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Margaret Bassett passed away August 21, 2011. She was a treasured member of the Opednews.com editorial team for four years.
Margaret Bassett--OEN editor--is an 89-year old, currently living in senior housing, with a lifelong interest in political philosophy. Bachelors from State University of Iowa (1944) and Masters from Roosevelt University (1975) help to unravel important requirements for modern communication. Early introduction to computer science (1966) trumps them. It's payback time. She's been "entitled" so long she hopes to find some good coming off the keyboard into the lives of those who come after her.
Friday, August 19, 2011 Data Show More Children Are Growing Up Poor. Now What? - MomsRising Blog (1 comments)
On Wednesday, The Annie E. Casey Foundation released its annual KIDS COUNT study.........
11 percent of children-nearly 8 million children-live with at least one unemployed parent.
* 31 percent of children live in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment
10 percent of children live in single-parent families, and
* 4 percent of children have been affected by the foreclosure crisis.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 BART's Misguided Actions (2 comments)
We don't condone some of the tactics used by Anonymous -- particularly the release of passengers' personal information siphoned from BART's website -- and No Justice No BART. Nevertheless, the agency was wrong to try to preempt the latter's protest last week; that sort of prior restraint is antithetical to a free society. Rather than assuming the group's members would act improperly, BART should have prepared itself to respond in the event that they actually threatened the safe operation of the trains.
(LA Times editorial)
That's the strategy the agency appeared to adopt Monday, yet despite ample advance warning, it wasn't up to the task of keeping the stations open during the protests. Instead of inconveniencing many to stop the actions of an obstreperous few, BART needs to master the basics of crowd control, and do so soon.
Sunday, August 14, 2011 Indianapolis News, Saturday Night Storm at Sugarland Concert
The crowd was poised in anticipation, including scores of people pressed up against the stage, just seconds before country music sensation Sugarland was to perform at the State Fair on Saturday night.
Above the stage, nestled in the rigging, a crew member had taken his position, ready to shine a spotlight on the action.
But the weather near the Indiana State Fairgrounds was starting to get dicey. Backstage, State Police special operations commander Brad Weaver was watching an ugly storm moving in on radar via his smartphone. He and fair Executive Director Cindy Hoye decided it was time to evacuate the crowd.
Thursday, August 11, 2011 There Is a Context to London's Riots that Can't Be Ignored
Common Dreams:
Since the coalition came to power just over a year ago, the country has seen multiple student protests, occupations of dozens of universities, several strikes, a half-a-million-strong trade union march and now unrest on the streets of the capital (preceded by clashes with Bristol police in Stokes Croft earlier in the year). Each of these events was sparked by a different cause, yet all take place against a backdrop of brutal cuts and enforced austerity measures. The government knows very well that it is taking a gamble, and that its policies run the risk of sparking mass unrest on a scale we haven't seen since the early 1980s. With people taking to the streets of Tottenham, Edmonton, Brixton and elsewhere over the past few nights ...........
Monday, August 8, 2011 Issa Subpoenas Gov't Documents in Boeing Case
The Republican chairman of the House Oversight committee has subpoenaed documents from the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit against Boeing Co., increasing the political pressure over a case that has the GOP fuming.
Rep. Darrell Issa of California, a leading critic of the dispute, claims the lawsuit interferes with the company's ability to decide where to do its work.
The case "is unprecedented in a global economy and hobbles a leading American job creator at a time of economic vulnerability," Issa said in a letter Sunday to the agency's acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon
Monday, August 8, 2011 AntiSec Hackers Dump Data after Hacking Police Websites
IDG News Service - The war between law enforcement and the Anonymous hacking collective continued this weekend as hackers dumped a 10 gigabyte database that included private e-mails and information sent by confidential informants. Hackers say they stole information during an attack on more than 70 small-town law enforcement agencies.
The hackers, an Anonymous-affiliated group known as AntiSec, say that they hope to "embarrass, discredit and incriminate police officers across the US," in retaliation for ongoing arrests of Anonymous members.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 Governor Otter Tackles Questions about China Business Dealings
Idaho Coeur d'Alene Press on how China and Idaho's trade relations work. Io dispel rumors, Governor Butch Otter's office released on Thursday this list of answers to frequently asked questions about trade and investment relations between Idaho and China.
Friday, July 22, 2011 Anonymous, LulzSec Vow to Hack on
Anonymous, LulzSec vow to hack on
Nothing law enforcement can do to stop us, groups say in statement following this week's arrests
By Jaikumar Vijayan
Computerworld - In a defiant statement addressed largely at FBI director Steve Chabinsky, members of the Anonymous and LulzSec hacktivist groups vowed to continue with their hacking campaigns and dared law enforcement to try and stop them.
The statement comes just two days after the FBI arrested 14 alleged members of Anonymous in connection with a series of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against PayPal last year.
The immediate provocation appears to have been some comments made by Chabinsky in a NPR report following the recent arrests.
Friday, July 22, 2011 The Sordid History Of News Corp.'s Roger Ailes (1 comments)
Ailes Reportedly Looked For A "Wallaceite Cab-Driver" To Bring Up Race At Town Hall. Fox News' frequent racially charged attempts to foment opposition to President Obama echo Ailes' decades-long record of stoking racial fears and biases while serving as a media consultant for Republican political campaigns. While working for Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign, Ailes reportedly suggested Nixon participate in a televised town hall and take a question from a "good, mean, Wallaceite cab-driver ... Some guy to sit there and say, 'Awright, Mac, what about these niggers?" The strategy, according to Nixonland author Rick Pearlstein, was to have Nixon "abhor the uncivility of the words, while endorsing a 'moderate' version of the opinion." [Nixonland, p. 331]
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 Microsoft Posts $250K Reward for Rustock Botnet Herders
Computerworld - Microsoft upped the ante on Monday in its months-long battle against the Rustock botnet by posting a $250,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the hackers who controlled the malware.
Microsoft announced the reward early Monday in a blog written by Richard Boscovich, a senior attorney with the company's digital crimes unit. Microsoft also posted a reward document (PDF) that included an email address for tipsters.
Thursday, July 14, 2011 Hacktivism Moves from Pranks to Problems
Agricultural technology firm Monsanto became the latest target of hacktivists this week, when hackers donning the mantle of the distributed protest group Anonymous claimed that it had penetrated the firm's network and leaked personal information on 2,500 of the company's employees.
The same day another group, also calling themselves part of Anonymous, leaked about 90,000 military email addresses allegedly taken from the servers of accounting firm and government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. On Tuesday, the company acknowledged that some of the information circulating on the Internet was taken from its servers.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 Everything You Need to Know About the Twisted, Dangerous Debt Ceiling Fight
News reports hold that President Obama scored a political victory by agreeing to put Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block to achieve a "go-big" $4 trillion deficit reduction. Speaker Boehner had to concede that Republicans won't vote for any package that includes tax increases -- and the deal died. So the gambit worked and the President emerged with a solid image as the alpha deficit hawk.
Monday, June 27, 2011 A Message to All Baby Boomers (and Those Who Love Them)
Here is a big question for you: Will Baby Boomers--some of the 77 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964--become a powerful force by reconnecting to the ideals of our youth? Could Boomers, desperate for moral and political vision, join forces in our society and say: "We are going to be a positive force for change as we age"?
