Reason Morning Links: Cyberwar, the CIA, and Wind Power

- Hackers attack government websites. The results are underwhelming.

- CIA chief Leon Panetta tells Congress his agency repeatedly misled lawmakers during the Bush years.

- T. Boone Pickens might not become a wind magnate after all.

- Human rights abuses in Mexico's war on drugs.

- Orwellism of the week: "presidential post-acquittal detention power."

Comments

[kinnath]

Obama continues to amaze me in the ways he is extending the Bush policies on terrorism.

[Bumpers]

Akron police say they aren't ready to call it a hate crime or a gang initiation.
But to Marty Marshall, his wife and two kids, it seems pretty clear.
It came after a family night of celebrating America and freedom with a fireworks show at Firestone Stadium. Marshall, his family and two friends were gathered outside a friend's home in South Akron.
Out of nowhere, the six were attacked by dozens of teenage boys, who shouted ''This is our world'' and ''This is a black world'' as they confronted Marshall and his family.

http://www.ohio.com/news/50172282.html

[Nooge]

Don't forget this, which is- GASP!- a story about a federal agency not doing its job with any demonstrable level of competence.

[WWJGD]

Indefinite detainment never sounded so polite!

[denialist-smacker]

Today is a good day for smacking!

[P Brooks]

Big shakeup at Citi, apparently, but it appears Bandit still has a job.

[SugarFree]

P Brooks,

but it appears Bandit still has a job

When are those fools going to realize that Johnny Quest's dog just doesn't have the necessary skills to run CitiBank? Morons.

[Warty]

Akron is a dump.

[I\'d offer and example that sh]

20XD6!!!

[Steven Hall]

WASHINGTON - Sweeping healthcare legislation working its way through Congress is more than an effort to provide insurance to millions of Americans without coverage. Tucked within is a provision that could provide billions of dollars for walking paths, streetlights, jungle gyms, and even farmers' markets.
The add-ons - characterized as part of a broad effort to improve the nation's health "infrastructure'' - appear in House and Senate versions of the bill.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/07/09/in_health_bill_billions_for_parks_paths/

[P Brooks]

Whatever else is true, even talking about imprisoning people based on accusations of which they have been exonerated is a truly grotesque perversion of everything that our justice system and Constitution are supposed to guarantee. That's one of those propositions that ought to be too self-evident to need stating.

Greenwald is awesome.

In a deeply depressing way.

[EJM]

? Hackers attack government websites.

South Korea apparently went through another wave of attacks today.

[grrr]

"presidential post-acquittal detention power."

WTF!!!

[hmm]

God I have to defend or at least raise a question about the CIA. Doesn't the CIA and other intelligence agencies practice a sort of pseudo deceit with regard to public oversight in that they do not disclose entire operations to anyone person or entire group. They reveal separate parts of intelligence and activities to individuals and committees but not the entire scope of the operation to any one.

This reeks of an administration helped ass covering.

I feel so dirty now. I'm going to cry in the shower.

[Timon19]

Akron is a dump.

Hey, no it's...aw hell, you're right.

At least that part of Akron is. Firestone is a shadow of its former self and the other industries near there are gone.

[Warty]

But Timon, Crissie Hynde has a vegan restaurant there! It's a totally hip place!!!!!

[Ben Kenobi]

The Greenwald article is great. Anyone that supported or voted for Obama should be fucking disgusted with themselves. Any self proclaimed libertarian that did either of those things should be doubly disgusted with themselves. I would pay a million dollars to see a piece of shit Obama worshipper justify how indefinite detention was bad when Bush did it but necessary and good when Obama does it.

[Timon19]

Indeed...right next to local greasehouse (and fine, fine pizza parlor) Luigi's, home of the shredded-mozzarella-cheese-with-a-bit-of-lettuce salad.

Speaking of which, if you've never had one, you're missing out. Awesome in its cheesy simplicity.

