Well, like most of the states that posses a Republican governor, Idaho decided this was the year to break our teacher's unions as well. Basically, there are three bills. One strips collective bargaining rights (passed the senate), then there is the, "merit pay" one (also passed the senate). The bill that would have axed over 1000 teachers outright is back to committee. The teachers association page on the saga tells the basic tale.

A conflict between everyone's favorite hacktivists and an obscure security research company has just gotten interesting. HB Gary Federal is a cyber-security company run by Aaron Barr who has been researching individuals he believes are associated with Anonymous. Specifically he has been trying to link the handles of IRC participants to real people. When he decided to publicize his findings in the Financial Times last Saturday, it touched off a very interesting series of events which are still unfolding.

Out of the gate, let me just say it pains me to call this hacking. Might as well go out like a total /tard with it ... "Do you want to know how the 3771 haxors took down Visa?" ... barf. However. Damn script kiddies and MSM screwing up the brand aside, this is what they're calling hackers these days so ... you might be wondering what exactly the guys "hacking" Visa/MC/Sarah Palin/Various Swiss/Swedish institutions/etc. are actually doing...

So, MSNBC decided to suspend Keith Olbermann. Why? Because he dared to participate in Democracy!

I've made no bones about the fact that I think systemically the product produced by MSNBC is the same as all the other cable outlets in selling outrage over information - anger over reason. And as one of their flagship personalities, I've mentioned the way Olberman presents himself as an example.