Saturday, May 13, 2006

Semper Paratus

In a time of sky high pentagon budgets. More should be done for the Coast Guard. And I was very taken with this article spot lighting these short falls in are oldest naval service.

Soldiers for the Truth: They're Often Overlooked
It is the nation's fifth armed service and its people are some of the most competent and professional I have ever dealt with during my military service. They are the men and women of the United States Coast Guard, and because they are not a part of the Department of Defense, their contribution to national defense is often overlooked. Perhaps it is the fact that they don't belong to DoD or because they have a humanitarian mission, but it rankles me that they don't get the recognition from the public or within the government that they so justly deserve.


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Clinton over Bush

CNN.com - Poll: Clinton outperformed Bush - May 12, 2006
In a new poll comparing President Bush's job performance with that of his predecessor, a strong majority of respondents said President Clinton outperformed Bush on a host of issues.

Summery of poll below from Political wire
  • On the economy, 63% to 26%
  • On solving the problems of ordinary Americans, 62% to 25%
  • On foreign affairs, 56% to 32%
  • On taxes, 51% to 35%
  • On handling natural disasters, 51% to 30%
  • On national security, 46% to 42%
  • On honesty, 46% to 41%


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Thursday, May 11, 2006

lower and lower

Just how low will they go before someone does something about Bush & Co. A new lower being reported by Harris polls.

Political Wire: Bush Approval in Free Fall
Bush Approval in Free Fall
President Bush’s approval rating "has fallen to its lowest mark of his presidency," according to a new Harris Interactive poll. Just 29% think Bush is doing an "excellent or pretty good" job as president, down from 35% in April.


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Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Another Poll

Yet another poll shows Bush heading south into uncharted territory for a POTUS' approval. I believe Nixin had the all time low of 27% at the time of his resignation. But I could be wrong on that. In either case, these last two poll are the worst numbers I have ever seen.

Think Progress » 31%
31%

President Bush’s approval rating in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll


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ENOUGH already!

Tell me at what point do we say,"ENOUGH all ready!" And throw them all out. We have a President that thinks that 750 different laws don't apply to him and or his administration, takes use to war on faulty intell, lies flat out to us on Domestic Spying, outs or compromises CIA officers for political gain, makes are great great grandchildren poor with out of sight spending, And now this:

Drudge Retort: HUD Contractors Must Support Bush
Dallas Business Journal: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said in a recent speech that he canceled a deal with a contractor because the man opposed President Bush. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract."

This arrangement violates federal law, according to ThinkProgress.


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Monday, May 08, 2006

Public Apology from a Bush Supporter

I never heard of this guy before, but I give him credit for publicly apologizing for voting in, as he put it, "he's the worst President, period." Well worth the time to read.

Drudge Retort: Radio Host: Sorry I Voted for Bush
So, I'm saying today, I was wrong to have voted for George W. Bush. In historic terms, I believe George W. Bush is the worst two-term President in the history of the country. Worse than Grant. I also believe a case can be made that he's the worst President, period. Original Post....

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Will he brake the 30% mark

USATODAY.com - Bush approval rating hits new low
President Bush's approval rating has slumped to 31% in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, the lowest of his presidency and a warning sign for Republicans in the November elections.


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Friday, May 05, 2006

RFID Underground

I came across this off of Digg and also this month Consumer Reports has a piece on RFID's called
RFID tags, Hacking RFID
(registered users). I guess now that Consumer Reports is getting unconformable about RFID's, I hope that the general public will pay attention to the issue and speak out against them.

Wired 14.05: The RFID Hacking Underground
Future Chip
Photo Credit: clix
RFID chips are everywhere - companies and labs use them as access keys, Prius owners use them to start their cars, and retail giants like Wal-Mart have deployed them as inventory tracking devices. Drug manufacturers like Pfizer rely on chips to track pharmaceuticals. The tags are also about to get a lot more personal: Next-gen US passports and credit cards will contain RFIDs, and the medical industry is exploring the use of implantable chips to manage patients. According to the RFID market analysis firm IDTechEx, the push for digital inventory tracking and personal ID systems will expand the current annual market for RFIDs from $2.7 billion to as much as $26 billion by 2016.

