Old-school US 2G digital cell "D-AMPS" used CMEA, thin as tissue paper, cracked in the nineties I believe. GSM uses the A5 algorithm, stronger but IIRC it was broken by some folks at Technion who used a man in the middle type attack.

Fixed wireless is my pidgin, so I may not have my facts straight. But I think it's reasonable to suspect with all this hoovering up of personal communications the clever boys at NSA have figured out how to listen in on anything they want...

In reading this today, I thought to myself that it read a lot like IOZ without all the five-dollar words. And looky here, Monsieur himself gives props:

http://whoisioz.blogspot.com/2007/12/mea-kinda-culpa.html

I read Glenn and IOZ every day: Glenn for facts and outrage, and IOZ for ironic detachment and Big Lebowski references. IOZ is pretty much Glenn, like, if Glenn smoked a lot of weed.

We'd be the first recorded in history contemplating the building a wall to keep people out instead of in.

There seem to be a few words missing in that sentence, so are you really trying to say that the walls of China, of Hadrian, and of countless cities and towns of medieval Europe were not for the express purpose of "keep[ing] people out?"

Can't tell if this was offered in jest or not (When oh when will HTML support the <irony> tag), but what's up with the people telling me to sit down and STFU since things are not as bad as they possibly could be?

What about wanting them to be better than they are? Isn't that sort of the point? Isn't that as American as baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, Chevrolet and waterboarding?

May I recommend the use of the scroll bar? There are those of us here who enjoy bop's writing, and in any regard I would hazard the opinion that it's really not up to you - or any of us - to tell others to "stop" writing whatever they choose here.

It's just amazing to see a member of a minority (and a small one at that) write polemics about treating minorities in unconcienable ways.

While I share your outrage, this is an old, old song.

Tom Tancredo's grandfather was a poor Italian immigrant kid, coming to America in steerage with five bucks pinned to his shirt and not a word of English. Just the type of person, in short, who the Tancredos of his day denounced roundly.

And the wheels of the bus go round and round, the wheels of the bus go round.

"Greenwald, you are an ass... [y]our take on this is beneath contempt. McCain is telling the voters his story of personal courage and faith - you are just a JD jackass." --Anonymous

..are actually Bill Maher's.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/newrules.asp

What if the primary results were withheld and then only announced after all states reported in.

At first I was like, "gee, what a dumb idea" and then I thought about it and realised I couldn't find a good argument against it. Which means it's probably a good idea, and probably one that will never get a moment's serious consideration.

Now, the Electoral College: there's a brilliant idea...

This old Roman censor L. Cassius had a funny expression in situations like this:

Cui bono? Who benefits?

What did the Iranians have to gain by doing a mock kamikaze run at a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser? What, on the other hand, would the Bush administration have to gain on a week when they are actually in the region, trying to put pressure on Iran's neighbours to isolate the Islamic republic? Hmm...

If we REALLY WANTED to go to war with Iran, we would have faked somehthing (sic) and did (sic) it already.

My supposition is that they just wanted to box Ahmedinejad's ears a bit, and put a scare into the region's leaders. Besides, incompetent execution would rather seem to implicate, rather than exonerate, the operatives on the current Administration...

Why indeed?

Not to be a broken record here, folks, but cui bono?

Let's all write Joan and get her to switch to a forum with an edit function for after we post!!!!!

I know what you mean, Jkalos, but I've always found the idea to be vaguely creepy. It's hard enough to discuss things with some folks without the possibility of them being able to edit their comments post facto. Maybe it's just better that we all take our lumps (speaking as one who has left some weird typos in posts in the past)...

It's not my perception that Glenn Greenwald "pretend[s] to be a serious critic of journalism." He's a blogger, who happens to get a lot of hits because his writing is on a popular website and a bunch of people are regular readers.

Other than your accusation of pretense, your critique seems to be limited to your "umbrage" at "how cute and flippant he could be with his cute and flippant turns of phrase." But what, ultimately, does that mean other than that you don't like his writing style?

I mean, de gustibus non est disputandum, but as someone once said, "That's not criticism. That's just showing off."

This is, almost certainly, a Drug War reference...

wingle?

Aychy, dude, not to be a dick, but you're known to be a bit of a thread-jacker on the subject.

I pretty much agree with you up and down the line, as far as it goes, but even I'd hesitate to engage you about the War on (Some) Drugs.

Aychy today: "Is there one single person here that can show an iota of moral courage and either agree or disagree with me?"

Aychy yesterday: "Remember, trolls go away if you don't feed them."

I think you answered your own question there, bubba.

Golly gee whiz... wonder who posted THAT?

lol,lol,lol

Oh,