Dossier on Every Man, Woman and Child in Utah :.

It sounds like a sci-fi thriller: a super computer program that gathers dossiers on every single man, woman and child � everything from birth and marriage and divorce history to hunting licenses and car license plates. Even every address you have lived at down to the color of your hair.

It sounds surreal, but former Gov. Mike Leavitt signed Utah's 2.4 million residents up for a pilot program � ironically called MATRIX � that does just that. And he never bothered to reveal details of the program to Utah citizens or to state lawmakers who, upon learning of the program on Capitol Hill this week, are now worried the state could be involved in a program that jeopardizes basic civil liberties.

"I am concerned our governor signed us up without ever talking to us, the people of the state" said Senate Minority Whip Ron Allen, D-Stansbury Park, who has asked legislative analysts to research whether the Legislature ever authorized state participation in the program. "If what I have heard is true, then I am concerned about our liberty and our privacy. It is a national identification card without ever carrying it."

Allen's concerns are shared by his GOP counterparts, who worry about government intrusion into people's private lives and the collection of comprehensive data on people who have committed no crime.
posted by Kevin at 11:57 PM

Job Moved to India? Move With It! :.

HAHA! Can you imagine, chasing a shit job to the other side of the planet? Apparently, however, one can live a pretty decent life on US$11,000 per year in India. Note: That's what a senior software engineer makes over there:

Kris Lakshmikanth, founder CEO and MD, The Head Hunters India Pvt Ltd, a Bangalore-based executive recruitment firm: �We are currently witnessing at least one to two walk-ins per week. Besides, we also get numerous (over 10 to 20) calls/emails for jobs in India from people in the US and Europe. For obvious reasons, we receive more enquiries from English speaking people. This means more of people from the UK and the US at this point of time.�

According to Mr Lakshmikanth, foreigners of the age group 25-55 years with educational qualification from high school to doctorate are seeking Indian jobs in BPO, pharma, hotels, software, hardware, retail, petroleum, biotech, telecom, auto, etc. �Till 2001, we had hardly any foreigners coming to us for jobs in India. The first time I witnessed �foreigners� willing to work in India was in September 2002. At that time, we were headhunting for senior people for one of our telecom clients,� he says. During the last quarter of 2003, we witnessed white Americans/Europeans walking into our office in Bangalore for jobs, he adds.
posted by Kevin at 11:54 PM

Kerry Leads in Lobby Money :.

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who has made a fight against corporate special interests a centerpiece of his front-running campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, has raised more money from paid lobbyists than any other senator over the past 15 years, federal records show.
posted by Kevin at 3:44 PM

Powell Says U.S. Force Won't Encircle Russia, U.S. Force Encircles Russia :.

Secretary of State Colin Powell sought Tuesday to assure Russians that despite plans to redeploy some American troops to former Soviet bloc nations in Eastern Europe, the United States had no intention to encircle or threaten their country.
posted by Kevin at 5:00 AM

Security, Microsoft Style: Don't Click Hyperlinks! :.

HAHAHAHAHA! The End:

The most effective step that you can take to help protect yourself from malicious hyperlinks is not to click them. Rather, type the URL of your intended destination in the address bar yourself. By manually typing the URL in the address bar, you can verify the information that Internet Explorer uses to access the destination Web site. To do so, type the URL in the Address bar, and then press ENTER.
posted by Kevin at 4:55 AM

Military Personnel Wounded in Iraq & Afghanistan: A Photo Gallery :.

The senseless feeding of men into a meat grinder:



Research Credit: DH
posted by Kevin at 4:52 AM

Bum Wino Review: Tula Vista 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon

If anyone is looking for an excellent value in wine, the Tula Vista 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon represents the Holy Grail, in my opinion. Available at Trader Joes for $3.99, this complex cab finishes pretty smooth, with hints of currant and oak. Yes, I know, you think that this is one step up from two buck chuck. Friend, think again. I've been searching for a great drinking cab/merlot (under $5) for over a decade. After trying dozens bottles of nearly undrinkable swill, I'm happy to announce that the search is finally over. My liver's loss is your gain!

