[Quote:]

The Homeland Security Department has installed biometric entry facilities at all fixed ports of entry as part of the federal government’s program to strengthen border controls for visiting foreigners in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, DHS officials said Friday.

DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program (US-VISIT) is working at all fixed ports of entry open to US-VISIT travelers. The program collects digital photos and fingerprint scans of travelers’ index fingers and compares them with photos and fingerprint scans of known terrorists and other criminals on watchlists.

“The U.S. Government’s efforts to strengthen our nation’s immigration and border management system have taken a giant leap with the deployment of US-VISIT entry capabilities at all our ports and visa-issuing posts abroad,�? Chertoff said. “US-VISIT is making America safer by enhancing our border management system with next-generation technologies and processes to address the emerging threats, challenges, and opportunities of our 21st-century world.�?

US-VISIT program workers installed biometric entry procedures at the 50 busiest land border ports in 2004 and finished the remaining 104 land border ports in 2005.

The program uses biometric and biographic information to verify the identities of visitors at U.S. visa-issuing ports when they arrive in the United States and when they leave.

Since January 2004, US‑VISIT has processed more than 44 million visitors. It has spotted and apprehended nearly 1,000 people with criminal or immigration violations, according to a DHS press release.

Bruce Schneier wrote in 2004 that the costs for the then called “next phase” of the US-VISIt program was $15 Billion. The real costs have probably been higher than that, and that’s just the direct costs of the program – there’s plenty of people who simply stopped visiting the USA (such as yours truly), so the loss in tourist dollars is probably in the same order. But, to keep things clear, let’s ignore that. So, the US is spending 15 million dollar per “criminal or immigration violation”.

Surely there’s a more cost-effective way to catch bad guys?

[Quote:]

Female troops serving in the Iraq war are reporting an insidious enemy in their own camps: fellow American soldiers who sexually assault them.

At least 37 female service members have sought sexual-trauma counseling and other assistance from civilian rape crisis organizations after returning from war duty in Iraq, Kuwait and other overseas stations, The Denver Post has learned. The women, ranging from enlisted soldiers to officers, have reported poor medical treatment, lack of counseling and incomplete criminal investigations by military officials. Some say they were threatened with punishment after reporting assaults.

The Pentagon did not respond to repeated requests for information about the number of sexual assault reports during the conflict. Defense officials would say only that they will not tolerate sexual assault in their ranks.

[Quote:]

In a startling revelation, the former commander of Abu Ghraib prison testified that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former senior U.S. military commander in Iraq, gave orders to cover up the cause of death for some female American soldiers serving in Iraq.

Last week, Col. Janis Karpinski told a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York that several women had died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being assaulted or even raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women’s latrine after dark.

The latrine for female soldiers at Camp Victory wasn’t located near their barracks, so they had to go outside if they needed to use the bathroom. “There were no lights near any of their facilities, so women were doubly easy targets in the dark of the night,” Karpinski told retired U.S. Army Col. David Hackworth in a September 2004 interview.

[Quote:]

Ben je er niet bij in Duitsland dit WK?
Zorg dan in elk geval dat je schone voeten hebt voordat je de TV aanzet.

Met de Hei-mat voor je deur begint elke wedstrijd goed!

[Quote:]

Minister Donner wil dat de Stichting de Thuiskopie de financiële verantwoording verbetert. Zo niet, dan raakt de stichting zijn bevoegdheid kwijt.

Dit staat in een brief die minister Donner van Justitie dinsdag naar de Tweede Kamer heeft gestuurd. De oproep is het gevolg van aanbevelingen van het College van Toezicht Auteursrechten. Deze heeft onderzoek verricht naar de werkwijze van de stichting naar aanleiding van klachten. De stichting krijgt drie maanden de tijd om een plan van aanpak op te stellen.

De Stichting de Thuiskopie is door de minister aangewezen voor de inning en verdeling van de vergoeding voor het maken van thuiskopieën aan rechthebbenden. De stichting moet van Donner binnen zes maanden met ‘een volledig, definitieve financiële verantwoording komen over het incassojaar 2004′. Als dat niet gebeurt trekt de minister de aanwijzing in.

De privaatrechtelijke instelling verdeelt niet zelf het geld over de rechthebbenden. Hiervoor heeft de stichting zogeheten verdeelorganisaties voor aangewezen. Volgens het College van Toezicht heeft de verdeling van thuiskopiegelden in de periode 1993-2001 onaanvaardbare vertragingen heeft opgelopen.

Als ik een dergelijke vertraging bij de belastingdienst was opgelopen, waren mijn eigendommen inmiddels bij opbod verkocht. Waarom tolereren we dit wel van deze dievenstichting?

