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Obama Stimulus Pours Millions Into Cyber Security
nandemoari writes "As his administration continues to work on a stimulus plan that can save America's economy, Obama's latest course of action will see millions of dollars being allocated to heighten cyber security. The move will assist government officials in preventing future attacks on the United States.
The President recently addressed his 2010 budget, outlining funding plans that will grant the Department of Homeland Security $355 million to secure the nation's most essential computer systems.
The money will be spent on both government and private groups, with much of the funding going to the National Cyber Security Division and the Comprehensive National Cyber Security Initiative programs."
"The money will be spent on both government and private groups, with much of the funding going to the National Cyber Security Division and the Comprehensive National Cyber Security Initiative programs."
In other words, millions of your tax dollars will be spent paying glorified security guards to sit on P2p networks all day looking for copyright infringers and kiddy porn. As if the FBI needed any competition. What, did you think they were actually saving America from terrorists?
...announces the Hope'N'Change Operating System. "Only 30% chance of crashing!"
The Army reading list
Consider that C is shrinking, so in order to balance Y, G must be increased. However, one side effect of G is that such spending becomes a longterm part of the equation. However, if we consider the G to be at least in part I in this case, we can see that there will be positive feedback due to the return on I.
I'd even go so far as to say that the entire stimulus is a massive increase in I masquerading as an increase in G. If this is true, then we may be out of the woods in just a few years.
Gaius Baltar is a Java programmer.
Aside from the obvious benefit of security (see the earlier story re: idiots sharing blueprints on p2p), this will also help stimulate the economy.
I'm no huge fan of Obama, especially with the RIAA lawyers and the wiretapping thing, but spending money is the right idea here. The government is the only entity who can spend money here, so they need to spend it. That's Keynesian economic theory, and it's probably the best theory we have (at least, it's been tested).
The idea is: save money when the market's good, like Clinton managed. Then spend it when the market's bad.
The idea is, any spending is good. Including that grass at the Capitol. And spending it on us nerds helps the tech. industry across the board.
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
How about stimulating jobs that actually produce something that others might want? Oh wait, we don't do that anymore so the best we can do is deficit spend and divy out the money to a bunch of service industries. Might as well just allocate $500 million for the waitresses and valets parking stimulus.
I'm curious to know what critical cyber security projects or activities are "shovel ready" and awaiting funding...
My God, what were we all thinking!
We could have had all this FREE STUFF years ago!
HERE'S TO HOPE AND CHANGE!!!!!
Obama's campaign was approached in the fall of 2008 by the NSA, to let him and Axelrod know that either the Chinese or the Russians hacked his campaign systems.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5105027.ece
So, he knows what he's up against. If you run any sort of port knocker or ssh logging at a target IP range, you know that near round the clock brute forcing is going on by Chinese networks. They now are distributing the problem into botnets to prevent being blackholed, but they continue at it.
Obama has Janet Napolitano to run this group. They will work with US-CERT, but their mandate should be defense, not offense. They could start by approaching the US Tier-1 providers and saying, in essence, we want to use tools from companies like Arbor Networks and others that track botnets to isolate better signatures and reject them at the national perimeter, sort of an IDP at the edge of major networks.
The NSA probably has access to all domestic US websites encryption keys, at least the ones that come from Verisign. So, inspect all encrypted traffic headed back to Chinese networks, on any port. If you can't decrypt it, consider it hostile. Shunt it.
I may get modded down as flamebait, probably by Chinese slashdot readers - but the fact is, we are at war with the Chinese.
No-one's mentioned the Chinese governments vast expenditure on active (read - aggressive) cybersecurity - is it not PC anymore to say this?
I'm in London UK & all for your US nerds defending our cyber frontiers 'cos we certainly can't! BO rocks!
Nico M, London, GB.
I am a Database guru. Yes, I know myself and have worked on countless DB systems mostly on the west coast.
Question is: While I know I have a shot at this do I have a chance to be considered for one of these cyber security jobs? I would not mind even if I am on the not so fancy team.
I am kind of tired of the same-old, same-old routine.
