Timb's Blog

Public service announcement, because I'd hate to see any of you guys lose your computers.

Malware known as Conficker 2.0 is poised to strike on Wednesday, April Fools Day, security experts warn. Conficker is a malicious worm that has so far infected 9 million Windows-based PCs since it was a first detected in October 2000.

Experts are unsure whether Conficker will simply display a harmless April Fools Day message or, for example, begin harvesting PC user names and passwords or even erase hard disks. Security experts advise that Windows PC users run their virus-scanning software today (March 31) to ensure they have downloaded and installed all the latest security system updates from Microsoft.

Microsoft has set up a special Web site to assist users in thwarting Conficker.

Malicious Software Removal Tool

Behind the debate over remaking U.S. financial policy will be a debate over who’s to blame. It’s crucial to get the history right, writes a Nobel-laureate economist, identifying five key mistakes—under Reagan, Clinton, and Bush II—and one national delusion.

by Joseph E. Stiglitz January 2009

Today's big news is going to be about the bailout of the automakers.

WASHINGTON — Neither General Motors nor Chrysler submitted acceptable plans to receive more federal bailout money, the Obama administration said as it set the stage for a crisis in Detroit that would dramatically reshape the nation's auto industry.

The White House pushed out GM's chairman and directed Chrysler to move quickly to forge a partnership with Fiat if it expects to receive additional government assistance.

I find it interesting that, of the big 3, only GM's CEO is being asked to step down. GM is the only one of the three that's working very publicly on an electric car. It's probably only a coincidence, but it's a very disturbing coincidence.

Does anyone know of any government programs to fund development of alternative-fuel vehicles?

I'm 52, today. When I was in my 40's Bush was President nearly the entire time. We should never do something like that to anyone, again.

The Dallas Morning News, in an editorial, calls for the dismissal of Dallas police officer Robert Powell, who kept NFL running back Ryan Moats from going inside a hospital to see his dying mother-in-law last week while lecturing Moats, threatening to arrest him and ticketing him for running a red light in his vehicle en route to the emergency room.

The Morning News writes in its editorial: "In a society ruled by law, a sacred contract exists between the police and the people they protect and serve. We grant them extraordinary powers and need them to do their duty to keep the rest of us safe. We also expect them to use those powers wisely. When they abuse power--one or all--they cede authority.

"Judging from the videotape from the officer's car, the young cop--25 years old, with only three years on the job--abused the power of his badge. Yes, Moats violated a traffic law; under the circumstances, who wouldn't? Powell may have been within his rights to sanction Moats, but how he did it was appallingly unjust and cruel."

If a traffic cop needs a gun, let him take the unloaded gun that's stored in his trunk out and load it, like any other citizen. There is absolutely no reason why a traffic cop needs a gun strapped to his hip, other than to enhance his power trip.

They shouldn't have tasers, at all.

Of course, we all know how much the Republics respect the rule of law ... not at all.

I have an idea.

How about, next time, he by-passes the brain-dead media, entirely, and takes questions from American citizens instead?

They're just stenographers, anyway. They can write down what the smart people say.

"This certainly appears to be a case of TARP funds being recycled into campaign contributions."

It's hard to say who's the bigger piece of shit; the company that's taking taxpayer money just to survive, then trying to buy off congress, or the congress-critters so obviously willing to be bought off.

*Ahem*

Eric Cantor.

Lights out: biggest show of climate concern ever?

He’s not talking about something like an international series of protest marches, a coordinated shift to buying greener goods, nor a boycott of cars in favour of public transport.

What he wants is simply for you (and at least a billion other people) to turn out the lights for an “Earth Hour” on Saturday, March 28, from 8.30 p.m. local time.

We've got one of those "fire pits" in our back yard. I think I'll put a log on it, get out one of the guitars or maybe the hand-crank radio (we bought one for camping for about 15 bucks), or maybe just get out a deck of cards and take a one-hour break from "civilization". If we didn't have that fire pit, we could light candles and do the same thing.

Rush Limbaugh -- de facto head of the Republican Party -- has been on a roll lately with his usual poisonous, divisive and often nonsensical diatribes. And he's been getting plenty of attention for his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), for his spat with RNC Chair Michael Steele and especially for his unabashedly rooting for the failure of President Obama and the Democratic majority Congress.

Check out People For's new video ... and then scroll down and tell Rush to GROW UP.

Send Message

By David Cho and Michael D. Shear, Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 19, 2009; Page A01

Federal Reserve officials knew for months about bonuses at American International Group but failed to tell the Obama administration, according to government and company officials, exposing problems in a relationship that is vital to addressing the financial crisis.

I'm still of the opinion that companies that are "too big to fail" need to be broken up (by existing or new anti-trust laws) into little companies that aren't "too big to fail". We gave being ruled by corporations (Italian-style Fascism) every opportunity to succeed and should be convinced by now that it doesn't work.

Along with that, BTW, we still need to get the money out of politics. All that money that AIG pumped into congress-critter's election coffers didn't help you or me.

Fed to buy up to $300B long-term Treasury bonds lead to Gold futures rise more than 4% to above $920?

Why?

It's not that I don't think a company should be allowed to pay bonuses.

