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The recent Sony rootkit scandal takes all that’s wrong with our “brave, new world” of networked computing: spam, viruses, spyware, malware, sloppyware (=Windows) and adds a major technology and entertainment corporation’s bad attitude about consumer’s rights.

Earlier this year, Sony sold music CDs with copyright protection software that installs a rootkit on Windows machines, making these machines vulnerable to hackers and trojan attacks. Apparently, this software also calls home - to the Sony offices in Cary, NC.

Sony is apologetic and working hard to fix what they broke, right? Hell no! They have a smart-ass attitude about this. Here is what the president of Sony BMG’s global digital business division Thomas Hesse has to say:

“Most people, I think, don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?”
Sony executive Thomas Hesse on NPR’s Morning Edition, November 4, 2005

Well, fuck you too, Mr. Hesse! Let’s boycott Sony this season.

[UPDATE: EFF shows that the EULA is just as bad as the software. For example, if your house gets burgled, or if you declare bankruptcy, you have to delete all your music. Oh and I forgot to mention that the EFF also reports that the rootkit “uninstaller” from Sony creates yet new security holes. WOW! And these guys don’t even work for the Bush administration!]

The bird flu has reached Europe, and the US government is slowly waking up to the threat of a global flu pandemic.

The European Commission said Thursday that the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu has been confirmed in Turkish poultry and probably is present in Romania.

If confirmed in Romania, it would be the first instance of the deadly strain known to have reached Europe, and would bolster the theory that it may be spread by migrating birds.
CNN.com - Bird flu strain found in Turkey - Oct 13, 2005

In another example of breathtaking competence, the US government holds tippy-top-secret meetings about the fact that a global flu pandemic would be really, really, really bad (something that many public health officials have been saying for years) and then they go ahead and leak this information to the NY Times:

The administration is putting the finishing touches on its long-awaited pandemic plan to be released after Leavitt returns from his trip. A draft version, dated Sept. 30 and leaked to The New York Times, reportedly predicts a major outbreak might kill up to 1.9 million people and make half the country sick.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, says he learned of the administration’s prediction on Sept. 28 in a top-secret meeting in a secure room in the Capitol. He and a few other senators met with Leavitt; Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The administration, Harkin says, predicts U.S. deaths from pandemic flu could range from 100,000 to 2 million, and as many as 10 million might be hospitalized. Up to 100 million might become sick. Seasonal flu epidemics kill about 36,000 people each year in the USA.
‘Imagine what would happen if a Category 5 viral storm hit every state’, USA Today, 10/11/2005

via REVERE

Hunter of DKos is on fire - here’s a sample, read his entire rant in response to me right-wing whining about Tom Delay’s legal trouble:

Welcome to the world of the politics of personal destruction, you tubthumping, chin-jutting, Bush humping gits. Welcome to the nasty and partisan world that Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Hugh Hewitt, Grover Norquist, Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, and a legion of insignificant lowest-rung toadies like yourselves nurtured into fruition daily with eager, grubby hands, and now look upon with dull-faced faux horror.

I know you hate me, and anyone else to dares disturb the thin strands of alternate reality in which George W. Bush is an intellectual giant, Saddam really was responsible for 9/11, the economy is getting better by the minute, and we capture the most very important members of al Qaeda on a weekly basis.

But here’s some advice. You’d better start hating me more. This is the world you forged and, unfortunately for you, I’m beginning to take a fancy for it. Welcome to the politics of your own party, finally sprouting from the ground on which you planted the seeds and shat upon them.
Daily Kos: Bush Supporters of the Far Right: Cries from the Lake of Fire

Wow - Hunter says it all …

Are there creationist penguins? Suppose you’re a bird that cannot fly and that has to waddle 70 miles from the ocean to the nesting grounds through minus 50 degree snowstorms - barefoot - or scooting on your belly to take a turn standing for months in minus 50 degree snowstorms, balancing your one egg on your bare feet to keep it from freezing. Now suppose a creationist tells you that, yeah, God made you like that, that God, the intelligent designer, decided it would be great to make up a bird that cannot fly and that has to waddle 70 miles from the ocean to the nesting grounds through minus 50 degree snowstorms - barefoot … if you were that penguin, what do you think you would tell that creationist where he can stuff his “scientific theory?”

