Weblog 2003-02-25, Tuesday

Here are the links that I have found in my Bookmarks, relevant to local repeal of the US unPatriot Act.

Repeal the unPatriot Act
   http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/09/mann.htm
   http://www.salon.com/tech/log/2001/05/02/fbi_web/index.html
   http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021217-30408812.htm
   http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul41.html
   http://villagevoice.com/issues/0230/baard.php
   http://villagevoice.com/issues/0250/hentoff.php
   http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0226/hentoff.php
   http://villagevoice.com/specials/civil_liberties/
   http://www.bordc.org/
   http://truthout.com/docs_02/11.16F.safire.you.htm
   http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/14/opinion/14SAFI.html

The last two are to Bill Safire's NYT article.  As you know Safire worked for Nixon and is a Bush supporter, but is deeply suspicious of this aspect of Bush policies.  The Lew Rockwell site is an "Old Conservative" site, and quite antipathetic to the Shrubbyist NeoCons.

The bordc.org link is to the original repeal organizers' site and materials.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0221-04.htmhas a good introduction to Patriot Act II, which would turn a nightmare into a living hell, as far as Civil Liberties are concerned.  This proposal was news for a couple of days last week, but has been dropped by the press.

http://www.tomorrowsbestseller.com/works/21-TheNewAmericanPoliceState/book.asp
is a link to an online ebook on the topic.

American Civil Liberties Union links I have ready access to are:
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFreeMain.cfm
is the national site for the ACLU campaign to defend the Constitution.

For Northern California,
http://www.aclunc.org/911/backlash.pdf  (a 36 page .pdf format document described at http://www.postrockcountry.com/arc/Nov/1102just17.htm ) -- (the Google Cache of this page is HERE)
This document is available in HTML format as well, selections are at:
http://www.aclunc.org/911/backlash/introduction.html
http://www.aclunc.org/911/backlash/recommendations.html
 http://www.aclunc.org/911/backlash/conclusion.html
 http://www.aclunc.org/911/backlash/resources.html

Weblog 2003-02-22, Sunday

"The George Bush Train Wreck"  -- Norm Aulabaugh, <nra@ticon.net>, in Janesville, WI, has done a series of Commentaries for the local public access television station.  Episode #8 of Stormin' Norman  entitled "The George Bush Train Wreck"  is an account of the history of the US's recent involvement in Iraq including how we went from:

• supporting Iraq during the Iran - Iraq war in the early 1980's, even though we were aware of their use of CBW agents,
• to initially effective support of the inspections regime, after the "Gulf War",
• then erosion of US support for inspections after the leaking of information through US intelligence sources to Israel was discovered in 1997,
• followed by abandonment of that effort in 1998, and now
• the current use of the results of this neglect, inattention, and misuse of the inspections process as justification for war.

Weblog 2003-02-22, Saturday

SPEAK OUT
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

And a vast paranoia sweeps across the land
And America turns the attack on its Twin Towers
Into the beginning of the Third World War
The war with the Third World
And the terrorists in Washington
Are drafting all the young men
And no one speaks
And they are rousting out
All the ones with turbans
And they are flushing out
All the strange immigrants
And they are shipping all the young men
To the killing fields again
And no one speaks
And when they come to round up
All the great writers and poets and painters
The National Endowment of the Arts of Complacency
Will not speak
While all the young men
Will be killing all the young men
In the killing fields again
So now is the time for you to speak
All you lovers of liberty
All you lovers of the pursuit of happiness
All you lovers and sleepers
Deep in your private dreams
Now is the time for you to speak
O silent majority

Before they come for you

Copyright © 2003 City Lights Books

Lawrence Ferlinghetti,  84 years of age,  one of the original "Beat Poets" and Founder of  City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. He saw service in the U.S. Navy in World War II as a ship's commander, took part in the Normandy Invasion and arrived in Nagasaki just weeks after the Bomb was dropped...

