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2/21/2004
Keyless Entry Fails on Cars in Las Vegas :.This is weird: Was it the storm clouds, sun spots or Area 51?
By late Friday afternoon, some locksmiths, car dealerships and towing companies had been flooded with calls about mysteriously malfunctioning keyless vehicle entry devices.
There were nearly as many theories as there were lockouts. But there were no firm answers as to why the remote devices stopped working.
"Maybe it's those little green men up north," said Nellis Air Force Base spokesman Mike Estrada, whose own keyless entry system failed. "Are there sun spots? I've been trying to figure it out. It happened to me right after lunch."
Estrada resorted to using his key to unlock his car door, but that set off his alarm.
ABC Locksmiths received 30 calls from drivers stumped by the failure of the key systems. Quality Towing received about 25 calls, and two Ford dealerships reported receiving scores of calls about the problem.
But ABC dispatcher Milo Ferguson didn't need to field any calls to know something was amiss.
"My car is one of them," Ferguson said. "It's some kind of electrical disturbance. Either that or a nuclear bomb went off a few miles from here."
Jerry Bussell, Gov. Kenny Guinn's adviser on homeland security, ruled out terrorism and described the phenomenon as a "frequency problem."
posted by Kevin at 12:28 PM
2/20/2004
U.K. to Allow Genetically Modified Maize :.It's quite simple. Light the fields on fire. Make them pay for their stupidity and reckless behavior: In January, the government's advisory committee on releases to the environment (Acre) said there was no reason that Chardon, a variety of GM maize owned by BayerCropSciences, could not be planted in Britain.
But yesterday, plans to push ahead with GM maize, though not oilseed rape and other crops, met a torrent of abuse from consumer and environment groups who have campaigned against all the crops for more than five years.
"The government just does not get it. The public is way ahead in understanding that agricultural biotechnology is about a lot more than just the science. It is about livelihoods, choice, culture, the biodiversity of our landscape, the survival of small farmers - and GM crops could potentially threaten all of these," said Clare Devereux of Five Year Freeze, a coalition of more than 100 organisations.
posted by Kevin at 6:34 PM
GCHQ Mole Who Blew Whistle on U.S. Bugging: Case to be Dropped :.She's lucky that this case made it to the point of going to trial. She could have easily met the same fate as Dr. Kelly: The prosecution is preparing to abandon the case against a former GCHQ employee charged with leaking information about a "dirty tricks" spying operation before the invasion of Iraq, the Guardian has learned.
Katharine Gun, 29, is due to appear at the Old Bailey next week where she has said she will plead not guilty to breaking the Official Secrets Act.
She has said her alleged disclosures exposed serious wrongdoing by the US and could have helped to prevent the deaths of Iraqis and British forces in an "illegal war".
The case is potentially hugely embarrassing for the government and would open up GCHQ operations to unwelcome publicity. Also damaging and politically threatening is her plan to seek the disclosure of the full advice from the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, on the legality of the war against Iraq.
The government would almost certainly refuse to disclose such advice, arguing that opinions of its law officers are traditionally protected from the outside world. Ms Gun's lawyers were likely to argue she could not get a fair trial without seeing the attorney's advice on the war and the disclosure of GCHQ's activities.
posted by Kevin at 6:26 PM
U.K. Troops Implicated in Civilian Deaths :.The Ministry of Defence is facing the prospect of a string of lawsuits over the deaths of at least 18 Iraqi civilians allegedly killed by British soldiers, the Guardian can reveal.
The incidents, hitherto unreported, are separate from the suspicious deaths of seven Iraqis who were being held by British troops in the notorious Camp Bucca detention centre near the port of Umm Qasr, south of Basra.
The threat of legal action comes as the conduct of British troops serving in southern Iraq is under intense scrutiny, with MPs and human rights lawyers demanding independent inquiries into the deaths at the prison camp as well as civilian fatalities in and around Basra.
The new disclosures relate to incidents in which Iraqis have died when they were fired on by mistake or were innocent bystanders to operations allegedly being conducted by British troops.
While the MoD has refused to accept liability for any of the deaths, it has offered and paid compensation to some of the families.
