Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries

...Intelligence analysts say many governments, including those of China, Russia and the United States, and other parties use sophisticated computer programs to covertly gather information...

..."We’re a bit more careful about it, knowing the nuance of what happens in the subterranean realms,” said Ronald J. Deibert, a member of the research group and an associate professor of political science at Munk. “This could well be the C.I.A. or the Russians. It’s a murky realm that we’re lifting the lid on.”

A spokesman for the Chinese Consulate in New York dismissed the idea that China was involved. “These are old stories and they are nonsense,” the spokesman, Wenqi Gao, said. “The Chinese government is opposed to and strictly forbids any cybercrime.”

Bwaaa ha ha ha ha hahahaha, that cracks me up. This, however, does not:

...They found that three of the four control servers were in different provinces in China — Hainan, Guangdong and Sichuan — while the fourth was discovered to be at a Web-hosting company based in Southern California...

Lovely. Where in "Southern California" I wonder?

"Sick Around America" on Frontline this Tuesday

(this was in my mailbox this morning. I wonder if they will go into just how much the insurance costs are as a percentage of overall healthcare cost in the US? Or whether or not the half of bankruptcies in the US are still due to healthcare costs? I know I had one hell of an argument in a class with some right-wing fucktards in class a couple of years ago about this shit.)

FRONTLINE
http://www.pbs.org/frontline/- This Week: "Sick Around America" (60 minutes),March 31st at 9pm on PBS (Check local listings)----"You might be surprised," a health policy expert says near the start of this week's FRONTLINE, before listing some of the reasons people are routinely denied health insurance. "People are turned down because they have hay fever, because they have acne. People are turned down if they're 20 pounds overweight. Bedwetting, ear infections in kids..." Unfortunately, after watching "Sick Around America" this Tuesday night (check local listings), you might come away thinking those denied coverage for frivolous reasons are actually the lucky ones.In this film, producer Jon Palfreman travels the country talking to some of the millions of Americans who are uninsured, underinsured, or at risk of bankruptcy from unpaid medical bills. He meets a woman who's dropped by her insurer not long after she receives a cancer diagnosis. He finds a 23 year-old engineering student who had planned to head off to grad school, but, instead, works a low-wage job for the affordable health coverage he needs to cover a chronic condition. And then there's the tragic story of a young woman who dies of Lupus after being dropped by her state's Medicaid program. "I'm not afraid to say it," her doctor tells FRONTLINE in an emotional interview. "Nikki didn't die from Lupus. "Nikki died... secondary to the complications of a failing health care system.""I think everyone now understands it's not sustainable, right?" says Jeffrey Kang, a doctor and insurance executive. "From an insurance perspective it's not sustainable. From a business perspective it's not sustainable. Obviously from the consumers' perspective it's not sustainable. And I actually think the doctors and the hospitals understand that it's not sustainable..."The question that powerfully emerges from this film--and which now confronts the nation--is whether the vested interests vying for trillions in health care dollars can come together to make the kind of fundamental change that everyone now seems to agree we need.We hope you'll join us Tuesday night for the full report--broadcast or streamed online. In the meantime, visit our Web site for a preview http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundamerica/ . Starting Tuesday night our site offers interviews with key players, some critical background and links, and the opportunity to join the discussion. Ken DornsteinSenior Editor-------------Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Park Foundation. Additional funding for Sick Around America is provided by The Colorado Health Foundation, The Colorado Trust and The Commonwealth Fund.------------------------FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of the WGBH Educational Foundation.----------------------------We're always happy to hear from our viewers. If you have a question or comment about a FRONTLINE program, about our website, or about this bulletin, you can write to us directly by going to:http://www.pbs.org/frontline/contact/----------------------------FRONTLINEone guest street, boston, ma. 02135http://www.pbs.org/frontline/

A must read by Glen Greenwald

Glenn Greenwald
Saturday March 28, 2009 09:02 EDT
Jim Webb's courage v. the "pragmatism" excuse for politicians

...And, most important of all, Webb is addressing head-on one of the principal causes of our insane imprisonment fixation: our aberrational insistence on criminalizing and imprisoning non-violent drug offenders (when we're not doing worse to them). That is an issue most politicians are petrified to get anywhere near, as evidenced just this week by Barack Obama's adolescent, condescending snickering when asked about marijuana legalization, in response to which Obama gave a dismissive answer that Andrew Sullivan accurately deemed "pathetic." ...


Yeah, I winced when Obama did that.

I also can't figure out for the life of me why Obama is turning more power over to the federal reserve.

WTF?

