For less than $150 you can buy all the parts necessary to construct an improvised explosive device that can be carried undetected into virtually any federal building in the country, thanks in large part to security weaknesses with the Federal Protective Service, the agency charged with protecting those buildings.
Homeland Security
Homeland Security profiles conservatives, libertarians as “right-wing extremists”
Posted: April 14, 2009 7:20 pm
Did you buy extra ammunition after Barack Obama was elected President, and are you still concerned that he might ban your guns? Are you concerned that the economic crisis could devolve into a depression, or worse? Do you think the federal government has overstepped its authority under the Constitution? If so, the government thinks you’re a right-wing extremist and a potential terrorist threat.
TSA compromised covert airport security testing
Posted: April 13, 2009 10:10 pm
The Transportation Security Administration compromised security testing of airport security screeners at as many as 11 airports by sending out an e-mail about the tests and failing to report the compromise, according to a report released Friday by the Department of Homeland Security inspector general.
CBP officer sues DHS over immigration raid
Posted: April 8, 2009 1:07 pm
Last July, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted a raid of a home allegedly looking for a fugitive alien. Instead, they found a Customs and Border Protection officer.
Securing the homeland, one liberty at a time
Posted: December 18, 2008 9:03 pm
Updated: December 18, 2008 11:19 pm
It’s that time again, time for outgoing government bureaucrats to make room for fresh new faces and to say goodbye. Today, outgoing Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff said goodbye to the country in a video. Of course, the government can’t seem to do anything right, and now we can add making simple videos to that list.
DHS official gets death threats over shock bracelet letter
Posted: August 8, 2008 9:01 pm
Perhaps the webmaster at Lamperd Less Lethal needs an electric shock.
Illegal immigrants, please go away
Posted: August 4, 2008 8:27 pm
The federal government has tried almost everything in its various bids to get undocumented immigrants out of the country. Now it’s trying something simple and unusual: just asking them to please leave.
The TSA Follies
Posted: August 2, 2008 8:00 pm
Updated: August 3, 2008 4:36 pm
“Your safety is our priority,” the Transportation Security Administration web site tells us. So how does the TSA explain these four ways it’s keeping air travelers unsafe?
“Our national security system is broken”
Posted: August 1, 2008 6:01 pm
A congressionally mandated study released Wednesday found that the U.S. national security system is outdated and needs major restructuring.
Bloody Toto Guilty of Mortgage Fraud
Posted: July 27, 2008 3:24 pm
A Brooklyn jury has found Emmanuel “Toto” Constant guilty of mortgage fraud and grand larceny. Constant is the former founder and leader of FRAPH, the Haitian paramilitary group that in the early 90’s systematically tortured and murdered thousands of supporters of deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
New Orleans to kick people out of travel trailers
Posted: July 19, 2008 2:34 pm
New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin announced that the city would begin citing residents who did not vacate the FEMA trailers in which they have been living.
Electric shock for air passengers?
Posted: July 4, 2008 9:26 am
Updated: July 9, 2008 2:25 pm
You check in at the airline ticket counter. But instead of a boarding pass, you get shackled with an electronic bracelet which tracks your every move, contains all your personal information, and can shock you senseless. This vision of the future of air security is being floated around the Department of Homeland Security’s research and development office.
Low morale at TSA leads to distraction, attrition
Posted: July 1, 2008 6:34 pm
Transportation Security Administration employees have a hard time getting their workplace concerns addressed, despite several agency initiatives, contributing to low morale and one in six screeners quitting their jobs each year, and potentially threatening airline security.
Government: the man-made disaster
Posted: June 30, 2008 12:41 am
We finally know why the federal government prevented Wal-Mart from delivering water to Hurricane Katrina victims: it was free.
AAMVA to build REAL ID verification hub
Posted: June 22, 2008 2:27 pm
Updated: June 22, 2008 3:04 pm
The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators received a no-bid contract worth millions of dollars to implement a “verification hub” connecting state and federal databases under the REAL ID program.
