Robert McNamara is worried. He knows how close we’ve come. His counsel helped the Kennedy administration avert nuclear catastrophe during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Today, he believes the United States must no longer rely on nuclear weapons as a foreign-policy tool. To do so is immoral, illegal, and dreadfully dangerous.

Foreign Policy: Apocalypse Soon (Robert S. McNamara)

Don't miss this... Its an interactive java applet the maps samples.

The History of Sampling

] H.R. 418 would require the Secretary of Homeland Security
] to waive any and all laws that he determines necessary,
] in his sole discretion, to ensure the expeditious
] construction of barriers and roads under IIRIRA 102...
]
] Section 102 of H.R. 418 would amend the current provision
] to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive
] any law upon determining that a waiver is necessary for
] the expeditious construction of the border barriers.
] Additionally, it would prohibit judicial review of a
] waiver decision or action by the Secretary and bar
] judicially ordered compensation or injunction or other
] remedy for damages alleged to result from any such
] decision or action.

Does the Real ID act contain a Constitution-busting Trojan horse?

] William McCardle was arrested by federal authorities in
] 1867 for writing and publishing a series of editorials in
] his Mississippi newspaper. The editorials were sharply
] critical of Reconstruction. McCardle sought a writ of
] habeas corpus on the ground that the Reconstruction Acts
] under which he was arrested were unconstitutional.
] McCardle appealed to the Supreme Court under an 1867
] congressional statute that conferred jurisdiction on
] appeal to the High Court. After hearing arguments in the
] case, but prior to announcing a decision, the Congress
] withdrew its 1867 act conferring jurisdiction.

Ex parte McCardle (1869) []

] The incident seemed alarming enough: a breach of a Cisco
] Systems network in which an intruder seized programming
] instructions for many of the computers that control the
] flow of the Internet.
]
] Now federal officials and computer security investigators
] have acknowledged that the Cisco break-in last year was
] only part of a more extensive operation - involving a single
] intruder or a small band, apparently based in Europe - in
] which thousands of computer systems were similarly penetrated.

] As the attacks were first noted in April 2004, a
] researcher at the University of California, Berkeley,
] found that her own computer had been invaded. The
] researcher, Wren Montgomery, began to receive taunting
] e-mail messages from someone going by the name Stakkato -
] now believed by the authorities to have been the primary
] intruder - who also boasted of breaking in to computers
] at military installations.
]
] "Patuxent River totally closed their networks," he wrote
] in a message sent that month, referring to the Patuxent
] River Naval Air Station in Maryland. "They freaked out
] when I said I stole F-18 blueprints."

NYT| Intruder Attack on Computer Net Is Called Broad

I did not wind up appearing in many of the photos posted. This photo is from the Anonymous Blogging round table discussion at the Vandy Freedom Forum. I think this is the point where I was explaining to Bennett Haselton (of peacefire.org) how design flaws present in his Circumventor software could easily lead to people getting killed.

Rattle at BlogNashville via Hoder's Flickr Stream

] China's Internet filtering regime is the most
] sophisticated effort of its kind in the world. Compared
] to similar efforts in other states, China's
] filtering regime is pervasive, sophisticated, and
] effective. It comprises multiple levels of legal
] regulation and technical control.

Interesting details on China's internet filtering, with links to information about other countries...

Internet Filtering in China in 2004-2005: A Country Study

] Podscope is the first search engine that actually allows
] you to search for spoken words within any audio or video
] file. We're starting with podcasts and will be
] adding all types of multimedia in coming months.

Neat! Takes you right to the timestamp in the audio where the thing you are searching for appears.

Podscope Blog » Podscope FAQ

] The Media Bloggers Association announces the appointment
] of Ronald D. Coleman, of the Coleman Law Firm, PC as
] general counsel. Coleman will be build a team of attorney
] around the country to provide MBA members with first-line
] counsel on matters relating to the use of intellectual
] property, defamation and other issues arising from their
] weblogging.

This is cool. Media Bloggers has organized a legal defense organization for Bloggers who get cease and desist notices. They are also working on insurance and education efforts.

Media Bloggers Association Lauches MBA Legal Defense Project * A news item at mediabloggers.org

] Remember Howard Beal - the frustrated anchor from the
] movie Network? He's a hero to Bob Cox, who has become
] one of the country's best-known bloggers.

Decius and I are visible in the video footage included with this article.

I'm the one in the black cowboy hat.

BlogNashville brings new breed of writer to Music City