Posts by Pascal Monett

Dodgy anti-virus update bunfight goes to court

Where did you read that ?

I have found no comment anywhere that Rising whatever had included live malware code in their application. Do you have a source to substantiate that claim ?

Microsoft points robots toward point upgrade

Microsoft is preparing to make a robot army ?

Not a problem, really. The day Ballmer gives the coded attack signal is the exact moment where all the bots will do a General Protection Failure, followed by a Blue Screen of Death, then they'll all reboot and, having forgotten why they were activated, will all just stand there looking stupid.

And if the bots are running Vista, it'll take them 20 minutes each time they want to move a leg or an arm, so we'll have largely the time to get away, regroup and prepare to crush them.

Apple emasculates the iPhone

If this was a Microsoft product . .

. . you'd have Apple fanboyz crawling out from the woodwork to say that Apple is sooo superior and would NEVER release a half-finished product.

But, because this is Apple, we hear instead of "unimplemented features", perfectly normal, do it the clunky way and shut your whingtrap. Besides, you're just too stupid to find out how to do it right.

With all this objectivity floating around, it's a wonder we still have wars.

UK going to hell on hardware, eco group warns

Wash up by hand

Now there's a sin against water instead of electricity since washing by hand is inherently more wasteful in water than using a good dishwasher - not counting the lighting you use to see what you're doing instead of just programming a wash for 3-to-6 a.m., shutting off the lights and sauntering off to watch the TV like every civilized being should.

As for multi-function thingamajigs, it's sheer bollocks to think that such devices will save energy. It seems plain common sense to have a single-function device to turn on when needed and turn off when done with it.

I wonder what the so-called "eco" group would have said to a multi-function TV, DVD/MP3 player/radio - where you would have to turn on the TV set to listen to the radio ! Any fool can see that it is much better to have an MP3 player, a DVD player, a TV set and a radio - and not let any of the bloody things go to sleep mode. OFF is the proper mode for things that are not in use, and OFF means 0 watts drawn from the mains.

As for set-top boxes that do phone, internet and TV, please don't get me started on what a waste that is !

(Un)lucky UCLA student cops Paris's old mobile number

I believe

that it's nuts to have a mobile on all night. Shut the darn thing off and get a good night's sleep !

Sweden may block Pirate Bay over child porn

The police should request that files be taken down ?

Of course not ! That would defeat the purpose of shutting them off, which is what this whole story is about. The laws of Sweden are what they are, but the politicians are always bought by greenbacks - and MPAA and co have lots and lots of greenbacks to throw at politicians.

More, it seems, than they have to redistribute to honest artists, which, incidentally, is supposed to be their actual purpose.

Microsoft boots Savvis from data centers

It may not matter now

where those "bright young lights" go, but it sure will matter where they are in about twenty years, since they will be in a position to actually make the strategic decisions.

For having worked with University graduates, I can say that Linux is very much in favor over Microsoft, viewed as an inherently flawed and inferior OS. When these bright types hold managerial positions, I think Microsoft is going to have it's rear handed to itself in so many ways it'll make Gartner dizzy trying to keep track.

Insuring iTunes: are your digital downloads covered?

24% have already lost their music collection ?

I'd be surprised that 24% had lost it to fire, really I would. So let's just admit that these people have lost their precious music because they failed to make the required backup - as usual.

Well it's the normal process, people. You buy a PC, you have a friend who knows about them tell you how to do things, you don't do what they tell you and one day, inevitably (hey, we're talking Windows, right?), you learn the hard way - the same way everyone learns - that they were right.

And once you've learned your lesson, you do your backups (well, mostly, right ?). I fail to see why insurance should cover this, it's a case of education, not loss. If people are smart enough to do their backups properly, they don't need insurance.

And if your house goes up in smoke, you're going to have a lot more to worry about than your music collection.

Psst - wanna buy a pirate MPack toolkit?

I'm just waiting

for the first lawsuit. Surely these hackers are going to want to protect their valuable IP, right ?

Right.

Oh, and concerning the above subject, I stop reading a post any time I encounter a sentence that has almost as many capital letters as words. I also stop reading anything that gives me a headache. AMFM manages to do both in just two sentences. I wish I had that spidey-sense !

