Category Archives: North America

Elizabeth Warren Balks on Opportunity to Act on Federal Reserve Criticisms

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Reason Magazine via the Wall Street Journal reports that freshman Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has come out against legislation proposed by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul to audit the Federal Reserve. This is in spite of the fact that in the past she has called for investigations into corruption in the Federal Reserve banks. Continue reading →

Megaupload Programmer: Days From Arrest to Plea

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Andrus Nomm, a former programmer from the defuct file sharing website Megaupload was arrested earlier this week before entering a guilty plea and being sentenced this same week. Nomm plead guilty to felony copyright infringement and was sentenced to one year and one day in jail. One of Megaupload's lawyers confirmed for the New Zealand Herald that Nomm was involved in a deal or agreed to come to the US. Among other charges Nomm is accused of watching at least one pirated TV Show. It, as always, remains important to note that his prison sentence is happening exactly because he came to the United States of his own volition and still finds himself having walked into the prison himself.

Bill Would Ban Federal Employees From Porn Breaks at Work

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The Federal Times reports that if a new bill introduced by North Carolina Republican Representative Mark Meadows becomes law, the viewing of pornography on United States Government computers by its employees would be prohibited. It is unknown what effect this ban would have on the morale of United States Government employees seeing as in some of the more forlorn agencies it can take two to six hours of pornography viewing to make the workplace environment bearable.

There is nothing new in the world. Except for the history you didn't know.

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From the defunct Bruce Wagner1 Bitcoin podcast2 :

Bruce Wagner : When was the last time you chatted to satoshi
Gavin Andresen: Um… I haven't had email from satoshi in a couple months actually. The last email I sent him I actually told him I was going to talk at the CIA. So it's possible , that…. that may have um had something to with his deciding.

Yes, it is… possible.

  1. One of the Early Bitcoin Morons ™. Pedophile / gay prostitute / showman with the camera in demo mode. ↩

  2. Specifically, "The Bitcoin Show: Special Bitcoin Conference Coverage: 08/20/2011" – discussing an event in June 2011. The original website (onlyonetv.com) has been purged, but the podcast itself is still available from various sources including, ironically, Apple's iTunes. ↩

Jeb Bush Document Dump Identity Theft Risk

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Former Florida Governor Jed Bush published unredacted names addresses, and phone numbers in his latest "transparency" related document dump as he considers running for the United States Presidency. The information includes names, addresses, and social security numbers sent in correspondence to the former Governor. Due to personal information substituting for signatures in the American legal system as discussed while considering the TurboTax fraud issue this information places the affected parties at risk for identity theft. The personal information is contained in six Microsoft Outlook files released in their entirety alongside an ebook of redacted correspondence from Bush's time as the governor of Florida.

DC Court of Appeal Upholds Redaction of Protocol to Shutdown Wireless Networks

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Today in a case between the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the United States Department of Homeland Security the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia protected the Department's desire to prevent full disclosure of "Standard Operating Procedure 303" from the public record. SOP 303 is a protocol maintained by the Department of Homeland Security which is alleged to concern a plan for shutting down wireless networks during "critical emergencies." Continue reading →

TurboTax Stops Filing State Tax Returns Due To Massive Fraud

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United States tax preparation company TurboTax, a subsidiary of "financial software" developer Intuit, has discontinued its e-filing service for state tax returns due to concerns over massive fraud. Reportedly Utah was the first state to raise concerns to the company identifying 28 returns as fraudulent with a further 8,000 suspected fraudulent returns. Minnesota followed by refusing to accept state returns filed through Turbo Tax after users reported logging in and seeing TurboTax show their taxes already had already been filed for them. Alabama similarly flagged 16,000 returns as likely fraudulent and insists that their computer and network security practices are in no way connected to the existence of fraudulent returns. Continue reading →

Indefinite Yahoo Gag Struck Down by Judge

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Reuters reports that yesterday U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal ruled against a gag order issued against Yahoo, that would have potentially prevented them from ever revealing they had been subjected to a particular grand jury subpoena. The order in question rather than seeking to compel Yahoo's silence on the matter of the subpoena for a set period of time, subject to potential renewal, sought instead to compel Yahoo's silence until ordered otherwise by the court. Continue reading →