Windows users: you got this security advisory, right?

Gee. The hits just keep on coming in…

*sigh*

Posted yesterday by Micro$oft:

Microsoft Security Advisory (912840)
Vulnerability in Graphics Rendering Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution.
Published: December 28, 2005

Yep. eWeek says,

Microsoft Corp. has issued a security advisory for what Secunia is deeming an “extremely critical flaw” in Windows Metafile Format (.wmf) that is now being exploited on fully patched systems by malicious attackers.

Websense Security Labs is tracking thousands of sites distributing the exploit code from a site called iFrameCASH BUSINESS. That site and numerous others are distributing spyware and other unwanted software, replacing users’ desktop backgrounds with a message that warns of spyware infection and which prompts the user to enter credit card information to pay for a “spyware cleaning” application to remove the detected spyware…

Fortunately, malware detection companies (AV/Spyware) seem to be reacting to this pretty quickly. Update your AV software NOW. You heard me. If you don’t, then come crying to me only if you bring some of the big green with you. 🙂

Gotta love Micro$oft. Full employment for techies.

Oh, there’s a workaround for folks here, in case you’re ionto the “belt and suspenders” approach to securing your computer.

Pegged to Ferdy’s Bulletin Board (by linking his “NSA Cookies” post—a “TWC must-read” 🙂 at Conservative Cat.

Send the ACLU another warm fuzzy

Still short shrift mode. Jay, at Stop the ACLU, is having a busy week, too, and sent the info below out a day early to clear the decks for his schedule.


One of our contributors, Craig McCarthy, set up a petition to stop taxpayer funding of the ACLU, quite a while ago. We are trying to help Craig reach at least 25,000 signatures. We are not that far away. Just two days ago, I put up as one of Stop The ACLU’s best posts of 2005, my interview with former ACLU lawyer, mr. Reese Lloyd. I had no idea it would be such great timing. Mr. Reese strkes again in a podcast with Congressman Hostettler.

Rees Lloyd made the comments in an online podcast hosted by Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., in which the two discuss the congressman’s legislation, the Public Expression of Religion Act, or PERA (H.R.2679). The bill would prohibit judges in civil suits involving the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause from awarding attorney’s fees to those offended by religious symbols or actions in the public square – such as a Ten Commandments display in a courthouse or a cross on a county seal. Lloyd, a California civil-rights attorney, is an officer with the American Legion who wrote a resolution passed by the national organization supporting Hostettler’s bill. As WorldNetDaily reported, Hostettler’s proposal would amend the Civil Rights Attorney’s Fees Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. Section 1988, to prohibit prevailing parties from being awarded attorney’s fee in religious establishment cases, but not in other civil rights filings. This would prevent local governments from having to use taxpayer funds to pay the ACLU or similar organization when a case is lost, and also would protect elected officials from having to pay fees from their own pockets. Hostettler says some organizations have created a new civil liberty – a right to be protected “from religion, which is found nowhere in the Constitution, nowhere in the Bill of Rights.” The Indiana congressman blames “a very select group” for “perverting” the original statute, including the ACLU, People for the American Way and Americans United for the Separate of Church and State. “They use this statute to extort behavior out of individuals,” the congressman said, citing the Indiana Civil Liberties Union threatening local educators. The group sent a letter to officials saying they would be sued and be forced to pay attorney’s fees should any graduation prayers be offered at commencement ceremonies. The threat sent the message, Hostettler said, that individuals tied to school districts could be impoverished personally. Said the lawmaker: “When officials see the potential threat of a lawsuit, they stop allowing children to write papers for English class – when they’re asked to write about the most important person in their life and they decide to write about Jesus Christ.” Hostettler’s bill would allow cases to move through the courts without public officials worrying about being held personally liable for thousands in attorneys fees. “Let’s let these cases go forward; let’s let the courts decide what’s constitutional and what’s not, and let’s not leave it up to the ACLU,” he said. Hostettler explained that while government entities can pay attorney’s fees charged to individual elected officials, they don’t legally have to, which puts the politicians on the hook. Saying most taxpayers are in favor of allowing public religious expression, the congressman noted the irony of those same taxpayers being forced to pay the ACLU to sue their local governments. “The current threat to public officials is very real; it’s ongoing,” Hostettler stated. “It’s been the case for several years that public officials are scared to death to suggest any type of public recognition of our Christian roots. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed in Washington, D.C.” PERA would prohibit damages, court fees and attorney’s fees from going to plaintiffs in establishment-clause suits while keeping the original purpose of the civil-rights law, Hstettler says, to provide a means for those whose religious liberties have been blocked to find justice. The congressman wonders why the ACLU would oppose his legislation since it still provides for “injunctive relief” – e.g., a court can rule in the ACLU’s favor and force the removal of a Ten Commandments display – but takes out the monetary incentive for lawsuits. “If they’re not out for the money but are really out to preserve our civil liberties … then the ACLU should not be opposing my bill,” Hostettler commented.