Are the creationists adopting the emperor penguin as their mascot? They appear to be all excited about the movie March of the Penguins because it proves to them that there is a god.

At a conference for young Republicans, the editor of National Review urged participants to see the movie because it promoted monogamy. A widely circulated Christian magazine said it made “a strong case for intelligent design.”
March of the Conservatives: Penguin Film as Political Fodder - New York Times, 9/13/05

The creationists are completely nuts. March of the Penguins is a fine documentary, but it proves nothing beyond that emperor penguins are exceptionally tough birds. The movie does way too much anthropomorphising of these birds. They are birds; they have teeeeeny brains. This is not about love, dedication, or monogamy. It’s about a bird that occupies a very specific niche in nature. Penguins are not very smart, and I doubt they have much in the way of complex emotions like love. And they reproduce with a different partner every year - that’s hardly monogamous. Yeah - they are cool birds and tough survivors, but their existence offers no more evidence of a god than male nipples* or crop circles.

*) Laura’s point

The US government has deployed heavily armed mercenaries from the Blackwater private security firm to patrol the “streets” of New Orleans. Armed mercenaries patrolling a US city on behalf of the US government? That seems like a very disturbing precedent to me. The mercs are a bit surprised, too:

“This is a totally new thing to have guys like us working CONUS (Continental United States),” a heavily armed Blackwater mercenary told us as we stood on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. “We’re much better equipped to deal with the situation in Iraq.”

Blackwater mercenaries are some of the most feared professional killers in the world and they are accustomed to operating without worry of legal consequences. Their presence on the streets of New Orleans should be a cause for serious concern for the remaining residents of the city and raises alarming questions about why the government would allow men trained to kill with impunity in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to operate here. Some of the men now patrolling the streets of New Orleans returned from Iraq as recently as two weeks ago.
Overkill in New Orleans, AlterNet, 8/12/05

Other players, who are making “a killing” in Iraq, are now getting busy in new Orleans, too:
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Two reports on National Public Radio chronicle the government response to Hurricane Katrina (via DKos Diary). The second report in particular highlights the disconnect between the reality on the ground and the proclamations of Bush administration officials, like Chertoff and Brown. The most shocking aspect of that disconnect is that Bush required Louisiana officials to cede control over the recovery effort as a condition for ordering other state’s National Guard units to assist them. This, while New Orleans is flooded and almost half of the Louisiana National Guard personnel is stationed in Iraq, and with them just about all their heavy equipment, boats, generators, trucks, etc.

• Katrina Timeline: Unexecuted Plans: report about the efforts of local government officials in Louisiana to prepare for the effects of a catastrophic Hurricane
• Katrina Timeline: Misdirected Aid: report about the problems obtaining and coordinating aid in the aftermath of the hurricane

So now that the recovery effort is in the “capable” hands of the Bush administration, instead of the local and state officials, guess who gets to dole out billions of dollars worth in reconstruction contracts? Yeah - the same people who doled out billions of dollars worth in reconstruction contracts in Iraq. Can’t wait to see who is getting those contracts…

For Big Oil the disruption of the oil supply due to Hurricane Katrina was better than a license to print money. They jacked up the fuel prices, and they are keeping them up. Exxon Mobil is making $110 million profit a day this quarter.

So President Bush hurries to their rescue and makes sure they get a tax break!!? That means the American taxpayer has the privilege to subsidize the companies that currently engage in massive price-gouging at the gas stations. Regular gas costs over $3 at the pump. At the same time, we’re paying over $200 million a day for the Iraq War, and now more than that for the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast.

And while I’m on this topic: I would love to see a list of the top-ten companies that get no-bid reconstruction contracts in Louisiana and Mississippi.

… and the president is on vacation. Maybe he is working on finishing My Pet Goat? Apparently he never read the FEMA reports on the probability of the second most devastating disaster to hit the US during his presidency:

In 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked a major hurricane strike on New Orleans as “among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country,” directly behind a terrorist strike on New York City.
Progress Report 8/30/2005

Instead of taking this threat seriously, the administration cut the budget of the New Orleans branch of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by $71.2 million two months ago and rolled back wetland protection laws, although wetlands provide important flood buffers around New Orleans. And one in three National Guardsmen in Louisiana is currently in Iraq, and thus not in a position to help protect or rebuild his home state.

