The complete text of President Bush's State of the Union address, prepared for delivery Jan. 31, 2006, as released by the White House.

Related documents:

Press release: "CDT joined with a coalition of industry and public interest groups this week to urge the Federal Communications Commission to delay its controversial Internet wiretapping rules. In comments filed with the FCC [6 pages, PDF, filed January 30, 2006], the groups requested that the commission push back the effective date of the rule requiring that that broadband Internet and interconnected voice-over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services be designed to make government wiretapping easier. CDT, which is also involved in a court challenge against the ruling, supports the delay because the FCC set a deadline for VoIP and broadband providers to modify their networks but failed to specify what modifications were required."

The DNA.gov initiative offers online training and resources for policy and lawmakers, officers and investigators, forensic scientists, researchers, and victim advocates.

Press release: "A task force of global and European publishers organizations, led by the World Association of Newspapers, has agreed to work together to examine the options open to publishers to assert their rights to recognition and recompense, and to ultimately improve the relationships between content creators/producers and news aggregators and search engines."

Press release: "For the first time, the National Archives website now includes a new Today's Document feature, viewable online at www.archives.gov, highlighting a specific document, record or photo from the holdings of the National Archives relating to the current day, and/or current exhibitions and programs at the National Archives. This new feature - available on the Archives.gov home page - draws from the online resources of the National Archives, including Our Documents, the Online Exhibit Hall, Teaching with Documents, and the Archival Research Catalog (ARC)."

Press release: Microsoft Outlines Policy Framework for Dealing with Government Restrictions on Blog Content

Press release: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T Tuesday, accusing the telecom giant of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in its massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications...In the lawsuit, EFF alleges that AT&T, in addition to allowing the NSA direct access to the phone and Internet communications passing over its network, has given the government unfettered access to its over 300 terabyte "Daytona" database of caller information—one of the largest databases in the world."

Legal Times (reg. free) Google Search - Google Goes Beyond Web-Based Democracy

Baltimore Sun, January 29, 2006: "A program that was supposed to help the National Security Agency pluck out electronic data crucial to the nation's safety is not up and running more than six years and $1.2 billion after it was launched, according to current and former government officials."

Press release: "President George W. Bush will deliver the annual State of the Union Address to a Joint Session of Congress, Tuesday, January 31, 2006. The Department of State will provide live audio streams of the State of the Union Address at 9:00 pm EST (0200 GMT) in the following languages: English, Arabic, Farsi, Bahasa Indonesian, Spanish, French, Russian. Turkish, Swahili, and Portuguese will be available at 1:00 am EST (0600 GMT) Wednesday, February 1. To access these streams, log onto www.state.gov."

Press release: Wireless Networking in the Developing World - a practical guide to planning and building low-cost wireless infrastructure: "The book covers topics from basic radio physics and network design to equipment and troubleshooting. It is intended to be a comprehensive resource for technologists in the developing world, providing the critical information that they need to build networks. This includes specific examples, diagrams and calculations, which are intended to help building wireless networks without requiring access to the Internet." Available for free download (PDF).

Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) January 30, 2006 Quarterly and Semiannual Report to Congress. "SIGIR audits are conducted to determine whether programs and operations funded by the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund (IRRF) are being managed efficiently, effectively and economically, and if they are achieving the desired outcomes."

Related government documents (PDF):

Press release: "Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today sued the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over its continued refusal to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Katrina-related issues."

Related government documents:

The new StopBadware.org website, sponsored by the Berkman Center, the Oxford Internet Institute, with assistance from Consumer Reports WebWatch, ..."will seek to provide reliable, objective information about downloadable applications in order to help consumers to make better choices about what they download on to their computers. We aim to become a central clearinghouse for research on badware and the bad actors who spread it, and to become a focal point for developing collaborative, community-minded approaches to stopping badware."

Press release: "The new beta versions of Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer are open and customizable, with new features that enable users to customize their search experience and share information with friends...The new versions of Google Toolbar now offer customizable buttons, online bookmarks, enhanced search features, new sharing capabilities, and an open API. Google Toolbar for Enterprise beta also includes administration and control for business environments."

SEC Proposed Rule on Executive Compensation and Related Party Disclosure, January 28, 2006 (370 pages, PDF)

Identity Theft Again Leads the List: "The Federal Trade Commission...released its annual report (77 pages, PDF) detailing consumer complaints about fraud and identity theft in 2005. Complaints about identity theft topped the list, accounting for 255,000 of more than 686,000 complaints filed with the agency in 2005. The complaints, filed online or at a toll-free number, are shared via a secure database with more than 1,400 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, and law enforcement and consumer protection agencies in Canada and Australia."

In following my January 24, posting, Search Full Text Archive of State of the Union Addresses, a related government document in advance of the 2006 State of the Union address on January 31.

New York Times, January 30, 2006: Conservatives See Court Shift as Culmination: "A movement that in 1982 sought only a haven from what its members considered the prevailing liberalism of the law schools and the federal courts has become a major force in the law. And with Judge Alito's confirmation, conservatives hope they may have at last begun to shift the balance of the Supreme Court in their direction on matters like abortion rights, school prayer, the death penalty and the limits on federal power."

New York Times editorial, January 29, 2006, Spies, Lies and Wiretaps: "A bit over a week ago, President Bush and his men promised to provide the legal, constitutional and moral justifications for the sort of warrantless spying on Americans that has been illegal for nearly 30 years. Instead, we got the familiar mix of political spin, clumsy historical misinformation, contemptuous dismissals of civil liberties concerns, cynical attempts to paint dissents as anti-American and pro-terrorist, and a couple of big, dangerous lies."

Related news:

New York Times: Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him

Follow-up to my November 24, 2005 posting, Advocacy Groups Petition FCC For Stay On Web Wiretapping Compliance, news from Declan McCullagh, News.com: "Universities, libraries and technology companies are asking a federal court to block controversial wiretap rules designed to facilitate police surveillance of the Internet."

New York Times: Bush Presses On in Legal Defense for Wiretapping

GPO Releases 21st Century Edition of Historical Reference Directory

Efficient Process or "Chilling Effects"? Takedown Notices Under Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Summary Report, Jennifer M. Urban, Director, Intellectual Property Clinic, University of Southern California and Laura Quilter, Non-Resident Fellow, Samuelson Clinic, University of California, Berkeley. [Links and Law]

National boundaries have survived in the virtual world—and allowed national laws to exert control over the Internet.

