Friday, August 12, 2005

Walking the Cat Back: Able Danger, Sandy Berger and Jamie Gorelick


Dereliction of Duty: Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America's National Security by Robert 'Buzz' PattersonThose who have done even an iota of research know that the Clinton administration's approach to national security was, at best, bumbling. Buzz Patterson, a guardian of the "nuclear football" for President Clinton, even wrote the best-selling book entitled, "Dereliction of Duty." It spelled out some egregious security gaffes. China and the Loral-ICBM debacle. Vernon Jordan and the golf game that interrupted a major military attack. And the time when Clinton lost the nuclear launch codes (yep, you heard that right - the only time they've been irretrievably lost).

Patterson, of course, was viciously attacked by the Left, who questioned his honesty and integrity. Problem for them, however, is that anyone with a "Yankee White" security clearance, which Patterson had, can't be called a liar. And, furthermore, his allegations are so serious that the Clintons surely would have sued Patterson had his statements been false. But, insofar as I know, they haven't.

The latest chapter in this tragic saga came earlier this week. News broke that a highly classified data-mining team, code-named "Able Danger," had identified Mohammed Atta and several other of the 9/11 terrorists... in 1999.

Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA), speaking to CNN, described why the "Able Danger" team was rebuffed when they attempted to have the FBI take Atta's cell out.

...we now know... lawyers within the administration, we don't know whether they were DOD lawyers or White House lawyers, lawyers within the [Clinton] administration told the Special Forces folks three times, you cannot share this information with the FBI. They even put stickies over top of the faces of Mohammed Atta saying they're here legally... That stopped it dead in its tracks.


Several enterprising bloggers have "walked the cat back" and wondered aloud regarding Sandy Berger's bizarre theft and destruction of classified documents. Jawa answers the critical question: which lawyer in the administration might have prevented the FBI takedown?

One name comes immediately to mind because he was the point man for the military -- and a trained lawyer.

Sandy Berger.


Bill at From the Swamp then asks the next question in the logical progression: what in the world was in those documents that Sandy Berger was caught stuffing down his pants? Remember, in April of this year, Sandy Berger -- Clinton's National Security Advisor -- pled guilty to illegally removing and retaining classified documents.

Dr. Sanity notes another interesting coincidence:

Berger's sentencing after he pleaded guilty was postponed from this July to September. Isn't it interesting that this new information is coming out in August?


Coincidence? Perhaps. But Captain Ed hammers the 9/11 Commission's Report along a related line:

...American [military intelligence never] gets mentioned... in the analysis of how the US failed to detect the 9/11 plot... In retrospect, that gaping hole in analysis seems highly odd, almost as if the 9/11 Commission never bothered to ask the Pentagon about its intelligence missions -- or [, if it did,] simply disregarded evidence...


Disregarded? The Commission was presented with the findings of the "Able Danger" team and completely ignored them. Was it stupidity, election-year politics, or something more insidious?

Could it have been related to the outrageous conflict-of-interest lying within the commission itself?

...Why didn't the Commission press harder for military intelligence...? It would emphasize that the... biggest problem was the enforced separation between law enforcement and intelligence operations upon which the Clinton Department of Justice insisted. The hatchet person for that policy sat on the Commission itself: Jamie S. Gorelick.


How could members of the 9/11 Commission adequately... investigate themselves? The answer, of course, is they could -- and did -- not.

Congress needs to flush and refill the bowl. The American people must demand a complete and thorough reinvestigation of 9/11 as soon as possible. And this time, hopefully we can remove the spectre of partisan, election-year gamesmanship that occurred the last time.

And one final postscript: Sandy Berger would have been Secretary of State in a *cough* Kerry administration.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Forging Email Headers


Picture credit: Amazon
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIn a previous post, I described some methods for detecting and fighting phishers. Phishers, if you're unfamiliar with the term, is a crook who sends spam messages purporting to be from a reputable financial institution or company. The message exhorts the recipient (I mean, victim) to logon to the web site to update their personal information, check their account, or otherwise provide user-name and password. However, the site pointed by the email is bogus (a "false storefront") and any information you enter is sent to the crook, who can then use it for his own malicious purposes.

In any event, here's the from-address and subject of the latest phishing email I received:

From: Paypal Security
Subject: New Security Requirements

Note the ploy: the mail implies that PayPal has instituted some new security requirements for account-holders... and now I'll probably be required to logon and update my account. If you've been following along, this should raise more suspicion than your teenage daughter asking for the car keys at two in the morning. The hair should be standing up on the back of your neck.

