Tech Support for Otaku

Next time your software isn't making it to the hard drive, you might want to Ask The Tech Girl. If the Web site is to be believed, there are hot young Windows Certified women just waiting for your call.

Is it straightforward tech support? Is it phone sex? Maybe it's both. (If it isn't phone sex, with that presentation it won't be long before the heavy breathers start calling to find out how to clear their browser caches.)

(via Amy Thompson)

Yankee Fans Boo Cheney

John Aravosis writes in AMERICAblog:

I just got a live phone-in from the Yankees vs. Boston game in NYC taking place right now. Dick Cheney just got booed by the crowd!

Even as my friend Michael called me from his seats at the game, God Bless America was still playing in the background. During the 7th inning stretch at Yankees Stadium, they play God Bless America and show on the big screen pictures of anyone famous who's in the audience that night. Dick Cheney is apparently in the audience, and as soon as his face went up, the entire crowd started booing! As my friend Michael tells it, this is the blue-collar Bronx we're talking about, and Cheney is still getting booed - not a good sign for the Bush-Cheney ticket. As soon as the camera guys realized Cheney was getting booed, they quickly switched the picture on the screen to someone else.

The story is confirmed in New York Times and ESPN reports of the game.

(via Eschaton)

Update: The "ESPN" report is actually the Associated Press report of the game.

The Sound and the Fury

Ray Bradbury is continuing to mouth off about the title of Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11: "He didn't ask my permission," Bradbury, 83, told The Associated Press on Friday. "That's not his novel, that's not his title, so he shouldn't have done it."

You can't copyright a title, you clueless dumbfuck.

According to the AP story, Bradbury is hoping to avoid litigation. I should hope so, because if he sued, he'd lose his sorry ass.

Steadfast and Unwavering

Here are the editors of The New York Times:

It's hard to imagine how the commission investigating the 2001 terrorist attacks could have put it more clearly yesterday: there was never any evidence of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, between Saddam Hussein and Sept. 11.

Now President Bush should apologize to the American people, who were led to believe something different.

And here is George Bush himself, as quoted by Reuters:

"The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al-Qaeda is because there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda," Bush told reporters after a meeting with his Cabinet.

"This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al-Qaeda. We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda," the Republican president said.

It is said among election-watchers that one of the qualities of George Bush admired by his supporters is his determination to be steadfast and unwavering, when others might shift their ground.

Can this quality be taken too far? Here's the Times again:

Mr. Bush is right when he says he cannot be blamed for everything that happened on or before Sept. 11, 2001. But he is responsible for the administration's actions since then. That includes, inexcusably, selling the false Iraq-Qaeda claim to Americans. There are two unpleasant alternatives: either Mr. Bush knew he was not telling the truth, or he has a capacity for politically motivated self-deception that is terrifying in the post-9/11 world.

(Times editorial via Eschaton)

Support Victims of Torture on June 26

June 26 is United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

On the occasion of June 26, 2003, the White House issued a statement by George Bush denouncing torturne:

Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right. The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, ratified by the United States and more than 130 other countries since 1984, forbids governments from deliberately inflicting severe physical or mental pain or suffering on those within their custody or control. Yet torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes whose cruel methods match their determination to crush the human spirit. Beating, burning, rape, and electric shock are some of the grisly tools such regimes use to terrorize their own citizens. These despicable crimes cannot be tolerated by a world committed to justice. ...

The United States is committed to the world-wide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example. I call on all governments to join with the United States and the community of law-abiding nations in prohibiting, investigating, and prosecuting all acts of torture and in undertaking to prevent other cruel and unusual punishment. I call on all nations to speak out against torture in all its forms and to make ending torture an essential part of their diplomacy. [emphasis added]

That's one powerful example Bush set at Abu Ghurayb.

The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims has some strong words to say about this example.