The best index and review source I have found for US voting machine fraud and related investigatons is a New Zealand site "Scoop".   Their most recent coverage is listed here:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00158.htm (Look at this one, for sure.)
 http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00157.htm
 http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00156.htm

 http://scoop.co.nz/mason/features/?s=usacoup
 http://scoop.co.nz/mason/features/?s=usacoup#top9

The only US media outlet giving consistent attention to the topic seems to be  Salon.com  And CounterPunch had this on Feb. 20.
 http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/02/20/voting_machines/index.html
 http://www.counterpunch.org/tripp02202003.html

The Unlikely Rise of Howard Dean:  The five-time governor of the Ben & Jerry's state is actually a product of Park Avenue, an outspoken critic of war against Iraq, and suddenly, a Democratic presidential force.
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/politics/national/n_8376/index.html

Six million marched for peace last week, but the Bush Regime and the Blair Regency were  unmoved by this outburst from the ignorant rabble. Instead, the righteous leaders of the  "Coalition of the Willing" (or COW) declared that no power on earth will halt their holy  quest to rid the world of Saddam Hussein and his chemical weapons.    Strange, then, to see one of COW's biggest bovines -- Pentagon warlord Donald "Squinty"  Rumsfeld -- informing the dazed and docile rubber stamps of Congress of his intention to  assault Iraq with, er, chemical weapons.

---

Weblog 2003-02-21

From the back cover of one of my all time favorite books:
"This original and compelling book demonstrates that the fear of food shortages explains many otherwise puzzling technical, social and moral arrangements in peasant society.  Using lower Burma and Vietnam as examples Scott shows how the transformations of the colonial era systematically violated the peasants' "moral economy" and created a situation of potential rebellion."

"James Scott's book is a particularly sophisticated statement of a perspective on peasant institutions that has become something of an orthodoxy.... His work is marked by a powerful capacity for understanding what he calls the "moral universes" of others." -- Jonathan Lieberson, New York Review of Books

"This book will last.  No one interested in peasant societies in Southeast Asia, or for that matter elsewhere, can afford to ignore it. . . .  It is as well written as it is sophisticated and enlightening.  It should be assigned ... to undergraduates . . . , recommentded as a matter of course to graduate students working on social change, and mentioned always to anyone puzzled by the intricacies of economic, social, and political structure in countries with large peasant populations.  -- Daniel S. Lev, Journal of Politics

James C Scott is the Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Anthropology at Yale University and current president of the Association of Asian Studies.  He is the author of Weapons of the Weak:  Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance; Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts; and Seeing Like a State:  How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, all published by Yale University Press.  ISBN 0-300-02190-9  (Amazon Link)

For any economist or casual student of economics concerned with the concept of "moral hazard" this book is an absolutely essential corrective to the narrowness of that topic as traditionally treated by economists.   The book's implications go far beyond the economic and moral ecology of peasant societies into the very heart of the theory and practice of economic development, technological change, and globalization.

Spam is more than an inconvenience for computer users.  The prevalence and intrusiveness of spam has made computers "the enemy in the living room" for many users.  Coupled with scare tactics used by "anti-porn" crusaders and by virus vendors selling their products; and with security problems in email and the MS OS, much of the public has become frightened of the computer.

They have in fact come to view it as an arbitrary and capricious device.  It seems in danger of blowing (or freezing) up at any moment, of losing their data, of requiring replacement of Hard Drives and  reinstallation (after securing special permission from Cerberus at Microsoft) of the OS.  It does not seem a reliable source of information and entertainment.

The sum of these "dangers" and the effect they have on public response to computers is severely depressing the growth of the computer and communications industry, and even the US economy.  Yet each of them could be managed by the industry, if it recognized the need to do so.  The benefits to the companies in the industry and to the consumer of taking action to deal with them are incalculable.

We have hints of action, and tiny first steps being taken, by MS in the security area, and by Earthlink, AOL, and others in the spam area.  But if the true magnitude of the drag on the industry resulting from these factors was understood by the main players in the industry, what they now seem to regard as major efforts would be recognized as weak, even pathetic, in comparison to what is needed.

These factors are killing demand for your products, slowing the growth of your company and industry and even the US economy.  The intensity with which your management should be addressing them simply cannot be overstated.  Go for it.

