Georgie Junior did a news conference tonight. (full text provided by clicking on the link)

I’m not a big fan of the man I’ll admit but, whenever the occasion arises, I always figure there’s some good entertainment to be had watching him butcher the English language.

So, the press conference was prefaced by a bit of a speech after which there was the q and a session (finally a chance to see NPR hero Dooonnnnn Gone YAY!).

Now, I don’t agree with everything the administration has done. I can assign ulterior motives to some of the decisions which have been made but, even given all of those things, the reality is there are Americans sacrificing their time and their lives in the Middle East. My only wish is even those people who disagree with what happened (our intervention in Iraq) can recognize a half done job could only wind up making matters worse.

I’ve been busy so I haven’t been doing the blog much. Lots of cleaning and social stuff.

Anyway, in the weird way the world works now, today I ordered some software. You just have to love the way things work. I got an email from a software company and it was an offer for a discount on current versions of their software. So, I go to the website, order the package and on the way to ‘check out,’ a couple of more software offerings of theirs pop up at discount too. So, I’m looking it over and I decide it’s not expensive and also the kind of thing that’s useful to have and I add them to my order and even though there’s a discount, suddenly my order comes to just over $100!

I don’t really want to spend money freely right now. I’m watching pennies so, when I see the total I’m rethinking the purchase. Then I notice, there’s a box for a discount code at the top of the checkout and even though I’m getting a discount I figure it can’t hurt to see if I can find some kind of discount code to put into the box.

So, I go to Yahoo and type the company’s name and the words discount code and a couple of pages come up. The first one is useless (and has popups to boot) but, when I go to the second one there’s a link back to the company’s website and there on the page is a discount code.

I go back to checkout, enter the code and magically $40 comes off the order! So, in addition to the reduced price I got, I got additional money off just for doing a little research. So, today’s lesson is if you’re going to buy anything online, before you do that final click, take the time out to search and see if you can’t get a discount. This isn’t the first time I’ve done something like this and it won’t be the last. All in all I’m pretty pleased with myself for doing it.

If you want the details on the software and the discount you’ll just have to email me for it.

There comes a point...

When SBC Park opens Thursday for the first of three home exhibition games leading up to the regular season, 121 wireless access points will provide high-speed Internet access in all concourses and seating areas.

The ballpark, known until this year as Pacific Bell Park, will become one of the world's largest public Wi-Fi “hot spots” for people with laptops and handheld computers.

So, besides the intrusion of cell phones and PDAs (which meant something totally different when I was growing up) into every aspect of life, people now need to be connected at the ball game?

Sheeessshhhh!

