I can provide an answer to one of those names - Debbie Wasserman Schultz
She's completely ruled by her ambition for party leadership.
I couldn't imagine her ever crossing her party bosses unless it bumped her up the ladder somehow.
Unlike a business, individual or private organization, DHS is a governmental agency.
And unlike a business, individual or private organization, governmental agencies are wholly financed by taxpayers and therefore accountable to us.
One can imagine all sorts of things but imagination isn't very solid ground to build public policy.
If we put imagination and things that aren't government aside, this comes down to "How is the public best served?"
And one of the default answers to that question is:
"With transparency, openness and a dedication to be accountable to the people who pay for your existence."
In real life that translates to:
"No Secrets. No hiding one's actions. No unavoidable delay in informing the public."
That's where we always start. The VERY rare exception to that rule should always be very, very difficult to achieve.
"Holder’s Justice Department has actually had a very impressive record on civil rights cases."
Holder's pro-civil-rights record is a lot like Obama's pro-whistleblower record.
That is, they're aggressive in pursuing anyone outside the administration, vicious in protecting abuses committed by inside the administration.
Erodogan could learn some subtlety from the US. The US Gov doesn't blame the Social Media for an educated citizenry.
Instead, US Gov officials heap praise upon the Internet while partnering with corporations to increasingly chill it's use through control, monitoring and judicial actions.
Meanwhile: CFAA forces join up to form monster org representing Billions in pro-CISPA, max-CFAA interests.
ABM, the association of business information and media companies, and the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announced today that they plan to merge in order to form the comprehensive, global business information and media industry association.
The CFAA was the subject of several proposed legislative reforms in 2012, and SIIA has been engaged, seeking to preserve the ability of SIIA members to use the CFAA to deter and prevent unauthorized access to or misuse of databases, subscription services and cloud services.
The CFAA carries civil as well as criminal provisions, and it has long been considered an effective tool for protecting business databases.
(sadly) Lobbyists for employees have sought to narrow the CFAA to prevent its use against employees.
But their proposed narrowing of the statute could also diminish its usefulness in protecting private databases, and ABM has joined other database companies in opposing the amendment.
I'm sure the best is yet to come and we'll be hearing from our new Global Business Information and Media Industry Association overlords soon enough.
"Hopefully, most of the folks in Congress receiving this particular document will do some research on what's being said..."
Congressians lean basic truths by divining the Holy Campaign Contribution spreadsheets.
It is from those inspired numbers that politicians are taught their position on Copyright.
This info comes out of every election cycle.
Each year it seems that one end of the equation gets obsessive attention while the other is ignored completely.
Where is a Billion+ Election Dollars spent?
It's a massive cash infusion to the corporations that own the news outlets that cover the candidates.
This may be the largest conflict of interest in America today.
I am endlessly puzzled why folks neither seem to notice nor find anything amiss with this.
I never drew such a broad conclusion; you came to that on your own. I outlined causes+effects that are causing real-life grief.
I didn't cherry-pick those C+E to force an inaccurate conclusion either. If I had, it could be easily disproved by adding whatever info I omitted.
Here's a restatement of my point.
1) The US Gov is by far the single biggest financial player in the US healthcare system.
2) Stipulations for reimbursement by the US Gov are onerously complex. This problem is at least a generation old and it continues to worsen.
3a) Complex regulations almost always favor larger players who can more easily dedicate resources needed to cope with them.
3b)US medical corporations have every motivation to lobby US legislators to structure Gov regulations to favor their industry. US legislators will continue to to respond favorably to industry lobbying.
If you put on me to draw a conclusion, it would be this.
Neither the US Gov nor US corporations posses sufficient ethical responsibility to be entrusted with our healthcare.
In the US, government is most involved with the finance of healthcare.
In contrary to creating a state of accountability it's fostered an increasing complex system that favors large corporate medical interests over local community ones.
One natural and predictable result of that complexity is the medical-financial nightmare Mike wrote about.
. . . while independent doctors are closing their shops
I live in the retiree capital of the US and we have no shortage of patients for doctors to care for.
Nevertheless, in the last decade over half of our independent physicians (primarily GPs) have closed their practices to join larger medical groups, move from the area or just retire early. They've found it increasingly unprofitable to practice traditional medicine.
A predictable exception are surgical specialists, most of whom work as an attending physician at a local hospital.
Another relevant note is that medical service providers here are being reimbursed at increasingly lower amounts - from both government and private sector insurance.
I have two customers that are established local service providers. One believes it will - unavoidably - become unprofitable within the next 18 months.
The other is realistically unsure of it's future and hopes to survive through streamlining the organization.
These are community driven companies.
They provide services that are in demand and they are immensely responsible with their operations.
But with new cuts from Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance coming each quarter, they (like our local physicians) are finding it less and less profitable to continue.
It's a meaningful piece of the Med-Ec nightmare puzzle.
Sect 5(a) Federal Agencies self-police that they're in compliance w/ Fair Info Practice Principles.
