It's probably a good idea to avoid this firm

Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, is starting a disaster preparedness consulting firm to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job.

"If I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and better prepared in their businesses -- because that goes straight to the bottom line -- then I hope I can help the country in some way," Brown told the Rocky Mountain News for its Thursday editions.

Brown said officials need to "take inventory" of what's going on in a disaster to be able to answer questions to avoid appearing unaware of how serious a situation is.


What can you say about this? Truly some people are shameless.

Happy Thanksgiving, America

We're just getting ready to head off to my parents' house for the big feast and I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Here is a list of the Sony and EMI CD that contain the XCP software

Here is a list of the Sony and EMI CD that contain the XCP software.
If you have played one of these CD on your PC then you are infected.
http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/english/titles.html

BACKGROUND FOR THOSE WHO CAME IN LATE:

The "XCP" copy protection on certain Sony music CD installs rootkit
software to hide the copy protection software from the computer owner.

This problem only affects Microsoft Windows computers. Apple Mac
users are safe from this particular flaw.

That Sony rootkit is now being used by virus authors to hide their
viruses from antivirus software. There is a background article on it
at
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/01/sony_rootkit_drm/

Un-installing the XCP software by simply deleting the files will cause
your CD drive to stop working. There is a very technical explanation
at
http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html

Sony provides an un-install utility. However, the un-install has a
bug in it that causes it to install another security flaw (in ActiveX)
that has already been exploited by malicious hackers.
See info at
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/17/sony_drm_uninstaller_peril/

Information on XCP hiding viruses is at
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051110/wr_nm/sony_hack_dc

There are complicated manual removal procedures at
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=151461
and
http://www.boycott-riaa.com/article/18565
but I haven't tried them and I don't know if they will work. You may
need the Rootkit Revealer software from the nice people at
Sysinternals just to find the files so you can delete them.
http://www.sysinternals.com/utilities/rootkitrevealer.html

There are instructions for patching the security hole that the Sony
un-installer creates at
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/archive-112005.html#00000709
and
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=927

If you are infected then you can go to Google and search for
xcp class action lawsuit

What color should your eyes be?

Your Eyes Should Be Green

Your eyes reflect: Striking attractiveness and danger What's hidden behind your eyes: A vivid inner world

What Color Should Your Eyes Be?

Because We Don't Want the Smoking Gun to Take the Shape of a Falafel Cloud

Because We Don't Want the Smoking Gun to Take the Shape of a Falafel Cloud
by Hunter
Tue Nov 15, 2005 at 10:54:46 AM PDT

Bill O'Reilly is making an Enemies List. Seriously, not kidding.

Because after saying:


And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.

... and then following it up with:


What I said isn't controversial. What I said needed to be said.

... he's very put out that people are mad about it, because really, he says now, it was just a "satirical riff". What's wrong with you people, don't you recognize satire?

Anyway, so now he says he'll post the names of all those who oppose him in an Enemies List on his website. You'd better hurry, because spaces will probably fill up fast.


Dear Bill O'Reilly. Please put me on your Enemies List. It's "Hunter", H-U-N-T-E-R.

As for the reason, please put down "thinks it would be hysterical if al-Zarqawi beat you to death with a shovel."


What? It's only satire, Bill, lighten up. What, you're not afraid of a little discourse, are you?

If you, dear reader, want to be on O'Reilly's "Enemies List", you can send mail to Bill at oreilly@foxnews.com.

Postage rates increasing AGAIN

The cost of mailing a letter will increase to 39 cents on Jan. 8. WHY? Their service sure hasn't increased. I regularly get letters their system has shredded, ripped, tore and destroyed. Letters get lost as often as they're delivered. I sent a friend a package two weeks ago, she still hasn't received it. That type of service deserves a raise? I don't think so!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Postal Service's board of governors approved the two-cent increase in first-class postal rates late Monday. It is the first increase since June 2002.

The cost of mailing a postcard will increase a penny, to 24 cents, as part of the roughly 5.4 percent, across-the-board hike in most rates and fees.

The increase fulfills a requirement, passed by Congress in 2003, that the Postal Service establish a $3.1 billion escrow account. Congress is to determine later how to spend that money. The Postal Service said without the mandate it would not have had to raise rates next year.

PA-Sen: Santorum challenges Casey to debates

by kos
Mon Nov 14, 2005 at 02:28:00 PM PDT

The mark of a desperate incumbent? Rick Santorum is challenging Casey to debates now, a year out from debates.

Typically, incumbents shun debates, lest they give their challengers a boost in their name recognition. And regardless, debates don't typically happen until after Labor Day, when the electorate supposedly starts paying attention.

Can you smell Ricky's desperation?

Awesome news

When we were in Pittsburgh yesterday with Dad, the doctor said they got all the cancer and it hadn't spread!! I just wanted to drop and cry, I was so relieved. :) They want him to still make an appointment with the oncologist, just to be careful, but it looks like he's going to be healthy once he's all healed from surgery. This has been such a long time coming, I know he's thrilled. Mom will finally be able to get back to normal.

When I got back to our area, I got dropped off where Randy works. I waited in the truck for him, then we went to help my best friend move. She has a lot of heavy stuff! She's moving to where we live. There's just a few things left for her to move today and she's done. Her daughter starts school here tomorrow and is really nervous about it. At least, she'll have my T to help her out. I'm excited about it because we'll finally be able to do our crafts and just hang out without a 20 minute drive each way to contend with. Makes visiting in winter sooo much easier!

Today, I have a meeting to cover this morning, then T's geography fair is tonight. He's in the gifted program and worked hard on the project. He traced my father's paternal line from France to here. Randy is working first shift this week, so he'll be able to go to the program tonight.

