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Georgie Anne Geyer writes today in the Dallas Morning News about President Bush’s strange behavior during a recent meeting with “[f]riends of his from Texas.”

But by all reports, President Bush is more convinced than ever of his righteousness.

Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated “I am the president!” He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of “our country’s destiny.”

This is the second time in recent weeks that accounts have surfaced of Bush lashing out or “ranting” in private meetings when responding to criticism of his Iraq policy. Chris Nelson of the Nelson Report offered a similar account earlier this month:

[S]ome big money players up from Texas recently paid a visit to their friend in the White House. The story goes that they got out exactly one question, and the rest of the meeting consisted of The President in an extended whine, a rant, actually, about no one understands him, the critics are all messed up, if only people would see what he’s doing things would be OK…etc., etc. This is called a “bunker mentality” and it’s not attractive when a friend does it. When the friend is the President of the United States, it can be downright dangerous. Apparently the Texas friends were suitably appalled, hence the story now in circulation.

Like the tearful House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), Bush needs to channel his bottled up emotions towards a more worthy end — winding down the war in Iraq rather than defending the status quo.

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One of the ways the RIAA operates is by donating money to politicians who then enact favorable legislation on their behalf. Don’t let the optimist in you believe that this doesn’t work. It does.

But wait, aren’t these representatives supposed to work for you? Sure. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of 50 congresspeople who took campaign contributions from the RIAA in the last election cycle. We’ve linked their contact information so that you, as their constituents, can inform them that they’re taking money from the “Worst Company in America,” and that’s going to cost them your vote.

If your congressperson isn’t on the list, try writing Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, both of whom are running for President and have national interest.

Congressperson Receiving Contributions From The RIAA	Amount	Contact Information
Dist 19-FL WEXLER, ROBERT DEM	$9,000	ClickHere
Dist 21-TX SMITH, LAMAR REP	$7,500	ClickHere
Senate-UT HATCH, ORRIN G REP	$6,000	ClickHere
Senate-PA SPECTER, ARLEN REP	$5,000	ClickHere
Senate-AK STEVENS, THEODOREF  REP	$5,000	ClickHere
Senate-NE NELSON, E BENJAMIN DEM	$5,000	ClickHere
Senate-CA FEINSTEIN, DIANNE DEM	$4,000	ClickHere
Dist45-CA BONO, MARY REP	$4,000	ClickHere
Senate-FL NELSON, BILL DEM	$4,500	ClickHere
Dist 08-FL KELLER, RICHARDA REP	$4,054	ClickHere
Dist 07-NJ FERGUSON, MIKE REP	$4,000	ClickHere
Dist 28-CA BERMAN, HOWARD L DEM	$3,500	ClickHere
Dist 29-CA SCHIFF, ADAM DEM	$3,000	ClickHere
Dist 30-CA WAXMAN, HENRY A. DEM	$3,000	ClickHere
Dist 07-MO BLUNT, ROY REP	$3,100	ClickHere
Dist 06-TN GORDON, BARTONJENNINGS DEM	$3,000	ClickHere
Dist 06-VA GOODLATTE, ROBERTW. REP	$3,500	ClickHere
Senate-IL OBAMA, BARACK DEM	$2,000	ClickHere
Dist 14-IL HASTERT, DENNIS J. REP	$2,000	ClickHere
Dist 07-MA MARKEY, EDWARD JMR. DEM	$2,000	ClickHere
Dist 05-MD HOYER, STENYHAMILTON DEM	$2,000	ClickHere
Dist 14-MI CONYERS, JOHN JR. DEM	$2,000	ClickHere
Dist 03-MS PICKERING, CHARLESW REP	$2,000	ClickHere
Senate-NY CLINTON, HILLARYRODHAM DEM	$2,000	ClickHere
Senate-TN CORKER, ROBERT PJR REP	$2,000	ClickHere
Dist 07-TN BLACKBURN,MARSHA  REP	$2,000	ClickHere
Dist 06-TX BARTON, JOE LINUS REP	$2,000	ClickHere
Senate-AL SHELBY, RICHARD C REP	$1,000	senator@shelby.senate.govClickHere
Senate- AR PRYOR, MARKLUNSFORD DEM	$1,000	ClickHere
Dist 10- CA TAUSCHER, ELLEN O DEM	$1,000	ClickHere
Dist 22- CA MCCARTHY,KEVIN  REP	$1,000	ClickHere
Dist 49-CA ISSA, DARRELLEDWARD REP	$1,000	ClickHere
Dist 14-FL MACK, CONNIE REP	$1,500	ClickHere
Dist 05-IL EMANUEL, RAHM DEM	$1,000	ClickHere
Senate-LA VITTER, DAVID REP	$1,000	ClickHere
Dist 06-MI UPTON, FREDERICKSTEPHEN REP	$1,000	ClickHere
Senate-MS LOTT, TRENT REP	$1,000	ClickHere
Dist 06-NC COBLE, JOHN HOWARD REP	$1,000	howard.coble@mail.house.gov ClickHere
Dist 09-NC MYRICK, SUE REP	$1,000	ClickHere
Dist 02-NE TERRY, LEE REP	$1,811	ClickHere
Dist 07-NY CROWLEY, JOSEPH DEM	$1,000	write2joecrowley@mail.house.gov  ClickHere
Dist 10-NY TOWNS, EDOLPHUS DEM	$1,500	ClickHere
Dist 28-NY SLAUGHTER, LOUISEM DEM	$1,000	ClickHere
Dist 05-OH GILLMOR, PAUL E REP	$1,000	ClickHere
Dist 01-OK SULLIVAN, JOHN REP	$1,000	ClickHere
Dist 02-OR WALDEN, GREGORYPAUL REP	$1,000	ClickHere
Dist 01-WA INSLEE, JAY R DEM	$1,000	ClickHere
Senate-SD THUNE, JOHN REP	$1,000	ClickHere
Dist 05-TN COOPER, JAMES H.S. DEM	$1,500	ClickHere

