How very true.* At last check, the award consists of a handsome email and a $5 off coupon to Applebee's (if I can find it and it hasn't expired).
How very true....the very short version is that the VA GOP only certified Mitt Romney and Ron Paul for its primary ballot. Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich both had too many signatures tossed; Jon Huntsman, Rick Santorum, and Michele Bachmann didn’t even try. Of the seven candidates, one (Romney) had more than enough signatures (15K) to bypass the verification process entirely. All of this has caused a lot of agitation among Republicans following the primary process, of course; and not just from people who disapprove of what the VA GOP has done...
...There has been a good deal of defending of the outcome; and one argument heavily used in this defense has been that the campaigns all knew the rules and that previous Republican campaigns were able to get on the ballot, so clearly a competent current Republican campaign should have done so.
One small problem with that: as Winger argues, the rules were allegedly drastically changed. In November of this year.
...prior to the 2012 elections it was Republican party policy in Virginia to simply deem any candidate that brought in ten thousand raw signatures as having met the primary ballot requirements under Virginian state election law.
...On October 24th independent state delegate candidate Michael Osborne filed suit against the Republican party of Virginia [challenging the signature review process and who performs it] ... according to Winger the VA GOP decided in response to bump up from 10K to 15K the threshold for simply deeming the requirements as being met.
...I think that John Fund’s general comment is correct: this is going to go to the courts. John was not discussing this specific wrinkle, but his larger point that Virginia’s ballot access policies have systemic problems gets a big boost when it turns out that the state party can effectively increase by fifty percent the practical threshold for ballot access – in a day, and in the middle of an existing campaign.
...If it is true that the Republican party of Virginia decided in November of 2011 to increase the threshold for automatic certification from 10K to 15K, then it is reasonable to suggest that this was a change that unfairly rewarded candidates who had previously run for President in Virginia.
'PLO might revoke recognition of Israel'
Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi says Palestinian leadership may renege on its recognition of Israel if peace process continues to falter...
PM: Israel to refuse talks if Hamas joins PA
PM declares Israel will not renew peace negations if terror group joins Palestinian government. 'I will not allow a Palestinian state to turn into Gaza, Lebanon,' he states...
###
All of which brings to mind the great Monty Python dead parrot sketch.
Eric Holder Blocks Voter ID For Racial Reasons: AdamsQOTD: "The Obama administration won't be bound by a gun control ban in the $1 trillion spending bill for 2012, the president said Friday.
The funding provision for the federal health agency says that "none of the funds made available in this title may be used, in whole or in part, to advocate or promote gun control." The language aims to ban taxpayer dollars from supporting gun safety research.
"I have advised the Congress that I will not construe these provisions as preventing me from fulfilling my constitutional responsibility to recommend to the Congress's consideration such measures as I shall judge necessary and expedient," Obama said in a statement as he signed the bill into law." --Julian Pecquet, The Hill
Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) says the Obama administration has shown a pattern of accusing its detractors of being racists, and said he’s afraid the president will use such accusations in the 2012 election to stymie criticism.“We’ve seen this behavior with this president where he’s gently and sometimes not-so-subtly thrown out the race card,” Walsh said.
Speaking on Thursday to the National Rifle Association, Walsh was discussing Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent comment that the “more extreme segment” of his critics were going after him as a way to get at the president, because “we’re both African-American.”
“The minute you say, 'They’re criticizing me because I’m African American,' or whatever, that is voter intimidation... You are trying to stifle honest debate, and my fear is this is going to happen again in the next election. We saw it in ’08; thankfully, the president now has a record — he didn’t have a record in ’08 — so now we can criticize the fact that he destroyed the economy, and hopefully we can do that without being accused of being racist.”
Walsh also reiterated his claim that when Holder played the race card, it was part of an “orchestrated” effort by the administration to silence its critics by branding them racists.
“I can say something like, ‘This president in many ways had no business getting elected; he’s in over his head,’ and when I say something like that, often I’m accused of racism,” Walsh said. “When his attorney general sort of sings along the same tunes, you have to wonder if this is some, you know, orchestrated strategy of theirs, because they know they’ve got a media that will protect them every single day.”
