RANT: Air-Travel Pass Data Stolen From SFO?

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/05/1539231&from=rss

“Clear” Air-Travel Pass Data Stolen From SFO
Posted by timothy on Tuesday August 05, @12:12PM

from the is-kip-hawley-thetan-clear? dept.
Privacy Security Transportation

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Kozar_The_Malignant writes “A laptop containing the unencrypted security data for 33,000 travelers using the Clear system was stolen at San Francisco International Airport on July 26, according to CBS5 Television. The Clear system allows travelers who register and pay a $100.00 annual fee to speed through airport security by using a smart card at special kiosks in some airports. TSA has suspended new registrations in the system, which is run by a private contractor, Verified Identity Pass, Inc., a subsidiary of GE. The laptop was apparently stolen from a locked office at SFO. The company has now decided that it might be a good idea to encrypt the data in their systems. They are in the process of notifying customers that all of their personal data, including name, address, SSi number, passport number, date of birth, etc. has been compromised.”

*** end quote ***

Ahhh, your gooferment at work. Why am I not surprised!

I had to take a break at work and blog this one. It’s just sweet!

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POLITICAL: Or are you just as ignorant as you sound?

Sunday, August 3, 2008

A COMMENT THAT WAS A DRIVE BY

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A new comment on the post #3602 “POLITICAL: Obama’s Prayer: The Intended Audience” is waiting for your approval https://reinkefaceslife.com/2008/07/31/political-obamas-prayer-the-intended-audience/

Author : no (IP: 172.162.117.177 , ACA275B1.ipt.aol.com) E-mail : no@no.com
URL :
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=172.162.117.177
Comment:
You do realize that Obama isn’t muslim, right? Or are you just as ignorant as you sound?

*** end quote ***

I love “drive by” anonymous comments.

I’ll take a stab at this one.

I don’t KNOW anything about O other than he’s running for President.

  • His religion, if any, is doubt. Muslin, Wright wacko, or something else — who knows?
  • He’s flip floped on the war — only Ron Paul was going to get us out of Iraq!

  • He’s pro-abortion. Sorry, it abhorrent, and I don’t want to pay for it.

  • His tax policy is right out of the Socialist playbook.

I think his qualifications are non-existent and imho he’s an empty suit.

Guess I AM as ignorant as I sound.

(I love softballs!)

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LIBERTY: Federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop

Friday, August 1, 2008

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/content/article/2008/08/01/laptops.html

Travelers’ Laptops May Be Detained At Border
No Suspicion Required Under DHS Policies
By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 1, 2008; Page A01

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Federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

Also, officials may share copies of the laptop’s contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

*** and ***

In April, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld the government’s power to conduct searches of an international traveler’s laptop without suspicion of wrongdoing. The Customs policy can be viewed at: http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/travel/admissability/
search_authority.ctt/search_authority.pdf.

*** end quote ***

And you thought you had Fourth and Fifth Ammendment rights!

“Comrade Cititzen, It’s to keep you safe!”

Yeah, right.

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POLITICAL: Obama’s Prayer: The Intended Audience

Thursday, July 31, 2008

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/07/obamas_prayer_the_real_audienc_1.html

July 30, 2008
Obama’s Prayer: The Intended Audience
By Helen Cadogan
Helen Cadogan is the owner of iEdit.

Editor’s note: Publication of this article is suspended. Ma’ariv has backed away from the published story and YA has indicated differences with the published account.

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Barack Obama wanted the world to know that he can pray like a Christian. Thus, he penned a ‘note to God’ on stationery from the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, and he generously gave a copy to the “international media even before he put in the Kotel, a short time after he wrote it at the King David Hotel.” Thus says the Ma’ariv spokesman in defense of his newspaper, which may be the subject of a criminal investigation for publishing the ‘note to God’ which Obama gave to the paper. For, interestingly, not only Ma’ariv was a recipient of Obama’s generosity, so was Yediot Ahoronot (YA), the most popular Israeli daily. YA also obtained the ‘note to God’ from Obama but declined to print it, ironically, “to respect Obama’s privacy.”

*** and ***

If Ma’ariv had the note from Obama right after it was written, it could have published it at anytime. However, had Ma’ariv done so, then Obama would have been justly accused of politicizing one of the most sacred places of Judaism, the Western Wall. How, then, is he supposed to avoid such a charge? The logical answer would be to have a supporter temporarily retrieve the note (notice I don’t call it a prayer, which is a private matter), take it to a newspaper, which would then publish it, with this added cachet that vindicates Obama of spiritual crassness — claim it was stolen.

Who was the intended audience for this little passion play? Every speech act has an intended audience, and prayer, a very personal speech act, also has its own. In the normal course of events, God is the intended audience. However, given that Obama released his note for publication immediately after writing it, then God may not be the intended audience. Rather, Obama’s intended audience may be of this world: America’s voting Jews, Christians, and Muslims. To reach them, Obama would have to engage in a tricky balancing act purposed to let each group know that he believes as it does.

*** end quote ***

Wow!

I’m no fan of either political party, either politician, nor any of the gang!

This is something one would expect in a Tom Clancy novel.

It does HOWEVER have the ring of truth to it. Manipulation by politicians, and their helpful lackies in the media, have made me suspicious of EVERYTHING they do.

I have no problem with a black Muslim President. I do have a problem with politicians that hide their stipes and denty their associations until AFTER they are elected. It seems that time after time, we learn AFTER the fact, that we’ve been had.