"Router to nowhere" jokes? or should that be "Layer 3 switch to nowhere" I can't decide, but in view of the Psion news, we should remember that "bridge to nowhere" has already been taken.
BTW: Anyone know where to _BUY_ a Psion Netbook?
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
to Google? I mean, I see why keeping everyone's endless amount of data that Google has collected is important and how it makes it the nation's most important database, but shouldn't this money be going to improving the cybersecurity of the government?
This is just another example of government handouts to big business! EVIL!
Nothing against the Chinese, but the constant barrage of bots flinging themselves against my firewall needs to stop! In our case, it's more likely script kiddies on a rr.com connection, but nevertheless, better use packet inspection at the Tier-1 level would help here too.
As an AC no one will ever see this comment, but I have to say it anyway.
The summary: "As his administration continues to work on an stimulus plan that can save America's economy.." makes it sound as if this is an accepted postulate, but nothing could be further from the truth. Many economists (and others) have serious doubts that such a stimulus package can "save" anything. And while economics is anything but intuitive, one does wonder how borrowing a trillion or so dollars -- at interest -- will work towards putting the economy "back on track."
The money will go to $5.00/hr bidders on RentACoder. There's no incentive in this bill to keep the money in the US
For example: "stimulus plan that can save America's economy"
"can"? That remains to be seen, and many say it will not. Try being less of a cheerleader and tell the truth. "may save" is a better selection, and much closer to the truth, given several hundred prominent economists (and the CBO) have said this "stimulus" may end up hurting the economy due to the wasteful "political repayment" spending and huge debt load it contains.
Per the CBO a recovery, albeit slow, is predicted for later this year even were no "stimulus" package passed.
Go read up on the Nixon-Ford-Carter economy that used similar big-government Keynesian methods to stimulate the economy, and ended up producing "stagflation", high interest rates, high unemployment and high inflation (the latter two both in double digits).
Then go read Hazlitt and Hayek for why this Keynesian stuff doesn't work as intended.
In engineering terms, most learned this lesson in statics and dynamics class: You cannot push a rope.
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Since when did the truth become Flamebait? Pussies.
That's not "cyber"security at all! Cybersecurity would be pushing for signed DNS architecture, IPv6, and a DDoS mitigation infrastructure. Sonar and radar systems are physical security, not cyber security.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Why DHS? Talk about throwing money into a trash disposal.
Why not NSA/CSS? They are already tasked with this and have budget. Plus they have produced viable useful solutions, SE-Linux for example. And they have competence, unlike the DHS, who seem more concerned with political correctness than securing the nation and the borders.
This smells of political back-scratching, not a solution to a problem.
Secondly how is this supposed to stimulate demand in the economy? Remember, that was the purpose of the huge debt load we just got saddled with.
Watch for crony-contracts, and the money to not produce anything other than rich politically connected friends.
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That's enough for TENS of jobs, or even twice that if they invest in tech school graduates instead of so-called 'experts'!
Wa wa wee wa!!
Still not dead.
Bush did this to the Coast Guard. He gave DHS the money, shorted their budget, and then DHS made them an offer they can't refuse. I'll be interested to see if the NSA gets fully funded.
If not, DHS will task the NSA, eventually. That's where all the brains are. If that's what's happening, this is Big Brother coming, fellas. Obama's starting to make me nervous, by supporting this monocultured, centralized structure. I want DHS disbanded and dismantled.
But then again, Tolkien warned us what power does. As Franklin said, "I have given you a Republic if you can keep it." We will have the government we want if we don't "keep it."
Politics matters.
I don't see why anybody with a network connection isn't running some sort of intrusion detection/prevention system whether it be hosted based or network based....this should especially include the government's systems as well. Snort is now included in quite a few of the specialized security distros. In fact I know of at least two distros that are specifically designed for IDS/IPS only and can be up and monitoring traffic in less than 30 minutes.
EasyIDS: http://sourceforge.net/projects/easyids/
Strataguard from Stillsecure: http://www.stillsecure.com/strataguard/
*Disclaimer: Yes I am a developer for EasyIDS but it doesn't change the fact that people should still have an IDS/IPS in place.
