In apparent extortion attempts, hackers have taken down power grids outside the USA.

Criminals have been able to hack into computer systems via the Internet and cut power to several cities, a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency analyst said this week.

Speaking at a conference of security professionals on Wednesday, CIA analyst Tom Donahue disclosed the recently declassified attacks while offering few specifics on what actually went wrong...

People need to get over this idiotic notion of hooking the internet to every fucking thing on the planet. Not only is it unwise for critical infrastructure, anyone with the slightest bit of technical savvy knows it is unwise. The internet is about as trustworthy as a crackhead jonsing for a rock. Would you hand your car keys to a crackhead loitering outside a fancy restaurant and expect it to be there when you came back?

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 02:24 PM | Comments (18)
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Wonderful news.

Posted by: Ace at 01:12 PM | Comments (42)
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I assume, based on the post's conclusion that this is bad for McCain, that Myrtle Beach is a hotbed of RINOism. Eh, every little bit helps.

Meanwhile the Huckster continues following that Golden Rule he believes in with every fiber of his high-fiber-diet being:

ABC's Christine Byun reports: Republican candidate Fred ThompsonÂ’s campaign is accusing rival Mike HuckabeeÂ’s campaign of more "dirty tricks" in South Carolina.

They say fliers with misleading information about the former Tennessee senator’s abortion record were placed on parked cars at their event venue last night (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/01/thompson-lets-g.html). The fliers insinuate Thompson voted for funding for abortions through a bill that supported Planned Parenthood. Thompson –- who has received the endorsement of national anti-abortion organization National Right to Life –- did vote for the bill in question, H.R. 3061. However, the bill specifically states that it does not include federal funding for abortions and does not mention Planned Parenthood. The flier quotes Scripture –- Proverbs 31:8 –- and includes a picture of the former Senator.

"Sen. Thompson worked in the Senate to ensure that federal funds did not go to abortion," a Thompson campaign spokesman, who provided a copy of a flier, said.

It's one thing to give a vote a tendentious interpretation. It's another thing to just make shit up out of whole cloth. It's like Huckabee claiming that a highway construction bill Fred Thompson voted for contained a provision making gay marriage not only permissible, but required for all adults.

Yes, Thompson voted for the bill in question. That seems to be the only true claim in the flier. It misrepresents entirely what the bill did.

Mike Huckabee

Because Jesus told him sometimes False Witness is no biggee.

Posted by: Ace at 12:26 PM | Comments (16)
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These t-shirts aren't so much funny as true:

Thanks to "The Munge."

Posted by: Ace at 12:16 PM | Comments (12)
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You'd think The Deciders might decide this is worthy of coverage. You'd be wrong.

Mark Steyn, however, is writing about it:

In the three decades of the Canadian "Human Rights" Tribunal's existence, not a single "defendant" has been "acquitted." Would you bet on Maclean's bucking this spectacular 100 per cent conviction rate? "Sentence first, verdict afterwards," declares the queen in Alice In Wonderland. Canada's not quite there yet, but at the Human Rights Commission, it's "Verdict first, trial afterwards." So I'm guilty and Ken Whyte's guilty and Maclean's is guilty because that's the only verdict there is.

Who has availed themselves of the "human rights" protected by Section XIII? In its entire history, over half of all cases have been brought by a sole "complainant," one Richard Warman. Indeed, Mr. Warman has been a plaintiff on every single Section XIII case before the federal "human rights" star chamber since 2002 — and he's won every one. That would suggest that no man in any free society anywhere on the planet has been so comprehensively deprived of his human rights. Well, no. Mr. Warman doesn't have to demonstrate that he's been deprived of his human rights, only that it's "likely" (i.e. "highly un-") that someone somewhere will be deprived of some right sometime. Who is Richard Warman? What's his story? Well, he's a former employee of the Canadian Human Rights Commission: an investigator. Same as Shirlene McGovern.

Isn't there something a little odd in a supposedly necessary Canadian federal "human rights" system used all but exclusively by one lone Canadian who served as a long-time employee of that system? Why should Richard Warman be the only citizen to have his own personal inquisition? You can hardly blame the Canadian Islamic Congress and the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada and no doubt the Supreme All-Powerful Islamic Executive Council of Swift Current, Sask., for now figuring they'd like a piece of the human rights action.

In a free society, justice must not only be done, but must be seen to be done. And when you see what's being done at the CHRC it's hard not to conclude that the genius of the English legal system — the balance between prosecutor, judge, and jury — has been all but destroyed. The American website Pundita has a sharp analysis of Section XIII, comparing it to Philip K. Dick's sci-fi novel The Minority Report, set in a world in which citizens can be sentenced for "pre-crime" — for criminal acts which have not occurred but are "likely" to. Who needs futuristic novels when we're living it here and now in one of the oldest constitutional democracies on the planet? What kind of countries have tribunals with 100 per cent conviction rates that replace the presumption of innocence with the presumption of guilt and in which truth is not only no defence but compelling evidence of that guilt? Consider this statement, part of the criteria by which the star chamber determines when a Section XIII crime has occurred. What does it look for as evidence?

