Again? Deaf Man Gets Mugged Near Gallaudet University...at night

There was another incident two days ago where a deaf man (Gallaudet student) was mugged/robbed at night in his own backyard off of Florida Ave not far from Gallaudet University. I blogged in November (check out the comments even though it says "0" comment) last year about two deaf students who were mugged and shot at just outside the entrance of Gallaudet University. There has been a series of mugging of deaf women on the campus of Gallaudet University. I guess those fences that surround the campus isn't electrified?

Folks, if it's at night and you're alone, don't. Even if it's just outside of your house. Go inside. Better have groups of friends with you in your own backyard than alone. Or if you must venture outside at night to stroll the streets, go in groups..preferably a large group. Better to be careful than to let idiocy be the death of you. Some people just don't learn. This is D.C. Not small town USA.

Deaf Guy Gets Stronger

Ha ha...very funny. Look here by About Fitness.

Been a busy week last week with all those business meetings all across New Mexico in discussion about the upcoming fire season in the southwest which is expected to get really bad. I'll get things underway soon enough. Gotta recover my sanity first before I start blogging regularly. But it's going to be a busy year with the looming fire season so I you might see an occasional breaks here now and then.

The drought situation in New Mexico hasn't improved at all since last month. It's been the 2nd driest in over a 100 years in New Mexico. I will soon take my annual pack test and get myself "red carded" so I can get myself ready to fight wildfires should they need the extra help. I'll decide whether I need to go or not if I get the request to be a part of 20 person firefighting crew.

If y'all interested in wildfires, go here and get your free internet magazine, Fire Management Today, plus an archive going back several years. If not that, take a look below at my daughter's picture several years ago that I took early on as began my wildfire fighting experience. Cute.



So, again, with the upcoming fire season in the west, expect breaks in my Kokonut Pundits bloggings.

How to Get Around a Banned Website in UAE

Marcus of Blogger Beer has more details on how people living in the United Arab Emirate (UAE) and elsewhere get around banned sites such as Michelle Malkin's blogsite. He says it's a simple yet forward method of doing this.

I lived in the UAE for six years and had to deal with the banned website quandry. I came up with the following solution.

1) Get an ISP account back here in the states.
2)Telnet to that ISP.
3) Fire up lynx and surf away.

Obviously it doesn't work well if you are interested in viewing graphic laden sites but if you are looking for sites such as Michelle's which is mostly text that works. You can also save graphic files w/Lynx and then transfer them to your local PC in the UAE or elsewhere. This is why the alt option in the IMG tag is important, that text specified by the alt option is displayed in lieu of the graphic in text browswers such as lynx.

Click on Marcus' website for more details on how to get around UAE's website ban. We need to send this info out to those people in UAE and elsewhere who are under a Michelle Malkin ban. Not just hers, but others as well.

Thank you Marcus for the tip.

Argus Leader, Deaf Bloggers and the VanderGiesen Murder

"Cops and Courts" Reporter Dan Haugen of the Argus Leader newspaper in Sioux Falls, South Dakota contacted me 5 days ago regarding the murder of VanderGiesen after reading my blog. He wanted my input about the deaf/hh blogging community's reaction on the murder of VanderGiesen. Today I was informed that the story will come out ,Wednesday, in the Argus Leader. He wanted more input from me. Probably to bush up what he had written so far.

Keep an eye out.

UPDATE: Check out the Wednesday edition.

American Hackers Against Jihad Websites

Michelle covers a story where "Muslim computer-hacker gangs have launched a massive attack on Danish and Western Web sites as part of the mass protests across the Arab world over the publication of cartoons making fun of the Prophet Mohammed." And how Islamic hackers are waging an internet war on websites who offend their delicate senses.

We're not alone in this and nor are we defenseless in not attacking pre-emptively or afterwards. We do have an army of American hackers going after these nutballs.

