Why don't they just encrypt the laptops with truecrypt and require people designing our cutting edge weapons system to use this encryption method?

mickslam: Improving nuclear safety since 2009

Juan Williams needs to be flushed. He's the biggest reason I don't contribute to NPR and have loaded up my ipod or stream shows Saturday morning instead of turning on the radio. Keep in mind that he's the replacement in waiting for Daniel Shore. It's like replacing Ozzie Smith with Spike Owen.

Williams reeks agenda for anyone that pays an ounce of attention to the news.

NPR seems to be embarrassed by Juan Williams.

Sure they are, and they've done the right thing by firing him.

Oh wait, all they did was ask him to just not tell anyone he was affiliated with NPR. Well, that's a victory for full disclosure and transparency. :|

If they're not going to fire him, NPR should go at least to the next step and require him to be introduced as a Fox News analyst whenever he's on NPR.

Maybe Obama will make him Commerce Secretary.

The NRO is counting down the top 25 Conservative Movies of the Last 25 Years.

You can always count on the Corner for a laugh.

Re Judd Gregg: I thought Obama was a smart guy. How many times does the GOP have to bitch-slap him before he learns no one in that party can be trusted to act in good faith?

Really, why did Obama want Gregg, a Republican, at Commerce after what we know of their essential loyalties? Yeah, it's nice and corny to bring in people from the other party, but ...

This This is how, in fair part, we got to an alleged "epidemic" of autism.

In light of Fleischer's comment about dot-com oddballs, Greenwald, in the WSJ link above, was remiss in not mentioning Jeff "Gannon," or whatever his name is this week.

Re: Juan Williams. NPR ought to have been embarrassed many times over the last several years--like every time he's on NPR.

The doctor that linked autism to vaccinations just made it up. It was on either Keith or Rachel's show the other night. Every finding, every symtoms, was false. The guy is a world class scum bag.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5683671.ece

* I'd heard rumors about corruption among state Senate Republicans in New York, but it's worse than I imagined. -- Steve Benen

Truly fascinating. From the linked article:

Are all the employees here Republicans? Mr. Beck [the assistant director at the Senate printing plant, where the Repubs got premium service, compared to Dems] was asked.

“Yeah, I believe so,� he said. “It’s not like I go around and ask.�

Never let it be said that Repubs are inefficient or don't take care of their own...

For NPR to drop Juan Williams a line of dominoes may fall: Mara, Cokie...

"I don't expect much, but sometimes, the Wall Street Journal's editorial page is so absurd, it's remarkable."

They write for their readership on Bizarro World.

1. Gregg withdrawal: Maybe this will take "bipartisanship" down a few notches on the Obama administration's priority list.

2. "The stimulus package has grown increasingly popular over the last week or so."

Wait until the next 500,000 monthly layoffs are announced.

3. "NPR seems to be embarrassed by Juan Williams."

They should add Mara Liasson and Cokie Roberts to that list.

LANL employs 12,500 people. Think about that number for a moment. In the linked article, what triggered the audit was that three of those laptops were stolen from a scientist's home. We know, then, that this total includes every sort of way in which laptops could go missing. Out of almost 13,000 people, with probably a very large portion being issued laptops, 67 missing isn't really that big of a number.

This Gregg situation seems very funny, Greg campaigned for the job, he really wanted to be in charge of the census bureau, apparently the Bush admin has never taken an honest census, which could favor the Dems, after Gregg finds out he will jot get the Census Bureau, he pulls out of the job!
Perhaps I am too sceptical. On the same note - Sen Collins apparently stripped the Obama recovery plan of whistleblower protection in case of waste of taxpayer money. We all know the repubs will be whining about the waste of taxpayer money soon!!!!

Judd Gregg's "Staffer F" may be dirtier than the news reports made him sound. Here's an excerpt from the plea agreement made with Todd Boulanger, who is continuing to cooperate with federal prosecutors:

January 22, 2003, defendant BOULANGER emailed Staffer F seeking his help in defeating a proposed amendment to a defense appropriations bill which would have enabled an Alaskan entity to establish a gambling casino, thereby threatening the market share of Native American tribes represented by Firm B which already ownedor operated gambling casinos. Staffer F responded to defendant BOULANGER that he would tell his Senator and that his office had the
proposed amendment "flagged."

If "Staffer F" makes a similar plea agreement, who is left to tell on?

Just askin'

I was glad to see House lawmakers humiliate Stew Parnell yesterday, "the man whose peanut butter killed eight people and sickened 550 more," but it's not enough.

I wasn't.

Look, if a fraction of what we've read about the company is true then Parnell is utter scum, and deserves to go to prison.

But I'm tired of Congressional grandstanding. Congress has lots of work to do. If they think we have problems, and we have plenty, then let them pass some legislation addressing them.

These exhibits of outrage may be very gratifying, and get people on TV, but I doubt they accomplish much, and seem to me to be a very dangerous practice, easily abused.

The job of the legislature is to legislate (or refuse to legislate), not to do the modern equivalent of putting people in the stocks.

If "Staffer F" makes a similar plea agreement, who is left to tell on? -Steve High

Staffer F is Kevin Koonce. He is a lobbyist who worked with Boulanger, and his clients include trade associations. Sounds like poison to me.

So if 13 of the missing laptops went during the past year, that would be about one missing laptop per thousand employees. Probably one missing laptop a year per 300-500 employees carrying same, which sounds to me like not a terrible rate. But they should be aware enough to have an encryption and no-unnecessary-data policy in place.

Crushing the Taliban ought to be a world sport

Kabul is still badly shaken after teams of Taliban terrorists attacked three government buildings in Afghanistan yesterday.

Aye, but buried in all that bad is a spot of good news:

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said Wednesday that Russia would consider expanding its assistance to NATO in Afghanistan. Russia already delivers nonmilitary cargo to Afghanistan to help NATO, and in response to a question at a news conference about whether Russia would be open to shipping weaponry, Mr. Lavrov did not reject the idea.

As one who absolutely loathes the Taliban, who thinks these vermin should be snuffed out faster than they can breed... the fact that Russia will increase its help, is good news indeed.

How does the Los Alamos National Lab lose 67 laptops?

They all stand up at the same time. Ba-dump-bump!

A key question is whether America cares about the Taliban if it is sufficiently distinguishable from Al Qaeda. OTOH, if they are indistinguishable then we have to look at some other similar groups and ask just how wide-spread this group of inter-related groups really is. America does have, after all, somewhat limited resources and we were really only attacked by Al Qaeda (or someone using them).

Gotta focus!

I've been in the government. I am not sure how they could lose one laptop. That is absurd. Someone is not on the up-and-up. This is outright thievery.

I rarely listen to NPR anymore, and I won't give them a penny. Why should I pay for Nice Polite Republican propaganda when I can get so much of it for free elsewhere?

The trio of Juan, Mara and Cokie have made me ill. Williams should be identified on NPR as a Fox flak. Actually, he shouldn't be on NPR at all, and neither should the other two. NPR has over the past eight years become just another, albeit more subtle, arm of the great right wing noise machine. It's reputation for unbiased, thorough reporting has been trashed, perhaps for good, and unless its board is repopulated with non-partisan types, and its staff replaced with journalists worthy of the name it can disappear tomorrow for all I care.