It’s a major shakeup at the offices of new U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose. Four of her top staff voluntarily demoted themselves Thursday, fed up with Paulose, who, after just months on the job, has earned a reputation for quoting Bible verses and dressing down underlings.

Rebellion in the ranks. It's a nice idea, but won't go anywhere with this bunch. The Bushies and Co. are sure God is on their side so if you don't support them, you must be supporting terrorists.

Shake Up at the U.S. Attorney's Office - US Attorney Mess Part 4

James McQuivey, a principal analyst at technology research firm Forrester, said in the VHS-versus-Betamax war, porn provided a significant boost for the winning format.

He also noted the adult entertainment industry has often paved the way with new uses of technology -- such as streaming video on the Internet -- and said porn could help tip the scales in the current DVD format battle.

"If the porn industry wanted to break the logjam of HD-DVD and Blu-ray, it could," McQuivey said. "If they said 'We are going to go with HD-DVD' you would see a few million homes immediately go out and buy HD-DVD players. They have that power."

Sony screwed this one up last time too.

Porn could be the key to next-generation DVD war - Yahoo! News

FBI investigators have visited Second Life's Internet casinos at the invitation of the virtual world's creator Linden Lab, but the U.S. government has not decided on the legality of virtual gambling.

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Most lawyers agree that placing bets with Linden dollars likely violates U.S. anti-gambling statutes, which cover circumstances in which "something of value" is wagered. But the degree of Linden Lab's responsibility, and the likelihood of a any crackdown, is uncertain.

I think I sort of predicted this one, see my note about the SAFE Act from 3/12/07. What really seals the deal on this one is the note I made in the Games topic back in December about ABN setting up a bank branch in SL. Fake game? Sure. Fake money? Yes. Real conversion? Oops.

FBI Still Undecided on 'Second Life' Gambling - Yahoo! News

This is amazing. I was starting to wonder who was going to hit whom with a chair first.

(If anyone knows how to embed the video here, go for it, I don't)

Crooks and Liars » Bill O’Reilly’s head practically explodes as he screams at Geraldo…

Research by security firm Symantec suggests that the raw value of a WoW account is now higher than a credit card and its associated verification data.

One card can be sold for up to $6 (�3) suggests Symantec, but a WoW account will be worth at least $10. An account that has several high level characters associated with it could be worth far more as the gold and rare items can be sold for real cash.

A WoW account is worth more than than a credit card. Bizzare.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Cursor hackers target WoW players

In an e-mail to me, however, Cummins disputed Hatch’s characterization of the letter.

“I don’t see here where I referred to him as my ‘right arm,’” Cummins said. “I don’t know where they are getting that. Tim [Griffin] worked hard and did a good job organizing the launch of what became a very successful PSN [Project Safe Neighborhoods] program. But the great success was at least equally due, if not a great deal more, to the efforts of virtually every prosecutor in the office after his departure.”

This is turning into an edition of The Naked Gun. Given Griffin's background (the person tapped to take over Cummins' job in Little Rock) it seems clear he was being given the job so he could stir up crap on Hillary.

Oh, and even though he has withdrawn from the nomination, he's still the acting US Attorney for that district, and will be until Georgie nominates someone else. Will he or won't he prior to January 2009?

The US Attorney Mess Part 33 1/3

So now the Office of Special Counsel is investigating whether Iglesias was wrongfully terminated due to his reserve duty, Newsweek reports. It is against the law for employers to discriminate against members of the U.S. military.

....

Of course, Justice Department officials had been scheming for almost six months to install Griffin when he was finally appointed last December, so the maternity excuse was a lie. But as Pryor later pointed out, it's against the law for employers to discriminate against women on the basis of a pregnancy -- something well known at the Justice Department, of course.

It's not enough to try to turn the Justice Department into an arm of the GOP, they managed to try doing it in ways that are both stupid and discriminatory against our soldiers and mothers. Incomprehensible. Yes. Unbelievable? Sadly no, more like expected.

The US Attorney Mess: Part Deux

President Bush named Republican fundraiser Sam Fox as U.S. ambassador to Belgium on Wednesday, using a maneuver that allowed him to bypass Congress, where Democrats had derailed Fox's nomination.

The appointment, made while lawmakers were out of town on spring break, prompted angry rebukes from Democrats, who said Bush's action may even be illegal.
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Recognizing Fox did not have the votes to obtain Senate confirmation in the Foreign Relations Committee, Bush withdrew the nomination last week. On Wednesday, with the Senate on a one-week break, the president used his power to make recess appointments to put Fox in the job without Senate confirmation.

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Bush also used his recess appointment authority to make Andrew Biggs deputy director of Social Security. The president's earlier nomination of Biggs, an outspoken advocate of partially privatizing the government's retirement program, was rejected by Senate Democrats in February.

Fox got pulled because he was going down. Biggs had already gone down. The relevant section from the Constitution is in Article 2, Section 2 and reads:

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

What King George has done here is blatantly unconstitutional. The Senate was asked to give their advice and consent on both nominations and in both cases it when it became clear their response was going to be no, the nominations were withdrawn.

The purpose of the recess appointment provision was to put people in when the senate was not there to exercise their authority, not to deliberately circumvent it. Yet again, King George has violated his oath of office. I guess to him, "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution" means the piece of paper, not what it says.

Bush bypasses Senate to name ambassador - Yahoo! News

Among other things, the April 3 memo alleges that Shaha Riza, Wolfowitz's romantic interest was given a "promotion [that] clearly does not conform" to bank procedures. Moreover, the memo alleges, she was then given a raise "more than double the amount allowed" by the bank's rules.

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Then last year, she received yet another raise which brought her salary to $193,000. That salary increase not only meant that Riza earned more than Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but apparently made her the single highest paid State Department official.

And the pigs continue to gorge themselves at the government trough.

Murray Waas: Favoritism Shown Towards Wolfowitz's Girlfriend

Gabe Neville, Pitts' chief of staff, said Monday the conference between Assad and the three Republicans was intended to be "low profile."

"It was done in cooperation with the administration," he said.

People doing things either in concert with or contravention of whatever an occupant of the White House would like is not abnormal. Jesse Jackson went to Iraq, Leo Ryan made the mistake of going to Jonestown and became the first US Congressman assassinated, and there is a long history of this.

This particular exchange is especially odious. "Politics as usual" covers a multitude of sins, but blasting a member of the opposition party while a member of your own is doing the exact same thing is hypocrisy of the first order. That is not "politics as usual," that's bullshit and it should be called.

Lancaster Online.com: News : Pitts in Syria before Pelosi