Posted April 9, 2008 
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Jimmy Hall for msnbc.com
U.S. troops in Afghanistan this month will receive a new tool that the Pentagon says will help them root out potential terrorists — a hand-held lie detector.
New U.S. weapon: Hand-held lie detector - Terrorism- msnbc.com
Posted March 14, 2008 Comments(0) The National Security Agency was once known for its skill in eavesdropping on the world’s telephone calls through radio dishes in out-of-the-way places like England’s Menwith Hill, Australia’s Pine Gap, and Washington state’s Yakima Training Center.
Today those massive installations, which listened in on phone conversations beamed over microwave links, are becoming something akin to relics of the Cold War. As more communications traffic travels through fiber links, and as e-mail and text messaging supplant phone calls, the spy agency that once intercepted telegrams is adapting yet again.
Recent evidence suggests that the NSA has been focusing on widespread monitoring of e-mail messages and text messages, recording of Web browsing, and other forms of electronic data-mining, all done without court supervision. Taken together, those activities raise unique privacy and oversight concerns greater than those posed by large-scale monitoring of voice communications.
Documents released last week by a security consultant (PDF) indicate that an unnamed major wireless provider has opened its network to the U.S. government, allowing customers’ e-mail, text messaging, and Web use to be monitored. And Assistant Attorney General for National Security Kenneth Wainstein said last week that surveillance of e-mail was the real concern raised by the debate over amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
That led some high-ranking House Democrats, including Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell, to circulate a letter (PDF) advising their colleagues to look skeptically at a Republican proposal that would grant retroactive immunity to companies that illegally let the Feds plug into their networks. The Republicans’ blanket of retroactive immunity would likely cover e-mail providers, search engines, Internet service providers, and instant-messaging services too.
Posted March 14, 2008 Comments(0) March 14, 12:53 AM
To hear Jesse Ventura tell it, he’s either out to become president or an expatriate.
In the opening to his fourth book, due out April 1, the former wrestler and governor of Minnesota writes: “As I begin to write this book, I’m facing probably the most monumental decision of my 56 years on this planet. Will I run for president of the United States, as an independent, in 2008? Or will I stay as far away from the fray as possible, in a place with no electricity, on a remote beach in Mexico?”
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Throughout the book, called “Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me!,” Ventura seems to go back and forth on the question, pro and con:
Pro: “My outrage knows few bounds. … I can’t live with this apathy. I can’t tell myself it’s not happening.”
Con: “Psychologically, I need to break away from the United States. I also felt it was time in my life to go on an adventure. … And I found that, even in the 21st century, you can still be something of a Kit Carson,” the renowned 19th-century frontiersman.
Pro: He details a conversation he had in Mexico with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about running together on an independent, third-party ticket.
Con: His wife, Terry, says she refuses to be first lady of anything again.
Read More here: Yeas and Nays: Ventura Will he or wont he - Examiner.com
Posted March 14, 2008 Comments(0) By David C. Lipscomb
March 13, 2008
The Metropolitan Police Department yesterday announced a new crime initiative that will include officers going into high-crime neighborhoods to search homes for illegal guns.
“The premise is that residents can have the trust of the …department,” said police spokeswoman Traci Hughes.
Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced the program and said it focuses on parents or legal guardians who think their children have a gun in the house and are uncomfortable with searching for it themselves.
Miss Hughes said that residents would be given amnesty for illegal guns found in homes after they are tested for links to crimes. But she said police would investigate the source of the guns if they were found to be involved in a crime.
Police initiate search for guns - - The Washington Times, Americas Newspaper
Posted March 11, 2008 Comments(0)
Wednesday March 12 2008
Austin TX City Hall
301W.Seccond Street
TO: Rondella
Given the recent news that the Texas Cable Association may now precede with its lawsuit against SB 5, it is now time to draw down the remainder of the capital equipment funds from Time Warner Cable.
We can certainly expect that since the 5th Circuit Court has given the green light to the cable industry, that Time Warner will proceed as quickly as possible to pursue its lawsuit.
Under the existing franchise agreement between the City and Time Warner there is more than $1 million still available for public access television capital equipment purchases - purchases that are badly needed and long overdue.
If you wait, and Time Warner proceeds quickly with its lawsuit, the City and public access will lose these dollars - just as we lost the remainder of capital equipment funds from Grande Communications when Grande went to a statewide franchise.
I strongly urge you to act now to start the process to draw down the remainder of these funds. As we know from the previous CFO, the City is under no obligation to demonstrate how these capital equipment funds will be used before making the demand to draw them down.
The time to take action is now, not after Time Warner files its lawsuit and gets an injunction that allows them to not abide by the franchise agreement.
The City’s legal staff should put this item on the top of there to do list now - at your urging.
- Stefan Wray and Pam Thompson
- PACT Austin Texas
Posted March 5, 2008 Comments(0) It appears that the Cato Institute has fired one of its finest adjunct scholars, antitrust expert D.T. Armentano, because Professor Armentano dared to write an op-ed calling for the federal government to disclose its files on UFOs.
So there you have it: on Planet Stato, it’s okay to endorse warrantless wiretaps, but not okay to call on the federal government to open its files.
Says Cato’s David Boaz: “[T]his strikes us as not an issue that we want to have as part of Cato’s research agenda.” Yet increasing executive power to spy on Americans without a warrant — a gross violation of liberty, privacy, and the Constitution — apparently is on the Cato agenda.
I don’t think the government is hiding evidence of extra-terrestrials from us — but I don’t doubt that, with respect to some UFO sightings, it’s hiding something. And the more it doesn’t want us to know, the more we should want to know.
If Cato doesn’t want to make it a priority, that’s their business and I wouldn’t criticize them for it — as far as I’ve noticed, this website doesn’t run UFO articles either. But to can Armentano as an adjunct for a harmless op-ed in a small paper — while retaining Pilon as director of constitutional studies after his outrageous article in the Wall Street Journal — is a disgrace. And it tells you all you need to know about the beltway-libertarian mentality.
Dr. Armentano remains an adjunct faculty member of the Mises Institute. You can read his great short book, Antitrust: The Case for Repeal, for free here.
LewRockwell.com Blog: Cato’s Beltway Libertarian Bizarro World
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