Turing test challenges spam filters

I use a whitelist

The vast amount of mail I get is first filtered on whitelist - anything not approved is thrown into a temp file. When I'm interested, I go through my temp file and filter on blacklist - anything from domains, countries and subjects that I do not approve of is deleted (and yes, Bangkok is on the list since none of my friends or acquaintances will ever write from there).

Whatever is left is usually spam, allowing me to refine my filter, or it is a message from some outfit I have not yet filtered, allowing me to choose whether to whitelist it, blacklist it, or ignore it.

PDF spam ? Pah ! If it's in the temp box, it can only be crud. All attachments are destroyed without even hesitating.

University boffins squeeze 500GB onto a DVD

Who would want 500 GB discs?

And who would want more than 512 kilobytes of RAM ?

Back in the 1980s, the answer was nobody, but today it is quite hard to run a Windows machine on less than 512 megabytes of RAM.

So the question "Who would want 500 GB discs?" is averagely-valid today. I have a personal backup space of no less than 76 DVDs, which amounts to close to 330GB total. I'd welcome the opportunity to have it all on one disc, and I'd be even happier to have a second backup copy. But that is a matter of personal convenience.

On the other hand, the IT industry evolution points strongly upwards in every single domain. Storage space is expanding every year, and its cost is plummeting. CPU power has doubled for decades now, and pure horsepower is set to continue to multiply furiously - albeit with a catch on how efficiently it will be used by compilers due to multithreading constraints. RAM has grown in availability and accessibility every year without fail. In other words, there is no domain in IT technology that is not on a fast track to more powerful and more abundant versions.

Thanks to that, the variety of data formats available to the common user has grown as well. First we had text, then we got graphics, then we got sound, now we have video. Soon we will get HD video. Who knows what we can have after that ?

Video is the most demanding application there is. Be it in storage space or computing power, editing video can bring any high-end machine close to a hernia even today. Do you know how much data a simple half-hour film can take ? For having edited a simple school project I can tell you : the raw data takes up 18GB, and that is in VHS-level quality. DVD-level quality would most probably quadruple that, but I don't know that for sure.

In any case, never knock the next generation of anything IT-related. There will come a point when we will have a need for it.

Well, except in the sound arena. It's time to stop the nonsense. 7.1 Surround ? I only have two ears, guys, knock it off.

Dinner party guest makes gruesome discovery

Can count herself lucky

Looks like this particular person can thank her lucky stars that she made it outside alive. In any film, upon discovering the bodies, the girl would turn around suddenly and see the guy at the basement door, holding a long knife and a wicked smile (or sad frown).

So life CAN actually be different from a Hollywood film !

Helium balloon Brit breaks distance record

Why the ginger nuts ?

I can understand that pork scratchings contain all the necessary nutrients for a balanced balloon diet (got to have something to get it back down), but ginger nuts ? What's good in those ?

Better to have brought cashews, in my opinion. Try it next time with cashews, and I'm sure you'll go farther.

Google: Our data retention is not data protection watchdogs' business

Sounds nice

I would be much more confident in Google's ability to properly manage data without government supervision if Google hadn't kowtowed to the Chinese government and helped put somebody in jail.

It seems that if China asks something, then it's Yessir! RightawaySir!, but if it's a regular (what's left of) democratic government, then it's more like Shove off it and Get Out Of My Way.

Could it be because Google already owns the market here ? I wonder.

Police hunt renegade cow sex youth

Time to update the law

Typical acts and consequences here. Now that there is a law against donkey shagging, cows are taking the rap. So we need to update the law to include cow protection along with donkey protection.

Now, given that the law protecting donkeys was approved in the late 1800s, suggesting that there were quite a lot of surprised donkeys before that, it seems that we'll have to wait until at least the late 2100s before extending the protection to cows.

Then, one fine day (hopefully before the 5th millenium), sheep will finally be offered the precious protection or the law. On that day, bisons will have a lot to fear.

Showdown persists over '100% undetectable' rootkit

What an expert !

Great insight, this guy. "Malware is easy to find, all you need to do is to find what part is missed".

Sure, and fighting crime is easy too - all you need is to catch all the criminals.

With "experts" like that, no wonder the world is being taken over by dimwits.

Red ring of Xbox death costs Microsoft $1bn

Can't bear to hurt Bill

I just cannot bring myself to consider hurting the already suffering bank account of my dearest Bill. In light of this news, I now have full justification for my decision to never buy an XBox whatever - it hurts the bottom line of the most famous monopoly in the world.

