"How lucky for Chase Manhattan Bank. Below from a new batch of cables released by Wikileaks: A 1975 cable on Paul Volcker travelling to Kuwait as an official of Chase Manhattan Bank, who the State Department reports will be viewed by the Kuwaiti government as a senior Federal Reserve official." Continue reading →
"Nearly $100,000 in direct contributions to Maryland lawmakers from speed camera companies paid off with the state dropping a proposed reform bill. Maryland's General Assembly adjourned for the year on Monday with balloons and confetti showering delegates. Governor Martin O'Malley (D) made the rounds, congratulating lawmakers on for a job he considered well done. Photo enforcement firms also ended the day with a celebration after their investment paid off with the defeat of all legislation that might have imposed limits or quality checks on their ticketing operations." Continue reading →
"The second-ranking official at the Department of Homeland Security said she will resign shortly, ending four years as a champion of a civilian-controlled Internet. In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Jane Holl Lute, the sole deputy secretary at Homeland Security, said on Monday she would give notice this week and leave to pursue a role in international Internet affairs. Lute said that she was leaving with the department on a strong footing in Internet matters, with its central role cemented by an executive order on cybersecurity issued by President Barack Obama in February." Continue reading →
"The lawmakers said they would insert a more narrow definition of national security in the bill. The amendments would also seek to clarify that Internet firms could only use data about threats for cybersecurity purposes, not for marketing or other commercial uses, and would give more oversight to privacy officers at federal agencies. Greg Nojeim of the Center for Democracy and Technology said the changes failed to address one key concern — that information could be accessed by the top-secret National Security Agency, a branch of the military." Continue reading →
"Aaron Swartz faced 13 counts under CFAA, up to 35 years in prison, for copying too many files from the online academic resource JSTOR. This threat of overwhelming state sponsored persecution has been regarded as the reason for Swartz tragic suicide January 11th, 2013. The collective outrage generated from Swartz’s story has brought activists together in an effort to gain support for legislation that would reform and clarify CFAA, referred to as Aaron’s Law. It appears that the House Judiciary Committee is not interested in Aaron’s Law’s spirit of reform and clarity, instead they prefer to see CFAA expanded and strengthened." Continue reading →
"While some call Bitcoin an 'existential threat to the state,' local governments could soon embrace the digital currency and payment system as a practical alternative to credit and debit cards. E-Gov Link, an Ohio company that helps municipalities accept payments online for parking tickets, permits, and the like, now allows its customers to take bitcoin.- Bitcoin transactions can be processed at a fraction of the cost of other payment methods because they avoid the interchange structure of the legacy card processors." Continue reading →
"In this YouTube video clip, Vice President Joe Biden states that the 'affirmative task before us now is to create a new world order' at the Export Import Bank conference in Washington on April 5, 2013. OK — David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, George H. W. Bush, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, John McCain, Barack Obama, Joe Biden ad nauseam — how do you explain away this one? Conspiracy fact or conspiracy theory?" Continue reading →
"The annual Drug & Alcohol Testing Industry Association (DATIA) conference, held in 2012 in San Antonio, Texas, looks like any other industry gathering. The 600 or so attendees sip their complimentary Starbucks coffee, munch on small plates of muffins and fresh fruit, and backslap old acquaintances as they file into a sprawling Marriott hotel conference hall. They will hear a keynote address by Robert DuPont, who served as drug policy director under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Nothing odd about any of this until you consider that the main subject of the conference is urine." Continue reading →
"Efforts to kill the cocaine trade have haphazardly and heartlessly cracked down on anyone and everyone who produces or enjoys the unadulterated leaf. A 1961 agreement called the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, still in effect around the world, orders people to stop chewing the leaves and mandates the destruction of all wild coca bushes. The Single Convention was adopted after years of negotiations led in great part by Harry J. Anslinger, who Anslinger had a strange relationship with the coca plant: spearheading its prohibition while simultaneously ensuring access to the leaf for a single, powerful consumer, The Coca-Cola Company." Continue reading →
"First Lady Michelle Obama took her campaign against childhood obesity to a new level Thursday with a $150 million program to encourage more physical activity in American schools. Let’s Move! Active Schools builds upon the Let’s Move! initiative that the mother-of-two and wife of Barack Obama unveiled three years ago during the president’s first term in the White House. Funded by a public-private partnership, Let’s Move! Active Schools aims within five years to get 50,000 schools across the United States to provide at least one hour of physical activity per day to their youngsters." Continue reading →