1. Winter Solstice (2003) (TV) (as Sir Peter Ustinov)
2. Luther (2003) (as Sir Peter Ustinov) — Friedrich, der Weise
3. Will to Resist, The (2002) — Pastor Schmidt
4. "Salem Witch Trials" (2002) (mini) TV Series — William Stroughton
5. Victoria & Albert (2001) (TV) — King William IV
6. Deutschlandspiel (2000) (TV) — Igor Maximytschew
7. Bachelor, The (1999) — Grandad Shannon
8. Animal Farm (1999) (TV) (voice) — Old Major
9. Alice in Wonderland (1999) (TV) — Walrus
10. Stiff Upper Lips (1998) — Horace
11. Phoenix and the Magic Carpet, The (1995) — Grandfather/Voice of Phoenix
12. "Old Curiosity Shop, The" (1995) (mini) TV Series — Grandfather
13. Celebrating Haydn with Peter Ustinov (1994) (TV) — Host
14. "Inside the Vatican" (1993) (mini) TV Series (as Sir Peter Ustinov) — Host
15. "Wings of the Red Star MIG Force" (1993) (mini) TV Series
16. Lorenzo's Oil (1992) — Prof. Gus Nikolais
17. Orchestra, The (1990/II) (TV)
18. C'era un castello con 40 cani (1990) — Le vétérinaire Muggione
19. Révolution française, La (1989) — André-Boniface-Louis Riquetti, vicomte de Mirabeau (segment "Les Années Lumière")
20. "Around the World in 80 Days" (1989/I) (mini) TV Series — Detective Wilbur Fix
21. Appointment with Death (1988) — Hercule Poirot
22. "Russia" (1986) (mini) TV Series — Host
23. Murder in Three Acts (1986) (TV) — Hercule Poirot
24. Dead Man's Folly (1986) (TV) — Hercule Poirot
25. Thirteen at Dinner (1985) (TV) — Hercule Poirot
26. Abgehört (1984) (TV)
27. Memed My Hawk (1984) — Abdi Aga
28. Evil Under the Sun (1982) — Hercule Poirot
29. Search for Santa Claus, The (1981) — Grandfather
30. Grendel Grendel Grendel (1981) (voice) — Grendel
31. Great Muppet Caper, The (1981) — Truck Driver
32. Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981) — Charlie Chan
33. "Dr. Snuggles" (1979) TV Series (voice) — Additional Voices
34. Tarka the Otter (1979) (voice) — Narrator
35. "Cities" (1979) (mini) TV Series — Host (segment Leningrad)
36. Nous maigrirons ensemble (1979) — Victor
37. Ashanti (1979) — Suleiman
38. Doppio delitto (1978) — Harry Hellman
39. Thief of Baghdad, The (1978) (TV) — The Caliph
40. Death on the Nile (1978) — Hercule Poirot
41. Winds of Change (1978) (voice) — Narrator
42. Un taxi mauve (1977) — Taubleman
43. Last Remake of Beau Geste, The (1977) — Markov
44. Mouse and His Child, The (1977) (voice) — Manny the Rat
45. "Jesus of Nazareth" (1977) (mini) TV Series — Herod the Great
46. Treasure of Matecumbe (1976) — Dr. Ewing T. Snodgrass
47. Logan's Run (1976) — Ballard:The Old Man
48. One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975) — Hnup Wan
49. Robin Hood (1973) (voice) — Prince John/King Richard
50. Burt Bacharach: Opus No. 3 (1973) (TV)
51. "Clochemerle" (1972) TV Series (voice) — Narrator
52. Hammersmith Is Out (1972) — Doctor
53. Gideon (1971) (TV) — Gideon
54. Storm in Summer, A (1970) (TV) — Abel Shaddick
55. Viva Max! (1970) — Gen. Maximilian Rodrigues de Santos
56. Hot Millions (1968) — Marcus Pendleton, alias Caesar Smith
57. Blackbeard's Ghost (1968) — Captain Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach
58. Lionpower From MGM (1967) (uncredited) — Archive footage
59. Comedians, The (1967) — Ambassador Pineda
60. Barefoot in Athens (1966) (TV) — Socrates
61. Lady L (1965) (uncredited) — Prince Otto of Bavaria
62. John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (1965) — King Fawz
63. Peaches (1964) (voice) — Narrator
64. Topkapi (1964) — Arthur Simon Simpson
65. Billy Budd (1962) — Edwin Fairfax Vere, Post Captain
66. Romanoff and Juliet (1961) — The General of Concordia
67. Sundowners, The (1960) — Rupert Venneker
68. Spartacus (1960) — Lentulus Batiatus
69. Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird (1959) (voice) — Wonderbird
70. Ángel pasó por Brooklyn, Un (1957) — Mr. Bossi
71. Espions, Les (1957) — Michel Kiminsky
72. Girovaghi, I (1956) — Don Alfonso
73. Moment of Truth, The (1955) (TV) — Marshal
74. Lola Montès (1955) — Circus Master
75. We're No Angels (1955) — Jules
76. Beau Brummell (1954/I) — Prince of Wales
77. Egyptian, The (1954) — Kaptah
78. Plaisir, Le (1952) (uncredited) — Narrator, English Version
79. Magic Box, The (1951) — Industry Man
80. Hotel Sahara (1951) — Emad
81. Quo Vadis? (1951) — Nero
82. Odette (1950) — Lt. Alex Rabinovich/Arnauld
83. Private Angelo (1949) — Pvt. Angelo
84. Way Ahead, The (1944) — Rispoli: Cafe owneon)
85. Goose Steps Out, The (1942) — Krauss
86. Let the People Sing (1942) (uncredited) — Cameo
87. One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942) — Priest



When I was a kid, I remembered Peter Ustinov because of his manic energy and quick wit. There was a time I would confuse him with Jonathan Winters (another talent of similiar size and energy). There’s no denying he was a prolific talent, the list above is just the films he was an actor in and doesn’t even touch on those he directed, produced or wrote. He was a great talent and he’ll be missed.

