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Today, The HSUS expressed its strong disappointment that Interior Secretary Gale Norton has named Matthew J. Hogan to be acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Norton announced the appointment yesterday, following last week’s resignation of Director Steve Williams. Hogan was formerly the chief lobbyist for Safari Club International (SCI), an extreme trophy hunting organization that advocates the killing of rare species around the world.

“Having a Safari Club lobbyist in charge, even temporarily, of the federal agency that is supposed to protect endangered species is precisely the wrong course to pursue for any Administration,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. “Someone with a true wildlife conservation ethic, not an allegiance to the trophy hunting industry, should be nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the permanent director position as soon as possible.”

The Arizona-based SCI has made a name for itself as one of the most extreme and elite trophy hunting organizations, representing some 40,000 wealthy trophy collectors, fostering and promoting competitive trophy hunting of exotic animals on five continents. SCI members shoot prescribed lists of animals to win so-called Grand Slam and Inner Circle titles. There’s the Africa Big Five (leopard, elephant, lion, rhino, and buffalo), the North American Twenty Nine (all species of bear, bison, sheep, moose, caribou, and deer), Big Cats of the World, Antlered Game of the Americas, and many other contests.

To complete all 29 award categories, a hunter must kill a minimum of 322 separate species and sub-species—enough to populate a large zoo. This is an extremely expensive and lengthy task, and many SCI members take the quick and easy route to see their names in the record books. They shoot captive animals in canned hunts, both in the United States and overseas, and some engage in other unethical conduct like shooting animals over bait, from vehicles, with spotlights, or on the periphery of national parks.

SCI members have even tried to circumvent federal laws to import their rare trophies from other countries. Prominent SCI hunter Kenneth E. Behring donated $100 million to the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum and, according to published reports, tried to get the museum’s help in importing a rare Kara Tau argali sheep which he shot in Kazakhstan and had shipped to a Canadian taxidermist—one of only 100 Kara Tau argali sheep remaining in the world. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, now under Hogan’s watch, is the agency charged with granting or denying such trophy import permits.

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General Motors Corp.’s borrowing costs rose to the highest in almost two years after the world’s largest carmaker lost financial support from General Electric Co.

The extra yield, or spread, investors demand to hold the automaker’s euro-denominated debt due 2033 widened 40 basis points, or 0.40 percentage point, to 578 basis points, the most since the securities were sold in June 2003, as of 11:28 a.m. in London, according to Royal Bank of Canada prices.

GM, the world’s third-largest corporate borrower with $114.5 billion of bonds, on March 16 forecast its biggest quarterly loss since 1992, prompting Standard & Poor’s to say it may lower the automaker’s credit rating to below investment grade. GE, the world’s No. 2 company by market value, yesterday cut short an agreement giving the carmaker’s suppliers faster payment.

The GM situation could gradually deteriorate until they are forced to declare bankruptcy — which is not the end of the company, but definitely not good news. Currently GM has a 9.4 billion interest expense on its income statement. GM also has to go to the market on a regular basis because of their finance arm. As their interest costs increase it is possible their margins (essentially the difference between their revenue and expenses) will continue to get squeezed. Their operating margin is currently .62%. (Ford has a 2.8% operating margin and and Chrysler has a 2.8 operating margin).

Here is why this story is important.

1.) GM employs about 324,000 poeple. If there is a problem with the company, you can bet that layoffs will happen quickly.

2.) There are numerous other companies that depend on GM — especially parts makers that sell directly to GM. If GM slows down, there will be a ripple effect to suppliers

3.) GM stated that health costs were a prime reason for their problems. Ford and Chrysler are in the same boat. And yet, Congress is doing nothing. Toyota has a 9.7% operatinig margin.

4.) Autos and airlines are the last old generation corporations still in existance. Neither are doing well. Most US airlines are either in bankruptcy or operating at a major loss. Ford and Chrysler are in better shape, but not much.

5.) SUVs are the most porfitable vehicles the automakers sell. I doubt that an increase in oil prices will encourage sales for these vehicles. In other words, as oil prices increase, it is possible (but certainly not guaranteed) that we’ll see Ford and Chrysler making similar announcements.

6) If the credit rating drops to below investment grade, many institutional investors (such as pension funds) must sell their stock of the company, dropping the value of the stock significantly as a result, making it even more difficult for GE to get money from the market.

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The vote by Congress to allow the federal courts to take over the Terri Schiavo case has created distress among some conservatives who say that lawmakers violated a cornerstone of conservative philosophy by intervening in the ruling of a state court.

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In interviews over the past two days, conservatives who expressed concern about the turn of events in Congress stopped short of condemning the vote in which overwhelming majorities supported the Schiavo bill, and they generally applauded the goal of trying to keep Ms. Schiavo alive. But they said they were concerned about what precedent had been set and said the vote went against Republicans who were libertarian, advocates of states’ rights or supporters of individual rights.

“My party is demonstrating that they are for states’ rights unless they don’t like what states are doing,” said Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut, one of five House Republicans who voted against the bill. “This couldn’t be a more classic case of a state responsibility.”

“This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy,” Mr. Shays said. “There are going to be repercussions from this vote. There are a number of people who feel that the government is getting involved in their personal lives in a way that scares them.”

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If you’re like us and hit the snooze button eight thousand times each morning, perhaps it’s in your own best interests to have a clock that, say, rolls off the table and finds a new place to hide every day, so you’re sure to properly get up the next time it goes off. I’m sure they’d say owning a Clocky is for your own good, but we really know it does its stuff because our morning breath and the way we look before we’ve put our faces on is enough to drive even inanimate objects to fleeing in sheer horror.

Fans duck for cover as a shattered bat flies into the crowd on a single by Minnesota Twins designated hitter Michael Restovich in the fourth inning against the Florida Marlins in Fort Myers, Fla., Monday March 14, 2005. No one was seriously injured in the incident. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

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A raid by Swedish authorities last week against Bahnhof, Sweden’s oldest and largest ISP, has been hailed by Hollywood as a major blow against movie piracy. But questions have been raised about whether the 10 March raid, orchestrated by Swedish anti-piracy organisation Antipiratbyr�n, and involving the seizure of data involving thousands of users, might have violated the country’s strict data privacy laws.

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Regarding Bahnof, it�s getting more interesting.

In a recent press release, it’s revealed that APB has known about this server for well over a year without doing anything.

As it turns out, APB (or, rather, their hired informer) supplied the servers and uploaded copyrighted materials. So that’s why they were so sure to find stuff, they put it there!

This will truly be an interesting development.

Log files for what this hired informer was up to can be found here.

But there’s more.

After Easter, APB’s data processing of IP-addresses will be investigated to see if they violated privacy laws – you need permission to store or process information that can be connected to a living physical person. If they can’t match the IP and the person, who are they going to sue?

“Major blow to piracy”.

Naw. Not really.

They should turn this into a comedy show about a private law-enforcement agency that pays informants to plant evidence they can then proceed to find.

‘DVD Jon’ reopens iTunes back door | CNET News.com
A group of underground programmers has posted code online they say will reopen a back door in Apple Computer’s iTunes store, allowing Linux computer users to purchase music free of copy protection.

The release comes just a day after Apple blocked a previous version of the program, called PyMusique, in part by requiring all iTunes customers to use the latest version of Apple’s software.

In a blog posting, Norwegian programmer Jon Johansen, who was previously responsible for releasing software used to copy DVDs online, said he had been successful at reverse engineering the latest iTunes encryption.

Cody Brocious, a Pennsylvania high school student working with Johansen, said they saw the project as “necessary for the Linux community,” despite Apple’s opposition.