One family was offered about $1,000 (�530) for the death of Waleed Fayayi Muzban, who was killed when his vehicle was hit by a barrage of bullets allegedly fired by British troops.
posted by Kevin at 6:12 PM
Low-Level Magnetic Fields Damage Brain Cells :.INCREDIBLE! If blow dryers, electric blankets and razors damage brain cells, I wonder what strapping a microwave transmitter (mobile phone) to your skull does to brain cells? That's actually a rhetorical question. You don't need a PhD to get to the bottom of this one. Only people who profit from the mobile phone industry think that the data is inconclusive. All objective research shows that the phones are dangerous and cause obvious damage to brain cells and memory (long and short term): Prolonged exposure to low-level magnetic fields, similar to those emitted by such common household devices as blow dryers, electric blankets and razors, can damage brain cell DNA, according to researchers in the University of Washington's Department of Bioengineering. The scientists further found that the damage from brief exposures appears to build up over time.
posted by Kevin at 4:14 PM
Enron CEO, Jeff Skilling: Perp WalkThere's nothing quite like a PHB in a suit being led away in handcuffs:
posted by Kevin at 4:00 AM
The Dudley Hiibel Case: THIS IS INSANE! :.Fascist pig shakedowns in the U.S.: Meet Dudley Hiibel. He's a 59 year old cowboy who owns a small ranch outside of Winnemucca, Nevada. He lives a simple life, but he's his own man. You probably never would have heard of Dudley Hiibel if it weren't for his belief in the U.S. Constitution.
One balmy May evening back in 2000, Dudley was standing around minding his own business when all of a sudden, a policeman pulled-up and demanded that Dudley produce his ID. Dudley, having done nothing wrong, declined. He was arrested and charged with "failure to cooperate" for refusing to show ID on demand. And it's all on video.
On the 22nd of March 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether Dudley and the rest of us live in a free society, or in a country where we must show "the papers" whenever a cop demands them.
posted by Kevin at 3:15 AM
Federal Subpoenas Seen as Targeting Dissent :.A federal grand jury, in a move some see as an attempt to harass and intimidate the antiwar movement, subpoenaed Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, in early February, ordering it to turn over all documents related to an antiwar conference held three months ago on its campus.
Also subpoenaed were Brian Terrell, Elton Davis, Patti McKee and Wendy Vasquez, four Des Moines peace activists who participated in the daylong conference and a demonstration the following day.
posted by Kevin at 3:11 AM
We Are Morons: A Quick Look at the Win2k Source :.It doesn't get any better than this! Curse words: there are a dozen or so "fucks" and "shits", and hundreds of "craps". Some dissatisfaction with the compiler is expressed in private\shell\shell32\util.cpp:
// the fucking alpha cpp compiler seems to fuck up the goddam type "LPITEMIDLIST", so to work
// around the fucking peice of shit compiler we pass the last param as an void *instead of a LPITEMIDLIST
Some insight into Microsoft's famous daily build process is given in private\windows\media\avi\verinfo.16\verinfo.h:
* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* !!!!!!!IF YOU CHANGE TABS TO SPACES, YOU WILL BE KILLED!!!!!!!
* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!DOING SO FUCKS THE BUILD PROCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by Kevin at 3:08 AM
Voters Face Choice: $15 Billion Bond Seasure or 'Armageddon' Cuts :.Alright, I know I said I wasn't going to vote anymore, but I'm going to in this thing, just in case the votes happen to count for anything. I'm going to vote 'NO' on Proposition 57 (the bond issuance) and "YES" on Proposition 58 (the balanced budget initiative). Cut it! It's Armageddon, so let's get on with it. Hey, man, you don't get out of debt by going deeper into debt! Enough already! Bring it down: California is quickly running out of cash and is bracing for acute financial pain after three years of political procrastination and budget bungling.
Now voters must decide if it makes more sense to approve a $15 billion bailout bond that might extend the misery for a decade or more, or suffer it more quickly through temporary tax increases and deep spending cuts.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to persuade voters the bitter medicine should be dispensed gradually - that paying back the bailout bond during the next nine to 14 years is the most humane way for California to rehabilitate itself.
His opponents say California will be making a terrible mistake if the state takes the unprecedented step of shouldering long-term debt to solve short-term problems.
In either case, it's clear that the time has finally come for California to balance its checkbook - the state will literally run out of money unless Schwarzenegger and the legislature find a way to produce $14 billion by June 16.