Hackers attack

Recognising the importance of the web in the development of Islamic extremism, intelligence services in western countries closely monitor the internet and develop counter-campaigns; the intelligence services are assisted in their efforts in a loose organisation called American Hackers, who work in an organised manner to attack jihadi sites. The famous al-Qal’a website, which claimed responsibility for the London attacks on 7 July, only remained live for less than an hour after that announcement.

Radical Islamic sites, on their part, have developed a high degree of sophistication in defending themselves. On most of the sites, one can find sections called ‘electronic jihad’. These contain information about ‘electronic holy war’ tactics, as well as references to the activities of the ‘Islamic Hackers’ who defend Islamic websites and attack moderate Islamic sites. Occasionally, jihadi hackers congratulate each other in chatrooms for destroying one liberal site or another.

Hit and run

Since jihadi sites are not welcome at the established hosting companies, they usually take refuge in so-called ‘free host’ providers. In order to prevent attack, they often move between locations, informing followers about their new whereabouts through mailing lists. Some jihadi sites containing just books have remained online and intact for years. Sites involved in practical jihad, however, are likely to be targeted. In some cases this leads to a sort of virtual guerrilla hit-and run practice, when a radical site emerges somewhere, is immediately visited by its followers and then disappears again before it is tracked down by its enemies.

There is one pro-American hackers group called "Freedom Cyber Force Militia" who hack into Arabic websites such as al Jazeera.

Hackers have replaced the news website of Arab satellite TV network al-Jazeera with a stars-and-stripes logo saying "Let Freedom Ring".

Both the Arabic site, at (http://www.aljazeera.net), and the English- language version at (http://english.aljazeera.net) could not be accessed on Thursday (March 27, 2003). Users who tried to log onto the site found a message that read, "Hacked by Patriot, Freedom Cyber Force Militia" beneath a logo containing the U.S. flag. "This broadcast was brought to you by: Freedom Cyber Force Militia," the site said. "God bless our troops!!!"

Al-Jazeera information technology manager Salah Al Seddiqui said someone had hijacked the domain name and redirected it to another server computer. "Our website is working but nobody can see it," Al Seddiqui said.

The al-Jazeera website has faced near-constant cyber attacks since an
English-language version devoted exclusively to the war in Iraq was launched on
Monday. Hackers have blitzed the site with meaningless data in an effort to
squeeze out legitimate traffic and render the site inaccessible, a technique
known as a "denial of service" attack. That attack eased at around 3 a.m. London
time on Thursday, Al Seddiqui said, but the domain name was hijacked shortly
after.

Often with crippling consequences to these Arabic websites who support terrorisism. But the US government told hackers to leave these Arabic websites alone and warned that "patriotic hacking" was a felony and could even backfire.

Even 'patriotic hackers' can be fooled into launching attacks against their own interests by exploiting malicious code that purports to attack the other side when in fact it is designed to attack the interests of the side sending it - NIPC advisory

Patriotic hackers. That's a new one.

Michelle Malkin's Blogsite Banned in UAE

Amazing. Readers in UAE have written to Michelle saying that her blogsite is now banned in the United Arab Emirate in an apparent(?) retaliation over her blogging support in getting to stop President Bush from letting the UAE have control over 6 of our major shipping seaports. See "Was it something I said?"

Perhaps we need to have alternate mirror sites these guys can go to? Or at least email them copies of Michelle's blogs with the embedded links. I hope Michelle or somebody can offer better ideas or help to get these unreported news out to readers in the Middle East. The banning of Michelle's blogsite (and potentially other popular conservative blogsites) in the UAE may be just the beginning for the Middle East.

I wonder if the words "Michelle Malkin" is banned in Google over at UAE, too?

Cartoon of Mohammed and Jesus Kissing

Michelle Malkin has the latest cartoon from a Russian newspaper depicting Mohammed, Moses, Jesus and Buddha all in the same cartoon. But government in Volgograd decided to close down the local newspaper for printing the cartoon.

However, in Canada, a student newspaper at the University of Toronto published a cartoon showing Jesus and Mohammed kissing each other but only with the face of Jesus showing.

