Hmmm, when my S.O. brought up a Yahoo page on her computer last night she said, “read the first paragraph of this story.” I read the text on the computer screen out loud:

“Clutching a Quran and refusing a hood, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows before sunrise Saturday, executed by vengeful countrymen after a quarter-century of remorseless brutality that killed countless thousands and led Iraq into disastrous wars against the United States and Iran.”

Huh??? “Saddam..led Iraq into disastrous wars against the United States and Iran.” ???? I’m flumoxed; this is simply not true. Did I miss something?

Here is an assortment of leads from the AP writer(s) that penned the B.S. quoted above, CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and/or CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, I’ve included time stamps (via Lexus/Nexus Academic) so we can see the evolution of AP’s leads.

December 30, 2006 Saturday 4:49 AM GMT

Saddam Hussein, the dictator who ruled Iraq with a remorseless brutality for a quarter-century and was driven from power by a U.S.-led war that left his country in shambles, was taken to the gallows and executed Saturday, Iraqi state-run television reported.

December 30, 2006 Saturday 5:04 AM GMT

Saddam Hussein, the dictator who ruled Iraq with a remorseless brutality for a quarter-century and was driven from power by a U.S.-led war that left his country in shambles, was taken to the gallows and executed Saturday.

December 30, 2006 Saturday 5:19 AM GMT

Saddam Hussein, the shotgun-waving dictator who ruled Iraq with a remorseless brutality for a quarter-century and was driven from power by a U.S.-led war that left his country in shambles, was taken to the gallows and executed Saturday. A witness said he was composed in his last moments.

December 30, 2006 Saturday 5:21 AM GMT

Saddam Hussein, the shotgun-waving dictator who ruled Iraq with a remorseless brutality for a quarter-century and was driven from power by a U.S.-led war that left his country in shambles, was taken to the gallows clutching a Quran and hanged Saturday.

December 30, 2006 Saturday 5:34 AM GMT

Saddam Hussein, the shotgun-waving dictator who ruled Iraq with a remorseless brutality for a quarter-century and was driven from power by a U.S.-led war that left his country in shambles, was taken to the gallows clutching a Quran and hanged Saturday.

December 30, 2006 Saturday 6:19 AM GMT

Saddam Hussein, the shotgun-waving dictator who ruled Iraq with a remorseless brutality for a quarter-century and was driven from power by a U.S.-led war that left his country in shambles, was taken to the gallows and executed Saturday. On the gallows, Saddam refused to wear a hood and shouted: “God is great.”

December 30, 2006 Saturday 6:40 AM GMT

In the end, Saddam Hussein died at the hands of those he brutalized during a bloody regime that led Iraq into two disastrous wars with the United States and left the country and its people in utter chaos.

December 30, 2006 Saturday 7:16 AM GMT

Clutching a Quran and refusing a hood, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows before sunrise Saturday, executed by vengeful countrymen after a quarter-century of remorseless brutality that killed countless thousands and led Iraq into disastrous wars against the United States and Iran.

December 30, 2006 Saturday 7:43 AM GMT

Clutching a Quran and refusing a hood, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows before sunrise Saturday, executed by vengeful countrymen after a quarter-century of remorseless brutality that killed countless thousands and led Iraq into disastrous wars against the United States and Iran.

December 30, 2006 Saturday 9:59 AM GMT

Clutching a Quran and refusing a hood, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows before sunrise Saturday, executed by vengeful countrymen after a quarter-century of remorseless brutality that killed countless thousands and led Iraq into disastrous wars against the United States and Iran.

Classical KUSC is the largest non-profit classical music station in the country, and Southern California’s heritage classical radio station. Dedicated to preserving classical music as a living art, Classical KUSC uses digital transmission technology to broadcast commercial-free, uninterrupted performances to up to ? million listeners each week. Located in downtown Los Angeles, the listener-supported station has been broadcasting for 60 years. Classical KUSC is a broadcast service of the University of Southern California.

Love it. Here’s the link and here the stream.

Ok, ok, corny as hell, I know, but this one made me laugh this morning.

Herbert A. Millington
Chair – Search Committee
412A Clarkson Hall, Whitson University
College Hill, MA 34109

Dear Professor Millington,

Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your department.

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.

Despite Whitson’s outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.
Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.
Sincerely,
Chris L. Jensen

As did this one:

Magoo seems to have a bit more fire tonight than Hidey, even when she is in her bed.

State Representative Tom Anderson (R) was arraigned this afternoon and charged with seven counts: two counts of extortion, one count of bribery, one count of conspiracy and three counts of money laundering. If convicted of all seven counts, he’s looking at over 99 years and two million dollars in fines.

Wearing ankle chains and standard issue yellow prison garb, Anderson pled not guilty to all of the charges.

