Day: December 22, 2009

Attorney sued for nose-biting incident in mens’ room

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Sometimes prosthetics don’t work

A Memphis attorney is being sued for biting off a portion of a man’s nose at a Midtown restaurant.

In a lawsuit filed this week by Greg Herbers, 48, local trial attorney Mark Lambert is accused of biting off part of Herbers’ nose during a fight last June at Dish in Cooper Young.

The dispute started when Herbers, a self-employed hairstylist, entered the restroom around 9 p.m. and noticed the one stall was occupied by two men “performing some activity other than going to the bathroom.”

Herbers said that when he told the men he needed to use the toilet, Lambert, who was standing at the urinal but appeared to know the men in the stall, became aggressive.

Lambert allegedly approached Herbers in a “menacing” fashion and jumped on him…the next thing he felt was an excruciating pain. He heard teeth crunch and noticed blood pouring from his left nostril. One of the other men in the stall screamed, “What the (expletive) are you doing?”

Lambert, who works for The Cochran Firm, and the two men then apparently fled the restroom and Herbers called police.

Herbers said Lambert bit off a large chunk of his left nostril. He also says he’s permanently disfigured and his sense of smell impaired.

You really have to be careful about bodily functions in a public restroom. And stuff.

Obama selects tech veteran for top cybersecurity post

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Howard Schmidt was named as the White House’s cybersecurity coordinator, today, a job that was reportedly difficult to fill as the U.S. strengthens its computer security defense.

The appointment marks a return to government for Schmidt, who left his job as vice chairman of former President George W. Bush’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board in April 2003, saying he was retiring from government service to join the private sector…

Schmidt will be responsible for creating a U.S network security strategy that encompasses protocols for ensuring a unified response to cybersecurity incidents. He also will be in charge of strengthening partnerships between government and business, the research and development of next-generation technology and a national campaign for cybersecurity awareness.

Schmidt has a depth of experience in cybersecurity, most recently working in the U.K. for the Information Security Forum, a nonprofit that focuses on researching and evaluating cybersecurity risks. His private industry experience includes a stint as chief information security officer for auction giant eBay and chief security officer for Microsoft, where he worked on the company’s Trustworthy Computing initiative, a massive revamp of Microsoft’s security practices.

On the government side, Schmidt served in the U.S. Air Force in both active duty and civilian positions. He established the first dedicated computer forensic lab when he was a supervisory special agent and director of the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) Computer Forensic Lab and Computer Crime and Information Warfare Division. Before that position, he headed the Computer Exploitation Team with the FBI at the National Drug Intelligence Center…

Schmidt’s experience across the public and private sectors — and technical acumen — will serve him well, said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute. “He was the only one being considered who knew what it was like to secure a system. That set him apart from everybody,” Paller said.

I wish him well. Not a position I would envy.

Japan signed secret A-Bomb deals with Nixon 40 years ago

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Sato and Nixon in 1967

Documents belonging to the surviving family members of former Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato revealed that an agreement was signed between the Washington and Tokyo that allowed nuclear weapons to come on Japanese soil, according to the Daily Yomiuri newspaper.

The agreement was signed by former U.S. President Richard Nixon and Sato on Nov. 19, 1969, and was marked “top secret”.

The two-page document is currently being checked for authenticity, but could signal the first discovery of papers relating to secret pacts between Japan and the United States that the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has said it wants to make public.

Since coming to power in September, the DPJ Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada has instructed his department to search for evidence of pacts that have long been denied by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which governed Japan almost interrupted for more than half a century.

The documents are likely to have a huge impact in Japan, where the government is amid negotiations with the United States about a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed between the two nations in 2006. Under that agreement, tens of thousands of U.S. troops are set to remain in Okinawa after 2014, when 8,000 were to be moved to Guam.

On the SOFA issue, Okinawan residents have made their feelings known by protesting against the U.S. troops on their soil. If the document signed by Nixon and Sato turns out to be true, it is likely to exacerbate tensions between locals and U.S. military personnel in Japan’s southernmost prefecture.

Nice to see that Japan has acquired an administration that’s beginning to work at openness. Even though it requires admitting their government was in bed with crooks like Richard M. Nixon.

“The good news is that there’s no theft at the Mint. The bad news is that the Mint can’t count”

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Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

The prospect of a Hollywood-style heist at the Mint sounded intriguing, but it turns out the Case of the Missing Gold was all about accounting and poor estimates.

The Royal Canadian Mint promised to track its precious metal better after confirming that $17-million in missing gold – about 44 bars’ worth – was never the object of a theft. If it had been, it would have required pilfering from one of Canada’s most secure facilities…

Still, the more mundane lapses at the Crown corporation – including mistakenly selling gold lost in production – may prove just as embarrassing as the notion that the material was stolen.