The U of T campus paper wasn't pulled from circulation, nor was the cartoon pulled from the paper's website, despite the huge uproar over the Western Standard's publication of Mohammed cartoons and subsequent pulling of the magazine from shelves by retailers out of fear and political correctness.

The student led newspaper is not backing down.

Hypocrisy is just dripping over there. But here's another cartoon that shows just that and for those who are still stuck on stupid.

Hat tip: Rhymes with Right

Russia Moved WMDS While Former CIA in Full CYA Mode on WMDs Intel.

The Intelligent Summit already covered the much anticipated Saddam Tapes meeting, where I reported earlier, produced interesting and surprising information revealing that WMDs were moved out of Iraq into Russia. But, shhhhh! The MSM refuse to cover such nonsense! Well, 8 days before the Saddam Tapes summit, CNN covered a story about a former CIA in a full CYA-mode putting the blame on, of course, President Bush on using bad WMDs intel as a case to go war in Iraq. Eight days later CNN reports about the Saddam Tapes but about 3/4 a way down, in a non sequitur moment, inserted a piece about the Mohammed cartoon,

The summit Web site states that the group supports the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which have prompted widespread violence across the globe.

"In solidarity with the people of Denmark and in support of freedom of speech, the Intelligence Summit offers free conference admission to Danish passport holders," it states.

Perhaps CNN is trying to get the Muslim community to sic on the people of the summit Web site?

Now, is it any wonder that we had people screaming from the very beginning, who were so sure of themselves with captions saying "WMD intel dead wrong" when many of us continued to have an open mind on this? Even when many of us knew nearly two years ago thousand and thousand of captured Iraqi documents were found and that it would take many months to decipher? Or that MiG jets were buried in the sands of Iraq? Or that Saddam kept the UN inspection team on the run by allowing and then denying them entry numerous times? Yet had Saddam talking about chemical weapons in the tapes which provided strong evidence that Iraq's chemical weapons program was hidden from UN inspectors.

Meanwhile, I'll keep an open mind on this WMDs in Iraq. Y'all can keep screaming that President Bush lied about WMDs.

UPDATE: More here ("proof Saddam provided support to the EIJ and by extension al-Qaeda, both of which attacked us on 9/11.") and here (lots of Iraqi documents available online since 2004).

"I Deaf"

"Positive attitudes towards English do not appear to exists among Deaf and hard of hearing individuals, or at least they are not the norm."

"Deaf and hard of hearing individuals may not choose other majors or careers due to difficulties with English. for instance, Lang found that English scores were the best predictor determining whether Deaf and hard of hearing individuals choose to enter the science fields."

"English is a language which Deaf and hard of hearing individuals need to master in order to 'receive appropriate educations and achieve their potentials in the work force and intellectual life of society."

Interesting. Read the rest in this thesis.

The 99 - A Muslim's Own Superhero Comic Book

No Superman. No Spiderman. No Green Lantern. Or the Fantastic Four. Just 99 characters who each personify one of Islam's, ah, attributes of god. "The 99" is the name of this particular Islamic comic book whose goal is to produce something positive and to save the children from embracing the culture of violence and death by helping kids memorize the 99 names of allah.

Uh, sure, and try and be the Islamic group known as the "religion of peace"? I wonder what the 100th name is? Special thanks to Dana as the Church Lady.

I'm sure the author of "The 99" forgot about the recent Mohammed cartoon incidents? Until this "religion of peace" learn to get past the insults and free expression about other people's religion, this comic will serve as nothing more but to indoctrinate more kids into the Islamic fold where hate for Israel and the support of death and violence to infidels everywhere is soup du jour. They drink it liberally and slouch toward dhimmitude.


Drink up, kiddies.

