Lisa Schiffren Should Be Strung By Her Nostrils

I just finished watching a Bill Maher in which this horrible woman was a panel member. First I want to say shame on Bill for allowing this woman a platform to speak. She is a Bush lackey and an idiot who should not be encouraged, and should not be endorsed as a legitimate voice in the media.

She’s a Bush lackey because she perpetuates the lie that the firing of the U.S. Attorneys was a standard occurrence. Never in the history of our government have so many been fired mid-term like this. Does this make her an idiot? No. But here’s what does.

David Iglesias had just finished saying 3 things:

1. The Attorney General had falsely claimed all the firings, including his, were performance based, and he did it under oath, when the facts have shown this not to be the case.

2. He had been asked to break the law and wouldn’t, and that is why he was fired.

3. Had he been simply released, without allegations of poor performance, he would have walked away without a peep.

So David Iglesias acknowledged the position was political and the administration had the right to fire him at will, but not to ask him to break the law, and not to do it using false and personally damaging allegations.

What was Lisa Schiffren’s response? She repeated her stance that it was a political appointment and subject to firing at will by the administration. That is what makes her an idiot.

We need to stay focused on the problem these firings represent. It is not the firings in and of themselves because I think we can all agree that the administration had the right to do so. What we need to do is remember that Bush did not have the balls to stand on that right. We have to remember that Bush, directly or indirectly, was seeking to have the law broken and to have people act against their integrity and that when he didn’t get away with it he threw a temper tantrum and tried to push the blame elsewhere.

I agree with Richard Belzer, who was also on the show. David Iglesias is a hero for standing up for America instead of his job and a tyrannical administration. Bravo David.

Tags:
David Iglesias
Lisa Schiffren
US Attorney

David Iglesias
Lisa Schiffren
US Attorney

Microsoft Just Can’t Get It Right

I don’t understand how after decades Microsoft can’t even get one of their longest standing products, Outlook Express, to function consistently. Once again a seemingly simple operation, like starting a program, has failed.

A friend of mine had a computer problem today and as I’m his good friend I needed to solve it. He couldn’t use his email. The only thing you could get from his Outlook Express is a message saying “Outlook Express could not be started. The application was unable to open the Outlook Express message store. Your computer may be out of memory or your disk is full”. I’ve searched the internet on Outlook Express and found an interesting Outlook Express repair utility and I’m sharing the link with you. It’s repair option solved his problem automatically.

Funny, I never have to deal with problems like this on my Mac. But I realize most people are still stuck in the MS quagmire so I offer help where I can find it.

Tags:
outlook express
outlook express repair utility

outlook express
outlook express repair utility

Akamai Responsible For Net Slowdown?

Has anyone else notice the dramatic drop in performance at popular
sites lately? Apple, WellsFargo, eBay, Yahoo! and Myspace have been
absolutely crawling for me, both at work and at home.

What I’ve noticed during these lags is a “connecting to xxx.xxx.x.akamai.net;
Akamai being the world’s leader in image and content hosting. I’m beginning
to think they’ve outgrown themselves and we are paying the price. I
am writing to each of the companies showing this slow down in hopes of
pressuring Akamai to get their act together. I suggest you do the same.

tags:
Akamai
internet slowdown

UCLA Tazer, A Letter to Chancellor Abrams

Below is the letter I have composed and am sending to UCLA Chancellor Abrams in regards to the recent attack by thugs in uniform posing as UCLA Police. I am requesting you either write your own letter or copy the one below and sign your name to it, and send it to Chancellor Abrams as soon as possible:

UCLA, Norman Abrams
4101 Law Bldg
Los Angeles, CA 90095

To UCLA Chancellor Norman Abrams:

I just reviewed a video depicting a UCLA Police squad abusing a suspect by using tazer weaponry in an unwarranted and downright violent manner. An independent investigation is not enough. You need to put your personal influence, and the influence of UCLA into the prosecution of these villains. Even if the first tazer attack was used in accordance to policy, all subsequent tazer attacks, which were caught on video, were a clear violation of human and civil rights. There were more than 4 officers, all substantial in size, who could have very easily extricated the man with one officer each arm and one officer on each leg, without the use of weaponry.

As a citizen of California, and the United States, whose tax money pays your salary, and as a defender of the Constitution, I demand you use your substantial influence to pursue the conviction and imprisonment of each and every one of these officers for felony assault and battery with special circumstances under hate crime statutes. I also demand you assist in every way possible any civil action brought against the men in uniform who so blatantly abused their power.

