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The cries of freedom. They bring tears to my eyes and hope to my soul. The sound: it makes every human stop in their tracks and demand that this vicious oppression end.

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Police in Iran shot at protesters today, killing at least 10, including the nephew of a prominent opposition leader. Today is the holiday of Ashura, a sacred observance in the Muslim calendar which honors the martyrdom of the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. More: New York Times, BBC, and a statement of condemnation from the White House. Times Online: Is this Iran’s Berlin Wall moment?

The revolution will not be televised, but it is on twitpic

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AT&T has apparently found a workable solution to the reported data congestion in New York City. They’ve quietly stopped selling the iPhone to customers in the New York metropolitan area, at least from their web site.

I guess that’s one way to solve the problem.

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Since the Consumerist story appeared Sunday afternoon, AT&T service reps have been telling New Yorkers like myself that it won’t sell us the phone online because of fraud problems.

What does that mean? Sean, the pleasant rep I talked to tonight, told me he could sell me a refurbished, 8-gig 3G iPhone online or over the phone. But if I wanted a new iPhone, he said, I’d have to go to a retail store.

Why? “There’s actually been a problem in that area with fraud for the iPhone. It’s kind of a high-risk area.” Sean then reassured me that he was “not saying there’s bad neighborhoods anywhere. That’s not what that means.” But he couldn’t offer any more details.

I’ll let Fake Steve Jobs do the summary:

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In short: this is a huge company that’s going off the fucking rails. It’s bad enough they can’t run their own wireless network. Now they can’t even get their lines of bullshit straight either.

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Two men thought to have been acting suspicious aboard a flight bound for Phoenix were detained and questioned by federal anti-terrorism authorities before they were released, the FBI said Sunday.

The definition of suspicious these days:

1. Two men were speaking a foreign language,
2. One man was watching “The Kingdom” on DVD,
3. And another man got out of his seat while the seatbelt sign was lit,

Feel safer yet?

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New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo threatened to publicize the recipients’ names, prompting executives at AIG Financial Products to hastily agree to return about $45 million in bonuses by the end of the year.

But as the final days of 2009 tick away, a majority of that money remains unpaid. Only about $19 million has been given back, according to a report by the special inspector general for the government’s bailout program.

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Giz reader BushmanLA sent in a video of his kids trying to shoot down his flying R/C drone with fireworks. From the perspective of the UAV.

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Joshua Bowman, a Republican who worked for the executive office of Bush Administration on tech issues, was arrested last September with two guns and hundreds of rounds of ammo near the Capitol during an Obama speech. Though his arrest was widely reported, his connection to the Bush administration was not reported at that time and has just come to light this morning, courtesy of Mother Jones.

A pause here, as we digest the fact that the media failed to report this salient point. Had the shoe been on the other foot, the Republican poutrage party would be patrolling cable TV for the next several years, warning of “crazy liberal radicals, threatening the President”.

Last September, Bowman was stopped as he attempted to park near the Capitol without a permit, which lead to Capitol Police searching his car. Police found a Beretta 12 gauge automatic, a .22 caliber long rifle and over 400 rounds of ammo in the trunk. The guns were not loaded. He was eventually charged with two counts of unregistered firearms and unlawful possession of ammunition.

In what can only be described as further evidence of the over-arching sense of Republican entitlement, Braun, a friend of Bowman’s, suggested that “Bowman was only caught with the guns because he was used to having a White House security pass and expected to be able to park near the Capitol. He probably wouldn’t have been stopped and searched by Capitol Police if he had still had the pass.”

So, it was OK to drive around with unregistered, unlawful firearms when he had a security pass, because no one would have checked his car. The old “if they don’t catch us, it’s cool!” defense. The defense of a spoiled child.

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Joseph Henchman, director of state projects for the Tax Foundation of Washington, D.C., says the states collected a total of $781 billion in taxes in 2008.

For a rough comparison, according to Wikipedia data, the total budget for what the Pentagon calls “defense” in fiscal year 2010 will be at least $880 billion and could possibly top $1 trillion. That’s more than all the state governments collect.

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Strict security rules put into place Saturday will require commercial airline passengers on international flights to stay in their seats for an hour before landing.

I am so glad the incident didn’t occur three hours before landing!

I wish that, just once, some terrorist would try something that you can only foil by upgrading the passengers to first class and giving them free drinks.”

You’ll see a whole lot of extra security theater, but it’s clear that the only new rule after 9/11 that actually works to improve security is the one where passengers (and crew) will no longer sit quietly when threatened.