It should be a fine production.
Hopenchange can overcome reality.
So STFU and start paying your great-great-great grandkids taxes!
But then again, Tolkien warned us what power does.
Enlighten us. How did Tolkien warn us about power?
I think a fitting quote, from John Dalberg, Baron of Acton: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it."
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
That'll be a _really_ secure version of SELinux.
As with yesterday's story we now begin to see the reality of the 'stimulus bill' - endless pork, pandering to special interests, and earmarks.
This smells of political back-scratching, not a solution to a problem.
That smell...that's the smell of shit. And napalm burning. Oh dear...is our country on fire? I say...we better go smother it with these exceedingly flammable dollars!
so obama did in 30 days what it took dubya three years to do and we're still hearing more about what michelle is wearing on any particular day than where the stimulus money is going. it's going to be a fun next 10 years or more...
Took W a little more than 3 years to blow $2x10^12. He got started with eroding civil liberties about a year in, though.
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
...but does it run on Linux?
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
The economy that is. Or rather, should it be saved? If it means we still have ridiculous copyright and patent laws on the books? Government granted monopoly of what should be public infrastructure (cable/data/phone lines)? No real barrier for lobbyists to buy off our politicians?
Our economy woes are entirely thanks to big business and lazy, greedy politicians. What exactly do they want to "save"? They legislated and lobbied their way into a system that benefited them at the expense of true progress and the average Joe the Plumber.
No sig for you!!
Huge debt we "just got saddled with"? You haven't been paying attention much for oh, say the last 30 years.
No sig for you!!
This is not a democracy. It is a republic. You should learn the difference before you end up with neither.
"Written on the pages is the answer to the never ending story..."
Obama Stimulus Pours Millions Into Cyber Sexurity
Awww. False dichotomy win?
Palin/Romney 2012! I'll take leaders who believe that the earth is 6,000 years old for $200, Alex.
The sad thing is, you probably really believe what you just posted is actually true.
Because it sure isn't like news media to deliberately paint an inaccurate picture of any candidate, now is it?
Or are you too brain-addled to remember "fake-but-accurate"?
And FWIW, I'd rather have someone in charge who believes wrongly about irrelevant things like how old the Earth is than some pandering twit who things he can tax and spend his way out of a recession despite all evidence to the contrary.
Your bigotry does not disguise the fact that you cannot explain the difference between a republic and democracy. Actually I think Obama is a good thing for America. Each generation needs to learn how vacuous his ideals are. Too many today were not around while Carter was president so the lessons need to be learned again. So let's get this out of our system so we can get back to the idea that growth and prosperity are driven by PEOPLE pursuing "self interest rightly understood." (Dazzle me copponex by telling me where that quote is from.)
"Written on the pages is the answer to the never ending story..."
I was at first really upset by all the brain-dead people out there considering themselves so enlightened by voting for this guy because he was "the intelligent choice." It's amazing how easily manipulated by corporate interests these people were.
Think about it: Who, in his first month, has quadrupled the national deficit and keeps pushing for more -- most of which is being funneled to rich Liberals on Wall Street. (I work there, and believe me, most of New York -- Wall Street included -- are liberal Democrats and socialists. Don't believe me? Just try to hold a conversation with these people and espouse fiscal conservative ideals. Traders might be more libertarian, but most of the rest are socialist.) In fact, Wall Street was one of the biggest donors to Obama's inauguration.
I swear, liberals are some of the worst critical thinkers on the planet. Just gobble it up.
Look, everyone is saying "He's only been there a month - can't turn it around that fast - etc, etc." but the fact is that he's not only not slowing the spiral, he's making it worse by spending like a drunken sailor, selling ill-conceived Congressional spending bills, nominating corrupt cabinet officials and the "genius" Geithner who can't seem to come up with a plan that makes any sense at all.
"I know that every word that man just said is true, because it's EXACTLY what I wanted to hear." -- Space Ghost
Took W a little more than 3 years to blow $2x10^12.