As for Chrissie, I find that she's gotten pretty damn soft over the years. A place that she totally tore to shreds in her music and left is now a place where she kisses the The Don's ass constantly and owns a restaurant. Still, the old bird can still rock.

[Timon19]

Warty,

Also, the restaurants in and around downtown itself aren't bad at all. Some pretty good and interesting places. It's just the Firestone Park area is a fucking hole.

[John-David (proud cisgendered]

Mmm, Luigi's. I think I'll take my wife there for our anniversary. We haven't been there in years.

[Warty]

presidential post-acquittal detention power

Wasn't this one of the things that started the English Civil War?

[Robert Gibbs]

"presidential post-acquittal detention power."

Well I suppose if you were to listen to right wing extremists you would think of it like that. But really we would like to consider it as "future offense prevention powers". We don't think that you should take a military only approach, as we have learned and are still suffering from eight years of Bush, where you destroy the countries and livelyhood of foreigners, we think that there is a legal framework with rights and protections and we are working at destroying them.

[Warty]

Yeah, the Potemkin village around downtown is pretty nice, and I'm a big fan of the towpath. Other than that, there's very little reason to go to Akron.

[Timon19]

Errr...uhhh...Chapel Hill Mall??

Saffron Patch in the Valley is a seriously good reason, but I'm hard pressed to think of much else.

[franklin]

"presidential post-acquittal detention power

Wasn't this one of the things that started the English Civil War?"

No, the final straw was warrantless searches.

An american's home is his castle.

[Timon19]

Thought of another one! UA Men's Soccer in the fall. Seriously. You want to see one of the consistently best Div. I sports programs in the country, here it is, and the student section makes it even better.

[Warty]

Well, I've been meaning to go buy some pizza from this guy.

[P Brooks]

But! After only thirty years of fucking around, they finally finished the interstate, and you can drive (as fast as possible) through Akron without seeing any orange barrels.

Right?

[hammeredHead]

I'm still waiting for Obama to be flown to Costa Rica.

[Gabe]

Does anyone think these MSM-hyped cyber attacks have anything to do with Jay "we would be better off without the internet" Rockefeller's cybersecurity bill?

Would the governemnt do a false flag attack like that?

[Peter]

People could go to Akron to see the birth place of the one and only LeBron James.

[SugarFree]

Would the governemnt do a false flag attack like that?

And thus began the Denial of Service Attack Truth Movement.

[Timon19]

No shit, Warty. I hadn't heard about that. Awesome. Kind of surprised that it happened in West Akron.

P Brooks - right. No orange barrels. Just those long, skinny orange sticks now! Progress.

[Steven Hall]

That's a very good point, Gabe.

Perhaps there should be a term for using outrageous lies and exagerations in order to pass freedom killing legislation. Something like "Al Goring".

[Peter]

Perhaps there should be a term for using outrageous lies and exagerations in order to pass freedom killing legislation. Something like "Al Goring".

I'd go with just Goring. This is fitting considering that Al Gore Godwinned himself, he should be the heir to the thrown of last-name-verbs.

[Steven Hall]

"I'd go with just Goring"

I considered that, but goring has other well established meanings. Would that confuse people?

[Peter]

Not if it was capitalized? Or it could be Goreing?

[X]

Would that confuse people?

Not around here, as long as they tow the lion when it comes to Hit'n'Run's particular verbal idiosyncrasies.

[PM770]

WOW....I never realized there was such an Akron presence here at Reason. I guess the excesses of the Don causes people to further examine/embrace libertarianism. I moved out of Summit County to Canal Fulton 8 years ago to avoid such blantant city/county corruption.

If Chrissy Hynde's place is right next to Luigi's, I imagine the only business they can get is from the spill over crowds who don't want to wait.

I miss Mr. Bilbo's. Very underrated source of quality late night (or lunch time) grub.

Go Zips.