Don't Bite the Hands that Feed You - Hamas' Undoing

Last month the Hamas won the majority seat in the parliament giving them control of the seats have called upon for Israel's destruction. And in response, Israel's cabinet decided to halt their monthly transfers of about $US50 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority which was, before the religious Hamas took power, more "secular" in nature. The U.S. also withdrew their financial support. The European Union is considering on halting funds to the Palestinian Authority. And so is Canada. Certainly, the Hamas are going to find themselves soon in financial dire strait. Until the Hamas learn to negotiate and recognize Israel, they have no other means to get sufficient monies to help support the P.A. government or a way to pay the P.A. workers. This should prove interesting over the next several months.

UPDATE: Welcome Newsweek Readers! See the Newsweek screen capture of Kokonut Pundits website "Don't Bite the Hands that Feed You - Hamas' Undoing" referred to by Newsweek.

Any Port in a Storm....except for Dubai

The biggest story of the week for both Democrats and Republicans is about a multi-billion dollar port contract with an Arabic country...namely the United Arab Emirate.

[LES KINSOLVING]: The government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has approved a deal that will put six major ports in the United States under the control of a state-sponsored company based in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. And my question: Knowing, as we do, that the Arab Emirate was tied in many ways to the 9/11 hijackers and their deeds, and knowing the critical nature of port security and protecting the nation, will the President step in and stop this deal from going into effect March 2nd?

[White House Press Secy SCOTT McCLELLAN]: Well, my understanding, Les, is that this went through the national security review process under CFIUS, at the Department of Treasury. That is the agency that is responsible for overseeing such matters. And this includes a number of national security agencies -- the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Justice, among others, and there is a rigorous review that goes on for proposed foreign investments for national security concerns. And in terms of specifics relating to this, Treasury is the chair of this and you should direct those questions to Treasury.

I just don't buy this. President Bush should not accept this at all but, unfortunately, he is supporting this contract deal. Michelle Malkin has more. Be sure to read her blog.

Both Democrats and Republicans are beginning to build a groundswell of support against the idea of allowing a foreign country's state sponsored company have control over 6 major ports of the United States. In this case, it would be the United Arab Emirate. Hello! Remember 9/11?? We're at war.

I'm with what the Washington Times is saying.

The root question is this: Why should the United States have to gamble its port security on whether a subsidiary of the government of the United Arab Emirates happens to remain an antiterrorism ally?

The Committee on Foreign Investment is the wrong place for this decision to be made; it appears to be little more than a rubber stamp.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat, among others, is asking tough questions about this deal. For once, we agree with him: President Bush should overrule the committee to reject this deal. If that doesn't happen, Congress should take action. The country's ports should not be owned by foreign governments; much less governments whose territories are favored by al Qaeda.

Contact the White House:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
comments@whitehouse.gov

Don't delay. Our nation's security could be potentially at risk and we are at war.

Green Laser Shines Inside Cockpits of Airplanes, Lights from Dearborn Heights...a heavily populated Muslim community

Sixteen(!) pilots reported seeing laser pointer lights near the tower at Metro Airport near Dearborn Heights and Dearborn in Michigan. If you don't know anything about Dearborn Heights, it's a hotbed community of Muslims known as "Little Ramalah." Debbie Schlussel has more. Also, in Dearborn, Michigan (not Dearborn Heights, two different towns) passed a city ordinance on laser pointers.

To address these concerns, the Dearborn ordinance makes it illegal for anyone to use a laser pointer to harass, annoy or injure any person or animal. It's important to note that this law in no way impacts adults or minors who own and use a laser pointer for appropriate purposes. However, the ordinance does prohibit any minor from possessing a laser pointer at all, unless he or she can prove it's for a legitimate purpose, such as a presentation.

Those convicted of violating the ordinance will be guilty of a misdemeanor, carrying a penalty of up to 90 days in jail and/or a $500 fine.

In the weeks since it took effect, Dearborn's new ordinance has become the topic of much discussion. Officials in 27 states -- representing a total of 36 cities, and five statewide organizations representing groups of cities -- have called City Hall to get copies of the ordinance.

Now, these recent laser shining incidents were not the first time it happened. Back in December 2004 six commercial airliners over a four day period have had their cockpits illuminated by laser beams while attempting to land.

