May 2006 Archives

In a press conference today, Ricky Santorum responded to allegations that he no longer lives in Pennsylvania: "Just because I live on a palatial estate and horse farm in northwestern Virginia does not mean I'm out of touch with the needs and desires of my constituents in Penn...uhmm...Pencil...dammit Joe, where am I from again? Nevermind nevermind, I am in touch with my vassals....I mean voters, and I care about them. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a polo match to attend to."

Santorum's illegal immigrant gardner Hector had this to say: "Shit I see more of his house in Penn Hills than that guy. I go up and mow the lawn once a week."

Watched two season finales last night: American Idol. Taylor won. We all knew it was going to happen. I'm happy because he's a great performer and he really can light up a stage. I'll be interested to see if they actually let him do the type of music he likes to do or will try to push him into the current musical styling. I think it would be a mistake, not only because he probably would not be happy and it wouldn't suit him, but also because the last 3 AI contestants were all singing music from the annals of soul, R&B, and so on. They weren't really singing contemporary songs, but songs with a lot of history and warmth behind them.

The other finale I watched was Lost. HOLY GOD. What a great two hours of TV. That was incredible. I don't care to share too much as I know some people probably have not watched it yet and are waiting, but I do want to say that I don't think it's a coincidence that you had a polar bear on the island and the two scientists at the end were in an arctic environment. But with a show like Lost, there are so many red herrings it's hard to tell what's a real connection and what they're doing to mess with you.

BusinessWeek is running a story about how the US Government is buying public databases that contain all manner of information about people, including their financial information and biographical information, all often tied to your phone number.

Having the ability to combine that information with the illegally obtained phone calling records and who knows what else being collected gives the government a lot of information that can be used to harass people, or worse yet tie them to crimes they didn't necessarily commit. I've stated it before, it only takes one call to someone who's doing something shady to have your name in a collection of "suspects".

Consider me, for example. I have worked in companies that include people from India. Now say one of those persons is a Kashmiri muslim ( I have twice worked with Muslims from Kashmir ) who through a friend is connected to a known terrorist in that area (that part is I hope made up).

His friend calls him from Kashmir to talk about his upcoming trip back home. He then calls me for a few minutes to talk about something relating to work or cricket, whatever. I'm only 4 steps removed from a terrorist. Doesn't mean I'm a terrorist, but I'm flagged. The FBI then does a search of my purchasing records and finds out that not only have I bought two books on Learning Hindi but I've also bought the Koran, and searched on Amazon for books about learning Pashto and Urdu (languages in Afghanistan and Pakistan). They have no way of knowing that I did so when I was entertaining the idea of working as an open-source translator for the CIA or NSA. I have now become a "person of interest". Suddenly my calls are being listened in on, my email is being filtered, my whole life, and the lives of the people around me are being analyzed. The fact that I have a PGP key and employ it is viewed as highly suspect. The nature of the writings I have posted on this blog and elsewhere are held up as evidence of some greater plot or sedition. My friend Jeff is flagged as being associated with a "person of interest" and comes under scrutiny by his military commanders. Both of my brother-in-law's jobs become jeopardized. My mom's private phone calls as a pastor are listened in on. The circle of inquiry widens further and further. And all because I could be four links away from a known terrorist.

Think that's crazy? Bush himself is one link away from Osama bin Laden himself. The Bush family knows the bin Laden family well. So consider for a second how you may be connected to a "person of interest" even if only tangentially. Do you want the government snooping through your life on such flimsy evidence?

Former NSA Head Bobby Ray Inman has spoken out against the NSA Domestic Spying Program:

"My own view, this activity was not authorized by a resolution to use whatever force you need to do. There clearly was a line in the FISA statutes, which says you couldn't do this."