In the podcast, Lloyd decried the “terrorizing litigation tactics of the ACLU.” Said Lloyd: “Not only can the ACLU brings these suits and compel taxpayers to pay them to destroy the public display of our American history and heritage, but so can Islamist terrorists or Islamist sympathizers in our midst. “All they have to do is walk into court, make their claim that they’re offended by the sight of a cross or other religious symbol, and they’re going to win the case because judges follow one another under stare decisis,” or deference to precedent. The judges would then order that fees be paid to the Islamists, Lloyd contends. Lloyd said this issue came into focus for him when he witnessed the fight in San Diego, Calif., over a cross on a veterans’ memorial on public land in the Mohave Desert. “For me, that was the one step taken too far,” Lloyd said. “Now, for the first time, the ACLU was attacking the very veterans who secured their freedom.” A civil-rights activist since the ’60s, Lloyd worked with the ACLU in the ’70s and was “very supportive” of the 1976 Civil Rights Attorney’s Fees Act because it was a “noble attempt to assure that people who had legitimate civil-rights violations and injuries could secure legal representation.” Stated Lloyd: “The ACLU has perverted, distorted and exploited the Civil Rights Act … to turn it into a lawyer-enrichment act.” Lloyd says the American people are “oblivious” to how many millions of dollars in taxpayer funds are going to the ACLU each year. The attorney pointed out many attorneys in cases brought by the ACLU are volunteers, so the fees the group is awarded normally do not go to reimburse an attorney but rather directly into the organization’s coffers.

Hostettler’s bill, which was introduced first in 2003 without success, currently has 35 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and sits in the House Committee on the Judiciary.

The Center For Reclaiming America claims that they have over 100,000 signatures backing this bill. Honestly, I don’t know what they are waiting on. If we can up our petiton from 19,000 to 25,000, I will personally take the signatures to Congressman Hostettler myself….I promise you. I only live two hours from D.C. SIGN OUR PETITON TO STOP TAXPAYER FUNDING OF THE ACLU ….and spread the word as far and wide on this petition as you can!


Folks, even if you did get your CHRISTMAS card mailed to the ACLU, this petition is yet another way we can show them we care, we really do care. There. That oughta make the All Communist Lawyers Union feel all warm and fuzzy.

🙂

Send the ACLU another warm fuzzy

Still short shrift mode. Jay, at Stop the ACLU, is having a busy week, too, and sent the info below out a day early to clear the decks for his schedule.


One of our contributors, Craig McCarthy, set up a petition to stop taxpayer funding of the ACLU, quite a while ago. We are trying to help Craig reach at least 25,000 signatures. We are not that far away. Just two days ago, I put up as one of Stop The ACLU’s best posts of 2005, my interview with former ACLU lawyer, mr. Reese Lloyd. I had no idea it would be such great timing. Mr. Reese strkes again in a podcast with Congressman Hostettler.

