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Saturday, August 10, 2002
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It's Always Been Washington vs. the Field. The urgent question of revamping the Federal Bureau of Investigation lingers. By Edward P. Lazarus. [New York Times: Politics]
This is a particularly relevant article in light of FBI headquarters in Washington putting the brakes on investigations in Minneapolis and Phoenix that might well have prevented 9/11 had they been allowed to go forward.
Every business struggles with the basic concept of centralizing or decentralizing management control. It shouldn’t be surprising the same thing happens at governmental agencies. It may be impossible to “fix” the human dynamic that leads to territorial skirmishes, but it should be possible to make sure everyone has the same information.
11:45:02 PM 
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Feds Open 'Total' Tech Spy System [Slashdot]
I don’t know how I missed the original Wired story, but this is an important story with far reaching personal freedom ramifications and deserves to be kept alive as long as possible. Heck, it’s worth the read for the first line, alone:
“Had Winston Churchill been alive in the months subsequent to Sept. 11 he might well have described U.S. intelligence agencies' performance prior to the attack thusly: Never have so many known so much and done so little.”
11:31:06 PM
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Them's Fightin' Words: Bush Official Accuses Brits Of Appeasement. Plastic::Politics::International: Richard Perle invokes the ghost of Neville Chamberlain to condemn British reluctance to 'get Saddam'. Will British sceptics note the fact that the Americans, having turned up late for the last two world wars, seem hell-bent on getting to WW3 early? [Plastic: Most Recent]
It wasn’t bad enough when the Dim Son talked about waging a “Crusade?” Now the White House is invoking the ghost of Neville Chamberlain in an attempt to embarrass the Brits into backing Shrub’s Holy War against Iraq. Is there nothing too stupid for them to try?
11:28:05 PM
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XP "protection" can render music backups useless [bOing bOing]
Who uses Media Player to rip CDs? Personally, I use AudioGrabber to rip and Audioactive Production Studio to encode MP3s, but the point is there are many, many far superior alternatives to MS Media Player for ripping and encoding, including some very attractive freeware alternatives.
The open source Ogg Vorbis codec is a personal favorite. I’ve found it to be noticeably sonically superior to Fraunhoffer or even LAME, even at lower bit rates, which means smaller files.
RealPlayer recently added Ogg Vorbis support, a strong sign that it may well stick. You can find loads of freeware Ogg Vorbis encoders, decoders and utilities at http://www.vorbis.com/download.psp for most operating systems.
11:24:23 PM
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How Al-Qaida Site Was Hijacked. Using tracking tools, a public Web service and impeccable timing, an American hacker explains how he managed to take over al-Qaida's dot-com domain. By Patrick Di Justo. [Wired News]
In the world of Internet ethos, domain hijacking is considered a Bad Thing. Vigilantism is considered a Bad Thing pretty much everywhere. This story proves the exception to both rules.
Now, this is the kind of war I can get behind. Skilled Netizens should take this as a call to action. IANAL (I am not a lawyer, for all of you who are not versed in Net slang), but it seems to me that all bets are off when it comes to enemy Websites in an active war. What I mean is it’s very likely hacking actions that would be very illegal in any other context might well be completely legal if taken against an enemy of the US.
It’s a slippery slope, to be sure. It’s also an anathema to the entire concept of free speech and free exchange of ideas. I haven’t supported most of the previous hacktivism activities, but we are at war. Or so says Bush. To my thinking hacktivism is far less ethically questionable than killing thousands and thousands of all too often innocent people.
I hope Messer publicly releases the list of domains he identified in his 5 day sting. As any real Webhead knows, releasing the list of referrers would provide a gold mine of information as well as a map of interconnected activity that would provide hundreds and probably thousands of targets to would be hackers.
On a side note that won’t surprise savvy Netizens here in Texas, it looks like al Qaeda is moving their real site to Everyone’s Internet, a Houston deep discount ISP not particularly noted for its responsible behavior.
11:14:04 PM
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The Pentagon's internal war. The career military and their civilian bosses at the Pentagon are at odds over weaponry, Saudi Arabia -- and Iraq. [Salon.com]
As I’ve said many times, the Boy Blunder doesn’t even listen to his own staff. After all, he already knows Sadam is the Anti-Christ.
I shit you not. Yes, he really is *that* stupid and crazy.
5:59:53 PM
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Bush Rolls Back Rules on Privacy of Medical Data. The Bush administration on Friday formally rolled back some major protections for the privacy of medical records adopted by President Clinton. By Robert Pear. [New York Times: National]
Any time George W. Bush has had a choice between serving the interests of Big Bidness or Joe Voter, guess who he’s sided with?