“Strike teams” invade Iowa flood victims’ homes
Posted: June 18, 2008 6:55 pm
So far the federal government has done little to respond to the historic floods in eastern Iowa which are among the worst in recorded history. In order to maintain tyranny in the flooded areas, local governments have had to step up to meet the challenge.
FEMA: Don’t rely on us after flood
Posted: June 11, 2008 2:27 pm
Indiana residents affected by Saturday’s flooding shouldn’t expect assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency any time soon, and perhaps not at all.
Bush: Federal contractors’ employees need permission to work
Posted: June 10, 2008 4:44 pm
President George W. Bush on Friday signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to verify the employment eligibility status of federal contractors and subcontractors.
Protected infrastructure: Ramblin Express casino shuttle
Posted: May 31, 2008 11:51 am
It’s May again, that time of year when the Department of Homeland Security hands out millions of dollars of your hard-earned money to whoever it wants for the strangest of reasons, or none at all, in the name of “infrastructure protection.” Today’s stupid spending: $184,415 for a casino shuttle.
A Global Struggle for Security and Progress
Posted: May 28, 2008 8:15 am
The war on terror could be recast as “A Global Struggle for Security and Progress,” according to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo.
The Revolution: A Manifesto
Posted: May 26, 2008 5:05 pm
If “Truth is treason in the empire of lies,” as Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) writes in his new book, The Revolution: A Manifesto, then Paul has certainly committed treason by laying out the truth of the precarious state of the United States in 2008.
Does FEMA need more power?
Posted: May 18, 2008 12:07 pm
When the next hurricane threatens to strike, how will you get the news? For that matter, will you survive? Some want to give the Federal Emergency Management Agency even more authority over disaster response than it already has, even while it struggles to modernize the country’s emergency alert system.
The TSA Follies
Posted: May 15, 2008 8:59 pm
Ostensibly the Transportation Security Administration exists to keep Americans safe when they fly. In reality it’s a bureaucratic nightmare which never should have been created in the first place. Consider what the TSA has done to pilots and air marshals to put you at risk.
TSA rules led to pilot’s gun firing in flight
Posted: April 12, 2008 7:41 am
Transportation Security Administration rules are to blame for the conditions leading up to an accidental discharge of a U.S. Airways pilot’s pistol during landing, say airline pilots familiar with the program.
New Hampshire gets REAL ID extension
Posted: March 29, 2008 8:01 pm
The Department of Homeland Security has granted an extension to New Hampshire for compliance with the provisions of the federal REAL ID program.
Welcome USA TODAY readers
Posted: January 3, 2008 3:18 am
Why did I say that Ron Paul’s foreign policy is the only way to end terrorism?
TSA among most unpopular federal agencies
Posted: January 2, 2008 8:24 am
Santa brought Kip Hawley coal this year, because he’s been a very naughty boy.
FEMA trailer formaldehyde testing to begin
Posted: December 18, 2007 5:40 pm
More than a year after displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina first said that formaldehyde in government-issued travel trailers was making them sick, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has arranged for air quality testing to begin this week.
TSA can’t find real bombs either
Posted: November 25, 2007 6:34 pm
The excuse we hear from the Transportation Security Administration when yet another report comes out finding that its screeners miss the majority of simulated bomb components that testers attempt to bring through airport checkpoints is that the tests are designed to be difficult and nobody would be able to get away with it if they were real bomb components.
Yet investigators with no insider knowledge were able to smuggle real bomb components, sufficient to assemble powerful improvised explosive devices based on liquid explosives, past the TSA at 19 separate airports, according to a report released November 15.
Mukasey’s Homeland Security Court
Posted: November 8, 2007 12:06 am
One of the requirements for a totalitarian police state is a system of kangaroo courts, star chambers which operate in secret and in parallel to the existing judicial system to convict political prisoners of pretended crimes against the state, which could never survive in the regular courts. And former judge Michael Mukasey, nominee for U.S. Attorney General to replace Alberto Gonzales, has proposed that the United States adopt such a system of courts.
