Old friends

I was searching for an old friend on Google today. Found this:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0584674/ over at The Internet Movie Database.

Joe was a hell of a guy. He and I and Brad Roosa lived together for around five years. Unfortunately, we haven't stayed in touch.

I've got to find a copy of Roads and Bridges. Looks interesting. Filmed in KC, co-produced by Robert Altman.

Joe, if you ever come across this, give a shout out.

It's good to be Polish!

Smart Republican

North Carolina's got a Republican to be proud of.

From BlueRidgeNow.com:

Carl Mumpower, a Republican candidate for Congress, has broken ranks with his party and opposes legislation to protect telecommunications companies that helped in the government's warrantless spying program.

"Bad things grow in the dark and government at all levels is trying to turn out the lights," he said.

Nancy Boyda (D-KS) on FISA

Congresswoman Nancy Boyda (D-KS) gave a speech this week about the FISA update. What part of this do reasonable, rational people have a problem with? The House has passed a bill that gives the intelligence community everything they need to wiretap terrorists, including the ability to wiretap first and seek a warrant later (within two weeks). The only thing the House bill does not have is retroactive immunity for communications companies who broke the law by participating in the Bush Administration's illegal, warrantless wiretap program.



More over at Daily Kos here.

Senator Roberts (R-KS) tries to use fear to defend retroactive immunity

I have written to my representatives. I have called them. Today I got the following email from Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS):

March 13, 2008

Mr. Dave Hull
302 E 15th Pl
Lawrence, KS 66044-4202

Dear Mr. Hull:

Thank you for contacting me regarding S. 2248, the FISA Amendments Act. I appreciate your taking the time to write.

Last August, Congress passed and the president signed into law the Protect America Act (P.L. 110-55). This important legislation updated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). However, this law expired in February. Last October, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) introduced S. 2248, a bill to further modernize and update FISA. Provisions of S. 2248 provide limited liability protection from civil
lawsuits for communication service providers that are alleged to have cooperated with intelligence officials between September 11, 2001 and January 17, 2007. Communications providers play a vital role in intelligence gathering, and without such immunity they are less likely to cooperate with lawful government requests in a timely manner. Any delay in intelligence represents an unacceptable risk to the safety of our nation. The full Senate recently debated this issue, and, by wide
bipartisan majorities, consistently voted to retain the provisions on limited liability protection.

It is important to remember that we are a nation at war, and that those who attacked our country on September 11, 2001 want to attack us again. This legislation is of extreme importance to our ability to detect and prevent another catastrophic terrorist attack. Before the expiration deadline, the full Senate passed S. 2248 by a vote of 68-29.

However, the House failed to act on this legislation and it remains pending. It is my hope that the House will take the necessary action to reauthorize this essential program.

patsig.gif

Again thank you for taking the time to contact me. If you would like more information on issues before the Senate, please visit my website at http://roberts.senate.gov. You may also sign up on my home page for a monthly electronic newsletter that will provide additional updates on my work for Kansas.

With every best wish,

Sincerely,

Pat Roberts

PR:sf
================

To which I replied:

With all due respect sir (I know you'll actually never read this), FISA has a long and effective history of working. It is not broken. What has been broken is the law. The Bush administration went above the law and asked telcos to cooperate. I don't know about you, but when a government official asks me to break a law, my obligation is to the law, not the government official.

Retroactive immunity for telcos is absolutely going to have zero effect on telcos cooperation going forward for legal requests for wiretaps authorized by FISA.

You and your Republican counterparts are getting paid large sums of money by telcos to give them retroactive immunity for breaking the law. Of all people, I would expect Republicans, champions of the rule of law and smaller government to be standing up to the corporate interests and big government.

Please sir, stand on the side of reason. Telcos broke the law at the request of the government. Both the government and the telcos now should pay the price. This issue is not about making us safe, it's about political favors for big donors.

I will continue to fight on this issue. I will continue to talk to my friends and neighbors about this issue. My experience so far is that all of them are outraged at what is happening. Not a single one of the people I talk to about this issue think that retroactive immunity for telcos is a good idea.

Incidently, I'm also telling people about the $45 thousand dollars in donations you've received from the communications industry. You and Sam Brownback, who has received $83 thousand from the communications industry, should both reevaluate your position on this issue.

> It is important to remember that we are a nation at war, and
> that those who attacked our country on September 11, 2001
> want to attack us again. This legislation is of extreme importance
> to our ability to detect and prevent another catastrophic terrorist
> attack.

This is bunk. FISA is not broken and the Bush administration still has the authority it needs to get wiretaps for intelligence collection. What they don't have is retroactive immunity for those who broke the law.

> Before the expiration deadline, the full Senate passed S. 2248
> by a vote of 68-29. However, the House failed to act on this
> legislation and it remains pending.

Yes, thank goodness the Democrats in the House are defending the Constitution. If I remember correctly, that's something you were sworn to do also.

> It is my hope that the House will take the necessary action to
> reauthorize this essential program.

And it is my hope, and the hope of the majority of Americans, that the full extent of the Bush administrations illegal wiretaping will be brought to light. There must be no retroactive immunity for telcos who broke the law.

Good day sir.

========

And of course, I got this reply to my reply:

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

Correspondence_Reply@roberts.senate.gov
SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO::
host mail.senate.gov [156.33.195.209]: 550 5.1.1 ... User unknown

========

And they say government is broken.

Little Brother

My affinity for Cory Doctorow is well documented. He's got a new book coming called Little Brother. The post by Doctorow over at Boing Boing makes me wish I was still the Editor-in-Chief of my high school rag.

Though I'm 20 years removed from high school (Really?), this book looks like another good one.

Former FBI Interrogator knows what Bush doesn't

And considering what little Bush does know, I guess it's not surprising:

Bush vetoes bill that would outlaw torture

In 2003 Bush said, "The U.S. is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example. I call on all governments to join with the U.S. and the community of law abiding nations in prohibiting, investigating and prosecuting all acts of torture."

And yet when Congress passed a law banning torture, Bush vetoed it.

There's an excellent diary on this over at Daily Kos. You can find it at this link: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/8/111542/5282/748/472175.

AT&Treason

To do

Why are we still talking about this? Hasn't the gubmet heard us loud and clear? I mean, they are listening to all my electronic communications right?

Tomorrow morning use this link,

https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?alertId=365&pg=makeACall

to find your representative in the U.S. House. Once you find them, call them and tell them you are a constituent and that you do not support retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies. Be polite. Keep it brief.

Certification journey

Years ago I thought many certifications in the tech industry weren't worth the paper they were printed on. My view changed when a coworker encouraged me to study for Oracle's Certified Professional cert. I did study for it and though I never tested, I learned all kinds of useful things that made me a more efficient DBA. Since then, I have been a believer in the certification process. Yes, the process is more important than the cert. It's what's learned along the way to the paper not the paper itself.

Today I finished my GIAC Certified Forensic Analyst cert. It's my third GIAC cert in the last year. Needless to say, I'm glad to be finished for a while, but plan on going for gold in at least two of these during the next year.

Slips and stalls

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which I've been a proud supporter of for several years, has a nice piece here, http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/02/republican-slips-and-stalls about contradictory statements made by the proponents of telecom immunity.