BREAKING THE BOTNET CODE. “Networks of compromised computers controlled by a central server, better known as botnets, are a Swiss Army knife of tools for online criminals. Hackers can use these co-opted systems to churn out spam, host malicious code, hide their tracks on the Internet, or flood a corporate network to cut off its access to the Web.”

JOHN SCALZI: Writers And Financial Woes: What’s Going On. I make a decent amount of “extra money” from opeds, columns, books, etc. But that just makes me respect (and feel sorry for) people who actually make their living by writing more. If the check for my column is two weeks late, it’s mildly annoying but doesn’t affect my ability to, you know, pay the mortgage. Real writers are in a different position, unless their name is Grisham, Rowling or, maybe, Scalzi.

Plus, some related thoughts from Toby Buckell. I really liked his Sly Mongoose.

IN THE MAIL: From David Plouffe, The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory.

ALFONZO RACHEL: Breast Intentions: Don’t Fall for Nanny Staters’ Booby-Trap.

AN UNFORTUNATE PASSIVE VOICE: Lionel McIntyre assaults woman, English language.

CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Poll: Dodd Approval Rating Drops. “A new Quinnipiac University poll shows that Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd’s approval rating has declined again, and two Republicans would beat him in head-to-head matchups in next year’s election. The poll released Thursday says 54 percent of registered voters surveyed last week disapprove of the job Dodd is doing, up from 49 percent in September. Dodd’s approval rating had inched up in the polls for several months before the latest survey.”

RYAN MAURO: America, Here’s Your Change Candidate for 2012. “Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, may lead a libertarian insurgency for the GOP nomination.” When I was polling people on 2012, several readers suggested him but he didn’t poll very well. But it’s early yet.

A READER EMAILS ABOUT THIS MEMO FROM THE OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT:

OPM is now claiming authority to weed out every former political appointee from being considered for ANY federal positions at EVERY level of the GS Pay Scale, for both the competitive AND excepted service – made RETROACTIVE for the past 5 years! (This is a new, extra layer of scrutiny previously reserved for SES hires.) OPM will now check the recommended hires to “ensure they comply with merit system principles and applicable civil service laws.”

It is well established anti-discrimination law in the Federal sector – the public (political appointees included) may not be excluded from consideration for federal jobs because of their political affiliation.

OPM’s alleged rationale is to keep political appointees from “burrowing in,” but agencies would need to have already considered the applicant the best qualified to even reach this new hurdle.

Stated another way, “but for” the applicant having served as a political appointee within the past five years, all agencies would not be required to seek review from OPM for all agency positions. Effectively, the ONLY reason EVERY agency will now be REQUIRED to consult OPM is to “ask permission” to hire a person based on their political affiliation.

Why make the policy retroactive for 5 years? I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

Hmm.

CHARLOTTE ALLEN on Chicago Prosecutors and the Innocence Project.

THIS IS SMART P.R.: Ave Maria University bans blogger from campus.

CLAUDIA ROSETT: Obama’s Muddled Message At Fort Hood. “In the media, the question of the hour is how the military could have missed the warning signs of Hasan’s impending attack. Such details are important, and it would be a great idea to have better mechanisms (or any mechanisms at all?) within the military to catch the warning signs and act in time. But vigilance of that kind starts at the top. Right now the biggest warning sign of all is a president who looks at a pattern of jihadi communications, recruiting and attacks on America, and tells the public that the bloodshed at Fort Hood is ‘incomprehensible.’ Not for the first time, the system is blinking red.”

BLAMING THE ARMY for Hasan’s terrorism?

WHAT’S WRONG WITH CHARITABLE GIVING, and how to fix it.

CHEATING AND EMAIL can be an unfortunate combination.

ABC NEWS: The Private Life of Nidal Hassan.

“DON’T BEAT ME, I’m just a blogger.”

ANNOUNCING THE 2009 CMA Award winners.

MATT WELCH: Police Defend, Lie About Devices That Extract Money From and Cause Bodily Harm to Citizens. “The problem? Motorists see the cameras flash, slam on their brakes, and get rear-ended. Helpfully, the LAPD does not measure rear-end crashes in front of red-light intersections; but only the crashes of people who’ve run a red. Those are down 34 percent, which the department crows about. When confronted with overall intersection data, which tells an unhappier story, the LAPD suddenly says this: ‘It would be improper to draw a correlation between all accidents going up and the red light cameras.'”

More here.

DANIEL DREZNER: “For an administration that claims it wants to have better relations with its allies, Obama and his foreign policy team have been remarkably tone-deaf when it comes to trade policy. At every major summit meeting since he’s come to office, Obama has heard complaints about the lack of U.S. leadership on the trade front. This administration has demonstrated that it’s not afraid to tackle multiple, complex challenges at the same time — and yet they’ve been either mute or worse when it comes to trade.”

MICKEY KAUS: DID FOX WIN THE WAR? “Obama aide Anita Dunn, who started the White House war against Fox, is leaving her post. … Meanwhile, Obama will give an interview to Fox’s Major Garrett. … Did Fox win? … Or was it an October fundraising ploy all along? … If Obama won, his communications shop certainly knows how to magnanimously make it look like he lost. … Is that what Sun Tzu would do?”

UH OH: More Stimulus Equals More Unemployment.

SHOCKING NEWS FROM MASSACHUSETTS: Stimulus job boost in state exaggerated, review finds. “While Massachusetts recipients of federal stimulus money collectively report 12,374 jobs saved or created, a Globe review shows that number is wildly exaggerated. Organizations that received stimulus money miscounted jobs, filed erroneous figures, or claimed jobs for work that has not yet started.”

ANOTHER ILLUSION SHATTERED: French Women Do Get Fat.

WALTER REED OFFICIALS ASKED, Was Hasan Psychotic? NPR’s Daniel Zwerdling has owned this story from the beginning. And this is damning:

“Put it this way,” says one official familiar with the conversations that took place. “Everybody felt that if you were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, you would not want Nidal Hasan in your foxhole.”

Not that they did anything to prevent someone else from finding themself in that position.

DITHERING: A reader who requests anonymity emails:

Just something that occurred to me today while trying to cross Fifth Ave in Manhattan during the Veteran’s Day Parade:

The towers fell in New York on 9/11/01, Kabul fell to American led forces on 11/14/01. That’s 65 days.

President Obama’s hand-picked replacement commander in Afghanistan, GEN McChrystal, delivered his Afghanistan war plans to President Obama on 8/30/09, and President Obama hasn’t acted on his General’s recommendations as of today, 11/11/09. That’s 73 days, and waiting.

It’s the Gallo Paul Masson approach. We will make no war plan before its time.