Are you sure you want to read this blog?

For the many computer users that never bother to use anti-virus, firewall, or Ad-Aware type softwares to protect their computer from spyware and viruses, here is just another reason for you not to worry.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Bogus blogs snare fresh victims

Cyber criminals are starting to use fake blogs to snare new victims.

The bogus web journals are being used as traps that infect visitor's machines with keylogging software or viruses.

Filtering firm Websense said it had found hundreds of bogus blogs baited with all kinds of malicious software to snare the unwary.

Websense warned that the baited blogs could get past traditional security measures that try to protect people from malicious programs.

Hidden harm

The company said blogs were being used because they inadvertently offered lots of help to computer criminals.

Blogs are free and simple to use, offer users lots of storage space, can be used anonymously and most do not scan stored files for viruses and other malicious programs.

Websense said it had seen examples of some computer criminals creating a legitimate looking weblog, loading it with keylogging software or viral code...

... viruses hosted on weblogs might be a danger because they get round the filtering systems many firms have created to ensure malicious programs do not reach employees.

Users were urged to keep anti-virus and patches up to date, regularly scan machines with anti-spyware products and exercise caution when reading unsolicited messages sent via e-mail or instant messenger.

You have to keep in mind that this is just a phishing scam variation, but instead of hoping you will enter user names and passwords at the site they are looking to take control of your computer. That, of course, can still lead to identity theft once they control your computer. Another important fact to remember is that malicious code has always been hidden everywhere on the web. Hiding it on a blog is no different than websites that hide it in pictures or in links they put on their pages.

There really is not much you can do to avoid "all" spyware and viruses. The best you can do is hope that the people at companies like McAfee, Norton, Spybot destroyer, Ad-Aware, and others that help protect most computers stay on top of these problems as they develop.

If you do not have any of the needed software to protect your computer are you sure you want to read blogs? Of course you do. It is no less safe than any other web page you may visist.

bush attacks Social Security from another angle...

bush will do anything he can to take Social Security from Americans. Since he is failing in his effort to destroy it, it seems his next option is to try and take it away from people through other means, regardless of how much these people are likely to need it. Yes, they may be deadbeats as far as student loans, but there is more to it than that.

Yahoo! News - Court to Hear Dispute Over Student Loans:
"When Congress passed the HEA in 1991, it eliminated the 10-year time limit on the government's right to seek repayment on defaulted student loans by seizing payments to individuals.

However, the Debt Collection Act created an exception to that rule for Social Security payments. Congress eventually amended that law to allow the seizure of Social Security payments, but then left intact — either inadvertently or not — a separate provision that continued to set a 10-year time limit.

When the case is heard in the court's next term beginning in October, justices will decide what Congress ultimately intended when it made the series of revisions to the two laws.

Billions of dollars are at stake. There is nearly $7 billion in delinquent student loan debt, half of which is more than 10 years old, according to the Bush administration's Supreme Court filing. A 10-year time limit would substantially hinder government collection efforts, since most debtors don't receive Social Security until retirement age, it stated.

Lockhart's attorneys countered that a ruling for the government puts at risk the 'ability of some of the most impoverished Americans to meet their daily needs' through their Social Security nest egg.

The case is Lockhart v. U.S., 04-881."

Think about how this could be used if it were applied to the credit card industry? It may only be applicable for the government to chase overdue student loans for now, but could you envision bush slipping a law in to a bill that would extend this sort of attack on the poor that bush BIG GOVERNMENT enjoys on to BIG BUSINESS? After the last huge blow to Americans' interests that bush handed to credit card companies, I see this as the future of radical right wing GOP legislation...

Is DeLay's Policy Director Jumping Ship?

A senior member of Tom DeLay's team is leaving his side at the same time that DeLay is getting hammered with investigations. Does anyone else see this as a rat scurrying off of a sinking ship?

Yahoo! News - DeLay: She'll Be Missed; Majority Leader's Policy Director Joins K-Street Firm:
"Sullivan had been with DeLay for over six years and was elevated to policy director for the Majority Leader at the beginning of 2003. Prior to that, she served as DeLay's senior appropriations adviser, developing and implementing the House leadership's appropriations and budget strategy as well as coalition strategies with grassroots groups and members of Congress. She was a key member of DeLay's leadership team throughout, as the point of contact between House leadership and Senate leadership while policy director and as the leadership contact for Republican members in the appropriations process during her stint as senior appropriations adviser."

You have to figure that things are not looking too good in the DeLay camp. His supporters deserting him, even the shills in the media that used to love him have a hard time not noticing the illegal and unethical things he has been doing doing, and just as the Department of Justice is stepping into the investigations a senior member of his team jumps ship for a Law firm. Maybe Sullivan thinks she and DeLay will need legal help in the near future?

DROP THE HAMMER ON DELAY!

He is not my Pope...

Columnist Jose Rodriguez has a pretty reasonable take on all of the celebrating and name calling taking place surrounding the new Pope...

Calgary Sun Columnist - Jose Rodriguez: Defending the faith: "Defending the faith
By JOSE RODRIGUEZ -- Calgary Sun

I don't know which bothers me more. The newly romanticized non-Catholics falling over themselves to defend the new Pope or the equally un-Catholic busybodies bent on tearing him apart.

Seems there is no shortage of opinion when it comes to the newly appointed Benedict XVI.

The former cardinal and close confidant to the much-loved John Paul II has been called medieval, ultra-conservative, backwards and all sorts of other nasty names.

By others, the first German pope in 1,000 years has been labelled a great defender of classic Catholicism, a strict theologian and a champion of tradition.

There is probably some truth to both characterizations -- if it mattered.

You see, praise and pre-judgement from non-Catholics is as worthless as fresh underwear at a nudist colony."

This is some pretty good advice for those on the outside of the Pope's Catholic family. If he ever makes a decision that actually affects my life, personally, then I might decide to muster an opinion on their choice for him to lead. As it stands now, since he is not my Pope, I will gladly take that columnist's advice about remaining silent when it comes to Benedict's good and/or bad. As for underwear... Well, who needs them?

Power Line represents a backward, primitive way of looking at the world.

Given how these radical right Power Line wingnuts claim that Dems are blocking extremist judges based on their faith, I find it interesting to see the typical hate towards religion, and Catholics in particular, that Power Line exhibits in its latest blog on science.

Power Line: Planet of the Apes:
"It's interesting, though, to contemplate the quest for insight into human nature via the apes in the context of news coverage of the selection of Pope Benedict. The conventional view is that religion in general, and Catholicism in particular, represents a backward, primitive way of looking at the world, and especially at human nature, compared to modern, progressive science."

It is plainly apparent that, aside from being the last ones to consult concerning "progressive science", these ridiculously hypocritical charges being tossed out there by Power Line like Maltov cocktails at all of the moderates that oppose the radical bush policies and tactics will eventully result in more self-destruction A LA Tom "the hummer" DeLay (he really sucks!), John "I support those who kill judges" Cronyn, and Condi "Skirts the Constitution" Rice, Jeff "get a BLOW job" Gannon, and John "Nuke the U.N." Bolton...

There is very little that is going right for the extremist bush lovers right now, even in their own little fantasy world, and it is our job to keep this "reality" ball rolling...