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From Government Executive:

The Homeland Security Department has appointed an official who is under federal investigation to a key position overseeing a program worth hundreds of millions of dollars to secure computer networks across the federal government.

The Feb. 1 appointment of Scott Charbo, Homeland Security's chief information officer, to be deputy undersecretary for the national protection and programs directorate, drew immediate criticism from House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who was familiar with Charbo's past.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Thompson said an investigation conducted by his committee last year showed Charbo failed to properly address computer security breaches within agencies housed at department headquarters, along with incompetent and possibly illegal activity by private contractor Unisys.

The incidents included the exfiltration of information from Homeland Security Department networks to a Web-hosting service that connects Chinese Web sites, according to Thompson's investigation.

The security breaches that occurred under Charbo's watch and the work by Unisys are now under investigation by the FBI and the Homeland Security Department inspector general, according to Thompson and congressional aides.

We can just hope that the individual that takes over next January (provided Bush doesn't declare martial law before then) strives to just be a little less inept and corrupt than the current leader of the weakest currency in the civilized world.

This is what's in store for our country if folks keep using a religious test for their political leaders. The fact that Romney and The Huckster have gotten this far still scares me, but at least there's little chance, now, of them going all the way.

Then again, the folks that want Romney & Huckabee in the White House would probably like to establish a religious/morality police force. To those folks I repeat my warning that eventually we will have someone who is not from a Judeo-Christian background in the oval office, so be careful of the power you wish to grant your candidates since it may come back to haunt you or your children.

And, finally, insert-rant-on-the-uncivilized-and-backward-cultures-of-the-middle-east here.

If Huckabee was sincere in his desire to spread Christianity via the presidency, he would have used real, Christian candy canes instead of these pagan ones on his campaign Christmas pamphlets. (Note the lack of just three small, red stripes)

If a candidate is going to shill his faith to get the votes he/she needs to get it right completely. This just proves how insincere he and his followers really are.

Full disclosure: I'm a Christian who wants a moral, sane, intelligent person in the White House (haven't had one of those since 1^st term - and only the 1^st term - Reagan). I do not care what the personal religion of a candidate might be since I certainly do not want them using the way they interpret the principles of their faith as their sole means of governing.

The odds are good that we will have a Muslim or outspoken atheist (that's a religion even though they won't admit it) as president some day. Just taking what we've seen as to how seriously bad the Koran can be interpreted by followers, there's no way I want to set a precedent now.

(Photo brought to you by Yahoo! News/Reuters)

NOTE: this is definitely a rant... all of this has just been really getting under my skin lately...

Let's see, we stop manufacturing "things" , let education standards go right down the drain, outsource all our jobs overeas and now we're left with one bunch of rich, white guys getting so greedy that they sell junk mortgages and need to get bailed out by the Chinese and another bunch fighting over revenues from crappy music. Then, there's the other bunch who won't share (Wikipedia link, apologies) the ludicrous amount of money they make off of cruddy television & movie content with those who write it, partly because of how afraid they are of the new media distribution methods. They fein ignorance of the new the web and digital distribution mechanisms but the reality is that they know how terrible the content is and that consumers will finally realize it as well and only pay the small amount it's truly worth.

All this greed is just killing us and the majority of folks are just too busy trying to survive each day to notice, care or do anything about it.

From Xinhua:

Japan starts to fingerprint foreigners_English_Xinhua: "OKYO, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Japan's new Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law took effect on Tuesday, authorizing the government to fingerprint and photograph all foreigners aged 16 or over upon entering Japan at 126 ports and 27 airports.

The law made Japan the second country following the United States to fingerprint and photograph foreigners.

During inspection of Tokyo's Narita International Airport on Monday, Japanese Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said the law could help block terrorists and repatriated foreigners from entering Japan.

The procedure is to affect up to 7 million of the 8 million people entering Japan annually. The electronic system will send the information to the Justice Ministry's host computer, which will then check against a blacklist based on the Interpol and other institutions."

Before you go to Japan, you might want to ask how they are storing your biometric data (if they are storing it) and what the procedures are to have it deleted.

I wonder how long we can keep our dollar low enough to keep attracting visitors before it becomes completely worthless.

I'm ready for a change in Washington if only to give someone else a chance to royally screw up our economy, foreign policy and energy strategy. The problem is that there are really no candidates out there who seem to have any ideas how to make it better.

Good article from The Seattle P-I summarizing the issues surrounding the Proposition 1 ballot initiative (dealing with traffic/transportation problems in the greater Seattle area). As with many things here in the northwest, this topic has far more than two sides and there is no clear answer to the overall problem.

It reminds me of the I-78 mess in NJ and the Route 22 mess in PA. I take public transportation here and can get work done on the way to/from the office, but even the HOV lanes grind to a halt at times. There has to be a solution to this traffic problem. Telecommuting is great, but not a option for the service sector, which is the growing workforce of America, especially in the cities. I wish I had the magic bullet to kill this beast, but I have even fewer ideas than I did for the situation back east.