If voters refuse to authorize the bond under Proposition 57 on the March 2 ballot, Schwarzenegger says he'll have to make "Armageddon" spending cuts that will make California a less desirable place to live. The intense pressure on California to repay its debts also could create uncertainty on Wall Street.
Without the bailout bond, California's obligation to repay the $14 billion due in June would compete against its duty to provide essential public services, said Timothy Blake, managing director for Moody's Investor Service, one of three major credit rating agencies. "That is not an orderly situation."
posted by Kevin at 2:28 AM
2/19/2004
Solid State Hack for Pepsi/iTunes Contest :.HA! Sharp eyes and a bit of patience paid off Thursday for iTunes fans who figured out a way to "hack" the popular music download service's Pepsi promotion.
Jon Gales, who runs Macintosh-user site MacMerc.com, posted instructions this week on how to look into sealed Pepsi bottles and figure out which ones carry winning iTunes codes in their caps.
"With luck, you should be able to see under the cap," said Gales, 19, a college student who discovered the trick by chance. "It takes a few minutes to get used to the angle... and you may have to twist the bottle."
posted by Kevin at 11:21 PM
Microsoft Attempting to Put the Genie Back in the Bottle :.This is so funny. Doesn't Microsoft understand that there are millions of freaks out there who have sworn eternal hostility toward them?! I've got news for Microsoft: You better send out guys with guns, because that's the only way you'll stop these people. FUD will just encourage them, and confirm that they're doing the right thing. HAHAHA! God bless the freaks: "Broadand Reports notes that Microsoft is now sending snail mail warnings to downloaders of the leaked source code. They're also apparently working in conjunction with several un-named peer to peer vendors to send out legal warnings to any users who search for the leaked code. The notice on Microsoft's website has been updated to reflect the new warnings."Related: Remaining Anonymous While Undertaking Sensitive Operations Online :.I wrote some basic guidelines for people who had to use the Internet for activities that could result in unpleasant encounters with fascist state and corporate operators. While this was related to submitting information on the murder of State Department analyst John Kokal, I'm sure you freaks can see how to adapt this for your own weird activities. Have fun! Additional Comments from JMWhen I posted directions for anonymous network access above, I assumed that the user is not dumb. Indeed, if you are dumb, don't attempt what is described there. Even if you're not dumb, your mileage may vary. I can't think of every bozo antic that could potentially set you up the bomb. You must have at least a general clue about what you're doing. Luckily, I have readers like JM, who provides some obvious tips to help keep the less adept folks free of trouble. He's right! Even though I tell people to use systems not associated with themselves in anyway, you know someone will use their first and last name for the computer ID. HAHAHA! It almost sounds like JM has experience adminning corporate users: Kevin,
With your tip list regarding anonymous internet usuage, something to be conscious of while using someone ELSES network..
1) Be sure to disable windows shares
2) Create a "john doe" type login, vs. that of a JM, or Kevin F. etc., just for the open nets.
Some of the smarter more computer savvy users have been known to catch their neighbors, friends, and roommates etc. sneaking onto nets. If average joe can sniff you out, then those whose job it is shouldnt have any problem what so ever.
Something so easily overlooked could be the downfall of your readers seemingly anonymous internet gateways.
Cheers!
JM
ps. I have found that almost across the board you can find dependable (open) WiFi access from many of the .edu, Apple(tm) stores, and of course, residential areas. I have spoken with folks in the [deleted] Public Library and they claim to be looking into setting up a similiar access point, which probably means the rest of the nations Librarys arent far behind.When you're on an open base station, you MUST assume that EVERYTHING is compromised. You MUST NOT visit your normal hotmail, yahoo and ebay accounts, etc. You MUST NOT log into your bank. You MUST NOT do anything you normally do from your house or work. Think, please, before you do dumb things. Oh there's one thing I didn't mention that I take for granted. I didn't say anything about firewalls on your throwaway system. I take it as a given that all systems on any network are fully firewalled. But I forget, sometimes, that I'm a little, you know... weird. You should be showing NO ports on the network. Your firewall should not acknowledge ANY ICMP packets. In other words, you should appear as not there (fully stealthed) on the network to anyone attempting to scan you. If you don't know what I'm talking about, start by installing and learning how to use the excellent Sygate firewall. And then scan yourself.
posted by Kevin at 4:13 PM
Analysts Warn China on Verge of Economic Crisis :.The year has opened with warnings that China is lurching toward a major economic crisis that will inevitably have far-reaching global ramifications. While the Chinese regime is hailing the country�s 9.1 percent economic growth last year, analysts are noting that the growth itself has produced the type of overcapacity and rampant speculation that has characterised other economies before they experienced a severe slump.