Sect 5(b) DHS agencies shall assess civil liberty risks and make a report available to DHS Secretary (but not us).
DHS agencies shall self-assess and add their results to Secretary's report (that we can't see because it'll contain classified 'annex').
Sect 5(c) DHS agencies shall have a chat about the report with Civil Liberties Oversight Board and Office of Management and Budget.
Sect 5(d)Info that is submitted in accordance with 6 U.S.C. §133 shall be protected from disclosure except where any one of a countless number of laws can potentially be applied to nullify those protections.
6 U.S.C. §133(a)(1)(A)Prevents the Gov from responding to FoIA Act requests about our data.
6 U.S.C. §133(a)(1)(D)Allows a number of things to be done with our data as long as whoever harvested the data signs an agreement (which is certain to be submitted to them).
6 U.S.C. §133(a)(1)(E)Clams down on non-Fed Governments, thus reducing chance of accidental oversight.
6 U.S.C. §133(a)(1)(F)Insures that Gov-granted corporate privileges remain unaffected.
On the post: The Bizarre Flip-Floppers: 13 Reps Who Voted To Stop Patriot Act Spying 2 Years Ago, But Voted To Continue It Yesterday
She's completely ruled by her ambition for party leadership.
I couldn't imagine her ever crossing her party bosses unless it bumped her up the ladder somehow.
On the post: 'Secret' DHS Twitter Account Isn't Following Anyone Interesting, So Why Is It Secret?
Re: Re: Re:
And unlike a business, individual or private organization, governmental agencies are wholly financed by taxpayers and therefore accountable to us.
One can imagine all sorts of things but imagination isn't very solid ground to build public policy.
If we put imagination and things that aren't government aside, this comes down to "How is the public best served?"
And one of the default answers to that question is:
"With transparency, openness and a dedication to be accountable to the people who pay for your existence."
In real life that translates to:
"No Secrets. No hiding one's actions. No unavoidable delay in informing the public."
That's where we always start. The VERY rare exception to that rule should always be very, very difficult to achieve.
On the post: 'Secret' DHS Twitter Account Isn't Following Anyone Interesting, So Why Is It Secret?
Re:
MMC is Media Monitoring Capability.
source: http://publicintelligence.net/dhs-mmc-privacy/
On the post: 'Secret' DHS Twitter Account Isn't Following Anyone Interesting, So Why Is It Secret?
Re:
On the post: 'Secret' DHS Twitter Account Isn't Following Anyone Interesting, So Why Is It Secret?
More from DHS+Twitter
https://twitter.com/NTASAlerts
It has 20k followers and ZERO tweets.
Translated: DHS has yet to come across a single Terror Threat dangerous enough to merit a tweet.
On the post: America: The Safest Country On Earth!
This error is logged for information only. There is no more information on this error.
On the post: Eric Holder Wants To Stop And Frisk The NYPD
Holder's pro-civil-rights record is a lot like Obama's pro-whistleblower record.
That is, they're aggressive in pursuing anyone outside the administration, vicious in protecting abuses committed by inside the administration.
On the post: Turkish Prime Minister Blames Twitter For Mass Social Unrest, Because It Sure Beats Blaming Himself
Instead, US Gov officials heap praise upon the Internet while partnering with corporations to increasingly chill it's use through control, monitoring and judicial actions.
On the post: Angry Patent Lawyer Still Angry, Claims PatentlyO's Dennis Crouch Is Both A 'Dickhead' And Violated CFAA
(You might have to squint really hard for that to make sense.)
On the post: Major Media's Fine Job Of Confusing Everyone About Boston Suspects
Link?
http://deadspin.a.ec.viddler.com/deadspin_1xj8ouutpu1e21q1vt7ou5lb0s1ira.mp4?fd9f2a1c1 4aadf1069f046c167f41e2b360f1178af15bbf77dab5bfe93057d54d9dcc8c9d5507f40676e59a9fe93454a733675a80fce2 612b56d40d1e8db4192fef23f534d170391ea06&ec_rate=231&ec_prebuf=10
On the post: Judge Finds Himself In Contempt Of Court When His New Smartphone Interrupts Closing Arguments
Judge Voet for PotUS and Senate and House and...
On the post: Shameful: Tech Companies Fighting Against Necessary CFAA Reform And CISPA Fixes
Expansion dead but CFAA Maximalist Juggernaut is born
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/12/cfaa-internet-activists_n_3068978.html
Meanwhile: CFAA forces join up to form monster org representing Billions in pro-CISPA, max-CFAA interests.
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/abm-and-siia-announce-plan-to-join-forces-1777 484.htm
SIAA member list http://www.siia.net/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=43
ABA member list http://www.abmassociation.com/assnfe/companydirectory.asp?MODE=FINDRESULTS
SIAA acts on fear that Aaron Swartz suicide could lead to CFAA reform
http://www.siia.net/blog/index.php/2013/01/page/5/
ABA loves CFAA's criminal/civil penalties, longs to lovingly protect them
http://www.abmassociation.com/News/2748/Inside-the-Beltway-%3A-April-2012
I'm sure the best is yet to come and we'll be hearing from our new Global Business Information and Media Industry Association overlords soon enough.