First of all, the Tula Vista cab is consistent. Unlike the chuck, the Tula Vista doesn't vary widely in taste. I have had bottles of two buck chuck that were drinkable, but it's never something one can count on. Tula Vista is always good. I wouldn't say that it's better than a Kenwood, De Loach or Copolla, but you could easily pass Tula Vista off as a $15 bottle and not many people would question it.

True story: I used to date a very high maintenance girl. She wouldn't drink any wine that cost less than about $12. Minimum. It was not uncommon for her daily drinkers to be in the $15 to $20 range. She viewed my wine selections as barbaric.

Well, guess which wine Miss CPA went out and bought on her own after first trying a bottle with me. That's right. Tula Vista.

Get it by the bottle. Get it by the case. Get it any way you can.

Here's a "real" review of Tula Vista. Note: Papio is crap. I wouldn't use that stuff to get the Bush twins drunk. And if anyone thinks I'm nuts for sniffing out the deals for under $5, take a look at this:

Simply put, it's smart to be a wine sleuth. Searching out the producers of $5 and under brands is a worthy hobby because odds are they're made by established winemakers who have access to good juice.

See! I knew there was a method to my madness.
posted by Kevin at 4:38 AM

Toxic Food


posted by Kevin at 3:58 AM

Subgovernment: Concentrating Benefits, Diffusing Costs

The other day, I was perusing a book called, Interest Group Politics in America, by Ronald J. Hrebenar. I have to admit, I haven't taken too close of a look at how the influence peddling racket worked between interest groups and the U.S. government. I just assumed it was pretty slimy and left it at that. What I wasn't aware of (because I never looked) is how much information exists on just how slimy it is! This stuff isn't discussed much in "normal" circles and there's a good reason for that. It's not as bad as you think it is. It's worse.

In Hrebenar's book, I liked the discussion of concentrated benefits and diffused costs. This concept is really one of the family jewels. It goes a long way in helping the analyst to understand events. Example: give Halliburton billions of dollars and fleece every tax paying American to do it. Concentrated benefits, diffused costs. That's a pretty good one.

Somehow, in the process of getting a degree in International Relations, I missed out on an interesting bit of jargon: subgovernment. We all know what's going on, but sometimes we just don't know the clinical term for it. The subgovernment model relates to a political nexus in which private interest groups influence (some would say, dictate) government policy and programs. Take a look at the following passage from The Democratic Facade by Daniel Hellinger and Dennis R. Judd Brooks about the various subgovernments in U.S. policy circles:

The first crisis of American democracy, the privatization of electoral politics, has led to the second crisis: the privatization of the national government's policy making processes... The Defense Department and military contractors constitute perhaps the most well-known and thoroughly insulated policy subgovernment. But these subgovernments are numerous: The National Forest Service and the lumber industry are engaged in a constant, complicated dance, together with key senators and representatives who receive appropriate campaign contributions. The oil industry does its dance in a subgovernment composed of oil-state politicians, their committees, and the Energy, Interior, and Commerce Departments. And so forth. What passes for political "debate" in the United States skirts around the margins of these systems, does not impact them significantly, and therefore does not affect policy to any substantial degree. Such a tight relationship between politicians and business in the making of policy has probably not existed in the United States since the time of the "robber barons" in the late nineteenth century. Most policies that matter to Americans are now for the most part put up for sale. Like campaigns and elections, the everyday policy processes of American government have been privatized.

If anyone was interested in actually drilling down to the names of individuals responsible for everything going to hell, it wouldn't be any great trick to do it. The most incredible thing about this is the scale of it. The blatant openness of it. When you think you're reading about high criminality, think again. The grifters have legalized their trade and turned the U.S. is the biggest, richest and most corrupt banana republic of them all. What we're really talking about here is nothing less than who dies, and who makes a killing. If you doubt it, watch this video about the Carlyle Group and get back to me.

