Slashdot Mirror
Funding for TIA All But Dead
Shackleford writes "Wired has an article saying that the Terrorism Information Awareness program, which would troll Americans' personal records to find terrorists before they strike, may soon face the same fate Congress meted out to John Ashcroft in his attempt to create a corps of volunteer domestic spies: death by legislation. The Senate's $368 billion version of the 2004 defense appropriations bill, released from committee to the full Senate on Wednesday, contains a provision that would deny all funds to, and thus would effectively kill, the Terrorism Information Awareness program, formerly known as Total Information Awareness. TIA's projected budget for 2004 is $169 million."
It looks like the terrorists won, all because a few million Americans didn't want some new shadowy government agency perusing their most confidential records. How un-American.
To monitor posts on /. for a small portion (1-2%) of that $368 billion
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Hmmm...maybe the Senators were all nervous that a lot of them would be exposed for their own personal "un-American" activities. Ahha! I figured it out!!
Why is there a black car in front of my house...
Posting as directed.
the Terrorism Information Awareness program, which would troll Americans' personal records
(this government has been rated -1, Troll)__________
[Big Brick Wall]
Let's propose some new names!
Totalitarian Information Awareness!
Who can beat that?
It will be funded under plan B. The one where they remember to put the clause, "It's for the children."
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
How about Thanks In Advance....for removing all your civil liberties. See, they don't even need to change the letters.
I'm not drunk, I just have a speech impediment. And a stomach virus. And an inner ear infection.
a better choice of words than "troll" would be "attempt to data mine". From "troll" I get a picture of the government anonymously inflaming me by mocking my spending habits.
"And this is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman." "Hello." "Good boy."
insert into activity_tracking_table
(party_flag, date, nick)
values
(true, '7-14-2003', 'Schezar');
They are watching you.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
"Doesn't mean the government can't spy on them, it simply means they can't spy on them openly. Nothing has changed, TIA will continue. I'm living happily in Canada, thank God."
I agree 100%. Down here in America, individuals have to pay good, hard money to treat mental illnesses like paranoia. At least Canada has those glorious socialized medicine programs.
"Wired has an article saying that the Terrorism Information Awareness program, which would troll Americans' personal records to find terrorists before they strike, may soon face the same fate Congress meted out to John Ashcroft in his attempt to create a corps of volunteer domestic spies:" Im pretty sure the end of this reads Moderation, since they even say they are trolling.
Absolutely nothing. Why do you think he was free to be appointed to the position in the first place? We (the citizens of Missouri) elected a dead man, rather than give Ashcroft another term in the Senate.
.... but first I must go dance on it's grave.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
TIA announced the 169 million dollar budget will pay for exactly one laptop and a year of minimum wage pay to an employee who will search for keywords on google.
"HA-HA!"
But has anyone considered selling Linux to those guys? Considering that most of the "information mining" they will be doing could be done more efficiently and faster by automating it, consider:
Cheap, commodity x86 Beowulf clusters (see google)
Free OS (consider a giant community to provide your organization with bug-fixes for your main OS and tools)
OpenSource tools and OS (easier to modify for your own nefarious deeds)
etc
From my shoes, 169 million would buy one hell of a beowulf cluster, several admins, and a nice group of software developers to write and modify the programs needed. Not to mention that they could earmark parts of that money to fund grants for academically interesting projects that could help further the technology used by the TIA. Hell, Be, Inc survived on the equivalent of 50 million bucks for several years and they managed to crank out a really nice OS.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
"Everyone thought the TIA was just another Big Brother wetdream, until the machines came. TIA became self-aware on July 27th, 2006. Within one hour, every American had a terrible credit rating and 16 orders of penis enlargment pills on the way to their homes. Panic ensued. The next day, utilzing the power of that spyware program in Kazaa, TIA appropriated millions of computer do to one thing: hack the U.S. millitary. Within 48 hours, TIA changed its name to SkyNet after trolling on the imdb for a more suitable name. I immediately logged onto slashdot and told everyone what I knew. But only the trolls were left. Then I realized I came to slashdot not to warn people, but to survive."
>Totalitarian Information Awareness!
TIA: TIA: It Ain't Total Information Awareness!
(Under the Senate bill, would that make funding illegal, mandatory, or both?)
For a moment, I thought it said "...John Ashcroft in his attempt to create a corps of volunteer zombie spies..."
It must have been those subsersive European mind-control rays creeping into my head. Better get more aluminum foil.
Then it doesn't come from tax dollars, and I don't care.
Well no, it does come from tax dollars. Do you think that congress takes the time to see how the money is actually spent after it allocates it? Does congress know that Ashcroft's office isn't paying out "salary" to employees it doesn't actually have? I wouldn't be suprised if after congress "kills" TIA by not funding it, that Ashcroft's office suddenly finds itself with a few new employees, like "Thomas I. Anglemeyer" and "Theresa I. Allman". I'm sure they're even better at making up fake names than I am. And if they can't make up enough names, they'll suddenly need to order new "$500" toilet seats and hammers.
The fact is, if you're a conspiracy nut, nothing the government will do will convince you that TIA is gone. If you're not a conspiracy nut, why are you reading this, since to you, TIA was never a problem in the first place?
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.