Actually from Kennedy onward there was a practice in the white house of makeing tape recordings or other records of important calls. The most extreme example of this was Nixon who recorded everything. So you can at least get that info, a little late of course.
Much of this information ends up in Presidential Libraries where it remains hidden for some time before being made public under the Presidential Records act.
As I noted in my post below there are free tutoring systems online. One route to the teachers may be to not focus so much on having them integrate their lesson plans immediately but to position the computers as a supplement for post-class tutoring or other factors.
I have had some experience with wiring schools. Your mileage may vary depending upon where you are and the attitude of the local administrators and school board but it might be good to get at least the principal/other teachers on your side before expanding too far.
In my one experience with this a nice grassroots effort like this, initiated by a teacher, died an ugly death when the school board stopped it. Basically they and the school district admins refused to let anything happen until they were convinced that noone could ever do anything "bad" online. Here Bad was a largely undefined quantity. Unfortunately this stoppage meant that the system that had been installed on volunteer time sat unused for fear that it might be. So far as I can tell the problem with this initiative was that they sought permission rather than forgiveness and had no demonstrated successes of students learning on the system.
Ultimately we got computer updates largely through the efforts of one students' father who, like you, just dove in and helped. He of course had to fight uphill battles with the district but thankfully was aided in that by the school as a whole.
With that in mind I'd say you should get your fiancee to wow the rest of the school particularly the principal with what has been and can be accomplished. Then if the school board comes butting in you'll at least have an ally and demonstrated cases of kids learning and not doing "bad things" with the machines.
On a more practical note you might also clue the school into freely available tutoring systems. Many educational researchers put their work online for free meaning that there are Intelligent Tutoring Systems that your fiancee's class can access online. One such repository is the LeanLab at Carnegie Mellon University: http://www.learnlab.org/
Also, as reported here radiaton has been deliberately fed to children in Massachusetts. In this case it was part of a nutritional study by Quaker Oats and MIT to be able to argue that nutrition touches more of the body. As does radiation.
At about the same time as part of Operation Plowshares the U.S. Military proposed using atomic bombs to dredge a harbor in Alaska. As is noted it was stopped over "concerns over the impact on the local population". Or rather the local native population's steadfast refusal to have atomic bombs detonated right next to their village.
Lest you think this is silly though, as noted on the Project Chariot page, when faced with the direct refusal of the population to have a bomb detonated next to their home the Atomic Energy Agency just went ahead and irradiated the place anyway without telling anyone.
Although the detonation never occurred, the site was radioactively contaminated by an experiment to estimate the effect on water sources of radioactive ejecta landing on tundra plants and subsequently washed down and carried away by rains. Material from a 1962 nuclear explosion at the Nevada Test Site was transported to the Chariot site in August 1962, used in several experiments, then buried. Thirty years later, the disposal was discovered in archival documents by a University of Alaska researcher. State officials immediately traveled to the site and found low levels of radioactivity at a depth of two feet (60 cm) in the burial mound. Outraged residents of the Inupiat village of Point Hope demanded the removal of the contaminated soil, which the government did at considerable expense.
It is worth noting, for those interested in electronic voting and vote security that Barb Simons is credited in the effort to get the ACM to set their policy on electronic voting. Just as importantly the helped to move the League of Women Voters from their pro-DRE stance on electronic voting to the new SARA stance which calls for auditability and recountability.
I found her comments on Open Source in the article quite insightful too. Not that I am against it but t isn't a security panacea.
In recent years the advice I've been given, from people who pay more attention to stretching than I, is that the warm up is important to ensure that you don't stress the muscles before they are flexible enough. It isn't about stretching them out so much as making sure that the muscles, tendons, ligaments, are warm enough for exercise without risking a tear. This is different then streatching out the muscles which should be done after the exercise when they are at their warmest.
The purpose then of post-workout stretching is to increase flexibility or prevent the reduction in flexibility that some kinds of exercise (e.g. powerlifting) bring.
This makes sense to me as stretching cold muscles can damage and weaken them because they aren't ready to stretch while failing to stretch muscles causes them to seize up.
Back when I was boring my friends with mention of the UKs plans to store all e-mails (precursors to the current black box route) one of my friends pointed out that not even the Chinese Communist party has considered doing that. They have their filters and so on but they really are one step behind the Brits when it comes to spying on their own people. And, as she readily pointed out the Chinese people would be pissed off by it. I guess the Brits are more cowed.
