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21. februar 2004
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Iranian sham vote
Probably the most important story today is the Iranian fraud election. The hardliners in the Guardian Council have disqualified the candidates they don't like, they control the media, and the reformists can only respond by calling for a boycott of the election.
The hardliners have used all sorts of tricks to make people vote, including letting people believe that they may face all sorts of hardships unless they can show a voting stamp in their ID cards. And they illogically put it up as a "hate the USA" issue by arguing that voting was somehow an attack on the US.
This can be the turning point, where Iran either faces its second revolution, or slides back into a thuggish mullahcracy.
If your Farsi is somewhat rusty, you are like me prevented from getting the story firsthand from the myriads of Iranian bloggers out there. Or at least you were, until iranFilter provided us with lots of blog entries translated into English, all covering the election from all angles. Don't miss the many reports there!
The big question is what the turnout will be. Conservatives will likely win, but with a minority of voters bothering to turn up dispite the scare tactics and one-sided propaganda, their mandate will be a fraud. BBC News now says there was only a 28% turnout in Tehran. Reuters says around 50% voted nationwide; down from 67% in 2000. The bloggers say mostly older people were standing in line to vote; the young stayed away. That is very bad news for the clergy in a country where the population is overwhelmingly young.
11:03:59 PM 
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Creative headline of the day
"Laura Bush Says Gay Marriage 'Shocking'" (ABCNews)
Slightly misleading headline, while technically true. Once you read the full text you see what she said was entirely reasonable:
Laura Bush says gay marriages are "a very, very shocking issue" for some people, a subject that should be debated by Americans rather than settled by a Massachusetts court or the mayor of San Francisco.
There is a lot of debate also among gays about whether the "activists" have the most sensible approach to the issue, fearing a backlash.
And unlike what some people think, the President, like his likely presidential challengers, play it safe by not really flagging their positions:
At the White House on Wednesday, President Bush said, "I'm troubled by what I've seen" in Boston and San Francisco. But he declined to say if he would support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages, as conservative supporters expect him to do.
Because among conservatives as well, there is a growing realisation that gay rights is the civil rights struggle of our times, and that the opponents are on the wrong side of history.
PS: Have a look at this shocking and revealing flash movie: The Attack of the Gay Agenda (uses sound)!
11:40:56 AM
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Study: Linux servers most often hit
Against conventional wisdom, research shows that Linux based web servers are more often attacked than Windows based servers.
An analysis of hacker attacks on online servers in January by UK-based security consultancy mi2g found that Linux servers were the most frequently hit, accounting for 13,654 successful attacks, or 80 percent of the survey total. Windows came in a distant second with 2,005 attacks.
A detailed analysis of government servers also found Linux to be more susceptible, accounting for 57 percent of all security breaches.
Last year, a similar study among government servers showed Windows to be slightly more vulnerable than Linux.
Possibly, Linux enthusiasts' boasting about its security may have tempted crackers to attack it. It is also likely that while Windows administrators are becoming better (by necessity), the increased popularity of Linux has drawn many inexperienced admins to Linux, and they mess up the security.
Via Ars Technica.
2:08:27 AM
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"Soaring GI suicide rate" myth shot down
The Washington Post and countless other news sources keep repeating the claim that suicide rates among US soldiers in Iraq are exploding.
Except the story is rubbish. There is no significant increase in GI suicides compared to earlier years, as Spartacus demonstrates by posting the hard statistical facts.
This is exactly the kind of work that makes the blogsphere great.
12:54:35 AM
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© Copyright 2004 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 02.03.2004; 23:46:12.
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