Hackers fool chump

Awwhh.. that's awsome, I couldn't make this stuff up if I had too.

Congressional aide tries to hire hackers to change college grades - but the joke's on him

Dan Kaplan Dec 28 2006 19:53

A Texas Christian University (TCU) graduate who solicited two hackers to infiltrate the college's database to improve his grade point average - but was instead strung along by the pair in an often humorous exchange of emails - has been fired after it emerged he was the top aide to a Montana congressman.

In August, Todd Shriber, 28, former communications director for Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., began email correspondence with two hackers - using the online aliases "Jericho" and "Lyger" - who run attrition.org, a site featuring computer security resources.

"I need to urgently make contact with a hacker that would be interested in doing a one-time job for me," Shriber said in his first email to Jericho. "The pay would be good."

Jericho and Lyger, who consider themselves "security enthusiasts," never attempted to breach TCU's database, instead choosing to engage in a series of emails with Shriber, who had no idea he was being duped by the hackers. They have since posted the 22-email exchange on their website.

"This was seemingly all a joke played on Mr. Shriber," Tracy Syler-Jones, a spokeswoman for TCU, told SCMagazine.com today. "We would certainly want Mr. Shriber to learn from this experience and move on and do well with the remainder of his career."

But, she said, the university "does take proactive steps….to continuously monitor and update our systems in an effort to prevent security breaches."

Shriber - a 2000 graduate from TCU with a broadcast journalism degree - was unaware that the joke was on him, even after Jericho asked Shriber to shoot a picture of a pigeon to prove that he was legitimate in his request, and not a federal agent.

"Forgive what I assume is (a) dumb question, but what are pigeons?" Shriber asked. "I know you're not talking about the bird."

"Actually I am," Jericho responded.

Using his friend's camera, Shriber shot two photos of a squirrel in a front yard and then emailed them to Jericho. He received permission to photograph a squirrel because he could not locate any pigeons.

Jericho and Lyger said their site - which has dedicated a section called "Going Postal" to chronicle bizarre requests they receive - entertain about two emails per day seeking hacker assistance.

"Some people mail us and seem like they will to any length to get what they want," Jericho told SCMagazine.com today. "We often test that."

The emails with Shriber were not all joking in manner. Jericho and Lyger mixed in some actual computer security jargon to make it appear to Shriber like they were attempting to access the college's network to make changes to Shriber's grades. (He told them he wanted his GPA modified because he was considering a run at graduate school).

"Have had a chance to set up a couple of IDS/IPS evasion bots, perimeter scanning came up clean," Lyger said in one email to Shriber. "Small SQL injection issue merged with XSS shows that the backend database may be either 768-bit encrypted or a simple 3DES matter, but a little more time should take care of that issue."

In addition, Jericho warned Shriber that what he was requesting was illegal.

"First, let's be clear," Jericho said. "You are soliciting me to break the law and hack into a computer across state lines. That is a federal offense and (punishable by) multiple felonies."

The correspondence ended when Lyger told Shriber in a profanity-ridden rant that TCU had discovered the attempted hack.

"I'm going deep underground," he said. "If they (authorities) ask about me or attrition, we don't know each other. You're just as guilty and liable so when they come knocking, don't say anything without a lawyer and when you ask them to put the gun down, say it nice because that (expletive) isn't fun."

Shriber was fired from his role as communications director to Rehberg after a blogger revealed his identity about a week ago and Shriber acknowledged the emails were his. The congressman's office refused to comment today to SCMagazine.com.

"It's a real head-scratcher," Erik Iverson, Rehberg's chief of staff, told the Dallas Morning News on Sunday. "This whole thing was really out of character for Todd, and I believe this was a one-time incident. At the end of the day, the position entails a lot of trust. This was a violation of that trust, and I just felt like we really didn't have any choice at that point (but to fire him)."

Jericho said he was "amused" when learning his victim was a congressman's aide and fired as a result of the stunt.

Click here to email reporter Dan Kaplan.

Related Links
attrition.org

Marx Cafe tonight.

Hey all, I'll be at marx playing music tonight around 10pm or so. Hope to see you there!

about time!

Interesting development

Monday, December 25, 2006
U.S. Blocks Arms, Technology To Israel (gesture to Saudis)
U.S. Blocks Arms, Technology To Israel

TEL AVIV [MENL] 23 December 2006 -- The Bush administration has blocked
arms and technology transfers to Israel.

Israeli and U.S. sources said the State Department has blocked the
transfer of weapons and technology to the Jewish state over the last three
months. The sources said the halt reflected deteriorating relations between
the two countries since the end of the war in Lebanon in August 2006.

"Nobody will say openly that there is a problem," a government source
said. "But there is a serious problem that reflects the marginalization of
Israel in U.S. strategy."

The unofficial suspension of U.S. arms deliveries began in late
September, the sources said. They said the suspension halted the airlift of
air-to-ground and other munitions conducted during and immediately after the
Israeli war with Hizbullah.

"Several weeks after the war, the U.S. supplies stopped," the source
said. "There was no real explanation."

The sources said the administration has held up a list of weapons
requested by Israel in wake of the Lebanon war. They said the weapons and
equipment -- including the Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM -- were
meant to replenish munitions and other stocks in preparation for a larger
war that would include Syria in mid-2007.

"The administration has not rejected any Israeli request," a U.S.
official said. "Instead, the State Department and Defense Department have
said that all requests must be examined."

The administration refusal to approve the Israeli requests has also
hampered military cooperation between the two countries. In November, the
Israel Air Force canceled plans to send delegations to the United States to
examine air systems and munitions.

A U.S. official said the White House was deeply disappointed by the
Israeli failure to defeat Hizbullah. The official said the war undermined
U.S. confidence in Israel's military and government.

"The word in the White House was that Israel lost the war," the official
said. "That alone led to a plummet in Israel's stock in the administration,
particularly the Pentagon."

The U.S. refusals have also hampered Israeli defense programs. The
sources said the State Department has prevented the transfer of data and
technology, even from projects that included Israeli participation.

In one case, State prevented Northrop Grumman from providing details of
its Skyguard laser weapon, which the company has sought to sell to Israel.
The ban led to the suspension of Israeli negotiations to procure Skyguard,
designed to intercept short-range rockets and missiles.

The sources said the halt in U.S. weapons exports to Israel was designed
to assuage Saudi Arabia. They said Riyad has increasingly linked regional
cooperation with Washington to pressure on Israel to halt attacks on
Palestinian insurgency strongholds in the Gaza Strip.

"The White House believes that Saudi help is vital for the United
States in Iraq," a diplomatic source said. "There's nothing like stopping
the weapons flow to Israel to show the Saudis that the United States means
business."

Women's rights in Iraq

Jeez, what a kick in the face.

The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) recently issued a frightening report documenting the growing practice of public executions of women by Shia Militia. One of the report's more grisly accounts was a story of a young woman dragged by a wire wound around her neck to a close-by football field and then hung to the goal post. They pierced her body with bullets. Her brother came running trying to defend his sister. He was also shot and killed. Sunni extremists are no better: OWFI members estimate that no less than 30 women are executed monthly for honor related reasons.

Almost four years into the Bush Administration's ill fated adventure in Iraq, Iraqi women are worse off than they were under the Baathist regime in a country where, for decades, the freedoms and rights enjoyed by Iraqi women were the envy of women in most other countries of the Middle East.

Before the U.S. invasion, Iraqi women had high levels of education. Their strong and independent women's movement had successfully forced Saddam's government to pass the groundbreaking 1959 Family Law Act which ensured equal rights in matters of personal law. Iraqi women could inherit land and property; they had equal rights to divorce and custody of their children; they were protected from domestic violence within the marriage. In other words, they had achieved real gains in the struggle for equality between women and men. Iraqi women, like all Iraqis, certainly suffered from the political repression and lack of freedom, but the secular -- albeit brutal -- Baathist regime protected women from the religious extremism that denies freedom to a majority of women in the Arab world.

The invasion of Iraq, however, changed the status of Iraqi women for the worse. Iraq's new colonial power, the United States, elevated a new group of leaders, most of who were allied with ultra conservative Shia clerics. Among the Sunni minority, the quick disappearance of their once dominant political power led to a resurgence of religious identity. Consequently, the Kurds, celebrated for their history of resistance to the Iraqi dictator, were able to reclaim traditions like honor killings, putting thousands of women at risk.

Iraqi sectarian conflict has exacerbated violence against women, making women's bodies the battlefields on which vendettas and threats are played out. My organization, The Global Fund for Women, and the humanitarian community has long known that the presence of military troops in a region of conflict increases the rate of prostitution, violence against women, and the potential for human trafficking.

While many believed that interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq would result in greater freedoms for women, international women's rights organizations like the Global Fund for Women were highly skeptical of the Bush administration's claims from the start. US representatives in Iraq failed to even listen to, much less validate, the voices of independent and secular Iraqi women leaders like Yana Mohammed during the process of drafting the constitution. As a result, the Iraqi constitution elevated Islamic law over constitutional rights for matters pertaining to personal and family matters.

For the first time in over 50 years of Iraq's history, Iraqi women's right to be treated as equal citizens has been overturned. This disgrace has happened on the watch of the United States. In many ways, it is no less shameful than the human rights abuses that occurred at Abu Ghraib. If left unchallenged, it has the potential to affect many thousands of innocent lives in the years to come.

