Archive for January 28th, 2005


L.A. event tonight: How to fight the Bush agenda

A.N.S.W.E.R. Political Forum
How To Fight The Bush Agenda


With original film footage from Venezuela of Hugo Chavez!


This Fri, Jan 28, 7:30 pm
1800 Argyle Ave, #410, LA 90028
Free and secure parking - enter on Yucca)


Featuring - Richard Becker: lead organizer of ANSWER mass antiwar protests in San Francisco. Recently traveled to Venezuela for an international solidarity conference.


Come to a political forum to discuss strategies to unite and fight against the right wing’s racism, sexism and anti-LGBT bigotry. Find out what’s really behind Social Security and pension cuts. Discuss how to build international solidarity worldwide!


I’m going to record Dick’s talk on my just-arrived iRiver mp3 player, and if all goes well, will post it tomorrow in my very first podcast.

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Antiwar dissent goes mainstream

Kennedy calls for a phased withdrawal from Iraq



U.S. military presence has become part of the problem, senator says. His speech could fuel a growing movement to bring troops home.


A day before Kennedy’s address, a group of 23 House Democrats introduced a resolution calling on President Bush to begin the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.


“Our very presence in Iraq is the cause of much of the violence,” said Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey (D-Petaluma), one of the sponsors. “We have a moral responsibility to leave in order to stem the violence.”


Yeah, it’s way overdue, and yeah, the dissent, right now, is coming from the most liberal of congresscritters. But it IS there, and that is a sea change indeed.

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Leftie podcasting

Socialist Steve has a podcast with a leftie tilt. He emails



As you can see I’m having a lot of fun with it, and it’s a great outlet.  Podcast411.com has the best tutorial on podcasting that I’ve seen.


BTW, you don’t need an mp3 player to receive and play podcasts -just listen to them on your PC. An mp3 player allows you play them anywhere, including on car radios, via a $40 attachment that broadcasts the mp3 to an unused frequency on the radio.

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The BBC is podcasting!

BBC Radio’s downloading trial (using mp3) has been a success with more than 70,000 downloads of Radio 4’s In Our Time in November and the latest ‘podcasting’ service proving popular with technology-savvy listeners.


‘Podcasting’ is an extension of downloading, whereby listeners can have new programmes automatically delivered to their computer as soon as they are posted on the web.

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Fraud - and those who commit it

From Miss Monica’s Certified Fraud Examiner training textbook, emphasis added.



McCaghy says profit pressure is “the single most compelling factor behind deviance by industry, whether it be price fixing, the destruction of competition or the misrepresentation of a product,” such as making a shoddy product that will wear out and need to be replaced. Clinard and Yeager say certain industries, such as the drug and chemical businesses, have such severe competition and strong profit drives due to demands for continual development of new products that they may feel pressured to falsify test data, market new products before their full effects are known, or engage in unethical sales techniques that can have disastrous effects on human beings and the environment.
 
In their study of corporate criminality, Clinard and Yeager found that large corporations were far more likely to commit violations than small corporations. Large corporations also bear a disproportionate share of sanctions for serious or moderate violation.


Check this out - the poor and well-educated whites tend to view the police negatively. 



Bahram Haghighi and Jon Sorensen cite numerous studies showing that: (1) people with low incomes, and (2) whites with advanced schooling view police departments negatively.  These two types of people go against the general grain in their disapproval of police. It’s intriguing, then, to note that the people most likely to commit fraud in the workplace are white men with executive status and advanced college degrees.   This suggests that the willingness to commit fraud-like the willingness to hold up a Quicky Picky-has a great deal to do with the perpetrator’s attitude toward the law. Simply put, those with the most negative attitudes about law enforcement are more likely to commit crimes. (This may seem axiomatic, but consider how useful this knowledge could be in evaluating and distinguishing among several suspects.)

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This is NOT satire

Cell phone virus infects Lexus cars



Lexus cars may be vulnerable to viruses that infect them via mobile phones.


It is understood the virus could affect the navigation system of the Lexus models, it transfers onto them via a Bluetooth mobile phone connection.


“I’ve even seen screenshots of major commercial aeroplanes with Windows 2000-based operating systems,” said Mikko Hypponen, director of anti-virus research at Finnish firm F-Secure. “Cars are an obvious target for viruses. It’s okay if you don’t use the operating system for the engine and the brakes, but when you do…”

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