From askSam: "CPT and HCPCS Medical Codes, Free Searchable Version: This database contains a complete listing of CPT codes (Current Procedural Terminology) and HCPCS codes (Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System). This database is fully searchable by code, description, type or category."

National Security Archive: "A secret Pentagon "roadmap: on war propaganda, personally approved by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in October 2003, calls for "boundaries" between information operations abroad and the news media at home, but provides for no such limits and claims that as long as the American public is not "targeted," any leakage of PSYOP to the American public does not matter. Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive at George Washington University and posted on the Web today, the 74-page Information Operations Roadmap admits that "information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and PSYOP, increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa," but argues that "the distinction between foreign and domestic audiences becomes more a question of USG [U.S. government] intent rather than information dissemination practices."

Declan McCullagh reported that Judge James Ware, US District Court, Northern District of California, has calendered Gonzales v. Google, Inc. for February 27, 2006.

Press release: "The Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales seeking information relating to the Bush Administration's domestic spying program in preparation for the panel’s Feb. 6 hearing on the program's legality. The senators are seeking documents and correspondence from the days immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Bush Administration has claimed it was justified in conducting an illegal and covert spying program for four years because of a resolution Congress passed in 2001 authorizing the use of military force."

Related references:

Daily Prospect: "A new and extensive analysis of campaign donations from all of Jack Abramoff’s tribal clients, done by a nonpartisan research firm, shows that a great majority of contributions made by those clients went to Republicans. The analysis undercuts the claim that Abramoff directed sums to Democrats at anywhere near the same rate." [via Talking Points Memo]

Congress catching on to the value of blogs

Additional information related to Judiciary Chair Sends Questions to AG On Domestic Spying:

The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2007 to 2016 , January 2006 (196 pages, PDF)

Related documents:

FTC press release: "Consumer data broker ChoicePoint, Inc., which last year acknowledged that the personal financial records of more than 163,000 consumers in its database had been compromised, will pay $10 million in civil penalties and $5 million in consumer redress to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that its security and record-handling procedures violated consumers' privacy rights and federal laws. The settlement requires ChoicePoint to implement new procedures to ensure that it provides consumer reports only to legitimate businesses for lawful purposes, to establish and maintain a comprehensive information security program, and to obtain audits by an independent third-party security professional every other year until 2026."

Related Documents:

American Association of Universities: National Defense Education and Innovation Initiative (30 pages, PDF), Meeting America's Economic and Security Issues in the 21st Century, January 2006.

CRS Report, Congressional Gifts and Travel: Legislative Proposals for the 109th Congress, January 17, 2006 (10 pages, PDF): "It has been a decade since the House and Senate examined their rules on the acceptance of gifts and travel expenses. Press accounts of alleged excesses in privately funded congressional travel and gifts, particularly from lobbyists, have provided an impetus for proposed changes in the 109th Congress."

IBM press release: "More Americans anticipate falling victim to a cyber attack rather than a physical crime, reports a recent IBM survey of U.S. adults. And, despite the convenience and flexibility that online transactions offer, 37 percent of Americans will not provide credit card information online...Based on the survey, 70 percent of online shoppers will buy from a trusted Web site, while more than half of Americans are "very concerned" or "concerned" to buy from an unknown online retailer."

FDIC Safeguards Over Personal Employee Information, January 2006, Report No. 06-005 (60 pages, PDF): "The FDIC has a corporate wide program for protecting personal employee information, has appointed a Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) with responsibility for privacy and data protection policy, and is making efforts to enhance its privacy program in response to legislative requirements and breaches of FDIC employee information...The objective of our review was to evaluate the FDIC’s policies, procedures, and practices for safeguarding personal employee information in hardcopy and electronic form. Additional details on our objective, scope, and methodology are provided in Appendix I of this report....We made 15 recommendations to strengthen the FDIC's privacy program."

Press Conference of the President, January 26, 2006: "...Secondly, I said, before we do anything, I want to make sure it's legal. And so we had our lawyers look at it -- and as part of the debate, discussion with the American people as to the legality of the program. There's no doubt in my mind it is legal. And thirdly, will there be safeguards for the -- to safeguard the civil liberties of the American people? There's no doubt in my mind there are safeguards in place to make sure the program focuses on calls coming from outside the United States in, with an al Qaeda -- from a -- with a belief that there's an al Qaeda person making the call to somebody here in the States, or vice versa -- but not domestic calls. So as I stand here right now I can tell the American people the program is legal, it's designed to protect civil liberties, and it's necessary."

IBM press release: "IBM's intranet -- known inside the company as the "w3 On Demand Workplace," -- has been selected as one of "The Year's 10 Best Intranets" by the Nielsen Norman Group, a user experience research firm that advises companies on human-centered product and service design. IBM is the only information technology company recognized in this year's report."

Press release: "The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today released an on-line multimedia education tool that consumers can use to learn how to better protect their computers and themselves from identity thieves. The presentation also features actions consumers can take if their personal information has been compromised. Identity theft continues to be one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States, and has ranked as one of the top consumer concerns for the past several years. Identity theft is evolving in more complicated ways that make it harder for consumers to protect themselves, and easier for criminals to set up virtual storefronts on the Internet to sell confidential personal information."

In a shift from previous responses to and commentary about DOJ's subpoena for Google's search data, this New York Times article, In Case About Google's Secrets, Yours Are Safe, recasts the probe with a focus on protecting corporate trade secrets, not preserving user privacy.

Related commentary on Google:

Press release: "The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), which represents the chief information officers (CIOs) of the states, and the Metropolitan Information Exchange (MIX), an association of county and municipal CIOs, have released findings from a pair of surveys of state and local government cybersecurity preparedness."

This New York Times essay, A Growing Web of Watchers Builds a Surveillance Society, by David Shenk, offers especially cautionary insight in light of the growing public and political response to revelations about the government's domestic surveillance program.

Via FAS: "The National Security Agency has 46 million pages of historically valuable classified records more than 25 years old that are subject to automatic declassification by the end of December 2006,
according to a new NSA declassification plan....A copy of the new NSA declassification plan was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by researcher Mike Ravnitzky."

Press release: "The internet and email expand and strengthen the social ties that people maintain in the offline world, according to a new report released today by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. One major payoff comes when people use the internet to press their social networks into action as they face major challenges. People not only socialize online, but they also incorporate the internet into their quest for information and advice as they seek help and make decisions."

In advance of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing on Wartime Executive Power and the NSA's Surveillance Authority, February 6, 2006, the Committee's Republican Chairman, Arlen Specter, sent a letter on January 24, 2006, to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, listing 15 questions for which he expected detailed responses. The following questions are in the letter:

A 39 page report from the Department of Homeland Security's National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center, titled: Fast Analysis Report (Update to Reflect Category 5 Status) to DHS 1P on Hurricane Katrina, Gulf Coast, dated August 28, 2005, provides detailed estimates of the tremendous potential consequences of the storm on civilians, public and private infrastructure, and the economy. This data was provided to the White House prior to the catastrophic impact of the hurricanes on the Gulf states.

Related references:

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, January 23, 2006: Ten Best Intranets of 2006. The full report is available for download ($), but the summary reviews highlights of the findings, including the global scope of the projects, the size of the companies implementing successful applications (averaging 80,000 employees), and trends in architectures, navigation, training and use of multimedia.

A Tangled Web woven: At the CIA, what gets put up online--and what doesn't, by David E. Kaplan [via Secrecy News]:

"FirstGov.gov, in concert with private sector partners Vivísimo, Inc., and the Microsoft Corp., has launched the government's most powerful search engine, one that:

From CDT: "Less than a year after the Center for Democracy & Technology made Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports freely available to the public, members of the Internet community have responded by downloading more than 1 million of the informative documents from OpenCRS.com. CDT launched OpenCRS.com in June as a way to provide citizens access to an important taxpayer-funded resource that was previously inaccessible to many ordinary citizens."

From askSam, a searchable version of the full text of all of the State of the Union Addresses from 1790-2005.

Additional information and commentary related to January 18, 2006 posting, Legislation Seeks to Prohibit Sale of Cell Phone Records. The legislation referenced, the Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act of 2006 is S. 2178 (PDF). Commentary on the legislation by Anita Ramastry, It's Time for Congress to Prohibit and Criminally Punish the Sale of our Cell Phone Records: "Pretexting" for Phone Numbers is a Serious Privacy Violation.

NASA: Implementing a Knowledge-Based Acquisition Framework Could Lead to Better Investment Decisions and Project Outcomes. GAO-06-218, December 21, 2005. Highlights.

Following up with reports related to January 17, 2006 posting, Comparison of Congressional Oversight During Clinton and Bush Administrations, Secrecy News has posted two CRS reports as follows:

From The Center for Technology in Government (CTG), University at Albany - Sharing Justice Information: A Capability Assessment Toolkit, November 2005, by Anthony M. Cresswell, Theresa A. Pardo, Donna S. Canestraro, Sharon S. Dawes, and Dubravka Juraga (116 pages, PDF)

The Dept. of Energy website has undergone a significant redesign both on the back and frontend. The news site uses a Google search appliance; it employs a content management system; users may choose to view resources and links from a drop-down menu listing each state; and Quick Links target information for Consumers, Researchers, Educators, Students & Kids. [thanks to Peggy Garvin]

Commitee on the Present Danger Calls for Regime Change in Iran, January 23, 2006.

Business Intelligence: Not Just for Bosses Anymore: "Business intelligence has long been about spitting out data—often irrelevant and outdated—to a few big bosses. But today's BI is both more meaningful and more egalitarian. And it requires ever tighter alignment between IT and the business."

Senate Draft of the Digital Content Protection Act of 2006

Notable articles today:

Social Security Numbers: Stronger Protections Needed When Contractors Have Access to SSNs GAO-06-238, January 23, 2006. Highlights.

From askSam, "Search and analyze the full text of the Copyright Law of the United States of America & related laws contained in Title 17 of the United States Code."

In following this January 20, 2006 posting, Libby Defense Seeks to Widen Document Access in Plame CIA Leak Case, a report by AP today, Libby Wants to Use Classified Evidence: "Their action puts the Libby case on a dual track - one public, the other secret - that often can delay criminal cases from going to trial."

Pew Internet & American Life Project press release, January 22, 2006: "Internet access is the norm for most Americans, up to age 70, and all age cohorts of internet users (ages 12 and older) are equally likely to use email; about 90% of all internet users send or receive email. Given the many other variations in internet use among different age groups, it is notable that this basic communications tool is almost universally used. Internet users ages 12 to 28 years old have embraced the online applications that enable communicative, creative, and social uses. Teens and Generation Y (age 18-28) are significantly more likely than older users to send and receive instant messages, play online games, create blogs, download music, and search for school information."

Statement for the Record of NSA Director Lt Gen Michael V. Hayden, USAF, House Permanet Select Committee on Intelligence, 12 April 2000:

Earlier this month I posted New Generation E-Book Reader May Find Market Niche, and in related news, from WJS free features, A Hundred Books in Your Pocket.

Pew Internet & American Life Project press release, January 22, 2006: "Internet access is the norm for most Americans, up to age 70, and all age cohorts of internet users (ages 12 and older) are equally likely to use email; about 90% of all internet users send or receive email. Given the many other variations in internet use among different age groups, it is notable that this basic communications tool is almost universally used. Internet users ages 12 to 28 years old have embraced the online applications that enable communicative, creative, and social uses. Teens and Generation Y (age 18-28) are significantly more likely than older users to send and receive instant messages, play online games, create blogs, download music, and search for school information."

Commentary related to postings this past week, Google Fights DOJ Order to Produce Records of Database Searches and MSN Blog Post Explains Search Data Provided to DOJ, focuses on the privacy issues that dominate this probe, rather than the government's contention that the effort revolves around protecting children who use the Internet.

See the following articles and news that widen the scope of the discussion and provide additional relevant facts:

The Other Big Brother - The Pentagon has its own domestic spying program. Even its leaders say the outfit may have gone too far, By Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, January 30, 2006.

Bureau of Labor Statistics press release: "Nearly 15.7 million wage and salary workers were union members in 2005."

