Time to Take a Stand on Sudan

I came across Sudan: Passion of the Present via Joi Ito's weblog tonight. I'm glad to see the Web community coming together for an issue the UN dealt with weakly. After seeing the blog coverage of the DNC and related "sub" coverage of the protest efforts, I think we have a real shot at making a difference.

Thomas Vincent reminds me that the US Congress already officially labeled the Darfur situation a genocide and that USAID is trying to rally efforts & a comprehensive emergency aid package, to help out. PotP, of course, has some excellent suggestions on what to do.

It really bothers me that the UN gave Sudan 30 days to get their act together and to take out the militias. According to a USAID briefing, 300,000 to 350,000 could die in Darfur this year of disease & starvation - a number that is approximate to the entire city of Miami, Florida according to the 2000 census. Can you imagine that amount of deaths? It's unthinkable and I think we can do something about it.

The question is, how many people may die in relationship to this situation, and the truth of the matter is nobody knows because we do not have comprehensive access now and we have not had comprehensive access all along. We have made our own projections -- the professionals who work in this field, there are epidemiologists who do this kind of work in Africa, specializing in the Horn of Africa and so forth -- and our projection is that by the end of the year, starting from earlier in the year, in the neighborhood of 300- to 350,000 excess deaths will occur - Roger Winter, USAID Assistant Administrator For The Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance Bureau

Whether its lobbying Congress for more action and monetary aid, donating money or time youself, or harassing your own government and even taking it to the UN - do your part. So little by so many of us can do a lot.

Prozac for Job Growth!

A Bush campaign staffer made some interesting remarks with regard to people unhappy with their current jobs:

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?" said Susan Sheybani, an assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt.

So I wonder how much longer she has hers? (From American Street)

UN Aims Half-Hearted Smack at Sudan - and Misses

I don't know what is up with the UN but their weak attempt to stop Sundanese genocide is outrageous - they just gave the government yet another month to stop the militias themselves, all the while people, (especially children), continue to die horrible deaths from starvation, rape and other forms of violence. Let's let every member who voted for that bureaucratic crap visit the refugee camps and then sleep on what they did...or rather - didn't.

Kerry Daughters Steal Hearts

I have to admit - I figured Kerry's daughters would be silly or try to be cute. But they are both very well-spoken and their speeches very moving. They were certainly perfect for introducing their father and showing the person he is in private. Excellent.

Carole King Trivia

A bit of Carole King trivia to all of you saying - "Hey! That's James Taylor's song!" - as she sings it on tonight's DNC broadcast.

According to SongFacts.com, King first sung the song in 1971 and won a Grammy for it as "Song of the Year.

This was a big hit for King's friend James Taylor in 1971, going to #1 in the U.S. for him. Taylor played guitar on several of King's albums.

Protests Heating Things Up

Through a combo of monitoring SMS messages and the Boston IMC site "live coverage", I'm finding out that several arrests have been made, one woman is in the hospital, effigies burned & an unconfirmed report came in that police are preparing to break out tear gas. Will police keep things calm or will things get out of hand and will a clash ensue?

My Political Compass

I figured, all my friends are doing it so why shant I? My political compass is Economic Left/Right: -4.50, Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.13. What does that mean? Take a peek - basically, it means I'm really, really liberal - somewhere in the middle of libertarianism & the left but closer to left.

But, come on - how many of you were really surprised?

The Problem With Bloggers - Fact Checking

I heard this story a few days ago and wrote it off as funny but true. There's been a few other stories that I've had a lot of trouble determining whether they were satire or legit news - and I've heard them in sites listed from Dave Winer's accredited blogger OPML file.

That's the problem with bloggers - especially those who completely lack journalist experience. It's always good to keep a few things in mind - cite your sources, (unless you interview the person first hand - though video and audio are always a good backup), have 2-3 quotes in your article from different people, on different sides if possible - and finally, clearly denote satire, sarcasm and in some cases, the difference between actual news and opinion.

Sharpton on Fire

Al Sharpton continues to impress me. I've never been a fan of his grandstanding and publicity stunts but damn that man can weave some powerful words. That's going to be the second speech on my CD just after Obama.

I think it's hilarious that Sharpton started improvising off track of his speech as it was originally approved. Live reports coming in now.