The New York Times, for example, warned on January 18: "As 2004 begins, China�s economy looks as invincible as the Japanese, South East Asian and American economies of those earlier times. But recent excess�from the frenzy of factory construction to speculative inflows of cash to soaring growth in bank loans�suggest that China may be in a bubble now, especially on the investment side of the economy."
posted by Kevin at 3:46 AM
2/18/2004
Microsoft Critical Security Patch #811493 Set Me Up the BombFor the past several days, Windows 2000 has been prompting me to install critical security patch #811493. The same patch, everyday. And I do it. I thought this was weird, since I've never had any problem like this with Windows 2000, and this installation has been problem free on this machine for two years. So I decided I wasn't going to keep going along with this nonsense. I thought I'd try to uninstall the patch and then reinstall it. This is a standard thing one does when Windows starts to die. Big mistake. After I uninstalled it, the machine was unbootable. HAHAHA! Safe mode didn't work. I tried to repair the OS using the Windows CD, and the recovery console. Nothing worked. I finally had to reinstall the OS. Luckily, I don't think I lost any data, but all my applications are shot to hell, shortcuts, preferences, etc. gone. It was like starting from scratch with a new computer, except my data was still on the drive. I guess it could have been worse. Anyway, I've had it with Outlook. I found the .pst file that contains about four years worth of email and I'm wondering if I should even bother recovering it. I didn't think it was worth backing up all this time, so.... whatever. I just started using Mozilla Thunderbird for email. Man, this looks excellent. I'm extremely impressed with this email client. This blows Outlook 2000 away. Oh well, I guess I'll crawl along here and restore my show, one bit at a time. Hint: If you have to reinstall Windows 2000 and it doesn't have the correct driver for your network card... this is a pain. If you only keep one set of drivers handy, keep the network card drivers. After turning my place upside down, I found the two year old disk that came with my motherboard (with integrated network adapter). There was a driver that worked. This allowed me to get this thing to hovel over to Windows Update to install countless critical updates, patches, drivers and the rest of it. Yeah, it's been a fun day.
posted by Kevin at 6:14 PM
The Corporation: An Explosive Documentary :.WOW! This looks absolutely incredible! Clips and trailers are here. From the synopsis: THE CORPORATION
A Feature documentary by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott and Joel Bakan.
Based on the forthcoming book THE CORPORATION: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan.
When the corporation�s inner workings undergo analysis � bizarre operating principles are revealed.
THE CORPORATION engages us in a darkly amusing account of the institution�s birth as a legal �person� whose prime directive is to produce ever-increasing profit for it�s shareholders regardless of the cost to anyone, or anything else. This pathological nature wasn�t always written in stone. 150 years ago a corporation was merely an organized way of doing business. Today it is a global power.
Considering the odd legal fiction that deems a corporation a �person� in the eyes of the law, the feature documentary employs a checklist, based on actual diagnostic criteria of the World Health Organization and DSM IV, the standard tool of psychiatrists and psychologists. What emerges is a disturbing diagnosis.
Self-interested, amoral, callous and deceitful, a corporation�s operational principles make it anti-social. It breaches social and legal standards to get its way even while it mimics the human qualities of empathy, caring and altruism. It suffers no guilt. Diagnosis: the institutional embodiment of laissez-faire capitalism fully meets the diagnostic criteria of a psychopath.
In this feature documentary we see the people who inhabit the corporate �person� explore, and expose, the implications of being part of an institution that is required by it�s own laws to place the pursuit of profit over people. Over concern for the environment. Over even the planet itself.Research Credit: CTRL.org
posted by Kevin at 4:38 AM
Remote Control Machine Guns to be Mounted on Israeli Apartheid Wall :.Women will be used to pull the trigger on robotic gun turrets! But this is only because Israel couldn't get away with setting the robot guns to immediately blow away anything that moves. WOW! We're no longer approaching The End. We're in a post-End situation now, it's just not immediately apparent to most people yet: According to Haaretz reporter Amira Hass, a Sept. 21 article on the Israeli paper Yediot Ahronoth's Web site, Ynet, states that "the separation fence to be built in the Gilboa region will include remote-control machine guns that will be operated by female soldiers from their command posts and will shoot at those suspected of being terrorists." According to Ynet's reporter, the system is be installed in the coming months in the mountainous Gilboa region, along the path of the "Separation Wall." The army's purpose in installing the system is to compensate for the small amount of troops and the difficulties of moving in the area--"and to shoot at terrorists who try to cross the fence." In a concession to humanitarian considerations, rather than making the guns fire automatically at anything that moves they will be fired "by the female soldier who manages the lookout post and has been trained for this."
