Upcoming 405 Closure Could Trigger a Domino Effect of Gridlock
July 10th, 2011Here’s one for your It’s A Good Thing That The Terrorists Are Too Stupid To Think Of This file folder.
Via: Los Angeles Times:
Officials encourage drivers to stay home, warning of possible cascading logjams on alternative routes.
Marcella and Richard Tyler may be in the path of a traffic hurricane many fear will whip around next weekend’s shutdown of the 405 Freeway, one of the most heavily traveled interstates in the nation.
The couple’s Sherman Oaks neighborhood, near Sepulveda Boulevard, sits in an extended corridor between the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles most at risk of becoming clogged with motorists trying to skirt the 53-hour closure of the 405 for construction work.
“We believe the streets will be totally gridlocked. We don’t think we will be able to get out,” said Richard Tyler, who plans to hunker down at home during the disruption. “We even wonder how the mailman will get around.”
Whether “Carmageddon” will paralyze the Los Angeles Basin or turn into a Y2K-style bust as motorists heed warnings to stay off the road is anybody’s guess.
But under worst-case scenarios, transportation officials fear the closure could trigger a domino effect of gridlocked surface streets. Sepulveda Boulevard, which roughly parallels the 405, and other major thoroughfares on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley, Malibu and Santa Monica could become cascading logjams.
The best options are to stick to other freeways or stay home, said Bruce Gillman, a Los Angeles Department of Transportation spokesman. “If people want to go out and drive, they could be putting themselves into a very frustrating situation.”
Former CIA Director: Build a New Internet to Improve Cybersecurity
July 10th, 2011So, here are some guesses as to what voluntary will mean:
Do you want to login to your bank? You’ll need your trusted credentials for that.
Online trading account? You’ll need your trusted credentials for that.
Book an airline ticket? You’ll need your trusted credentials for that.
Sign up for Internet service? You’ll need your trusted credentials for that.
It’s voluntary. Trust us.
—White House Calls for ‘Trusted’ Internet Identities for Americans
This article makes ridiculous assumptions; first, that users of the current implementation of the Internet are somehow ‘anonymous’, and second, that the U.S. doesn’t conduct deep packet inspection of Internet traffic because it’s illegal.
On this anonymity that we supposedly enjoy, see the ancient but sill relevant: Ugly Truth About Online Anonymity.
As for the U.S. not conducting deep packet inspection, see any of the several Cryptogon posts about Mark Klein and the Narus Insight system.
Via: NextGov:
The United States may seriously want to consider creating a new Internet infrastructure to reduce the threat of cyberattacks, said Michael Hayden, President George W. Bush’s CIA director.
Several current federal officials, including U.S. Cyber Command chief Gen. Keith Alexander, also have floated the concept of a “.secure” network for critical services such as banking that would be walled off from the public Web. Unlike .com, .xxx and other new domains now proliferating the Internet, .secure would require visitors to use certified credentials for entry and would do away with users’ Fourth Amendment rights to privacy. Network operators in the financial sector, for example, would be authorized to scan account holders’ traffic content for signs of trouble. The current Internet setup would remain intact for people who prefer to stay anonymous on the Web.
Research Credit: G
U.S. Regime May Cite 14th Amendment to Keep Raising Debt Ceiling
July 10th, 2011Forget your gold coins and bars. This is comedy gold!
I had guessed that the regime would use something from one or more of the multiple emergency declarations that the U.S. is under to keep the band playing on, but going to the Constitution might make for less worrisome soundbites—assuming that it goes that far, which I doubt that it will.
Via: AFP:
The White House could resort to an little-known line in the US constitution to prevent a ruinous default if Democrats and Republicans do not agree to raise the debt ceiling by August 2, experts say.
The 143-year-old clause, written to address still-potent divisions after the bloody Civil War, has been dredged up by legal scholars as well as the US Treasury secretary to suggest how a debt debacle might be avoided.
But resorting to it could spark a constitutional crisis over just who — the Congress or the White House — controls the power of the federal purse, analysts say.
…
If the impasse is not broken, could President Barack Obama simply ignore the ceiling and borrow more money?
Some legal experts believe he could, citing the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1868.
With the country still wrestling with post-war divisions, section four of the amendment was written after politicians from the defeated south sought to block the north’s commitment to repay large debts arising from its victorious campaign.
“The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law … shall not be questioned,” it reads.
Neil Buchanan, a professor at George Washington University Law School, said that means the government’s obligation to make payments cannot be abrogated by some “arbitrary limit.”
“If Congress has enacted laws that create public obligations, then those obligations must be met,” Buchanan wrote in a column on Thursday.
Taken a step farther, some suggest, the law may make the debt ceiling itself unconstitutional.
While some have argued that the constitutional clause was specific to the situation of the time, a 1935 Supreme Court ruling established that it still applies, Buchanan said.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who has warned that a default would have “catastrophic” consequences, raised the clause during a discussion of the debt ceiling in May — though he did not say the White House should invoke it if negotiations fail.
If invoked, experts say, it could spark a nasty fight over constitutional powers between the White House and Congress.
