Poli-Potion # Nine
July 11th, 2006Thanks to the National Journal, we know now the salary of White House staffers, and thanks to the Journal’s research, we now know the most overpaid staffers, too, and know that there’s a Director of Lessons Learned. This fellow is being paid over a hundred thousand dollars to do nothing at all. It satirizes itself, like this news.
The State Department is recovering from large-scale computer break-ins worldwide over the past several weeks that appeared to target its headquarters and offices dealing with China and North Korea, The Associated Press has learned. Investigators believe hackers stole sensitive U.S. information and passwords and implanted backdoors in unclassified government computers to allow them to return at will, said U.S. officials familiar with the hacking. These people spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the widespread intrusions and the resulting investigation. The break-ins and the State Department’s emergency response severely limited Internet access at many locations, including some headquarters offices in Washington, these officials said. Internet connections have been restored across nearly all the department since the break-ins were recognized in mid-June.
That is miserable, and I think it’s the first time that I’ve ever blamed our own government for an attack by someone else. There’s absolutely no reason not to guard our computers well enough to prevent them from being hacked by foreign enemies of the United States. If we can’t secure our hard drives in the United States, how can we be expected to secure anything in these turbulent times? This century sucks, and watching it unravel reminds me of the movie Love Potion #9. Did someone in the Clinton Administration poison the White House’s drinking supply with a poli-potion that would instill all its drinkers with incompetence, because this level of overwhelming stupidity and lazyness can not have come naturally.
In Japan, there’s now a debate over whether or not their Constitution would allow a pre-emptive strike in Korea. The answer is simply No, and I hope that no one in the Administration is saying yes. I do recall that a few years ago we had members of the DOD telling the Japanese of al people that they should build nuclear weapons to deter Pyongyang, so anything’s possible, and anything ridiculous is probable, with the folks we have in Washington. Out of the other hotspot in the world today, there’s nothing positive, nothing new, except for the news that Iran is nowhere nearer compromise on anything. You know, I think it’s time for us to play hardball with Iran. Pull away from the talks, and threaten to. Countries like Iran and North Korea only begin talking when they’re told and shown that time is running out.
It’s better than sitting around listening to them brag about how they’re not going to do anything for the “invaders” from the West.
My condolences to those who died in the bomb attacks in Bombay, India. It’s terrible, and inexcusable.