George W. Bush

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The new law requiring better compliance with the Freedom of Information Act has been effectively neutered by a sneaky move from Bush.

"Bush proposed shifting a newly created ombudsman's position from the National Archives and Records Administration to the Department of Justice. Because the ombudsman would be the chief monitor of compliance with the new law, that move is akin to killing the critical function, some members of Congress and watchdog groups say." "Justice represents the agencies when they're sued over FOIA . . . It doesn't make a lot of sense for them to be the mediator,"

Yeah America.

eBay

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In what is perhaps the dumbest move eBay has ever made, they are planning to eliminate the ability to leave negative or neutral feedback. Positive feedback is already pointless with a horde of robotic responses left only for bragging rights:

AAAAA+++++ Buyer!

Would Buy again!

Fast Shipping. Excellent Seller!

What does any of this mean? NOTHING. If you want the real scoop, it used to be only the negative feedback that would give it to you. Besides, if you DO get scammed, it's not like eBay will do anything about it so the negative feedback was the only thing that would protect you.

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So not only was Diebold dumb enough to use a universal key for all their voting machines, and not only did they sell those keys off their website (though supposedly only to "authorized people" as if we could trust them to handle who's authorized or not), but they posted a picture of the keys on the Internet which allowed at least one researcher to make a perfect working copy at home with a key blank bought from the store and a file.

This story came to light a while ago, but there's been some updates such as:

In a classic Diebold bury-the-evidence move, they've now replaced the entire page in their online store featuring the mechanical, copyable key with a page featuring a "Smart Card, Security Key Card." A digital key card. Same link, different key entirely. Which can only be done, given the database they use for their online store, quite deliberately in order to try to fool folks again. Par for the course. And, of course, shameless.

Whee.

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There are already plenty of cases of adults or college students who have lost jobs and dropped out of school due to MMO gaming obsessions. Now we're going to unleash this on our kids?

If you're thinking of letting you kid play an MMO, be very careful about what game you choose and be sure to set limits on how and when they play.

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Several states are still using e-voting despite the disastrous security they provide. Because of that, voting advocacy groups have labeled six of the 24 states in the primary as being high risk for miscounts due to tampering or malfunction. Best of all, these miscounts would be undetectable due to lack of a paper record for audit or recount.

FTC

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According to their annual report to congress, the Federal Trade Commission recieved over 69,000 complaints that debt collectors were violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (the law that prevents them from harassing you or using dirty tactics to try and get you to pay a debt). In response, the FTC filed against 3 debt collectors.

Thanks FTC!

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In what appears to be an attempt to counter the black hole that is their reputation, the TSA has launced a blog called "Evolution of Security". Like most things Bushian, it starts out by inflating their viewpoint somehow implying that they are right about everything they do just in the title.

And their tagline:

Terrorists Evolve. Threats Evolve. Security Must Stay Ahead. You Play A Part.