All we can do now, is try to help pick up the pieces.

Religious so-called leaders calling for terror against other nations? Not exactly an original concept! Does Pat Robertson aspire to be the Christian Osama Bin Laden? In a Aug. 22 broadcast on cable television, the wealthy American televangelist called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez:

You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if [Chavez] thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war.
Pat Robertson on The 700 Club, Aug. 22, 2005

In the past, Robertson has enjoyed the company and association of bloody dictators and terrorists, like Liberia’s Charles Taylor (BBC) and Zaire’s Mobuto Sese Seko. Robertson’s mining companies did business with these ruthless dictators, extracting blood diamonds and gold from the African soil, fuelling bloody conflicts, cruel oppression and fattening Robertson’s bank accounts. Now Robertson is whining about Chavez, a popular leader among the working class in Venezuela, who has been attacked by US-backed smear campaigns by Venezuela’s rich land-owners. Probably Chavez is not so accommodating to Robertson’s attempts to exploit his country? Greg Palast has more …

Congratulations to NASA - the space shuttle is back in one piece. Now it’s time to put those big clunkers in a nice museum and charge foreign tourists money to see them (I think that US taxpayers have already paid their admission fees).

At an average cost of $1.3 billion per launch, and a total cost of $174 billion, the space shuttle program seems like a giant welfare program for the aerospace industry. What exactly are they doing up there? This time, it seems they put the craft into orbit in order to see if they could repair it!? In the past, sometimes we’d hear about the astronauts fixing stuff, like the space telescope, or tinkering with the space station. Mostly it is just about this irrational idea that we have to put humans into space.

As a taxpayer, however, I get much more scientific ROI from unmanned space exploration, where robots are strapped on a rocket and blasted to cool places, like Mars or Jupiter. These missions are low-risk, reasonably priced and seem to yield concrete scientific results. The Mars Pathfinder cost a moderate $150 million and gave us a great view and concrete data from the surface of Mars.

It’s not like I am not fascinated by the idea of space travel. But the space shuttle program is wasting my taxes on a system with some pretty significant flaws. This is one area, where I think that private enterprise makes a lot more sense than government programs. and once they figure out how to get people safely into space and back - sign me up, Scottie!

Like everyone else, I am shocked and saddened by the attacks on innocent civilians in Sharm al-Sheikh. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families, and with all affected by these cruel, barbaric acts of terrorism.

Massacre of school children and adults in northern Kenya:

Hundreds of armed men surrounded a primary school and nearby houses and opened fire as children were making their way to school early on Tuesday.

Security forces say 56 people - including 22 children - died in the revenge attack by raiders feuding over water and pastures.
Hunt for child killers in Kenya BBC News, 14 July, 2005

Iraqi suicide bomber blows up children who were gathered to get some candy from US soldiers:

“There were some American troops blocking the highway when a US Humvee came near a gathering of children,” said Karim Shukir, 42. “US soldiers began to hand them candies. Then suddenly, a speeding car with the bomber showed up and struck both the Humvee and the children.”
32 Children Die in Baghdad Blast, Arab News, 14, July, 2005

A so-called father using his 19-month-old as a shield in a police shootout:

Pena, 34, was holding his daughter Suzy when he opened fire on police last Sunday, unleashing 40 shots in three separate exchanges. He and his daughter died in a hail of gunfire after he confronted police in an alley behind his apartment.
Coroner: Toddler killed by LAPD bullet, CNN Int., July 14, 2005.

How do I explain these things to my children? How do I explain why they are inheriting such a messed up world?

I know that Londoners are a resilient bunch and won’t be intimidated by these act of violence against civilians. But I do want to express my sorrow and solidarity with all Londoners.

Over at Back to Iraq, Chris Albritton has posted a translation of a message that was supposedly generated by the perpetrators of these acts of terrorism. (See also the BBC’s translation.)