Neither can someone who wrote a book about the Fed.

And why are the foxes still guarding the hen house?

Trust Your Guts

The bankers think we are chumps said in February by former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Earth Hour tonight

remember tonight...8:30 p.m. california time
turn out the light.
for one hour

Webb calls for criminal justice review

If anybody can deal with a review of the justice system, it's Webb.He studied the Japanese criminal system and found ours wanting, as would anyone who bothered to take an objective look at it.

The following is an article which describes in part the death of the San Diego Union Tribune. The fine articles describing the Dukie Cunningham scandal came too little, too late. Yesterday's article link focuses on another aspect that local reporters bump up against in this city.

Newspapers’ Self-Inflicted Wounds
Posted on Mar 26, 2009
By David Sirota

More from Robert McChesney on Democracy Now

People Died at Three Mile Island
Harvey Wasserman.Author of SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth
Posted March 26, 2009 08:08 PM (EST)

Harvey Wasserman spoke on Democracy Now also this morning

Whoa, our law enforcement look like humanitarians compared to the Taliban braniacs.

Taliban blocks UN polio treatment in Pakistan

San Diego really is a police state: SDNN refused press passes by police until they “prove” themselves

By Source on March 26Th, 2009

...In a way, I am not surprised. I was already aware of the control the Mayor and the police have over the local media. They are used to it. There has been only one real training ground for print journalists in San Diego for decades and that has been the Copley press. Many Mayoral and City Council staff are ex-UT people, all nurtured in the same symbiotic coziness. They tear up anybody, like Mike Aguirre, who will not be cozy with them...


The author of this article says "In a way, I am not surprised."

I was born and raised in this city, ain't no "In a way" about it. Click on title link for article, it's a good one.

Latest News: Sirota Appears on CNN and Fox News About Wall Street Bailouts

Be patient, Neal Boortz doesn't completely dominate the conversation, but does show his true colors. What a tool he is.

go to Sirota's site for more

Juan Cole just blew my mind

I have not read the book, but I will. I read the blog a lot even though it is horribly depressing. Click on the title link of this post to see what Cole wrote that blew my mind. It's a very short post.

Matt Taibbi on the Rachel Maddow Show

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Ahhhh. Seven minutes of clarity.

Oh fer Christ's sake

Ignoring Evidence, Mexican States Move to Increase Abortion Restrictions
By Sharon Camp and Fatima Juarez, Guttmacher Institute. Posted March 24, 2009.

...This comparison is not unique to North America. A worldwide study conducted by the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization found that abortion rates tend to be lowest where the procedure is broadly legal and contraceptives are widely available and used. Moreover, abortion rates are roughly equal in regions where abortion is legal to those where it isn't. The only difference, once again, is that the procedure is very safe in countries where abortion is legal and often unsafe in countries where it is highly restricted....


Safe, rare and legal.

What don't the rich fucks who need cheap labor in order to get richer understand?

Were. Not. Having. It.

I got something I want to read

I gave up reading Commanding Heights, I was too irritated at what it conveniently left out or glossed over. Anybody who believes in the free market bullshit it raves about at this time in history needs their fucking head examined.



(click on the books for information on them)

this made me laugh

I've always liked this version of this song and I wanted to post it today. This is what I found and the critter made me laugh.

Pleased as punch to add to the blogroll

Pourquoi Pas?

Stilletto is a little rough around the edges, but isn't coy about what she's pissed off about. Just my kind of girl.

I knew I shoudn't have taken that nap

Because now it's 2 am and I'm wide awake. Well, this is what I chose to read this morning.

Does America Face the Risk of a Fascist Backlash?
By Robert Freeman, AlterNet
Posted on March 19, 2009, Printed on March 23, 2009
hat tip to MS Joanne at They Gave Us a Republic
...As a result of the failure of the right, the German people elected a moderately leftist government...
... So the rightists set out to do everything they could to make it impossible for the leftists to govern...

Maddow and the Filibuster Rule makes the article a bit more chilling. The article is long, but worth it. The article titles I scanned didn't look interesting until I spotted this one.

America Is in Need of a Moral Bailout
Tuthdig
Posted on Mar 23, 2009
By Chris Hedges

The Big Takeover

MATT TAIBBI
Posted Mar 19, 2009 12:49 PM

The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution

After reading Taibbi's article, you know what I'd like to see happen to Joe Cassano , Phil Gramm and all the assholes who took bailout bonus money and then bailed on the mess they helped make ?

Well, when normal people lose their jobs, they are sometimes offered job training while they are on unemployment (stay with me, I know Gramm still has a job and a f*cking awesome pension with awesome benefits coming also, I'm just using my somewhat rusty imagination, K?).

