Sorry Birthers Obama does not want to take away YOUR Internet
The Story of the Week in Technology
When I read the fracas from the teabaggers about the president trying to “Take Away Their Internet”, I almost gagged from the laughter. I could hardly catch my breath. these people have totally lost it finally I think.
somehow it just doesn’t figure to me, that they ignore their original Internet Thieves – who invented the Clipper Chip; and put all kinds of restrictions in place to slow down traffic; they’ve rerouted traffic over their networks to enable the clipper chip; and then to sniff packets at a rate unseen before.
How Could They Forget About All Of That from 8 years ago ? in fact even farther back we saw traces of it with the FBI and CIA forcing internet service providers to provide both transcripts and ip ownership info; regardless of the rights to privacy that are implied on most internet accounts.
Granted the amount of court cases that it took to get them to finally stop snooping on citizens – and start looking for crime was sheer stupidity. finally they saw the value of the internet as a Venue and began using it’s more elusive nature to snare criminals. this is how most sexual predators and hackers are now busted. by their ip addresses and time as obtained from their internet connection. even free connections and internet cafes’ are now subject to search; as crime scenes, globally.
I keep wondering if the president needs to contact Blanca DeBree and put her on retainer to let the Hillbilly Jihad know that they are still safe. there is no plot to take their quaint way of life – and complicate it by adding logic or anything rational like that. instead we’ll just wait until they discover that they were wrong in each of the cases where they’ve gone off like a fourth of july cherry bomb.
these btw are the same people who do not want nationalized health care which would allow them to get their heads and teabags checked by medical personnel.
Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village
Honestly Please Somebody Slap this NOMF’s (to use Dr. Faustrolls’ Phrase) back on the rational track with the rest of us poor sufferers. the only change may be that they’d have their neighbors back from serving as rentabeatemup guards in afghanistan and iraq. so sad that they just don’t understand that Laws mean something to Everybody, Including THEM.
enough other stuff hit the interent of interest this week so check out some of that when you’ve been satisfactorially ammused by the birthers newest rants.
Happy Thirsty Thursday, and yes the Drinks are At The End, Since Our Bartender Is Taking The Day Off.
Umm… Actually Obama Doesn’t Want to Take Over The Internet
September 2, 2009 – 8:27 am
A number of people — including two of my favorite tech writers, Mike Masnick at Techdirt & Declan McCullagh at CNET — are up in arms about a new bill going through the Senate that allows Obama to “take over private networks.” Oh no! That would be really stupid.
But actually, the Senate bill in question does nothing of the sort.
The controversy dates back to April when Senators Olympia Snowe and Jay Rockefeller drafted S-773, a bill that, in its original form, did have some seriously bad ideas in it. For example, in an emergency, the president could “order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from any compromised Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network.”
Outrage predictably followed. And the bill got better, much better. I’ve just read a draft of the whole thing. (Click here to read it too.) And there’s nothing in it that merits the current outrage.
Most of the bill, in the draft I read, proposes ways to improve our cyber-security infrastructure. It recommends scholarships for kids who want to work on cyber security (good idea!) and prizes to inspire contests that will get people to do things in the field (good idea!).
The formerly onerous section, which begins on p.25, has been changed to the following:
In the event of an immediate threat to strategic national interests involving compromised Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network — [the president] may declare a cybersecurity emergency; and may, if the President finds it necessary for the national defense and security, and in coordination with relevant industry sectors, direct the national response to the cyber threat and the timely restoration of the affected critical infrastructure information system or network.
Notice all the hedging. He “may”, “may”, “if he finds it necessary”, “in coordination.” And then they payoff? He can “direct the national response”!
That’s not giving him any powers that he doesn’t already have, and there’s no justification in that language for the hysteria. It is also much more in sync with what Obama himself has said. He has been very clear that he doesn’t want to snoop on private networks, much less take them over.
So why write the bill if it doesn’t give the president any more authority? I’ve heard two reasonable theories. Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic suggests that the goal may be to give power to the president on these issues at the expense of the less-open NSA and DOD. Under that theory, the bill is actually designed to keep potential channels of dissent in a crisis more open to the public, rather than less.
The second theory is that it’s just a senate jurisdictional battle. Every senator knows that cybersecurity is a pressing issue, and everyone wants his or her name on the big bill. So the Commerce Committee, with authors Snowe and Rockefeller on it, is trying to define the issue of cybersecurity as depending on relationships between the government and private companies — thus making it something they have authority over. Other senators, of course, will try to define the issue so it falls under the authority of their committees.
So, in the end, it has much more to do with Senate power games than men in black hats.
Homepage image: AP/Gerald Herbert
Google Explains Why You Didn’t Have Gmail
By Ryan Singel
A Google engineer tells the world why tired routers kept them from their Gmail accounts on Tuesday. The transparency about the outage is commendable for a company that wants the world to trust its services.
Have You ever needed a Reference and didn’t know which one ?
Annotated links to websites related to competitive intelligence, research performed by businesses to learn about their competitors. Includes search engines, people trackers, monitoring tools, business news, and related websites. From Law Library Resource Xchange (llrx.com).
Did You Know that September is Library Card Sign Up Month -
Brief details about Library Card Sign-up Month, observed in September, “a time to remind parents and kids that a library card is the most important school supply of all.” Includes downloadable print and radio PSAs, sample press release and letter-to-the-editor, “52 Ways to Use Your Library Card,” and related resources for libraries. From the American Library Association (ALA).
We Also located this very Interesting 911 site -
Background, FAQ, finding aid, and other material about the 9/11 Commission records, of which “a significant portion of the collection [was] made available to the public on Wednesday, January 14 [2009].” As of early 2009, the Memoranda for the Record (MFRs, “summaries of the interviews the Commission conducted with federal, State, and local employees, individuals from the private sector, and scholars”) are accessible online. From the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
RecycledFrockery Highlights this site this week – Serve.gov
This federal government website is an “online resource for not only finding volunteer opportunities in your community, but also creating your own.” Enter a keyword and ZIP code to find service needs and contact information in your community, or register your own service opportunity. Also offers toolkits (such as for organizing a book drive) and a place to share your service story. From the Corporation for National and Community Service.
And Now For a Lil Refreshment, the Teabaggers get theirs first;
Now For Everyone Else – Feel Free to Help Yourself,
Happy Thirsty Thursday,
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it, 
*A veteran civil rights organization – the Southern Poverty Law Center – last week issued a report carrying a severe warning.
*A swastika was found Tuesday painted on a sign outside Rep. David Scott’s district office, an act the Georgia Democrat said reflects an increasingly hateful and racist debate over health care, reports the Associated Press.
*The town hall meetings on “Obamacare” have been eventful to say the least. Outbursts and fury have been commonplace, but the news reports of unruly participants have been erroneous … well, at least in the case of a Ms. Maxine Johnson in Missouri.
Miss Obama.
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