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This site is a gold mine. I can’t stop reading all of the stupid comments.

Fucking Shit

In Case Some Idiot

The Guy Who Wrote This

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Despite sprinting through the Andrews Air Force Base south terminal, President Bush narrowly missed his Air Force One flight to Boise earlier today after arriving just moments after the plane’s doors had closed.

The 12-person crew was not able to accommodate the president due to strict federal guidelines requiring all passengers to arrive at their departure gate 15 minutes prior to takeoff—guidelines flight officials say are especially important considering heightened security around the president. When Bush inquired into the possibility of being placed on standby for Air Force Two, the exasperated commander in chief was informed that the flight was full and Vice President Dick Cheney was unwilling to give up his seat.

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IT professionals in the Netherlands have demonstrated that the type of e-voting machines chosen by the Irish government for election counts can be secretly hacked.

Using documentation obtained from the Irish Department of the Environment, Dutch IT experts from anti e-voting group, “Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet” (We don’t trust voting computers), went on the “Een Vandaag” television programme on Wednesday to reveal that NEDAP e-voting machines could be made to record inaccurate voting preferences and even be reprogrammed to run a chess program.

According to Colm MacCarthaigh, a representative from Irish Citizens for Trustworthy E-Voting (ICTE), the machines hacked by the IT professionals, were almost exact replicas of those selected by the Irish Government for use in elections here in Ireland.

“The machines use the same construction and components, and differ only in relatively minor aspects such as the presence of extra LEDs to assist voters with the Irish voting system,” said MacCarthaigh.

“The machines are so similar that the Dutch group has been using only the technical reference manuals and materials relevant to the Irish machines as a guide, as those are the only materials publicly available,” he added.

The NEDAP e-voting machines were originally purchased by the Irish government for use in the local and European elections on 11 June 2004. However, the decision to introduce e-voting at that time had to be abandoned following the publication of an interim report from the Commission on Electronic Voting (CEV), which raised doubts over the accuracy of the software used in the system.

Since that report was released a number of other studies have cast further doubt on the reliability of the NEDAP machines. Moreover, in its final report before it dissolved, CEV concluded that while the actual machines designed for citizens to cast their votes on are robust, reliable and well-suited to their purpose, the software intended for collating votes is “inadequate,” and it recommended its complete replacement.

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Fergus O’Dowd, Environment spokesman for the Irish opposition party Fine Gael, has criticised the government over its e-voting strategy, claiming that it was a “debacle” that was getting worse by the month.

“It is frightening to consider that, were it not for strong resistance by the opposition parties, this country would have had e-voting foisted upon us by Fianna Fail and the PDs and would be forced to use it in the upcoming General Election,” said O’Dowd.

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In the autumn of 68 B.C. the world’s only military superpower was dealt a profound psychological blow by a daring terrorist attack on its very heart. Rome’s port at Ostia was set on fire, the consular war fleet destroyed, and two prominent senators, together with their bodyguards and staff, kidnapped.

The incident, dramatic though it was, has not attracted much attention from modern historians. But an event that was merely a footnote five years ago has now, in our post-9/11 world, assumed a fresh and ominous significance. For in the panicky aftermath of the attack, the Roman people made decisions that set them on the path to the destruction of their Constitution, their democracy and their liberty. One cannot help wondering if history is repeating itself.

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A glut of natural gas supplies in Britain has seen prices collapse and left traders having to pay for it to be taken off their hands.

Wholesale gas prices for immediate delivery turned negative on Tuesday as supplies surged in from the new Langeled pipeline from Norway.

Britain’s gas storage capacity is 96% full so firms need to offload supplies.

As domestic gas bills are based on longer-term contracts, consumers will have to wait for big reductions.

After trading at an average of 26p a therm through September, the spot price for gas delivered immediately fell to -5p during the course of the day, meaning traders are paying to get rid of it.

Mild weather – and a predicted milder winter – is also reducing demand.

“There is simply too much gas flowing into the UK,” said Chris Bowden, chief executive of energy services company Utilyx.

