Month: February 2011

This is What You Get When You Fist F%$# a Cobra …

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Complete PWN463!

I while back, I mentioned 4Chan, I should add the inventive group of people known as Anonymous who ofttimes frequent 4Chan:

Anonymous, the online collective that launched DDoS attacks on Visa, PayPal and others in support of whistle-blowing site WikiLeaks, has brought down the web site of a firm helping the FBI to unmask its members.

Security services firm HBGary Federal had been helping the Feds to track down the individuals behind a number of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on companies including Amazon, PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Swiss bank PostFinance and Bank of America, after the firms suspended services to WikiLeaks.

In a sophisticated attack, Anonymous members hacked into HBGary’s website and posted an image containing a message explaining their actions. In addition, they downloaded over 60,000 messages from the company’s email servers and posted them on The Pirate Bay.

The Twitter account of HBGary’s CEO, Aaron Barr, was also compromised and used to tweet a number of offensive messages, as well as his home address, social security number and mobile phone number.

(Link to torrent mine, and I make no claims as to the safety or veracity of the data.  I have not downloaded the data myself)

Yeah, and it has also been reported that they deleted HBGary’s backups.

Not only did they pick a fight with Anonymous, but it also appears that they are complete posers as well, who were leaching publicly available names from Facebook and IRC, and trying to sell this to the FBI.

Well, not any more, because, according to the letter that was the HBGary home page (above) they sent the data to the FBI themselves.

What a bunch of complete wankers, Aaron Barr and company that is, I have nothing but the utmost respect for Anonymous.

And so Anonymous is added to my list of People I Do Not Want to Piss Off, and HBGary is added to the likes or Razorfish, to my list of people who I would never trust with anything more complex than a mechanical pencil.

How Obama Loses to Sarah Palin in 2012

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If there was a Republican who was unelectable in 1967, it was Richard “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore” Nixon.

Following his surprise loss to Pat Brown in 1962, he signed off with a level of nastiness that seemed to be the final nail in his political career.

But 2 years later, he was president of the United States.

He was President because Lyndon Baines Johnson, and his Vice President, and designated heir, Hubert Humphrey, were unable to recognize reality with regard to the Vietnam war, at least publicly, because they felt the need to appear hawkish to take away the perennial Republican talking point that Democrats were “soft” on defense.

Well, we are seeing it yet again with Obama, who is poised to let Afghanistan define his presidency.

It’s actually worse than Vietnam, because Afghanistan has never been a viable nation state, but rather is a void on the map where neither the Russians nor the British were able to maintain power in their “Great Game” for that part of the world, and we are in there supporting one side.

Additionally, we have the fact that, as mind boggling as it sounds, the regime that we are supporting is even more corrupt and ineffective than any that we ever supported in South Vietnam, and that we also have religious overtones in this conflict that were largely lacking in the ‘Nam.

And now we have one of Obama’s biggest supporters in the Senate, John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is saying that we need to get out now:

One of the Obama administration’s key allies in Congress, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), is breaking with the president on Afghanistan and saying the strategy in the war needs to be revised. The development, coming from someone who was once a strong backer of Obama’s decision to increase troops in Afghanistan, could deal a significant blow to support for the administration.

“What I don’t want is to be party to a policy that continues simply because it is there and in place,” said Kerry in an interview with the Boston Globe about his evolving views on the war. “That would be like Vietnam. And that is what I am determined to try to prevent.”

Kerry, according to the Globe, is calling for “a more limited focus and fewer American troops than the 155,000 that are in place now.” In the coming months, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be holding a series of oversight hearings on the Obama administration’s strategy.

Kerry is a creature of the Senate, and so is mild in his disapprobation of the current policy, particularly since he shares a political party with Obama, but this is very clear. He is saying that we need to get the hell out now.

He’s right too.  Afghanistan is not called the “Graveyard of Empires” for nothing.

I do not expect that Obama will take this advice to heart though:  He is too concerned with political calculation, where he thinks that being hawkish will take away a Republican talking point (sound familiar?), and is simply unwilling to override the desires of careerist generals in the Pentagon, for whom the war is a path to advancement.

Not Enough Bullets

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Here is a guy who is worth more than the GDP of something like 80% of the countries in the world, and he’s bitching because people are not as nice to him as he would like:

What’s eating Jamie Dimon?

At last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the JPMorgan Chase chief executive once again lambasted the media and politicians for portraying all bankers as greedy evil-doers.

It was at least the 12th time since the start of the financial crisis that Dimon has complained about Wall Street critics painting all bankers as cut from the same cloth. But the timing of his latest outburst seemed odd.

In December, as part of President Barack Obama’s bid to make nice with U.S. business leaders, Dimon was invited to a private Oval Office one-on-one with the president to discuss the economy. Dimon and his wife Judy were also guests at the state dinner the White House arranged for Chinese President Hu Jintao last month. And one of Dimon’s top executives, Bill Daley, was tapped by the president as chief of staff.

BTW, the reason that the media portrays, “all bankers as greedy evil-doers,” and critics of our banking system paint, “all bankers as cut from the same cloth,” is because it’s true.

