YOUR CORRESPONDENT WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGISE @ THIS TIME FOR ANY DELAY IN YOUR SEEING THIS ITEM BEING POSTED, owing, for the most part, to the following:

• Installation and download of new anti-viral software (and then some--as in dealing against not just viruses, but worms, hackers, Trojan horses, malware, spam, "phishing/spoofing/social engineering" scams, keyloggers and dodgy websites connected with the preceding); and
• Changing the side links for Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk to search boxes in the online-shopping area; the better, hopefully, to improve download time cf. Javascript-type applications.

And speaking of anti-viral software, such may want to be worth checking for possible updates and installation. And which you can buy online, right here, right now, helping Your Correspondent in the process:

(Just make sure you know where you are to make sure you're getting the approriate country-specific version of the software you want.)

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NO WONDER THE GOP'S SUPER-SECRET "DIRTY TRICKS" SQUADRON IS ESPECIALLY INTERESTED IN ZIMBABWE'S RUNNING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION MORASS, what with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claiming that the date announced for the Presidential runoff is illegal by deliberate design; the better to allow goon squads with known connexions to the established ZANU-PF party of Robert Mugabe to conduct intimidation and harrassment campaigns against MDC supporters, real or imagined.

And drooling in envious glee @ reports of Extreme Ultraviolence emerging from The Zimbabwean Underground--even as the Zimbabwean Central Bank announces the issue of a new Z$500,000 bank note which, in real terms, is worth but US$2 @ "official" exchange rates.

Not to mention an official inflation rate of some 160,000% besides.

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ANOTHER "BIN-LADEN TAPE" SURFACED ON THE OVERNIGHT, IF ONLY "TO KEEP PEOPLE SCARED" AND WHIP UP SIMPLE PATRIOTIC FEELINGS all the more in service to the ur-RAHOWA Against International Terrorism.

Note where "bin-Laden Tape" is in quotes, inasmuch as suspicions have emerged in versions thereof issued some months after those connected with the Unfortunate Events of 9/11 as to the authenticity thereof, raising some to wonder if the CIA is really fabricating such for the sake of "national unity" vis-a-vis the ongoing quagmire.

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THIS AIN'T NO WAY TO TREAT WAR VETERANS SERVING IN THE AFOREMENTIONED UR-RAHOWA in the first place, as per the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

Army Sgt. Aeren Nauman served on active duty for nearly two years, part of that time in Iraq, and even stood to recite the Infantryman's Creed at a memorial service for a fallen comrade.

But when he decided to buy a home on his return to the Twin Cities last fall, he found his credit ruined by identity theft.

The alleged thief: his dad.

"What kind of dad is this?" asked Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman after his office charged the father, Leonard Gus Nauman, 61, of Long Lake.

"He waits until his kid is overseas; he creates these forged powers of attorney, creates these new bank accounts and takes the money out of the accounts and leaves his son in deep doo-doo. I'm a veteran, and I'm appalled that any veteran would have to go through this."

The elder Nauman was charged with five counts of forgery, four counts of identity theft and four counts of swindling.

All are felonies, and the most serious — identity theft — carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.

The bank accounts Nauman allegedly set up in his son's name were overdrawn by more than $21,000.

A police investigator said that when the son asked about the accounts, the elder Nauman admitted opening them. But, the investigator said, the father said he did it to "boost" his son's credit score.

"When asked where the money went, defendant stated that he had used the money to pay unspecified bills," Wayzata police Lt. Michael Murphy wrote in the affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint.

Neither Nauman could be reached for comment. The elder Nauman was not in custody, and no date had been set for his first court appearance.

Police said Nauman opened the accounts, used them to obtain lines of credit, got money on that credit and deposited it in a business account.

It appears the money was used to pay for a mortgage installment, utilities, teeth cleaning, groceries, liquor and some retail purchases, Murphy said.

Murphy said the father refused to be questioned by police.

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Wayzata police began investigating the case in August when Aeren Nauman, 28, of St. Paul, freshly returned from duty with the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 34th Infantry Division of the Army National Guard, was looking to buy a home.

"He's at a mortgage place, thinking about getting a house," said Murphy. "That's when he discovered there'd been a significant dip in his credit rating between March of '07 and August of '07. In exploring it, he sees that he now has debt to Wells Fargo Bank and Bremer Bank."

In particular, a Wells Fargo account in his name had an outstanding balance of $12,125. A Bremer account had an outstanding balance of $9,100. Aeren Nauman said he knew nothing of the accounts.

He went to the banks and found his father had opened the accounts using letters that granted him power of attorney, Murphy said. A power-of-attorney certificate gives a person authority to act on behalf of another person.

Aeren Nauman said he never signed the power-of-attorney documents and that his father forged them.

"So then he begins to look into that and eventually goes back to his dad and decides he's probably been swindled," Murphy said.

In an affidavit accompanying a request to search bank records last month, Murphy said the son confronted his father over the accounts Aug. 23 at the Long Lake home of his father's girlfriend.

The father "reported opening the accounts without his son's knowledge or permission to boost Aeren Nauman's credit score," Murphy wrote. When the son asked the father what happened to the money, "his father responded that the funds were used to pay unspecified bills."

After opening the accounts, Leonard Nauman allegedly applied for and got lines of credit. He withdrew money on credit and then deposited it into the account of a business called Ten Mile Investments. State records list Nauman as an officer of the limited-liability company, which is owned by his girlfriend, Mary Ann Saindon, 55.

She could not be reached for comment, and officials said they weren't considering charges against her.

glitter-graphics.com