Quoted from email:  "You have a conscience.  Discern the difference between your "still small voice" of your conscience and that of the church and national leadership, as did Jesus facing the established religion in Israel and Caesar's governor Pontius Pilate, who condemned him to death on a Roman cross."   ". . . Our task on earth is to be persons of conscience.  My reading of the New Testament indicates that this is the main message of Jesus, who Mathew reports said in his sermon on the mount, "Not every one who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father, who is in heaven." (Matt. 7:21)  Elsewhere he said that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, here, now.  I understand this heaven to be our world of conscience.  "Take up your cross and follow me."  That cross is the ever-present conscience, our continual facing death and allowing love to lead us, through this gate to heaven.  Notice that Jesus did not say to pick up your weapon and follow me.  One of my cousins actually believes that Jesus stands at the right hand of George W. Bush.  Perhaps it is so George and his administration of oil barons and born again Christians manufacturing Armageddon can experience Jesus saying: "On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'  And then will I declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.'" (Matt. 7:22-23)"

"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger." -- Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, Nazi Air Force (Luftwaffe) commander, the Nuremberg Trials

"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State." -- Dr. Joseph
M. Goebbels

"By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell -- and hell heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed." -- Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf

" I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts. " -- Abraham Lincoln

The presidency does not belong to any one person.... It belongs to the American people." -- George W. Bush, on inauguration day, 01/21/01

"The terrorists hate our freedoms; our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other. -- George W. Bush, Sept. 20, 2001

"What's the difference between Adolf Hitler and George W. Bush?...Answer:  Hitler Was Elected." -- Paul Krassner

"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal" -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." --Benito Mussolini

Weblog 2003-02-20

Diane Swonk's The Passionate Economist is touted as a must read.  "In this powerful and insightful book, Diane Swonk brings economics to life."--Charles R. Schwab.  (Link to Amazon)  I love the  title, had a nodding aquaintance with Diane years ago and admire Chas. Schwab,  so I will be ordering.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471269964/nationalassoci09/102-1755892-7057732

If  only people who cannot do math (statistics) would rationally buy lottery tickets, logically only people who cannot do math would win the lottery.  Hmmmmm......  Seems to be born out empirically, as far as I can tell from news reports.

President Bush is already losing the most important war he must fight, the war for world opinion. Demonstrations in most Western countries at the weekend were of a scale that cannot be ignored. Without international approval, Mr Bush can invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein if he dares,  but it would be an act of cold-blooded aggression that would severely damage the moral authority of the United States.

Fortunately the US and Britain appear to have realised that, which is probably why they are returning to the United Nations Security Council seeking another vote of support for action.  Previously the US had maintained that November's resolution 1441 gave all the authority needed for the use of force in the event of Iraq's defiance. Much depended on the report of the UN weapons inspectors, presented to the Security Council at the weekend. It was not conclusive.

It acknowledged improved co-operation and the chief inspector Hans Blix said they had come across no sign of forbidden weapons except for a few empty chemical munition which should have been declared and destroyed.  However, he also pointed out that Iraq has still not accounted for the chemical and biological weapons material it was once known to possess.

"If they exist they should be presented for destruction," said Mr Blix.  "If they do not exist, credible evidence to that effect should be presented." Iraq, for its part, continues to ask the Security Council: "How do we give up what we do not have?" The US is unmoved and impatient.  France and Germany believe the inspections are making progress and need to be beefed up and given more time.

The disagreement has caused tensions within Nato, where France, Germany and Belgium were reluctant to prepare military protection for Turkey in the event of an Iraqi counter-attack, and within the European Union.  Britain, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Portugal and the Netherlands favour a Security Council resolution that threatens force, while France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Greece, Finland, Ireland and Luxembourg oppose immediate military action. The EU has compromised by agreeing to force "as a last resort", which may be the Security Council's conclusion too.

Meanwhile the US is letting slip plans for a long postwar military occupation of Iraq, which only adds to the impression that the Bush Administration has no idea of the mess it would cause. The Middle East is not the US backyard. If Arab regimes are prepared to offend their populations by turning a blind eye to the overthrow of Saddam, they will not comfortably contemplate at least two years of American rule in Baghdad.

Iraq straddles the fault line of the great division of Islam. Sunnis hold power through the secular rule of Saddam but a greater proportion of the population are Shi-ite as in neighbouring Iran. Then there are the Kurds, with their own national aspirations, and several other ethnic interests.  Truly Mr Bush is picking a fight with unpredictable consequences and he seems to lack an exit strategy. Already he needs one.