Press release: "Judicial Watch, the public interest group that fights government corruption, today released a declassified "Secret/NOFORN" State Department intelligence analysis cable, dated March 4, 2002, from the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Office of Analysis for Africa. The analysis, entitled, "Niger-Iraq: Sale of Niger Uranium to Iraq Unlikely," (5 pages, PDF) was part of a larger analysis document for the week of February 25 – March 3, 2002, approximately ten months prior to President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address, where he claimed Iraqi leadership attempted to obtain uranium from Niger, and one year before the war in Iraq was initiated."

Google's Infinite Database Under Scrutiny, press release, January 20, 2006: "Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), the ranking Democrat on the Telecommunications subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee...announced his plans to introduce a bill to strengthen consumers' Internet privacy. When Congress returns, Rep. Markey will introduce legislation to prohibit the storage of personally identifiable information derived from a consumer's Internet use in data bases such as Google’s or Yahoo’s beyond a reasonable period of time. After that time, the information must be destroyed."

January 20, 2006 Text of Letter from Rep. John Conyers, Jr., to Presidents and CEO's of 20 Telecommunications Companies Concerning Bush's Secret Spying Program

Following up on the news this week, Google Fights DOJ Order to Produce Records of Database Searches, this related posting Privacy and MSN Search states the the facts as follows:

Registry of U.S. Government Publication Digitization Projects: "The Registry contains records for projects that include digitized copies of publications originating from the U.S. Government. The projects may or may not be Federally funded. They are from libraries, government agencies, or other non-profit institutions."

Following up on previous posting on the Plame CIA leak case, New York Times reports that Lawyers in C.I.A. Leak Case Seek to Subpoena Journalists.

No, not the Basement Tapes, but the second Basement Hearings [the first hearing was held on June 16, 2005.]

Judiciary Democratic Congressional Briefing "Constitution in Crisis: Domestic Surveillance and Executive Power" January 20, 2006.

Press release: "Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., on Friday introduced a resolution setting the record straight that Congress did not authorize President Bush's illegal spying program when it passed a 2001 resolution governing the use of military force in the war on terror."

Beyond Algorithms: A Librarian's Guide to Finding Web Sites You Can Trust, by Karen G. Schneider, a librarian and writer, who is Director of Librarians' Internet Index (LII).

New 2005 FBI Computer Crime Survey (19 pages, PDF). "The survey, developed and analyzed with the help of leading public and private authorities on cyber security, is based on responses from a cross-section of more than 2,000 public and private organizations in four states."

The January 15, 2006 issue of LLRX.com includes the following articles:

The Gun is Smoking - 2004 Ohio Precinct-Level Exit Poll Data Show Virtually Irrefutable Evidence of Vote Miscount (31 pages, PDF)

January 18, 2006: "Rep. Waxman asks Independent Counsel David M. Barrett for an explanation regarding why his office has been renting 11,500 square feet for only five full-time employees and other new details GAO recently provided on Mr. Barrett's expenditures. To date, his ten-and-a-half year investigation of former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros has cost the taxpayer over $21 million."

Press release, National Resources Council of Maine: Maine's First-In-The-Nation Law Requiring Manufacturers to Pay to Recycle Electronic Waste Goes Into Effect

Press release: "Today EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit (PDF) against the Department of Justice, asking a federal court to order the disclosure of information about the Administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program within 20 days. The Justice Department has played a key role in authorizing, implementing and overseeing the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance activities. EPIC argues in its court papers (PDF) that the debate surrounding the program "cannot be based solely upon information that the Administration voluntarily chooses to disseminate."

As reported by the New York Times: Administration Lays Out Legal Case for Wiretapping Program, which references the following report:

I am delighted to announce the addition of three new columns on LLRX.com, authored by leading professionals from different spheres of our community.

On January 4, 2006, Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-CA) sent a letter to President Bush stating that "... the practice of briefing only certain Members of the intelligence committees [on NSA programs] violates the specific requirements of the National Security Act of 1947." A New York Times article published on January 19, 2006 discusses a January 18, 2006 CRS memorandum [titled, Statutory Procedures Under Which Congress Is To Be Informed of U.S. Intelligence Activities, Including Covert Actions], addressing Rep. Harman's position which addresses the issue of NSA briefings limited to the so called "Gang-of-Eight" [which includes the Speaker and Minority Leader of the House, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate and the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the congressional intelligence committees] as follows: "If the NSA surveillance program were to considered an intelligence collection program, limiting congressional notification of the NSA program to the Gang of Eight, which some Members who were briefed about the program contend, would appear to be inconsistent with the law, which requires that the "congressional intelligence committees be kept fully and currently informed of all intelligence activities," other than those involving covert actions." [Note: this is the second CRS report released in the course of this month that questions the legal authority of warrantless wiretaps. The first one is here. These reports are nonpartisan, and are authored by experts in respective fields.]

In a January 17, 2006 letter, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, Assistant Senate Democratic Leader Richard Durbin, Senate Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman Charles Schumer and Senate Democratic Conference Secretary Debbie Stabenow requested that President Bush "...make public as soon as possible an accounting of Mr. Abramoff's personal contacts with Bush Administration officials and the official acts that may have been undertaken at his request."

National Report Card on the State of Emergency Medicine: "The National Report Card on the State of Emergency Medicine assesses the support that each state and the District of Columbia provides for their emergency care systems. A wake-up call for policymakers, the report underscores the challenges facing patients who need emergency care and recognizes efforts to address these needs. This report should motivate state and national policy support for improving emergency care systems."

Country Profiles: "This series of profiles of foreign nations is part of the Country Studies Program, formerly the Army Area Handbook Program. The profiles offer brief, summarized information on a country's historical background, geography, society, economy, transportation and telecommunications, government and politics, and national security. In addition to being featured in the front matter of published Country Studies, they are now being prepared as stand-alone reference aides for all countries in the series, as well as for a number of additional countries of interest. The profiles offer reasonably current country information independent of the existence of a recently published Country Study and will be updated annually or more frequently as events warrant."

Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, hosted Ask the White House yesterday.

WSJ free feature: Some Iraq Rebuilding Funds Go Untraced - Investigators Have Yet to Pursue U.S. Contracting Money That May Be Missing: "More than 18 months after the Pentagon disbanded the Coalition Provisional Authority that ran Iraq, neither the Justice Department nor a special inspector general has moved to recover large sums suspected of disappearing through fraud and price gouging in reconstruction."

