Copper theives strike again

This sounds like an easy scam, how easy is it to flip the wire, how much ya get per pound? per ton? That Jack Wyscarver guy sure has his work cut out for him.

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Copper thefts plague city
Culprits steal valuable utility wiring, leaving darkened streets
By Ralph Monta?o - Bee Staff Writer

Published 12:00 am PST Thursday, January 25, 2007
Story appeared in CITY section, Page H1

Friday morning brought more bad news for Jack Wyscarver, Sacramento's
supervisor of traffic signals and street lighting.

The street lights were out in another section of Natomas, and the
culprit wasn't bad weather or a broken conductor. It was wire thieves,
again.

"I just got a call that they hit Benefit Way and East Commerce Way,"
Wyscarver said. "On Thursday, it was Orchard Drive and Barandas Drive.
Just about every night we get a call."

For almost two months, the city has been plagued by thieves who tear up
the city's streetlights to get the copper wire. Neighborhoods are being
left in the dark, sometimes for days as repair are being made.

Linda Tucker, a spokeswoman for the city's Department of
Transportation, said repairs have cost the city $25,000, counting
employee time and materials.

The problem is one that has popped up all across the Sacramento area,
thanks largely to the rising prices being paid by recyclers for the
metals. The Bee reported in August 2006 that authorities in Yolo and El
Dorado counties were seeing an increase in thefts of aluminum and
copper. Aluminum irrigation pipes were being pulled out of the ground
and copper wire was being torn out of the walls at construction sites,
investigators told The Bee.

Last year, hundreds of thousands of people in Placerville lost
telephone service after thieves knocked down more than 1,000 feet of
AT&T cable seeking copper wiring. In Lodi, hundreds of copper vases
disappeared from graves in Cherokee Memorial Park. Almost 800 of the
vases turned up in scrap yards across San Joaquin County.

Officials with the scrap recycling industry said copper prices are at
an all-time high, up to $3 a pound because of several factors,
including increased demand and strikes at mines throughout the world.

City officials say they are contacting scrap metal recyclers to warn
them about accepting the stolen goods.

"If we can cut off where they are cashing it in, then hopefully they
will move on," Wyscarver said. A similar strategy appears to have been
successful in Stockton, Wyscarver added. "Their problem apparently
stopped the day before ours began."

The theory that the thieves are coming from Stockton has no real
evidence, according to Sacramento police spokesman Sgt. Matt Young. He
said investigators have yet to find a single eyewitness to 15 different
thefts.

"We are asking the public's help in being our eyes and ears," Young
said. Anyone seen working on utility wires not wearing a city worker
uniform or driving a city truck should raise suspicion.

The thieves are getting access to the wire by lifting the concrete
covers located on sidewalks. Wyscarver said once the thieves get to the
wire, they cut the connection and pull out hundreds of feet of
underground wire. The Orchard Way theft, for example, resulted in the
theft of about 2,000 feet of wire, Wyscarver said. A 10-foot section of
wire weighs about a pound, he estimated.

The thefts have left behind open utility covers and live wires that are
a danger to the public. Anyone finding a street light wiring box left
open is advised not to reach inside.

Anyone with information about the thefts is asked to call the
Sacramento Police Department at (916) 264-5471.
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Fed employees who owe back taxes

You would think the federal govt would be able to automatically garnish their wages to recover the shortfall. I wonder if they have considered doing this at all, seems it would be a simple solution. Link to the article for the spreadsheets mentioned, it breaks down each govt agency into different categories.

Federal Workers Owe Billions in Unpaid Taxes
Jan 17th - 10:26am

Mark Segraves, WTOP Radio

WASHINGTON - As the 2006 tax season approaches, the federal government is still trying to recover nearly $3 billion from its own employees who failed to file income tax returns for 2005.

More than 450,000 active and retired federal employees did not voluntarily comply with federal income tax requirements for the 2005 tax year, according to documents obtained by WTOP through the Freedom of Information Act. (See Excel spreadsheets in the Related Links below.)

The total balance owed is $2,799,950,165.

The documents show that every federal agency has employees who failed to comply with federal tax laws.