How much of that raised the national debt as Obama's plan is sure to do? Where are all the howls of corporate welfare like we heard for dubya? Where's the consistency?
Bunch of little Obama faggots. We got another bunch of little faggot goose steppers under a different flag but the same mentality. Think you're different, think you're better but you're not.
Regurgitation is not intelligence. Knowing the facts does help. Anyone can repeat the definitions of a Republic and a Democracy. What's interesting is that you said, "we can get back to the idea that growth and prosperity are driven by PEOPLE pursuing 'self interest rightly understood.'" You're absolutely right, but that's a democratic ideal, not a republican one in the classical sense. Remember, people advocated a republic instead of a democracy because they thought slaves, women, and non-land owners were too stupid and not invested enough to be allowed to vote.
Furthermore, I looked up the quote. Did you read the rest of that paragraph?
"The Americans, on the other hand, are fond of explaining almost all the actions of their lives by the principle of self-interest rightly understood; they show with complacency how an enlightened regard for themselves constantly prompts them to assist one another and inclines them willingly to sacrifice a portion of their time and property to the welfare of the state." --Alex de Tocqueville
How did you end up believing the exact opposite of what that quote actually meant? I actually already know. Through propaganda, the same talking heads have convinced people that Adam Smith was against government regulation of markets, which is exactly the opposite of what he wrote. They have convinced low income midwesterners that cutting the taxes for the rich will somehow result in a better economy for them. They have even convinced people that the separation of church and state was invented to protect the church, despite the backdrop of hundreds of years of religious wars waged by nations against each other.
The alliance between the evangelical voting bloc and the party of business is falling apart. It's too embarrassing for any critically thinking Republican to be associated with Sarah Palin. That's why the talking heads went nuts when it was pointed out, very plainly, that she was simply too ignorant to be the vice president. Evangelicals are learning that they have been hoodwinked for the past thirty years. They were needed for their vote and their money, but not their intellectual contributions.
As far as your hatred of Carter, that's a pretty standard parroting. I'd be interested if you could name any specific policies that you believe led to the economic conditions of that era.
Obama's campaign was approached in the fall of 2008 by the NSA, to let him and Axelrod know that either the Chinese or the Russians hacked his campaign systems.
I'm not affiliated with any such group, but I did drop by campaign offices in the early part of the summer. I commented to three very separate people on the weaknesses I saw and that the systems would get cracked and approximately when (+/- 1 week). I contacted two of them after the breaches made the news. So far not even one has responded to my finely worded Told You So, accompanied by links to the news articles.
Just to pick a random vulnerability, the staffers did not appear to have Samba or even WebDAV over TLS. Instead it appears that documents were sent around, unencrypted via e-mail as attachments. That works fine if you're wanting to make archiving virtually impossible, waste storage like its going out of style, and ensure that each and every document has a fair chance of being intercepted.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
This Stimulus plan is clearly not enough. In my opinion there is only one way to solve the current economic crisis. Each person in the United States should receive one vigintillion dollars each day for as long as the current President is in office. Because the President has already held this esteemed office for several weeks, the first payment will be for 42 vigintillion dollars to include a retroactive payment for the first 41 days, plus 24.99% interest on the first 41 vigintillion dollars, compounded constantly and accruing from 12:00:01 AM on each of the days, except the first day, when the interest accrues from noon Washington, D.C., time. This expanded and improved Stimulus plan will ensure prosperity and equality for all.
I think it's hilarious that you can be modded Insightful for pedantry over the word "can" versus the word "may". It's as if you've pointed out some great flaw in Obama's plan that has profound implications.
I can understand the grammatical improvement in your suggested change, but calling it "cheerleading" is just anti-Obama derangement.
One of the things that I hope this administration does is give money to CERT (or some other appropriate agency) to provide a free anti-virus product for everybody.
Granted, it would have to be open-source so that we'd know that the gov't wasn't using it to snoop on us. But, unlike a typical open-source project, the gov't would pay a team to continually update the virus definitions and the source code.
