This movie is worth the cost of the entire space program!

[Quote:]

A prominent male hooker, Dirk Blackman, was forced to give up his position as the head of a large national prostitution ring when it was revealed that he had repeatedly had sex with sleazy evangelical leader Ted Haggard.

Members of the prostitution ring were shocked by the allegations. “There are some things that you don’t even do for money,” said one man, who gave his name as Johnny Lovehandles, bemoaning Blackman’s “intimate physical contacts” with the virulently anti-gay and shamefully untrustworthy pastor.

The Haggard scandal was the latest in a string of revelations concerning male prostitutes fraternizing with conservative right-wing figures, including the bombshell that male exotic dancer Milli Flotilla had turned his Miami dressing room into a secret shrine filled with revealing photographs of Rush Limbaugh and Sen. Bill Frist photoshopped to depict them in compromising scenarios involving Dennis Hastert and a constiutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage.

At first Blackman denied that he had sex with that “theological conman,” saying that Haggard had been sent to his Denver hotel room and that he had only gotten a quick sermon. Yesterday Blackman admitted that some of the charges were true, but denied that he had ever supported social security privatization.

Today Blackman is entering the William F. Buckley Clinic for the Sexually Obsessed With Hypocritical Conservatives.

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From around 2pm today. Fox is at an interesting moment – the country is turning away from their view of the world and they’re losing audience at a horrific clip (17% overall in the last year, 25% from primetime). At the same time, this year is a major renewal year for them, and they need to lock in licensees at higher rates than the rock bottom ones they negotiated in 96. These numbers can’t be helping the, and their inability to adjust to the new political reality is one of the reasons for their numbers

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people.

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If you experience any irregularities in voting today, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE, the hotline for the National Campaign for Fair Elections. EFF lawyers and many others are standing by across the country to take legal action to remove malfunctioning voting machines, keep polls open, etc.

[Quote:]

Dutch intelligence service AIVD – the same organization that ruled 1,200 e-voting computers inadequate – has warned Dutch MPs to stop using the Blackberry to access their email because their messages can be intercepted.

In 2003 one hundred Blackberry handhelds were given to leading politicians and campaign workers from the Dutch CDA (Christian Democratic) party. The idea was that they could access their e-mail wherever they were on the campaign trail.

“Being able to react to and agree on things rapidly is essential,” Dutch Premier and leader of the CDA Jan Peter Balkenende told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf at the time.

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Over the past several days, voters throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia have filed complaints of incidents aimed at suppressing voter turn out in heavily Democratic and African American neighborhoods. Today, the Secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections Jean Jensen concluded that the incidents appear widespread and deliberate.

“There are now credible reports from multiple jurisdictions around the Commonwealth that establish a pattern of dirty tricks being employed to confuse and frustrate Virginia’s voters from exercising their right to vote tomorrow. In addition to reports that have been received by the Democratic Party of Virginia, these local election officials have been receiving reports from concerned voters,�? said Jack Young, co-chair of Promote the Vote.

Jay Myerson, General Counsel of the Democratic Party of Virginia noted the irony that our troops are fighting to create democracy in Iraq at a time when those very rights are being tested here at home. Myerson and Young urged voters to recognize that voting precincts are not changed by telephone calls and called upon the U.S. Department of Justice to vigorously investigate these matters.

Documented incidents of suppression incidents include:

1) Calls that Voting will Lead to Arrest.

Tim Daly from Clarendon got a call saying that if he votes Tuesday, he will be arrested. A recording of his voicemail can be found online at: www.webbforsenate.com/media/phone_message.wav

The transcript from his voicemail reads:

“This message is for Timothy Daly. This is the Virginia Elections Commission. We’ve determined you are registered in New York to vote. Therefore, you will not be allowed to cast your vote on Tuesday. If you do show up, you will be charged criminally.”

Daly has been registered to vote in Virginia since 1998, and he has voted for the last several cycles with no problem. He has filed a criminal complaint with the Commonwealth’s attorney in Arlington.

