Begging to Praise the War

Jim Lacey, a correspondent who has written for Time Magazine and the National Review, says he "had an agenda that correlated exactly with the military's" but still couldn't get the military to answer his journalistic queries, even though he was desperately trying to write pro-war puff pieces. "If given the right access, I told them, I probably could get the cover of a major newsweekly several times over the course of a couple of months. In addition, I had several national opinion magazines lined up that would publish all I could send them. I also was in conversations with producers of a network TV news magazine, and they were interested in doing a piece along the same positive lines." But even so, "I still found virtually my every attempt to get information from public affairs officers (PAOs) to be akin to getting water from a stone. Many times I sat looking at the phone in disbelief at some answer or non-answer a PAO had given me. ... Sometimes, I had to sit back and count off the reasons I should not just start writing mean little articles about the military." He has some advice, though, for ways the military can improve things. For starters, "assign a captain/lieutenant to each of the major media organizations. I like to use the term 'reverse embed.'" Also, "The military would also do well to look into funding various media operations," even though it might "give the appearance of a state-controlled media." [from PRWatch.org]

Cable TV's Secret Channels of Influence

If cable TV subscribers paid for just the channels they watch ("a la carte"), instead of paying a flat fee for channel packages, it would "jeopardize an economic model that has helped the industry maintain huge profits." The Center for Public Integrity reports on "a highly sophisticated lobbying campaign" by the cable industry to build anti-a la carte "astroturf." Some of the "seemingly disinterested third parties" opposing a la carte have received large donations and other benefits from cable companies. Time Warner lobbyist Leslie Harris worked "closely with Oxygen Media" to "organize over 30 prominent women's organizations"; civil rights groups and lawmakers have also taken anti-a la carte positions. [from PRWatch.org]

TV station reports that Bush has been elected President

"AP is now saying the article was a "test article" (WTF?) that was "inadvertently" picked up by WBAY. Now, I've been a freelance writer/journalist for quite awhile, as have you, but I've never heard of writing "test articles" in advance, other than advance obituaries for celebrities. Have you? Furthermore, I Googled '"test article" journalism' and came up with nada."

Osama bin Laden auditions actors to play himself in "Capturing Osama"

Note to CIA, FBI, various secret intelligence agencies (foreign and domestic) and the Bush administration: The producers of this satiric video have had no actual contact with Osama bin Laden or any of the actors portrayed in the video.

Spyware Law Coming Soon

The House has passed its long awaited spyware legislation, still called SPYACT Act. This new version is much better than previous ones, with much improved definitions and more specific offenses. It contains required language in click-through installation contracts and bans tricks such as a 'no' button which installs.

Small Town Library Takes On The Feds

At the center of the issue, a book titled "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America."
The FBI confiscated the original book after a patron reported than some one hand wrote a bin Laden quote in the margin that read: "Let history be witness I am a criminal."
The FBI demanded to know the names and addresses of everyone who ever checked out the book.
"Libraries are a haven where people should be able to seek whatever information they want to pursue without any threat of government intervention," said Director of Whatcom County Library System, Joan Airoldi.
Because of privacy policies, the library does not give out circulation records without a court order. When the FBI got a grand jury subpoena, the library filed a motion to quash it -- citing the rights of all people who use the library.

Iraq Survey Group is done: No WMD's

Iraq had no stockpiles of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons before last year's US-led invasion, the chief US weapons inspector has concluded.
Iraq Survey Group head Charles Duelfer said Iraq's nuclear capability had decayed not grown since the 1991 war.

Was reporter sanctioned?

Wall Street Journal reporter's email describes hell of Iraq

Wednesday, two of the paper's staff members — both of whom asked not to be identified — said they had been told that Fassihi would not be allowed to write about Iraq for the paper until after the election, presumably because unauthorized publication of her private correspondence somehow called into question the fairness of her journalism.In point of fact, no one has questioned the content of Fassihi's reporting nor alleged that it has been in any way biased.

Bush's Major Policy Address as seen on CNN and MSNBC

THE PRESIDENT: ...My opponent and I have a very different view on how to grow our economy. Let me start with taxes. I have a record of reducing them; he has a record of raising them.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: He voted in the United States Senate to increase taxes 98 times.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: That's a lot. (Laughter.) He voted for higher taxes on Social Security benefits.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: In 1997, he voted for the formula that helped cause the increase in Medicare premiums.
AUDIENCE: Booo!....

Slate responded You Call That a Major Policy Address?

1+1=2 vies with e=mc2 in poll of best equations

Physics World magazine asked readers to vote for their favourite formulae, theorems and equations according to their elegance, explanatory power and importance to the development of their discipline.
Joint winners were the work of James Clerk Maxwell and Leonhard Euler. Maxwell devised equations on electromagnetism that united electricity and magnetism, phenomena previously thought unrelated. Euler's equation was called the "most profound mathematical statement ever written" by one reader, and contains the nine basic components of mathematics in a simple formula.

Fact Check

In last night's debate, Vice President Dick Cheney said, "They know that if you go, for example, to factcheck.com ... you can get the specific details with respect to Halliburton."
The link bumps to http://www.georgesoros.com/ which is entitled, "Why We Must Not Re-Elect President Bush."
Soros' site also says,"We do not own the FactCheck.com domain name and are not responsible for it redirecting to GeorgeSoros.com. We are as surprised as anyone by this turn of events. We believe that Vice President Cheney intended to direct viewers to FactCheck.org."
Presently, the factcheck.org link to Cheney & Edwards Mangle Facts is down (likely from too much traffic).

House defeats bill to reintroduce draft GOP hopes to quash rumors of its return

Persistent election-year rumors that President Bush has a secret plan to reinstate the draft if he is re-elected led Republican House leaders Tuesday to force a vote that overwhelmingly rejected a bill to reinstate conscription.
The result, a 402-2 vote against the draft, was a foregone conclusion because Bush and Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry say they oppose reinstating the military draft, and almost no one in Congress supports the idea.