I wonder if anyone has ever done a study that computes the average return on a dollar spent buying off a politician. From some of the numbers I've seen, these guys are pretty cheap. Expensive prostitutes probably cost more than politicians. But this might just be the ABC scale. Ten grand here, fifty grand there. Chump change. But then there's the XYZ scale. After the criminal politician becomes a private citizen again, he's offered a position in one of the corporations who bought him off in the first place. Now he uses his government contacts to get even more filthy deals done. In Cheney's case, he rolled the cycle over again, and went back into government!

Can you even imagine the hookers, the bags of cash, the compromising video tape, the ratfucking and swindling that goes on!? If reading about what is perfectly legal makes you feel like you need to bathe.... what REALLY goes on!? Two senior Pentagon officials, Robert Lee Neal Jr. and Francis Delano Jones Jr., were recently sentenced to prison for taking cash bribes and hookers in return for awarding government contracts. I'd imagine that such antics are part of standard operating procedure; these guys just happened to get caught and appearances had to be maintained.

I'm happy to report that a young student has taken an interest in the types of issues discussed on Cryptogon. After a few moments of guidance, she took off on her own and found a Guardian story from 2001. I had only a vague notion of how tightly the tentacles of agricultural biotechnology were wrapped around the Bush administration. Check this out:

When Bill Clinton was president, it was an open secret that his government favoured agricultural biotechnology and actively promoted it as a potential US global money-spinner.

But the strength of the genetically modified food lobby in George Bush's new cabinet, and its links with the GM global leader, Monsanto, are greater than anything that came before, it has emerged.

The secretaries of defence, health and agriculture, the attorney general and the chairman of the House agriculture committee all have links with the firm or the wider industry.

The most active GM advocate is expected to be John Ashcroft, the proposed attorney general, who received $10,000 (?6,800) from Monsanto in the recent elections, the most the company gave to any congressional candidate. Mr Ashcroft led calls to the Clinton administration to promote GM crops in developing countries and to persuade Europe to accept them.

These types of conflicts of interest are present everywhere in the government. How can this be described as anything other than a massive criminal enterprise? In many cases, our tax money is being stolen from us for re-distribution to private, wealthy elites! What in the hell are we getting in return for this!? Anything!? Oh, a police state. Lovely. What the media refers to as capitalism and free-enterprise is nothing more than a money laundering scam of unimaginable proportions.

Research Credit: Mary
posted by Kevin at 4:47 AM

SCO Places Bounty On Worm Author's Head :.

Linux users will increasingly be viewed as terrorists. Just wait. We haven't seen anything yet:

The SCO Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOX), the owner of the UNIX(R) operating system and a leading provider of UNIX-based solutions, today confirmed that it is experiencing a distributed Denial-of-Service (DDOS) attack. SCO announced that it is offering a reward of up to a total of $250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual or individuals responsible for creating the Mydoom virus.
posted by Kevin at 6:15 PM

Off Topic: New Canon DSLR Specs Leaked

I don't know if any of you guys follow digital photography, but the specs for Canon's EOS-1D mark II appear to have been momentarily leaked on Canon's French site. Canon has pulled everything, but here are the vital stats:

8.5 Mega pixels
1.3x focal length multiplier factor
Up to 8.5 fps (40 frame buffer)

Those interested in this info should lurk here. Any news on this will break there first.

UPDATE: Rumors Correct, Behold the EOS-1D mark II
posted by Kevin at 4:13 PM

Skull & Bones: The Secret Society That Unites John Kerry and President Bush :.

Excellent coverage from Democracy Now. You may listen, watch video or read.
posted by Kevin at 1:50 PM

John Kerry: Blood Brother of George W. Bush in the Skull and Bones Secret Society :.

