Monthly Archives: December 2007

BREAKING: DODD WINS (for now)

I have it on excellent authority that Senator Reid has put off the FISA immunity bill until the New Year.

Congratulations (for now) to Senator Dodd, and to Russ Feingold and the many Senators who made it clear they were going to assist him in his filibuster.

Update: More at Crooks and Liars.

Posted in Civil Liberties | Comments Off on BREAKING: DODD WINS (for now)

The Suddenly Vanishing Palmetto

As a result of some rustication with a local journalist who threatened to out one of the authors, Stuck on the Palmetto, one of the very best, perhaps the bigsotp2.jpgbest, of the local blogs is gone. It's not just closing shop, it seems to have taken its archive with it.

I'll miss it. Please guys, can't you at least leave the archive up? Local historians will want this some day.

(And if you ever want to guest post anonymously or otherwise, let me know…)

Posted in Blogs | 6 Comments

Chris Dodd’s Filibuster for the Constitution

friends-and-family.jpg
Crooks and Liars » Dodd To Filibuster FISA Bill.

It's pretty sad that the nominally Democratic Senate leadership has

  • Refused to recognize Dodd's “hold” on the FISA bill with full retroactive blanket amnesty for telecom companies that we now know abetted illegal spying on US citizens starting before 911.
  • Scheduled the vote just before the Iowa caucuses to make it harder for candidates to take part, and shortly before the recess — creating pressure to vote.

I would have hoped that some other Senators would share Dodd's conviction that this issue is worth going to the mat on — one Senator can't keep up a filibuster forever. Three can. Where are the others on this issue?

Thank you Senator Dodd for picking this issue and taking it seriously. (This is Dodd's first filibuster in a 27-year career).

Posted in Civil Liberties | 1 Comment

More Weird Ron Paul Videos

Ron Paul videos really are different. This one, Ron Paul Girl – Register Now, was apparently produced a couple of months ago, but it really is one of the odder videos of the year. And there's many more by the “Ron Paul Girl”.

Posted in Politics: US: 2008 Elections | 2 Comments

Dolphins Win a Game

Dolpnhins win a game. Will wonders never cease…..

Posted in Miami | Comments Off on Dolphins Win a Game

UK Prepares to Enforce Crypto Export Control Against Academics

Commonly, the UK is the place where US anti-crypto policies get a dry run.

So pay attention to Ross Anderson's UK Crypto Export Duplicity:

Officials promptly did an end-run around this by making regulations to pass into UK law an EU regulation controlling the export of dual-use intangibles (reg 1334/2000), thus in effect defeating the will of parliament with a classic piece of policy laundering. We argued repeatedly at the time that the introduction of such regulations would criminalise many academics – for example if I put a remark on our security mailing list about cryptanalysis and it goes to George at Microsoft via Redmond – and also criminalise many software developers, who use algorithms such as AES much like duct tape. A government peer told me, “Look, dear boy, you can never get laws to fit the boundaries exactly – just trust us and keep proper records.” Officials said that they had no plans whatsoever to use export control laws against academics.

Earlier this year I was invited to a meeting at DTI along with folks from the Royal Society and UUK. The officials gleefully announced that they'd realised that academics weren't using the export control procedures and asked our opinion about how we could help them `raise awareness' and `market' their services. I reminded them that they'd promised not to. They denied this to my face. They also claimed that it had always been illegal to export intangibles and that the Act had made no difference. I reminded them that until the Export Control Act was passed they had no sanctions available against someone who exported crypto electronically, as the Export of Goods (Control) Order on which they'd previously relied applied only to physical goods. In fact the whole Act was justified to parliament by this arguement. They denied this to my face – even though I'd sat through the debate in the Lords, in the opposition experts' box.

Posted in Cryptography | Comments Off on UK Prepares to Enforce Crypto Export Control Against Academics