Vote against Obama and the bad guys will win

Brace yourself for a lot of this between now and November 2012. Read the rest of this post...

Flights canceled in Australia and New Zealand due to volcanic ash from Chile

The good news is, some people won't have to fly QANTAS airlines today. The bad news is that the flight will be rescheduled so it's only a delay. Mother Nature is not happy about something.

Thousands of passengers in Australia and New Zealand were affected when airlines suspended flights Sunday as an ash cloud from an erupting volcano in southern Chile spread, threatening to damage engines.

Australia's national carrier, Qantas Airways, said all the airline's flights in and out of the southeastern city of Melbourne would be grounded.

Qantas also canceled 22 flights to and from New Zealand and the Australian island-state of Tasmania, as well as eight flights within New Zealand's South Island, as the dust cloud from Chile's erupting Cordon Caulle volcano spread across the atmosphere.

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U.S. helping to create a "shadow Internet" capability for countries with "repressive governments"

As Glenn Greenwald almost said, the irony writes itself. NY Times (my emphasis throughout):

The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy “shadow” Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks.

The effort includes secretive projects to create independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries, as well as one operation out of a spy novel in a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington, where a group of young entrepreneurs who look as if they could be in a garage band are fitting deceptively innocent-looking hardware into a prototype “Internet in a suitcase.”

Financed with a $2 million State Department grant, the suitcase could be secreted across a border and quickly set up to allow wireless communication over a wide area with a link to the global Internet.

There's more in the article.

About that "Internet in a suitcase," do you think the thing will have a secret listening port for NSA ears only, or a backdoor kill-switch, just in case the thing comes home?

With reports of Egypt's government completing shutting down the Internet in the country, talk about an "Internet kill switch" bill in the U.S. has reemerged. Could it happen here?

The bill in question is the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010, a cyber-security measure introduced in June by Sen. Joseph Lieberman. It was an over-arching cyber-security measure that, among other things, would create an office of cyberspace policy within the White House and a new cyber-security center within the Homeland Security Department.

A provision that got the most attention, however, was one that gave the president the power to "authorize emergency measures to protect the nation's most critical infrastructure if a cyber vulnerability is being exploited or is about to be exploited."

Some interpreted that to mean that the president would have the authority to shut off the Internet at random.

With my little mind, I'd settle for some of that "foolish consistency." At some point, the liar convinces only himself.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Obama slams government hiring, says private industry should lead

Um, yeah, great job repeating the GOP line but back in the real world, it probably makes sense not to promote business executives that move jobs overseas by the thousand while paying no taxes in the US. Obama was too afraid to go for a larger stimulus to carry the economy until jobs returned to the private sector and now he's cornered himself and has to repeat garbage like this.

To be completely fair to Obama, the reality may actually be that he needs to suck up to the business crowd for their campaign contributions but it's not going to help him much with voters. It's a tough time to have a conscience and be in politics but if you're not up the task, maybe it's better to stay away. Building hope and then under-delivering by a mile doesn't cut it. Reheating GOP lines, really doesn't cut it. Bloomberg:

President Barack Obama said the private sector must take the lead in creating jobs as the as the economy recovers, with the government assisting by making sure workers have the necessary skills.

“Government is not, and should not be, the main engine of job-creation in this country,” Obama said in his weekly address on the radio and Internet. “That’s the role of the private sector.”

Obama said the government can work as a partner with businesses to enhance training and education for the jobs that are available. With the nation’s unemployment rate at 9.1 percent in May, up 0.1 percent from the previous month, the administration is focusing on measures that can encourage hiring.

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Whither Vitter?

It's interesting, with all the excessive media attention on Democratic congressman Weiner, and whether he should resign, that no one in the media is asking why Republican senator David Vitter, who paid numerous prostitutes for kinky sex (he reportedly liked them to put diapers on him) was never forced to resign. Fair is fair. If a congressman who virtually cheated on his wife, and broke no laws, should resign, then what about a "family values" Senator who actually cheated on his wife, repeatedly, with prostitutes, and broke the law?

At the very least, the media should be asking Republican leaders why the double standard? They should be asking David Vitter himself. Read the rest of this post...

Syrian troops allegedly firing on fleeing civilians

Nothing will be much of a surprise at this point. The only positive news out of Syria these days are the limited reports of dissension within the military and defections. Whether that is truly the case or nothing more than disinformation to trigger yet another war is open for debate. The Guardian:

In the same hospital, Abu Tahar, 29, an ambulance driver from Jisr al-Shughour, was being treated for gunshot wounds to his back. He had arrived at the garden last Sunday to help the wounded. "Bullets were raining from everywhere," he said. "It was chaos." He said that up to 10,000 people had gathered in the garden, one of the few large public places in town, to protest at the killing of Musri.

"They just kept shooting and shooting," he said. "Earlier in the week we had been told not to go to pick up the wounded. They wanted them to die there. Anyone who tried was shot, his body falling on top of the other victim. That is what happened to me. The next thing I knew I woke up here."

He said he had spoken by telephone to family members in the town who confirmed that in the hours after the shooting in the garden large numbers of security forces had abandoned their posts – and had been shot at by soldiers loyal to the regime. He said some 14 soldiers had returned to their homes earlier in the week after refusing to carry out orders, a rarity in Syria, which had led officials to send in spies to monitor citizens and extra forces to deal harshly with any further dissent.

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Black Adder - MP application

Some things do remain consistent over time.

It's a late start to the day following a family reunion day in Burgundy. Saturday was full of group visits to places that were related to family history followed by a big evening meal with everyone. Read the rest of this post...