Security is being beefed up to the highest level for Super Bowl XLI, being held this Sunday in Miami, Fla. National Football League officials have said there is no specific threat against the event, but that the “high profile” of the event makes it “attractive to terrorists,” said Milt Ahlerich, NFL vice president of security.
Archives: January 2007
Say goodbye to your identity
Posted: January 31, 2007 9:02 am
You still think your personal information is safe in the hands of the government? Think again. Every time they come up with a way to keep your information secure, they also come up with a more creative — or more stupid — way to lose it. And now, the government can lose your personal information even if you never gave it to them.
Ohio poll workers convicted of rigging 2004 recount
Posted: January 30, 2007 8:21 am
Updated: January 30, 2007 8:36 am
Two Ohio election officials were convicted last week of rigging the state’s recount of the 2004 presidential election.
Transportation worker identity cards not secure
Posted: January 30, 2007 6:40 am
Updated: January 31, 2007 11:12 am
The Transportation Security Administration’s special identification cards it plans to issue to transportation, port and maritime workers are fraught with problems which could compromise the security of the whole system.
Why identity thieves love the government
Posted: January 29, 2007 5:32 am
There are actually a few things the government is good at. Misusing, abusing and especially losing your personal information rank high on the list. Sometimes they don’t even bother losing it; they just put it up on the Internet for anyone to download. Here are a few incidents from last week in which government lost, had stolen and gave away your personal information.
Fairfax to defy the Department of Education
Posted: January 29, 2007 2:35 am
On Thursday, the Fairfax County, Virginia, school board voted to defy the U.S. Department of Education and not test immigrants with the same reading exams as their native English-speaking peers.
Military gives police free surplus equipment
Posted: January 28, 2007 5:47 am
Local police departments are outfitting themselves with the latest in military gear they’d never be able to afford themselves. But they aren’t paying a dime for their shiny new and slightly used helicopters and tanks. You are.
Terrorists in Texarkana?
Posted: January 26, 2007 9:00 am
The city of Texarkana, Texas, has found the terrorists, and with money from the Department of Homeland Security, is going to go round ‘em all up.
Or, perhaps, not.
China to “purify” Internet
Posted: January 26, 2007 4:07 am
In yet another blow to the Chinese people’s online liberty, the PRC’s Paramount Leader Hu Jintao has vowed to “purify” the Internet.
California moves to outlaw spanking
Posted: January 25, 2007 12:30 pm
California Assemblywoman Sally Lieber plans to give California parents a lesson in parenting — whether they like it or not.
Next week, she will introduce a bill that will outlaw the spanking of children under four by their parents, a move that has sparked a flurry of both criticism and support in California and beyond.
Mass deportations a drop in the bucket
Posted: January 25, 2007 4:45 am
The Department of Homeland Security can’t make more than the slightest dent in the illegal immigration “problem,” so officials have decided to focus their efforts on what they call the “worst of the worst,” those who had been deported previously or committed crimes while in the U.S.
UK support for civil liberties falls
Posted: January 24, 2007 10:34 am
A recent study of social attitudes in Britain has discovered that support for civil liberties is on the wane, with the majority of the population seeing infringements on their rights as a reasonable price for apparent security.
2007 State of the Union Address
Posted: January 24, 2007 12:32 am
The rite of custom brings us together at a defining hour — when decisions are hard and courage is needed. We enter the year 2007 with large endeavors underway, and others that are ours to begin. In all of this, much is asked of us. We must have the will to face difficult challenges and determined enemies — and the wisdom to face them together.
Springfield Laughs Its Asselins Off
Posted: January 23, 2007 3:52 am
In the bulging roster of corrupt pols who serve the people on the Eastern Seaboard, few provide as many black laughs as the Asselin clan of Springfield, Massachusetts. Even the klown kings of Jersey can’t hold a candle.
Kansas City loses tax record tapes
Posted: January 21, 2007 11:46 pm
If you live or work in Kansas City, Mo., your most sensitive personal information has gone missing: your tax records.
