district 30

and they wonder why their approval ratings are low…

July 26, 2007 at 10:56 pm (Kentucky)

From The Carpetbagger Report, news that there is interest in a strong Democrat to face up to Mitch McConnnell in 2008. Let’s hope they’re successful (and remember, Stumbo already failed to get the Dems’ nod as Gubernatorial candidate this year.) It’s time to Ditch Mitch.

Not the least because he has voiced opposition to passing a renewal of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program which is intended to supplement private health care in cases where such a low-cost solution is more attractive than the alternatives. This seems like a gimme (who on Earth would be against insuring kids who’s parents might not be able to afford coverage?) and (via The Carpetbagger Report again) Diana DeGette has suggested a reason why Republicans may be suddenly opposed to it.

Comments

tech wreck

July 25, 2007 at 11:17 pm (Free Speech)

Usually, articles on C-net don’t raise my ire too much. But this one did: apparently several Democrats in Congress have decided to renew their fight against Peer-to-peer software programs such as Limewire which allow people to share files (sometimes illegally) without a central server.

While there are certainly potential abuses of such software (not the least being copyright infringement) the lawmakers in this case have decided to pick up on a more ludicrous argument: that P2P software is a national security risk. Their argument is that P2P software installed on government or corporate machines could inadvertently expose sensitive data not because the software is inherently insecure but because the user could easily expose that data accidentally.

There are at least two things severely wrong with “scathing criticism” from the likes of Jim Cooper of Tennessee, Henry Waxman of California and Paul Hodes of New Hampshire. The first is that the responsibility to keep P2P traffic off of corporate and government networks falls squarely in the hands of the corporations and the government. I need an act of Congress to get software I *do* need installed on my work computer. Certainly the same should be true for any government employee. And it appears that, despite their willingness to bash Limewire’s founder, Waxman, et.al. understand that. I also can’t comprehend how they can hold the software makers responsible for the user’s errors. In order for the user to “inadvertently” share sensitive files, they’d need to turn sharing on for a parent directory and set up the program to share subdirectories. So perhaps (for example) they are sharing music files in “My Documents” but their “My Documents” folder is shared recursively and somewhere down the tree you might get to “Work Stuff->Sensitive Data->Instructions for making the Neutron Bomb.” While admittedly I’m neither a neophyte nor a complete idiot, sharing “My Documents” under any circumstances just doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. Again, how is the software-maker liable in this case?

This kind of stuff pushes me closer to considering law school. Perhaps then I can understand how this liability thing works. Until then, I’d just advise software makers to make some simple changes: add an IQ test to be completed before the software can be installed.

Comments

For the people in the middle

July 18, 2007 at 11:35 pm (Uncategorized)

So, have you heard of The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006? Probably not…it certainly wasn’t burning up the headlines last year. You can read Ted Kennedy’s comments about it and you’ll probably come to the conclusion that this is a Good Thing. And probably, for the most part, it is. But like anything else, it has some weird side effects.

Take a look at Section 112, where you will find this tidbit:

…not more than 10 percent to carry out State leadership activities described in section 124, of which—

(A) an amount equal to not more than 1 percent of the amount allotted to the State under section 111 for the fiscal year shall be made available to serve individuals in State institutions, such as State correctional institutions and institutions that serve individuals with disabilities…

In other words, any money from this grant that is given to teach prison inmates is administered under Section 124. But Section 124 requires that money be spent on things like professional development, course assessments, increased technology (but for the training of instructors,) “supporting partnerships” and career guidance. In other words, the money goes to methods. It has very lofty goals.

But the reality is that whereas last year, this money could be spent on things that actually applied in the classroom–things like lathes for carpentry classrooms–this year, the money can only go to educational materials for the instructor. And while it’s not that the technical instructors can’t use some professional development, there is a lot less potential to spend the money. In Kentucky, this could mean $180,000 (based on 2006 funding numbers and the 1% limit) that tech schools in prisons are counting on for equipment to keep their programs up-to-date is no longer going to be available while a large chunk of the money goes unspent because $180,000 buys a lot more professional development than Kentucky’s programs could use.

I’m willing to believe (to a point) that no one saw this coming. But I have to say, my first response was to say that the Federal government must have wanted some of that money back. And perhaps this was done one purpose. Programs to teach prisoners aren’t universally popular. Perhaps people see this and think, “Geez, a convicted pedophile could be installing wiring in a school” or “The plumber I’m inviting in may be a convicted murderer.” Politicians of a certain persuasion might see programs like these as a tempting target for cuts. Yet, doesn’t it make sense that if ex-cons are being released anyway they should have some skills that might make them less likely to get into trouble? The system has success stories (and perhaps some failures.) But I’d go out on the limb that the financial costs of maintaining a good Corrections Ed program are quickly offset by the success stories. And I can assure you that there are places like Eastern Kentucky that could use the extra skilled labor, where having that labor nearby would keep money local, out of places like Cincinnati or Nashville.

But hey, I thought, maybe someone thought that if we kept inmates from getting vocational skills, they might have to sign up for the armed forces once they were released, thus helping with the sagging recruitment numbers. And oddly enough, I heard today that the military has been accepting more ex-cons. So maybe my urge to form conspiracy theories isn’t too far off…

Comments

touching destruction

July 18, 2007 at 10:10 pm (Social/Economic)

I came across an amazing gallery of post-Katrina photos today. I receive a calendar each year from Second Harvest and I actually use it at work. This month has a photo of a scene from New Orleans shortly after the hurricane which set me on this path. It did the trick. I’m thinking it may be time to make a donation.

1 Comment

Gee whiz bang

July 12, 2007 at 11:01 pm (Uncategorized)

More evidence the current government isn’t a fan of science.

Anyone else beginning to think we need to maybe knock the Executive branch down a notch?

Comments

War out

July 12, 2007 at 10:50 pm (Uncategorized)

I’m way late on this, but I have to mention the NY Times’ editorial on withdrawing from Iraq. Pretty big stuff. I think it’s becoming pretty clear that Iraq was a huge mistake, not the least because it has left us vulnerable in the part of the world where things really are happening, to wit, Afghanistan and Pakistan. If there is an attack being planned on the West, as Michael Chertoff has hinted, the U.S. shares some of the blame.

Comments