June 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

The Register - Congressmen turn on ICANN (fwd)
by Jim Choate 21 Jun '03

21 Jun '03

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31357.html -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------

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'Rogue Nation' and 'At War With Ourselves': Does Not Play Well With Others
by R. A. Hettinga 21 Jun '03

21 Jun '03

--- begin forwarded text

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Re: Quoting Anne Coulter is like...
by Patrick Chkoreff 20 Jun '03

20 Jun '03

> From: Tim May <timcmay(a)got.net> > ... Another CNN guy, Aaron Brown, is actually refreshing in his > laidback, > Charles Kuralt-style slow examination of an issue...I ought to Tivo his > show.) Yesterday I caught Keith Olberman's show on MSNBC when he was announcing that Fox News will be hiring Dennis Miller for occasional guest commentaries. Keith Olberman is known for his funny quips, but yesterday he did a drop-dead hilarious impression of an extended Dennis Miller rant. Only this time, it was Keith Olberman ranting against Fox's "We decide, you obey" reporting style. The writing and delivery were perfect, and he really hit his target. I've nearly boycotted TV news lately, so that was the first time I've seen his show. I'll Tivo it for entertainment value if nothing else. -- Patrick

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Re: Destroying Utah
by Tyler Durden 20 Jun '03

20 Jun '03

"Except Utah is not in the South by anybody's definition." I was in Salt Lake City this very morning, and for some reason a lot of people sport southern accents. I suspect that's because of a "cultural vacuum" effect whereby there's not enough local identity to latch onto so they "import" some. Also as it happens I saw that WIERD Temple downtown there, and asked "Sister Johnson" if she really believed God was a guy kicked back in a Laz-Z-Boy on the planet Kolab. She could not tell me decisely that this was not the case. Is Hatch a Mormon? -TD >From: Tim May <timcmay(a)got.net> >To: cypherpunks(a)lne.com >Subject: Re: Destroying computers >Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2003 08:59:59 -0700 > >On Thursday, June 19, 2003, at 07:41 AM, Major Variola (ret) wrote: > >>At 01:07 AM 6/19/03 -0400, Tyler Durden wrote: >>>Methinks Mr Hatch is not a very bright man. >> >>A Southern senator. Need I say more? > >Except Utah is not in the South by anybody's definition. > >>Of course, that astronomy Professor Usher would be pretty bummed when >>his research was toasted by an RIAA killbot, but then the Prof employs a >> >>provocatory surname, no? "Collateral damage" -hey, he could change his >>name, after all. Maybe to David Nelson :-) >> > >I was going to mention Prof. Usher in a follow-up I was mentally planning a >few minutes ago. > >For those who may not have heard about him, he's a retired astronomy prof. >who included a .MP3 of one of his own songs on his Web site. The record >company conglomerate representing the negro minstrel named "Usher" somehow >found his site, found that it had .MP3 files, and made the assumption the >site was pirating the minstrel Usher's music. They fired off threatening >letters and demanded action. > >Had Orrin Hatche's seek and destroy software been available, his site would >have been toast. > >When the record company was informed of the truth, they proposed to send >him a free Usher t-shirt. Just what a retired white astronomy prof wants, >the t-shirt of a negro rap crapper. > >--Tim May _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

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Re: Quoting Anne Coulter is like...
by James A. Donald 20 Jun '03

20 Jun '03

-- On 20 Jun 2003 at 16:28, Patrick Chkoreff wrote: > Yesterday I caught Keith Olberman's show on MSNBC when he was > announcing that Fox News will be hiring Dennis Miller for > occasional guest commentaries. Keith Olberman is known for > his funny quips, but yesterday he did a drop-dead hilarious > impression of an extended Dennis Miller rant. Only this > time, it was Keith Olberman ranting against Fox's "We decide, > you obey" reporting style. The writing and delivery were > perfect, and he really hit his target. MSNBC got full of rage against Fox, when Fox's reporting of the war turned out to be accurate, while MSNBC turned out to be wildly inaccurate. Watching MSNBC, one would have thought that the US was in for a Stalingrad style battle for Baghdad, at a time when Fox accurately reported that resistance had collapsed. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG F0nK6TqVVqn96rO4YYy2UI3IekPx4yDvxiQioy7s 4L6N9w0zsAAqJzA0mceuRuzp68I5YadfS0OppipMU

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You Don't Say
by R. A. Hettinga 20 Jun '03