And I can't do that, now can I ? Absolutely not. By practising total abstinence against XBox and Vista, I will bring Microsoft back into the black simply by virtue of not costing them any money.

The fact that I won't be giving them any money is irrelevant - thanks to me Microsoft loses less !

Help Microsoft lose less ! Don't buy its products !

;-)

El Reg to bite hand that feeds ICT?

Long live freedom !

Personally, I would prefer that we place a ban on banning.

I have no problem with mobes, lappys or boffins because I understand that this is not an American (specifically USA) site and the people who maintain and animate the site do not have the same background I do. Plus, I like the typically English humor and the insight into UK that such terms give.

The web being (for the moment) a free things in which anyone can participate, I say let the whiners make their own site - if they want to ban things they can do so on their own pages.

Sole competitor comes second in cake-baking contest

Breathtakingly logical

Gotta love it - a ridiculously small village has a contest, and not only is there no more than one contestant, but said contestant doesn't even get first place !

And let's not forget how a piddly village judge is an obviously internationally-renowned authority on just how perfect a cake is supposed to be, and is obviously totally qualified to judge any cake by the strictest and most absolute rules there is. It wouldn't do to let a scrungy little cake win first prize when maybe there is someone somewhere in Africa or South America that could have made a better cake but just neglected to enter the competition.

Frankly, the attitude of the jury just astounds me. I would find normal to judge the selection before me, and award first prize to the best of what is offered. If there is only one contestant, it might have been a better idea to cancel the whole thing anyway. Maybe if they weren't so callous in their judgments they might get more participants in their stupid competitions.

German courts demand no more Gmail squabbling

You wouldn't be unsurprised

So that means you're totally surprised then, right ?

Ah, the beauty of the double negative.

Defra appoints new top boffin

Overqualified ?

For what exactly ? If he is a "former aid to the White House", especially on issues if climate, I'd tend to think that he is one of those who "counseled" Dubya on matters of climate. If that is so, then he should be considered as quite ready to give his "expert" opinion once he knows what you want to hear.

Not exactly a stellar reference in any case. Plus, if he's only been doing politics for the past 20 years, then his expertise in the scientific domain is more than put in question.

No man can involve himself in politics for 20 years without compromising with the devil at some point. So, what kind of skeletons does he have, I wonder ?

Blades carve up Top 500 supercomputers list

One question

Does it run Quake IV ?

Teens using M-rated games to vent anger

Umm, Internet does not count as social

Sorry, but Internet play cannot really count as a social activity. Unless you use a VOIP client to talk with the people you game with, you are just replacing computer AI with human intelligence, you're not talking to people in a game.

And if you are communicating in-game without VOIP, then you're doing a lot of typing and not much playing, basically using an overly complicated IM chat line.

Playing with a bunch of friends physically present in a LAN is social. Playing with the same friends over the Internet with VOIP is slightly less social. Playing over the Net with friends and no VOIP is playing alone against much more difficult enemies that sometimes type you a message you can relate to. No social there.

Dublin college introduces video game degree

State of the art and Microsoft ?

A "state-of-the-art learning environment" from Microsoft ? What's it going to be like, sitting in the middle of a Blue Screen of Death ?

US reclaims world hotdog scoffing crown

What a wonderful sport

And how classy as well. A "no-spewing" rule really marks the difference between stuffing food down a gaping maw and the lesser sports of, say, horse riding, ice skating or even water polo.

Well, at least in this kind of "sport" there is no need to check for drugs. There is, however, a great need for medical personnel and emergency surgery equipment, since it's a wonder each such "competition" doesn't end in a few busted guts.

Hyperion harbours building blocks of life, says NASA

Cool

Now all we need is a mad scientist hell-bent on destroying the world to go out and "harvest" the biological stuff on the space rock, transforming into a deadly virus that will destroy all of Humanity, or transform us into fritters.

CSA IT 'a turkey from day one'

No surprise there

"MPs remain sceptical about its replacement" - no wonder, they know perfectly well that any replacement will just cost billions more and work no better.

Enraged reader savages iPhone fanboys

Use as intended ?

Since when do geeks use things as they are intended to be used ? It is the very nature of geekdom to seek out ways to use an object that were absolutely not intended by the maker of said object - to the point of sometimes making the object do things it was supposed to not be able to do.

This so-called flamer smells a lot like a troll to me.