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On his return from Copenhagen, the Indian Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, told Parliament his mandate had been to protect India’s right to fast economic growth, and listed killing off binding targets to reducing emissions as a key victory for his country.

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(only on jailbroken keyboards

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After we broke the news yesterday that Apple had acquired iSlate.com, other pieces to the puzzle seemed to fall into place. Notably, TechCrunch found that iSlate had been registered as a trademark by an unknown Delaware company by the name of Slate Computing, LLC in November 2006. iSlate had also been registered as a trademark in Europe using a law firm that Apple employs. The implication being that Apple set up Slate Computing, LLC as a dummy corporation to secretly acquire the iSlate trademark. Apple has been known to do this in the past. For example, the iPhone trademark was originally filed by Ocean Telecom Services, another anonymous Delaware-based company.

In delving deeper, however, we have discovered evidence that Apple is indeed behind Slate Computing, LLC and the iSlate trademark. The trademark application documents for the iSlate reveal the signatory being one Regina Porter:

Regina Porter happens to also be Apple’s Senior Trademark Specialist as shown in her Linkedin profile. While we can’t definitely pinpoint this to be the exact same Regina Porter, it seems beyond the realm of coincidence. So, not only did Apple obtain the iSlate.com domain in late 2006/early 2007, it also seems likely that Apple also filed for an iSlate trademark under a dummy corporation. Given that, it seems “iSlate” is very likely going to be the name of the upcoming Apple tablet.

You must be surprised that I’m writing to you today, the 26th of December. Well, I would very much like to clear up certain things that have occurred since the beginning of the month, when, filled with illusion, I wrote you my letter. I asked for a bicycle, an electric train set, a pair of roller blades, and a football uniform. I destroyed my brain studying the whole year. Not only was I the first in my class, but I had the best grades in the whole school.

I’m not going to lie to you, there was no one in my entire neighbourhood that behaved better than me, with my parents, my brothers, my friends, and with my neighbours. I would go on errands, and even help the elderly cross the street. There was virtually nothing within reach that I would not do for humanity.

What balls do you have leaving me a fucking yo-yo, a stupid whistle and a pair of socks?

What the fuck were you thinking, you fat son of a bitch, that you’ve taken me for a sucker the whole fucking year to come out with some shit like this under the tree. As if you hadn’t fucked me enough, you gave that little faggot across the street so many toys that he can’t even walk into his house.

Please don’t let me see you trying to fit your big fat ass down my chimney next year. I’ll fuck you up. I’ll throw rocks at those stupid reindeer and scare them away so you’ll have to walk back to the fucking North Pole, just like what I have to do now since you didn’t get me that fucking bike. FUCK YOU SANTA. Next year you’ll find out how bad I can be, you FAT-SON-OF-A- BITCH.

Sincerely, Little Johnny

Happy Holidays everybody!

I’ll be back (I hope) posting after Christmas. In the mean time, I’m heading for the hills in full survival mode:

Combine this news (Apple has rented a stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on Januari 26), with this news (Yet another recently departed Apple employee tipped me: “You will be very surprised how you interact with the new tablet.”), and this news (Apple has been telling some app makers to prepare apps for a demo next month, according to this source. “They’ve told select developers that as long as they build their apps to support full screen resolution — rather than a fixed 320×480 — their apps should run just fine,” our source says.)

It’s going to be an interesting month in rumors…

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Copenhagen was a disaster. That much is agreed. But the truth about what actually happened is in danger of being lost amid the spin and inevitable mutual recriminations. The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful “deal” so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame. How do I know this? Because I was in the room and saw it happen.

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With American flags fluttering, the Presidential State Car—since 1983, a Cadillac limousine—is a national icon and an emblem of power. And in the case of President Obama’s edition (every president gets a new ride), the machine is also an absolute beast. In fact, that’s the nickname the Secret Service slapped on it before the inauguration in January, when Obama’s limo made its formal debut. The Beast has its own air recirculation system to protect the president in the case of a chemical attack. Its doors are now sheathed in 8-inch-thick military-grade armor. Even the bulletproof windows are five inches thick. “The limousines of yesteryear were designed to provide protection and to get the president out of any situation,” Ken Lucci, CEO of Ambassador Limousine Inc. and owner of two Reagan-era limos, told CNN. “Today, they [the Secret Service] expect a prolonged attack, and they expect an attack that is a lot more violent than [with] a weapon you can hold in your hand. It literally is a rolling bunker.”

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U.S. banks that spent more money on lobbying were more likely to get government bailout money, according to a study released on Monday.