Using the "show original message" or the "view headers" option, let's take a look at the actual email headers:

Received: from ti500710a080-5794.bb.online.no ([85.167.150.162])
by worldnet.att.net (mtiwmxc17) with SMTP
id <20050806123026017008lj1oe>; Sat, 6 Aug 2005 12:30:28 +0000
X-Originating-IP: [85.167.150.162]
Received: from web13.nix.paypal.com (web53.nix.paypal.com [10.192.2.49]) by smtp-outbound.nix.paypal.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 387NB1CC614 for ; Sat, 06 Aug 2005 05:26:53 -0800
Received: (qmail 77110 invoked by uid 54); Sat, 06 Aug 2005 05:26:53 -0800
Message-ID: 0473723941.59830@paypal.com
From: "Paypal Security"
Reply-To: "Paypal Security"
Subject: New Security Requirements
X-Email-Type-Id: PP%RND_DIGI%RND_DIGI%RND_DIGI
Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2005 05:26:53 -0800
X-MaxCode-Template: email-transaction-counterparty
X-XPT-XSL-Name: /en_US/transaction/seller/TransactionCounterparty.xsl
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="--56153267030793470423"


This is a pretty good scam message. Note the bolded header fields "Received" and "Message-ID". They've been spoofed in some way to resemble a real PayPal message. It almost looks legit.

But note the area I've highlighted in red. Our email server (in this case, the att.net server) actually got the email from a *.online.no server. That just doesn't smell right. Why would we get an email from PayPal routed through Norway?

Furthermore, as we look down the source of the email, the hyperlink directing us to authenticate (login) looks like this:

http://paypal.serv04.com/cgi-bin/webscr.html?cmd=3D_login-run


Note the domain name: serv04.com. You can ignore the sub-domain name of paypal. The domain name is all that counts. And it doesn't look like anything you want to visit in the near future.

Bottom line: don't ever logon at the behest of an email. Visit the site by typing in the URL yourself.

"It ain't braggin' if you can do it"


Picture credit: Trump University
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueTrump is a blogger. Yes, Donald Trump -- real-estate magnate, entrepeneur, television star, and marketer supreme -- has joined the world of the pajamahaddin:

...former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski was convicted for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the company. It was his second go-round in court--the first one ended in a mistrial... these people give business a bad name. They've served to associate it with scandal, untrustworthiness, greed, and bad taste. But, as I prove everyday, it doesn't have to be that way at all.


Brash and outspoken? Sure. But as Dizzy Dean once said, "It ain't braggin' if you can do it." That operative phrase applies not just to the great, right-handed St. Louis Cardinal, but to the Trumpinator as well.

Trump: Corporate Corruption

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

"There were no matches for your search"


Picture credit: New York Times
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThis morning, a quick search of the New York Times' web-site reveals the following number of articles for the accompanying topics:

 124 Texas Air National Guard
  33 John Roberts confirmation
  31 Al Qaqaa
  16 John Bolton confirmation
   0 Air America funding scandal


To net it all out, these much-publicized non-scandals -- including the Air National Guard stories and the Al Qaqaa weapons dump -- were mentioned a grand total of 204 times. While the scandal surrounding "Air America" and "Gloria Wise" still rates exactly 0 mentions:

  There were no matches for your search +"air america" +"gloria wise" / since 1996 .

I think we can state it this way:

  The Texas Air National Guard and Al Qaqaa: still not scandals.
  Air Enron: a stinking, rising scandal

From all appearances, this catastrophically unsuccessful liberal talk-radio venture, reportedly funding itself at the expense of Alzheimer patients and inner-city youth, doesn't jibe with the editorial world-view of the Times.

But "dumpster-diving" to dig up John Roberts' adoption records is fair game for the geniuses at the times.

Do the math. The Times can't just be called biased anymore. Try biased and completely irrelevant. But here's something you can do. You can send a message to the Times' editors by clicking this link - repeatedly:

Search the Times for the Air Scamerica scandal

As the Times' webmasters analyze their logs, they'll get a sense of what most visitors are doing. And it won't be reading the Times' content.

Then again, nobody's saying the Times is relevant these days.

Oh, and as an aside, Air Scamerica has reportedly been late with its payroll checks. But, no, that hasn't rated a mention in the Times either.

The Times is about as relevant as a 1930's Almanac. It meant something long ago - but it won't help you navigate the world in this day and age.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Google and Privacy: You Get What You Pay For


Picture credit: Amazon
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIn humankind's quest for email nirvana, Brooke points me to this article on Google and privacy. Apparently, Eric Schmidt -- Google's CEO -- is in a snit because CNET writer Elinor Mills googled him and posted the results. SFgate picks up the story:

...In her story, Mills included a link to Schmidt's home address, his net worth of $1.5 billion and noted that he has attended the Burning Man art festival and is an amateur pilot. Mills said she spent 30 minutes on Google to obtain the information...

...The crux of Mills' story was about the vast amounts of information Google collects that is unavailable to the public. For example, Google software scans user e-mails to learn what kind of advertising might appeal to the user.

Mills wrote in her story that "hackers, zealous government investigators, or even a Google insider who falls short of the company's ethics standards could abuse that information."


My reaction is... uhmmm... big deal. As my Dad always says: there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. With Gmail, you get exactly what you pay for.

