As expected, it appears that a new version of COICA is on its way, and it looks like those behind it have ramped up their efforts to make the positioning sound better. Rather than COICA, it's been renamed the "Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act" or the.... PROTECT IP Act (don't gag). And, rather than actually taking into account the concerns many had with COICA, this new bill is even more draconian, in that it has a ... (more)
It is obvious to advocates of liberty that modern communications and technology–cell phones, twitter, texting, video, youtube, email, and the Internet–are crucially important in the fight to delegitimize, expose, and fight against the state. Of course the state always works to hijack and corrupt various institutions and aspects of life in order to increase its control and power. As I discuss here, Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe, in his classic paper Banking, Nation States and Inter... (more)
Following New York Senator Chuck Schumer's call for a "no ride list" that would mimic the notoriously sweeping, oppressive and ineffective "no fly list," Amtrak has publicly backed the idea, which would officially create a Soviet-style internal passport for American citizens and make the presence of TSA workers conducting grope downs at train stations ubiquitous.
Approving of Schumer's proposal, Amtrak Spokesperson Cliff Cole released the following statement;
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A photo of TSA agents searching and pat-down of a baby at a security checkpoint inside Kansas City International Airport that appeared on Twitter has gotten plenty of nationwide attention.
A traveler shot the photo Saturday afternoon at the United terminal at KCI. The photo has since had more than 200,000 clicks.
Monday, the TSA explained the search and said it conformed to security protocol. The trouble, a TSA spokeswoman said, was a stroller. I... (more)
You may recall a big story from last fall about a guy who found a GPS tracking device on his car (because of a friend's Reddit comment). The FBI showed up and demanded the dev... (more)
Do you know what a trial balloon is? It is when politicians will float an idea in the media to see what the reaction of the public will be. Well, right now one trial balloon that is being floated is the idea that we should tax Americans for the number of miles that they drive. This proposal showed up in a draft bill that was being circulated within the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Office of Management and Budget. You can view a copy of this draft bill here... (more)
EFF recently received documents from the FBI that reveal details about the depth of the agency's electronic surveillance capabilities and call into question the FBI's controversialeffort to push Congress to expand the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) for greater acces... (more)
Americans have been so bombarded with fear-drenched messages about the need to shut out foreign terrorists that few consider whether they are also being shut in.
A 5-page biographical questionnaire, Form DS-5513, is being proposed as a new requirement for at least some Americans who seek a passport. The questionnaire is so intrusive as to constitute data rape. (To confirm that th... (more)
With the US government looking for software that will let them manage fake profiles on social networks, in order to "infiltrate" groups, you might have forgotten that they can also take the easy way out and issue a subpoena. While Julian Assange is certainly being hyperbolic with his claims that "Facebook... is the most appalling spying mach... (more)
Apparently, the folks at Homeland Security are not at all pleased with the very, very simple Firefox extension, called MAFIAAfire, that negates ICE's domain seizures, by automatically rerouting users to alternate domains. Apparently, DHS demanded that Mozilla take the extension down from its listing of Firefox extensions claiming that the add-on "circumvented" DHS's sei... (more)
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Counter terrorism experts say a retaliation attack for Osama bin Laden’s death is inevitable. Terrorists are expected to aim for more vulnerable soft targets like shopping malls or museums.
They are places jam-packed with people — pedestrian malls, shopping centers and stadiums. [...]
Security consultant David Boehm said the future could include security check points entering all soft targets — like your local departme... (more)
$8.50-$11.00/hr Position available working 8am to 5pm, Monday-Friday, 40 hrs/wk for approximately 6 months enforcing the Citys Weed Ordinance. Will drive throughout the City checking for weed violations, verifying citizen complaints, using computer to conduct property searches for ownership and preparing documents for court actions and council billing. Able to deal court
A yearlong sting operation, including aliases, a 5 a.m. surprise inspection and surreptitious purchases from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania, culminated in the federal government announcing this week that it has gone to court to stop Rainbow Acres Farm from selling its contraband to willing customers in the Washington area.
The product in question: unpasteurized milk.
It’s a battle that’s been going on behind the scenes for years, with natural foods advoca... (more)
The U.S. Government is celebrating the importance of intellectual property by educating visitors to the domain names it seized in previous months. These visitors are now redirected to an anti-piracy video instead. The viral video is running on 65 of the seized domains which have now become property of the Government, and shows how illegal downloads can financially ruin innocent workers.
Over the past several months a series of domain name seizures by the Department of Justice ... (more)
This video is retarded. Better would be to have a car salesman pitching you on a car but standing next to him is a horse and buggy maker, "if you buy that car this person loses their job."
"Uh, so what? I'm not here to subsidize the horse and buggy making industry."
The point of a job is to provide services to people in mutually beneficial exchanges. The people who lost their jobs in the horse and buggy industry all went and worked somewhere else, somewhere they were actually wanted and needed. We could get everyone a job if we just abandoned all modern technology and banned technological advancement, but we'd obviously all be poorer and more miserable as a result (of course, that's essentially what they propose). - Chris, InfoLib
The slippery-slope argument against the warrantless, illegal searches that the TSA conducts is to point out that body cavity searches will be next. That day has arrived, at least in jails, but the promotional materials for Canon’s new RadPRO SecurPASS scanner specifically mentions airport and border checkpoints and “Passenger friendly inspection.” A press conference held by a Florida county sheriff ... (more)
You may have heard that there's some sort of big royal wedding going on in the UK in the near future. There's been a fair bit of press coverage about it all, apparently. And, of course, there will be even more coverage of the event itself. Down in Australia, comedy/satire troupe The Chaser boys had been planning to cover the wedding in their typically satirical manner, but the royal family has officially stated that video from the event may not be used for satire. Specifica... (more)
Are you against raising the debt ceiling? If so, according to former Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill you are actually part of al-Qaeda. Yes, seriously. During an interview on Bloomberg TV the other day, O'Neill actually made the following statement: "The people who are threatening not to pass the debt ceiling are our version of al-Q... (more)
Just as the World Bank has put out an entire research report about the economics of virtual gold farmers (they claim it's a $3 billion plus industry, and has substantial impact on developing economies), it appears that the FBI is taking an interest in the practice as well. Just last month, the FBI apparently raided a Michigan home in search of virtual World of Warcraft gold. The university students... (more)
In the video above, the former beauty queen who held the Miss USA title in 2003, Susie Castillo, said a TSA "screener" fondled her vagina during an intrusive pat-down.
Ms. Castillo was subjected to the groping after she refused to enter a naked body scanner at the airport in Dallas, Texas.
