] An Iraqi judge has issued a murder arrest warrant for a
] radical Shiite Muslim cleric, Muqtada Sadr, for the
] slaying of another Shiite leader shortly after the
] U.S.-led invasion of the country, coalition officials
] said Monday.

Puts an interesting light on events. This warrant was issued months ago...

Iraqi Judge Issues (SIC) Arrest Warrant for Sadr (washingtonpost.com)

A Japanese company has built Kaneda's Bike!

Fully functional replica of Kaneda's Bike (Akira)

The bottom line is clear: The privacy battalions oppose not just particular technologies, but technological innovation itself.

Declan McCullagh points out that Heather MacDonald has also written an essay arguing that racial profiling doesn't exist. (Our society clearly has no problems with racism whatsoever, and the fact that "DWB" is now a common American expression is obviously a liberal plot that has no relationship whatsoever to people's actual experiences.)

However, I'm memeing this anyway because its important to consider opposing views.

TIA is messy. I think that we SHOULD research the question of how effective these data mining programs can be. I'm not sure I agree that TIA was that program.

MacDonald claims that privacy advocates haven't raised specific, reasonable concerns, nor offered alternatives. Neither of these arguments is true.

The problem privacy advocates have with TIA and CAPPS is that everyone is held to scrutiny, and if you fit a specific profile you are targeted for further analysis. In a free society you should not be discouraged from living a particular lifestyle because it happens to peak the interest of an analyst who is observing you at all times. There is a fundamental philosophical problem with that approach to security.

From a tactical standpoint there are specific questions that remain unanswered about who you really catch with these scans. Especially over time as you can use increased scrutiny to tell whether or not you're tagged, and if so, abort, reconfigure, and retry. Furthermore, while whether TIA was an engineering or science project is hotly debated, but CAPPS certainly wasn't/isn't.

Whats even more problematic about CAPPS is the secret no-fly lists... Secret laws seem incompatible with democracy.

What most of the privacy advocates offer as an alternative are approaches that actually make the terrorist attacks hard logistically, rather then because of ubiquitous monitoring. Consistent explosives screening of all checked luggage, re-enforced, locked cabin doors. Remote control capability for airplanes. More air-marshalls.

Of course, this is just too expensive, its less visible, it doesn't offer the added benefit of getting to run warrant checks every time someone travels, etc...

The 'Privacy' Jihad

Book-ends for tax day.

On April 13, go to Borders for a second helping of Neal. On April 16, go to AMC for another course of Quentin.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

After having killed the first two on her death list, O-Ren Ishii and Vernita Green, The Bride continues in her journey of vengeance to hunt down and kill the remaining victims, Elle Driver, Budd, and ultimately, Bill. However, matters become complicated when The Bride learns that her daughter, whom she presumed dead, is still alive.

Form 1040, line 42: Would you like to donate $10 to Miramax?

Kill Bill: Volume 2

] Bored Boy Behind President Gets Nationwide Attention

awesome.

Bored Boy Behind President Gets Nationwide Attention

Your tuition dollars at work.

Go Tech!

] The number of unemployed workers (currently 8.2 million)
] and the national unemployment rate of 5.6% in February
] 2004 do not adequately convey the true labor slack in the
] economy for several reasons. One major understatement is
] that the unemployment rate does not reflect the uniquely
] large 1.2% decline in labor force participation that has
] occurred since the current recession began in early 2001.
] This decline represents a stark contrast to the past
] three business cycles, when labor force participation
] actually grew by an average of 0.4% of the working-age
] population over similar lengths of time. Consequently,
] there is what can be called a "missing labor force" of
] 2,808,000 workers who might otherwise be in the actual
] labor force but have either dropped out entirely or
] failed to enter the labor market because of the lack of
] jobs. If the unemployment rate in February 2004 took into
] account this missing labor force, the unemployment rate
] would have been 7.4%, or 1.8% greater than the official
] rate of 5.6% (see chart below).

Here is someone publishing unemployment statistics which include the data about the contraction of the total labor force.

The unemployment statistics the government doesn't want you to see...

The IT industry's spin machine presents its take on IT outsourcing's impact on jobs. They certain try to divert you from paying attention to the problems, which makes them hard to read out of this summary without paying for the full study. Its also hard to say if they are factoring in increasing in outsourcing in other industries. It doesn't seem like they are, and if not that would cast a very different light on their take on overall job growth.

On the whole, they are predicting that the US Publishing, Software, and Communications industry will loose 50,000 jobs in 2008, up from 20,000 in 2003, but they are claiming that between 2003 and 2008 the total number of jobs in the Software & Services industry will increase by 182,015. This seems fishy. If net job growth is increasingly negative year over year then where are those 182 thousand jobs coming from? By contrast, the Education and Health Services industry (why are these two things clumped together?) is going to gain 1.7 million jobs in the same timeframe.

[Politech] ITAA on impact of offshore IT outsourcing on U.S. economy

Brilliant commentary on configure-your-friends/six-degree style social network sites.

small world

] So the value of the background check a "trusted traveler"
] goes through is unclear. Even if he has already turned
] his iris over to Sec. Ridge, any future 'anomaly' in his
] credit or phone records could conceivably put him into
] the special scrutiny category that entails more invasive
] searches. On the other hand, if TSA is being disingenuous
] and those who get the cards will undergo very little
] scrutiny, the system would be ripe for abuse,
] particularly by anyone with connections on the inside.

This is a good summary of the TSA's announcement of a voluntary background check program for travellers. Does the TSA really live in an environment with strained budget problems where a program to reduce security checking is something they have to do to control costs? I doubt it. This is the government we're talking about here. If they want more money they need only make noises about homeland security. No one is going to deny them they funds they need. (However, the we're saving money story sure helps them spin this program with Congress.)

I predict that this program will be rolled out with a slightly reduced burden for travellers who join it. Slowly the burden on people who are in the system will be increased once it is popular. The burden on those who are not in it will become ridiculously high so only a few nut cases like myself choose not to participate, at great personal cost when travelling. Eventually the program will cease to be optional. If everyone is doing it, whats the problem? If you don't like it, walk!

This will be the basis for a biometric national ID card. It will replace drivers licenses, passports, etc... It will be checked constantly. If you fit the profile of a terrorist you'll be scooped up. This is the future, and don't guile yourself into believing you can make a difference here by voting. The Democrats pursue stuff like this even more ferociously then the Republicans. Kerry is already promising to increase funding for these programs.

[Politech] TSA trials registered travelers