Consider: I'd wager most, if not all, of the email you send and receive is in clear-text. If you don't know what PGP or GPG is, that probably means you. And, since it's in the clear, your email could potentially be viewed by others. Bottom line? Email you send and receive is transiting the Internet with any means of protecting it from prying eyes.

Another consideration: if you use a wireless 802.11b connection (or use WEP at all) to connect to your broadband connection, you're at risk of having your connection monitored and/or hijacked.

And, if you have spyware or adware on your machine (which seems to be endemic among consumer PCs), only the software's developer knows whether your emails, contacts, cached web pages and browsing behavior are read, summarized and dispatched to company headquarters for analysis.

The bottom line is that Google is among the least of our concerns. Is it true that Google collects a lot of data on us by spidering the web? Yes - but it's not their fault. It's collecting information from external web sites and aggregating it. Find the sites in question and request that they be changed to remove your information (or modify them yourself, if possible). For example, if you don't want your phone-number on Google, get an unlisted number.

And if you use Gmail, remember one thing: it's free for a reason.

Blaming Google for the vast amount of personal data on the web is like blaming McDonald's for an expanding waistline. Keep away from the junk if you don't want the uncomfortable results.

SFGate: Search engine leader snubs tech news outlet

p.s., BTW, Brooke summited Mt. Rainier last week and has a writeup on his blog with plenty of great pictures.

Monday, August 08, 2005

"Get Used to the Minority"


Picture credit: Keppler on Campus
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueHere's a telling snippet of an interview with Mort Kondracke, along with a spot-on analysis, courtesy RadioBlogger.

MM: You would think if America has a 7/7 of its own coming up in any time of the near future, that we could face [UK-style immigration restrictions]?

MK: Absolutely. I mean, there...what's unfortunate is that it's going to be an immigration crackdown, you know, and we're not admitting enough H-1B Visa applicants as it is now to fill the kind of professional jobs that we need to. You know, it's going to be close the border, all that kind of stuff. And it's going to be excessively punitive on people who have nothing to do with terrorism.

CPL: But Mort, I know we're running out of time, but I guess our question is, in my view, why do these sort of proposals have to wait for another attack? I mean, where is any kind of Democrat out front on this, analogous to Tony Blair, who is essentially a Democrat in England?

MK: Well, Tony Blair wasn't doing it until his country got hit, and you know, it concentrates the mind.

...I was absolutely floored when Mort said very matter-of-factly that the Democrats would be Johnny on the spot once we got hit again. And that attitude, which apparently is a plank in their national platform, the wait-for-disaster-and-get-political-mileage-out-of-it plank, is exactly why this party cannot be trusted anywhere near the levers of power for the foreseeable future. Is Bush or the Republican party perfect? Of course not. But they are trying to move the country towards a new paradigm where national security is more important than we've had to think about pre-9/11.

The Democrats have no answers. They have no solutions. They do not have the country's defense as their first priority. Their first priority is to lay in the weeds like a snake and strike after its prey has already been bit by something else? What kind of leadership is that?

Run away from Iraq. Neuter the Patriot Act. Investigate the kids of Court appointees whose ideology you don't share. Stall our representative to the U.N. Premeditate a political response if a national crisis occurs after a terrorist attack.

Get used to the minority, Democrats. You simply are too dangerous to be trusted at the present time.



AutoRantic Virtual Moonbat

The terrifying aspect to this analysis is its stunning accuracy. In only a few, short sentences, RadioBlogger has captured the essence of today's Democratic party. Where is a Roosevelt, a Truman or a John Kennedy?

Where is a leader capable of bringing something to the table except obstructionism, a tape-recorder playing "the Best of Michael Moore", and shrill rants capped off by, "Yeeeeaaaaarrrrggggghh!"?

The current leadership of the party is best represented by its current spokesman, the AutoRantic Virtual Moonbat, pictured at right. While it presents no new ideas of its own, it can dispense pithy diatribes that tar the current administration while offering no solutions to the long-term threats facing the country.

Consider: the war against fundamentalist extremism. Social security. The tax system. Education. And so forth. Other than obstructionism, where do the Democrats stand?

Go ye and read of RadioBlogger, for it is good: RadioBlogger.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

The Unbiased Media Gets Down to Business


Picture credit: USA Today
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueI opened up the paper this morning and witnessed a veritable cornucopia of wholesome, unbiased reporting. First article:


The headline reads, "Sept. 11 group criticizes White House"; but buried in the heart of the article is the real story:

...Thomas H. Kean... said he was surprised and disappointed that the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the CIA, the FBI and several other executive-branch agencies had failed to respond to requests made two months ago for updated information on the government's anti-terrorism programs.

The requests came not from the disbanded commission, which was created by Congress and had subpoena powers, but from its shadow group, which the members call the 9/11 Public Discourse Project...


The real headline should therefore read: "Unofficial shadow group ignored by all." Which really isn't news, is it?


