Wednesday, October 04, 2006
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Some Tech Questions Before Speaker Pelosi Is Seated
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Posted by:
Hugh Hewitt at
7:08 AM
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From my tech-guy e-mailer:
The One Questions - Are all the IM sessions from one computer, and was that
computer part of a computer network? And does the source who provided those
IM sessions have other IM Sessions from that computer that AREN'T IM chats
between Rep Foley and the young man?
One Questions Implications; if these sessions are from more than one
computer, while it may NOT be a smoking gun, the odds against this being
casual happenstance go up, enormously. And if the source can't provide
non-Foley sessions, obviously, these is either a Foley-specific operation,
or these are very possibly purloined from a keystroke logger (or other
spyware) on either Foleys computer, the young man's compter or, here's the
bad part, a computer network
The Tech Weeds - Pretty Esoteric, No Particular Order of Importance
1. What IM Client s/w (Brand and Version) was being used?
2. Where the sessions printed out from the session buffer or from the
session log file?
3. Where these sessions provided to the media by one of the session
participants or their close friends/family?
Only Brian Ross can answer these questions, and to do so would greatly serve the public interest. Will he do so? No, because it isn't about the public's interest. It is about attempting to influence the elections, just like Rathergate, just like the timing of Woodward's book, just like a dozen similar MSM hits over the past six years.
Will it work?
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader John Murtha, Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangell, and Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank certainly hope so.
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Foley confirmed the authenticity of the IM's by resigning in a nanosecond when told about them. |
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It's not irrelevant, if like me, you want Foley prosecuted. Trial evidence without any chain of custody is rather weak evidence. Otherwise, if Foley doesn't stipulate to the authenticity of the transcripts, its down to the testimony of the victim alone.
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but for god's sake man, hire a copy-editor. There are so many typos in this thing it reads like a bad joke about techies.
As to whether how this came about is irrelevant: I think not. Foley is done, as he should be, but knowing whether this is an "October Surprise" is worth knowing for its own sake. |
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Brian Ross was given two stories when he was handed all those IMs. He has revealed one story (the content of the IMs). He is suppressing the other (who held the IMs for so long, how did he/they come by them, and who decided to release them so close to the election) which may in fact be the more significant story for several reasons, but also because it must now include Ross due to his unprofessional and possibly illegal act of suppression. Hopefully, the investigation ordered by Hastert will ask him, but will anyone in the Main Stream Media ask? I'm not holding my breath. |
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A NOVEMBER SURPRISE... George Washington and Abraham Lincoln forged and ennobled our precious democracy, but today the ends justify the means.
Diebold Corporation consultant admits the company altered software for '02 GA election. Thu Sep 21, 2006
It looks like the new Rolling Stone due out tomorrow will have a doozy of an article that looks into whether the 2006 election can be hacked. However, an even bigger story in that article is an admission by a Diebold consultant that machine software was altered in 5,000 mdachines in DeKalb and Fulton counties on the day of the election. If anyone remembers the 2002 election in Georgia, that’s the one where Max Cleland's five or six point lead was erased overnight to a seven point loss, and a miraculous win by Saxby Chambliss, which even he describes as "stunning and historical" on his Senate website. And while many suggest that this win was due at least in part to an infamous advertisement that compared Cleland (a war hero) to Osama Bin Laden, there was always a cloud hanging over this election as this was the first year of the Diebold machines in Georgia, and it’s just not passing the "smell test".
Second Diebold whistleblower comes forward on GA 2002. Fri Sep 29, 2006
Top Diebold Corporation officials ordered workers to install secret files to Georgia's electronic voting machines shortly before the 2002 Elections, at least two whistleblowers are now asserting. Former Diebold official Chris Hood told his story concerning the secret "patch" in a second article on electronic voting in this week's Rolling Stone Magazine. Hood's claims corroborate an earlier whistleblower who spoke with Black Box Voting and Wired News in 2003.
How to Hack a Diebold Voting Machine
Princeton computer scientists have figured out how to hack into a Diebold AccuVote [sic] TouchScreen voting machine. The subversion of democracy takes a couple of minutes, a screwdriver or paperclip, plus a floppy with the malware they've written. This is no comedy video; it's a bone-chilling, blood-pressure-raising, citizen-outraging rebuttal to all the calming unctuous bromides you've heard about the safety of our voting technology. The authors of this paper may be geeks, but they don't wear tinfoil hats. The P doesn't stand for Paranoia; it stands for Princeton. I'd upload the Princeton video so you could watch it right here, but the Creative Commons non-commercial license it's copyrighted under precludes wrapping it in an ad. As long as you attribute it and don't profit from it, you can post the video on any site you'd like. If the hotlink to the video doesn't work for you, here's the URL: http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/voting/videos.html. The complete paper can be found here: itpolicy.princeton.edu/voting/
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animalgirlisback,
> Why is it that the right is trying so hard to deflect attention from
> the child molester and his protectors on to other people. You want
> to try to cast aspersions on the people who busted this guy--why not
> cast aspersions on him and his protectors?
