Politics

A message from Senator Michael Bennet

Dear Jack:
Thank you for contacting me.  I appreciate hearing from you about this important issue.
As you may know, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard A. Schmidt recently announced plans to establish a National Program Office within the Department of Commerce to coordinate federal activities needed to implement the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC).  The NSTIC is an initiative to find new and effective ways to protect the identities of Internet users and to enhance privacy protections for common online activities and transactions.
The National Program Office would operate as the federal coordinator with other agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security and the General Services Administration to implement the NSTIC.  Online service providers that opt in to the system would follow a set of guidelines to establish the security and privacy infrastructure.
A number of Coloradans have raised concerns about the uses of this system once it has been established.  The advent of the Internet has led to countless cultural and economic benefits. However, the Internet has also led to a loss of privacy unprecedented in our history. This change has been unsettling for millions of Americans, and millions more have found themselves to be the victims of identity theft.  At this point, the Department of Commerce and the White House have only provided general details about the implementation of the program.  The federal efforts will be led by the Department of Commerce, but actual implementation will be led by the private sector, specifically those service providers that choose to opt in to the program.
I certainly understand the concerns you have about this program.  I believe privacy is, and should always remain, a protected individual right in this country.  Rest assured that I will closely monitor the progress of this program as the Department of Commerce moves forward.
I value the input of fellow Coloradans in considering the wide variety of important issues and legislative initiatives that come before the Senate.  I hope you will continue to inform me of your thoughts and concerns.
For more information about my priorities as a U.S. Senator, I invite you to visit my website at http://bennet.senate.gov/.  Again, thank you for contacting me.
Sincerely,
Michael Bennet
United States Senator

My Response:

Dear Senator Bennet,

Thank you for your response to my earlier inquiry. While the NSTIC initiative may be important to protect our online privacy, it does not address the question I was bringing to your attention.

Why is the Department of Homeland Security seizing domain names without due process? It seems to me that these seizures are not only unconstitutional but anti-constitutional. I would appreciate your review of these activities.

Thank you,

Jack Heneghan

Politics

Senator: domain name seizures “alarmingly unprecedented”

1 Comment

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has 10 tough questions for the department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), all of which can be more easily summed up in a single, blunter question: what the hell are you guys doing over there?

via Senator: domain name seizures “alarmingly unprecedented”.

What the hell is immigration and customs doing seizing domain names in the first place? The Department of Homeland Security should have much higher priorities to focus on. And does anyone have a constitutional justification for this entire operation?

I did send a short note to my Representative and Senators asking about this:

Dear Congressman,
I was just reading an article on ICE seizing domain names of sites that linked to potential pirate sites, evidently without any due process.
Can you explain the legality and constitutionality of their actions.
Thank you,

Dear xxx,
I was just reading an article on ICE seizing domain names of sites that linked to potential pirate sites, evidently without any due process.
Can you explain the legality and constitutionality of their actions.
Thank you,

Geek Stuff, Politics, Preparing for the worst

Internet ‘kill switch’ bill reintroduced as Egypt remains dark

Sen. Collins said the bill would not allow the President to deactivate the Internet in whole or in part during times of political unrest or protest – just during a “cyber emergency,” according to Wired.com.

“My legislation would provide a mechanism for the government to work with the private sector in the event of a true cyber emergency,” Collins said in an e-mailed response to Wired.com last week. “It would give our nation the best tools available to swiftly respond to a significant threat.”

via Internet ‘kill switch’ bill reintroduced as Egypt remains dark.

Any bets that a time of political unrest or protest won’t be labeled “cyber emergency”?

I think it would be more appropriate to up a domain where the folks afraid of cyber-terrorists can hide and if the cyber emergency happens then they can be unplugged, leaving the rest of us bereft of their presence.