Rees Lloyd made the comments in an online podcast hosted by Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., in which the two discuss the congressman’s legislation, the Public Expression of Religion Act, or PERA (H.R.2679). The bill would prohibit judges in civil suits involving the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause from awarding attorney’s fees to those offended by religious symbols or actions in the public square – such as a Ten Commandments display in a courthouse or a cross on a county seal. Lloyd, a California civil-rights attorney, is an officer with the American Legion who wrote a resolution passed by the national organization supporting Hostettler’s bill. As WorldNetDaily reported, Hostettler’s proposal would amend the Civil Rights Attorney’s Fees Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. Section 1988, to prohibit prevailing parties from being awarded attorney’s fee in religious establishment cases, but not in other civil rights filings. This would prevent local governments from having to use taxpayer funds to pay the ACLU or similar organization when a case is lost, and also would protect elected officials from having to pay fees from their own pockets. Hostettler says some organizations have created a new civil liberty – a right to be protected “from religion, which is found nowhere in the Constitution, nowhere in the Bill of Rights.” The Indiana congressman blames “a very select group” for “perverting” the original statute, including the ACLU, People for the American Way and Americans United for the Separate of Church and State. “They use this statute to extort behavior out of individuals,” the congressman said, citing the Indiana Civil Liberties Union threatening local educators. The group sent a letter to officials saying they would be sued and be forced to pay attorney’s fees should any graduation prayers be offered at commencement ceremonies. The threat sent the message, Hostettler said, that individuals tied to school districts could be impoverished personally. Said the lawmaker: “When officials see the potential threat of a lawsuit, they stop allowing children to write papers for English class – when they’re asked to write about the most important person in their life and they decide to write about Jesus Christ.” Hostettler’s bill would allow cases to move through the courts without public officials worrying about being held personally liable for thousands in attorneys fees. “Let’s let these cases go forward; let’s let the courts decide what’s constitutional and what’s not, and let’s not leave it up to the ACLU,” he said. Hostettler explained that while government entities can pay attorney’s fees charged to individual elected officials, they don’t legally have to, which puts the politicians on the hook. Saying most taxpayers are in favor of allowing public religious expression, the congressman noted the irony of those same taxpayers being forced to pay the ACLU to sue their local governments. “The current threat to public officials is very real; it’s ongoing,” Hostettler stated. “It’s been the case for several years that public officials are scared to death to suggest any type of public recognition of our Christian roots. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed in Washington, D.C.” PERA would prohibit damages, court fees and attorney’s fees from going to plaintiffs in establishment-clause suits while keeping the original purpose of the civil-rights law, Hstettler says, to provide a means for those whose religious liberties have been blocked to find justice. The congressman wonders why the ACLU would oppose his legislation since it still provides for “injunctive relief” – e.g., a court can rule in the ACLU’s favor and force the removal of a Ten Commandments display – but takes out the monetary incentive for lawsuits. “If they’re not out for the money but are really out to preserve our civil liberties … then the ACLU should not be opposing my bill,” Hostettler commented.

In the podcast, Lloyd decried the “terrorizing litigation tactics of the ACLU.” Said Lloyd: “Not only can the ACLU brings these suits and compel taxpayers to pay them to destroy the public display of our American history and heritage, but so can Islamist terrorists or Islamist sympathizers in our midst. “All they have to do is walk into court, make their claim that they’re offended by the sight of a cross or other religious symbol, and they’re going to win the case because judges follow one another under stare decisis,” or deference to precedent. The judges would then order that fees be paid to the Islamists, Lloyd contends. Lloyd said this issue came into focus for him when he witnessed the fight in San Diego, Calif., over a cross on a veterans’ memorial on public land in the Mohave Desert. “For me, that was the one step taken too far,” Lloyd said. “Now, for the first time, the ACLU was attacking the very veterans who secured their freedom.” A civil-rights activist since the ’60s, Lloyd worked with the ACLU in the ’70s and was “very supportive” of the 1976 Civil Rights Attorney’s Fees Act because it was a “noble attempt to assure that people who had legitimate civil-rights violations and injuries could secure legal representation.” Stated Lloyd: “The ACLU has perverted, distorted and exploited the Civil Rights Act … to turn it into a lawyer-enrichment act.” Lloyd says the American people are “oblivious” to how many millions of dollars in taxpayer funds are going to the ACLU each year. The attorney pointed out many attorneys in cases brought by the ACLU are volunteers, so the fees the group is awarded normally do not go to reimburse an attorney but rather directly into the organization’s coffers.

