The New York Times is reporting the Transportation Dept. has announced new rules penalizing airlines that keep passengers waiting on the tarmac for more than 3 hours.

The new rule also:

• Prohibits airlines from scheduling chronically delayed flights, subjecting those who do to DOT enforcement action for unfair and deceptive practices;

• Requires airlines to designate an airline employee to monitor the effects of flight delays and cancellations, respond in a timely and substantive fashion to consumer complaints and provide information to consumers on where to file complaints;

• Requires airlines to display on their website flight delay information for each domestic flight they operate;

• Requires airlines to adopt customer service plans and audit their own compliance with their plans;

• Prohibits airlines from retroactively applying material changes to their contracts of carriage that could have a negative impact on consumers who already have purchased tickets.

All that remains to be seen are the sure-to-come-about unforeseen side effects of these new regulations.

-Craig A.

John Campbell of Pictures For Sad Children, perfectly sums up the media frenzy surrounding the death of a pop culture icon in his most recent webcomic. (VIA: Laughing Squid)

ABSTRACT:

This paper attempts to set out some general parameters for coming to grips with a central homeland security concern: the effort to make potential targets invulnerable, or at least notably less vulnerable, to terrorist attack. It argues that protection makes sense only when protection is feasible for an entire class of potential targets and when the destruction of something in that target set would have quite large physical, economic, psychological, and/or political consequences. There are a very large number of potential targets where protection is essentially a waste of resources and a much more limited one where it may be effective.

Elisabeth Meyer and Christian Charrière-Bournazel told Agence France Presse that SocGen wanted to “raise a smokescreen that would distract the public’s attention from far more substantial losses that it had made in recent months, notably in the unbelievable subprime affair”.

They also said that the timing of the bank’s decision to close positions relating to Mr Kerviel’s trading and the manner it executed these trades “itself provoked the losses of €4.5bn”. The lawyers also claimed that Mr Kerviel’s trading was in profit to the tune of €1.5bn ($2.2bn, £1.1bn) at December 31.

Kerviel’s legal team went on to accuse Société Générale of increasing the losses by dumping Kerviel’s positions in the current declining market rather that taking time to assess the overall situation.

[Via Engadget]

I bought the interface. This is the simplest way to put it. The apps, online and (hopefully) off, will come with time. Firmware will be upgraded. The world will spin. Everything else aside, the multi-touch interface is hands down the coolest consumer oriented tech to come along in the last 5 years , maybe more. Once you play with it…touch it you too will understand.

…I want to live in a world where a rock star wondered, ‘How can I make a billion people think about my schlong for a few days’?

Brilliant.

(01/18/2007 draft of the manual)

Thanks to Congress, detainees at Guantanamo lost the due process protection that the Supreme Court said that they had. The Military Commissions Act eliminates the habeas corpus protection to have a court decide if a detainee is being held legally or illegally. It is the most basic due process protection in the Constitution–and Congress took it away by a vote of 51-48 in the Senate. Without habeas, there is a much greater chance that detainees being held indefinitely will once again fall outside the protection of the rule of law.

Now a new Congress is gearing up to address this part of the Military Commissions Act. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy has made repeal of the habeas-stripping section a top priority, and has introduced a bill with the highest ranking Republican on his committee, Senator Arlen Specter, to do just that. On the House side, the new House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is also ready to have Congress reverse course and protect habeas due process protections.

Constitutional Scholars Join Letter Asserting Congress Has Power to Stop Escalation

Twenty-one legal scholars, including many who served as constitutional advisors to the President, have joined a letter to House and Senate leadership outlining Congress’ broad powers to limit the commander-in-chief (pdf available here).

As of now the link from ACSBlog is not working well so I have mirrored the PDF file locally.

“There were six candidates for the vacancy, and she was the only female. She was awarded the job on merit – she will replace one who is retiring.” Spokswoman Natasha Woollard said.

Her uniforms will differ only from her male colleagues’ in order to fit her properly.

To join the 35-strong guard, a successful candidate must boast a minimum of 22 years service in the forces, as well as a long service and good conduct medal.

“Two women have applied before, neither were successful for the different vacancies they applied for,” said the spokeswoman.

The Tower of London’s Yeoman Warders date back to 1485 and their nickname ‘Beefeaters’ is thought to derive from the daily ration of meat they received.

However, their full title is ‘Yeoman Warder of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign’s Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary’.

Bush has issued a “signing statement” that declared his right to open people’s mail without a judge’s warrent under emergency conditions, contrary to existing law and in direct contradiction to the bill he had just signed.

“You have to be concerned,” agreed a career senior U.S. official who reviewed the legal underpinnings of Bush’s claim. “It takes Executive Branch authority beyond anything we’ve ever known.”

This from the man we have vested with the responsibility to protect and defend the constitution and laws of the United States.

Can’t wait to see how Bush spins this one.

IN the autumn of 68 B.C. the world’s only military superpower was dealt a profound psychological blow by a daring terrorist attack on its very heart. Rome’s port at Ostia was set on fire, the consular war fleet destroyed, and two prominent senators, together with their bodyguards and staff, kidnapped.

The incident, dramatic though it was, has not attracted much attention from modern historians. But history is mutable. An event that was merely a footnote five years ago has now, in our post-9/11 world, assumed a fresh and ominous significance. For in the panicky aftermath of the attack, the Roman people made decisions that set them on the path to the destruction of their Constitution, their democracy and their liberty. One cannot help wondering if history is repeating itself.

excerpt from:

Pirates of the Mediterranean
By ROBERT HARRIS
Published: September 30, 2006
New York Times

Whenever I hear the president mention, oh, every 12 minutes, that his greatest responsibility is “to protect the American people,” the insufferable civics robot inside my head mutters: “Actually, sir, your oath, the one with the Bible and the chief justice and the Jumbotron, is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. For the American people are not mere flesh whose greatest hope is to keep our personal greasy molecules intact; we, sir, are a body politic — with ideals.”

excerpt from:

Down With Torture! Gimme Torture!
By SARAH VOWELL
Published: February 5, 2006
The New York Times

Unfortunately just in time to post the full text of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
Just passed by Congress and on its way for approval by The President.

Another blow to freedom, and another step toward Bush’s police state.

I wonder how long it will be until those who oppose the current regime are branded terrorists and jailed without trial?

[via: Marty Lederman's post at Balkinization]

-Benjamin Franklin

…When one sees religion perverted — in the U.S. or in Israel, Pakistan, Afghanistan or India, one wonders if the spiritual seeds, planted by visionaries and enlightened prophets like Jesus, Mohammed, Marx and others, are just too volatile for large societies to deal with. One asks if religious visions are better off kept as a personal thing, or at least confined to a small group — otherwise the death and destruction sown by and in the name of religions more or less balances out their moral and personal virtues (which are many.)

Part I: Depositing the Junk Check
Part II: Getting A Cashier’s Check
Part III: The Bank Freaks Out
Part IV: Learning My Rights
Part V: Beating Fear!
Part VI: Henry Bailey
Part VII: The Waiting>Page 8
Part VIII: Updates
Part IX: Cleaning Up the FICAL matter
Part X: Almost Done
Final Chapter!

]]>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- July 28, 2006
NSA WHISTLEBLOWER TO TESTIFY BEFORE FEDERAL GRAND JURY

Government Begins its Witch Hunt Targeting Whistleblowers

On Wednesday, July 26, Russell Tice, former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence analyst and a member of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), was approached outside his home by two FBI agents who served him with a subpoena to testify in front of a federal grand jury. NSWBC has obtained a copy of the subpoena issued for Mr. Tice’s testimony and is releasing it to the public for the first time. The subpoena directs Mr. Tice to appear before the jury on August 2, 2006 at 1:00 p.m. in the Eastern District of Virginia. Mr. Tice “will be asked to testify and answer questions concerning possible violations of federal criminal law.� [To view the subpoena click here].

In response to the subpoena, Mr. Tice issued the following statement: “This latest action by the government is designed only for one purpose: to ensure that people who witness criminal action being committed by the government are intimidated into remaining silent.� He continued: “To this date I have pursued all the appropriate channels to report unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted [by the government] while I served as an intelligence officer with the NSA and DIA. It was with my oath as a US intelligence officer to protect and preserve the U.S. Constitution weighing heavy on my mind that I reported acts that I know to be unlawful and unconstitutional. The freedom of the American people cannot be protected when our constitutional liberties are ignored and our nation has decayed into a police state.�

On December 22, 2005, the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition made public a request by Tice to report to Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts by the government while he was an intelligence officer with NSA and DIA. In a press release, NSWBC urged the congress to hold hearings and let Mr. Tice testify. Mr. Tice, a responsible veteran intelligence officer, tried to use the so-called appropriate channels, including the United States Congress, to responsibly and lawfully disclose government wrongdoing. [To read the release click here].

