In PBS's epidose of Frontline entitled "Spying on the Home Front", a good primer is developed for anyone who is interested in just one example of how the executive branch has ram shod over the Constitution and used every IT trick in the book to help them do it. If you haven't seen this episode, you need to watch it and think long and hard about the next time you use a credit card, do a search online, or browse alt.binaries.pictures.preteen. If you are already up to date on this topic, I still suggest you watch the episode for some interesting interviews. There's even additional footage that should make up anyone's mind about whether Al Gonzales is a slimeball or not.

Ironically, I'm not in the infosec biz, not even tangentially, but I counted no less than three people in this program that I know personally. Cindy Cohn, from the EFF, who was very helpful to us at the Tennessee Digital Freedom Network when we resisted some MPAA injected legislation back in 2003. Jeff Jonas, who's now at IBM, but had developed some of the best pattern recognition software in the world which we've used in health care claims analysis. And my good ole friend Steve Bannerman, now at Narus, but formerly at Apple Computer back in the day. Such a small world, even more painfully obvious after watching this program.

Bin Laden is laughing and so am I

Faulty fax, mistaken as threat, prompts evacuation of stores

Having formerly been a resident, I can gladly say that people in Boston are stupid.

Faulty fax, mistaken as threat, prompts evacuation of stores

slashdot is not resolving today. At least for Komkast customers. Since I'm running late, I don't have the time to check and see what might be the problem, but I find it kinda funny that they're having an outage, especially since they seem to be the source of so many outages. Maybe it's just geek karma?

more DNS screwage

Since then, in addition to the $200 billion thrown away paying for but not achieving the NII goals, we've spent another $500 billion (not including interest) on various foreign adventures intended to make us all feel safer. I just wonder what we could have got for that money, for the full $700 billion, if we'd spent it more thoughtfully, perhaps more as a business might do?

No. Bob Cringely is not my mouthpiece. But I'll definitely buy him a beer the next time I see him.

A Prius in Every Garage

Yes, you. You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world.

And if you believe this, then it's worked. Yes, you have perhaps more convenience and capability than ever before. But you don't control anything. Large institutions control everything. In fact, you've sacrificed personal freedom, economic prosperity, liberty, and privacy to enable this to come about. From the food you eat, to the clothes you wear, to the 'indie' this n that which you seek out in order to feel like you're still an individual. Even this article which soothes your wary soul into thinking it's okay comes from a large corporate source. Yes, even the religious establishment of your choice is most likely a corporation. So while you may move through the anxieties of life with the greatest of ease and capability, don't think for a second that you are in control. Big money is in control and the second you take the red pill, you'll understand that.

TIME Magazine's Person of the Year: You

Irish scientists have discovered that three million men worldwide share a common ancestor - allegedly a fifth century Irish warlord rather splendidly called Niall of the Nine Hostages.

The revelation, Reuters reports, comes after a team from Trinity College Dublin tested the Y chromosome in 800 males across Ireland. The results showed that up to one in twelve Irish men has the same Y chromosome, with the highest concentration being in northwest Ireland, where an impressive one in five males boasts the same chromosome.

Irishman has three million kids

In California's delta, that approach translates into $20 million this year to improve the levees that protect Sacramento, the state capital, at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers, and to strengthen the Folsom Dam, upstream from the city. But virtually no federal money is earmarked for other nearby levees that protect smaller communities, cropland and the conduits that bring drinking water to Southern California.
Skip to next paragraph Multimedia
Graphic
Not Spending as Much

California's state government struggles with that issue. The Schwarzenegger administration has proposed more spending on the levees than the Legislature has been willing to approve. Katrina raised awareness of the benefits to be reaped, but even before Katrina, a 1997 flood damaged or destroyed more than 30,000 homes and businesses, and a rupture in a levee last year resulted in $100 million worth of damage and repairs.

This isn't just about levees and infrastructure spending. It's rampant, and it's completely the fault of the current administration and the Republican's taking power of the legislature in 1996. The aim of the Republican party has been to dismantle the "social" side of the Federal government and replace it with capital expenditures that are farmed out to corporations (think Halliburton). The strategy has been to choke off money that's going to states, which is typically social-type programs (Medicaid, DHS, Special Ed, etc), sending that money to Federal programs where it can be outsourced (highway construction, drilling for oil, etc) or create new/bloated bureacracy (Homeland security, FCC, etc).

This starvation on the part of the states is what is currently creating the problems we're seeing. With eroding tax revenues and no help from the Feds, most states are on the brink of fiscal disaster. One look at the energy crisis in CA, the unemployment in MI, TennCare in TN, and the entire southeast region in fiscal junk bond status, and you can see that the plan is working. And it's not just levees. Healthcare, education, public works, and economic development have pretty much all been abandoned by the Feds so they can go off and fight unwinable wars and fatten their friend's corporate profits.

So when you read about how the Bush administration is incompetent and not intouch with reality, think again. They know exactly what they are doing and are executing with aplumb! This is essentially a scorch the earth strategy, which will transfer wealth from every sector of our society into the most wealth Americans who can afford to invest or be shareholders in major corporations who are reaping the benefits of this strategy. This will leave irrepable damage to our society and our community, as it will takes decades to undue the damage, if at all.

Disasters Waiting to Happen

There are just two things to know about Li. First, he grew up in a poor farming community. This makes him hungry.

Second, he comes from Zhejiang, China's heart of capitalism. Zhejiang entrepreneurs are bold beyond words. They scare even the savvy Shanghai business people.

Yes Virginia, the Chinese threat is real.

Nothing less than a revolution will do

Gov. Bob Taft was charged with four criminal misdemeanor counts Wednesday for failing to report dozens of gifts that included dinners, golf games and professional hockey tickets, deepning a scandal that has rocked Ohio's Republican Party.

Hey Bob Taft, thanks for carrying Ohio in the closest race EVER!

Brittney Gilbert's take on the con. This link will self destruct in one week.

BlogNashville