links for 2010-05-13

The Wall Street Journal's decision to feature a front-page photo of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan playing softball has ignited a national discussion about why people assume that women who play the field are lesbians.

Despite being wildly popular with both sexes, the game is to gay women what stickball is to Brooklyn.

"Throughout history, softball has been a focal point for lesbian women, so, in a sense, there's a kernel of truth in the stereotype," said Pat Griffin, author of "Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sport."
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Well, I think she has answered the question.

Hacked Twitter accounts are selling briskly on Russian cybercriminal forums, with fraud artists and spammers paying between $100 and $200 for batches of 1,000 accounts, depending on number of followers the accounts have, according to a Russian security researcher.
In many cases the buyers are conducting a lucrative trade by hawking phony antivirus products via tweets sent through these accounts. "The technique of stealing account credentials and posting malicious links on Twitter is more and more popular," and has surged in the past two months, says Costin Raiu, director of the global research and analysis group for the Moscow-based antivirus company Kaspersky Lab. "Cybercriminals are recognizing that social networking sites can be abused very efficiently for their needs."

The Los Angeles City Council, protesting Arizona’s crackdown on illegal immigration, on Wednesday voted to ban most city travel to Arizona and future contracts with companies in that state.

During a morning-long debate on the resolution, council members compared Arizona’s action to Nazi Germany and the beginning of the Holocaust, as well as the internment and deportation of Japanese Americans during World War II. A new Arizona law, which will take effect July 23, will require police to determine whether people they stop are in the country illegally, which critics say will lead to racial profiling.
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Symbolism over substance.
Impact is doubtful…… but LA is bankrupt in any case

To that end, Palin addressed the issue of her endorsement of Carly Fiorina during her speech. Without mentioning Fiorina by name, Palin defended the California Senate candidate as “pro-life, pro-business,” and underscored Fiorina’s conservative credentials. Activists need to back the “best conservatives we can elect,” Palin said, and said that activists have to have some pragmatism about electability. Palin took a more veiled shot at Tom Campbell by noting that Fiorina was a better conservative choice than some of the alternatives.

Republicans have solidified support among voters who had drifted from the party in recent elections, putting the GOP in position for a strong comeback in November's mid-term campaign, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.
The findings suggest that public opinion has hardened in advance of the 2010 elections, making it tougher for Democrats to translate their legislative successes, or a tentatively improving U.S. economy, into gains among voters.

Republicans have reassembled their coalition by reconnecting with independents, seniors, blue-collar voters, suburban women and small town and rural voters—all of whom had moved away from the party in the 2006 elections, in which Republicans lost control of the House. Those voter groups now favor GOP control of Congress.
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Bush was the big drag to the GOP with Iraq and now the Republicans smell victory in the air/

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the United States and other Western nations on Thursday against imposing unilateral sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, Interfax news agency reported.

The European Union has said it may impose unilateral sanctions if a U.N. Security Council resolution fails.

U.S. President Barack Obama's administration has been lobbying Western companies not to do business with Iran, but has not imposed sanctions against them.

Countries facing Security Council sanctions "cannot under any circumstances be the subject of one-sided sanctions imposed by one or other government bypassing the Security Council", Lavrov was quoted as saying by Interfax.
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Of course, Bush did nothing against Iran and it is likely Israel will now be forced into a military confrontation with Iran