Hostettler’s bill, which was introduced first in 2003 without success, currently has 35 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and sits in the House Committee on the Judiciary.

The Center For Reclaiming America claims that they have over 100,000 signatures backing this bill. Honestly, I don’t know what they are waiting on. If we can up our petiton from 19,000 to 25,000, I will personally take the signatures to Congressman Hostettler myself….I promise you. I only live two hours from D.C. SIGN OUR PETITON TO STOP TAXPAYER FUNDING OF THE ACLU ….and spread the word as far and wide on this petition as you can!


Folks, even if you did get your CHRISTMAS card mailed to the ACLU, this petition is yet another way we can show them we care, we really do care. There. That oughta make the All Communist Lawyers Union feel all warm and fuzzy.

🙂

Send the ACLU another warm fuzzy

Still short shrift mode. Jay, at Stop the ACLU, is having a busy week, too, and sent the info below out a day early to clear the decks for his schedule.


One of our contributors, Craig McCarthy, set up a petition to stop taxpayer funding of the ACLU, quite a while ago. We are trying to help Craig reach at least 25,000 signatures. We are not that far away. Just two days ago, I put up as one of Stop The ACLU’s best posts of 2005, my interview with former ACLU lawyer, mr. Reese Lloyd. I had no idea it would be such great timing. Mr. Reese strkes again in a podcast with Congressman Hostettler.

Rees Lloyd made the comments in an online podcast hosted by Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., in which the two discuss the congressman’s legislation, the Public Expression of Religion Act, or PERA (H.R.2679). The bill would prohibit judges in civil suits involving the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause from awarding attorney’s fees to those offended by religious symbols or actions in the public square – such as a Ten Commandments display in a courthouse or a cross on a county seal. Lloyd, a California civil-rights attorney, is an officer with the American Legion who wrote a resolution passed by the national organization supporting Hostettler’s bill. As WorldNetDaily reported, Hostettler’s proposal would amend the Civil Rights Attorney’s Fees Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. Section 1988, to prohibit prevailing parties from being awarded attorney’s fee in religious establishment cases, but not in other civil rights filings. This would prevent local governments from having to use taxpayer funds to pay the ACLU or similar organization when a case is lost, and also would protect elected officials from having to pay fees from their own pockets. Hostettler says some organizations have created a new civil liberty – a right to be protected “from religion, which is found nowhere in the Constitution, nowhere in the Bill of Rights.” The Indiana congressman blames “a very select group” for “perverting” the original statute, including the ACLU, People for the American Way and Americans United for the Separate of Church and State. “They use this statute to extort behavior out of individuals,” the congressman said, citing the Indiana Civil Liberties Union threatening local educators. The group sent a letter to officials saying they would be sued and be forced to pay attorney’s fees should any graduation prayers be offered at commencement ceremonies. The threat sent the message, Hostettler said, that individuals tied to school districts could be impoverished personally. Said the lawmaker: “When officials see the potential threat of a lawsuit, they stop allowing children to write papers for English class – when they’re asked to write about the most important person in their life and they decide to write about Jesus Christ.” Hostettler’s bill would allow cases to move through the courts without public officials worrying about being held personally liable for thousands in attorneys fees. “Let’s let these cases go forward; let’s let the courts decide what’s constitutional and what’s not, and let’s not leave it up to the ACLU,” he said. Hostettler explained that while government entities can pay attorney’s fees charged to individual elected officials, they don’t legally have to, which puts the politicians on the hook. Saying most taxpayers are in favor of allowing public religious expression, the congressman noted the irony of those same taxpayers being forced to pay the ACLU to sue their local governments. “The current threat to public officials is very real; it’s ongoing,” Hostettler stated. “It’s been the case for several years that public officials are scared to death to suggest any type of public recognition of our Christian roots. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed in Washington, D.C.” PERA would prohibit damages, court fees and attorney’s fees from going to plaintiffs in establishment-clause suits while keeping the original purpose of the civil-rights law, Hstettler says, to provide a means for those whose religious liberties have been blocked to find justice. The congressman wonders why the ACLU would oppose his legislation since it still provides for “injunctive relief” – e.g., a court can rule in the ACLU’s favor and force the removal of a Ten Commandments display – but takes out the monetary incentive for lawsuits. “If they’re not out for the money but are really out to preserve our civil liberties … then the ACLU should not be opposing my bill,” Hostettler commented.

