The Washington Post has a nice story about the latest Obama smear. It’s about a "story" (that Obama went to a radical Muslim school and is, hence, a radical Muslim) that leapt from spam e-mail to a conservative magazine to the mainstream media — despite having anonymous sources, and devoid of actual fact.
The silly season has started.
There was a good mainstream media write-up yesterday about Spring Awakening, for those (like me) into that sort of thing:
Teenage sex scenes showing a naked breast, masturbation and sadomasochism aren’t the usual Broadway fare, but "Spring Awakening" has become the surprise hit musical of the season while being hailed as tastefully erotic.
Adapted from German playwright Frank Wedekind’s then-scandalous 1891 play, "Spring Awakening" looks at the angst of high school students and their sexual awakening in repressed 19th-century Germany.
With song titles such as "The Bitch of Living" and "Touch Me," the show opened on Broadway last month to glowing reviews that compared its contemporary rock song score to that of the prize-winning "Rent." Its run was recently extended.
When considering a Broadway musical, "probably nobody thinks: pure sex. That might just change," said New York Times critic Charles Isherwood, calling the show "a straight shot of eroticism" as it tastefully deals with provocative topics such as abortion, homosexuality and abuse.
"’Spring Awakening’ makes sex strange again, no mean feat, in our mechanically prurient age," Isherwood said.
OTHER ENTERTAINMENT NEWS: The nominees for the annual Razzie Awards (the unofficial "WORST OF" in films) were announced today.
The perils of pornography in high definition
Yup. Apparently, many performers in the porn industry aren’t exactly embracing high-definition technology, where every wrinkle of cellulite becomes, well, obvious:
“The biggest problem is razor burn,” said Stormy Daniels, an actress, writer and director.
Ms. Daniels is also a skeptic. “I’m not 100 percent sure why anyone would want to see their porn in HD,” she said.
Ooooo-kay. And then there’s this:
Jesse Jane, one of the industry’s biggest stars, plans to go under the knife next month to deal with one side effect of high-definition. The images are so clear that Ms. Jane’s breast implants, from an operation six years ago, can be seen bulging oddly on screen.
“I’m having my breasts redone because of HD,” she said.
The stretch marks on Ms. Jane from seven years ago when she gave birth to her son are also more apparent. But she deals with those blemishes in a simpler way: by liberal use of tanning spray.
I’m not well-versed in the erotic arts, so I have no opinion on the whole high definition porn issue. I just brought it up because I just love that quote: "I’m having my breasts redone because of HD". It’s one of those sentences that — if I lived to be one hundred years old, I would never have expected to hear.
I have this superstition: if I watch an important football game, the team I’m rooting for loses. So I usually try not to pay attention to important football games.
However, today I watched — really watched — the Patriots-Colts game. Especially the second half.
Oops.
SUBSEQUENT THOUGHT: On the plus side, the Patriots’ loss means I can forego the silliness and hype of the Super Bowl. I probably won’t even watch it, except for maybe Prince.
The President who unilaterally started a war and refuses to end it despite all the death, destruction, and misery caused to U.S. soldiers, their surviving families, not to mention thousands of innocent Iraqi women and children…
…has declared this Sunday to be "National Sanctity Of Human Life Day, 2007".
This is blatently unethical:
Last month, Bud Cummins, the U.S. attorney (federal prosecutor) for the Eastern District of Arkansas, received a call on his cellphone while hiking in the woods with his son. He was informed that he had just been replaced by J. Timothy Griffin, a Republican political operative who has spent the last few years working as an opposition researcher for Karl Rove.
Mr. Cummins’s case isn’t unique. Since the middle of last month, the Bush administration has pushed out at least four U.S. attorneys, and possibly as many as seven, without explanation. The list includes Carol Lam, the U.S. attorney for San Diego, who successfully prosecuted Duke Cunningham, a Republican congressman, on major corruption charges. The top F.B.I. official in San Diego told The San Diego Union-Tribune that Ms. Lam’s dismissal would undermine multiple continuing investigations.
In Senate testimony yesterday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refused to say how many other attorneys have been asked to resign, calling it a “personnel matter.”
In case you’re wondering, such a wholesale firing of prosecutors midway through an administration isn’t normal. U.S. attorneys, The Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, “typically are appointed at the beginning of a new president’s term, and serve throughout that term.” Why, then, are prosecutors that the Bush administration itself appointed suddenly being pushed out?
The likely answer is that for the first time the administration is really worried about where corruption investigations might lead.
Fox, meet henhouse.
If you get an email with that subject line, delete it.
