Category: Crimes

What Happens When Authorities Use Criminal Methods

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It appears that researchers at Canegie Mellon are working on schemes to disrupt WaReZ, virus, and hacking markets.

One tactic involves bad mouthing buyers or sellers in order to eliminate their verified status, discouraging others from engaging in trades with them. The other attacks the effectiveness of the markets themselves by undermining the cybercrooks’ verification or reputation system, creating a deceptive sales environment.

One technique developed by the team involves establishing fake verified-status identities that are difficult to distinguish from other-verified status sellers, making it hard for buyers to identify “honest” verified-status sellers from “dishonest” verified-status sellers.

“Just like you need to verify that individuals are honest on eBay, online criminals need to verify that they are dealing with ‘honest’ criminals,” explained Jason Franklin, a PhD student in computer science at Carnegie Mellon.

Ummmm….You want to develop this stuff, and you don’t expect it to fall into the hands of the black hats?

You know, the guys who have compromised a few million network computers that could be used for password cracks to infiltrate a place like eBay?

This is a one-D-ten-T problem (spell it out with the numbers).

Top Air Force Procurement Official Dies in Apparent Suicide

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I don’t recall if I’ve written of this matter before, but while waiting for his white house clearance, Charles D. Riechers, was paid $13,400 a month by a private contractor, Commonwealth Research Institute, while he awaited clearance from the White House for his selection as principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition. He was paid for no work at all, which sounds suspiciously like a birbe

The Commonwealth Research Institute and it’s Parent, Concurrent Technologies Corp. are tax exempt, but their primary business is defense contracting, which is odd.

This is freaky, and CRI and CTC are Jack Murtha’s best buddies, as Will Bunch notes. Frequently, Murhta’s press releases sounding as ife they were written by CTC PR flacks.

Mr. Bunch has repeatedly warned folks about Murtha, and it appears that this may be hitting the news shortly. Dead bodies have a way of getting journalists looking into things.

War On Terror Means More Crime in US

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Bill Bratton, current LAPD chief, and the man who cleaned up New Yorek (not Guiliani), is saying that the federal government is abandoning its commitment to fighting crime in the United States and diverting those resources to the “Total War Against Terror“*.

“The federal government is a one-eyed Cyclops – it can only focus on one thing at a time,” said Mr Bratton, in an interview with the Financial Times. “We have to fight a two-front war on terrorism internationally and on crime at home. You cannot fight terrorism at the expense of 16,000 homicides a year.”

FWIW, that is 5 times the total deaths from 911.

He’s right.

*Check out the acronym.

Court Decides that Old Presidential Records Must Be Released

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U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly invalidated part of President Bush’s 2001 executive order, which allowed former presidents and vice presidents to review executive records before they are released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Bush did this because Reagan’s records were to be released, and his dad’s prints would have been all over Iran-Contra.

It might also show evidence of Poppy Bush negotiating with the Iranians in 1980 to keep the hostages locked up to win the election, but I don’t think that Bush pere would be stupid enough to let George, Jr. know about that.

Historians should be seeing some interesting stuff.

New York Politics: Have I Mentioned Lately that Republicans Suck Wet Farts From Dead Pigeons?

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As you may or may not be aware, New York Governor Elliot Spitzer and Republican Senate Leader Joseph Bruno have been in a bit of a pissing contest lately.

Bruno used state travel resources, including helicopters to go on political junkets, and Spitzer used the state police to document it and leak it to the press.

At this point, you could call it a run of the mill political pissing contest, with the Republican controlled state senate investigating misuse of the state police, and stricter rules being implemented on use of official travel, but the Republicans hired a man with the ability, and the history, that allowed him to take this well into the twilight zone of sleaze, Roger J. Stone Jr.

Mr. Stone, the youngest of Nixon’s dirty tricks sleaze operatives at 19, while still a student at George Washington University, he has not mellowed with age.