I'd like to see them learn how to process kosher meats in Postville, Iowa. They couldn't find enough workers to keep the plant open, maybe the big shots could do the big takeover at the plant. They could learn new skills. Obviously the old skills weren't working all that well for the whole f*cking world. The only reservation I might have would be that they are such vampires they might like the blood too much.

Ladies and Gentleman, I hope you've read the Shock Doctrine, these fuckers have pulled this bullshit before, I can see what's next and it aint pretty.

FRONTLINE
video preview
- This Week: "Ten Trillion and Counting" (60 minutes),
March 24th at 9pm on PBS (Check local listings)

Frankly, I didn't learn anything from this Frontline piece of shit . I had an idea of what was going on from the 4 days as a temp I spent at JP Morgan in May of '06. Before I had ever heard of a "sub-prime mortgage" I had seen some sub-prime files and knew what they looked like even though the people that worked at JP Morgan treated me like either I would sell state secrets to the pinko commie Russians or I was too stupid to figure out what I was looking at. I knew I was looking at people's dreams being flushed down the toilet, and I couldn't understand why they had signed onto these loans.

Anyway, 'scuse me if I look at the Obama "Administration Seeks Increase in Oversight of Executive Pay" article with a jaundiced eyes:

From 1998-2008, Wall Street investment firms, commercial banks, hedge funds, real estate companies and insurance conglomerates totalling made political contributions 1.725 billion dollars and spent another 3.4 billion on lobbyists - a financial juggernaut aimed at undercutting federal regulation.

Mexican kidnapping spills over border to San Diego

Kidnappings No Longer Just a Mexico Problem

This is part II.

I linked to Part I and commented on it(as did some of you) here .

"And you see a lot of cartel members moving to the north side of the border. They're living in the U.S. because they're fearful of operating in Tijuana where they used to because they're afraid they're going to get kidnapped. Now the kidnappers have followed them."

Anyone Can Be a Target
What is most troubling to law enforcement is that kidnappings used to happen only to people within the drug trade, as payback for deals gone wrong, but that has changed since the AFO lost its monopoly.

"That's where we've seen a change in the last couple of years," said San Diego FBI chief Keith Slotter. "Some of the splinter groups decided they don't need to play by the old AFO rules. In their minds kidnapping purely for profit is simply a money-making operation for them."

Oy. Did anybody NOT figure that this was only a matter of time? And a logical consequence of trying to rid Mexico of a culture of corruption with American 'War on Drugs' money, which only took down the AFO ? The last link is to a (2000) PBS Frontline show that reported on that gang like at least 20 years after I heard of them, and I have done my best to steer clear of drugs and druggies. Not easy to do when you don't make much money.

Unrelated interesting tidbits, the PR watch's Weekly Radio Spin rips on the corporate clowns dominating the World Water Forum .

And why President Obama is right about trying to get us to focus beyond the AIG bounuses .

PBS NOW tonight - Gambling With Health Care

Week of 3.20.09
Interview: Howard Dean

Obama did mention health care a few times on Leno last night.

The Age of Stupid: New Film Gives Us a Painfully Realistic Look at Life in 2055

By Sean Pool, Climate Progress. Posted March 19, 2009.
The central premise: We would be the first life form to knowingly wipe itself out. What does that say about us?

...The fact that the clips in this montage are all real-life news reports from 2007 and 2008 is chilling.

Indeed, although framed by a post-apocalyptic narrative set in the future, the bulk of the film is actually a documentary about the impacts of climate change that we are already seeing in 2009 — and its not pretty...


And a little excitement on one of the local freeways yesterday

Freeway Drivers Grab Money as Suspects Toss Thousands During Police Chase
Reported by: Elex Michaelson
Email: elex.michaelson@sandiego6.com
Last Update: 8:42 am

SAN DIEGO - Thousands of dollars worth of hundred dollar bills brought rush hour to an abrupt halt on two San Diego freeways.

Drug suspects tossed the money from their car as they were chased by police. Other drivers saw the money and stopped their cars on the freeway to dash into traffic trying to get some of the cash.

video

A little Maddow to start your day

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

You've got to hear Robert Scheer on Democracy Now talk about working for the LA Times, how it really worked from the inside, & how the retirement healthcare promised him was lost in the bankruptcy. Deregulation. Oy.