The voters of Philadelphia voted by a 4-1 ratio in a non-binding resolution to approve the use of public surveillance cameras within city limits. I'm really dismayed. I haven't seen any scientific evidence that surveillance cameras work as promised. Studies in Britain have shown that putting more lights on the streets have a greater impact on crime, and Britain (and London especiall) is always pointed to as the model. And sure there are times when it has helped, but I do not know that the few times it helps justifies the further reduction in people's privacy. England's already allowing people in one neighborhood in London watch the police cameras in their own neighborhood. That means neighbor can spy on neighbor.

I'm just worried that we've reached the point where people would be willing to give up privacy in their homes in the hope that it would prevent crimes in their homes. More importantly I'm worried that it will evolve into some city or town mandating it.

A town in Missouri has stated that a couple with 3 children cannot live together because the mother and father are not married. The town requires a residency permit for homes with more than 3 people living in it. What the fuck? A residency permit? What the hell for? (Link)

I can just imagine it now:
"Hey Bob"
"Howdy Sherriff. What can I do for you?"
"I heard you had twins last week."
"That's correct. Twin boys. Named them Joseph and Jacob."
"Good Christian names. Listen...we have to talk."
"What's the matter?"
"Well seeing how it's you and Ellie and you've already got a little girl, the birth of those twins means you've got 5 people living in your house."
"Right."
"You haven't come by the courthouse to get your permit."
"What permit?"
"The one that lets you have more than 3 people living at your house."
"But three of those people are kids! What the hell?"
"Watch it. Now, I can only give you one week to get the permit before I have to come by and take your house."
"GET THE HELL OFF MY LAND!"
"Bob, don't screw with me. If you don't have that permit in 7 days I'll be back with the deputies and you'll be living in your car. Congratulations on the birth. Good day."

I bet the permit costs $30 or some such to get too.

Yup, thank God for Freedom and the American way.

ABC News keeps swinging with new allegations. Today the revealed that the FBI is using provisions of the PATRIOT Act (remember it was passed to fight terrorism) to use National Security Letters to get the phone records of journalists. In case you don't remember, a National Security Letter carries the same weight as a warrant except it must be kept secret and does not require judicial oversight to be executed, as a warrant would. This was done under the assertion that the government might need to act quickly and secretly to prevent a terrorist from acting out their plans.

Of course, the problem with an NSL is that it can be used to get information which a judge would not allow because it would violate the Fourth Amendment, giving law enforcement a way to get around the Constitution with no way for the judicial branch to perform the oversight it's supposed to perform. (Article here)

Add to that that the government issued 3501 NSLs for people within the US and I feel even more worried about this country and our freedoms. (Article here)

Worst of all, with NSLs and the NSA tracking of phone calls as a "classified yet legal program" it will happen in the future that people will be charged with crimes they did not commit by Federal Agencies on the basis of evidence that has been collected without oversight that they and the defense lawyers will not be able to see or refute because it is "classified". There are already cases of people being charged with "secret evidence" that courts are not allowing defense lawyers or juries to see.

Why all of this combined doesn't scare the pants off of most Americans baffles me.

In light of the recent ABC News story about the government poring over the media's phone records to find whistleblowers comes the following little blurb (via BoingBoing): the Government Printing Office created flash cards to help immigrants pass their citizenship tests, and they enumerated the freedoms listed in the First Amendment as: freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, and the freedom to petition the government. What's missing? Freedom of the press, which is explicitly enumerated in the First Amendment.

Surely this is merely an oversight, but the Bush Administration does seem to hate the press, so who knows?

Link

My friend Richard Harlos has an insightful blurb on his blog regarding the NSA wiretapping and whether or not they're listening in on domestic phone calls. He asserts that it all hangs on how you parse the word "listen". Read it here.

I posted my link yesterday to the ABC article that revealed the Bush Administration is using the NSA calling-records database to figure out who's leaking information. I went back to the story and saw some of the comments from people on the article. They're appalling! I wanted to highlight a few here:

• Good! I hope they do find out who is leaking national security info to the press. I'm tired of the press helping our enemies. Maybe you guys should start trying to "FOR the USA" instead of "AGAINST the USA" ALL THE TIME. I hope the FBI nails lots of idiots who are out to destroy the intelligence agencies and cost us more soldiers and spys!
• 'Bout time you guys are roped in.
• Excellent the Media needs looking after, Traitors most of them.......
• good, you seditionist creeps deserve what you get. who knows how many serviceman have died because of your "right to know"
• I hope the information they gain allows them to catch the scum that leak information, and helps them arrest the communist scum who publish it.
• I am tired of thae news media leaking secret information in order to hurt PREDIDENT BUSH. I would prosucute [sic] the news media leakers for treason like LINCOLN did. We are at WAR with a enemy who whants [sic] to take over the world by force or kill all of us

I find this kind of stuff horrifying. I know that not all of the comments are like that, but truly, there are people out there that want the press locked up and gagged because it's not agreement with the president, or reporting on policies that are illegal that people within the government don't even agree with themselves.

WE HAVE A FREE PRESS IN THIS COUNTRY SO WE HAVE AN INDEPENDENT FORM OF OVERSIGHT ON THE ABUSES OF POWER AND YOU SHITHEADS WANT TO REMOVE IT SO THE GOVERNMENT IS COMPLETELY UNCHECKED. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Welcome to the new fascist state.

ABC News was flatly told by a senior federal law enforcement official that the government is using the contents of the illegally obtained NSA calling-records database to determine what government officials have been leaking information to news sources. (Link)

This puts a huge chilling effect on people's abilities to speak to the press about things that are occurring within our government, especially when they are illegal, immoral, or both. It makes it so much harder for people to speak up, and THIS SHOULD outrage people. It just plain should shake people to think that the government has illegally collected everyone's calling records and is now using it to destroy the press' ability to perform public oversight of the government.

One of the exact reasons we have a free press is to prevent government abuses LIKE THESE from occurring by exposing them to the light of day.

The fact that most people roll over and scratch their butts when they hear this stuff scares me.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been fighting to get the details of the NSA wiretapping AT&T calls for some time. Last night, yes, last night, in the middle of Saturday night, to have the lawsuit dismissed. The EFF has been working so hard to protect people's rights in the electronic realm, and I was long overdue in giving them my support.

I recommend you all join and fight to keep people free online.

A man who rented a room at the same house a sex offender rented at was mistaken for a sex offender and was visited several times by police and federal agents. The worst of it is that the whole thing that got the ball rolling was a mother in the neighborhood was somehow able to track his license plate back to his address and "turned him in", albeit erroneously, and when he asked the police what he can do to make this better, their only suggestion was "Move away".

What the fuck? So that's what's going to happen from now on? Someone buys a house from a convicted sex offender or rents in the same building and they get the stigma by proxy?

Come on. That's just stupid.

(Link to the original MSNBC story)

What's "posse comitatus"? It is a law in the United States that states the US military cannot engage in police activities on US soil except in times of emergency, such as a federally declared "state of emergency" like the time after Katrina.

Southern lawmakers in the House met with Karl Rove (our own Cardinal Wolsey) to petition his high lord that we allow the US military to act in a capacity to fight illegal immigration. A bill has already passed the House which would permit the Pentagon to send troops to the border in "certain circumstances", not enumerated, for police activities. The governors of Texas and Arizona seemed thrilled with the idea.

As the President seems to think that whatever whim he has that day is legal I'm sure he'll just authorize this and it will happen, and most Americans will just yawn, or worse yet, say it's necessary and important and good.

ZFone is software from Phil Zimmerman (the guy who created PGP) as a way to encrypt communications on a VoIP call. The beta for Windows is not yet available, though promised soon, and when it is, I'm going to consider moving to it so I can ditch Verizon altogether. This whole NSA thing has really stuck in my craw.

Find out more about ZFone here.

I called Verizon Wireless and Verizon to complain about their cooperating with the NSA in collecting records of American's phone calls. VZW disavowed any cooperation stating that this was merely being done by the landline companies and Verizon itself said "We won't talk about this, thanks for complaining."

