There are 4,040 delegates to be voting at the National Convention.  Of these, 333 are "declared/committed".

Of the 333 declared so far:
CLINTON = 184 (55%)
OBAMA   =  78 (23%)
EDWARDS =  52 (16%)
Richardson 19 ( 6%)
Kucinich    1 (0.3%)

"WTF?"  Some folks may be thinking. "But Clinton was THIRD in Iowa and only had a (relatively) narrow win in NH!  How is this possible??!!"

Ah, yes.  Well, the thing is there are "delegates" (that ordinary voters select), and then there are the SUPERDELEGATES, some of whom may well wear tights

and capes, but that's for another diary.

A couple of days ago, I wrote about a serious new vulnerability discovered in Windows related to the way the operating system processes animated cursors - HERE.   This issue was sufficiently serious that Microsoft elected to provide a patch "out of cycle", that is to say, before their normal "Patch Tuesday" on April 10th.  This special patch was posted last night and some of those folks who have "Automatic Updates" turned on may wake up this morning (as I did) to find their PC rebooted and displaying the following error message:

It was discovered last week that the way that ALL VERSIONS of Windows process the code for animated cursors is open to attack by malicious code.  This vulnerability is now being exploited widely.  There is no method, currently, for separately disabling the Windows subsystem that processes cursor animations.

This is a particularly dangerous vulnerability in that it allows malicious code to effectively execute at will and also be injected into every process running on the system, even in Safe Mode.

Be sure to download/install the latest updates to your antivirus software and Windows this week, if these updates are not configured to occur automatically.

This from the FDA today, 3/17/07:

Recall of Pet Foods Manufactured by Menu Foods, Inc.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been informed that Menu Foods, Inc., a private-label pet food manufacturer based in Statesville, Ontario, Canada, is recalling all its "cuts and gravy" style dog and cat food produced at its facility in Emporia, Kansas between December 3, 2006 and March 6, 2007. The products are sold in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The recall was prompted by consumer complaints received by the manufacturer and by tasting trials conducted by the manufacturer. There has been a small number of reported instances of cats and dogs in the United States that developed kidney failure after eating the affected product. Ten deaths, one dog and nine cats, have reported at this time. The firm has undertaken extensive testing of the pet food products in question, but to date has been unable to find the source of the problem.

Well, I have my doubts, but there are several tasty ironies and ominous portents given life in my fevered brain by tha certain report from this morning.

As most here know, on Wednesday, a car bomb was detonated in Zahedan, an eastern Iranian city of about a half-million in the Sistan-Baluchestan province near the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.  The explosion took out a bus of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, killing 11 and wounding another 30 or so.  A "shadowy Sunni militant group",  the Waziristan-based Jundallah (Army of God), reportedly claimed responsibility for the Wednesday attack and another, non-fatal detonation in Zahedan on Friday.  Jundallah, which apparently emerged only in 2003 as a supposed ethnic Baloch insurgency, is also accused of plotting to assassinate "Sunni and tribal leaders to sow discord and foment conflicts between the Shiite and Sunni citizens in Sistan-Baluchestan province."

But that's not the good part.  See below.

I'm an IT professional, specializing in system and network security.  While I have to admit that constructing a perfectly accurate and 100% tamper-proof e-voting system is hypothetically possible (though highly unlikely), this whole argument misses the point.

The absolute number one requirement for any voting system is that the entire process must be transparent to virtually every citizen.  It is this transparency that ensures fairness, accuracy and security.  Since, with any e-voting system, the entire recording/counting process is conducted by program code that only a miniscule percentage of US citizens can understand, e-voting systems are inherently NOT transparent.  

I've seen several diaries on the theme of "Bush planning to attack Iran and he's more than crazy enough to do it" and counter diraies along the lines of "Attack on Iran - not gonna happen."  Most of the comments in both types of diaries have been of the "Yes, he will" or "No, he won't" variety or explanations of why it would be foolish strategically, militarily impossible, catastrophic for the US and/or the world, lead to WWIII (or IV or V or VI), etc.  
What I haven't seen, perhaps because they've quickly scrolled away into obscurity, are diaries dedicated to discussing the following questions:  
 - What might happen immediately after Bush issues an order to attack?
 - What legal (and, possibly, extra-legal) actions might be taken to prevent this order from being executed?  And by whom?

While the site has been up-and-(apparently) down this evening, I thought I'd cruise the online MSM to see what the "reviews" are for the show.

This is by no means comprehensive and many of you have probably already found these.  Just thought it might be helpful to pull a sampler together for folks who want a quick read.

Kenneth Starr, lawyer sent fake letters.  Bogus letters sent to governor asking to spare client's life.*  Ok, the letters in question were gathered by a contractor/investigator and filed by Starr's office, but I bet the hairs are standing on the back of his neck.

Rumsfeld pushes U.S. ties in N. Africa.  Who knew he moonlighted as a haberdasher?