Mark, over at oilempire.us, is building a John Kerry page.
posted by Kevin at 1:45 PM

W32.Novarg.A@mm Worm

If anyone recently sent me an email with an attatchment, you'll need to resend it. I received the W32.Novarg.A@mm payload about 300 times over the night. So, I just shit canned all messages with attatchments this morning. Thanks.

If you're infected with this thing, Symantec has posted a W32.Novarg.A@mm removal tool.
posted by Kevin at 1:42 PM

Warrior Cops: The Ominous Growth of Paramilitarism in American Police Departments :.

This report is from 1999. The events of September 11, 2001 provided the social catalyst needed to make the presence of these paramilitary forces on the street tolerable (indeed, welcomed) by average people:

Over the past 20 years Congress has encouraged the U.S. military to supply intelligence, equipment, and training to civilian police. That encouragement has spawned a culture of paramilitarism in American law enforcement.

The 1980s and 1990s have seen marked changes in the number of state and local paramilitary units, in their mission and deployment, and in their tactical armament. According to a recent academic survey, nearly 90 percent of the police departments surveyed in cities with populations over 50,000 had paramilitary units, as did 70 percent of the departments surveyed in communities with populations under 50,000. The Pentagon has been equipping those units with M-16s, armored personnel carriers, and grenade launchers. The police paramilitary units also conduct training exercises with active duty Army Rangers and Navy SEALs.

State and local police departments are increasingly accepting the military as a model for their behavior and outlook. The sharing of training and technology is producing a shared mindset. The problem is that the mindset of the soldier is simply not appropriate for the civilian police officer. Police officers confront not an "enemy" but individuals who are protected by the Bill of Rights. Confusing the police function with the military function can lead to dangerous and unintended consequences�such as unnecessary shootings and killings.
posted by Kevin at 4:13 AM

Parrot Smarter than Most WalMart Shoppers :.

The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short.

The bird, a captive African grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour.

He invents his own words and phrases if he is confronted with novel ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot cope - just as a human child would do.

N'kisi's remarkable abilities, which are said to include telepathy, feature in the latest BBC Wildlife Magazine.

N'kisi is believed to be one of the most advanced users of human language in the animal world.

About 100 words are needed for half of all reading in English, so if N'kisi could read he would be able to cope with a wide range of material.
posted by Kevin at 7:54 PM

George Carlin Unfurls :.

I like that he makes reference to the fact that this thing came down with the industrial revolution. Most people don't understand that. They just can't grasp that simple reality:

Q: You're known as a very liberal comic. Are you trying to change people's political views when you go out there? Do you have an underlying agenda?

A: No. First of all, I'm not liberal. I'm just about (being) anti-United States. I don't like the way this country operates. I think we've ruined this place. And I think it's largely because of businessmen. And businessmen are not liberals. So if that makes me a liberal, then that's just an association. It's not a choice. ...

I do not care about changing anybody. Nobody. I go out there to show the rest of the Americans how badly they're doing. This country has been, for about 180 years now, badly mishandled. And it's been in the wrong hands. It's been in the hands of the business interests.

And a lot of the beauty of this country has been shattered by them. The physical beauty and the kind of institutional beauty that was originally built into this place - this experiment, this magnificent experiment in democracy is just being shredded to pieces by these right-wing Christians, the Ashcroft branch of Republicanism. (They're) just shredding the rest of the Bill of Rights which hadn't been shredded already. (But) they'd been doing a pretty good job on it up until then, anyway.

Q: Do you feel like this country has progressed any way, shape or form in the past 20 years?

A: Everybody's got more jet skis and Dustbusters now and sneakers with lights in them. They've got more cheese on their thing that they buy. They get double helpings. See, Americans measure all their progress in the wrong way. They measure by quantity and by gizmos and toys. And not by quality and by things that are important.

The most interesting thing to me is that the things that people would seem to have the most right to have - that is to say health, food, shelter and a job are the things that are last on the list. To me, that is fundamental. Those are the things humans most need to function, and we have placed them at the bottom of the list. So I think that says a lot about national character and priorities.
posted by Kevin at 7:49 PM

Powell Takes Hypocrisy to New Levels with Russia Comments :.

