Chicago -
By The Beachwood Top Ten Affairs Desk
10. Hired Truck contract came through.
9. Suffering PTSD from watching bin Laden raid in uncomfortable chair.
8. Can make more money off the public sector from the private sector.
7. Just found out the governor’s mansion is in Springfield.
6. Upcoming report will show he uses PEDs.
Posted on September 17, 2013
By Jeff Larson and Justin Elliott/ProPublica
Following revelations about the NSA’s covert influence on computer security standards, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, announced last week it is revisiting some of its encryption standards.
But in a little-noticed footnote, NIST went a step further, saying it is “strongly” recommending against even using one of the standards.
The institute sets standards for everything from the time to weights to computer security that are used by the government and widely adopted by industry.
As ProPublica, the New York Times, and the Guardian reported two weeks ago, documents provided by Edward Snowden suggest that the NSA has heavily influenced the standard, which has been used around the world.
Posted on September 15, 2013
Since 2009, The Richest Of The Rich Have Captured 95% Of All Income Gains
“If you feel you’re falling behind in the income race, it’s not just your imagination. The wealth gap between the top 1% and the bottom 99% in the U.S. is as wide as it’s been in nearly 100 years, a new study finds,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Put another way by The Week: “For the first time since the government started collecting the relevant data in 1917, the wealthiest 10 percent (earning at least $114,000 a year in 2012 dollars) is earning more than half – 50.4 percent – of U.S. income.”
An historic presidency indeed.
“Two months ago, President Obama declared that reversing income inequality must be Washington’s ‘highest priority,'” MSNBC’s Ned Resnikoff notes, “but the issue has subsequently dropped off the map again.”
Well, it’s not like Obama hasn’t had five years to prioritize his economic agenda.
Posted on September 12, 2013
By The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Five new groups – including civil-rights lawyers, medical-privacy advocates and Jewish social-justice activists – have joined a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against the National Security Agency over the unconstitutional collection of bulk telephone call records. With today’s amended complaint, EFF now represents 22 entities in alleging that government surveillance under Section 215 of the Patriot Act violates Americans’ First Amendment right to freedom of association.
The five entities joining the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. NSA lawsuit before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California are: Acorn Active Media, the Charity and Security Network, the National Lawyers Guild, Patient Privacy Rights and The Shalom Center. They join an already diverse coalition of groups representing interests including gun rights, environmentalism, drug-policy reform, human rights, open-source technology, media reform and religious freedom.
Posted on September 11, 2013
By Jeff Larson and Justin Elliott/ProPublica
Citing concerns about linking to classified material, Johns Hopkins University asked a professor Monday morning to remove a blog post discussing last week’s revelations about the NSA’s efforts to break encryption.
The post had linked to government documents published by ProPublica, the Guardian, and the New York Times.
Posted on September 10, 2013
Collecting Everything, Everywhere, All The Time
The latest.
* Washington Post: “The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency’s use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans’ communications in its massive databases, according to interviews with government officials and recently declassified material.”
* Der Spiegel: “The US intelligence agency NSA has been taking advantage of the smartphone boom. It has developed the ability to hack into iPhones, android devices and even the BlackBerry, previously believed to be particularly secure.”
* Fantástico: “One of the prime targets of American spies in Brazil is far away from the center of power – out at sea, deep beneath the waves. Brazilian oil. The internal computer network of Petrobras, the Brazilian oil giant partly owned by the state, has been under surveillance by the NSA, the National Security Agency of the United States.”
Posted on September 9, 2013
By The Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation [Wednesday] filed a brief on behalf of Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the author of the original USA PATRIOT Act, in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against the National Security Agency.
In the brief, Sensenbrenner argues that Congress never intended the Patriot Act to permit the NSA’s collection of the records of every telephone call made to, from and within the United States. Sensenbrenner urges the court to deny the NSA’s motion to dismiss and grant the ACLU’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which would halt the program until the case is decided.
Posted on September 5, 2013
He’s Waving At You – Or Something
The Mayor’s Office didn’t provide any commentary when they uploaded this to YouTube recently, so we’ll fill the gap
Posted on September 4, 2013
By RT
One website has gone missing and Tim is in shock but his Obama-lovin’ robot just doesn’t see the problem. Can Tim convince him that you can’t just bury presidential campaign promises? Find out right now!
Posted on August 30, 2013
By Jannis Brühl/ProPublica
Germans like posting baby pictures, party snapshots and witty comments on Facebook just like anyone else. They just do not want to get caught doing it. Many of us use fake names for our profiles – silly puns, movie characters or anagrams and “remixes” of their real names. (Yes, I have one. No I’m not telling you the name.)
We like our privacy (even if fake names might not be the most professional form of encryption). Which is why the revelations about NSA spying have led to a bigger debate in Germany than in the U.S.
It has become the hottest issue during what was poised to become a dull election campaign.
Posted on August 25, 2013
