[Quote:]

When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s ever-combative president, provoked his latest controversy in New York this week by asserting that there were no homosexuals in his country, he may have been indulging in sophistry or just plain wishful thinking.

While Mr Ahmadinejad may want to believe that his ideal of an Islamic society is exclusively non-gay, it is undermined by the paradox that transsexuality and sex changes are tolerated and encouraged under Iran’s theocratic system.

Article continues
Iran has between 15,000 and 20,000 transsexuals, according to official statistics, although unofficial estimates put the figure at up to 150,000. Iran carries out more gender change operations than any other country in the world besides Thailand.

Sex changes have been legal since the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution passed a fatwa authorising them nearly 25 years ago. While homosexuality is considered a sin, transsexuality is categorised as an illness subject to cure.

[..]

This summer, Pegah Emambakhsh, an Iranian lesbian, was granted permission to take her case to the court of appeal in Britain after claiming she would be in danger of execution if the home office implemented its ruling to deport her to Iran.

“Homosexuality is defined both for men and women in law. There is a section devoted to homosexuality,” Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel peace prize-winning human rights lawyer, said.

“There is one part for homosexuality in men, which is called lavat (sodomy), which is punishable by death. There is another for women, which is called mosahegheh. If the crime is committed up to three times, the penalty is 100 lashes. On the fourth, it is execution.”

Mohammad Mostafai, an experienced advocate, said: “The fact that there is a penalty for lavat and mosahegheh in our criminal law means they exist.

[Quote:]

Hopefully we’re about to get closer to learning how Rep. Don Young’s (R-AK) $10 million Coconut Road earmark made its famous post-vote change. A Washington watchdog group filed a complaint today with the House ethics committee asking for an investigation into the drastic edit, calling it “an extraordinary case of the House of Representatives’ integrity being undermined.”

You can read the complaint here.

[..]

Initially, Congress approved a bill that would have given Florida $10 million for a highway widening project, but as we’ve explained before, during a 13-day window between the bill passing Congress and the President signing it into law, the earmark changed. It was the only such change among 6,000 earmarks in a pork-filled bill. The new Coconut Road wording redirected the money to a project that would be a boon to a real estate developer and major campaign contributor of Young’s.

[Quote:]

More than half a year after disclosures of systemic problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other military hospitals, the Pentagon’s promised fixes are threatened by staff shortages and uncertainty about how best to improve long-term care for wounded troops, according to a congressional report issued yesterday.

Army units developed to shepherd recovering soldiers lack enough nurses and social workers, and proposals to streamline the military’s disability evaluation system and to provide “recovery coordinators” are behind schedule, according to the Government Accountability Office report.

Members of a congressional oversight committee, discussing the report at a hearing yesterday, said the effort to reform the medical bureaucracy has itself become mired in bureaucracy.

“Support the troops” has become the most hollow expression in the English language.

[Quote:]

The Senate on Wednesday approved a resolution urging the State Department to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, a move aimed at bringing additional economic pressure on Iran.

The measure passed 76-22.

The proposal by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., attracted overwhelming bipartisan support. But a small group of Democrats said they feared that labeling the state-sponsored organization a terrorist group could be interpreted as a congressional authorization of military force in Iran.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., was among those voting against the amendment. Dodd referred to the 2002 congressional vote authorizing the use of force that led to President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq.

“We shouldn’t repeat our mistakes and enable this president again,” Dodd said in a statement.

For the Senate, Iran is an acronym. Idiocy Repeated Ad Nauseam.

The original amendment simply authorized the administration to do whatever they wanted. Before the vote today, changes were made to the original amendment, with paragraphs three and four taken out completely.

[Quote:]

(3) that it should be the policy of the United States to combat, contain, and [stop] the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies;

(4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies.

This paragraph was added at the end:

“Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated on September 16, 2007 that “I think that the administration believes at this point that continuing to try and deal with the Iranian threat, the Iranian challenge, through diplomatic and economic means is by the preferable approach. That the one we are using. We always say all options are on the table, but clearly, the diplomatic and economic approach is the one that we are pursuing.”

Read the full marked up amendment here.

So we’re back to “all options are on the table”. That sounds familiar…

[Quote:]

The generals acted independently, coming in their own ways to the agonizing decision to defy military tradition and publicly criticize the Bush administration over its conduct of the war in Iraq.