Walsh called the behavior “shameful,” and said the media was complicit with the administration in pushing the storyline.
“This isn’t unusual,” he said. “When the left runs out of arguments and can no longer defend a position, they will often throw out the race card. This administration has done it, this president has done it, and Eric Holder is no different.”
I find it astounding how people who just have no f'ing idea about INFOSEC, Anonymous, 4Chan, or Lulzsec... who still think AOL is the Internetz... are suddenly Armchair Warrior Commando Supremo, ready to wreak havoc upon enemies of capitalism... actually thinking that WikiLeaks, etc..is some sort of black-ops, Soros-scheming, FEMA camp-making endeavor ready to enslave their family, firmly ensconced in their gated community where most of the cars are shiny and their kids a little too clean... get some f'ing perspective, people, this is the Internetz equivalent of you driving around in your old '73 Camaro with a few too many Oly's in you as you took out your neighbors mailboxes, laughing with glee, later discovering your erstwhile girlfriend's angora sweater along with the twin treasures within.Stratfor's site wasn't updated, patched well or maintained in a way commensurate with their public image. Indeed, it was a public secret that anyone could read ALL the articles in Google's cache... what they just went through is typical... Podunk site from a few years ago grows exponentially without proportionate security measures that EXCEEDED growth. While they hired and promulgated new authors, contributors and analysts with a pantload of letters after their names, they 'prolly didn't hire enough IT/web developers/security folks 'cause let's face it...they're usually considered a cost center, not a name that would bring in new subscribers/biz/accolades. I seem to remember they had open positions for interns... not pro's... go figure....
Every org. has growing pains... but the pain point here? The manageable risk that was unfortunately overlooked by "America's Private CIA" endeavor? By promoting and evangelizing themselves as an alternate intelligence organization, they failed to take into account good OPSEC. Here we have hundreds of records soon to be available, dead-drop names, sovereign ID's, aliases and a Who's-Who of people and corps. who just don't wanna be found....easily cross-referenced with other public disclosures... that any counter-intel org. could use to their great advantage. At this point it may even be an issue of maskirovka, but certainly the intrusion in no way approaches a sovereign level of expertise, IMHO...
I know that it is highly improbable that I am the only person in the country that has actually read the Code of Virginia on Presidential Primaries, but the requirement that signatures also include an address IS correct for a statewide election, but not for a Presidential Primary, though the number of signatures are identical.
Anyone know an election attorney available on Christmas?###
Various reports have stated that the signatures turned in by Newt Gingrich included at least 2,000 that were invalidated because there was no address given with the signature.
If this were a Virginia Statewide office, that would be correct. But this is a Presidential Primary. And while the rules are similar, they are actually addressed in two separate sections of the Virginia Code.
There is a requirement in a Statewide General Election that the address be included, but there is no such requirement for a presidential primary. The number of signatures are the same, 10,000 and 400 per Congressional District. But the address requirements are different.
Silent Night For Christians In Afghanistan And Iraq: IBDQOTD: "You guys need to — you need to stop this. It’s not an organic thing that’s just happening. You guys are behind it.” --Eric Holder
// OH STRATFOR. IF YOU ONLY KNEW WHAT ALL IS ABOUT TO GO DOWN.
// 'BUT WAIT', YOU ASK. 'IS THIS IT?' 0H N0, WE GOT MORE IN STORE...
// BUT FOR NOW, SOME INSPIRING WORDS OF WISDOM FROM IT MANAGER FRANK GINAC:"You do realize how preposterous it is to suggest that stratfor simply
shutdown completely for 2 days, right? The plan that you've attached paints a
gloom and doom picture claiming no chance that such a move will succeed. Does
that really seem a rationale conclusion?"