As I recall those who went along were paid well for their participation. So I question the use of the term "buckling" which suggests force was applied as opposed to selling their soul for 30 pieces of silver plus overtime which is what really happened.
I would point out that at least one of the systems mentioned on that page has been defeated by Andrew Appel (see here) the author of the top-linked Sequoia study.
And, ultimately, as much fun as these systems are they often ignore the far more real problem of vote observation and intimidation. This isn't an indictment of the algorithms per-se but the reason that we have a closed voting booth is that voting in the open lends itself to voter indimidation (i.e. show me you vote the right way or I'll fire/kill/pay you) which has been a real problem in the U.S. Granted this problem also exists with absentee ballots and "everyone vote absentee" methods like Oregon's Vote By Mail, but in the rush to develop auditable systems this often gets ignored.
Additionally, at least the end-to-end systems that I have viewed suffer from the problem of auditability, no means to confirm the end message with the local understanding, and a problem that the connected server can itself be compromised meaning that wired in votes can be miscounted with no means to audit them.
I'll just invoke the American Politics version of Goodwin's Law here (hereafter the Nixon-Goodwin Law) and note that this kind of thinking was what prompted Nixon to push directly or indirectly (it is never quite clear how much he knew in advance) for the Watergate break-in and it's subsequent coverup. For Nixon the idea of losing the election was too much to bear.
Now W may not be so far gone as to think he can just refuse to leave but the idea that he or overzealous supporters (of the type Nixon had) might go to great lengths to see McCain in, the man Bush said would lead his legacy in Iraq, well that is different.
Note that I am not claiming McCain would do this or that it is being done. Nor am I claiming that other Republicans might not be horrified by it, There were Republicans who were, arguably, more angry with Nixon than others. Some of them such as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld had to wait a long time to get back into the Whitehouse (Cheney was then an aide and Rumsfeld a Deputy Secretary of Defense).
However When Nixon did it, angry as people were no mobs formed and noone swung from trees. Indeed some of the key players such as G. Gordon Liddy are out today and practicing politics once more.
More likely if nasty things occur and are discovered then some heads will roll but for those at the top they will, like Nixon, merely go home to be pardoned by their successor so that the nation "can heal".
Lets be honest. Steal small and you go to a supermax. Steal big and you merely go home to live off your ill-gotten gains as Nixon did.
Incidentally it is often useful to, when you call, ask to speak to the aide who deals with the bill or the general issue of Intellectual Property. This is typically a way to avoid the first level brush off and gets you to someone who actually knows what the hell you're talking about, as opposed to screaming at the receptionist.
Seriously, its about damn time that states required companies with our personal data to do something smart with it. Yes I don't like business being forced to act at the whim of a government but in this case, with so much of our data out there and being transmitted to third parties controls are important.
Posted the wrong links to the votes. The final house vote as I read it is this one: Number 664.
While with the senate the result is reported by the Thomas.loc.gov history as:
9/26/2008:
Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent.
The cosponsors are:
Sen Alexander, Lamar [TN] - 9/23/2008 Sen Bayh, Evan [IN] - 7/24/2008 Sen Bond, Christopher S. [MO] - 9/23/2008 Sen Boxer, Barbara [CA] - 9/24/2008 Sen Brown, Sherrod [OH] - 9/26/2008 Sen Cardin, Benjamin L. [MD] - 9/10/2008 Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY] - 9/25/2008 Sen Corker, Bob [TN] - 9/18/2008 Sen Cornyn, John [TX] - 7/24/2008 Sen Feinstein, Dianne [CA] - 7/24/2008 Sen Graham, Lindsey [SC] - 9/23/2008 Sen Gregg, Judd [NH] - 9/25/2008 Sen Hatch, Orrin G. [UT] - 9/11/2008 Sen Hutchison, Kay Bailey [TX] - 9/24/2008 Sen Levin, Carl [MI] - 9/25/2008 Sen Schumer, Charles E. [NY] - 9/24/2008 Sen Smith, Gordon H. [OR] - 9/24/2008 Sen Specter, Arlen [PA] - 7/24/2008 Sen Stabenow, Debbie [MI] - 9/26/2008 Sen Voinovich, George V. [OH] - 7/24/2008 Sen Whitehouse, Sheldon [RI] - 8/1/2008
IOf you're offended by this consider this. There are a number of other issues they do not address, vis education, taxation, etc. But somehow in two months the House and Senate went from introducing this bill to passing it.
Incidentally, according to the CBO this bill is estimated to lead to spending up to $429 million over the next four years. So much to budget control.
Sadly you may be right to some extent. But I think the problem is people. People forget how much power we have to turn the tv off, to not buy shit at crappy chains, to vote against anyone who votes for a bill we don't like. To annoy our offline neighbors and coworkers with political issues.
Unfortunately far too many people either don't care, see themselves as powerless, or are caught in the cycle of "voting the bums out" by voting for the other guy whenever possible. Maybie they complain a bit about the RIAA but they never just stop buying RIAA music.
Yes the feds are awful and many many people have a vested interest in making us feel weak, bitter, and pathetic, but that doesn't mean that we are, we just need to remember that we can just turn the TV off and not buy overpriced movies or radio, and go back to talking with each other about real problems.
I mean I've spent far too much time it seems trying to get people to care about one issue and to realize that they can do something about it other than plaintively wail at the D's or R's to "do the right thing" but I see no point in stopping or waiting for someone else to start the revolution. Whining isn't my style.
I tend to use the phone now for the same reason their horrible scripted mail-me links usually don't work or are so restrictive as to make the exercise painful and meaningless. Phone is much more effective.
So leaving aside the existence of the Libertarian and green parties lets focus on who we are talking about. Yes it is a two-party system. Where I live it is just the Machine.
But that does not mean that there isn't choice. While the two parties have locked down the presidential race and most congressional races to a pathetic joke many many local positions, many of the positions that govern day-to-day things like taxes and education (most of which are due to state and local activities) are far more open.
And, in many states the presence or absence of third parties on larger races is based upon or at least influenced by the presence of third-party individuals in local positions.
Thus while you may not get a wide choice for president you can choose to vote for the green party candidate for school board or mayor or county official, etc. Supporting outsiders at this level is both tangible and a tractable motion towards wider choice at higher levels.
While you are at it you might push for wider ballot access laws in your area. Maryland's law is a nice model. My point being that while you are right about the corporate asskissers simply sitting back and noting that it is a two party system does not change it, making your votes contingent on changing things does.
So yes ths bill is awful. The Civil Forfeture provisions alone are foul let alone the Czar. While it may not roll things back overnight here is something simple that you can each do.
1) Find your senator/representative on the list of supporters (see below) 2) Call their office or contact them via the Senate and House websites. 3) Ask them why they voted for the bill. If their response does not convince you politely explain that this is an awful bill and one that has cost them your vote. Inform them politely that you will not vote for them or donate money to their campaigns again. 4) Repeat.
I would be shocked if any of them read this bill or have a reason for voting other than that they were in favor of good stuff. But the act of informing them that you will not support them because of it makes the point.
For those of you not in the U.S. I would recommend contacting your representatives with the message that you will not back them if they consider a stunt like this.
You see this is good, very good. Too few companies today, and I want to emphasize it too few really support the arts. I mean arts programming used to be a feather in the corporate cap with major vendors underwriting the opera, theatre, school trips to the meuseum, and Lawrence Welk.. Today that is fast disappearing as are the vital arts programs they backed. It's nice to see a company bucking this trend, and it makes the wait for updates that much more eager. I can't wait to see what I get next with my router: Tuvan Throat Singing? Classical jaw harp? or Wesley Willis.
Cisco, you've got my business. Never mind that whole great firewall of China thing. This is cool.
This is exactly why historically an illegal search that nets evidence of other real crimes invalidates the evidence. Historically the courts have reasoned that the "oops" power would be abused and thus lead to problems. Now if they would only do so with drug laws and seizure we'd be better off.
If you want a light fast system then build it with slackware or, if you don't mind more memory you might build a gentoo system.
In eithercase build only the essentials into the kernel and turn off all of the nonessential services. My suggestion, if you want to share the laptop with a "full featured" os is to wither create two root partitions one fast one full and then stock the fast one with only the minimal amounts then share/home.
Or alternately mess with the kernel flags and add startup scripts to kick it into a no-services profile. This is one area where gentoo is nice in that you can set a bootlevel that turns off everything logging, services, etc.
The disadvantage of the scripted form is the messiness with linking the two while the separate disks makes for a "cleaner" partition, and less likelyhood that booting into a full or minimal system will screw with essential/etc files.
Lincoln made a point as president to fill his cabinet with his political rivals. Every one of them from the VP on down had campaigned against him and, at the start, did not wish him well. By and large his enemies (except for Jefferson Davis) were closer than his friends.
It's a testament to his skill and personal charm that he managed not only to win their backing but to earn their respect, a respect that, whatever you say about his politics, did make them an effective team.
"If you're dumb surround yourself with smart people, and if you're smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you."
According to the Anchorage Daily News (Largest paper in Alaska) Palin asked the town's librarian during a town council meeting about banning books and was flatly refused.
According to the article:
Palin herself, questioned at the time, called her inquiries rhetorical and simply part of a policy discussion with a department head "about understanding and following administration agendas," according to the Frontiersman article.
Four days before this exchange took place the librarian had received a letter from Palin asking for her resignation. Similar letters were also sent to the Police Chief, Public Works Director, Finance Director, and Museum Director.
Again according to the article (emphasis mine):
Palin told the Daily News back then the letters were just a test of loyalty as she took on the mayor's job, which she'd won from three-term mayor John Stein in a hard-fought election. Stein had hired many of the department heads. Both Emmons and Stambaugh had publicly supported him against Palin.
The article is not clear what effect the other letter had. The librarian did, due to public popularity, survive a call for her resignation but later resigned for a better job in Fairbanks. The Meusum director was let go when Palin cut his job from the city rolls.
According to the article there is no documentary evidence that any books were ever banned from the library although the article does not quote the present librarian.
It is known that Palin subsequently cut funding for an expansion of the library and the museum while pushing for the construction of a local hockey arena that, according to other articles remains in litigation as it was built on land that the town did not own clear title to.
From this I don't see it as fair to call her someone who is obsessed with banning books but it is apparent that she places an emphasis on "loyalty" and has priorities that focus more on hockey than education.
As to the less porn more drugs line or the "country folks" I'm not sure either one is deserved. Meth problems aside Palin's stance on the bars was a backers issue. And once in office she didn't spend, apparently, much effort campaigning against porn so much as for hockey. As culture warriors go she clearly stumps on it but only acts on it in general terms.
Until quite recently many states (Pennsylvania being the last) did not post their laws online at all or make them available to the public for free. In many cases the only way to get access to the actual laws was to purchase a copy from the state's legal publisher or look them up in a legal library, (which exists on ever street corner). This is as true for statutes of the type that Malamud is focusing on as caselaw which is an essential facet of law in the U.S. and other Common Law countries.
Efforts to change this have routinely been fought by legal publishers who hold lucrative monopolies on the publication of laws and their dissemination. There also exists a generational gap in many cases with a generation accustomed to having the law on paper not really understanding why one would look online.
So ironically what Malamud is doing is not "fighting for the norm" of freely accessible laws but fighting for something new. While many people are fond of the cant "ignorance of the law is no excuse", for most of recent U.S. history laws have been hidden.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually from Kennedy onward there was a practice in the white house of makeing tape recordings or other records of important calls. The most extreme example of this was Nixon who recorded everything. So you can at least get that info, a little late of course.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB48/nixon.html
Much of this information ends up in Presidential Libraries where it remains hidden for some time before being made public under the Presidential Records act.
Congress on the other hand, thats different.
As I noted in my post below there are free tutoring systems online. One route to the teachers may be to not focus so much on having them integrate their lesson plans immediately but to position the computers as a supplement for post-class tutoring or other factors.
I have had some experience with wiring schools. Your mileage may vary depending upon where you are and the attitude of the local administrators and school board but it might be good to get at least the principal/other teachers on your side before expanding too far.
In my one experience with this a nice grassroots effort like this, initiated by a teacher, died an ugly death when the school board stopped it. Basically they and the school district admins refused to let anything happen until they were convinced that noone could ever do anything "bad" online. Here Bad was a largely undefined quantity. Unfortunately this stoppage meant that the system that had been installed on volunteer time sat unused for fear that it might be. So far as I can tell the problem with this initiative was that they sought permission rather than forgiveness and had no demonstrated successes of students learning on the system.