The FBI said no harm was done and the light did not affect the plane's landing.

On November 22, (2004) the FBI and Department of Homeland Security sent an intelligence bulletin to police agencies to alert them that terrorist groups have shown an interest in using laser beams to try to bring down airliners.

"Terrorist groups overseas have expressed interest in using these devices against human sight," the bulletin said. "The U.S. intelligence community has no specific or credible evidence that terrorists intend to use lasers to target pilots in the homeland."

The bulletin said lasers were not a proven method of attacking aircraft but that they could lead to a crash.

But last year in 2005 FBI cleared terrorists shining laser pointers at pilots saying that

Terrorists have not engaged in a nationwide plot to annoy pilots with laser pointers.

Really? Can they be so sure? A year later we had 16 separate pilots reporting the shining laser lights into their cockpits. Those lights originated out of Dearborn Heights, a heavily populated Muslim community. This could be the first case of Muslims trying to bring down an airplane. We just don't know yet but should be a cause of concern at this point in time.

Green laser light is much more powerful that red laser lights. The green laser light is 50 times brighter than red laser light and can easily blind a person if directed at the eyes. Also, green lasers are becoming the laser pointer of choice because of the brilliance and cheap price. With cheaper prices come with more laser pointing incidences for malicious purposes.

Over the past month (Januar 2005), pilots have reported more than 30 incidents of laser beams being trained from the ground into their aircraft, prompting warnings from federal authorities and new reporting guidelines.

According to federal authorities, there have been about 400 reported instances of lasers being aimed at aircraft since the early 1990s.

Then we have Chinese lasers that are being sold to the Middle East, probably so, and perhaps to terrorists, too.

If terrorists have lasers designed as weapons, they are likely of Chinese origin. In 1994 and 1995, a company in China offered the ZM-87 Portable Laser Disturber for unrestricted sale. The weapon weighs 73 pounds, including its tripod. According to the June 1995 issue of Jane's Intelligence Review, China marketed the device at arms exhibitions in the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates.

A fact sheet for the weapon advertised that it could cause an enemy soldier "to lose combat ability or result in suppression of his observation and sighting operations."

The weapon can cause flash blindness from a range of up to six miles, with permanent eye injuries likely if the target is a mile away.

Roger Morrow has more and makes a somber note that

the Japanese terrorist cult Aum Shinrikyo—which launched the infamous Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995—was discovered to have experimented with the use of lasers as weapons.

Not to be outdone, the U.S. Forces are prepared for this kind of scenario and have taken precautions.

Navy contractor Optra Inc. of Topsfield, Mass., designed a laser-detection device for Navy and Marine planes that is about the size of a matchbox and runs on AA batteries. It detects laser beams and warns pilots with a green, yellow or red light, depending on the strength of the beam.

Company President James Engel said the device has a flash memory card that holds a picture of the beam's origin and uses the Global Positioning System to find the plane's location when the laser is detected.

And to make you feel any better the U.N. has a ban on laser for weapon use to blind enemies according to Protocol IV:

Protocol IV on Blinding Laser Weapons prohibits the use of laser weapons specifically designed, as their sole combat function or as one of their combat functions, to cause permanent blindness to unenhanced vision, that is to the naked eye or to the eye with corrective eyesight devices. The High Contracting Parties shall not transfer such weapons to any State or non-State entity.

However, that won't stop the terrorists from using powerful lasers designed to incapacitate soldiers or civilians by blinding or disorienting them. I'm sure they are considering lasers as a possible weapon of choice. No comfort in thinking that this could be the case.

Here in the United States the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on December 8, 2005 (known as the Securing Aircraft Cockpits Against Lasers Act of 2005) seeking to criminalize the pointing of lasers at aircraft cockpits.

Are some Muslims in Dearborn Heights trying to use green laser lights to try and bring down an airplane by blinding the pilots? Now, remember, Dearborn Heights is a community of over 100,000 Muslims. Consider the facts. Consider the possibilities.