Now, I realize that there already are free anti-virus products out there, and some of them score very well on av-comparatives. But they often have nag-screens prompting you to buy the premium verion and they're also not publicized very well, so only techie people like my co-workers know about them and use them. If one were provided by the gov't, it could eventually universally understood to be a gov't service as much as, say, free tax forms at the post-office.
Now, why should the gov't bother with this? Consider the amount of lost productivity due to virus infections? Imagine if that same amount of productivity were lost due to a biological virus. Imagine how much attention that would get from the Center for Disease Control. Or, if there was a group of people causing enough vandalism to businesses across the country to cause the same amount of lost productivity. Picture how much resources the FBI would be throwing toward stopping that.
Now, I don't know exactly how much it takes to maintain a team to provide daily virus updates, but I can't imagine it would take more than about $5 million per year (heck, that's about 50 top-notch programmers)... which is a pittance compared to the saved productivity and, of course, it would be a good PR move for whatever administration provided it, since we'd have that constant reminder of it in our system tray.
The US is (ideally) both a democracy and a republic. Democracy, rule by the people, is the strategy. Republicanism, the particular structure of our government, is a tactic. The two are mutually supporting, not mutually exclusive.
There are republics which aren't democracies, and democracies which aren't republics; the latter are generally much better places to live than the former. Hint: any country which has the words "Democratic Republic" in its name is lying with the first word, but usually not the second.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Any other cause. The ultimate cause may be a revolution or war, but the fundamentals of these are very often national debt.
One of the very repeatable relationships in economics is the inverse relationship between national growth rate and "total government burden", the sum of taxes and regulations. 100s of studies have confirmed this: get gov out of the way, the nation prospers. Let it start growing, the economy slows, eventually dies.
The US is way over the edge: we haven't generated enough jobs for 20 years, have hidden the problem with rising disability payments and early retirements.
Anyone can repeat the definitions of a Republic and a Democracy. Remember, people advocated a republic instead of a democracy because they thought slaves, women, and non-land owners were too stupid and not invested enough to be allowed to vote.
I see you have been properly indoctrinated by one of the progressive schools. Your argument makes no sense with regards to the form of government, since they *still* could have formed a democracy, just set land-owning white men as the only voters. A Republic means that *every person* is sovereign. It means that the plurality, or the collective, or whatever you call it *cannot* impose its will on individuals, because individuals are sovereign, and their rights are *inherent*, not granted by the state, as you would like it to be.
Furthermore, I looked up the quote. Did you read the rest of that paragraph?
"The Americans, on the other hand, are fond of explaining almost all the actions of their lives by the principle of self-interest rightly understood; they show with complacency how an enlightened regard for themselves constantly prompts them to assist one another and inclines them willingly to sacrifice a portion of their time and property to the welfare of the state." --Alex de Tocqueville
How did you end up believing the exact opposite of what that quote actually meant?
You have missed an important part of the quote: the "willingly to sacrifice a portion of their time and property" part. It's an important distinction. You seem to think that congress spending other people's money that they confiscate at gunpoint somehow as generosity or compassion. That, however, is corrupt self-interest rather than the "self-interest rightly understood" that motivates people to help their neighbor. Take a look at New Orleans today. Compare the federal programs involved in repair and renovation to the Habitat for Humanity (kudos to Carter for his involvement there, BTW) and other private programs. Which ones are working?
Just how did you get such a twisted viewpoint of reality?
I actually already know. Through propaganda,
Ah, of course. Your state-run education and the drooling-over-socialism mainstream media.
They have convinced low income midwesterners that cutting the taxes for the rich will somehow result in a better economy for them.
Sigh. You're like a parrot. It's really about what drives the economy. Is it government confiscating money from private citizens to spend it on a $40 billion program that benefits a few, or is it people deciding for themselves how to invest their money? History is pretty clear that government is wasteful, corrupting, fraught with inefficiency, and produces absolutely $0 in new wealth.
As far as your hatred of Carter, that's a pretty standard parroting. I'd be interested if you could name any specific policies that you believe led to the economic conditions of that era.