Geek Stuff, General

4G, or not 4G – that is the question

Someone asked me this weekend about 4G Wireless; Wikipedia has a good basic description. (Plus I also watched Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet this weekend (OK, it is Shakespeare’s Hamlet – as interpreted by Branagh) Excellent DVD)

ITU Requirements

This article uses 4G to refer to IMT-Advanced (International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced), as defined by ITU-R. An IMT-Advanced cellular system must fulfill the following requirements:

  • All-IP communications.
  • Peak data rates of up to approximately 100 Mbit/s for high mobility such as mobile access and up to approximately 1 Gbit/s for low mobility such as nomadic/local wireless access, according to the ITU requirements.
  • Scalable channel bandwidth, between 5 and 20 MHz, optionally up to 40 MHz.[6][6][7]
  • Peak link spectral efficiency of 15 bit/s/Hz in the downlink, and 6.75 bit/s/Hz in the uplink (meaning that 1 Gbit/s in the downlink should be possible over less than 67 MHz bandwidth)
  • System spectral efficiency of up to 3 bit/s/Hz/cell in the downlink and 2.25 bit/s/Hz/cell for indoor usage[6]

Confusion has often been caused by some mobile carriers who have launched products advertised as 4G but which are actually current so-called 3.9G technologies, and therefore do not follow the ITU-R defined principles for 4G standards.

Economics, General

Who’s foreclosing in your neighborhood?

I saw this interesting link in the NY Times

http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/how-to-find-foreclosures/?nl=your-money&emc=your-moneyema4

On my browser you have to click on “show search options” to get the drop-down menu. I wasn’t interested in finding a particular foreclosure property, just in getting an idea of the economic health of my neighborhood. We look good, but the surrounding communities have got some problems. It would be interesting to try looking a through a set of quarterly snapshots to see how the maps change over time.

General

Who’s Watching What

I was just watching Once Upon a Time in the West , a very good Sergio Leone Western. Henry Fonda, as Frank, plays an excellent psychopath. But as I was watching the commentary, some film historian said it was an oddity why Leone showed Frank meeting the widow at the ranch, then jumps to Mesa Verde where Frank meets the railroad baron then jumps to the ranch where the other characters are and then jumps  to a love scene with Frank and the widow, back at the ranch. Why the film historian thought the love scene was back at the ranch, I don’t know. I thought it was rather obvious that the love scene was taking place in Frank’s Mesa Verde camp and not back in the ranch’s bedroom, which had already been reviewed in detail.

Economics, Politics

Fair is Fair

I heard someone ask the other ” What was fair?”. They were referring to the ‘tax cuts’  and the idea of letting the high income folks move back to the pre-Bush rates while the lower income folks stayed at the Bush rates. Was this ‘Fair’?

In my view, letting higher income earners pay taxes at a higher rate commensurate with the higher income is more than fair.  One of the primary reasons these people have such a high income is because the government has built an infrastructure that provides for them. We have regulatory agencies that provide a a safe and stable commercial environment.  We have troops stationed around the world, fighting in foreign countries, trying to maintain a safe and stable political environment.  Our government manages to maintain a safe and stable personal environment for most of its citizens, allowing them to direct their energies to personal growth and achievement rather than to day-to-day survival (I said most.) This all requires an infrastructure paid for by our taxes.

Over the past few years,  the national infrastructure has become suspect. Debts and deficits have risen because no one seems to think they should pay for all this infrastructure, and so, the infrastructure is weakening.

TAANSTAAFL.

What is fair is that the folks whom benefit the most from this infrastructure pay the most for it. And it isn’t like anyone who makes more than another should  take home less than someone who makes less. Additional taxes are applied to the the monies earned over and above the threshold level. Someone making $1,000,001 pretax is still taking home more after tax than someone making $1,000,000 pretax.  Until the infrastructure is repaired, those that have reaped the benefits of the past should continue to make it right for the future.

The ones trampled by the infrastructure shouldn’t be expected to pay for it. Effectively, they can’t pay for it.  The infrastructure should provide the all of society the opportunity to grow and prosper and it doesn’t always catch everyone equally. I am sure that most people would rather make $1,000,000 a year and pay some taxes than make $10,000 a year and not have to pay taxes.

So let the ones who profit from our society pay for it.  Not only is this fair;  it is equitable.

The Thoughts and Luminations of Jack Heneghan