Tags:
tazer
ucla
ucla+cop
ucla tazer

tazer
ucla
ucla+cop
ucla tazer

UCLA Tazer Cops, They Must Go Down

I just finished watching the video of UCLA Cops Tazering someone. I am so angry and upset I am literally on the verge of vomiting. My chest is tight, my stomach is in my throat, and my whole body is quivering. I can barely sit here writing this.

Beyond the obvious anger directed at those pricks with the tazer, I am also angry that the students witnessing the event didn’t do something after the second tazer. Those fucking cops should have been slammed to the ground and put under citizen arrest using their own hand cuffs. I almost punched my monitor when that fucking nazi had his face clear on the screen near the end of the video.

I am writing a letter to the chancelor of UCLA. In it I am demading the entire weight of UCLA be put behind the firing, arrest, and imprisonment of those dick head cops. Further I am demanding that UCLA assist in the civil litigation against the bastards for $10s of millions. I am requesting you do the same.

The abuse of power displayed by those shitty fuckers deserves nothing less than a life of rotting in a dirty cell.

Tags:
tazer
ucla
ucla+cop
ucla tazer

tazer
ucla
ucla+cop
ucla tazer

Bush, The Icky Man, Turns My Stomach

My morning coffee trip includes a path through the student lounge at
the school I work. This morning I happened by as George, the Icky Man,
Bush was giving a live press conference. He was rambling, as usual,
contradicting himself (referring to the claims that staying the course
were only 25% accurate, and then saying stay the course meant
changing when things don’t work and getting the job done, which is what
he is doing :-p) as usual. But then he said something that caused me to
blurt bullshit out load and forced me to leave the room before I vomited
on the pretty girl sitting in the couch next to me.

“If we leave before getting the job done the enemy will come after us.”

How can he dare to insult us in such a way. How can he dare to insinuate
that what we are doing in Iraq, even to this day, is protecting us in any
way from terrorist threats? It has been shown, definitively in my mind,
that Iraq does not, and has never, been a direct threat to the United States.
If you believe anything else you are an idiot. Not only has Iraq been shown
to have never been a threat, we now know the actions Bush is taking to “get
the job done” are actually increasing the risks to us, here, at home.

I am quite certain Bush is doing what needs to be done to “get the job done”.
He is not being honest about what that job is. I am convinced things in Iraq are
going perfectly, according to the Bush plan. His desire to be the leader of “the
idealogical battle of the 21st century” requires the continued unrest in Iraq. It
requires the increased hatred of our country. It requires the systematic removal
of Generals, through attrition, to be replaced by Bushite straw men willing to
execute the commands of an armagedonist. These are very scary times and we
must pay attention or face dire consequences.

One thing you can do to show Bush, and the world, we are paying attention is to
link from your sites, as I have, to:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/

using the term: Icky Man

Here is a link for you to copy:

<a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/&quot; rel="tag">Icky Man</a>

Leave a comment here so we can all see the progress of our efforts.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags: Bush Racism Iky Man stay the course getting the job done Bush Administration armagedon Iraq

Firefox Losing Market Share, Don’t Think So

Here’s an Information Week healine today:

Firefox Losing Market Share, Internet Explorer Gaining, Says Dutch Metrics Firm

The numbers come from OneStat. I am wondering, are they on the MS
bankroll? First, they contradict the findings on Firefox penetration
presented by Net Applications which shows IE is losing ground. So is it
he said she said? Of course, so I have to side with the report matching
my data.

I run a Myspace tutorial site. I figure if there is a mix of users that
represent the typical Internet surfer, it’s a crowd looking at things related
to Myspace. I am receiving 350 – 500 unique visitors per day and am
showing my viewers using Firefox consistently at 21% – 23% (Safari is
at 3%, also more in line with Net Applications). I have other sites showing
similar results but the traffic is too little to draw additional support from.

Finally, the article also says:

Mozilla Corp.’s Firefox has the largest share of browser users in Germany
(33.4 percent), Australia (25.6 percent), and Italy (21.6 percent), said OneStat.
In the U.S. only, IE accounts for 80.8 percent, Firefox 14.9 percent, and
Safari 3.4 percent.

So I applaud the rest of the world for recognizing the value of quality and for
breaking the bonds of Microsoft propaganda. Here in the U.S. I hope we follow
suit soon. And don’t forget, it doesn’t matter that IE7 will be released before Firefox 2.