posted by Kevin at 4:32 AM
$2 Pound Forecast as Sterling Breaches $1.90 Level :.How do you want that? Dollars, cigarette butts or bottlecaps? Britons will soon be able to get two dollars to the pound for the first time in more than two decades, Kenneth Clarke, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, said yesterday as sterling broke through the $1.90 barrier.
The pound jumped to a fresh 11-year high after a rise in inflation boosted hopes of another rise in UK interest rates in spring. It rose to $1.9083, its highest level since September 1992.Research Credit: NF
posted by Kevin at 4:24 AM
Bill for Confiscation of Firearms H.R. 2403 :.Just keep going... We're almost there: Should unelected officials be allowed to order the confiscation of some or all guns and ammunition in the United States? This is the question posed by Sen. Jon Corzine (D-NJ) and Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), in their proposed Firearms Safety and Consumer Protection Act. As one might suspect, the bill is about neither firearm safety nor consumer protection, but is an especially clever stratagem by the gun-prohibition lobby. The Kennedy-Corzine bill would give the Treasury Department and the courts nearly unlimited powers to restrict firearms manufacture and sales, and to confiscate guns.
posted by Kevin at 4:20 AM
2/17/2004
McCingular: Cingular to Buy AT&T Wireless for $40B :.Cingular Wireless, the nation's No. 2 mobile phone provider, has agreed to acquire third-largest AT&T Wireless for more than $40 billion, a deal that could create the nation's largest cellular subscription base, the company announced Tuesday.
posted by Kevin at 5:42 AM
White and Black Hatters Churning Out Windows Exploits Based on Released Code :.HAHA! Well, that didn't take long: The leak of Windows source code last week has already enabled a hacker to create an exploit.
Days after portions of the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code were illegally leaked onto the Web, an anonymous hacker has found a buffer overflow flaw and crafted an exploit.
The attack relies on a vulnerability in the way that IE 5 processes bitmap files. This could allow an attacker to inject hostile code into vulnerable systems, according to an advisory published by the Security Tracker vulnerability database.Related: Previous Cryptogon CoverageRelated: Subseven Trojan on a Two Day Old Windows ComputerI know someone online who just bought a brand new computer. I scanned the system to see what ports a brand new Windows XP box has open these days. Mind you, she just bought this computer from Circuit City two days ago. When I examined the nmap output, I nearly fell out of my chair. I noticed this little gem: 27374/tcp filtered subsevenWoooohbibby! When I got over my shock at seeing Subseven running on that thing, I started asking her how such a serious compromise could have happened so fast!? We weren't sure what it was, but she had been downloading shit from download.com. Note: She took down her firewall so I could scan the system. So, technically, the Subseven service was not reachable/visible with the firewall up. D.C. writes in email: The nmap scan you have posted at cryptogon indicates that the subseven port is being filtered. This means that it is firewalled, and nmap could not initiate a syn/ack tcp connect to that port. It is probably being blocked by the ISP, along with port 139 (netbios) and others for security.Understand that if you use Windows, you are constantly juggling hand grenades. Beware. And when you get sick of hearing stories like this, use a Mac or some distribution of Linux. Better yet, get rid of the computers and read a book, write something with a pen and paper or go for a walk.
posted by Kevin at 4:56 AM
Seedlings EmergingInterestingly, when I play with dirt, compost and seeds, the fact that this society is unraveling doesn't seem to bother me very much. The natural world is good, true and beautiful. It will feed you, if you let it. More dirt, seeds and compost, less Cryptogon, sounds pretty good to me. I started some vegetable seeds in plastic drinking water containers a few weeks ago. The one good thing about California is that you can sow some seeds in January and they will actually germinate! I had to thin some of the cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli seedlings since they had a much higher germination rate than I expected (thanks Seeds of Change). I ate the little, succulent leaves. They tasted sweet. And check out this thing! It's a Blue Lake Bush Bean: Southern California gardeners, here's a great chart that shows what you can start in these "cold" California months. I guess I jumped the gun a little bit on those bush beans. Woops! Well, they don't seem to mind. :) For the rest of you guys, who are still frozen over, look into something like the APS seed starting system and fire up your seedlings indoors! Oh yeah, don't forget to mind the moon.