So far, there were 305 laser incidents between late 2004 and the beginning of this year January 2006 according to the FAA.

Israeli Group Announces anti-Semitic Cartoons Contest - Iran Loses.

This idea is spectacular! Poke fun on your own group.

I wonder if stout Islamic extremists will have the audacity to do the same? NOT! They don't have the capacity to laugh at themselves. It's forbidden. Such weak minds.

This is what makes Democracy and freedom of expression so great. We learn to tolerate those who do not agree when it comes to mocking or making a point, even through cartoons or caricatures on any subjects, however demeaning, shocking, or repulsive.

A Danish paper publishes a cartoon that mocks Muslims. An Iranian paper responds with a Holocaust cartoons contest - - Now a group of Israelis announce their own anti-Semitic cartoons contest!

Amitai Sandy (29), graphic artist and publisher of Dimona Comix Publishing, from Tel-Aviv, Israel, has followed the unfolding of the “Muhammad cartoon-gate” events in amazement, until finally he came up with the right answer to all this insanity - and so he announced today the launch of a new anti-Semitic cartoons contest - this time drawn by Jews themselves!

“We’ll show the world we can do the best, sharpest, most offensive Jew hating cartoons ever published!” said Sandy “No Iranian will beat us on our home turf!”

The contest has been announced today on the www.boomka.org website, and the initiator accept submissions of cartoons, caricatures and short comic strips from people all over the world. The deadline is Sunday March 5, and the best works will be displayed in an Exhibition in Tel-Aviv, Israel.

Sandy is now in the process of arranging sponsorships of large organizations, and promises lucrative prizes for the winners, including of course the famous Matzo-bread baked with the blood of Christian children.

Will the Iranian president do the same thing despite their upcoming holocaust cartoons?

What do you think? Really, be serious about this. Let's not have a stuck on stupid moment here.

In the Name of Gay Muslims

There's a new film coming out called "In the Name of Allah," which is a film that explores the struggles of homosexual Muslims.

Now, Muslim extremists are going nuts over these Mohammed cartoons (see here, here, here and here) and are destroying embassies around the world and going after cartoonists for just drawing the forbidden Mohammed icons. That tops their list. Second on their hit list is probably homosexuality. I don't think the Muslim community at large will appreciate this movie at all. Never mind what the Islamic extremists' actions might turn out to be. You know what they will do anyway. Didn't the film maker of "In the name of Allah" forget about the murder of Theo Van Gogh for making "Submission"?

I wonder if there was such a thing as a gay Mohammed? Anybody gonna draw a cartoon on that one?

NBC News David Gregory Gets Liberally Unhinged

From the Drudge Report news flash:

NBC REPORTER TO WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: 'DON'T BE A

NBCNEWS chief White House correspondent David Gregory warned President Bush's spokesman on Monday not to be a "jerk!"

The heated exchange came during a press gathering at the White House.

Gregory asked White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan about the Cheney hunting accident.

'David, hold on, the cameras aren't on right now,' McClellan replied. 'You can do this later.'

'Don't accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras,' Gregory said, voice rising. 'Don't be a jerk to me personally when I'm asking you a serious question.

''You don't have to yell,' McClellan said.

'I will yell,'' said Gregory, pointing a finger at McCellan at his dais. 'If you want to use that podium to try to take shots at me personally, which I don't appreciate, then I will raise my voice, because that's wrong.

''Calm down, Dave, calm down,' said McClellan.

'I'll calm down when I feel like calming down,' Gregory said. 'You answer the question.

''I have answered the question,' said McClellan, who had maintained that the vice president's office was in charge of getting the information out and worked with the ranch owner to do that.

'I'm sorry you're getting all riled up about.'

'I am riled up,' Gregory said, 'because you're not answering the question.' "

See a different but earlier liberally unhinged video moment here.

