Fortuna Faveat... may fortune favor us

I’ve been on a holiday hiatus and didn’t even bother to let you know I’d be gone for more than three days as per the terms of my e-lease. I’m glad to come back and find that the pipes didn’t burst in my absence. I hope you all had the chance to take some time away from your daily lives and celebrate life with those you care about. All the best of the New Year to you!

Ooh, almost forgot my fun news: BofA just increased my credit limit again on an account I don’t use. This is the third time since the bailouts began (1, 2). Looks like Conglomobank is desperate for my debt business in ‘09. Clearly, the bailout worked!

This is one of those X-files stories where you know in your heart of hearts that the guy was murdered, but you find it very difficult to admit it publicly to avoid seeming a loon.

I guess I’m a loon.

From at-Largely (Larisa Alexandrovna):

Image: Connell Donatelli Inc.

“Mike Connell set-up the alternate email and communications system for the White House. He was responsible for creating the system that hosted the infamous GWB43.com accounts that Karl Rove and others used. When asked by Congress to provide these emails, the White House said that they were destroyed. But in reality, what Connell is alleged to have done is move these files to other servers after having allegedly scrubbed the files from all “known” Karl Rove accounts.

In addition, I have reason to believe that the alternate accounts were used to communicate with US Attorneys involved in political prosecutions, like that of Don Siegelman. This is what I have been working on to prove for over a year. In fact, it was through following the Siegelman-Rove trail that I found evidence leading to Connell. That is how I became aware of him. Mike was getting ready to talk. He was frightened.”

Graham writes: “Unfortunately, he won’t get to talk. He died in a plane crash yesterday.”

UPDATE: A curious press release: “Bush Insider Who Planned To Tell All Killed In Plane Crash: Non-Profit Demands Full Federal Investigation” Mark Frauenfelder
BoingBoing

If you don’t already think there is something rotten with the police camera systems that are going up all across the country (Kansas City, MO is putting them in as I type), try this one on for size:

As a prank, students from [Maryland] high schools have been taking advantage of the county’s Speed Camera Program in order to exact revenge on people who they believe have wronged them in the past, including other students and even teachers…Students duplicate the license plates by printing plate numbers on glossy photo paper, using fonts from certain websites that “mimic” those on Maryland license plates. They tape the duplicate plate over the existing plate on the back of their car and purposefully speed through a speed camera…The victim then receives a citation in the mail days later.Joe Slaninka
The Sentinel

The owner of the vehicle is the one that is ticketed with these cameras. So, for instance, if your car is stolen (or, as above, someone fakes your plate) and the thief runs a light, you get the ticket in the mail weeks after being burgled. Do we really need any more proof that these systems should be demolished?

Via GNN

Article 31:
Everyone has the right to clean and accessible water, adequate for the health and well-being of the individual and family, and no one shall be deprived of such access or quality of water due to individual economic circumstance.Article31.org

Sign the petition to make potable water a universal human right. I did. I’m currently at the bottom of page 32 of the signees. Then, check out the documentary that inspired this petition, FLOW. The film (and the issue) is too powerful to ignore. Water is a right, not a privilege.

Image courtesy 7-how-7. Released under Creative Commons license (BY-NC-SA)

George W. Bush Presidential Library
c/o SMU
6425 Boaz Lane
Dallas, TX 75205

I’ve asked you to write Congress and other officials to express your opinion many, many times. But this little gem of an idea actually speaks much louder than a letter to an official. Join the movement and send some old shoes to the George W. Bush Presidential Library.

Pass it on! (Note: No passbacks!)

Great idea, Cory! (Via Old Shoes)

So, not quite greeted as liberators, eh? This is exactly what the Iraqis did to the Saddam icons after his regime was toppled. Also, while Bush wasn’t exactly in any real jeopardy from a flying shoe, where was the Secret Service in all this? Shouldn’t we have seen some diving agents or hidden projectile shields deploy? Have they stopped protecting the President?

Honestly, I thought this was a foregone conclusion, but the hatred of the southern Republican Senators for all things union has foiled the attempt by GM, Chrysler and Ford to suckle from the bailout teat. Who would have thought I’d celebrate such disdain for a union? Not me.

Now we will see just how honest the Big 3’s dire predictions about their own futures actually were. I’ve said it before and now I can yell it from the mountain tops, let ‘em swing! Nothing to see here people. The “free” market will sort them out.

Edit: 5:51 PM CDT, 12/12/2008: The Coal Carolers have been taken down. Victory!?!

Bile…rising in throat…

Frosty the Coal Man is a jolly happy soul. He’s abundant here in America and he helps our economy grow…there must have been some magic in clean coal technology, for when they looked for pollutants, there were nearly none to see…The Clean Coal Carolers
AmericasPower.org

Note: there is no such thing as clean coal.

Thanks, Sim!

A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.Theodore Roosevelt
Rapscallion, President of the United States

“Matthew Alexander” (11 minutes into the Democracy Now! episode above) was a US military interrogator who relied on the ethics he learned growing up as a normal human being to teach him that torture is an ineffective tool for gathering information. This isn’t brain surgery, people! He used that “torture is wrong” insight to lead his team to locate the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, who was subsequently killed. Yes, I realize it is strange to celebrate the lack of torture so you can then kill someone else.

He is no longer in the military and had to sue the Pentagon to get his book published. Alexander argues that torture is quite effective at pushing potential enemies over the edge, turning them into sworn enemies and murderous extremists. Well done, sir. If only people like you were running the military.