Hijacked Government Computers, Sleeping Air Marshals, and Doubting We Can Beat the Terrorists

Using Uncle Sam to SPAM You. Hundreds of Defense Department and US Senate computers were hijacked to blast America with spam. Federal authorities found viruses and worms on the government computers that let spammers take them over. They’ve made around 150 arrests so far. (USA Today)

Feel Safer Yet? Federal air marshals -- the people supposed to protect you from hijackers -- have been caught flunking drug tests, sleeping on the job, and losing their weapons. The Homeland Security Department’s Inspector General logged more than 700 problems in eight months with air marshals in a new report. (USA Today)

Would You Settle for a Tie? President Bush says he doubts the US can win the War on Terror. His goal, he now says, is to simply make terrorism less acceptable around the world. (NYT)

Are You Better Off Today, Than You Were Four Years Ago. It’s hard to tell. The economy is full of mixed messages. MSNBC offers an analysis. (MSNBC)

Civics Lessons. College Kids are being told they can’t vote in college towns. The reason? College addresses are “temporary.” Obviously the election officials out there never met some of my classmates on the 10 year plan. (CNN)

Party Time. Campaign finance and ethics rules have virtually no bearing on political conventions. Just like at the Democratic Convention, big money and powerful lobbyist groups are wining and dining the people at the Republican National Convention this week. The parties for the Grand Old Party also show how much of a crossover there is between lobbyists and the people running campaigns. (NYT)

Quiet on the Set. Delegates to modern political conventions are little more than window dressing for the TV cameras. The job of steering their parties they once had are long gone as they turn into extras on the set of a political commercial. (USA Today)

The Protestors Lean to the Right of Atilla the Hun. “Giuliani, Pataki, Schwarzenegger. They're the poison to the party.” The latest batch of protestors at the Republican National Convention are Republicans. They don’t like all the “liberals” speaking at the convention. (FOX News)

Adding Insult to Injury. Some of the RNC delegates wore band-aids with Purple Hearts on them. A jab at Senator Kerry and the Swifties’ claims that his wounds were superficial. (FOX News)