It's that I can't come up with a single reason why anyone would pay a "retention bonus" to keep someone on staff after they drove the country so far into the ground it couldn't survive on it's own.

OK, maybe one. Because the people paying the bonuses are so incompetent they can't even recognize who drive them into the shitter.

Oh, and I may not particularly like Charles Grassley, but he can say "tit" all day if he wants to.

Since Dog's not around any more, I guess I'll post the link.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The International Committee of the Red Cross produced in 2007 a secret report, in which it concluded that the treatment of al-Qaeda captives by CIA interrogators "constituted torture," The Washington Post reported Monday. The newspaper quotes the ICRC report as saying that the treatment of inmates at secret prisons run by the US Central Intelligence Agency amounted to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," which is prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. The findings were based on conclusions by ICRC officials who were granted exclusive access to the CIA's "high-value" detainees after they had been transferred in 2006 to the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the report said.

The 14 detainees gave uniform accounts of abuse that included beatings, sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures and, in some cases, waterboarding, the paper noted.

If we look the other way we're as guilty as Bush and Cheney.

Have you ever wondered what happened to your socks when you put them into the dryer and then never saw them again? It's an unexplained mystery that may never have an answer. Many people feel the same way when they suddenly find that their brokerage account balance has taken a nosedive. So, where did that money go? Fortunately, money that is gained or lost on a stock doesn't just disappear. Read to find out what happens to it and what causes it.

snip

The most straightforward answer to this question is that it actually disappeared into thin air...

I'm not making this up.

March 13, 2009 5:40 PM

At an event at Union Station today where Vice President Joe Biden was heralding the $1.3 billion in investments in rebuilding train stations and passenger rails, a microphone picked up one of the former senator's myriad Senate colleagues addressing him, formally, as "Mr. Vice President."

That met with Vice President Biden's standard reply.

"Gimme a f*&$#ing break," he said, apparently unaware that the microphone was on.

This is what I'm reading, tonight.

For the do-it-yourselfer seeking an inexpensive, easy-to-build solar water-heating system, the integral passive solar water heater (IPSWH, pronounced ips-wah) is a dream come true. All you need to build this down-to-earth water warmer is a discarded electric water heater tank, a homemade insulated plywood box to house the tank, a sheet or two of used window glass or clear plastic, a few common plumbing fittings, some pipe and a bit of insulation. Add a few satisfying hours of measuring, thinking, sawing, hammering, painting and wrench-turning, and you’ll have a continuous supply of hot water, provided virtually free of cost by that friendly furnace in the sky...

Whattaya think? Is Perry gonna be able to get elected dog-catcher after this?

Texas gov. rejects stimulus money for unemployment

From my email. You know me well enough by now that you already know I disagree with this. The question is, do you? Why?

To All My Valued Employees,

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn't pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country.

However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests.

Read more! »

Japan's stock market, the Nikkei, closed at its lowest level since October 1982.

Of course, if you listen to Rush Limbaugh, the de Facto leader of the GOP, this worldwide economic near-disaster is all the fault of a US President who took office a little over a month ago.

No problem, though. According to another out of control Christer (link via World Nut Daily via Drudge) the world is about to end, anyway. See, we're being punished for the sins of the people who have held no power for a decade and a half, and have actually lost rights over the past few years.

Such lunacy has been redefined as "logic" by the 20% or so who see the Bush years as the high point of American history take no responsibility for the failure of their rigid ideology think the flat earth was created 4500 years ago want America to fail.

They've wanted America to fail for a long time.

I like the extra hour of daylight in the evening, but I always feel like "someone stole an hour from me" on the first Sunday morning. Jeepus, it's already after 10!

(I'm not quite sure why I posted this.)

A new telescope that will be able to detect earth-like planets around other stars launches Friday night from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 10:49 p.m. Eastern time.

The Kepler Space Telescope is the first human tool that will be able to find planets capable of supporting life as we know it.

"It's not just another science mission. This one has historical significance built into it," Ed Weiler of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters said at a press conference Thursday.

Check out the map at the link, and don't forget that jobs are a "lagging indicator"; employment recovers AFTER the economy starts to recover. The Bush/Cheney administration's goals were to concentrate the wealth in the hands of a few (so wages didn't keep up with GDP), and to "drown the government in a bathtub" (so the President who followed them wouldn't be able to do much to recover). They succeeded wildly.

What does the worst recession in a generation look like? It is both deep and broad. Every state in the country, with the exception of a band stretching from the Dakotas down to Texas, is now shedding jobs at a rapid pace. And even that band has recently begun to suffer, because of the sharp fall in both oil and crop prices.

The GOP is fighting an internecine war to determine whether they move back toward the middle or become even more extreme, hoping that if they don't get their own way the nation will crumble.

Here's a handy widget for Republics to use if they're ever foolish enough to criticize the minority leader.

Obama overturns Bush endangered species rule

It's going to take time to undo 8 years of damage, but progress is being made.

Funny.

I haven't done a music post in a while. I was listening to Little Feat "one love stand" and decided to look it up on YouTube.

This is what I found:

Some l'l footers for ya, too:

Edit: All That You Dream with Lowell George