So, a day or so ago when Wired published the complete chat logs between Adrian Lamo ("The Homeless Hacker") and Bradley Manning I read through them and noticed a few things which irked me greatly...

The first being that it was no longer a mere possibility that Lamo was trying to use Manning for his own ends, and the other being that Wired basically misreprepresented why they were redacting those logs in the first place. Some of the stuff in the logs makes me wonder how the hell Manning got his security clearance at all, and some of it makes me figure that if Lamo's new meds are working, then he's still a self-centered prick but for real this time. They claimed a number of things about why they redacted the logs, but Lamo leading Manning to believe he had some confidentiality certainly wasn't mentioned, nor that Manning appeared to be about six months and a few bad episodes from looking for a way to hang himself.

If I, myself were confronted with someone saying the sort of things about their general outlook on life that Manning was doing with Lamo, I'd have been ringing up ranking officers and not-so-subtly implying that this kid needs a shrink immediately if not sooner. Lamo simply starts pumping him for information. WTF. Some of the other things Lamo has said to the press about Manning are directly contradicted by what's in these logs. Also, bonus dickhead points for using OTR and saving the logs to rat on someone later.

Frankly it wouldn't surprise me to hear that Lamo was "encouraged" to say certain things about Assange to the press, but it does appear that being a tool is a simpler and equally reasonable explanation for the lies and the backstabbing. Anyway, Glenn Greenwald at Salon does a far better job of exploring these things tactfully than I've got time to.

Far more elegant than "Geez, Lamo is a real dick."

As if you didn't already have the looming vision of the KGB relocating to the US in your mind, here's a great example of why if McCain is elected, America will likely cease to be.

Apparently, as a means to prevent any dissenting opinions from being expressed anywhere near the Republican National Convention, St. Paul and Minneapolis police have engaged in a number of raids upon private homes and public meeting spaces, confiscating computers, putting hippies on the floor and in handcuffs, refusing to show warrants, pointing machine guns at people and just generally acting like Nazi stormtroopers from some old movie gone wrong.

Just click on the link.

Fuck McCain.

More reasons to say f**k McCain and f**k the Repulicans

As if you didn't already have the looming vision of the KGB relocating to the US in your mind, here's a great example of why if McCain is elected, America will likely cease to be.

Apparently, as a means to prevent any dissenting opinions from being expressed anywhere near the Republican National Convention, St. Paul and Minneapolis police have engaged in a number of raids upon private homes and public meeting spaces, confiscating computers, putting hippies on the floor and in handcuffs, refusing to show warrants, pointing machine guns at people and just generally acting like Nazi stormtroopers from some old movie gone wrong.

Just click on the link.

Fuck McCain.

More reasons to say f**k McCain and f**k the Repulicans

As if you didn't already have the looming vision of the KGB relocating to the US in your mind, here's a great example of why if McCain is elected, America will likely cease to be.

Apparently, as a means to prevent any dissenting opinions from being expressed anywhere near the Republican National Convention, St. Paul and Minneapolis police have engaged in a number of raids upon private homes and public meeting spaces, confiscating computers, putting hippies on the floor and in handcuffs, refusing to show warrants, pointing machine guns at people and just generally acting like Nazi stormtroopers from some old movie gone wrong.

Just click on the link.

Fuck McCain.

More reasons to say f**k McCain and f**k the Repulicans

Okay, pointless internet trollery aside... This looks like fun.

Basically, here's the backstory...

Some bloggers who didn't apparently care for the bullshit that Bill O'RLY spews out apparently called him names on their blog.

Bill somehow got wind of this (which is astounding because I didn't think Internet reached the nether depths of his ass yet) and began talking trash about said bloggers.

Fast forward a bit, bloggers fight back (because a large group of people combining their free time to come up with snarky replies will always win over one lone man's attempt at snarky replies, always--and let's not forget that the faceless hordes are actually used to opponents who can respond immediately and in kind) tearing apart Bill O'Reilly's precious little arguments and then stomping on the pieces.

