Posts from — May 2007

This is the only creature in Washington that knows the proper response to a Shrubbery press conference.

Update: There’s no truth to the rumor that his name is Jack, nor that he is associated with Hollywood. [His people and Michael Moore’s haven’t met – yet.]

From Lisa Myers and Robert Windrem, NBC News Investigative Unit: CIA warned of risks of war in the Mideast

In a move sure to raise even more questions about the decision to go to war with Iraq, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will on Friday release selected portions of pre-war intelligence in which the CIA warned the administration of the risk and consequences of a conflict in the Middle East.

Among other things, the 40-page Senate report reveals that two intelligence assessments before the war accurately predicted that toppling Saddam could lead to a dangerous period of internal violence and provide a boost to terrorists. But those warnings were seemingly ignored.

[Read more →]

New Digs

Who let him in?

[Editor: Finally, they are in the bathroom, where litter box training isn’t such a problem.]

Friday Ark

Juan Cole says that the insurgents are Starving the Americans Out, but I would think “You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.”� [Robert Heinlein – Logic of Empire].

They have pulled all of these people into Baghdad without insuring that the privatized logistics system can support them.

Consider they increased the number of combat troops, and then “realized” they had to increase the number of support people. The GAO knew the extra support people were necessary, but the Pentagon claimed they weren’t. Given the way the Pentagon has nickel and dimed the troops, it not surprising that no one made sure there were increased shipments of food and materiel. [Note: “materiel” is not a misspelling, it is the term used for military “stuff,” most of which goes boom.]

As Friedrich der Gro�e was wont to say: “An army, like a serpent, travels on its belly.” The supply problems in Iraq are another example of the deplorable planning found in the Pentagon since 2001 and another, practical reason for pulling everyone out before they are killed or cut-off.

The BBC notes Backing for tool to battle spam:

A tool that could help in the battle against spam and phishing attacks has received industry approval.

The DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) system is a method of validating the identity of the sender of an e-mail.

Spammers hide their identity by using a false, or spoofed, address in the millions of messages they send out.

DKIM uses encrypted digital signatures to prove a message’s origin and a draft standard has been accepted by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

The IETF is the umbrella group representing firms such as Yahoo, Cisco, Sendmail and PGP Corporation.

I just finished notifying two colleges that they are hosting drug spam pages on their servers. Come guys, you change the passwords every semester, and unless there’s a special request all student pages get wiped. Been there and done that for a university system.

This is a good thing. This will make it easier to track spammers, and block a lot of the big abusers.

According to the Washington Post: GSA chief violated Hatch Act, report says

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has found that General Services Administration chief Lurita Alexis Doan violated the federal Hatch Act when she allegedly asked GSA political appointees during a January briefing how they could “help our candidates” win the next election, according to a report by the office.

The Hatch Act restricts executive branch employees from using their position for political purposes. The special counsel’s office, which investigates alleged violations of the law, said it would recommend that President Bush take disciplinary action against Doan, including possible removal from office.

“Her actions, to be certain, constitute an obvious misuse of her official authority and were made for the purpose of affecting the result of an election,” investigators said in a copy of the 19-page report obtained by The Washington Post. “One can imagine no greater violation of the Hatch Act than to invoke the machinery of an agency, with all its contracts and buildings, in the service of a partisan campaign to retake Congress and the Governors’ mansions.”

The report also says that her fate is in the President’s hands, but that overlooks the fact that she is subject to impeachment, like every other officer of the Federal government. This would be a nice “starter” impeachment to shake out any bugs in the system and give everyone a little practice.

Kevin Drum at Political Animal, among many others, has posted on the the “leak” of a Presidential finding: “Yesterday ABC News revealed that President Bush has signed a “nonlethal presidential finding” that approves covert action to destabilize the Iranian regime.”

I’ve been talking about it for months, not the finding, but the actions.

Back on April 6^th I wrote about the US sponsoring Jundulla since 2005 and supporting the MEK at least since since the invasion of Iraq. Both groups carry out attacks in Iran.

This is a continuation of Prince Bandar and the Saudi plan to re-make the Middle East by suckering the US into supporting Sunni thugs to attack people the US doesn’t like, with the promise that the Saudis will control them.

Al Qaeda was formed from the remnants of the Saudi plan to drive out the Soviets from Afghanistan and Fatah al Islam was the US-Saudi gift to Lebanon. Actually on February 27^th I wondered: “Are we going to start reading articles about the US and Saudis supporting al Qaeda groups in Lebanon?”