Of course, if you are reading this, you are probably already engaged, making positive contributions to change. But it will require banding together to leverage our power. Wouldn't it be inspiring if Boomers came full circle? If we used the strength of our enormous numbers, and our idealism? If we embraced the economic, environmental and social justice issues that will unite generations and help to create the better world that we so desperately need?
Monday, June 20, 2011 Convicted Spy Not Allowed at Father's Funeral in Mishawaka (1 comments)
A former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst convicted of spying for Israel did not attend his father's funeral here today, despite requests from numerous Israeli officials that he be allowed out of prison to pay his respects.
The White House also had spurned Israeli appeals to let Jonathan Pollard visit his father before he died Saturday at the age of 95.
Thursday, June 16, 2011 Citigroup Reveals Breach Affected over 360,000 Cards
Over 360,083 credit card accounts in North America of Citigroup were affected as a result of a compromise of its card account management website in May, the bank said in an update on Wednesday.
These were accounts issued in the U.S., the bank said.
Citigroup first disclosed publicly the compromise of Citi Account Online last week, when it said that about 210,000 accounts had been affected. On Tuesday, the Attorney General of the State of Connecticut, George Jepsen, said that Citigroup's disclosures about the data breach failed to explain how it occurred, and what is being done to protect affected customers from potential financial fraud.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 Spear Phishers Sharpen Skills, Craft 'Incredible' Attacks
Recent break-ins at high-profile targets like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) demonstrate just how proficient hackers have become at "spear phishing," researchers said today.
"Today's spear phishing is not only more prevalent but also much more technically proficient," said Dave Jevans, chairman of the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), an industry association dedicated to fighting online identity theft. Jevans is also the founder and chairman of IronKey, a Sunnyvale, Calif. security company.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 Pawlenty - Eliminate Federal Funding To Any Service Found On The Internet
Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty will deliver a major economic speech in Chicago where he plans to paint President Obama as the "champion practitioner of class warfare." Dubbing his plan a "Better Deal," Pawlenty will take on "President Obama's big government and heavy handed regulations" with fresh, new ideas that will spur Americans "to innovate, invest, compete, and create new businesses and jobs." In Pawlenty's world, this translates into a complete elimination of capital gains, dividends, interest income and estate taxes. He would lower taxes on corporations from 35% to 15% and "sunset" all government regulations unless Congress votes to keep them.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 Supporters Protest Manning's Detention - Leavenworth, KS
A crowd of supporters were in Leavenworth Saturday to protest the holding of a prisoner on Fort Leavenworth suspected of leaking thousands of documents to the website Wikileaks.
The Rally for Bradley Manning drew people from across the state and from areas like Chicago and Oakland, Calif. -- close to 200 people in all, according to one of the event's local organizers, Jim Davidson of Lawrence, Kan.
The event started at Leavenworth's Bob Dougherty Park, where Davidson said about 15 speakers from different organizations supporting Manning's release, from Iraq Veterans Against the War to gay rights organizations, addressed the crowd before a march to the intersection of Seventh Street and Metropolitan Avenue, in front of Fort Leavenworth's Grant Gate.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 Bahrain Campaign to Humiliate Shiites goes Beyond Politics
Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa is scheduled today to visit the White House and meet with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Regarded as more conciliatory than other members of Bahrain's ruling royal family, he will no doubt stress the lifting of the state of emergency on June 1, and the recent call by his father, King Hamad Al Khalifa, for renewed political dialogue starting July 1.
It was the crown prince who said on TV at the outset of Bahrain's uprising that citizens had a right to protest. Citizens like Gormezi had been thrilled with the opportunity to publicly speak their minds without fear of retribution. In the country's biggest demonstrations ever, thousands gathered in the capital's Pearl Roundabout in mid-February to demand political reforms. The Health Ministry sent supplies to the medical tent, treating sick protesters.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 Doctors Soften Their Stance on Obama's Health Overhaul (1 comments)
There are no national surveys that track doctors' political leanings, but as more doctors move from business owner to shift worker, their historic alliance with the Republican Party is weakening from Maine as well as South Dakota, Arizona and Oregon, according to doctors' advocates in those and other states.That change could have a profound effect on the nation's health care debate. Indeed, after opposing almost every major health overhaul proposal for nearly a century, the American Medical Association supported President Obama's legislation last year because the new law would provide health insurance to the vast majority of the nation's uninsured, improve competition and choice in insurance, and promote prevention and wellness, the group said. "When I came here, it was an old boys' club of conservative Republicans," said Joanne K. Bryson, the executive director of the Ore Medical Ass.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 House Panel Votes to Cut Farm Subsidies
A House committee voted Tuesday to cut farm subsidies to pay for deficit reduction and other budget priorities, chipping away at the billions of dollars a year that are directed to farmers.
The votes in the House Appropriations Committee may be a preview of what is expected to be a tough year for agriculture programs. Congressional lawmakers have increasingly looked to billions of dollars in farm subsidies as a source of money for other priorities as crop prices have reached record levels.
In a surprise move, the committee approved an amendment by Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., to lower the maximum adjusted gross income a farmer can have to earn certain subsidies.
Friday, May 27, 2011 Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg Label Suit 'a Fraud' (1 comments)
Facebook Inc. and its co-founder Mark Zuckerberg admitted some factual allegations in a lawsuit by a western New York man who says a 2003 contract entitles him to half of Zuckerberg's Facebook holdings, while calling the suit as a whole "a fraud on the court."
In an answer filed Thursday in federal court in Buffalo, N.Y., Facebook and Zuckerberg admitted that the two men met in the lobby of a Boston hotel in April 2003 and that Zuckerberg, then a Harvard University student, was paid for work he did after responding to an online job listing for StreetFax.com, a company Paul Ceglia was trying to start at the time.
Ceglia says Zuckerberg defrauded him by lying about the early success of "The Face Book" at Harvard. Ceglia says he is entitled to part ownership of Facebook, a closely held company worth as much as $55 billion, according to Sharespost.com, an online marketplace for investment
Sunday, May 15, 2011 Pride in Obama Makes his Trip to Memphis all the Sweeter (1 comments)
When Obama comes to Memphis, the moment will take on a meaning even larger than that usually associated with a presidential visitThe nation's first black president will be visiting, for the first time since his 2008 election, one of the most important cities for African-American culture, achievement and history - and engaging a high school with its own historic and symbolic significance for the city. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen said polling of Memphis voters has shown one unerring consistency - Obama receives 90-plus percent approval ratings among African-American voters. "He's an iconic figure in American history and an iconic figure in the African-American community," said Cohen, who often refers to the Obama family as the "Kennedys" of the 21st century. "His popularity is unsurpassed." Tomeka Hart is a Memphis City Schools board member and president and CEO of the Urban League of Memphis
Friday, May 13, 2011 Obama's "Singular' Mother - Book Review (1 comments)
The key to understanding the disciplined and often impassive 44th president is his mother, as Janny Scott, a reporter for the New York Times, decisively demonstrates in her new biography, "A Singular Woman."
The solicitousness that can anger liberals, the deliberativeness that can infuriate conservatives, the unusual belief in both empirical research and human goodness, the wicked cutting humor--all of it comes from a woman who defied conventions.
Twice she married men from different cultures and races, then divorced them. With the help of her parents, she raised two biracial children as a single mother on the Pacific islands of two nations, got degrees in math and anthropology, spent years in peasant villages studying Javanese cottage industries, and pieced together grants and development work to make money and provide for her children's education.
Thursday, May 12, 2011 Elgan: How to Pop your Internet 'Filter Bubble' (1 comments)
Think you're on the Internet right now? Well, you're not. You're on your Internet. The exact version of the online world that you see is available only to you. Most of the major conduits through which you see the world online, including Google Search and Facebook, are gathering all kinds of data about you, then presenting you with a custom version of the world they think you're interested in. They're hiding or de-emphasizing the version of the world they assume you're not interested in. In the past two years, the biggest gatekeeper websites have gotten very good at figuring out what you want and giving it to you. What's wrong with that? There are downsides, according to a new book called The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding From You. In a nutshell, the book argues that the sophisticated personalization engines improve things in the short run. But they dumb us down in long run
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 Millions of Underage Facebook Users, Survey Finds
7.5 million
That's how many Facebook users are under the age of 13 and thus in violation of the site's policies, according to a survey by Consumer Reports. Facebook requires members to be at least 13 - and older in some jurisdictions - yet the social network has faced criticism that it doesn't protect the privacy of users and can be used to bully teens. The survey found Facebook exposed more than 5 million U.S. households to some type of "abuse," including bullying, virus infections and identity theft.
Monday, May 9, 2011 Unpatched DLL Bugs let Hackers Exploit Windows 7 and IE9
Although Microsoft has patched multiple DLL load hijacking vulnerabilities since last summer, Windows and Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) can still be exploited, a security company warned today. Microsoft confirmed that it's investigating the claims by Slovenia-based Acros Security. Researchers from Acros will demonstrate the new attacks at the Hack in the Box security conference in Amsterdam later this month."We'll reveal how IE8 and IE9 can be used on Windows 7, Vista and XP for attacking users without any security warnings, even in 'Protected mode,' and how to remotely make many seemingly-safe applications, for example, Word 2010 and PowerPoint 2010, vulnerable," said Acros CEO Mitja Kolsek in a Friday email. Many Windows applications don't call DLLs using a full path name, but instead use only the filename, giving hackers a way to trick an application into loading a malicious file
Sunday, May 8, 2011 Villagers Bemused by Hunt for bin Laden's Trail
DAWN.COM: Residents of a quiet Pakistani village were bemused on Sunday to find themselves at the centre of the investigation of the secret life of Osama bin Laden,saying there was no way that the al Qaeda leader lived there without them knowing.
But residents of the village at the end of a bumpy road flanked by fields of wheat are both puzzled and a little scared to find themselves at the focus of the investigation.
"Everyone in the village knows when a cow has a calf so how could bin Laden and his family hide here?" Mohammad Naseer, a 65-year-old retired soldier, said as he took a break from working his fields.
Friday, May 6, 2011 Don't Worry about Medicare. Worry about Medicaid.
Ezra Klein: It doesn't matter whether Eric Cantor says he's bargaining for the Ryan budget or not. The GOP cannot privatize and voucherize Medicare. They can't even get close. It's too easy an issue for Democrats, too dangerous an issue with seniors, and too slipshod a policy even for Michele Bachmann. The attack on Medicaid, however, is another story. That one might actually work. And if it does, it'll actually be worse.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 FBI Warns that Fake bin Laden Video is a Virus (1 comments)
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation warned computer users Tuesday that messages claiming to include photos and videos of Osama bin Laden's death actually contain a virus that could steal personal information.
The warning comes as security companies said that they've spotted the first samples of malicious software disguised as photos of the dead Al Qaeda leader.
Security vendor F-Secure said Tuesday that criminals are e-mailing a password-stealing Trojan horse program called Banload to victims, and Symantec said it's seen criminals spamming victims with links to fake "Osama dead" news articles that launch Web-based attacks on visitors.
U.S. authorities do have photos of bin Laden, who was shot in the head during an early morning raid Monday in Pakistan. But these photos have not been released publicly.
Sunday, May 1, 2011 Osama bin Laden is Dead, Obama Announces
Osama bin Laden, the criminal mastermind behind al-Qaida and the world's most sought-after terrorist since the attacks of 11 September 2001, has been killed by a US operation, President Barack Obama has announced.
In an address to the nation, President Barack Obama said Bin Laden was killed in a "targeted operation" in Abbottabad, a highland town north of Islamabad, last night.
The operation started with an intelligence lead last August.
The news comes eight years to the day that President George Bush declared "Mission accomplished" in Iraq. As president, Bush declared he wanted bin Laden "dead or alive" -- but it is now the unlikely figure of Barack Obama who announces the final triumph as the US commander in chief
Thursday, April 28, 2011 Backdoor Bailouts: Banks Play Shell Game With Taxpayer Dollars
Senator Bernie Sanders put a provision into the law to "fix" opportunistic gains by Banks Too Big to Fail. Now he requests an investigation to find out why the taxpayers have received no satisfaction.
Thursday, April 14, 2011 As Tax Day Approaches, Corporations Paying Less and Less | Progressive States Network
In 1955, corporate taxes represented over 27 percent of federal revenue; today that figure has dropped to just under 9 percent. Jeff Immelt, the CEO of G.E. and head of the Obama administration's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, commented on his company's tax liability, "we do like to keep our tax rate low," and further explained that corporations "hire armies of tax lawyers to understand how [the tax system] works and to take advantage of the various loopholes that exist that are legal in order to reduce their tax burden."
Just as corporate taxes have fallen, corporate profits have reached record heights. What's more, the richest Americans continually increase their share of the country's wealth. The top 10 percent of earners in the US control almost half of all income. This disparity is heightened by the stark regressivity of state tax structures
Thursday, April 14, 2011 DOJ Gets Court Permission to Attack Botnet
The U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation have obtained a temporary restraining order allowing them to disrupt a computer virus that created an international botnet controlling more than 2.3 million computers as of early 2010, the DOJ announced Wednesday.
In an unprecedented move, the temporary restraining order, issued Tuesday, will allow the FBI and the U.S. Marshal for the District of Connecticut to set up servers at the Internet Systems Consortium or other ISPs that would stop infected computers from continuing to spread the Coreflood virus, according to court records.
The order allows the law enforcement agencies to send commands to infected computers that stops the Coreflood virus, the DOJ said.
Monday, April 11, 2011 Federal Budget and Debt Politics:A Live Web Chat with William Galston - Brookings Institution
The government shutdown was averted in a last-minute deal, but the details remain to be worked out, and now a contentious vote to raise the nation's debt limit looms. Meanwhile, President Obama is expected to deliver his broad plan on raising revenue and reforming entitlements in the same week that Rep. Paul Ryan's FY 2012 budget blueprint is expected to pass the House.
What's the political fallout from the budget battles? Can either party claim the edge, or does everybody lose?
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Friday, April 8, 2011 Microsoft Sets Mammoth Patch Tuesday, will Fix 64 Flaws
Microsoft today said it will patch a record 64 vulnerabilities in Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, Windows graphics framework, and other software next week, and tie a December 2010 record for the number of security updates it issues.
The 17 updates -- Microsoft calls them "bulletins" -- tie the count of December 2010. The bulletins that will ship next Tuesday will include 64 patches, Microsoft said, 15 more than the previous record of October 2010, and 24 more than the 40 of the former second-place collection of December 2010.
Of the 17 updates, 9 will be rated "critical," the highest threat label in Microsoft's four-step scoring system, while the remaining 8 will be marked "important," the second-most-dire ranking.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011 Epsilon Email Breach
Computerworld - An email server breach at Epsilon Interactive exposed the names and email addresses of millions of people. The breach is being described as the worst of its kind.
Here's what you need to know:
What happened? Epsilon Interactive last Friday announced that unknown intruders had broken into one of its email servers and accessed the names and email accounts of some of its 2,500 corporate customers. Epsilon has not disclosed how many accounts in total were exposed in the breach. Some say it is the largest breach ever involving that kind of data, meaning that tens of millions of email addresses were likely compromised.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 Huge Sewage Spill into Little Pigeon River after Basin Failure (1 comments)
GATLINBURG - Emergency responders are on the scene of a spill at the Gatlinburg wastewater treatment plant on Banner Road that may involve millions of gallons of sewage.
A Gatlinburg Police Department spokesman said his department and other emergency crews including fire departments from Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge were called to the plant just after 9:30 a.m. after being informed that one of the "silos" was leaking.
The silo is actually an equalization basin, said Great Smoky Mountain Park spokesman Bob Miller, who is on scene working with city and emergency crews.
"The spill is going into the river," Miller said as he stood outside the Gatlinburg Welcome Center, which is next door to the plant.
Thursday, March 31, 2011 Harkin, Reid, Sanders, Franken, Blumenthal Highlight Republicans' Dangerous Plan To End Social Security As We Know It
Today Senators Tom Harkin, Harry Reid, Bernie Sanders, Al Franken and Richard Blumenthal told Republicans to "Back Off Social Security" during an event with more than 300 of the program's supporters. The senators discussed the GOP's dangerous plan to privatize Social Security, ending the program as we know it. Republicans' dangerous spending plan also calls for draconian cuts to the Social Security Administration, which could lead to delays in the distribution of benefits. "Let's remember who we are talking about when it comes to protecting Social Security--our parents and grandparents, children and neighbors, with a safety net as they grow old."
" Despite that fact, the same people who wanted to leave Social Security to the whims of the stock market in the years before the financial crisis are now using the budget crisis."
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 Georgia and the U.S. Supreme Court: Tinkering With the Machinery of Death - Truthdig
Amy Goodman: On March 28, the Supreme Court refused to hear the death penalty case of Troy Anthony Davis. It was his last appeal. Davis has been on Georgia's death row for close to 20 years after being convicted of shooting to death off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah. Since his conviction, seven of the nine non-police witnesses have recanted their testimony, alleging police coercion and intimidation in obtaining the testimony. Despite the doubt surrounding his case, Troy Anthony Davis could be put to death within weeks.
Davis is now at the mercy of the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Parole, which could commute his sentence to life without parole. It will be a tough fight, despite widespread national and international support for clemency from figures such as Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former President Jimmy Carter.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 BP Employee Loses Laptop Containing Data on 13,000 0il Spill Claimants
BP has sent written notices to the affected individuals to inform them about the potential compromise of their personal information and to offer them free credit monitoring services, the statement noted.
The loss of the BP laptop is the latest in a string of similar incidents involving the loss of unencrypted personal data stored on laptops, and mobile storage devices.
Such losses have prompted Massachusetts to pass a law requiring companies to encrypt sensitive personal data stored on mobile devices.
Numerous encryption technologies are available these days to mitigate the risks involved in the loss of a computer or other device, but many companies still don't use them.
Monday, March 28, 2011 Solo Iranian Hacker Takes Credit for Comodo Certificate Attack
A solo Iranian hacker on Saturday claimed responsibility for stealing multiple SSL certificates belonging to some of the Web's biggest sites, including Google, Microsoft, Skype and Yahoo.
Early reaction from security experts was mixed, with some believing the hacker's claim, while others were dubious.
Last week, conjecture had focused on a state-sponsored attack, perhaps funded or conducted by the Iranian government, that hacked a certificate reseller affiliated with U.S.-based Comodo.
On March 23, Comodo acknowledged the attack, saying that eight days earlier, hackers had obtained nine bogus certificates for the log-on sites of Microsoft's Hotmail, Google's Gmail, the Internet phone and chat service Skype and Yahoo Mail. A certificate for Mozilla's Firefox add-on site was also acquired.
SSL certificates validate the legitimacy of a Web site to the browser.....
Monday, March 28, 2011 Daily Update from Japan
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
1155 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637
Copyright 2011 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Daily Updates -
Monday, March 28, 5 p.m. ET, Tokyo
The Nuclear Safety Commission said that the contaminated water found at unit 2 came directly from the reactor vessel, as its radioactivity level is much higher than the monitored levels at units 1 and 3. The commission also stated that the biggest concern is its leakage into the ground and seawater, and thus recommended to strengthen monitoring efforts.
Monday, March 28, 11 a.m. ET, Tokyo
Correction
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) released new information late last night that reports it was cesium 134 -- not iodine 134 -- and it was 2.3 million Becquerel (Bq) per cubic meter. Still, repair efforts have been suspended due to high radiation.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 Chris Hedges: "Death and After in Iraq' (1 comments)
How Marines scoop up their dead and send them home in a casket draped with an American flag. Jess Goodell was in a Mortuary Affairs Unit. She later came home and enrolled for a Ph.D.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 Nuclear Industry in Russia Sells Safety, Taught by Chernobyl
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: March 22, 2011
The Japanese nuclear calamity provides Russia's Rosatom with a new chance to stress its message: its reactors as safe, not despite Chernobyl but because of it.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 Secret Experimental Prisons Subject Inmates to Drastic Isol (1 comments)
.... Bush administration had quietly opened the CMUs in Terre Haute and Marion in December 2006 and March 2008, respectively, circumventing the usual process federal agencies normally follow that subjects them to public scrutiny and transparency. The first whisper of what the government was planning reached public ears in April 2006, when the BOP--in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA)--published its proposed rule for "Limited Communication for Terrorist Inmates." Under the APA, federal agencies like the BOP must publish notice of any new regulations and solicit public comments in order to operate legally. After a period of review, the agency publishes the finalized rule.
In the 2006 rule, the BOP proposed restricting the communications of inmates with a "link to terrorist-related activity" to one six-page letter per week, one fifteen-minute call per month and ....
Monday, March 21, 2011 Prosecutors Want Arizona Shooting Suspect to be Evaluated in Springfield
Defense attorneys for Jared Lee Loughner, meanwhile, want assurances that a court-ordered mental competency evaluation doesn't expand into a review of their client's sanity. They argue that the exam should be done by an outside expert, not a federal Bureau of Prisons employee.
The lawyers also want the judge who ordered the examination not to order Loughner moved from a federal prison in Tucson, as federal prosecutors are suggesting. The attorneys refer to Loughner as their "seriously ill client."
Prosecutors, in a filing Wednesday, suggested that Loughner should be sent to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield for the evaluation. They argued that the facility has the staffing and expertise to conduct the exam, has facilities to test for neurological or other problems and the ability to monitor him day and night to see if he might be faking.
Monday, March 21, 2011 Fukushima and the Seoul 2012 Nuclear Security Summit
.....it is undeniable that Japan's nuclear disaster has sounded alarm bells around the world. The words "nuclear reactor," "radiation," and "safety" have new resonance. Fear is inescapable.
It may be difficult to avoid a nuclear safety discussion at the summit next year, considering the gravity of the disaster and its potential life consequences, coupled with what was a growing global demand for nuclear energy to mitigate climate change.
The Fukushima disaster provides the impetus to bring more to the table than nuclear security: Nuclear safety and radioactive materials could be discussed, as well.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011 If the Unlikely Becomes Likely: Medical Response to Nuclear Accidents (4 comments)
On the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear power station accident, the authors look at how public concern is increasing regarding the health consequences of radiation exposure--such concern, the authors write, is not shaped largely by fear of another Chernobyl, but by the potential use of nuclear weapons, improvised nuclear devices, or stolen conventional radiation sources by rogue states like North Korea and Iran and by terrorists groups like Al Qaeda. The authors, leaders of the US--Soviet medical team that responded to Chernobyl, write about their experience treating the Chernobyl victims and what lessons can be applied to future government strategies. The United States has the medical capacity to respond to a nuclear event like Chernobyl, the authors write, but an adequate medical response to a catastrophic nuclear event would be impossible.
Monday, March 14, 2011 Crowley Leaves State Dept. After Remarks on Leaks Suspect (1 comments)
The State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, resigned on Sunday, three days after publicly criticizing the Pentagon as "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid" in its treatment of Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, the soldier imprisoned on charges of leaking classified government documents to the antisecrecy group WikiLeaks.
Mr. Crowley's comments, which were made to a small group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, stirred a political tempest in Washington and were rejected by President Obama at a news conference on Friday. Mr. Obama said the Pentagon had assured him that its procedures in Private Manning's confinement were "appropriate and are meeting our basic standards."
White House officials were infuriated by the episode, administration officials said, which one described as "the last straw" in a series of incautious remarks by Mr. Crowley. (NYT)
Saturday, March 12, 2011 In 'Back to Our Future,' the '80s are Alive and, Well ... (1 comments)
PHILADELPHIA -- David Sirota is tooling around his hometown, giving what he calls "his '80s tour." He points out a billboard for the Philadelphia 76ers that boasts the basketball team's logo. One recycled from the 1980s.
* Past is present: David Sirota's bedroom at his childhood home in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., is filled with memorabilia from the '80s. To this day, the author says, people are "still looking through an '80s mind-set."
By Eileen Blass, USA TODAY
To Sirota, 35, a syndicated columnist, author and radio talk-show host based in Denver, the '80s are where it all began. And where it all continues to be. For better or worse.
He makes his case in his book Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now -- Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything (Ballantine, $25). It arrives Tuesday.
Friday, March 11, 2011 Powerful Quake and Tsunami Devastate Northern Japan
Powerful Quake and Tsunami Devastate Northern Japan
By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: March 11, 2011
Japan was filled with scenes of desperation a day after an 8.9-magnitude quake, as survivors called for help and rescuers looked for people buried in rubble.
Friday, March 11, 2011 Maps: Reach of the Japanese Quake and Tsunami - Interactive Feature
Magnitude of shaking
An 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck the coast of Japan on Friday at a depth of about 17 miles below the earth's surface. Dozens of aftershocks, some of magnitude 6.0 or greater, were felt after the quake.
Source: U.S. Geological Survey
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 A Tradition of Opposing Corporate Power
editorial - Capitol Times
"The great issue before the American people today is the control of their own government. In the midst of political struggle, it is not easy to see the historical relations of the present Progressive movement. But it represents a conflict as old as the history of man -- the fight to maintain human liberty, the rights of all people." -- Robert M. La Follette, 1912
More than a century ago, on a Fourth of July in Mineral Point, Robert M. La Follette sounded the call against corporate power.
Thursday, March 3, 2011 If Stuxnet was Act of Cyberwar, is U.S. Ready for a Response?
Mike Sconzo, principal security consultant, NetWitness, believes that industries in the critical infrastructures, such as utilities and manufacturing, are starting to take the steps necessary to become more resilient.
"Critical infrastructures are going through the same kind of growing pains as the IT industry did over the years," Sconzo says. "For instance, the first version of NERC's CIP (North American Electric Reliability Corporation's Critical Infrastructure Protection) standard consisted of primarily of security box checking. Meaning if you do X, Y, and Y you are supposedly secure. I'm hearing more interest now, however, in moving toward more risk-based assessments. A lot of people are realizing that risk-based security management is not such a horrific idea," he says
Thursday, March 3, 2011 Shocking New Charges Against Bradley Manning
Glenn Greenwald -- Salon columnist, Constitutional law attorney, Bradley Manning advocate -- appeared on Democracy Now this morning to elucidate why the new charges against Bradley Manning are so nefarious. "Although the charging document does not say who the 'enemy is,' there's only two possibilities," Greenwald says. "Either they mean Wikileaks " or any kind of leak now of classified information to newspapers where your intent is not to aid the Taliban, but expose wrongdoing." There's very few cases, if there are any, where aiding the enemy has been invoked in order to convict somebody who's clearly acting as a whistleblower, and not giving any information to the enemy but simply intending that it be publicly written about and talked about in order to achieve reforms.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 Intel Completes McAfee Acquisition
Intel has completed its US$7.68 billion acquisition of security vendor McAfee, the chip maker announced on Monday.
The all-cash deal makes Intel a security industry powerhouse, giving it a broad range of consumer and enterprise security products.
"Intel and McAfee believe today's approach to security does not adequately address the billions of new Internet-ready devices, including PCs, mobile and wireless devices, TVs, cars, medical devices and ATM machines," Intel said Monday in a statement announcing the acquisition's close. "With the surge in cyber threats, providing protection to a diverse online world requires a fundamentally new approach involving software, hardware and services."
Sunday, February 27, 2011 Roger Ailes to be Indicted | The Big Picture (1 comments)
Last week, the NY Times broke the story that Roger Ailes had urged various colleagues to lie to Federal investigators
"It was an incendiary allegation -- and a mystery of great intrigue in the media world: After the publishing powerhouse Judith Regan was fired by HarperCollins in 2006, she claimed that a senior executive at its parent company, News Corporation, had encouraged her to lie two years earlier to federal investigators who were vetting Bernard B. Kerik for the job of homeland security secretary . . .
Now, court documents filed in a lawsuit make clear whom Ms. Regan was accusing of urging her to lie: Roger E. Ailes, the powerful chairman of Fox News and a longtime friend of Mr. Giuliani. What is more, the documents say that Ms. Regan taped the telephone call from Mr. Ailes in which Mr. Ailes discussed her relationship with Mr. Kerik."
Friday, February 25, 2011 Bush Cancels Denver Trip in Dispute with Wikileaks Founder (4 comments)
Former President George W. Bush has canceled his planned Saturday visit to Denver after learning that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange would be speaking at the same conference he was to attend.
"Six months ago, President Bush accepted an invitation to speak to the YPO Global Leadership Summit in Denver on February 26, 2011. This week, upon learning that Julian Assange had recently been invited to address the same summit, President Bush decided to cancel his appearance," said Bush spokesman David Sherzer. "The former president has no desire to share a forum with a man who has willfully and repeatedly done great harm to the interests of the United States."
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 JesseJackson Joins Ohio Union Workers in Opposition to Collective Bargaining Reform
The Rev. Jesse Jackson revved up union workers at a downtown rally today to oppose Senate Bill 5, a Republican-backed proposal to overhaul the state's collective bargaining law.
A few hundred laborers packed the basement of a Teamsters union hall, a day after about 5,500 union supporters descended on the Statehouse to oppose the bill, which is supported by Republican Gov. John Kasich.
Thousands of Ohio's public workers in various lines of work are expected to join police and firefighters today to protest Senate Bill 5, which was introduced earlier this month. The Senate Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee is meeting at 4 p.m. today to debate the plan. It will be the fourth public hearing on the bill, which was introduced by Sen. Shannon Jones, a Republican from Springboro.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 Bill would Prohibit Internet Kill Switch'
Three U.S. senators criticized for past legislation that would allow the president to potentially quarantine or shut down parts of the Internet during a major cyberattack have introduced a new bill that would put limits on that authority.
n 2010, the bill's sponsors -- Lieberman, Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) -- introduced a wide-ranging cybersecurity bill that would have defined emergency powers that the president could use, including shutting down parts of the Internet, when there's an "ongoing or imminent" cyberattack on the nation's critical infrastructure.
The new legislation has similar language, again allowing the president to take emergency measures to protect critical infrastructure. But the new bill adds language saying that the president, federal cybersecurity officials and other government employees do not have the authority to shut down the Internet
Monday, February 21, 2011 Bill Haslam, Governor of Tennessee Report
"Agriculture is an important industry in this state and contributes significantly to our rural economy. I'm pleased that USDA has acted on my request so promptly," said Haslam. "I hope this assistance will help eligible farmers better prepare for the upcoming growing season."
The Secretarial disaster designation makes farmers in primary and adjoining counties eligible to apply for low-interest loans, supplemental farm payments and other assistance through their local USDA Farm Service Agency. East Tennessee was not impacted. Bad weather does impact Smoky Mountain tourism. The state is a Right to Work one. meaning unions have little influence. It must balance the budget per Constitution. Education and Medicaid both demand heavy appropriations, something which is sure to come up later.
Monday, February 21, 2011 More State Workers Hired
The state of Missouri hired new employees faster than usual in the last quarter of 2010. Hiring by state agencies in that quarter was up 17 percent;state agencies hired 1,085 new full-time workers in the quarter, compared with 924 hired in the same period of 2009. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said a clue to the hiring surge could be new retirement rules that kicked in for state employees on Jan.1. Employees on the payroll before Dec. 31, 2010, don't have to contribute to their pensions. Those joining the ranks since Jan.1 do. They must chip in 4 percent of salary and work longer to earn pensions. Since he took office in January 2009, Gov. Jay Nixon has eliminated scores of state jobs---including 863 positions in the coming year's budget--to stem budget shortfalls. Even with the increased hiring in late 2010, the total number of people on the state payroll was down compared to a year ago
Sunday, February 20, 2011 Arkansas State Budget - Sunshine Review
Arkansas state budget for FY2011 is $4.5 billion and it became law on Feb. 26, 2010.[1] Arkansas is one of only four states in the U.S. to enter fiscal year 2011 without an official deficit.[2] Governor Mike Beebe said "conservative budgeting and cautious spending have put Arkansas in an advantageous position."[3]
The state will receive approximately $220 million from H.R. 1586, a $26 billion plan to give states money for Medicaid and education that the President signed into law on August 10, 2010.[4]
Over the past five years, Arkansas state government grew by an average of about 7%, with the biggest year of growth was for fiscal year 2005 when the state budget grew by 10.88%.[5]
Arkansas has a total state debt of $7,899,579,400 when calculated by adding the total of outstanding debt, pension and OPEB UAAL's, unemployment trust funds and the 2010 budget gap
Sunday, February 20, 2011 Deductions Targeted under Snyder's Budget Plan for Michigan
None saves taxpayers as much as Snyder's biggest target for elimination, the exemption on pension income, which costs the state about $900 million a year. But taken all together, the changes on income tax credits and deductions means individuals would pay $1.7 billion more in taxes annually. Michigan now exempts all Social Security, military and public pension benefits from income taxes, as well as up to $45,120 a year for a single return and $90,240 on a joint return in private retirement and pension benefits. Taxpayers age 65 and over no longer would get to deduct $2,300 in addition to the $3,700 standard deduction, although taxpayers with disabilities still could claim the special deduction.
Sunday, February 20, 2011 Indy Airport's Planned Solar Farm would be the Largest in the State
The airport is looking for a developer to build what would be the largest solar energy farm in the state on 30 acres of airport-owned land near the end of a runway.Other airports, including Denver and Fresno, Calif., have put money-making solar farms near runways on property not suitable for other types of developments. Locally, IPL's interest in developing alternative energy sources triggered a stampede of solar developers quietly swarming over Indianapolis the past year looking for good sites and workable financing for solar power farms. Several industry insiders said federal tax credits and accelerated depreciation on the equipment have sparked a national rush to invest in solar power, along with methane gas, wind turbines and other renewable sources of energy. Thousands of solar panels--tinted black so the glare doesn't blind airplane pilots would be planted next to the airport
Saturday, February 19, 2011 Ohio Democrats Can't Stall Collective-bargaining Vote by Fleeing
[i]n Ohio, the House and Senate require only that a majority of members be present: 17 in the Senate and 50 in the House. Republicans hold big majorities in each chamber and presumably would have no trouble meeting those thresholds even if all Democratic legislators took off for the Caribbean.
A vote has not been scheduled on Senate Bill 5, the proposal to end collective bargaining for state workers and weaken bargaining rights for police officers, firefighters, teachers and other local public workers.
Eliminating collective bargaining from state government would directly affect about 42,000 state workers and more than 19,500 others employed in higher education. Restricting collective bargaining for local governments would impact nearly 300,000 employees, who are covered by about 3,200 contracts with municipalities, schools, counties, townships and other entities.
Thursday, February 17, 2011 Hank Paulson: Ex-Goldman Sachs CEO, Ex-Bush Treasury Secretary - and Ex-actly Right
Sec. Paulson stated that the root causes of the crisis were housing policy in addition to the lack of regulation. He explained that many mortgages had big regulatory gaps and many mortgages issued in many number of states did not have an adequate regulator. Sec. Paulson recommended including in a regulatory blue print a consumer agency that focuses on consumer protection and a mortgage origination commission that evaluates the training and regulation that goes on a state level and will be able to evaluate the different programs so investors would be informed.