In the podcast, Lloyd decried the “terrorizing litigation tactics of the ACLU.” Said Lloyd: “Not only can the ACLU brings these suits and compel taxpayers to pay them to destroy the public display of our American history and heritage, but so can Islamist terrorists or Islamist sympathizers in our midst. “All they have to do is walk into court, make their claim that they’re offended by the sight of a cross or other religious symbol, and they’re going to win the case because judges follow one another under stare decisis,” or deference to precedent. The judges would then order that fees be paid to the Islamists, Lloyd contends. Lloyd said this issue came into focus for him when he witnessed the fight in San Diego, Calif., over a cross on a veterans’ memorial on public land in the Mohave Desert. “For me, that was the one step taken too far,” Lloyd said. “Now, for the first time, the ACLU was attacking the very veterans who secured their freedom.” A civil-rights activist since the ’60s, Lloyd worked with the ACLU in the ’70s and was “very supportive” of the 1976 Civil Rights Attorney’s Fees Act because it was a “noble attempt to assure that people who had legitimate civil-rights violations and injuries could secure legal representation.” Stated Lloyd: “The ACLU has perverted, distorted and exploited the Civil Rights Act … to turn it into a lawyer-enrichment act.” Lloyd says the American people are “oblivious” to how many millions of dollars in taxpayer funds are going to the ACLU each year. The attorney pointed out many attorneys in cases brought by the ACLU are volunteers, so the fees the group is awarded normally do not go to reimburse an attorney but rather directly into the organization’s coffers.

Hostettler’s bill, which was introduced first in 2003 without success, currently has 35 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and sits in the House Committee on the Judiciary.

The Center For Reclaiming America claims that they have over 100,000 signatures backing this bill. Honestly, I don’t know what they are waiting on. If we can up our petiton from 19,000 to 25,000, I will personally take the signatures to Congressman Hostettler myself….I promise you. I only live two hours from D.C. SIGN OUR PETITON TO STOP TAXPAYER FUNDING OF THE ACLU ….and spread the word as far and wide on this petition as you can!


Folks, even if you did get your CHRISTMAS card mailed to the ACLU, this petition is yet another way we can show them we care, we really do care. There. That oughta make the All Communist Lawyers Union feel all warm and fuzzy.

🙂

WARNING! (Quick hit)

OK, Skippy, if you use MSN Messenger be warned. Don’t be sucked in.

Virus Poses as Leaked MSN Messenger Beta

Internet users are being warned about a new virus that poses as a leaked pre-release version of the MSN Messenger instant messenger program.

Unsuspecting Windows users who install the phony MSN Messenger Version 8 “beta” actually install an IM worm that spreads to their IM contacts, and connects their computer to a remote control “bot” network run by malicious hackers, according to F-Secure Corp., an antivirus firm based in Helsinki.

A Web site, msgr8beta.com, purports to have the leaked version of MSN Messenger. The site touts the advantages of the MSN Messenger 8…

Don’t say I didn’t warn ya. By the time you read this, the malicious little worm who came up with this sucker play for naifs will likely have set up a different website offering this sucker bait.

Update your AV software; NEVER open unasked for, unscanned email attachments and watch those phishing links, etc., yadayadayada…

WARNING! (Quick hit)

OK, Skippy, if you use MSN Messenger be warned. Don’t be sucked in.