[Warty]

Goring lacks a certain...elan. Throw in an umlaut.

[Timon19]

The thing that is really annoying about Summit County...

Let me rephrase: one additional really annoying thing about Summit County is that it is a charter county, complete with its own executive branch (a county executive? Really? WTF?). So in addition to all the other layers of government, there's an overarching asshole in charge of "county affairs". Considering that the vast majority of the county is incorporated into one city or burg or another, just what the fuck is the point, other than greater levels of government bullshit?

[?]

Obama continues to amaze me in the ways he is extending the Bush policies on terrorism.

They preceded Bush, too. They're not any presidents' policies. There are marginal tweaks every few years, but the only thing that really changes with presidential administrations is how people talk about these things, or the drug war, or just about any "civil liberties" issue.

When a Democrat follows a Republican, if such policies are noted at all, they're that prior Republican's policies, reluctantly but ever so thoughtfully continued, out of sad necessity. When a Republican follows a Democrat, they're reckless and unprecedented violations of every moral and legal thing ever (that will be reluctantly but ever so thoughtfully continued, again, by the next Democrat).

People love to get chumped.

[PM770]

I agree with you about the county executive, Timon. Its just one more set of dirty fingers to rummage through county coffers.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Goring lacks a certain...elan. Throw in an umlaut.

You read my mind... :p

[Blip]

Cap and Trade isn't enough. I've taken a few minutes to scour the halls of knowledge (i.e. the Internet; Wikipedia and the Huffington Post to be specific) to relay a couple more things that you can do to stop the biggest threat to our planet right now!

1) Drink more carbonated beverages. That's right, enjoy that delicious Coke, Diet Coke or A&W Root Beer. See, the bubbles in soda products are made from?you guessed it, deadly CO2. When you drink it, your body absorbs the CO2, emitting far less CO2 than the contents of the original soda. Your body is like a little CO2 destroying factory. So, drink up. But please note, I didn't say drink more Pepsi products. That's because I own stock in Coke and not Pepsi. I don't think Pepsi puts as much CO2 into their drinks as Coke. Yeah, that's it. Pepsi has 5/10th less carbon byproducts per linear ounce than Coke, so drink Coke.

2) Stop Vegetarians. People breathe Oxygen and emit CO2. Plants breathe CO2 and emit Oxygen. Animals also emit CO2 and breathe Oxygen. When we eat animals, we offset our CO2 output. When I enjoy a mouth watering filet mignon, I'm taking another pesky CO2 emitting cow off the streets. Vegetarians screw this up. They don't eat animals which means more animals emitting CO2, then they have the gall to eat only plants, which take the CO2 out of the atmosphere. Plus, humans are omnivores and being a vegetarian is just weird. I mean, every vegetarian and vegan I know is always sick. Has anyone done an analysis on this to see the overall burden on our health care system caused by sickly vegetarians? Or maybe they're always sick because the only vegetarians I know are hypochondriac actresses and models who do a lot of blow.

More @:

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lscott/2009/07/07/kill-polar-bears-drink-diet-coke-to-save-the-planet/

[Timon19]

PM,

Have you been to see the UA soccer team play in the last several years? It's great value for the $6 they charge non-students, and it's something fun to do in the fall. It's also fascinating to see the ridiculous contrast in the conditions they play in from the beginning of the season to the end, even as compressed as college soccer is. It goes from you frying your ass on a Sunday afternoon in August to freezing your nuts off and dodging ice daggers from the sky in November/December.

[TickleStick]

"Goring lacks a certain...elan. Throw in an umlaut."

Great idea, but how is that done?

[Timon19]

? = ALT + 0228
? = ALT + 0235
? = ALT + 0239
? = ALT + 0246
? = ALT + 0252
? = ALT + 0255

[TickleStick]

I don't have a 0246 key on my keyboard.

[PM770]

I have not. I'm class of '93 and I would stop by after a night class I had to watch some night games they played. In either '90 or '91 they played Evansville who was #1 at the time.