// YOU DONT EVEN KNOW THE EXTENT OF THE GLOOM AND DOOM WE HAVE PLANNED, FRANK
"Attended the TakeDownCon security conference. Focus of the conference was on
wireless and mobile security. No vendors pushing product or service at this
conference. Instead, great presentations by renowned white hat hackers (good
hackers) and security experts. Bottom line is that no mobile platform is
secure, including the Blackberry, but there are best practices that minimize
the risk of their use within the enterprise. We will be incorporating these
best practices in our operation over the coming months."
// INCORPORATING PRACTICES FROM "GOOD WHITE HAT HACKERS"? HOW'D THAT WORK OUT?
"It blew my mind to discover that our email server backups are being stored on
the same physical server. I'm affectionately referring to these little
discoveries as 'Mooney turds'."
// SO SAD WE RM'D YOUR MAIL SERVER AND ALL BACKUPS, FRANK"Most if not all of us use professional and social networking sites like
LinkedIn and Facebook. All offer levels of privacy ranging from wide open
where everyone can see your profile, activities, and posts to closed allowing
only your immediate connections (or friends) access. As a private intelligence
company we must all take extra care to protect our personal information from
those who would use that information to exploit us personally or
professionally. Although we don't have hard and fast rules on how to set your
privacy settings nor do we restrict use of such sites, I suggest that you
temper your need to share with prudence and consider the business that we are
in. It's also important to check your privacy settings regularly to ensure
that the sites you use haven't changed the meaning or scope of privacy
settings -- we've all heard or read the news regarding this practice at
Facebook. I suggest that you never include any information in your profile --
regardless of privacy setting -- that could be used to compromise your
identity. Specifically, never include: your birth date, your exact street
address (although this information can usually be found on the web quite
easily), your cell phone number, SSN or other government issued ID number
(that should be obvious), or any other information that someone could use to
compromise your identity if your account were compromised."
// EVEN WITH ALL THE BEST SECURITY PRACTICES LEARNED FROM THE "RENOWNED WHITE
// HAT HACKERS" WE STILL MANAGED TO STEAL ALL YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION. UMAD?
Subject: Important Announcement from STRATFOR
Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:49:58 -0500
From: STRATFOR
Dear Stratfor Member,
We have learned that Stratfor's web site was hacked by an unauthorized party. As a result of this incident the operation of Stratfor's servers and email have been suspended.
We have reason to believe that the names of our corporate subscribers have been posed on other web sites. We are diligently investigating the extent to which subscriber information may have been obtained.
Stratfor and I take this incident very seriously. Stratfor's relationship with its members and, in particular, the confidentiality of their subscriber information, are very important to Stratfor and me. We are working closely with law enforcement in their investigation and will assist them with the identification of the individual(s) who are responsible.
Although we are still learning more and the law enforcement investigation is active and ongoing, we wanted to provide you with notice of this incident as quickly as possible. We will keep you updated regarding these matters.
Sincerely,
George Friedman
STRATFOR
221 W. 6th Street, Suite 400
Austin, TX 78701 US
PLI is far more concerned about the state of the classified information provided by STRATFOR to the US Government... STRATFOR maintains separate classified and unclassified networks and information, and PLI understands that none of the STRATFOR data has been spared the attention of the hacking group. Of course, had STRATFOR placed any classified data on the server which we know has been hacked, they’d be in blatant violation of the laws of the US and of common sense, but it’s against the law why? Because it’s happened before.
If classified data has been compromised in the hack, it will create a larger impact – and response – than if it is unclassified commercial intel. In addition, Sabu, a leading member of the group, boasted on Twitter that... "Over 90,000 Credit cards from LEA, journalists, intelligence community and whitehats leaked and used for over a million dollars in donations..."
The AntiSec/LulzSec crowd, on the AnonymousIRC Twitter channel, has promised that this is the first of many attacks.
