Paul E. Ester's Flogger

“It is like trying to eradicate cancer cells with a blow-torch”

“Figures on the Right, seeing themselves cheated of what the Germans used to call a frisch, frohliche Krieg, a short, jolly war in Afghanistan, demand one against a more satisfying adversary, Iraq; which is rather like the drunk who lost his watch in a dark alley but looked for it under a lamp post because there was more light there. As for their counterparts on the Left, the very word ‘war’ brings them out on the streets to protest as a matter of principle. The qualities needed in a serious campaign against terrorists – secrecy, intelligence, political sagacity, quiet ruthlessness, covert actions that remain covert, above all infinite patience – all these are forgotten or overriden in a media-stoked frenzy for immediate results, and nagging complaints if they do not get them. … Rest of Article

The most detailed analysis yet of the contested Florida votes from last year’s presidential election – with the potential to question President George Bush’s legitimacy – is being withheld by the news organisations that commissioned it.

Results of the inspection of more than 170,000 votes rejected as unreadable in the “hanging chad” chaos of last November’s vote count were ready at the end of August.

The study was commissioned early this year by a consortium including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times and the broadcaster CNN. The cost was more than $A2million.
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THE most detailed analysis yet of the contested Florida votes from last year’s presidential election – with the potential to question President Bush’s legitimacy – is being withheld by the news organisations that commissioned it.

Results of the inspection of more than 170,000 votes rejected as unreadable in the “hanging chad” chaos of last November’s vote count were ready at the end of August.

The study was commissioned early this year by a consortium including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times, the nation’s most powerful newspapers, and the broadcaster CNN. … Rest of Article

Because of the extreme danger of contracting the disease, Army scientists at the Fort Detrick biomedical laboratory in Maryland have barred investigators from handling the Daschle letter to determine whether there are fingerprints or DNA on it.… Rest of Article

A computer forensics specialist warns that default security features in Windows-XP might bring civilization to its knees at the hands of pedophiles, tax cheats, and, of course, international terrorists.

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The number 11 is a prime number, in that it is divisible only by one and itself.… Rest of Article

Any move by the federal government to institute a national ID card system could mean millions for Silicon Valley companies.

Shalini Chowdhary, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said the U.S. government could end up spending more than $3 billion on computer chips, hardware, software and services that go into creating so-called “smart” ID cards.… Rest of Article

“For the first time in U.S. history, the federal government is outlawing a whole class of food products”, says Kathleen Chippi, co-founder of the Boulder Hemp Company, who was forced to suspend business last year when investors became nervous about rumors that the DEA was going to outlaw hemp. “It’s the same as if the DEA outlawed wheat or corn.”
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“That purple flash of light that you see right when the Javelin impacts the tank (in the first magnification of the tank explosion) is the combustion/reaction of the Chromium in the anti-radiation shield incorporated in the metal and armor of the tank.”… Rest of Article

In January, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Newsweek, CNN and several other news organizations banded together and commissioned the University of ChicagoÕs National Opinion Research Center to conduct a comprehensive examination of the ballots not officially counted in the Florida result.

Ballots examined

The center was charged with examining each of about 180,000 uncounted ballots, reporting on which marks are on each ballot.

The survey was completed around the end of August, Julie Antelman, a spokeswoman for the center, said. Reporters and editors from each member of the consortium were then to review the survey and attempt to discern how each voter had intended to vote, and who, on that basis, won Florida.

But shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the consortium unanimously agreed not to proceed with the analysis.

To choose deliberately not to report major news is a remarkable decision for them to take. But they say the decision was taken because of a lack of resources and that the war on terrorism has made the story irrelevant. … Rest of Article