Substitute the words "Russia" with "United States" and "Chechnya" with "Iraq" and what you'll notice, at least if you've been reading Cryptogon for any length of time, is that the U.S. has more in common with totalitarian regimes than most people are willing to admit.

As brutal as the Russian regime is, it didn't invade a distant country, that posed no threat, for the express purpose of stealing its natural resources. The U.S. did that. (Yeah, yeah, I know more about Chechnya than you'll ever want to know, but which slaughter is more understandable, in theory? Russia in Chechnya or the U.S. in Iraq?) So, what is the purpose of this folly out of Powell!? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! I just spread two bags of chicken manure on a new compost heap in the backyard and it didn't reek as bad as this! Jesus. I'm loosing the ability to maintain appearances:

Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Monday he was worried about Russia's democracy, using unusually blunt comments that underscored widespread concerns the Kremlin is turning increasingly autocratic.

In a front-page article published in major Russian daily Izvestia, he said Russian politics were not sufficiently subject to the rule of law and made clear there were limits to the U.S.-Russian relationship without shared values.

While couched in diplomatic terms, Powell's comments were unusually direct from a U.S. administration that has worked closely with Moscow in the U.S.-led war on terrorism and has cooperated on regional issues from North Korea to Iran.

He also challenged Russia's policy in Chechnya and -- without citing any countries by name -- its recently assertive dealings toward nations like Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

"Certain developments in Russian politics and foreign policy in recent months have given us pause," he wrote at the start of a two-day visit to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
posted by Kevin at 7:36 PM

Couple Lose Their Home Over $120 Debt :.

CC&Rs? That stands for Crooks, Criminals and Retards, right? Here is a brilliant idea: Don't buy a house with CC&Rs!

A retired couple's dispute with their homeowners association has spiraled out of control in this Calaveras County community -- and now they have lost their home less than a year after failing to pay $120 in annual dues.
posted by Kevin at 1:44 PM

Kay: No Evidence Iraq Stockpiled WMDs :.

Can anyone provide me with a convincing explanation as to why no WMDs have been "found" in Iraq? CIA contractors used to fly planeloads of weapons into Baghdad International Airport and pay for refueling with cash stuffed in bowling ball bags! You expect me to believe that in the event that Hussein lacked WMDs, they wouldn't place some over there!? I mean, is there a single person out there who believes CIA couldn't/wouldn't place a couple of tons of chemical/biological weapons in a sand pit in the middle of Iraq? Something very weird is up. Are they waiting until the election gets closer, or has Bush been slated to loose the next election? Or is something else happening? What do you guys think?

Two days after resigning as the Bush administration's top weapons inspector in Iraq, David Kay said Sunday that his group found no evidence Iraq had stockpiled unconventional weapons before the U.S.-led invasion in March.

He said U.S. intelligence services owe President Bush an explanation for having concluded that Iraq had.

"My summary view, based on what I've seen, is we're very unlikely to find large stockpiles of weapons," he said on National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition." "I don't think they exist."

It was the consensus among the intelligence agencies that Iraq had such weapons that led Bush to conclude that it posed an imminent threat that justified the U.S.-led invasion, Kay said.

Flashback: CIA and DOD Attempted To Plant WMD In Iraq :.

In a world exclusive, Al Martin Raw.com has published a news story about a Department of Defense whistleblower who has revealed that a US covert operations team had planted "Weapons of Mass Destruction" (WMDs) in Iraq � then "lost" them when the team was killed by so-called "friendly fire."
posted by Kevin at 6:47 AM

The U.S. Is Now in the Hands of a Group of Extremists :.

Yes, Mr. Soros, and after the next election, no matter who wins, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. George Soros, the billionaire dissident... Billionaires for regime change? I love it.