What might be called The Revolt of the Generals has rarely happened in the nation’s history.

In op-ed pieces, interviews and TV ads, more than 20 retired U.S. generals have broken ranks with the culture of salute and keep it in the family. Instead, they are criticizing the commander in chief and other top civilian leaders who led the nation into what the generals believe is a misbegotten and tragic war.

The active-duty generals followed procedure, sending reports up the chain of command. The retired generals beseeched old friends in powerful positions to use their influence to bring about a change.

When their warnings were ignored, some came to believe it was their patriotic duty to speak out, even if it meant terminating their careers.

The are correct:

“I (insert name), having been appointed a (insert rank) in the U.S. Army under the conditions indicated in this document, do accept such appointment and do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God.”

Their allegiance is to the Constitution, not to the administration.

“The ethos is: Give your advice to those in a position to make changes, not the media,” said Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, now retired. “But this administration is immune to good advice.”

[Quote:]

Mitt Romney took interactive campaigning to a new level yesterday, inviting supporters to come up with a new official TV ad for his presidential bid.

Romney announced a contest for backers to craft a 30- or 60-second spot with the help of 372 photos, 44 video clips, and 36 audio files supplied by his campaign. The deadline for submissions is Sept. 17, and an online vote will help determine the winner. The winning entry will be aired the week of Sept. 20, as part of his “Rally for Romney” grass-roots event.

Except it’s backfiring:

[Quote:]

Despite a desperate poll-line stand by the Romney campaign, “Way!” has built a commanding, 23,000-vote lead over its nearest challenger. Team Mitt spent the past 24 hours fending off questions from reporters wanting to know how Romney could possibly win an election when his campaign doesn’t even know how to run one.

Take a look at “Way!“, and you’ll see why the Romney campaign only posted nine finalists…

Store manager Jay Jacoby displays a two-headed red slider turtle at Big Al’s Aquarium Supercenter in East Norriton Pa., Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007. The rare turtle is on display at the store. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

[Quote:]

Burma’s bloggers are using the internet to beat censorship, and tell the world what is happening under the military junta’s veil of secrecy.

Images of saffron-robed monks leading throngs of people along the streets of Rangoon have been seeping out of a country famed for its totalitarian regime and repressive control of information.

The pictures are sometimes grainy and the video footage shaky – captured at great personal risk on mobile phones – but each represents a powerful statement of political dissent.

“It is amazing how the Burmese are able through underground networks to get things from outside and inside,” says Vincent Brussels, head of the Asian section of press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders.

[..]

The use of the internet as a political tool is one of the most marked differences between the latest protests and the 1988 uprising, which was brutally repressed.

Thanks in part to bloggers, this time the outside world is acutely aware of what is happening on the streets of Rangoon, Mandalay and Pakokku and is hungry for more information.

[..]

Analysts agree that, although internet access is currently at less than 1% of the population, the current regime underestimated its potential.

[Quote:]

Welcome to the State Department’s first-ever blog, Dipnote.

Written by, for and about dipshits. ^*

[Quote:]

Myanmar and Somalia have been ranked as the most corrupt countries in the world in the 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released Wednesday by Transparency International.

The Berlin-based organization said the countries with the lowest rate of corruption are Denmark, Finland and New Zealand, all with a score of 9.4, where 10 represents a corruption-free nation.

The three are closely followed by Singapore, Sweden, Iceland, the Netherlands and Switzerland in this year’s report.

At the opposite pole stand Myanmar and Somalia with just 1.4, while Iraq occupies an unwanted place two in this top of most corrupt countries with a 1.5 score. Haiti, which had the highest level of corruption in the world last year, gained several points and received a score of 1.6.

But if you want to know more about corruption in Iraq, it’s classified information. So says the State Department. The USA itself scores a 7.2 and ends up at place 20 in the list. Perhaps it should be a bit lower…

[Quote:]

In fact, the tragedy is that Amazon could have built this store 10 years ago — the music labels simply wouldn’t allow it. What’s happened now is that the music label executives — at least at Universal and EMI — have finally gotten it through their thick skulls that it’s the iPod that drives iTunes sales, not the other way around. Apple’s FairPlay DRM isn’t (at least primarily) some sort of lock-in scheme to force people to buy iPods; FairPlay was a requirement stipulated by the labels, without which they would not have allowed Apple to sell their music at all.

