Category Archives: Security

Security

Alaska Senator pleads ignorance

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I have to scratch my head at the defense used by Senator Stevens. An AP article called Cabin remodel detailed at Stevens corruption trial has the story:

“We reach for the yellow pages, he reached for VECO,” prosecutor Brenda Morris said Thursday during opening statements. “And the defendant never paid a dime.”

Defense attorney Brendan Sullivan countered that his client’s wife controlled the pursestrings and paid every bill received for the project, $160,000 in all. The senator was in Washington, 3,300 miles away from the job site, and Sullivan said Stevens can’t be held responsible for any freebies or work done by Allen that wasn’t billed.

“You cannot report what you don’t know,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan is right, but he is actually condemning his client rather than supporting him. Stevens should be held 100% accountable. He is a Senator, and he is expected to keep his affairs clear of corruption. Turning a blind eye to corruption is no excuse.

Why on earth (pun not intended) would a company go to great lengths to provide free renovations and upgrades to an Alaska politician’s property if they thought that person would be so ignorant as to not even notice? Sounds like an absurd twist to me. He had to have been aware, or they would never have made the changes. Are we supposed to believe that VECO operated as a charity towards Senators in need?

This is exactly the kind of unethical and irresponsible leadership that Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) was intended to put an end to…if you are elected or appointed to a leadership position, then you should be accountable to the happenings under your watch. SOX basically says executives should be punished if they knowingly or unknowingly publish false information in financial statements.

Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael G. Oxley had the Act approved in 2002 by a House vote of 423-3 and Senate vote of 99-0. Stevens was in favor back then. And now?

Instead of “I don’t know, so don’t blame me” we should instead hear “I did not know, so I clearly I failed in my duties. Sorry for being out of touch when I was supposed to be a leader and in charge of financial affairs.”

More details can be found in an amusing TheZoo blog post called “Somebody call the Waa-ambulance”

In the new documents, the government also dismissed Stevens’ assertions that his conduct was shielded by the Constitution as a member of Congress, citing nine examples of the senator’s “errands” and requests involving a former Alaska oil-services company that had nothing to do with protected lawmaking.

Among them: an intercepted phone call in which Stevens discusses how his son Ben, then the state Senate president, planned to push a bill favored by the oil industry as a prelude to natural-gas development.

The new filings go substantially further than a July indictment that charges Stevens with seven counts of failing to disclose gifts from 1999 through 2006. Most of the alleged gifts, including the renovation of the senator’s Girdwood, Alaska, home, were from former oil-service company VECO and its politically active chairman, Bill Allen.

TheZoo also quotes Bill Maher:

“Let’s ask Sarah Palin about Sarbanes-Oxley. What would she say? ‘I shot one the other day’?”

Sailing, Security

Somali Pirates Steal Russian Tanks

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It is interesting to think about the lack of defenses used to guard a ship full of weapons, including tanks. The BBC reports:

The Ukrainian foreign ministry said the captain of the Faina cargo ship had reported being surrounded by three boats of armed men on Thursday afternoon

Defence Minister Yury Yekhanurov confirmed that 33 Russian T-72 tanks and “a substantial quantity of ammunition” were aboard.

The Faina sailed under a Belize flag and seems to have had no armed support or defenses. The US and Ethiopia can not be happy about this. It is no small problem, however, especially with the Somalis now managing a substantial budget for attacks while the US is all tied up with Iraq, Georgia and facing serious economic shortfalls:

Pirates have seized dozens of ships from the major shipping routes near Somalia’s coast in recent months.

Senior UN officials estimate the ransoms they earn from hijacking ships exceed $100m (£54m) a year.

This is all too familiar. I seem to remember the peak of the British empire came as Pirates increasingly challenged them on the high seas.

Security

Palin’s Church Says Jews Run the Economics of Nations

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Kagro X posts on Daily Kos an excerpt of video from Sarah Palin’s church. Unlike the witch hunting in the other sermon, where a woman who lived near an intersection with accidents was accused of being a witch, this one accuses Jews of running the economy of America:

…starting at 1:20 in the video:

“The second area whereby God wants us, wants to penetrate in our society is in the economic area. The Bible says that the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. It’s high time that we have top Christian businessmen, businesswomen, bankers, you know, who are men and women of integrity running the economics of our nations. That’s what we are waiting for. That’s part and parcel of transformation. If you look at the — you know — if you look at the Israelites, that’s how they work. And that’s how they are, even today.”