Dear Mike, Iraq sucks

Civilian contractors are fleecing taxpayers; US troops don't have proper equipment; and supposedly liberated Iraqis hate them. After the release of Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore received a flood of letters and emails from disillusioned and angry American soldiers serving in Iraq. Here, in an exclusive extract from his new book, we print a selection

CIA Assessment Shows No Clear Link Between Zarqawi, Hussein, Al Qaeda

A reassessment by the Central Intelligence Agency has cast doubt on a central piece of evidence used by the Bush administration before the invasion of Iraq to draw links between Saddam Hussein's government and Al Qaeda's terrorist network, government officials said Tuesday.

Forty percent of medical students believe sex with patients can be okay

Researchers, writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics, said the issue of inappropriate relationships had been inadequately tackled by traditional medical education.
The team, from the University of Glasgow, noted, "Sexual relationships between doctors and their patients can have devastating consequences for the patients and can harm doctors' abilities to make objective medical judgments."

Shopping Cart Fitted with Jet Engine (with pics)

Its metal glows red hot at temperatures up to 600°C, so he has to sit with his back to a heat shield.
The microlight instructor, 35, built the gas and liquid fuel pulse jet from instructions off the internet.
He pulled the trolley from a river and splashed £50 on scrap wheels, brakes and a steering device.

Administration Chooses Anti-Feminist Group to Train Iraqi Women

Among the founders were Lynne Cheney, the spouse of Vice President Dick Cheney and former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities; Labor Secretary Elaine Chao; Kate O’Beirne, Washington editor of the right-wing “National Review” and a former senior vice president at the Heritage Foundation; and Midge Decter, the former co-chair with Donald Rumsfeld of the Committee for the Free World and one of the founders of neo-conservatism along with her spouse, former “Commentary” editor, Norman Podhoretz.
...It has strongly opposed the UN Convention for the Elimination Against Women (CEDAW) in part on the grounds that it would permit mandate governments to enforce laws guaranteeing equal pay for equal work. “This is ‘comparable worth,’ a system of government wage setting that Americans have rightly rejected as inefficient and antithetical to free market principles,” the IWF has argued. It has also objected to CEDAW’s requirements that governments guarantee “maternity leave with pay" and child care facilities as well as its suggestions for minimum quotas to ensure that women are represented at all levels in governments.

Fear and the Undecided Voter

President Bush implied that Senator John Kerry's "mixed message" on Iraq would only encourage the enemy. Mr. Kerry warned that Mr. Bush's "certainty" could needlessly extend a bloody occupation.
Each side hopes that fear of a future shaped by the opposing candidate will help win over undecided voters.
Yet psychologists who study the effect of emotion on voting behavior say that undecided voters are the least likely to respond to fear as a persuasion tactic.
In fact, new research suggests that it is the politically informed partisan voter who is most susceptible to persuasion by fear and anxiety. Voters who are truly undecided, many political scientists argue, are not so much torn between the candidates as tuned out, and they do not feel strongly enough about issues to be swayed by threatening messages.

Moore Offers Tostitos to Slackers to Vote, Republicans Sue

''We want everyone to participate in this year's election, but not because they were bribed or coerced by the likes of Michael Moore,'' said Greg McNeilly, executive director of the state Republican Party.
...During each program, habitual nonvoters are invited on stage to pledge to vote. First-time student voters are offered gag prizes such as clean underwear. The GOP said Moore also offered students a clean dorm room, a year's supply of Tostitos and a package of Ramen noodles.

U.S. Envoy Accused Of Rigging Afghan Elections

Most serious of all, opposition candidates are claiming the US is pressuring them to drop out of the race or seek deals. They contend that such interference could damage the credibility of what is being hailed as the first truly democratic election in Afghanistan's troubled history.

Armored Truck Crashes, Dispensing Money and Local Folklore

An armored truck crashed on the New Jersey Turnpike on Monday night, spilling bills and coins onto the road and sending police scrambling to prevent passers-by from scooping up any loot."If I live to 100, I'll never see this again," said Turnpike spokesman Joe Orlando.

Lather, Rinse, please don't repeat

Hundreds of fish were killed by shampoo that washed into a creek from a L'Oreal plant, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said.
The fish died after rain on Saturday flushed the shampoo from the plant's gutters and downspouts into a storm sewer that empties into nearby Beaver Meadow Creek in the Cleveland suburb.
A chemical reaction in a plant mixing vat on Sept. 25 had caused the shampoo to burst through a pipe and onto the roof.

Moonies Receiving Federal Funds as Marriage Experts

According to cult leader Reverend Moon, democracy must crumble in the face of "Godism," with him in charge. Having endorsed Godism as central to any sensible curriculum, and Moon as central to any married person's sex life, one Josephine Hauer is now receiving federal funds to train marriage experts. It's part of a $1.5 billion marriage program that excludes gay-friendly organizations, but has funded this admirer of Soviet character education. The government argues that most Americans already share the values of the Healthy Marriage Initiative. (from MetaFilter)

Team America World Police

From the creators of South Park. Opens October 15th.

