Introducing Aaron's Law, a Desperately Needed Reform of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act | Wired Opinion | Wired.com: "In January, Aaron Swartz, an Internet innovator and activist, decided to end his brief but brilliant life. At the time, Swartz faced the possibility of severe punishment under the CFAA — multiple felony charges and up to 35 years in prison by the government’s own declaration – for what amounted to an act of civil disobedience. Aaron attempted to make documents, many created with public funding, freely available to the public. But Aaron Swartz was not the first or the last victim of overzealous prosecution under the CFAA. That’s why we’re authoring bipartisan legislation — which, with the permission of Aaron Swartz’s family, we call “Aaron’s Law” — in the House and Senate to begin the process of updating the CFAA."
Rand Paul: Snowden will face problems if he ‘cozies up’ to Russia, China: "“I do think when history looks at this, they are going to contrast the behavior of James Clapper, our National Intelligence Director, with Edward Snowden. Mr. Clapper lied in Congress in defiance of the law, in the name of security. Mr. Snowden told the truth in the name of privacy,” Paul said."
Patriot Act author: NSA’s phone tracking is un-American, abuses power — MSNBC: "The Wisconsin Republican who authored and introduced the Patriot Act in 2001 denounced the National Security Agency’s phone tracking as “un-American,” and questioned the constitutionality of collecting American phone records in bulk. “As the author of the Patriot Act, I am extremely troubled by the FBI’s interpretation of this legislation,” Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. said in a statement on Thursday."
Patriot Act Author Slams NSA’s ‘Overbroad’ Interpretation Of Legislation: ‘Excessive And Un-American’ | Mediaite: "“As the author of the Patriot Act, I am extremely troubled by the FBI’s interpretation of this legislation,” he said. “While I believe the Patriot Act appropriately balanced national security concerns and civil rights, I have always worried about potential abuses.” The reports about the NSA’s actions, he said, are “deeply concerning” and “raise questions about whether our constitutional rights are secure."
Woz: This is not my America | Technically Incorrect - CNET News: "Woz believes a certain decline started a few years ago. "All these things that talk about the Constitution that made us so good as people, they're kind of nothing. They all dissolved with the Patriot Act," he said. "There's not even a free open court anymore," he added. He is clearly distraught about what he sees is the erosion of the America he believed in, one whose people had clear rights. Everything, in his eyes, was overturned. Warming to his theme, he explained: "That's what a king does. A king just goes out, has anyone rounded up, killed, puts them in prison." He began to compare America to Russia. It was Russia, when Woz was growing up, that followed people around and made them disappear. "We're getting more and more like that," he offered, gloomily."
A Surfer’s View of Apple’s Operating System - Bloomberg: " . . . . In 1961, Alex Matienzo, one of the first surfers to venture out into the waves at Mavericks, was forced back to the beach because his white German shepherd kept following him into the waves -- the dog’s name was Maverick. So, after a series of Apple operating systems named after big cats, “this OS is just ultimately being named after a big dog.”" (read more at link above)
I guess they don't have anything better to do--and after all, they have to do "something" with all those "toys" and "stuff"--
In a post on the website projectknightsec.com, Mr. Lostutter writes:
As I open the door to great the driver approximately 12 F.B.I. Swat Team agents jumped out of the truck screaming for me to “Get The Fuck Down” with m-16 assault rifles and full riot gear armed safety off, pointed directly at my head. I was handcuffed and detained outside while they cleared my house. … The Swat team left my belongings in the floor, my dogs shocked, my family nervous, my garage door battered open with a ram though I stated I had a key, and the RV camper window broken for entry though I stated to pull hard on the door.
FBI Raids Anonymous Member Behind Steubenville, Westboro and Revenge Porn Operations | Betabeat: " . . . . Betabeat readers will be no stranger to Mr. Lostutter. We’ve interviewed him a host of times for stories about #Knightsec’s actions against Westboro Baptist Church and Hunter Moore. Rival Anons actually doxxed Mr. Lostutter back in February, but he denied that it was really him. He’s coming forward now to “to take control of the media,” he said. Mr. Lostutter has sought the legal aid of Jason Flores-Williams, of the Whistleblower Defense League. Mr. Lostutter said he was introduced to Mr. Flores-Williams by Jay Leiderman, an attorney famous for defending hacktivists. “I believe that standing up for the victims of Steubenville was right and I believe that going to bat for them was right,” Mr. Lostutter said, though he denies taking part in any hacking. “I’d stand up for them again if I had to.” (read more at link above)
The Weekend Interview with Cleta Mitchell: How to Investigate the IRS - WSJ.com: The woman who helped expose IRS abuse of conservative activists has more news to share: The abuse continues, and she sees no evidence that the White House, the IRS or the Justice Department is doing anything to end it. "This is not in the past tense. This is still going on," says Cleta Mitchell, perhaps the country's pre-eminent expert on campaign-finance and political tax law. (read more at link above)
America’s Cup sailors don helmets, oxygen tanks as race evolves beyond plodding sloops - The Washington Post: "Called USA 76, the single-hulled boat with the mainsail and jib setup of a traditional sloop now serves as tour boat and the grinning guests aboard eagerly waived and yelled their hellos to the kiwis. Someone asked Team New Zealand’s David Thomson the difference between the 2003 boats and the entries of today. “That’s a dog,” said Thomson, gesturing toward the USA 76. He then turned and pointed at New Zealand’s sleek catamaran with the rigger back on deck, the jib sail in place and the boat picking up as it glided toward the Golden Gate Bridge. “And that’s a cat.”" :)
Grumpy Cat Has an Agent, and Now a Movie Deal - WSJ.com: " . . . When he told his client that she was heading to Hollywood, she looked bored. "She hates movies," says Mr. Lashes of his client, Grumpy Cat, a cat with a mouth puckered into a frown whose viral photos have ricocheted around the Internet. Mr. Lashes, 34 years old, is an agent for Internet cats. When an ironic photograph of a feline becomes Internet famous, Mr. Lashes contacts the pet owner and offers to help strategize ways to prolong, protect and monetize. He says he operates with this question in mind: "What would Walt Disney do if he created Mickey Mouse and it went viral on YouTube?". . ."
Cat caught smuggling cell phones into Russian jail: The Russian prison service said Monday it had caught a cat being used as a courier to smuggle banned cell phones and chargers into a prison camp in the country's remote far north. The prison service in the Komi region said on its website that the cat was detained Friday evening as it climbed the fence of the region's Number One corrective labour camp with two cell phones, batteries and chargers strapped to its back using tape. It posted a photograph of the black-and-white cat held up by the scruff of its neck by a guard with the bulky package still stuck to its fur. My advice: get a good Feline lawyer, enter Plea of Not Guilty
First the Secret Service guys in Colombia, and now "US military attaches" in Venezuela--Can any of these guys working for Obama on "the taxpayer dime" stay out of South American bars and strip clubs?
AFP: Two US embassy personnel shot in Venezuela:
"Two employees of the US embassy in Venezuela were shot and wounded early Tuesday in the capital Caracas, in a murky incident that local media and a police source said took place at a strip club. . . . The Venezuelan media identified the two men as Roberto Ezequiel Rosas and Paul Marwin, and said they were military attaches at the embassy, but neither the State Department nor the embassy in Caracas would confirm those reports. . . A district policeman, who also spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said a shooting incident had been reported just outside the Antonella bar, involving three Americans. In the entryway of the club, there are photos of female strippers. . . ."
Web inventor says governments stifling net freedom: The inventor of the World Wide Web warned . . . that government control is limiting the possibilities of the Internet, as dozens of countries and businesses signed a cybersecurity deal at the Davos forum. The comments by Tim Berners-Lee at the World Economic Forum plugged into a wider debate among the delegates on the future of the Internet, particularly how to balance openness with privacy and security . . . "The dream is of a more open web," Berners-Lee told the gathering in the Swiss ski resort, citing social media as a way of breaking down barriers. But he said the recent suicide of Aaron Swartz, a 26-year-old US Internet activist who faced charges of illegally copying and distributing millions of academic articles, highlighted government efforts to police the Internet. "He downloaded a lot and so the Secret Service in the US decided that he was a hacker. For them that isn't the term of great praise that it is when I use it. For me a hacker is someone who is creative and does wonderful things," he said. Follow @VelcroFeline