posted by Kevin at 3:22 AM
Most Siemens Software Jobs Moving to India, China and Eastern Europe :.The German firm Siemens will move most of the 15,000 software programming jobs from its offices in the United States and Western Europe to India, China and Eastern Europe, a company official said Monday.
"Siemens has recognized that a huge amount of software development activity needs to be moved from high-cost countries to low-cost countries," said Anil R. Laud, managing director of Siemens Information Systems, the group's information technology subsidiary in India.
posted by Kevin at 2:40 AM
2/16/2004
Lou Dobbs Comes Unhinged On CNN :. If this link dies, let me know, I have it saved locally. My jaw was on the floor. Things were being said that I absolutely couldn't believe. I kept waiting for the kill switch to kick in, but it didn't! This is Lou Dobbs, people!!! This guy has been in on the scam for years, so what does it tell you if he's bad mouthing the criminals now? This is what it looks like when some elites start playing Cover-Your-Ass. In any event, wow! Lou, not maintaining appearances! Nice one: DOBBS: Let me help you out, Bruce. You say there's no practical way to end it. We could end it tomorrow. Corporate America can decide that they are going to maintain some commitment to their stakeholders, that is the working men and women of this country, not export the job, use the expression, higher product and efficiency when they mean lower cost. That's deceitful and dishonest.
BARTLETT: Well, if some companies did it and some companies didn't, then the ones that would -- that did not outsource would be at a comparative disadvantage. Again, the competition, the nature of the free markets tells people you have to do this.
DOBBS: You are a great free marketeer, a terrific economist and a good thinker. You tell me if this is such a good idea, free trade and exporting factors of production, which as I think you will agree has nothing to do with comparative advantage. Nothing that David Ricardo envisioned. There's nothing in it that David Ricardo envisioned despite the suggestion of some less honest economists. The fact is free trade right now looks like it costs us about a half trillion dollars this year, cumulatively about $3 trillion. We're a net importer of capital. We are exporting our wealth and our factors of production, knowledge base, what in the world. How can you call that free trade?
BARTLETT: Well, we don't have anything remotely like true free trade, but on the other hand, we do have a relatively open world economy. And I think it's demonstrably the case that a rising tide has lifted all boats. We talk about unemployment all the time but we only have a 5.6 percent unemployment rate. Not a very high rate by historical standards. The real standard of living of Americans has risen all the years that we have been talking about jobs being exported.
DOBBS: What have real earnings done over the last 30 years in this country. Bruce, you know the answer to that.
BARTLETT: There's some data problems.
DOBBS: You and I don't have the luxury of having problems with data. We know what the data tells us.
BARTLETT: If you look, for example, for real median family income it continues to rise. That's as good a measure of the well- being of the American people as any measure we have.
DOBBS: That's one way to avoid saying that it has declined.
BARTLETT: Well, one reason earnings have fallen is because benefits have gone up dramatically.
DOBBS: I understand. But it's a point you said there's really no free trade. Why is it that we keep hearing about free trade? We hear Carly Fiorina say there's no God-given right to an American job. This is first and foremost a political economy. We're making political judgments. This economy exists to provide a quality of life to the men and women who make up -- and children who make up the society.
BARTLETT: Well that's certainly true, but you always have to look at the alternative. The alternative to not having imports of half a trillion dollars isn't that we would produce half a trillion dollars more goods in the United States. It might be we would be worse off by having half a trillion dollars less goods to consume. You always have to look at the alternatives and I think that the alternative to -- of having some kind of protection is a cure worse than the disease. Tariffs on steel, it costs more jobs in the steel using industries than it saved in the steel producing industries, for example.
DOBBS: My question is very simply, what are we going to do about those jobs that are being exported overseas for cheap labor markets? You know, when we talked about comparative advantage, the fact is the Indian economy has a huge unemployment level, the Chinese have a huge unemployment rate, there is no way in which we can ever compete on a dollar basis hour for hour, product, our workers in this country with those people. It has nothing to do with comparative. They can suck up all the jobs in this country that we're going to create in the next five years.