That’s the subject line of an email Trojan Horse which is hitting personal computers globally today, according to this breaking news article:
Storm Worm," one of the larger Trojan horse attacks in recent years, is baiting people with timely information about a deadly, real-life storm front, security researchers said Friday.
Over an eight-hour period Thursday, malicious e-mails were sent across the globe to hundreds of thousands of people, said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for F-Secure.
People who open the attachment then unknowingly become part of a botnet. A botnet serves as an army of commandeered computers, which are later used by attackers without their owners’ knowledge.
Storm Worm carries the subject line "230 dead as storm batters Europe," Hypponen said, noting the unusual twist to the e-mail.
"The e-mail was started 15 hours ago, when the storm was peaking in Central Europe," Hypponen said. "This is unusual in that it was very timely."
Storm Worm is a Trojan horse with an executable file as an attachment. Cybercriminals took advantage of social engineering, using the news of the European storm to get people to open the attached malicious file, which promises more news on the weather emergency. The recipient must open the file for it to execute.
The file creates a back door to a computer that can be exploited later to steal data or to use the computer to post spam.
Storm Worm is already close to being as large as the bigger attacks of 2006, Hypponen said, though it’s still smaller than Sasser and Slammer.
Hypponen also noted that this Trojan horse is unusual because most attacks these days tend to be smaller and targeted, as criminals seek to pilfer personal information for financial gain, rather than fame.
Though Storm Worm is widespread, the damage may ultimately be minimal in the U.S. because most tech security companies will have already added it to their blocking list before people get into work, he added.
Other e-mail subject lines for it include "U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza…" and "A killer at 11, he’s free at 21 and…"
Thanks, L.A. Times:
BELATEDLY, I’VE LEARNED that LOL means Laughing Out Loud, and POS means Parent Over Shoulder (i.e., change the subject, fast). Young people invented this shorthand for e-mail and instant messaging, and you can hear their attitudes and concerns in it — for example, DYHABF (Do You Have A Boyfriend?), W/E (Whatever) and UW (You Wish).
I haven’t been 20 for a long time now, and my thoughts don’t always lend themselves to electronic communication; but they’re common enough to deserve concise acronyms of their own. So feel free to use any of these abbreviations as needed:
Aging and memory loss
TMYNA: Tell Me Your Name Again
GU2P3XLN: Got Up To Pee 3 Times Last Night
WROMH: Where’s the Rest Of My Hair?
SMB/SWU: Stiff Morning Back/Struggling With Underwear
*
Middle-aged Zen
MKDKWAPI: My Kids Don’t Know Who Al Pacino Is
TCLTM: Teenage Cashiers Look Through Me
SIH->NM: The School I Hated Has Become a Nostalgic Memory
JL40WD (WHUA): John Lennon Was 40 When He Died. (What Have You Accomplished?)
ROTFC9: Rolling On The Floor, Call 911
*
Homeownership
SHBASH: Should Have Bought a Smaller House
SHSLY ({circ}M): Should Have Sold Last Year (at Top of the Market)
NNRB: Need New Roof, Boiler
MIRPAA: Must I Really Paint Again, Already?
*
Exercise
YGONTRTAFAM: Young Guy On Next Treadmill Running Twice As Fast As Me
HHDD: Hope He Drops Dead
PSY/NMI: Played Softball Yesterday, Need More Ibuprofen
NTFS/BO: NordicTrac For Sale (Best Offer)
*
Old friends
EBYATT2: I’m E-mailing Because You’re Annoying To Talk To
AHSR-SOOP: At High School Reunion, Saw Only Old People
GOFAM: Googling Old Friends After Midnight
Signing Off, Sideways
(||8{lsaquo}/)
I admit it — I love stories like these:
GPS devices lead to suspects’ home
LINDENHURST, N.Y. –Three thieves who allegedly stole 14 global positioning system devices didn’t get away with their crime for long. The devices led police right to their home.
Town officials said the thieves didn’t even know what they had: they thought the GPS devices were cell phones, which they planned to sell.
According to Suffolk County police, the GPS devices were stolen Monday night from the Town of Babylon Public Works garage in Lindenhurst. The town immediately tapped its GPS system, and it showed that one of the devices was inside a house. Police said that when they arrived there, Kurt Husfeldt, 46, had the device in his hands.
Husfeldt was charged with criminal possession of stolen property. His 13-year-old son also was arrested on grand larceny charges.
Town officials said the boy committed the burglary with Steven Mangiapanella, 20, also of Lindenhurst. He was charged with grand larceny.
Babylon installed 300 GPS devices in snow plows, dump trucks, street sweepers and other vehicles last January.