Off to Pittsburgh

We're getting ready to go to Pittsburgh this morning. We'll drop the kids off at school and leave. Dad has to go back for a check up and then we'll find out if the cancer has spread. It's very scary to think about, but I have to believe he's ok. Nothing else can even enter my mind.

The city ought to be in a great mood since the Steelers won last night against the hated Browns. What a game! Poor Charlie Batch. Finally get to be a starting quarterback and then break your passing hand. Tommy Maddox better get his mind back on the game or he'll be put out to pasture fast. A quarterback who is afraid to throw is no good to anyone.

We were just in Pittsburgh on Friday with T. He had to go to have his ears checked at the specialist. He got a great report and doesn't have to go back for a year. What a relief! He has hearing loss from all the surgeries, but they didn't expect him to have any hearing.

It was his 11th birthday, so we went to the zoo to celebrate and spent about four hours there exploring. We had the entire place to ourselves for the first couple hours before the school buses started rolling in. I took over 300 photos there. Good thing I use digital! :)

After that, we went to the Monroeville Mall to pick up his presents. He got a video game, a year's subscription to XBox Live and a Halo 2 hoodie. He loved all of them. That place is huge! By then, my feet were killing me and we were all starving, so it was off to Outback Steakhouse. YUMMY!!! The waitresses sang to T and gave him an icecream sundae with a birthday candle. He loved that. :) I got a Halloween 2005 pin for my collection.


It was a very long day (left at 5 a.m. and got hom after 8:30 p.m.), but we enjoyed it.

It's election day

It's truly a good night for those of us who are sick to death of the lies and corruption of the Republican party! It looks like a bad time to be a Republican. NJ and VA both have Democrats for Governors, thanks to the voters.

Not even a visit from the shrub could convince VA voters to pick Kilgore.

VA Precincts: 88.13 percent reporting

Kaine (D) 51.31
Kilgore (R) 46.44
Potts (I) 2.18



NJ Precincts: 1,917 of 6,310 reporting

Corzine (D) 52.48
Forrester (R) 44.53

That 70s Show

The third season DVD is almost ready to be released. This is one of those shows that you just have to watch and laugh. Remember bell bottoms? "Special" brownies? The make up? Those of us who lived through it, it's a way to step back into our childhood. Those who missed it, now is your chance!

Sen. Rockefeller: "I Was Dead Flat Wrong."

Sen. Rockefeller: "I Was Dead Flat Wrong."
by Armando
Sun Nov 06, 2005 at 09:34:38 AM PDT
On Wolf Blitzer's show, Wolf showed Senator Jay Rockefeller's (D-WV) floor speech explaining his Aye vote for authorizing force against Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Rockefeller did the right thing and the smart thing - He admitted he was completely wrong in voting for the Iraq War. He said that if he knew then what he knows now, he would never ever would have voted for war in Iraq. He insisted that the reason he did not know then what he knows now was because the Bush Administration stovepiped the intelligence. In effect, he called them liars.

Senator George Allen (R-VA) said "mistakes were made" but now we have to win in Iraq. He didn't explain how we were going to do that.

And that begs the question, how can we believe the Bush Administration is telling the truth on "how we can win in Iraq" when they can not be trusted, either because of lack of competence, if you want to be charitable, or because they are liars, part of the truth of the matter, or both, the whole truth of the matter.

You can't trust the Bush Administration to tell the truth or to do the job. It is time that all Dems understand these central facts and take their positions based on these facts. Do what Sen. Rockefeller has done, admit your mistakes, and now act accordingly.

The Bush Administration does not tell the truth. The Bush Administration is hopelessly incompetent. You can not trust them on Iraq (or anything else for that matter.) To support the Iraq Debacle is to support incompetence and deception. No Dem should be for that.

McCain vows to add torture ban to all major Senate legislation

Speaking from the Senate floor, McCain said, "If necessary - and I sincerely hope it is not - I and the co-sponsors of this amendment will seek to add it to every piece of important legislation voted on in the Senate until the will of a substantial bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress prevails. Let no one doubt our determination."

There's a fight a-brewing over torture and isn't that the saddest part of the whole story. A nation that has been a leader in the field of human rights has to have a Republican Senator stick his foot in the mouth of an administration that begs to act like the barbarians that it professes to despise.

What about Cheney

What about Cheney
by kos
Fri Nov 04, 2005 at 08:43:52 AM PDT
Everyone saw this CBS poll pegging Bush's approval ratings at 35 percent. But how about this beauty from that same poll?



Dick Cheney approval rating

Approve 19
Disapprove 44



19 percent. I guess if we're looking for Bush's potential floor -- the total number of GOP dead-enders, we've probably found it.

Two New Polls Put Bush at 60%

Two New Polls Put Bush at 60%
by DavidNYC
Fri Nov 04, 2005 at 12:06:28 AM PDT

If your heart just skipped a beat upon reading this headline, relax - I'm just messin' with ya. Bush is indeed at 60% - 60% disapproval, that is, for the first time ever. Bowers has got the goods:


Poll Approve Disapprove Strongly Dis.
Zogby 39 61 41
ABC 39 60 47
AP 37 59 42
CBS 35 57 N/A


Have a great weekend, G. Dub. I know I will.

Tru Calling

Do you remember the TV show Tru Calling? It was one of my absolute favorites and, of course, it was cancelled way too fast! I mean, it didn't even get to complete two seasons.

I found a neat site for fans of the show to get together and wanted to share it.



http://trucallingseasontwo.fanboost.com/?C1390_474817