Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters: "'The first official studio auction of memorabilia from all five 'Star Trek' television series and 10 movie spinoffs, to be held from October 5 to 7 in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the original 'Star Trek' series, was announced by Christie's on Thursday. CBS Paramount Television Studios is cleaning out its vaults for the sale, comprising more than 1,000 lots totaling some 4,000 items. Items to hit the block include props, weapons, prosthetics and set dressings unearthed from five Paramount warehouses, as well as many special and spectacular items highlighted in the various shows.'"

New Video Game for Evangelicals -- Sure, but does it have total control?

The Purpose Driven Life Takers:

"This game immerses children in present-day New York City -- 500 square blocks, stretching from Wall Street to Chinatown, Greenwich Village, the United Nations headquarters, and Harlem. The game rewards children for how effectively they role play the killing of those who resist becoming a born again Christian. The game also offers players the opportunity to switch sides and fight for the army of the AntiChrist, releasing cloven-hoofed demons who feast on conservative Christians and their panicked proselytes (who taste a lot like Christian)."

The dialogue includes people saying, "Praise the Lord," as they blow infidels away.

"The designers intend this game to become the first dominionist warrior game to break through in the popular culture due to its violent scenarios and realistic graphics, lighting, and sound effects. Its creators expect it to earn a rating of T for Teen. How violent is that? That's the rating shared by Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory, a top selling game in which high-tech gadgets and high-powered weapons - frag grenades, shotguns, assault rifles, and submachine guns -- are used to terminate enemies with extreme prejudice."

Gonzales directly linked to Obstruction of Justice Department Probe?

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Justice Department Probe Foiled (5/25/2006):

"An internal Justice Department inquiry into whether department officials -- including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft -- acted properly in approving and overseeing the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program was stymied because investigators were denied security clearances to do their work. The investigators, however, were only seeking information and documents relating to the National Security Agency's surveillance program that were already in the Justice Department's possession, two senior government officials said in interviews."

[snip]

The only classified information that OPR investigators were seeking about the NSA's eavesdropping program was what had already been given to Ashcroft, Gonzales and other department attorneys in their original approval and advice on the program, the two senior government officials said. And, by nature, OPR's request was limited to documents such as internal Justice Department communications and legal opinions, and didn't extend to secrets that are the sole domain of other agencies, the two officials said."

A Second Rove-Novak Call to Discuss Cover-up

Murray Waas - He's like Jason Leopold only with real sources.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Rove-Novak Call Was Concern To Leak Investigators (05/25/2006):

"On September 29, 2003, three days after it became known that the CIA had asked the Justice Department to investigate who leaked the name of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, columnist Robert Novak telephoned White House senior adviser Karl Rove to assure Rove that he would protect him from being harmed by the investigation, according to people with firsthand knowledge of the federal grand jury testimony of both men."

DeLay Turns to Stephen Colbert

Hey Fungua - apparently someone else was unclear about Stephen Colbert's version of identity-satire...You got to check out the title DeLay's organization choose!

Oh - the DeLay organization now is hosting the FULL VIDEO of Colbert's interview...

Think Progress : "A good sign that Tom DeLay doesn?t have the facts on his side: the top source for his latest defense against his critics is Stephen Colbert.

This morning, DeLay?s legal defense fund sent out a mass email criticizing the movie ?The Big Buy: Tom DeLay?s Stolen Congress,? by ?Outfoxed? creator Robert Greenwald.

The email features a ?one-pager on the truth behind Liberal Hollywood?s the Big Buy,? and the lead item is Colbert?s interview with Greenwald on Comedy Central "

ABC News: The Blotter

Is it just me or does this thing have absolute freedom and terror written all over it. The revolution eats its own.

The Blotter: "Federal officials say the Congressional bribery investigation now includes Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, based on information from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government."

AP Wire | 05/24/2006 | Cheney may be called in CIA leak case

AP Wire | 05/24/2006 | Cheney may be called in CIA leak case:

"WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney could be called to testify in the perjury case against his former chief of staff, a special prosecutor said in a court filing Wednesday.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald suggested Cheney would be a logical government witness because he could authenticate notes he jotted on a July 6, 2003, New York Times opinion piece by a former U.S. ambassador critical of the Iraq war.

Fitzgerald said Cheney's 'state of mind' is 'directly relevant' to whether I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, the vice president's former top aide, lied to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about how he learned about CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity and what he subsequently told reporters.

