Ted Haggard resigns as head of NAE over gay prostitution claims

Ted Haggard, head of the New Life megachurch in Colorado Springs, has resigned as leader of the National Association of Evangelicals over accusations that he paid for gay sex and methamphetamines. He denies the allegations, but says he is stepping aside to maintain the integrity of the organization while an investigation occurs. Ross Parsley, the acting senior pastor at New Life Church, says that Haggard has admitted that some of the allegations are true. "I just know that there has been some admission of indiscretion, not admission to all of the material that has been discussed but there is an admission of some guilt," Parsley told KKTV-TV of Colorado Springs.

Haggard and his church have been outspoken in opposition to gay marriage.

As Radley Balko points out, this provides further evidence for the thesis that the loudest of the anti-gay crowd are fighting their own urges.

UPDATE: It appears that he has confessed to buying methamphetamine, but not the gay sex.

UPDATE (November 3, 2006): The accuser has failed a polygraph test (not that that actually means much more than if he had failed a tea-leaf reading or astrological horoscope). Haggard has admitted to buying, but not using meth. Which raises the question--who was he buying meth for, if not for his own use?

UPDATE: Haggard is clearly lying about not using the meth he bought (his voice message says he's buying more), and his claim that he only bought a massage rather than engaged in sex is implausible based on the ad he answered. He claims he bought the meth for his own use out of curiosity, but threw it away.

UPDATE (November 4, 2006): Haggard has been dismissed from his church for "sexual immorality." Looks like either his church's leaders don't buy his denials of gay sex or consider a massage to be sexual immorality.

UPDATE (November 5, 2006): Haggard has admitted that he's a liar and a deceiver, though still claims that "not all" of the accusations against him are true, "but enough of them are that I was appropriately removed from [his] church leadership position." He admitted to being "guilty of sexual immorality."

UPDATE (December 28, 2006): Haggard's dope dealer and masseuse, Mike Jones, has signed a book deal. It will be published by Seven Stories Press.

Sen. Jon Kyl a target after Internet gambling ban

Sen. Jon Kyl, a strong supporter of banning Internet gambling, is a target of online poker players upset at the sleazy way the recent law prohibiting banks from engaging in financial transactions with online gaming sites was passed. That law was snuck into a port security bill in the night by Bill Frist, with no opportunity to vote on the amendment. The effect of that law has been to cause all of the largest legitimate online gaming sites (such as those publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange) to decline to permit Americans to use their sites, while those that are on the shadier side continue to take American business. In other words, the effect has been to make online gaming more dangerous for Americans, and to have less accountability about where the profits go.

Kyl has seen his lead in the polls over Jim Pederson decline, though he is still, unfortunately, likely to win.

Dr. Dino guilty of tax fraud

Creationist huckster Kent Hovind and his wife Jo have been found guilty of tax fraud in Florida, and each face over 200 years in prison.

For more reactions to the verdict:
Dispatches from the Culture Wars
Pharyngula
The Panda's Thumb

More on the trial may be found here.

Hovind's appearance on the Ali G Show may be found here.

Richard Carrier blog

Former Internet Infidels President Richard Carrier now has a blog.

Female soldier committed suicide over interrogation techniques in Iraq

The third woman to die in Iraq, Army Specialist Alyssa Peterson, 27, from Flagstaff, Arizona, was reported as having died from a "non-hostile weapons discharge." A reporter who dug further, Kevin Elston, found that she committed suicide on September 15, 2003, after becoming distraught from working in an interrogation unit known as "the cage." Peterson, a devout Mormon who was working as an Arabic translator, was upset by the methods of interrogation being used on Iraqi prisoners. After two days in the unit, she refused to participate further, was reassigned, and was sent to suicide prevention training.

Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques that Peterson objected to, and say that all records of them have been destroyed.

Electronic voting machines in Florida having problems in early voting

Voting machines in Florida being used for early voting have unaccountably been registering votes for Democratic candidates as votes for Republicans at the review screen. The cases that have been noticed have been corrected with the assistance of poll workers. But how many haven't been noticed?

(Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars.)

TSA Fails Screening Tests, Looks for Who Leaked the Results

The TSA badly failed a recent set of tests at Newark's Liberty Airport. TSA screeners missed 90% of the guns and explosives that testers put through the system. TSA's response? Immediate action to try to find out who leaked the results.

(Via Bruce Schneier's blog.)

Olbermann on Limbaugh's attack on Michael J. Fox

Keith Olbermann shows the video of Limbaugh's attack on Michael J. Fox, which more vividly illustrates Limbaugh's depravity. (Also see Media Matters on Limbaugh's fake apology.)

Point out the obvious, get raided by the FBI

Security researcher Chris Soghoian, a graduate student at Indiana University's School for Informatics and an intern at Google, set up a website that functions as a boarding pass generator for Northwest Airlines. The site contained a form that allowed you to fill in name, flight number, destination, and all of the other information on a boarding pass, and would display a boarding pass that would be indistinguishable from the real thing at the TSA security checkpoints.

He pointed out that the identity check at the TSA checkpoint amounts to nothing more than a comparison between the name on a picture ID and the name on a boarding pass, and that this provides no security whatsoever. I'm not sure what threat this check is even supposed to be trying to mitigate. At best, it is an attempt to piggy-back on the check against the no-fly list (which is itself a complete joke) that is performed by the airlines when you purchase a ticket, but clearly that fails as his boarding pass generator is one of several ways to create a boarding pass in a name other than your own--including modifying the displayed text generated by any airline's online site or even purchasing a ticket in any name you choose. The latter was displayed vividly by a couple of guys who purchased tickets in the names of "Al Kyder" and "Terry Wrist" (link includes video).

In my opinion, the only actual purpose served by checking for a valid boarding pass at the TSA checkpoint is to reduce the number of people passing through the checkpoint in order to most efficiently make use of security resources. It does not otherwise have any effect on security; it provides no deterrent to an attacker. It is not effective in screening out those with malicious intent, and it is not even effective in verifying identity.

Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) has called for Chris Soghoian to be arrested. He was visited and interrogated by the FBI, then went to stay at his parents' house. Friday night, the FBI broke their way into his apartment, seized his computers, and generally trashed his place.

Lesson: Point out U.S. security weaknesses, and you will be punished. Those responsible for the weaknesses and idiocy of U.S. "security theater," however, will not be held accountable.

This is one of the rare times when Michelle Malkin actually says something correct.

Other coverage: Jim Harper, author of the excellent book Identity Crisis, at the Technology Liberation Front and at Cato@Liberty (this post does a good job of pointing out the problems with the TSA identity check). Bruce Schneier, at his blog. And there's some rather good coverage in multiple posts at BoingBoing.

The problem that Soghoian pointed out was previously described in February 2005 on Slate.com by Andy Bowers, and in 2003 by Bruce Schneier in his Crypt-o-Gram newsletter.

So yes, Kip Hawley is still an idiot.

UPDATE (November 2, 2006): Bruce Schneier has written a detailed description of the flaw in the security design of the TSA identity check, and makes the same point that even if the flaw is corrected it doesn't add any real security because it's just a check of the no-fly list.

Dirty Politician: Rick Renzi

Rep. Rick Renzi (Republican, AZ-District 1) is now under investigation by the feds, for some deals involving San Pedro River water and land nearby which a friend of his made millions from.

Renzi is on CREW's list of the top 20 most corrupt Congressmen.