Contact: Sibel Edmonds, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, sedmonds@nswbc.org

U.S. District Judge James D. Whittemore issued an order siding with season-ticket holder Gordon Johnson and the ACLU of Florida who had sued to stop the fan searches that began last season.

Johnson and the ACLU sued the Tampa Sports Authority, which operates the stadium, to stop officials from conducting the "suspicionless" searches.

Whittemore said the Tampa Sports Authority failed to establish that the risks outweigh the need to protect the public from unreasonable searches.

Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said Whittemore’s decision could turn out to be significant.

"It’s obviously not going to govern what’s happening around the country, but it’s certainly going to be an influential precedent," Simon said. "Other courts may look at it."

Simon said he thinks the decision shows that courts are "pushing back" at governmental attempts to violate citizens’ civil rights on the basis of a perceived threat of terrorism or crime.

The case involves “imagesâ€? (read: child pornography) which were in the defendant’s browser cache but the idea that your laptop could be subjected to “extensive forensic analysisâ€? any (or every) time you cross the US border is a little disturbing.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a proponent of the abuse of children, photographed or not, but I am a firm believer in the right to privacy and this is one more stone in the wall of the coming US Police State.

There were also complaints that it was difficult to get to the original homepage via the Podshow listing , but I found my way out with little trouble.

Podshow is in the middle of the launch, coming online in bits and pieces and I’m sure they will iron out many issues in the coming days/weeks. But the RSS feed processing seems pretty ingrained into their service and I think that an explanation to the Blog/Podosphere is in order.

From the Wired post:

If you’re a Windows user, fire up an MS-DOS command prompt. Now type tracert followed by the domain name of the website, e-mail host, VoIP switch, or whatever destination you’re interested in. Watch as the program spits out your route, line by line.

C:\> tracert nsa.gov

1 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms [12.110.110.204]
[...]
7 11 ms 14 ms 10 ms as-0-0.bbr2.SanJose1.Level3.net [64.159.0.218]
8 13 12 19 ms ae-23-56.car3.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.68.123.173]
9 18 ms 16 ms 16 ms [192.205.33.17]
10 88 ms 92 ms 91 ms tbr2-p012201.sffca.ip.att.net [12.123.13.186]
11 88 ms 90 ms 88 ms tbr1-cl2.sl9mo.ip.att.net [12.122.10.41]
12 89 ms 97 ms 89 ms tbr1-cl4.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.10.29]
13 89 ms 88 ms 88 ms ar2-a3120s6.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.123.8.65]
14 102 ms 93 ms 112 ms [12.127.209.214]
15 94 ms 94 ms 93 ms [12.110.110.13]
16 * * *
17 * * *
18 * *

In the above example, my traffic is jumping from Level 3 Communications to AT&T’s network in San Francisco, presumably over the OC-48 circuit that AT&T tapped on February 20th, 2003, according to the Klein docs.

The magic string you’re looking for is sffca.ip.att.net. If it’s present immediately above or below a non-att.net entry, then — by Klein’s allegations — your packets are being copied into room 641A, and from there, illegally, to the NSA.

Now here is MY output from NYC:

PB-G4-17:~ patrick$ sudo traceroute whitehouse.gov
traceroute to nsa.gov (63.161.169.137), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets

1 * * *
[...]
5 pos3-0.nycmnyg-rtr1.nyc.rr.com (24.29.101.201)
6 pos0 (24.29.98.5)
7 24.29.97.25 (24.29.97.25)
8 so-7-1.car2.weehawken1.level3.net (63.208.104.41)
9 ge-7-0-0.mp1.weehawken1.level3.net (4.68.125.137)
10 so-4-2-0.bbr1.newyork1.level3.net (64.159.1.65)
11 ae-13-55.car3.newyork1.level3.net (4.68.97.146)
12 192.205.33.93 (192.205.33.93)
13 tbr2-p032301.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.123.3.110)
14 gbr5-p40.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.122.11.26)
15 12.123.214.57 (12.123.214.57)
16 12.126.221.90 (12.126.221.90)
17 12.110.110.132 (12.110.110.132)
18 * * *
19 * * *
20 * * *

Is this actually evidence of the NSA tapping the internet?

