“We know the Iraqis want us there.”
– White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, 6/11/08
VERSUS
“The majority of the people of Iraq are [in favor of] withdrawal. … Perhaps even about 70 percent.”
– Iraqi Parliament member Nadeem Al-Jaberi, 6/4/08
I hear there’s a bug on this web page…
[Quote:]
Cell phones may be nearly ubiquitous in today’s world, but the number of people who have adopted proper cell phone etiquette
(or gadget etiquette in general) often seems to be far smaller. Microsoft has filed for a patent (patent application
2008/125,102) on technology it feels could address such situations via the use of what the company refers to as a “digital
manners policy,” or DMP for short. The patent abstract states:The present invention includes methods and technologies for defining and administering device manners policy (”DMP”), propagating DMP, reception and recognition of, and compliance with DMP. Such policy may be used to communicate to various mobile and other devices the “manners” with which compliance is expected or required. Similar to some of the social manners honored among people, such as with “no smoking” or “employees only” zones, “no swimming” or “no flash photography” areas, and scenarios for “please wash your hands” or “no talking out loud”, devices may recognize and comply with analogous “device manners” policy.
Again Microsoft wants others to decide what your device can and cannot do. I think this is [dgtlmnrs.exe: WARNING: No Microsoft bashing. Post aborted.]
[Quote:]
Going further, McCain even told Hayes in comments heretofore unpublished that he’d consider Cheney for an administration post.
Asked whether he’d be interested in Cheney had the vice president not already have served under Bush for two terms, McCain said: “I don’t know if I would want him as vice president. He and I have the same strengths. But to serve in other capacities? Hell, yeah.”
I guess he isn’t talking about cleaning toilets…
[Quote:]
The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to refer a proposal to impeach President Bush to its Judiciary Committee.
Although the committee could hold hearings and start impeachment proceedings against the lame-duck president, Democratic leaders and others expect the proposal, sponsored by Cleveland Democrat Dennis Kucinich, to merely languish.
Another Kucinich resolution, to impeach Vice President Cheney, has sat in the committee without action since last year.
The House voted 251-166, without debate, for the latest impeachment referral. No Democrats voted against it, while 24 Republicans voted for it, including Steve LaTourette of Concord Township and Mike Turner of Dayton.
LaTourette said he voted that way in order to get the matter off the House floor and let it follow regular order. Turner said he voted to send it to the committee because “the House has more important things to be focused on.”
No you don’t. You’re sending the message that future Presidents van basically do whatever the fuck they want, and if that isn’t importnat, I don’t know what is.
In an ideal world, Obama would be the 46th President of the USA. (W is 43, Cheney would be 44 after impeachment of Bush, Pelosi would be 45 after impeachment of Cheney)
[Quote:]
A leading cellular phone company declined to charge the government the same expensive fees it charges consumers for canceling their contracts early, acknowledging that “the government will never, never accept such penalty amounts,” according to internal corporate e-mails obtained by The Associated Press.
Isn’t the Free Market great?
[Quote:]
The Senate unanimously confirmed Stephen Limbaugh Jr. to the federal court in St. Louis Tuesday.
Limbaugh, currently a Missouri Supreme Court judge, won final approval to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri after being nominated by President George W. Bush in December.
[..]
Limbaugh is a cousin to conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
[Quote:]
At the Enterprise 2.0 conference (which I didn’t attend), Don Burke and Sean Dennehey from the CIA gave a talk on Intellipedia, the CIA’s internal wikipedia. As part of their talk, they cited a manual, including, I’m told, this from page 28:
(1) Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
(2) Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments.
(3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.
(4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
(5) Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
(6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
(7) Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
(8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the juris diction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.Their point was that these instructions come from a 1944 manual on how to sabotage a business.
[Quote:]
In a major pushback against music industry efforts to expand copyright control at the expense of consumers, a California judge has ruled that recipients of promotional CDs are free to do with them as they please. In other words, what would seem obvious to the layman, in this case also happens to be the law.
[..]
“It was clear to the court that these CDs were the property of (the eBay merchant), and therefore he had the right to resell them,” said Joseph C. Gratz, attorney with Keker & Van Nest. “Copyright holders can’t strip consumers of their first sale rights just by sticking a ‘Not for Sale’ label on a CD.”
[Quote:]
Next month, Michelle Augustine plans to walk away from her four-bedroom house in a Sacramento, Calif., subdivision and let the property fall into foreclosure. But before doing so, she hopes to lock in the purchase of another home nearby.
[..]
Homeowners are able to pull off this gambit — which some lenders and real-estate agents call mortgage fraud — by taking advantage of mortgage-lending practices that allow them to buy a new primary residence before their existing residence has been sold. And with the lending industry in disarray as it tries to restructure millions of mortgages, some boast they are able to pull off the strategy with ease.
In some cases, homeowners are coached through the buy-and-bail process by real-estate agents and brokers who see nothing wrong with it.
Of course they don’t - they get the closing and initiation fees.
[Quote:]
Police are investigating a “serious” security breach after a civil servant lost top-secret documents containing the latest intelligence on al-Qaeda.
The unnamed Cabinet Office employee apparently breached strict security rules when he left the papers on the seat of a train.
A fellow passenger spotted the envelope containing the files and gave it to the BBC, who handed them to the police.
The official was later suspended from his job, the Cabinet Office announced.
[..]
One, on Iraq’s security forces, was commissioned by the Ministry of Defence. According to the BBC’s security correspondent, Frank Gardner, it included a top-secret and in some places “damning” assessment of Iraq’s security forces,
The other document, reportedly entitled ‘Al-Qaeda Vulnerabilities’, was commissioned jointly by the Foreign Office and the Home Office.
Just seven pages long but classified as “UK Top Secret”, this latest intelligence assessment on al-Qaeda is so sensitive that every document is numbered and marked “for UK/US/Canadian and Australian eyes only”, according to our correspondent.
[Quote:]
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has a unique sales pitch for the company’s Windows Vista operating system — if you don’t like it, you can turn it into Windows XP.
Referring to Microsoft licensing policies that allow customers who purchase an operating system to legally install predecessor versions on their PCs, Ballmer noted that the program allows customers who aren’t satisfied with Vista to use XP.
[..]
Ballmer implied that an extension for mainstream PCs isn’t in the cards because customers who want XP past June 30 can simply purchase Vista and exercise the downgrade option. “I don’t know how you can do better than getting both,” he said.
There’s so many funny comebacks to that remark, I’m not even going to bother…
[Quote:]
The 3G iPhone will be available to both contract customers, based on particularly simple price plans, and to pay-as-you-go users, and will include a wide range of data offerings. By choosing a contract price plan, such as iPhone Vodafone Facile, it will be possible, for example, to have an Apple phone at a particularly attractive price. People preferring a pre-pay plan for private users can buy the 8Gb iPhone for €499 or the 16GB model for €569.
