You have to check out this press release from the White House. It smacks of humor but is an actual release on the White House web site.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040122-5.html

I have always liked To Much Coffee Man.

U.S. News and World Report - A majority of Americans–now 64 percent–are overweight or obese and struggling to conquer their expanding waistlines before their fat overtakes their health and makes them sick or kills them. At the heart of this obesity epidemic is a debate over whether obesity is a biological "disease" and should be treated like any other life-threatening illness–cancer, heart disease–or whether it is simply a risk factor for those killers. The stakes are high because the answer may determine who gets treated for obesity, what treatments are available, who pays for treatment, and, ultimately, who stays healthy.

Is obesity really a disease? And if so, should health insurance cover medically supervised treatment?

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040209/health/9obesity.htm

Personally, I think if people would start eating reasonably and maybe exercising occasionally we wouldn't be rethinking anything. If all you do is sit in your car or home and feast on fatty, carbohydrate food you are going to get fat. It's just a fact.

Despite an unprecedented public relations offensive by Attorney General Ashcroft and a veto threat from the White House, Congress is moving toward revising the Patriot Act's most dangerous provisions.

Buoyed by the groundswell of opposition -- more than 245 communities and 3 states have passed resolutions in opposition to the PATRIOT Act -- momentum is building for legislation that would correct PATRIOT Act provisions that allow for unwarranted investigations of personal records, authorize secret "sneak and peek" searches and roll back judicial oversight.

This corrective legislation -- the SAFE Act -- would not repeal commonsense provisions in the PATRIOT Act, but would instead revise those provisions that infringe on our civil liberties without making us any safer. Yet even this modest bill drew the wrath of Attorney General Ashcroft who falsely said that it would, "make it even more difficult to mount an effective anti-terror campaign than it was before the Patriot Act was passed."

Take Action! Tell your Members of Congress to cosponsor the SAFE Act so we can be both safe and free.

Click here for more information and to send a free fax to your Members of Congress:
http://www.aclu.org/NationalSecurity/NationalSecurity.cfm?ID=13907&c=24

Hee, hee, hee

- Stuart Carlson

- Joel Pett


- Nick Anderson

Via BushGreenWatch:

The EPA is relaxing air pollution limits for oil production and exploration operations on Alaska's North Slope, according to agency records released yesterday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

"Emissions of nitrogen oxides on the North Slope are now as high as those for the entire metropolitan area of Washington, D.C.," PEER said in a letter to EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt last week, asking him to veto an agency permit.[1] Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are a greenhouse gas and source of smog.

PEER said the change in pollution rules is the result of closed-door meetings between industry, the EPA and Alaska regulators. A 2003 letter from the EPA to an Alaska official indicates that EPA initially opposed the changes affecting emissions by massive oil facilities based at Prudhoe Bay.[2]

"The pollution stakes of this action are enormous and the benefits will be realized if EPA merely enforces its own rules," said Jeff Ruch, PEER's executive director.

At immediate issue is a permit for new facilities at a large BP complex. BP is Alaska's second-largest oil producer and operates most North Slope oil fields.

Contrary to EPA guidance, PEER said, the new BP facility is classified as a stand-alone operation and not included (or "aggregated") into its existing permit. By subdividing their operations, operators have been allowed to divide up their facilities into smaller and smaller units. As a result, each stays below the threshold for pollution control requirements established in the Clean Air Act.

A former Alaska state environmental engineer, Bill MacClarence, raised concerns about this method of categorizing facilities with regulators and then approached PEER.

Elevated levels of NOx represent a serious health problem for workers and native communities in the region. In the Arctic, air pollution is more significant than in temperate zones because the region is subject to extreme atmospheric inversions, with the pollution trapped in a mixing layer only a few feet above the surface. Besides NOx, other pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide emissions, are increasing and will continue to increase as the oil fields age.

Last month, Alaska's top pollution regulator told EPA she wanted more federal oversight of BP, saying BP had failed to meet its "corporate accountability and environmental responsibility objectives" and needed increased scrutiny by federal regulators. She cited two mishandled North Slope spills.[3]

###
TAKE ACTION (I did)
Urge EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt to reverse the BP deal through PEER's website.
http://www.peer.org/alaska/leavittpetition.html

###
SOURCES:
[1] PEER letter to EPA, Feb. 5, 2004 - http://www.peer.org/alaska/petition.html
[2] Environmental Protection Agency letter to Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Aug. 14, 2003. - http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/BP/EPALetter.PDF
[3] "BP hasn't lived up to spill agreement, DEC chief charges," Anchorage Daily News, Jan. 14, 2003. - http://www.adn.com/front/story/4619923p-4583561c.html

It is amazing he uses candy and situational ethics to make his point! This guy is gifted!

