] Congress may consider a bill that not only expands the
] government's wiretapping and investigative powers but
] also would link low-level drug dealing to terrorism and
] ban a traditional form of Middle Eastern banking.

Wired News: Patriot Act II Resurrected?

] It's against the law for police to set up narcotics
] checkpoints to check whether any randomly passing
] motorists happen to have illegal drugs.
]
] But it's not illegal for the police to pretend that's
] what they're doing, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled
] Thursday.

I think this is seriously suspect. What is the difference between this activity and a real search checkpoint? That the suspect was pulled over for littering? You have to have a serious problem contemplating the big picture to fall for such an arguement. The intent of the forth amendment is to prevent the police from randomly sweeping people in search of crimes they can prosecute. The intent of this operation is to randomly sweep motorists in search of crimes to prosecute. This is, frankly, obvious.

This ruling should be overturned, and this judge should be removed.

Questionable rulings...

] The Bush administration, under increasing criticism over
] its terrorism policies, is beginning an unusual
] counteroffensive this week in an effort to shore up
] support for the prized legislation that grew out of the
] attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
]
] The pitchman for the campaign-style initiative is
] Attorney General John Ashcroft, a politically divisive
] figure who plans to deliver more than a dozen speeches
] around the country beginning on Tuesday in defense of the
] administration's terrorism efforts.

Bush Administration Plans Defense of Terror Law

] In a final report released July 31, the President's
] Commission on the U.S. Postal Service said sender
] identification technologies such as "personalized stamps"
] that embed digital identification information would not
] only improve mail tracking and delivery operations but
] would also enhance the security of the entire mail
] system.

No more anonymous mail.

U.S. Postal Service eyeing technology for 'smarter' mail - Computerworld

] Police in Florida are creating a counterterrorism
] database designed to give law enforcement agencies around
] the country a powerful new tool to analyze billions of
] records about both criminals and ordinary Americans.

Mini-TIA?

The problem with systems like this is not so much the information they have but the sort of questions you are allowed to ask them.

Asking who has brown hair and a red truck within a 20 mile radius, in the context where this is a suspect description in a murder, is a standard question that police ask all the time. Having this information more readily available is probably a good thing (unless you're an anarchist).

However, if you run a correlation which shows that people who have brown hair and red trucks are 30 percent more likely to commit murders then average, and subsiquently decide to submit people fitting that profile to additional scrutiny at airport security, you've crossed into pre-crime, and that is where the policy debate lies.

This question is going to continue to be raised. Poindexter, for all his faults, is a leader. He is way ahead of the curve. We'll see a lot more of this over the next 20 years from all kinds of directions, just as we are seeing similar techniques used in unrelated fields (Customer Relationship Management).

Objective research into the effectiveness of pre-crime, and the impact of it upon innocents, is sorely needed. Unfortunately, finding objective researchers is going to be damn near impossible. On the one side we've got arms dealers and drug smugglers, and on the other side we've got civil liberties advocates. Much like the studies on RF related cancer, the truth is probably only going to be found somewhere in the dialog between them, in an environment where both sides are given the resources they need to do the studies they want to do, and there is absolutely no political pressure to rush things into application.

U.S. Backs Florida's New Counterterrorism Database (TechNews.com)

] Your readers already know about my opposition to useless
] airport security crap. I'm suing John Ashcroft, two
] airlines, and various other agencies over making people
] show IDs to fly -- an intrusive measure that provides no
] security. (See http://freetotravel.org). But I would be
] hard pressed to come up with a security measure more
] useless and intrusive than turning a plane around because
] of a political button on someone's lapel.

Politech: John Gilmore: I was ejected from a plane for wearing a button

] Adults, the government also noted, can ask librarians to
] disable the filters.

That line there is the key. The Supremes are right. Its not censorship if you can ask them to stop.

Supreme Court Upholds Internet Filters (TechNews.com)

] CAPPS II testing has ceased pending the implementation of
] a privacy policy, according to officials at the highest
] levels of the Department of Homeland Security. They've
] even stopped all internal testing of the system until
] changes are made to the Federal Register that tell us,
] the American people, what they're doing and how it will
] impact our constitutional rights and freedoms.

CAPPS II Shutdown pending privacy overhaul

Rattle wrote:

] Who? What is the string you are holding on to in order to
] keep calling this commercial speech..

Apparently there was something in their timeline about a consulting position at a competitor. However, it was dated in 2004, so its not clear what the nature of the relationship is and when it began, or even if it exists or if its a joke.

] ] It is this harm, coupled with the safety of these
] ] academic institutions and their constituents (primarily,
] ] students and faculty) that mandated Blackboard take a
] ] very careful and measured stance. Recognizing that
] ] this is a crime with potentially very harmful results,
] ] we took a position to protect our clients.
]
] Careful and measured, eh?

So, was the section of your complaint that intentionally confused computer source code with long distance access codes the careful part, or the measured part?

] ] Blackboard recognizes that the Hacker Community plays
] ] an integral role in assisting technology companies in
] ] improving their offerings, most notably around security.
] ] I thought the user community might find this
] ] clarification of value.

Backpedal, Backpedal, Backpedal, as fast as we can. Gosh we didn't think anyone cared about that silly little amendment.

RE: politechbot.com: Blackboard responds to criticism of Interz0ne lawsuit

] The antiboycott laws were adopted to encourage, and in
] specified cases, require U.S. firms to refuse to
] participate in foreign boycotts that the United States
] does not sanction. They have the effect of preventing
] U.S. firms from being used to implement foreign policies
] of other nations which run counter to U.S. policy.

(Comments from Shorty)

For those who didn't believe me at Interz0ne that such a department existed, here is your proof. If the US government decides that they don't want US citizens/businesses to participate in a boycott, they've already got a department set up to fine the heck out of you for going against the government's wishes. Right now the department is primarily focused on making sure nobody boycotts Israel.

U. S. Bureau of Industry and Security: Antiboycott Compliance Office