(no subject)

Well, i'm blowing off a job interview this afternoon.
The position itself is a senior test engineer gig at a company called Infinium Labs which is allegedly producing a next-gen console game system something like the Xbox on steroids. The position itself was listed on Gamasutra as one in the Seattle area, which is odd, because the company itself is based in Sarasota, Florida, and doesn't mention anything on its website about having a Seattle office. At least some of those who know me will catch the irony in this locale. Suffice it to say that it'd take a whole lotta money to make anything in that area attractive- it'd probably need to be at least six figures annually, with major benefits, including having all my blood replaced with Freon™.

That was just the first little check about the company. Shortly after sending off a resume for it, i was doing a little digging around looking for more information about who and what they are. A little digging revealed lots of information about them linked through Slashdot. Apparently the Phantom Game Console made Wired's list of vapourware. Then Gamespot broke that the initial listing of sixty publishers had been revised to just a few. Now there isn't any mention of who's developing titles for this product on the Infinium website anymore.

In September of last year, a website called HardOCP, which generally does hardware and gaming reviews did an article about Infinium and the Phantom, only to get threatened with lawsuits about this allegedly defamatory article. Thankfully, Hard OCP decided to force the issue, by filing their own lawsuit.

This threatened lawsuit prompted Newsforge to investigate, while being careful to be non-defamatory.

So, now, i'm going to simply be unavailable to interview with them, all the while not saying anything which could be construed as possibly defamatory about the company or any of it's officers. I'm sure it's a fine product, which may or may not exist, and the corporate officers, are wonderful people who may or may not have in the past been involved in any complicity to defraud investors out of real or fictional amounts of money which they may or may not have invested or been about to invest in a company or companies helmed by such people. After all, i wouldn't want to get a threatening letter from attorneys, claiming that i made slanderous statements (of a defamatory nature, none the less) about such an enterprise.

Bush Administration Avoided Attacking Terrorist Mastermind

From MSNBC reports:

Avoiding attacking suspected terrorist mastermind
Abu Musab Zarqawi blamed for more than 700 killings in Iraq
By Jim Miklaszewski
Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 7:14 p.m. ET March 02, 2004 With Tuesday’s attacks, Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant with ties to al-Qaida, is now blamed for more than 700 terrorist killings in Iraq.

But NBC News has learned that long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger.

In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaida had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide.

The Pentagon quickly drafted plans to attack the camp with cruise missiles and airstrikes and sent it to the White House, where, according to U.S. government sources, the plan was debated to death in the National Security Council.

‘People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president’s policy of pre-emption against terrorists.’
— Roger Cressey
Terrorism expert


“Here we had targets, we had opportunities, we had a country willing to support casualties, or risk casualties after 9/11 and we still didn’t do it,” said Michael O’Hanlon, military analyst with the Brookings Institution.

Four months later, intelligence showed Zarqawi was planning to use ricin in terrorist attacks in Europe.

The Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, and the White House again killed it. By then the administration had set its course for war with Iraq.

“People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president’s policy of preemption against terrorists,” according to terrorism expert and former National Security Council member Roger Cressey.

In January 2003, the threat turned real. Police in London arrested six terror suspects and discovered a ricin lab connected to the camp in Iraq.

The Pentagon drew up still another attack plan, and for the third time, the National Security Council killed it.

Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.

The United States did attack the camp at Kirma at the beginning of the war, but it was too late — Zarqawi and many of his followers were gone. “Here’s a case where they waited, they waited too long and now we’re suffering as a result inside Iraq,” Cressey added.

And despite the Bush administration’s tough talk about hitting the terrorists before they strike, Zarqawi’s killing streak continues today.

© 2004 MSNBC Interactive

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This is criminal. The government knew who this guy was, what he did, where to find him, and didn't pull the trigger? All the while inventing ties between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden to justify its war against Iraq and lying to the American people about WMD?