Bush Senior read my lips. Clinton’s middle class tax cut. Bush Junior’s humbel foreign policy.

Nope, I dislike them both, but O may have set a new bottom if this is true.

What media outlet will dig for the truth?

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WRITING: TEOTWAWKI fiction — It happened in Church – Chapter Eighty Three – The Big Bang

Thursday, July 31, 2008

It happened in Church – October 19, 1962
Chapter Eighty Three – The Big Bang

It Started In Church – October 19, 1962
http://www.itstartedinchurch.com

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FUN: Joke wiith a political message!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008
From the Free State Project Dot Org

From the Free State Project Dot Org


TECHNOLOGY: In memoriam: Ed Foster

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/archives/2008/07/in_memoriam_ed.html

The Gripe Line | Ed Foster » In memoriam: Ed Foster

July 28, 2008 | Comments: (57)
101 votes

In memoriam: Ed Foster

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We at InfoWorld are sorry to announce that Ed Foster, InfoWorld’s venerable The Gripe Line blogger died this past Saturday. We are all saddened by Ed’s passing but grateful for his 15 years of consumer advocacy in the field of technology products through The Gripe Line column and blog.

Ed has contributed to InfoWorld and the technology-using community at large in many ways during his 20-year association with us, as a reporter, writer, editor, and columnist at InfoWorld.

We will all miss his passion and professionalism.

Ed’s son, Jeff, wanted to share the following with Ed’s readers:

I’m sorry to inform you all that my dad, Ed Foster, died on Saturday of an apparent heart attack. He was 59. He was very proud of the work he had done and the community he had built here. He was very engaged in what you all had to say, and we had many running instant message conversations about comments or emails people had sent. He was an extremely smart man, and he loved to be mentally stimulated, whether it was a good book, an interesting conversation, or one of the many comments you posted that made him look at something in a slightly different way. As you can probably tell, I’m not half the writer my dad was, and it’s very difficult for me to think of the words to say what I feel (it doesn’t help that when I get stuck on a word or phrase, I think “I know, I’ll ask my dad!”), but I just want everybody to know that this site and the people on it meant a lot to him. I’m going to miss him. More then words could express, even if he was here to help me think of them.

We invite you to post your remembrances of Ed and any other sentiments you’d like to express at this time.

Posted by Galen Gruman on July 28, 2008 05:21 PM

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I’m stunned. Ed was always taking the technology vendors to task for all sorts of transgressions. A sigh of relief is comming form all the rip off artist in the technology field because Ed’s gone “off duty”. Ed was one of the few columnists that I followed religiously. Over the last eon it feels like, he and I exchanged emails about one scam or another. Some he even used in the column.  Graciously concealing my identity when I was particularly brain dead and blunder into one scam or another. I feel the loss.

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It also points out the unfairness of Social Security, he paid in for three decades and his family has NOTHING to show for it! It’s robbery by the gang in DC.

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POLITICAL: No taxes of any kind on small businesses with 25 or fewer employees.

Monday, July 28, 2008

http://www.blogmaverick.com/2008/07/28/
how-to-jumpstart-the-economy-tax-free-small-businesses/

http://tinyurl.com/622bky

How to Jumpstart the Economy – Tax Free Small Businesses
Mark Cuban
Jul 28th 2008 10:13AM

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In today’s climate, its politically expedient to volunteer taxpayer money as a solution to all problems. That’s wrong. Instead, we should open the door to our country’s Intellectual capital and the entrepreneurial energy that separates us from the rest of the world. Make it easy for entrepreneurs to do what entrepreneurs do, and great things happen. Voters and politicians alike seem to have forgotten what has made this country an economic powerhouse.

*** end quote ***

Good idea. But, it accepts the premise that taxation is a “good idea”.

First, “companies” don’t pay taxes; real people do. Tax a “company” and they either mark up their products to cover it or go out of business. So, why should the taxpayer, you an me, put up with this fiction and the discontinuities it introduces. Take for example, any tax on the oil companies. It has a multiple whammy. The oil company raises the price of gas to cover the tax. And, every company, that uses gas, pays more and marks up their prices to cover it. So, it’s a extra whammy!

Second, the politicians have created this crazy world where money has no value. They allow the Fed to print all the money they need to waste in Washington and then are surprised when inflation robs the American people of 97% of its purchasing power in thirty or forty years.

Third, the distinction between employees and contractors is another joke. Benefits tied to employment are tax deductible to the employer but not to the employee. What a joke!

And on and on.

Expecting politicians to do anything ignores their “rules of engagement” — feather their own nest, reward heir friends, and punish their enemies!

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WRITING: TEOTWAWKI fiction — It happened in Church – Chapter Eighty Two – Anti pasto

Monday, July 28, 2008

It happened in Church – Chapter Eighty Two – Anti pasto


It happened in Church – October 19, 1962
Chapter Eighty Two – Anti pasto

It Started In Church – October 19, 1962
http://www.itstartedinchurch.com

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TECHNOLOGY: Four hours and counting to do Jasper Jottings

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Argh, for as quick as it went last week, under an hour, this week is a DISASTER! All sorts of little problems leading up to the big one. 1AND1 tells me some fluff about my page is missing the L in html on the page and that’s why it is pushing the wrong page. Don’t sound right to me? I see all the files in place with the right names. Perhaps an index not updated on their end? Argh!

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