BushCo.'s Stay on Spying

Not a complete victory, since they have until Oct. 5 to find yet another legal loophole.

UPDATE 10/5 Nope. The current junta managed to convince the court of appeals that their illegal activities are necessary to prevent further attacks on our soil and our people, so the court is going to allow illegal wiretapping to continue while the appeal is processed.

House passes warrantless domestic spying measure

The House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that would provide congressional authorization for President George W. Bush's warrantless domestic spying program but subject it to new rules.

AND THOSE "RULES" ARE...?

The president would be permitted to do so, for example, after an "armed attack," "terrorist attack" or when the president deems there is an "imminent threat."

OH, I FEEL _MUCH_SAFER_ ALL READY!!

You may recall it was some two months ago BushCo. declared an "imminent threat" and banned all liquids on aircraft, jacking our secur-O-meter to "condition red", and costing us another billion or so in the process. This "imminent threat" came from a bunch of Muslims in England -- only one of whom even had a passport, and none had even purchased airline tickets. Bobbies sacked nearly 100 properties looking for additional clues after this arrest. They found nothing. No weapons, no chemicals, no explosives. Some of them have all ready been released for lack of evidence. We probably won't hear how this whole farce ends, but I'm willing to bet it goes nowhere.

How about the "imminent threat" to the Sears Tower that landed seven men in a Florida jail? Remember that one? Only one of them knew the Sears Tower was in Chicago; no evidence that he had been there. No weapons, no explosives, no WMDs and no way to get any. They called themselves Christian Soldiers.

See how easy it is to declare an "imminent threat" and grab some headlines? Does it in any way make us safer? Is this _really_ how we should be spending our tax dollars?

This truly terrible piece of legislation will have to wait for Congress to come back after the elections -- let's hope it dies quickly.

Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine

This latest comes from the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University:

For example, an attacker who gets physical access to a machine or its removable memory card for as little as one minute could install malicious code; malicious code on a machine could steal votes undetectably, modifying all records, logs, and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote count it creates. An attacker could also create malicious code that spreads automatically and silently from machine to machine during normal election activities — a voting-machine virus.

Remember this quote?

"I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president."

That's Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell, from a fundraising letter sent to Republicans in the fall of 2003. E-voting machine maker Diebold is based in North Canton, Ohio.

Doublespeak and the War on Terrorism

The American people must recognize these odious tactics for what they are and remain vigilant about our Constitution and individual liberty. Too many people seem to think that the Constitution will automatically check the government from overstepping its authority and running amok. That simply is not true. The Constitution is incapable of enforcing itself. The ultimate limit on the power of government has always been the patience of the people. As Judge Learned Hand warned many years ago, “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; [if] it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.”

The Black Hat Wi-Fi exploit coverup

At press time, millions of end users may be using Wi-Fi so insecure that an attacker could install a rootkit on their system in less than a minute.

That was almost a month ago, and little has changed since. The lawyers apparently are winning, and anyone using anything but an Intel wi-fi card remains at risk.