I guess it really comes down to the fact that these are traceroutes to nsa.gov and we may just be seeing the routing to that network. I don’t see this node when I traceroute any other address.
Here is my traceroute to whitehouse.gov:

PB-G4-17:~ patrick$ sudo traceroute whitehouse.gov
traceroute to whitehouse.gov (63.161.169.137), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets

1 * * *
[...]
5 pos3-0.nycmnyg-rtr1.nyc.rr.com (24.29.101.201)
6 pos0 (24.29.98.5)
7 24.29.97.25 (24.29.97.25)
8 so-7-1.car2.weehawken1.level3.net (63.208.104.41)
9 ge-7-0-0.mp1.weehawken1.level3.net (4.68.125.137)
10 so-4-2-0.bbr1.newyork1.level3.net (64.159.1.65)
11 ge-6-0-0-55.gar3.newyork1.level3.net (4.68.97.132)
12 4.68.110.70 (4.68.110.70)
13 sl-bb23-pen-4-0-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.20.123)
14 sl-bb22-pen-14-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.8.178)
15 sl-bb21-pen-15-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.16.29)
16 sl-bb23-rly-0-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.20.32)
17 sl-gw19-rly-10-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.14.42)
18 sl-fema-1-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.184.78)
19 205.160.212.222 (205.160.212.222)

I certainly don’t profess to be an internet routing guru so you’ll have to decide for yourself.

[T]he Bush administration is not big on European philosophers. So perhaps we can develop the philosophy in purely Bushian terms. To highlight its logic, I will present it in mathematical form, the way that Spinoza presented his ethics:

Axiom 1: We are good people.

Axiom 2: Our enemies are bad people.

Axiom 3: Anything that helps good people beat bad people is good.

Corollary 1: Whatever we do to beat our enemies is good.

Corollary 2: Whatever hinders us from doing what we do to beat our enemies is bad.

Theorem 1: Anything that makes us look bad is false.
(Proof: If it makes us look bad, it must be false, because, according to Corollary 1, what we do to beat our enemies is good, not bad.)

Corollary 3: It can’t be true that the Guantanamo prisoners killed themselves because of how we treated them.
(Proof: That would make us look bad. Whatever makes us look bad is false.)

Surprising Corollary 4: Facts that make us look bad are false.
(Proof: Follows directly from Theorem 1.)
(Comment: If you thought that facts can’t be false, you haven’t understood that truth and falsity are moral terms: truth is what good people say, falsity is what bad people say. If bad people state facts, those facts are false.)

Theorem 2: Laws that constrain us are bad.
(Proof: Follows directly from Corollary 2.)

Axiom 4: Good people support the rule of law, and that makes the rule of law good.

Corollary 4: We support the rule of law.
(Proof: By Axiom 1, we’re good people; and by Axiom 4, good people support the rule of law.)

Surprising Theorem 3: Laws that constrain us don’t exist.
(Proof: By Theorem 2, a law that constrains us would be bad. But by Axiom 4, the rule of law is good. Therefore there cannot be such a thing as a law that constrains us.)

Axiom 5: Anything that anyone uses against us is a weapon of our enemies.

Decisive Theorem: Any international forum or legal argument that might constrain us, or anything that might make us look bad, is a weapon of our enemies.

Axiom 6: We’re strong and our enemies are weak.

Corollary 5: Any international forum or legal argument that might constrain us, or anything that might make us look bad, is a weapon of the weak. To put it in other words, it is an act of asymmetric war against us.

QED

WEST MILFORD, N.J. [ AP Photo/SUZANNE GIOVANETTI ] — A black bear picked the wrong yard for a jaunt, running into a territorial tabby who ran the furry beast up a tree – twice.

Jack, a 15-pound orange and white cat, keeps a close vigil on his property, often chasing small animals, but his owners and neighbors say his latest escapade was surprising.

“We used to joke, ‘Jack’s on duty,’ never knowing he’d go after a bear,” owner Donna Dickey told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Friday’s editions.

Neighbor Suzanne Giovanetti first spotted Jack’s accomplishment after her husband saw a bear climb a tree on the edge of their northern New Jersey property on Sunday. Giovanetti thought Jack was simply looking up at the bear, but soon realized the much larger animal was afraid of the hissing cat.

After about 15 minutes, the bear descended and tried to run away, but Jack chased it up another tree.

Dickey, who feared for her cat, then called Jack home and the bear scurried back to the woods.