People buy iPods because they love them. If your music doesn’t play on iPods, it isn’t going to sell. And so if (a) you refuse to sell music downloads without DRM; and (b) no other DRM system other than Apple’s is compatible with iPods; then we’re left with a situation where the only successful store is going to be iTunes. What Universal and EMI now seem to have learned, at long last, is that (b) is completely under Apple’s control; only (a) — the labels’ own willingness to allow their music to be sold without DRM — is under their control.

The hard part for Amazon wasn’t building the store. The hard part was getting two of the four major music labels to allow them to do it.

I concur with Daring Fireballs conclusion: “I predict a year from now, Amazon’s store will be a solid #2 to iTunes — and that Wal-Mart’s, assuming it’s still peddling DRM-ware, will remain in nowheresville. Any store selling music that won’t play on iPods is doomed.”

Worthy of a full quote:

[Quote:]

So cholera has now reached Baghdad. That’s not much of a surprise given the utter breakdown of infrastructure. But there’s a reason the cholera is picking up speed now. From the NYT:

“We are suffering from a shortage of chlorine, which is sometimes zero,” Dr. Ameer said in an interview on Al Hurra, an American-financed television network in the Middle East. “Chlorine is essential to disinfect the water.”

So why is there is a shortage? Because insurgents have laced a few bombs with chlorine and the U.S. and Iraq have responded by making it  darn hard to import the stuff. From the AP:

[A World Health Organization representative in Iraq] also said some 100,000 tons of chlorine were being held up at Iraq’s border with Jordan, apparently because of fears the chemical could be used in explosives. She urged authorities to release it for use in decontaminating water supplies.

I understand why Iraq would put restrictions on  dangerous chemicals. And I’m sure nobody intended for the restrictions to be so burdensome that they’d effectively cut off Iraq’s clean water supply. But that’s what looks to have happened. What makes it all the more tragic is that chlorine–for all the hype and worry–is actually a very ineffective booster  for bombs.  Of the roughly dozen  chlorine-laced bombings in Iraq, it appears  the chlorine has killed exactly nobody.

In other words, the biggest damage from chlorine bombs–as with so many terrorist attacks–has come from overreaction to it. Fear operates as a “force multipier” for terrorists and in this case has helped them cut off Iraq’s clean water. Pretty impressive feat for some  bombs that turned out to be close to duds.

Last week somebody asked me to change the administrator password on a few windows servers (2003, if I’m not mistaken) because an employee had left.

Today I found out that all cron jobsScheduled Tasks and automatic backups stopped running at that same moment. Apparently you have reschedule all your cron jobsScheduled Tasks and automatic backups whenever you change your password, since they have their own place to store credentials to use when running and cannot run any more until you tell them about the new password.

And people pay money for this crap?

[Quote:]

How do you keep a leader as verbally gaffe-prone as US President George W. Bush from making even more slips of the tongue?

When Mr Bush addressed the UN General Assembly today, the White House inadvertently showed exactly how – with a phonetic pronunciation guide on the teleprompter to get him past troublesome names of countries and world leaders.

The White House was left scrambling to explain after a marked-up draft of Bush’s speech popped up briefly on the UN website as he delivered his remarks, giving a rare glimpse of the special guidance he gets for major addresses.

It included phonetic spellings for French President Nicolas Sarkozy (sar-KO-zee), a friend, and Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe (moo-GAH-bee), a target of US human rights criticism.

Pronunciations were also provided for Kyrgyzstan (KEYR-geez-stan), Mauritania (moor-EH-tain-ee-a) and the Zimbabwe capital Harare (hah-RAR-ray).

[Quote:]

As you may already know, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a long history of pranking (or hacks, as they call them) both on their own campus and at other schools. Though there have been some real winners over the years, this new one, captured today by MIT newspaper The Tech, really takes the cake.

To mark the Halo 3 release, MIT students gifted the John P. Harvard statue in Harvard Yard with a Spartan helmet (with “Master Chief in Training” written on the back) and an assault rifle. All we can say is “Wow.” We may not be able to talk to MIT students very long at parties without getting sleepy, but when it comes to pranks, it’s clear that we all speak the same language: Nerd.