Cheney steps up war on lawyers.  That's the actual headline from Canada.com.  Seriously.

Half-price sale on chicken in Rome.  Germany classifies "Chicken Run" as a subversive film.

Speaking of film, Robert Altman makes a movie out of "Prairie Home Companion" starring Streep, Lohan, Tomlin and some guy named Keillor.

Microsoft does RIM job.

Ford and GM argue over who sold more crappy cars.

So, an Iranian newspaper editor has challenged European newspapers to a battle of blasphemous cartoons?  Ahhh, if only all wars were fought with snarky, offensive cartoons instead of bullets and bombs.  

Let me start by confessing that I'm not partial to demands for ideological purity, regardless of the source.  In fact, that's one of the reasons that I felt compelled to drop out of the Red Brigade.  Well, that and the violence thing.  And the fact that most of 'em couldn't hold their likker worth a damn.

Anyhoo, the other day, Maryscott O'Connor (sweet, temperate lady) was interviewed by John Gibson on Fox News Radio. She was somewhat critical (heh, heh) of the 19 Democratic Senators who voted for cloture on the Alito SCOTUS appointment debate for not having the balls to make a stand.  

I just participated in the latest Zogby Survey - one of their longer ones.  I was fascinated by a couple of questions.  The first was, "How do you feel about having George W. Bush as your President?"  The options were:

Proud.
Ashamed.
Not sure.

I'm kind of shocked that this question was asked so directly and I'd like to see what the response was, but I haven't been able to find it yet.  Perhaps the result was so profoundly one-sided that they'd prefer not to publish it?

Time to take a breath.  (No!  Not THAT one!  I called dibs!)  It's time to take a break and think about other things for a few minutes before we all go bionic-bonkers.  After all, there are lots of other stupid events happening all day long.  Besides, constant gnashing of teeth will only result in big dentist bills.  Here's a couple of distracting items from Google News (more below the fold):

"SAG nods for Housewives Lost Anatomy" Seriously.  That's the actual headline.

Zawahiri sez: "Nyah, nyah, nah nyah-nayh!  Ya missed me!"  Who knew he's a Maxwell Smart fan?

This morning, during my typical breakfast of Paxil and scotch, I was slogging through reports on the Important Issues of the Day on Google News (Michelle Wie's second-round score, a new analysis suggesting that the Donner Clan were NOT, in fact, cannibals) when I tripped over the following puff piece buried under the snow jobs.  Literally.  I think I may have a high ankle sprain.  My ankles ARE usually pretty high after breakfast.

Anyway, over the past year, I've made the suggestion several times in letters to my congresscritters and comments on blogs, that the Federal Government should offer a program of tax credits for purchasers of high-mileage vehicles such as hybrids to help reduce US gasoline consumption.  Well, DAMN!  They've already done that.  Sort of.

As widely reported and noted in this earlier diary by the venerable DemFromCT, several cases of Avian Bird Flu (H5N1) has been confirmed in Turkey in the past week, including at least a couple of fatalities.  The initial infections were found in a town named Van in eastern Turkey.  Van is located approximately 80 miles from the Iraq border and less than 150 miles from US troops stationed in Mosul.  The proximity of Van to Iran has already prompted the Iranian government to close at least one of the border crossings between the countries.

Basic AP report in International Herald Trib is here.

Although many Kossacks may not consider this to be an appropriate forum for such news, this problem is certain to affect about 80% of us and it is a very serious problem that affected users must deal with right now.  

Please pay attention to this.  It may help to save you from a lot of computer grief.  Also, please RECOMMEND so that this stays up for more than a few minutes.  I will attempt to UPDATE as new information becomes available.  Also, please be aware that if your Internet connection seems slow today, it's likely a measure of how much traffic is being generated by the explosion of compromised, virus-laden WMF files that are being released onto the network by virus writers and further propagated by already infected systems.  Yes, it's that bad.

About a month ago, when Judy Miller agreed to testify and it was revealed that her deal included a committment by Fitz NOT to question her about issues outside what and when Libby told her about Plame, I diaried that Libby alone would be charged and that would be the end of it.  My reasoning was that Fitz would never recommend that a GJ indict on charges that he didn't wholeheartedly believe that he could prove in court and that Miller's testimony was crucial.  Without it, he could prove nothing against anybody, so he chose to take what he could get with that part of Miller's testimony and to let the rest go.

But now, having read the indictments against Libby, and having begun to better appreciate how Fitz works, how he built, brick-by-brick, the case against Go. Ryan, I'm not so sure that's the end of it.  

Fitzgerald is smart enough to know that, with all the politics involved, he can afford only to indict cases he's certain he can win.  

So, expect only Libby and two or three other minor underlings to be charged in the Plame case.  And expect them to plead out for reduced sentences without implicating anyone else.  And get used to the idea that neither Bush, nor Cheney, nor Rove, nor Rice nor any of the other big guns will get any serious grief from this.