Guess what? It doesn’t matter. What we’re witnessing could be part of Obama’s plan or a byproduct of Obama’s negligence, and either way the results are still the same. Only three years into his first term and Obama has turned the Mideast and North Africa into a hotbed for sharia and political Islam (terms his administration has expressly forbidden). At the same time he's made the rest of the world much more unstable. Extrapolate, if you dare. Four more years of Obama... and you won’t recognize this place. Guaranteed.Egypt: Islamists consolidate gains in 2nd round of parliamentary elections
By Associated Press, December 24
CAIRO — Islamist parties have consolidated earlier gains in Egypt’s multistage parliamentary elections, winning nearly 70 percent of the seats determined so far, according to results announced Saturday.
...the Muslim Brotherhood says it won around 86 of estimated 180 seats up for grabs in the round, or 47 percent. The Al-Nour Party, the political arm of the ultraconservative Salafi movement, won around 20 percent of the vote.
The secular and liberal forces that largely drove Egypt’s uprising against former leader Hosni Mubarak were trounced, failing to turn their achievement into a victory at the polls. The secular alliance of Egyptian Bloc and youth Revolution Continues won less than 10 percent of the seats.
...A third round of voting is to be held Jan. 3-4. It is not expected to alter the result and could strengthen the Islamists’ hand.
Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar told The Daily Caller that Attorney General Eric Holder’s race-card play to attack his critics is “absolutely horrendous.” But Gosar said he thinks race may have played a role in the Department of Justice’s execution of Operation Fast and Furious — but in a different way from how Holder is framing it.
“He [Holder] brought up the race card, and while I think it’s absolutely horrendous that he would bring up the race card, in Fast and Furious, we were in fact impugning the Mexican people,” Gosar said in a phone interview. “About 300 people have lost their lives.”
“When the attorney general brings up the race card, he’d better be very, very careful — particularly for the Hispanics and what’s happened to them,” Gosar adds. “He’s been very insensitive, not only to the [U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian] Terry family in making an apology and making it very public, but where’s the apology to the Mexican government and the families of the victims in Mexico?”
The Devolution of Society: TL in ExileQOTD: "Despite all [the misgivings], I prefer [Newt] to all the others. Much like Abraham Lincoln said of General Ulysses Grant, “He fights”. I want someone in the White House who won’t shy away from a fight over conservative principles. I want someone who will kick recalcitrant Congressional Republicans in the tail, like he did when he was Speaker of the House (and don’t think for a moment that they removed him from the position for any other reason than because he upset their apple carts). I want someone who will look Democrats in the eye, grin, and take them to school so quickly they barely have time to figure out how they lost.
I believe Newt Gingrich will be that man and so he has my support." --Jimmie Bise, Jr.
If there is a recurring theme within political Islam it is the permanent jihad to wipe out any trace of non-Muslim civilization. Once you appreciate that you’ll begin to see the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Mosque built over the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the persecution of Christians in Muslim lands and the spread of “no-go” neighborhoods in Europe in an entirely new light.
###
Ynet News, 12/23/2011, by Guy Bechor
Welcome to Cairostan
Op-ed: Egypt’s radicals eliminating country’s connection to West, but does anyone care?
It was barely mentioned in the Israeli and global media, but the following event pertains to the whole of Western civilization: Last Saturday, violent groups of Islamic-Salafi radicals burned the famous scientific institute established by Napoleon in Egypt after its first encounter with the West. Some historians consider it the start of modern times in the Middle East.
The site, L’Institut d’Egypte, held some 200,000 original and rare books, exhibits, maps, archeological findings and studies from Egypt and the entire Middle East, based on the work of generations of western researchers. Most of the artifacts were lost forever, burned or looted.
It’s difficult to understand the modern Middle East without these studies, which were overcome by an immense fire. The large building was situated in the center of Cairo and torching it was a symbolic, intentional act. Those who burned the building and its artifacts meant to burn the era of logic, enlightenment, research and individualism.
This was a grave provocation against the whole of Western civilization, a desire to disconnect from science, research and modernity, while cynically using a Western means – that is, democracy – in order to take power.
One need not go all the way to blowing up the pyramids, as some of Egypt’s Salafis wish to do after they seized some 35% of the new parliament seats (alongside 40% of the Islamic brotherhood,) and there is no reason to go as far as Afghanistan, where the Taliban blew up the huge Buddha statues. The elimination of Egypt’s non-Muslim past is already here.