“The good news is that there’s no theft at the Mint. The bad news is that the Mint can’t count,” said Liberal MP Bonnie Crombie.

“I don’t think this is enough to restore Canadians’ confidence. There’s gold missing at the Mint and it’s because they couldn’t count it.”

A report released yesterday found accounting errors and miscalculations during refining were responsible for the vanishing gold. Now, after a 14-month search, the Crown corporation can say it knows where its gold has gone…

The Mint admitted it underestimated the gold content in the by-product left after its refining process. As a result, millions of dollars worth of gold were miscounted or sold off to U.S. processors as slag at a fraction of its value.

At least the government will withhold bonuses from the top five honchos.

American-style, we would have fired ’em. Given each a golden parachute and found jobs for them in Wall Street investment firms.

Bosnia Constitution finally ruled bigoted after 14 years

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Congress dropped by in 1999 to advise on democracy

The European Court of Human Rights on has slammed Bosnia for barring Jews and Roma from running for high elected office…

The two plaintiffs in the case, Dervo Sejdic who is of Roma origin and Jakob Finci who is Jewish, both prominent Romanian public figures, filed suit in 2006 claiming discrimination and a breach of their human rights.

According to the ruling, Finci inquired about running for parliament or the three-part presidency and was informed by Bosnia’s central electoral commission in 2007 that he was ineligible because he was a Jew.

The decision was based on a distinction made in the Bosnian constitution between two categories of citizen: “constituent peoples” — Bosniacs, Croats and Serbs — and “others”: Jews, Roma and other minorities.

Posts in the Bosnian parliament and its three-part presidency are reserved to the three so-called constituent peoples under the rules, which were intended to prevent ethnic strife in the wake of the 1992-95 war.

The court upheld both plaintiffs’ complaints, ruling that Bosnia had violated provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting discrimination and upholding the right to free elections…

The Strasbourg rights court acknowledged that the constitution had pursued “the legitimate aim of restoring peace” and that the time was “perhaps still not ripe” for Bosnia to move from power-sharing to majority rule.

How screwed-up and incompetent is a national government that still fears democracy?

What century have they picked out to join? The 21st – or the 14th?

Latin American landmark – Mexico City allows gay marriage

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Gay Rights activists celebrate outside the city assembly
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Mexico City became the first capital in Catholic, often macho Latin America to allow same-sex marriage on Monday when city legislators passed a law giving gay couples full marriage rights.

The legislation goes further than a 2006 city law allowing civil unions by giving gay couples access to the same family social security benefits and joint loans as straight couples.

In a last-minute measure, the city’s left-dominated assembly overcame conservative opposition to allow gay couples that marry to adopt children.

Activists in the chamber burst into cheers. Some gay men and women hugged, exchanged kisses and waved rainbow-colored flags that have come to symbolize gay rights.

“We are putting an end to segregation and stigmatization of a sector of society, giving access to full marriage rights,” David Razu, a legislator from the left-wing Social Democratic Party, or PSD, who promoted the law told Reuters.

The bill now goes to be signed by Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, who has backed other progressive measures like the legalization of abortion in some cases, putting the sprawling capital at the vanguard of liberal policies in Latin America…

Conservative lawmakers voted against the bill and vocal church leaders are likely to pressure Ebrard to veto it. Mexico’s Catholic archdiocese has said that legalizing gay marriage is immoral and will destroy families.

Let’s see. They’re ahead of NYC, Chicago, Miami, Dallas, Phoenix, etc.. All bastions of liberty and civil rights in the Land of the Free.

American politicians are such cowards – pulled around by the nose by priests and fear-filled pundits.

Aid groups say the world failed Gaza over Israeli blockade

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Children peering through hospital walls smashed in the last Israeli putsch
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Aid agencies have strongly criticised the international community for failing to help bring an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

The charities made the accusation in a report published just ahead of the anniversary of Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip. They…condemn not just Israel, but the world community.

In the words of Oxfam’s director, Jeremy Hobbs, “world powers have failed and betrayed Gaza’s ordinary citizens“.

The charities call for more pressure to be exerted on Israel to end what they describe as its illegal collective punishment of Gazans.

A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister told the BBC that Israel remains committed to humanitarian supplies of food, medicine and power.

Just not committed to an adequate quantity – of those supplies. They starve the Gaza ghetto as the Nazis did to Warsaw.

But he said that sanctions will remain in place as long as Hamas is, as he put it, committed to destroying Israel and killing Israelis.

A “logic” that is equally offensive to anyone examining those sections of Zionist politics calling for the extermination of Arabs.