Monday, October 29, 2007

Einstein in Quotes

 
I received this presentation from my Dad this evening. It's a keeper. Enjoy.



















* * *

Can you imagine what Einstein would have said to Al Gore? I giggle every time I think about it.

Fausta's Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

 
Fausta is hosting the First Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, which promises to be a recurring feature. You'll want to check it out, because it gives voice to a host of relevant concerns that are leading indicators for the U.S. Consider Hugo Chavez and the rise of Latin America's neo-socialists: while their initials and political bent are similar, Hillary Clinton's got nothin' on Hugo (yet).

Fausta is covering the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and everywhere in between. If you are or know of a Latin American or Caribbean blogger who would like to be featured, check out Fausta's site for contact information.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

'Chang Wu' and the Clintons

 
I was perusing the comments left on the incredibly popular trailer of Hillary Uncensored and noticed this intriguing tidbit from "Chang Wu:"

I worked for China Intelligence services as a colonel for 21 years and defected to Australia. Bill and Hillary Clinton are secretly receiving millions American dollars from China. China intelligant services in turn will receive milatary and High technoligy secrets from Clinton if elected. Also a promise to walk away from protecting Taiwan and Japan from China domination.They believe in a one world government. China has promised them a very high position. Bill Clinton makes mill...

Real or fake? Conspiracy theorist or satirist? Who knows, but it may be coincidental that Salon recently featured a troubling article that points to the vast amount of money raised by the William J. Clinton Foundation. Unfortunately, Clinton refuses to release the names of his individual donors.

Since leaving office in 2001, the former president has vacuumed in hundreds of millions of dollars for his William J. Clinton Foundation. Though the former president has declined to reveal the identities of his individual donors, public records reviewed by Salon reveal a partial picture of corporate foundations and the foundations of a network of wealthy individuals that have long fueled the Clinton money machine. Some of those same individuals are now among the top fundraisers for Hillary Clinton's campaign

There is no debate that the Clintons have had extremely questionable ties to both China and Dubai.

...[His failure to disclose his individual donors] raises the question of whether Bill Clinton's financial activity, and a partial lack of transparency about it to date, could become a political liability for a Hillary Clinton administration...

Laws designed to minimize real or perceived influence peddling limit the activities of a sitting president. But campaign and election law attorneys say nothing prohibits Bill Clinton from continuing to accept big checks made out to him or his foundation, even if his wife is elected president.

Is Chang Wu real? I don't know. But there's no question that the Clintons have a long and sordid history of contributions from mysterious donors. At a minimum, Chang is a metaphor for the Clintons' ties to China, Loral, Bernard Schwartz, and ICBM guidance technology.

Free Hillary Bumper Sticker

 
If you need the back story, see the LA Times, the Washington Post, and the New York Daily News. Not exactly mouthpieces for the Rethuglicans.

And the Oscar Winner for Best Science Fiction Film is...

 
The Science & Public Policy Institute has published a position paper by Christopher Monckton. Its title -- 35 Inconvenient Truths, The errors in Al Gore’s movie -- is sending chills down the spines of global warming alarmists who were poised to profit from hysterical public policy responses to climate change.

Chock full of graphs, data, and statistics, Monckton rips Gore apart in a manner reminiscent of, well, Jenghis Kahn:

A spokesman for Al Gore has issued a questionable response to the news that in October 2007 the High Court in London had identified nine “errors” in his movie An Inconvenient Truth. The judge had stated that, if the UK Government had not agreed to send to every secondary school in England a corrected guidance note making clear the mainstream scientific position on these nine “errors”, he would have [ruled that the] distribution of the film... had been an unlawful contravention of an Act of Parliament prohibiting the political indoctrination of children.

Al Gore’s spokesman and “environment advisor,” Ms. Kalee Kreider, begins by saying that the film presented “thousands and thousands of facts.” It did not: just 2,000 “facts” in 93 minutes would have been one fact every three seconds. The film contained only a few dozen points, most of which will be seen to have been substantially inaccurate. The judge concentrated only on nine points which even the UK Government, to which Gore is a climate-change advisor, had to admit did not represent mainstream scientific opinion...

Read it all and pass it on. As more and more citizens find out about the "UN's IPCC Global Warming Bunko Scam," you'll see the climate change frauds running for the exits.