Obama to meet with Antonio, Arnold, and CA Speaker

And yeah, Obama will be on Leno tonight. I'm supposed to go to LA this weekend, but frankly, I'm not feeling like it. Not when a 2 hour drive can turn into 4 or 5 hours. I love my friend, I like her friends, but there's a lot of assholes (who generally are not locals) in places like San Diego and LA.

Hey San Franciso! your mayor wouldn’t allow a sign about lack of funds for public transit into his rally in San Diego

By Frank Gormlie on March 18th, 2009
the OB rag

CITY HEIGHTS, CA. Tonight outside a rally for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in City Heights, a local activist - and writer for the OB Rag blog - was prevented from taking her sign about the lack of funds for public transit into the rally site, a local City Heights school auditorium.

I think the state budget is giving transit budgets problems all over California. Some cities are more creative than others when it comes to ideas about how to keep them in service.

Reading now

(click on the books for their Wikipedia pages)
I am slogging through "Commanding Heights" by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw because I learned so much when I read "The Prize" by Yergin.


If I hadn't already read "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein and


"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins I might be pulled in by their enthusiasm for the free markets and economic liberalism.


Unfortunately I have read the other books and I'm also watching the bailouts happen right now. The bailouts kind of shoot a hole in the Stanislaw/Yergin free market, economic liberalism theory. I'm having difficulty finding the energy expert Yergin's opinion on the bailouts free of charge and out there for the public to read even though the book on the worship of the free markets is available for free at the local library. Well, I did find this rather cryptic statement out there on teh interwebs for free:

“There is an opportunity to address energy needs in a way that hasn’t been possible for decades,” said Daniel Yergin, the chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. “It almost feels like we’re picking up from where we were in the 1970s.”

You think I'm paying to read this asshole's work?

Not. Happening.

The hypocrisy is staggering. It's ok to impoverish other people, and bankrupt other coutntries' governments but the American people are forced to pay for AIG's bounuses? With what? These dickheads encouraged the shipping of our jobs overseas.

Pitchfork time yet? Unh huh.

Perp Walks Instead of Bonuses
Posted on Mar 17, 2009
By Robert Scheer
There must be a criminal investigation of the AIG debacle,...

Oh, Lord have mercy, but I love Arianna Huffington. How she manages to be droll with that lovely sing-song voice of hers is a marvel to me.

I 've Decided to Move to Print... for a Day
Posted March 18, 2009 03:40 AM (EST) Arianna Huffington

The Story: The AIG Bonus FightMy Take: It's a battle to see who is more tone-deaf: the AIG execs pushing for bonuses despite running the company into the ground or the members of the Obama administration who didn't realize this would inspire such outrage.

LA Times covers Zionism

For it

Is anti-Zionism hate?
Yes. It is more dangerous than anti-Semitism, threatening lives and peace in the Middle East.
By Judea Pearl
March 15, 2009

and against it.

Opinion
Zionism is the problem
The Zionist ideal of a Jewish state is keeping Israelis and Palestinians from living in peace.
By Ben Ehrenreich
March 15, 2009

hat tip to Raw Story

But, wait, nobody in the MSM, especially the Los Angeles Times has historically made an effort to explain what "Zionism" is. All the better to keep the US taxpayer unaware of what Zionsist policies actually do in Israel and how much it cost them, financially and politically. Well Chas Freeman might have addressed some of the foreign policy issues that Americans really need to know about, but AIPAC nipped that in the bud.

Obama Rebuffs Israeli Hawk

Good. We've paid for enough of Israel's wars.

Mexican drug cartels and San Diego street gangs are increasingly joining forces

A Deadly Merger
By KELLY THORNTON
Part one of a two-part series.
Mexican drug cartels and San Diego street gangs are increasingly joining forces, and law enforcement agencies from here to Washington are scrambling to respond.

Gee, what was the first clue? I coulda told you that three fucking years ago when we had to send my friends son out of state because his friend was shot in the face and killed. It was Mexican drug gang that had taken over Clairemont (that used to be a working class white neighborhood) that killed him.
I'm not saying the cops didn't know that then, I'm saying the local newz reporting right there on your teevee sucks syphlitic dick.

Part II here

Fuck AIPAC

Their "support for Israel" may end up destroying it, it's time for an intervention.

Is This Last Gasp for the Israel Lobby and the Neocons?
By Robert Dreyfuss, Tomdispatch.com. Posted March 16, 2009.

Man with an aritcle title like that, my first thought was 'God, I hope so,' especially after listening to Amy Goodman interview Rachel Corrie's parents on this morning's Democracy Now.

Mauricio Funes

Update 10:20 AM 3/17/2009 BradBlog checks in on the Salvadoran election.