My commute is longer than I wanted and it's not like I live that far away (Lynnwood/Brier/Kenmore is a scant 12 miles from the city proper). We tried to live closer, but it's way too expensive and the choices were few and far between (for houses & properties that fit 6 people and a dog in an area with decent schools). Other families face the same issue and it's even expensive for individuals & couples (want a nice downtown condo for a mere $2 million USD?)

Once we clear the boxes away, I plan on cycling a couple of times a week (at least I live close enough for that, and the Burke-Gilman trail makes it a much less harrowing experience than it might otherwise be). Between cycling and busing I can say that by moving here we did not become part of the problem.

One thing I do know is that tolls and gimmicks are not going to fix the gridlock – that will just put cash in the hands of the politicians.

Good article over @ the Foreign Policy blog on Ron Paul. He's *everywhere* you turn here in the greater Seattle area, and was hugely popular in the Fremont district (where I lived for a a while). It was nice to think that I may have had some choice for the 2008 debacle, but the more I read about the guy, the more I'm forced to think about nominating a piece of wood just to have some peace and quiet for four years.

It's time for Ron Paul's 15 minutes to be up | FP Passport: "Ron Paul is a seductive mistress. His popularity on MySpace and YouTube  is  now legendary. It  helped  him raise more than $5 million in the third quarter of this year's fundraising cycle. Even some among the media elite — on both sides of the aisle — can't resist his charm. Conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan gets downright giddy over Paul. And liberal Hardball host Chris Matthews  (who cut his teeth under big government, East Coast  Democrat Tip O'Neill)  has declared  of the libertarian from Texas: 'He's my guy! I love Ron Paul!'

But do people understand what Paul really stands for? Like every siren song,  his policies are fraught with danger."

Definitely give the whole thing a read. It's short and very informative.

You can also see how devoted his followers are over at this Ars Technica article (they seem to be creating illegal spambot networks to promote his campaign).

As I e-mailed to a few folks, I'm *really* glad "we" managed to convince the public that they are qualified to do stuff like this and then scared them into thinking they have to...

Belt buckle causes short-lived scare at airport: "Security gates at Sea-Tac Airport were temporarily shut down Wednesday afternoon after a woman reported seeing a gun in someone's belt buckle, spokesman Perry Cooper said.

But the sighting, which occurred behind security gates and was reported about 12:30 p.m., turned out to be an ornament within his belt buckle, Cooper said. 'It was harmless,' he said.

Security gates were closed for about 12 minutes so Port of Seattle police officers and Transportation Security Administration officials could investigate."

Are we sure we can't hold elections sooner?

WCSH6.com - National Guard Troops Denied Benefits After Longest Deployment Of Iraq War: "1st Lt. Jon Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days.

Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school.

"Which would be allowing the soldiers an extra $500 to $800 a month," Anderson said.

That money would help him pay for his master's degree in public administration. It would help Anderson's fellow platoon leader, John Hobot, pay for a degree in law enforcement.

"I would assume, and I would hope, that when I get back from a deployment of 22 months, my senior leadership in Washington, the leadership that extended us in the first place, would take care of us once we got home," Hobot said."

The current regime just cannot catch a break these days: pathetic energy policies, the "Blackwater" debacle (I try not to blog on Iraq) and now they can't even protect of our nation's most vulnerable citizens from an ill-conceived scheme that many of us thought (now correctly) was just a sneaky way to make "health care" executives richer.

Medicare Audits Show Problems in Private Plans - New York Times: "Tens of thousands of Medicare recipients have been victims of deceptive sales tactics and had claims improperly denied by private insurers that run the system’s huge new drug benefit program and offer other private insurance options encouraged by the Bush administration, a review of scores of federal audits has found."

(ever notice the recurring theme over the past ~7 years – find ways to put tons of our tax dollars into the hands of people that are already rich and then never do anything about the fact that the United States doesn't seem to get any real benefit in return?)

For the record, my mom has experienced much of what the NYT article reports; the claims are not exaggerations. Your administration can't seem to run anything properly.

Please, people, get rid of as many of these self-serving idiots in office as you can over the next few election years. Show them that you actually care for a change and aren't just falling for the rhetoric and voting on one issue you're passionate about. It will be easier in your local and state elections. Unfortunately, the whole presidential (I can't bring myself to capitalize that word anymore) nonsense in '08 will be difficult since there are so many problems on all sides that we may be better off putting a magic eight ball in charge for a while.

[REF: Ethanol's Boom Stalling as Glut Depresses Price]

But companies and farm cooperatives have built so many distilleries so quickly that the ethanol market is suddenly plagued by a glut, in part because the means to distribute it have not kept pace. The average national ethanol price on the spot market has plunged 30 percent since May, with the decline escalating sharply in the last few weeks.

“The end of the ethanol boom is possibly in sight and may already be here,” said Neil E. Harl, an economics professor emeritus at Iowa State University who lectures on ethanol and is a consultant for producers. “This is a dangerous time for people who are making investments.”

