March 21, 2008

Okay. I'm back. Let's see what I need to catch up on.

1. Richardson endorses Obama. Racial rifts healed?

2. Passport file breaching. It's not just for Obama anymore.

3. Economy bad. But we're Americans. We assume it will bounce back.

4. Over a foot of new snow here in Wisconsin.

5. Spitzer in whore-addiction therapy. Next stop Oprah.

6. Arianna is now bigger than Drudge. But Drudge does it all with one page.

27 comments:

reader_iam said...

Oh no. You're not mollifying me this easy. I already have a news aggregator.

So there.

I'm leaving, I say.

Larry Sheldon said...

I'm getting a little ... bullshit ... I am getting a lot tired of the "addiction" cop out.

Either take responsibility for your actions or get yourself committed as incompetent to manage your affairs.

MadisonMan said...

Passport file breaching.

I think Peg Lautenschlager made a good point. It's a problem that the people doing this are contractors that are not vetted security-wise like "normal" Governmental employees.

I assume it's simple curiosity -- wouldn't I be tempted to peak if I were working there? Yes.

reader_iam said...

"Usually in these training circumstances, people are encouraged to enter a family member's name (in the system), just for training purposes,"

Huh?!? What do they mean by family? Frankly, I love a second cousin or two, but my passport file would be none of their damn business.

For "training purposes"??? You know, back in the 90s, I was involved in numerous corporate training projects involving enterprise-wide systems/databases. (I'm serious, here--SAP, JDEdwards, etc. etc.)

There's something called "training data," and "training instances [of databases]," with which users can be trained without entering, much less breaching, the live database.

Also, there are such things as "security profiles." I've set and entered those, too.

What a load of bullshit.

What a revealing mindset.

***

OK, my lighthearted mood of the day has officially ended.

reader_iam said...

I did that work, over a period years, as a contractor and subcontractor, by the way (and had some people subcontracted through us). You should have seen the contract ... and the amount of insurance required. There were also all sorts of protocol, procedures and etc. to protect against this sort of thing.

It is perfectly possible to protect against this sort of thing WITHOUT having to require everyone be an employee. This has to do with bad policy, carelessness, sloppiness and, apparently, a complete lack of regard for Best Practices.

Blecccch. Our government at work.

(By the way, the people ultimately charged with establishing appropriate procedures--or not, in this case--were most likely ***employees***. So let's not assume that employee status instantly graces one with good judgment or a sense of responsibility.)

George M. Spencer said...

As far as the economy goes, it's all about getting to November.

Bush and Bernanke are doing to the economy what Vincent Vega did to Mia Wallace's chest.

Bear markets typically happen more often during a president's first two years, and the second year is often worse than the first. It's going to get medieval.

EnigmatiCore said...

Oh, well, if Bill Richardson says so, I guess I'll swing back to Obama.

Brian Doyle said...

You have to scroll to see all of Drudge, too. They're both basically one page.

Plus, while Drudge's original content can be fresher (if not necessarily high quality) there's not much of it. It's a link aggregator with a fantastic brand.

titusisfeelingzenthankyou said...

Hey, you forgot to mention the Idaho senate candidate who changed his name to Pro-Life.

He is running for Larry Craigs "seat".

I am sorry but it is almost April and I say enough with the snow.

Thankfully, we aren't having any of it out here but I feel for my sisters back in Wisconsin who have said the winter has been miserable.

How is everyone today?

What color are the toenails?

How are your toenails?

Werent' some of my zen postings uplifting for your snowy Friday?

titusisfeelingzenthankyou said...

I need to figure where I am going to order food from tonight.

Interesting tidbit fellow repubicans. Do you know out east when people refer to "fish" when going out they generally mean all seafood but when in the midwest when referring to fish they only mean actual fish.

Example is a friend of mine wants to go out for fish out east because he wants scallops or shrimp or lobster or clams or mussels.

My parents in Wisconsin want to go out to eat fish and they are referring to cod or haddock or blue gill or walleye.

Midwestern diners don't think of other seafood (lobster, shrimp) as fish but east coast folks do.

Thank you.

Tim said...

Excellent. This will surely expedite the day we've got that super-fabulous, state-of-the-art government-provided, cradle-to-grave, wall-to-wall single-payer socialized Health Care.

Because, don'tcha know by now, No One Can Do It Better!

Si, Se Puede!

Sh*t.

Bob said...

Spitzer was an employee.

And I'm sure those who viewed the passport files have some new form of addiction...

reader_iam said...

Now it's being reported, if I'm hearing correctly, that a government employee has also been fired in connection with the breach of passport files.

If that's so, then, as I said, it's indicative of a larger issue than contractors vs. employees.

blake said...

What I would like to see caught up on (if you're taking requests) is this:

Basic Greenhouse Equations "Totally wrong".

The point I've been making all along is summed up neatly here: "he noticed the solution -- originally done in 1922 by Arthur Milne, but still used by climate researchers today -- ignored boundary conditions by assuming an "infinitely thick" atmosphere."

All computer simulations are based on assumptions. When those assumptions are wrong--and they always are when it comes to big picture, far future prediction--the models tend to reinforce the bias of the programmer.

Ann as far as I know has never really taken a stance one way or the other on AGW, but many posters here have waxed eloquent (and not so eloquent) on the "settled science" nature of the thing.

Between that and the lack of rising ocean temperatures and the predictions that we're entering a cooling solar cycle--we're going to be missing "global warming" soon enough.

Sorry, Wisconsin (and points north).

Alan said...

Regarding ocean temperatures, wouldn't we see the temperature go down due to melting glacier ice?

Peter V. Bella said...

Hello fellow conservatives, Liberals, and all extremes. The snow has been falling here since seven a.m. I think we are in for the final global winter. Will Al Gore come to rescue us? Will he wave his peace prize and end this?

I think that the sex addiction thing is totally false and was created so wealthy people in the public eye can have an excuse for banging whores. If Idiot Putzer was a sex addict, he would have been banging whores and his wife as often as possible.

Now, I must prepare my meatless Good Friday dinner. Could not get to the pepper and egg joint. the driving conditions are horrible.

Anyone know where I could get a sled and a team of dogs?

Kirby Olson said...

In the one party you have political correctness.

In the other party, the alternative offered is what again?

Whatever it is, I'll take it. Could anything be worse than political correctness?

Peter V. Bella said...

More Philology

Sesquipedalian

Alan said...

MCG, maybe you can submit "posh" to hotforwords. I heard it's actually an acronym.

JackDRipper said...

1. I guess two cabinet positions really wasn't enough. Do Latinos even know that Richardson is one of them and not another chubby White guy with a beard and permanent tan?

2. First the levees and now the passports. Sadly for Obama they got to Hil and the crypt keeper as well. So no attempted lynching there.

3. Of course the economy overall will bounce back but what about sectors and regions. Ohio and Michigan will have to sit back and watch others recover.

4. Snow is good. Thank God for the rain to wash the trash off the sidewalk.

5. Who the hell names their kid Eliot? Anger at mommy for that might be behind the sexual problems.

6. Arianna has her ex hubby's millions and a cabal of liberal freaks typing for her. Matt's alone in his room with his hat. Not a fair fight.

Alan said...

Never mind, HotForWords already covered posh. heh

Jeremy said...

blake,
Admittedly it is a little funny when one of the two quoted critics denies this guy on the grounds that climate science is 200 years old and therefore can't possibly be wrong.

Chip Ahoy said...

Compliments to Huffington's elective surgeon and to her embalmer, shows what money can do.

I just heard how many millions were backing her site and how much she makes in advertising, trafficking in hate. It's disgusting. How anyone can take seriously a politico that sounds exactly like Zsa Zsa Gabor is beyond me. But she does look great and that's all that really counts. It's an amazing country innit.

I just clicked on all your ads for the hell of it. Do they check to see how long we stay there? Just now went over to Drudge and clicked on his ad too. Just trying to do my part in counteracting the Gulfstream and Lexus Liberals.

Immigration agent bribes for sexual favors. One Isaac R. Baichu himself an immigrant from Guyana. Oi veh.

Ann Althouse said...

Chip Ahoy said..."Compliments to Huffington's elective surgeon and to her embalmer, shows what money can do."

Hey, she's about 6 months older than I am. The hell...

section9 said...

Leave Arianna alone. She hasn't recovered from almost falling all over Arnold and Maria when the Body went to register as a candidate during the Recall Election.

She only has a website because she suckered enough libs to write for her, and in Hollywood, you have to be a lib to write.

As to the PassportGate thingie, Good God Awmighty, I expected a tad bit more maturity out of Obambi, but he never ceases to amuse does he. Outrage, Outrage, Outrage. Meantime, Her Heinous and the Old Geezer react as if this shit goes on All The Time (because they know it does). Condi does due diligence and apologizes to everyone. Life goes on.

If anything comes of it, it will be some sort of Blue on Blue thing, where someone at State tried to pass information to Hillary. I half suspect that may be what's going on. What the Spirit of Howard Beale (that would be Olbermann) stop covering this if this becomes a case of Dem on Dem spying.

Peter V. Bella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Elliott A said...

1. Who cares?
2. I wonder how many people have seen McCain's medical records?
3. The consumerama had to end sometime.
4. Do people really choose to live in the Great White North? It's springtime here in Virginia.
5. If every male could only get it up for a 2300 per hour strumpet, there would be no people.
6. Drudge is pure content and links, you don't have to read garbage if you don't want to. He is often first with breaking stories.