Here’s what the statue normally looks like:

[Quote:]

a house’s exterior drainage system in dresden, germany…

[Quote:]

Even Dick Cheney is curious about who runs Washington.

The vice president was spotted Tuesday night with a copy of Washingtonian magazine’s October issue featuring the “Power 150,” its choices for the capital city’s most influential people in business, culture, education and other pursuits.

[..]

With his motorcade waiting outside the Borders bookstore at L and 18th streets NW, several people watched through streetside windows as Cheney browsed on the store’s ground floor.

He picked up copies of the late David Halberstam’s new book, “The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War,” and the companion book to Ken Burns’ PBS series “The War,” according to a person in the store who asked not to be identified.

[Quote:]

Clerk: Can I help you find something, sir?
Cheney: Yeah. Uh, look I’m in kind of a hurry, I’ve got a motorcade waiting outside—
Clerk: Certainly, what can I help you with?
Cheney: I’m looking for a book, a couple of books, really.
Clerk: What are the titles, sir–
Cheney: Well, that’s the thing, I don’t have particular titles in mind. It’s a present—for a friend. Well, not a friend, a co-worker. Well, actually, he’s more like an employee—Anyway, look, I want to kind of bring him up to speed on some stuff, some twentieth century military history.
Clerk: I see. Well, the Military History section is right over here—
Cheney: It needs to have a lot of pictures. A book about a war that we won, and it’s got to have a lot of pictures in it–

Clerk: Well, we’ve got a number of books about World War Two, we won that one—
Cheney: I know we won fucking World War Two, I’m not the one who’s—look, sorry, sorry, kid, I didn’t mean to snap at you–
Clerk: That’s okay, sir. Have you seen these DK books for kids? They have lots of pictures—
Cheney: This is exactly the thing I’m talking about. This is wonderful, they’re on all different subjects, are they?
Clerk: Yes, it’s a very popular series. Here’s one on “Knight”…”Aztec”…I looks like we’re sold out of the one on “World War Two”…
Cheney: Shit.
Clerk: We can order it in for you, sir, it would take about two weeks—
Cheney: Nah, nah, I need something to show him tonight.
Clerk: Have you considered buying your friend a DVD on World War II?

Cheney: That’s the best fucking idea I’ve heard this year. Is there a good one available?
Clerk: Well, there’s a Ken Burns documentary on World War II coming out—
Cheney: Perfect. Lead me to it—
Clerk: I think we may be sold out of that, too, unfortunately—
Cheney: Look, kid—stop cockteasing me, will you? What have you got in the store, right now?
Clerk: Well, we have the Ken Burns book that accompanies the DVD, that has lots of photos—
Cheney: Gimme that. (examines it) Okay. Great. Here’s pictures of us winning, I’ll take it. Now I need something else, something brainy-looking—
Clerk: For the same friend?
Cheney: It’s just so he can be seen carrying it around, so he can be seen with it. It can have lot of big words in it, it doesn’t matter, he’s not gonna read it anyway.

Clerk: About World War II?
Cheney: No, about some other war, some other war that we didn’t win. So it looks like he’s a serious thinker, learning from the lessons of the past—
Clerk: Here’s a history of Viet Nam—
Cheney: For Christ’s sake, no. No way. What else?
Clerk: Well, David Halberstom’s got a new book out on the Korean War—
Cheney: Gimme that. (examines) Okay, we’re done. Perfect. (sees magazine left in chair) What’s that, what’s that there, that magazine? “Washington’s 150 Most Powerful People—” (starts to flip through it quickly)
Clerk: Would you like me to take you to the magazine section, sir?
Cheney: Nah, nah, I’m just trying to see if I’m in here anywhere…Ah, there I am. I can leave this laying on his desk, open at this page. That way he’ll think I’m still—alright, where do I ring up this stuff.
Clerk: Right this way, sir, I’ll take you to the register.

Cheney: Great. Am I supposed to tip you or something?
Clerk: Oh, no sir. We don’t accept gratuities here at Borders.
Cheney: Okay, then fine. Go fuck yourself, then, okay? And don’t tell anyone I was in here.
Clerk: Yes, sir.