Will the soccer team start to play at Infocison or still at Lee Jackson? The last time I was through the edge of campus there, I didn't see where they still had room for Lee Jackson Field.

[David (not that one)]

But what about the umlaut over the "n" like in Spinal Tap?

[Timon19]

PM,

I hope to hell they don't play at Infocision, since it's supposed to be fucking plastic grass, but I'm afraid that after last year's playoff debacle - where the NCAA fucked Akron out of at least a home-region match they earned to play at Northwestern's shiny new plastic grass field on the shores of Lake Michigan - that's where they'll play. Oh, and by the way, Northwestern was the opponent, and the conditions were practically unplayable despite the field - icing, unholy wind...terrible.

I mean, it was perfectly reasonable to move it from Lee Jackson, since it was previously buried under several inches of snow and was a mudhole, but the grounds crew had managed to bust their asses to get the field playable by the time the game rolled around, but the NCAA were only too happy and hasty to move it to the lower seed's home (whose AD has tremendous pull in the NCAA).

The previous game had been moved to St. V-M's plastic grass facility, but not, oddly, to Ohio State, who the opponent was on that day, or anywhere inbetween. They managed to keep the game in Akron for THAT game.

Anyway, I haven't been to that end of campus since the fall, so I don't know if they're trying to keep LJ going. It's a great home-field advantage having the student section right on top of one of the goals.

I'd hate to see the game ruined even further by having a top 5 team play on plastic, but that seems to be the trend these days in the NCAA.

/still bitter
//you ought to come up for a game or two. OSU (my alma mater) is a bitter rivalry, and CSU (for some reason) is always tight.

[Albert Lee]

Economic Reality, Dayton Police Department Mess With Joe Biden

Vice President Joe Biden, on the defensive in Ohio today: "What would they say to those tens of thousands of teachers who got their pink slips this year, but are able to go back into the classroom" because of stimulus funds, Biden said. "What would they do . . . [let] all those cops get laid off? Would they say, 'Okay, no problem?' "

It's an unfortunate example considering the news in Dayton today: "A major bombshell was dropped today on the Dayton Police Department as city leaders announced police layoffs. It is believed to be the first police job cuts in the history of the department. Eleven officers found out that they are out of a job effective the first of next month. They are among the twenty newest graduates of the Dayton Police Academcy and have been on the job one year."

[Ravac]

But what about the umlaut over the "n" like in Spinal Tap?

That's ALT + 11.

The 11 key is between the 0 and - keys.

[Art-P.O.G.]

What's with all the other Ohioans on the board? It's a conspiracy, I tell ya. I blame Nick Gillespie.

[Timon19]

I guess most of us lurk unless we find something of local interest?

Plus, isn't Gillespie near Cincinnati? That's more Kentuckiana than Ohio.

[Sandi]

I took a shit in Ohio once.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Well, I saw my first issue of Reason magazine in the Columbus Metro Library. Nice library.

[Sid]

All Jesse Walker's posts should come under the rubric "Cherry Picking Evidence for the Catechism."

[Jesse Walker]

Lefiti's back!

[Art-P.O.G.]

Damn, I hope not. I got all wistful for his trollery a bit back, but then I remembered how tiresome the guy got.

[ADM]

From the article on Cato:
"This is the face of "cyberwar," which has little strategic value and little capacity to do real damage. This episode also underscores the fact that "cyberterrorism" cannot exist - because this kind of attack isn't terrifying."

Tell the Estonians that "cyberwar" has little strategic value. These attacks were very effective in knocking out the ability of a whole country to properly perform any meaningful (inter)network centric task.
You, Mr. Harper, are an idiot. It pains me to see that you got a seat in front of the House of Representatives spilling your misinformation. Thanks for your disservice.

[Jesse Walker]

Harper (and Tim Lee) talk about the Estonian experience here.