Category Archives: Politics

11/7/06

Voting 2006

So I just finished voting here in San Jose using one of those Sequoia machines (same as last year). My in person impression hasn’t improved any.

1. Having to check all your votes twice (once on the screen and again on the paper printer) is a pain in the ass. Between state, county and city offices, bonds and measures it’s not only tedious to check, but error prone- especially since I don’t memorize whom I’m going to vote for in each race.

Ironically, the sample ballot that they mailed me was much simpler to use (just connect the arrow next to what/who you want to vote for), easy to verify, count and recount. And it takes a lot less time to vote since you don’t need to double and triple check that the machine didn’t screw up.

2. More importantly though, while the poll workers try to be helpful, they’re just not trained well enough. I was appalled to over hear one worker tell another how she removed the security sticker to open up the machine to “fix it”. Now, while she probably is honest and didn’t tamper with the machine (no way for me to prove otherwise), she now has violated the trust model of the election for that machine. The issue is that by breaking the security sticker, nobody can detect if anyone else tampers with the machine.

Unsurprisingly, the poll worker thought it was perfectly OK for her to break the seal and put it back in service, because she didn’t tamper with the machine. Aren’t there enough voting machine irregularities without the poll workers contributing to the problem?

Anyways, here are two videos about what’s going on with electronic voting:
First, is the HBO documentary Hacking Democracy.
Second, is the Daily Show’s John Hodgman’s comedic take on the machines.

09/17/06

Not even I thought the number was 14,000

According to this AP article on Yahoo, 14,000 is the number of people being held without access to a lawyer or being charged with a crime that are being held against their will in U.S. run overseas prisons. 13,000 of them in Iraq.

One such example is of Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen and AP photographer.

[Update: Here’s another great example of the “enemy combatants” who are so dangerous they must be held in Gitmo.]

Already, over 18,000 people have been released because they were deemed innocent. But one wonders after being held in a prision for months and even years, how this endears us to them after they are set free. More then likely, those that already hated us, hate us even more and those that were on the fence now see us as their tormentors. While “radical islamists” are telling the world we are evil, we go out of our way and prove it. In effect, our own actions only serve to create more of the enemy.

Bush tells us this is to protect us from those evil-doers who wish us harm. But you can’t fight evil by becoming it. The “war on terror” shouldn’t be fought by instilling terror in the hearts of innocent people. We as Americans need to stand up for what is right before the world can’t tell which side are the real terrorists.

05/27/06

Why the NSA spying on Americans isn’t helping

I don’t usually think of Computerworld as a particularlly great place to read Op-Ed pieces, but this article by Ira Winkler, an ex-NSA analyst explains why not only is the NSA warrentless spying on American’s phone records is illegal (duh) but counter-productive as well if your goal is to stop terrorisim.

While I agree with almost everything Ira had to say, I don’t think comparing the NSA actions to Stalin and Hitler is useful. The quickest way to send a discussion to hell is start comparing people to Nazi’s or people like Stalin- not only an emotionally charged issue, but most Americans think what happened in places like Germany and Russia could never happen here.

But of course we now know that the U.S. Government has a history of spying and persecuting people (remember what happed to Martin Luther King Jr. and during McCarthyism in the 1950’s). And I can guarantee you that at some point in time in your life, your perspective will not be in line with the political powers that be. So maybe you should worry after all.

04/13/06

Comedy Central censors pictures of Mohammed

So I’ll be honest, when I watched part two of “Cartoon Wars” and saw that Mohammed had been “censored” I figured it was just Matt & Trey (the creators of South Park) pulling a gag to make a point. After all, South Park had shown Mohammed multiple times in past episodes (“Super Best Friends” for example) and there was no censoring then.

But, it was actually Comedy Central which censored the episode. Apparently, CC thought that in the current climate it was “unsafe” to air pictures of Mohammed.

Anyways, even if you hate South Park, I would strongly encourage you to see Cartoon Wars episodes I & II. Matt and Trey do what they do best- making viewers re-examine current events from a viewpoint which encourages people to stand up for what’s right, even when it’s not the easy thing to do.