Honest Leadership & Open Government Act: "The Act will reinvigorate Congressional ethics rules and institute broad-based lobbying reforms to ensure that the representatives of the people are operating in the peopl'’s interest, not the special interests." [press release from House Democratic Leader Pelosi]

Follow-up to yesterday's posting, Stronger Safeguards Sought As Cell Records Sold on Web - two related press releases on new legislation to protect the privacy of cell phone logs which are available for sale online.

"In a pair of new reports, Rep. Henry A. Waxman examines the failure of the Republican-controlled Congress to investigate wrongdoing by the Bush Administration and the very different approach toward oversight taken by the Republican-controlled Congress during the Clinton Administration. An additional report released in 2001 documents numerous examples of allegations against the Clinton Administration that Republican investigators pursued and ultimately failed to substantiate."

Attention web designers: You have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression! Authors: Lindgaard, Gitte, Fernandes, Gary, Dudek, Cathy, Browñ, J. - Behaviour and Information Technology, Volume 25, Number 2, Number 2/March-April 2006, pp. 115-126(12)

From the IE Blog, news that the upcoming IE7 will have a 'Delete Browsing History' feature that allows users to easily eliminate a range of information on their browsing activities, all from one menu. This information includes temporary Internet files, cookies, the history of websites most recently visited, form data, and passwords. Also note: "...if you're part of a domain in a corporate environment, an administrator has the ability to disable certain aspects of this feature."

Press release: "Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA) Ranking Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, released responses from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) [2 pages, PDF] and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) [2 pages, PDF] in response to his inquiry into reports of the commercial availability of consumer telephone records by companies like www.celltolls.com and other web-based companies that sell private cell phone records for as low as $89.95."

Rice-Chertoff Joint Vision: Secure Borders and Open Doors in the Information Age: "Since 9/11, the Bush Administration has set many changes in motion to improve border security while still welcoming visitors to the United States. There have been two great challenges: to harmonize all these changes for maximum effect while maintaining the right balance between stronger security and facilitating travel. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff have been working together to manage these challenges. The result is a three part vision to guide the current and future development of solutions that ensure the best use of new technologies and the most efficient processes—all of which will ensure that our joint facilitation and security objectives are met."

Combating Terrorism: Determining and Reporting Federal Funding Data, GAO-06-161, January 17, 2006. Highlights.

Press release: "In New York, on January 17, 2006, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a lawsuit against President George W. Bush, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA), and the heads of the other major security agencies, challenging the NSA’s surveillance of persons within the United States without judicial approval or statutory authorization. The suit seeks an injunction that would prohibit the government from conducting warrantless surveillance of communications in the U.S. CCR filed the suit in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York on its own behalf and on behalf of CCR attorneys and legal staff representing clients who fit the criteria described by the Attorney General for targeting under the NSA Surveillance Program."

New York Times: Spy Agency Data After Sept. 11 Led F.B.I. to Dead Ends: "President Bush has characterized the eavesdropping program, which focused on the international communications of some Americans and others in the United States, as a "vital tool" against terrorism; Vice President Dick Cheney has said it has saved "thousands of lives." But the results of the program looked very different to some officials charged with tracking terrorism in the United States. More than a dozen current and former law enforcement and counterterrorism officials, including some in the small circle who knew of the secret eavesdropping program and how it played out at the F.B.I., said the torrent of tips led them to few potential terrorists inside the country they did not know of from other sources and diverted agents from counterterrorism work they viewed as more productive."

The New York Times reports on a speech given today in Washington D.C. at DAR Constitutional Hall by former Vice President Al Gore, the focus of which was presidential authority, government secrecy, domestic surveillance, and the decline of congressional power. An audience of several thousand attended Gore's speech, which was simulcast by C-SPAN, and co-sponsored by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy and The Liberty Coalition.

The prepared text of Gore's remarks, Restoring the Rule of Law (16 pages, PDF)

WSJ free feature today: The High-Court Battle That Never Was - Senators' Pact on Judicial Filibusters Drained Drama From Roberts, Alito Nominations:

Treasury and IRS Issues Guidance Regarding Hybrid and Lean Burn Vehicles: "During a visit to the Detroit...Treasury Secretary John Snow announced the issuance of IRS guidance regarding the tax credit for hybrid vehicles. The credit, which was enacted by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, may be as much as $3,400 for those who purchase the most fuel-efficient vehicles."

AP reports Sen. Arlen Specter, Chief of Judiciary Panel, Says He's Skeptical of Domestic Spying Program.

Related news:

Zittrain, Jonathan, The Generative Internet. Harvard Law Review, 2006.

The Economic Costs of the Iraq War: An Appraisal Three Years After the Beginning of the Conflict, By Linda Bilmes and Joseph E. Stiglitz
Working Paper Number: RWP06-002 (37 pages, PDF). Submitted: 01/11/2006.

American Libraries Online, January 13, 2006: "The American Library Association's Executive Board intends to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine if the FBI has been collecting information on the Association and its leaders as a result of their opposition to certain provisions of the USA Patriot Act. ALA OIF Deputy Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone said the FOIA request builds on the American Civil Liberties Union's discovery of information that leads it to believe that the FBI has been scrutinizing organizations that advocate changes to the Patriot Act. The request would focus on activities relating solely to the Association's advocacy concerning the Patriot Act."

Related to this January 12, 2005 posting, Pew Research Report Gauges Public Response to Recent High Profile Washington News, Most Americans Can't Name Any Supreme Court Justices, Says FindLaw.com Survey.

This January 13, 2006 New York Times article, Even Law Firms Join the Trend to Outsourcing, raises questions about outsourcing expert legal services.

DHS press release: "A live test of e-Passports, that contain contactless chips with biographic and biometric information and the readers that are capable of reading these e-Passports, begins January 15, 2006 at Terminal G at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). This test is a collaborative effort between the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore that will run through April 15, 2006."

National Information Exchange Model (NIEM): "...establishes a single standard XML foundation for exchanging information between DHS, DOJ, and supporting domains..."

Spirit of America sponsors The Anoniblogging Wiki: "This wiki contains our five initial guides on how to blog more safely [targeted to citizens in Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Malaysia and Zimbabwe]. Across the globe, countries that discourage free speech have followed their citizens into the blogosphere. According to one count, in the last two years at least 30 bloggers (and there are no doubt more) have been interrogated, arrested, tortured and sentenced to long prison terms for the "crime" of speaking critically about their governments. Regardless of your culture, your country, your politics or religion, we believe you deserve to speak your mind without falling afoul of state power. Unfortunately, what you deserve and what you get are not always the same thing. So, for those of you who wish to speak out on your blogs, but who do not wish to risk imprisonment or worse for doing so, we have prepared guides that will help you to blog more safely by blogging more anonymously."

