Bob Morris @ Jun 15th 2004 12:37 - Category: Unfiled ;
Iraqi insurgents blow up oil pipelines
Iraqi insurgents stepped up their campaign against the country’s infrastructure on Tuesday, blasting two oil pipelines, cutting the country’s oil exports and driving up world oil prices.
Officials made the usual noises about how the disruption would only be temporary, however prices of oil exploration and oil tanker stocks rose and are at or near historic highs.
Bob Morris @ Jun 15th 2004 12:19 - Category: Unfiled ;
Akamai goes postal, kills Microsoft, Symantec, Google, Apple, Lycos…
Akamai hosts many huge websites. Today, a “large scale international attack on the Internet’s infrastructure” took out Akamia and thus all the sites they host for a few hours.
My guess: Maybe someone based in the Middle East is deliberately attacking western commerce. An attack this big isn’t coming from script kiddies, it’s coming from someone who is large, determined, and well-organized. Organized crime isn’t interested in taking down the Net, because then they couldn’t grab credit card numbers with their phishing schemes. Thus, that doesn’t leave a whole lot of other suspects, does it?
And maybe this attack was just a test…
Bob Morris @ Jun 15th 2004 00:14 - Category: Unfiled ;
Hot: Interrogation abuses were ‘approved at highest levels’
“New evidence that the physical abuse of detainees in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay was authorised at the top of the Bush administration will emerge in Washington this week, adding further to pressure on the White House.
The Telegraph understands that four confidential Red Cross documents implicating senior Pentagon civilians in the Abu Ghraib scandal have been passed to an American television network, which is preparing to make them public shortly.
“There are some extremely damaging documents around, which link senior figures to the abuses,” said Scott Horton, the former chairman of the New York Bar Association, who has been advising Pentagon lawyers unhappy at the administration’s approach. “The biggest bombs in this case have yet to be dropped.”
Bob Morris @ Jun 15th 2004 00:12 - Category: Unfiled ;
Bush the Elder does not support the war (yet says nothing)
The Iraqi war that has so divided Americans is also causing a rift in the family of President George W. Bush.
The President’s father, George H.W. Bush – 41st President of the United States – disagrees with his son’s decisions in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, which is why the former President has not commented in public on the war.
“The President and I discuss the war privately,” the elder Bush said in an interview earlier this year. “That is the way it will remain.”
Someone with actual ethics and morality holding these views would probably then feel compelled to publicly oppose the war, even if his son didn’t like it. But not the Bushies. Let blood run in the streets of Baghdad, let US soldiers come home in body bags, but there shall be no public rifts in the facade of the Bush family empire.
If George the Elder had publicly and loudly opposed the war before it started - and there were clear signs even then that he opposed it -and had rallied support, the war might never have begun, or at the very least there would have been a whole lot more debate and caution about it. And a whole lot less dead people too.
Bob Morris @ Jun 15th 2004 00:06 - Category: Unfiled ;
Greens are deeply divided
Excerpts from a statement by Peter Camejo
We are approaching the national convention unusually divided. I believe, however, that there is a way for us to reach a substantial consensus and come out of the convention united.
I am calling for the national nominating convention to endorse both Cobb and Nader equally - and to allow each state to decide whether to put David Cobb, Ralph Nader or “no candidate” on their ballot line.
Such an agreement will result in four candidates - two presidential and two VPs - campaigning for peace, the rule of law, abolishing the USA Patriot Act, defending our liberties, supporting fair taxes, promoting free elections (IRV and PR), fighting for alternative energy, raising the minimum wage, protecting human rights and those of immigrants, defending our planet. Instead of Greens walking out of the convention divided and fighting each other behind different candidates, we could adopt a win-win solution, allowing us to close ranks to oppose the two parties of money and defend the Green Party.
This proposal - parity support for Cobb and Nader - would allow each state to nominate whichever candidate they feel would be most advantageous to have on their ballot (”Free States”).
I call on the pro-Nader delegates to help enable David Cobb to run for President. He will be the first registered Green in the history of the United States to run for President. Let him go forward defending the Ten Key Values and our party. Let us help him, not oppose him or the Greens who have rallied around his campaign.
I also call on the Cobb delegates to respect the Greens who support Nader’s independent campaign and help us to move that campaign forward as a voice for peace and justice and Green values - as an example of our willingness, in a nonsectarian manner, to join with other forces in the struggle for democracy and open elections.
We need to act similarly in regard to the presidential election this year. The mass media and the Democrats are anxiously waiting to see us fighting each other. They want headlines like: “Nader defeats Cobb” or “Nader defeated.” Instead, let’s give them a big surprise: Cobb wins, Nader wins, Greens unite and launch a campaign for democracy, peace and social justice in their battle to save our planet.
Camejo is trying to save the Green Party (GP), and his motives are noble. Whether the Cobb forces care a whit about what Camejo says is unknown, they’ve not responded to any of this debate, a non-action which speaks volumes, methinks.
Unfortunately this idea, nominating Cobb and endorsing Nader, is impractical and counter-productive. Such a convoluted approach will not attract people to the GP, it will not build the party. Instead, as with the also unworkable and counter-productive David Cobb “safe states” strategy of only campaigning in states where the race between Republicans and Democrats isn’t close, it will succeed only in having voters scratch their heads in puzzlement as to what on earth are those befuddled Greens doing, and why should I vote for a party that is so confused.
Plus, in Camejo’s plan, each state would decide whether to have Cobb or Nader on the ballot. This solves nothing, and instead bounces this nasty, divisive fight to the even less prepared states, where it will fester and boil fifty times, rather than just once.
Republicans and Democrats may fight like banshees at a convention, but they always unite once a candidate is chosen. If Greens can’t do that, and at this point no one is quite sure they can, then the convention at the end of this month will be a debacle.
Bob Morris @ Jun 15th 2004 00:04 - Category: Unfiled ;
Google GMail
I now have a Google GMail account, this being the new, free web-based email from Google that offers a whopping 1 gigabyte (1000 megabytes) of free storage.
It’s still in beta. You can sign up for it at gmail.google.com. They’ve been parcelling out new accounts gradually, and I got mine now because I do a lot of advertising on Google both for my business and for clients.
If you Google “Clipper migration”, you will see my ad in the upper right column. This is called pay per click advertising. My ad appears when someone Googles that phrase and I only get billed if they click on the ad.
What in the heck, you ask, is “Clipper migration?” Well, if you have to ask, then you’ll never Google that phrase! But for those with ancient Clipper and Foxpro DOS-based databases that need to be moved into Windows - they are the ones who type phrases like that. They need to find me, and I need to find them. Google makes this to happen. I have four such search phrases. These ads cost maybe $50 a month, and I get a steady stream of inquiries from all over the planet, and often they turn into business.
GMail might well be another such amazing application. 1 gig of free storage is a huge amount. The competition is responding. Starting today, Yahoo will offer 100 megabytes free and paying customers will get 2 gig for $19.95 a year and no ads. However, GMail does offer Google searches on your email, as well as what looks to be some new and innovative ways of handling email.
I’ll let you know more about GMail once I’ve played with it more.
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