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Friday, April 28, 2006

Campus LAN Piracy

As I always thought. If they close of one venue, if their is high enough demand, they'll find away around it. The RIAA and MPAA will never win this arms race.

RIAA MPAA Tackle Campus LAN Piracy
Campus piracy is heating up on LAN networks, and the RIAA and MPAA are
powerless to stop it. In the past, the RIAA and MPAA have threatened,
sued, and litigated their way to victory. Today, they can do little
more than write letters.
Read more from Original article


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Screwing with the wrong guy

I came across this story from digg:MPAA Screwing The Wrong Guy - One Who Won't Be Extorted were this guy (Shawn Hogan), whom I've never heard of before, is not going to talk this and is hoping to take it all the way to trial, and go down in history as one of the cases to take down the MPAA and RIAA for the racketeering & extortion methods of intimidation.

Check it out on his site: MPAA Offers To Settle (Again)

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Thursday, April 27, 2006

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

New $10



I've got to say that the new $10 dollar bills look like monopoly money. I used to think that those who said, that at some point there would be 2 us currencies were crazy. But one of their statements was that the green back would only become available abroad and that a red back bills would be for domestic use.

Well after getting one of these new bills it makes you wonder if a two tiered money system isn't far off. I mean, look at the last 10 years as the new money has come into the system they are less and less green and now when I see this I think I'm seeing prop money from the movie Total Recall in which the money on Mars looks like this stuff.

I'm now afraid of what their going to give us for the New $5 $1 bills now.


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New word for the Day

The Brights Movement or Bright: is a person whose world view is naturalistic - free of supernatural and mystical elements. A bright's ethics and actions are based on a naturalistic worldview. One of the reason given is to have a more positive word than Atheist or Anti-theologist, much in the same way the Homosexuals hijacked the word gay for themselves, Brights are trying to do the same and in the process redefine themselves.


Related Links:
The Brights


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Friday, March 31, 2006

SolarCentury

solarcentury.jpg
"SolarCentury has designed the "Complete Solar Roof" that integrates solar electric and solar thermal technologies in a tile that is installed like a conventional roofing tile....
Funny this looks very similar to a story I posted about over a year ago on panels that are being imported by Kyocera. Granted the original story said nothing about Solar water hearing. So maybe these guys have come up with a novel hybrid use for those solar panels.


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Friday, March 24, 2006

New Samuel L. Jackson Film

The title says it all: SNAKES ON A PLANE





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Due in theaters near you August 18, 2006

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Rayguns (intergalactic self-defense mechanisms)

This is the coolest idea I came across this off of MAKE Magazine: Blog about a guy who has made retro 1950's rayguns out of everyday hardware parts. Very Cool. I'd post some pictures but he's copy righting them. His Flickr page has annotations in the images of what these are made from.

rayguns (intergalactic self-defense mechanisms) - a photoset on Flickr


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Monday, March 20, 2006

Seniors Mug Bush

Drudge Retort: Seniors Mug Bush at Photo Op
At first it looked as if it was going to be another warm bath of a White House question-and-answer session with President Bush. There was a happy group of retirees arranged on a stage, a poster in red, white and blue that proclaimed "Strengthening Medicare" and a peppy president with microphone in hand.

But at the Riderwood Village retirement community last week in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring, Md., something different happened: the president got hit with hardballs by the crowd of 80-somethings. Not only did the retirees, many of them Democrats and former government officials, ask sharp questions about the day's topic, the Medicare prescription drug program, they took on Mr. Bush on global warming and nuclear war..... Read More

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Saturday, March 18, 2006

Illegal Alien Who Crashed Gate at U.S. Military Base

If this is how are system of security works around the country we are in big trouble. This is frightening on so many levels. Bush Co. keep saying the Homeland Security is the number one priority, but at every turn something comes up that just proves that they are liars.