If he cannot win the battle for world opinion he needs to fashion a face-saving exit, not just for himself but to see that Saddam does not emerge from this crisis with enhanced status in Arab eyes. Mr Bush could salvage his position, and keep the pressure on Saddam, by getting Security Council support for much stronger weapons inspections, perhaps with an international force alongside. If Saddam accepted that, it would be thanks to the Mr Bush's steely resolve.  With the democratic tide running against him, it may be the best way out.

Vengeance -- This, I think, is how men are - I cannot know about women.  We have to avenge what we have failed to protect.  No matter how small the failure, and how impossible the protection which we 'failed' to provide, there is an innate, basic drive to take vengeance for damage and hurt to who and what we love, and feel we should have protected.

There are many, many cases where the need to avenge what was not protected is handled with good consciousness and productive results.  Institutions of learning, medicine, protection etc. have been founded and driven by people who have lost loved ones, and who found ways to channel their grief, and guilt over their sense of failure, in positive and beneficent ways.  This surely requires an abundance of self discipline, self understanding, foresight, and consciousness.

In contrast, this drive, however logical in its primitive origins, when it is distorted by unconsciousness and high emotion, can be expressed in truly twisted and disfunctional ways, with vengeance turned against the wrong subjects, including the loved ones themselves.  Vengeance is often disproportionate with respect to the injury, and with respect to the real responsibility of the subject being 'punished'.  The degree of vengefulness in many cases seems more related to the avenger's sense of failure, powerlessness, and guilt than to the actual harm, or to the responsibility of the object against which vengeance is directed.

I suspect that some of the most mysterious, unnatural, and violent news we hear and see originates in disordered responses to this drive.  And it may also explain the extemity of the US actions in response to 9-11, especially in Iraq.

In what is a first, to my recollection, PBS's "Charlie Rose Show" featured two guests in a row whose points of view might be considered somewhat skeptical about the state of human affairs and the US role in them.  As I anticipated, Charlie was uncomfortable, and overtly argumentative and leading in his interviews with both guests.

The first was Professor Stanley Hoffman, of Harvard University, who described, despite interruption and contradiction from Charlie,  the reasons for his reservations about current US foreign policy.  (What I call the Shrubbyist strategy for world domination and the destruction of democracy.  But then I am hot blooded by temperament.)  See Stanley Hoffmann, "The High and the Mighty," The American Prospect vol. 13 no. 24, January 13, 2003 .  http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/24/hoffmann-s.html

The second was Noreena Hertz, Associate Director of the Centre for International Business and Management at Cambridge University, and author of "The Silent Takeover: Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy".  Her book, which describes the subversion of democratic institutions  worldwide by multinational corporations over the last 20 years, and discusses the economic and social costs of this takeover, has been named one of the best books of the year by The Sunday Times of London, is a best seller in England and has been translated into nine languages.
http://www.ebooks.com/item/036663.htm
 

Weblog 2003-02-19
 

Virtual March on Washington Headquarters  http://www.moveon.org/winwithoutwar/ MoveOn.org is hosting the online headquarters for the Virtual March on  Washington on February 26th, sponsored by the Win Without War Coalition.  We need your help NOW to make the Virtual March a reality. You can (1) prepare a free fax for transmission on  the day of the march, and (2) register to make phone calls to Congress on the day of the march at the MoveOn.org web site above.

Bush's strategy for war on Iraq is a tragic mistake;

• it will not achieve liberation for the Iraqi peoples or establish democracy in Iraq  (See this!),
• it will kill 10s or hundreds of thousands of the people we should help, and
• it has divided instead of created an alliance of the free peoples of the world.

Do our cells wonder if we exist?  If they believe we exist do they worship us?  Do any of them spend their cell lives attempting to discern our nature and even 'prove' our existence?  Do neurons know they have life and intelligence, and doubt the life of bone, and the intelligence of flesh?  Having experienced the birth and death of their cell companions, do they accept their own mortality and believe in our immortality?  Do they pray to us for the things that make them healthy, happy and successful, believing that since we care for them we will intervene for them or speak to them directly?  Are they utterly convinced that we know each of them individually, and count their individual offenses against us?  Are there "a'ists" among them who do not believe we live at all, and see us only as a  physical universe containing their own existence?  Do our cells consider moral obligations, and conform to standards of behavior?  And if they do not, are there consequences?