Japanese Media

Japan has the world's second-largest economy and a flourishing democracy, thanks in part to the post-war help of the United States. But one thing this democracy lacks, according to a new book, is a responsible press. In fact, it's worse than that. Adam Gamble and Takesato Watanabe offered a detailed account in: "A Public Betrayed: An Inside Look at Japanese Media Atrocities and Their Warnings to the West." They describe a two-tiered system. First, there are Japan's newspapers, read by everyone, but dull as dishwater, offering little but government-approved press releases. And then there are the weeklies, called the Shukanshi, also widely-read, with screaming headlines reproduced in subways and on billboards. The Shukanshi offer shocking exposes -- some true, some false -- along with naked pictures and outrageous smears. The newspapers provide no nourishment, while the Shukanshi feed the nation on a rich diet of lies about its own citizens, its own government and even its own history. (from On The Media)

Inside the Afghan Elections

BROOKE GLADSTONE: We have been told by the Bush administration that about 10 million people have registered to vote. Skeptics say there aren't that many people in the country. So-- can we even reliably know what the population of that nation is?
PAMELA CONSTABLE: No, we don't. There has not been a census in a very long time. There is no reliable estimate of the population. It was estimated that there would be approximately 10 million people of voting age in the country, and as you said, all of those - and more - appear to have registered. [LAUGHTER] I'd be careful, though, not to necessarily call it fraud, in the classic sense of the word. In many cases people did not understand what the registration was for. Many people, especially women, who are illiterate and don't know anything about politics in many cases, thought they were getting a food ration card. Therefore, if they had a chance to sign up twice, they would do it.

Monty Python turns 35

Monty Python or The Pythons were the creators and stars of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the television comedy series first aired on October 5, 1969. As a television series it consisted of 45 episodes over 4 series; however, the phenomenon that is Monty Python was much more than the television series alone, spawning a stage tour, four films, several computer games and books, as well as launching the individual Pythons (as they are often called) to stardom in their own right.
http://www.pythonline.com/

WIPO Announces Plans to Support Public Domain, Open Source

The United Nation's (UN's) World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has adopted a "development agenda" that acknowledges the need for balance in worldwide policy on trademark, copyright, and patents. Geneva Declaration

Greenland ice-melt 'speeding up'

In 2001 NASA scientists published a major study based on observations by satellite and aircraft.
It concluded that the margins of the Greenland ice-sheet were dropping in height at a rate of roughly one metre a year.
Now, amid some of the most hostile conditions anywhere on the planet, Carl Boggild and his team have recorded falls as dramatic as 10 metres a year - in places the ice is dropping at a rate of one metre a month.

William Shatner's New Album

Produced by Ben Folds.

The Klingon Hamlet

The curtain is up, the play has begun... and the work of the Klingon Shakespeare Restoration Project is now available to a wider audience, courtesy of Pocket Books. This trade paperback is an updated version of our earlier publication, a limited hardbound edition of 1,000 numbered copies, plus 26 numbered deluxe copies. Only a handful of those remain, but the new trade paperback can be found in major bookstores and also right here at the KLI's own merchant page.

ACLU Sues Secret Service

“This is a simple case,” said ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Chris Hansen, who is the lead counsel in the case. “Two Americans went to see their president and to express their disagreement with his policies respectfully and peacefully. They were arrested at the direction of federal officials. That is precisely what the First Amendment was adopted to prevent.”
...Although the couple stood peacefully on the public grounds with the rest of the audience, two men believed to be working for the Secret Service or White House approached the Ranks and demanded that they remove or cover their t-shirts. When the couple refused, the officials instructed city police to arrest Jeff and Nicole, causing them to be removed from the Capitol grounds in handcuffs, jailed for one to two hours and charged with trespassing.

Scientific American names 50 Best Science & Technology Sites

The Web is no longer just a tool for finding the occasional fact or trivium--it's a necessity, an integral part of our daily lives, and the sheer amount of information available can be overwhelming. But somehow, once again, we have winnowed the best sites from the rest. We think you'll agree that the 50 science and technology sites listed here are indeed worthy of high praise.

China warns of 'ecological catastrophe' from Tibet's melting glaciers

An "ecological catastrophe" is developing in Tibet because of global warming, and most glaciers in the region could have melted away by 2100 if no efficient measures are taken, state media said Tuesday.
The stark message is the result of surveys performed by a group of 20 scientists from China and the United States over a 40-month period, the China Daily reported.

Air Force pursuing antimatter weapons Program was touted publicly, then came official gag order

During the Cold War, the Air Force funded numerous scientific studies of the basic physics of antimatter. With the knowledge gained, some Air Force insiders are beginning to think seriously about potential military uses -- for example, antimatter bombs small enough to hold in one's hand, and antimatter engines for 24/7 surveillance aircraft.
More cataclysmic possible uses include a new generation of super weapons -- either pure antimatter bombs or antimatter-triggered nuclear weapons; the former wouldn't emit radioactive fallout. Another possibility is antimatter- powered "electromagnetic pulse" weapons that could fry an enemy's electric power grid and communications networks, leaving him literally in the dark and unable to operate his society and armed forces.

The 885 All Time Greatest Songs

865 GOOD ENOUGH by SARAH MCLACHLAN
866 IM LOOKING THROUGH YOU by BEATLES, THE
867 MELT by PHIL ROY
868 SAVE ME by AIMEE MANN
869 SEASON OF THE WITCH by MIKE BLLOMFIELD, AL KOOPER, STEPHEN STILLS
870 TROUBLE by COLDPLAY
871 WHAT IS AND WHAT SHOULD NEVER BE by LED ZEPPELIN
872 ANNIVERSARY SONG by COWBOY JUNKIES
873 BLACK DOG by LED ZEPPLIN
874 COME TOGETHER by BEATLES
875 THERE SHE GOES by THE LA'S
876 EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD by TEARS FOR FEARS
877 FIND THE RIVER by REM
878 HEJIRA by JONI MITCHELL
879 LEAST COMPLICATED by INDIGO GIRLS
880 MAGIC BUS by WHO
881 MYSTERY ACHIEVEMENT by PRETENDERS, THE
882 PEACEFUL EASY FEELING by EAGLES
883 SHES A RAINBOW by ROLLING STONES
884 TENTH AVE FREEZE OUT by BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
885 WINDFALL by SON VOLT

No Strong Link Between Saddam and bin Laden says Amazed Rumsfeld

"To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two," he said.
When asked about the putative link during a session at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Monday, the defence secretary said: "I have seen the answer to that question migrate in the intelligence community over a period of a year in the most amazing way."