Some of you may have heard that the American Airlines ticket agent who checked in Mohammed Atta on 9/11 later committed suicide.
Just so you know: t’aint true.
I don’t know Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, but like many progressive bloggers, I enjoy her writing. All are rejoicing at the good news that her surgery for breast cancer (her third bout with it) went well yesterday.
TBogg, who has come to know Jane, is naturally happy at the news, but reminds us of other people who think Jane’s condition is grounds for humor.
The Pentagon set rules Thursday for detainee trials that could allow terror suspects to be convicted and perhaps executed using hearsay testimony and coerced statements, setting up a new clash between President Bush and Congress.
The rules are fair, said the Pentagon, which released them in a manual for the expected trials.
The rules are not fair. If they were, then hearsay and coerced statements would be allowed in all our trials.
Let me paint a picture.
Suppose the police picked you up because they thought you might know something about the a crime which had taken place, or was about to take place. In my scenario, the police are allowed to beat you. So they do. They beat you and torture you. You say (in all honesty) that you know nothing about the crime. So they beat and torture you more — and harder. You still claimsto know nothing. So the beatings and torture get even harder, and you are brought to the brink of death. Furthermore, you know that nothing bars the police from killing you, since there will be no retribution for that.
Now, if you’re that guy, and you want to, you know, live — what are you going to do at that point to get them to stop? You’re going to give them a name. Any name. Anything just to make them stop torturing you.
Now imagine your the person who was named. And based on the coerced "confession" of the suspect, you are now facing trial. Do you think it is "fair" for that evidence to be used to convict you, and to (possibly) execute you?
It comes down to this: If you have to rely on hearsay and coerced evidence in order to get a conviction, then perhaps you really don’t have a case after all. And there’s not a lawyer or law enforcement official who disagrees with that.
Speaking of bizarre anti-American twists of law, what Carpetbagger says:
I haven’t seen independent confirmation of this, so consider it an unofficial transcript, but Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was asked yesterday about the constitutional right of habeas corpus during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. If accurate, his reported response was one for the ages.
Specter: Now wait a minute, wait a minute. The Constitution says you can’t take it away except in the case of invasion or rebellion. Doesn’t that mean you have the right of habeas corpus?
Gonzales: I meant by that comment that the Constitution doesn’t say that every individual in the United States or every citizen has or is assured the right of habeas corpus. It doesn’t say that. It simply says that the right of habeas corpus shall not be suspended.
According to one reporter, Specter responded, “You may be treading on your interdiction of violating common sense.”
That’s an exceedingly polite way of telling Gonzales that his interpretation of the Constitution borders on lunacy. Americans don’t necessarily have the right of habeas corpus, Gonzales reportedly argued, because the Constitution merely insists that the right not be “suspended.”
I’ve spent far too much time trying to wrap my head around such an intentionally obtuse argument, and I’ve given up. It’s akin to arguing that Americans don’t necessarily have the right to free speech; the Constitution merely prevents laws that would prohibit free speech.
Mr. Gonzales, Harvard Law School called. They want their diploma back.
The White House Correspondents Association’s annual bash is typically hosted by a comedian who, truth be told, makes fun of the President while the President is sitting there. It is not unlike a Dean Martin or Friar’s Club roast, and every President has been "subjected" to it — Clinton sat there as Lewinsky jokes were flying about, and so on.
Bush, it seems, can’t handle it, and the compliant press corps is making sure that he won’t hear anything scathing. That’s why, this year, the emcee is the tame (and obsolete) Rich Little (compare: last year’s was Stephen Colbert). And Little has been asked not to make fun of the President:
Rich Little won’t be mentioning Iraq or ratings when he addresses the White House Correspondents’ Dinner April 21.
Little said organizers of the event made it clear they don’t want a repeat of last year’s controversial appearance by Stephen Colbert, whose searing satire of President Bush and the White House press corps fell flat and apparently touched too many nerves.
"They got a lot of letters," Little said Tuesday. "I won’t even mention the word ‘Iraq.’"
Little, who hasn’t been to the White House since he was a favorite of the Reagan administration, said he’ll stick with his usual schtick — the impersonations of the past six presidents.
"They don’t want anyone knocking the president. He’s really over the coals right now, and he’s worried about his legacy," added Little, a longtime Las Vegas resident.
Poor baby.
He’s worried about his legacy, but at least he can live and breathe. Meanwhile, there are over 3,000 U.S. servicemen and women for whom that is no longer an option.
UPDATE: The silly gets sillier — the White House Correspondent’s Association is calling Rich Little a liar…