Scariest Jobs Chart Ever
July 9th, 2011Via: Business Insider:
U.S. Average Duration of Unemployment
Even though we’re “creating jobs” each month, this would seem to point to a large, brewing, structural unemployment problem, with a significant chunk of the population permanently out of the workforce. Historically, we’ve never seen anything like this, and the fact that we only had one down-blip during the recovery is stunning.
But this isn’t the only horrible new chart this month.
We’ve compiled several more that will ruin your weekend.
HULC Robotic Exoskeleton Undergoing Biomechanical Testing with U.S. Army
July 9th, 2011Future headline?
‘Resistance Fighters Use Smartphone to Cause U.S. Troops Wearing Exoskeletons to ‘Walk’ Off Tall Cliff’
They did it for the lulz.
Via: Gizmag:
Following lab evaluation tests, Lockheed Martin’s ruggedized HULC (Human Universal Load Carrier) robotic exoskeleton is now undergoing biomechanical testing at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center in Natick, Massachusetts. The biomechanical testing will assess the effectiveness of the HULC in improving the endurance and reducing the risk of injury to soldiers by comparing the performance of soldiers carrying identical loads, both with and without the device.
The testing will measure changes in energy expended by users to assess how quickly individuals acclimatize to the system and whether there is a reduction in metabolic cost. By measuring oxygen consumption per total unit of mass, the tests will determine if there is any improvement in metabolic efficiency with subjects placed under identical load, speed, grade and duration conditions.
The HULC being tested is an un-tethered, battery-powered, hydraulic-actuated anthropomorphic exoskeleton designed to give the wearer the ability to carry loads of up to 200 lb (90.7 kg) for up to 12.4 miles (20 km) on a single battery charge over all manner of terrain. Controlled by an onboard micro-computer that ensures the exoskeleton moves in concert with the operator, the unit’s design allows for deep squats, crawls and upper-body lifting with minimal human exertion.
U.S. Official Says Pre-Infected Computer Hardware and Software Entering Country
July 9th, 2011Yeah, but that shit from China is cheap, CHEAP! Bargains!
Via: MSNBC:
Confirming years of warnings from government and private security experts, a top Homeland Security official has acknowledged that computer hardware and software is already being imported to the United States preloaded with spyware and security-sabotaging components.
Research Credit: m
Why Do The Police Have Tanks?
July 9th, 2011Via: AlterNet:
How did we allow our law enforcement apparatus to descend into militaristic chaos? Traditionally, the role of civilian police has been to maintain the peace and safety of the community while upholding the civil liberties of residents in their respective jurisdiction. In stark contrast, the military soldier is an agent of war, trained to kill the enemy.
Clearly, the mission of the police officer is incompatible with that of a soldier, so why is it that local police departments are looking more and more like paramilitary units in a combat zone? The line between military and civilian law enforcement has been drawn for good reason, but following the drug war and more recently, the war on terror, that line is inconspicuously eroding, a trend that appears to be worsening by the decade.
New Legislation: Voluntary Automatic Wage Deductions to Pay Down National Debt
July 9th, 2011Oh sure.
Via: Business Insider:
HR 2411 states that every worker in America should be able to voluntarily have a portion of his/her wages automatically withheld and sent directly to the Treasury Department for the purposes of paying down the federal debt.
“Every employer making payment of wages shall deduct and withhold upon such wages any amounts so elected, and shall pay such amounts over to the Secretary of the Treasury…”
That’s right. Uncle Sam is so broke that he wants to give all the good little Americans out there the opportunity to contribute an even greater portion of their paychecks to finance government largess.
Woman Faces 93 Days in Jail for Planting Vegetables in Her Front Yard
July 8th, 2011Via: Oak Park Hates Veggies:
our attorney spoke to the prosecutor today. (for the record, my crush on him is totally finished after today.)
his position: they are going to take this all the way.
officially, this means i am facing 93 days in jail if they win.
no joke.
Short Version: The Agitator
FBI Can’t Find Oklahoma City Bombing Video Tapes
July 8th, 2011Via: AP:
The FBI has not found videotapes from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that are being sought by a Utah lawyer and do not believe another records search is reasonable or will uncover the information, the agency has told a federal judge.
FBI officials are “unaware of the existence or likely location of additional tapes” that would fulfill the Freedom of Information Act request filed by Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue, agency attorneys said in court papers filed last week.
Trentadue sued the FBI and the CIA in 2008 to get the videos and contended the FBI’s efforts to locate the information have been inadequate. He is looking for surveillance tapes taken the morning of the bombing from exterior cameras on the Murrah building and dashboard camera video from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol’s arrest of Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh was convicted of and executed for the bombing.
Trentadue asserts that the videos exist and will expose that others were involved in the domestic terrorist attack that killed 168 people.
But attorneys for the agency said the electronic databases have not turned up the records, nor have manual searches of FBI crime labs, evidence centers or a warehouse in Oklahoma City. A further search of a records cache totaling an estimated 450,000 documents — from just the first 14 days of the investigation — in the warehouse would be “unreasonably burdensome” and could take a single staff person more than 18 months to conduct, court papers said.
The conclusions were included in a court-ordered explanation of the FBI’s response to the records request. U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups had ordered the agency to provide a detailed explanation of its records search last month.
The judge will consider the response in deciding whether the FBI complied with federal information laws in Trentadue’s case. It was not clear when the judge might rule.