“He doesn’t want anybody in his yard,” Dickey said.

Bear sightings are not unusual in West Milford, which experts consider one of the state’s most bear-populated areas.

[Via: BoingBoing]

From the article:

Mr. Blackwell, who also happens to be the Republican candidate for governor this year, has a history of this sort of behavior. In 2004, he instructed county boards of elections to reject any registrations on paper of less than 80-pound stock — about the thickness of a postcard. His order was almost certainly illegal, and he retracted it after he came under intense criticism. It was, however, in place long enough to get some registrations tossed out.

This year, Mr. Blackwell’s office has issued rules and materials that appear to require that paid registration workers, and perhaps even volunteers, personally take the forms they collect to an election office. Organizations that run registration drives generally have the people who register voters bring the forms back to supervisors, who can then review them for errors. Under Mr. Blackwell’s edict, everyone involved could be committing a crime. Mr. Blackwell’s rules also appear to prohibit people who register voters from sending the forms in by mail. That rule itself may violate federal elections law.

To be sure, both parties have shown a willingness to try to use election law to get results they want at the polls but Mr. Blackwell’s rules are just plain absurd.

From the post article:

“…[T]his means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control…[I]t’s important that women follow this advice throughout their reproductive lives, because about half of pregnancies are unplanned and so much damage can be done to a fetus between conception and the time the pregnancy is confirmed.â€?

I think Dan states his concern very clearly:

Color me paranoid, but ordering American women to regard themselves as “pre-pregnantâ€? because they may harm a fetus they don’t know they’re carrying opens the door to prosecuting women who harm their fetuses by failing to regard themselves as “pre-pregnant.â€? How long until “women should…refrain from smoking [and] maintain a healthy body weightâ€? becomes “women must…â€? Does that sound paranoid? Well, so did a war on contraception once.

Oddly enough, Bush’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t urge straight men to regard themselves as existing in a perpetual state of “pre-fatherhood.â€? Smoking, obesity, asthma, and diabetes could seriously hamper a man’s ability to do the heavy lifting that comes with fatherhood. But Bush’s CDC doesn’t seem that interested in regulating the behavior of all those fat, smoking pre-fathers out there.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for people living a more healthy lifestyle. But why not everyone?

WooHoo!! My favorite US government employee delivered my ValleySchwag package today! I got a great t-shirt from Rubyred labs, stickers from Goatsesighting, Riya, Feedburner and more… (Honestly, I probably wont be using the temporary tattoo. but it’s cool anyway.)

All this otherwise free stuff for only $15 a month! But just think of all the money you’ll save on the airfare of going to all those internet conferences. And it’s still less than just 3 of those triple-venti-half-caff-hazelnut-lattes at Starbucks!

C’mon you know you want one of your very own! Admit it! So get on over to ValleySchwag and sign up for yourself!

The Center for Constitutional Rights is calling for the impeachment of Greorge W. Bush and it’s no wonder.

With the mass media buzzing for months now with news of Bush’s “Signing Statements” where he quietly states that the laws of the United States of America do not apply to the Office of the President, I for one am amazed that Constitutional watchdog groups such as the CCR have not raised more of a stink already.

Of course simply stating that the laws of the US don’t apply to him doesn’t mean that he’s actually VIOLATING the laws, right?

It seems that with the revelation of the NSA tracking domestic calling records without court orders or judicial oversight that that Mr. Bush may be practicing what he preaches.

But we may never know.

In Saturday’s Wall Street Journal there is a Associated Press article stating that the Bush administration has submitted court documents claiming “State Secrets” privilege and asking for the lawsuits of the CCR and ACLU to be thrown out.

Quoting Shayana Kadidal, an attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, calling the administration’s motion “undemocratic.”

“The Bush administration is trying to crush a very strong case against domestic spying without any evidence or argument.” “Can the president tell the courts which cases they can rule on? If so, the courts will never be able to hold the president accountable for breaking the law.”

And from an April 30th article by Charlie Savage in the Boston Globe –

”There can’t be judicial review if nobody knows about it,“ said Neil Kinkopf, a Georgia State law professor who was a Justice Department official in the Clinton administration. ”And if they avoid judicial review, they avoid having their constitutional theories rebuked.”

Without court involvement, only Congress can check a president who goes too far. But Bush’s fellow Republicans control both chambers, and they have shown limited interest in launching the kind of oversight that could damage their party.

”The president is daring Congress to act against his positions, and they’re not taking action because they don’t want to appear to be too critical of the president, given that their own fortunes are tied to his because they are all Republicans,“ said Jack Beermann, a Boston University law professor. ”Oversight gets much reduced in a situation where the president and Congress are controlled by the same party.”

Said David Golove, a New York University law professor who specializes in executive-power issues: ”Bush has essentially said that ‘We’re the executive branch and we’re going to carry this law out as we please, and if Congress wants to impeach us, go ahead and try it.’ “

On March 1st, on Salon,com, Garrison Keillor wrapped up his take on part of the whole affair.

”The U.S. Constitution provides a simple ultimate way to hold him to account for the crimes and the failure to attend to the country’s defense. Impeach him and let the Senate hear the evidence.“

I think that sums it up.

You already know my feelings on this issue, so I’ll save the rant for another day.

From the article:

The only classified information that OPR investigators were seeking about the NSA’s eavesdropping program was what had already been given to Ashcroft, Gonzales and other department attorneys in their original approval and advice on the program, the two senior government officials said. And, by nature, OPR’s request was limited to documents such as internal Justice Department communications and legal opinions, and didn’t extend to secrets that are the sole domain of other agencies, the two officials said.

Please check out their story.

[via: Crooks and Liars]

This is so cool, you have to check it out!

[Via: Lifehacker]

In “The Lie Behind The Secrets� Blanton questions the U.S. Governments accelerating use of the “National Security� excuse from judicial inquiry.

From the Article:

President Reagan’s executive secretary at the National Security Council, career Navy officer Rodney McDaniel, told a blue-ribbon commission looking at classification in 1997 that only 10% of the secrecy stamps were for “legitimate protection of secrets.â€?

Read the article and let me know what you think.

Tags: Blanton, LA Times, McDaniel, National Security, Reagan, secrecy

[via: The social software Weblog (direct to post)]

Consider this thought experiment. If the press did not report the 9/11 attacks, if most people in the U.S. didn’t know about them, then the attacks wouldn’t have been such a defining moment in our national politics. If we lived 100 years ago, and people only read newspaper articles and saw still photographs of the attacks, then people wouldn’t have had such an emotional reaction. If we lived 200 years ago and all we had to go on was the written word and oral accounts, the emotional reaction would be even less. Modern news coverage amplifies the terrorists’ actions by endlessly replaying them, with real video and sound, burning them into the psyche of every viewer.

MC Plus+ – MC Plus+ is the founder and indisputably the #1 greatest computer science gangsta rapper ever. He is to CS gangsta rap what a blue screen is to Windows, what Vaseline, maple syrup and sour cream are to a good time. He’s putting CS on the map, producing raps for students from computer science departments around the world. With another 4 years still at Purdue, trying to get that PhD, he has promised to keep producing CS hip-hop for all the grad students in the struggle.

Spill Beers – Claims to be the producer of the album but the only thing we’ve seen him produce is his own beer. He helps with the raps and bitches at the beats. Someone told us he’d worked on a record before, no one told us it was a database record.

Lord Illingworth – He rocks unorthodox in flip-flops and D-latches. He processes you with batches and sons of batches. Lord Illingworth has 24 inch rims on his turntables. All that skratching is making him, well, no, there really isn’t all that much skratching. The one thing that’s certain is that his shit is blowing up, and that’s because he has a spastic colon. Even that won’t stop him. After all, he’s got more beats than a vegetable garden.

(Via Daily Source Code and Bruce Schneier’s Crypto-Gram Newsletter)

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.�

I am appalled that President Bush would blatantly violate the trust of Americans by authorizing the NSA to monitor the personal habits of US citizens.

The fact that americans aren’t screaming for impeachment is downright disheartening. It’s as if people don’t care that our personal freedoms are slowly (or not so slowly) being eroded. For now the NSA is only monitoring “call patternsâ€?. How long until that includes “call contentâ€? or worse?

More importantly why isn’t the Department of Justice able to get security clearance to review this “call pattern monitoringâ€? program? Putting the NSA, or any part of government, above accountability in this manner defeats the “Check and Balanceâ€? concept that is at the very heart of our constitution and smacks of authoritarianism.

President Bush’s actions have spoken much louder than his words. He has shown time and time again his willingness to unilaterally re-interpret the laws of this country in order to further his personal agenda and without regard to the constitution or any other branch of government.