Saturday, December 21, 2002

To know America is to love America?. Advertising maven Charlotte Beers is trying to sell the U.S. to the Muslim world, but nobody's buying it. [Salon.com] Here's a fun game: Combine the following quotation from this story with some article below and guess whether Muslims abroad are buying what she's selling. Here's the quotation: According to Beers, America's information offensive is off to a grand start, putting out messages that are "believable and always true and accurate," she says. One of her first salvos was a series of mini-documentaries about happy American Muslims, designed to show Muslims abroad that the war on terror isn't a clash of civilizations. Now, you have to guess which story below goes with this quotation, and you have to guess the reaction of Muslims to both. Tricky, huh! 3:17:08 PM

White House to Propose System for Wide Monitoring of Internet. The Bush administration wants Internet service providers to help build a centralized system to enable monitoring and, potentially, surveillance of its users. [New York Times: Technology] Here it comes, folks. We're taking more steps down the "Presumed guilty until proven innocent" path... 3:11:06 PM

McCain: Enough Hot Air, Already. Arizona Sen. John McCain plans hearings in January to look at ways to slow global warming, which environmentalists hope will pressure the White House to take the matter as seriously as the American public does. By Steve Kettmann. [Wired News] Thus proving that there are some Republicans who don't have their heads in the sand...or up their asses. 2:57:17 PM

Beware the Latest MP3 Worms. Newly found holes in Windows XP and the Winamp music program can allow a hacker to control your system, and one worm can be activated simply by letting a cursor hover over an MP3 icon. [Wired News] What do you want to bet the RIAA commissions the creation of exactly this kind of worm, to make people afraid to download music online? Hey, simple answer, get a Mac. 2:55:57 PM

Cities Say No to Federal Snooping. A handful of U.S. municipalities are refusing to let their employees collaborate with federal officials seeking to spy on residents under the Patriot Act. Meanwhile, librarians are launching their own protests. [Wired News] A few brighter lights here and there...probably won't be enough. I'm sure that many Americans think that these cities are "unpatriotic" (i.e., not toeing Dumbya's jingoistic line)...when they think about it at all. 2:53:51 PM

FBI Called off Terror Investigations Two veteran FBI investigators say they were ordered to stop investigations into a suspected terror cell linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and the Sept. 11 attacks. [Daypop Top 40] So, how quickly will the smear campaign against these two agents begin? 2:48:26 PM

Hundreds of Muslim Immigrants Rounded up in California Hundreds of Iranian and other Middle East citizens were in southern California jails on Wednesday after coming forward to comply with a new rule to register with immigration authorities only to wind up handcuffed and behind bars. [Daypop Top 40] 2:45:30 PM

© Copyright 2003 Michael Alderete.