Since the US has failed to protect Iraqi women's rights, a new Secretary General of the United Nations must demonstrate the courage and conviction to take action. The women of Iraq deserve nothing less. We owe them at least this much.

Digg!

Tagged as: iraq war, iraqi women, violence against women, honor killings

Kavita N. Ramdas, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Global Fund for Women, has won numerous awards for her vision and advancement of an inclusive philanthropy in which donors and grantees are treated as equal partners.

Marx Cafe Tonight!

I'll be at Marx tonight, playing modern 2step and old school garage classics. Come out, mention this blog and I'll buy you a drink. Music starts at 9, goes till 2.

3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW

Ebay "second chance" scams

Dosen't sound terribly complicated, a simple operation. I wonder how many others involved managed to escape arrest.

Chicagoans held on Internet fraud charges

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 12, 2006, 9:38 PM CST

Eight people were arrested in the Chicago area Tuesday as part of an Internet fraud scheme that allegedly included bogus auctions on eBay and involved millions of dollars, federal authorities said.

Some 2,000 people may have been victimized between November 2003 and last August, authorities said.

Prosecutors charged 21 people with wire fraud in a complaint unsealed Tuesday. In the scheme, which originated in Romania, people who were unsuccessful bidders at Internet auctions were given a "second chance" to buy big-ticket items, according to the complaint.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Brian Hayes said participants in the ring would contact those who had bid unsuccessfully in the auctions. "Sometimes they would offer the exact item that people had bid on previously, saying that the guy who was going to purchase it had fallen through," Hayes said, adding that the items varied.

"It was cars, ATV's, motorcycles, trailers," he said, "even farm equipment."

The victims were told to send money via Western Union to someone in the Chicago area, the complaint states.

Federal authorities began to unravel the ring in October 2005 when Gary Michael Schneider, 25, of Chicago, was arrested on a fraud warrant out of Minnesota, according to the affidavit of Michael Blessing, an FBI agent in the case.

Schneider had been recruited to join the scheme the prior July by Adrian Florin Fechete, 35, of the 6100 block of North Seeley Avenue in Chicago, the affidavit states. Schneider began cooperating with authorities after his arrest, telling the FBI he had first been directed to make money pickups at Western Union locations, and then recruited friends to help.

Schneider and those he brought into the scheme received fraud proceeds totaling about $356,000, Blessing's affidavit states. Schneider has been given no specific promises for leniency, Hayes said.

No goods were ever provided for the payments, and much of the proceeds wound up going to people outside the United States, authorities said. Those working the scheme in the Chicago area allegedly obtained fake identification to use when receiving money transfers from victims, several hundred of whom have discussed their losses with authorities.

The U.S. attorney's office, the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Chicago police were involved in the probe, officials said. Investigators were able to determine the identities of many of those who allegedly participated by combing through Western Union records.

Those arrested in the Chicago area Tuesday included Aida Salem, 40; Jessie Vega, 25; Adrian Ianc, 32; Mihai Bledea, 30; and Igor Ashlan, 60; all of Chicago. Also arrested were Gianina Simon, 30, of Addison; Muszka Ladislau, 32, of Glenview; and Radu Rizescu, 31, of Elk Grove Village.

They are scheduled to appear Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez for a detention hearing.

The U.S. attorney's office in Chicago asked anyone who believed they might be a victim of the scheme to e-mail the office at usailn.victim.witness@usdoj.gov and include your name, address and phone number.

Or call the toll-free hot line at 866-364-2621.

Hayes said the best way to avoid being duped in such a scam is to use common sense. "Don't wire transfer money to someone you don't know or someone who's not an established retail presence," Hayes said, warning that doing so can leave consumers with little recourse if the person receiving the funds is not on the up and up.

jcoen@tribune.com

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

Father, son die in bizarre incident

My my.. What a tragic and senseless accident, I can't bring myself to joke about it.

By Indo Asian News Service

New Delhi, Nov 22 (IANS) A mentally-challenged man, jumped off his eight-storey apartment Wednesday, only to fall on his son standing below. Both died.

Police said 74-year-old Kailash Chand Garg, a resident of sector 22 of Dwarka in southwest Delhi, bolted his room from inside and went to the terrace. His 47-year-old son Sudhir Garg, went down and pleaded with his father to come down.

But Kailash Chand jumped and fell on Sudhir. The father died on the spot while Sudhir died in the hospital where he was taken for treatment.

Copyright Indo-Asian News Service

Elderly driver leaves road

awh.. being old sounds like fun, I'll have to wait and see. I wish someone had thought to film this.

About a Dozen Hurt After Car Crashes into Restaurant

Dec 11, 2006 06:01 AM

About a dozen people were injured Sunday night after a car plowed into the dining area of an Sshkosh restaurant.

It happened at about 5:45 p.m. at Mr. Cinders restaurant, ocated on 9th Avenue, near Highway 41 in Oshkosh.

Police say the bizarre incident could have been a lot worse.

They say an elderly man was driving a tan Grand Marques north on Washburn Street when he drove off the road and right into the dining area.

On Sunday night, investigators were reconstructing the scene and interviewing witnesses to get a better grasp on how it happened.

Police say the man's granddaughter was in the car with him.

Police say about a dozen people were hurt and brought to Mercy Medical Center.

When officers arrived the driver was conscious and alert, but his exact condition was not available.

People around town say Mr. Cinders restaurant is a popular establishment, with a very loyal customer base.

But, the restaurant was not very crowded when the crash happened.

Sgt. Steve Weyers of the Oshkosh Police Department said "In just hearing some of the owners that were inside talking, said they think that because the Packers were playing that it may have helped keep the totals down, maybe some of the numbers in the restaurant."

The restaurant owner says he's already talking to construction companines about fixing this place up.

He says he'd like to be back open soon, but a time frame is not known yet.

Iraq in a nutshell

Well, that just about sums it up nicely.

Said Cordesmann: "The U.S. effectively sent a bull in to liberate a china shop, and the Study Group now called upon the U.S. to threaten to remove the bull if the shop doesn't fix the china."

US to NORK : NO IPOD FOR YOU!!1

Come on now, this isn't going to do any good at all. Political posturing and nothing more. We attempted sanctions to curtail the NORK weapons program and that didn't work, what's to think anything will come of it?

U.S. Bans Sale of IPods to North Korea
Nov 29 2:26 AM US/Eastern

By TED BRIDIS
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON

The Bush administration wants North Korea's attention, so like a scolding parent it's trying to make it tougher for that country's eccentric leader to buy iPods, plasma televisions and Segway electric scooters.

The U.S. government's first-ever effort to use trade sanctions to personally aggravate a foreign president expressly targets items believed to be favored by Kim Jong Il or presented by him as gifts to the roughly 600 loyalist families who run the communist government.

Kim, who engineered a secret nuclear weapons program, has other options for obtaining the high-end consumer electronics and other items he wants.

But the list of proposed luxury sanctions, obtained by The Associated Press, aims to make Kim's swanky life harder: No more cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles or even personal watercraft, such as Jet Skis.

The new ban would extend even to music and sports equipment. The 5- foot-3 Kim is an enthusiastic basketball fan; then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presented him with a ball signed by Michael Jordan during a rare diplomatic trip in 2000.

Experts said the effort _ being coordinated under the United Nations _ would be the first ever to curtail a specific category of goods not associated with military buildups or weapons designs, especially one so tailored to annoy a foreign leader. U.S. officials acknowledge that enforcing the ban on black-market trading would be difficult.

The population in North Korea, one of the world's most isolated economies, is impoverished and routinely suffers widescale food shortages. The new trade ban would forbid U.S. shipments there of Rolexes, French cognac, plasma TVs, yachts and more _ all items favored by Kim but unattainable by most of the country.

"It's a new concept; it's kind of creative," said William Reinsch, a former senior Commerce Department official who oversaw trade restrictions with North Korea during Bill Clinton's presidency. Reinsch predicted governments will comply with the new sanctions, but agreed that efforts to block all underground shipments will be frustrated.

"The problem is there has always been and will always be this group of people who work at getting these goods illegally," Reinsch said. Small electronics, such as iPods or laptops, are "untraceable and available all over the place," he said. U.S. exports to North Korea are paltry, amounting to only $5.8 million last year.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, the trade group for the liquor industry, said it supports the administration's policies toward North Korea. The Washington-based Personal Watercraft Industry Association said it also supports the U.S. sanctions _ although it bristled at the notion a Jet Ski was a luxury.

"The thousands of Americans and Canadians who build, ship and sell personal watercraft are patriots first," said Maureen Healey, head of the trade group. She said it endorsed the ban "because of the narrow nature of this ban and the genuine dangers that responsible world governments are trying to stave off."

Defectors to South Korea have described Kim giving expensive gifts of cars, liquor and Japanese-made appliances to his most faithful bureaucrats.

"If you take away one of the tools of his control, perhaps you weaken the cohesion of his leadership," said Robert J. Einhorn, a former senior State Department official who visited North Korea with Albright and dined extravagantly there. "It can't hurt, but whether it works, we don't know."