Hat tip: What Bubba Knows

Line o' the Day: Don't expect any Hollywood Doodle Dandies

 
Gateway Pundit wins our not-so-prestigious Line o' the Day Contest:

Don't expect any "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" sing-along anytime too soon from Hollywood.

A Second Hand Conjecture compares and contrasts the Hollywood of World War II versus the Hollywood of today...

[And in related news,] Hollywood's Antiwar Flicks Fail at Box Office.

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of moonbats.

Comcast's "World without Network Neutrality"

 
To their credit, the AP and its technology reporter -- Peter Svensson -- discovered an ominous violation of network neutrality last week by the cable/telephone company duopoly:



This is the Internet without Network Neutrality

Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally... The interference, which The Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users.

If widely applied by other ISPs, the technology Comcast is using would be a crippling blow to the BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella file-sharing networks. While these are mainly known as sources of copyright music, software and movies, BitTorrent in particular is emerging as a legitimate tool for quickly disseminating legal content...

In other words, the greatest democratic publishing platform in history -- represented by the Internet's guiding principle of network neutrality -- is being violated by the duopoly of cable and telephone companies.

Save the Internet explains the telco/cable duopoly's tactics:

What Comcast is doing is inspecting the packets of information users send over BitTorrent and similar peer-to-peer protocols. When Comcast’s technology identifies a file being uploaded over BitTorrent, it intercepts and terminates the transmission by falsifying the TCP to look like one of the end users.

As Professor Susan Crawford explains: “It’s as if someone else that sounded like you got on the phone as you were talking to your mother and said, ‘We need to hang up right now.’ ”

Comcast’s behavior, which AP calls “the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider,” is what a world without Net Neutrality looks like...

Tom Evslin explains the technical ramifiations of Comcast's traffic shaping:

The [masqueraded message sent by Comcast] is an RST packet, part of the TCP protocol. The correct use of RST is documented here by the IETF and does NOT include its use by any intermediary. Electronic Frontier Foundation confirmed the AP results and also provided additional technical information.

...what Comcast is doing is... wrong if not illegal... I also don’t want anyone or anything masquerading as my computer. Period. If traffic has to be blocked, there are ways to do it without pretending to be me.

...Comcast’s reported response was slimy. AP quotes Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas as saying: “Comcast does not block access to any applications, including BitTorrent.” AP then continues: “Douglas would not specify what the company means by “access...”

Contrast the approach taken by Comcast with that taken by Cloud Alliance, a small Vermont wireless ISP which also has to manage its network to assure that some customers don’t hog all the resources. During periods of congestion Cloud Alliance restricts the bandwidth available to all customers. It does NOT try to decide which applications users should run and which they should not. It does NOT spoof being the user’s machine. And it DOES tell the truth about its policy.

Once again, the few remaining network gatekeepers -- the cable and telephone companies led by high-priced lobbyists and their lapdog lawmakers -- are violating the principles of network neutrality that led to the Internet's amazing success.

The FTC and the FCC should immediately hammer Comcast and any other violator of network neutrality with massive fines and injunctions. In addition, it should block all incumbent telco and cable companies from bidding on the 700MHz spectrum. Think about it: should these monopolistic beltway lobbyists win that wireless auction, they are sure to keep the networks closed and proprietary.

Go to Save the Internet now and take action. Contact your representative and tell them that immediate regulation of the cable/telephone duopoly is needed. If we don't stop them. they're certain to the Internet into cable television. At risk is America's technological leadership position and, by extension, its very national security.

Go to Save the Internet now and take action. You can read more about this important issue at the The Net Neutrality Index. It is not a Democratic vs. Republican issue. It's not a liberal vs. conservative issue. It's a freedom issue. Take action now against the would-be monopolists who would control all freedom of expression on the Internet.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Mowbray reports on the Mainstream Media's Information Operations

 
Joel Mowbray, writing in the Washington Times ("Media Fantasy Land"):

In the terrorism case of two young Egyptian nationals and University of South Florida students arrested Aug. 4 in South Carolina, fascinating twists and turns abound... Yet this compelling drama has drawn scant attention from the mainstream media. And while apologists might attempt to write off the paucity of coverage for various reasons, a slew of other terrorism cases since September 11 have been met with the same media disinterest.