RIAA Police Raid Kazaa - By John C. Dvorak - February 9, 2004

It's always something! Last week, in a series of surprise raids, the recording industry police, utilizing warrants based on some obscurities, blew into the Australian offices of Kazaa (Sharman Networks) and half a dozen other places, apparently, and took or trashed everything they could. I was visualizing Elliot Ness bursting into a Frank Nitti warehouse, using big axes to bust up liquor barrels and yelling, "Tell Capone he was paid a visit!" The only things the recording industry mob seems to be missing are machine guns and fedora hats.

This took place after the recording industry, which lost its case in April 2003 trying to shut down various peer-to-peer operations, showed up in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Pasadena pleading for a reversal. The industry has decided to get tough with everyone. This includes targeting telecommunications companies. In Australia, the stated hope is to find evidence to use against Sharman in the U.S. Sharman says it's just harassment. Welcome to the world of globalization.

So I think the time has come to revisit the stances that moralists out there take on these kinds of issues. Let's consider the issues.

The rest of the story: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1522387,00.asp

I saw this and just started chuckling.

The Many, The Oblivious, The Suckers!


- Steve Sack

Had fun this weekend upgrading my computer this weekend. Ok, not all of it was fun. I definitely did run into some problems. But first here is what I now have:

AMD 2800+
MSI K7N2 Delta L
Crucial 2700 512mb x2
AGP nVidia FX5200 128 mb
Creative Audigy 2
430W PS

The major problem was figuring out how to get the current power buttons and HDD and Power LED to work. I had some problems getting the system to power up when I first put everything together. I would hit the power button and nothing would happen. It took a good nights sleep to come up with the idea of just hooking up the power pins and nothing else and see what would happen. I found that worked and was thus on my way. I am still having some problems as the connecting pins are a little loose and have to be wiggled every now and again for the system to get going. It can be a little frustrating sometimes! But I will pick up some new wires and go from there.

The case is an old MicronPC tower that I could not get rid of as it has a great collection of stickers on it.

Well I now have a decently fast system (I had a Tyan that was running a PIII 600 EB processor) to play with. Now I can get some new games and play.

Update - I found out that if I just don't tighten one screw on the panel that has the power switch and LED's to the case to tight, everything works just fine. Go Figure!

Update - Again - The switch panel is still playing games with me. I just had to take the front panel off and tweak the screws a touch to get the computer to power back up. Guess I will keep a screwdriver close to the case for a while. Must be a problem with the contact on the switch panel and the computer case. At least that is all I can figure at this point.

Go check this Flash Cartoon by Mark Fiore

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/fiore/2004/02/02_201.html

It's a dangerous world in those suburbs and an assault vehicle is just what you need.
So I present to you yesterday and todays Over The Hedge:





If they continue down this street I shall continue to post them. (And I think they are!)

Well, I think I am about done setting up the computer. I have reloaded WinXP Pro again, I didn't do a quick format on the C:\ drive so there was leftover shit that was messing up Windows. I have most of the programs I want to use loaded. I have spent some serious time tweaking the GUI to my liking. I think I am about there.

Looking back the only problem I really had was with the power switch. Once I had that figured out everything started up fine and I haven't had any problems since (note crossed fingers and toes!). Now, this machine runs at an incredible rate. On my old system it was taking about 12 hours to process a SETI work unit, now a mear 3 hours, if that. Not a bad jump in speed if you ask me. All of this for under $500 and I still have my case with all the cool stickers. You have got to love that ;)

For those of you wishing to run a clean, safe machine go check out Black Viper and check out the Windows Service Configurations. I use his information to clean out all those running services that Bill G. feels you have to have up and running for no good reason other that to use up resources and leave ports open to attacks. Be sure to check out the rest of his site as there is plenty of other good information about all aspecs of windows and the various OS. I feel it is time well spent.