BARTLETT: You can't look at just look at wage rates, you have to look at skill levels. You have to look at productivity. If a U.S. worker is five times as productive as a Chinese worker, it doesn't bother an employer to pay him five times more than he pays the Chinese worker because he'd have to hire five Chinese workers to do the same job. That's where we have to compete.
DOBBS: Well, to suggest that we make up three cents an hour or $2 an hour competition on wage costs by going to increments of 5x on productivity seems a little unnecessary burden to put on men and women working in this country, don't you think?
BARTLETT: It's not just productivity, it's also innovation. It's also a lot of jobs that they do here in our country cannot be done anywhere else. We need to concentrate on those kind of jobs instead of trying to save low-level jobs that we have to subsidize to keep.
DOBBS: Wait a minute. Of the 112,000 jobs created last month, the Labor Department reports that more than three-fourths of them were in low level, low paying, retail sector. I don't understand.
BARTLETT: Well, a great many of the jobs that are being created in this economy are not being counted even in that survey. They are jobs -- they are counted in the household survey as being -- people who are self-employed and contracted out.
DOBBS: Bruce, I appreciate it and it's good to talk with you.
BARTLETT: Thank you.
posted by Kevin at 4:05 AM
Bush: Spending Like a Drunken Democrat :.Note the source of this article! American Conservative: Forget the liberation of Iraq, George W. Bush will be remembered as the president who bankrupted America.
Every president of the past 40 years has contributed to the dire fiscal problems from which the United States now suffers. Bush, however, by massively increasing government spending and doing nothing to reduce the looming burden of Social Security and Medicare, will receive more blame than any of his predecessors.
A quick run through the numbers shows why future generations, weighed down by a national debt that is now growing at $1.8 billion a day, will look back in bewilderment, wondering why Bush, despite Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, decided to go for broke.
Under his administration, the national debt has gone up a stunning 24 percent, to $7 trillion. A chief reason for that increase is that Bush has enthusiastically promoted an explosion in government spending. In 2004, federal government outlays are expected to exceed $2.3 trillion, which is $500 billion more than in 2000. At nearly $500 billion, the budget deficit is close to 4.5 percent of gross domestic product, the sort of ratio usually seen in developing countries that are about to implode. Contrary to the White House�s absurd projections, private economists expect annual deficits of between $400 billion and $600 billion over the next 10 years.
posted by Kevin at 3:39 AM
Tony Blair Plans U.S. Trip to Boost President's Re-Election :.You have Bush, a "conservative," spending money like a drunken Democrat in a whorehouse, and on the other hand, you have Kerry, who's for the war in Iraq!? Now, over in Britain, you have Blair, the Labour leader, in bed with Bush!? Man, this thing is getting funkier by the minute. Does anyone believe that these governments are legitimate anymore? The Labour Party should be ashamed of itself. And to the Democrats in the U.S., elect Kerry, I dare you. No, I double dare you. Actually, it doesn't matter, you jackasses, since Kerry = Bush: TONY Blair is to make a controversial visit to Washington to boost President Bush's campaign for a second term in the White House.
The Prime Minister has decided that a defeat for his close coalition partner in the November US presidential election would damage his own chances of re-election in Britain.
And he has privately told aides that the election of an American leader who opposed the war in Iraq could jeopardise the special relationship between Britain and the US.
posted by Kevin at 3:31 AM
Huge U.S. Trade Deficit Hits Dollar :.The US trade deficit hit a record $489bn (�258bn) in 2003, with a quarter of the shortfall coming in trade with China, official figures have shown.
The deficit was 17.1% larger than the previous record gap recorded in 2002.
The burgeoning deficit has put downward pressure on the dollar, which could create inflationary pressure as Americans pay more for imported goods.
posted by Kevin at 3:14 AM
2/15/2004
Earthly Software Rebooted Spirit :.This article is offtopic, but interesting. It's about the embedded software on the Mars rovers (and other engineering projects where software failure is not an option): Ultimately, the fix that saved Spirit wasn't that different from how a PC would be repaired on Earth. It's just that the folks who have their hardware on Mars -- and the eyes of the world on them -- are better prepared for disaster.