If the White House press secretary can keep his cool in a moment when biased liberal news reporters start screaming at the WH press secretary, then it's all good. We'll have the angry left (Liberals and MSM) show their true colors and ridiculousness on their obvious Bush or Cheney bashing just for bashing sake.
Keep it coming. We'll need them for '08.

Yes, Deaf People Can Murder

I provided a short list of deaf people who have murdered people (deaf or otherwise). People somehow have the notion that deaf people do not have the capability or even the wherewithal to kill another person. They can. Just as we have evil people on earth. So do we have evil deaf people, too.

Now, the next one up on the list is a 42 year old deaf lesbian who murdered a deaf woman. Police arrested Daphne Wright recently this Friday afternoon and charged her with killing, dismembering, then disposing of VanderGiesen's body. According to reports they had been fighting when Wright accused Vandergeisen of having an affair with Wright's girlfriend. Sounds like a deaf lesbian killing a deaf lesbian. Must be a first.

According to court documents, Daphne Wright told police she was upset with Darlene VanderGiesen and believed her girlfriend of five years was having an affair with VanderGiesen. Wright admitted to meeting VanderGiesen at the Pizza Hut parking lot where police found VanderGiesen's abandoned car, meaning Wright was one of the last-known people to see VanderGiesen alive.

Click here to see the continuing story. Offer prayers to those affected by this senseless tragedy.

Cartoonist Makes Fun of V.P. Cheney's Hunting Accident

We've heard the latest news that V.P. Cheney was involved in a hunting accident where Cheney accidentally fired at his good friend Harry Whittington. Michelle Malkin and Jawa Report make a similar note that because of this accident we'll hear the inevitable late-night jokes and mindless drivels. But one cartoonist, Daryl Cagle, was already a step ahead by drawing this picture by making fun of Cheney's hunting accident and Cheney's endorsement of the NRA.
It's ok. It's about freedom of expression. If people want to be idiots, then that's their God-given rights.

A Cartoon That Everybody Can Understand

Enough said.

Overcoming Google China and the Wall

Last month I was a guest blogger for Search Engine Journal (also here and here) covering the story about Bill Xia.

Bill Xia of Dynamic Internet Technology Inc (DIT) wrote in 2004 on the Chinese search engine query results that he and others have done for public release over the internet. Bill provided materials and tips on what web users to expect from using the Chinese Google version in doing searches when done inside and outside of China and how to avoid such firewall problems. Bill has a reason why he is doing this.

Bill Xia immigrated to the U.S. from China during the late 1990s. Over time he saw how the Chinese government kept a tighter and tighter control over Chinese web users inside China. And because of that frustration, he and few others started Dynamic Internet Technology as way to help Chinese users getaround the Chinese’s firewall.

Now, a new story has come out about Bill Xia that covers more of the details of his humanitarian work on providing crucial information that China would no doubt have them censored.

The seeds of DIT were sown when Xia arrived in the U.S. for grad school in the '90s. Stunned by America's openness, he realized his perception of reality had been warped growing up in China. "I was a believer of the propaganda," he recalls. And when Xia was exposed to all of the information on the Internet, it "started tearing apart what I'd accepted before." At the same time, the repression of Falun Gong at home angered him, though he insists it is Beijing's curbs on free expression that led him to found DIT in 2001. A year later he began building up a roster of clients, including VOA, Human Rights in China (HRIC), and Radio Free Asia.

Fleeting Window The simplicity of DIT's approach belies its effectiveness. The company distributes software, called FreeGate, which disguises the sites a person visits. In addition, DIT sends out mass e-mails to Chinese Web surfers for clients such as VOA, which is banned in China. The e-mails include a handful of temporary Web addresses that host off-limits content and springboards to other forbidden sites.

Keeping one step ahead of the censors is what this game is all about. China's cybercops are so efficient that these gateways typically stay open for only 72 hours, according to Ken Berman, an information technology director at the State Dept.-affiliated International Broadcasting Bureau, which hired DIT and UltraReach to help make VOA's Web content available in China.