Another headline reads: "March supports 'right to vote'".

...Civil rights groups fear conservatives will try to modify two key provisions of the [Voting Rights Act]...

Activists also used the rally to protest Georgia's recently passed voter identification law, which critics call the most restrictive in the country. NAACP President Gordon on Saturday called the law "the most outrageous, oppressive, discriminatory" law he'd ever seen...


What isn't mentioned? The just-released report from the American Center for Voting Rights entitled, "Vote Fraud, Intimidation & Suppression In The 2004 Presidential Election."

Without even mentioning the Democrats' infamous corpse, felon, multi-state and non-existent person voting blocs, the report's summary reads:

...While Democrats routinely accuse Republicans of voter intimidation and suppression, neither party has a clean record on the issue. Instead, the evidence shows that Democrats waged aggressive intimidation and suppression campaigns against Republican voters and volunteers in 2004... a careful review of the facts shows that in 2004, paid Democrat operatives were far more involved in voter intimidation and suppression efforts than their Republican counterparts... Examples include:

* NAACP National Voter Fund worker in Ohio paid crack cocaine in exchange for a large number of fraudulent voter registration cards in names of Dick Tracy, Mary Poppins and other fictional characters.

* Former ACORN worker said there was “a lot of fraud committed” by group in Florida, as ACORN workers submitted thousands of fraudulent registrations in a dozen states across the country, resulting in a statewide investigation of the group in Florida and multiple indictments and convictions of ACORN/Project Vote workers for voter registration fraud in several states.

* Misleading telephone calls made by Democrat operatives targeting Republican voters in Ohio with the wrong date for the election and faulty polling place information.

* Intimidating and deceiving mailings and telephone calls paid for by the DNC threatening Republican volunteers in Florida with legal action.

* Union-coordinated intimidation and violence campaign targeting Republican campaign offices and volunteers resulting in a broken arm for a GOP volunteer in Florida.

* Paid Democrat operatives charged with slashing tires of 25 Republican get-out-the-vote vans in Milwaukee on the morning of Election Day.

* Joint task force in Wisconsin found “clear evidence of fraud in the Nov. 2 election in Milwaukee,” including more than 200 felon voters, more than 100 double voters and thousands more ballots cast than voters recorded as having voted in the city.


Read the Executive Summary to get a quick insight into the real voter intimidation practices that no one seems to be protesting or reporting.


Here's one last example of pure, unbiased coverage. The headline reads, "Does Bush Loyalty Cloud His Judgment?". Subtitled 'President's actions raising some doubts', what example of Bush's unflinching loyalty does the author's analysis raise? Karl Rove? Donald Rumsfeld? Paul Wolfowitz? Uhmmm, no, none of the above. Someone far, far more important:

Former [baseball] commissioner Fay Vincent wasn't surprised when President Bush supported embattled Baltimore Orioles slugger Rafael Palmeiro after Palmerio tested positive for steroids by saying the star first baseman was a trusted friend.


Isn't the unbiased media great? They'd never take a cheap shot at a sitting president over his casual remark about a troubled baseball player, would they?


Photo
Average Circulation of U.S. Daily Newspapers (Editor and Publisher Yearbook data)

The mainstream media's thinly disguised, Bush-bashing agenda is so obvious and so transparent, it's almost humorous.

If it were any more tilted, most op-ed columns would have the bylines of Moore, Fonda, and Streisand, while the wire-service reports would be culled straight from the pages of Al Jazeera.

Come to think of it, that's pretty much equivalent to what's happening now. Consider the likes of Richard Cohen, Tom Teepen, and Maureen Dowd... combined with wire-service reports from the all-star squad of Reuters (or "Al Reuters," I think is the term they prefer), the AP, and the BBC.

And the editors and publishers still wonder why newspaper subscription rates are sinking faster than the Titanic after it slammed into the iceberg.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

PayPal - Unintentionally Helping Phishers


Picture credit: Stern
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIn their zeal to market through email, financial institutions like PayPal sometimes make some really goofy mistakes. Sure, PayPal recognizes that phishing is a huge problem. But they just can't seem to resist outbound email marketing that criminals view the same way a dog looks at a sizzling piece of steak.

Consider the email that I just received from PayPal. No, seriously, this is a real one. I checked the message headers and the source of the message. The subject:

Spot spoof, protect your identity and more...

It included this unintentionally hilarious request:

Protect yourself with tools
Guard yourself against "spoof" emails with the SafetyBar, and against fraudulent websites with the eBay Toolbar...


How long you figure until the first phishing email exhorting the victim to download a less helpful version of the "SafetyBar"? I'm guessing it's already started and the first evil trojans disguised as eBay Toolbars are already installed.

Asking PayPal users to download executables onto their machines is like handing Michael Moore your credit-card at Morton's. You're likely to get a lot more than you bargained for.

