Ready for some 3-D? At the 3d Museum, you can rotate and zoom in on 3-D scans of faossils and living animals. Link

More below.

In recent years, colleges have been one of the worst offenders for information security. Almost one year ago to the day, unbossed reported on The Battle over National Student Databases. Since then there have been continuous reports of breaches of security.

A new report shows security problems continue.

Can't keep up with the White House scandal de jour without a scorecard? Want a definitive list of elected crooks on Capitol Hill?

Every Friday, you can post your suggestions for Unbossed's Miscreant of the Week™. Conveniently timed to coincide with the end-of-week bad news dump from the White House Press Office!

This week, we're targeting free speech-hating miscreants. Take the poll.

This story has been in and out of the news in recent years. This week the GAO issued two reports on the government's dunning injured soliders. The first is Military Pay: Hundreds of Battle-Injured GWOT Soldiers Have Struggled to Resolve Military Debts, GAO-06-494 (April 27, 2006).

Yes, it is exactly the situation you would expect from the folks that brought us the aftermath of the conquest of Iraq and action in Katrina - Rita and oh, so, much more.

*GWOT = Global War on Terrorism

Earlier this month, unbossed reported on problematic uses of sole-source contracts awarded to Alaska Native Corporations to guard military bases. Link here.

A new GAO report out April 26 shows that this problematic sort of contracting - and the problems it creates - is not limited to military bases. Indeed, it is common across a wide range of agencies.

After spending last Friday and Saturday at the National Freedom of Information Summit in Indianapolis, I think this is an organization many bloggers - and nonbloggers - ought to be checking out, supporting, and joining.

It was an amazing experience to be among a few hundred people who are passionate about citizen access to information and to have so many workshops with real tools. Plus I came away with the equivalent of a detector code ring - my own skinny reporter notepad with AP printed on the front.

Bringing people together and creating a sense of community for those of us in deep red areas of the country is a distinct challenge that must be met.

It's easy to get discouraged when local newspapers are dominated by radical rightwing columnists, like Mona Charen and Cal Thomas. Radio waves are filled with hateful commentary with little regard for the truth or its consequences.

Most appalling of all, I met a lady not long ago who told me that she was shunned by her fellow church-goers because she was a life-long Democrat. She was no longer invited to participate in the hospitality committee to greet new members. Conservative Republican candidates actively campaigned during Sunday services with the blessing of the pastor. Democrats were never extended the same invitation.

So how should out-numbered progressives build their own social and political networks?

You'll find that and much more at IRSWatch.

I am having a day. What's on your mind.

Last night, I read "Public Expenses Under the Rule of American Democracy," a passage in Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America on the effects of political power as expressed by the economic classes that struck me as incredibly prescient.

Faithful readers of unbossed may have realized that I’m a little worried about global warming. Today, instead of reiterating my fears about the effects of climate change, my frustration with the Bush administration’s inaction, or my skepticism about responses from Chevron and Senator Lugar, I will simply ask that everyone reading this to celebrate Earth Day by taking a small step to help correct our climate crisis. Here are a few suggestions:

Bureau of Prisons whistleblower Leroy A. Smith Jr. has been pushing the government to stop endangering the health of prison workers since 2004. He has charged that prisoners at the Atwater, CA prison facility have been exposed to highly toxic materials while recycling materials from outdated and broken computers, televisions, and other electronic devices for federal, state, and county agencies. Now Smith's claims have been taken up by the Office of Special Counsel: OSC: Prisons Exposed Staff and Inmates to Hazardous Materials Federal Bureau of Prisons Has Failed to Address Concerns in Report.

Can't keep up with the White House scandal de jour without a scorecard? Want a definitive list of elected crooks on Capitol Hill?

Every Friday, you can post your suggestions for Unbossed's Miscreant of the Week™. Conveniently timed to coincide with the end-of-week bad news dump from the White House Press Office!

Take the poll.

No, I'm not talking about stuffing envelopes at home. Consider becoming a CEO.

DC Vote presented us with a question as to why working women are slowly vanishing. She presents one possibility: work-family obligations which still fall most heavily on women.

Rather than post this as a comment, I want to pose a second possibility. Workplaces are still filled with sexism, some hidden, but some is so out there make it impossible for women to do a good job it takes your breath away. Facts of a recent case in which women workers were denied mandatory safety equipment that put them at risk for death or serious injury - and that all the male workers had - below.

