Tuesday, July 13, 2004

News roundup

  • Senate Republicans Split on Wording Gay-Marriage Ban
  • Afghans sell to the world online
    Boy, they're doing so much better now, aren't they?
  • Bush Again Tops Kerry on Terrorism, Poll Shows
    Also shows what a bunch of saps take polls.
  • Al Qaeda Messages Posted on U.S. Server
    Want to bet it was running a Micro$oft OS?
  • Man Accused of Infiltrating Computer at Verizon
    A Westchester County man illegally infiltrated an internal computer at Verizon more than 100 times this year, forcing the telecommunications company to spend at least $120,000 to retool its security system, prosecutors charged in a federal indictment yesterday.
    Maybe they should have spent money on getting a secure system BEFORE he broke into it? (I am NOT insinuating that this justifies the breakin. It justifies hiring competent employess, like myself.)
  • France raps 'US Aids blackmail'
    In a veiled attack on the US, France has criticised bilateral trade deals that force poor nations to give up rights to make cheaper anti-Aids drugs.
    President Chirac said such deals undermined an international accord that lets poor countries produce such drugs.
    In a statement to an Aids conference in Bangkok, he said such policy would be tantamount to "blackmail".
  • US 'needs terror policy debate'
    A senior US intelligence official has told the BBC that the American-led war in Iraq was "a gift of epic proportions to Osama Bin Laden".
    The official, identified as Anonymous, is preparing to publish a new book which says that the US is losing the battle against the al-Qaeda network.
    He told the BBC's Newsnight programme that the US needed to have a debate about its policies in the Middle East.
    He said the military option alone was "a bloody and unsuccessful tool".
  • Gay Marriage Vote Could Reignite 'Culture War'
  • Bush Criticizes Kerry Over Iraq Vote, Bush-Bashing
    "Gosh, now why would anyone want to criticize lil' ol' me?"
  • Mexico Attorney General Has Microchip Fitted in Arm
    Mexico's attorney general said on Monday he had had a microchip inserted under the skin of one of his arms to give him access to a new crime database and also enable him to be traced if he is ever abducted.
    Attorney General Rafael Macedo said a number of his staff had also been fitted with chips which will give them exclusive and secure access to a national, computerized database for crime investigators that went live on Monday.
    "It's an area of high security, it's necessary that we have access to this, through a chip, which what's more is unremovable," Macedo told reporters.
    "The system is here and I already have it. It's solely for access, for safety and so that I can be located at any moment wherever I am," he said, admitting the chip hurt "a little."
    That's kind of creepy.
  • Justice Dept. Report Details Use of Patriot Act
    I might be doing a lengthier analysis of this, once I finish reading it.
  • Discrimination on Wall St.? The Numbers Tell the Story
    Who'd'a thunk it?

No comments: