In a re-shuffle of programming and personality placement at MSNBC, it looks like Tucker Carlson will no longer have his own show. Instead of replacing that block with another open minded conservative, they replaced it with one of my least-favorite journalists, David Gregory.

From MediaBistro.com:

NBC News chief White House correspondent David Gregory is being tapped to anchor a new MSNBC program called Race for the White House. Gregory will take over the 6pmET time slot from Tucker Carlson who remains with the network as MSNBC’s Senior Campaign Correspondent, reporting for all MSNBC shows.

I’m not sure why they decided to make this move, but

Sources say the network is going to beef up its schedule with more NBC News talent.

I really don’t consider David Gregory to be more talented than Tucker Carlson. Sure, David Gregory can rock the $4,000 Prada boots in 2 feet of snow in New Hampshire like the true player he thinks he is, but he doesn’t get street-cred from me until he rocks the bow-tie. Nothing can top the bow-tie.

It looks like the the girl from the infamous “3am call” video (see below) produced by the Hillary Clinton campaign isn’t even a Clinton supporter.

From CNN.com:

BONNEY LAKE, Washington (AP) — Casey Knowles didn’t much like a recent campaign commercial for Hillary Clinton — even though she’s in it as a sleeping 8-year-old.

After all, she about to turn 18 now and is a big supporter of Barack Obama.

“What I don’t like about the ad is its fear-mongering,” Knowles told ABC’s “Good Morning America Weekend Edition” on Sunday. “I think it’s a cheap hit to take. I really prefer Obama’s message of looking forward to a bright future.”

You would figure that the Clinton camp would pre-screen those people in their video, who will naturally become stars in their own right, to ensure that they aren’t going to kill any of the video’s momentum.

This girl isn’t spectacular, she could have been replaced with any Clinton supporter. Even so, I don’t think that this is that big of deal, but its still quite funny.

Usually, when I think about the terms “girls”, “video”, “Clinton” and “3am,” a Hillary ad isn’t usually the first thing that comes to mind.

It looks like it’s going to be another great summer full of Dave Matthews Band shows. Just at quick glance, it looks like there is a handful of shows that are within a 3-5 hour driving radius of the district:

(from DMBand.com)

• 5/30 - 5/31 - Burgettstown, PA (4.5 hours from DC)
• 6/3 - 6/4 - Camden, NJ (3 hours from DC)
• 6/10 - Scranton, PA (4 hours, 30 minutes from DC)
• 6/27 - Hershey, PA (3 hours from DC)
• 6/28 - Bristow, VA (1 hour from DC)
• 8/7 - Virginia Beach, VA (3 hour, 30 minutes from DC)

As some of you know, Dave Matthews has endorsed Barack Obama for President. I’m curious to see how he will play a role in the election should Obama be the nominee for the Democrats. Dave Matthews Band fans reach across a wide range of demographics, and for many, all it might take to sway them is one well crafted argument from Dave Matthews in the favor of Obama.

However, anyone who has ever been to a DMB show knows very well that many of the people aren’t in their “right mind” before, during and after the concert. Of course, one could argue that such a climate could make any political debate that much more interesting.

I came across a listing of the most stressful metro areas in the United States, and I’ll be honest, I was quite surprised with the results.

You can see the table for yourself here, but in the interest of time, I’ll just give you the run down of the top 15 metro areas.

1. Detroit, MI
2. Cleveland, OH
3. St. Louis, MO
4. Riverside - San Bernardino, CA
5. Los Angeles, CA
6. Chicago, IL
7. Memphis, TN
8. New York City, NY
9. Philadelphia, PA
10. Atlanta, GA
11. San Fransisco - Oakland, CA
12. Pittsburgh, PA
13. Cincinnati, OH
14. Houston, TX
15. Washington, DC

How the hell is Washington, DC, the city where your enemies are your best friends, ranked less stressful than places like San Fransisco and Cleveland?

Just look at the murder rate on the chart, we’re higher than most of the cities on the list. We have one of the highest percentages of traveling commuters, and have one of the higher rates for deaths from circulatory diseases.

I guess you can never take rankings too seriously.

It looks like China has been spending a great deal of time, effort, and energy trying to figure out the security vulnerabilities of the computer systems of the United States government, particularly those at the Department of Defense.

From CNN.com:

ZHOUSHAN, China (CNN) — They operate from a bare apartment on a Chinese island. They are intelligent 20-somethings who seem harmless. But they are hard-core hackers who claim to have gained access to the world’s most sensitive sites, including the Pentagon.

In fact, they say they are sometimes paid secretly by the Chinese government — a claim the Beijing government denies.

“No Web site is one hundred percent safe. There are Web sites with high-level security, but there is always a weakness,” says Xiao Chen, the leader of this group.

This of course, is something that isn’t that shocking to anyone who has followed computer security, and the politics behind. Should we be surprised that the Chinese government would deny the fact that they pay hackers to test for vulnerabilities? Absolutely not. I wouldn’t be shocked if the United States has similar programs, with similar objectives.

What is concerning though, is the level of computers that many of these hackers have been able to get to. While it is a big deal when a foreign hacker gets into the computer of the FDA, etc, it’s a catastrophe when word is leaked that foreign computers have been able to penetrate some of the security layers at the DoD.

The apartment has cement floors and almost no furniture. What they do have are three of the latest computers. They are cautious when it comes to naming the Web sites they have hacked.

But eventually Xiao Chen claims two of his colleagues — not the ones with him in the room — have hacked into the Pentagon and downloaded information, although he wouldn’t specify what was gleaned. CNN has no way to confirm if his claim is true.

I think that CNN actually confirmed their claim a few days ago in this article, reporting:

Pentagon officials said a chunk of China’s spending went to cyberwarfare, because 2007 saw several “intrusions” believed to be from the Peoples Liberation Army. In the incidents, unclassified U.S. military computer systems were broken into and information was taken, according to Pentagon officials.

While these intrusions are probably entrances on some of the Pentagon’s lower-security ports, the fact that they have been able to get to even those layers is extremely impressive and should raise may red flags (though, since we’re talking about China, maybe a blue flag?) Remember, computers are connected through a series of networks, so if you can get to one of the less secure systems, I would imagine its not impossible to penetrate deeper into the system.

With word of these threats, one cant help but wonder what steps the Department of Defense is taking to ensure that these hackers cant penetrate these systems even further.

From a spending perspective, it looks like the White House has caught on to the need for more secure computer systems in government, as illustrated in the FY 2009 budget request from the White House:

New details on federal IT spending plans, made available by the Office of Management and Budget today, show that $103 out of every $1,000 requested for IT spending next fiscal year — or about $7.3 billion in total — will be devoted to improving IT security. That is 9.8 percent more than what was slated for fiscal 2008, and 73 percent more than the $4.2 billion budgeted for cybersecurity in fiscal 2004.

Is $7.3 billion enough for securing the United States’ most sensitive files? I doubt it.

Unfortunately, the advantage that hackers have is that they are part of an international network, which is comprised of what are, undoubtedly, some of the greatest technology minds around.

This means that in most situations, for every one step the US government takes, odds are there is a hacker following right behind, finding vulnerabilities.

It’s a complicated problem, and unfortuntately I don’t see there ever being a 100% secure solution for the DoD, taking into account the size of the organization.