And it's ludicrous that PayPal continues to promote this kind of practice, which is certain to be exploited by phishers. Plain and simple - don't download anything you don't need. And never download something at the behest of an email.

The internet is dangerous enough. We don't need PayPal making it worse.

The Times: Left Behind


Picture credit: http://goldsea.com
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIn reading two of Michelle Malkin's recent articles this morning, I came to a stunning epiphany. The New York Times is a parody newspaper. I can find no other explanation of its recent behavior. I assert that its investigation of John Roberts' adopted children while simultaneously and studiously ignoring the Air Enron scandal reinforce the fact that the Times is pure satire.

It's like a sophisticated version of The Onion, only without the chuckles.

Consider: the Times reportedly resorted to what Malkin terms, "journalistic dumpster diving," in order to unearth the sealed adoption records of John Roberts' two children.

And: after a week of rising stink, the Air Enron scandal has reached the Eliot Spitzer level. And, so far as I can tell, nary a word has been printed in the Times about the furtive Al Franken and the missing Boys & Girls Club funds.

Folks, you just can't make this stuff up. This can't be anything but a brilliant parody. And, let me be first the congratulate the Times' on its new daily parody edition. It's gold, Jerry, pure gold.

Update: Looking for the Reader's Digest version of MSM/DNC self-parody? Look no further than Sister Toldjah's excellent recap.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Air Enron


Picture credit: http://www.airamerica.cc
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThe massively unsuccessful Air America network is embroiled in a major scandal that you probably haven't heard about. The heart of the scandal: hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans made to the liberal talkshow network by a Bronx-based Boys & Girls Club.

In early 2004, the directors of the nascent Air America network were scouring the nation for potential contributors... One of the network's directors, Evan Montvel Cohen, appears to have partially solved the problem by arranging loans from the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club that eventually totaled at least $480,000, and possibly more...


Oddly enough, the mainstream media (oops, I meant the MSM/DNC) hasn't found any time to explore this scandal. Michelle Malkin points out:

Number of NY Times articles mentioning Air America since March 2004: 59
Number of NY Times articles mentioning the Air Enron scandal: 0


Chalk up another one for the utterly unbiased Gray Lady.

The ramifications for the Boys & Girls Club, however, have been catastrophic. New York City has suspended about $10 million in funding because of "inappropriate transactions and falsified documents."

The calculus (or, rather, the plain arithmetic) behind the scandal is simple: taxpayer funds appear to be siphoned from the Boys & Girls Club to help pay the likes of Al Franken. Now, I know that some of these geniuses have socialist tendencies but... wow. Taxpayer funding for a private enterprise like Air Enron?

Meanwhile, the kids who could have used the funding are left in sweltering apartments in the City. And the millionaire Franken continues to enjoy the perquisites of immense wealth. Nope. I don't see any scandal there.

Arizona Republic: A scandal below the radar

Quotes



"Now it's Roberts' turn. Barely had the president finished announcing the nomination when the Dems rushed Sen. Chuck Schumer on air, hunched and five-o'clock-shadowed and looking like a bus-&-truck one-man Nixon revue. Schumer's line was that, as a judge, Roberts had too thin a paper trail. His message seemed to be: Look, we Dems have the finest oppo-research boys in the business and, if we can't get any dirt on this guy, that must mean it's buried real deep and is real bad; the very fact that we can't get anything on him is in itself suspicious." -- Mark Steyn

"September 11 for me was a wake up call. Do you know what I think the problem is? That a lot of the world woke up for a short time and then turned over and went back to sleep again." -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair

"My Second Rule of Life, if you're interested is: Never eat in a Chinese restaurant next door to an animal shelter." -- Michael Barone

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Sloooooooow Joe Biden


Picture credit: US Senate
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueLet's, for just a moment, examine one of the most bizarre speeches I've ever heard. The speech was given by Slow Joe Biden, the serial obstructionist. Biden's latest strawmen are assembled in this doozy of a speech, which he gave Friday at the American Constitution Society national convention (a big hat tip to RadioBlogger). His goal? To spread fear, uncertainty and doubt regarding the GOP agenda, including the confirmation of one John D. Roberts, nominee to the Supreme Court.

Here are some of Biden's brain droppings:

...the Constitutional exile crowd... believes not just that privacy rights should be diminished, it's members believe that there should be none. I repeat that. No general right of privacy whatsoever... the government, whether state, federal or local, could forbid couples as they had in the past, from using contraception.


That's the term the GOP prefers: the "Constitutional Exile Crowd." Conservative plans are in motion, their forces are gathering, and powers -- the likes of which Joe Biden cannot possibly understand -- are assembling... all with one single-minded mission: to confiscate every condom from every Walgreens in the land. Muuuhhawhawhawhawhaw!

Privacy? We don't need no steenkin' privacy! Even now, legislation is being drafted that will require webcams in every room of every residence in the US. The only question I have is: how did Biden find out?