"Messages that make use of allegedly true stories, news reports, pictures and references to apparently reputable sources in an attempt to lend an air of objectivity and truthfulness to the extremely negative characterization of the targeted group have been found to be likely to expose members of the targeted group to hatred and contempt."

Read that again slowly. Citing news reports, reputable sources, facts, statistics, documentation, quotations, references, scholarly studies, etc., has been "found" to be clear evidence of your "likely" "pre-crime."

Thanks to CJ.

Okay, out to see Cloverfield... Open Blog.

Posted by: Ace at 12:03 PM | Comments (20)
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Interesting, but almost certainly planted by Jews to mislead us into thinking they ever lived in Jerusalem or even Judea.*

A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.

The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name "Temech" engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.

According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem, the Bible recounts.

...

The Bible refers to the Temech family: "These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one unto his city." [Nehemiah 7:6]... "The Nethinim [7:46]"... The children of Temech." [7:55].

...

"The seal of the Temech family gives us a direct connection between archeology and the biblical sources and serves as actual evidence of a family mentioned in the Bible," she said. "One cannot help being astonished by the credibility of the biblical source as seen by the archaeological find."

Thanks to Doug.

* This isn't just snark. A professor who got tenure at Columbia's sister-school Barnard actually has a lifetime of "academic" work "proving" that all archaeological evidence indicating a Jewish presence in ancient Judea is false and planted their by Zionists to supply a historical pretext for the current state of Israel.

Posted by: Ace at 11:39 AM | Comments (15)
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A parody of the Tom Cruise Scientology interview.

Thanks to Jewcy.

Posted by: Ace at 11:09 AM | Comments (3)
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Clowns are angry about that study noting that all 250 children interviewed in a hospital said that clowns were creepy.

Unhappy clowns from around the world say a study that reported that children didn't like them has wiped the big smile from their faces, and have been falling over their large shoes to put their case.

A poll by researchers looking at what decor to put in hospital children's wards found that youngsters do not like clowns on the walls and even older ones think they are scary.

"We found that clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable," said Penny Curtis, senior researcher at the University of Sheffield which questioned 250 children aged between four and 16.

But their findings, published in a nursing magazine on Wednesday, has put the red noses of the clowning community out of joint.

In a deluge of emails to Reuters, they say they misrepresent just how popular they really are.

"The 'universe' of 250 children used for the Sheffield University study was miniscule compared to the 250,000 one-to-one bedside visits made by Clown Care to hospitalized children annually," said Joel Dein, director of communications at the Big Apple Circus in New York.

...

Other individual clowns pointed out how much children, especially those who are ill, are cheered by them.

...

Heather Myers, aka PipSqueakTheClown, said while many of those in hospitals and nursing homes appreciate their fun antics, there are of course those who are scared.

"There are those who are afraid of clowns, this is unavoidable, the same way that there are those afraid of dogs and spiders," she said.

"It is the responsibility of the clown to know his environment, and take the necessary steps when confronted with a phobia."

It's a little sad. Apart from those who go into clowning in order to pay off drug and gambling debts and/or hide from the law for multiple murder raps, most people learn this awful craft to please children. And children hate them.

Thanks to someone.

Posted by: Ace at 11:01 AM | Comments (26)
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Which sounds good, but that's likely only enough to put him in third behind the Happy Huckster and McAmnesty.

Still, I suppose Fred could soldier on with that: it does show a bit of movement, he can continue raising money from the Internet, and the rationale for his candidacy -- most of the other candidates alienate an important part of the conservative coalition -- is still very much in effect.

The media doesn't like talking about Mitt Romney much, because they hate his guts for tacking right. (The opposite of "evolution," of course-- devolution.) But Romney has now either won or come in second in every primary or caucus, except, almost certainly, today's contest in SC. And I guess Republicans don't notice much, either. But the guy is winning.

Posted by: Ace at 10:53 AM | Comments (47)
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The AP is calling the Nevada race for Romney but according to CNN that projection is based on entry polls so that may be subject to revision.

No word yet on the more contested Democratic contest which is still underway doesn't start until 3pm EST.

UPDATE [Gabe]: Democratic results can be seen as they come in here. The caucus sites just opened 18 minutes ago. Results will come in between 12pm and 1pm Pacific.

12:48pm -- Okay, it looks like they're having some site issues at that link. The last info that came through for me was 30% of precincts reporting with

Hillary Clinton 49.8%
Barack Obama 44.68%

You will note that CNN and Fox only have the first 4% of precincts reporting in. I don't know what accounts for the discrepancy.

Voting is also happening right now in SC where the weather may play a factor in turnout.

Posted by: DrewM. at 10:29 AM | Comments (6)
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