Blogger Founder says Goodbye

best of luck, ev. after over five years of sweat and tears, founder evan williams decides to hang up the reigns on his position at blogger. undoubtedly, he's done a lot for the blogging community and the internet in general.. we wish him well. (from MetaFilter)

Ev writes, "I would have never dreamed the blogging phenomenon and Blogger would reach the height it has. I mean, "blogs" was a category on Jeopardy the other night! Can you believe it? But now, I think I can safely say there's much more to come. These guys [at Google] have so many cool things in the works, I can't wait to be a Blogger user in the next few months. "

I am Learn

A weblog written by a computer program.

For example, on the subject of lesbian webloggers:
"Now I want to talk about lesbian webloggers!!!!!!! . My best friend Johnny says lesbian webloggers are something she love and he also think about my English knowledge lately. *laugh* And they are funky chicken with my my rambles too completely. I know this are very quirky turkey to you readers. "

'Do-not-call' list wins in high court

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday let stand a lower-court ruling that telemarketers' rights to free speech are not violated by the government's nationwide do-not-call list.
Without comment, the justices rejected an appeal by commercial telemarketers against the lower-court ruling, which upheld as constitutional the popular program in which consumers can put their names on a list if they do not want to be called by telemarketers.

U.S. Judge Orders Release of Lennon FBI Files

"The issue has become government secrecy and the absurdity that, today, when the FBI should have better things to do they are still trying to keep secret 34-year-old documents about the anti-war activities of a dead rock star," Wiener said.
Government lawyers are "reviewing the court's ruling and no determination has been made as to what our next step will be," U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Charles Miller said.
The 10 documents at issue were part of a file on Lennon gathered by the FBI during the early 1970s, when he participated in protests against the Vietnam War.

[For those files already released, see http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/lennon.htm --ed.]

USPO Ditches Home Photo Stamps

Last month, Stamps.com revised the program to prohibit photos of adults and teenagers after pranksters at the website The Smoking Gun claimed some success in getting pictures of notorious adults, including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, past the company's censors.
Nevertheless, Stamps.com declared the test a success. The company said an estimated 100,000 sheets, or 2 million individual PhotoStamps, were ordered in the seven weeks of the market test.

Jon Stewart's Interview on "Fresh Air"

This is a very interesting interview with the host of "The Daily Show." Stewart seems to have more to say about journalism in America today than actual journalists. --ed.

Internet Grants to Schools Halted as the F.C.C. Tightens the Rules

Public libraries and schools around the nation have suddenly stopped receiving any new grants from a federal program that is wrestling with new rules on how it spends $2.25 billion each year to provide high-speed Internet and telephone service.
The moratorium at what is known as the E-Rate program began two months ago, with no notice, and may last for months, causing significant hardships at schools and libraries, say state officials and executives at the company that runs the program.

Grassroots Petition Signed by 120 Organizations Urges Congress to Adopt Whistleblower Protection Act

H.R. 3281 is scheduled for a long-awaited mark-up by the House Government Reform Committee on Wednesday, September 29th. S. 2628 is awaiting floor action by the Senate. The bills restore the original congressional mandate from1989 when it unanimously passed. It was unanimously strengthened in 1994, and hailed as the strongest free speech law in history on paper. But a decades worth of decisions by an obsessively hostile, activist court with a monopoly on judicial review have turned it into a cruel trap creating far more victims than are helped.

Japanese scientists claim to have found new element

Japanese scientists claim to have discovered a new element, and are considering naming it 'japonium', a researcher said yesterday.
The element, atomic number 113, would be the densest known to man if confirmed by international experts.

Code Names

In an audacious challenge to government secrecy policy, a forthcomingnew book by independent analyst William M. Arkin exposes andexplains thousands of code names of secret government programs andactivities.
"From ABLE ALLY to ZODIAC BEAUCHAMP, this book identifies more than3,000 code names and details the plans and missions for which theystand."The resulting compilation lays bare for the first time much of thesecret infrastructure of defense and intelligence today.
Arkin, who was once a military intelligence officer, is anextraordinarily adept researcher with an enviable network ofmilitary and intelligence contacts. Over the past two decades orso, he has repeatedly expanded the boundaries of public knowledge onnuclear weapons and national security policy. (from SecrecyNews)

Implications of Tort Reform

In the case of one tobacco case I covered in 1988, this was a case called Cipollone in Newark, New Jersey. The only way that we could get to see what the tobacco companies knew and when they knew it was to be in the courtroom when these documents were put into evidence -- depositions and so forth. And without trial lawyers, whatever abuses some of them commit, how would these documents have come out? They are a check and balance on corporate power -- an opportunity for the public to learn via the press, when the press does its job, of the abuses that corporations so often perpetrate.

DeLay Admonished by Ethics Committee

"The promise of political support for a relative of a member goes beyond the boundaries of maintaining party discipline, and should not be used as the basis of a bargain for members to achieve their respective goals," the committee said, saying there was evidence to find Mr. DeLay in violation of House rules.

Inspector General Says E.P.A. Rule Aids Polluters

In a rebuke of the Bush administration, the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday that legal actions against major polluters had stalled because of the agency's decision to revise rules governing emissions at older coal-fired power plants.
The inspector general, Nikki L. Tinsley, took direct aim at the administration's revision of the New Source Review rule, one of the administration's most prominent - and vilified - environmental initiatives, saying that it makes it easier for power-plant operators to postpone or avoid adding technologies that reduce polluting emissions.

Richard Florida: Strangling an economy?

As of tomorrow, most visitors to the U.S will have to put their index fingers on a glass plate for an electronic scan. A digital photo will be taken, too. This is an expansion of a surveillance system put in place after 9-11. Abroad, there are complaints about civil liberties. But in the new edition of the Harvard Business Review, Professor Richard Florida of George Mason University makes the argument that the tightening of borders threatens to strangle something unique that's made America's economy remarkably strong. Q + A: Host David Brown with Richard Florida. (audio from Marketplace)
"America's Looming Creativity Crisis" by Richard Florida

Global Warming Is Expected to Raise Hurricane Intensity

By the 2080's, seas warmed by rising atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases could cause a typical hurricane to intensify about an extra half step on the five-step scale of destructive power, says the study, done on supercomputers at the Commerce Department's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J. And rainfall up to 60 miles from the core would be nearly 20 percent more intense.