...The government could also Constitutionally impose restrictions on the number of children you have, a bizarre notion. It exists in other countries, and God only knows what happens here in two, five, ten, twenty, thirty years...


Yes, it's sad but true. Diabolical uberman, Karl Rove, and the rest of the administration is working on exactly that... legislation to restrict the right of married couples (married, heterosexual couples, at that) to have but two children. Any additional children must be ceded to Halliburton. And, yes, the GOP has cued up John Roberts as the swing vote on any appeal.

...Will the government have unlimited power to monitor individuals, like I'm being monitored now?


I do have a solution. Simply place a tinfoil hat on your head, Mr. Biden. That wafer-thin layer of aluminum will completely block the frequency, Kenneth. And just ignore the curious looks you'll get from those around you. That's the price one pays for being a rebel. Or a serial obstructionist.

If Biden slides any further into the realm of Leftist fantasy, he'll be consigned to riding in the vegetable-powered bus with Jane Fonda and the rest of the moonbats. One can only hope that the transcript of this bizarre speech is circulated far and wide, so that all Americans can bask in the intellectual sun-lamp known as Joe Biden (and his teeth). After all, this is one of the Democratic front-runners in '08.

Just sit back and consider that for a moment.

We're Slashing the Price of Strawmen at Crazy Joe's

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

What the...?


ENDGAMEThe book Endgame (subtitled, "The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror") contains some fascinating snippets, but none more intriguing than this:

...a group of countries, led by Israel and the U.S., had been working since 1981 on a mega-secret project to develop and deploy a weapon system that can neutralize nuclear weapons.

The highly advanced, space-deployable, BHB weapon system, code-named XXXBHB-BACAR-1318-I390MSCH, has extraordinary potential and is a key part of the West's deterrence strategy. For the past twenty-five years, the project and the scientists involved in it were kept in strict secrecy and their existence denied. The scientists rejected Nobel Physics prize and Nobel Peace prize nominations and have been repeatedly and deliberately the subject of intense military disinformation through the media in order to divert attention from their highly secretive work.

In 1981, when CIA director William J. Casey signed onto the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) - a missile defense shield against incoming nuclear warheads - he gave the green light for the technology's development for deterrence purposes and peaceful use only. Although we have only limited information, it appears that Iran's rapidly developing nuclear capabilities could be neutralized and rendered obsolete, as could the capabilities of other rogue countries...


From the authors' lips to God's ear.

Ultimatum: Cooperate or face the consequences

Congressional Election: GOP Wins - Barely


Picture credit: WikiPedia
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThe Dems pulled out all the stops in Ohio and, once again, couldn't close the deal. The opportunity arrived because President Bush had appointed Republican Rob Portman as U.S. Trade Representative. Thus, a rare, off-year election yesterday pitted Jean Schmidt against Democratic contender Paul Hackett.

Photo
Paul Hackett (WikiPedia)

The Dems truly didn't play around this time. They had hoped to pull off a major upset by aligning every factor in their favor:

- Hackett is a former U.S. Marine (and trial lawyer), but claims opposition to the war
- Hackett featured... yes... President Bush in his ads
- Hackett looks like a male model
- Schmidt had been tied to the unpopular Governor, Bob Taft, who is enduring his own personal scandals at the moment
- Voter turnout would be light in an off-year race
- Hackett received enough campaign money to essentially match Schmidt ad-for-ad

The race reminds me of nothing less than a snippet of conversation from the television show Cheers:

"What'll you have Normie?"
"Well, I'm in a gambling mood Sammy. I'll take a glass of whatever comes out of that tap."
"Looks like beer, Norm."
"Call me Mister Lucky."


The citizens coming out of the tap will continue to vote Republican for the foreseeable future. That is, until the Democrats excise the cancerous MoveOn, Michael Moore, and Hollywood Left from the party. Not only does that Left Bank represent damaged goods, they don't even think we're at war.

Michael Moore speaks for the Democrats' Left Bank when he says, "There is no terrorist threat. There is no terrorist threat."

As does Juan Cole, who flatly states, "It is not a war."

I question either their judgment - or their loyalty. I can come to no other conclusion. The Left Bank is either intellectually bankrupt... or their patriotism lies with another land. In any case, they won't be winning many elections for the foreseeable future.

Space - the Final Frontier


Picture credit: http://www.segginger.net
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThe invaluable James Taranto notes a "back to the future" moment:

From "The Trouble With Tribbles," a "Star Trek" episode that first aired Dec. 29, 1967:
Klingon: Of course I'd say that Captain Kirk deserves his ship. We like the Enterprise; we--we really do. That sagging, old rust bucket is designed like a garbage scow. Half the quadrant knows it. That's why they're learning to speak Klingonese.

Chekov: Mr. Scott!

Scotty: Laddie, don't ya think ya should--rephrase that?

Klingon: You're right. I should. I didn't mean to say that the Enterprise should be hauling garbage. I meant to say that it should be hauled away as garbage!


Steve Chapman in the Chicago Tribune, July 31, 2005:
The little-known secret of the shuttle is that it's an airborne moving van, whose main role is to haul parts, supplies and other cargo to the International Space Station. Among the tasks assigned to the astronauts on Discovery is picking up the space station's garbage. . . . Maybe NASA needs to scrap the shuttle.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

We're Slashing the Price of Strawmen at Crazy Joe's!


John Roberts (PBS)
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIf you're looking for a patron saint of obstructionists, look no further than "Slow Joe" Biden. Gearing up for the Supreme Court nomination process, Biden is out to get as much face time as possible, no matter how embarrassing the venue or his remarks. In a speech yesterday, Biden discussed a government that would limit the number of children a family could have and might outlaw all stem-cell research. The implication, of course, is that these are directions in which John Roberts might guide the court.

And, no, I don't think he was drunk, though he was doing a passable imitation.

These strawmen simply represent the advance scouts of the Democratic offensive. Raise strawman after strawman and let the nominee waste time hurdling useless calumny.

Biden, of course, is on the Senate Judiciary Committee. His goal is simple: to get as much camera time as possible during the confirmation process, thereby thwarting Hillary's 2008 advance publicity campaign.

And he obviously has no shame. In 2003, Biden supported Roberts' nomination to District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals. Does the word hypocrite come to mind?

Do me a favor and ook up plagiarism in the dictionary. You get... Joe Biden. No, I'm not kidding. Webster's Online Dictionary defines plagiarism using several famous examples including:

...Senator Joseph Biden was forced to withdraw from the 1988 Democratic Presidential nominations when it was revealed he had failed a course in law school due to plagiarism. It was also shown that he had plagiarised several campaign speeches, notably those of British Labour leader Neil Kinnock and Senator Robert F. Kennedy...


If Biden had an ounce of dignity, he'd have resigned his Senate seat then and returned in disgrace to his home state. Instead, he's hung around for a couple of decades, dispensing obstructionist rhetoric as a MassPort truck dumps road salt during a snow storm.

Consider the John Bolton nomination, the vote for which was hamstrung by a litany of document requests and procedural rigamarole led by Biden and Chris Dodd. What egregious crime had Bolton committed? Nothing so serious as Biden's admitted plagiarism, that much is certain:

No wild accusation was ever proved, other than that he sought the removal of two intelligence analysts for incompetence and insubordination. Notably, both the 9/11 Commission and Robb-Silberman Commission said policy makers have a responsibility to question and challenge intelligence analysts.


That's the extent of Bolton's crimes. He sought to have a couple of analysts removed, which at least two bipartisan commissions have characterized as a perfectly legitimate practice.

Once the issue of analysts had been resolved, Biden and friends resorted to shell game of procedural requests. Biden's money quote?

I would consider the failure to produce the requested documents in a timely manner a lack of cooperation.


It's another case of moving goalposts, one of the Democrats' favorite games. Obstructionism didn't work for Tom Daschle, he of the recent ex-communication. And it won't work for the next series of Democratic leaders either.

Just don't count on Biden coming to grips with that anytime soon. Fact is, there's no disputing Biden's nickname in the blogosphere. "Slow Joe" Biden is a name that will live in infamy, wherever and whenever obstructionism raises its ugly head. Fortunately, Biden and his vast intellect are no more likely to get the Democratic nod in '08 than is Jessica Simpson. Slow Joe just doesn't know it yet, which is pretty much par for the course.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Recruiting at Defcon


Picture credit: http://www.1000misspenthours.com
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThe News.com security blog reports that the Department of Defense is hiring. In fact, the director of the DOD's Cybercrime Center has already attended eight Defcon conventions. His goal: hire 21 people for the Center:

The cybercrime center aids in the investigation of cybercrimes by training law enforcement agents, running a forensics lab and developing tools for investigations. Christy is looking for electrical and computer engineers and programmers, among other people. He might fight some of those people at Defcon, he said.


And they have a good sense of humor:

On Saturday Christy and representatives from other federal agencies hosted a "Meet the Fed" session at Defcon. They pulled an old prank. First, all attendees were asked to stand. Then everyone who had not hacked into any system illegitimately was asked to sit down. The Feds then pulled out cameras and started snapping pictures.


Hiring at Defcon is a great idea. By definition, the attendees are captivated by computer security. And that's exactly the sort of person every employer wants to hire: someone energized about their job and who looks forward to a new, complex and different challenge every day.

News.com security blog

Steyn: Wake up, Folks -- It's War!


Picture credit: http://www.c-spanarchives.org/
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThe Genius (need I even say the name 'Mark Steyn'?) weighs in at the Spectator with an invocation not unlike that which sallied forth from this channel but a few days ago. To wit: it's a war, folks. The knuckleheads who fail to understand this simple, vetted concept are going to get a lot more innocent people killed.