I had my days of being svelte.

As you get older, it gets harder and harder to hold onto those days. It takes a lot of work to be thin or a grudging acceptance of the way things are, a young body processes things differently than an older body.

So, what I was trying to get at was that, yeah, if I put in the time and had a little discipline I could probably lose some weight. If anything, it would be a good idea to do it.

In the meantime, there are certain things I just won’t wear. I don’t buy into the ‘flab in skintight’ look - it’s not flattering and truthfully it gives one a resemblance to certain pork products. When I see those stretch pants wrapped tightly around a large derriére in a local store, the only thing I can think of is the pants should come with that ‘wide load’ symbol you see on some trucks on the highway - that and maybe a red flag placed in each pocket.

So, yesterday when I saw the picture below in the paper, I was thinking to myself that there’s a real predisposition for ballooning here. Also, some people shouldn’t wear certain outfits.



Didn’t Liz Taylor travel down this road?

Don’t say I never gave you anything...

Link to a coupon good for 20% off on a purchase at Borders bookstores, good through April 8th.

File under the “these are a few of my favorite things...”

The best things in life are free, just by filling out a simple form you can get these free fonts from House Industries:

Hi fashionistas! It’s spring and also... it’s fashion week here in the Middle East!

What’s the smart youngster wearing around town these days?

Why, it’s the very fashionable explosive vest!

Great for making a statement at parties, or even when you’re just hanging around with friends, and oh-so-perfect for those moments when you come upon a nasty old checkpoint.



Well there are two side to every story:

“Hussam left home this morning to school, and this was the first we hear of what happened,” Tamam Abdu told Reuters from the family home in Nablus, just north of Hawara. “This is shocking. To use a child like this is irresponsible, forbidden.”

There was no claim of responsibility for Abdu’s mission from the slew of militant groups waging a Palestinian uprising that erupted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in September 2000.

...and then on the other side...

“We know for sure this is a fabricated story from A to Z. Would you believe that a 13 or 14-year old would agree to blow up himself in return for a hundred shekels which he would receive after his death?”

...Samir Khiwairah, a Nablus journalist who personally knows the boy’s family, told Aljazeera.net that the boy’s mental capacity to distinguish things is very low.

“I don’t completely rule out the possibility that some evil person gave him the explosive belt and told him he would become a hero... but this is a very tiny possibility.”

The kid did have a ‘dull’ look on his face in the news piece I saw and looked like he might be ‘slow.’

Still, in the past, I do seem to remember a girl of nineteen getting on board a bus and detonating herself, leaving behind a tape in which she expressed her convictions about what she was doing.

There doesn’t seem to be such a large gap between a 14 and a 19 year old so, I couldn’t say I would be surprised the boy had been used to achieve such a nefarious goal.

What I don’t understand though, is how no one questions their own leadership? It’s great to be committed to a cause but, send your own children before you send the children of someone else to do such a thing. To do otherwise just doesn’t seem right.

I’m not particularly happy with either of the choices offered up by the two main political parties in the coming presidential election (Bush or Kerry).

Watching Junior spend money like a sailor on leave, driving up the nation’s deficit, is just a disaster waiting to happen but, his alternative can in no way be painted as a ‘man of the people.’

Our nation’s richest chief executives in order of personal wealth:
(figures adjusted for inflation)

Rank	Name	Party	Term
1.	George Washington	None*	1789-1797
2.	John F. Kennedy	Democrat	1961-1963
	John F. Kerry**	Democrat	NA
3.	Andrew Jackson	Democrat	1829-1837
4.	Lyndon B. Johnson	Democrat	1963-1969
5.	Herbert Hoover	Republican	1929-1933

*President Washington was generally aligned with Federalist doctrine, though he was not formally a member of the Federalist Party or any political party.
** Candidate. NA: not applicable.

But, then again maybe Kerry’s campaign motto will spring from the history of the company his wife is heir to, See? No leaves, no wood fiber, no turnip filler.

Still, as much as I have been alarmed by the growing number of jobs being sent overseas, there are alternative arguments:

I don't think that Kerry should shut down The Heinz 57, but he might drop the rhetoric and talk about trade responsibly. He should support, not trade’s contraction, but its expansion, like George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and every president since Herbert Hoover.

and there’s also...

