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O’Donnell prompted Laura Bush to elaborate on “good things” in Iraq
[Quote:]
BUSH: Well, I, you know, I understand why those polls are like that, because of the coverage that we see every single day in Iraq, and it is not encouraging coverage, for instance — for sure. There’s no doubt about it. But I do know that there are a lot of good things that are happening that aren’t covered. And I think the drumbeat in the country from the media, from the only way people know what’s happening unless they happen to have a loved one deployed there, is discouraging and you know — I know that the facts are not as discouraging.
O’DONNELL: But there are a lot of deaths every day.
BUSH: Absolutely, there are, and people do know that and see that, but there are also good things going on that people don’t have the chance to see.
O’DONNELL: What are some of those good things that people should know about?
BUSH: Schools that are being built; parts of the country that are peaceful; and people are trying to rebuild their lives in a large part of Iraq. And we hear that, we hear that from friends, we hear that from Iraqis, we hear it from our troops who are there, and — so, I’d like to see the media get a little bit more balanced view of it.
Sure, Laura, no problem, here you go:
[Quote:]
Iraq’s schools, long touted by American officials as a success story in a land short on successes, increasingly are being caught in the crossfire of the country’s escalating civil war.
President Bush has routinely talked about the refurbishment and construction of schools as a neglected story of progress in Iraq. The U.S. Agency for International Development has spent about $100 million on Iraq’s education system and cites the rehabilitation of 2,962 school buildings as a signal accomplishment.
But today, across the country, campuses are being shuttered, students and teachers driven from their classrooms and parents left to worry that a generation of traumatized children will go without education.
Teachers tell of students kidnapped on their way to school, mortar rounds landing on or near campuses and educators shot in front of children.
This month insurgents distributed pamphlets at campuses, some sealed inside an envelope with an AK-47 bullet.
“To the Honest People of Baghdad,” one pamphlet read, “we want you to leave the schools, hospitals, institutes, colleges and universities until the illegal government of [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri] Maliki is put down. We want your full cooperation on this.”
No credible current national school attendance statistics exist in Iraq, whose education system was once considered a model in the Arab world. But examples abound of schools being closed or left mostly empty as parents flee the country or keep their children home.
Non Sequitur
Five-day work week will double Congress’s workload
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US Democrats, who will take control of Congress next month, have outraged some of their colleagues by their decision to work five days a week, which will almost double their workload.
According to an announcement made by the next Democratic majority leader, Steny Hoyer, representatives will have to be present to vote Monday through Friday.
What’s more, instead of waiting for the traditional State of the Union address by the president at the end of January to begin legislative work, the House of Representatives and the Senate will put themselves to work as early as January 4.
A Republican member of Congress immediately complained.
“Marriages suffer. The Democrats couldn’t care less about families — that’s what this says,” Congressman Jack Kingston told The Washington Post.
Since then, he has been the subject of ridicule.
“My wife just returned from a yearlong tour in Iraq,” wrote a reader of The Post. “Our marriage and family — we have two sons, ages two and three and a half — are stronger than ever.”
Hackers Selling Vista Zero-Day Exploit
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Underground hackers are hawking zero-day exploits for Microsoft’s new Windows Vista operating system at $50,000 a pop, according to computer security researchers at Trend Micro.
The Windows Vista exploit—which has not been independently verified—was just one of many zero-days available for sale at an auction-style marketplace infiltrated by the Tokyo-based anti-virus vendor.
In an interview with eWEEK, Trend Micro’s chief technology officer, Raimund Genes, said prices for exploits for unpatched code execution flaws are in the $20,000 to $30,000 range, depending on the popularity of the software and the reliability of the attack code.
Bots and Trojan downloaders that typically hijack Windows machines for use in spam-spewing botnets were being sold for about $5,000, Genes said.
[..]
However, according to Genes, the typical price of a destructive exploit has increased dramatically, driving an underground market that could exceed the value of the legitimate security software business.
“I think the malware industry is making more money than the anti-malware industry,” Genes said.
Former church camp leader faces child pornography charges
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A former Baptist camp leader was charged Tuesday with three counts of child pornography and one count of indecent solicitation of a child for incidents that occurred in April and May.
Police also are asking parents whose children may have attended the Super Summer Baptist Camp in Greenville in 2005 to check their children’s computer for the man’s computer online user name to see if he had any contact with them.
Columbia Police Chief Joseph Edwards said the man met one of his two victims at that camp.
“There could be a lot more victims out there,” Edwards said.
Aaron J. Niles, 20, of Waterloo, is being held in the Monroe County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.