Posts from — September 2007

This low pressure system is becoming better organized as wind shear is dropping so people on or near the Atlantic coast from South Carolina northward need to start paying attention to their weather stations.

The current best guess is a strong tropical storm that runs along the coast with heavy rain and 60 mph winds, but storms have been over-achieving this year, so pay attention.  Tropical storm spin off tornadoes,  so don’t concentrate on the eye.

In my e-mail this morning was an obvious phishing attempt that spoofed the IRS, telling me I had a tax refund that I should apply for on-line.

Given that I have never provided the IRS with that e-mail address, don’t use e-filing. and am fairly certain that the IRS hasn’t moved to Brazil recently, I went looking for a way to report it. There doesn’t appear to be one. I would assume I would need to telephone someone and they would get back to me, rather that simply forwarding the e-mail to abuse@irs.gov, like all of the real sites on the ‘Net.

In my law enforcement days, it would have been the Secret Service, but they have broken the government so badly they probably don’t have a procedure for dealing with it.

Someone has already dropped this one in the PhishTank, so volunteers will have to take up the slack until “Homeland Security” masters the mouse.

Comfy?

Zzzz…..

[Editor: I have a hard time believing the places and positions Excise can sleep in. Even when he pushes stuff off of shelves, it certainly doesn’t make for a comfortable bed.]

Friday Ark

According to the MSM: Bin Laden to issue video as 9/11 anniversary approaches.

Every time the Shrubbery gets into trouble and needs to scare people, Osama shows up in a new video. There’s no way of verifying the date or time of these videos, but they are certainly helpful.

The sky was overcast so the web doesn’t show up, but this is the female Golden Silk Orbweaver with the smaller male above it.

She writes about Leaving Home….

She and her family are in Syria, safe for the moment. She couldn’t stay in Iraq because of the mess the Hedgemony has created.

General Petraeus is first and foremost an active duty, serving officer of the United States Army. He is not going to contradict the President of the United States, and the President has already pronounced the “surge” a success. Anyone harboring the delusion that General Petraeus is going to provide Congress or the American people will the unvarnished truth, had better get their meds adjusted.

The General saw his first combat in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq as he graduated from West Point in 1974.

No one is going to know what the man really thinks until he retires. That’s the way the system works, get used to it.

It is so refreshing one you find the occasional individual in the non-system that is the US government has become who has actually read the Constitution and understands what it means. From the Associated Press: Judge rules against parts of Patriot Act

NEW YORK – A federal judge struck down parts of America’s top anti-terror law as unconstitutional Thursday, saying courts must be allowed to supervise cases where the government orders Internet providers to turn over records without telling customers.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the government orders must be subject to meaningful judicial review and that the recently rewritten USA Patriot Act “offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers.”
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CBS News correspondent Lara Logan reports on Iraq’s New Danger: Armor-Piercing Grenades

(CBS) An al Qaeda propaganda video dated Aug. 15, 2006, shows a brazen attack on U.S. soldiers with a hand grenade that’s more deadly than any other. The explosion is huge, as three armor-piercing bombs find their target.

It’s not a new weapon on the Iraqi battlefield, but CBS News has learned it’s being used more now than ever. And for the first time, the Army has admitted this weapon is killing its soldiers.

[Read more →]

According to this wire service report: Nepal airline sacrifices goats to appease sky god

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Officials at Nepal’s state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said on Tuesday.

I wonder what Akash Bhairab would do for Northwest or Delta if they sacrificed their CEOs?

You’re trying to make that plane and you forget what you’re carrying. Happens to a lot of people.

Like the guy Whig wrote about who left the 4-inch folding hunting knife in his backpack and when he went through security they confiscated his pudding.

Then there was Congresscritter John Hostettler [R-IN] who forgot he had a loaded Glock 9mm pistol in his briefcase as he tried to board an airplane in Louisville.

It happens to a lot of people, so why all the furor about Air Force forgetting there were six nuclear warheads on a B-52. People just forgot they were there.

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Keith Olbermann on Countdown, a Special Comment: Bush just playing us with ‘troop withdrawal’.

It is possible that Keith is a bit annoyed. He conjugates the verb “to lie” and says things like “resignation” and “impeachment.” One might deduce that he is upset with the Shrubbery.

Go. Read. [also available as video.]

The Associated Press reports: Moderate Wins Powerful Post In Iran

(AP) Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani was picked Tuesday as head of a powerful clerical body empowered with choosing or dismissing Iran’s supreme leader, state-run television reported.

Rafsanjani received 41 votes to become head of the Assembly of Experts, a body of 86 senior clerics charged with monitoring Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and choosing his successor.

The former president, who is considered more moderate than current hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, defeated Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, an extremist within the hard-line camp. Jannati received 30 votes, state TV said. [Read more →]

Since annoying the people caught in his quagmire wasn’t enough: Bush attends APEC summit after brief Iraq visit. The city of Sydney, Australia is in full lock-down for three days for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation [APEC] forum.

Bush also is scheduled to meet with leaders from Japan, China, Russia and South Korea. Some have dubbed this year’s APEC the “China summit,” a reference to Beijing’s rising influence.

“Is this a China summit? The answer is absolutely not,” Bush said.

Yeah, right. Via Watertiger and Best of Both Worlds we find the press release from the office of the Governor-General of Australia, the Queen’s representative and ceremonial head of government, noting:

On Tuesday, 4 September 2007, at Defence Establishment Fairbairn, ACT, Their Excellencies the Governor-General Major General Michael Jeffery AC CVO MC and Mrs Marlena Jeffery attended the Ceremonial Arrival of the President of the People’s Republic of China, His Excellency Hu Jintao.
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