When Dr. Bush exhorted the benefits of renewable fuels recently, I was suspicious. This snake-oil salesman of a president has put one over the American taxpayer so many times, I am not inclined to take anything he says at face value. Point in case: the biodiesel tax incentive could potentially damage the nascent biodiesel industry because the incentive is written in a way that leaves the small and mid-size biodiesel producers, who care most about the product, out in the cold. One of them, Kumar at Fueled for Thought has a detailed analysis of how this tax incentive shoots the biodiesel industry in the foot:

1. The incentive for pure biodiesel (B100) is a corporate income tax credit, which has the greatest benefit for very large corporations
2. The more accessible tax incentive is tied to bio-petrodiesel blends
3. The incentive prefers first-use oil over yellow grease products, although recycling used grease is an essential benefit of biodiesel
4. The incentive destroys the balance of supply and demand for biodiesel, which creates opportunities for bankers and other thieves to speculate with a product they don’t understand or care about

Biodiesel is still an early-adopter market, largely unregulated, or rather self-regulated. I’m not a free-marketer, but here is an industry that was doing well on its own, growing by leaps and bounds, thank-you-very-much. Then those big-government Republican (and Dem) wheeler-and-dealer types came in and started messing with it. Not because they give a damn about the technology, saving the earth from choking to death or relieving our landfills from tons of grease. No, they smell money.

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Considering the Chinese government’s record of dealing with public health issues (SARS!), I had been wondering about all these reassurances from Chinese officials that “Everything is OK. Don’t worry. Just a couple of dead birds …”

But if there is no reason to be alarmed, why has China rushed to shut down all its national parks, sealed off Lake Qinghai, and ordered the vaccination of millions of poultry across vast areas of western China?
China bird flu could ’cause mayhem’ BBC News

This commentary at Recombinomics paints a scary picture of what may really be going on in western China: a phase 6 pandemic of H5N1!

Reports coming out of Qinghai suggest H5N1 infections in humans and birds are out of control, with birds distributing H5N1 to the north and west, while people are being cremated and told to keep quiet.

Reports from Chinese language papers detail over 200 suspected infections in over two dozen locations in Qinghai Province. In the most affected 18 regions, there are 121 deaths, generating a case fatality rate above 60%.
Final Phase 6 Bird Flu Pandemic in Qinghai China?

The folks at Effect Measure are also worried about the situation in Qinghai, but they don’t think that a news blackout has been imposed:

It is too soon to jump to conclusions about what is happening here. The suggestion there has been a news blackout is worrisome. China is especially sensitive about such charges because of the SARS episode so I think this is unlikely, but we just don’t know at the moment. We will keep our eye on this.

I think it is time that the Chinese government provides some clear, credible evidence of what is going on in Qinghai. The implications of a highly infections virus on the loose with a human death-rate of 60 percent (or higher) is not a Chinese problem. It’s a global problem.

Togo’s Interior Minister, Esso Boko, last night called for a suspension of the “suicidal electoral process” of his country - and was promptly sacked by his boss, Interim President Abass Bonfoh.

The BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt in Togo says Mr Boko is a former military man and a political heavyweight, whose ministry is responsible for conducting the election.

She says the timing of the events was “extraordinary” - just two days before the polls.

At his news conference, called at 0200 local time, Mr Boko produced a seven-page document setting out his plan for a government of national unity to last for one or two years and with a prime minister, drawn from the ranks of the opposition, serving under the president. - BBC, 22 April, 2005.

The runup to Sunday’s elections in Togo has been marred by violent clashes between the supporters of the ruling RPT and supporters of the increasingly desperate opposition. The opposition sees this election as an opportunity to get Togo out of the stranglehold of the RPT. But the entrenched power elites, which include much of the military leadership in Togo, are taking no chances. They have the vast fortunes of the ruling family at their disposal, as well as a well-armed military and the support of the French government. RPT thugs have been terrorizing the country for weeks, and the ruling party has launched a massive smear-campaign against the opposition leaders.

The opposition in Togo, for its part, is gearing up for a major fight. With the international community nowhere in sight, Togo, I am afraid, is going to see some very rough times. The RPT has a vested interest in destabilizing Togo. A scared people won’t vote, or if they vote, they might be too scared to vote for the opposition. Violence and unrest in the country will serve as an excuse to unleash the military onto the opposition, as they did in the early 90s during the big strikes.

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Carrying on his fathers legacy of intimidation and violence, Faure Gnassingbe arrived in Lomé Sunday after his RPT thugs had “prepared” the capital of Togo using tear gas, nail-studded clubs and guns the day before. IRIN reported six deaths and AFP reported seven deaths and 150 injured.