Responding to North Korea's nuclear test Oct. 9, the U.N. Security Council voted to ban military supplies and weapons shipments _ sanctions already imposed by the United States. It also banned sales of luxury goods but so far has left each country to define such items. Japan included beef, caviar and fatty tuna, along with expensive cars, motorcycles, cameras and more. Many European nations are still working on their lists.

U.S. intelligence officials who helped produce the Bush administration's list said Kim prefers Mercedes, BMW and Cadillac cars; Japanese and Harley Davidson motorcycles; Hennessy XO cognac from France and Johnny Walker Scotch whisky; Sony cameras and Japanese air conditioners.

Kim is reportedly under his physician's orders to avoid hard liquor and prefers French wines. He also is said to own an extensive movie library of more than 10,000 titles and prefers films about James Bond and Godzilla, along with Clint Eastwood's 1993 drama, "In the Line of Fire," and Whitney Houston's 1992 love story, "The Bodyguard."

Much of the U.S. information about Kim's preferences comes from defectors, including Kenji Fujimoto, the Japanese chef who fled in 2001 and wrote a book about his time with the North Korean leader.

007, is he for real?

Saw the new bond flick over the weekend, I give it an 8 out of 10. Really want to read the books now, found this article that sheds some light on the differences between the character we have come to love on the big screen and the character as orginally penned by Fleming. very interesting...

Will the real James Bond please stand up?
27 November 2006
By DAN KAUFMAN
Sydney Morning Herald

It's hard to imagine Sean Connery's James Bond stripped naked, tied to a bottomless cane chair and genitally tortured until convinced he's impotent, although some feminists might wish he had been. Yet this happens in Ian Fleming's first Bond novel, Casino Royale.

It's just one of many situations Bond finds himself in that would never have appeared on screen until, perhaps, the newest Bond movie is released next month.

The popularity of the suave secret agent of the films has obscured the darker, flawed and altogether more human Bond of the books. There are no glib wisecracks, no high-tech gadgets to pull him out of scrapes (he even bemoans this in From Russia With Love); he often screws up his missions, resulting in brutal torture at the hands of his enemies, and when he drags himself back to the office he is berated by his boss.

Even the girls sometimes reject him: in Moonraker he watches, crestfallen, as the girl whose life he saved walks off with another man, while in From Russia with Love we're told that Tiffany Case, his love affair from the previous book, has left him after a painful break-up.

The latest Bond movie is Casino Royale and the filmmakers assure us it will be more faithful to the novel than previous films have been. The gadgets are gone, Bond is slightly less superhuman and the excruciating genital torture scene is supposed to be enacted. But fans of the books shouldn't get too excited; judging from the trailers, it seems that yet again Fleming's introspective civil servant has been discarded for a swaggering action hero.

This is, however, to be expected. After all, had Fleming's deeply misogynistic, racist and occasionally impotent Bond been accurately portrayed on film in the first place, he would never have become a pop culture hero.

"Every civilisation has the hero it deserves," Yuri Zhukov once wrote in the Soviet newspaper Pravda and, though he was criticising Bond's capitalistic vices, the quote still comes to mind when thinking about the transformation Bond had to undergo to appeal to cinema audiences.

Fleming had intended the books to be a form of escapism, self-deprecatingly referring to them as "pillow fantasies of the bang-bang kiss-kiss variety" (his wife, incidentally, referred to them snidely as "Ian's pornography"), but he still made sure Bond was realistic enough to be accessible to readers.

The filmmakers thought differently and decided audiences wanted their action heroes to be flawless and uncomplicated, so they turned Bond into an indestructible sex machine who utters bon mots after casually dispatching villains.

"If Bond didn't win and get the girl, why watch?" says Steven Reschly, who teaches a film and history course called "James Bond and the 20th Century" at Truman State University in Missouri. "It's important to realise the movies are fantasies and as such require perfection."

One of the cinematic Bond's key qualities, for example, is his undying confidence, a trait most cinemagoers would love to have. It doesn't matter if Bond is about to be castrated by a laser or is chatting up a girl, he never doubts his abilities and his ego is always unchecked. This has not changed in the new film, with Daniel Craig's Bond even admitting to having a "fantastically formed arse", a statement that would have made Fleming's almost painfully humble Bond cringe.

As befits most cinematic action heroes, Craig's Bond also has no qualms about killing. Yet in the novels, Bond agonises to the point where, in Goldfinger, he decides to drown his guilt by getting so drunk he "would have to be carried to bed by whatever tart he picked up".

Toby Miller, professor of cultural studies and cultural policy at New York University and the author of an essay called James Bond's Penis (published in The James Bond Phenomenon: A Critical Reader), says the literary Bond's self-contemplation would have detracted from the visual spectacle that became the hallmark of Bond films. "Cinema of the action kind necessitates movement rather than reflection," he says. "Figures in film can become important without being heroic - think of Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas - but not in high-octane Hollywood adventure."

Stephen Watt, one of the editors of Ian Fleming and James Bond: The Cultural Politics of 007, agrees. "While a number of film icons and heroes in the '60s and '70s were deeply flawed - I think of Paul Newman as Hud and Fast Eddie in The Hustler - they usually appeared in more serious films," he says. "An unrealistic Bond became an icon; Hud and Fast Eddie never did."

The first Bond films were released in the '60s and, as James Chapman notes in Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films, the character of Bond changed to reflect the social and political conditions of that time. The conservative civil servant of the novels, written in the '50s, would have seemed old-fashioned to moviegoers and the rebellious, cavalier, camp and extraordinarily promiscuous Bond of the films became a poster boy for the swinging '60s. "James Bond has developed into the biggest mass-cult hero of the decade," Time magazine proclaimed.

"The women were supposed to want him, the men to want to be him," Miller says. "He becomes a less reflective and troubled figure and more straightforwardly heroic."

And far more virile. Fleming's Bond was certainly fond of women: both Casino Royale and the first Playboy magazine were published in 1953 and the womanising spy was often associated with the magazine. But it was the movies that really turned Bond into a playboy of almost sex-addict proportions.

In the books Bond usually sleeps with one woman a novel, the same number Fleming once noted that any handsome young chap would bed while on a trip abroad; on film he beds an array of women who simply fall into his arms, sometimes several in the same night. And unlike the books, where Bond often worries about his performance and at the end of You Only Live Twice is temporarily impotent, on screen the secret agent's mojo never goes missing.

Fleming always wanted his character to be portrayed seriously but the filmmakers decided from the start to turn the movies into comedies that spoofed the spy genre until, as Watt says, "in the Roger Moore era [they] descended into almost comic book caricature and self-parody". This offended countless fans of the books, who included the conservative literary figures Kingsley Amis (who once referred to the films as "piling outrage upon outrage") and Ayn Rand.

"Rand adored the 007 books for what she saw as their unabashed romanticism and heroic transcendence but she was appalled by the films, because they were laced with 'the sort of humour intended to undercut Bond's stature, to make him ridiculous'," Miller says.

"Any scan of the popular sociology and literary criticism of the time indicates how threatening this was to the [political] right, which drew analogies between the decline of empire and the rise of unruly personal libertarianism. In the novels, for all his supposed association with fast living, high-octane sex and a dazzling life, Bond basically runs away from sex, leaving the desiring women who surround him in a state of great anxiety."

Then again, it could have been Bond's continual threat of spanking that had the women worried. Fleming was known to have a spanking fetish and in almost every novel Bond tells a girl (usually one with a masculine and muscular derriere) that he wants to spank her.

Rape is portrayed as a fantasy in several of the books. In Casino Royale Bond wants to marry Vesper Lynd (the girl he refers to at one point as a "silly bitch") because having sex with her has "the sweet tang of rape", a line that is unlikely to make it onto the screen.

Racism is rife, too: a chapter in Live and Let Die, for example, is titled "Nigger Heaven" and describes a room in a Harlem club in which the "air was thick with smoke and the sweet, feral smell of two hundred negro bodies".

There's little doubt Fleming made Bond an idealised version of himself and many of the author's vices are revealed through his hero. Bond lost his virginity to a prostitute as a teenager (although Fleming caught gonorrhoea and, out of embarrassment, his family shipped him off to a Swiss private school) and Bond also shares his creator's love of liquor and smoking.

On average Bond binges on half a bottle of spirits and 60 to 70 cigarettes a day and, like any real man with a substance abuse problem, he's not always at his physical best. Thunderball, the ninth Bond novel, begins with Bond staring bleakly at himself in the bathroom mirror, hung over and coughing so hard from smoking that black spots swim before his eyes. M, the boss to whom Bond is always obedient and servile (unlike the movies), then orders him to go to a detox clinic. Feeling angry and helpless, Bond walks out of the office and throws a tantrum in front of Miss Moneypenny.

Unlike his fearless cinematic namesake, Bond becomes scared in almost every novel, even when flying. When his plane hits turbulence in Live and Let Die, for example, he grips his armrest until his hand hurts and swears, sweats and imagines all the horrible ways in which he can helplessly die.

So when the filmmakers say the new film will be closer to Fleming's Bond, you need to take this with a grain of salt. After all, this claim has been made before, most recently with the Timothy Dalton films. These were more realistic, though the usually unflattering character traits of Fleming's Bond that lent him some humanity were removed and audiences ended up with generic, cold and ruthless action thrillers. For all the faults in the early Connery and Moore films, at least they had their distinctive quirks, such as Bond's habitual flirting with Miss Moneypenny and taunting of Q (neither of which appears in the new movie).

