The CIA Is Preventing Congress from Learning that the Worst Allegations against Hillary Pertain to Drones
You probably heard that Jim Comey testified to the House Oversight Committee for over four hours today. You'll see far less coverage of the second panel in that hearing, the testimony of Inspector Generals Steve Linick (from State) and Charles…
Some Legislative Responses to Clinton's Email Scandal
The Republicans have reverted to their natural "Benghazi witchhunt" form in the wake of Jim Comey's announcement Tuesday that Hillary Clinton and her aides should not be charged, with Comey scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee…
Principles Of Business Enterprises Part 8: Conclusion
The general plan of The Principles of Business Enterprises by Thorstein Veblen is to state several ideas about the way business operated in the Gilded Age, with explanation and examples, and then to examine the logical outcomes of the operation…
Wednesday: Mend
Repair Day here, can't spend much time reading or writing as I'll be tied up mending things. Enjoy a little mellow Foo Fighters' tune -- can't handle metal rock today or I'll end up HULK SMASHing things I'm supposed to fix.
Here's a range…
"Only Facts Matter:" Jim Comey Is Not the Master Bureaucrat of Integrity His PR Sells Him As
Since Jim Comey's showy press conference yesterday, the press has rehashed Jim Comey's carefully cultivated image as a Boy Scout, with outlet after outlet replaying the story of how he ran up some hospital steps once.
Sadly, even DOJ…
Tuesday: Rubbish
This won't be everybody's cup of matcha and may not offer an optimum listening experience for most business offices. Today's kick-in-the-seat to start the week is a Japanese rock genre at the intersection of glam rock and black metal. Visual…
Does Jim Comey Think Thomas Drake Exhibited Disloyalty to the United States?
As you've no doubt heard, earlier today Jim Comey had a press conference where he said Hillary and her aides were "extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information" but went on to say no reasonable prosecutor…
Monday: Happy Incendiary Device Day!
I can't decide which is more crazy-stupid: the explosive incident in New York which removed a teenager's foot, or the folks who immediately worried there'd been a terrorist attack.
Unfortunately, this isn't the end of stupid-with-explosives…
Hillary's Mode of Governance: Boozy X Chromosomes Making Peace
The NYT has an article describing how a bunch of apparently moronic Hillary aides believe they will govern when she becomes President. I say moronic not just because -- in a week when Hillary's spouse scored an enormous own goal by chatting…
Friday: Death to All That Jazz
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.
-- excerpt, Dulce et Decorum Est, by Wilfred Owen
This week has been a long death march.…
Cyber-Goggles: When China's Tool Box Looks Like a Pile of Cyber-Hammers
Last week, the cybersecurity firm FireEye released a report largely declaring victory over Chinese cyberspying. The report itself is suspect. It spends two pages talking about internal issues -- such as Xi Jinpeng's efforts to consolidate power…
Happy Flag-Waving Drone Document Dump
ODNI (update--and now I Con the Record) has released its report on the number of drone deaths. The overview is that the US intelligence community is reporting (more on that in a second) far, far fewer drone deaths than credible outside researchers…
Shaping Traffic and Spying on Americans
At the Intercept earlier this week, Peter Maass described an interview he had with a former NSA hacker he calls Lamb of God -- this is the guy who did the presentation boasting "I hunt SysAdmins." On the interview, I agree with Bruce Schneier…
The Secrets that Remain about Journalist NSLs
Someone has liberated to the Intercept a copy of the FBI's guidelines for using NSLs to obtain the call records of journalists. The entire appendix is For Official Use Only save one paragraph noting that foreigners serving as spooks or working…
FBI Still Not Counting How Often Encryption Hinders Their Investigations
The annual wiretap report is out. The headline number is that wiretaps have gone up, and judges still don't deny any wiretap applications.
The number of federal and state wiretaps reported in 2015 increased 17 percent from 2014. A total…
Thursday: Repetition
A little Prince to make the painful repetition a little easier to take.
By repetition I mean what's happening in Puerto Rico compared to what has already happened in Michigan.
Some of Michigan's most financially distressed cities were…
House Homeland Security Committee Apparently Knows Little about Homeland Security
Here are the first 36 words of an otherwise useful House Homeland Security Committee report on encryption:
Public engagement on encryption issues surged following the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, particularly when it…
Wednesday: Wandering
All that is gold does not glitter; not all those who wander are lost.
-- excerpt, The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
It's a lovely summer day here, cool and dry. Perfect to go walkabout, which I will do straight away after this…
In 2010, DOJ Was Stalling Gang of Four Member Silvestre Reyes Over (Probably) Common Commercial Services Memo
As far as the public record shows, Ron Wyden first started complaining about the Common Commercial Service OLC Memo in late 2010, in a letter with Russ Feingold written "over two years" before January 14, 2013. As I've written, John Yoo wrote…
IARPA's MOSAIC FitBit for Psych
EFF's Dave Maass discovered this conference notice from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity.
Selecting and evaluating a workforce that is well-suited for the psychological and cognitive demands of the diverse positions across…