Lest we forget that amidst our fear of external extremeness, we are quite capable of growing our own. April 19 is the 11th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing.

So lest we forget . . . a tribute to those killed in the Oklahoma City Bombing can be found here.

According to the Economist, there’s a simple step that all countries can take to boost GDP: get more women into the paid labor force. “Arguably, women are the most powerful engine of global growth,” the magazine says in its latest issue. “Over the past decade or so, the increased employment of women in developed economies has contributed much more to global growth than China has.”

In the US, women’s labor-force participation rate has stopped increasing. Can anyone think why this might be?

The recent dust up at DailyKos over media coverage on blogging is a fascinating case study on group psychology within a fledging political movement.

My question is: Isn't the nature of blogging to give people the opportunity to express their own voice? If so, then why do bloggers feel the need to have a spokesperson represent us in the media?

Today is the 45th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

How is the White House celebrating? By ramping up the political rhetoric on Iran.

What's that old adage—the more things change, the more they stay the same?

Sunday. Taxes done? Not with family or friends on a holiday? Time to kill? Here are a few links with a science and education focus. Some for fun, some to make you be informed and afraid. All in a blog's work for Unbossed.

What is the cost of collecting information?

Information resellers are constantly data mining and collecting tidbits and, as a result, have now amassed extensive amounts of personal information about us. Why? Their customers include government and the private sector, and they serve them via a centralized online resource.

Think ChoicePoint, LexisNexis, and government contractors who can’t keep data private and secure. Unbossed has been down this road before. Time for a new road trip.

Can't keep up with the White House scandal de jour without a scorecard? Want a definitive list of elected crooks on Capitol Hill?

Every Friday, you can post your suggestions for Unbossed's Miscreant of the Week™. Conveniently timed to coincide with the end-of-week bad news dump from the White House Press Office!

Take the poll.

Here we are in the homestretch for filing our taxes. And how better to observe this important national ritual than to ask you:

Who knows? The GAO knows.

Thanks to our friends at ProgressNow Action, I was able to secure media credentials to cover the ACLU's National Town Hall Forum Our Freedom at Risk: Spying, Secrecy, and Presidential Power [webcast and MP3 formats available].

The Moonies strange influence in DC is well-documented, but did you know that when you sit down for sushi in this country, there's a good chance that you're likely doing the equivalent of buying a copy of the Washington Times?

I am just talking off the top of my head here, but is it just me or does it seem as if a lot of chickens are coming home to roost?

Maybe it's better not to check out GAO's latest reports. Better in terms of sleeping more securely because you have been lulled into a false sense of security. A new GAO report shows how the Administration's depletion of our military coupled with an unbridled faith in the magic of the market leaves us ever more insecure.

Please stop banging your head on the wall. It annoys the neighbors.

Today was a perfect day for a march in DC: temperatures in the low sixties, clear skies, and a few of the famed cherry blossoms clinging to tree branches. Like many others, I left work early and stood waiting at the corner of 16th & K for the march to arrive.

I watched Ingmar Bergman's 1957 classic The Seventh Seal this weekend. The film's plot—questioning the existence of God in the midst of great human suffering—offers some thought-provoking parallels to modern day charlatan religious leaders and their emphasis on amassing political influence and wealth while abandoning their responsibilities to provide spiritual comfort and guidance to the faithful. So much for those vows of religious servitude.

If only Associated Press reporter Adam Geller worked for Homeland Security or the Justice Department. Geller managed to do what they seem unable to - get a scofflaw not only to confess to multiple legal violations but to brag about them . . . on the record . . . and agree to have the story published in newspapers across the US.

In the story, which ran in the April 3 Denver Post and can be read here, Chuck Saxton, a Denver contractor confesses to paying Mexican workers $23-25 less an hour than native-born American workers and refusing to hire workers just because they are native-born Americans. He based his refusal to hire native-born American workers on a stereotype of them as lazy drunks:

From deep undercover surveillance ops in Freepistan . . .  

45 at Free Republic sez . . .

I'm sorry---I LOVE this President....but this just does not sound good. It makes him look guilty and the MSM is all over this tonight. They will make this into something huge and .......really?? I am not sure how to defend it.

Attila at RightNation.us.

Damn! Wished there was a way to reincarnate 'Vlad the Impaler' so we could appoint him to take care of this Leftist DemoncRat / RINOpublican / MSM Treasonous Propaganda Scum Cabal here in America!