A January 12, 2005 ABC News Nightline interview with former President Clinton clarified information on the use of warrantless wiretaps during his administration. According to Clinton: "My attitude was that once the Congress had spoken on it and given us the tools that we needed, we used it...We used the law. We either went there [FISA Court] and asked for the approval or, if there was an emergency and we had to do it beforehand, then we filed within three days afterward and gave them a chance to second guess it, because I thought it was a good — I think in the country you always have to try to balance these things out, so that's what we did."

From the Committee on Using Information Technology to Enhance Disaster Management, National Research Council: Summary of a Workshop on Using Information Technology to Enhance Disaster Management

From The Nation, a commentary by attorney Elizabelth Holtzman, former Representative from New York, 1973-1981.

Related to yesterday's posting, Digital Rights Management: A Guide for Librarians, see Campus Copyrights and Responsibilities: A Basic Guide to Policy Considerations (39 pages, PDF), AAU, ARL, American University Press.

Americans Taking Abramoff, Alito and Domestic Spying in Stride - Democrats Hold Huge Issue Advantage, Released: January 11, 2006 (32 pages, PDF)

"After an extensive public comment period and review, the Anti-Spyware Coalition has released the Final Working Report of the Spyware Definitions. In addition, ASC has released a number of supporting documents, including a Vendor Dispute Resolution Process, a Glossary and a set of Safety Tips for Users."

"Your Google personalized homepage puts the information you care about on one web page -- and now you can access that page on your mobile phone or device, in a phone-friendly format that's easy to read and navigate."

Digital Rights Management: A Guide for Librarians, by Mike Godwin (44 pages, PDF)

On January 3, 2006 Jeffrey H. Smith, a former General Counsel of the CIA and a former General Counsel of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a 16 page memorandum to the Members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, addressing the legal authorities regarding warrantless surveillance of U.S. persons. His conclusion - "The 2001 [Authority for the Military Use of Force] AMUF does not, in my view, justify warrantless electonic surveillance of U.S. persons..."

Related references:

January 09, 2006 - Federal Spending by Agency and Budget Function, FY2001-FY2005 (PDF)

The Environmental Opinions of Judge Samuel Alito (6 pages, PDF, January 06, 2006

"Rep. Waxman asks the Labor Secretary Chao to reverse the Mine Safety and Health Administration's 2004 decision to exclude mine safety inspectors' notes in Freedom of Information Act responses. The agency's secrecy policy limited disclosure about hundreds of safety violations at the Sago mine for years before the recent disaster." [January 11, 2006]

Status of a Member of the House Who Has Been Indicted for or Convicted of a Felony (14 pages, PDF), January 5, 2006.

Searches and Seizures in a Digital World, by Orin S. Kerr (55 pages, PDF)

"The National MultiCultural Institute (NMCI) launches a groundbreaking web portal that provides more than 15,000 web entries of informational resources on issues related to human trafficking and modern-day slavery from around the world."

Agency Reports on Violations of the Antideficiency Act: GAO has created this database in carrying out the statutory requirement in section 1401 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-447 [658 pages, PDF), 118 Stat. 2809, 3192 (Dec. 8, 2004).

Press release: "Today in his rounds of questioning Judge Alito, Senator Edward M. Kennedy pressed Judge Alito on his commitment to equal justice under the law by raising his membership in a radical anti-women, anti-minority alumni organization [Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP)] and several rulings on key cases involving individual rights." [press release includes supporting documents related to CAP and Judge Alito's cases.]

"OnGuardOnline.gov provides practical tips from the federal government and the technology industry to help you be on guard against Internet fraud, secure your computer, and protect your personal information."

Editor & Publisher reviews a new book by a group of 20 Dallas News photojournalists and reporters that chronicles the devastating impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

OMB Watch: "Citizens for Sensible Safeguards, a coalition of labor, consumer, and other public interest organizations, filed comments (29 pages, PDF) Jan. 9 on OMB's Proposed Bulletin on Good Guidance Practices. The bulletin purports to make agency guidance documents "more transparent, consistent, and accountable" by setting new requirements that include high-level review by senior agency staff of any guidance document deemed "significant" and a lengthy review and approval process for any "economically significant" guidance."

Following up on the series of references that were noted in my posting yesterday, news today that President Bush has apparently dropped his opposition to congressional hearings on the controversial domestic surveillance program about which news has appeared almost every day for the past month.

Related reference on the upcoming hearings:

Press release: "The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced today the 2005 top 10 global private sector patent recipients. Listed...are the 10 corporations receiving the most U.S. patents for inventions in 2005, along with their 2004 ranking." IBM, Canon and HP rank 12, 3 respectively.

Following up on my November 11, 2005 posting, EPA Proposes To Limit Public Access to Pollution Release Inventory, see this new report from OMB Watch, Dismantling the Public's Right to Know: EPA's Systematic Weakening of the Toxics Release Inventory (16 pages, PDF):

From the U.S. Courts, Legal Term Glossary Newly Available: "Stumped by a legal term? An updated glossary of legal terms encountered in the various federal courts is now included on this web site."

After a series of Congressional calls for hearings and investigations into the administration's controversial post 9/11 domestic surveillance program, news today from several sources confirming that probes have indeed been launched, and hearings scheduled. Questions remain as to when, and if, the conclusions will be made public. Additionally, ABC News reports that former NSA "insider" Russell Tice is on record as a whistleblower at the heart of the New York Times article that revealed the program's existence.

Related reference:

All that music you have burned to CDs may only last a couple of years according to IBM Speicherexperte (memory expert) Kurt Gerecke. He advises using long-lived magnetic tapes to store the music, videos and photos created by the plethora of gadgets we cannot live without.

Malware - Future Trends, by Dancho Danchev,10/01/06 (26 pages, PDF).

Corporate responsibility: Reporters Without Borders urges Internet users and bloggers to support its recommendations on freedom of expression.

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, January 9, 2006: Search Engines as Leeches on the Web

Federal Times reports that FEMA data on contracts awarded after Katrina is substantively incomplete in numerous areas, including identification of whether over $450 million in contracts were even competitively bid.

