slapdummy

Another day, another small hit to privacy

I want to be shocked at another government tracking program with no oversight, but sadly it's become just another lapse in judgment and oversight.  However, the three things about this story on the Automated Targeting System (ATS) that make it interesting:

1. It's seems to have been going on for 10 years. All the current efforts against privacy have been cloaked in the anti-terrorist frenzy since 9/11. I wonder what the rationale was for this and how it was kept quiet for so long.

2. Government and non-government sources have access to the results, but you don't.  Okay, again, WTF?  This is bad on so many levels it's hard to pick one to start.  How does this pass a privacy review? It can be used to make decisions about your employment and who the hell knows what else (beyond the direct application of shipping your ass to a CIA camp).  If a private contractor or local government can get access to the data, you certainly should. 

3. Homeland Security "chose" to release the information. Claiming the release of the project to the Federal Register as part of planned effort to be more transparent is a very bad joke.  The ACLU rep quoted in the story called it Orwellian and that seems to fit best.

I really do hope that we start to reap the benefits of critical, serious and well-thought out oversight efforts fairly soon.

Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. Next!

I'm of two minds on Rumsfeld being fired (yeah, he's "quitting", whatever). Is this really a result of the election or just another lame effort by Bush to divert attention from his own deeds?  Rumsfeld has been going down in flames for a long time now in the realm of public opinion, but Bush has continued to stand by him.  It seems a particularly craven act to blame your Secretary of Defense for a stunning mid-term election defeat.  Bush waited until the results were in before making the change and you have to wonder what the line was to keep Rumsfeld; no change, minor majority, Senate only majority, etc... 

I would also love to hear Rove's spin on all of this. The last time I heard his smug responses was on NPR a couple of weeks ago.  Rove was telling NPR that he apparently had access to the secret squirrel polling data and it was very favorable for the Republicans to the point that they would keep the majority. I wonder if he still has a job or will he also be "stepping down" soon?

The end of the free world via election machines may not have come to pass, but I'm really curious how the reports of election problems will pan out.

Note to Democrats: Yes, it has been years where you have suffered the embarrassment of being tagged as unable to deal with tough issues, especially in the last few months ("Softer" on Terrorists, Cut and Run Party, and so on), on topics such as national security in general and Iraq/Afghanistan specifically. But hey, buck up little camper, now comes the fun part. You have a stellar opportunity to do something, anything to get us back on track. And by that, I mean accountability for our military and intelligence agency actions, addressing global threats (real and perceived), creation of plans with specific, measurable and practical goals to address Iraq and Afghanistan (I mean for fuck's sake, has anybody seen a real plan beyond anagrams of "We Win and the Terrorists Lose"?) and preservation of our personal and private rights. Good luck we are all counting on you. (P.S. Don't fuck it up).

Tonight on FOX - When Recruiters Attack!

I'm shocked, shocked I say to read about recruiters allegedly lying to get people to sign up.  Seriously, I wonder how many times this seemingly blatantly unaware persona is a common occurrence for recruiters.  It must be real to some degree if they confidently pass fabrications of this level without even dying from laughter.  Hell, I'm surprised they didn't also try to charge them to sign up and call it a "processing fee".

Screw CNN, screw us

I don't think anybody is shocked that certain news outlets play favorites.  And I'm not talking about the obvious sites dedicated to one issue/party/conspiracy/trend of the moment. I'm talking about some of the contenders, backed by large amounts of revenue and unfortunately even worse amounts of ethics.  Yes, I'm thinking directly of FOX with their pandering, contemptible and barely coherent Bill O'Reilly. Although to be fair it seems like most cable news outlets have become nothing more than a well-dressed third-grade class, with less maturity.

Now, I've been a fan of CNN for a long time, mostly since it became a habit and they seemed to provide interesting coverage.  I visit their site at least once a day to check in on news and events, but I have to admit that I thought the percentage of useless fluff to useful information has been increasing in the last couple of years.  I wasn't actually measuring it or anything, it was just a hunch. 

Well, I ran across this today at Daily Kos - SCREW CNN (w/ graphics) [PG edition]. They took the front page of the CNN site and dissected it to display what was actual news and everything else.  Sure, CNN could have been having an "off" day and they just happened to have a bad ratio when this was done.  And yes, Kos isn't exactly a neutral third party in the state of the world, but it doesn't mean they are automatically inaccurate. Yeah, it's possible this was a one-off for CNN, but it seems very unlikely with the state of modern media. This feels more like a confirmation of what I think a lot of regular readers have been experiencing and it's not just CNN.

I guess it's not too surprising when you consider marketing has become such a major factor in news outlets (and I'm not just talking about the flashy graphics and theme music, though it's a part of it). Broadcast journalism has become increasing amounts of ad material, focus on entertainment/gossip stories, 30-second sound bites for the ADD generation and an ever-present shrill voiced talking head that can do one thing and one thing only - Yip like a small, annoying poodle. No substance, nothing real to add to the conversation or the debate. Just good ol' fashioned antagonism, bias and ad hominem attacks. And let's not even get into the level of insincerity, smugness and vanity displayed by the worst offenders (which range across ALL of the channels).

This is obviously going to continue for a while since there is a significant part of the viewing audience that is just hungry for style and hot air masked as news.  It's a little unfortunate, but I guess we only have ourselves to blame, the media outlets are only giving us what we seem to respond to as consumers.  Why get the depressing, brutal truth of real news when instead you can be spoon fed some drunken Hollywood starlet's latest nipple flash?

Hell, I remember when shows like "A Current Affair" used to be complete tabloid fodder and a bit of a joke to "real" journalists. But the laugh was on them as the owners of the news divisions watched the market share increase for gossip journalism and instead of keeping the course with substance, they chose an adopt and extend policy towards these tabloid shows. Flash forward a couple of years and what was once merely third-rate reporting found on some pre-prime time gossip show became front page stories in 52 media markets.

So to condemn the media is surely to condemn ourselves. It hasn't always been this way and the public is comprised of groups of followers, so I wonder what it will take to change the focus - us or them?

To coup or not to coup

You've gotta love Thailand...

Hey, It's a coup

Just kidding, it's a "troop rotation". Nothing to see here, move on.

Okay, seriously, it's a coup.

No really, it's just a coup, get back to work already.

And just to make sure the important coup news is covered:

Nick Cage's movie is continuing

CD-R supply not affected

Crikey indeed

I always thought Steve Irwin was interesting and irritating at the same time, his schtick didn't get any better when he did that extremely questionable trick with his kid.  He always seemed to take unnecessary risks (almost showy), so I don't think anybody hearing about his death today by stingray is going to be very surprised. However, I do feel bad for his family.

Link: CNN.com - Stingray kills 'Crocodile Hunter' - Sep 4, 2006.

Not quite the spirit of the law

I understand why there are ethical guidelines in place to prevent those in authority or dealing with vulnerable people from abusing their position.  But come on, a little common sense would dictate that marrying somebody after they have stopped using your service seems allowable. According to this article it's a crime to have sex with a client until two years afterwards, which seems arbitrarily long.  Besides, we are talking about a message therapist, how connected can you possible get (insert obligatory "happy ending" joke here).

Link: Law rubs massage therapist the wrong way - Yahoo! News.

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Okay, I realize that not everybody is going to have the same top ten favorite books, let alone a similar reading list (outside of Oprah's book club). However, according to this conservative site "Human Events" (via Fark) this is the list of the top offenders for books based on voting by conservative scholars and some apparent public policy "leaders" (probably conservative think tanks):

• The Communist Manifesto
• Mein Kampf
• Quotations from Chairman Mao
• The Kinsey Report
• Democracy and Education
• Das Kapital
• The Feminine Mystique
• The Course of Positive Philosophy
• Beyond Good and Evil
• General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

Beyond their top offender's they were kind enough to list a set of "honorable mentions" for the list:

• The Population Bomb
• What Is To Be Done
• Authoritarian Personality
• On Liberty
• Beyond Freedom and Dignity
• Reflections on Violence
• The Promise of American Life
• The Origin of Species
• Madness and Civilization
• Soviet Communism: A New Civilization
• Coming of Age in Samoa
• Unsafe at Any Speed
• Second Sex
• Prison Notebooks
• Silent Spring
• Wretched of the Earth
• Introduction to Psychoanalysis
• The Greening of America
• The Limits to Growth
• Descent of Man

The list has a significant amount of obvious choices for overly-zealous religious folks; Secular Reasoning, Sexual Analysis, Evolution and Personal Liberties (in the absence of a religious structure). Although, I'm a little surprised by the addition's of Ralph Nader and some of the ecology books. But again, this does two things for me and two things only:

1. Gives me a reading list for the next couple of months (although I've read some of them already and excerpts from others, this is as good a time as any to dig into them).

2. Provides another example where weak-minded people who cannot stand on own their own ideas/faith replace critical thought with fear.

This is also a great time to give a little bump for the American Library Association's Banned Book Week. It is going to be coming up this year September 23-30. The ALA does a good job of getting the word out on efforts to ban books and even keeps a tally of the top targeted books from last year.  And for those of you that may be subscribers to "Human Events" or something similiarily conservative, here's the brief message; "I don't want you deciding what is a good idea for me, my family or my friends".

Can't Legislate Language

Apparently the Iranian President is trying to set forth strict guidelines for language in an effort to get rid of "foreign" words, and by foreign he means western language intrusions. It's a misguided attempt to purify their language and seems more like an act of desperation. As the article points out they are creating some overly cumbersome words or word sets in this process to establish Persian (Farsi) equivalents:

• pizza = elastic loaves (speaking of tedious linguistic gymnastics)
• cabin = small room (this doesn't even make sense)
• chat = short talk

The French enacted a similar experiment just over a decade ago (although it seemed less political theater of the moment than this, which is probably not accurate based on my memory) in an effort to "regain" their purity. The 1994 Toubon Law had some odd elements such as setting a quota for the number of French language songs on the radio and requiring a French translation for ads, even foreign ads.

All of which is odd considering they passed the torch as the international language of Western business and diplomacy to English just after World War II. I'm sure there is a surrender joke in there somewhere, but it seems too easy.  And to be clear, by French I actually mean France, not those whack-jobs Quebecois who redefine silly. 

When a society tries to legislate language (including the U.S. efforts to mandate English), especially in an extremely connected modern world, it comes across as a sign of cultural weakness.  If the general population is adopting words or slang and they are becoming a part of the common usage, then banning their use is not only confusing but is downright silly. Adaptation, it's good for people and it's good for language.

Paying for the honor of dying

On the way home from Casuality tonight I caught a report from NPR on the readiness, or lack thereof, of the Iraqi First Battalion. It was a fairly standard coverage of how they are still disorganized and dependent on the U.S. for guidance and supplies.  Which, by the by, seems another example of completely divergent realities between the "treasonous" press and the military. No real shock there.

However, what really caught me off guard is that some Iraqi recruits (unclear how many) must pay a bribe of equivalent to around $600 USD in order to serve in the military.  Not only is that an obviously large amount of money in an economy struggling to get back on its feet, but it seems completely absurd that this is still happening.  People who volunteer to serve their country (especially one where dying is a very real possibility)  deserve support, not a shakedown.

I'm wondering why this doesn't seem to be high on the priority list to prevent from happening?  If corruption of the military is allowed to flourish at the recruiting level it's a fairly certain bet that it will continue to grow upward - payoffs for advancement, increase in military supply black markets and generic corruption that will erode any effort to instill a level of discipline and morale necessary to create a much needed security force. 

I hope to hell that correcting this behavior is one of our metrics for success in helping to rebuild their military and security forces.