What Microsoft's code leak means to you and me - By David Coursey @ Anchordesk

We don't yet know who leaked portions of the Windows source code onto the Internet or why. All I know is that the leak makes me a whole lot less comfortable about using MS software.
http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/AnchorDesk/4520-7297_16-5121802.html?tag=adts.

Did a little streamlining on this page today. Took out some of the many, many gif images that where buttons for links and replaced them with typed links. I found after being at some folks places who had dial ups and other slower connections this page was taking a long, long time to load. I also realigned and moved some things around.

Can't get to complacent, must keep changing.

Found this one while re-organizing my collection of editorial cartoons. It's about a month old but still timeless.



- Steve Sack

© Bill DeOre - 02/22/2004

I quess it is a graphics day. And didn't I just clean graphics off this page? Hmm, kind of reminds me of those guys and gals in Washington. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

© Ann Telnaes

OK, I'll try not to post anymore editorial cartoons today, maybe.

From MotherJones an article by Tom Engelhardt about the growing gaggle of barely suppressed scandals trailing behind the Bush administration.

"Okay, you're at the local multiplex, waiting for the main feature to begin. The ads are on screen, loud and insistent, reminding you that you could be home watching TV. But there's hope. The trailers are about to begin. Of course, these days movie trailers tend to last almost as long as the movies they're previewing, give away the plots, and show you all the best scenes. So how can you judge whether the film whose "trailer" I'm about to show you will be worth catching? All I can suggest is that you get your popcorn, take your seat, and judge for yourself whether you want to return in the spring or summer for the main feature."

"Imagine, now, that the title flashes on screen -- Justice à l'Orange it's probably called -- followed by a wall-to-wall cast of characters. Far too many to absorb in a split second including our President, vice president, CIA officials, a supreme court justice, spooks and unnamed sources galore, FBI agents, prosecutors, military men, congressional representatives and their committees, grand juries, fuming columnists, an ex-ambassador, journalists and bloggers, sundry politicians, rafts of neocons, Vietnam-era National Guardsmen, oil tycoons, and of course assorted wild fowl (this being the Bush administration). If the director were Oliver Stone, it might immediately be retitled: The Bush Follies With Anthony Hopkins, fresh from his flop in The Human Stain, playing the president."

http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2004/02/02_804.html

Out of the New York Times this morning:

Pentagon officials said Monday night that they have opened a criminal fraud investigation of Halliburton, the giant Texas oil-services concern, in an inquiry that will examine "potential overpricing" of fuel taken into Iraq by one of the company's subcontractors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/24/politics/24HALL.html?th

But I suppose this investigation will somehow be kept sealed or something to prevent the American public from finding out to what extent we have been had.

The Colorado Avalanche posted a 3-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild at the Xcel Energy Center on Sunday. Paul Kariya notched a goal and an assist to lift the Avalanche.

Milan Hejduk and Joe Sakic also scored for Colorado, while David Aebischer made 24 saves. The Avalanche, coming off consecutive 5-1 losses to Edmonton and Dallas, took a season-low 14 shots but still snapped a three-game losing streak.

Sakic's goal was the 533rd of his career, tying him for 23rd on the all-time list with Frank Mahovlich.

The Avalanche have 80 points and are tied with Detroit for the top spot in the Western Conference. Colorado also holds a five-point edge over Vancouver for first place in the Northwest Division.

Colorado was playing without star center Peter Forsberg for the third straight game. Forsberg has been sidelined with a groin injury.

There are reports that Adam Foote could be returning tonight for the game against Calgary.

In a February 23 speech, President Bush asserted what has become a common defense of his decision to go to war with Iraq. All nations saw the danger, he said, but only he had the courage to act. It is true that many nations believed that Iraq likely retained some undeclared chemical or biological weapons. But few thought the danger so grave and immediate as to require war over containment and intrusive inspections. In the UN Security Council, France was the most outspoken opponent of the rush to war. For their opposition, the French were ridiculed and reviled by many Americans, with the Congressional leadership going so far as to remove "French" from the fries and toast on Capitol Hill menus. One year later, rereading the French position, even the most ardent Franco-hater should admit they owe France an apology.