DNC Delegates Protest Free Speech Pens

Just caught this post at Boston IMC about 50+ DNC delegates calling, in a press conference, on the DNC organizers to speak out against the outrageous "Free Speech Pens" put up for people to supposedly voice their opinions. It's been over an hour later - I wonder if anyone will report this.

Cops Dispatched to BioTerror Demonstration

Just got a beep from the B(l)ack Tea Society SMS pager -

Schoolbuses of riot cops and 28 cycle cops dispatched to Blackstone Park, Bioterror demo.

They're referring to this demonstration against BU's BioTerrorism Research Lab. Interesting.

Can Heinz Run for Senator if Kerry Wins?

There's a question for you - can Mrs. Heinz-Kerry run for her husband's Senate seat should he win the Presidency? Can she be a Senator and not have been a naturalized citizen? Showing my ignorance there.....

She is a dynamic, strong woman who speaks her mind. I think she'd be a welcome complement to Senator Kennedy. Thoughts? Information on the legalities?

Political Kids?

KidsforKerry.org has been Conventionized. Have they even been posted to Slashdot yet?

I'm not sure what I think of the 12 year old who got up to speak about Kids for Kerry. Maybe I was a late bloomer - but in 1988 I was finishing up middle school, my two cousins were leaving with me and my two brothers & my parents were starting the road to divorce. Politics was the last think on my mind. I didn't really start getting politically active until mid High School when I met some wonderful friends who inducted me into the wonders of liberal Northampton Massachusetts and Singer-Songwriter, folk music.

Who knows, maybe because people around my age are starting to educate, (or indoctrinate), their kids earlier about politics that there are Kids for Kerry. I know my son will learn about values as well as politics for as long as I'm politically active.

Hopefully KidsforKerry.org will come back up and I can read more for myself.

Obamarama

What can I say that isn't coursing through the blogsphere right now? Barak Obama will be President of the US some day. He is dynamic and one of the most amazing political speakers I have seen in a while. He mixed specific political positions with personalized stories of real American people. His speech will go on my "frequently watched list" and I'll probably burn it onto DVD to watch anytime I get jaded with politics. Watch this man - he will do great things.

NASA Locates Death Star

I knew one day after hearing Reagan concentrate over & over on "Star Wars" and with someone like Bush in office, the Sith-decended side of the Republican Party would begin work on their Death Star. Finally, today,NASA has located this monsterous base with assistance from the Cassini spacecraft - claiming the evil starport is the "heavily-cratered Saturn moon, Mimas".

Or perhaps this is simply another stunt by Lucasfilm to promote their upcoming "Revenge of the Sith" and following "Star Wars trilogy" re-releases.

DNC Playlist

So is anyone keeping track of the song clips they're playing at the convention? It would be interesting to compare a playlist from the DNC to whatever the RNC does. For instance, to intro Sen. Kennedy, they just played Coldplay's "Clocks".

Has anyone been tracking this the last few days?

Will the Chattering Boy

I'm watching my son this morning and had a recording session of him chatting away with me. It's a bit one-sided but it warms the heart. Enjoy.

Bloggers Bored - Get the Real Story!

Fellow bloggers, if you're bored - stop watching from the 7th floor. You're not at the DNC to blog all the boring speeches, (though someone may want to keep an ear out for anything interesting said), go into the crowd like the press and meet the delegates from your states - chat with delegates who aren't getting the media attention, or go outside and chat with locals, protesters and other folks about Boston. If you can celebrity-spot before a journalist can & get a candid story - all the more power to you. But blogging the DNC isn't just about posting faster than the press - it's about getting and publishing the stories the press will never find.

Though kudos to the BBC for interviewing Robert Reich - my favorite to run against Mitt Romney for governor a few years back. They're live down in the BBC booth- bloggers, stalk!

Be Smart on Boston Transit During DNC

A friend of mine who works in a Chemistry lab on at an East Coast University said today a friend passed him a notice being sent around from another Boston-area University Chemistry lab reminding staff and students not to be stupid enough to bring samples of research along with them on the T, bus or other form of public transportation.

To those of us who have been paying enormous attention to security matters this week, it's obvious but to exhausted, jaded students who have been awake for 72 hours on caffeine and munchies....it might not occur to them that while the partially synthesized protein enzyme is harmless - the two burly Boston police searching everyone with a backpack might not be so smart. Who would have thunk?