While Fleming considered the early Bond films cartoonish, he wasn't overly upset by them and even slightly changed the Bond in his books as a result of their success.

Nonetheless, what makes the Bond of Fleming's books so likeable is that he was the type of man who would have despised his cinematic double. In From Russia With Love, for example, a girl tries to flatter him by saying he's like a movie star.

Bond, naturally, is horrified. "For God's sake! That's the worst insult you can pay a man!" he exclaims.

Marx Cafe tonight!

Most glorious dj set awaits you for make triumphant benefit glorious city of DC. So to make be know tonight between what hours of the pm known to man as 10 and 2, mighty dj mattb commence spinning of records for sound enjoyment proud patrons of Marx Café. You will come, yes? I make my word to you much bobbing of heads happen in steady rhythm with juicy cuts emanating from amplified speaker system. I make good time for you, snappy good happenings; like trip to Ukrainian dentist although lacking putrid spit rinse cycle and diesel fumes from soviet tractors. You not want to miss!

3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW

The end of the UK?

Did William Wallace die in vain? It's interesting to see how deeply tied to the oil in the North Sea this whole issue seems to be.

The End of the United Kingdom?

London, England - One of the world's most successful multinational states, and a key ally of the United States, could in a few months time start to unravel: I mean, of course, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The process will be set in motion if the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) ends up the largest party in the Scottish parliament after elections next May. This is a distinct possibility. The break up of the UK will not be inevitable even if the SNP do dominate the parliament, but it will certainly make the political classes of Britain -- and perhaps of the U.S. and the main EU states too -- think hard about the point and value of the union to them. (Ironically, the elections will come just a matter of days after the 300th anniversary of the creation of modern Britain when the Scottish and English parliaments were merged in 1707.)

Most people in England who think about these things assumed that the "Scottish question" had been dealt with when, as one of the first acts of the Blair government elected in 1997, it announced the creation of a devolved Scottish parliament with wide ranging powers over domestic matters. But disillusionment with the performance of that parliament (and the UK parliament in London), the long-standing belief that the English "stole" Scotland's oil and gas, and the postmodern temptations of identity politics, have put independence back on the agenda (a recent opinion poll found 51 percent of Scots favoring it).

And a new front has now been opened up in the independence debate from the political right. Writing in the latest issue of London-based Prospect magazine, Michael Fry, a conservative Scottish historian, argues that the only way to revive the moderate right in Scotland and to better reflect the country's conservative Calvinistic soul is for former Tories like himself to back the SNP. If enough Tories heed Fry's advice it makes the likelihood of a SNP victory in May even more likely.

That would be bad news for Gordon Brown, the British chancellor, who should be taking over from Tony Blair as prime minister soon after those May elections. Brown, who is a Scot, is well aware that following devolution many people in England question whether it is possible for a Scot to become prime minister -- hence he has been making many speeches about the importance of Britishness. (Unfortunately for him Britishness continues to become less meaningful, especially to the Scots, as those things that helped to create and sustain it such as empire, world wars, Protestantism and the labor movement, fade from memory and importance.) If the chatter about full independence started to grow louder, as it surely would with an SNP-dominated parliament, that could cast further doubt on Brown's standing as an all-British prime minister. It might also tempt David Cameron's reviving Conservative party to finally cast themselves as an English party.

Losing Scotland's 5 million people would not be a huge blow to England's size (more than 50m) and would not damage its main economic and cultural assets. But it would dent its standing in the wider world and might call into question things like the UK's permanent membership of the UN security council. More important it would be another depressing victory for tribalism. The Anglo-Scottish double act has been a rare example of successful multi-culturalism, with the moral earnestness of the Scots leavening the famous pragmatism of the English. On a more practical note, the Ireland model -- with its dynamic economy, and national self-confidence -- is increasingly popular in SNP circles. Yet Ireland looks far more like America than the social-democratic Scandinavian states that the left-wing Scots Nationalists admire. To emulate the Irish model, the Scots would probably need to cut public spending by one-third, not a good start to life as an independent nation.

UK orders nimrods

This just in, America orders 13 dipshits, Korea has a standing request for half a dozen dumasses and Russian procurement officers recently completed negotiations for 8 blockheads. Woka Woka!!! sorry couldn't resist, HAPPY WEEKEND!

U.K. orders 12 next-generation Nimrods
July 21, 2006
BAE Systems will build 12 next-generation Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol aircraft for the U.K. Royal Air Force under a deal announced at the Farnborough International Airshow in London.
The contract, announced by U.K. Defence Secretary Des Browne, was valued at 1.1 billion British pounds ($2 billion).
The MRA4 is the successor to the current Nimrod MR2.
The MRA4, which made its maiden flight in August 2004, is a maritime reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering platform with the potential to carry a wide range of modern weapons. The aircraft features a new integrated mission system that enables the crew to gather, process and display up to 20 times more technical and strategic data than the MR2 variant, BAE said in a news release. The new aircraft has range of more than 6,000 miles and a 14-hours loiter time without refueling.
Three MRA4 development aircraft have conducted more than 125 trial flights, including live link-ups with Royal Navy destroyers.
Delivery of the first production aircraft to is planned for 2009.

Tom Noe's fate to be decided by regular joes.

Send him to Jail! To jail with em'! Join trafficant, and cunningham and Abrahamhoff (and harris?) I fully expect to see a long prison term for this lying self serving scumbag. I love how his defense attourney claims that he had no reason to steal this money, because he was already a millioniare in his twenties. Well how do you think he got there? LOL, by pulling scams like these. rats all of em'!

Ohio Coin Dealer's Trial Handed to Jury
Nov 8th - 9:51am

By JAMES HANNAH Associated Press Writer

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - The case of a former Republican fundraiser accused of pilfering a $50 million state investment in rare coins was handed over to a jury Wednesday.

om Noe, 52, has pleaded not guilty to charges of theft, money laundering, forgery and corrupt activity. Defense attorneys have portrayed him as a victim of bad bookkeeping.

The jurors must weigh three weeks of testimony from more than 50 witnesses.

The investment scandal centering on Noe, who was once a go-to man for the GOP, was one of the reasons Ohio voters ousted many Republicans in the election Tuesday.

Democrats say Noe was entrusted with the investments because of his political connections. The scandal permeated campaign advertisements and debates for state offices and led to charges against GOP Gov. Bob Taft.

The defense, which rested Monday without calling any witnesses, said there was no evidence he got the coin-fund contract because of connections.

Prosecutor John Weglian said in closing arguments Tuesday that Noe, a prominent coin dealer, wasted no time dipping into $25 million that the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation gave him to invest in rare coins.

"The corrupt activity began the moment he got the money," Weglian said.

The insurance fund for injured workers gave Noe $25 million in 1998, followed by another $25 million in 2001.

Prosecutors said Noe lent the money to friends. Former employees said he borrowed some of the state's money to pay off business loans and boost his coin business when sales were slow.

Defense attorney John Mitchell said Noe had permission from the bureau to invest the money and that the coin fund produced $7.9 million in profits over seven years.

Defense attorney Bill Wilkinson said the bureau was so pleased, it gave Noe the second $25 million to invest.

Weglian said Noe violated the bureau contract by failing to keep accurate records, and $3.3 million was missing from the coin fund between September 2003 and May 2005, when Noe was relieved of his duties as the fund manager.

Wilkinson said Noe had no reason to steal the money, adding that he became a millionaire at age 25.

Prosecutors have not said whether Noe is suspected of using the money to make campaign contributions to Republicans, including President Bush and Gov. Bob Taft.

The investigation into Noe's coin investments led to separate ethics charges against Taft, who pleaded no contest last year to failing to report golf outings and other gifts. About a dozen others, including some of Taft's aides, also were charged.

n a separate case, Noe pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal charges accusing him of funneling $45,000 to Bush's re-election campaign and was sentenced last month to two years and three months in prison. He won't begin that sentence until after the state charges are resolved.

(Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Go Vote, then party @ MARX!!1

Go out and vote, cause it's election day here in the USA. Vote democratic and often!

annndd.... It's also tuesday, so I'll be at marx cafe from 10 - 2 tonight. seeya there!

3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW

Katherine Harris

Her answer to the second question is pretty funny. This woman is nutz!

Bush makes sick joke, then laughs out loud!

Marx Cafe

Due to last week's absence I'll have to play each record at 2x speed to catch up. Music starts at 10pm. Should be interesting! Seeya there.

3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW

Bob Barker

Is it just me or is anybody else surprised to find out that this guy is still alive? I thought the show was in re-runs, cause his audience always looks like they just stepped out of 1993.

Bob Barker Retiring After 50 Years on TV

By SANDY COHEN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, October 31, 2006; 4:18 PM

LOS ANGELES -- Bob Barker is heading toward his last showcase, his final "Come on down." The silver-haired daytime-TV icon is retiring in June, he told The Associated Press Tuesday.

"I will be 83 years old on December 12," he said, "and I've decided to retire while I'm still young."

He'll hang up his microphone after 35 years as the host of "The Price Is Right" and 50 years overall in television.