You are all a bunch of contemptible greed-heads, Mr. “We started shorting Bernie Madoff because we knew he was a fraud, but didn’t bother telling anyone.”

This is why we need to prosecute every one of these rat-bastards to the fullest extent allowed by law.

It’s Bank Failure Friday!!!!

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And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.

  1. American Trust Bank, Roswell, GA
  2. North Georgia Bank, Watkinsville, GA
  3. Community First Bank Chicago, Chicago, IL

Full FDIC list

As you can see below, the 2011 and the 2010 lines have finally crossed.  I don’t expect 2011 to b e good, but I expect it to be better than 2010.

So, here is the graph pr0n with last years numbers for comparison (FDIC only):

And since it’s early in the year, here is a detail of the first few weeks:

Scientists National Enquirer Reporters Discover a Mythical Creature

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The creature in question is a straight Republican, one John Boehner, who seems to spend a lot of his time f%$#ing staffers and lobbyists, as well as f%$#ing the country:

New Speaker of the House JOHN BOEHNER is embroiled in a bombshell sex scandal – involving at least two different women, The ENQUIRER has learned!

Capitol Hill insiders and political bloggers have been buzzing about an upcoming New York Times probe – detailing an alleged affair that the 61-year-old married father of two had with pretty Washington lobbyist LISBETH LYONS.

And an ENQUIRER investigation has uncovered a bedroom encounter that Boehner – second in line of succession to the presidency – allegedly had with LEIGH LaMORA, a 46-year-old former press secretary to ex-Colorado Congressman JOEL HEFLEY.

The Ohio native, a congressman for 20 years, and his wife Deborah, 62, have been married for 37 years.

It should be noted that Ms. Lyons has lobbied for industries that have shipped jobs from Boehner’s own district overseas.

So while he was f%$#ing her, he was also f%$#ing his constituents.

I know what you are saying, but the Enquirer nailed John Edwards about his nailing Rielle Hunter, so they do have some cred on this, particularly since people have alluded to Boehner’s wandering ………… Eye ………*

*I bet that you thought that I was going to use a crude term for a body part that is pronounced the way his name is spelled. While the thought did cross my mind, so the the phrase, “fish in a barrel.” It would be like Dick Cheney when he shoots a bunch of birds (or a lawyer) released right in front of him.

No Posting Tonight

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I’m not sick or anything, it’s just that I am up to my elbows in removing a Trojan* from my daughter’s computer, for the 2nd time in a week.

I do not know what she is accessing, but I am looking up her browser history, and trying to find a possible source, in addition to running multiple virus/spyware scans.

The joys of children are without number.

*The computer infection, not the condom.  If it were as condom in her computer, my head would have exploded.

Mubarak Announces Retirement at End of Term

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The protestors want him to leave both his office, and the country, immediately:

Egyptians wholeheartedly rejected President Hosni Mubarak’s announcement Tuesday evening that he will not run for reelection in September, continuing to demand that he step down immediately.

A roar of anger went up from the thousands of people in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square even before the president had finished his address, offering an immediate answer to an unprecedented offer from an autocrat who has ruled for almost 30 years with few concession to the people. They shook their shoes at a large screen where the president’s image was broadcast, screaming “Get out! Get out!”

“I was angry, but now I am enraged,” said Abdullah Rawaq, shouting to be heard amid a crowd chanting: “He must go! We will not go!

Somehow, I do not think that it is likely that Mubarak will get either his 8 months or his wish to stay in Egypt.

A bit of doggerel about this follows the break, apologies to Theodore Geisel and Art Buchwald.

“Hosni Sayyid Mubarak will you please go now!
The time has come.
The time has come.
The time is now.
Just go.
Go.
Go!
I don’t care how.
You can go by foot.
You can go by cow.
Hosni Sayyid Mubarak will you please go now!
You can go on skates.
You can go on skis.
You can go in a hat.
But
Please go.
Please!
I don’t care.
You can go
By bike.
You can go
On a Zike-Bike
If you like.
If you like
You can go
In an old blue shoe.
Just go, go, GO!
Please do, do, do, DO!
Hosni Sayyid Mubarak
I don’t care how.
Hosni Sayyid Mubarak
Will you please
GO NOW!
You can go on stilts.
You can go by fish.
You can go in a Crunk-Car
If you wish.
If you wish
You may go
By lion’s tale.
Or stamp yourself
And go by mail.
Hosni Sayyid Mubarak
Don’t you know
The time has come
To go, go, GO!
Get on your way!
Please Hosni M.!
You might like going in a Zumble-Zay.
You can go by balloon . . .
Or broomstick.
Or
You can go by camel
In a bureau drawer.
You can go by bumble-boat
. . . or jet.
I don’t care how you go.
Just get!
Hosni Sayyid Mubarak!
I don’t care how.
Hosni Sayyid Mubarak
Will you please
GO NOW!
I said
GO
And
GO
I meant . . .
The time had come
So . . .
HOSNI WENT.”