And in the USA:

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As to gas prices? Wondering about that $1/gal drop? Easy. The Goldman Sachs Commodity Index changed. In July, they announced that they were changing the allocation of energy, in particular, gasoline futures in the index.

So?

Any fund tracking that index would have to change positions to match it — that’s how a tracking fund works. When Kodak was delisted from the DJIA, they were hammered — because every fund based on the Dow Index had to sell off the Kodak shares, and there was a bunch of them.

There are a bunch of funds (Oppenhiemer’s Real Asset Fund is one, I think a couple of the major CA pension funds do as well.) that track the GSCI. When Goldman Sachs decided to reduce the gasoline futures percentage of the GSCI, that meant that a bunch of contracts that would have been rolled over by the funds were not, since they would change their positions to match the index.

In particular, note how the index only rolled half the HU (Harbor Unleaded) contracts in the September contracts (which expired in august) and didn’t roll the other half for October, which expired in September.

So, a huge amount of HU (read, regular gas) contracts that would have been bought by the tracking funds were not. If this had been a change to favor RB (reformulated blends, read, Ethanol and E15) it would have been one thing, but RB contracts didn’t change.

The net effect? The GSCI used to have about 7% of its value in gas. Now, it has about 2.5%. Any fund tracking that index would have stopped buying a large number of futures contracts. That removes demand on the futures markets for those commodities.

Demand drops, prices drop.

So, despite the fact that spot oil prices haven’t moved much at all, gasoline futures dropped dramatically, after a large number of buyers stopped buying and amazingly enough, gas prices fall.

Why would they do this? You tell me.

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Blogger anei_aka_kirian writes (in Russian) about Sunday’s “Smile�? flash mob. It was very simple – people were to come to central square and wander around smiling. Information was spreaded in usual way. There were nearly one hundred of riot policemen near the square waiting for the mobbers. And… anei_aka_kirian visited the square with his girlfriend, both smiling. Policemen advanced to them, checked the passports, and then brutally took him to the bus, leaving his girlfriend behind. In the bus he was searched and his small knife was found. He had the official note of Ministry of Internal Affairs confirming that this knife couldn’t be considered as a weapon, and it was wrapped. Nonetheless, policemen considered the guy to be one of the organizers of this flash mob and brought him to local police department. There criminal case was opened, and anei_aka_kirian could be punished with 3 months in prison or more for illegal storing of cold steel, despite that official certificate.

Sometimes situation in Belarus becomes both funny and terrible… criminal charges for smiles..
vsevolod_volkov commented that next time they could charge you for breaking wind not so far from government buildings, saying that you were poisoning people.

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“You know what’s really the most damaging? ABC is reporting that Mark Foley interrupted a vote on the House floor to have online phone sex with a 16-year-old student. Say what you want about Bill Clinton. He could sit at his desk, have sex and work at the same time. He was a multi-tasker.” –Jay Leno

“Florida Congressman Mark Foley resigned over the weekend after. ABC News uncovered sexually explicit e-mails and instant messages he sent to a 16-year-old congressional page. Apparently, he had text message phone sex with a boy during a vote on funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. No one can say he’s soft on terror, I’ll tell you that much.” –Jimmy Kimmel

“Mark Foley has now checked into rehab for alcoholism. Oh, shut up. Like that’s the big problem. Who cares if he’s addicted to Jack Daniels? He’s addicted to little Jack and little Daniel. That’s the problem.” –Jay Leno

“This scandal with Foley has finally led to some bipartisan cooperation in Congress. For example, Republican leaders had to meet with Ted Kennedy to find out what’s the best rehab center.” –Jay Leno

“Have you all been following this scandal in Washington with ex-Congressman Mark Foley? Well, a couple of days ago, he checked himself into rehab. It had gotten so bad he had to go out and develop a drinking problem. The ex-congressman, if nothing else, is contrite. He says when he gets out of rehab, he wants a fresh start and to turn over a new page.” –David Letterman