Though he has been considering retirement for "at least 10 years," Barker said he has so much fun doing the show that he hasn't been able to leave.

"I've gone on and on and on to this ancient age because I've enjoyed it," he said. "I've thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm going to miss it."

Reaching dual milestones, 50 years on television and 35 with "Price," made this an "appropriate" time to retire, Barker said. Besides, hosting the daily CBS program _ in which contestants chosen from the crowd "come on down" to compete for "showcases" that include trips, appliances and new cars _ is "demanding physically and mentally," he said.

"I'm just reaching the age where the constant effort to be there and do the show physically is a lot for me," he said. "I might be able to do the show another year, but better (to leave) a year too soon than a year too late."

Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation, said Barker has left an enduring mark on the network, calling his contribution and loyalty "immeasurable."

"We knew this day would come, but that doesn't make it any easier," Moonves said in a statement. "Bob Barker is a daytime legend, an entertainment icon and one of the most beloved television personalities of our time."

Barker began his national television career in 1956 as the host of "Truth or Consequences." He first appeared on "Price" on Sept. 4, 1972 and has been the face of the show ever since.

A CBS prime-time special celebrating the show's longevity and Barker's five decades on TV was already under way, a network spokesman said.

To kick off his retirement, Barker said he will "sit down for maybe a couple of weeks and find out what it feels like to be bored." Then he plans to spend time working with animal-rights causes, including his own DJ&T Foundation, founded in memory of his late wife, Dorothy Jo, and mother, Matilda.

He said he'd take on a movie role if the right one came along, but filmmakers, take note: "I refuse to do nude scenes. These Hollywood producers want to capitalize on my obvious sexuality, but I don't want to be just another beautiful body."

Freemantle Media, which owns "Price," has been looking for Barker's replacement for "two or three years," Barker said. And he has some advice for whoever takes the job: learn the show's 80 games backwards and forward.

"The games have to be just like riding a bicycle," Barker said. "Then he will be relaxed enough to have fun with the audience, to get the laughs with his contestants and make the show more than just straight games, to make it a lot of fun."

As for his fans, Barker said he "doesn't have the words" to express his gratitude.

"From the bottom of my heart, I thank the television viewers, because they have made it possible for me to earn a living for 50 years doing something that I thoroughly enjoy. They have invited me into their homes daily for a half a century."

But when it comes to saying his final TV goodbye, Barker said he'll do it the same way he does each day on "Price": "Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered."

Bad Vodka??

In Russia, the vodka; it drinks you!

Siberia ravaged by bootleg vodka
By Steven Eke
BBC News

Russian homeless people drinking
Russia's thirst for vodka attracts unscrupulous suppliers
Fourteen towns in the Irkutsk region of Siberia have declared a state of emergency, amid a dramatic upsurge in mass poisonings caused by fake vodka.

Almost 900 people in the region are in hospital with liver failure, apparently after drinking industrial solvent.

Officials say there has been an alarming pattern of localised mass poisonings in recent weeks.

Last week, police and local authorities were given three days to ensure no poisons were being sold as vodka.

But this weekend dozens more poisonings were registered.

In several of the worst-affected regions, Russian officials have seized large quantities of hazardous liquids that authorities suspected were to be sold as alcoholic drinks.

They say the most common substances are de-icers, anti-rust treatments and window-cleaning solutions.

Poisoning hotspots

In one of the largest seizures, 600 tons of solvent was seized in the southern Russian city of Voronezh.

It is an indication of the scale of Russia's drink problem that during an average month 3,500 people die after drinking such liquids.

But what has caused most concern among officials is the dramatic upsurge in concentrated poisonings in small towns across the country.

In one of the worst cases, almost 1,000 people were poisoned in just two small towns in the Belgorod region in central Russia.

Critics say the government's decision earlier this year to introduce a new and expensive system of state excise stamps led to the market being flooded with potentially lethal vodka substitutes.

Genuine, certified vodka is now beyond the means of many of Russia's legions of poor.

And Russian doctors point out that most of those suffering liver failure in the spate of poisonings are from disadvantaged sections of society.

President Vladimir Putin has ruled out restrictions on the accessibility of alcohol, but radical solutions are being discussed.

They include the possible re-introduction of a state monopoly on the production of alcohol, or even providing a cheap, but safe, so-called "people's vodka" to avoid mass poisonings.

Michael J. Fox speaks out

Tucker Carlson out of a job??

Ohh.. please, please let this be the honest truth. worst news guy ever. Get Tucker off the air, that Glick guy on CNN needs to go, he's awful as well! From K@C.

If Tucker Carlson is being fired, he doesn't know it yet. But gossip mags are already reporting that the bow-tied MSNBC cutie (well, he is cute in that bow-tied kinda way) has been given the axe.

Carlson says: "It's bullshit. It's total bullshit. I talked to Abrams last night. I've got another year on my contract. That's my comment: Bullshit."

And, maybe it is B.S. because last night he was still MSNBCing it (with Hulk Hogan's family - ergh!).

MARX CAFE TONIGHT!!1

P... to the A.... to the R... to the ...T-Y!!!! Yeah! It's tuesday, so that means I'll be spinning at Marx Cafe from 10-2. Seeya There!

edit: It's too cold outside, I feel sorta sick, and I'm dry broke to boot. no marx tonight. ): I'll be there next week fo shure.

3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW

Stay the course

The Myth of the Bull Elephant

Oh this is too good to pass up. Come to think of it, Clinton didn't damage my 401k either. :ponder:

The Myth of the Bull Elephant
by DarkSyde
Mon Oct 23, 2006 at 02:52:43 AM PDT

It's become a Republican led mantra lately, too often repeated by a mindless traditional media with the attention span of a toddler gulping down Mountain Dew and suffering from advanced ADD: "The economy is doing great, the stock market is at an ALL TIME high!!!!"

I'm sure those of you reading this who have a vast equity portfolio (All twenty of you) as well as those who've been saddled with brain trauma so severe they cannot do simple math or recall the last decade--basically anyone who still thinks Bush is doing a great job--are thrilled with this recent earth shattering market rally. For the rest of us, here's a short stroll down memory lane with the benefit of a little arithmetic even Jethro Clampett could handle.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was bouncing around 11,000 in the year 2000. Last week's close was 12,002. So, based on those numbers, after swiping trillions of taxpayer dollars -- borrowed from you and your children--and tossing it into the gaping bottomless maw of Wall Street's elite like so much papery green chum, the return on the DJIA during CEO Mastermind George Bush's reign weighs in at a whopping ~ 1.5% a year or so. In between it took a steep dip resembling a certain mountain pass in Tora Bora and has regained just barely enough to rival the interest my credit union pays on a checking account. Goodness gracious, where will we spend it all?

And for you tech investors, the NASDAQ Composite Index hit a high of about 5000 in March of 2000. It ended the week at 2342. Good grief, you'd have done considerably better if you had sealed the cash in a tin can and buried it in your yard for the last six years. Were the NASDAQ COMP a conscious entity in need of immediate medical attention, it might just give up at this point and opt for a mercy killing, lest the poor thing suffer another agonizing botched operation under the inept knife wielding hands of Doc Bush and Nurse Cheney.

Now, it would be irresponsible to the point of deception to attribute market performance solely to a President. But if the GOP is dumb enough to try and play that game, it's perfectly fair to clock the living shit out of them by pointing out that under mean old, 'librul,' tax and spend, philandering Democrat Bill Clinton, the markets turned in healthy double digit gains year after year.

Short version: Clinton didn't exactly hurt my 401-K.

And if the Republican shill du jour is so fucking stupid that they stubbornly press the point, lets just say that for those of us in the Reality Based Community, based on the performance of the market and the economy in Clinton Vs Bush, if they're going to seriously try and extrapolate that dynamic in to the future, the choice this November and beyond could well boil down to being able to afford to send our kids to college while enjoying a reasonably secure retirement in peace and prosperity, or sending our kids off to fight and die in endless, pointless wars on behalf of Halliburton's next quarterly earnings report, while subsisting in grinding poverty.

Elections have do indeed consequences. But don't despair baby boomers, when Bush again works to destroy your social security, and Johnny comes limping home hooray, hooray: burger joints are always hiring retirees, and the war disabled too. ... You want fries with that?

Flavored shotgun pellets

That's pretty nifty, I wonder how it works?

Sometime next year, if all goes well, Brett Holm of Chaska, Minn., will begin selling his Season Shot, an improvement over current shotgun shells because its pellets dissolve on contact in the game meat and, more important, automatically flavor it for cooking. Holm told the Chanhassen (Minn.) Villager newspaper in August that he will initially offer lemon pepper, mesquite, Mexican, and Creole flavors, but, he said, chemists are at work right now to expand the selection. [Chanhassen Villager, 8-3-06]

Thursday mailbox party

Some spam that I found in my inbox, it just might make for a fun time out on the town.

DuPont After Dark: Nightclub and Lounge All Night Tour
Friday, October 20

- FIVE STOPS!
- NO ADDITIONAL COVER CHARGES
- FIVE DIFFERENT STYLES! (Retro, Top 40, Hip Hop, International, House) and a few surprises!
- TONS OF NEW FRIENDS

Tonight, TTD continues its popular "After Dark" program with a nightlife tour of trendy Midtown/Dupont Circle! Get special VIP treatment at some of the city's most popular nightlife spots. No individual cover charges or long lines.