...This isn’t a new phenomenon, and in Jerusalem as well we see elements associated with political Islam trying to erase any presence of the 3,000-year Jewish existence there, on Temple Mount for example – existence that pre-dated Islam.
... And who is supposed to raise a hue and cry over the burning of Egypt’s Western past? Who is supposed to be greatly disturbed by the fact that Egyptian authorities are having trouble protecting their own museums? UNESCO, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Yet not much is happening there. Well, we can’t blame this organization; after all, it is preoccupied with admitting “Palestine” into its ranks.
In one of her hard-hitting, cut-to-the-chase interviews, Barbawa sat down with President Obama and asked not about his record-setting deficit spending, the country's loss of its AAA credit rating, the hundreds killed by Operation 'Fast and Furious', the dozens of Congressional leaders to call for the resignation of his attorney general, the record number of Americans living in poverty and receiving food-stamps, or even his 'Arab Spring' diplomacy, which has seen the rise of Islamists around the Middle East.WALTERS: What's the trait you most deplore in yourself and the trait you most deplore in others?
BARACK OBAMA: Laziness. [Ed: gee, you'd never know if from his schedule.]
WALTERS: You're lazy?
BARACK OBAMA: You know, it's interesting. There is a deep down, underneath all of the work I do, I think there's a laziness in me. I mean, it's probably from growing up in Hawaii. It's sunny outside, sitting on the beach....On Monday's "View," Walters played this clip: "We asked middle school and high school students to throw a few questions. I'd like to read their questions. If you were a super hero and you could have one super power, what would it be?"
The President relayed that he'd like to be able to fly.
A spokesman for President Obama‘s re-election campaign blasted Mr. Romney and questioned whether he had something to hide in his finances.
“Why does Governor Romney feel like he can play by a different set of rules?” said Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign. “What is it that he doesn’t want the American people to see? Governor Romney, who has favored secrecy over openness time after time, should live up to the same standard of disclosure his father and others set.”
Meanwhile, seven years after Barack Obama burst onto the national political scene, we still await the disclosure of his background records.
White House: What Does $40 Mean to You?: MalkinQOTD: "Has anybody asked the president yet why to millions of Americans $40 is a matter of survival?" --@TylerDurden
A direct-mail solicitation for Ron Paul's political and investment newsletters two decades ago warned of a "coming race war in our big cities" and of a "federal-homosexual cover-up" to play down the impact of AIDS.
The eight-page letter, which appears to carry Paul's signature at the end, also warns that the U.S. government's redesign of currency to include different colors - a move aimed at thwarting counterfeiters - actually was part of a plot to allow the government to track Americans using the "new money."...The letter's details emerge at a time when Paul, now a contender for the Republican nomination for president, is under fire over reports that his newsletters contained racist, anti-homosexual and anti-Israel rants.
Reports of the newsletters' contents have Paul's campaign scrambling to deny that he wrote the inflammatory articles.
Among other things, the articles called the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a "world-class philanderer," criticized the U.S. holiday bearing King's name as "Hate Whitey Day," and said that AIDS sufferers "enjoy the attention and pity that comes with being sick."
There’s no guarantee the being a black father will stop this because they’re killing black fathers too. One of the tragedies of this [garbled] is that you don’t have to be guilty to be crucified – killing the innocent. Therefore we must overwhelm them with numbers. That becomes our strength to fight back.When I was younger I would say I wanted my children to get educated so that they wouldn’t have to go through what I’ve gone through. I’ve changed that position now. I want them to get a good education so they can have more tools with which to fight. The fight will not stop. I want them to have more tools. I want black fathers to have more tools with which to fight.
So when it’s time for Operation Black Vote to have massive registration, responsible black fathers vote to make a difference. They demonstrate. They march. They fight back.
So I say ‘fathers, teach your children how to fight for jobs and justice and healthcare using the weapons of your mind, your vote, and your marching feet.’