The elite consensus must be shifting away from Bush for President in 2004. That's why the rainmakers appear to have already blessed another Bonesman, John Kerry, to "run" against Bush:

If Bush is rejected in 2004, his policies can be written off as an aberration and America resume its rightful place in the world. But if he is re-elected, the electorate will have endorsed his policies and we will have to live with the consequences. But it isn't enough to defeat Bush at the polls. The US must examine its global role and adopt a more constructive vision. We cannot merely pursue narrow, national self-interest. Our dominant position imposes a unique responsibility.

Here it is again: the heavily quoted passage from Carroll Quigley's, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in our Time:

The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can "throw the rascals out" at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.

Sure. John Kerry, a member of Skull and Bones, who personally slaughtered civilians in Vietnam, will be a real reformer. He will make everything right as rain. He will... He will...

Americans might as well smoke crack on election day, 2004.

More: Mike Ruppert Called This Long Ago :.

I have a long history with Kerry. Back in 1986, 1987, and 1988, I was in contact with his office and his chief of staff Jonathan Winer on a number of occasions about CIA drug trafficking. They eagerly asked for any material I could send them and gave me a direct line. It was one of my most bitter lessons about how hot issues are controlled. Kerry, in charge of the potentially explosive Iran-Contra drug hearings succeeded in producing a 1,200-page record that was a treasure trove of information for researchers, but absolutely useless in unraveling a corruption that controls the US government to this day. What lies buried in those pages was enough to have turned the American political system inside out. In the end, its greatest usefulness was as a benchmark against which to compare the CIA's investigation of itself after the 1996 Dark Alliance stories and hard revelations of CIA connections to cocaine smuggling that Kerry knew all about anyway. Those of us close to the issue took the lemons Kerry had left us and made lemonade, as we forced the CIA Inspector General to reconcile his 1998 report with what we already knew was in Kerry's.

And still - as intended - nothing changed. John Kerry had successfully contained what was, up to that time, the biggest scandal in American history.

Wealthy in his own right, Kerry's fortune has been reinforced by the wealth of his wife (heir to the Heinz food fortune), estimated by the Associated Press at $550 million. This is old money and deeply rooted in establishment politics.

A key sign that Kerry might be the anointed one came for me when George W. Bush's chief counter-terrorism adviser Rand Beers resigned in a dramatic moment last June, in protest over Bush's handling of the war on terror and his headlong rush into Iraq. Beers immediately became Kerry's senior foreign policy advisor, as Kerry continued to state that he would improve on and expand the war on terror. Beers' protestations concealed what I considered to be a much more sinister objective, the placement of a key, hands-on operative to manage a smooth transition of power and a continuation of secret policy. Beers, who had served in national security roles for three Republican administrations, was the man who had replaced Lt. Col. Oliver North after North was fired in 1987 during the Iran-Contra scandal.

More: 2004: Vote Skull and Bones for President

Research Credit: DG
posted by Kevin at 5:40 AM

Film Records Effects of Eating Only McDonald's for a Month :.

I wouldn't even stop to take a piss in a McDonald's:

Spurlock, a tall New Yorker of usually cast-iron constitution, made himself the guinea pig in this dogged investigation into the effects of fast food on the body. He ate only at McDonald's for a month - three meals, every day - and took a camera crew along to record it. If a server offered to super-size his order, he was obliged to accept - and to ingest everything, gherkins and all.

Neither Spurlock, 33, nor the three doctors who agreed to monitor his health during the experiment were prepared for the degree of ruin it would wreak on his body. Within days, he was vomiting up his burgers and battling with headaches and depression. And his sex drive vanished.

When Spurlock had finished, his liver, overwhelmed by saturated fats, had virtually turned to pate. "The liver test was the most shocking thing," said Dr Daryl Isaacs, who joined the team to watch over him. "It became very, very abnormal."