New York gets REAL ID
Posted: November 2, 2007 5:58 pm
New York State will begin issuing new versions of so-called secure driver licenses as well as a version specifically for undocumented immigrants, Gov. Eliot Spitzer said last weekend.
Welcome: Portraits of America
Posted: October 28, 2007 5:43 pm
Updated: October 28, 2007 11:11 pm
Since September 11, 2001, getting in to the U.S. as a foreign visitor has become a harrowing experience. So much so, in fact, that foreign tourism is down 17% as many tourists choose to spend their holidays elsewhere rather than be poked, prodded, searched, fingerprinted and verbally abused by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
Not to fear, though; the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of State have done something about it.
TSA screeners fail most bomb tests
Posted: October 25, 2007 11:19 pm
Transportation Security Administration screeners at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport missed more than 60% of bomb components which undercover agents attempted to smuggle through airport checkpoints, according to a classified report.
Poisoned jawbreakers: the next terrorist attack?
Posted: October 12, 2007 4:49 pm
Town aldermen in Dover, N.J., worried that terrorists could attack the town’s children by poisoning gumballs in coin-operated gumball machines, have launched an inspection of every machine they can find.
Chinese hackers crack Homeland Security computers
Posted: October 1, 2007 1:54 am
Chinese hackers broke into Department of Homeland Security computers and made off with “many megabytes” of data, and the contractor charged with securing the department’s networks attempted to cover up the breaches, according to Congressional investigators who have asked the department’s inspector general to investigate the computer security breaches.
Terrorist watchlist riddled with errors
Posted: September 17, 2007 10:03 pm
A Justice Department audit of the government’s master list of known and suspected terrorists found errors and inconsistencies which would have allowed terrorists to enter the country undetected and would mistakenly identify innocent Americans as terrorists.
GAO: Not much progress at Homeland Security
Posted: September 12, 2007 4:11 am
In the four years since its creation, the Department of Homeland Security has fallen far short of expectations, according to an extensive Congressional audit released last week.
REAL ID: Arizona plans secure driver licenses
Posted: September 9, 2007 2:33 am
The state of Arizona will join Vermont and Washington state in creating a secure state identification document which can be used for travel within Canada and Mexico and will also likely meet the requirements of the REAL ID Act.
CIA pre-9/11 counterterrorism: “Lions led by asses”
Posted: August 26, 2007 1:29 am
In December of 1998, then-Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet wrote in an internal Central Intelligence Agency memorandum that “We are at war” with Osama bin Laden and that he wanted “no resources or people spared in this effort, either inside CIA or the [Intelligence] Community.”
But a 2005 report from John L. Helgerson, the CIA’s inspector general, parts of which were declassified this week, found that Tenet failed to follow through and create a plan for countering the terrorist threat posed by bin Laden and Al-Qaeda.
Clergy response teams to help undermine liberty?
Posted: August 23, 2007 6:10 pm
Over the past decade, cities around the country have established clergy response teams, comprised of pastors, priests and other religious leaders from all religious denominations, to provide aid, counseling and assistance to victims of crime and lately of natural disasters. Now a report suggests that these clergy response teams may be used to help put down civil unrest and enforce martial law.
Bush gets surveillance “blank check”
Posted: August 11, 2007 12:17 am
Last weekend the Bush administration pushed through Congress a law to bolster the government’s ability to intercept the electronic communications of foreigners and other “persons reasonably believed to be outside the U.S.” without a court order.
Bruce Schneier vs. Kip Hawley
Posted: August 4, 2007 2:20 am
Renowned security expert Bruce Schneier conducted an extensive interview with Transportation Security Administration head Kip Hawley, and asked him, in essence, when is airport security going to start making sense?
NSA asks hackers for security help
Posted: August 2, 2007 1:17 am
Updated: August 2, 2007 2:15 am
This makes yet another year I didn’t make it to DEFCON, the longest-running hacker conference now in its 15th year. Which is unfortunate, because I really would have loved to have been at the opening speech at the Black Hat Briefings, held just prior to the main event this weekend, and at which the National Security Agency got up and asked the hacker community for help.
NSA spying program tip of iceberg
Posted: August 2, 2007 12:35 am
In late 2001, President Bush signed an executive order authorizing a controversial National Security Agency program, and on Tuesday, director of national intelligence Mike McConnell revealed that the executive order authorized not only the “terrorist surveillance program” whose existence was revealed in 2005, but a series of other programs as well.
FEMA ignored travel trailer formaldehyde threat
Posted: July 26, 2007 4:22 pm
Updated: July 26, 2007 4:47 pm
People who survived Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster in a century, then had to face the next challenge to their survival: the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Those who survived FEMA’s first round of incompetence in New Orleans were placed in travel trailers, many of which oozed formaldehyde, making them sick and killing at least one person. But FEMA lawyers stonewalled, preventing the agency from taking steps to mitigate the formaldehyde problem.
No security at Sky Harbor
Posted: July 23, 2007 4:27 pm
“Sky Harbor’s not safe and hasn’t been for a long time.” So says one airport employee at the Phoenix, Ariz., airport.
The Transportation Security Administration has been going home at midnight and returning at 4:30 a.m. During those hours, it’s easy to walk into the sterile areas of the airport entirely unscreened.
TSA seizes water, lets bombs through
Posted: July 19, 2007 12:38 pm
Updated: July 19, 2007 1:11 pm
Several people walked into Albany International Airport in Colonie, N.Y., in late June, carry-on bags stuffed full of bomb parts, and strolled to the security checkpoint.
Transportation Security Administration screeners seized every bottle of water from all of them.
The news just keeps breaking
Posted: July 18, 2007 3:22 am
Updates to stories previously covered at Homeland Stupidity.
Attrition plagues DHS senior management
Posted: July 17, 2007 2:26 am
Before you decide that, what with all those senior management positions open, a move into the Department of Homeland Security is good for your career, you should know that many people don’t last long there.
Four potential risks to intelligence fusion centers
Posted: July 16, 2007 11:08 pm
Updated: July 17, 2007 2:44 am
The more than 40 local and regional intelligence fusion centers created after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, to improve information sharing between the federal government and state, local and tribal law enforcement, are failing to accomplish their mission of protecting the homeland.
Homeland Security management positions vacant
Posted: July 14, 2007 1:06 pm
One-fourth of top management positions at the Department of Homeland Security remain vacant as of May 1, according to a congressional report released this week.
Independence Day
Posted: July 4, 2007 11:59 pm
Updated: July 5, 2007 1:39 pm
This day the rain moved in early in the afternoon, and continued well into the night, and yet people still set off their fireworks here in a city where it’s, as far as I know, perfectly legal to do so. But while the star-spangled banner yet waves, the freedom it represents is a distant memory.
DHS move to lunatic asylum questioned
Posted: July 3, 2007 12:58 am
Preservationists are questioning plans by the Department of Homeland Security to move into the west campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital, a former lunatic asylum.
Bits of homeland stupidity
Posted: July 1, 2007 6:34 pm
Getting security right is a challenge for the best of us. But when you put security in the hands of government, getting it right is a virtually insurmountable obstacle. Here are a few ways government made you less secure and wasted your money over the last couple of weeks.
Land crossing passport requirement delayed
Posted: July 1, 2007 5:24 pm
Updated: July 1, 2007 5:56 pm
The Bush administration has suspended a pending rule which would have required travelers re-entering the country from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean by land or sea to present passports at entry.
Pulp Fiction Iraq
Posted: June 29, 2007 6:04 pm
With a groan of pleasure akin to torment, George surged into the Fertile Crescent again and again.
DHS computer security still sucks
Posted: June 28, 2007 5:06 pm
Government auditors told a Congressional committee last week that computer security at the Department of Homeland Security still needs improvement, even after years of work to remedy the problems.
Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t learn
Posted: June 10, 2007 7:37 am
The military desperately needs Arabic linguists in order to provide translation services in the ongoing war in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. But at least one Navy linguist is no longer providing those much-needed services, because, for some in the Pentagon, there’s a war more important than the war on terror.
Passport requirement to re-enter country temporarily suspended
Posted: June 9, 2007 3:31 am
The State Department announced Friday it would suspend a rule requiring Americans to have passports in order to re-enter the country from Canada, Mexico and certain Caribbean islands which went into effect earlier this year due to a months-long backlog of passport applications.
In Massachusetts, garbled fax means bomb scare
Posted: June 5, 2007 7:08 am
A fax sent by Bank of America’s corporate office to its Ashland, Mass., branch last week was garbled in transmission. When it came out the other end, a bank employee saw clip art of a hand lighting a match to a bomb and called police. You can guess what happened next.
Government opposes mad cow testing
Posted: June 4, 2007 5:29 am
The U.S. government is trying to prevent a Kansas meat company from testing all of its cows for mad cow disease.
RFID passport card privacy threat debated
Posted: May 31, 2007 7:39 pm
A passport card set to be issued by the State Department for travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean doesn’t require privacy protection, even though it uses a radio frequency identification chip which can be read from 20 feet away, because the chip itself doesn’t contain personal information, according to the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Audit: FBI critical network still vulnerable
Posted: May 25, 2007 8:21 am
A critical Federal Bureau of Investigation network for sharing law enforcement and investigative information is at risk of being misused or having its services interrupted, according to an audit released this week.
Help not wanted if you’re an anarchist
Posted: May 23, 2007 1:29 pm
Members of a group who went to Greensburg, Kan., to assist in relief efforts after a May 5 tornado destroyed most of the town were forcibly ejected by police on the scene for being “federal security threats.”
Mobile devices to change people’s interactions with government
Posted: May 22, 2007 3:20 am
Technology is changing how people interact with government forever, says a prominent homeland security consultant.
After tornado, FEMA disarms town, turns away help
Posted: May 18, 2007 4:34 pm
On Friday, May 4, an F5 tornado wiped the town of Greensburg, Kan., almost entirely off the map. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, along with the National Guard and local police from all over Kansas, then systematically kept out relief workers while they went house to house disarming the residents.
Social Security card to be national ID
Posted: May 16, 2007 9:34 pm
Two proposals being floated around Capitol Hill call for the Social Security card to be updated with biometric information and for U.S. employers to be required to verify it with the Department of Homeland Security when hiring.
Ron Paul gains support in second GOP debate
Posted: May 16, 2007 4:09 am
Updated: May 16, 2007 4:39 am
For those who doubted that Rep. Ron Paul was a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, the debate Tuesday night in South Carolina put all doubts to rest. Paul stirred up a firestorm of controversy for suggesting that the Department of Homeland Security made national security even more inefficient after September 11 than before, and especially for his assertion that U.S. foreign policy over the past several decades contributed to the rise of Islamic terrorism.
But viewers at home responded, putting Ron Paul in second place in FOX’s own tamper-proof viewer poll.
Apology, community service for Mooninite scare
Posted: May 14, 2007 8:58 pm
Two men who planted electronic light boards around the city of Boston to promote the Aqua Teen Hunger Force cartoon, resulting in city officials overreacting and shutting down the city, have resolved the criminal charges against them.
You are the homegrown terrorist threat
Posted: May 13, 2007 11:26 pm
If you’re an American reading this, then under expansive definitions being used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and several states in their counterterrorism training, you just might be a domestic terrorist.
Bush takes control of continuity planning
Posted: May 13, 2007 6:25 pm
The White House will take a more direct role in managing continuity of government plans to be used in the event of a “decapitating” attack on the federal government, under a presidential directive issued Wednesday.