Bill O'Reilly attempts to fight back using bully tactics. He digs around on their blogs a bit and finds that said bloggers have a small convention they attend. This convention has a sponsor (who probably gave them $100 and a stack of napkins) called JetBlue. Bill O'Reilly contacts JetBlue and (more or less) accuses JetBlue of sleeping with Al'Queda and killing kittens by sponsoring the convention held by the bloggers.

Bloggers, and everyone else who's gone beyond grade school, consider this to be a beyond-the-pale example of skullduggery on level with Michele Malkin. So, in response, said bloggers mobilize a bit, and begin contacting Bill O'Reilly's sponsors, calling into question why they apparently back up a man so full of vitriol, hatred, and bullshit. Lowe's considers this and drops their ads. Bill O'Reilly, not yet having learned his lesson, continues to press the issue and trash talk bloggers everywhere.

Fast forward a bit more... It's time for everyone to jump up and down on Bill O'Reilly's public face. The man hasn't yet learned that talking trash about special-interest groups and having millions ignore you in disgust is a bit different than talking trash at special-interest groups until they're angry enough to stop ignoring you and leave the high-road to do something about it.

Moral: Do not fuck with people who argue their way to the truth on a daily basis unless you are doing so from a 100% stainless steel and iron clad podium of absolutely inarguable points.

LET TEH GAMEZ BEGIN!

Fox Attacks: Much More Fun Than Just Taking It In The Rear from Bill O'Reilly

For those people still on the fence about what should be done about Global Warming, or if anything should be done at all, here's a video that will explain a very simple, and well-nigh irrefutable chain of logic that leads to one and only one conclusion on the subject...

...that we'd damn well better do something about it.

Global Warming and Logic

For those of you who'd like to start doing the bumper-sticker thing before molotov cocktails seem more apropos, the following motto is now available:

"All Your Oil Are Belong To U.S."

Anti-Bush Bumper Sticker from Jinx

Someone's making a line of candy flavored with hemp/marijuana. There's nothing narcotic in them at all, but the taste should prove to be interesting. I'm going to have to go order some now.

This silliness was on CNN because Georgia and New York are considering outlawing the sale of these things because "it sends the wrong message".

Talk about forbidden flavors...

Yay for CNN telling me about things people don't want you to know about!

SecurityFocus has some coverage about what the other hackers who are not Mike Lynn are doing about the Cisco campaign to keep people in the dark. They're trying to figure out what Mike Lynn figured out, if for no other reason than to spite Cisco.

Let's hope this ends well. Lynn is a level-headed guy who knew the seriousness of what he'd discovered. The issue demanded attention, but attention of a responsible sort (which is why Lynn didn't just publish a proof-of-concept exploit some months ago, and why you're still able to read this right now). Cisco has drawn *huge* amounts of attention to a problem they haven't addressed yet, and given people plenty of incentive to do something rash just to prove a point. Part of the problem is summed up in the quoted text below, and it's going to hurt Cisco like their lawyers would never have thought possible.

"By serving takedown notices in response to such situations, a company demonstrates clearly that it is more concerned with preserving its commercial interest in intellectual property than fostering community awareness and knowledge pertaining to critical Internet security issues," Forno said an e-mail statement.

Of course, what their lawyers are probably banking on is being able to say "It wasn't *us* that did it." after the Internet burns to the ground, but I strongly suspect that if lawyers weren't so interested in myopically "protecting the interests of shareholders" to the exclusion of what makes sense for keeping the Internet as a whole safe. Had Cisco's lawyers not decided to intervene so heavy-handedly, this would have probably blown over, gotten patched, and become just another milestone event in security research--and basically Cisco would have come out of it smelling like roses. Stockholders don't care whether or not an incident or two occurs, and only slightly less than do the equipment purchasers who are the people Cisco should be truly concerned about. The way things stand now, there's thousands of hackers out there who are extremely incensed and motivated to do something to demonstrate their displeasure with the situation.

Here's to hoping that won't involve a Blaster-like event.

Cisco's poetic comeuppance begins