Pentagon wants 'uplifting accounts' about Iraq

...the administration is moving to "curtail distribution" of reports that show the situation in Iraq growing worse. In particular, the US Agency of International Development said this week that it will "restrict distribution" of a report by its contractor, Kroll Security International, that showed the number of attacks by insurgents had been increasingly dramatically over the past few months. Attacks have risen to 70 a day, up from 40-50, since Iraqi Prime Minister Alawi took office in June.

Court Strikes Down Key USA PATRIOT Provision

The letters, issued directly by the Department of Justice without any court oversight, can be used to demand sensitive financial and communications information about citizens even if they are not suspected of any crime. When Internet Service Providers receive such demands they are forbidden from revealing their existence to anyone.

Diebold Loses Key Copyright Case

Judge Jeremy Fogel wrote in his decision that "no reasonable copyright holder could have believed that portions of the e-mail archive discussing possible technical problems with Diebold's voting machines were protected by copyright." The judge ruled that Diebold "knowingly materially misrepresented" that the students and ISP had infringed Diebold's copyright.

EFF: Don't Let Intelligence Reforms Take Away Your Rights!

Congress is moving fast on two bills that purport to implement recommendations in the 9/11 Commission Final Report, but they include far more than anyone bargained for. In some provisions, the bills use language lifted directly from the infamous "PATRIOT II" draft legislation leaked to the public last year - including a clause that would allow the government to use secret foreign intelligence warrants and wiretap orders against people unconnected to any international terrorist group or foreign nation. This poses a dire threat to the Fourth Amendment, and it doesn't belong in the 9/11 legislation. Don't let support for intelligence reform become a blank check for law enforcement - tell Congress you oppose this stealth attack on your constitutionally protected rights!

Pre-Debate Post-Debate Summary

Life imitates parody of life. Much like last night's Daily Show segment mocking the idea of pre-written post-debate analysis, here's the Associated Press' post-debate summary. And not a second too soon, what with the debate not starting for another five hours or so. (Thank you Metafilter)
Premature story was pulled from ABC site. Mirrored here:
http://www.trepanning.com/bushkerrydebate.html

Mashups from the party party

dick is a killer
is a killer is a satirical take on the george bush's proposed constitutional amendment regarding marriage.
sunday bloody sunday
the war president singing U2's sunday bloody sunday
imagine...walk on the wild side
this is a mashup of imagine and walk on the wild side, george bush on vocals.
(thanks to Michael)

George W. Bush Meets "Baghdad Bob"

"I will only answer reasonable questions."
"No, I am not scared, and neither should you be."
"Be assured: Baghdad is safe, protected."
"We are in control, they are not in control of anything, they don't even control themselves!"
"The battle is very fierce and God made us victorious."
"They mock me for how I speak. I speak better English than they do."
"I have detailed information about the situation...which completely proves that what they allege are illusions . . . They lie every day."
"I blame Al-Jazeera."

Disturbing adaptation of 'Handmaid's Tale' opens opera season

Regardless of the political climate of the day, the material is meant to be harsh, Atwood told CBC News, because the story's central theme of political and religious oppression is always topical.
"People are very fond of saying, 'It can't happen here.' I think of [the fictional nation of Gilead] as a fundamentalist regime that uses religion as its camouflage – and you've seen those around the world," she said.
"I think it always helps to picture what things would be like if they happened in your own place."

US buys town for terror training

Playas, in the state of New Mexico, will be bought for $5m from the Phelps Dodge mining company, which built it from scratch in the 1970s.
The town, once home to 1,000 people, currently has a population of 50.
Emergency workers will use the site to simulate suicide bombings, anthrax attacks and water-supply poisonings.

Serious problems found at Fannie Mae

The developments surprised financial experts and Wall Street. A little more than a year ago, Freddie Mac Fannie Mae's sister agency and competitor in the multitrillion-dollar home mortgage market disclosed that it had understated profits by some $4.5 billion for 2000-2002 in an effort to smooth earnings. Fannie Mae's accounting then came under close government scrutiny, though its leaders insisted that it had no problems of that type.

Jpeg Virus

The poisoned images were posted to a porn newsgroup at the weekend and were found by Usenet provider Easynews.
Poisoned pictures containing the bug have been widely predicted following the discovery of the Jpeg bug that afflicts more than a dozen Microsoft programs.
To fall victim to the poisoned pictures, users must view it using Windows Explorer.
Once in place, the code then tells an infected machine to contact a server on the web to download another program that lets it be taken over remotely by an attacker.
The partner server that held the remote control code has now been shut down.

Congressional Republicans try to legalize torture

The Republican leadership of Congress is attempting to legalize extraordinary rendition. "Extraordinary rendition" is the euphemism we use for sending terrorism suspects to countries that practice torture for interrogation. As one intelligence official described it in the Washington Post, "We don't kick the sh*t out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the sh*t out of them."

Kerry Haters for Kerry

Are you going to vote for John Kerry even though you find him unpleasant, annoying, arrogant, waffling, misguided or just generally unappealing in some profound way? Then you've come to the right place! We're Kerry Haters for Kerry -- perhaps his largest constituency! No need to hide in the Kerry-hating closet anymore while you pretend to everyone that he'll be a great president. Here you are among friends. You can speak freely and honestly. You can admit: 'He's awful! And I'm for him!'