Bureaucrat Appreciation Week
Posted: May 11, 2007 3:56 am
“Federal, State, and local governments are responsive, innovative, and effective because of the outstanding work of public servants.”
If you believe that, I’ve got some critical infrastructure to sell you. But Congress certainly seems to believe it, unless they’ve recently taken to passing satire off as Congressional resolutions.
Airlines to be forced to fingerprint departing visitors
Posted: May 10, 2007 3:08 am
If you’re planning a visit to the U.S., you already have to give up your fingerprints and retinal scans to the Department of Homeland Security in order to enter the country. Now the department wants to require every visitor to go through the same procedure in order to leave the country.
And they want to force the airlines to collect your biometric information, rather than do it themselves.
DHS: You’ll take a national ID and you’ll like it
Posted: May 9, 2007 2:33 am
The Department of Homeland Security will move forward with plans to implement the REAL ID Act despite widespread opposition from citizens and state legislatures.
Terrorist hoaxes can only get better?
Posted: May 9, 2007 12:07 am
Boston became the laughingstock of the country earlier this year after two incidents in which it responded to harmless devices as if they were real terrorist threats. Now Sen. Ed Kennedy (D-Mass.) wants to make absurd overreaction into national policy.
Why everybody hates the TSA
Posted: May 6, 2007 5:43 pm
Whether it’s harassing elderly and disabled travelers, or breaking or even stealing valuables from passengers’ luggage, almost everyone has a low opinion of the Transportation Security Administration. Except, perhaps, for those who want to get in on the jackbooted action.
100,000 TSA employees’ personal data stolen
Posted: May 5, 2007 7:14 pm
A hard drive containing the names, Social Security and bank account numbers for 100,000 current and former Transportation Security Administration employees was reported stolen this week, prompting a criminal investigation.
Congress probes low morale at DHS
Posted: May 3, 2007 2:20 am
Morale at the Department of Homeland Security remains low, but Marta Perez, the department’s new human capital officer, says that “significant progress is being made.” It’s just not clear what the department is progressing toward, exactly.
Who wants a national ID?
Posted: May 2, 2007 6:31 pm
The majority of Americans, it seems, support the idea of a national ID, as long as it doesn’t contain biometric information, according to a recent UPI/Zogby poll. But a large coalition of groups from every part of the political spectrum has gotten together to oppose the REAL ID Act as a threat to Americans’ security.
Is that homeless guy a terrorist?
Posted: May 2, 2007 2:28 am
Updated: May 2, 2007 4:23 am
It’s said in the Bible that the poor will always be among us. In Springfield, Ill., as in most cities across the U.S., the homeless are at the public library. They use the restroom in the stairwell of the parking garage on top of which the library sits and they store their meager tarp-covered possessions next to the building. And mayor Tim Davlin is apparently at his wit’s end trying to deal with the homeless problem.
But a local alderman has come up with a novel idea to clean up downtown Springfield: Suggest a terrorist threat from homeless people.
GAO: DHS bureaucracy delays oversight
Posted: April 27, 2007 3:16 am
Unlike most other federal agencies, the Department of Homeland Security has thrown up walls of bureaucracy in front of auditors, causing long delays in access to information necessary to oversee the department, the Government Accountability Office said this week.
Peace Bridge border inspection talks end
Posted: April 26, 2007 11:08 pm
Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff broke off talks with Canada on Wednesday over a plan to move the U.S. border inspection facility at the Peace Bridge from its current location in Buffalo, N.Y., to the Canadian side of the border.
The dispute, it turns out, was over when the U.S. could take fingerprints of Canadians who aren’t even crossing into the U.S.
Waste in FEMA trailer maintenace contracts
Posted: April 25, 2007 4:48 am
The Federal Emergency Management Agency wasted billions of dollars by awarding contracts for services to maintain and remove emergency trailers for people displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to politically well-connected and financially risky companies, according to an inspector general’s report released Monday.
