We have the technology, but so do they....in the event that there is a cyber attack, the idea is that the US army be able to take over your computer for the greater good of the country. However, if we compare ourselves to our bigger cousins, China...we pail in that comparison.
China could easily afford to have 250 million machines to node together into a massive botnet, sort of what we have seen the likes of with that virus STORM. We probably could accomadate 10 million machines, if there are that many infected with a special malware the army created.
There are also those special organisations..like google...that allow you to donate your cpu cycles for a special reason (like doing cancer stem cell research) which in the end makes us feel like we are doing our part, but who says that those mega machines are not infected with the same virus or worm, thereby coming back full circle as if you had the malware installed on your pc.
We match our 10 million to their 250 million, and we have to wonder...is this why we are login the cyber war??? What can we do differently, or better, to make sure this type of thing does not happen.
I would recommend something along the lines of an organised committee, that analyses the current threat that countries may pose based on their advanced techonlogy or access to...and formulate a way to moderate a country's progress. Let's say for example Africa was starting a special project to get some computers into schools.... this would be classified as mundane.
If you took a third world country that just finished purchasing special servers that allow multi processing of complex nature, sort of what you need to use to guide missles...well then we would have to review the background of where that hardware was going, and account for its presence at all times.
In the case of a botnet, it is the sum of the small parts that make the whole...does that mean we should limit the amount of computers allowed...or limit the connectivity of those computers to internet access...or anything that might put a small dent into that armor?
Who is to say, but it is something to think about in the years to come, especially now that we are seeing more and more cyber threats surfacing and making theirpresence known. ID Fraud, CC fraud, email scams....spamming, omg spamming! Just food for thought.
Afghanistan 'rape' law puts women's rights front and center
Obama called the law abhorrent. Would Bush have? Obama appears to be trying to change things in Afghanistan? Was Bush, really?
If you're a feminist, you can't sanction the cultural relativism that says that "it's part of their tradition, so who are we to say that it's wrong."
Misogyny was part of many societies’ history, including most religions and regions. Women only started to gain rights in the USA 100 years ago. Until then, and for many, even now, their disenfranchisement was traditional and believed to be dictated by their god. If that change was good, and helping women worldwide is required of a nation with the global power/influence of the USA, then the academic posturing of cultural relativism is deservedly dead.
Henry M
Obama seems to be very up to date with the tmies and technologies of today, maybe it is having 2 teenage daughters that have many friends keeps him in the loop, or maybe having a great support team behnid him that is not only hungry but young and dynamic. ...maybe its both.
We have a global war on economy, but we also have many other global wars waging on including pollution & cyber crime. We all have heard of the conficker worm being almost as bad as the blaster or storm worm with an unknown command waiting to be executed on april 1st.
Is this the big anti virus companies uniting together behind closed doors, and creating a "fake" worm to get everybody excited about, and to generate revenue during this bleek economic crisis? Is it really the russian, or romanian mafia connected underground we keep seeing in the movies trying to come up with more ways of storing cash in their coffers...or maybe even the chinese lying in wait for the perfect opportunity to get a hold of a botnet with enough power to DDoS attack the USA?
Whatever you might think, there is one way to avoid all the spam. Security experts working at google being represented in part by Amanda Kleha at http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/03/spam-data-and-trends-q1-2009.html describe the problem having come back at a woping 94% of all emails being spamm.
If the USA were to push and adopt a backend ISP regulation that stipulates all emails will be charged for (at let's say .0001 cent) with a cap of 100$ for residential sector (in case grandma and grandpa did not know their computers were the ones sending the emails in the first place)..we could conclude 2 things.
1 - The business like atire the criminal industry is wearing for the job would now become more expensive to tailor and would ultimately push a few cut throats beyond the point of profits. Also being that the expenses would be more , they would have to charge more, and a "restructuting" of the industry would be needed...much like our economic situation right now.
2 - The grandma and grandpa running their computers night and day without thinking twice about having proper investments in AVs or updates would be made aware of their "situation" by a statement including the new price cap, which would render them unable to sit idle. They would first call their ISPs to know why (if the description of the charge did not effectively convey the message) and then would be given a few different options to proceed in rectifying their problem.
