Logjam 4.5.1 released by evan

For those who use LogJam, evan released v4.5.0 yesterday.  It had a few minor problems.  They have now been fixed, and v4.5.1 was released today.  It is available for download from a new site, since the old site was having Issues.  (See the official release announcement here.)  Yes, LogJam 4.5 has tag support.

I have an extensive patch for LogJam which adds a lot of additional HTML markup, changing a few functions to make the additional markup possible, and also rearranges the menus into an order I personally find more useful for LogJam, less to more specific left-to-right.  (True, it's not standards-compliant.  But it works for me.  The patch changes the menu order in such a way that it can be changed back by re-ordering only seven lines in src/menu.c.)

My patch, should you wish to try it, is available here.  To apply it, cd into the logjam-4.5.1 source directory and execute the following command:

zcat logjam-4.5.1ps.diff.gz | patch -p1

Then configure and build as normal.  You may wish to do this on a copy of the source tree.  (Well, actually, it is recommended that you do so.  It's always a good idea to keep an untouched copy.)

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a story of a clusterfuck.

(As for the rest of you ... OK, OK, just kidding about that.)

rbos pointed me at this truthout.org interview by Marjorie Cohn, a professor at the Thomas Jeffertson School of Law, with former Brigadier General Janis Karpinski (Ret.), regarding the state of affairs in Iraq in general and Abu Ghraib specifically.  She makes some telling points, such as that the three "civilian contractors" hired by the US Justice Department and sent to Abu Ghraib to manage and oversee prisoner interrogations had all, between 30 and 60 days before, been fired by the Justice Department from positions in the Utah Correctional Facility for prisoner abuse.  She also describes how General Shinseki was fired for telling Rumsfeld that a successful invasion of Iraq could not be done with less than 300,000 men, and replaced with General Schoomaker, who saw the writing on the wall and was willing to tell Rumsfeld "Sure, we can do that with 125,000 men, no problem."

Sure, you can say that this is all sour grapes because Karpinski took the blame for Abu Ghraib.  You can also say that she was made the scapegoat, and is telling it like it is, and that the investigation was made to stop with her because if followed, the trail led directly to the Secretary of Defense and possibly to the Vice-President.  I leave that call to you.  But look at what she's saying ... there's a consistent pattern.  The officers involved in organizing and executing the Abu Ghraib abuses have been promoted and rewarded; those who blew the whistle, who cooperated with the investigation, who said it was wrong, have been punished.  General Shinseki was fired for saying the Iraq invasion could not be done with the available forces; General Cody was promoted from three-star to four-star for cutting costs by denying requests for armored vehicles and bulletproof vests for the troops deployed in Iraq.

"Anybody who confronts this Administration or Rumsfeld or the Pentagon with a true assessment, they find themselves either out of a job, out of their positions, fired, relieved or chastised.  Their career comes to an end."

...

And why are the American people turning a deaf ear to this? l We had 17 Marines killed over the course of the last three days, less than 72 hours.  And there's still people in Washington that get on, especially Sunday mornings, and they get on these news or these debate programs and they say, "Well it's only 1800 lives so far" - Only!  Only!  You know, how dare you say that!

Predictable, I suppose

The telemarketing industry's response to the 'Do Not Call' list appears to be a new generation of robot callers that call and leave a message telling you to call some other number to take up whatever scam it is they're hawking.  I suppose the idea is that this way, there's no human on the line whom you can tell to take your number off the list and never call again, and if you want to get a number to call and tell them, you've got to sit through their spiel first, and they figure most people won't bother.  I also wonder if there's some kind of plausible-deniability ploy involved -- perhaps the calling robots are located somewhere offshore and beyond US legal jurisdiction.  Either way, it's pretty clearly an organized and intentional attempt to circumvent the Do Not Call list.

Screw this do-not-call half-measure.  I say we just make telemarketing illegal, period.

In the meantime, the following is excerpted from the Do Not Call Registry FAQ:

37. When can I file a do not call complaint?

If your number has been on the National Do Not Call Registry for at least 31 days (starting January 1, 2005) and you receive a call from a telemarketer that you believe is covered by the National Do Not Call Registry, you can file a complaint at the registry’s website at www.donotcall.gov or by calling the registry’s toll-free number at 1-888-382-1222 (for TTY, call 1-866-290-4236). To file a complaint, you must know either the name or telephone number of the company that called you, and the date the company called you.

38. How do I file a do not call complaint? What do I need to file a complaint?

You can file your complaint on the registry’s website, www.donotcall.gov, using the File a Complaint page. You must know either the name or the phone number of the company that called you. You also must provide the date that the company called you and your registered phone number. You may provide your name and address, but it’s not required for you to submit a complaint. You also may call the registry’s toll-free number at (1-888-382-1222) to file a complaint (for TTY, call 1-866-290-4236).