Anderson is married to State Representative Leisl Mcguire, who is also a State Senator elect. Mcguire was interviewed by KTUU-TV this afternoon. She asserted that her husband was indicted because the FBI is frustrated in its larger investigation into corruption. That investigation led to raids on the offices of 6 state lawmakers back in August. According to McGuire, her husband is just “low hanging fruit”, and he is just an easy target.

Leisl, from me to you, “low hanging fruit” and easy target is a funny way of saying not guilty. You’ll have to do better than that in defending your husband.

The indictment (.pdf file)

State Representative and long time “gimme money” guy Tom Anderson was arrested Thursday afternoon. Yep, he’s a (R).

The Associated Press

(Published: December 7, 2006)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – An Alaska state lawmaker was arrested Thursday on a federal bribery warrant.

Rep. Tom Anderson was arrested at his Anchorage home and was being held Thursday night at the city jail, FBI Special Agent Eric Gonzalez told The Associated Press.

The arrest stems from the recent raid of several lawmaker’s offices. No other arrests were made, but Gonzalez said it was an ongoing investigation.

More information about Anderson’s arrest, first reported by Anchorage television station KTUU, was expected to be released by Department of Justice officials in Washington, D.C., Gonzalez said.

A message left late Thursday night with DOJ officials by the AP was not immediately returned.

Anderson, who did not seek re-election and leaves office this month, is married to Lesil McGuire, who gave up her state representative seat and was elected to the state Senate, taking office next month. There was no home listing for Anderson and McGuire, but Anderson’s father, Tom Anderson, former director of the Alaska State Troopers, said, “No comment.”

The offices of at least six Alaska legislators were raided in late August and early September by federal agents searching for possible ties between the lawmakers and VECO Corp., a large oil field services company, officials and aides said. Anderson’s name had not appeared in the list of offices searched.

About 20 warrants were served at the time in Anchorage, Juneau, Wasilla, Eagle River and Girdwood, but federal officials would not say who received warrants and remained tightlipped about the investigation. All inquiries were referred to DOJ officials, who declined to comment for months.

Just how long Lesil lasts as a new Senator is anyones guess.

More from KTUU, the Anchorage Daily News, and The Alaska Report.

UPDATE: Anderson was not part of the August FBI raids, our apologies for the error.

And, 4 hours befoe Markos and his minions stole my links. Prick. I’m calling my solicitor, NTodd.

A few years ago I bought a Minolta Dimage 600 digital camera. Simple small cool thing, not too bad. Back then it came with a 128 MB SD card, and as my family shoots pix like crazy, a few weeks ago I bought a 2 GB card, which made everybody happy. Yesterday disaster struck. As we had had a local thingy called Sinterklaas here (mix Xmas and thanksgiving and you have kinda the idea) there were 300 pix sitting on the card, a blazing 15% hehe. I said “oh, let me unload it”, took it out of the camera, into the external card reader and did a mindless (mistake #1) copy – paste to the network drive. Shoved it back into the camera, where it said “cannot read data”, so (mistake #2) I reformatted and it was happy again. Happened before, no big deal. Yet.

Next I notice the last pic on the network is about halfway of what it should be. The last file copied is 0 bytes long. Uh oh. Now I am in BIG trouble. Spent till 1:30 AM to try to recover, downloaded (and payed, mistake #2.5) for 2 forensic recovery tools, and I save a few pix more, but not really. I am in BIGGER trouble. I decide to let the better tool run during the night, but when I woke up, it had locked up and recovery had stalled. I am in BIGGEST trouble.
This morning I had a mindwave. What if it weren’t the camera or the card, but the rather old reader? Last straw. So, instead of using the reader, I hooked up the camera, shoved in this card, connected it though a USB cable and started with making a raw image copy of the card, as analysing on the card would certainly not last the camera’s battery. Then let the pattern-seeker plow through the 2GB file. Bingo!!!!!!

Want advice for a situation like this? WinHex, really,  although a tad steep to use. The other software, MediaUndelete, although slicker didn’t even come close. These guys at X-Ways are going to get a real nice letter. Oh, and now, I am going to get a sledgehammer and trash that card reader. Be right back.

update: done!

What have I been up to?

Well.

I’ve been landing in Toledo Ohio

Auckland New Zealand

Campinas Brazil

And Chicago Illinois.

John Bolton resigned, as the chance was an absolute zero to get pass the senate. I am pretty sure Bush is about the only person in the world pinking away a tear or two about this. It’s good somebody addresses the corruption and money-wasting in the UN, but decapitating and behaving like a true a$$ only to gain more influence on the world-scene, which IMHO is the only reason why the president praised him, is too much. Bye John. Nobody will miss you.