Year of the Blog.....sortof

Well, the Year of the Blog at the DNC is getting off to a slow start. So far most of what has been posted has nothing to do with news - it's mostly touristy, delegate-like musings, discussions of the parties, drinking, celebrity-spotting, and protest-gawking. In addition to that, its taking forever for bloggers to get their posts online due to limited Net access. I figured people would do all they can to extend and access the Internet to blog more real-time. You guys need sidekicks and PocketPC phones!

Now that the convention has been gavelled to order, hopefully things will change. Despite this, I've already spotted two small things that point to some interesting changes on the political front - Electablog speaks with Oakland, CA Mayor Jerry Brown & David Weinberger's chat with Representative Henry Waxman about the difficulties of investigating the various follies of the Bush administration.

Is this a fluke of the DNC? Or will politicos realize that the way to get the real issues out to the people....will be to go directly to the peoples' voice? The people! Hopefully we'll hear more stories of this nature and our representatives in Washington will soon realize that not only are they representing us, but we can help them in the process of doing that.

BTS March Hits "Soft Zone", Police Request Search

More Protest Pen Pictures

Weld Pond has updated his pictures of the the Free Speech Pen from this morning's protest of it.

Protest March Headed from Common to Fleet

Interesting. Just got a SMS Message stating that the BTS protest march has just left the Common and is heading down Beacon St. to the Fleet Center. How's THAT for to-the-minute updates?

Beautiful Day, Beautiful Night

I just got in from the dogs' last walk for the night. It's in the mid 60s, the breeze is gone & the temperature is perfect. The moon is just over half full, (or is that half empty?), and there is scarsely a cloud in the sky. The barely detectible breeze bring a mix of scents from extinguished grills & smouldering fireplaces. It's heaven.

Its almost like we're getting a preview of fall, which is strange as it's the end of July. I know I'm preoccupied with politics for the time being but this should be a reminder to all of us to take a moment to enjoy that which surrounds us.

(That...and my wife & son come home tomorrow! He's apparently more animated and giggling now!! I can't wait!!!)

Progressive Politics Will Rule

Right now I'm watching C-Span - thank gods for live coverage sans commentary - which has a session in Boston's Old West Church that is both a Tribute to the late Sen. Paul Wellstone and also a call for more Progressive Politics in the Democratic Party. The panelists are excellent - Rep. Barbara Lee - (D-CA), Al Franken, Arianna Huffington, Leo Gerard, Jeff Blodgett, Anna Burger, Rep. Major Owens - (D-NY), Jim Hightower, Chuck Turner, Frances Fox-Piven.

I'm TiVoing this and will most likely save it for whenever I doubt the greater force that is the current Democratic Party. I hope the biggest thing I and people watching or attending the event get out of it - is that even if John Kerry is elected to office we, (meaning Progressive politicos), must, Must, MUST stay in front of Kerry's face letting him know what we want. We mustn't get complacent just because there's a Democrat in office.

Journalistic Chilling Effect

I said to Jim this morning after the radio frequencies from the DNC was posted - "are you TRYING to get arrested?". Jim said to me "Hey, I mean really... if your going to exercise your free speech, why not stand up and speak with a strong voice." Here, here.

That's why it disturbs me to read that journalists are being essentially "threatened" to not report about the poor security of the DNC:

"The FBI warnings about an unconfirmed threat targeting the media was bogus, and was just a way to get the media to shut-up about, to stop complaining about, and stop reporting on, the weak security at the convention. Essentially the government is trying to convince them that they could save their own butts by being silent. Sadly, by journalists being cowed into not reporting on the problems with bad security, they are allowing the government to get away with ridiculously poor security, which in turn is actually increasing the threat to the journalists' safety. "

He's referring to the claim I posted earlier in the week that there was an unconfirmed threat by a domestic group that might be targeting media trucks with explosive or incendiary devices.

DNC (In)Security Update

It seems that I am behind the times with various security updates. Cryptome is beating the pants off me in getting Jim Atkinson's (JMA) reports posted.

They have updated their DNC Insecurity report to include comments from yesterday's visit by JMA. Perhaps the most disturbing part of the information is just how poorly-constructed the "Free Speech Pen" is.

The "Free Speech Zone" is a joke, and it nothing more than a way to intimidate protesters and to keep them locked up and out of site in what is best referred to as "an Ashcoft Monkey Cage". The "zone" is poorly designed, poorly built, and serves no legitimate purpose from a security perspective. The fence posts are not anchored into the Jersey Barriers, and the fence fabric is so poorly attached to the poles that it can be easily torn off. Also, the fence posts can be very simply broken free of the fence fabric due to the small number of poorly installed soft aluminum staples/wires. This would give the protester a very heavy steel pole that can be used as a lethal weapon, a battering ram, and to cause a huge amount of damage. If protesters are not allowed to protest they tend to become violent, and go on a riot, with the Fleet Center being the likely focal point of any riot.