Virus Poses as Leaked MSN Messenger Beta

Internet users are being warned about a new virus that poses as a leaked pre-release version of the MSN Messenger instant messenger program.

Unsuspecting Windows users who install the phony MSN Messenger Version 8 “beta” actually install an IM worm that spreads to their IM contacts, and connects their computer to a remote control “bot” network run by malicious hackers, according to F-Secure Corp., an antivirus firm based in Helsinki.

A Web site, msgr8beta.com, purports to have the leaked version of MSN Messenger. The site touts the advantages of the MSN Messenger 8…

Don’t say I didn’t warn ya. By the time you read this, the malicious little worm who came up with this sucker play for naifs will likely have set up a different website offering this sucker bait.

Update your AV software; NEVER open unasked for, unscanned email attachments and watch those phishing links, etc., yadayadayada…

WARNING! (Quick hit)

OK, Skippy, if you use MSN Messenger be warned. Don’t be sucked in.

Virus Poses as Leaked MSN Messenger Beta

Internet users are being warned about a new virus that poses as a leaked pre-release version of the MSN Messenger instant messenger program.

Unsuspecting Windows users who install the phony MSN Messenger Version 8 “beta” actually install an IM worm that spreads to their IM contacts, and connects their computer to a remote control “bot” network run by malicious hackers, according to F-Secure Corp., an antivirus firm based in Helsinki.

A Web site, msgr8beta.com, purports to have the leaked version of MSN Messenger. The site touts the advantages of the MSN Messenger 8…

Don’t say I didn’t warn ya. By the time you read this, the malicious little worm who came up with this sucker play for naifs will likely have set up a different website offering this sucker bait.

Update your AV software; NEVER open unasked for, unscanned email attachments and watch those phishing links, etc., yadayadayada…

Content? It is to laugh!/OP

Still in short shrift mode. It’s not that I don’t care about all the great stuff in the blogoshere (see here, for one of many examples-note to Alexandra: I really am working on my list; it’ll take me some time to get it finished and up) or current events, it’s just that in spite of the fact that my objective is to “drain the swamp” I’ve got a few metaphorical alligators to kick and fires to stomp out in the so-called “real world”.

🙂

Link to this post and trackback with something interesting in whatever time I have to catch up with my reading.

OK, one thing: have you gotten and read your own copy of The Fair Tax Book yet? Well, here’s another one.

Any questions? Comment. Any good reads? Link me and then track back.

Pushed at Diane’s Stuff

OTA-med-sm

Content? It is to laugh!/OP

Still in short shrift mode. It’s not that I don’t care about all the great stuff in the blogoshere (see here, for one of many examples-note to Alexandra: I really am working on my list; it’ll take me some time to get it finished and up) or current events, it’s just that in spite of the fact that my objective is to “drain the swamp” I’ve got a few metaphorical alligators to kick and fires to stomp out in the so-called “real world”.

🙂

Link to this post and trackback with something interesting in whatever time I have to catch up with my reading.

OK, one thing: have you gotten and read your own copy of The Fair Tax Book yet? Well, here’s another one.

Any questions? Comment. Any good reads? Link me and then track back.

Pushed at Diane’s Stuff

OTA-med-sm

Content? It is to laugh!/OP

Still in short shrift mode. It’s not that I don’t care about all the great stuff in the blogoshere (see here, for one of many examples-note to Alexandra: I really am working on my list; it’ll take me some time to get it finished and up) or current events, it’s just that in spite of the fact that my objective is to “drain the swamp” I’ve got a few metaphorical alligators to kick and fires to stomp out in the so-called “real world”.

🙂

Link to this post and trackback with something interesting in whatever time I have to catch up with my reading.

OK, one thing: have you gotten and read your own copy of The Fair Tax Book yet? Well, here’s another one.

Any questions? Comment. Any good reads? Link me and then track back.

Pushed at Diane’s Stuff

OTA-med-sm