Banks whose executives served on Federal Reserve boards were more likely to receive government bailout funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to the study from Ran Duchin and Denis Sosyura, professors at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Banks with headquarters in the district of a U.S. House of Representatives member who serves on a committee or subcommittee relating to TARP also received more funds.

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Goldman Sachs (GS) has threatened the UK Treasury with plans to move up to 20 per cent of its London-based staff to Spain in a standoff over tax and bonuses.

Why not move the entire nest of vermin off-planet altogether?

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They squeezed Text file busy into ETXTBSY and no such process into ESRCH (very obvious). They even left out an S in EACCES and when your Argument list is too long, that condition is mnemonically referred to as E2BIG.

But File name too long is, of course, called ENAMETOOLONG.

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Now, it’s Christmas week again, and our favorite defender of Confederate values has come up with a new way to Celebrate our Lords birth: calling for the death of a senile old man. Here’s what he has to say:

Robert Byrd has been around a very long time, and his many decades of service have made West Virginia a wonderful state in which to manufacture methamphetamine or frame the locals for murder. But it’s time for Senator to do the right thing, and expire.

It’s an idea that seems to be catching on. Sen. Tom Coburn wants to put a dead Byrd in his creche as well:

At 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon — nine hours before the 1 a.m. vote that would effectively clinch the legislation’s passage — Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) went to the Senate floor to propose a prayer. “What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can’t make the vote tonight,” he said. “That’s what they ought to pray.”

It was difficult to escape the conclusion that Coburn was referring to the 92-year-old, wheelchair-bound Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) who has been in and out of hospitals and lay at home ailing. It would not be easy for Byrd to get out of bed in the wee hours with deep snow on the ground and ice on the roads — but without his vote, Democrats wouldn’t have the 60 they needed.

Others, like HARDING of Patriot Force wish Wise Men would give the gift pestilence to the Speaker:

Wish I could FedEx the black plague to Pelosi’s office for the satanic holiday she prefers while we celebrate Christmas- HARDING

But one doesn’t necessarily need to commit murder to honor the birth of the Christ child. More squeamish patriots can buy tee shirts and bumper stickers proclaiming their desire to see someone else murder the President.

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“If you don’t have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he’s illegal, we can make him disappear.” Those chilling words were spoken by James Pendergraph, then executive director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Office of State and Local Coordination, at a conference of police and sheriffs in August 2008. Also present was Amnesty International’s Sarnata Reynolds, who wrote about the incident in the 2009 report “Jailed Without Justice” and said in an interview, “It was almost surreal being there, particularly being someone from an organization that has worked on disappearances for decades in other countries. I couldn’t believe he would say it so boldly, as though it weren’t anything wrong.”

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Unless some legislator pulls off a last-minute double-cross, health care reform will pass the Senate this week. Count me among those who consider this an awesome achievement. It’s a seriously flawed bill, we’ll spend years if not decades fixing it, but it’s nonetheless a huge step forward.

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Now consider what lies ahead. We need fundamental financial reform. We need to deal with climate change. We need to deal with our long-run budget deficit. What are the chances that we can do all that — or, I’m tempted to say, any of it — if doing anything requires 60 votes in a deeply polarized Senate?

Some people will say that it has always been this way, and that we’ve managed so far. But it wasn’t always like this. Yes, there were filibusters in the past — most notably by segregationists trying to block civil rights legislation. But the modern system, in which the minority party uses the threat of a filibuster to block every bill it doesn’t like, is a recent creation.

The political scientist Barbara Sinclair has done the math. In the 1960s, she finds, “extended-debate-related problems” — threatened or actual filibusters — affected only 8 percent of major legislation. By the 1980s, that had risen to 27 percent. But after Democrats retook control of Congress in 2006 and Republicans found themselves in the minority, it soared to 70 percent.

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Father Tim Jones, parish priest of St Lawrence and St Hilda, broke off from the traditional Nativity story yesterday, and said stealing from large national chains was sometimes the best option many vulnerable people had.

He told the congregation: “My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift. I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither.

“I would ask that they do not steal from small, family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices. I would ask them not to take any more than they need, for any longer than they need.”

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He said his advice did not contradict the Bible’s eighth commandment, not to steal, saying God’s love for the poor and despised outweighed the property rights of the rich.

He added: “Let my words not be misrepresented as a simplistic call for people to shoplift. The observation that shoplifting is the best option that some people are left with is a grim indictment of who we are. “Rather, this is a call for our society no longer to treat its most vulnerable people with indifference and contempt.”

It’s not often I agree with a priest…