VZW's assertion that they're not participating doesn't amount to much of anything since all the calls get routed to Verizon landlines once they hit a tower so it's still been snagged in this database.

Fuck you Verizon, and fuck you NSA.

So in January I made a comment about the NSA wiretapping all phone calls, and how I was pissed because my mom's phone calls could be listened in on. I stated:

"When my mom calls Germany to talk to her family she didn't consent to be listened in on by the NSA. It's an involuntary search, and that is the reason why we have warrants. It's gives us the assurance that an independent judge has at least reviewed the merits of the case and it passes muster."

My friend Scott made the snarky comment:

I find it ironic that when you heard about NSA wire-tapping Al Qaeda phone calls that you immediately worried about your mom being illegally wire-tapped during her phone calls to Germany.

USA Today reported this morning that the NSA has amassed the calling records of millions of Americans. Yes, they're not necessarily listening in on my mom's conversations, BUT, they are tracking all sorts of phone activities of innocent people:

"The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews."

There are SO MANY things bad about this, but consider for a second that the man whom Bush wants to put in charge of the CIA is the Gen. Hayden, the person who spearheaded this program at the NSA.

One bright note about the whole article: QWEST Communications, out of Denver, stood up to the NSA and refused to hand over their records because the NSA refused to get a warrant or to work through the FISA courts. Good job QWEST. If I could, I would change my phone service to you in a heartbeat.

It was an uneven night for the contestants. Each of the contestants had a fairly blah first song followed by a great second song. Well, almost. Here they are ranked in order of quality performances, best to worst:

1. Elliott Yamin - His first song was the best out of the first songs. His second song was fantastic.
2. Taylor Hicks - Jailhouse Rock was just...eh...but his cover of In The Ghetto was awesome!
3. Chris Daughtry - Both of his songs were just okay, though his second song was better.
4. Katherine McPhee - Both of her songs were not up to par. She was so strong last week, but pretty bad this week.

All that being said, I don't know if Elliot's going to stay or not. I'm not as confident about this prediction as I have been about my others in the past. I think the bottom two will be Chris and Katherine, and Katherine goes home.

I have thought about it, and I've decided I'm not going to go see MI:3. I'm tired of giving Scientology money so they can go out and brainwash and harass people. I don't agree with their methods, intentions, or actions, and I think that the best thing I can do for myself is not go see the movie.

A friend pointed me to this latest review of Mike Thrush's artwork. I find his work to be so startling and arresting. I love it. The Bambi picture is one of those "ha ha not funny" pieces that I do find amusing. I guess I'm just a sick bastard.

Does man have an inalienable right to rebel against his own government? Thomas Jefferson once said famously "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing." He was speaking about the Shay's Rebellion, a revolt by farmers in Western Massachusetts against the court system being used by rich landowners and banks to lock smaller landowners in debtor's prisons. Most people only ever hear that quick blurb from Jefferson, usually quoted by libertarians justifying their more shocking statements in favor of anarchy. Historians sometimes trot it out when they wish to paint Jefferson in a light of slight lunacy, but he goes on in his letter to explain himself: "I hold that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governments so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not ot discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."

Word is that Michael Hayden has been a vociferous supporter of the president's wiretapping program and doesn't adequately understand the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable search and seizure without probable cause.

Is there anyone but those with their heads completely up Grover Norquist's butt that don't see this guy is a stunningly bad choice for the man who's responsibilities would inlucde not only running the CIA but ensuring that the agency under his purview does not go too far?

Even as a libertarian I believe there is a need for an organization like the CIA, which would operate overseas to defend the country and our interests, and work to prevent us from coming under attack, but I do not, and cannot support the idea of putting a pro-police state Bush yes-man in office.

It's a terrible terrible idea and I hope the man is roasted alive in his confirmation hearings.