The right-winger lost the Presidential election in El Salvador. Heh.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now covers it.

Obama meets with Brazilian President

Ok, I dropped out of business classes and became a liberal at the same time.

Why?

Because the business world didn't make any sense to me. Not that I didn't get it, I got an A in business math, and a B in business law. I got it all right: Women have to act like men but they still have to wear sexy clothes and high heels and make-up. Besides, in this country the only thing women ever really get on top of is some guy's dick.

Fuck. That. Noise.

So tell me why it makes sense that in a country where the rich are few and drive around in bullet proof SUV's so they don't get kidnapped and they never go anywhere near the favelas that their president is only mildly concerned about the investments in US Treasuries?



Somehow I think that family planning aid to "developing countries" won't be discussed much at the G20. Not when asinine right-wing think tanks dispense advice like this.

And why the fuck is Obama yammering about biofuels from Brazil when the emphasis needs to be on public transportation here and re-planning of cities here because the suburbs are unsustainable. Not to mention that for Brazil, investment in US Treasuries does absolutely nothing for the slums of Rio and Sao Paulo.

El Salvador and US

Update(sort of) 4:45 PM 3/15/2009 I didn't realize that Jane Hamsher over at Firedoglake covered the election in El Salvador yesterday also.

Presidential election tomorrow El Salvador.

In El Salvador, Cautious Optimism On What a Progressive Win Would Mean for U.S. Relations
By Roberto Lovato, New America Media. Posted March 14, 2009.

...The policies of post-World War II presidents in the United States, both Republican and Democratic , make many Salvadorans wary of Obama, even though they give him high popularity ratings, says Edgardo Herrera, an international relations expert at the university.

“If it is truly committed to improving relations with El Salvador and the rest of Latin America, the Obama Administration should remember what we say about justice here,” said Herrera. “Justice is like a snake. It only bites the barefoot poor, not the rich who have shoes.” He thinks the United States is not in sync with ideas about justice on the Salvadoran street. He cites an annual opinion poll conducted by Central American University since 2003. “Every year Salvadorans are telling the United States they do not like its policies, including the Iraq war, the CAFTA and the dollarization of the country’s currency,” Herrera said. “Rejection of these policies has turned the Salvadoran electorate against the ARENA government-and the United States.”..
.
..“Although the country may be small and its economy heavily dependent on remittances from the United States," White said, "it is still important for that country to demonstrate its policy independence. Many questions have been raised by some of the Salvadoran government’s past actions.”..


I understand that the constant meddling in El Salvadoran politics (and what the US considered it's sphere of influence, all of Latin America )that people are fed up, but sometimes I wonder if they know that the meddling has had some pretty nasty blowback here.

Like Mara Salvatrucha.

Evil, rotten little bastards.

In the last two years have been arrested 57 thousand Maras in Mexico.

Mara Salvatrucha, Social War and the Decline of the Revolutionary Movements in Central America

NYT notices tabloids tapping into "populist anger at corporate America."

Forget Britney; Media Outrage Hits Big Spenders
Published: March 12, 2009
It could be called “To Catch a Rich Guy.”

Fucking geniuses, what was their first clue?

The election last November?

The bankrupt (in more ways than one) newzpapers?

The Stewart vs. Cramer thing?

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 3

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

More soldiers lost to suicide than al-Qaeda in January?

Heartbreaking.

Slain US Nazi hated Obama, had parts for 'dirty bomb'

Slain US Nazi hated Obama, had parts for ‘dirty bomb’

Hat tip to Danny Schechter the News Dissector. who writes

"Mark Crispin Miller: So where’s the coverage? This story comes from the Bangor Daily News.

By and large, terror from the right does not exist, according to the media, whose employees have long turned a blind eye to terrorism aimed at government workers (as in our national parks), environmentalists and abortion clinics (and, also, foreign terrorists working for our government); and now the media consistently tune out, or underplay, assassination threats against the president.

The same press that yakked endlessly about William Ayers, and his alleged close connection to Obama, have so far been completely mute about this character, who planned to kill the president (and, of course, planned it recently, while Ayers set off his bombs decades ago). The Ayers/Obama “friendship” was the subject of a front-page story in the New York Times. So where’s that paper’s front-page piece on James G. Cummings?”

Robert Parry, Editor of Consortiumnews.com: It’s The Media, Stupido

Less than two months into Barack Obama’s presidency, it has become clear that the top threat to his ability to accomplish his goals - from reversing the recession to reforming health care to building a greener economy - is not just an obstructionist Republican Party but a U.S. news media that remains largely tilted to the Right."

For Mrs. Cummings.