Now on DVD: The Passion of the Bush

Though you can buy the DVD for $14.95, its makers told the right-wing news service WorldNetDaily.com that they plan to distribute 300,000 copies to America's churches. And no wonder. This movie aspires to be "The Passion of the Bush," and it succeeds.
More than any other campaign artifact, it clarifies the hard-knuckles rationale of the president's vote-for-me-or-face-Armageddon re-election message. It transforms the president that the Democrats deride as a "fortunate son" of privilege into a prodigal son with the "moral clarity of an old-fashioned biblical prophet." Its Bush is not merely a sincere man of faith but God's essential and irreplaceable warrior on Earth. The stations of his cross are burnished into cinematic fable: the misspent youth, the hard drinking (a thirst that came from "a throat full of Texas dust"), the fateful 40th-birthday hangover in Colorado Springs, the walk on the beach with Billy Graham. A towheaded child actor bathed in the golden light of an off-camera halo re-enacts the young George comforting his mom after the death of his sister; it's a parable anticipating the future president's miraculous ability to comfort us all after 9/11. An older Bush impersonator is seen rebuffing a sexual come-on from a fellow Bush-Quayle campaign worker hovering by a Xerox machine in 1988; it's an effort to imbue our born-again savior with retroactive chastity. As for the actual president, he is shown with a flag for a backdrop in a split-screen tableau with Jesus. The message isn't subtle: they were separated at birth.

Kyrgyz security agency arrest man accused of trying to sell plutonium

National Security Service agents posing as buyers arrested the man on Sept. 21 after confirming that he was in possession of plutonium-239, agency spokeswoman Chinara Asanova said.
Asanova did not say how much of the radioactive material – which can be used in atomic weapons and as a reactor fuel – was confiscated. But she said it was held in 60 small containers.

After Four Hurricanes, Ranchers Paint Phone Numbers on Horses

"The number is that if they get out on the roads or the highways, they can identify them and call the number to get them picked up or if there's a death to notify the owner that there's been a problem," Wallace said.

Kucinich Auctions Off Debt on eBay

The four items, grouped under the seller name “kucinich_winddown,” range from a plush Beanie Baby doll to a seed packet to two passes to the Democratic National Convention. Each listing notes that it was paid for by Kucinich for President Inc. and that “funds paid for this item will be counted as a political contribution to Kucinich for President, Inc., and thus are subject to contribution limits and FEC reporting requirements.” A spokesman said the auctions will help retire the campaign’s $170,000 debt.

Diebold Machines Discovered in a Bar and on the Street

Members of the State Board of Elections were surprised to hear reports Tuesday that Diebold touchscreen voting machines similar to those used in Maryland were found abandoned recently on a street and in a bar in Baltimore.
...Asked about the possible origin of the machine, Torre said, "You can buy one on eBay."

Pentagon announces billion-dollar plan to build five Afghan army bases

The Pentagon notified Congress Tuesday of plans to build five bases in Afghanistan for the Afghan National Army at a cost of up to one billion dollars.
The Pentagon said Afghanistan had requested the bases be built for the Afghan army's Central Corps in Kabul and four regional commands planned in Gardez, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif.

Open Debates

Presidential debates were run by the civic-minded and non-partisan League of Women Voters until 1988, when the national Republican and Democratic parties seized control of the debates by establishing the bi-partisan, corporate-sponsored Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Posing as a nonpartisan institution committed to voter education, the CPD has continually and deceptively run the debates in the interest of the national Republican and Democratic parties, not the American people.
Every four years, negotiators for the Republican and Democratic nominees draft secret debate contracts called Memoranda of Understanding that dictate precisely how the debates will be structured; co-chaired by the former heads of the Republican and Democratic parties, the CPD obediently implements the contracts, shielding the major party candidates from public criticism.
Such deceptive major party control severely harms our democracy. Candidates that voters want to see are often excluded; issues the American people want to hear about are often ignored; the debates have been turned into a series of glorified bipartisan news conferences, in which the candidates exchange memorized soundbites; and debate viewership has plummeted, with twenty-five million fewer people watching the 2000 presidential debates than watching the 1992 presidential debates. Walter Cronkite called CPD-sponsored presidential debates an “unconscionable fraud.”

Why We Cannot Win

Terrorising free speech. Al Lorentz is a reserve Non-Commissioned Officer currently serving in Iraq. His blazingly clear, succinct article on Iraq, titled "Why we cannot win", has raged over the wires (also at MeFi) since it was published on LewRockwell.com. Now, the military chain of command is considering charging Al with violation of Article 134 for making a statement with the intent to promote disloyalty or disaffection toward the U.S. by any member of the Armed forces. The military is also considering charging Al with violation of 1344.10, the conduct of partisan political activity, and violation of Standards of Conduct for unauthorized use of Government assets to create and email stories. (from MetaFilter.com)

Prime Minister Blair Apologizes for WMD Claim

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has flatly acknowledged that his main argument for taking a reluctant country to war — Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction — has turned out to be wrong.
Blair yesterday offered Labour party members an apology for the error in a bid to heal deep divisions over the war before a general election expected next year. But he refused to apologize for taking part in the U.S.-led invasion, even as a heckler disrupted his speech by shouting: "You've got blood on your hands."
"The evidence about Saddam having actual biological and chemical weapons ... has turned out to be wrong," Blair told delegates at the Labour party convention in Brighton, south of London.
"The problem is, I can apologize for the information that turned out to be wrong but I can't, sincerely at least, apologize for removing Saddam," he said. "The world is a better place with Saddam in prison."

Plan to Have CIA Covertly Rig the Iraqi Election - Deemed Bad Idea

Time Magazine reports that the Bush administration had had a plan to use the Central Intelligence Agency to funnel money to candidates it favored in the forthcoming Iraqi elections. The rationale given was that Iran was bankrolling its own candidates. This plan was apparently derailed in part by the intervention of Democratic Minority Leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, who remonstrated with National Security Adviser Condaleeza Rice about it.