While generous government support is expected to keep the output of ethanol fuel growing, the poorly planned overexpansion of the industry raises questions about its ability to fulfill the hopes of President Bush and other policy makers to serve as a serious antidote to the nation’s heavy reliance on foreign oil.

This is a article of gratitude:

Thank You! President Bush for one of the worst energy policies in the history of America and trying to take the easy way out of a complex situation.

Thank You! Farmers of America who traded good farming practices for dollar signs, knowing we'd be there to bail you out.

Thank You! Farmers for contributing to wheat and other crop shortages because you thought we could all live on corn and ethanol.

Thank You! Farmers & Bush for executing so well on your ill-conceived plan that you drove prices up for so many other products that a large number of folks in America cannot afford them anymore (luxuries like beef, milk, ...)

Thank You! President Bush for actually solidifying our reliance on foreign oil rather than incenting real innovation in the energy and transportation industries.

Thank You! Congress for rubber-stamping the subsidies for our sheep-like, gold-rush farmers instead of challenging the status quo and actually *doing* something.

And, finally,

Thank You! America for electing and keeping these folks in power. You may have received what you deserved, but the rest of us are impacted as well.

Please read the full text of the President's radio address on Nov 11, 2006. Here's the crappy part (emphasis added):

Whatever your opinion of the outcome, all Americans can take pride in the example our democracy sets for the world by holding elections even in a time of war.

Can you believe this garbage? It almost sounds like they tried to scrap the elections! I've said it before and I'll re-state it here: I will be amazed if we are allowed to have a Presidential election in November of 2008. It's more likely now due to the wacky Democrats smack down of the do-no-good Republicans, but it's still possible.

I guess we should all send a thank you to the White House for letting us have the few remaining freedoms we still possess, while we're still allowed to actually write.

I came across a great article by Charles C. Haynes, First Amendment Center senior scholar, on the upcoming public school "holiday" battles that we are all about to start reading about as the Christmas season approaches. He makes quite a bit of sense, especially when you consider how militant some of us Christians get (often in response to how militant the anti-Christian community behaves) at this time of year. His solution to the whole problem is very sensible:

The constitutional bottom line is stunningly simple: The school’s approach to religious holidays must be academic, not devotional. The job of public schools is to educate students about religious holidays — not just in December, but throughout the year. That means schools should plan assembly programs that teach kids about a variety of religions and cultures, without making anyone feel like an outsider in his or her own school.

Done right, the First Amendment solution should satisfy most people. Christians will appreciate that students are learning something about what Christians actually believe. And people of other faiths and of no faith can support an academic approach to study about religions, including Christianity, as long as it is done in ways that are educationally sound and respectful of their own beliefs.

As I keep reminding folks, the "Christian majority" in America is fading fast, and most of the folks in that majority are nominal Christians at best. Their mores, values and cultural beliefs/actions usually conflict directly with what the Bible teaches. Couple that with the ever-increasing influx of [legal] immigrants that have different religious backgrounds & beliefs and I would not be pressing for American institutions to reflect what the majority believes, since I would not want my children reading the Koran in school right before kneeling at the appropriate times & directions to pray to Allah (which is a potential reality in some states over the next two decades).

[Editor's note: Mary's blogging!]

Some of the other real tragedies of 9/11 as reported by Bloomberg:

• there were senior members of the Bush administration determined to "get" Saddam Hussein
• George Bush was looking for just the right reasons to get the goods on Hussein
• senior officials in Hussein's own government were secretly hoping to see him fall
• the ones who would suffer the most from a war in Iraq would be Iraq (at least in the short term)
• the only justification now for going to war in Iraq is to liberate the Iraqi people, and that is not good enough
• the secondary reason for going to war in Iraq was to keep the terrorists from coming to America, and that is an unthinkable excuse for putting our own soldiers on foreign soil defending American freedom that increasingly is becoming a memory
• The biggest tragedy is that we may have created a bigger monster than before. By seeking to fashion Iraq into a maleable tool to be used for our purposes, we may have played right into the enemy's hands. The Bush plan may backfire. I hope our children don't have to see the results of that mistake.

According to Chertoff on Meet the Press this past weekend:

"We have to make sure our legal system allows us to do that. It's not like the 20th century, where you had time to get warrants."

It's not like we can't trust the enforcement arm of the law or anything [warning: the pic on that page of someone who was beaten is not exactly breakfast material]. Personal rights and freedoms are overrated anyway.

Thankfully, we seem to have found a way to nullify the impact of lipstick-based-explosives.

To those of you who think those actions are A Good Thing, can you tell me what happened to make the treat of lipstick-based-explosives any less real in the past two days? Do you not see how arbitrary and senseless this reactionary approach to security is?

What happens when a meeting you attend attached to some organization suddenly ends up on the suspicious list? Are you *sure* you have nothing to hide in your house...your car...your computer...your shed?

As I said in an earlier post, this whole thing now wreaks of deliberate attempt to give more power to the authorities.