Dieb-Throat

* "In exclusive stunning admissions to The BRAD BLOG some 11 months after the 2004 Presidential Election, a "Diebold Insider" is now finally speaking out for the first time about the alarming security flaws within Diebold, Inc's electronic voting systems, software and machinery. The source is acknowledging that the company's "upper management" -- as well as "top government officials" -- were keenly aware of the "undocumented backdoor" in Diebold's main "GEM Central Tabulator" software well prior to the 2004 election. A branch of the Federal Government even posted a security warning on the Internet... Diebold's technicians, including at least one of its lead programmers, knew about the security flaw and that the company instructed them to keep quiet about it." (link)

* "Embattled Kentucky Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher just fired nine staffers who have been involved in a major crony hiring scandal - all of whom he had recently pardoned" (link)

* "According to a recent poll, one in five Americans, or 20 percent of the adult population, believes that the sun revolves around the earth. At latest count, only 38 percent of the American public supports President bush. Assuming-and I think this is a reasonable assumption to make-that all of those who believe the biblical notion of geocentricism vote Republican, this would mean that more than half of little bush's backers-52. 7% to be exact-don't even know that the earth orbits the sun." (link)

* the bbc just did a story on bushs bathroom break letter. funny. i havent seen whether condi actually gave him a permission slip.

* more on Able Danger: "A Pentagon employee was ordered to destroy documents that identified Mohamed Atta as a terrorist two years before the 2001 attacks, a congressman (Weldon) said Thursday.
The employee is prepared to testify next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee and was expected to name the person who ordered him to destroy the large volume of documents" (link)

* "When Bush was greeted by Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday, U.N. closed-circuit television showed the president joking about the tension over [U.S. Ambassador John R.] Bolton, who once suggested it would make no difference if 10 floors of the U.N. building disappeared. 'How is he behaving?' Bush asked. 'Has the place blown up?' " (link)
thats the sort of thing the president finds funny.

* newsweek: "Bush dislikes the place (UN) so much he often tells reporters how he’d love to reach into the normally silent rows of world leaders and shake them up with his bare hands." (link)

* "The U.S. is also coming under criticism in Iraq by the country's Minister of Justice, Abdul Husain Shandal. In an interview with Reuters he condemned the US military for arresting Iraqis without a warrant and for holding thousands of them without charges. The Justice Minister also said he wants to strip immunity from foreign troops. " (link)

* "An American peace activist has been deported from Australia after he was accused of being a threat to national security. On Saturday Scott Parkin was detained by six federal police and immigration officials as he sat at a cafe in Melbourne where he was teaching workshops on peaceful protest. He is best known for organizing protests around the military contractor Halliburton in this country and in Australia. The Australian government said he was deported earlier today. On Wednesday Parkin issued a statement saying "To this date, the only information that I have received is that I have been assessed as 'a direct or indirect risk to Australian national security." " (link)