Exploiting a weakness in the U.S. Constitution, Bush became president in 2000 despite losing the popular vote. He ignored an August 2001 Presidential Daily Brief titled: Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the U.S. Then he used that attack -- along with some trumped up evidence of WMDs -- to justify an invasion into Iraq that killed thousands of people and cost trillions.

Now as Bush goes on his self-pity tour before he (hopefully) leaves office in less than a week, bin Laden is apparently still alive and enjoying a last laugh at Bush. Bin Laden's latest video blames Bush for weakening America which permitted Israel to invade Gaza. Bin Laden is partially right -- Bush has weakened America.

Continue reading Bin Laden's latest video blames Bush's weakness for Gazan plight

Bin Laden's latest video blames Bush's weakness for Gazan plight originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Washington Post reports that News Corp's (NYSE: NWS) Fox News was among the news agencies that downloaded an al-Qaeda video that was leaked by the U.S. government, and in so doing unveiled a security hole in al-Qaeda's network that permanently damages a valuable source of information about its plans.

According to the article, many news agencies downloaded transcripts of the video, but Fox News cited the source, effectively closing that avenue of information for good.

A little background is in order here. Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) was established in 2002 to track and expose terrorist groups. According to the Post piece, SITE obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on September 7, it notified the Bush administration, giving two senior U.S. officials access on the condition that they not reveal what they had until al-Qaeda had officially released the broadcast. But by mid-afternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to media outlets. Fox News had the transcripts up and sourced to SITE by 3 p.m.

Continue reading Fair and balanced? Why would U.S. leak al-Qaeda tapes to news agencies, including Fox News? (NWS)?

Fair and balanced? Why would U.S. leak al-Qaeda tapes to news agencies, including Fox News? (NWS)? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Kim Il Jong
• Larry King
• Ziggy
• Mike Tyson
• Osama bin Laden (only in U.S., however)
• Draco Malfoy
• Joan Rivers
• Al Gore
• Tom Barlow (if you knew me, you'd understand.)

Gallery: Crocs: Love 'em or hate 'em?

Crox -- beauty is foot deep, but ugly goes right to the bone originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MurderAuction.com is easily one of the creepiest websites I have ever visited. The site is a haven for collectors of "murderabilia" -- mementos related to the cases of famous criminals, including prison artwork like a sketch of Osama Bin Laden by Washington DC sniper Lee Boyd Malvo and the psychiatric evaluation of serial killer Ed Gein.

It's difficult for me, and probably most of our readers, to understand why anyone would want to own this stuff. Texas Senator John Cornyn has had enough, and has introduced legislation to put an end to this cottage industry. His law would make it illegal for state and federal prisoners to mail such items for the purpose of interstate commerce.

What's interesting is that prisoners are generally not allowed to run businesses behind bars anyway, and they generally don't profit from the sale of their artwork on sites like MurderAuction. Some inmates will send their work to followers who send them "fan mail" and then the work turns up online. But since the inmates aren't profiting and, in many cases aren't aware of the market for their work, it's hard to see how it qualifies as interstate commerce.

It's hard for me to understand why the government should play a role in this. It seems like a freedom of expression issue, and I don't see the point of using government resources to stop collectors from trading murderabilia online. If the prisoner if profiting, that's illegal anyway.

Of course, sites like eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) should, and do, ban the listing of murderabilia on their sites. But why should Uncle Sam stop collectors from trading artwork?

Continue reading Senator seeks to ban sale of "murderabilia"

Senator seeks to ban sale of "murderabilia" originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 24 Jun 2007 11:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.