“I have the latest on the Mark Foley sex scandal. Apparently, new evidence that just came out shows that former Congressman Mark Foley once engaged in Internet sex with a former page while a vote was being taken in the House. Apparently, instead of voting ‘Aye,’ Foley voted ‘Oh God yes!’” –Conan O’Brien

“Everyone knows that Congress people are assigned to committees based on their great weakness. Why would Senator Ted Stevens, a man more comfortable in the horse and buggy era, be in charge of regulating the Internet? Which he believes is a series of tubes — a series of tubes though which other congressmen can reach through and fondle 16-year-olds.” –John Oliver

“On Friday, Republican Congressman Mark Foley of Florida stepped down because, well, he’s in big trouble. If you were watching Fox News, you might have missed this story — they’re still rerunning that Clinton video.” –Stephen Colbert

“This incident is changing the way big companies do business in Washington — like tobacco companies are now hiring underage boys as lobbyists because they know that’s the best way to reach congressmen.” –Jay Leno

Once can be stupidity, twice means malice.

Great rant.

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Embattled House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) has told conservative activist Paul Weyrich that he would resign if it would help the Republicans, Congressional Quarterly is reporting.

“He said if he thought that resigning would be helpful to the Republicans maintaining the majority, he would do it,” Weyrich said in an interview. “But he did not think it would helpful for Republicans.”

No, not if he did something wrong. No, not because he was keeping a sexual predator on the committee making laws to protect abused and exploited children.

Only if it helps Republicans win the election.

Screw the country, screw the future, screw the kids.

What matters is power.

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The White House is in full panic mode trying to find a way to spin the now-admitted fact that George Tenet did indeed brief Condi Rice on July 10, 2001 about the terror threat.  The latest damage control approach has been to claim that the report was “nothing new”.

So how come when then-Attorney General John Ashcroft heard the same warning a week later, he immediately stopped flying commercial aircraft?

Christy Hardin Smith at FDL runs down a bunch of the story of the July 10, 2001 terror briefing Condi somehow failed to remember.  She also touches on the fact that George Tenet gave the same warning to John Ashcroft exactly a week later.

It seems to me that we ought to be asking whether that story has anything to do with this one, dated July 26, 2001:

Fishing rod in hand, Attorney General John Ashcroft left on a weekend trip to Missouri Thursday afternoon aboard a chartered government jet, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a “threat assessment” by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term.

“There was a threat assessment and there are guidelines. He is acting under the guidelines,” an FBI spokesman said. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department, however, would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it.

Got that?  July 17 — Ashcroft briefed.  July 28 — Ashcroft flies in a charter, leased, according to the article, earlier that week.

Seems to me this could be another blockbuster.  If Ashcroft decided that commercial flights were too dangerous based on the same warning as Rice (who presumably wasn’t flying commercial flights either) ignored, we have ourselves some rather dramatic evidence of callous indifference and willingness on the part of the Bush Administration to put the preservation of their own hides before their duty.  It will be tough for Rice to argue that the briefing was nothing new if it scared Ashcroft away from flying with commercial airlines.

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The Daily Show is much funnier than traditional newscasts, but a new study from Indiana University says it has the same amount of meat on its bones when it comes to coverage of the news. The brand of news coverage Jon Stewart and the rest of The Daily Show’s staff brings to the airwaves is just as substantive as traditional news programs like World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News, according to the study conducted by IU assistant professor of telecommunications Julia R. Fox and a couple of graduate students.

The researchers looked at coverage of the 2004 Democratic and Republican national conventions and the first presidential debate of the fall campaign, all of which were covered by the mainstream broadcast news outlets and The Daily Show. Individual broadcasts of the nightly news and corresponding episodes of The Daily Show were analyzed by the researchers, who found that the “average amounts of video and audio substance in the broadcast network news stories” were no different from The Daily Show. Perhaps more telling, The Daily Show delivered longer stories on the topic.

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Is it time to tune out World News Tonight and tune into The Daily Show? Professor Fox doesn’t think so, saying that “we should probably be concerned about both of those sources, because neither one is particularly substantive. It’s a bottom-line industry and ratings-driven. We live in an ‘infotainment’ society, and there certainly are a number of other sources available.”