Do they dare to name us and speak to one another 'in our name'?
Are our cells any more limited, in the understanding of their universe, than we in ours?

The Propaganda Remix Project http://homepage.mac.com/leperous/PhotoAlbum1.html Buy This Book from Amazon.com -- 45 posters mocking and opposing the Shrubbyist Big Brother government, in full color, perfect for protest signs or mass photocopying.nbsp With a foreword by Kurt Vonnegut, an introduction by Howard Zinn,   and commentary by the Center for Constitutional Rights.  (pre-order now, book to be printed in April by Seven Stories Press)

The Recovery of the USS Cole
http://www.dazzled.com/pianolady1/recovery_usscole.htm
These are time-lapse photos of the recovery of the USS Cole.  In the first photo, a transport ship is "flooded" to allow it underneath the disabled USS Cole.  Cole was transported from Aden to Pascagoula by the Norwegian heavy transport ship M/V Blue Marlin.  As the photos progress, the USS Cole is secured to the deck of the transport ship.  Then the transport is slowly raised to the surface of the water to get underway.

Carnegie Corporation Report: "The Business of News--A Challenge for Journalism's Next Generation"
http://www.carnegie.org/pdf/businessofnews2.pdf
 

Weblog 2003-02-17

Betraying Democracy  - My posting for today had the following headings and can be read at:

Saudi Princes, Radical Islamists, and Shrubbyist Oil Barons
A "Final Solution" in Palestine?
The Plight of the Iraqi People
The Kurds - Betrayed by the US, Yet Again?

Weblog 2003-02-16

I give thanks for millions of people all over the world who have protested the Bush regime's war policies this weekend.

Weblog 2003-02-14

More on Mossad Mischief - Now I admit that the following does not surprise me, in fact it supports what I wrote a couple of days ago - that the latest and previous "bin Laden" tapes are fakes.  And I say they are Mossad fakes, though the Swiss researchers are silent on that possibility.

 Swiss won’t verify “bin Laden” tape
 swissinfo   Jonas Hughes  February 12, 2003 4:34 PM

Swiss researchers who last November analysed a tape attributed to Osama bin Laden say they won’t be scrutinising the latest recording broadcast by the Arabic television network, Al-Jazeera.  The Swiss analysts said the previous tape was almost certainly faked, despite US claims to the contrary.  The Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial Intelligence (Idiap) in Martigny told swissinfo on Wednesday that it had no intention of analysing the latest tape.

United States officials say the recording, which calls on Muslims to fight the US and repel a war against Iraq, is “probably” the voice of Osama bin Laden, suggesting a link between Iraq and bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. The US said a similar recording, broadcast by Al-Jazeera on November 12, was also genuine, despite analysis by Idiap researchers, who concluded that it was faked.

However, the company said the poor quality of that recording coupled with the limited number of voice examples meant that it was unlikely the recording could ever be properly authenticated.  The finding suggests that no one can say with certainty whether the November recording, or similar ones, are definitely the voice of bin Laden, as some US officials have claimed.

Idiap, based in Martigny in canton Valais, told swissinfo it had agreed to analyse the November tape, at the request of a French TV channel, for reasons “mainly motivated by pure scientific curiosity”. It added that it therefore had no need to conduct further analyses on new recordings.
  http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=41&ampsid=1627978
  Related Sites
    IDIAP:   http://www.idiap.ch/index.php?UrlTemplateType=15
    The November 12 audio tape (Al-Jazeera):
    http://www.al-jazeera.net/showMedia.asp?item_No=124030&videoPath=&oldMediaItURL=1_124030

It's all too depressing to think about for very long. Better to worry about those Iraqi missiles with nonnuclear warheads than have been revealed to exceed their allowable range by a whopping 24 miles. That's a far lesser threat, but it's one that at least can be dealt with.
http://www.forbes.com/2003/02/13/cx_ml_0213topnews.html

Rather, it is to distract us from the disaster they have made of our national and international policies, and to advance, under the cloud of dust and smoke they have raised, an un-American political agenda - one that is in contravention of American ideals and actions, here in the US and abroad,  since the beginning of the last century.