Illegal Alien Who Crashed Gate at U.S. Military Base Allowed to “Walk”

The driver of a pick-up who ran a checkpoint at a military base in Arizona and had to be stopped by a special barrier, who is in this country illegally, who was carrying a loaded handgun and “possibly cocaine,” was actually driven back to Mexico in an ambulance without being charged...Read More


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U.S. Navy Fights Pirates Off E. Africa

Jolly-roger
Image Credit: Liftarn
Oh, for the times when you could get Letters of marque and Prize Courts. I've felt for some time that if you really want to get Piracy under control revive this old way of dealing with the current problem. Last year there were 261 reported acts of Piracy world wide. Hell their were 7 report acts for the week of March 7-13. Check out the ICC's Weekly Priacy Report to see the type of problem it is.
U.S. Navy Fights Pirates Off E. Africa - CBS News

Two U.S. Navy warships exchanged gunfire with suspected pirates Saturday off the coast of Somalia, and one suspect was killed and five others were wounded, the navy said. Twelve suspects were taken into custody after the early-morning shootout...

Related
Weekly Piracy Report
U.S. Navy Fights Pirates Off E. Africa
Privateer



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Friday, March 17, 2006

RFID-Blocking

RFID-Blocking Wallet
I came across this the other day, after I heard about the government issuing RFID's in current Passports. And know that even credit card companies are beginning to use this technology, I want to make sure that my wallet is a Faraday Cage. I know that I'm being paranoid, but even paranoids have enemies. And with ID theft on the rise this I see as becoming a prime ground for these thieves.

Product Page

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Thursday, March 16, 2006

You Get What You Deserve.

I've never been an advocate of RFID technology. I think that it is an Orwellen technology that is put forth by cooperations who could careless about civil liberties. And now thats to hacker it could turn into a nightmare for these cooperations and governments -- Namely the US Government -- who have and wish to implement RFID's in their environments.


RFID chips can spread viruses - Engadget



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Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Iraq Coalition Casualties

In an effort to show what the true cost of our wars in Southeast Southwest Asia(sorry I my bad), I have found this site that brakes down the casualties of all of the participants in these theaters of Operations. Take time and look at it. You can see what type of accident and where on a day by day bases.

Iraq Coalition Casualties

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Sunday, February 26, 2006

French protest for murdered Jew

Six days after I first heard about this, you finally see a reaction in France.

BBC NEWS | Europe | French protest for murdered Jew
Roger Cukierman, the head of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France said: "It's important for French society to realise that little anti-Semitic and racist prejudices can have terrible consequences."

France's Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who was at Sunday's march, said earlier in the week that greed was the main motive.

"But they believed, and I quote, 'that Jews have money'," he said. "That's called anti-Semitism."


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Saturday, February 25, 2006

Message for Congress: clean up your house or else

Can you believe that this Administrations D.O.J would give this kind of message to Congress, in any way shape or form.

TIME.com: Would Justice Clean the House?
The Justice Department has a message for Congress: clean up your house or else we may have to do it for you. A senior federal law enforcement official told TIME that the paralyzed and often lax House ethics committee has created a vacuum that prosecutors won't hesitate to fill. The House’s internal mechanism for keeping corruption in check is “broken,” says the official.


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Tuesday, February 21, 2006

RFID's in your Goodyears

Tire RFID
Now I have to worry about the tires I place on my car! Sure they are using these in NASCAR races now, But I can see local government using these as the new Photo radar. Just embed readers in the road way the same way they do for some traffic light sensors. Then you'll get your speeding tickets because your tires were doing ninety in a sixty five miles an hour zone.

RFID Tags Embedded in Daytona 500 Tires - Gizmodo

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Sunday, February 19, 2006

Monday, February 13, 2006

CityWatcher Story

chip
Example of subdural chip
I'm glad to see that more are picking up on this story dealing with Citywatcher.com. But I would like to see more than: "Sure, implanting an RFID chip in your workers might incite privacy concerns, be a tad creepy, and signal the end of days..."Engadget.

I would hope that others as they pick up this story might have more concerns than chalking it up to a PR stunt.


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Saturday, February 11, 2006

Chipping Employees - Welcome to a Brave New World

Computer detail
Photo Credit: VanHeber
I heard about this company -- CityWatcher -- that would requires RFID injection into it's employees a few days ago on the radio, but I am only now seeing it hit the the tech sites like Slashdot. Other than the revulsion that I felt upon hearing of this story, the so called security that this mark of the beast was supposed to give, is non-existent. A researcher recently published that these systems are as vulnerable as any other if not more so, since anyone with a reader only to get within a few feet to be able to copy the info.

