Security for the Super Bowl, held in Miami, Fla., on February 4, was so tight that no potential threat could possibly have penetrated the multiple layers of defenses surrounding the event. But, it seems, half a dozen pranksters not only penetrated the event but demonstrated that “perfect” security is impossible.
Archives: March 2007
Government creatively losing your personal information
Posted: March 28, 2007 12:19 pm
Governments can’t always find new and creative ways to lose your personal information, try as they might. So when they can’t, they resort to the tried and true. Here are three incidents where government displayed at least some creativity while putting you at risk.
No-buy list snags innocent Americans
Posted: March 28, 2007 7:13 am
The federal government expects you to do your part to help catch terrorists, by screening everyone you do business with against a public blacklist of suspected terrorists and drug traffickers maintained by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. Worse, people are actually starting to do this, and the national credit reporting agencies are now putting the government’s black marks on the wrong people’s credit reports.
“Life in the surveillance state”
Posted: March 27, 2007 2:41 am
Being forced by the government to spy on your own neighbors, customers, friends and family. It’s coming. And it will be brought to you by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, whose national security letters have recently attracted national attention due to findings of abuse and lawbreaking by FBI agents.
Washington state accepts REAL ID, gets bonus
Posted: March 26, 2007 10:18 pm
REAL ID, that bitter pill which will further centralize identification of virtually every American, not to mention cost you untold billions of dollars, is so tough to swallow that many states are balking at it. But one state is eagerly accepting REAL ID after the Department of Homeland Security held out a carrot along with its sharp stick.
Hillary and Rudy Sitting In a Tree
Posted: March 25, 2007 9:00 pm
With each presidential election the candidates seem more proscribed and the selection process more truncated. Inner party poopers, talking heads and big money try to seal the deal before the ink is dry on the last guy. This time the dumb beats loudest for Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. Hillary and Rudy are more alike than they’re different.
Maryland begins “homeland security” shakedowns
Posted: March 25, 2007 7:05 pm
Maryland state police conducted what they call a “homeland security” operation Wednesday near the MARC commuter rail station in Brunswick. So, if it’s about homeland security, why did the police have drug dogs sniffing cars?
Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment
Posted: March 25, 2007 12:06 am
The master list the federal government keeps of known and suspected terrorists, from which other government agencies derive their own watch lists, already hundreds of thousands of names large, is growing out of control, filling with “fragmentary,” “inconsistent” and “sometimes just flat-out wrong” information, a top counterterrorism official said.
Hacker of Indiana state web site targeted other states
Posted: March 24, 2007 8:58 pm
A hacker who broke into an Indiana government web site and compromised the identities of 71,000 health care workers and 5,600 people who purchased government services online has also targeted other state government web sites.
Because, of course, that’s where the money is.
10,000 comments
Posted: March 23, 2007 4:31 am
Homeland Stupidity passed another milestone last night, with the 10,000th comment left to the site.
Auditors: Senate Restaurants hemorrhaging money
Posted: March 23, 2007 3:47 am
It’s official: Congress can’t even run a restaurant.
According to an independent audit released last week, the Senate Restaurants Revolving Fund, which includes the exclusive Senate Dining Room, operated at a loss during fiscal years 2005 and 2006, and to cover the losses, Congress just threw in some of your money.
DHS: REAL ID protects your privacy, we promise
Posted: March 22, 2007 4:23 am
The forthcoming REAL ID Act isn’t a privacy nightmare, says a Department of Homeland Security official. In fact, it will improve your privacy and protect the security of your personal information.
New R2-D2 mailboxes are not a bomb
Posted: March 22, 2007 3:47 am
Updated: March 22, 2007 6:15 am
In honor of Star Wars’ 30th anniversary, the United States Postal Service is unveiling a new commemorative stamp March 29. And my very own Lincoln, Neb., is one of 200 cities nationwide to be selected for a new mailbox to mark the event.
Homeland Security to move into loony bin
Posted: March 20, 2007 12:34 pm
The Department of Homeland Security is moving its headquarters to a lunatic asylum. As Dave Barry is fond of saying, I am not making this up.
Moving to New Hampshire Open Thread
Posted: March 15, 2007 4:11 pm
Though there’s plenty of news to report, nothing new will be posted to Homeland Stupidity for the next few days, since I am moving.
In the meantime, though, have you seen a government agency doing something stupid? Let’s hear about it.
New York City bans aluminum baseball bats
Posted: March 15, 2007 12:33 am
New York City has completely gone off the deep end. Its city council has done virtually nothing of note except look for new and interesting things to ban. The latest victim of the city’s rulers’ hatred of freedom is the common aluminum baseball bat. The city council voted Wednesday to ban the baseball bats, with enough votes to override a veto which had been promised by mayor Michael Bloomberg.
TSA “surges” screening in airport secure areas
Posted: March 13, 2007 3:42 pm
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the airport, the Transportation Security Administration announced Tuesday that it would begin random screening of airport employees and passengers within airport secure areas nationwide.
Al Gore bypassed airport security
Posted: March 12, 2007 10:14 pm
The easiest way to get past airport security, without going through airport security, is to have an accommodating employee take you around the back way into the supposedly sterile area. Why would an airport employee do that?
There are at least two possible reasons. The first is that the employee is helping terrorists. The second is that the passenger is former Vice President Al Gore.
Not-so-free digital TV converters for everyone
Posted: March 12, 2007 9:41 pm
In less than two years, on February 17, 2009, your local analog television station will sign off for the last time, forever, going entirely digital, and the frequencies on which they broadcast will be reassigned for government use. That means, unless you already have a digital television set, or purchase a converter box, your TV, whether it’s new or a family heirloom, is about to become a doorstop.
And the government is going to help you buy a converter box, whether you need help or not.
FBI audit finds improper use of national security letters
Posted: March 11, 2007 11:53 pm
The Federal Bureau of Investigation repeatedly broke the law in order to obtain personal information about tens of thousands of Americans, much of which was never related to any sort of investigation, according to an inspector general’s report released Friday.
This data breach brought to you by the government
Posted: March 11, 2007 6:01 pm
Why is it that we keep giving information to government agencies, when we know that nothing good can come of it? Several examples from the last week show just how good government is at protecting personal information you provided to them.
Hot Rats in Connecticut/Reform in China
Posted: March 10, 2007 1:36 am
On March 3rd, the City of New London, Connecticut, and the quasi-public New London Development Corporation finally did what they’ve been hot to do since 1998: Bulldoze the family home of Michael Cristofaro.
D.C. handgun ban found unconstitutional
Posted: March 9, 2007 3:52 pm
Affirming the right of the people to keep and bear arms, especially in self-defense, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled Friday that key parts of the District’s handgun ban were unconstitutional.
California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, to destroy books for Starbucks
Posted: March 8, 2007 9:16 pm
California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, is persecuting its own librarian for trying to save 300,000 library books from destruction, threatening to have him brought up on criminal charges for simply trying to tell people that the university is planning to destroy the books to make room in the library for a full-service Starbucks Coffee.
Daylight Saving Time begins this weekend
Posted: March 8, 2007 5:32 pm
This year, Daylight Saving Time begins in the United States this weekend. You’re probably ready, now that you know about it, but your computer probably isn’t.
The coming economic collapse of the United States
Posted: March 7, 2007 11:58 pm
The Great Depression will look like a small blip compared to the economic collapse the United States is about to suffer, according to several experts. But Congress refuses to listen and do what’s necessary to stave off disaster.
Underinflated tires, overinflated regulation
Posted: March 6, 2007 1:02 am
One-quarter of you are driving around on underinflated tires. Not only are you losing gas mileage (and money) by doing so, you’re putting yourself at risk of blowing out your tires, losing control in inclement weather, and possibly even killing yourself. But, as always, the government is here to make matters worse.
Post offices remove clocks
Posted: March 5, 2007 6:49 am
Updated: March 5, 2007 8:19 am
Everyone hates going into the post office, and yet everyone has to do it sooner or later. The lines are almost always long, and you’re guaranteed to be waiting and waiting and waiting. But never fear, the United States Postal Service is doing something about it. They’re removing their wall clocks.
Homeland Security data mining may have violated privacy law
Posted: March 4, 2007 8:33 pm
Updated: March 4, 2007 8:56 pm
“Soccer teams, family reunions and Civil War re-enactors” are in danger of being misidentified as terrorists from a data-mining program the Department of Homeland Security is testing which may have already violated privacy laws.
How not to secure your hard drive
Posted: March 2, 2007 5:35 pm
The government can access hard drives which are supposedly protected with common drive locking features offered by many major computer manufacturers. This is not news to many of my readers, but it certainly was news to Michael Alan Crooker.
OKC bombing investigation should be reopened
Posted: March 2, 2007 3:08 pm
The former deputy assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in charge of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing has said that the case should be reopened.
“Universal health care” has failed again
Posted: March 2, 2007 12:03 am
Most Americans, not knowing any better, think “universal health care” is a really good idea. Unfortunately, there is no such thing. To see exactly what American universal health care will look like, one needs look no farther than the smaller version of universal health care which already exists.
DHS issues REAL ID draft regulations
Posted: March 1, 2007 5:08 pm
The Department of Homeland Security has issued proposed regulations which will dictate what states must put on their driver licenses and identification cards to comply with the REAL ID Act of 2005 and implement the national ID scheme which Americans have said time and again that they do not want.
The silver lining on this dark cloud is that most of the worst possible rules, such as RFID or fingerprinting requirements, didn’t make it into the proposed regulations.
Boston suspicious device was counting traffic
Posted: March 1, 2007 12:05 am
On January 31, Boston and Massachusetts officials terrorized that city and made asses of themselves in the national news. And they extorted $2 million and almost ruined two people’s lives over a cartoon character they intentionally mischaracterized as a threat. Apparently trying to repeat their performance, they sent the bomb squad out again Wednesday to blow up another “suspicious device” in Boston’s financial district. Only this time, the plan to extort some other hapless company backfired in their faces.