I can't believe this is true, but a friend of mine told me that in Mexico, some of the futbol (soccer) games are fixed by their equivalent of the mafia (which sounds highly suspect already given how important the games are) so they have been known to shoot the ball on field from the stands to prevent scoring. I called immediate bullshit, and I CANNOT find anything online that even closely approximates this, but he swears it's the total anc complete truth.

Has anyone seriously heard of this happening, other than in pulp novels and 1970's Sunday Afternoon movies on channel 57?

The spammer that sent threatening letters to BlueSecurity users has not carried out his threats. After the letters were sent, he initiated full-scale attacks against BlueSecurity, which stopped the network for a while, but has, if anything, screwed him even further.

Instead of just complying with the demands of the members, he sent threats against thousands of people, tried to extort those people, and engaged in full-blown hacking activity against several companies.

Maybe they'll let him have a cell with a window when it's all said and done.

And I'm happy, because another spammer bites the dust.

This story made me tear up (MSNBC video). She is so beautiful, even with the hemangioma. I would love to adopt her. Thank God she's being adopted by a good family.

My Idol Recap:

• Elliott Yamin - I thought his first song was hot and great. He came out swinging and jumping. He was funky. I loved it. Second song? Not so great. Still, I think he's safe this week.
• Paris Bennett - I just don't get her. While technically proficient, her music never seems to connect with people. She's in the bottom two.
• Chris Daughtry - Maybe I'm just too much of a Styx fan, but I thought Chris undersang "Renegade". It's the kind of song you can put a lot of passion behind and he didn't do it. His second song choice was awful. Bottom two.
• Katherine McPhee - I thought her first song was just okay, but her second was fantastic. I didn't even know the song but it was hot. Safe.
• Taylor Hicks - Both of his songs were on fire and he burned up my TV. He's a born entertainer. Safe.

So with Paris and Chris in the bottom 2, I predict Paris going home.

I signed up with BlueSecurity because I was sick of the amount of spam I was getting. This morning when I retrieved my mail, I had 239 messages. I started looking at them and found half the messages were just meaningless blocks of prose, but the other half said this:

You are recieving this email because you are a member of BlueSecurity (http://www.bluesecurity.com).

You signed up because you were expecting to recieve a lesser amount of spam, unfortunately, due to the tactics used by BlueSecurity, you will end up recieving this message, or other nonsensical spams 20-40 times more than you would normally.

How do you make it stop?

Simple, in 48 hours, and every 48 hours thereafter, we will run our current list of BlueSecurity subscribers through BlueSecurity's database, if you arent there.. you wont get this again.

We have devised a method to retrieve your address from their database, so by signing up and remaining a BlueSecurity user not only are you opening yourself up for this, you are also potentially verifying your email address through them to even more spammers, and will end up getting up even more spam as an end-result.

By signing up for bluesecurity, you are doing the exact opposite of what you want, so delete your account, and you will stop recieving this.

Why are we doing this?

Its simple, we dont want to, but BlueSecurity is forcing us. We would much rather not waste our resources and send you these useless mails.

Its simple, we dont want to, but BlueSecurity is forcing us. We would much rather not waste our resources and send you these useless mails, but do not believe for one second that we will stop this tirade of emails if you choose to stay with BlueSecurity.
Just remember one thing when you read this, we didnt do this to you, BlueSecurity did.

If BlueSecurity decides to play fair, we will do the same.

Just remove yourself from BlueSecurity, and make it easier on you.

Message to the spammer: NO. I will not remove myself from BlueSecurity. I will not give in to your demands, and I will not stop fighting back against you. Sending me this burst of mail does not lessen my desire to fight back. It only strengthens my resolve. I am heartened to see that BlueSecurity has become such an annoyance that you're trying to fight back. I hope our efforts are really hurting you.

In fact, I think more people should sign up for BlueSecurity.

Update 1 - I'm already getting more emails from this guy, so he's apparently not waiting for the 48 hours he offered. But what did I expect? He's a spammer. He's scum. Also, as Rich pointed out, the email is threat of a DDOS against BlueSecurity members, so it is something that could be handled via the law, if we could figure out who the hell he is.