Ultimately we got computer updates largely through the efforts of one students' father who, like you, just dove in and helped. He of course had to fight uphill battles with the district but thankfully was aided in that by the school as a whole.
With that in mind I'd say you should get your fiancee to wow the rest of the school particularly the principal with what has been and can be accomplished. Then if the school board comes butting in you'll at least have an ally and demonstrated cases of kids learning and not doing "bad things" with the machines.
On a more practical note you might also clue the school into freely available tutoring systems. Many educational researchers put their work online for free meaning that there are Intelligent Tutoring Systems that your fiancee's class can access online. One such repository is the LeanLab at Carnegie Mellon University: http://www.learnlab.org/
Good Luck.
Also, as reported here radiaton has been deliberately fed to children in Massachusetts. In this case it was part of a nutritional study by Quaker Oats and MIT to be able to argue that nutrition touches more of the body. As does radiation.
Part of the days of Eugenics in America. Brougt to you by the Human Betterment Foundation
At about the same time as part of Operation Plowshares the U.S. Military proposed using atomic bombs to dredge a harbor in Alaska. As is noted it was stopped over "concerns over the impact on the local population". Or rather the local native population's steadfast refusal to have atomic bombs detonated right next to their village.
Lest you think this is silly though, as noted on the Project Chariot page, when faced with the direct refusal of the population to have a bomb detonated next to their home the Atomic Energy Agency just went ahead and irradiated the place anyway without telling anyone.
Assholes.
See also here.
It is worth noting, for those interested in electronic voting and vote security that Barb Simons is credited in the effort to get the ACM to set their policy on electronic voting. Just as importantly the helped to move the League of Women Voters from their pro-DRE stance on electronic voting to the new SARA stance which calls for auditability and recountability.
I found her comments on Open Source in the article quite insightful too. Not that I am against it but t isn't a security panacea.
In recent years the advice I've been given, from people who pay more attention to stretching than I, is that the warm up is important to ensure that you don't stress the muscles before they are flexible enough. It isn't about stretching them out so much as making sure that the muscles, tendons, ligaments, are warm enough for exercise without risking a tear. This is different then streatching out the muscles which should be done after the exercise when they are at their warmest.
The purpose then of post-workout stretching is to increase flexibility or prevent the reduction in flexibility that some kinds of exercise (e.g. powerlifting) bring.
This makes sense to me as stretching cold muscles can damage and weaken them because they aren't ready to stretch while failing to stretch muscles causes them to seize up.
Back when I was boring my friends with mention of the UKs plans to store all e-mails (precursors to the current black box route) one of my friends pointed out that not even the Chinese Communist party has considered doing that. They have their filters and so on but they really are one step behind the Brits when it comes to spying on their own people. And, as she readily pointed out the Chinese people would be pissed off by it. I guess the Brits are more cowed.
As I recall those who went along were paid well for their participation. So I question the use of the term "buckling" which suggests force was applied as opposed to selling their soul for 30 pieces of silver plus overtime which is what really happened.
The website ishttp://www.cs.princeton.edu/~appel/voting/index.html
I would point out that at least one of the systems mentioned on that page has been defeated by Andrew Appel (see here) the author of the top-linked Sequoia study.
And, ultimately, as much fun as these systems are they often ignore the far more real problem of vote observation and intimidation. This isn't an indictment of the algorithms per-se but the reason that we have a closed voting booth is that voting in the open lends itself to voter indimidation (i.e. show me you vote the right way or I'll fire/kill/pay you) which has been a real problem in the U.S. Granted this problem also exists with absentee ballots and "everyone vote absentee" methods like Oregon's Vote By Mail, but in the rush to develop auditable systems this often gets ignored.
Additionally, at least the end-to-end systems that I have viewed suffer from the problem of auditability, no means to confirm the end message with the local understanding, and a problem that the connected server can itself be compromised meaning that wired in votes can be miscounted with no means to audit them.
I'll just invoke the American Politics version of Goodwin's Law here (hereafter the Nixon-Goodwin Law) and note that this kind of thinking was what prompted Nixon to push directly or indirectly (it is never quite clear how much he knew in advance) for the Watergate break-in and it's subsequent coverup. For Nixon the idea of losing the election was too much to bear.
Now W may not be so far gone as to think he can just refuse to leave but the idea that he or overzealous supporters (of the type Nixon had) might go to great lengths to see McCain in, the man Bush said would lead his legacy in Iraq, well that is different.
Note that I am not claiming McCain would do this or that it is being done. Nor am I claiming that other Republicans might not be horrified by it, There were Republicans who were, arguably, more angry with Nixon than others. Some of them such as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld had to wait a long time to get back into the Whitehouse (Cheney was then an aide and Rumsfeld a Deputy Secretary of Defense).
However When Nixon did it, angry as people were no mobs formed and noone swung from trees. Indeed some of the key players such as G. Gordon Liddy are out today and practicing politics once more.
More likely if nasty things occur and are discovered then some heads will roll but for those at the top they will, like Nixon, merely go home to be pardoned by their successor so that the nation "can heal".
Lets be honest. Steal small and you go to a supermax. Steal big and you merely go home to live off your ill-gotten gains as Nixon did.
Incidentally it is often useful to, when you call, ask to speak to the aide who deals with the bill or the general issue of Intellectual Property. This is typically a way to avoid the first level brush off and gets you to someone who actually knows what the hell you're talking about, as opposed to screaming at the receptionist.
Seriously, its about damn time that states required companies with our personal data to do something smart with it. Yes I don't like business being forced to act at the whim of a government but in this case, with so much of our data out there and being transmitted to third parties controls are important.
The senate bill is S3325.
Posted the wrong links to the votes.
The final house vote as I read it is this one: Number 664.
While with the senate the result is reported by the Thomas.loc.gov history as:
The cosponsors are:
IOf you're offended by this consider this. There are a number of other issues they do not address, vis education, taxation, etc. But somehow in two months the House and Senate went from introducing this bill to passing it.
Incidentally, according to the CBO this bill is estimated to lead to spending up to $429 million over the next four years. So much to budget control.
Sadly you may be right to some extent. But I think the problem is people. People forget how much power we have to turn the tv off, to not buy shit at crappy chains, to vote against anyone who votes for a bill we don't like. To annoy our offline neighbors and coworkers with political issues.
Unfortunately far too many people either don't care, see themselves as powerless, or are caught in the cycle of "voting the bums out" by voting for the other guy whenever possible. Maybie they complain a bit about the RIAA but they never just stop buying RIAA music.
Yes the feds are awful and many many people have a vested interest in making us feel weak, bitter, and pathetic, but that doesn't mean that we are, we just need to remember that we can just turn the TV off and not buy overpriced movies or radio, and go back to talking with each other about real problems.
I mean I've spent far too much time it seems trying to get people to care about one issue and to realize that they can do something about it other than plaintively wail at the D's or R's to "do the right thing" but I see no point in stopping or waiting for someone else to start the revolution. Whining isn't my style.
If you hunt on his site you can usually find a phone number which is an optimal place to call and complain about the lousy e-mail.
http://joebarton.house.gov/Default.aspx
I tend to use the phone now for the same reason their horrible scripted mail-me links usually don't work or are so restrictive as to make the exercise painful and meaningless. Phone is much more effective.
So leaving aside the existence of the Libertarian and green parties lets focus on who we are talking about. Yes it is a two-party system. Where I live it is just the Machine.
But that does not mean that there isn't choice. While the two parties have locked down the presidential race and most congressional races to a pathetic joke many many local positions, many of the positions that govern day-to-day things like taxes and education (most of which are due to state and local activities) are far more open.
And, in many states the presence or absence of third parties on larger races is based upon or at least influenced by the presence of third-party individuals in local positions.
Thus while you may not get a wide choice for president you can choose to vote for the green party candidate for school board or mayor or county official, etc. Supporting outsiders at this level is both tangible and a tractable motion towards wider choice at higher levels.
While you are at it you might push for wider ballot access laws in your area. Maryland's law is a nice model. My point being that while you are right about the corporate asskissers simply sitting back and noting that it is a two party system does not change it, making your votes contingent on changing things does.
So yes ths bill is awful. The Civil Forfeture provisions alone are foul let alone the Czar. While it may not roll things back overnight here is something simple that you can each do.
1) Find your senator/representative on the list of supporters (see below)
2) Call their office or contact them via the Senate and House websites.
3) Ask them why they voted for the bill. If their response does not convince you politely explain that this is an awful bill and one that has cost them your vote. Inform them politely that you will not vote for them or donate money to their campaigns again.
4) Repeat.
I would be shocked if any of them read this bill or have a reason for voting other than that they were in favor of good stuff. But the act of informing them that you will not support them because of it makes the point.
For those of you not in the U.S. I would recommend contacting your representatives with the message that you will not back them if they consider a stunt like this.
Now the Senators who voted in favor are here.
The house members in favor of the PRORIP act which became this are here
You see this is good, very good. Too few companies today, and I want to emphasize it too few really support the arts. I mean arts programming used to be a feather in the corporate cap with major vendors underwriting the opera, theatre, school trips to the meuseum, and Lawrence Welk.. Today that is fast disappearing as are the vital arts programs they backed. It's nice to see a company bucking this trend, and it makes the wait for updates that much more eager. I can't wait to see what I get next with my router: Tuvan Throat Singing? Classical jaw harp? or Wesley Willis.
Cisco, you've got my business. Never mind that whole great firewall of China thing. This is cool.
This is exactly why historically an illegal search that nets evidence of other real crimes invalidates the evidence. Historically the courts have reasoned that the "oops" power would be abused and thus lead to problems. Now if they would only do so with drug laws and seizure we'd be better off.
If you want a light fast system then build it with slackware or, if you don't mind more memory you might build a gentoo system.
In eithercase build only the essentials into the kernel and turn off all of the nonessential services. My suggestion, if you want to share the laptop with a "full featured" os is to wither create two root partitions one fast one full and then stock the fast one with only the minimal amounts then share /home.
Or alternately mess with the kernel flags and add startup scripts to kick it into a no-services profile. This is one area where gentoo is nice in that you can set a bootlevel that turns off everything logging, services, etc.
The disadvantage of the scripted form is the messiness with linking the two while the separate disks makes for a "cleaner" partition, and less likelyhood that booting into a full or minimal system will screw with essential /etc files.
Lincoln made a point as president to fill his cabinet with his political rivals. Every one of them from the VP on down had campaigned against him and, at the start, did not wish him well. By and large his enemies (except for Jefferson Davis) were closer than his friends.
It's a testament to his skill and personal charm that he managed not only to win their backing but to earn their respect, a respect that, whatever you say about his politics, did make them an effective team.
"If you're dumb surround yourself with smart people, and if you're smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you."
According to the Anchorage Daily News (Largest paper in Alaska) Palin asked the town's librarian during a town council meeting about banning books and was flatly refused.
According to the article:
Four days before this exchange took place the librarian had received a letter from Palin asking for her resignation. Similar letters were also sent to the Police Chief, Public Works Director, Finance Director, and Museum Director.
Again according to the article (emphasis mine):
The article is not clear what effect the other letter had. The librarian did, due to public popularity, survive a call for her resignation but later resigned for a better job in Fairbanks. The Meusum director was let go when Palin cut his job from the city rolls.
According to the article there is no documentary evidence that any books were ever banned from the library although the article does not quote the present librarian.
It is known that Palin subsequently cut funding for an expansion of the library and the museum while pushing for the construction of a local hockey arena that, according to other articles remains in litigation as it was built on land that the town did not own clear title to.
From this I don't see it as fair to call her someone who is obsessed with banning books but it is apparent that she places an emphasis on "loyalty" and has priorities that focus more on hockey than education.
As to the less porn more drugs line or the "country folks" I'm not sure either one is deserved. Meth problems aside Palin's stance on the bars was a backers issue. And once in office she didn't spend, apparently, much effort campaigning against porn so much as for hockey. As culture warriors go she clearly stumps on it but only acts on it in general terms.
Until quite recently many states (Pennsylvania being the last) did not post their laws online at all or make them available to the public for free. In many cases the only way to get access to the actual laws was to purchase a copy from the state's legal publisher or look them up in a legal library, (which exists on ever street corner). This is as true for statutes of the type that Malamud is focusing on as caselaw which is an essential facet of law in the U.S. and other Common Law countries.
Efforts to change this have routinely been fought by legal publishers who hold lucrative monopolies on the publication of laws and their dissemination. There also exists a generational gap in many cases with a generation accustomed to having the law on paper not really understanding why one would look online.
So ironically what Malamud is doing is not "fighting for the norm" of freely accessible laws but fighting for something new. While many people are fond of the cant "ignorance of the law is no excuse", for most of recent U.S. history laws have been hidden.
Good luck to him.