Sarah Palin is present and on video for this one. She shows up at about 7:00 into it.

This preacher makes these remarks — “that’s how they are, even today” — and then Sarah Palin comes forward to stand before the congregation and receive his blessing.

Uh, Sarah?

It is likely that Palin has been raised and still surrounds herself with closed-minded people who espouse divisiveness and hatred towards others. Why else would she be standing in support only minutes after they preach such nonsense about “Israelites today”?

Have you ever heard Palin speak of tolerance and compassion towards others, in support of diversity? Her church seems to rail against science, fear non-Christians, and she is right there in lockstep when they pray for her.

Not the best speaker I have seen, and I sincerely hope Palin speaks to the press someday and lets us all know how much she disagrees with the teachings of her Church.

Food, Security

Pyrex Danger!

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The update from Consumer Affairs is that Pyrex poses a deceptive safety risk to Americans and regulators are not doing anything about it:

It has been nearly three years since ConsumerAffairs.com first reported that consumers were being cut and burned by exploding Pyrex bakeware. The company was quick to deny the problem and government safety regulators seemed untroubled by the reports.

Three years later, not much has changed.

World Kitchen is the manufacturer of Pyrex and seems to think the problem is with the consumers.

On the front of a new Pyrex dish ConsumerAffairs.com purchased, the product’s label clearly states that it is “freezer safe … microwave safe … dishwasher safe … oven safe.”

But the fine print on the back tells a different tale:

“Avoid severe hot and cold temperature changes. … Use minimum amount of cooking time. … No stovetop, broiler, toaster oven, microwave, browner or any other direct heat source. … Do not add liquid to hot dish or place hot dish or glass cover in sink, immerse in water or place on cold or wet surfaces.”

How telling that they market the product up front for all the uses that the fine print on the back actually forbids. It is clearly unethical and deceptive to say something is safe for microwave and then warn people not to use the microwave, but here is something even worse:

“We cannot speculate on how someone was using their bakeware, and whether or not they were using it correctly,” wrote Bryan Glancy, World Kitchen spokesman. “Without examining the product, there is no confirmation that the product involved was Pyrex bakeware (as opposed to another manufacturer’s product). For this reason, unsubstantiated and unconfirmed reports of breakage should not be used as the basis for any conclusions to be drawn about Pyrex products.”

Why would people be complaining to Pyrex about other glass products that explode? How common is such confusion? I bet it never happens, but even if it happens once why try to use it as a primary reason to dismiss ALL consumer complaints? World Kitchen should setup a method to examine the product to confirm genuine Pyrex. Moreover, why speculate? Test bakeware using the claims from consumers and reveal the results to show safety. Perhaps even better is to use a 3rd party independent testing lab like Consumer Affairs.

The real issue here is that Corning licensed the Pyrex name in America to World Kitchen in 1998, and manufacturing quality/costs have declined. Corning licensed the Pyrex name to a different company in Europe, Arc International, and they have not had any of the same complaints or problems with exploding dishes.

Arc International’s Pyrex dishes cost about double what World Kitchen’s do in the U.S., but ConsumerAffairs.com has only one exploding Pyrex complaint from any country in the E.U.

ConsumerAffairs.com has complaints from every major English-speaking country where World Kitchen products are sold, including Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Apparently Pyrex is now found in 80 percent of American homes, and yet the US Consumer Product Safety Commission refuses to respond to requests for information or complete an investigation of World Kitchen Pyrex.

The glass experts concluded that the only Pyrex dish any of them would use would be one purchased before 1998. Otherwise, they’re cooking with metal.

I just threw away all my American Pyrex brand dishes. European standards have proven themselves to be more oriented towards consumer safety, rather than profit for executives, so I now buy European certified products whenever possible. Either way you look at it the money for products now goes to foreign companies, but at least products certified in Europe are more likely to be safe.