...Madrid and London - along with other events such as the murder of Theo Van Gogh - are, in essence, the opening shots of a European civil war. You can laugh at that if you wish, but the Islamists’ most often-stated goal is not infidel withdrawal from Iraq but the re-establishment of a Muslim caliphate living under Sharia that extends to Europe; and there’s a lot to be said for taking these chaps at their word and then seeing whether their behaviour is consistent.

Furthermore, there’s a lot more of the world that lives under Sharia than there was, say, 30 years ago: Pakistan adopted it in 1977, Iran in 1979, Sudan in 1984.... Fifty years ago, Nigeria lived under English common law; now, half of it’s in the grip of Islamic law. So, as a political project, radical Islam has made some headway, and continues to do so almost every day of the week: since the beginning of the year, for example, some 10 per cent of southern Thailand’s Buddhist population have abandoned their homes - a far bigger disruption than the tsunami, yet all but unreported in the Western press.

And whatever one’s opinion of the various local conflicts around the world - Muslims vs Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs Jews in the Holy Land, Muslims vs Russians in Chechnya, Muslims vs Christians in Africa - the fact is that the jihad has held out a long time against very tough enemies...


Mark Steyn: Wake up, folks - it’s war!

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Philadelphia Inquirer: Franken Squashed Like a Bug


Picture credit: http://www.coloradopsycho.com
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIt's tough to keep it all straight. Air America, embroiled in a scandal here, falling off the Arbitron ratings chart there... it all gets a bit confusing. The Philadelphia Inquirer -- no shill for red-staters -- weighs in with some key money lines:

Here [in Philadelphia, Air America] doesn't even register a pulse. The flagship show, hosted by author and former Saturday Night Live comic Al Franken, airs from noon to 3 p.m. weekdays on WHAT (1340 AM).

Both WHAT and the show have fallen off the charts, according to radio-rating service Arbitron, meaning there were too few listeners to measure during the second quarter of this year - the so-called spring book. Franken's show didn't start on the station until Aug. 30.

Franken named his show The O'Franken Factor to tweak his archrival, populist pundit Bill O'Reilly, whose TV show The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel outdraws all other talk shows on cable... Franken... [also] ...chose to go head-to-head with... Limbaugh in many markets. This, it turns out, was not such a good idea.

Limbaugh, still the giant among talkers, with 14.75 million listeners on 600 stations, has squashed Franken like a bug.

Franken's ratings have dropped 50 percent in Boston since spring 2004, and he is down 14 percent in New York, where his listeners now number fewer than 188,000...


Inquirer: Liberal Air America Radio stuck in cellar

Karl Rove, Diabolical Uberman


Picture credit: Washington College
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueEver wonder why the geniuses of the hard Left just don't get it? You know, the gravity of the war on terror. The magnitude and seriousness of the effort. And the borderline-treasonous, anti-American caterwauling of the MoveOn, Michael Moore, Hollywood left.

I have a theory. They've been distracted for lo these many months. They're too busy fuming, fulminating and hypothesizing about the diabolical Karl Rove, who defeats them at every turn. Consider the last few years of Rove coverage at the leading blog sites of the Left:

Karl Rove: CBS document forger
Karl Rove: The force behind Colorado re-districting
Karl Rove: Secret ally of the teamsters
Karl Rove: Sworn enemy of Paul Wellstone
Karl Rove: Vladimir Putin imitator
Karl Rove: Drop-out
Karl Rove: Democratic Tactician
Karl Rove: Anti-Christ
Karl Rove: Steel Tariff magnate.
Karl Rove: Dark Genius
Karl Rove: 2003 Planner: to take 55 seats in the Senate (whoops, I guess he did that)
Karl Rove: Economic policy wonk
Karl Rove: Class warfare expert
Karl Rove: Organizer of dirty-trick seminars
Karl Rove: The New Lee Atwater
Karl Rove: Howard Dean-supporter
Karl Rove: Enemy of the People
Karl Rove: Spouter of evil manure
Karl Rove: Party coordinator, use of 9/11 for political gain
Karl Rove: Political strategist for hire
Karl Rove: Saboteur
Karl Rove: George W. Bush Baby-sitter
Karl Rove: Donald Segretti-Protege
Karl Rove: Hypnotic Leader
Karl Rove: The New McCarthy
Karl Rove: Vetting John Roberts
Karl Rove: Fired by Bush in 1992 for leaking information to Robert Novak
Karl Rove: Finally, in his last throes!
Karl Rove: Coordinator of Depression-era Economics

Consider how deliciously maddening this must be to the Kosmonauts. Rove, a superior intellect, capable of thinking five or six moves ahead matched up against the combined brainpower of Biden, Kennedy, and Pelosi.

It's like the battle versus Coke and Pepsi. Only Rove is both Coke and Pepsi, while the hard Left is Fanta.

Perhaps one day they'll figure out the character of the real enemy. I just wouldn't count on it anytime soon.