Can't keep up with the White House scandal de jour without a scorecard? Want a definitive list of elected crooks on Capitol Hill?

Every Friday, you can post your suggestions for Unbossed's Miscreant of the Week™. Conveniently timed to coincide with the end-of-week bad news dump from the White House Press Office!

Take the poll.

So much wrong, so much suffering in so many places. So overwhelming. So much easier to forget, turn away, get busy elsewhere. I do it all the time. But let me just grab your - and my - attention for a few minutes on Darfur.

No IED, no insurgent force, no lurking Talib killed 21-year-old PFC Matthew Scarano sometime between 9 PM Saturday and 4:45 AM Sunday, March 19. He wasn't in Iraq or Afghanistan or even, despite his rank and year-plus of service, in the United States Army, at least as full membership in that force is officially construed.

It has come to my attention that there is a place at Army Basic Training installations called PTRP (Physical Training Rehabilitation Program). Theoretically, it's for soldiers who have been injured during training to rehabilitate and be returned to training. Perhaps that is the case at some of those facilities. I really couldn't say. But in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, home of the Field Artillery, it's different. I've discussed the tale that I'm about to tell with many regular folks, and some soldiers on active duty. Their responses range from disbelief to incredulity. (Continued In Extended -- Avila.)

[ Read More... ]

Posted by: Alexa at 04:11 AM. Filed under: general

• Go ahead: say your piece

3 comments

Gosh, I hate having to eat my words, especially when I make a really stupid mistake in public. But when it comes to having a verbal feast stretched out wide before one, you can't beat the adults in the current administration.

This post is the first in what I hope to be an occasional series on the key figures of the New Deal. Much as people today forget the sacrifices that labor gave in order for us to enjoy our current standard of living, there were also good people in government fighting for things that we now take for granted.

Here's how you win elections.

Today from 12:30 - 1:00pm (MDT), ProgressNow is hosting a virtual brown bag lunch with State Senator (and Dem Secretary of State candidate) Ken Gordon and Wade Buchanan, president of Bell Policy Center, a progressive think tank. This podcast is one of the public outreach efforts in the "Referenda C Accountability Tour", a series of town hall meetings by Colorado state legislators and think tanks that have been held over the last couple of weeks to update voters on the state budget and to solicit comment on budgeting priorities.

I attended one of the budget discussion sessions on a warm, sunny Saturday morning at 9AM. If that doesn't earn me a direct ticket to progressive nirvana and eternal backrubs, I don't know what will.

UPDATE: Recorded MP3 of the discussion.

In civilised countries, such as New Zealand, tipping is not the norm. Traditionally, there, tipping has been regarded as an insult because it suggests that you regard the person providing a tip as a servant and not as an equal. But here in the US tipping is an ever present issue. How much? How to calculate? Leave cash or put it on the card?

A recent court decision makes that issue even more pointed.

I've always believed that the petty sibling rivalry that exists between bloggers and the mainstream news media is both tiresome and counterproductive. Among the goals in launching Unbossed last year was to serve as a mutually beneficial bridge to the media—to highlight well-reported print and broadcast stories, to provide investigative research to our professional counterparts in an era when newsrooms have been decimated and the traditional firewall between advertising and news continues to blur, and to improve the quality of citizen journalism by adhering to time-honored media reporting standards.

We've had some successes here in breaking the Roads Scholars series with Reuters and the Colorado media which led to legislative action. An untold, explosive investigative piece on the hypocrisy of so-called liberal employers will be surfacing here soon with the assistance of a dedicated print reporter.

Today, Unbossed is proud to announce a new partnership with High Country News, one of the most respected media sources for environmental news, analysis and commentary.

With Easter just around the corner, I am moved to talk about some of the words Christians connect with their holidays without knowing what they mean in Hebrew - Hosana and Halleluya. I'll even through in a few tidbits on the Hebrew meaning of names.

Unbossed's unofficial theme song:

She's a brick----house
Mighty might just lettin' it all hang out
She's a brick----house
The lady's stacked and that's a fact,
ain't holding nothing back.

Our first year's stats:

Visits----371,255
Page views----791,622
Files shared----1,292,242
Hits----1,600,902

Consider this an open thread.

Unbossed turns one year old today and my has the old girl achieved some milestones.