Featuring:

1) CLOUD:
The perfect social location to meet your fellow young professionals. Dc's Trendiest Chic Lounge!!! Plush furniture & VIP Beds. The ultimate lounge experience in D.C.

2) FLY Lounge:
A brand new club! Cruising at 30,000 feet can be a rush. Such is the rush that will be felt by passengers at Fly Lounge. Transporting guests to new realms with non-stop service nightly, Fly Lounge embodies all the elements of the proverbial private escape. Continue your nightlife experience at this exciting new venue!

3) DRAGONFLY:
Continue the night with some martinis, sushi, sake, and a really classy atmosphere! Walk through the frosted glass front and take in the first class atmosphere of this new hot spot!

4) CLUB FIVE:
Located in the heart of Midtown's Golden Triangle, FIVE is a three level club featuring a relaxing open air moonlit lounge and two additional floors of electrifying music with a Full Bass Heavy EAW Avalon Sound System. CLUB FIVE also boasts chic furnishings with an ultra-cool vibe. Enjoy retro and top 40 hits!

5) 1223:
Finish the night at Washington's Premier Champagne and Caviar Club! Dimly Lit with a huge dance floor and a master DJ spinning hip-hop, house, and rock.

Suggested Attire: Certain clubs have dress codes. Dress to Impress. No Hats, T's, Tank Tops, Jerseys, Athletic Wear, Boots or Sneakers.

Directions: Meet at Cloud Nightclub
1 Dupont Cir NW
Washington, D.C.

Cost: $25.00
if you purchase in advance.

For detailed information or to purchase tickets Click Here or call 301 519 8030.

Marx Cafe tonight

Yo! You know what time it is fool!??!

3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW




Music starts ~9pm tonight.

That's what time it is!

Mention Mattb's Thought Zone and get a free drink!

Rant by Bill Maher

This is great stuff.

The Real Menace to American Kids

By Bill Maher

Oct. 13, 2006 | If you think the worst thing Congress doesn't protect young people from is Mark Foley, wake up and smell the burning planet. The ice caps are cracking, the coral reefs are bleaching, and we're losing two species an hour. The birds have bird flu, the cows have mad cow, and our poisoned groundwater has turned spinach into a side dish of mass destruction. Our schools are shooting galleries, our beaches are cancer wards, and under George W. Bush -- for the first time in 45 years -- our country's infant mortality rate actually went up.

Read the labels on your food. It turns out the healthiest thing you can put in your body is Mark Foley's penis. He was probably the first fruit those pages ever came into contact with that wasn't drenched in pesticide.

But that's America for you -- a red herring culture, always scared of the wrong things. The fact is, there are a lot of creepy middle-aged men out there lusting for your kids. They work for MTV, the pharmaceutical industry, McDonald's, Marlboro and K Street. And recently, there's been a rash of strangers making their way onto school campuses and targeting our children for death. They're called military recruiters.

More young Americans were crippled in Iraq last month than in any month in the past three years. And the scandal is that Mark Foley wants to show them a good time before they go? When will our closeted gay congressmen learn? Our boys aren't for pleasure. They're for cannon fodder. They shouldn't be another notch on your bedpost. They should be a comma in Bush's war. If I hear a zipper, it had better be on a body bag.

Why aren't Democrats and the media hammering away every day about who we're supposed to be fighting for over there and what the plan is. Yes, Mark Foley was wrong to ask teenagers how long their penises were -- but at least someone on Capitol Hill was asking questions. We're the predators. Because we have an entire economy built on asking young people what they want, making the cheapest, sleaziest form of it they'll accept, and selling it to them until they choke on it and die.

You know who's grabbing your kids at too young an age? Merck, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, by convincing you they're depressed, hyperactive or suffering from attention-deficit disorder and so they must all get medicated.

The drug dealers hooking your kids aren't in South America, they're in the halls of Congress handing out campaign donations to your congressmen. Mark Foley says he never slept with those kids, and I believe him, because American children are so hopped up on pills I doubt any of them could get it up.

From 1995 to 2002, the number of children prescribed antipsychotic drugs increased by over 400 percent. Either our children are going insane -- which we might look on as a problem -- or, more likely, we have, for profit, created a nation of little junkies. So stop already with the righteous moral indignation about predators -- this whole country is trying to get inside your kid's pants because that's where he keeps the money Daddy gave him to stay out of his hair.

I don't care if Mark Foley had been asking boys to describe their penises because I have some sad news for you: Your kid is so larded out on Cheetos and Yoo-hoo, he can't even see his penis. We live in a country where the ultimate consumer is an obese 16-year-old hooked up at one end to a Big Gulp and at the other to a PlayStation. So many of our kids today are fat drug addicts, it's almost as if Rush Limbaugh had had puppies.

In conclusion, we can pretend that the biggest threat to "our children" is some creep on the Internet, or we can admit it's Mom and Dad. When your son can't find France on a map, or touch his toes with his hands, or understand that the ads on TV are lying -- including the one in which the Marine turns into Lancelot -- then the person fucking him is you.

Arabian drifters

Canadians fight 10 foot tall weed.

Awhh.. To good to pass-up, there's a thousand jokes here I'm sure. Happy Friday the 13th!!

Canada troops battle 10-foot Afghan marijuana plants
POSTED: 5:12 p.m. EDT, October 12, 2006

OTTAWA, Canada (Reuters) -- Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy -- almost impenetrable forests of marijuana plants 10 feet tall.

General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defense staff, said Thursday that Taliban fighters were using the forests as cover. In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana.

"The challenge is that marijuana plants absorb energy, heat very readily. It's very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices. ... And as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don't dodge in and out of those marijuana forests," he said in a speech in Ottawa, Canada.

"We tried burning them with white phosphorous -- it didn't work. We tried burning them with diesel -- it didn't work. The plants are so full of water right now ... that we simply couldn't burn them," he said.

Even successful incineration had its drawbacks.

"A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those [forests] did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action," Hiller said dryly.

One soldier told him later: "Sir, three years ago before I joined the army, I never thought I'd say 'That damn marijuana'."

Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

SAI's first day of trading!!!!

Hells yeah! So I now work for a publicly traded company, strangley it dosen't seem terribly differnt around here after the change... It opened @ $17 and hasn't exactly zoomed towards $50 as everyone around here, myself included, was hoping for. So we shall see! YEAHHHH!!!!

Locking cockpit doors have a fatal flaw

Cockpit doors only work if they are LOCKED! If you don't properly secure the steel reinforced terrorist prevention mechanism, there's nothing to stop someone from commandeering the aircraft, you don't even need box cutters. DUH!

Lone hijacker shows up lack of cockpit defense

By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent
Reuters
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 12:49 PM

LONDON (Reuters) - How can a single unarmed passenger hijack an international airliner?

With surprising ease, a 27-year-old Turkish man demonstrated on Tuesday by forcing his way into the cockpit of a Boeing 737 and forcing it to divert to Italy.

The bizarre incident showed that the introduction of locked, reinforced cockpit doors -- a much-publicized innovation following the September 11 hijack attacks on America five years ago -- is ineffective unless airline crew follow rigorous drills when opening and closing them.

"One person with no weapons was able to penetrate the entire security system of the airplane. What does it say about our airline security?" said Omer Laviv, an Israeli specialist in aviation security technology.

He said the episode sent a signal to hijackers: "You don't need weapons to hijack an aircraft -- you don't need anything ...This would make life for hijackers very easy."

Mursel Gokalp, pilot of the Turkish Airlines plane, told reporters that hijacker Hakan Ekinci had bluffed that he had three accomplices at the rear of the plane who would detonate plastic explosives unless his demands were met.

"I obeyed because he gave me the impression his friends were there because he was often looking to the back of the plane," the captain said. He added that Ekinci was a burly man who forced his way into the cockpit when a stewardess opened the door to ask the flight crew if they needed anything.

Philip Baum, a consultant who trains flight crews to deal with hijack scenarios, said airlines should have drills in place to protect the cockpit when the door is briefly opened -- something that is unavoidable, especially on longer flights, when the pilots need food or to go to the toilet.

"What we teach is ... you pull one of the galley trolleys across the aisle as an additional barrier before you open the cockpit door, or at the very least you put another crew member there, looking down the aisle," he said.

COMPLACENCY RISK

But analysts say some airlines, in practice, become complacent and tend to neglect the drills.

"Those cockpit doors swing backwards and forwards, (the cabin crew) will share a few words with the pilot and then come back out and lock the door again. In that space of time, anyone can get in there," said Chris Yates, aviation security expert at Jane's information group.

Baum said a potential drawback of the reinforced doors was that an attacker could close them behind him, preventing cabin crew from coming to the pilots' rescue and overpowering him. It was not clear if this was a factor in Tuesday's incident.

"It's all very well having these doors, but if a hijacker gets into the cockpit and closes the door behind him, he's actually sealed in there together with the captain and first officer," Baum said.

In Tuesday's drama, the flight from Tirana to Istanbul, carrying 107 passengers and six crew, landed safely at Brindisi airport in southern Italy, where the hijacker apologized, requested political asylum and was arrested. He turned out to have no weapon or accomplices.