Thursday, February 17, 2011 Hillary Clinton Talks Freedom as Protester Ray McGovern Is Bloodied (1 comments)
...that's what our current Secretary of State did when peace activist, veteran Army officer and onetime C.I.A. analyst Ray McGovern protested silently while she lectured the rest of the world about freedom this week at George Washington University.
Clinton's talk, which emphasized the need to protect basic freedoms, included her observation that "The rights of individuals to express their views freely" are universal." But even as she condemned other governments for arresting protesters and inhibiting free expression, Clinton demonstrated her own hypocrisy and profound disregard for those rights by saying and doing nothing while the 71 year old protester was grabbed by campus police, pulled to the ground, and dragged out of the auditorium. McGovern remained silent until just before he was pulled through the auditorium doors; bloodied, bruised & arrested, he screamed, "This is America"
Thursday, February 17, 2011 John Nichols: Never Prouder of my State, its Workers and Unions
As a seventh-generation Wisconsinite, I have never been prouder of my state.
While Tuesday's midday protests drew crowds estimated at 12,000 to 15,000, Wednesday's midday rally drew 30,000, according to estimates by organizers. Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, a veteran of 27 years on the city's force, said he had never see a protest of this size at the Capitol -- and he noted that, while crowd estimates usually just measure those outside, this time the inside of the sprawling Capitol was "packed."
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 The Revenge of Trickle-down Economics
Richard Wolff: In the 1930s, capitalism's last major global breakdown, then President Roosevelt eventually pursued the alternative "bubble up" theory. Between 1934 and 1940, he created and filled 11m federal jobs with unemployed workers. Their incomes enabled them to maintain mortgage payments and buy goods and services that provided jobs to millions of others and profits to many US businesses. That alternative to trickle-down economics did not suffice to overcome the Great Depression. However, it certainly alleviated more of the economic damage and individual suffering of that breakdown than Bush's and Obama's trickle-down economics have achieved in this one.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 Obama Seeks Big Boost in Cybersecurity Spending
The White House is proposing a big increase in cybersecurity research and development in next year's budget to improve, in part, its ability to reduce the risk of insider threats, and ensure the safety of control systems such as those used at power plants.
In detailing their 2012 budget proposal on Monday, White House officials didn't mention WikiLeaks and its release of tens of thousands of diplomatic cables and military documents, or the ability of the Stuxnet worm to damage Iran's nuclear control systems. But the fingerprints of both these incidents on this budget proposal seemed clear enough.
Philip Coyle, associate director for national security , said at the budget briefing on Monday that the administration is proposing "considerable growth" in cybersecurity research. The Deptartment of Homeland Security formed teams last year to test power plants for cybersecurity weaknesses.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 Glenn Greenwald: More Facts Emerge about the Leaked Smear Campaigns
Glenn Greenwald: Yesterday, I did a 20-minute interview with Sam Seder about this case and its significance, which can be heard on the player below (the transcript is here); see also, these important new facts discovered by Marcy Wheeler. I also recorded a 30-minute discussion yesterday with MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan, which he will post later today (I'll provide the link when he does), and I'll also be on MSNBC at roughly 4:00 pm EST discussing this and related matters.
Given my involvement in this story, I'm going to defer to others in terms of the reporting. But -- given the players involved and the facts that continue to emerge -- this story is far too significant to allow to die due to lack of attention. Many of the named targets are actively considering commencing civil proceedings (which would entail compulsory discovery).
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 Armageddon for Home-Owners? 12 Facts That Show We're in the Midst of the Worst Housing Collapse in US History
But even many Americans that do have jobs are finding out that it has become very, very hard to qualify for a home loan.
In an attempt to avoid the mistakes of the past, banks and financial institutions have become very stingy with home loans. While it was certainly wise for them to make some changes, the truth is that perhaps the pendulum has swung too far at this point. The U.S. housing industry will never fully recover if they can't get their customers approved for mortgages.
Congress is talking about passing even more laws that will make it even more difficult to get home loans. Even though they give speeches about how they want to help the U.S. housing industry, the truth is that Republicans and Democrats are both backing proposals that would make home mortgages much more expensive and much more difficult to obtain as a Bloomberg article recently explained.
Monday, February 14, 2011 Signs of Trouble as G-20 Ministers Prepare to Meet
France, which took over the rotating chairmanship of the G-20 in January, is leading a drive to forge guidelines that would send up a warning flag and prompt diplomatic dialogue when imbalances started to get out of hand.
Officials meeting in Paris on Friday and Saturday will debate which aspects of a country's economic performance should be used to help their peers identify potential problems, like current-account balances or trade balances, Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, said at a briefing Monday.
"China saves and exports," Ms. Lagarde said. "Europe consumes. The U.S. borrows and consumes." She asked, "Is this a balanced model? Probably not."
Wednesday, February 9, 2011 Microsoft Delivers 'Big Month' of Patches, Quashes 22 Bugs
Microsoft today issued 12 security updates that patched 22 bugs in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Office and its Internet server software.
An analyst suspected that one of the dozen updates was released to prevent hackers from exploiting Windows 7 in the Pwn2Own contest slated to start in four weeks.
Sunday, February 6, 2011 The Elections Hit Black Power Hard - Time to Start Fighting Back is Now
BILL LYNCH, Chairman of Bill Lynch Associates
It is hard to believe that just two years ago, many of us stood in the plaza in front of the Harlem State Office Building cheering and weeping for joy over the election of the first African-American president, Barack Obama. There is no other way to describe the feeling in the wake of the 2010 elections than terrible, especially for African-Americans in New York and nationally
Friday, February 4, 2011 Microsoft to Patch 22 Bugs, 3 Zero-days Next Week
Microsoft today said it will issue 12 security updates next week to patch 22 vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer (IE), Windows, its Internet server and Visio, the company's data diagramming tool.
The company also announced it will provide patches next Tuesday for three bugs it has already acknowledged, including one that has been exploited by criminals for several weeks.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011 E.U. Closes Emissions Trading System After Thefts
E.U. Closes Emissions Trading System After Thefts
By JAMES KANTER
Published: January 19, 2011
The system was suspended for at least a week after the theft of permits worth millions of euros in a series of online attacks.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011 Gaping Security Flaw Exposed on Anti-tamper Devices
Security devices used in transportation, packaging and even in accounting for nuclear materials are very vulnerable to attack, two security researchers warned on Tuesday at the Black Hat security conference.
The physical security devices, known as "tamper-evident devices,' aren't intended to prevent theft but to alert inspectors that something has been broken into.
The devices are wide-ranging in design and application, and are used to seal everything from evidence bags, large shipping containers and even things like the warranty seal on an Xbox gaming console.
Thursday, January 13, 2011 Three Fired for Accessing Records of Tucson Shooting Victims
Three employees at Tucson's University Medical Center have been fired for improperly accessing the medical records of some of the victims in last Saturday's shooting spree outside an area mall that killed six people and wounded 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).
A nurse working under contract for the hospital has also been terminated by her employer, the medical center said in a brief statement on its Web site.