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Canadian encryption vendor Certicom yesterday filed a wide-ranging lawsuit against Sony, claiming that many of the products offered by the electronics giant infringe on two Certicom patents. This might sound like business as usual until you realize what’s being targeted: AACS and (by extension) the PlayStation 3.

Certicom has done extensive work in elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), and the patents in question build on this work. The patents have already been licensed by groups like the US National Security Agency, which paid $25 million back in 2003 for the right to use 26 Certicom patents, including the two in the Sony case. Now, Certicom wants Sony to pay up, claiming that encryption present in several key Sony technologies violates Certicom patents on “Strengthened public key protocol” and “Digital signatures on a Smartcard.”

The biggest charge is that the encryption in AACS itself is infringing. The practical implications of this claim are huge; AACS is included in Sony’s Blu-ray players, PlayStation 3, and Blu-ray and PS3 discs. Certicom says Sony needs to take out a license for all of these uses.

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To evade the no-fly list, which they assumed only involved jets bound for the United States, the man and wife flew into Canada and drove a car into the U.S. At every check of their passports, he said they feared being caught, but weren’t.

We all have read numerous articles on false positives with the TSA “no-fly” list. Now we have a false negative, which most computer security personnel know is much worse.

Perhaps they’re spending too much time creating systems against suicide swimmers. Perhaps they should listen to Bruce Schneier more.

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Germany has just passed a new law that adds more ”anti-hacker” provisions to the German criminal code. Although the new rules are meant to apply narrowly to hacking, critics are already complaining that they may prevent necessary security and network research.

The new rules tighten up the existing sanctions and prohibit any unauthorized user from disabling or circumventing computer security measures to access secure data (see the law, sections 200 and following [in German]). Manufacturing, programming, installing, or spreading software that can circumvent security measures is verboten, which means that some security scanning tools might become illegal. The Chaos Computer Club in Germany said of the decision, “Forbidding this software is about as helpful as forbidding the sale and production of hammers because sometimes they also cause damage.”

Well, they just about made it impossible to do my job in Germany… how they expect their own security folks to work without breaking this law is beyond me…

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Microsoft does not believe there is an inherent contradiction between its recent statements that free and open-source software infringes on 235 of its patents, and the veiled legal threats that go along with that, and its attempts to reach out and build bridges with the open-source community.

“In fact, one makes the other possible, especially at a time like this, when interoperability is so important. Microsoft recognizes the importance of interoperability, which is why we are doing the things we are in our products, why we created the Interoperability Executive Customer Council, and why we are listening to customers,” said Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft’s vice president of intellectual property and licensing.

Threatening us with lawsuits is part of their plan to help us… How did I fail to figure that one out…

In other news:

-War is Peace
-Freedom is Slavery
-Ignorance is Strength

Silver Snail Comics, The Canadian Online Comic and Action Figure Store has published pictures of their bricks-and-mortar storefront art, a rendition of the battle at Helm’s Deep, featuring Jim Henson’s Muppets

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