Linux media centre integrates YouTube

And this is supposed to be a good thing ?

Color me nonplussed by this gadgetoid. No offense to the makers, but the ability to watch grainy, pixellated video on my widescreen instead of on my 20" does not really rock my boat.

Brown calls for e-petitions to get debated in Parliament

You believe

"I for one don't understand the finer points of European Macro economics, but I believe that the party I choose to support does"

Yes, well we all have our illusions, now don't we ?

Mobile handset selection

My head is buzzing

Gah ! Am I really supposed to think about all these things when I choose a mobile phone ? Heaven help me, I thought I just needed to choose a phone, it turns out that they want me to choose a mobile office.

Well I won't do that. For me a phone is for phoning. My email and Internet needs I quarantine to my PC, thank you very much - the last thing I want is to be pestered everywhere I am by email. I'm not a crackberry addict.

I choose my phone for connectivity to the network and battery life, nothing more. A phone is a phone. I don't need it for anything else than phoning. For the rest, I have other, reliable tools.

EC wants to suppress internet bomb-making guides

Great, now it's starting over here

File that under "Things to do to seem busy and taking care of issues without actually doing anything".

First of all, starting down the road of forbidding specific URLs at the ISP level is going straight to a government-controlled Internet. It seems to me that referring to China is just about the worst possible basis for making a decision that impacts freedom of speech on the most basic level.

Second, actually blocking some sites or URLs from some countries will not change the fact that the information is already in circulation. Those who are interested will find it, if only in the Anarchist Manual or somesuch which is certainly available over P2P networks.

Third, what about legitimate research ? Some people actually have jobs dealing with explosives, and I'll bet that online references that are freely available are probably quite handy to them now and then.

Don't tell me that my security needs the Internet to become a regulated, government-approved and politically-sanctioned place, I will never believe that. Whatever terrorists exist today have the info they need and know how to apply it. As for the rank amateurs, well the availability of bomb-making instructions didn't help the latest group of fools in the UK, now did it ?

Dedicated people with a will to succeed will find out how to make the bombs they need whether the info is available or not. Censoring the Internet for that excuse is nothing but an invitation to censorship for whatever excuse is the flavor of the day.

I think there is one quote that is totally relevant to this subject :

"Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will"

Fidelity employee steals 2.3 million consumer records

Hey wait a minute

I'm first in line to bash a company for a stolen laptop with personal details, but hey, this time it's a "senior level database administrator" that made off with company data.

An admin is one of the most crucial, security-sensitive jobs there is. An admin can get his hands on just about anything, and companies everywhere live in fear of not being able to trust their own admin.

There is nothing you can do against an admin that he won't find out sooner or later. Either you trust him, or you fire him.

This despicable individual abused his employer's trust to make himself some fast money. Can't blame the company on that one.

AT&T rigs net neutrality study

We need more bandwidth, right ?

"an internet where all traffic is treated equally would require much more capacity than a tiered infrastructure"

Well duh. Obviously it would need as much capacity as there is traffic. Why is that a bad thing ?

A "tiered infrastructure" under control of AT&T would simply mean that I would get billed for each byte I cause to pass on "their" network, instead of paying a fixed fee per month. Oh of course, that's not how AT&T puts it, but in the end, that's what will happen.

I find it rather galling to see telcos try and find more excuses to bill me for copper that they put in the ground 50 years ago instead of using their immense profits to put fiber everywhere and get a good image for furthering the increasing need in data transfer.

Here's a thought for all those important CEOs : instead of trying to extort money from me by visibly shafting me, be nice and friendly and I'll give you the money you want on my own.

Pensioner used live shell as doorstop

I wonder

After the positively chilling accounts made of the antics of the Al Qeida Circus Squad, I wonder how breathtaking the account would have been if the "doorstop" had activated its primary function.

I also wonder how the media would go about justifying the "bombing" of a private property. Most assuredly, though, they would take advantage of the almost certain casualties to bang the Drum of Fear and go on and on about how nobody is safe anymore if the Terrorists are bombing regular houses.

I'm just happy that the worst did not come to pass. Does seem a bit lunatic to bring back a live, non-detonated shell though. Did someone have a fantasy about Russian Roulette ?

Banks want data pulled from US

Well something is going to happen

When big money talks, things happen. And big money does not like being spied upon. So my guess is that Swift is going to bend over backwards to comply with the demands and go wherever it takes to ensure continued partnership with yet more big money.

