Air Force launches anti-blog campaign

Bloggers: If you suddenly find Air Force officers leaving barbed comments after one of your posts, don’t be surprised. They’re just following the service’s new “counter-blogging” flow chart. In a twelve-point plan, put together by the emerging technology division of the Air Force’s public affairs arm, airmen are given guidance on how to handle “trolls,” “ragers” — and even well-informed online writers, too. It’s all part of an Air Force push to “counter the people out there in the blogosphere who have negative opinions about the U.S. government and the Air Force,” Captain David Faggard says. […]

The flow chart lays out a range of possible responses to a blog post. Airmen can offer a “factual and well-cited response [that] is not factually erroneous, a rant or rage, bashing or negative in nature.” They can “let the post stand — no response.” Or they cancan “fix the facts,” offering up fresh perspective. No matter what, the chart says, airmen should “disclose your Air Force connection,” “respond in a tone that reflects high on the rich heritage of the Air Force,” and “focus on the most-used sites related to the Air Force.”

Original from Wired | via Technoccult

Let's Play "Wallstreet Bailout"

This is the best solution to the entire Wallstreet Bailout that I’ve heard so far.

Thank you Rep. Marcy Kaptur.

Diebold Machines Have Been Dropping Votes for 10 Years – Whoops!

According to Chris Riggall, a spokesman for Premier Election Solutions (formerly known as Diebold). the company’s voting machines which are used in over 34 states have not been counting votes for…
…wait for it…

10 years.

Riggall said he was “confident” that elections officials through the years would have realized votes had been dropped when they crosschecked their tallies to certify final elections results and would have reloaded cards so as not to lose votes. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has said no Ohio votes were lost because the nine Ohio counties that found the problem caught it before primary results were finalized.
…
“We are indeed distressed that our previous analysis of this issue was in error,” Premier President Dave Byrd wrote Tuesday in a letter that was hand-delivered to Brunner. Premier and Brunner are in an ongoing court battle over the voting machines and whether Premier violated its contract with the state and warranties.

Well – I’m glad that they’re at least “distressed” that they did not disclosure this known technical error when they discovered it. Of course, it doesn’t really matter now that the primaries have come and gone. This is almost as good as when the Chicago elections officials tricked voters into thinking they were voting with “invisible ink”.

This, of course, on the tail of a string of Premier Election Solutions/Diebold catastrophes; including the unveiling of the ease of vote flipping on national news, the company using already-hacked keys on current machines, Diebold officials caught trafficking in narcotics, or officals revealing that they regularly swapped out fake memory cards on the machines while the elections were still ongoing.

Hopefully people will realize the disgusting flaws in the current election system and question whether or not their vote really counts.

McCain's YouTube Problem Just Became a Nightmare

Feds to take DNA samples during all arrests

Apparently, all suspects who are arrested by federal agencies in the US will now have their DNA put into a database.  They will be adding an estimated 1.2 million people a year to CODIS, the national DNA database that law enforcement agencies use.

The new regulation would mean that the federal government could store DNA samples of people who are not guilty of any crime, said Jesselyn McCurdy, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Now innocent people’s DNA will be put into this huge CODIS database, and it will be very difficult for them to get it out if they are not charged or convicted of a crime,” McCurdy said. Link

Why are people complacent about this? Creating a database with genetic profiles of any citizen arrested, regardless of innocence, is a serious threat to civil rights. Especially when it comes to protest groups or political activists. These databases might be used for good, but they can definitely be used for bad.

American College of Physicians push for rescheduling of Cannabis

Purple Kush from jimmyjoints

A large and respected association of physicians is calling on the federal government to ease its strict ban on marijuana as medicine and hasten research into the drug’s therapeutic uses. [...]In a 13-page position paper approved by the college’s governing board of regents and posted Thursday on the group’s website, the group calls on the government to drop marijuana from Schedule I, a classification it shares with illegal drugs such as heroin and LSD that are considered to have no medicinal value and a high likelihood of abuse. Link

The ACP is the largest medical-specialty organization with over 124,000 members. It’s very good to see an organization like this supporting the rescheduling of cannabis. The closer we get to accepting the truth of the matter – that cannabis is not harmful. The only harm imposed by smoking ‘reefer’ is the harm that the government causes by prohibiting US citizens from deciding what to ingest.

Even federal judge Francis Young ruled:

…Marijuana’s therapeutic ratio, like its LD-50, is impossible to quantify because it is so high.

In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating ten raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death.

Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.