Spurlock put on nearly 12kg over the period and his cholesterol level leapt from a respectable 165 to 230. He told the New York Post: "I got desperately ill. My face was splotchy and I had this huge gut, which I've never had in my life ... It was amazing - and really frightening."
posted by Kevin at 5:16 AM

Behold, The Great Cheynholio

Click here for an audio clip from the press conference.


posted by Kevin at 4:24 AM

Kris Millegan on Coast to Coast AM Tonight :.

Researcher Kris Millegan (ctrl.org) will discuss the history of the secret society referred to as the �Order of Skull & Bones� and how its members increasingly affect world events.
posted by Kevin at 4:07 AM

Parmalat Aide 'Commits Suicide' :.

Oh sure, this was a suicide! At least Alessandro Bassi wasn't hanging from the bridge, P2 Lodge style, like God's banker, Roberto Calvi, or thrown out of God's helicopter: Oh yeah. Suicide for sure:

A mid-level executive in the finance department of collapsed food giant Parmalat has committed suicide, Italian police have said.

Alessandro Bassi, an aide to the former finance director Fausto Tonna, threw himself from a highway bridge in Parma, the company's hometown.

Both Mr Tonna and Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi are now in jail, although no charges have yet been made.

Parmalat went bust after admitting 4bn euros (�2.8bn; $5bn) of false accounts.
posted by Kevin at 4:03 AM

MFS Finds $100 Million Loss Due to Late Trading :.

Institutional fraud... endemic throughout the financial sector:

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. has found that investors in its mutual funds lost about $100 million because of illegal "late trading," a report said on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Wall Street Journal reported that MFS found that the trades were made through more than 10 different broker-dealers, including Security Brokerage Inc., and the clearing arms of Bank of America Corp. and Bear Stearns Cos., these people said.

Research Credit: NF
posted by Kevin at 4:00 AM

Bill Gates Receives Knighthood :.

What could I possibly say?

Britain is to recognise Bill Gates' contribution to UK enterprise and the fight against poverty worldwide with the sort of honour money just can't buy - a knighthood.

Bill, who is reported to be "absolutely delighted", will sadly not be Sir Bill of Seattle but, as a US citizen, may henceforth be addressed by the honorary title of Bill Gates KBE (Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire). He joins an illustrious list of fellow Americans previously mounting the British honours podium for their contribution to the advancement of humanity worldwide, including Dubya's peace-loving pa George Bush Senior.
posted by Kevin at 3:59 AM

Blood Sport :.

THE Queen sparked outrage yesterday when she clubbed a pheasant to death with her walking stick.

Shocked onlookers watched as she picked up the injured bird which had been shot by a member of a shooting party.

Then she finished it off by raising her walking stick - which she has used since a knee operation last month - and hitting it repeatedly on the head.

The bird took several minutes to die and the Queen was seen laughing and joking with friends after the incident at her Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

The 77-year-old monarch does not shoot herself but is a keen follower of the blood sport.

Related: Cheney's Shotgun Rampage

Related: More on Cheney's Shotgun Rampage
posted by Kevin at 3:58 AM

Saddam Hussein: Thanks for the Memories :.

I don't post too many Flash movies, but this one is really good. Recommended for broadband users only.

Related: Drying Meat and Dates

Research Credit: BB
posted by Kevin at 3:56 AM

Bush Administration Plan to Give Western Arctic to Oil Industry :.

The Bureau of Land Management's plan announced today to open the 9-million acre Northwest Planning Area of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) to oil development will produce only a modest amount of oil and ruin an area with unique cultural and wilderness values, according to NRDC (the Natural Resources Defense Council).

"It makes no sense to industrialize this incomparable wilderness area when there's only about six month's worth of economically recoverable oil in the entire NPR-A, and it would take at least 10 years to get it to market," said Charles Clusen, Alaska Project director at NRDC. "The United States has only 3 percent of the world's proven oil reserves and we use 25 percent of the world's produced oil. We can't drill our way to oil independence. We have to wean ourselves off oil."

Research Credit: NF
posted by Kevin at 3:53 AM