BUZZURRO

This is the fourth year that the Weblog Awards take place.
Let me say they are a farce.
The rules say it is not allowed to vote more than once in 24 hours from the same computer.
Although, it is very easy to cheat and vote multiple times per day:

For those who wants to vote more than once a day, just go to root:\Documents and Settings\userid\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\
#SharedObjects\????????\weblogawards.org\award_poll_1_15.swf\
and delete the file poll_34.sol.

Apparently, this or other techniques have been put into practice during this edition of the Awards. Some claimed they have seen exponential, miraculous growths of votes, at frequencies of hundredths in hours.
Personally, I can say that tonight I casted a vote. Then, I could see the total votes for all competitors in the same category. Then I refreshed the web page from which I voted, and saw that the votes of one of the competitor blogs increased by one. Then, I refreshed the page after one second. The votes for that blog increased. Then, I refreshed. Then, they increased again. And so on. And so forth. Nice, huh ?

…idiot of the month.

This is ridiculous:

When the State Department recently asked the CIA for names of Iranians who could be sanctioned for their involvement in a clandestine nuclear weapons program, the agency refused, citing a large workload and a desire to protect its sources and tradecraft.

Frustrated, the State Department assigned a junior Foreign Service officer to find the names another way — by using Google. Those with the most hits under search terms such as “Iran and nuclear,” three officials said, became targets for international rebuke Friday when a sanctions resolution circulated at the United Nations.

(…)
An initial Internet search yielded over 100 names, including dozens of Iranian diplomats who have publicly defended their country’s efforts as intended to produce energy, not bombs, the sources said. The list also included names of Iranians who have spoken with U.N. inspectors or have traveled to Vienna to attend International Atomic Energy Agency meetings about Iran.

It was submitted to the CIA for approval but the agency refused to look up such a large number of people, according to three government sources. Too time-consuming, the intelligence community said, for the CIA’s Iran desk staff of 140 people. The list would need to be pared down. So the State Department cut the list in half and resubmitted the names.

In the end, the CIA approved a handful of individuals, though none is believed connected to Project 1-11 — Iran’s secret military effort to design a weapons system capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Still we have not learned how important collaboration among federal agencies is for U.S. national security, as it was recommended by 9/11 Commission.

…OK, so we are screwed.

(Hat tip: StoptheACLU).

Some details about the case of the imams removed from a US Airways flight:

Contrary to press accounts that a single note from a passenger triggered the imams’ removal, Captain John Howard Wood was weighing multiple factors.

* An Arabic speaker was seated near two of the imams in the plane’s tail. That passenger pulled a flight attendant aside and, in a whisper, translated what the men were saying: invoking “bin Laden” and condemning America for “killing Saddam,” according to police reports.

* An imam seated in first class asked for a seat-belt extender - the extra strap that obese people use because the standard belt is too short. According to both an on-duty and a deadheading flight attendant, he looked too thin to need one.

A seat-belt extender can easily be used as a weapon - just wrap one end around your fist, and swing the heavy metal buckle.

* All six imams had boarded together, with the first-class passengers - even though only one of them had a first-class ticket. Three had one-way tickets. Between the six men, only one had checked a bag.

And, Pauline said, they spread out - just like the 9/11 hijackers. Two sat in first class, two in the middle and two back in the economy section, police reports show. Some, according to Rader, took seats not assigned to them.

* Finally, a gate attendant told the captain she was suspicious of the imams, according to police reports.

“I think it was either a foiled attempt to take over the plane or it was a publicity stunt to accuse us of being insensitive,” Pauline told me. “It had to be to intimidate U.S. Airways to ease up on security.”

Probably the latter. It seems too blatant to be true. Anyway, would you feel comfortable flying with them ?

Cartoon by Chuck Asay (hat tip: ZionistYoungster )

When we have something to say to the world, we write a post, when Bill Balsamico has something to say, he writes it on his sign outside his restaurant in North Versailles, PA.
(Hat tip: Grouchy Old Cripple)

Today I read an article on the internet that says that Iran complained to the UN that Israel has threated to bomb it.

The threats, according to the Iranians, were “matters of extreme gravity” and the U.N. Security Council should condemn them and demand that Israel “cease and desist immediately from the threat of the use of force against members of the United Nations,” Iranian U.N. Ambassador Javad Zarif said.
(but of course they can continue to threaten Israel)

Is this the same Iran who has threatened to “wipe Israel off the map” ?
Isn’t Israel also a member of the United Nations?
Is this the same Iran who doesn’t follow any UN resolutions anyway ?

Why is Iran crying to the UN about Israel wanting to defend itself from their own comments ? Surely if someone says they want to ‘wipe you off the map’ you have a right to defend yourself ?

It used to be that when people asked for the definition of Chutzpah, other people would respond that it is like a person who murders his mother and father in cold blood and then begs the judge to have mercy on him because he is an orphan, all alone in the world, and without parents. Now I think the definition will have to be updated to this one.