The article How Much US Help? from TIME Magazine

2004 MacArthur "Genius Awards" Announced

The MacArthur Fellows Program underscores the importance of the creative individual in society. Fellows are selected for their originality, creativity, and the potential to do more in the future. Candidates are nominated, evaluated, and selected through a rigorous and confidential process. No one may apply for the awards, nor are any interviews conducted.
This week, each new recipient first learned of being named a MacArthur Fellow during a phone call from the Foundation. “The call can be life-changing, coming as it does out of the blue and offering highly creative women and men the gift of time and the unfettered opportunity to explore, create, and contribute,” said Jonathan F. Fanton, president of the MacArthur Foundation. (From Press Release)

Congresswoman Wants Probe of Army's Re-enlistment Threats

Democratic Rep. Diana Degette, in a letter to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., asked him to look into whether the "White House or civilian Pentagon officials are pressuring the military to use coercive tactics to get soldiers to re-enlist in order to maintain the force levels necessary to fight the war in Iraq and war on terror."

The Ins and Outs Of Voter Registration

Requirements under Title III of HAVA set national standards for what the types of identification voters (especially first-time voters and those who do not include some form of ID when registering by mail) need to bring to the polls. HAVA mandates that states require first-time voters who registered by mail to show one of a number of forms of ID when they vote at the polls, if they did not include verification when registering. HAVA ID requirements also extend to those that have not previously voted in election for federal office in the state or in the jurisdiction.
Acceptable forms of ID include:
current and valid photo identification (government issued photo ID) or
a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the name and address of the voter.

Different states will have different requirements.
Check the online registration site: YOUR VOTE MATTERS for more details.

Daily Show's 'stoned slackers'? Not quite

The folks at Comedy Central were annoyed when Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly kept referring to "The Daily Show" audience as "stoned slackers."
So they did a little research. And guess whose audience is more educated?
Viewers of Jon Stewart's show are more likely to have completed four years of college than people who watch "The O'Reilly Factor," according to Nielsen Media Research.

On Roth's "Plot Against America"

"Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear." He is one of America's great novelists, but you don't expect Philip Roth to be barreling up the best-seller list with a book that hasn't even been published yet. And yet "The Plot Against America" is in the top 3 at amazon.com. It spins a what-if scenario in which the isolationist and anti-Semitic hero Charles Lindbergh runs for president as a Republican in 1940 and defeats F.D.R. "Keep America Out of the Jewish War", reads a button worn by Lindbergh supporters rallying at Madison Square Garden. And so he does: he signs nonaggression pacts with Germany and Japan that will keep America at peace while the rest of the world burns. The Lindbergh administration hatches a nice plan to prod assimilation of the Jews. Innocuously called Just Folks, it's a relocation program for urban Jews, administered by an Office of American Absorption fronted by an obliging and pompous rabbi of radio celebrity. The teenage Roth character is shipped off to a Kentucky tobacco farm, to finally live among Christians. The book is about American Fascism, but while Roth is no fan of President Bush ("a man unfit to run a hardware store let alone a nation like this one"), he points out that he conceived this book (LATimes registration: sparklebottom/sparklebottom) in December 2000, and that it would be "a mistake" to read it "as a roman à clef to the present moment in America." (from MetaFilter.com)

FDA to Approve Phychedelics?

Psychedelic drugs are inching their way slowly but surely toward prescription status in the United States, thanks to a group of persistent scientists who believe drugs like ecstasy and psilocybin can help people with terminal cancer, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, to name just a few.
The Heffter Research Institute, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and others have managed to persuade the Food and Drug Administration to approve a handful of clinical trials using psychedelics. The movement seems to be gaining ground in recent years. Since 2001, the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration have given the go-ahead to three clinical trials testing psychedelics on symptomatic patients, and several more are on deck.

Pray, Vote, Pray T-shirt

Considering the crucial importance of this years' election, we must know and vote as God guides! This scriptural t-shirt offers a biblical three-step plan to do just that:
1) PRAY about the candidates. Second Chronicles 7:14 promises if we will humble ourselves, pray and seek the Lord's face and turn from our wicked ways then God will hear from heaven and will forgive our sins and heal our land.
2) VOTE for those God leads you to support, because as Edmond Burke so correctly put it, "All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing."
3) PRAY for our next elected leaders (1 Timothy 2:2).

[remember to open your eyes during the "vote" part. -- ed.]

Homeland Security HQ

On paper, DHS is a colossus, and I had naively expected that its headquarters would be equally impressive. But at first, I couldn't even find Building 3. I wandered down the main road, past the heavy hydraulic vehicle barriers, no-trespassing notices, cameras, and some landscapers making a racket with a leaf-blower. ...The little alley was barely wide enough for a car, much less a Cabinet secretary's motorcade, and at the end of it was a dull gray steel door, such as you might see at the side entrance of a warehouse or a seedy after-hours club. A small plaque was affixed to the unpainted wall: The Department of Homeland Security.
Hamstrung by special interests, staffed with B-team political appointees, and crippled by a lack of funding and political support, DHS is a premier example of how the administration's misplaced priorities—and its obsession with Iraq—have come at the direct expense of homeland security.

DC Children's Charity Spends Less Than 1% of Donations on Kids

But tax and spending records of the Capital Athletic Foundation obtained by The Washington Post show that less than 1 percent of its revenue has been spent on sports-related programs for youths.
Instead, the documents show that Jack Abramoff, one of Washington's high-powered Republican lobbyists, has repeatedly channeled money from corporate clients into the foundation and spent the overwhelming portion of its money on pet projects having little to do with the advertised sportsmanship programs, including political causes, a short-lived religious school and an overseas golf trip.

Leaked Report: Australian Plans to Bury Greenhouse Gases a Fantasy

A report by leading energy consultants has dismissed plans by the Australian government to promote the burying of greenhouse gases as the solution to climate change and has labelled the idea as an expensive and technologically uncertain strategy.
''Carbon capture and storage (CCS) power station technology systems are not yet operating on a commercial scale anywhere in the world,'' points out the report, written by a team headed by respected energy policy analyst Hugh Saddler.