03/20/06

Working hard for your dollar

According to this report on USA Today, members of the House of Representitives worked for a total of 47 hours in Janurary and February of this year. As of March 17, the House was in session for just 19 days. At this rate and with plenty of more vacations planned, they’ll only have worked 97 days this year- far fewer then the 141 worked last year.

Lawmakers will make $165,200 this year. Leaders earn more.

Would your boss put up with that?

02/19/06

Shame

Shame on Yahoo, Microsoft and Google. But part of me understands. For better or worse, companies are ultimately responsible to their shareholders, not morals or concepts of right and wrong. Even Google’s motto of “Do no evil” is convienently pushed aside when it becomes monetarilay inconvient.

Given the choice of helping the Chinese government put a dissident behind bars or pissing off the Chinese government which allows them access to the largest potential customer base, Yahoo decided to assist the communist dictatorship which resulted in Shi Tao getting 10 years in jail.

But perhaps the most scary thing is that Microsoft couldn’t say under oath wether or not IBM should be ashamed for helping the Nazi’s. I guess if even in hindsight you can’t figure out what is wrong, how can you be expected to know right here and now?

01/23/06

First rule of Congress: you must not talk about VEIL

I’m trying to understand what is so important to secure that the US Congress is not only considering mandating certain security methods, but that those methods be a secret from the general public. Nuclear weapon control systems? New kind of stealth aircraft? Some kind of spy satellite? Maybe some new way of tracking down terrorists?

Turns out it’s none of those things. Instead, this bill has to do with limiting what Americans can do with TV shows. You know, like taping them on a VCR/TiVo or perhaps fast-forwarding thru commercials.

Basically, Congress is looking to force companies which decode digital TV signals to impliment DRM technology called VEIL. But you and I can’t read the specification about VEIL or know what it does… well not without signing a legal agreement promising not to discuss or disclose anything about the technology and forking over $10,000 in cash. Even then, you only get the information on how to decode VEIL data, not the other way around.

The end result is we have no idea what this technology actually does, how reliable it is, how much it will increase the cost of TV’s that consumers buy or even if this technology is extensible enough to adapt to new media or requirements. Basically, it’s a government mandated way of one company of generating millions if not billions of revenue since every TV manufacturer who would like to sell to Americans would have to license this technology from them.

I’d ask what ever happened to Congress looking out for consumers instead of business interests, but frankly, that hasn’t been true for years. Anways, to read more, check out Ed Felten’s blog.

10/14/05

Rep. Marilyn Musgrave

Today, I got a spam from Rep. Marilyn Musgrave from Colorado about the 2007 Farm Bill. I thought since she took the time to email me, I should send a thoughtful reply:

———
Dear Rep. Marilyn Musgrave,

Thank you so very much for your email. I found your words especially relevant since I live in California and spend most of my time as far away from farms as I possibly can. I think it is great that so much of my tax dollars are being spent on worthless pork such as farm subsidies and that I have people like you to blame for it. Also, I want to thank you for sending me this unsolicited bulk email (often known as SPAM, but please don’t confuse it with the Hormel product- they don’t like that). While most people of your stature have enough common sense to not want to be associated with something that peddles free pornography, cheap viagra and bogus stock tips, it apparently suits you quite well.

Unfortunately, while I would love to vote against you in an election, I will have to find it enough to tell my representatives and senators to vote against the 2007 Farm Bill.

Sincerely,
Aaron Turner

P.S. Please remove me from your spam list.
————
Hopefully I wasn’t too subtle…

06/29/05

More news is good news

Two things of note recently… tcpreplay 3.0.beta6 was released which continues to fix bugs reported by all the beta testers out there. Many thanks to them for keeping me honest. On a more political note, SCOTUS recently ruled that eminent domain extends to allow the government to take your private property and give it to another PRIVATE entity such as
a company wanting to build a hotel. Now, a private developer has decided to try to build a hotel on Supreme Court Justice David Souter’s home. I have to admit, “Just Deserts Cafe” is rather appropriate.