Aviation analysts interviewed by Reuters said airlines have no absolute rules for responding to hijacks -- unlike other emergencies such as engine failure -- because each situation requires a judgment call from the pilot and crew. But the airline staff have to err on the side of caution.

"You can't afford to take any chances whatever with a multi-million-dollar aircraft stuffed full of people at 30-odd thousand feet," Yates said.

"Your prime duty is the safety of everybody on board that aircraft. As such, you just have to get it on the ground."

Drinkers earn more than those who remain sober.

Man, here's the excuse i have been looking for all my life! Although this study seems to tie the observed benifits to social drinking. So I think they are hinting at the fact that sitting alone in my room watching Initial D episodes while consuming a liter bottle of gin isn't going to help my career, rats.

Alcohol use helps boost income: study

Thu Sep 14, 6:44 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - People who consume alcohol earn significantly more at their jobs than non-drinkers, according to a US study that highlighted "social capital" gained from drinking.

The study published in the Journal of Labor Research Thursday concluded that drinkers earn 10 to 14 percent more than teetotalers, and that men who drink socially bring home an additional seven percent in pay.

"Social drinking builds social capital," said Edward Stringham, an economics professor at San Jose State University and co-author of the study with fellow researcher Bethany Peters.

"Social drinkers are out networking, building relationships, and adding contacts to their BlackBerries that result in bigger paychecks."

The authors acknowledged their study, funded by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank, contradicted research released in 2000 by the Harvard School of Public Health.

"We created our hypothesis through casual observation and examination of scholarly accounts," the authors said.

"Drinkers typically tend to be more social than abstainers."

The researchers said their empirical survey backed up the theory, and said the most likely explanation is that drinkers have a wider range of social contacts that help provide better job and business opportunities.

"Drinkers may be able to socialize more with clients and co-workers, giving drinkers an advantage in important relationships," the researchers said.

"Drinking may also provide individuals with opportunities to learn people, business, and social skills."

They also said these conclusions provide arguments against policies aimed at curbing alcohol use on university campuses and public venues.

"Not only do anti-alcohol policies reduce drinkers' fun, but they may also decrease earnings," the study said.

"One of the unintended consequences of alcohol restrictions is that they push drinking into private settings. This occurred during the Alcohol Prohibition of 1920-1933 and is happening on college campuses today. By preventing people from drinking in public, anti-alcohol policies eliminate one of the most important aspects of drinking: increased social capital."

The researchers found some differences in the economic effects of drinking among men and women. They concluded that men who drink earn 10 percent more than abstainers and women drinkers earn 14 percent more than non-drinkers.

However, unlike men, who get a seven percent income boost from drinking in bars, women who frequent bars at least once per month do not show higher earnings than women drinkers who do not visit bars.

"Perhaps women increase social capital apart from drinking in bars," the researchers said in an effort to explain the gender gap.

Oppose the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA)

This bill seeks to make legitimate protest illegal if it affects the bottom line of the target of said protest. but hold the phone here... When protesting unethical treatment of animals, or unsafe farming practices, the entire goal is to impact the offenders bottom line in an effort to effect change. this is completely unacceptable, please congress don't cave to pressure from industry simply because you know it's going to be a rough election come November and your willing to ram through crappy legislation in the desperate hope of securing a few more votes and campaign contributions.

H.R. 4239 and S. 3880 (as amended)

The Humane Society of the United States has no tolerance for individuals and groups who resort to intimidation, vandalism, or violence supposedly in the name of animal advocacy, and we have spoken out repeatedly against violence in any form. We believe harassment, violence, and other illegal tactics are wholly unacceptable and inconsistent with a core ethic of promoting compassion and respect, and also undermine the credibility and effectiveness of mainstream, law-abiding organizations and individuals. However, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) threatens to sweep up – criminalizing as “terrorism” or otherwise chilling – a broad range of lawful, constitutionally protected, and valuable activity undertaken by citizens and organizations seeking change. Even with changes that have been incorporated into the current version of the legislation, it is still seriously flawed.

The AETA threatens legitimate advocacy. The legislation uses vague, overbroad terms such as “interfering with” which could be interpreted to include legitimate, peaceful conduct. For example, someone who uses the Internet to encourage people not to buy eggs from a company producing eggs with battery cages could be charged with terrorism for causing the company a loss of profits. Likewise, someone who seeks to “interfere with” the cruel treatment of puppies by filming the brutal conditions at a puppy mill, causing lost profits for the company when the film is publicized, could be charged with terrorism. The very risk of being charged as a terrorist will almost certainly have a chilling effect on legitimate activism.

The AETA is not clear. The bill imposes penalties for “economic damage,” including loss of profits. It provides an exemption for “lawful economic disruption (including a lawful boycott) that results from lawful public, governmental, or business reaction to the disclosure of information about an animal enterprise.” But this exemption doesn’t explicitly include activities such as whistleblowing and investigations that may well cause loss of profits. And whether an activist’s actions are subject to criminal penalties will depend on whether a public, governmental, or business audience reacts in a lawful way, something out of the activist’s control. Moreover, this exemption doesn’t tie back to the offense, which uses different words than “economic damage,” so a court might disregard the exemption language altogether. (We had requested a clear exception in the offense section: “Nothing in subsection (a) shall be construed to prohibit any damage or loss of property that results from boycotts, protests, demonstrations, investigations, whistleblowing, reporting of animal mistreatment, or from any lawful public, governmental, or business reaction to the disclosure of information about an animal enterprise.”)

The AETA is a solution in search of a problem. Under the current federal law, the Animal Enterprise Protection Act of 1992, which the AETA seeks to amend, there have recently been several successful convictions, yielding sentences of 3-5 years for activities such as running a web site to incite vandalism and violence. (According to the Department of Justice, the national average sentence for a violent assault is 5 years, and sexual assault is 6 years.) Given that, it’s not clear that existing law even needs to be strengthened. Law enforcement agencies already have the tools they need to successfully prosecute and convict people who engage in campaigns of harassment and intimidation.

Passing the AETA reflects misplaced priorities in Congress. It is particularly disheartening to think Congress may rush forward with this ill-advised bill, yet not enact reasonable and long-overdue reform, such as the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act (H.R. 817/S. 382). Purportedly, the AETA sponsors want not only to penalize, but also to prevent, extremist conduct that endangers animal enterprises and the people associated with them. When Congress fails to act on modest animal welfare reforms like the animal fighting bill, it makes it more difficult for organizations like The HSUS to make the case to activists that meaningful change is possible working through the system – and that they should pursue legal channels rather than taking matters into their own hands.

MARX CAFE TONIGHT!!

Marx Cafe
3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW

Music starts at 10pm.

be there!!

American democracy in danger! SOS!

very disturbing...

By Bruce Ackerman, BRUCE ACKERMAN is a professor of law and political science at Yale and author of "Before the Next Attack: Preserving Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism."

September 28, 2006

BURIED IN THE complex Senate compromise on detainee treatment is a real shocker, reaching far beyond the legal struggles about foreign terrorist suspects in the Guantanamo Bay fortress. The compromise legislation, which is racing toward the White House, authorizes the president to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United States. And once thrown into military prison, they cannot expect a trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the Bill of Rights.

This dangerous compromise not only authorizes the president to seize and hold terrorists who have fought against our troops "during an armed conflict," it also allows him to seize anybody who has "purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States." This grants the president enormous power over citizens and legal residents. They can be designated as enemy combatants if they have contributed money to a Middle Eastern charity, and they can be held indefinitely in a military prison.

Not to worry, say the bill's defenders. The president can't detain somebody who has given money innocently, just those who contributed to terrorists on purpose.

But other provisions of the bill call even this limitation into question. What is worse, if the federal courts support the president's initial detention decision, ordinary Americans would be required to defend themselves before a military tribunal without the constitutional guarantees provided in criminal trials.

Legal residents who aren't citizens are treated even more harshly. The bill entirely cuts off their access to federal habeas corpus, leaving them at the mercy of the president's suspicions.

We are not dealing with hypothetical abuses. The president has already subjected a citizen to military confinement. Consider the case of Jose Padilla. A few months after 9/11, he was seized by the Bush administration as an "enemy combatant" upon his arrival at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. He was wearing civilian clothes and had no weapons. Despite his American citizenship, he was held for more than three years in a military brig, without any chance to challenge his detention before a military or civilian tribunal. After a federal appellate court upheld the president's extraordinary action, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, handing the administration's lawyers a terrible precedent.

The new bill, if passed, would further entrench presidential power. At the very least, it would encourage the Supreme Court to draw an invidious distinction between citizens and legal residents. There are tens of millions of legal immigrants living among us, and the bill encourages the justices to uphold mass detentions without the semblance of judicial review.

But the bill also reinforces the presidential claims, made in the Padilla case, that the commander in chief has the right to designate a U.S. citizen on American soil as an enemy combatant and subject him to military justice. Congress is poised to authorized this presidential overreaching. Under existing constitutional doctrine, this show of explicit congressional support would be a key factor that the Supreme Court would consider in assessing the limits of presidential authority.