Bill Xia's company is woefully undermanned and underfunded with an annual budget of $1 million. Most of his work is relied upon by voluneeters. But keeping a step ahead of China's censor takes work.

Nearly two years ago the project was nearly derailed early on by Symantec saying that Freegate software was a Trojan horse.

The reassessment follows stories earlier this week questioning the designation of the widely-used Freegate programas malicious code. Freegate has 200,000 users, Dynamic Internet Technology (DIT), its developer, estimates. The software lets users view sites banned by the Chinese government by taking advantage of a range of proxy servers assigned to changeable internet addresses. Symantec mislabelled this behaviour as that of malicious code and wrongly-labelled Freegate as malign.

In a statement today, Symantec said: "A number of our customers drew our attention to what they deemed the suspicious nature of the Freegate software. Upon investigation by our researchers, similarities were noted between how the software operated and how various Trojan horses operated, based on the use of open proxies to penetrate firewalls used to block web sites. As a result, it was deemed a cyber threat and blocked by our software. Since that time, further investigation indicates that Freegate is in fact not a Trojan horse and detection for this program has therefore been removed from Symantec’s virus definitions."

And thus, began in earnest a full scale assault or rather subversion of China's censor net police. DIT isn't alone in this. UltraReach and others altogether have gotten the attention of less than 1% of China's estimated 110 million Net users.

The whole thing started with Bill Xia is when he came to America for the first time and saw the immense openness.

Stunned by America's openness, he realized his perception of reality had been warped growing up in China. "I was a believer of the propaganda," he recalls.

China's communist and censorship controls are not going to last long if capitalism is in their appetite. The seeds of democracy begins with a with a single idea. If the flow of information can be maintained, then certainly the idea of democracy and free expression may be realized.

This is what Bill Xia's trying to do.

As Google and other U.S. search companies increasingly cooperate with Beijing, DIT is helping the groups like HRIC break through the firewall. Before Google began censoring its results in China in January, HRIC appeared in the top three search results. Although China's Google users would have had difficulty accessing the HRIC sites, which are blocked, they at least knew they existed. Today they don't appear at all in China. But thanks to DIT and others, visitors to its Chinese-language newsletter spiked to more than 160,000 in January, up sixfold in the past 18 months. Says Xia: "If information isn't available on the Internet, it might as well not exist."

However, the Human Rights in China (HRIC) website is down. The Google cache page is still there albeit only one page. The Yahoo's cache page has many, many more pages. Archive.org has more on the archive of HRIC. Not sure why the HRIC website is down or when it went down. Could there be something nefarious going on as to why HRIC website went down? Perhaps somebody knows? Although there was a story just recently of one Falun Gong member that was savagedly attacked in Duluth, Georgia three days ago.

Peter Yuan Li--a key figure in the Falun Gong's technologically sophisticated attempt to undermine the Chinese Communist Party--was brutally attacked and beaten in his home in Duluth, Ga., as Forbes was going to press with its cover story on how the spiritual movement is penetrating the Chinese government's hi-tech censorship. At 11:15 A.M. on Feb. 8, according to the Fulton County Police Department Incident Report, Asian men stormed the house of the Princeton-educated information technology technician, bound and gagged and beat him, before fleeing with two 16-inch Sony laptop computers, Li's wallet and yet unknown material from his files."They were not looking for valuables," says Dr. Li, who needed 15 stitches in his face. "They left my daughter's jewelry and camcorder and other valuables."

Bill Xia's is a member, too.

A member of the banned Chinese sect Falun Gong, Xia is so fearful that Beijing will persecute his family back in China, that he refused to be photographed for this story, reveal where exactly he was born, or even provide his age beyond saying he's in his 30s.

But I tell you one thing, do a Google search using "Peter Yuan Li" in quotes, and do a Yahoo search of "Peter Yuan Li" in quotes. Google comes up empty. Yahoo, not so.

Hmmmm....interesting.

The HRIC's donation page is working through a secure internet link. Be sure to donate for human rights in China.