First, presidents don't really have a lot of impact on the economy. They can either interfere (FDR) or get out of the way (Reagan). This can have some impact, but none have had the kind of impact that FDR's ruinous policies did.
Still, Carter's policies were horrible:
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
I'll take "Alexis De Tocqueville" for $ 600, Alex.
"Democracy In America"
Chapter 8: "How The Americans Combat Individualism By The Principle Of Self-Interest Rightly Understood"
"The principle of self-interest rightly understood produces no great acts of self-sacrifice, but it suggests daily small acts of self-denial. By itself it cannot suffice to make a man virtuous; but it disciplines a number of persons in habits of regularity, temperance, moderation, foresight, self-command; and if it does not lead men straight to virtue by the will, it gradually draws them in that direction by their habits. If the principle of interest rightly understood were to sway the whole moral world, extraordinary virtues would doubtless be more rare; but I think that gross depravity would then also be less common. The principle of interest rightly understood perhaps prevents men from rising far above the level of mankind, but a great number of other men, who were falling far below it, are caught and restrained by it. Observe some few individuals, they are lowered by it; survey mankind, they are raised."
It seems De Tocqueville, while acknowledging the need for a "common morality" to guide the vast majority of the population, is also inserting a "subtle" warning that the same "common morality" will prevent some individuals from "rising far above the level of mankind".
A point somewhat related to Andrew Ryan's ideal (dazzle me with the source of this one, no Googling please): "A city where the artist would not fear the censor. Where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality. Where the great would not be constrained by the small. And with the sweat of your brow, {this city} can become your city as well."
Hm, I would have thought one Jobs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs) was enough...
Congress just bumped it up by almost double, in one month, what it took Bush 8 years to do, which was bad enough.
And they did fiscally what Bush and Congress did with the Patriot Act - created a crisis atmosphere and rammed a bill through without proper scrutiny.
Both were wrong.
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Fyi - I said "debt load" not debt - you severely misquoted me, There is a difference. The former is what was added (the debt load contained in the spending bill), the latter is the sum total.
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I work as an expert witness in computer child porn cases.
The current definition is pretty broad--and subject to subjective interpretation by the court to a great extent.
A major problem is that the link between child porn and paedophilia's is not causative--paedophiles usually become child porn consumers--the reverse is much less common.
So stopping child porn does nothing to stop pedophiles.
Another problem is that no judge, juror, or DA can be seen as as "being soft" on child porn.
Thus an accusation is often enough for a conviction. Even if it doesn't convict, the accusation can ruin your life.
If you examine the recent high-profile child prostitution cases, the number of adults involved in these cases is often close to 20 times the number of children.
Like any other crime, the only true method of prevention is to educated or condition people not to accept it.
in the 1980's there was a lot of concern about an "increase" in child abuse. This was not an increase in abuse, it was an increase in reporting. a hundred years ago, no one would have stopped you from disciplining your child however you did it--unless you killed them it was "family matters."
Our society decided that such was not a good idea and it became a "bad thing."
Currently the same exact phenomena is taking place regarding workplace sexual harassment. People no longer put up with it.
The problem is that the definition of "sexual harassment" boils down to "you think you were sexually harassed, you were."
None of which has anything to do with the article.
As his administration continues to work on a stimulus plan that can save America's economy....
The Obama administration is not working on ANY plan that can save America's economy.
In times of universal deceit, telling the truth gets you modded -1 Troll
You forgot: changed the banking rules that to allow direct investment in real estate which created a bubble on property values that played a big role in the S&A collapses as well as the farms being forced to sell out.
I think that's important because it had one of the largest impacts and effected the most people's lives. It drove property values out of the reach of most people while the economy was collapsing around them. It was perhaps worse then it is today- at least now the banks are attempting to sell the property at a loss instead of sitting on them while closing down and locking them into legal limbo in attempts to secure assets in their bankruptcy.
I see. A whole website set up to shout "liberals are commies" gets a +5, Interesting, and a reply pointing that out gets a -1, Flamebait.
So much for the theory that Slashdot is a haven for said commie liberals, huh?
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt