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Daily Archives: January 2, 2008

The Best and Worst of 2007: Government Secrecy

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The Best and Worst of 2007: Government Secrecy, Patrick Radden Keefe, The Century Foundation, 1/2/2008.

  • “America has a classification problem, and has for quite some time. The late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once observed that if all the newspapers in the United States printed all the classified documents produced by the government on any given day, there wouldn’t be room in the papers for anything else. An unassailable impulse to classify information that might endanger national security has morphed into a cumbersome and expensive bureaucratic system in which great swaths of government activity are shielded from public view. Classification has become both a reflex within the federal government and a powerful get-out-of-jail-free card for the executive branch.”

    • DHS Trends in Naturalization Rates

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    Trends in Naturalization Rates (PDF, 2 pages): “This report examines the trends in naturalization rates of different cohorts and regions of birth.” “Asian immigrants had the highest cumulative naturalization rates and Mexican immigrants had among the lowest. Asian immigrants naturalized at a rate of approximately 70 percent for the 1973 to mid-1980’s cohorts and 60-65… Continue Reading

    CA sues EPA, citing new technical report: Study demonstrates that CA's standards more effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions than federal Energy Bill

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    California Air Resources Board Technical Assessment, January 2, 2008: Comparison of Greenhouse Gas Reductions Under the CAFE Standards and ARB Regulations Adopted Pursuant To AB1493. “In public comments explaining his denial of a waiver under Sec. 209(b) of the Clean Air Act for California to enforce its regulations implementing AB1493, U.S. EPA Administrator Steven Johnson… Continue Reading

    AG Mukasey – Opening of an Investigation Into the Destruction of Videotapes by CIA Personnel

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    Press release: “Following a preliminary inquiry into the destruction by CIA personnel of videotapes of detainee interrogations, the Department’s National Security Division has recommended, and I have concluded, that there is a basis for initiating a criminal investigation of this matter, and I have taken steps to begin that investigation as outlined below. This preliminary… Continue Reading

    U.S. Households Can Now Request Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupons

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    Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program: “The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has launched the Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program (Coupon Program), as authorized in the Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005. Starting January 1, 2008, all U.S. households will be eligible to request up to two coupons, worth… Continue Reading

    Press Freedom Round-up 2007

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    Press Freedom Round-up 2007, Reporters Without Borders: “At least 86 journalists were killed around the world in 2007. The figure has risen steadily since 2002 – from 25 to 86 (+ 244%) – and is the highest since 1994, when 103 journalists were killed, nearly half of them in the Rwanda genocide, about 20 in… Continue Reading

    Final Report of the Deemed Export Advisory Committee

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    The Deemed Export Rule in the Era of Globalization, Submitted to The Secretary of Commerce By the members of The Deemed Export Advisory Committee, December 20, 2007 (153 pages, PDF). “It is the Committee’s principal conclusion that the existing Deemed Export Regulatory Regime no longer effectively serves its intended purpose and should be replaced with… Continue Reading

    TechPresident Presents 2007 Campaign Web Index

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    “TechPresident presents our 2007 Campaign Web Index, a year-end study of which campaigns are best at using the various elements of the web. For the survey we’ve tapped the very brightest minds working in tech and politics, who happen to be our own bloggers and other friends (some respondents have asked to remain anonymous). Check… Continue Reading

    Dept. of State Issues Final Rule on choice of "vicinity read" radio frequency identification technology for passport card

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    “…the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA) provides that United States citizens and nonimmigrant aliens may enter the United States only with passports or such alternative documents as the Secretary of Homeland Security may designate as satisfactorily establishing identity and citizenship… The vicinity RFID electronic chip contains only one item of information–a… Continue Reading