One nation, under watch
Alternet
By Silja J.A. Talvi

"On July 29th, the Senate reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act was approved by a process known as "unanimous consent." The week prior, the House majority voted to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act (257-171). President Bush is expected to sign the reauthorized and largely permanent PATRIOT Act into law on Sept. 11, 2005, pending an ironed-out version between the House and the Senate once the legislative session resumes. While the law is one of the most far-reaching and drastic in U.S. history, it is not the first time the government has moved to utilize a time of real or perceived crisis to increase its powers of surveillance and detention. And while portions of the bill will be reviewed again in two years, much of what is considered its most invasive components remains. "We rushed to put together legislation that we thought would safeguard us from another terrorist attack," U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-AK, said in the aftermath of the House reauthorization vote. "In the process we have created a bill that I feel takes away from our constitutional freedom. This is not patriotism, this is Big Brother.'" (08/08/05)

http://www.alternet.org/rights/23917/

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The Invisible Pirate: Tracking PCs
Strike the Root
by Joe Blow

"This edition covers two methods that Big Brother may soon be able to use to track any computer. The good news is that geospatial addressing is still on the drawing board and won't become a reality for most users for years. The bad news is that remote physical device fingerprinting may enable the feds to track your computer anywhere, no matter how or where you connect to the web, even if you use a high anonymous proxy server or an anonymizer system like JAP or Tor. Not happy about that? Wait, it gets worse. IPv6's geospatial addressing will incorporate an injected GPS signal to pinpoint a user's location. While this feature is intended for military use, it remains to be seen whether or not it will be used in the civilian sector. Any bets what Big Brother's vote will be?" (08/08/05)

http://www.strike-the-root.com/52/blow/blow6.html

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Every mother's son
Truthout
by William Rivers Pitt

" George W. Bush hauled stakes for Texas and a vacation a few days ago. Cindy Sheehan followed. She got off a bus Saturday afternoon and started walking to the Crawford ranch. She wanted some answers and was going to get them. .... Casey Sheehan was every mother's son. Cindy Sheehan is every son's mother. She loved him with every cell in her body and every breath in her soul, and mourns his absence in every second of every day, and will have some answers for her pain and loss, or will know the reason why. She is down in Crawford, right now, waiting for George W. Bush to stop sending lackeys to placate her. She wants to speak to the man who sent her son to die. She is waiting." (08/08/05)

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080805I.shtml

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