FEMA trains are nigh

Apparently FEMA will be expanding the use of trains to evacuate citizens during hurricanes from the Gulf Coast.

FEMA official Glenn Cannon today testified before a congressional subcommittee in New Orleans.

Cannon says FEMA is looking at passenger trains as a method to get people with physical impediments out of harm’s way.

New Orleans has become something of a guinea pig for train evacuations.
…
City officials say Congress and FEMA should create a national plan to use trains in disasters. Link

Boys with toys in New Orleans! (from interdictor)

As much as I would love to take a ride on the FEMA express, I can’t help but be reminded of the terrible works that they’ve done. Not to mention the FEMA detainment camps which were used widely during the Hurricane Katrina crisis. And this is all thanks to practice with the Rex 84 readiness exercises that the government carried out to simulate the detainment of large portions of American citizens. This idea has been updated, expanded, and legalized by CONPLAN 0400 aka Operation Granite Shadow which allows the military to operate independently against citizens within the US during a national crisis.

Guess who gets to head up all these plans? FEMA – thanks to a few key presidential directives.

Prediction: Clinton and McCain as primary candidates in '08

So, I made a prediction a while back that Hillary Clinton would be the main democratic candidate in the upcoming election. My reasons for this is the fact that Obama wants change – and the establishment doesn’t. That’s why it’s called the “establishment”. She also is also the only major democratic candidate that doesn’t want campaign finance reform. She’s a whore for that lobbyist cash.

However, on the republican ticket – I just wasn’t sure. None of the candidates seem to fit. Ron Paul (who I will support until the end of the election) just doesn’t have near the amount of support he needs. Mitt Romny is a creepy robot. Huckabee also doesn’t have the numbers.

But this just in:

Democrat Hillary Clinton has raised more money from lobbyists than any other presidential candidate while Republican John McCain has more of them assisting his campaign.

Clinton took in $823,087 from registered lobbyists and members of their firms in 2007 and the second-biggest recipient was McCain, who took in $416,321, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based group which tracks political giving. Barack Obama, Clinton’s rival for the Democratic nomination, doesn’t take money from registered lobbyists, although he received $86,282 from employees of firms that lobby, according to the center.

McCain has 26 registered lobbyists as campaign advisers or fundraisers compared with 11 for Clinton and none for Obama, according to review of records compiled by Public Citizen, a Washington-based group that favors stronger disclosure laws for lobbyists. Link

Well – I guess that settles it. Clinton and McCain in ’08. Here we go again.

Voters defrauded with 'invisible ink'

So on the voter defraud front – it’s only the primaries and we’ve already had recounts, Diebold (I mean, Premier Election Solutions) vote flipping uncovered publicly, Diebold using the same already-hacked keys in their current machines, and voting machines from Sequoia not counting votes…it’s time for another episode of Election Officials are F*cking Crazy!

From Chicago, IL we have this wonderful snippet:

Twenty voters at a Far North Side precinct who found their ink pens not working were told by election judges not to worry.

It’s invisible ink, officials said. The scanner will count it.

But their votes weren’t recorded after all.

Link (via BoingBoing)

Also, don’t forget the Diebold officials convicted of narcotics trafficking, or the same officials who admitted to swapping out memory cards on machines running on election day:

Other LHS staff members we spoke with, including Mike Carlson and Tom Burge, provided similar comments. They said they would open machines up during an election and swap memory cards as needed. This is illegal under Connecticut law and Deputy Secretary Mara told us she has since informed LHS that such actions were in violation of Connecticut election laws.

“In 2006, as Hajjar argued in favor of their policy to change cards during elections, I asked him about about the laws which govern chain of custody issues. His response: “I mean, I don’t pay attention to every little law. It’s just, it’s up to the Registrars. All we are is a support organization on Election Day”.

He said he had three memory cards in the trunk of his car and, in the event they had to be used, the chain of custody issues wouldn’t matter since, “once you run the [pre-election] test deck through, you’re golden”.”

Awesome! Thanks Democracy™!

CIA admits to "waterboarding" detainees

So the CIA’s head, Michael Hayden, has finally admitted that the government had used waterboarding techniques on detainees. Waterboarding was deemed inhumane and illegal by the Geneva Conventions.

CIA head Michael Hayden told Congress it had only been used on three people, and not for the past five years.

He said the technique had been used on high-profile al-Qaeda detainees including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

“Only been used on three people” … well, wasn’t that nice of them! Only three people, and not for the past five years? Well – I guess then its alright. As long as you haven’t done it recently. You rascally government…always getting into comical shenanigans!

Link (via GNN)