20 Jun '03

<http://www.anncoulter.org/columns/2003/061803p.htm> Ann Coulter You Don't Say June 18, 2003 IF YOU ARE one of the millions of Americans who recently canceled your subscription to the New York Times, you may not know that we are in the middle of a civil-liberties emergency. Apparently, in the weeks following the terrorist attack of 9-11, the FBI rounded up a lot of Muslim men who were in this country illegally. Not only that, but some were actually questioned. These, my friends, were only some of the atrocities detailed in a "frank and blistering" report plastered all over the New York Times a few weeks ago. The report, released by the inspector general of the Department of Justice, was showcased on the front page of the Times; it was excerpted in the national section; and it was the subject of the lead editorial that day, somberly titled "The Abusive Detentions of Sept. 11." job as a reporter.The laboriously assembled report includes such shocking revelations as these: "[T]he Sept. 11 attacks changed the way the department, particularly the FBI and the INS, responded when encountering aliens who were in violation of their immigration status." "In other times, many of these aliens might not have been arrested or detained for these violations." And in the searing words of the New York Times: "Had it not been for the attacks, 'most if not all' of the arrests would probably have never been pursued." In other words, under Attorney General John Ashcroft, the FBI, the INS and the Department of Justice are so out of control that they have actually begun to enforce U.S. immigration laws. Also according to the report, guards at a Brooklyn detention facility - weeks after the attack and within sight of ground zero - subjected illegal immigrant Muslim detainees to "physical and verbal abuse." As the Times described it, "Detainees reported being slammed against the wall, or being subjected to such verbal taunts as 'You're going to die here.'" To quote Tony Soprano: You don't say. Does anyone at the Times even know any normal people? The detainees are in this country illegally, their co-religionists had just slaughtered thousands of Americans, and the Times is dismayed, perplexed, angry and shocked that some of them may have been subjected to the sort of manhandling that occurs in the hallways of middle schools throughout the nation. Why, I'm subjected to physical and verbal abuse every time I go through an airport security check, and I'm a citizen. After a bit of overheated fulminating, the Times editorial unleashed this whopper: "The inspector general's findings are particularly powerful because they come not from politicians or advocacy groups, but from a unit of the Bush administration itself." This is how the New York Times always prefaces its outrageous statements: "it is widely understood that ..."; "all learned men agree ..."; "all people of good will believe ..." Not so fast. The report came from Inspector General Glenn Fine - a lingering, festering Clinton appointee. As a rule of thumb, all career government bureaucrats are liberal Democrats. (Children in Republican families do not grow up yearning to work for the government someday.) Republican presidents come in, make a handful of appointments to each department, and then the career bureaucrats go about gleefully denouncing the Republicans while allowing themselves to described in the New York Times as "internal" whistleblowers. This leads to a somewhat inconsistent pattern of "internal" reports. After Janet Reno gassed American citizens in Waco, Texas, leaving 80 dead, the Justice Department's internal report "found no mistakes by anybody at the Justice Department or the FBI," in the words of Newsweek magazine. Also, one searches Lexis-Nexis in vain for any mention of an internal report on Janet Reno's commando raid against a small Cuban boy in Miami whose mother died bringing him to freedom. But when Clinton-appointee Fine discovered that, immediately after the 9-11 attack, Bush administration officials failed to inform the Muslim detainees "in a timely manner about the process for filing complaints about their treatment" - he produces an indignant report. (The guards should have told Fine that the illegal immigrants were liars, bimbos, "stalkers" or just wanted a book deal.) Accustomed to the high ethical standards of the Clinton administration, one can certainly understand Fine's outrage upon learning that guards overseeing Muslim illegal aliens after 9-11 imposed "restrictive and inconsistent policies on telephone access for detainees." Indeed, there are unconfirmed reports that several illegal detainees were prevented from using the phone to cast their votes on "American Idol." So, it was pretty much like a week in Uday and Qusay's torture rooms. "Instead of taking a few days as anticipated," the report says, "the clearance process took an average of 80 days, primarily because it was understaffed and not given sufficient priority by the FBI." That is pretty shocking when you consider how much time the FBI must have had on their hands immediately after 9-11. Some detainees were held so long that they had to drop out of U.S. flight schools altogether. FBI officials' explanation was that they were engaged in some mysterious project known only as "preventing the next terrorist attack on U.S. soil." In a remark worthy of Inspector Clouseau, Fine's report says: "Department officials acknowledged to the inspector general's office that they realized soon after the roundups began 'that many in the group of Sept. 11 detainees were not connected to the attacks or terrorism.'" Indeed, the Clinton appointee's report repeatedly takes the FBI to task for failing to "distinguish" between illegal immigrants and terrorists. Wow. What a great idea. If the FBI would simply "distinguish" between the terrorists and everyone else, then they could just arrest all the terrorists! Why didn't anyone else think of that? Remember this report by Clinton-appointee Glenn Fine the next time a liberal tells you a Democrat president would have done as good a job as Bush in fighting the war on terrorism. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Nauru's Offshore Banking Sector Has Been 'Eliminated', Says Chief Secretary
by Steve Schear 20 Jun '03

20 Jun '03

Nauru's newly elected government, headed by President and Foreign Affairs Minister, Ludwig Scotty has 'eliminated' the jurisdiction's offshore banking sector, according to reports. http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=12304 "A Jobless Recovery is like a Breadless Sandwich." -- Steve Schear

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Re: I love announcements like this
by privacy.at Anonymous Remailer 20 Jun '03

20 Jun '03

On Fri, 20 Jun 2003 09:27:50 -0400, you wrote: > > today... > > > SURVEILLANCE MATTERS > Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) (F.R. Page 35631) > Closed meeting to discuss surveillance matters. > Location: 1155 21st St., NW, 9th Floor Conference Room, > Washington, D.C.. 11 a.m. > Contact: Jean Webb, 202-418-5100 > **CLOSED** How about this news from China. Looks like Ashcroft has the same process underway here. Maybe it is modelled on our "partner in freedom", China. Papers, please!! http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501030623- 458835,00.html?cnn=yes Asia Hostages of the State A murder that shocked the nation exposes the brutality of China's system of extrajudicial detentions BY SUSAN JAKES / BEIJING CHINA PHOTO/REUTERS Sun Liusong's son, Sun Zhigang, was beaten to death in a detention center in March 2003 Had it ended differently, Sun Zhigang's life might have been a testament to his country's progress. The 27-year-old carpenter's son had worked his way out of a remote village in China's central Hubei province to a university in the provincial capital of Wuhan. He graduated with an arts degree, then later moved to Guangzhou, landing a job as a graphic designer and the chance to make a home in new China's glittering boomtown. But three weeks into his new life, Sun's luck ran out. On his way to an Internet cafi, he was stopped by police and asked for his ID. When Sun said he had left it at home, the police took him to a nearby station. By the next day when his boss and friends showed up with the necessary papers, Sun had been transferred to a detention center for vagrants. Two days later, on March 20, he was dead, the victim of a brutal beating in the center's infirmary. Last week, in a highly secretive trial, a Guangzhou court meted out harsh punishmentsincluding two death sentencesto those deemed to be the culprits in Sun's death. They included a nurse alleged to have ordered other inmates to beat Sun, and the inmates accused of complying. But the major accomplice in Sun's death got off free. The bulk of the blame for Sun's death ought to fall on a little-known system of administrative detentionthat is, detention outside of the criminal justice systemwhereby Chinese citizens can be locked up merely for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. "Custody and repatriation," as the system is euphemistically called, exists to enforce laws that keep impoverished rural dwellers from overcrowding the country's more prosperous cities. Officially, custody-and- repatriation (C.-and-R.) centers are responsible for detaining vagrants, beggars and those who lack permits to live in cities, and returning them to their hometowns. In reality, say human-rights experts and those who have experienced the system firsthand, it's a terrifyingly arbitrary and routinely abused tool of state power that, at its worst, amounts to little more than a police-enforced kidnapping-and ransom scheme.....

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Orrin Hatch: Software Pirate
by Anonymous 20 Jun '03

20 Jun '03

Under the Hatch Doctrine, the computer that serves his web site at www.senate.gov/~hatch/, is a target for elimination. It appears that the Honorable Senator was using JavaScript code in violation of the license: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59305,00.html Sic 'em, boys.

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Congress & the intelligence community
by Declan McCullagh 20 Jun '03

20 Jun '03

Date: Jul 14 - 17, 2003 Location: Washington, D.C. Event Name: Congress and the Intelligence Community Event Sponsor: The Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University Event Description: Open to Civilian and uniformed employees (GS-11 and above or military equivalent) from any department or agency with an interest in the intelligence area, the purpose of this four-day workshop is to increase the participant's understanding of the various ways that Congress interacts with the intelligence community, and therefore increase their effectiveness in this environment. Topics covered may include the politics of defense legislation; the role and operation of the House and Senate committees that authorize and appropriate funds for the intelligence community; the issue of intelligence and homeland security; and the influence of the media and special interests. Contact Information: Joan Milan [ gai(a)georgetown.edu ] 202-333-4838 Web site: http://www.georgetown.edu/ssce/gai

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