected a bid by the Justice Department to make tobacco companies pay billions of dollars in remedies.
The judge ordered the companies to stop labeling cigarettes as “low tar,” “light,” “ultra light” or “mild,” saying they have used those terms to mislead consumers.
“They distorted the truth about low tar and light cigarettes so as to discourage smokers from quitting,” Kessler said.
“They suppressed research. They destroyed documents. They manipulated the use of nicotine so as to increase and perpetuate addiction,” Kessler wrote in the ruling, which often referenced internal industry memos.
The government had asked the judge to make the companies pay $10 billion for smoking cessation programs, though the Justice Department’s own expert said $130 billion was needed.
I used to be a smoker and I am very happy I quit. But as an adult, I knew what I was doing when I smoked. No one was deceiving me. I smoked lights and I liked the flavor of them over the standard cigarettes. And you know what? I never opened a pack of cigarettes that I was unsatisfied with.
And regarding ultralight cigarettes- you get less of a draw from the tobacco because of the filter design, and you do smoke less, enabling someone to quit if they are trying to step down their nicotine intake. Thousands have quit by switching to lighter brands.
And if you are young and can afford it, I say go ahead and smoke! Do it while its still easy to breathe. ‘Cause when you start pushing 40, picking up a bad habit like smoking rarely tops your list.
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