This is one the US is going to lose for sure.

Digital divide becoming chasm, research reveals

Maybe

they're counting associations ? Like the ones bringing used PC equipment to poor countries ?

Russian copyright wars to continue despite AllofMP3 shutdown

They don't pay royalties ?

Well given the number of great musicians and music legends that have died in abject poverty thanks to the wonderful contracts devised by RIAA and consorts, I frankly couldn't care less.

I don't see how giving RIAA yet more money is going to do any good to the artists who don't see much from those vampires anyway.

And when you get down to it, if RIAA was so fair in its distribution, then the really successful artists wouldn't need to create their own labels. There's a reason they do : to finally get the money they are due for their success and performance.

Until they manage to fly free, all the RIAA does is suck their blood dry.

Massachusetts kowtows to Microsoft

Well there's a problem with that, Steven

It's that OOXML is based on Microsoft's XML, as stated above, and that is a broken implementation. On top of that, and I quote, again from above, "to actually access documents ... requires access to closed, proprietry binary data streams that are NOT documented at all"

So tell me, Steve, how do you go about creating compatibility with a closed, proprietary data format without getting sued for violating the DMCA ? You know, that law that was made so that big corporations could specifically ground to dust anyone who actually had the gall to make something

On top of that, the "OSS crew" as you name them, _have_ done something : they've created ODF, an open standard freely available to anyone. Why doesn't Microsoft simply create an adapter for Word that writes to ODF ? What is the issue with that ?

More importantly, why is it that politicians don't have the balls to ever stick to their guns, and the only time they do, it's a dropout draft dodger sticking to the wrong gun ?

Loopy quantums reveal successive universes

The bouncyverse !

Hey, I like that !

Google slapped with libel claim

Shocking

I am aghast at finding out that, in the UK, linking to a particular content that is not written by you can get you sued by some nitwit who considers himself insulted by said content.

I am nonetheless happy that said nitwit is filing a suit, because there is rather ample history proving that UK judges do have their wigs on straight, and given that, they will certainly posit a conclusion on the same basis as common sense would want it : the nitwit should sue the libellers, not the linkers.

Thanks to this ridiculous lawsuit, the nitwit will undoubtedly score an own goal by having paid to change the law and make it clear that linkers are not responsible for the content they link to.

Google has removed links to its own forums on request, as per normal procedure in any democratic country, and has thus proved its goodwill in the matter. To go any further is bone-headedness and I certainly hope the outcome will be as I have outlined.

I know nothing of his business or the validity of any of the complaints about him, but to do this is certainly not painting his moral fiber in a favorable color. To me, this Retkin is barking up the wrong tree, and while he's doing that he's not dealing with whatever issue prompted the complaints in the first place. So he's just a nut that has no business running a business.

He should go work for Sony.

'al-Qaeda' puts on big shoes, red nose, takes custard pie

This is reassuring

I am quite pleased to see that there are many people that are keeping their wits about concerning this sad event. Of course, Reg readers are above the norm, but it's nice to see it confirmed.

That said, I am worried about the comparisons between wartime UK and "modern" UK. I think it is high time that England adopts a new motto : What Would Churchill Do ?

Obviously, in this case, he wouldn't even stop smoking his cigar.

It would be nice to see "mainstream" media adopt this kind of attitude. Right now, they look much too much like Fox News for my own comfort.

iPhone hackers disclose vulns and hunt for clues

No Response

"Apple representatives didn't respond to a request for comment."

They don't need to - the MacAddicts will take care of the issue for them by spamming the threads that mention the issue with strident denials and strawman attacks on Windows (but not Linux). They are coming right now, and it's a safe bet to say there will be a comment from a drooling turtleneck before the day is over.

As you can see, there already has been an initial warning shot.

NASA snaps mysterious night-shining clouds

Wait a minute

The AIM satellite was launched end of April of this year, and I'm being told that changes in PMCs could be "an early warning that our environment is being altered". Well gosh, I wonder if that would have anything to do spring going to summer ?

Why is it that I feel an undercurrent of Global Warming threat in that sentence ? Isn't it a bit quick to conclude anything from a project that has been running all of two months ? If two months observation were all that was needed to explain weather patterns, then we'd have Global Warming down pat and the weatherman would be 100% accurate all the time.