This is no time to play politics with our fundamental freedoms. Even without this massive congressional expansion of the class of enemy combatants, it is by no means clear that the present Supreme Court will protect the Bill of Rights. The Korematsu case — upholding the military detention of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II — has never been explicitly overruled. It will be tough for the high court to condemn this notorious decision, especially if passions are inflamed by another terrorist incident. But congressional support of presidential power will make it much easier to extend the Korematsu decision to future mass seizures.

Though it may not feel that way, we are living at a moment of relative calm. It would be tragic if the Republican leadership rammed through an election-year measure that would haunt all of us on the morning after the next terrorist attack.

Tommorow!

Borat Sagdiyev in DC, right now!

BORAT IN D.C – NEW TIME


Thursday, September 28, 2006


*****MEDIA ADVISORY*****


WHO: Borat Sagdiyev (Kazakhstan’s second most famous journalist!)

WHAT: To make honor of Washingtons D.C. visit of Kazakhstan Premiers Nursultan Nazarbayev to meet with Premier George Bush, Mr. Sagdiyev to say he so excite that Kazakh Premiers helps make benefit new movie, BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN.

WHERE: Hotel Rouge, 1315 16th St.
Washington, D.C. 20036

WHEN: Thursday, September 28, 2006, 1:00PM EDT

BORAT IN WASHINGTON, D.C. – LOCATION ADDED

Thursday, September 28, 2006


*****MEDIA ADVISORY*****


WHO: Borat Sagdiyev (Kazakhstan’s second most famous journalist!)

WHAT: Mr. Sagdiyev will make a statement regarding Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s visit to the U.S. to meet with President George W. Bush.

WHERE: Corner of 16th Street and “O” NW
Washington, D.C. 20036

WHEN: Thursday, September 28, 2006, 1:30PM EDT

For further information, please contact:

National Press
Carol Sewell, (310) 369-5519
Robin Davids, (310) 369-4264
Elizabeth Petit, (212) 556-8610

Online Press
Carol Cundiff, (310) 369-1996

International press
Hilary Clark, (310) 369-5156

Washington, D.C. local press
Brandi Dunnegan
(202) 742-8743

WTF?!!?

Click here to see the WTF!?!? It's worth it!

http://allbleedingstops.blogspot.com/20...

Man bites panda

Those drunk migrant workers, always good for a laugh. good stuff.

Man bites panda in Beijing zoo as retribution
Drunken migrant worker jumped in cage, was bitten after petting bear

BEIJING - A drunken Chinese migrant worker jumped into a panda enclosure at the Beijing Zoo, was bitten by the bear and retaliated by chomping down on the animal’s back, state media said Wednesday.

Zhang Xinyan, from the central province of Henan, drank four jugs of beer at a restaurant near the zoo before visiting Gu Gu the panda on Tuesday, the Beijing Morning Post said.

“He felt a sudden urge to touch the panda with his hand,” and jumped into the enclosure, the newspaper said.

The panda, who was asleep, was startled and bit Zhang, 35, on the right leg, it said. Zhang got angry and kicked the panda, who then bit his other leg. A tussle ensued, the paper said.

“I bit the fellow in the back,” Zhang was quoted as saying in the newspaper. “Its skin was quite thick.”

Other tourists yelled for a zookeeper, who got the panda under control by spraying it with water, reports said. Zhang was hospitalized.

Newspaper photographs showed Zhang lying on a hospital bed with blood-soaked bandages and a seam of stitches running down his leg.

‘No one ever said they would bite’
The Beijing Youth Daily quoted Zhang as saying that he had seen pandas on television and “they seemed to get along well with people.”

“No one ever said they would bite people,” Zhang said. “I just wanted to touch it. I was so dizzy from the beer. I don’t remember much.”

Ye Mingxia, a spokeswoman for the Beijing Zoo, confirmed the incident happened but would not give any details. She said Gu Gu was “healthy.”

“We’re not considering punishing him now,” Ye said in a telephone interview. “He’s suffered quite a bit of shock.”

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

Congress dosen't trust your kid

This is soooo wrong. The legislators know it to; why else would it be held to a simple floor vote and allowed to by-pass committee? Call your senator, tell him if he votes for this tripe he better start packing come November. More reason never to send your children to a public school.

House Approves Strip Search Bill
Wednesday, September 20, 2006

A bill approved by the U.S. House yesterday would require school districts around the country to establish policies making it easier for teachers and school officials to conduct wide scale searches of students. These searches could take the form of pat-downs, bag searches, or strip searches depending on how administrators interpret the law.

The Student Teacher Safety Act of 2006 (HR 5295) would require any school receiving federal funding--essentially every public school--to adopt policies allowing teachers and school officials to conduct random, warrantless searches of every student, at any time, on the flimsiest of pretexts. Saying they suspect that one student might have drugs could give officials the authority to search every student in the building.

DPA supporters and others who opposed this outrageous bill called their members of Congress this week to express their disapproval. However, House leaders circumvented the usual legislative procedure to bring the bill to a quick vote. It did not pass through the committee process, but went straight to the House floor. There, it was passed by a simple voice vote, so constituents cannot even find out how their Representative voted.

The bill moves next to the Senate, but it is unlikely to be considered there this session.

Bill Piper, DPA's director of national affairs, said, "It looks like this bill was rushed to the House floor to help out the sponsor, Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY/4th), who is in a tight re-election race. This vote lets him say he's getting things done in Washington. But I would be surprised to see a similar push in the Senate."

HR 5295 is opposed in its current form by several groups, including the Drug Policy Alliance, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the ACLU, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Parent Teacher Association, the American Association of School Administrators, and the National School Boards Association.

DPA will be watching the bill so that if and when it does come up again, this wide array of opponents can mobilize to stop it.

Diebold = Dunces

Nice article here describig how dreadfully poor the e-voting machines are. We trust our democracy to these idiots?

read all about it...

marx cafe Tonight!!

Come out to the Marx Cafe tonight to hear myself playing some garage and 2step goodies. music starts at ~10pm. Cheers!

3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW

Jackass 2 Movie breaks new ground for advertisers.

You know the jerks who put together Jackass, CKY and Viva L Bam are always going to push the envelope as much as possible in search of killer footage of foolery. You may have not realised it's also one of the first movies scheduled for theatrical release that allows for dynamic inseration of advertisments. Yeah! pretty wild, huh? read all about it.

Dynamic Backing for 'jackass’ Movie
Studio Makes Use Of On-Demand Insertion Tools
By Linda Haugsted 9/11/2006

However it performs theatrically, jackass number two will earn a mention in cable’s history books as one of the first national products to promote itself with ads inserted on the fly into on-demand programming. Viewers of comedy programming on demand by Sunflower Broadband of Lawrence, Kan., will see ads for the Paramount Pictures release. The studio and its agency, Mediaedge:cia, which designed the campaign, control the ad content, which is inserted as users select content via the platform.

The studio will be able to change the on-demand spots, offering pre-release movie promotion then changing the message as the movie is available in theaters. Sunflower has been dynamically inserting local ads into its VOD content, using equipment from SeaChange International Inc. (AdPulse On Demand Advertising System) and Atlas Solutions (On-Demand Media Console).

On-demand video typically contains ads that appear throughout the run of a specific program. The technology used in the 30,000-subscriber Kansas system allows the ad agency to handle media planning, creative management and campaign tracking remotely, and to change ads on the fly. The ads will appear in Comedy Central on-demand programs, including two episodes of South Park, one episode of Mind of Mencia, stand-up performances from Premium Blend and a stand-up comedy concert featuring Louis C.K.

“In general, MTV Networks thinks it’s a great deal. [We] want dynamic ad insertion as a standard,” said Caroline Everson, senior vice president of ad sales strategy and business development for MTV Networks. “We’re bullish” on the Lawrence test, she said. “We think the whole industry needs to be going in this direction.” The Sunflower Broadband ads will include some 15-second and 30-second pre-rolls. Other ad units will be placements on the larger screen, around the streaming content, that will make the appearance different from TV and more like a Web experience.

With the technology, the partners will be able to monitor which ads are viewed or skipped, and can replace ads that aren’t working, Everson said. She declined to discuss the revenue split on the ad deal. Terri Swartz, director of advanced advertising for SeaChange, said cable operators, content providers and ad agencies have yet to hash out the thorniest question about ads on demand: how the advertising should ultimately look.

In linear TV, there are eight minutes of commercials per half-hour. The network sells six minutes; the local operator or station retains two. But it’s still uncertain whether consumers will exploit video on demand if it carries the same ad tonnage as traditional TV, Swartz noted. Ad agencies have embraced web advertising because it’s more measurable and targetable. With static ads, cable has not been able to blunt that argument, he said.

Ad buyers also are reluctant to have to cut deals on an operator-by-operator or system-by-system basis. No one has created the ultimate business model for determining who owns the on-demand ads to sell, Swartz added. “There are a whole number of moving things” that need to be resolved before there is widespread national advertising on VOD, “and the cats are still unherded.”

Swartz differed with Everson in one respect: “This is not a test,” she said. “This is the real deal.” She would not detail subsequent campaigns, but added, “I’d be astonished if more [national advertisers] don’t step up.” Everson said MTV Networks would wait until the movie advertising has been completed, regroup, and then see about going to the broader marketplace. But the company has already received great feedback from ad buyers she said.