Saturday, October 22, 2005

You’re still paying Mike Brown’s salary. “Andrews confirmed that Brown is still on FEMA’s payroll as a consultant. She said he works from home, where he is ‘pulling all the documentation together’ to aid in the investigations into the government’s response to Katrina. His original 30-day contract was recently extended for another 30 days, she said.” (Via War & Piece) (Via Think Progress.) 10:00:55 AM    comment []

Bush Attacks Reagan’s Approach To Terrorism, Then Praises It Today, President Bush chose to talk about terrorism at an event commemorating the new Air Force One exhibit at the Reagan library. He praised Reagan for “never backing down in the face of evil”: [Reagan] recognized that freedom was opposed by dangerous enemies. And he understood that America has always prevailed by standing firmly on principals - and never backing down in the face of evil. This contrasts with a speech Bush made in August in which he questioned Reagan’s response to the 1983 Marine baracks bombing in Beirut. Bush said: [Terrorists] believe that democracies are inherently weak and corrupt and can be brought to their knees. They looked at our response after the hostage crisis in Iran, the bombings of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the first World Trade Center attack, the killing of American soldiers in Somalia, the destruction of two U.S. embassies in Africa, and the attack on the USS Cole. They concluded that free societies lack the courage and character to defend themselves against a determined enemy. [V-J Day Speech, 8/30/05] Looks like Bush was against Reagan’s response to terrorism before he was for it. (Via Think Progress.) 10:00:30 AM    comment []

EFF Decrypts Laser Printer Codes The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published information about tracking codes printed in every document by laser printers from Xerox, Canon, Brother, Dell, Epson and other companies. These codes, which have been decrypted for one model of Xerox printer, indicate the date and time the document was printed and the serial number of the printer. The codes have apparently been in effect for at least a decade. (Via The Lippard Blog.) 10:00:25 AM    comment []

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