Saturday’s clashes occurred as opposition supporters spilled into the streets dressed in yellow to welcome home [Sylvanus] Olympio. The veteran oppositon leader was banned from standing in the election on the grounds that he had not been resident in Togo for 12 months before the poll.

Human rights groups and witnesses reported seeing bands of armed men riding in vehicles through the streets wearing RPT or Faure Gnassingbe T-shirts. They were carrying army-issue teargas grenades as well as rifles and nail-studded clubs.

An IRIN correspondent met one 16-year-old boy whose thigh had been pierced in several places. He said he had been beaten with a nail-studded club on his way home from school.

The clashes continued on Sunday as Gnassingbe held his first major rally in Lome, but no serious casualties were reported. - IRIN - Six Dead And Dozens Injured in Pre-Election Violence April 18, 2005

Terror democracy à la Eyadema. So much for free and fair elections in Togo.

This NY Times editorial highlights the fate of two young women in NYC who were arrested and accused of plotting to become suicide bombers.

If there is a real reason to believe that charge, officials are obviously right to have acted. But so far, they have said little about the evidence against the girls, and the girls’ friends and families have offered accounts that suggest the charges could be completely false. NY Times, April 12, 2005

The Detainment blog documents efforts to help free these two women from what appears to be a terrible miscarriage of justice that has the potential of destroying the lives of two innocent people. Since the two women live in the US without papers, the debate about their case centers around the rights and status of undocumented aliens in the US. Saurav posted some facts about the economic contributions of the “undocumented” or “illegal” people living in the US.

Beyond the economic issue, however, there is also another, more important (I think) question about the level of commitment of this society to some fundamentally American principles.

In the U.S. of A, everyone has “certain unalienable rights” Thomas Jefferson and his fellow revolutionaries declared, and added “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Is it not self-evident that it behooves law enforcement and government agencies in general to respect and protect the rights of any human being in this great country? Is the petty, bureaucratic distinction between “legal” and “illegal” aliens not a sham to stir resentment and discontent that serves the rich and powerful? Wealthy mega-corporations like Wal-Mart have a vested interest in keeping a cheap labor pool of undocumented people in America. Most of these people are working hard, get no benefits and lousy pay. They are scared of getting deported, which makes them very vulnerable to all kinds of abuse and exploitation. Yet, the corporations who exploit these men and women, fly large American flags on the 4th of July, but contribute very little on April 15 to support the services this country provides.

The hypocrisy of the “illegal alien” game is an affront to American values that undermines the fabric of this society. Everyone in this country ought to be afforded the same rights and duties, irregardless of their immigration status. But the fear and resentment cultivated by the Bush administration, combined with the greed of corporate America, is gnawing away at the spirit of this great country and ruining the lives of many innocent people.

TOMBSTONE, ARIZONA - A frat boy/reality-TV/border vigilante/republican prankster caused a serious border incident when he shared a cereal bowl with a hungry and thirsty guy from Mexico walking across the Arizona desert.

The ACLU says the Mexican man was held against his will and photographed with a mocking slogan.

Jesus’ General has a photo and a word, or two, of advice, for this Barton guy.

The Mexican government has warned it will file civil suits against anyone who lays a finger on Mexican nationals, Reuters reports.

The so-called Minuteman Project fired the guy, because he violated policy:

Project volunteers are only allowed to observe suspected aliens and then report those observations to the Border patrol. The project co-founder, Chris Simcox, said, “The volunteer’s actions were admirable, justified and undeniably humane, but unfortunately they jeopardized our established procedures and overall purpose of passively monitoring the border. It’s unfortunate, but we had to dismiss him from further participation.”The Minuteman Project News release

And what do these so-called Minuteman guys think they are doing? Are they trying to ruin the U.S. economy by keeping workers from Mexico out?

At a February fundraiser in South Carolina for the victims of the devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami, former New York mayor and “Man of the Year” 2001 Rudi Giuliani charged a $100,000 fee and donated $20,000 to the fundraiser. How generous. He still made a nice $80,000, which is $20,000 more than the total raised at the event for the tsunami victims. The NY Observer, not exactly part of the “liberal media conspiracy” has a scathing review of “Really Rich Rudy” (Google cached) and his crooked dealings.
via DKos