Sen. John Kerry is fond of calling CEOs who employ foreigners “Benedict Arnolds,” after the despicable Revolutionary War turncoat. But look at H.J. Heinz & Co., the family business of Kerry and his wife Teresa. Of the 79 factories that the food-processor owns, 57 (a felicitous number!) are overseas. According to its website, Heinz is making ketchup, pizza crust, baby cereal and other edibles in such countries as Poland, Venezuela, Botswana, China, Thailand and India.

So, I’m in a quandary about who to support in the coming months. Maybe if I decide to vote for JK, I’ll show my support by downloading this.

Hey Mike! The city has four other boroughs besides Manhattan!



Despite strong support from Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the plan faces other major hurdles, including an environmental review, zoning approvals and possible lawsuits by neighborhood activists.

“It’s not a plan for our neighborhood, it’s a plan for the Jets,” said City Council member Christine Quinn, who represents the area. “We will fight until we defeat this ill-conceived plan for a stadium on the West Side.”

I’m always amazed when politicians further their own agenda at the public’s expense and at the same time, try to mask it as something in the public’s best interest. The area above the west side rail yards has been eyed covetously by some developers for awhile.

Construction of the new West Side Highway began in April 1996. The first section of the project, between Clarkson Street and Horatio Street, was finished in August 1998. The entire ‘NY 9A Reconstruction Project’ was completed in August 2001.

According to the NYSDOT, the new West Side Highway handles approximately 95,000 vehicles per day (AADT)

Can you imagine how overwhelming the traffic will be with a stadium located on the West Side?!?! How incredibly stupid. (The link above will take you to a page on the history of the West Side Highway on the NYC Roads site. NYC Roads is just an interesting site to wander around by the way).

As far as the Jets are concerned, it is hard to argue that the ‘Men in Green’ do not deserve their own stadium. Currently the Jets share a stadium with one of their chief regional rivals. Further, the Javits Center is in need of an expansion, and New York would be a terrific host for an Olympic games.

However, constructing a massive sports complex on the Upper West Side of Manhattan has greater potential for harm than for benefit.

The costs - an estimated $1 billion, as well as increased congestion and potential for neighborhood destruction - are simply too high. Instead, significant funds should be invested to build the Jets a new facility at, or near, the Meadowlands as well as provide sufficient transportation infrastructure and development to make for an enjoyable facility.

Above link to the Stadium Mouse website, an extensive paper studying the benefits and liabilities municipalities face when deciding to build such a facility.

And while there are some in real estate, who salivate over the prospect of a new stadium, others realized just how detrimental it could be as much as three years ago.

I’ll briefly mention that we are not in favor of a stadium. Big surprise. It is a lost opportunity for other things that might be built there. Also, we haven’t really come across any evidence that the stadium would bring a large economic benefit to the city. We do see that it is likely to bring traffic, which is something we’d like to reduce. The Javits Center has to expand. We support the expansion of the Javits Center. How it expands and how much are still open to debate. But we think expansion over the rail yard is a logical direction. We also hope that they will not expand north of 49th Street, and instead leave that open to a new corridor to the park, access to a new ferry terminal that is supposed to be built on the waterfront there. Right now the Javits Center basically blocks access to the water for five blocks. That’s probably enough.

This has been one of those favored projects for a long time though. The previous administration - Giuliani, the penultimate Yankee fan - wanted to make the area a present to George Steinbrenner under the guise of using a west side stadium to get the Olympics to the city in 2012.

...Giuliani will be forced out of office next year under the city's term limits law. Asked what he will be doing in 2012, Giuliani responded, “I could be mayor again. You think it's a joke. There’ll be a point when they’ll want me back. You wait and see.”

...of course, Rudy had been advocating a new west side Yankee stadium as far back as 1997:

The main bone of contention was the Speaker’s plan to submit a referendum to voters on whether or not to use city funds to build a new Yankee stadium in Manhattan. Mayor Giuliani had proposed creation of a Sports Facilities Corporation using a portion of the commercial rent tax to partially finance construction of new stadiums for both Mets and Yankees. Mr. Vallone’s referendum would likely thwart those plans, given popular sentiment opposing use of public funds to build a new Yankee stadium on Manhattan’s westside.