 Senate Floor Speech - Wednesday, February 12, 2003
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0212-07.htm
http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_newsroom/byrd_newsroom.html

Senator Robert Byrd is a legislator of great experience, and here demonstrates both wisdom and an ability to articulate it.  I hope our other legislators, in both Houses, are capable of separating themselves from narrow and immediate issues and political considerations to examine carefully and objectively the points Senator Byrd makes.

For my part, I find him more than persuasive; I find it a great relief to know that at least one of our elected representatives is standing up and speaking out in this way.  It is an honor to support him in his remarks.

Weblog 2003-02-13

The FCC hosts the "Ultra Wideband Show"!   Always read the fine print:

UWB operates across a wide range of frequency spectrum by transmitting a series of very narrow and low power pulses. It causes less interference and is  than narrow frequency spectrum radio technologies.  (The signal is so random and low powered that it is indistinguishable from noise, which renders it essentially undetectable and unblockable!) The FCC notes that UWB promises "significant benefits" for public safety, pointing out the technology's ability to power (i.e., to facilitate the data aquisition and processing necessary for) radar imaging of objects buried under the ground or located behind walls.

Ground Penetrating Radar System: Mala GeoScience's Easy Locator will be available for a hands on demonstration. GPR systems like the Easy Locator can accurately locate and determine depths to utilities of many types including pipes, cables, conduit, and duct banks in soils favorable to the GPR method. Geophysical Survey Systems will also demonstrate a GPR system for detecting metal or plastic utilities in real time with an added feature that provides 3-D images of  underground objects.

Thru-Wall Imaging System: Time Domain Corp.'s RadarVision allows users to detect the movement of people behind walls. The hand-held unit, which incorporates Time Domain's PulsON chipset technology, provides a new level of situational intelligence and awareness for law enforcement and public  safety personnel.
http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/1583051

A Foundational Technology: Time Domain's PulsON chipsets also deliver a foundational technology capable of fusing wireless communications, radar and tracking. This potential to combine traditionally distinct capabilities is leading many innovators to explore entirely new applications that take advantage of UWB's unique technical characteristics.
http://www.timedomain.com/products/index.html - http://www.timedomain.com/products/ourtech/overview.html

Weblog 2003-02-12

Mendacity!  Venality!  What a horrific vocabulary lesson the Shrubbyists are giving us!

Bush's paper-thin evidence to justify a war has fallen apart!
"we are witnessing the tantrum of a woefully untutored and inexperienced president whose willfulness rises in direct proportion to his inability to comprehend a world too complex for  his grasp."
 http://www.latimes.com/la-oe-scheer11feb11,0,4491596.column

Weblog 2003-02-10/11

Ugly, nasty, evil cold (adenovirus) ... cannot do any real thinking or work, cannot even type...

THE PROOF:
A guy asks an American, "What proof do you have that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction?"
 The American replies "We kept the receipts."       (TNX, Wink)

Shrubbyist Evil - The Scorecard:   The "Wage Slave Journal" maintains the Scorecard!

The Inspections Flap: Both Sides Are Wrong By John Tirman, AlterNet February 7, 2003http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15128

It's not about oil, it's not about inspections, it's not about the need to get rid of SH, it is about those now in charge of the federal government . . . upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka “Christians,”   and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or “PPs.”
 

It has come to my attention that 'psycopathic personality' disorder goes beyond an inability to envision, or even a willful disregard for the consequensces of actions on others, to a state of literally being unaffected by, and not caring about those consequences.  I guesswe have to make our own estimates and judgements about what is going on at the White House these days.

Moore's law has three variables: price, density, and performance, each of which contributes to the 100 percent improvement the law promises every couple years.  . . . (but) Nobody gets excited that 8088 prices have now fallen to, say, 50 cents, making cardboard box  cameras 12 cents cheaper--after all, that's 1974 technology.

(after the first 10 minutes there were basically no machines that could be infected that had not already been infected).  . . .  In all likelihood, nothing was done by anyone that prevented a   machine from being infected.  . . .  If Slammer had been a destructive virus, 75,000 hosts might have been toast in 10 minutes. This is a depressing realization. (Yup!)
http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2003/0210bradner.html

Shrub's Cyber Warfare Policy may do more harm than good, according to some security experts.  Agressive  cyber warfare by the US may trigger counter attacks which damage our own information systems, while those we attack are less dependent on computer and communications infrastructure.
 
 

MoveOn Peace