“This is a clear attempt to erroneously lead voters to believe they cannot participate in the Virginia election. Nothing is further from the truth. You have the right to vote in the Virginia election as long as you are a Virginia resident, registered to vote in Virginia and have not voted in any other general election this year. We’ve seen this tactic before and it is about time the Republicans learned that it will not work,�? said Jay B. Myerson, General Counsel of the Democratic Party of Virginia.

2) Widespread Calls, Allegedly from “Webb Volunteers,�? Telling Voters that their Polling Location has Changed.

A couple of examples:

a. Norman Cox has been registered to vote in the same location in Arlington since 1972. Someone from a 406 number (in Montana) called to tell him that his polling place has changed. [Note: The Webb Campaign is NOT making any such phone calls.] Cox said he believed that he was being mislead and the caller hung up.

b. Peter Baumann in Cape Charles, VA (North Hampton) got a similar call from a “Webb volunteer�? saying his polling location had changed. He said: No, I’m a poll worker and I know where I vote. The girl—who was calling from California—hung up.

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In an apparent violation of FCC rules, conservative talk radio station KFBK 1530 AM in Sacramento transmitted a paid political advertisement to an unknown number of other stations in the area, using the federal Emergency Alert System (EAS), thus automatically forcing the ad onto the stations’ airwaves. This is according to a press release issued today by KDVS-FM, a non-commercial community station in Davis that received and inadvertently aired the transmission.

The advertisement is for Richard “Dick” Mountjoy, the Republican running against incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Immediately following the Mountjoy ad is a commercial for HMS Capital Loans.

[..]

Upon contact by KDVS management, KFBK Operations Manager Alan Eisansom claimed station responsibility for the message broadcast assigning blame to some kind of nonspecific training snafu.

2006 November 7


Credit: CICLOPS, JPL, ESA, NASA

Janus is one of the stranger moons of Saturn.

First, Janus travels in an unusual orbit around Saturn where it periodically trades places with its sister moon Epimetheus, which typically orbits about 50 kilometers away. Janus, although slightly larger than Epimetheus, is potato-shaped and has a largest diameter of about 190 kilometers. Next, Janus is covered with large craters but strangely appears to lack small craters. One possible reason for this is a fine dust that might cover the small moon, a surface also hypothesized for Pandora and Telesto. Pictured above, Janus was captured in front of the cloud tops of Saturn in late September.

[Quote:]

People who have bought music from Microsoft’s MSN Music store could face problems if they decide to buy the firm’s new Zune portable player.

Microsoft has said it will stop selling music from MSN music from 14 November, when Zune goes on sale in the US.

But in a move that could alienate some customers, MSN-bought tracks will not be compatible with the new gadget.

The move could also spell problems for the makers of MP3 players which are built to work with the MSN store.

The problem has arisen because tracks from the MSN Music site are compatible with the specifications of the Plays For Sure initiative.

Calling it “Plays For Sure” should have been a dead give-away for customers…

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The Supreme court has decided that T-Online, one of the largest ISPs in Germany has to delete all IP logs to guarantee the privacy of their customers. This ruling makes it impossible for anti-piracy organizations to trace an infringing IP-address back to a customer of T-Online, once their dynamic IP address has changed.

The decision (German) does not mean that T-Online is now obliged to delete all their IP-logs, the customers first need to complain. But, if they ask T-Online to delete their IP-logs, the ISP has no other choice than to comply. A lawyer from Frankfurt already sketched a sample letter to make this process easier.

The court ruling is the result of a case that was initiated by Holger Voss, a 33 year old man from Münster. Voss was sued for making a sarcastic comment in an Internet forum back in 2002.

After the district court and the regional court, now the Supreme court decided that T-Online has no right to store the IP-logs without a legal reason. This ruling can be considered as a huge breakthrough, and it is good to see that at least some countries still value privacy.

Cue the german government complaining about terrorism and the need for those logs…