Categories
Political

Why I won’t pester the folks next door

You may or may not know that I live in Missouri. What you also may, or may not know, is that Missouri is right next door to Iowa, the state currently with a big red bullseye painted on it because of the Democratic Caucus this coming Monday.

I’ve been reading about folks heading to Iowa in order to get people out to support their candidate. In particular, now that the candidacy for Democratic nomination isn’t as clearly defined, the effort expended on Iowa, and I can only imagine, New Hampshire must be overwhelming to the folks that live there.

I thought about going to Iowa to attend one of the caucus meetings; outsiders can attend they just can’t participate. I thought about taking photos, interviewing folks and publishing my views of the meetings – being on the scene and reporting all that’s happening.

And then I woke up from my dream that I was employed by the New York Times.

Contrary to my earlier views on the matter, I’m rather pleased that there is such a contest going into the primaries: he who ends up on top of this heap will have honed whatever political weapons he has by the time he survives to make it to the Democratic candidate position. Where once I supported Dean, now I’ll support whoever survives. If it’s Dean, well great. If it isn’t Dean? Well, that’s just great, too. I want a strong candidate heading into the general election, running against Bush – not one that limps into the candidacy.

I think all of the top Democratic candidates now are decent people who will go into office, make mistakes, learn from them, and go on. None will run from a fight if forced on us, but none will seek one out. And none will discard entire segments of this country in order to support corporate interests. We’ll get back our air and our water, and maybe even a little of our dignity. Whoever will follow Bush will walk into a mess, but I think all the major candidates will deal with it the best they can.

When I vote in Missouri’s Democratic primary, I’ll vote for one person – but all the candidates have my support until we have only one.

One person, one party, one purpose.

Categories
Weblogging

Being deliberately attacked

I am being deliberately and systematically attacked through my comments in order to force them off.

Since I have no effective comment management, and no known comment spam technique will work, no not even mt-blacklist with this one, I have no choice but to turn off comments.

This attack is from the kiddie script that was found at slashdot, and yes, they are using proxies to pull in different IP addresses. Note, they change the URL to something completely nonsensical with each iteration, as well as the text of the comment. They are not going through the HTML, but are hitting mt-comments.cgi directly.

To repeat mt-blacklist will not work because the URLs are not on the list. In fact, it could quickly make matters worse, unless there’s a generic throttle built in. Also note, the changes made in MT 2.661 will not stop this attack.

Thanks to the amazing Phil, who I hope won’t mind that I don’t link him thus making him a target, I have some code to incorporate that will at least make bad boys have to wash their hands, first, before sitting down to dinner.

update

Stavros got hit through the trackback to me. He left several of the troll spoor for people to ooh and ahh. However, I loved Phil’s and Stav’s comments at the beginning of the list. They do a most beautiful sneer.

I love these guys – they make all of this fun instead of annoying. Which just goes to show that the trolls can’t ever win if you keep your sense of humor. And that’s the true ’social’ solution to this social software problem, isn’t it?

That and good friends.

Categories
Weblogging

Do not click that link

Comment spammers have now been replaced by hackers. New comment spam, wording of which I have left, has a link that goes to a site that has so many out of control media and pop ups in it, it took my Mac down.

Yes. My Mac.

Look for this link – http://www.nero-online.org/lastmeasure

DO NOT CLICK ON IT!

Our new friend wrote:

We develop our own scripts using varied languages and means and can defeat nearly any standard security measure you put in place.

We’re doing this because bloggers provide a waste to the internet, an amassing of imbeciles who think they deserve to be heard, and think people actually care.

Your only real solution is to turn all comments off. Obviously this will mean your egos will no longer be stroked.

🙂

HAVE A NICE DAY

Yes, this is a kiddie hacker, no doubt. This was manually done, and then the auto script was turned on.

update

Unfortunately, the kiddies are attacking in force now. Note that mt-blacklist will not work. Nor will the new measures put out by Movable Type. Sam Ruby’s update could work, but I don’t have the second component of it in place, so it’s not implemented yet.

Categories
Media

Movie, anyone?

When Dave Rogers typed in members from his old sci-fi movie collection, I knew that I had “This Island Earth”, stuffed somewhere among the videos. While picking through the packed boxes, I was able to find my old, beloved copy of “Them”. I almost feel like I found a forgotten hundred dollar bill, stuffed into an old, discarded purse.

The movies aren’t DVD, but that don’t mean no nevermind to me. If they’re a little worn and scratchy, why that will just add to the effect.

Popcorn, anyone?

Categories
Diversity

The little woman

Though I sometimes wish Dean would go out and hire a strong DC insider to manage his campaign and keep him from inserting foot in mouth, my estimation of him as a candidate was enhanced when I read about his relationship with his wife, Dr. Steinberg Dean, and the fact that she doesn’t have much to do with the campaign.

Finally, for once, an example of a political spouse who really does demonstrate that there could possibly be equality of the sexes in this country some day.

However, the mainstream media and all the little anal conservatives are just appalled at the fact that this woman is not giving up her career in order to stand by her man. But I’ll let View from the Loft speak my mind, he did it so well:

Go ahead and Google Judith Steinberg Dean–you’ll see many, many more examples of the we-like-independent-women-but-itsn’t-it-odd- that-Judy-is-never-seen-with-Dean-on-the-campaign-trail train of thought. Actually, “we”–that is, commentators, reporters, and throwbacks–don’t like independent women. They make “us” nervous. They have the unmitigated gall to believe that their own careers are important, not amusements to be tossed aside when hubby calls. “We” want to see a woman stand by her man, and if she doesn’t, well, “we” can’t be held responsible for the consequences. This is what underlies the rationalizations that “we,” as one columnist said, want to see the candidate “in context. And you can’t see a man in context without his wife.”

And here I thought electing a candidate had to do with his beliefs, policy proposals, position on crucial issues, qualifications for the job, and other trivia, when all the while it’s about whether he and his wife have a good (read: man-dominant, woman-subservient) marriage. Silly me.

(Thanks to Joel for the heads up)

(My, I’m making up for lost time not writing to the weblog, aren’t I? I miss my walks, though.)