August 15

BP Cries Over Spilt Oil, Sues U.S. Government

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Florida man with private arsenal just wanted to stand his ground against Obama, own family.

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The Hunger Gains

Republicans vow to cut food stamps in areas full of lazy Republicans

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Gun-toting 'pro-life' thugs want abortion clinic shut down to keep away gun-toting 'pro-life' thugs

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Two-for-one Happy Hour - Bacardi Lifetime Achievement Winner Peggy Noonan thinks that The Kenyan Usurper should "have the press office issue a release saying his reaction to finding out a rodeo clown was rudely spoofing him, was, "So what?" Say he loves free speech, including inevitably derision directed at him, and he does not wish for the Missouri state fair to fire the guy, and hopes those politicians (unctuously, excessively, embarrassingly) damning the clown and the crowd would pipe down and relax." Because: Healthcare. I'm not kidding. The column is on heath care, but starts with this. (Peggy Noonan's Blog)

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ThinkProgress: A top American distance runner dedicated the silver medal he won at the track and field World Championships in Moscow to his gay and lesbian friends, becoming the first athlete to openly defy Russia's new anti-gay law that outlaws "homosexual propaganda." Nick Symmonds won the silver medal in the 800-meters Tuesday, then broke a previous pledge to not speak out against the law while at the championships by telling a Russian news outlet that he had no choice but to say something.

"As much as I can speak out about it, I believe that all humans deserve equality as however God made them," Symmonds told Russia's R-Sport. "Whether you're gay, straight, black, white, we all deserve the same rights. If there's anything I can do to champion the cause and further it, I will, shy of getting arrested."

"I respect Russians' ability to govern their people," he added. "I disagree with their laws. I do have respect for this nation. I disagree with their rules."

According to the report, "Other athletes have pledged to speak out against the law during the Winter Olympics, which open in Sochi in February. Openly gay American figure skater Johnny Weir has said he is willing to get arrested during the Games in Russia, while gay speed skater Blake Skjellerup, who is from New Zealand, has pledged to wear a rainbow pin during competition in Sochi. The IOC said this week that it may punish athletes who speak out against the law during the Olympics for violating its rule against political statements."

I thought that an international incident was inevitable and Symmonds is proving me right. If Russia ignores his "gay propaganda." then that practically guarantees further high profile protests — i.e., the "gayest Olympics ever." If they bust him, they'll endure international condemnation. They really are in a no-win situation here.

No matter what happens, getting the Winter Olympics seems more of a headache than a victory for Russia, since a biggest benefit of being the host country is usually free advertising and boosterism. The image Russia (and any protests) will be broadcasting to the world will not be positive and, in the end, will do them more harm than good. Any company looking to avoid bad PR would be well-advised to have as little to do with Russia as possible.  

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The Snowden Effect

Hundreds of disgruntled, unemployed and very bored hackers. What could possibly go wrong?

Army Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the NSA's director, told a cybersecurity conference at Fordham University in New York last week that almost the agency's entire crew of systems administrators is being cut.

"What we're in the process of doing – not fast enough – is reducing our system administrators by about 90 percent," he said in remarks earlier reported by Reuters.

Many of those systems administrators are contractors, like Snowden was before he fled the United States and Booz Allen Hamilton fired him. Instead of the 1,000 systems administrators NSA uses, Alexander wants to move more of the operation to the cyber cloud, called the Intelligence Community's Information Technology Enterprise (ICITE),which relies on a network of computers linked on the Internet.