[Quote:]

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s bigotted statement that there are no homosexuals in Iran derived from his rightwing religious commitments. What he said is very serious. He erased gays right out of existence. The ultimate in denying people their rights is to deny they even exist (the nonexistent obviously have no rights.) There could be a debate over whether the gay lifestyle exists in Muslim countries, as a matter of identity politics, of course, but Ahmadinejad is not that sophisticated. He was saying that all Iranians are straight. Of course, gays are punished very severely in Iran, in reality.

It would be nice for the US Right to have us forget that they pull the Ahmadinejad act with regard to gays every day. Denying gays the right to marry is a way of erasing them from civil society. It is a way of denying that they really love one another, as straights do. It is a way of asserting that they do not exist.

The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the US military (so unlike the one followed by many NATO allies) is also a way of erasing gays. They don’t exist unless they themselves press the case that they exist. In order to remain in their jobs, they are forced to erase themselves by their silence. The ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy is a way of pretending that there are no gays in the US military. For if it could be proven that anyone is gay, he is immediately expelled. It is just as silly as what Ahmadinejad said, and just as pernicious. That policy is supported by the entire American Right, which is no better than Ahmadinejad in this regard.

[Quote:]

During the September 19 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, discussing his recent trip to have dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at Sylvia’s, a famous restaurant in Harlem, Bill O’Reilly reported that he “had a great time, and all the people up there are tremendously respectful,” adding: “I couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship.”

[Quote:]

CNN co-host Kiran Chetry and CNN contributor Roland Martin, in a segment on Tuesday’s “American Morning,” discussed comments on race Fox News host Bill O’Reilly had recently made on his radio show, and the question you might expect came up: “Is this going to be one of those Don Imus moments?”

He’ll get away with it, just because he wasn’t exhibiting an “angry” sort of racism, just a “mindfuckingly ignorant” sort of racism. And mindfucking ignorance… well, that’s his job description.

[Quote:]

To the Bohemian monk who created the Codex Gigas, otherwise known as the Devil’s Bible, legend has it the price of his soul was worth the one night it took to create the biggest medieval book in the world.

[..]

According to the National Library’s Web site (www.nkp.cz), legend holds that a monk was sentenced to be buried alive for a breach in Benedictine conduct. In order to forgo his punishment, he agreed to make the most magnificent book the world had ever seen in honor of his brotherhood. The catch was that he was given just one night to complete this Herculean task.
Around midnight, the monk realized he would not be able to finish by daylight, so he invoked the devil to help him, selling his soul in the process. As a tribute to his helper, the monk included a quirky image of the devil within the manuscript, thus giving the book its nickname.
The real story of the Codex Gigas is not fully known, but no less intriguing. Although there are no records of the origins of the book or its author, the first mention of the Codex Gigas appeared in the year 1295. However, the National Library Web site notes it is very likely that the Devil’s Bible dates to as early as 1229. Scholars believe the book was most likely the life’s work of one scribe, who is estimated to have spent 20 years or more creating it. The unity of the writing, as well as the synchronization of the overall composition and minute details, supports the idea that it was the work of a single person.
The leather parchment pages contain both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible in pre-Vulgate Latin and much more: a Penitential (a priest’s manual of sins and suitable penance); Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae, a 20-volume encyclopedia from the seventh century; Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews; a necrology of the Podlažice monastery as well as a list of all the living monks in Podlažice; and numerous texts of mystical incantations for everything from curing illnesses to catching thieves.

You can browse the manuscript here.

[Quote:]

Apple has today stated that unlocking the iPhone is an official warranty violation. Further, they have stated that future iPhone firmware updates may damage unlocked iPhones. However, Apple may have violated an important federal warranty law in doing so.

[..]

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act states that Apple cannot void a warranty for a product with third-party enhancements or modifications to their product. The only exception to this rule is if Apple can determine that the modification or enhancement is responsible damaging the product in question. While Apple has the opportunity to make further exemptions, we will explain how the exemptions Apple has made do not fully apply to this case.

