Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The Nightowl Newswrap

Rumors of her demise were greatly exagerated Hillary Clinton ain't out yet. Obama took Vermont, as was expected, but in the other three states, it was all Hillary. She ran away with Ohio, 55% to 43%, and Rhode Island was a blowout, 58% TO 40%. Texas was a little closer - 51% to 47%. In the Texas caucuses, Obama is leading with 5% of precincts reporting, but there have been rumors of chicanery at the caucuses.

The citizens of Brattleboro, VT voted today to indict Bush and Cheney by voting yes on this question: "Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities, and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro police, pursuant to the above mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecuted or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them?" The vote was 2012 to 1795. Marlboro, VT beat them to it by a few hours when they enacted a similar measure at their Town Meeting. Will anyone honor the warrants? You know those assholes aren't going anywhere near the home turf of Howard Dean.

At first it was funny, but toward the end, it was just sad
- The Huckabee campaign, that is. It was humiliating to watch him hanging on long after the numbers eliminated him, hearing him cheerfully chirp that he wasn't a math guy, he was a miracle guy. There was no Chuck Norris at the concession speech.

Master Sgt. Woodrow Wilson Keeble on Monday became the first full-blood Sioux to receive the Medal of Honor, 25 year after his death. Drafted to serve in WW II, Keeble volunteered for service in Korea, and it is for valor there he received the honor. In a fierce battle, fighting uphill, Keeble saved the lives of the American soldiers he was fighting with, pushing on in an uphill battle, wounded, until he had taken out both of the machine gun nests protecting the hill. Family members accepted the honor on his behalf, he passed away in 1982.

Bernanke touts recovery item that drew veto threat from Bush
when the stimulus package was being debated in January. The Democratic provision that inspired the most ire from the resident was one that would have given bankruptcy judges the authority to reduce the principal amount on mortgage loans when the mortgage holders are before their bench. Today, Bernanke said that banks may have to absorb reductions in the principal of some troubled home loans to ward off greater losses that could result from outright default.

Favre Retires - Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre announced his retirement today after playing 17 record-breaking seasons for the Packers. He said the stress of living up to his high own high standards had become too much. He sounded to me like it just wasn't fun any more.

With friends like these...In the last year China has stepped up their hacking game, prompting fears by the pentagon to arrive at the conclusion that they face a new and potentially dangerous military threat. Network breaches at the Pentagon and other government agencies, policy organizations and government contractors that happened last year all appeared to originate in China. Similar attacks have taken place against networks in Germany, France and Great Britain. Last year, British intelligence alerted financial institutions across the country that they were targets of "state-sponsored computer network exploitation" from China. "The techniques that are used, the way these intrusions are conducted, are certainly very consistent with what you would need if you were going to actually carry out cyber-warfare, and the kinds of activities that are carried out are consistent with a lot of writings we see from Chinese military and Chinese military theorists," Sedney said.

Sweet!!! “A Federal Communications Commission official has asked for an agency inquiry into the blackout of CBS News’s ‘60 Minutes’ by an Alabama television station. FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps said he had asked Chairman Kevin J. Martin to open an inquiry into the Feb. 24 incident at WHNT, a CBS affiliate in Huntsville, Ala. Martin said he would look into the matter but has not indicated yet whether he would issue a letter of inquiry to the station, a source close to the commission said.”

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