Posts from — July 2008

I’m not overly fond of videos, but this is just too righteous for the news [on many levels].

CNN’s breaking story: Grand jury indicts Alaska senator

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens was charged Tuesday with making false statements after a wide-ranging probe into ties between an energy company and lawmakers in his home state, according to a federal indictment.

In a 28-page indictment from a federal grand jury, Stevens was charged with seven counts of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms.

The indictment says Stevens “schemed to conceal” the fact that Alaska’s Veco Energy paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work on his home.

This is one of the many reasons the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve shouldn’t be opened – these people just can’t control their greed.

White House projects record deficit for 2009

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush’s budget chief blamed the faltering economy and the bipartisan stimulus package for the record $482 billion deficit the White House predicted for the 2009 budget year.
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President Bush inherited a budget surplus of $128 billion when he took office in 2001 but has since posted a budget deficit every year.

The budget doesn’t include the cost of the wars in South Asia, so add another $80-100 billion to the deficit, and it doesn’t adjust for the Social Security over payments that are just being spent as they come in, as if they were general revenue, so the deficit is in the neighborhood of $800-900 billion.

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The BBC tells us that for that sum, Richard Branson has a deal for you.

The British business tycoon, Richard Branson, has unveiled an aircraft in the US that will be used for his project to launch tourists into space.
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A crowd of engineers, dignitaries and space enthusiasts gathered inside a hangar in the Mojave Desert in California for the unveiling of White Knight Two “Eve”.

Virgin Galactic has contracted the innovative aerospace designer Burt Rutan to build its spacecraft at his Scaled Composites factory in California.

The pictures on the BBC are a little small, so you might want to drop the Virgin Galactic press room for something bigger.

Eventually the VSP will admit that the economy has been in “economic slowdown” since last Fall, but real people already know that. Prices for the things that have to bought or paid for, like food, gas, and utilities have been rising while jobs have been disappearing.

Given this reality why are the political parties holding conventions and wasting all that money, not to mention the environmental costs of all these people traveling to these areas? They are coronations, not decisions. There will be nothing new come out at these meetings. The Republicans didn’t really care, and the DNC made sure that the convention would be meaningless.

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The McCain Campaign’s newest hire?

Typhoon Fung-wong is on track to hit Taiwan and then continue into China. It is currently a category 3 storm.

The latest California fire is near an entrance to Yosemite National Park. So far about 25 square miles have burned.

The Qantas 747 was probably damaged by a defective oxygen bottle.

The Ahmedabad bombing investigation continues in India. There were 17 bombs in an hour killing 45 people and wounding more than 100. The area has a long history of violence between Hindus and Muslims.

Back in the US a Gunman critically wounds 7 in Tennessee church

The man entered Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and began shooting during a children’s production of the musical “Annie,” said Steve Drevik, a church member who arrived after man’s arrest.

A church member said three congregants tackled and held the shooter until police arrived and took him into custody, according to Knoxville television station WBIR.

Locally the temperature is only 90° but with the humidity at 100% the heat index is around 115°, so no one is doing much other than dripping when they go outside.

The BBC has the Tour de France final results:

1. Carlos Sastre of Spain – Yellow [overall]
2. Cadel Evans of Australia
3. Bernhard Kohl of Austria

• Oscar Freire of Spain – Green [sprints]
• Bernhard Kohl of Austria – Polka Dot [mountains]
• Andy Schleck of Luxembourg – White [young rider]

The Australian Broadcasting news site is down, server overload no doubt as Cadel Evans comes in second for the second Tour in a row.

This will really be a great talking point for the election: GOP Blocks Heating Aid Increase For Poor

(CBS/ AP) Republicans on Saturday blocked the Senate from considering a bill next week that would nearly double federal aid to help the poor pay heating and air-conditioning bills.

Although a dozen Senate Republicans support the measure, most voted with GOP leaders who would rather spend the time trumpeting their call to expand offshore oil drilling before Congress takes six weeks off for vacation and the presidential nominating conventions.

Let’s see, the possibility of more oil a decade in the future is going to offset the reality of old people dying from the heat and cold this year.

The campaign commercials just about write themselves.  The fat cat multinational oil companies raking in record profits who don’t bother drilling for oil in the leases they already own, verses the elderly freezing to death from the high utility bills.

Of course the utility companies are going to be more than a little annoyed, as they are really the prime beneficiaries of these programs.

We don’t shoot lawn mowers in Florida, that’s reserved for Louisiana governors and people from the upper Midwest.

However we do occasionally have to use firearms in our yards.

I have to say that anyone who lived in Levy County, Florida should know better than to go outside when a fox shows up during the middle of the day. I assume they felt that it couldn’t be a fox, because no fox in its right mind hangs around where there are people.

Fortunately when the fox attacked the woman, her husband had a .22 caliber rifle handy to put 6 rounds in the fox and kill it. Unfortunately, he fired 7 times, but a .22 is easy to dig out, and the pain from getting shot in the leg is nothing compared to the pain of the rabies shots, because foxes with rabies aren’t in their right minds, and will attack people.

McClatchy reports the latest from the trial of Osama’s chauffeur: Guantanamo testimony: U.S. let bin Laden’s top bodyguard go

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — Soon after Osama bin Laden’s driver got here in 2002, he told interrogators the identity of the al Qaeda chief’s most senior bodyguard — then a fellow prison camp detainee.

But, inexplicably, the U.S. let the bodyguard go.
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For some reason MSNBC classified this as “Weird News”: Cranky man shoots lawn mower for not starting

MILWAUKEE – A Milwaukee man was accused of shooting his lawn mower because it wouldn’t start. Keith Walendowski, 56, was charged with felony possession of a short-barreled shotgun or rifle and misdemeanor disorderly conduct while armed.

According to the criminal complaint, Walendowski said he was angry because his Lawn Boy wouldn’t start Wednesday morning. He told police quote, “I can do that, it’s my lawn mower and my yard so I can shoot it if I want.”

There is the possibility that Mr. Walendowski imbibed spirits prior to the confrontation with the lawn mower.

The BBC reports that Attacks begin on net address flaw

Attack code that exploits flaws in the net’s addressing system are starting to circulate online, say security experts.

The code could be a boon to phishing gangs who redirect web users to fake bank sites and steal login details.

In light of the news net firms are being urged to apply a fix for the loop-hole before attacks by hi-tech criminals become widespread.

Net security groups say there is anecdotal evidence that small scale attacks are already happening.

The important point is that you have to check to be sure that your ISP has upgraded. There is nothing the bank, PayPal, etc. can do because this occurs between you and them. When you click on a link you go to your ISP’s Domain Name Server to get the numeric IP address that identifies the web location you want to visit. This flaw allows the “bad guys” to substitute their address for the real one and you end up on an identical looking site asking for you to sign in.

EBW at Wampum provides an industrial strength checker for the problem. If it doesn’t say “Great”, start complaining to your ISP and avoid visiting on-line banks, PayPal, and other money sites until it does say “Great”.

From the land down under: Brisbane bank blown up in robbery attempt

Heavy-handed thieves have blown up a bank on Brisbane’s northside during an attempted robbery.

Very little remains of the Aspley branch of the Bank of Queensland on Gympie Road after a massive explosion at about 3:00am today.

No-one was injured, but the explosion caused a fire, and the bank’s automatic teller machine was thrown onto the footpath.

Police and bomb squad officers are on the scene.

Let this be a lesson: don’t drink and detonate.