Monday, January 10, 2011 DeLay Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison
Judge Pat Priest sentenced Tom DeLay to three years in prison.
The three-year sentence was on the charge of conspiring to launder corporate money into political donations during the 2002 elections.
On the charge of money laundering, DeLay was sentenced to five years in prison, but that was probated for 10 years. That means he would serve 10 years' probation. Judge Priest said he agreed with the jury's guilty verdict, returned in November, and would have instructed a different verdict if he did not believe DeLay conspired to break the law.
He said there is no higher principle than that those who write the laws should follow the law.
Monday, January 10, 2011 Wyoming Bills Target National Health Care Law (1 comments)
Two legislators are working on a set of bills that they say will protect the state from national health care reform regulations.
Rep. Bob Brechtel, R-Casper, will introduce in the state House the Health Choice and Protection Act.
Gov.-elect Matt Mead has said when he takes office he will join other states in the constitutional challenge of the national health care law.
Friday, January 7, 2011 'Marshall McLuhan - You Know Nothing of My Work!' by Douglas Coupland
The book will come in handy for those who parrot the phrase "The medium is the message" -- the line that bore Mc ÂLuhan into public consciousness -- without really understanding that the man who said it found the triumph of context over content to be profoundly depressing. We all know that McLuhan was a rock star, standing alongside Warhol and Leary in the '60s pantheon.
Coupland argues persuasively that McLuhan thought differently because he was wired differently, with two arteries pumping blood to his brain. McLuhan is also placed on the spectrum of autism. Given his sensitivity to loud noises, love of ritual, distaste for physical contact and general obliviousness, it is not much of a stretch. "When people get close together, they get more and more impatient with each other," McLuhan said. "The global village is a place of very arduous interfaces and very abrasive situations."
Thursday, January 6, 2011 Are We Going to Let the Biggest Financial Fraudsters Keep Their Money and Avoid Jail Time? (1 comments)
Bill Black who was involved with the S&L crisis:
The FBI and the DOJ remain unlikely to prosecute the elite bank officers that ran the enormous "accounting control frauds" that drove the financial crisis. While over 1000 elites were convicted of felonies arising from the savings and loan (S&L) debacle, there are no convictions of controlling officers of the large nonprime lenders. The only indictment of controlling officers of a far smaller nonprime lender arose not from an investigation of the nonprime loans but rather from the lender's alleged efforts to defraud the federal government's TARP bailout program.
Thursday, January 6, 2011 Who Wants a 30-Year Mortgage?
Today, credit risk is anathema. By shouldering it, Fannie and Freddie are propping up the housing market. The banks that make the mortgages don't want credit risk, and neither do investors. Indeed, William Gross, co-founder and managing director of the investment firm Pimco, has said his funds wouldn't buy pools of so-called private label mortgages unless the homeowners involved had made a down payment of at least 30 percent.
The proposed Fannie-Freddie reform that has gotten the most traction recently calls for new private-sector entities that would continue to provide credit guarantees on mortgages. These guarantees would not be entirely private, however, because they would be explicitly backed by the full faith and credit of the US government.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011 Microsoft Confirms New Windows Zero-day Bug
The vulnerability exists in Windows' graphics rendering engine, which improperly handles thumbnail images, and can be triggered when a user views a folder containing a specially crafted thumbnail with Windows' file manager, or opens or views some Office documents.
Microsoft acknowledged the bug in a security advisory, and said Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008 were vulnerable. The newest operating systems, Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2, were not. Attackers could feed users malicious PowerPoint or Word documents containing a malformed thumbnail, then exploit their PCs if the document was opened or even previewed
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 Firefox Leads in Europe
While three other firms disputed the finding, StatCounter of
Dublin said Firefox surpassed Internet Explorer as the top
European browser in December.
Internet Explorer is still the clear leader worldwide, with a 46.9 percent share in December, versus 30.8 percent for Firefox and 14.9 percent for Google, StatCounter said.
Monday, December 20, 2010 OpEdNews - Article: Skill, Work, Job, Power
Microsoft last week pulled an update for Outlook 2007 issued just two days earlier, citing connection and performance problems for the unusual move.
The update was issued mid-day on Dec. 14 as part of the monthly Patch Tuesday. Within hours, users reported trouble with retrieving e-mail and major delays when switching folders.
Friday, December 3, 2010 WikiLeaks Under Attack: Glenn Greenwald Debates Critic of the Site
We
Goodman at Democracy Now,host a debate between Steven Aftergood, a transparency advocate who has become a leading critic of WikiLeaks, and Glenn Greenwald, a constitutional law attorney and legal blogger for Salon.com. A video.
Monday, November 29, 2010 White House Orders Security Review in Wake of WikiLeaks Disclosure (1 comments)
Computerworld - The release of thousands of pages of classified U.S. government information over the weekend by whistleblower Web site WikiLeaks prompted an order to all federal agencies by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to immediately review procedures in place for protecting sensitive data.
Sunday, November 21, 2010 A Forecast That Obama Could Love
By JEFF SOMMER
Published: November 20, 2010
Based on the economic facts at hand -- and not counting for possible financial shocks -- a Yale economist says President Obama may be easily re-elected.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 Obama Deficit Panel Gets Some Competition
By JACKIE CALMES
Published: November 16, 2010
A new plan calls for a one-year holiday from Social Security payroll taxes to encourage hiring and for a national sales tax to reduce deficits.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 Schakowsky Offers Alternative to Simpson-Bowles Deficit Reduction Plan (2 comments)
WASHINGTON, DC (November 16, 2010) â€" Today Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, offered a comprehensive proposal to reduce the federal deficit without making middle class Americans foot the bill. Schakowsky's plan is an alternative to the Bowles-Simpson plan,surpassing President Obama's $250 billion target
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis
Our guest is Bethany McLean, author of "All the Devils are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis." In this program McLean discusses life after the Enron scandal and the economic recession. She also talks about the future of the economy in America.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 BuildingWhat? TV Ad Is On The Air Now in New York City (1 comments)
The NYC Coalition for Accountability Now (NYC CAN) is launching a television ad campaign on Election Day in New York City calling for an investigation into the destruction of World Trade Center Building 7, the third building to collapse on 9-11. Building 7 came down at 5:20 in the afternoon although it had not been hit by an aircraft
Friday, November 12, 2010 Corporate India Finds Greener Pastures--in Africa
The Indians view Africa as a place where they can replicate the low-cost, high-efficiency business model they have honed at home. Like India, Africa has hundreds of millions of underserved consumers eager to buy products tailored to their needs. Consumer spending in Africa may double, to as much as $1.8 trillion, by 2020,
Monday, November 8, 2010 Danger to IE Users Climbs as Hacker Kit Adds Exploit
Computerworld - An exploit of an unpatched Internet Explorer vulnerability has been added to a popular crimeware kit, a move that will probably push Microsoft to fix the flaw with an emergency update, a security researcher said Sunday.
Monday, October 25, 2010 Iranian Cyber Army Running Botnets, Researchers Say
A group of malicious hackers who attacked Twitter and the Chinese search engine Baidu are also apparently running a for-rent botnet, according to new research.
The so-called Iranian Cyber Army also took credit last month for an attack on TechCrunch's European website.