The legal question is three-fold here: Is the SIM Unlock process that has become mainstream (anySIM/iUnlock, available from our iPhone encyclopedia entry) doing damage to iPhone? And, also, is Apple designing future software updates to do damage to iPhone when said SIM Unlock code is present? Finally, is Apple’s limited warranty setup to prohibit such unlocks, as defined by federal law and the specific terms of the limited warranty itself? Unfortunately, the answers lie in complex legal and technical terms.

Apple really is in a bind here. On the one hand, they must tell their business partners (AT&T, O2, T-mobile) that the business deal is still worth it since the iPhone owner MUST do business with them, on the other hand, the people who are brave enough to do the sim unlock are usually the early adaptor and the big fan-boy who will likely buy a new version of the phone within 12 months. Well, unless he can’t unlock it, that is, and in that case he may very well stop being an Apple customer altogether.

My guess is that Apple is huffing and puffing a lot to keep the telcos happy, but will continue to honor all warranty requests – the first time they refuse to do so they’ll be hit with a lawsuit and a metric assload of publicity. Software updates will likely fix holes found by the unlockers – the current one depends on a buffer overflow in the baseband software, and you can’t blame Apple for fixing buffer overflows, right? So unlockers will need to continue finding new bugs… This becomes interesting once the first customers ends the contract with their provider, who at that time MUST unlock the phone. AT&T has already said they’ll be happy to do so, and from that moment on there will be an unlocking method that cannot be stopped by Apple and will be reverse engineered by the hackers within the first week of release.

[Quote:]

Former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray has vowed to carry on making allegations against billionaire Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov, despite attempts to silence him and his supporters.

Murray told The Reg: “If the man believes he was libelled then he should take me to court.”

Murray’s blog was deleted by its host on Friday after threats from Usmanov’s UK legal team. It’s expected to reappear in the early hours of tomorrow on an overseas server, and will repeat the charges that drew heavy fire from specialist libel firm Schillings.

The ex-diplomat says he has contacted Schillings to ask for clarification of which specific aspect of his allegations they contest, but has not received a response. “They say my book [Murder in Samarkand] is ‘grossly libellous and defamatory’, yet it has been widely available for a year and has sold 25,000 copies, without their actually taking any legal action,” he added.

Murray’s criticism of Usmanov stems from his rise in Uzbekistan following the collapse of communism to become one of Russia’s richest men. He denies the accusations. His profile in the UK has skyrocketed since he followed Chelsea chairman and fellow oligarch Roman Abramovich into football investment.

Murray’s blog entry about Usmanov, made September 2, were picked up by many political and Arsenal websites which later also received complaints from Schillings. It became the third-highest hit on Google for the search “usmanov”, but was quickly removed from Murray’s site after the first legal letter.

Tim Ireland, who runs the political site Bloggerheads.com, which was downed along with Murray’s site, has slammed Fasthosts’ action, and denied the claim that they refused to comply with takedown requests after he repeated Murray’s allegations.

If this jerk had simply kept his trap shut and his legal team leashed, I would never have heard of him. But by being an aggressive prick — he gets worldwide exposure and confirmation that he is an aggressive prick. It’s called the Streisand effect.

Here’s how one of the many blogs puts it:

[Quote:]

Freedom of speech is not a luxury but a basic minimum standard of any healthy liberal democracy. Blogs and bloggers are hardly the most important voices in the national conversation; if my blog got pulled I suspect the great British public would, after a suitable period of mourning, get on with their lives. But this ugly development demonstrates that blogs are vulnerable to big bullies with bigger sticks. We can’t defend ourselves the way a magazine or newspaper can. There’s no legal budget for us to dip into.

And let’s be clear on this point; these blogs are down not because Usmanov has been libelled, but because he says he’s been libelled, and has a room full of paid monkeys sitting at typewriters firing off theatening letters to that effect.

I don’t give a shit about this character, or Arsenal FC (no offence to any Gooners out there); nor do I share all or even most of Tim Ireland or Craig Murray’s politics. But that’s far from the point. If you can be silenced for calling a businessman a crook, then you can be silenced for calling a politician a crook, too. Then it’s everyone’s problem.

This one will run and run. No need to watch this space; there’ll be plenty of other bloggers stepping up on this one. Oh, and Arsenal fans; if you’re not convinced yet, think what this guy is going to do to your webforums.