A bit more seriousness from a scientist is expected. Either that, or the hack needs to ensure that the scientists' words were correctly transcribed and explained.

Either way, something is wrong in this article.

Rival malware gangs wage turf war

Hmm, botnets, P2P and trojans

Seems that the criminal world is way ahead of anything at this point. Want to bet that Homeland Security doesn't have a clue what's going on ? I wonder what color they have for cyber threats ? Fuschia ?

Beavis and Butthead in London jihad

One more point

"the truth remains that these people want us dead, and they want it because we aren't muslim, because we don't worship their version of god and don't venerate his prophet."

Sorry, but that is not the case. They don't want us dead because we're not Muslims, they want us dead because we meddle in regional policies we have no understanding of. The US have earned the moniker of Great Satan not because of the difference in religion, but because of the carelessness and downright callousness of US behavior towards Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular. Notice also that none of this attitude existed before the forced creation of the state of Israel, which is, in my opinion, the worst mistake the UN has ever made.

Until that issue is resolved - and frankly, between how irresolute and inefficient the UN is and how adept the US is in keeping things that way, I don't think it ever will be - the fundamentalists will continue droning on about the Great Satan and how it is the ultimate enemy of their way of life.

Well, until the day comes when there is no more oil, anyway. Then we'll all leave them alone probably, since we won't have any more economical incentive to bother them. Unfortunately, by that time there will have been entire generations of jihadists raised on hatred of the West, and who knows what that will bring ?

Google flirts with online OS

The drones are coming

"Google is far more trustworthy than my ISP and has far superior uptime."

Fat lot of good that does when you ISP is down. Tell you what, my PC has better uptime than Google, and I don't need my ISP to open my files. But hey, you're free to lock yourself in whatever scheme you want.

"Google is free for life."

You don't know that. Google is ad-based for now. Web advertising is going down the crapper, so one day Google just might decide that you have to pay to access your precious online storage.

And whatever happens, you might end up regretting having entrusted all your personal files to some entity that can change its TOS on a whim, and hand over whatever data a given government wants.

If a government wants data off my hard disk, they'll have to come and get it first. It's called privacy, and as soon as your data leaves your door, you end up saying goodbye to that notion.

Theatre and democracy in Second Life

Hey, don't knock it

I think this is a very interesting documentary on schizophrenia and how to induce it. Or maybe this is just an enormous social engineering tool made by sadists to create legions of masochists ? I wonder if psychiatrists will end up with a name for it : SLezia, perhaps ?

Of course, there will be endless discussion about whether or not the individual was sane before submitting to the process, and how that influences the outcome and the speed at which the victim submits.

Kind of like vampirism - the speed at which you become a vampire is supposed to depend on the strength of the one that bit you and the strength of your own predisposition towards Good.

But, once bitten, you shall fall under the shade. SL is like that. Once you start, you will end up in leather, being whipped by a donkey. Your downfall is inevitable.

The only solution is not to start.

Core 2 Duo: Intel's insecurity blanket

Intel denies strongly

Well now that's a surprise ! I really don't understand why Intel would so fiercely protect the first CPU it has that trumps AMD after five years of Athlon dominance. I have no idea why Intel would take arms against such comments for a CPU that is being sold by the truckload.

That said, I agree with the first post. If we start seeing an exploit, then any objections will be rendered groundless and something will have to be done. I have a Core Duo myself, and I've never had any issue with it.

Wait and see is my position on just about any vulnerability. If spammers and blackhats don't find an interest in exploiting it, then from my consumer point of view, it is unimportant. If my PC crashes because of it, then it is important and I want something done about it.

Bush and Cheney subpoenaed for wiretapping

Election day ?

After threatening Clinton with impeachment over a blowjob, it's a damn shame to see that the American Congress has taped its mouth and is sitting on its hands over the WMD debacle.

What more proof is needed to impeach the entire Administration ? Why wait for elections ? Because the terrorists will win ?

Bollocks, they already have. The USA is no longer making rational decisions based on law and justice, it is running all over the moral compass and sitting on the face of individual rights.

What makes you think elections will make any difference ? Thanks to Diebold, your electoral basis is flawed and can be hacked by a pimply teenager. And waiting for the Dems to grow a pair simply means that the Neocons have a millenia or two left to fool around and destroy the planet.

Man am I pissed off with the White House this morning. I've gotta take a nap before I chew somebody's head off.