In two speeches, on February 14 and March 7, 2003, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin elaborated the French position before the United Nations Security Council. He asserted that UN inspections were successfully uncovering the truth on the ground in Iraq and containing the Iraqi threat. It is now clear that France was largely right about the threat of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and how to address it prior to the war.

http://www.ceip.org/files/nonprolif/templates/article.asp?NewsID=6019

"That's all I'm going to say for now. Quack, quack."
Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court justice, dismissing the controversy over his duck-hunting trip with Vice President Cheney while considering a Cheney court case

This is just to funny. Here is the start of our story:

"In what could easily be mistaken for an Onion story, Microsoft has unleashed the full fury of its lawyers on 17-year-old Canadian high-school student, Mike Rowe, demanding the handover of his Internet domain.
The domain? MikeRoweSoft.com. No, seriously"

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34955.html

And here is the end:

Microsoft to take over MikeRoweSoft.com -
Teen settles with tech giant for, among other things, an Xbox (He is only 17)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/01/26/mikerowesoft.settle.ap/

Saw this Get Fuzzy this morning and it made me think:



Why are we more concerned that Janet Jackson's breast was bared as opposed to the fact that what his name reached over and ripped her clothing off? Does this say it is not his fault but hers for having tits? Is the male absolved of all crime in this? Does this not seem to be a bit off? It seems to say to me "it is ok to rip womens clothes off and they will be to blame if they are not wearing undergarments on under them". Think about that one for today

There is a report requested by the DOD that has slowly filtered through the press lately. Yahoo News reports that Schwartz and co-author Doug Randall, of Global Business Network based in California, said climate change should be considered "immediately" as a top political and military issue.

Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that an independent panel commissioned by The World Bank called for the phasing out of all fossil fuels within the next eight years. The panel warned or dire consequences caused by global warming if their recommendations were not heeded. The World Bank, however, decided to reject the recommendations of its panel.

The Pentagon's study outlined some of the security problems that global warming could create:

• Britain could have winters similar to those in current-day Siberia as European temperatures drop off radically by 2020.
• By 2007 violent storms could make large parts of the Netherlands uninhabitable and lead to a breach in the acqueduct system in California that supplies all water to densely populated southern California.
• Europe and the United States could become "virtual fortresses" trying to keep out millions of migrants whose homelands have been wiped out by rising sea levels or made unfarmable by drought.
• "Catastrophic" shortages of potable water and energy could lead to widespread war by 2020.
• China's huge population and food demand make it particularly vulnerable. Bangladesh could become nearly uninhabitable because of a rising sea level, which could contaminate the inland water supplies.

President George W. Bush's administration claims that global warming is not as serious a threat as some scientists have reported. Bob Watson, chief scientist for the World Bank and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says that the Pentagon's dire warnings can no longer be ignored.

"Can Bush ignore the Pentagon? It's going be hard to blow off this sort of document. Its hugely embarrassing. After all, Bush's single highest priority is national defense. The Pentagon is no wacko, liberal group, generally speaking it is conservative. If climate change is a threat to national security and the economy, then he has to act."

The GBN posted this on their web site:

"This public report, prepared by GBN for the Department of Defense, has been the subject of several news stories. Fortune magazine excerpted the report in its Feb. 9, 2004, issue ("The Pentagon's Weather Nightmare," by David Stipp). The actual report, titled "An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security," was written by Peter Schwartz (GBN chairman) and Doug Randall (co-head of GBN's consulting practice) and is attached here in its PDF version. Contrary to some recent media coverage, the report was not secret, suppressed, or predictive."

The report:
http://www.larsonsworld.com/library/documents/abrupt_climate_change.pdf

So, did you take advantage of your extra day this year or where you like me and just let it go by like any normal Sunday?

Yo, I have added a Video Gallery to the web site. Since I now have 500 mb of space to take up on FatCow Hosting I might as well start filling it up with more useless stuff.
Included is:

S-11 Redux: (Channel) Surfing the Apocalypse
Produced and Directed by Stephen Marshall
Distributed by Guerrilla News Network
12 minutes
2002

Culled from over 20 hours of television footage recorded over a one month period and across 13 networks, S-11 Redux is a sound-bite blitzkrieg that challenges the messages we have been fed from our mainstream media and the government it serves. Be warned - this video moves quickly and will require at least two viewings to digest its full impact. You may never be able to look at the coverage of S-11 and its post-impact coverage the same way, ever again.

I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accomodate ourselves to them and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

- Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816.