Seventy-one employees in the Executive Office of the President, which includes the White House, owe $664,527 in taxes for 2005. About 20 of those employees have entered into an IRS payment plan, bringing the EOP balance down to $455,881owed by 50 employees.

The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In fact, about one third of the delinquent employees, or 149,500, entered into a payment plan, but the total owed is still more than $2 billion.

At the IRS, employees can be fired for failure to pay federal income taxes. But an IRS spokesperson tells WTOP it's no easier to collect from federal employees than it is to collect from the general public.

In the past, IRS officials have been quick to compare the federal workers' rate of compliance with the general public's. But this year, the IRS is not able to track the compliance rate for the general public. The percentage of federal employees who still owe back taxes for the 2005 year is 3.3 percent of the workforce including retirees.

The federal agency with the highest number of delinquent taxpayers is the United States Postal Service, where 56,652 employees owe more than $320 million. So far, about 22,000 of those employees have agreed to a payment plan.

A spokesperson for the Postal Service says the agency hopes all of its employees follow the law, but will leave enforcement to the IRS.

The agency with the best compliance rate is the Department of Treasury, which includes the IRS. Fewer than 2 percent of Treasury employees failed to pay their taxes. About 3,000 Treasury employees owed $13,489,683 -- 1,437 of those feds also have made payment plans.

The IRS tracks the compliance rate of federal employees each year in an effort to increase compliance. Agency directors are made aware of their department's compliance rate and then memos are sent to staff encouraging them to file their taxes.

(Copyright 2007 by WTOP Radio. All Rights Reserved.)

Chinese shoot down satellite

Now we'll have to develop counter-anti-satellite capabilities to protect our imaging platforms. Like we didn't have enough going on right now without the Chinese going and raising the stakes. Thanks a lot, jerks.

Chinese Test Anti-Satellite Weapon
By Craig Covault/Aviation Week & Space Technology
01/17/2007 07:45:59 PM

U. S. intelligence agencies believe China performed a successful anti-satellite (asat) weapons test at more than 500 mi. altitude Jan. 11 destroying an aging Chinese weather satellite target with a kinetic kill vehicle launched on board a ballistic missile.

The Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, NASA and other government organizations have a full court press underway to obtain data on the alleged test, Aviation Week & Space Technology will report in its Jan. 22 issue.

If the test is verified it will signify a major new Chinese military capability.

Neither the Office of the U. S. Secretary of Defense nor Air Force Space Command would comment on the attack, which followed by several months the alleged illumination of a U. S. military spacecraft by a Chinese ground based laser.

China's growing military space capability is one major reason the Bush Administration last year formed the nation's first new National Space Policy in ten years, Aviation Week will report.

"The policy is designed to ensure that our space capabilities are protected in a time of increasing challenges and threats," says Robert G. Joseph, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the U. S. State Dept. " This is imperative because space capabilities are vital to our national security and to our economic well being," Joseph said in an address on the new space policy at the National Press Club in Washington D. C.

Details emerging from space sources indicate that the Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999 was attacked by an asat system launched from or near the Xichang Space Center.

The attack is believe to have occurred as the weather satellite flew at 530 mi. altitude 4 deg. west of Xichang located in Sichuan province. Xichang is a major Chinese space launch center.

Although intelligence agencies must complete confirmation of the test, the attack is believed to have occurred at about 5:28 p.m. EST Jan. 11. U. S. intelligence agencies had been expecting some sort of test that day, sources said.

U. S. Air Force Defense Support Program missile warning satellites in geosynchronous orbit would have detected the Xichang launch of the asat kill vehicle and U. S. Air Force Space Command monitored the FY-1C orbit both before and after the exercise.

The test, if it occurred as envisioned by intelligence source, could also have left considerable space debris in an orbit used by many different satellites.

USAF radar reports on the Chinese FY-1C spacecraft have been posted once or twice daily for years, but those reports jumped to about 4 times per day just before the alleged test.

The USAF radar reports then ceased Jan. 11, but then appeared for a day showing "signs of orbital distress". The reports were then halted again. The Air Force radars may well be busy cataloging many pieces of debris, sources said.

Although more of a "policy weapon" at this time, the test shows that the Chinese military can threaten the imaging reconnaissance satellites operated by the U. S., Japan, Russia, Israel and Europe.