[Quote:]

Last winter, Sweden was blasted by the first storm in recorded history to ever deliver hurricane force winds, devastating the country’s valuable fir and pine forests. It’s been estimated that 75 million cubic meters of forest were destroyed, or about 150 million trees. Logging crews came from all over the world, comprising the largest logging operation ever. By working all day for nine months, the crews were able to salvage 75% of the felled trees. This massive collection of wood is now stored at a former air strip and has become quite a tourist attraction: stacked in rows over forty feet tall and several hundred feet long, the rows each amount to approximately 1,000,000 cubic meters of timber.

2006: “…the state of our Union is strong…”

2005: “…the state of our union is confident and strong.”

2004: “…the state of our union is confident and strong.”

Wait — so we aren’t confident anymore?

If anyone needs me, I’ll be hiding under the bed.

[Quote:]

Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier in Iraq who reinvigorated the anti-war movement, was arrested and removed from the House gallery Tuesday night just before President Bush’s State of the Union address, a police spokeswoman said.

Sheehan, who was invited to attend the speech by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., was charged with demonstrating in the Capitol building, said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. The charge was later changed to unlawful conduct, Schneider said. Both charges are misdemeanors.

Sheehan was taken in handcuffs from the Capitol to police headquarters a few blocks away. Her case was processed as Bush spoke.

Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to the speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.

So, folks, reminder: don’t wear a t-shirt with a number on it, if that number happens to be close to the number of casualties in Iraq:

Irony alert. A few seconds later, in his speech, Bush said:

“Every step toward freedom in the world makes our country safer — so we will act boldly in freedom’s cause. Far from being a hopeless dream, the advance of freedom is the great story of our time.

No one can deny the success of freedom, but some men rage and fight against it.
…
We love our freedom, and we will fight to keep it.”

Indeed, Mr. President, we will.

2,241 is only an anti-war slogan if you don’t believe that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was worth it.

The fact that her shirt is being universally described as “anti-war” emphasizes that at some level, people don’t want to think about the true costs of war, because they know that this one wasn’t worth it.

Can you imagine if Steve Jobs had to give a State of the Union speech?

“Now, we’ve been doing some amazing, amazing things with the budget, some really great things, and today we’re going to add something new to our long-term fiscal planning strategy family. And to introduce it, I’d like to show you a commercial we’ve been working on. I really love it, and I think you will, too.”

slick commercial

“In fact, I like that so much, let’s watch it again.”

slick commercial

“And the best part is that these tax breaks will be available today.”

audience cheers as though they’re surprised

“So that’s what’s new in the State of the Union today. I’d like to thank Phil Schiller from Apple, Dennis Hastert of the House, and Theodore Gray of Wolfram Research for helping us show you guys all the great budget plans and energy initiatives today. This is going to be an insanely great year for America, and we can’t wait to show you what else we’ve got in store.

“Oh, and one more thing . . .”

map of the Middle East appears on the projection screen

There’s a bunch of fact-checking at thinkprogress.org on the State of the Union.

An example:

Bush says: “The best way to break this [oil] addiction is through technology. … We will also fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn but from wood chips, stalks, or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years.�?

FACT — BUSH PUSHED FOR BIOFUELS CUTS IN LATEST BUDGET: In President Bush’s FY06 budget, “the RBS Renewable and Energy Efficiency Grant/Loan Guarantee Program would be scaled back to $10 million from $23 million in FY05, the NRCS Biomass Research and Development Program would be cut by $2 million to $12 million, and the CCC Bioenergy Program would be slashed $40 million from $100 million in FY05 to $60 million in FY06.�? [Renewable Energy Access, 2/28/05]

You may not know this but many non-living things have a gender.

1) Ziploc Bags are Male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.

2) Copiers are Female, because once turned off; it takes a while to warm them up again. It’s an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed.

3) A Tire is Male, because it goes bald and it’s often over-inflated.

4) A Hot Air Balloon is Male, because, to get it to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under it, and of course, there’s the hot air part.

5) Sponges are Female, because they’re soft, squeezable and retain water.

6) A Web Page is Female because it’s always getting hit on.

7) A Subway is Male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.

An Hour glass is Female, because over time, the weight shifts to the bottom.

9) A Hammer is Male, because it hasn’t changed much over the last 5,000 years, but it’s handy to have around.

10) A Remote Control is Female. Ha! You thought it’d be male, didn’t you? But consider this,-it gives a man pleasure, he’d be lost without it, and while he doesn’t always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying!