A statutory limit on total federal debt has been in place since 1917. In the past decade, Congress has voted to raise the debt limit ten times and it will now have to do so once again.
If the deficit and debt are real problems that can only be addressed by cutting government spending as the Republicans claim than the budget the Republicans agreed to is a joke. It shows that the Republicans either don't believe their own rhetoric about the need to drastically curtail government spending or that they are just politicians and not statesmen. They might say the “right” thing to the tea party movement but in practice they wont lead us out of the mess that they caused in the first place starting under Bush and continuing under Obama.
If the Republicans were serious about cutting the deficit and the debt, they would do at least three things. First, they would follow the lead of then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld who on Sept. 10, 2001 held a press conference at which he called for a war against wasteful Pentagon spending. He said that there was $2.3 trillion dollars unaccounted for in the Department of Defense. So what the Republicans should do is call for a full and transparent audit of the Pentagon.
The second thing they should do is support Sen. Rand Paul's moderate $500 billion in cuts as a starting point for the discussion. The third thing the Republicans should do is take a serious look at the costs of having 1,200 government organizations working on counter-terrorism. Between weeding out waste at the Pentagon, rethinking our counter-terrorism organizational strategy and Sen. Paul's cuts, the Republicans would at least be taken seriously as fiscal conservatives.
The disclosure comes after the head of Pakistani intelligence abruptly cut short a trip to Washington this week after meeting with CIA director Leon Panetta yesterday.
Phi Beta Iota: We know that US intelligence is failing to provide more than 4% “at best” of what commander and policy makers need. That makes $80-90 billion a year a hot prospect for cuts. To have this fraud, waste, and domestic abuse compounded by its use–with the willful orders of the White House and the impeachable neglect of the Congress–within another sovereign country whose permission has NOT been secured, suggests that a total draw-down of inept and expensive and offensive US intelligence operations should join the closure of US military bases overseas as part of the total “first phase” of budget cuts. What US secret intelligence does “in our name” dishonors the Republic, it does NOT secure anything.
Members of Waziristan Students Federation chant slogan during a rally to condemn US drone attacks in Waziristan tribal regions, on March 19, in Peshawar, Pakistan. Mohammad Sajjad/AP
I have really enjoyed the discussion on the list over the past few days. Great stuff. Got me thinking.
I suppose I owe you folks a big long post on what I think the “next net” should look like, just like I posted my vision and work towards implementing the FreedomBox vision.
Below the Line
Phase 1: access layer and the distribution layer via mesh networks
Phase 2: Linking up regional networks (at least one per state, probably one per city/county).
Charles Wyble is a senior systems and security engineer with 15+ years of experience. His focus in 2011 is contiuining to expand his data ownership, and building socalwifi.net
He lives in sunny southern california, with his wife Patricia and 3 dogs isis, ospf and Juniper . Yes they are named after routing protocols and the other networking company. He frequently hosts hacker parties, where all sorts of cool stuff gets built.
He believes very strongly in owning his data. It's a critical and often overlooked part of security. As such, he maintains numerous web properties on a Linux server farm located at his residence, connected to the best DSL ATT has to offer.
As internet and mobile phone use explodes worldwide, governments are adopting new and multiple means for controlling these technologies that go far beyond technical filtering. Freedom on the Net provides a comprehensive look at these emerging tactics, raising concern over trends such as the “outsourcing of censorship” to private companies, the use of surveillance and the manipulation of online conversations by undercover agents. The study covers both repressive countries such as China and Iran and democratic ones such as India and the United Kingdom, finding some degree of internet censorship and control in all 15 nations studied.
Phi Beta Iota: Although somewhat dated, the report is worth a look. If overlain with the countries where poverty makes Internet access or control moot, the global picture is clear: despots and poverty are coincident with the physical and digital impoverishment of the people. The emergence on multiple fronts of movement to create the Autonomous Internet using the Open Source Tri-Fecta is encouraging.
hey all, saw this on liberationtech message board. it will be broadcast live online next tuesday. may be interesting to hear what they've come up with and what their evaluation criteria looks like.
Freedom House invites you to the official launch of Internet Circumvention Tools and Methods: A Comprehensive Review, Tuesday, April 12, 2011 12:00pm- 2:00pm, Freedom House 1301 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 400 Washington, DC, 20036. Lunch will be provided
As the recent shift in political landscape within the Middle East has shown, the Internet is increasingly influencing the way that citizens around the world gather and distribute information. While these changes occur, it is vital that people are aware of how to protect themselves online and how to access information, news, and facts, when the Internet is censored.
While there are sites that recognize the effectiveness of circumvention tools, there are none that assess the effectiveness of circumvention tools systematically. Freedom House has used its expertise and relationships with leading academic experts on information technology security, censorship, and software development to conduct a systematic assessment of how censorship circumvention tools perform in practice inside the countries they are designed to serve.
Freedom House’s Internet Freedom Project Director, Robert Guerra, will join major report contributors Cormac Callanan, director of Ireland-based Aconite Internet Solutions with experience in international computer networks and cybercrime, and Hein Dries-Ziekenheimer, the CEO of VIGILO consult, a Netherlands based consultancy specializing in Internet enforcement, cybercrime, and IT law, to discuss the findings of the report and its implications in the world of Internet privacy and censorship circumvention.
The event will be broadcast live over the Internet. A link to the broadcast will be sent out prior to the beginning of the event.
If you are interested in attending the event (in person and/or virtually), please RSVP – Details here : http://goo.gl/mnGmC