Deflect? I don't know who you're talking about. Everybody wants Foley strung up by his nether regions, as far as I can tell.
But WHO was sitting on the evidence of Foley's crime, and refusing to protect the House pages from Foley for two years, or more? Don't you want to know that? They obviously didn't care a wit about the House pages. They only cared about the political advantage of dropping it at the last minute into an election.
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Foley resigned because he sent sexual IMs, OK, good he is gone.
But I have yet to see anyone prove that the pages of text being passed around as the real IMs are in fact the real thing. Anyone could have typed this up, yes even Brian Ross. There are way too many questions that need answering before the stuff Brian Ross has can be validated. That's why the science of forensics as applied to computers is inexact. For instance, can you tell who actually typed the messages? Did they just sit down at an unprotected terminal and start typing, or did they just use Foley's screen name and set up th chat, or was it actually Foley who did it. Who knows, can't assume anything.
Let's put it this way, it's far easier to forge emails and IMs that in is to try and pass off fake TANG memos. Anybody checked their spam box lately, it's all forged except for the links in the body of the message which takes you to the advertisers place. It's all but impossible to figure out who sent you the crap.
One thing we now know with certainty, a BJ with an intern isn't sex, actually engaging in sex acts with an intern, no problem, but typing IMs with an intern is sex. Go figure.
The only way to put it is Foley did something, it was not proper, but exactly what is unknown. If you believe his lawyer, he had no physical contact, and I have heard no one claim they can prove he did.
There is a whole lot more to this dirty trick than meets the eye. |
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Thanks in part to our work at http://www.murthamustgo.blogspot.com & mostly because of Murtha's outrageous accusations about the Haditha Marines & Diana Irey's running a near-flawless campaign, Murtha is toast. As in get out the butter.
Upwards of 20% of the voters in PA-12 are either active- or reserve- duty or retired military & their families.
Let's consider this weekend's rallies. The 'Pro Murtha Rally' was Saturday & they had a little over 500 people attend, with upwards of 100 bused in from Philadelphia. Some of those attending were there to see Ed Rendell. Some rally of support, huh???
The Boot Murtha Rally was Sunday & had over 1,000 people attending, with the vast majority of people from within the district.
Also, I know from talking with the Irey campaign manager that they've got over 800 volunteers doorknocking & phonebanking on a regular basis.
Folks, that's an ARMY of volunteers.
That's before we get to how Murtha's votes against things like reauthorization of the Patriot Act and the CIA interrogation/military tribunals legislation AND the border fencing legislation.
It's also noteworthy that several towns in & near PA-12 have voted to make illegal aliens personna non grata.
In a nutshell, what this means is that Murtha's run a sloppy campaign & he's on the wrong side of every MAJOR ISSUE.
If that isn't enough, Ms. Irey said something yesterday to discredit him further. Follow this link: http://murthamustgo.blogspot.com/2006/10/irey-criticizes-murtha-for-selling.html
to read Ms. Irey's statements against Murtha.
Then tell me how Murtha's supposed to win. |
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And may God save the United States of America.
Those Democrats listed above sure won't. |
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JohnCitizen rages on about how a Diebold voting machine can be hacked.
All too true, John, all too true. Just as it is all too true that every other voting mechanism we have ever used has been susceptible to "hacking" of one form or another, and everyone of them has been "hacked" in one form or another.
Do you propose we go back to the good old days of paper ballots so that the Democrats can return to ballot box stuffing? I noted several years ago that every one of you guys with a bug up your butt about Diebold all whine about a paper trail. Why is that? Could it be because paper trails are so much easier to fake than hacking a voting machine is?
And when was it ever proven that all those stupid punch card machines were impervious to skullduggery? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to pull the pins out of the Republican lever so that those votes are never even registered.
The only bullet proof method of counting the votes would be to ask everyone who supports one candidate to stand on one side of the room and those who support the other candidate to stand on the other side of the room, then have both sides count off. Problem with that is that all those dead Democrats who have been voting for the last 100 years wouldn't get to vote.
Give me a couple of weeks and access to the computer systems and I could hack into the NSA, John, but that doesn't mean I have done it, have any interest in doing it, or that anyone else ever has. |
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********************THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU******************
October 5, 2006
Our Church purchased a Hitachi 42 inch plasma TV, Model 42HDS52, from Circuit City and paid $2849.99 on 8/26/2005. The Television never worked correctly.
The left speaker often buzzed, and the picture didn't seem to be any better than a very cheap TV. The store was called, and we were told that since we hadn't reported the problems within 60 days we'd have to deal directly with Hitachi. Hitachi told us to contact Alex Audio Video and informed us that they were the ONLY authorized service center for our area.