Not once, and by that I mean not ever, has this Dim Son championed the average guy in a fight with Big Bidness. Not one single time.
And people are surprised we’re buried under daily revelations of corporate malfeasance and criminal wrong doing at the highest levels of business and government?
5:57:25 PM
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U.S. Seeks to Limit Conservation Law. The Bush administration is arguing that a major environmental law does not apply to the vast majority of oceans under United States control. By Katharine Q. Seelye. [New York Times: Politics]
It seems the Smirking Chimp has never met a sensible environmental policy he wasn’t willing to gut. All you have to do is look at the horrible mess he left here in Texas, where he personally championed all sorts of ways for his greedy corporate masters to get around those pesky clean air and water regulations.
Now the Smirking Chimp wants to do for the oceans of the world what he did for Texas. Fuck you, George. Fuck you very much.
5:51:57 PM
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Macromedia security hole affects Windows, Unix. Vulnerability limited to Shockwave Flash files [InfoWorld: Top News]
Here’s yet another security hole in Macromedia’s ubiquitous Flash Player. There is a fix. Follow the link and download the new version. But don’t think this will be the last Flash vulnerability discovered for a while. It won’t be.
5:49:13 PM
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Joe Conason's Journal. The mystery of the disappearing Dick Armey quote. [Salon.com]
Why are the arrogant comments Dick Armey uttered last week suddenly disappearing from news sites all over? Armey's comment on the massive shift of spending from poor urban areas to affluent suburban areas under the GOP controlled Congress, "To the victor goes (sic) the spoils," has disappeared without explanation from a number of high profile news outlets in the last few days.
The quote can still be found on the Websites of both the Washington Post and Times, but few other places. Here Joe Conason outlines the mystery of the disappearing quote.
5:45:16 PM
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Gore, Fox and the Boss. Did Al and Tipper twist arms for Springsteen tix? Or is the conservative network dishing up a little disinformation? [Salon.com]
Let’s face it, Fox “News” is just a bunch of lies packaged for a bunch of morons willing to swallow such asinine pap whole without question. This is but the latest example of Fox spreading outright lies about Al Gore.
Turns out not only did Gore *not* ask for free tix to an upcoming DC Boss show, he ain’t even goin’ And Tipper already bought 4 at face value. The entire story is the figment of some evil imagination on the KKKristian ultra-right Fox list of anonymous sources – read bold faced liars.
Shame on you, Fox, for not checking your facts and not retracting your stupid lies when it became obvious they were, indeed, lies. And shame on your idiot consumers for not questioning such an obviously biased source.
5:39:36 PM
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Cybercafe ordinance put on hold. A California judge issues a temporary restraining order preventing the city of Garden Grove from enforcing a new ordinance that restricts cybercafes. [CNET News.com]
Garden Grove? They’ve *got* to be kidding. Poker palaces are just fine, but cyber cafes are a danger to the children? Even in Orange County, famous for its many ridiculous political flights of far right wing fancy, this is just too fucking dumb to believe.
4:50:07 PM
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Bankruptcy Bill Opponents Criticize Loan. Opponents of a bill to overhaul the nation's bankruptcy laws are pressing for an investigation into the relationship between a major credit card issuer and an important House sponsor. By Philip Shenon. [New York Times: National]
For those who think only the GOP are corporate toadies beholden to their greedy CEO masters, think again. In DC the name of the game is money, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican. The Republicans just have more rich friends.
The Draconian new limits on personal bankruptcy filings are a shameful example of Congress and the White House bending over backwards to serve the interests of Big Bidness over consumers, meaning you.
For example, did you know that, while corporate profits in general slipped 54% during the last fiscal year, pharmaceutical company profits rose 35%? What does that have to do with bankruptcy?
The odds that an American filing bankruptcy last year due to medical expenses was 1 in 2. Damn good thing we put the kybosh on all of those deadbeats, eh?
4:45:13 PM
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House G.O.P. Leader Warns Against Iraq Attack. Representative Dick Armey warned on Thursday that an unprovoked attack against Iraq undermine world support for President Bush's goal of ousting Saddam Hussein. By Eric Schmitt. [New York Times: Politics]
Uh oh, looks like Kang (alien from the Simpsons) has taken over the body of Dick Armey. Since when has this ultra-right asswipe made sense?
Poor Dumbya. Now he’s getting it from the right, the left and the middle. Looks like he’s trying to fashion a tumble from popularity designed to outstrip even Poppy’s spectacular public demise.
4:37:02 PM
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© Copyright 2002 Dusty Rhodes.
Last update: 8/31/2002; 4:42:30 PM.
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