On the post: Hours After Google Announces Google Fiber In Austin, AT&T Pretends It, Too, Will Build A 1 Gigabit Network There
Thank you TDirt
That makes you, Karl Bode and that's about it.
I'm forever amazed how journalists get paid for getting suckered by Corporate/Government PR.
On the post: Leaked! MPAA Talking Points On Copyright Reform: Copyright Is Awesome For Everyone!
Re:
Congressians lean basic truths by divining the Holy Campaign Contribution spreadsheets.
It is from those inspired numbers that politicians are taught their position on Copyright.
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/industry.php?txt=B02&cycle=2012
On the post: How Much Does It Cost To Win Election To Congress?
Where is all this cash spent?
Each year it seems that one end of the equation gets obsessive attention while the other is ignored completely.
Where is a Billion+ Election Dollars spent?
It's a massive cash infusion to the corporations that own the news outlets that cover the candidates.
This may be the largest conflict of interest in America today.
I am endlessly puzzled why folks neither seem to notice nor find anything amiss with this.
On the post: Healthcare Isn't A Free Market, It's A Giant Economic Scam
Re: Re: Re:
I didn't cherry-pick those C+E to force an inaccurate conclusion either. If I had, it could be easily disproved by adding whatever info I omitted.
Here's a restatement of my point.
1) The US Gov is by far the single biggest financial player in the US healthcare system.
2) Stipulations for reimbursement by the US Gov are onerously complex. This problem is at least a generation old and it continues to worsen.
3a) Complex regulations almost always favor larger players who can more easily dedicate resources needed to cope with them.
3b)US medical corporations have every motivation to lobby US legislators to structure Gov regulations to favor their industry. US legislators will continue to to respond favorably to industry lobbying.
If you put on me to draw a conclusion, it would be this.
Neither the US Gov nor US corporations posses sufficient ethical responsibility to be entrusted with our healthcare.
On the post: Healthcare Isn't A Free Market, It's A Giant Economic Scam
Re:
In contrary to creating a state of accountability it's fostered an increasing complex system that favors large corporate medical interests over local community ones.
One natural and predictable result of that complexity is the medical-financial nightmare Mike wrote about.
On the post: Healthcare Isn't A Free Market, It's A Giant Economic Scam
. . . while independent doctors are closing their shops
Nevertheless, in the last decade over half of our independent physicians (primarily GPs) have closed their practices to join larger medical groups, move from the area or just retire early. They've found it increasingly unprofitable to practice traditional medicine.
A predictable exception are surgical specialists, most of whom work as an attending physician at a local hospital.
Another relevant note is that medical service providers here are being reimbursed at increasingly lower amounts - from both government and private sector insurance.
I have two customers that are established local service providers. One believes it will - unavoidably - become unprofitable within the next 18 months.
The other is realistically unsure of it's future and hopes to survive through streamlining the organization.
These are community driven companies.
They provide services that are in demand and they are immensely responsible with their operations.
But with new cuts from Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance coming each quarter, they (like our local physicians) are finding it less and less profitable to continue.
It's a meaningful piece of the Med-Ec nightmare puzzle.
On the post: Make A Counterstrike Map Of A Montreal Metro Station, Get Threatened With $50,000 Fine
One of your descendants could - against all good parenting - grow up to become a notorious terrorist.
What preemptive measure should we take to prevent that?
Sincerely,
the Very Cautious Citizenry.
On the post: Cybersecurity Executive Order Actually Respects Some Privacy; So Do We Actually Need CISPA Any More?
Respects our Privacy? Have you read Sec 5?
Here's my take on it.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/12/executive-order-improving-critical-infras tructure-cybersecurity
Sect 5(a) Federal Agencies self-police that they're in compliance w/ Fair Info Practice Principles.
Sect 5(b) DHS agencies shall assess civil liberty risks and make a report available to DHS Secretary (but not us).
DHS agencies shall self-assess and add their results to Secretary's report (that we can't see because it'll contain classified 'annex').
Sect 5(c) DHS agencies shall have a chat about the report with Civil Liberties Oversight Board and Office of Management and Budget.
Sect 5(d)Info that is submitted in accordance with 6 U.S.C. §133 shall be protected from disclosure except where any one of a countless number of laws can potentially be applied to nullify those protections.
And then there's 6 U.S.C. §133
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/6/133
6 U.S.C. §133(a)(1)(A)Prevents the Gov from responding to FoIA Act requests about our data.
6 U.S.C. §133(a)(1)(D)Allows a number of things to be done with our data as long as whoever harvested the data signs an agreement (which is certain to be submitted to them).
6 U.S.C. §133(a)(1)(E)Clams down on non-Fed Governments, thus reducing chance of accidental oversight.
6 U.S.C. §133(a)(1)(F)Insures that Gov-granted corporate privileges remain unaffected.
Et cetera.
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