Do us all a favor and get Firefox now.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
firefox
ie7
internet explorer
2.0 beta
get Firefox
myspace
myspace tutorial

Microsoft’s IE 7 May Beat Firefox 2.0 To Market, Who Cares

The first part of the title is a headline from Information Week. The who
cares part is mine. Firefox 1.5 is already a better browser than IE7 so
the point is moot. We all need to do each other a favor and give up on IE.
It’s an insecure beast designed to perpetuate Microsoft proprietary
technologies that reduce usability, cost standards savvy web developers
time and money in hacks, and limit the experience of web surfers.

Firefox is gaining in market share for a reason. It’s a better browser. If
we, as a web community, can push Firefox to 50% market share we will,
at the very least, force Microsoft to pay attention to standards and come
up with a comparable product.

If you are a Mac user, help out by using Firefox instead of Safari or other
Mozilla base browsers, at least for a little while. Safari and the others are
great browsers, but only diminish the impact of our fight against Microsoft.
Firefox is a great browser and you won’t miss your stand by. You can always
return as a loyal fan when the fight is done. with 10s of millions of us, and
growing, we can make a difference.

Do us all a favor and get Firefox now.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
firefox
ie7
internet explorer
2.0 beta
get Firefox

Microsoft, Illegal Dominance or Death Throws

I can’t believe what I just read in Information Week. It appears we
now must trust Microsoft, unanimously viewed as a security disaster by
supporters and proponents alike, to be the sole protector of our computing
environment. The headline reads:

Following rival Symantec’s lead, McAfee complained that by
locking access to the Vista kernel, Microsoft was also blocking security
vendors’ access to the operating system core.

I guess Microsoft has gotten over the post anti-trust syndrome and is back to
its old practice of underhanded business tactics instead of innovation and
quality to keep its market share. Here’s another quote:

‘”They’ve leveraged their access [to the kernel] to give themselves an unfair
advantage,” said Viega. “That will leave users less secure.”‘

and:

‘”Microsoft has repeatedly said that its own products — security
software included — must also abide by the PatchGuard restrictions. Viega
didn’t think Microsoft would be able to resist the temptation. “I don’t believe
them,” he said when asked about Microsoft’s promises to steer clear of the
kernel.’

I don’t believe them either. Microsoft’s history of bad conduct Microsoft is too
overwhelming to give anything they say about good behavior any credence
what so ever. Overall it’s a desperate play by a desperate company. I don’t
think anything they do will save them in the long run. It might even accelerate
the decline, at least in the EU, as they thumb their noses at regulators and
bring down the wrath of government legal action once again.

There may be immediate hope, though, in the growth of Apple Macintosh computers in the coffee houses.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
computer+security
windows vista
mcafee
symantec
macintosh

Let’s Clean the House

It’s time we made a stand for ourselves. The only way this can
be done is to break the chain of corruption in DC built by self
serving, power hungry, profit mongering scoundrels. The only
way to this is voting everyone out. The problems we face are
caused, in a large part, by the committees on the hill. These
committees are run by the old guard who are in turn run by the
lobbyists of powerful corporations. I realize an entire government
of freshmen congress and senate members would cause a certain
amount of chaos and inefficiency. I think we should be willing to
accept this considering both the ultimate outcome of the continued
course and the incredible power we, as a nation of individuals,
would gain in the long term. It would send a clear message that we
stand in absolute disgust with the current state of our leadership
(or lack therof) and that we are willing to do something about it,
now, and in the future.

Compared to what lies ahead, the turmoil of this move will be but
a flesh wound. Let’s dodge the bullet of arrogance, deception, power
mongering and greed seeking to blow our brains against the wall.
Let’s accept the fall of those who might be innocent bystanders on
The Hill in order to foster creativity and balance. Creativity and
balance are the natural outcome when problems are faced by people
on the same level playing field.

Level the playing field, vote for creativity and balance, vote for
yourselves, vote everyone in office out.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
bush
cheney
congress
senate
election
vote
we the people

IE7, Just Stop Supporting It Already

This is a message to web developers, IT Managers and eTailers as much as users. Here is a quote from Information Week:

“This isn’t even about IE 7,” Litofsky argued. “IE 7 could be bug free and sites would still have these issues. In a typical browser roll-out, a site may get dozens of hundreds of customer support [and access] problems. With IE 7, though, it’ll be that times several thousand.”

Come on, why do we continue to accepting this? Users, download Firefox and start using it. Web delevopers, just write W3C compliant code and stick to JavaScript and XML. We’ll all be a lot happier in the end.

BTW, Microsoft, if you force me to upgrade to IE7, I’ll hack a big loogey at you.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
firefox
IE7
web developers