Alex Audio Video, said they’d pick it up, do the repair at their facility, and return it promptly. We told them we'd like it back for the 4th of July because we had something we'd like to watch at that time. They said, "That should be no problem". They finally sent someone to pick it up in late June 2006, well within the warranty period. The Forth of July Holiday passed, and the TV was not returned.
The service center informed us that there were no speakers available for the TV, and they would have to be ordered. When weeks elapsed, and we’d heard nothing, they were again contacted. We were now informed that the speakers had come in but that there was an additional problem. It seems that there had never been a “high definition digital signal” because of a problem in the manufacture of the digital circuit board (thus the poor picture quality). They said they'd have to order one. Weeks elapsed with no word. When we again contacted them, they said there was not a “digital circuit board” available anywhere in the United States, and that it would have to be ordered directly from Hitachi.
Finally, by mid September we had expended all our patience in dealing with Alex Audio Video, Circuit City Store 3624, Circuit City Corporate Headquarters, and Hitachi. We had paid $2849.99 for a new plasma television, and had nothing to show for it.
We had the expectation when we initiated the purchase from Circuit City that we would receive a television that worked properly.
We also had the expectation that Circuit City would deal ethically with us, and that should anything should fail to function correctly, that Circuit City would promptly "make it right".
Neither of those expectations was met.
The television for which we paid $2849.99 has been under the control of Circuit City, or their authorized service center for one fourth of a year. Circuit City (along with their authorized service center) had our money, and our television.
Out of frustration, we contacted Circuit City and told them, that since we were making little if any progress in getting the television repaired, we no longer wanted the television. We explained that we had purchased the television to watch, and that it wasn't doing us any good, since it had been in their service center for 3 months.
Circuit City told us that they were not going to do anything about our problems. They claimed no responsibility for selling us a faulty television, and were very "curt" with us, and were told that they had no responsibility (even though their store had sold us an improperly manufactured television). They told us to go ahead and file a lawsuit against them if we wanted to.
At that point, we asked store #3624 for Circuit City Corporate address for "Service of Legal Papers" (we were in the process of preparing documents for the filing of a law suit). They claimed not to know the address. Another time that we asked, they would not give us the address, but told us to have our lawyer contact them for the address. We finally went in to the store and demanded the address of Circuit City Corporate from Mike Arndt, Sales Manager. Very reluctantly he gave it to us.
We also contacted Hitachi and asked for their legal address. Hitachi acted very concerned with the way we had been treated by Circuit City, and asked if we'd give them some time to try to work this out. We did so.
Hitachi said they would issue a "Merchandise Return Authorization" to Circuit City, giving them full credit for the television. They told us that we could then go into the store and use that credit toward the purchase of another television.
Mike Arndt, Sales Manager for Circuit City Store 3624, called us on September 29, 2006 and insisted that we go to Alex Audio Video and pick up the television and return it to his store. We returned the TV to the store on on September 30, 2006. Circuit City has possession of both our $2849.99 and the television.
Mike Arndt called us on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 and told us that Circuit City was issuing us a credit for only $1750 toward the purchase of another television., when we’d paid them $2849.99.
Circuit City plans to confiscate $1099.99 of our money, after selling us an improperly manufactured television and dragging their feet for over 3 months to settle the matter, while we're without a television. (And now, they want to allow us only 61% of what we paid them.)
After discussing this with only two other people, I was shocked to learn that both had experienced similar horror stories in dealing with Circuit City, and had vowed to never enter another Circuit City store.
This could happen to any consumer. Circuit City apparently is only interested in getting the consumer's money, and apparently has no intention of serving the customer, or rectifying any wrong that has occurred.
Unfortunately, Circuit City has just thumbed their nose at us, and insulted us with an offer of 61% of what they charged us for the television ... after having it in their authorized service center for 1/4 of a year.
Every potential customer should ask himself or herself, "Since there are so many reputable companies that sell high end electronics, is it worth taking a risk to deal with Circuit City? Am I willing to just hope and pray that everything works correctly, and that I won't need any help … once Circuit City has my money? Am I willing to give Circuit City my money, wait for a fourth of a year for the item to be repaired, and then be insulted by Circuit City offering me 61% of what I just paid them?"
In a discussion with Hitachi on October 4, 2006, we were informed that Hitachi had credited Circuit City with the full amount of their purchase, and that the insulting 61% offer was from Circuit City ... and not from Hitachi.
We just wish we'd heard those other horror stories before we did business with Circuit City; maybe it would have saved us from this experience.
Oh well ... maybe our sounding the alarm, will cause others to check out Circuit City's reputation before laying down their hard earned cash ... and losing it.
Maybe we can turn our sorry experience with Circuit City into a positive. If making our experience known to others, saves them from falling into the same trap as others and ourselves... then some good will have come from this terrible situation.
Meanwhile, we will do everything in our power to recover our attorney fees, court costs, the $2849.99 we paid Circuit City for a properly operating TV, and reasonable compensation for the months of phone calls, time, and loss of our television.
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