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]
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]
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."
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."
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