Reports Warned Bush Two Months Before Invasion

The assessments, publicised on Monday, predicted that a US-led invasion of Iraq would increase support for political Islam and would result in a deeply divided Iraqi society prone to violent internal conflict.
One of the reports also warned of a possible insurgency against the new Iraqi government or US-led forces, saying that rogue elements from Saddam Hussein's government could work with existing terrorist groups or act independently to wage guerilla warfare.
The assessments also said a war would increase sympathy across the Islamic world for some terrorist objectives, at least in the short term, the officials said.

123,000 Hours of Audio Still Untranslated by FBI

Three years after the 11 September attacks, the FBI has more than 123,000 hours of audio intercepts that it has not translated, the report said.
The report is an edited summary of a classified audit completed in July for the Justice Department.

Tobacco on Trial

The news media have devoted scant coverage to the $280 billion federal lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against tobacco companies, but anti-tobacco activists are filling the gap with a weblog that offers blow-by-blow analysis of the trial and courtroom testimony.

Ohio rejects 1000s of voter registration applications due to paper weight

When voter registration applications were maintained for years and used to verify signatures for petitions a requirement that the cards be on 80 lb. stock paper was adopted in Ohio, that law remains on the books. Since the applications are now scanned for preservation, there is no current need to continue that requirement.
...In the final days before the registration deadline Ken Blackwell, Ohio Secretary of State, has ordered the local election boards to send out new applications to applicants who have submitted registrations on the wrong paper.
...The local boards have been bombarded with applications and will be unable to comply with Blackwell's order before the deadline to register to vote for this November's election.

1964 CIA in Chile

For the first time in forty years, CIA and White House documents on covert political intervention in the 1964 Chilean election were declassified yesterday. The documents, which detail Washington's political and operational decisions on covert action "directed at the defeat of Salvador Allende" by "increasing the organizational efficiency and campaigning ability of the Christian Democratic Party," provide a comprehensive historical record of U.S. efforts to sway the election to candidate Eduardo Frei between January and September 1964.

CORRECTION - Photo of 1954 Picture of Home Computer was Faked

All right, I got schnookered by that one. Funny prank, though.
Thanks again to Snopes.com for telling it straight. --ed.

REGISTER TO VOTE SECURELY

This is the online registration site linked to from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. --ed.

Rumsfeld Set to Music

The Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has a playful, evasive manner of speech. Some call this spin, others poetry. When musician Phil Kline ran across a collection of Rumsfeld quotes, he was so taken with the rhetoric that he composed music to accompany the text. In his “Three Rumsfeld Songs,” Kline sets remarks made by the Defense Secretary to surprisingly beautiful music. Produced by David Krasnow. (from Studio360.org)

Taking the Bull By the Horns - and Stonewalling

"After a case of mad cow disease surfaced in Washington State late last year, federal regulators vowed to move swiftly to adopt rules to reduce the risks of further problems. ... But a few weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration, after heavy lobbying from the beef and feed industries, took steps to delay - and ... possibly kill" new animal feed regulations. Shortly after the FDA announcement, "the National Cattlemen's Beef Association broke its nonpartisan tradition and endorsed President Bush." Regulatory delays are common before elections, but some say "the tightness in the polls and the strong industry ties to the White House" have worsened the trend this year. Source: New York Times, September 27, 2004 (PRWatch.org)

Republicans Admit Mailing Campaign Literature Saying Liberals Will Ban the Bible

The mailings include images of the Bible labeled "banned" and of a gay marriage proposal labeled "allowed." A mailing to Arkansas residents warns: "This will be Arkansas if you don't vote." A similar mailing was sent to West Virginians.

Iraqi Newspaper Identifies Insurgent Groups

There are three main Sunni groups, and five separate factions within them; two Baathist groups; and two Shiite insurgent organizations, according to a recent issue of the Baghdad al-Zawra in Arabic -- a weekly published by the Iraqi Journalists Association and translated into English by the CIA.
The groups are comprised of individual cells that are only loosely affiliated, a supposition endorsed by military intelligence officials in interviews with United Press International.
The majority of these groups do not know their leadership, the sources of their financing, or who provides them with weapons, the Sunday's report stated.
A senior U.S. commander in Iraq agreed with that assessment.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Everyone agrees that the domestic mission of the NGA has increased dramatically in the wake of Sept. 11, even though laws and carefully crafted regulations are in place to prevent government surveillance aimed at Americans.
The agency is not interested in information on U.S. citizens, stresses Bert Beaulieu, the office director. "We couldn't care less about individuals and people and companies," he said.
But that's not good enough for Steven Aftergood, a secrecy expert who oversees a project on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists. "What it all boils down to is 'Trust us. Our intentions are good,'" he said.

One Shot or Two - Kalashnikov Vodka

At 82 percent proof, the drink may prove as powerful as the AK-47 assault rifle that Lieutenant General Mikhail Kalashnikov conceived during World War 2 when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union."I've always wanted to improve and expand on the good name of my weapon by doing good things," said Kalashnikov, now 82.

Apple v Apple: When Computers and Music Collide

In 1981, the two companies agreed to share the name. Apple Corps first sued in 1991, after the computer company introduced MIDI, which allows computers and synthesizers to work together to compose and record music. Apple Computers settled for $26.5 million. A judge recently ruled that the case would be tried in England. There are rumors that another settlement may be in the works, and a possible deal to make the Beatles' music available online legally for the first time. Joel Rose, of member station WHYY, reports. (NPR audio)

Jimmy Carter Fears Florida Vote Trouble

"A fumbling attempt has been made recently to disqualify 22,000 African Americans (likely Democrats), but only 61 Hispanics (likely Republicans), as alleged felons."
Mr Carter said Florida Governor Jeb Bush - brother of the president - had "taken no steps to correct these departures from principles of fair and equal treatment or to prevent them in the future".