Anti-marijuana state rep learns something
Posted: January 20, 2007 10:59 pm
A New Hampshire state representative who last week said he would vote against a marijuana decriminalization bill and suggested in an e-mail that a constituent should “snitch” on his friends for smoking marijuana now says he’s open to discussing the issue, after the e-mail received nationwide attention.
The TSA Follies
Posted: January 20, 2007 3:30 am
The Transportation Security Administration is making changes to its procedures, retraining its employees, and hiring terrorist sympathizers.
ACLU criticizes wrong federal agency again
Posted: January 19, 2007 4:49 am
Updated: January 19, 2007 5:04 am
A military intelligence database contained 186 reports of “anti-military protests or demonstrations in the U.S.,” according to a Pentagon memo released by the American Civil Liberties Union Wednesday. At the same time, the ACLU released a report which shows that while it obtained copies of the intelligence reports, it utterly failed to read them.
Little of this is news. The only thing really newsworthy here is how much the ACLU likes to make noise without actually doing anything constructive.
IRS can’t even collect taxes from government employees
Posted: January 19, 2007 4:00 am
Internal Revenue Service documents show that the government is still trying to recover nearly $2.8 billion in back taxes from over 450,000 active and retired federal government employees who failed to file tax returns or pay taxes, or some 3.3 percent of the federal bureaucracy.
Terrorist surveillance program to require warrants
Posted: January 18, 2007 3:40 am
The Bush administration will stop conducting warrantless surveillance on Americans with suspected ties to terrorism, and will give the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court jurisdiction over the so-called terrorist surveillance program run by the National Security Agency since shortly after 9/11 and first disclosed in December 2005.
How not to be a state representative
Posted: January 17, 2007 7:54 am
Updated: January 17, 2007 8:14 am
In New Hampshire, when you call your state representative, you don’t speak to some staffer; you speak to the rep himself. If you e-mail your representative, he’s the one who writes the response. It’s very personal. And it’s very easy to keep a close watch on whether these reps are doing.
Now we all know that politicians hold We the People in contempt, but it’s very rare that one admits it. Such an admission is political suicide. Indeed, it was with shock that I witnessed New Hampshire Rep. Delmar Burridge (D-Keene) commit political suicide in responding to a constituent’s e-mail.
Pentagon to restrict student recruiting database
Posted: January 17, 2007 3:38 am
The Department of Defense will remove some personal information about high school students from a military recruiting database and shorten the amount of time it keeps the information, a civil liberties group announced last week.
Real ID database to be outsourced
Posted: January 15, 2007 4:01 am
The REAL ID Act of 2005 requires states to issue identification cards and driver licenses which conform to federal standards yet to be issued, and all of the information to be stored in a central database yet to be established. A privacy activist has said that he obtained internal Homeland Security documents which describe how that database will be established and run.
Terminator aims to destroy California health care
Posted: January 15, 2007 12:07 am
Last year, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill which would have created single-payer health care in that state. But the universal coverage proposal he’s offered in its place may be almost as bad.
State of Homeland Stupidity
Posted: January 14, 2007 2:40 am
It’s been three days since I have been able to post anything to Homeland Stupidity. Fortunately, this isn’t because I got shipped off to Guantanamo. There’s been plenty of news, though, so I wanted to explain what has been going on behind the scenes.
Minimum wage hike passes House
Posted: January 10, 2007 11:11 pm
In case you haven’t noticed, the new Democrat-led Congress has begun a 100-hour legislative orgy, passing package after package of laws to screw the American people. Over the next few days we’ll look at some of these. But tonight, it’s the minimum wage. The House of Representatives voted 315 to 116 to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour.
War on Drugs targets asparagus?
Posted: January 10, 2007 2:53 pm
Updated: January 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Over the past few years the failed War on Drugs has eradicated thousands of acres of American asparagus.
And, love it or hate it, asparagus isn’t even an illegal drug.
NSA provided security help for Windows, Mac OS X
Posted: January 9, 2007 5:11 pm
Updated: January 10, 2007 11:53 am
The National Security Agency has provided assistance to Microsoft and Apple in securing their Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, according to a report published Tuesday.