Poll: Most Want Court OK for Gov't Taps

From InformationWeek, this straight forward guide for PC users takes you through a five step process to identify and eliminate problems before they overtake you.

S. 2175 - A bill to require the submittal to Congress of any Presidential Daily Briefing relating to Iraq during the period beginning on January 20, 1997, and ending on March 19, 2003. Sponsor: Sen Kennedy, Edward M. [MA](introduced 12/21/2005). Latest Major Action: 12/22/2005 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Intelligence.

CBO: The Long-Term Implications of Current Defense Plans and Alternatives: Detailed Update for Fiscal Year 2006, January 2006 (84 pages, PDF)

CDT: "Fourteen of the nation's leading experts on constitutional law today issued an analysis concluding that "the Justice Department's defense of what it concedes was secret and warrantless electronic surveillance of persons within the United States fails to identify any plausible legal authority for such surveillance. Accordingly the program appears on its face to violate existing law." The letter (11 pages, PDF), signed by law professors and former senior government officials, comes to the same conclusion, but in stronger terms, as an analysis issued last week by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. Signers of today's letter include former federal judge and FBI Director William S. Sessions, former Deputy Attorney General Philip Heymann, lawyers who worked in the executive branch under President George W. Bush, and Richard Epstein, a prominent conservative scholar and fellow at the Hoover Institution." January 09, 2006.

Report to Congress on the Benefits of the President's E-Government Initiatives, January 6, 2006. (183 pages, PDF)

Review of the Transportation Security Administration's Management Controls Over the Screener Recruitment Program, OIG-06-18, December 2005 (PDF, 36 pages), 1/9/2006.

Press release, January 5, 2006 – "Infotrieve, Inc. today announced that it had converted ArticleFinder, its online scientific, technical, and medical (STM) database with more than 26 million citations and eight million abstracts from over 54,000 journals, to a free access model. The move provides scientists and researchers, who work for corporations and are subject to different copyright regulations than their academic counterparts, with an end-to-end solution for conducting STM searches across literature from multiple providers. The solution seamlessly retrieves full-text scholarly journal articles that they need on a pay-per-view basis."

A Legal Analysis of the NSA Warrantless Surveillance Program, by Morton H. Halperin, January 6, 2006

CRS: Authorization For Use Of Military Force in Response to the 9/11 Attacks (P.L. 107-40): Legislative History, January 4, 2006. [via FAS]

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary has scheduled a hearing on the nomination of Samuel A. Alito, Jr. to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States for Monday, January 9, 2006 at 12:00 p.m. in the Senate Hart Office Building Room 216. Chairman Specter will preside.

AP: Specter Seeks AG's Testimony on Spying

Related references:

Series of articles related to the corruption scandal impacting a growing number of individuals on the Hill, as well as lobbying firms.

Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki: "This is a directory of Fortune 500 companies that have business blogs, defined as: active public blogs by company employees about the company and/or its products." Currently there are 19 listings that include links to the respective blogs.

CRS Report - The Google Book Search Project: Is Online Indexing A Fair Use Under Copyright Law (6 pages, PDF), Published 12/28/2005, by Robin Jeweler, American Law Division.

February 2006: When it pays to buy organic

New York Times: Pentagon Study Links Fatalities to Body Armor: 80% of Marine fatalities could have been prevented if higher quality body armor, which has been available since 2003, had been distributed to these troops.

Via OpentheGovernment.org, from CQ Researcher, December 2005, this 24 page (PDF) report on Government Secrecy.

"Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the nation’s top-ranking federal judge, issued his first Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary.
Text (pdf)."

According to a CNET News.com article by Declan McCullagh, pledges by many U.S. Senators not to use cookies on their e-gov sites have, in at least 23 instances, gone unfulfilled. This is in following with recent news about the use of tracking technology on other e-gov sites, including the White House and NSA.

OECD e-Government Studies e-Government for Better Government

CRS Report, January 5, 2006: Presidential Authority to Conduct Warrantless Electronic Surveillance to Gather Foreign Intelligence Information (44 pages, PDF)

Related references:

IRS press release, January 3, 2006: "The Internal Revenue Service today launched the 2006 filing season with a new look to its popular Web site, improved online tools and enhanced electronic services that will better assist taxpayers and tax preparers...Now, taxpayers can find even more help 24 hours a day, seven days a week on IRS.gov. The newly redesigned IRS.gov provides a more usable look and feel. Also, the agency improved overall site navigation and enhanced the search engine to increase search result accuracy and usability. Users should more easily find needed forms and publications, electronic tools and tax information. A new drop-down menu called "I Need To" [see upper right hand side of homepage] provides taxpayers with quick access to frequently requested information."

The Washington Post today reported that the FISA Court judges will be briefed by intelligence officials next week on details regarding post 9/11 authorization of domestic wiretapping. In addition, the article states that only the court's presiding judge was informed about the program prior to the information becoming public in December 2005.

Related references:

From FAS, this link to a new CRS report, National Security Whistleblowers, December 30, 2005 (47 pages, PDF):

Commission Announcement, January 4, 2005: "Today the Commission announced the filing of two settled actions against corporate issuers, SEC v. McAfee, Inc. (filing, 42 pages, PDF) and In the Matter of Applix, Inc. In one, the company will pay a civil money penalty; in the other, a penalty is not part of the settlement. The question of whether, and if so to what extent, to impose civil penalties against a corporation raises significant questions for our mission of investor protection...We proceed from the fundamental principle that corporate penalties are an essential part of an aggressive and comprehensive program to enforce the federal securities laws, and that the availability of a corporate penalty, as one of a range of remedies, contributes to the Commission's ability to achieve an appropriate level of deterrence through its decision in a particular case."

Related references:

The new Sony Reader, weighing in at only 9 ounces with a thickness of 1/2 inch, and the size of a paperback, looks like a gadget whose time may have finally come. Although ebooks have been available for 10 years now from a range of organizations and libraries, for free and for a fee, the device has yet to reach widespread market acceptance.

ABA Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary rating of professional qualifications of Samuel A. Alito - January 4, 2006

Also from the ABA:

According to ComputerWorld, "The District of Columbia is poised to switch on a new system designed to allow emergency response command centers in Washington and surrounding areas to coordinate responses to natural disasters and terrorist attacks using Web services."