The Republic of China also operates a small imaging spacecraft that can photograph objects as small as about 10 ft. in size, a capability good enough to count cruise missiles pointed at Taiwan from the Chinese mainland. The Taiwanese in the past have also leased capability on an Israeli reconnaissance satellite.

Tonight @ the Marx Cafe

I'll be at the Marx tonight, playing 2step and classic old school garage. Music starts at 10pm.

holla!

3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW

Global warming, now also real in Europe.

WOW, global warming hits home. Here too on the east coast there's no snow to be found, all the slopes within 2 hours of here are closed. WTF!?

Snowboarders stage protest over lack of snow

Romanian snowboarders blocked traffic by staging a protest in front of the national weather institute to complain about the lack of snow.

The sit down protest in the capital Bucharest only ended when weathermen told them their complaint "would be passed on to a higher authority".

Romania's ski resorts, like much of the rest of Europe, have been hit by a chronic lack of snow and high temperatures - as much as 19 Celsius in some areas.

The appeal may have had some effect, as snow is predicted to fall some time later this week.

Pandas; can't seem to make it happen

Maybe they need some viagra, or perhaps livitra(sp?) cause you know it works for 36 hours, cause sometimes life gets in the way. this reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Homer bulks up to 400lbs so he can go on disibility and work from home. Not entierly certain why though.

Male panda said too fat to have sex

By SUTIN WANNABOVORN, Associated Press Writer 35 minutes ago

BANGKOK, Thailand - Chuang Chuang the Panda is just too heavy to have sex. Thai authorities have put him on a strict diet as part of a long-running campaign to get him to mate with female partner Lin Hui at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand.

"Chuang Chuang is gaining weight too fast and we found Lin Hui is no longer comfortable with having sex with him," said the zoo's chief veterinarian, Kanika Limtrakul, adding that Chuang Chuang weighed 331 pounds while Lin Hui is only 253 pounds.

As a result, zoo authorities are cutting out bamboo shoots in the daily meal for Chuang Chuang and giving the obese bear only bamboo leaves, Kanika said.

The diet plan is the latest in an unsuccessful and often strange campaign by zoo officials to get the two bears to mate.

They have held a mock wedding, announced plans to separate the two to spark a little romance and even talked of introducing panda porn — videos of other pandas mating — to get the pair in the mood.

Thailand rented Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui from China for $250,000 in October 2003 for 10 years. They are expected to generate millions of dollars in revenues from Thai and foreign tourists.

There are as few as 1,600 giant pandas in the mountain forests of central China, according to the zoo. An additional 120 are in Chinese breeding facilities and zoos, and about 20 live in zoos outside China.

Pandas are threatened by loss of habitat, poaching and a low reproduction rate. Females in the wild normally have a cub once every two to three years.

Marx Cafe tonight!

Awhhhhh yeah!

3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW

10pm

you know.

Beautiful Alfa GTV on Ebay!

Oh man, this machine is gorgeous! I want it.

Peru, king of the world.

Wow, the peruvian stock market earned 182% during 2006, that's amazing.

The Sunday Times December 24, 2006

Peru races to top of world stock market league
Paul Durman

THE populous and fast-growing Bric economies — Brazil, Russia, India and China — produced the four best performances among major stock markets last year, according to an annual review by Thomson Financial.

The analysis by the financial-information firm underlines the growing importance of these emerging economic powerhouses to investors as well as to trading partners.

*
China was the best-performing major market, the Shenzhen A-share index delivering total returns of 101.7% last year for a dollar investor. The Russian market rose by 65.8%, the Brazilian market by 40.9% and the Indian market by 36.6%.

All these figures are calculated to include dividends and were calculated in dollars — thus neutralising currency changes.

The much larger British and American stock markets also performed well last year, but trailed far behind the Bric markets. In dollar terms, the FTSE 100 delivered a total return of 26.3%, making it the 56th best- performing market among the 93 tracked by Thomson. The 14% gain in the S&P 500, the broader American index, ranked 84th.

Some smaller stock markets did even better than China. Peru was the best performer, producing a 182% gain on the back of its metals industry. Cyprus was next with returns of 157%.

