Friday, August 13, 2010

REDUX: Second life for news that matters 8.13

BTC - Think good thoughts.  Summer is almost over and soon it will be time for a new revolution.  This blog goes out to all the kids with runny noses, fat chicks and slaves chained to their desks who never get any playtime.  Listen fast- learn to play anyway because I really don't think there is an organ donor program for adrenal glands.

The stuff you read on this blog will stress you in new ways and give you new perspectives.  What it won't do is eat your ice cream for you, play with your kids, take arbitrary fashion tips from drag queens or call your mom.  There is life during and after the disaster of a bully surveillance society.

Pretty posh for post-surveillance functionality, eh?
Here is second life for news that matters:

PUBLIC INPUT: FCC charts cyber security roadmap with public's help

More Top Secret America on FBI clearances.  Operation Rotten Tomato  & Obama admin digital surveillance grabs



Wireless Cars sensors vulnerable to hackers

Court rejects Warrentless GPS tracking

J. Sanchez get's after the GPS throes

Privacy baked in from the beginning

Internet worker ungagged

No Naked Scanners for Denver - a bright idea would be to take these machines and enter them into the adult industry where they belong. I'm pretty sure Larry Flynt would get one for a Hustler NSA special issue or something...[TAKE A HINT, LFP!]

LaserCard gets bid for Italian national ID's

$600M border bill unlikely to spur immigration reform

SIA defends biometrics from Alaskan bill

Monday, August 9, 2010

The lost FLOGGER files




BTC -  The dust settled and as we were looking for other things, we discovered that there were more  national ID writings in the Cato @ Liberty digital tome written by Jim Harper that didn't get a second chance on this blog.  He writes on loads of privacy/tech angles as well.

After all the swearing and dusty fumbling we found these:

Here's the lost podcast with Chris Calabrese.
I'm sure it will be good if you can get Cato's media player to actually work.


To keep other important work like THIS from falling through the cracks, please see our blogroll which is linked to Harper's Cato@Liberty blog.  There is also an  RSS tag so you can subscribe to.

Real ID: when it won't stay dead

BTC - Reports came in last week, some in the form of neo-conservative opinion editorial, that States "must adopt secure drivers licenses"in accordance with the Real ID Act.   What is "secure" to one group is a standardized population control tool by another, especially when it comes to Real ID.  We've been here before.

Secure license groups are a constituency,  just like people who have increased their vigilance over their 4th and 14th Amendment rights.  The groups don't go away even if legislation, like the PASS Act does.

Over the years (starting in 2005) and since the '08 release of some rather odious regulations in the views of privacy and civil liberty advocates - not much has changed.  DHS throws money annually at an incremental program and States refuse it or face the fate of states like Florida ( also fighting in their own way).  Indiana, strangely enough, got some strokes from for taking in Real ID wholesale.  Even Wisconsin, the native state of the law's sponsor, Rep. Sensenbrenner, came out against it.

Some claim it's immigration - but that argument usually gets hit by the bus of US citizenship.  If you want to identify undocumented aliens, you don't over identify Americans.  You offer them a worker card program and cut a deal with Latin America and Canada over who gets to work here.

Other states who have found some reason to turn the federal law down have inspired some to say that's Tenth Amendment nullification at work.

WHEN IT WON'T STAY DEAD

I think this new uptick in trying to forge ahead with Real ID comes from a DHS appropriations bill.  Contractor cronies and their astroturf supporters, like Secured Drivers License Coalition, are trying like Dr. Frankenstein to jolt monetized life into a dead legislation.

 [Yes,  it's still dead.  It's just an undead zombie menace which needs to be ambushed by it's opponents, hacked to pieces and set on fire.]

It's not like genuine grassroots groups accept that as a great excuse to lay down their rights and just take their nice citizenship cards regulated by the American Stasi politiburo.. uh, I mean DHS or the police.  Well, same difference... it's all the same people at the top of the supply chain anyway.

Let's have some fun with it.

FUN WITH THE UNDEAD

Real ID, persistent zombie that it is, keeps climbing up out of the grave until a successive beat down commences. You should have a proper libation to soothe your frustrations for convincing feds that Real ID needs to be be-headed.

How to make a Real ID Zombie cocktail 





1 tsp sugar

2 oz light rum

1 oz dark rum


5 fruit loops - representing artificial DHS floaties trying to keep Real ID alive
1 really nasty ragged-out paper umbrella

Blend all ingredients with ice except Bacardi 151 proof rum. Pour into a collins glass. Float Bacardi 151 proof rum on top. Garnish with fruit loops, umbrella and some barfruit .


Great - now, get ready to play attack of the paper zombies.  While you're waiting for that to download you should sponsor a Jaguar to escort the undead to their proper resting place.   Next - send a special note to your Congress person telling them to repeal Real ID ...again...because it won't stay dead unless they do.

It's time for Real ID to get dead again.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Texas Two-Step: Can you prove you're a US citizen?

BTC  - This little tidbit came in from Daily Kos analysis of the Texas GOP platform.  It's endemic of how Texas does things.



Real Americans, but not Real Americans 
c/o Mark Sumner

You city slickers think you're so slick. And citied. But your mind can't hold up to a fast one-two punch delivered just... like this!

We propose that every Texas driver license shall indicate whether the driver is a U.S. citizen. No such documentation shall be issued to anyone not legally in the country.

Yessir, that'll stop those charges of racial discrimination. It won't be the color of your skin that matters, but the federal information stamped right there on your drivers license. (What happens if you have a drivers license from another state? Well, you're a foreigner by definition.) But here's the clever bit from another section of the platform.

As the Real ID Act effectively creates an unconstitutional and privacy-inhibiting national ID card, we hereby call for its immediate repeal.

See, the Real ID Act doesn't actually issue a national ID card. Instead it sets out rules so states can issue drivers licenses that can be used as federal ID. Like for proof of citizenship. The Texas GOP is against that. And for it. Remember: only weaklings turn to lawyers to sue for whiplash induced by contradicting policies.

Ironical, Ain't It?

An oversight committee for privacy?

BTC  -  Take a peek at this rare examination of privacy before a consumer privacy committee c/o CSPAN.