Supreme Court refuses Gilmore due process case
Posted: January 9, 2007 3:26 pm
On Monday the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a Ninth Circuit appeals court decision which found that Americans do not have a “right to travel by any particular form of transportation” and do not have the right to know the laws and regulations they must obey.
EU travellers’ fingerprints to be added to national database
Posted: January 9, 2007 1:39 am
Beginning this summer, European travellers to the U.S. will face even more affronts to their civil liberties when new regulations designed to combat terrorism come into effect. “This must be the Keystone Cops school of border control.”
Is government evil?
Posted: January 8, 2007 5:20 pm
Over the weekend I took a brief look at the mass media’s coverage of the Iraq war, posting eight satirically captioned photos of soldiers playing with Iraqi children. I’ve been monitoring the response to these photos all over the Internet, and across the political spectrum, the response has been overwhelmingly positive, both from conservatives and surprisingly from most liberals as well. But a few people misunderstood the point of the posting, or just don’t have a sense of humor, and their responses were scathing.
Homeland Security, tripping up your trip
Posted: January 8, 2007 2:59 pm
Taking a trip on an airplane used to be a tantalizing undertaking for millions of Americans. The thought of crossing thousands of miles in a few short hours continues to amaze and inspire us. Yet for thousands of people, the trip is fraught with trouble, beginning at airport check-in, where their travel plans are thwarted by hearing the words, “You’re on a government watchlist.”
Now the Department of Homeland Security has created a new bureaucracy to try to streamline the process of tripping up Americans’ travel.
Advertising coming to TSA checkpoints
Posted: January 7, 2007 7:20 pm
Bored while waiting in line at the airport? The Transportation Security Administration plans to allow companies to advertise at airport security checkpoints, following a test at Los Angeles International Airport.
New graphic torture photos from Iraq
Posted: January 7, 2007 1:14 am
On Saturday, a source in the Army in Baghdad was able to find a computer with functioning e-mail and sent out eight shocking images of U.S. troops doing unspeakable things to Iraqi citizens. After carefully reviewing the images, I am convinced there is a compelling public interest in publishing the images.
Parents are cautioned that these images, as the source who obtained the photos said, “are graphic and may cause a physical reaction.”
Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties
Posted: January 6, 2007 7:51 pm
In June, the Future of Freedom Foundation will host Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties, a four-day conference examining the intersection of these two burning issues, with an eye to restoring the limited-government principles on which the U.S. was founded.
There’s just one small problem.
Transportation workers identity credential to cost $159
Posted: January 5, 2007 8:42 pm
The Transportation Security Administration is requiring port and maritime workers and truckers to purchase a $159 identity document and undergo a “threat assessment” to provide secured access to seaports, airports and other such facilities, but doesn’t yet have the technology to read the cards.
The President wants to open your mail
Posted: January 4, 2007 9:22 pm
Last month President Bush, in one of his infamous signing statements, claimed the authority to open Americans’ mail without a warrant to collect foreign intelligence or in “exigent circumstances.”
The down side to GPS tracking your children
Posted: January 3, 2007 9:41 pm
As you probably aren’t aware, your cell phone can be used to locate you whenever the phone is turned on, even if you aren’t on a call, and even if you think you have the GPS function disabled. The government has long taken advantage of this ability, tracking people even without probable cause.
To make it more palatable, several wireless carriers are now offering this functionality as a service to parents to track their children.
Education initiative widens funding gap
Posted: January 3, 2007 2:50 am
One of the many goals of No Child Left Behind is to decrease the “achievement gap” between rich and poor, white and minority. We already know that isn’t happening. At the center of the debate is often money. If these schools only had more of it, they could solve all their problems. In fact, the states themselves seem to generally favor NCLB if only they got a larger portion of the taxpayers’ income.
Much of what No Child Left Behind seeks to accomplish is “contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive of the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.”
“Danziger 7″ indicted for murder, attempted murder
Posted: January 2, 2007 7:44 pm
Tonight, residents of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, La., can rest a little easier, now that seven dangerous men indicted for murder and attempted murder are off the streets and in jail.