This will definately cause a big dent, in the armor of that big giant waving that magic SPAM wand.
Now if we could get all the ISPs to agree.....imagine what we could do?
I recently sent out a reminder message to someone on my mailing list from this web site (barackobama.com). Well, I guess one of the people who I sent the reminder to got very angry and now is threating me with Police. And yes, he lives in the same darn town as me. This guy either at one-time requested info from me about my services I offer, or has at one point subscribed directly to my list.
(1) What can I do, if anything?
(2) Am I a spammer or is this okay?
- Mind of Jersey
I'll come back later and reconstruct the entry I lost last night to site maintenance.* But for now, here's my reply to something that turned up in my spam folder today:
From: Karen @ ...
To: Christian Response <info@christianresponseupdates.net>
Subject: Re: 7 Reasons Why Barack Obama is Not a Christian
You people should be ashamed of yourselves. This lie has been thoroughly debunked, as you well know:http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asphttp://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/church.asphttp://www.newsweek.com/id/145971 http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/sliming_obama.html http://www.factcheck.org/specialreports/that_chain_e-mail_your_friend_sent_to.html As a Christian who is webmaster for a mainstream church, I am frankly appalled that some self-proclaimed Christians place one or two issues that Jesus never spoke about ahead of His mandates to love your neighbor, love your enemy, be a good steward, care for the poor and be pure of heart. Your willingness to lie and cheat in order to mislead Christians into voting against Obama on the basis of false information is an affront to everything Jesus stood for - and still does. Oh, and by the way, take me off your mailing list. It will be one less odious spam to delete. Karen
*Okay, so I never got around to rewriting that lost entry. But you can probably get the gist of it from my recent entries on Outpost Mavarin. See my October 15th entry above for links to those rants.
The last couple of days I have received so many emails with LIES about Barack Obama's postions on many things. I looked in SNOPES and was surprised to see that Barack is being ATTACKED by EMAIL LIES like no one else. Check it out!
Here is the email I received, with my rebuttal. It looks like it is a combiniation of two spam lie emails in one. One about Baracks position and the other about his Tax plan. Please feel free to use this to respond to anyone who sends these lies around.
------------------
:
2008 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE COMPARISON TALKING POINTS
 ISSUE
JOHN McCAIN BARAK OBAMA
Yes No Will appoint judges who interpret the law not make it (Subjective and absolutely no basis for this)Yes No Served in the US Armed Forces - TRUEYes No Amount of time served in the US Senate FALSE. Obama was elected to Illinois State Senate, where he served for eight years. In 2004, he became the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate.22 YEARS 173 DAYS Will institute a socialized national health care plan – (HALF TRUE) Obama will make available a new national health plan to all Americans, including the self-employed and small businesses, to buy affordable health coverage that is similar to the plan available to members of Congress. This is a VOLUNTARY PLAN if you are happy with the current insurance run healthcare you can keep it. Check it out for yourself.No Yes Supports abortion throughout the pregnancy TRUE – Barack does not feel it is up to him to decide for a woman, and feels women should have that choice. What he does believe is finding a way to minimize abortions. He does not want to go back to the time when women were dying because of unsanitary and hidden abortions. God said it is not up to us to judge. Let people make their own choices. No Yes Would pull troops out of Iraq immediately - HALF TRUE – Barack has repeatedly said, depending on the conditions on the ground, discussions with the Generals, plus he will force the Iraqis to take over the military operation, and bring our troops home safely in a responsible timeline. He WILL NOT pull them all out immediately. No Yes Supports gun ownership rights FALSE – Supports the constitutional right to bear arms and enforce our existing gun laws. He said this again at his nomination speech.Yes No Supports homosexual marriage – TRUE – Though he believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman, he thinks the government should only civil unions so that gay couples are not discriminated. No Yes Proposed programs will mean a huge tax increase – HALF TRUE – Only the top 5% will see an increase. (see below and in snopes) No increase on capital gains, and in fact lower taxes and programs supporting small business owners.No Yes Voted against making English the official language HALF TRUE – The bill in question was an amendment to an existing immigration reform bill. There were some problems with the bill so Barack voted against it. Here is Barack’s statement on this bill
“I believe the American people understand in order to succeed in our society, immigrants need to learn English. But the amendment would do a number of things that are problematical. The first is that it is contrary to the provisions of law that exist in many States. For example, in New Mexico, you have in their State Constitution, a provision that says that many of the documents within that State have to be provided in both English and Spanish. The same thing is true for the State of Hawaii. I believe this is a States’ rights issue, and those constitutions of those States ought to be respected. I do not believe it is a matter we ought to be imposing here from Washington DC.