I’m a guy with a website in a small town on the Florida Panhandle dealing with a lot of other issues, so how come I knew this and the MSM didn’t figure it until yesterday?

There really are some incredibly stupid people using the ‘Net: Free computer virus finds willing victims

HELSINKI, Finland (Reuters) — Computer specialist Didier Stevens put up a simple text advertisement on the Internet offering downloads of a computer virus for people who did not have any.

Surprisingly, he found as many as 409 people clicking on the ad saying “Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here!” during a 6-month advertising campaign on Google’s Adword, said the IT security expert.

He didn’t actually provide a virus, so I guess someone could file a false advertising complaint.

Speaking of foolish moves, I’m in the process of upgrading from WordPress version 2.0.3 to version 2.2, so if everything disappears, don’t be surprised. There are security issues involved or I wouldn’t do it.

Mad Kane on the what is reportedly the latest Democratic screw-up.

I don’t care if you can’t override a veto, the Shrubbery can’t allocate funds. If he wants the money, make him compromise. Stop enabling this idiot.

The Associated Press is reporting that: Bush declassifies bin Laden intelligence

President Bush, trying to defend his war strategy, declassified intelligence Tuesday asserting that Osama bin Laden ordered a top lieutenant in early 2005 to form a terrorist cell that would conduct attacks outside Iraq — and that the United States should be the top target.

[snip]

The Bush White House has intermittently declassified and made public sensitive intelligence information to help rebut critics or defend programs or actions against possibly adverse decisions in the Congress or the courts. On a few occasions, the declassified materials were intended as proof that terrorists see Iraq as a critical staging ground for global operations.

It’s proof that neither he, nor his staff have the slightest clue as to the purpose of intelligence. This isn’t political opposition research. People are put at risk gathering this data. Releasing information from a couple of years ago can provide the clues necessary to pin point the source of the information, and that source is lost.

They just don’t understand security. You don’t release classified information for political purposes. There are intelligence committees in both the House and Senate that are cleared to review classified information. If there is an issue that is dependent on Congressional agreement, that’s where you take classified reports. This is just outrageous behavior.

EDB at Anecdotes from a Banana Republic in Beirut talks about Dubious Militants & the Violated Sanctity of the Bathroom. Her life is again disrupted by explosions and gunfire in Lebanon and the misinformation of the Lebanese government.

She remembered the Seymour Hersh article in The New Yorker [03/05/07], The Redirection, that mentioned the raise of Fatah al Islam, whom she calls a “kooky Salafist group”.

While you should read the entire article, the short form is Cheney and the Saudis are trying to offset the gains made by Iran as a result of US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and one of their moves was to have the Saniora government invite members of various “kooky Salafist groups” to Lebanon to offset Hezbollah.

[Read more →]

The Chelsea flower show is getting set to begin. This is one of the best shows in the world and they always have a nice website.

The Associated Press is reporting Nation’s top weather officials resign:

WASHINGTON – One day after its hurricane forecasters complained of budget cuts, the head of the National Weather Service and his deputy announced they will retire next month.

David Johnson, the director, and John Jones, the deputy director, plan to bow out at the end of June, according to an internal memo they sent Friday to staff of the nation’s weather agency.

One month into the hurricane season and the top two officials are going to be new hires. That certainly fills me with confidence. I have a feeling they are sick of the games and would just like to get on with their lives without dealing with the jerks in charge of NOAA including Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr. US Navy (Retired), the current head of the organization.

Oh, David Johnson is actually Brigadier General David Johnson, US Air Force (Retired) because the Department of Commerce seems to be in the business of hiring retiring flag officers.

File this under business as usual: ‘$100 laptop’ sparks war of words

Chip-maker Intel “should be ashamed of itself” for efforts to undermine the $100 laptop initiative, according to its founder Nicholas Negroponte.

He accused Intel of selling its own cut-price laptop – the Classmate – below cost to drive him out of markets.

Professor Negroponte, who aims to distribute millions of laptops to kids in developing countries, said Intel had hurt his mission “enormously”.

Nick, you knew what kind of people you were dealing with going in, so you should stop complaining that “water is wet”. Based on price you decided to use AMD processors in your machine. Intel didn’t see the market until you created it, so they didn’t give you a realistic bid. Now that the market exists, they are going after it to destroy you and your effort. You work in the field; you should know what a cut-throat SOB Intel is.

After you’re gone they will spike the price and make their profits. You are a competitor so you have to be crushed. It’s not about priorities, it’s about profit margin and market share.