And here’s a completely incomplete list of blogs posting on this issue:

Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, Blairwatch, Davide Simonetti, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric (who suggests dropping a line to the FA about Mr Usmanov), Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, Suesam, Devil’s Kitchen, The Cartoonist, Falco, Casualty Monitor, Forever Expat, Arseblog, Drink-soaked Trots (and another), Pitch Invasion, Wonko’s World, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Mediawatchwatch, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia (with a list of Craig Murray’s articles that are currently unavailable), Obsolete, Tom Watson, Cynical Chatter, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Matthew Sinclair, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston Pitch Perfect, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, Lunartalks, Tygerland, The Crossed Pond, Our Kingdom, Big Daddy Merk, Daily Mail Watch, Graeme’s, Random Thoughts, Nosemonkey, Matt Wardman, Politics in the Zeros, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, Blood & Treasure, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, An Englishman’s Castle, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Rebellion Suck!, Ministry of Truth, ModernityBlog, Beau Bo D’Or, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Serious Golmal, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, Lenin’s Tomb, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, England Expects, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog, Katykins, Jewcy, Kevin Maguire, Stumbling and Mumbling, Famous for 15 megapixels, Ordovicius, Tom Morris, AOL Fanhouse, Doctor Vee, The Curmudgeonly, The Poor Mouth, 1820, Hangbitch, Crooked Timber, ArseNole, Identity Unknown, Liberty Alone, Amused Cynicism, Clairwil, The Lone Voice, Tampon Teabag, Unoriginalname38, Special/Blown It, The Remittance Man, 18 Doughty Street, Laban Tall, Martin Bright, Spy Blog The Exile, poons, Jangliss, Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From?, Imagined Community, A Pint of Unionist Lite, Poldraw, Disillusioned And Bored, Error Gorilla, Indigo Jo, Swiss Metablog, Kate Garnwen Truemors, Asn14, D-Notice, The Judge, Political Penguin, Miserable Old Fart, Jottings, fridgemagnet, Blah Blah Flowers, J. Arthur MacNumpty, Tony Hatfield, Grendel, Charlie Whitaker, Matt Buck, The Waendel Journal, Marginalized Action Dinosaur, SoccerLens, Toblog, John Brissenden East Lower, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Peter Black AM, Boing Boing, BLTP, Gunnerblog, LFB UK, Liberal Revolution, Wombles, Focus on Sodbury…, Follow The Money, Freedom and Whisky, Melting Man, PoliticalHackUK, Simon Says…, Daily EM, From The Barrel of a Gun, The Fourth Place, The Armchair News Blog, Journalist und Optimist, Bristol Indymedia, Dave Weeden, Up North John, Gizmonaut, Spin and Spinners, Marginalia, Arnique, Heather Yaxley, The Whiskey Priest, On The Beat, Paul Canning, Martin Stabe, Mat Bowles, Pigdogfucker, Rachel North

[Quote:]

On Monday, I noted Our Leaders opposition to funding the State Children’s Insurance Program (SCHIP), and suggested that it’s time to fully adopt the conservative values promoted by President Bush, Grover Norquist, and movement conservatives and drive the final stake through the nanny-state’s heart by repealing the child labor laws. By doing so we could ensure that every child has an opportunity to obtain health care by taking advantage of tax credits and health care savings accounts.

[..]

Today, let’s look at another front our Republican party has opened up in the Great Patriotic War Against Children: the crusade against kindergarten. We scored a great victory in Idaho earlier this year when the Idaho House of Representatives passed a resolution denouncing the evils of kindergarten. One of the sponsors of that resolution, Rep. Steven Thayn (R-Dueling Banjos), is now taking the next step and leading a taskforce to study the best way to defund preschool and kindergarten. “Every time we start a program that costs money,” Thayne declares, “we’re actually forcing more mothers out of the home.”

That’s unacceptable to good, movement conservatives like Thayne and myself. We understand that mothers are the first line of defense against the godless influences of education. A mother’s place is in the home, where she can welcome her children home from their electronics factory jobs by giving them a nice home-cooked dinner.

[Quote:]

Zes op de tien PvdA-kiezers vinden dat hun partij wel met een initiatiefwet voor een referendum over het nieuwe Europese verdrag moet instemmen.