Tech support for an $820 million mission is a cautious affair. Tools to recover from and fix any problem must be built into the system before launch. The systems' behaviors need to be completely understood and predictable.
"Luckily, during the design period, we anticipated that we might get into a situation like this," said Glenn Reeves, who oversees the software aboard the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
For stability, reliability and predictability, mission designers did not bust the budget and design the hardware or software from scratch. Instead, they turned to hardware and software that's been used in space before and has a proven track record on Earth as well.
"The advantage of using commercial software is it's well-known, and it's well deployed," said Mike Deliman, an engineer at Alameda-based Wind River Systems, which made the rovers' operating system. "It has been used throughout the world in hundreds of thousands of applications."
posted by Kevin at 1:43 PM
Japan: Strapped to the Mast of the Sinking U.S. Dollar :.This article makes the macroeconomic principals easy to understand, even for beginners. Highly recommended: Japan is on an unprecedented spending spree, all focused on the same product: the U.S. dollar.
Tokyo bought an astounding $172 billion last year to keep the yen from strengthening too much against the greenback. The push only accelerated in January, when Japan snapped up another $67 billion.
That Japan's government is buying dollars to prevent a stronger yen from smothering a feeble economic recovery at home is not new. But the scale of the current round is far beyond its earlier interventions.
The purchases are so large they are effectively subsidizing record U.S. budget and trade deficits, keeping American interest rates low and worrying some experts that a painful shock will hit if the spending spree stops.
"We are standing on a delicate balance," said legislator Kohei Ohtsuka, an upper house finance committee member and a former Bank of Japan official. "If this situation were a miniature model, it would be in danger of falling apart if we removed just one small part."Research Credit: NF
posted by Kevin at 3:46 AM
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:. Reading
 Fatal
Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture by Andrew Kimbrell
Readers will come to see
that industrial food production is indeed a "fatal harvest"
- fatal to consumers, as pesticide residues and new disease vectors
such as E. coli and "mad cow disease" find their way
into our food supply; fatal to our landscapes, as chemical runoff
from factory farms poison our rivers and groundwater; fatal to
genetic diversity, as farmers rely increasingly on high-yield
monocultures and genetically engineered crops; and fatal to our
farm communities, which are wiped out by huge corporate
farms.
 Friendly
Fascism: The New Face of Power in America by Bertram Myron Gross
This is a relatively
short but extremely cogent and well-argued treatise on the rise
of a form of fascistic thought and social politics in late 20th
century America. Author Bertram Gross' thesis is quite straightforward;
the power elite that comprises the corporate, governmental and
military superstructure of the country is increasingly inclined
to employ every element in their formidable arsenal of 'friendly
persuasion' to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans
through what Gross refers to as friendly fascism.
 The
Good Life
by Scott and Helen Nearing Helen
and Scott Nearing are the great-grandparents of the back-to-the-land
movement, having abandoned the city in 1932 for a rural life based
on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash...Fascinating,
timely, and wholly useful, a mix of the Nearings' challenging
philosophy and expert counsel on practical skills.
 Silent
Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth by David Bollierd
In Silent Theft, David Bollier
argues that a great untold story of our time is the staggering
privatization and abuse of our common wealth. Corporations are
engaged in a relentless plunder of dozens of resources that we
collectively own—publicly funded medical breakthroughs,
software innovation, the airwaves, the public domain of creative
works, and even the DNA of plants, animals and humans. Too often,
however, our government turns a blind eye—or sometimes helps
give away our assets. Amazingly,
the silent theft of our shared wealth has gone largely unnoticed
because we have lost our ability to see the commons.
 The
Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics
Guide by John Seymour The
Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that
teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony
with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops
and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and
wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and much more.
 When
Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten
When Corporations
Rule the World explains how economic globalization has concentrated
the power to govern in global corporations and financial markets
and detached them from accountability to the human interest. It
documents the devastating human and environmental consequences
of the successful efforts of these corporations to reconstruct
values and institutions everywhere on the planet to serve their
own narrow ends.
 The
New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques
for the Home and Market Gardener
This expansion
of a now-classic guide originally published in 1989 is intended
for the serious gardener or small-scale market farmer. It describes
practical and sustainable ways of growing superb organic vegetables,
with detailed coverage of scale and capital, marketing, livestock,
the winter garden, soil fertility, weeds, and many other
topics.
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