Letters to the Editor
bystander
Published Letters: 1240
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@ sommes @ ondolette
[Read the article: Joe Klein's defense of warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for the link, sommes. And, indeed, this is my sense of data mining wrt security:
Data mining works best when there's a well-defined profile you're searching for, a reasonable number of attacks per year, and a low cost of false alarms. Credit card fraud is one of data mining's success stories: all credit card companies data mine their transaction databases, looking for spending patterns that indicate a stolen card. Many credit card thieves share a pattern -- purchase expensive luxury goods, purchase things that can be easily fenced, etc. -- and data mining systems can minimize the losses in many cases by shutting down the card. In addition, the cost of false alarms is only a phone call to the cardholder asking him to verify a couple of purchases. The cardholders don't even resent these phone calls -- as long as they're infrequent -- so the cost is just a few minutes of operator time.
Terrorist plots are different. There is no well-defined profile, and attacks are very rare. Taken together, these facts mean that data mining systems won't uncover any terrorist plots until they are very accurate, and that even very accurate systems will be so flooded with false alarms that they will be useless.
And it is precisely because of this, I was paying close attention to the conversation that ondolette and Arne were having the other day. And, ondolette, has made it clearer to me why I find it so worrisome. And, ondolette, I agree - based on what feeble knowledge I have - our current laws, crippled as they currently are, are no match for this 'computational tool' (for lack of a better descriptor).
My personal opinion is that FISA and CALEA should be largely left strong, but a new law specifically to take up data mining needs to be in place, and it should be very, very strong on so-called "minimization", taking into account discoveries from multiple data sources each of which is verifiably legal, and calling many of them illegal without a warrant. And it should have something to say about using illegally acquired data to justify a warrant to look for other data, that's a huge issue if there is data mining around.
Yes! Yes! Yes! This is precisely my fear put into understandable language. Thank you. I'm sorry you had to make it this explicit for me. And, it is particularly worrisome because of the large, diverse data bases which the government maintains/has access, coupled with their ability to link the data from these diverse systems together. Thank you for helping me understand why my gut fears were warranted. I appreciate your time.
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Nobel prize?
[Read the article: Joe Klein's defense of warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Vice President Al Gore has been called "overseas" for a trip related to his work on global warming...
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@ bamage
[Read the article: Joe Klein's defense of warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Does anybody find the Rocky Mountain News article at all intriguing?
-- bamage
I took that question with me on a run. The degree of anxiety that RMN report generated is best dealt with on a good long, heart pumping, run. "Intriguing" is the least of it. My angst is that these past 7 years are an onion. With every layer that gets peeled off I'm going to want to weep. And, I suspect there are layers, upon layers of deceit and wrongdoing. I tell myself that I don't know the half of it, and I may not ever know three-quarters of it. And, there are days when I tell myself that my former sense of, and trust in, government may never be the same. Maybe that's to the good.
I am in hopes that, with time, we may recover some of this lost ground. And, that some of the most egregious violators will be unmasked and shamed. That some wrongs will get righted. But, I remind myself that this is a marathon (if not an ultra-marathon) and I'd best pace myself, or I'll go stark raving crackers and live out my dotage in a loony bin with padded pink walls, and meds twice a day.
Thanks for bringing that news report to my attention. I've tended to forgo reading the local news for Glenn's blog. I would have missed it.
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@ Anon 9:22
[Read the article: John Edwards' dark leftist America]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Whoa. I hadn't been back to that link since I charted my own inclinations months ago. That's amazing. How far we have been dragged to the Authoritarian Right. How 'normal' it almost seems. I really truly am a DFH. My position with respect to the candidates is uber-Left. And, yet, if I got into a text book on the Political Economy, I'm a Classical Liberal at best. Sheesh. We done LOST the center for sure.
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@ bamage
[Read the article: John Edwards' dark leftist America]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Went back through some old emails to a friend to dredge up my scores. Figured it's be 'cheating' to take it again, now that I understand how the thing works. Yep. I'm a Classical Liberal by these numbers. Fiscal conservative (mostly), social liberal (for sure).
Economic Left/Right: -2.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.69
And, no longer have a 'party' with which to affiliate. Hell, I'm to the 'left' of all of the leading Democratic candidates on both dimensions. Unreal. Edwards, for whom I'd be most pleased to vote, comes closest. I suspect there's very little chance of having that opportunity. Sad.
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"Warrantless wiretapping in place before 9/11"
[Read the article: John Edwards' dark leftist America]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]More on warrantless wiretapping at ThinkProgress; click sig.
It appears that Quest's competitors were in on the gig well before 9/11. And, as TP has pointed out, whatever surveillance the NSA had going, it sure didn't stop 9/11 from happening.