Libby 'shared the interests of his superior and was subject to his direction,' the prosecutor wrote. 'Therefore, the state of mind of the vice president as communicated to (the) defendant is directly relevant to the issue of whether (the) defendant knowingly made false statements to federal agents and the grand jury regarding when and how he learned about (Plame's) employment and what he said to reporters regarding this issue.'"

Architect of New War on the West

Finally a body of writing to analyze thinking. If you find a link to his article, post here...

Architect of New War on the West: "MADRID -- From secret hideouts in South Asia, the Spanish-Syrian al-Qaeda strategist published thousands of pages of Internet tracts on how small teams of Islamic extremists could wage a decentralized global war against the United States and its allies."

Lawmaker: Marines deliberately killed Iraqis - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com

MSNBC.com: "WASHINGTON - A Pentagon probe into the death of Iraqi civilians last November in the Iraqi city of Haditha will show that U.S. Marines 'killed innocent civilians in cold blood,' a U.S. lawmaker said Wednesday.

From the beginning, Iraqis in the town of Haditha said U.S. Marines deliberately killed 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including seven women and three children."

Wired News-- The Ultimate Net Monitoring Tool

Wired News is reporting that the NSA monitoring tools are off the shelf software.

The equipment that technician Mark Klein learned was installed in the National Security Agency's "secret room" inside AT&T's San Francisco switching office isn't some sinister Big Brother box designed solely to help governments eavesdrop on citizens' internet communications.

Rather, it's a powerful commercial network-analysis product with all sorts of valuable uses for network operators. It just happens to be capable of doing things that make it one of the best internet spy tools around.

Oh, then, I feel much better

Bush reverses stand on spy program oversight Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House, in an abrupt reversal, has agreed to let the full Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees review President George W. Bush's domestic spying program, lawmakers said on Tuesday.

The Republican chairmen of the Senate and House panels disclosed the shift two days before a Senate confirmation hearing for Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden as the new CIA director, which is expected to be dominated by concern over the program.

Ben Metcalf, "On Simple Human Decency"

You have to check this out. From the latest Harpers. It's not on their website yet, so check this pdf of it.

Out of Context both historically and politically, but here you go

This Week on the Guerrilla Radio Show! (Tuesday, 05.16.06)
Live Webcast- GMT 2:00 am on Wednesday, 05.17.06

This Week on the Guerrilla Radio Show! (Tuesday, 05.16.06)

Skepticism

The Guerrilla Radio Show can be heard live on KCSB 91.9 FM (Los Angeles to
Sacramento) or via World Wide Web-cast (http://www.kcsb.org/webcast.html)
every Tuesday night from 7:00-8:00 PM (Pacific Daylight Time). You can also
listen to archived episodes of the show by logging on to the Guerrilla Radio
Show¹s website @ http://www.guerrillaradioshow.com

Federal Source to ABC News: We know who you're calling

ABC News: "A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

'It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick,' the source told us in an in-person conversation.

ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation."

Condoleezza Rice at Boston College? I quit.

The Boston Globe:

"An open letter to William P. Leahy, SJ, president of Boston College.

DEAR Father Leahy,

I am writing to resign my post as an adjunct professor of English at Boston College.

I am doing so -- after five years at BC, and with tremendous regret -- as a direct result of your decision to invite Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to be the commencement speaker at this year's graduation."

Cheney's Notes

More evidence for the theory that Cheney is really in control and will take the hit on this. Slowly leak that Cheney was really behind this. The question that the adminstration faces is merely strategic. The plan before everything hit the fan was to have Cheney take the blame so that the Repub nominee in 2008 had a shot. Since the shit is hitting the fan as far as everything else in this adminstration goes, why not send him up now, rather than later? This way, Repubs. still have a shot in the midterms.
Fitzgerald. I am increasingly thinking that his slow pace is a not a coincidence nor methodical plodding, but rather either his being duped by the admin or him being in with them.

The NYT Article

and the Newsweek article

Yous Guys seen this?

Last one for a while. I'll stop posting every little thing that I think you two should see. This one is again from Boing Boing. But, I mean perfect dark...

http://hardlightfilms.com/deviation/

Your World. Delivered. To the NSA.--Funny pic From Cory Doctorow's Webspace

Your World. Delivered to the NSA

Worse and Worse

From the Post:

The government again invokes state secrecy. The case of Khaled al-Masri has been fairly well documented. A German citizen taken from Macedonia and "rendered" to Afghanistan and then released after 5 months because they thought he was someone else when they abducted him. The guy wants compensation and an apology. The government says, the abduction, etc. "clearly involve clandestine activity abroad....there is no way that the case can go forward without causing the damage to the national security."