. . . everybody now!

Put an end to piracy

The election was bullshit. The Bush family has many financial ties to the Saudis. The Bush family makes money from war. The troops are the real victims, support the troops. Eat the rich.

] "On one occasion, Ms. (Lisa) Foster (Thompson's court
] reporter for 15 years), saw Judge Thompson holding his
] penis up and shaving underneath it with a disposable
] razor while on the bench," the petition reads.
]
] Several witnesses, including jurors in Thompson's court
] and police officers called to testify in trials, said in
] the petition they heard the "swooshing" sound of a penis
] pump during trials and saw the judge slumped in his
] chair, with his elbows on his knees, working the device.
] The witnesses said the pump sounded like a blood pressure
] cuff being pumped up.
]
] According to the petition, Thompson admitted he had a
] penis pump under the bench during a murder trial but he
] told investigators it was a gag gift from a friend.

Sometimes you just have to meme something... And it was either this, or an article about Cheney saying "fuck" on The Senate floor..

Yahoo! News - Judge Suspected of Masturbating in Court

] The No. 6 U.S. wireless carrier has proposed moving some
] of its operations to the 1.9 gigahertz band and giving
] the FCC some airwaves it holds in the 800 megahertz band
] for expanded use by public safety organizations.
]
] Police and fire organizations have complained they have
] difficulties communicating in emergency situations
] because of interference with commercial wireless services
] using 800 Mhz.
]
] Nextel also has said it would pay $850 million to cover
] the costs of reorganizing the public safety groups and
] another $512 million to move some users in the 1.9 Ghz
] band. It has offered airwaves in other bands as well as
] part of the swap.

They get to trade up to a higher band if they fix/modernize police/fire/etc radio? Hrm..

F.C.C. Chief Said to Back Nextel Plan for Airwaves

] A journalist stops a man in a Baghdad street and asks
] about the security situation. The man cheerfully replies:
] "Security has vastly improved, we used to go home at 7:30
] p.m. but now we can stay out as late as 7:45!"
]
] A sound effect of an explosion during the conversation
] shakes the camera, adding a tongue-in-cheek dose of
] reality to the comedy clip by a new Iraqi channel aiming
] to win audiences with a unique style of political and
] social satire.

Shit, we need something like this here.. Maybe we could get the Daily Show and Naked News people to join up and make another 24/7 news station.

Yahoo! News - New Iraqi TV Station Brings Unique Brand of Satire

] In April 2003, John Ashcroft's Justice Department
] disrupted what appears to have been a horrifying
] terrorist plot. In the small town of Noonday, Tex.,
] F.B.I. agents discovered a weapons cache containing fully
] automatic machine guns, remote-controlled explosive
] devices disguised as briefcases, 60 pipe bombs and a
] chemical weapon "a cyanide bomb" big enough to kill
] everyone in a 30,000-square-foot building.

] Incidentally, if Mr. Ashcroft's intention was to keep the
] case low-profile, the media have been highly cooperative.
] To this day, the Noonday conspiracy has received little
] national coverage.

I posted about this after it happened. I do find it very strange that is has still not gotten more attention. Apparently it is necessary to be an Islamist to qualify as a terrorist. Being a southern white supremacist isn't good enough. Last I checked, public opinion was clear about Tim McVeigh being a "terrorist", even if there was a "domestic" stuck in the front..

The New York Times | Op-Ed Columnist: Noonday in the Shade

] Rocket plane SpaceShipOne reached an altitude above 62.5
] miles (100 km) during its brief flight Monday morning,
] making it the first privately built craft to fly in
] space, controllers said.

] Shortly after, the space vehicle landed safely at the
] same place from which it took off.

Welcome to the era of corporate space. Lets hope science fiction has properly prepared us.

CNN.com - Private craft flies into space - Jun 21, 2004

] Greetings fellow pirates! Arrrrr! I'm here today to talk
] to you about copyright, technology and DRM, I work for
] the Electronic Frontier Foundation on copyright stuff
] (mostly), and I live in London. I'm not a lawyer -- I'm a
] kind of mouthpiece/activist type, though occasionally
] they shave me and stuff me into my Bar Mitzvah suit and
] send me to a standards body or the UN to stir up trouble.
] I spend about three weeks a month on the road doing
] completely weird stuff like going to Microsoft to talk
] about DRM. I lead a double life: I'm also a science
] fiction writer. That means I've got a dog in this fight,
] because I've been dreaming of making my living from
] writing since I was 12 years old. Admittedly, my IP-based
] biz isn't as big as yours, but I guarantee you that it's
] every bit as important to me as yours is to you. Here's
] what I'm here to convince you of: 1. That DRM systems
] don't work 2. That DRM systems are bad for society 3.
] That DRM systems are bad for business 4. That DRM systems
] are bad for artists 5. That DRM is a bad business-move
] for MSFT It's a big brief, this talk. Microsoft has sunk
] a lot of capital into DRM systems, and spent a lot of
] time sending folks like Martha and Brian and Peter around
] to various smoke-filled rooms to make sure that Microsoft
] DRM finds a hospitable home in the future world.
] Companies like Microsoft steer like old Buicks, and this
] issue has a lot of forward momentum that will be hard to
] soak up without driving the engine block back into the
] driver's compartment. At best I think that Microsoft
] might convert some of that momentum on DRM into angular
] momentum, and in so doing, save all our asses.

This is a great talk Cory Doctorow gave at MSFT recently regarding all of the arguments we have made over the years regarding DRM. (via boingboing)

Why Microsoft should get out of DRM

] The origin of the video was traced to Silicon Valley Land
] Surveying Incorporated, a California land surveying and
] mapping company, said Spiegel online, the internet
] service for the respected German weekly.
]
] The magazine said that according to its research the move
] was the first time al-Qaeda had "hijacked" a website to
] broadcast its propaganda.
]
] The network usually spreads its message through Islamist
] sites but this time, Spiegel maintains, hackers created a
] special file at the company's web address at least an
] hour before global news agencies broke word of the video.

First report of Al'Q hackers

Hackers spread hostage video

] An Arabic TV news network said Friday that American
] hostage Paul Johnson Jr. has been beheaded by his Saudi
] captors.

I don't think anyone was expecting a happy ending to this..

Condolences to the Johnson family.

CNN.com - Report:  U.S. hostage beheaded - Jun 18, 2004