I have the same feelings about the PayPass system that MasterCard has put in place in the last month or so in stories like 7-11. The idea that all anyone needed was a radio power transceiver reader to get my credit card number is frightening. As it is I feel that I'm going to have to line my wallet in Aluminum foil before long.

Related
SpyChips


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Thursday, February 09, 2006

Cartoon Riots

I stumbled across this analysis of the Danish Cartoon Controversy, and found it interesting.

The Danish cartoon controversy: A contrast in protests - Sepia Mutiny
I see great irony in this situation that doesn’t seem to have registered in the press (as far as I know). Muslims around the world are protesting this cartoon (often violently) because it is forbidden in Islam to depict the Prophet, especially in such a vulgar manner as this. Muhammad, in his boundless wisdom, wanted to make sure that his image would never be used or treated as an idol, and that men would never worship him as one. In Christianity for example, many most sects now worship Christ as God, instead of seeing him as only a mortal prophet. It was the message of Islam, and not Muhammad the man, that was to better the world. By violently protesting this cartoon, it could be argued that Muslims around the world are acting as if an idol has been desecrated. Using violence to protest this “desecration” legitimizes that which the Prophet cautioned against in the first place. He has become an idol to be defended and avenged in the eyes of many. Read more....

Related Links
The Danish cartoon controversy: A contrast in protests - Sepia Mutiny
Artists Explode the Bombs



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Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Islam

How they Spy

Noah Shachtman has outlined a two part series of articles by Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache on News.com outline what the NSA's domestic spying program might look like.

Defense Tech: NSA: How They Spy

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Killing on US Soil?

This is not something that I would like to contemplate. The real issue is oversight, and has been since the beginning. What actions can a President order to be done and what hoops does he have to go through to meet his legal obligations under the law? Unfortunately Newsweek doesn't even come close to answering any of these questions other than several Administrations have looked into the issue of Can the President Order a Killing on U.S. Soil?


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Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Tricky Dick

I caught Dick Cheney on the NewsHour. This man comes off as so rational, it is scary. But what he says about the legality of the Domestic Spying program is just plain wrong. The thing that is being overlooked is that congress in this case is not the oversight for this program. It is and was the FISA Court. Nothing about this, that has been made public, changes this or gives them these powers. Take a look at the transcript.

Online NewsHour: Newsmaker with Vice President Dick Cheney -- February 7, 2006

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Iran Behind Cartoon-Rage Riots??

Is it possible that the riots that happened in Lebanon that resulted in the burning of the Danish Embassy, were orchestrated by Iran? I don't know if I buy into this theory, but is interesting.

Related:
WorldNetDaily: Iranian fingerprints on cartoon-rage riots?

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Monday, January 02, 2006

Law vs. New Technology

I keep on hearing that the FISA Law is old and out of date from people on the web.; And that is one of the reasons that Bush gave his order, well that is a bunch of BullS**T. If he truly felt that the law had problems then why didn't he go to congress. The answer is he did and was told no way by congress. Bush and Company could not except that and did an end run around congress and any oversight. One of the major papers last week said something about how this operation had to be reauthorized every 40 day by the Attorney General and how one of the Deputy Attorney generals refuse to on legel question at one point. When you have so may people thinking that this operation has serious oversight problems the President and his political cronies should not have the final say. He keeps say we couldn't because that would have gone into classified matters that congress couldn't or shouldn't be advise of and/ or could keep a lid on. And the courts were either to slow or held him to, to high of a standard. It also comes out that what few; briefings that had occurred may have mislead congress as to the true nature of his Domestic spying.

Which brings use back to the problem of this President acting as if nothing other than his opinion is required to change the law. This matter more than meets the definition of High Crimes and Misdemeanors to impeach this President. Anyone who cannot see that are constitutional protections at steak here and that without action, are rights are meaningless and only exist at the whim and pleasure of the President needs to do a reality check. The constitution does give great power to the Executive in times of war. But there are legal limits to it's use, congress to this point has not done their jobs under the constitution to balance the power of the Executive branch when it over reaches and endangers are rights.

Related
Wiretaps and Data Mining: Old Law vs. New Technology
Justice Deputy Resisted Parts of Spy Program


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