Well, Roger Stone made threatening phone calls to Elliot Spitzer’s 83 year old father. He was threatening arrest over a campaign loan that was made to an earlier Spitzer campaign, and he called the governor a “phony” and a “psycho.”

Caller ID confirmed that the phone was in his apartment, and in his wife’s name.

Stone has been fired, but is claiming innocence, maintaining that his landlord is a Democrat, and that he allowed someone into his apartment to make the call.

Of note, this is the same excuse he used in 1996, when it turned out that he and his wife put out ads in a swingers publications looking for group sex. (Ad here if you can stomach it) He claimed that someone had stolen his information, and sock puppeted him.

Yeah, right. Yeah, right. They were SO scared of you that they broke into your apartment, and made threatening phone calls to an old dude.

He’s also the most likely guy to have fed Dan Rather the forged docs about Bushes military (non)record.

Normally, I’m Against the Death Penalty, But In His Case, I’ll Make an Exception

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Notorious spammer Christopher “Rizler” Smith was sentenced to 30 years in prison. There is a part of me, the lizard brain, which was hopint for the death penalty.

Between dealing Hydrocodone and Viagra, and threatening the children of a witness, he’s going to be in jail for a very long time.

Ironically, because of his efforts, his cell mates will have easy access to Viagra and Cialis.

OOPS!!!

Why We Need an Agressive and Competent Labor Bureaucracy.

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It appears that Universal Media Group has been cheating its employees out of overtime pay.

Luckily for them, this has occurred in California, because, “the employees will receive 25 per cent of fines rewarded”.

The department permits these exemptions for computer systems analysts, computer programmers, software engineers, and other similarly-skilled workers in the computer field. Under California regulations, an exempt IT employee must primarily perform work that is “intellectual or creative and requires the exercise of discretion and independent judgment.” In addition, the employee must earn over $41 per hour.

The UMG workers, who are employed as “IT Support Engineers,” claim the company has illegally classified them as exempt to skip out of paying overtime. The employees are seeking back wages and civil penalties under California’s Private Attorney Act. Under the Private Attorney Act, employees can sue an employer for fines based on labor law on behalf of the state of California. If successful, the employees will receive 25 per cent of fines rewarded, while California will receive the rest.

Note that this is a private lawsuit. Here’s why:

The Law Offices of Michael Tracy, the firm representing the employees….. said the employees had previously filed the overtime complaint with California’s Labor & Workforce Development Agency, but the organization refused to investigate. In response, the employees are suing for the labor fines.

My guess is that Arnold was the reason that they refused to investigate.

Let There Be No Kings

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During the constitutional convention, there was much debate over the impeachment clauses.

It was finally settled when Ben Franklin said that these provisions were not there, the only way to remove a President who was attempting to install himself as king would be assassination.

Bush is now claiming that if the president wants it, it’s not contempt.

So he is claiming, as Nixon did to David Frost, and as Stalin and Mussolini did, that if he orders it, it is legal.

Impeach Dick Cheney today. Impeach George W. Bush tomorrow.

Only in the USA

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It appears that some inmates at El Reno federal prison in Oklahoma attempted to buy a “get out of jail free” card using copyright.

They “copyrighted” and then attempted to file suits for millions of dollars against him and seize his property with the idea of using this as leverage to be let out.

Needless to say, the indictments against them for “conspiring to impede the duties of federal prison officials” rap, and “mailing threatening communications with the intent to extort”.

On the bright side, they have each received six figure offers of employment from the RIAA when they get out of stir.

With The Bush Admin, There is No Policy, There is Only Politics

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This time, it’s the so called “War on Drugs”.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said documents obtained by his panel suggest that the appearances by the drug control officials were part of a larger White House effort to politicize the work of federal agencies that “may be more widespread than previously known.”

This is a direct consequence of conservative philosophy. If one sees government, even when it works as a source of weakness and moral hazard, then the only reason to govern is to accumulate wealth and power for you and yours.

The Bush administration is not an aberration, rather it is the logical consequence of the hard right wing philosophy that they all hold.