The Wikipedia controversy continues to generate a range of opinions and commentary on the future direction and content of the open source, collaborative online encyclopedia. Prevailing wisdom: it is always advisable to locate, read and evaluate more than one source for all research, whether conducted online, or using TV, radio, or print sources. Carefully review and critically analyze the materials and sourcing before determing the validity of the content. Misinformation does not only appear online, a point that has been driven home in no uncertain terms by current events.

AP reports IRS to Strip Political Info From Databases: The contractor that provides the IRS with online data for tax collection purposes has been including information about citizens' political affiliation, mined from voter registration records. As noted in the article however, "IRS employees are prohibited from using political party affiliation when enforcing tax laws."

Rob Evans of the UK Guardian documents the challenges encountered by citizens, and the responses of government officials, to the Freedom of Information Act during this first year since it entered into force. [m.r.]

Related references, also from the UK Guardian:

The Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse issued a press release yesterday on the number of securites fraud class actions filed in 2005. The study identifies a decline in the number of suits and investor losses in 2005, compared to previous years. The full report, Securities Class Action Case Filings, 2005: A Year in Review, is 19 pages, PDF.

AP reports that House Intelligence Committee ranking Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman sent a letter to the White House stating the limited scope of NSA briefings on domestic surveillance, provided only to select members of Congress, did not comply with the National Security Act.

Related references:

Today Ken Wainstein, United States Attorney, District of Columbia, discussed the use and reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act on the Ask the White House online forum.

Related resource:

As reported by OMB Watch, funding for the eRulemaking Program Management Office (PMO) expires February 2006. A determination has been made to allocate available funds to maintain operation of the Federal Docket Management System, (Regulations.gov), although the program is acknowledged to fall far short of an example of a successful e-gov implementation.

In following previous postings on domestic surveillance, a glimpse into the contentious situation between Congress and the White House, exemplified by the following exchange from the White House Press Briefing by Scott McClellan, January 3, 2006:
Q A number of members of Congress do not agree that the President has the authority to do what he did in that case.
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, previous administrations have cited similar authority.
Q And they want to have hearings, and those hearings are supported by many on both sides, including the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, because they don't believe that this is within the scope of the President's authority.
MR. McCLELLAN: And what's your question?
Q And my question is, does the White House take this into account, will it try to talk to them, will it participate in the hearings?
MR. McCLELLAN: Like I said, and the President has said we've briefed members of Congress on more than a dozen occasions.
Q But that's not what they're talking about.
MR. McCLELLAN: And in terms of discussions about this, the President talked about this at his end-of-the-year news conference. We shouldn't be talking about intelligence activities, particularly in a time of war, in a public way. This is a highly classified authorization --
Q Not anymore. I mean, it's public now.
MR. McCLELLAN: No, it still is. It still is highly classified. The President has talked in a very limited way about the nature of this authorization and what it's designed to do, and how it's limited. And so we will continue to talk with members of Congress --
Q Will you cooperate with a congressional hearing?
MR. McCLELLAN: -- the Attorney General has been talking to additional members of Congress about this authorization, so that they do understand why this tool is so vital in our efforts to prevail in the global war on terrorism.
Q But will you cooperate with a hearing?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I'm not going to get into talking about ruling things in or out from this podium. We'll talk with members of Congress and make sure that they're briefed and kept informed, as we have been.

Washington Post Radio will debut in March, and listeners in the DC metro area can find it on FM-107.7 and AM-1500.

Several articles available today expand upon the discussion about, and information related to, the escalating controversy generated by revelations of a post 9/11 domestic surveillance program. Listed below are the articles and links which collectively shed new light on the issue, result in further questions yet unanswered, and offer additional commentary and perspective on potential ramifications for individuals, journalists, and citizens overall:

Om Malik's blog announces that the new content and archives of the Business 2.0 family of online magazines (which includes Fortune and CNN Money), are now available without subscription, i.e., free.

Just a reminder: Executive Order 13392, Improving Agency Disclosure of Information.

From the Talking Points Memo Document Collection:

Spy? Where?: Understanding Spyware, by Benny C. Rayner, 03/01/06 (14 pages, PDF): "Spyware is a pest no matter which way you think about it. Whether it’s causing you to have numerous pop-ups or it is consuming all of your system resources; spyware is a menace to be reckoned with."

The Law Page is a new, centralized webpage from which readers may link to a range of information and commentary on law and business related issues that the Journal is aggregating from current content as well as additional sources. This includes news links from Mealey's.com, and a new column, The FLaw, on law firm management (note: most of this content is available by subscription only, but there are also links to WSJ free features). The cornerstone of the content is the new Law Blog.

Following up on my December 21, 2005 posting, Pelosi Requests Declassification of Her Letter on NSA Activities, today Congresswoman Pelosi released the text of her letter, along with the response of then National Security Agency (NSA) Director Michael Hayden, both of which have redacted, and date from October 2001.

Related references:

DHS' Annual Performance Plan, Fiscal Year 2006: Audit prepared by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General (68 pages, PDF)

Document management systems go to court - New federal rules for 2006 could come down hard on IT:

Government officials throughout the country are evaluating the risks and benefits of posting personal data about citizens and public official on e-gov sites, such as is increasingly the case with real estate records and court related documents. This Government Technology article reviews the challenges posed by this issue, and the range of responses, and non responses, that have resulted.

Related references:
Testimony of Joan Humphrey Lefkow, United States District Judge, Northern District of Illinois, before the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate, May 18, 2005:

In 2005, there was alot written about RSS, from the standpoint of marketing, enterprise-wide communications, current awareness monitoring, and as an app that perhaps could significantly diminish the use of email. Interesting, therefore, to note this article, It's time to bury RSS. Will 2006 be the year of aggregated feeds?

Several new articles worth highlighting in reference to the domestic surveillance program that has raised vociferous responses from the President, members of Congress, the polls, bloggers, and a range of other sources.

Washington Post (reg. req'd): NSA Gave Other U.S. Agencies Information From Surveillance - Fruit of Eavesdropping Was Processed and Cross-Checked With Databases

Related reference:

Several news items today regarding the domestic surveillance program revealed in a December 15, 2005 New York Times article, the ramifications of which are subject to Congressional and DOJ investigation, continued commentary and perhaps further response by other judges on the FISA Court.