Also, this amendment would undo an executive order conceived by President Bill Clinton and implemented by President George Bush. Both recognized it is important that people who have limited English proficiency receive the kinds of services so they can understand what is going on in terms of the interface between the Government and themselves. “
No Yes Voted to give Social Security benefits to illegals – HALF TRUE – This was NOT about giving SS benefits to illegal aliens, it was about whether a select group of formerly illegal workers (i.e., those who might obtain legal immigration if the 2006 immigration reform act would pass), should receive credit for payments already made into the Social Security system using phony numbers.No Yes
CAPITAL GAINS TAX
MCCAIN 0% on home sales up to $500,000 per home (couples). McCain does not propose any change in existing home sales income tax. OBAMA 28% on profit from ALL home sales. Â (How does this affect you? If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes. If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.)
DIVIDEND TAX
MCCAIN 15% (no change) OBAMA 39.6% - (How will this affect you? If you have any money invested in stock market, IRA, mutual funds, college funds, life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends, you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama becomes president. The experts predict that 'Higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market, yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit.')
INCOME TAX
MCCAIN (no changes) Single making 30K - tax $4,500Single making 50K - tax $12,500Single making 75K - tax $18,750Married making 60K- tax $9,000Married making 75K - tax $18,750Married making 125K - tax $31,250 OBAMA (reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts) Single making 30K - tax $8,400Single making 50K - tax $14,000Single making 75K - tax $23,250Married making 60K - tax $16,800Married making 75K - tax $21,000Married making 125K - tax $38,750Under Obama, your taxes could almost double!
INHERITANCE TAX
MCCAIN - 0% (No change, Bush repealed this tax) OBAMA Restore the inheritance tax Many families have lost businesses, farms, ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will only lose them to these taxes.
NEW TAXES PROPOSED BY OBAMA
We are in a dog and cat fight. To be sure. Sarah Palin has turned out to be the Savior of the McCain campaign. She gives him a fighting chance. And, whereas this ought to be a cake-walk, let us remember that there are those who would NEVER vote for Barack Obama: they are entrenched Hillery-ites or those who harbor irrational fears tied to race and religion.
Now, I'm not one much for spam; God knows, I suffer too much already.
But I took it upon myself to spam everyone at the colleges where I teach, about 5000 people. I took two paragraphs and told those who wished to see Barack Obama elected to create a MYBO and visit the BO website. I apologized if they received the email more than once, or if they had not yet seen the Light. :o)
So: Spam.
Yes, send an email to your lists and urge them to get involved to make sure that we win this election. They can do so by creating a MYBO and using the site. These things have a way of snowballing.
A relative of mine frequently sents out anti-Obama E-mail hoaxes. Now she has a Trojan virus on her computer. I know it came from one of these hoax E-mail forwards with an attachment. Right after she sent this particular E-mail another relatives of mine got a virus warning from the same E-Mail. Just to be safe everyone should delete email forwards with attachments without opening them.
I'm sure that her computer virus came from an E-mail she forwarded called "Expose Obama". That's really too bad and I hate that she's having trouble. Anyway, I cut and pasted the warning that another relative passed along:
There was a trojan in this message please check your computers. Run virus scan.----- Original Message ----- From: <avast! 4>Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 9:45 PMSubject: [avast! heuristic - WARNING]> Suspicious extension(s) of attachment> * Expose Obama.mht> Content-Type doesn't correspond with attachment's extension> * Expose Obama.mht - message/rfc822
I don't have the energy or the spirit to write the piece this subject deserves. But, I'm sure I'm not the first to address it, so maybe I'll just hit a few of the most recognizable chords and hope you resonate with where I am right now.
I have personally encountered and personally witnessed people being accused of not being "true" Obama supporters. You can get yourself in Big Trouble With The TRUE Police for not saying the right words, for not jumping in the circle every time the WE flag is hoisted (it's starting to feel like "Heil!" to me), to being all-out villified by people who seem to really believe they know what Obama would want, and goddamit, are gonna enforce it!!
This is not the movement I thought I was joining. I thought I was coming into a community that would be having real conversations, where listening would occur and ideas would get informed by other people adding in their personal depth and breadth. That's what I'm here for.
Occasionally, I find this...very occasionally. Maybe I haven't joined the right groups? There is also a frequently expressed belief that sharing your own personal experiences is "off-topic" on the listserves. I've railed against this at least in four different groups already.
Here's the bottom-line in my view: the strength of the Obama movement is social networking. It is people talking with people, pulling them into the vision thing. It is grassroots, it's about making new friends and the connections multiplying like neurocircuits in a young child's brain, taking off like wildfire! IOW, the cross-pollination of ideas is what is driving the success of the Obama campaign.
So, how does cross-pollination, or social networking, or whatever you want to name it, happen? Well, I don't think it happens by screaming policy at your listmates. I don't think it happens by attacking people who push your buttons. I don't think it happens by calling people who still express questions about the Obama campaign "shills" or "provocateurs" or any number of names that are truly ugly.
Here's what I see: when it comes time for Obama supporters to show up and get on the bus, the numbers will be there because friends will call friends, friends will encourage friends, friends will help friends, friends will lean on friends. That's how this movement will grow and that's how Obama will prevail. IN MY OPINION!
What I have to say might make alot of sense to some people and it might actually move people to do productive, inclusive, respectful interacting. And some people might think I've seriously missed the point of political movement. OK. Tell me what you know. I will listen to you if you talk from your experience without ranting that you have the one and only authority to know or to act or to influence other people. Know what I'm saying?
If you really don't know what I'm saying, please write to me and I will see if I can explain it better. I mean this sincerely. But please don't write to me or at me to prove that you are the superior Obama supporter, or that your way should be the only way, or that you are here to protect and enforce the Obama Code of UnityHopeChange and mindless repeating of a mantra.
Don't get me wrong! When I am marching down the street, I will be shouting O-BAM-A!! I'll be shouting YES WE CAN! But not here, where conversations are possible. Not on blog posts, not on listserves, not on messages I send to friends. AND, not on my podcast, Interview4Obama.
I'm listening to people who happen to feel that Obama can really lead people to make a better United States and a better world. These people are thoughtful and generous in sharing their thinking/feeling process and a bit of their lives. I'm honored to be able to know them and then to share the conversation. I just really dig that I taught myself how to podcast and it's OUT THERE!
But, honestly, I don't know if I'm pulling in votes for Obama. Maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm a "distraction" from what we SHOULD BE DOING. OK. But this is what I have to offer right here right now. Various health problems prevent me from showing up in Indiana or North Carolina, knocking on doors. Also, to my embarrassment, I suck at phonebanking. You know, I don't like that script. Those are not words I would say to someone I don't know. I get tongue-tied sometimes, and sometimes I'm just so interested in the other person's point-of-view that I barely get in the Obama-spiel. I've donated money, but not in anyone's campaign, not even in my own campaign. I don't have a fundraising campaign...I don't think I could do it better than Plouffe et al are doing it.
Yesterday I thought maybe I'd just quit this MYBO thing...this so-called community...today, I don't know...maybe I'm thinking out loud...but, I'll tell you one thing...this is me...this is who I am...this is why I'm here...this is what I feel and think...you don't have to salute me or my podcast or my thinking...but, if you think you are the TRUE-BELIEVER POLICE of the Obama campaign, please back off...
Funny thing happened yesterday when I sent around news of my latest podcast...I got accused of trying to make money with my podcast, not being a true believer, and some other interesting aspersions of my character...and then I got deleted from Diversity for Obama...and then my Blogger blog got shut down so that they can determine whether or not it's a "spam" blog...hmmm...
And just in case you thought that being listed on i-Tunes was a moneymaker, the answer is no...podcasts on i-Tunes are free downloads...isn't that great?...can you imagine the numbers of people my podcast could reach by being listed on i-Tunes?...I love this new world of endless communication possibilities...
To all who are tired of the libelous spam:
The first thing you need to do is click on the link at the bottom of the spam blog called "Report Objectionable Content" and write a message calling out the blogger and what s/he is doing. This is annonymous. If that doesn't satisfy you, click on "ACTION" then "Contact Us" and "Other Thoughts and Questions." Fill out the message and on the Issue Item (Subject Line), select "Report Problem with the Website."
EMK
Tonight, in the last two hours, there have been extremely dirty blogs going on in the site. You know who you are: This is unethical and you are spamming the site.
Now, I would request that everyone ON ALL SIDES STOP NEGATIVE CROSSBLOGGING ON THE WEBSITES! I mean unfounded, unsubstantiated, tit-for-tat BLOGWARS!!
Crossblogging to encourage an opposing candidate's bloggers to support your own candidate is fine, but smear crossblogging IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL SLANDER AND LIBEL!
Political smear crossblogging will only hurt BOTH CANDIDATES, and it will hurt YOUR PARTY (DEMOCRATS), AND THIS IS COMING FROM A POLITICAL I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T!
Now, Hillary & Obama campaign managers reading this blog, stop this blogwar NOW!
"Read this e-mail, then send it to all your friends."
The chain mail. Everyone has seen one of those messages pop-up in their inbox, rolled their eyes a bit, and then decided whether to update your spam blocker or not. In election season, political chain mails are becoming ever more common. E-mail from friends and family take on a less than personal tone, and inboxes fill with message headlines like Fw:Fw:Fw:Fw:Re:Obama.
I think this is both a good and a bad thing for common citizens. On the one hand, people are becoming more capable of transmitting their thoughts on politics to an ever greater audience. Too, this is a critical listening audience because they are not strangers but rather friends and family (or friends of friends of family).
But often, it seems that we are being exploited by these chain mails. Campaign organizations get to use your e-mail address and social networking to promote their cause, but at the cost of making you seem like a sloganistic drone. While I want to support these causes, I'm not willing to pay that kind of personal cost. I'll write, or not write, my own e-mails, thanks.
From Politifact, a joint service of the St. Petersburg Times and the respected, nonpartisan CQ.com:
A chain e-mail says a photograph shows Barack Obama is unpatriotic because he "refused" to say the Pledge of Allegiance and did not put his hand over his heart.
In the photograph, Barack Obama is standing in front of an American flag with his hands clasped just below his waist. Beside him are Bill Richardson and Hillary Clinton, with their hands on their hearts.
The e-mail notes that Obama’s middle name is “Hussein” and says he “REFUSED TO NOT ONLY PUT HIS HAND ON HIS HEART DURING THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, BUT REFUSED TO SAY THE PLEDGE.....how in the hell can a man like this expect to be our next Commander-in-Chief????”
But the Time magazine photograph wasn’t taken during the Pledge of Allegiance; it was taken during the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner.
The Obama photo was taken Sept. 16 in Indianola, Iowa, at the Harkin Steak Fry, an annual political event hosted by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin. The caption on the Time photo says Obama and the others “stand during the national anthem.”
Matt Paul, an organizer of the event, and a video from ABC News confirm that the photo was taken as someone sang the Star-Spangled Banner.
Oddly, the accurate caption from Time is included in the chain e-mail. But someone has added that “the article said” Obama refused to say the pledge and would not put his hand on his heart.
There is no such article on the Time Web site, and searches of the Web and newspaper/magazine databases could only find blog postings that repeat the claim from the e-mail. So it’s unclear where the allegation originated.
The rest of the story is here. Commendably, Politifact also provides links to sources they consulted to verify the accuracy of their statement.
Please exercise courtesy to our supporters. What is the definiton of well-intentioned spam? Is posting something in 88 diferent e-groups spam? Especialy if about 10 of such groups are geographically removed from the physical location of the in-person meeting. It appears only three (3) evetns at a time can be listed i n the preview window of each e-group on BarackObama.com. AS of Saturday morning February 24, 2 of 3 events in Washington state e-group are for LA, CA events. We have several local SEattle and western Washington state events that are not easily visible to casual readers. For details see the following "more"