The worst performers included several Middle East stock markets, hurt by the bursting of the oil bubble. Investors in Jordan were the worst hit, suffering losses of 34%. Kuwait, Lebanon, Turkey and Bangladesh also produced negative returns.

In the UK, the best-performing company in the FTSE All-Share was Manganese Bronze, the black-cab maker that gave investors a total return of 290%. There were also stellar performances from UK Coal (returns of 201%), software group Aveva (158%) and Nord Anglia Education (141%).

The worst performers are a group of companies that generated a great many column inches. Isoft, the software company that nearly went bust after failing to meet its commitment to the NHS IT programme, was the worst performer, showing a loss of 85.9%.

Party Gaming, the online gaming giant damaged by new American restrictions, ended the year down 76.9%. Acambis, the biotech company that recently lost its contract to make smallpox vaccine for the US government, and Skye Pharma, the subject of a shareholder revolt, also halved in value.

Among the larger companies, the mining groups Xstrata and Lonmin headed the list of FTSE 100 gainers, producing returns of 107.9% and 92.6% respectively. Then came Corus, the steel maker that is the subject of a takeover battle.

Carnival, the cruise operator, was by far the worst performer in the FTSE 100, costing its investors losses of 23.5%. Drugs giant Glaxo Smith Kline was next worst, down 6.3%.

Many of the winning companies reflected the strength of the utilities and construction and materials sectors. The laggards were technology, healthcare and automobiles.

This has also been a boom year for flotations on AIM, although many debutantes performed poorly for their investors. According to Thomson, the worst were Atelis, Microfuze International, Arthro Kinetics, Netservices and Chariot (UK), which all lost at least 70% of their value.

By contrast, Worthington Nicholls, Tasty, Lipoxen Technologies and iX Europe all at least doubled in value.

To put these returns on equities in context, Thomson looked at data from asset classes. Government bonds, as measured by the JP Morgan index, produced returns of 8%. Corporate bonds, a substantially riskier class of assets, did not fare much better, returning 9.7%. The returns on cash were 4.5%. Property was the star performer, the global real-estate market showing gains of 40%.

Iraq may be lost

Maybe we will see a return to conservative values now, meaning no more military adventurism for the foreseeable future.

White House Postponing Loss of Iraq, Biden Says

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 5, 2007; A06

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday that he believes top officials in the Bush administration have privately concluded they have lost Iraq and are simply trying to postpone disaster so the next president will "be the guy landing helicopters inside the Green Zone, taking people off the roof," in a chaotic withdrawal reminiscent of Vietnam.

"I have reached the tentative conclusion that a significant portion of this administration, maybe even including the vice president, believes Iraq is lost," Biden said. "They have no answer to deal with how badly they have screwed it up. I am not being facetious now. Therefore, the best thing to do is keep it from totally collapsing on your watch and hand it off to the next guy -- literally, not figuratively."

Biden gave the comments in an interview as he outlined an ambitious agenda for the committee, including holding four weeks of hearings focused on every aspect of U.S. policy in Iraq. The hearings will call top political, economic and intelligence experts; foreign diplomats; and former and current senior U.S. officials to examine the situation in Iraq and possible plans for dealing with it. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will probably testify next Thursday to defend the president's new plan, but at least eight other plans will be examined over several sessions of the committee.

Other witnesses invited for at least 10 days of hearings include former national security advisers and secretaries of state, including Brent Scowcroft, Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry A. Kissinger, Madeleine K. Albright and George P. Shultz.

Biden expressed opposition to the president's plan for a "surge" of additional U.S. troops and said he has grave doubts about whether the Iraqi government has the will or the capacity to help implement a new approach. He said he hopes to use the hearings to "illuminate the alternatives available to this president" and to provide a platform for influencing Americans, especially Republican lawmakers.

"There is nothing a United States Senate can do to stop a president from conducting his war," Biden said. "The only thing that is going to change the president's mind, if he continues on a course that is counterproductive, is having his party walk away from his position."

Biden said that Vice President Cheney and former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld "are really smart guys who made a very, very, very, very bad bet, and it blew up in their faces. Now, what do they do with it? I think they have concluded they can't fix it, so how do you keep it stitched together without it completely unraveling?"

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.