It’s only suspicious if you’re dressed like a “terrorist”
Posted: April 24, 2007 10:41 pm
If you’re a potential threat, and you want to get those critical pictures of a bridge or a nuclear reactor, what do you do? After all, these days you’re bound to have cops on your ass within minutes.
If spyware is outlawed, only outlaws will have spyware
Posted: April 19, 2007 8:36 pm
A bill to outlaw certain forms of spyware is making its way through the House of Representatives. But if you think it will actually prevent spyware from getting on your computer, you have a lot to learn about government.
Backpacks give Newton, Mass., school officials bomb scare
Posted: April 18, 2007 12:15 pm
Even living as close to Boston as I do, I don’t always get the news about happenings in and around Boston until much later. So more than a week after it happened, I find out about yet another stupid bomb scare, this time at a high school in Newton, Mass.
Stop illegal spying
Posted: April 15, 2007 2:18 pm
“Terrorists win when the fear of them induces us to destroy the rights that make us free.” Those were the words of one victim of post-9/11 anti-terrorism hysteria to a Congressional committee on Wednesday. So we got national security letters, a terrorist surveillance program, and probably many other programs, but instead of stopping terrorists, these programs have targeted ordinary Americans.
Why I won’t buy an iPod
Posted: April 15, 2007 8:12 am
I’m in the market for a new portable media player, since my current one is getting rather old, not to mention full. Naturally, I looked at the current crop of iPods. They’re excellent hardware and work well. But I won’t buy one, not because of the iPod itself, but because of Apple’s no-privacy policy.
REAL ID, the bureuacrat’s wet dream
Posted: April 12, 2007 6:00 pm
The REAL ID Act will be a real nightmare for many reasons, only one of which is the fact that government bureaucrats will finally get most of the errors out of their massive databases on virtually every American.
Washington state pretends to reject REAL ID
Posted: April 12, 2007 10:33 am
Washington state Gov. Chris Gregoire is expected to sign a bill passed last week which would ostensibly prevent the state from participating in the REAL ID program, at least until the government ponies up some money to pay for it.
Have you used a gun in self-defense?
Posted: April 10, 2007 8:59 am
Have you ever used a gun in self-defense, or defense of another? If so, there’s something you may want to do.
ACLU in Texas helps protect traveling gun owners
Posted: April 7, 2007 6:20 am
The American Civil Liberties Union has joined the National Rifle Association to help protect the rights of Texans to travel with their guns, a move that has almost everybody scratching their heads.
Homeland Stupidity Forum
Posted: April 6, 2007 9:22 am
There being some actual demand from regular readers of this site for a forum on the topics covered here, I’ve started one.
Census bureau gave up WWII internment camp evaders
Posted: April 5, 2007 6:05 am
Updated: April 5, 2007 6:48 am
The United States Census Bureau turned over names and addresses of American citizens of Japanese descent to the Secret Service during World War II. How dare those supposedly patriotic Americans not turn themselves in to their designated concentration camps!
TSA misses liquid explosives, weapons in tests
Posted: April 4, 2007 4:42 am
The Transportation Security Administration is supposed to be interdicting, among other things, liquid explosives, before someone manages to smuggle them aboard an aircraft and blow it up in a highly implausible movie-plot threat. Instead, they’ve been seizing and throwing away your bottled water and soda. So it shouldn’t be any surprise that TSA screeners at Denver International Airport failed to find 90% of weapons and explosives during recent tests.
Too busy to be April fooled
Posted: April 2, 2007 5:18 am
In case you haven’t noticed, there haven’t been any posts here in several days. This is primarily because I’ve been wrapped up with another project which has taken up virtually all of my time since the last post. To make it up to you, I’m just going to give you links to several interesting items in my unread list for you to enjoy.
“We hacked the Super Bowl”
Posted: March 29, 2007 2:27 am
Updated: March 29, 2007 3:31 am
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.
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.