There is no policy, because government is evil. It’s just a gravy train.

I saw this first hand when I went to college with, and served in the student Senate with, Tony Rudy, who has copped a plea in the entire Abramoff/Delay thing for taking bribes.

He was personally nice, but once in government, there was nothing for him to do but to be corrupt.

Pentagon to Engage in Psych Warfare Domestically

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The full article is in Harper’s.”

Meet the Pentagon’s New Spin Unit: Bush Administration hacks court bloggers, talk radio

Ken Silverstein
….
The rapid-response team has been shut down but several sources tell me that another of Smith’s spin projects is ongoing. This project seeks to bypass the traditional media and work directly with talk radio and bloggers, mostly those with a heavily conservative tilt. The unit, which one source says was originally called “Surrogates Operation” but was later rechristened “Communications Outreach,” also reportedly provides talking points and briefings to retired military officials who now support the administration in appearances as media pundits. (I haven’t been able to learn which blogs and individuals the unit has been working with, but urge anyone with such information to contact me via email.)

It should be noted that this effort appears to violate the law which forbids domestic Pentagon propaganda operations.

The article, while informative, buries one of the important points in the last graph:

…

The irony here is that Gates has a far better relationship with the media than Rumsfeld, who treated journalists as the enemy. But with Smith running amok, Gates’s honeymoon with the media and with the military may be coming to an end.

Larry Flynt is Shocked????

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According to Political Wire, Larry Flynt has 30 good leads about prominent customers of “DC Madame”. Flint describes them as, “We’ve got good leads. We’ve got over 300 initially. And they’re down to about 30 now which is solid.“

The thing that really intrigues me though is that there is another Senator among those 30, and Flynt hints that it is not one of the usual suspects:

KING: Will we be — I don’t want to get into names yet. Will we be shocked?

FLYNT: Yes.

KING: Were you shocked?

FLYNT: I was shocked, especially at one senator but…

KING: One senator especially?

FLYNT: Yes.

What the hell shocks Larry Flynt?

Schadenfreude Overload

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Seriously. I’m going to need to set up a house of prostitution at the next Republican convention. I’ll make enough money to never have to work again.

McCain’s co-chairman of his Florida campaign, Florida State Rep. Bob Allen, was arrested for soliciting a prostitute who turned out to be a vice cop.

Other Republicans:

  • David “Family Values” Vitter: hooked up with prostitutes (It’s rumored to be something involving him dressing in diapers)
  • Guiliani’s: SC Campaign chair was busted for dealing coke, New SC chair is a racist, has a pedophile priest as a campaign adviser, and Ted F#$@ing Olsen is his legal adviser
  • Romney: Tortures dogs, Director of Operations impersonated an officer, head of Utah finance committee ran schools for trouble youngsters where they were abused and raped.

Please pass the popcorn.

If This Virus Were Any More Clever, You Could Put a Tail on it and Call it a Weasel

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Here is an interesting story, it appears that there is a virus that has Internet Explorer launching Firefox, which installs the payload.

If Firefox encounters the payload directly, it will stop it cold, but when it’s passed along by IE, not so much.

This virus probably has a couple more weeks life, just because Mozilla and Microflaccid are busy finger pointing. Clever idea this.

The saying about success having many parents but failure being an orphan seems fitting here. Window Snyder, who heads security at Mozilla, wrote today (http://blog.mozilla.com/security/2007/07/10/security-issue-in-url-protocol-handling-on-windows/) that Mozilla developers will patch Firefox so it no longer accepts bad data from IE. But she stressed that only people browsing with the Microsoft browser were vulnerable to the attack.

“We recommend that people use Firefox and as always take care when browsing unknown websites,” she wrote.

For its part, Microsoft representatives said company researchers have “investigated the claim of a vulnerability in Internet Explorer and found that this is not a vulnerability in a Microsoft product.” Jesper Johansson, a former senior security strategist for Microsoft, similarly argues that “most definitely” the problem isn’t caused by IE.