Archive for November 17th, 2003


Bush deeply frightened by London…

Bush deeply frightened by London visit



There will be more armed men on the streets of London this week than at any time since the end of the Second World War, say government and security sources policing George W Bush’s four days in Britain.


Up to 250 agents from the US secret service will be allowed, under a previously unknown Anglo-American agreement, to carry guns.


Ah yes, George Bush, who says he’s for democracy and openness, turns every place he travels to into an armed camp. Actions speak louder than words, don’t they?



<The US > made substantial demands, some of them accepted, but the more outrageous courteously deflected by the Palace.


“They wanted to make structural changes to the Queen’s home and this was never going to happen,” said the aide.


“Agents brought in structural engineers who said walls must be strengthened and the blast-proof glass replaced with something stronger. They were obsessed, and still are by the threat of an attack from the air.”


Maybe they should look under the beds too, who knows, there could be a grue or a commie hiding under one of them… And I hear leprechauns can be quite ferocious and, who knows, one may have snuck over from Ireland.


Then again, maybe Bush and his handlers now dimly understand that hundreds of millions, no make that billions, of people across the globe dislike him and disbelieve what he says. He has managed, through a clever mix of arrogance, greed, and stupidity, to make himself the most loathed person on the planet — quite an accomplishment when you think about it.


The Stop the War Coalition in London, whose logo appears here, is preparing a huge protest and if authorities are dimwitted enough to not allow a march to Parliament, then chaos can be predicted with absolute certainty.

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Can capitalists save capitalism?

Can capitalists save capitalism?


When Silicon Valley newspaper columnists start pondering if capitalism can be saved, well, you got to know these are not normal times.



If you own shares in one of the mutual funds that has been cheating small investors on behalf of favored clients and/or managers, you have every right to feel sick to your stomach — and furious. This is betrayal on an epic scale.


“If you’re waiting for the last shoe, you have to realize this might be a centipede,” says Joseph A. Grundfest, who served on the Securities and Exchange Commission under Presidents Reagan and the senior George Bush.


Here’s why I’m finally beginning to get optimistic, even amid an apparently endless parade of sleaze. American capitalism is peering over a cliff, but there have to be enough sane and honorable capitalists who won’t let the bad guys pull everyone else over the edge. It’s a binary choice.


This implies the problem is just a few bad apples, and not an entire system gone berserk - something, I think, that remains to be seen.

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CIA: Saddam did not arm…

CIA: Saddam did not arm Al Qaeda



The CIA’s search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has found no evidence that former president Saddam Hussein tried to transfer chemical or biological technology or weapons to terrorists, according to a military and intelligence expert.

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This is not, repeat not,…

This is not, repeat not, satire


Phuket Airlines


 

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I wish this was satire

I wish this was satire


Astonishing electronic voting “glitch



Last Tuesday’s Boone County election, using MicroVote software returned about 144,000 votes, with only 19,000 registered voters.  After further review, the 5,352 votes were claimed to have been recorded.  With yet another mistake,  does anyone still trust closed-source electronic voting?

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Scamming the Nigerian scamsters

Scamming the Nigerian scamsters

Payback can be fun!



It has been described as the internet’s first blood sport and is fast becoming one of the web’s favourite pastimes. Fed up with having their inboxes clogged with emails from Nigerian fraudsters promising untold riches, the victims are finally hitting back.


Scam-baiting - replying to the emails and stringing the con artists along with a view to humiliating them as much as possible - is becoming increasingly popular with more than 150 websites chronicling the often hilarious results.

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