I’ve heard a lot of football fans (surprisingly even Mike Fancesa and Chris Mad Dog Russo) come out against a west side football stadium. Tailgating, part of the football experience, would be one of the things fans would have to forego if a stadium were to be built on the west side. This is presupposing they’d be using mass transit to get to the game.

In the meantime, another, better situated site, goes undeveloped.

A few years back, there was a lot of noise made by the then Mayor about building a golf course in one of the boroughs and having a PGA sponsored event there:

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, joined by golf legend Jack Nicklaus and Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern, today announced plans for the City’s first new municipal golf course in 35 years. The state-of-the-art, $22 million Ferry Point Park Golf Course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, will be located in Ferry Point Park along the East River in The Bronx. The design will include an eighteen-hole, par 72 layout suitable for Professional Golf Association tournaments, a full-size practice range and learning center, a pro-shop, restaurant, snack bar and banquet facility. The course is expected to be completed by December 2001.

Here it is 2004 and the last time I went over the Whitestone Bridge, I can tell you I wasn’t driving past a golf course.

...But instead of becoming a world-class greenway, Ferry Point Park is now looking more like one of the city's biggest boondoggles. While Mayor Giuliani was inviting the PGA to play at the park, state officials were shutting the golf course development down. The project’s budget has ballooned from $22.5 million to more than $40 million, and it now appears that the golf course might not get built at all. Meanwhile, the endeavor raises serious questions about how private developers were able to take possession of a public park without first obtaining legally required clearance from city authorities.

So, here’s a site - undeveloped - 413 acres within the city limits, in a borough that could use the development and the jobs. To top it off, the site is located close to I-95, the Cross Bronx Expressway, the Bruckner Expressway, the Hutchison River Parkway, the Whitestone and Throgs Neck Bridges and would have waterfront access for a ferry terminal but somehow, it gets overlooked as a potential site for a new stadium.



Makes no sense to me.

You may have gotten an email with a link from me this week. If not, Les passed along this little salary survey that caused a fairly strong reaction among my peers.

http://www.designsalaries.com

If you haven’t checked it out and you work in the field it’s worth looking at. As I had said in the email I forwarded to people, I didn’t know whether to be depressed, happy about what I manage to earn or if I should begin thinking about other careers.

Graphics is one of those fields that eats the young and casts off the old. Unless you’re one of those people at the top of the pyramid, getting older in this field isn’t kind. Funny thing is, I’ve done a lot of things during the course of my life and came into the field (what I consider) relatively late - which actually may have helped me.

A friend many years ago said to me, “You should always be looking.” Although he wasn’t necessarily one to set the world on fire, those words have never really left me. Mind you, I do get apprehensive but my audacity is boundless and that’s probably what keeps me going.

Courtesy of the AFL-CIO website.

http://havanastreet.com/merchandise.htm

Shameless plug department:

One of the things I ‘cotton’ to is retro design - fonts, images, logos with a forties, fifties or sixties feel. I love that kind of work, there was some really great design in those days and most of it still holds up pretty well.

My first gig as a graphic artist was at a newspaper doing ads and there was an old royalty free clip art book. At the time (early days of the Mac) there wasn’t an abundance of electronic art and a resource like that really came in handy.

I’ve ordered clip art from the guys at Havana Street, they do some truly beautiful work (both fonts and clip art) and they even offer free stuff just for checking out their site - it’s definitely worth the time, check it out by clicking the link above.

I have to admit, this had me thinking it would probably work for me although it is a bit pricey...



mypetfat isn’t another diet, a new exotic weight-loss supplement, or the latest exercise craze. It’s the one and only thing that I’ve found that can create immediate, life changing and life long results…. your thinking.

Maybe, it’s time to move and telecommute?

Many Plains towns are struggling to survive. Young people leave, old people die, and storefronts become boarded up one by one.

Marquette is among at least 10 Kansas communities offering free land to attract residents to boost school enrollment and fatten the tax base. Most such programs started in the past year or two, so it is too soon to measure long-term success.

Just in time for my Golden Years. Another reason for me and my peers to think about come November.

Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) said the report showed President Bush (news - web sites) had squandered on tax cuts money that could rescue Medicare. The White House sought to blame the program's problems on rising health costs, and not the drug benefit Bush signed in December.

So, now in response to something that originated someplace else, we in New York move another step closer to a police state. It’s amazing the things people will allow under the illusion of safety and security.

Teams of police offers will now stop subway trains at random for spot safety checks.

NEW YORK -- The New York Police Department swept through subways with hand-held radiation detectors on Monday, looking for dirty bombs and sending the message that there is heightened security on city subways, NewsChannel 4 reported.

The high-profile random checks will be conducted 24 hours a day, seven days a week, authorities said. Subway crews won't even know until they pull into a station that police will board and check the train. Once straphangers are notified, a team of more than a dozen officers with dogs will begin their anti-terror work. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced on Monday that initiatives like this will receive federal support.

Part of the sweep will involve engaging each and every passenger of the train being inspected, so now we’ve taken that foreboding step where people are able to be stopped and spot checked, just like the good old days before the revolutionary war.

Never mind the fact you now will have officers with machine guns patrolling the subway — is everyone in this country asleep?

I thought I’d put up a link to the belle de jour weblog.

The identity of its author has become the target of the sleuth that outed Joe Klein as the author of primary colors.

It’s supposed to be the weblog of a London call girl. I’d swear the way people act you’d think we were living in Victorian times. I find myself less shocked by things as much as I’m put off by people’s poor taste. There’s a time and a place for everything.

Later, guy...


Mmmmmm...

He who made the decision to assassinate Sheikh Ahmed Yassin has made a decision to kill hundreds of Zionists.

So, let me get this straight, HAMAS which refused to recognize Israel and has been carrying out terrorist bombings now refuses to recognize Israel and carry out terrorist bombings? So, HAMAS was like, terrorism lite before now?

The whole idea of a cease-fire with Hamas, frankly I find ridiculous. Hamas has no place for Israel or the PA in its world view, and it will continue to adhere to that principle. All the cease-fire is going to do is give it time to reconstitute and rearm. There have been ten different attempts at cease-fires with Hamas. Every single one has been broken. And Professor Khalidi noted the terrible atrocities that have happened on both sides in the past few days. It's a little bit of a chicken and an egg. As it happens, in fact, in this case, the first attack was not by the Israeli army but by a Hamas attack on an Ares checkpoint at the same time that the Israelis were, to great political cost to them, dismantling illegal outposts. Clearly there is responsibility on both sides here. But I think the Israelis are responding to Hamas attacks, and I think if there is a lack of terrorism, there would be a lack of Israeli military activity.

I’m a little curious if that’s been tried.

In February and March 1996, Hamas carried out several bus bombings, killing nearly 60 Israelis. It was also blamed for attacks in 1997 in Jerusalem which killed 15 people, and brought the peace process grinding to a halt.

Condemnation rings somewhat hollow:

In Brussels, European Union foreign ministers condemned Israel for an "extra-judicial killing", which they said undermined the rule of law.

...and it’s interesting to note, Israelis have not been the sole target of HAMAS:

The Hamas (a word meaning courage and bravery) is a radical Islamic organization which became active in the early stages of the Intifada, operating primarily in the Gaza Strip but also in the West Bank. The Hamas has played a major role in violent fundamentalist subversion and radical terrorist operations against both Israelis and Arabs.

I’m sorry, I have little sympathy for people who were shown celebrating the attack on the World Trade Center, who burn our flag on a regular basis but have no problem taking our money:

The US has given $548,766,000 in direct aid to the PA, according to Palestinian Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation figures[11]. But the total sum, including the amount given through relief and development organizations, is $1.1B.[12] In addition, following the 1998 Wye River Memorandum, the CIA has been training the Palestinian Authority Security Services.[13] The budget for this is unknown, though in September 2002, an additional $20 million has been allocated for an ostensible reform of the Palestinian security services.[14] Clearly, previous attempts to create a law-abiding security force for the Palestinian people have utterly failed. One hopes that this time better selection methods are being implemented to exclude the terrorists from the ranks of the PA security forces.

A previously-unknown software flaw in a widely-deployed General Electric energy management system contributed to the devastating scope of the August 14th northeastern U.S. blackout, industry officials revealed this week.