August 13, 2008
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1:01 A.M.
Standing on the beach
With a gun in my hand
Staring at the sea
Staring at the sand
Staring down the barrel
At the Arab on the ground
I can see his open mouth
But I hear no sound
I’m alive
Not dead
I’m the stranger
Killing an Arab
I can turn
And walk away
Or I can fire the gun
Staring at the sky
Staring at the sun…
…Then I feel the steel butt jump
Smooth in my hand
Staring at the sea
Staring at the sand
Staring at myself
Reflected in the eyes
Of the dead man on the beach
I’m alive
Not dead
I am the stranger
Killing an Arab
– Robert Smith
1:25 A.M.
3:47 A.M.
Botnets Receive Orders, Attack
NEW YORK – Attacks by Russian hackers against Georgian Web sites, including one hosted in the United States, continued Tuesday even as Russian President Dmitri Medvedev ordered a halt to hostilities against Georgia.
Tom Burling, acting chief executive of Atlanta-based Web-hosting firm Tulip Systems Inc., said the Web site of the president of Georgia was the target of a flood of traffic from Russia aiming to overwhelm the site. Burling said bogus traffic outnumbered legitimate traffic 5000 to 1 at president.gov.ge.
“Literally, our people aren’t getting any sleep,” Burling said.
The U.S.-based Shadowserver Foundation, which tracks Internet attacks, said they had noticed commands to attack Georgian sites being issued over the weekend to “botnets,” or networks of computers that have been surreptitiously subverted by hackers. The computers are used to send bogus traffic to targeted sites, slowing them or in some cases bringing them down.
The same botnets are also targeting Russian news sites and the Web site of Gary Kasparov, the Russian chess player and political activist, according to Steven Adair at Shadowserver.
On Monday, hackers took over the Web site of Georgia’s parliament and replaced it with an image that drew parallels between Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili and Adolf Hitler, Adair said.
4:00 A.M.
11:01 A.M.
Georgian President: Only McCain had the judgement to know it was coming.
Saakashvili said the U.S. and West underestimated Russia’s regional ambitions and warned that “America’s reputation here, since (the) Cold War, is going to hell now.”
“We have been warning them a large scale Russian invasion is coming,” Saakashvili said. “(The) State Department told us the Russians are not going to do that.”
The U.S.-educated Saakashvili credited Republican presidential candidate John McCain with predicting Russia’s real intent.
1:24 P.M.
So I had to join the Writers Guild Of America to write the screenplay for “Pat Dollard’s Wars” at Twentieth Century Fox. My co-writer is Evan Wright, who wrote the book and an episode of “Generation Kill”. Had to join, no choice, or couldn’t be hired. Costs over 2 grand to join.
There’s a section in the membership application where you get to pick a pseudonym if you want your script credited as such, instead of your real name.
I chose Jihadi Killer. A few weeks later I got this email from the Guild:
From: Patrick Cannon, WGA
Subject: pseudonym
Date: July 2, 2008 11:49:05 AM PDT
To: pdollard@mac.com
Hi Pat–
The pseudonym that you included in your membership application– Jihadi Killer– has been determined by the Credits department to be “unreasonable.” As a result the name can’t be registered by the Guild and used for credits purposes.
If you’d like to register a different name, or if you’d like clarification of the policy please let me know.
Patrick Cannon
Assistant Administrator, Membership Department
and I responded with this:
From: pdollard@mac.com
Subject: Re: pseudonym
Date: August 13, 2008 1:49:05 PM PDT
To: Patrick Cannon, Writers Guild of America
What I’d like to know is the official WGA definition of “unreasonable”. Jihadi is the contemporary, self-given name for an Islamic terrorist. Is the credit department pro-terrorist and finds the killing of them “unreasonable”? Who would be opposed to killing terrorists, or to find the act unreasonble? Should I feel guilty for killing some? Maybe we can all meet over chai and hash it out.
10:49 P.M.
More on the saga of whether or not the Writer’s Guild of America will let me use Jihadi Killer as a pseodonym for anything I write for stage or screen or internet, I think, I don’t know. But I’m going to run the whole thing in the morning when we’s gots more folks on.
Just getting back to the glowing hell-screens of all that is new around the world, have no idea what’s going on, but I’ll check.
11:48 P.M.
Rage. It can come in a second, and it brings a category 5 Hurrican if it’s been brewing. it can come at any second, any hour of the day.
Worthless when the target isn’t in sight.
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