Our Allies

http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/Blaming_the_victim_Abused_Afghan_wo_04302008.html

"Trafficked across the border from Pakistan with her 3-year-old son, Rukhma was handed to an Afghan who raped and abused her, then beat the toddler to death as she watched helplessly.

"He was jailed for 20 years for murder, but Rukhma ended up in prison too.

"Rukhma, who doesn't know her age but looks younger than 20, had put up with her mistreatment for three months last summer before seeking protection and justice from authorities. Instead she was given a four-year sentence on Dec. 5 for adultery and "escaping her house" in Pakistan, even though she says she was kidnapped and raped."

...

"She said the boy was placed under a blanket, barely conscious, blood dripping from his mouth.

"When I lifted the blanket, he looked up and saw his mother. I could see that those were going to be his last breaths, and then he died. That was the last time we looked each other in the eyes," she said, her voice cracking, her face crumpled in grief. As she cried, so did the newborn daughter of her second marriage, lying in her lap.

"When police came to arrest Yarul, they arrested her, too."

George Bush's friends in his "War on Terror"...

Dennett

Daniel Dennet is probably the smartest person on the planet.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,2275308,00.html

"If religion isn't the greatest threat to rationality and scientific progress, what is? Perhaps alcohol, or television, or addictive video games. But although each of these scourges - mixed blessings, in fact - has the power to overwhelm our best judgment and cloud our critical faculties, religion has a feature of that none of them can boast: it doesn't just disable, it honours the disability. People are revered for their capacity to live in a dream world, to shield their minds from factual knowledge and make the major decisions of their lives by consulting voices in their heads that they call forth by rituals designed to intoxicate them."

Logo

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/22/ogc_logo/

D'oh!

Fast

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/04/eugene_police_motorcyclist_goi.html

"Oregon State Police say they've never seen a faster speeder -- 164 mph on Interstate 5.

"And on a motorcycle.

"And the evidence of the precise speed came from a video camera attached to the bike and aimed at the speedometer."

At least he wasn't snapping pics of the speedometer with his phone at the time...

So?

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/26/0053213&from=rss

"Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and other lawmakers are pushing legislation to limit the power of the state secrets doctrine in blocking lawsuits. The doctrine has been used as a 'get out of jail free' card in cases like the EFF's warrantless wiretapping lawsuit. This new legislation would make it harder for the administration to invoke the doctrine, and provide new allowances, such as using attorneys with security clearances to enable the lawsuits to go forward even when the issue is appropriately raised."

1) This administration has demonstrated that it is fully willing to blatantly violate the law, disregarding all attempted oversight, over and over and over and over, in instances now too numerous to list.

2) The results of item 1 to date have shown there's no enforcement the administration need be concerned with.

* * *

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=storage&articleId=9080598&taxonomyId=19&intsrc=kc_top

"A federal judge has told the White House to answer "once and for all" whether backup tapes holding e-mail documents sought by a Washington-based watchdog group have been preserved."

To which the Whitehouse can, and will, once again answer, "So?"

* * *

http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_18/b4082042959954.htm

"Andersen is going after the recording industry under conspiracy laws. She argues the Recording Industry Association of America, the industry's trade group, and its affiliates worked together on a broad campaign to intimidate people into making financial payoffs. The defendants "secretly met and conspired" to develop a "litigation enterprise" with the ultimate goal of preserving the major record companies' control over the music business. Andersen is requesting class action status for her case, seeking at least $5 million in compensation for the class."

And she's winning.

* * *

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134294

"The trial of Chicago developer and political fixer Antoin "Tony" Rezko has been closely watched for any mention of the defendant's onetime friend, Barack Obama. But last week, prosecutors threw a curveball, telling the judge that one of their witnesses is prepared to raise the name of another prominent Washington hand: Karl Rove. Former Illinois state official Ali Ata is expected to testify about a conversation he had with Rezko in which the developer alleged Rove was "working with" a top Illinois Republican to remove the Chicago U.S. attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald."

So?

Stinks

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/the-george-w-bu.html

A grassroots team in San Francisco is sponsoring a November ballot initiative to rename the "Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility" the "George W. Bush Sewage Plant".

Ha!

The Weakest Leak

http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/04/16/security-is-no-match-for-chocolate-and-good-looking-women/?mod=WSJBlog

"A survey out today by the organizers of the tech-security conference Infosecurity Europe found that 21% of 576 London office workers stopped on the street were willing to share their computer passwords with a good looking woman holding a clipboard. People were offered a chocolate bar in exchange for the information. More than half of the people surveyed said they used the same password for everything."

Rush Limbaugh Calls for Riots

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/15980105/detail.html

"Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don't elect Democrats," Limbaugh said during Wednesday's radio broadcast. He then went on to say that's the best thing that could happen to the country.

Spending

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120534523952430847.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

"Treasury's monthly budget statement shows the February deficit was 46% bigger than the deficit of $119.99 billion in February 2007. In January, the government had a budget surplus of $17.84 billion, which was unrevised.

"Outlays were $281.29 billion during February, up 17% from February 2007's $240.31 billion. Government receipts in February were $105.72 billion, down 12% from February 2007's $120.31 billion."

See?

Yet another sign of global recession and general belt tightening...
Things are tough all over.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL1581582720080416

"Global auction house Sotheby's failed to hammer off a 72.22-carat, "D" flawless white diamond at its Asian sales last week in a possible sign of weakness in the global diamond trade.

"The large diamond which had a pre-sale estimate of $10-12 million, attracted a final bid of HK$73 million ($9.24million) that fell short of the reserve price and went unsold, said Sotheby's press officer Rhonda Yung."

Meanwhile...

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/CIA_knew_secret_detention_interrogation_program_0424.html

"The Central Intelligence Agency knew from the beginning that its secret detention and torturous interrogation tactics probably bordered on illegal from the start, according to new documents identified through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

...

"The CIA also acknowledged in their filings that the program 'will continue.' Terror suspects detained or "renditioned" by the United States are transferred to third party countries that allow torture which gives the US a legal loophole to allow harsh interrogation without being legally liable. Such suspects, who effectively disappear, are held without access to courts."

Proud to be an American?

Yes We Do Torture, Actually

Media in the US is worse than AWOL on this issue. I don't get it. I've never believed in mass-media conspiracies, but this has me wondering. Not only did the US do these things, but, yes, very senior staff personally reviewed and approved of it all, including the President and the Secretary of State, both of whom have specificly lied about it publicly and repeatedly since. AND the President has actually admitted that this is so! What's the deal??

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/23/thomas-chides-colleagues-torture/

During this afternoon's White House press briefing, reporter Helen Thomas noted that Bush .has admitted that he did sign off on torture. saying it damages 'the credibility of this country.' But press secretary Dana Perino denied that the United States has ever tortured detainees and referred to testimony from CIA Director Michael Hayden as evidence:

THOMAS: The president has said [...] we do not torture. Now he has admitted that he did sign off on torture, he did know about it. So how do you reconcile this credibility gap? [...]