Following the arrests of Mr. Mohamed and Mr. Megahed on Aug. 4 with explosives in the trunk of their car — just seven miles from a naval weapons base in Goose Creek, S.C. — The Washington Post and New York Times made fleeting references...

When someone with seething anger toward U.S. soldiers drives a car filled with explosive materials two states away to a naval station, how is that not major news?

Contrast that to the coverage afforded the recent mistrial in the government's case against Holy Land Foundation, an alleged front for Hamas.

The mistrial was spun by most mainstream media outlets as a major defeat to U.S. counterterrorism efforts. The New York Times dedicated over 1,200 words in a page-one story...

I have come to the inescapable conclusion that the mainstream media is indistinguishable from the enemy. Read the whole thing.

MOPping up

 
Jammie Wearing Fool braves dim waters: namely, carefully perusing the drivel excreted by the New York Times.

Just harken back to 2003 for a minute. Suppose George W. Bush called a press conference and told the world he had evidence Syria was building a covert nuclear facility and the United States was prepared to take action... What do you suppose the reaction would have been from the media?

Well, now we know for sure they indeed were building such a facility and, thankfully, the Israelis took it out... Yet here we now have the New York Times pointing the finger at the administration, taking them to task for not doing something... Just imagine the reaction if we leveled the place four years ago.

...a satellite photo showing that the main building was well under way in September 2003 — four years before Israeli jets bombed it...

The long genesis is likely to raise questions about whether the Bush administration overlooked a nascent atomic threat in Syria...

You just cannot win with these people... Of course, back in 2003, John Bolton raised the specter of Syria developing nukes, but was dismissed by some in the intelligence community.

In related news of the Middle East Nuclear Whackjob variety, JR at The Astute Bloggers notes an ominous article in The Australian:

...Nestled deep in George W.Bush's latest $190 billion request to Congress for emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is a tantalising little item that has received scant attention.

The US Department of Defence has asked for an additional $US 88 million to modify B2 stealth bombers so they can carry a 13,600kg bomb called the massive ordnance penetrator (or MOP, in the disarming acronymic vernacular of the military). The MOP is an advanced form of a "bunker-buster", an air-delivered weapon with an explosive capacity to destroy targets deep underground. Explaining the request, the administration says it is in response to an "urgent operational need from theatre commanders".

What kind of emergency could that be? Pat yourself on the back if you correctly identified the subterranean nuclear enrichment facilities operated by the Iranian Government in its pursuit of an epoch-altering bomb. The debate in Washington about what to do with the increasingly recalcitrant and self-confident Iranian regime has taken a significant turn in the past few weeks. And the decision to upgrade the bombing capacity of the US military is perhaps the most powerful indication yet that the debate is reaching a climax...

Let's hope the first one has Madman Ahmadinejad's name on it.

Hat tip: Larwyn

Real Men of Congress: BullSchip!

 
Pork Lite presents... Real Men of Congress.

Real men of Con-gress...

Today we salute you, Senator Socialized Medicine Expander...

Senator Socialized Medicine Expander...

Your generous proposal to expand the SCHIP program covers illegal immigrants...

...and families who make as much as $83 grand a year.

But I can't afford a Rolex...

You want to expand the SCHIP socialized medicine program by $35 billion dollars over five years...

...and cover "children" who are as old as 25...

My son's a linebacker in the NFL...

Never mind that programs like Medicaid and Medi-cal already cover poverty-stricken kids...

Your campaign sound-bites make it sound like your opponents hate tots...

OwwwWWW, the Republicans broke my leg...!

In fact, nearly half of the old SCHIP programs' funds went to adults...

...and your expansion would be funded by cigarette taxes that hit the poorest Americans hardest.

Can I bum a smoke?

So crack open an ice-cold box of Pork Lite wine, oh Senator Nicotine Healthcare Tax. We know that no matter what your constituents want, you'll vote to increase our taxes and run the healthcare system right into the tarmac.

Senator Socialized Medicine Expander...

Real Men of Congress, Washington DC, 20001.

Linked by Dr. Sanity's Carnival of the Insanities. Thanks!


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