Bijna de helft (47 procent) vindt het zelfs “kiezersbedrog” dat de PvdA-fractie in de Tweede Kamer niet meewerkt aan het houden van een volksraadpleging.

Dat blijkt dinsdag uit een peiling van Maurice de Hond.

En wedden dat de PVDA in de peiling niet opeens ook 47 procent van de zetels kwijt is? Stelletje schapen.

[Quote:]

Newsday story about a 35-year-old woman named Jennifer Flynn, an activist who works for getting funding and treatment for HIV/AIDS patients. She noticed that cars were tailing her over long distances as she drove around visiting her family. She wrote down the license plate of one of the cars, and it’s registered to a phantom company at a non-existent address.

The license plate number traces back to a company – Pequot Inc. – and a post office box at an address far from the five boroughs. Registering unmarked cars to post office boxes outside the city or to shell companies is a common practice of law enforcement agencies to shield undercover investigators.

…..

The street named on the license-plate printout exists, though the address doesn’t. An auto-shop worker on the block suggests checking with the post office. When Postmaster Bonnie Colgan and an assistant are shown the printout, they stop dead in their tracks.

There’s a Pequot Capital Management in midtown and a Pequot Construction in the Bronx. But no Pequot Inc. in Amenia.

“That’s not a real company,” the assistant says. “The people who used that box, they’re from New York. They used to come here and get the mail, but not anymore.”

Colgan is tempted to elaborate, but doesn’t.

“I can’t because of the sensitive nature of the issue,” she says.

Link

[Quote:]

I rather like Chris Dodd’s view on the President’s threat to veto S-CHIP funding:

“While he reportedly plans to call for up to $200 billion to continue a war that his top general can’t even say is making the country safer, George Bush is rejecting the idea that we would spend less than one third of that amount for the health of America’s children.

“That says all that needs to be said about this President’s priorities.”

Of course, that’s a bit unfair: Bush is vetoing this bill not because it’s too costly, but because giving uninsured children health coverage will make them dependent on the teat of the state, and we don’t want the little parasites nursing at the Department of Health and Human Services forever.

But a point of clarification: Though Bush is constantly complaining that “Congress has made a decision to expand [SCHIP] eligibility up to $80,000,” and that children whose parents make that much shouldn’t get health insurance, or should have to pay for it out of their allowance, or something. But as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities found, “at least 85 percent of the otherwise-uninsured children who would gain coverage under the bill have incomes below states’ current SCHIP eligibility limits.” In other words, the new funding isn’t going to expand the program’s cutoffs so much as allow it to fulfill it’s current obligations, which, for now, it lacks the money to actually do. If the compromise S-CHIP bill passes, the states will be able to reorient the program to covering all children beneath the cut-off, rather than keeping quiet to effectively ration — yes, ration — the coverage.

But that’s the reality of Bush’s position. It’s not so much his funding preferences that are at work. Rather, his ideology called for the government to pursue a hopeless war that’s killed thousands and triggered a sectarian civil war, but is outraged by the idea of the government helping children attain health coverage.

Ah, compassionate conservatism.

[Quote:]

Tucker substitute host David Shuster confronts Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) about the blatant hypocrisy of the Republican party when he asks about Rush Limbaugh’s Senator Betrayus smear against Senator Chuck Hagel and all Blackburn wants to do is rehash tired slams against the New York Times over the MoveOn ad.

[..]

Shuster: “Let’s talk about the public trust. You represent, of course, a district in western Tennessee. What was the name of the last solider from your district who was killed in Iraq?”

Blackburn:”The name of the last soldier killed in Iraq uh – from my district I – I do not know his name -”

Shuster: “Ok, his name was Jeremy Bohannon, he was killed August the 9th, 2007. How come you didn’t know the name?”

Blackburn: “I – I, you know, I – I do not know why I did not know the name…” [Snip]

Shuster: “But you weren’t appreciative enough to know the name of this young man, he was 18 years old who was killed, and yet you can say chapter and verse about what’s going on with the New York Times and Move On.org.” [Snip]

Shuster: “But don’t you understand, the problems that a lot of people would have, that you’re so focused on an ad — when was the last time a New York Times ad ever killed somebody? I mean, here we have a war that took the life of an 18 year old kid, Jeremy Bohannon from your district, and you didn’t even know his name.”