A cursory look around the Web shows that dissent & protest organizing is happening fast. JMA sez that the Free Speech Pen is going to cause problems -

...what people are missing here is that neither the Boston Police Department, the City of Boston, the Mayor, the Pope, etc have the authority or power to stop the protestors, from protesting. Now that the judge in the case made the comments about the condition of the "Pen" you can expect the protestors to get violent.

If the government is stupid enough to try crowd control by caging the protestors they will be most upset when a few cops get stomped on when the protesters use force to protect their right to free speech.

Not only is the security of the DNCC being handled improperly, but the muzzling of dissent is going to seriously back fire, likely in a violent way.

By conservative estimates there are going to be over 10,000 coming in to protest the DNC, plus 15-20,000 locals, the size of any protesting group could likely be 25 to 30 thousand people.

If the protestors are well organized (they are), and they launch parallel actions across the city only a very small number of them (200-300) could sufficiently paralyze the security forces around the convention site, and thus take control of the location.

I found out today that a number of Doctors and Medical Staff at Shriners, MGH, MEEI, and Spaulding announced that they are refusing to work next week as they feel their safety is at risk, and that as a result the hospitals were calling patients all day today cancelling appointments.

And here's some pretty thorough pictures of what the Pen looks like as of yesterday.

An acquaintance of mine made a very good point about said zone. The protesters told the judge that the pen was unsafe for the expected 4,000. The judge said he's only allow 1,000 to be sure it's safe. What's the problem here? We have a convention in a country of 250m citizens and only 1,000 are allowed to protest?

What I'd like to know is just how much of this is DNC mandated and supported & how much is from our Republican Presidential administration & Republican Governor's office? It's almost like they're setting up the convention for HUGE amounts of protests - and violent ones at that.

Cryptome also posted their own look at the "Protest Pen" along with a transcript of the original security discussions surrounding planning for the DNC and a recent announcement from the Coast Guard regarding their security measures.

As I write this, Reuters reports the FBI Boston Office is investigating a "group's" possible plans of igniting explosive or incendiary devices against media vehicles at the Convention.

Next week is going to be one hell of a week.

DHS Finally Pays Attention?

Well, it's about time. Someone claiming to be with DHS placed a phone call to John Young at Cryptome asking about Jim Atkinson.

Is it me or does the whole context of this seem that DHS is pissed Jim didn't hand over his analysis to them as soon as he found it? He's just doing what his client asked & paid him to do and then shared his analysis with me via a private mailing list. I asked for permission to post his report and he said "sure".

Immediately after posting said report - the FIRST time - I emailed two FBI Special Agents, (whom I had previous contact with via the BlackHat conference I worked as PR Manager for), whom I knew had some involvement in anti-terrorist activities at the Bureau. Should I have contacted FPS? DHS? Maybe. But why me? It seems from my posts that the information Mr. Atkinson was providing both me and Cryptome was common knowledge and hopefully something that would be addressed prior to the opening of the convention. Not to mention the fact that I posted links to said articles to every friggin DNC site I could find.

I'm interested to hear what Jim has to say and whether or not DHS has contacted him first. I'm also very curious as to whether or not DHS will address the issues Jim raised - which was the point for making the posts in the first place.

I will keep people posted.

Verizon: Fiber to the Home

I'm still not sure how to process this alleged announcement from Verizon that they're ready to bring fiber optics into the home. According to some chatter on Dave Farber's Interesting People list, Verizon has announced a new "Fios" service, (which appears to be referred to as FTTP on their site as well), which will bring 15MB/s for only $44.95 a month.

To put this into perspective, I'm about to get a new DSL line for roughly $140 a month that only does 768K, (or .768MB). And at 2MB/s - which is what The Leaky Cauldron will be at with our new host - that will allow us to transfer over 750GB, (or 750,000,000MB) oer month. How are they going to afford to do this? If this pricing is correct, they will blow the lid off cable Internet and the business bandwidth pricing market.

The story is still developing but, if true, we've just moved to a new level with home network solutions. Streaming movies will now be possible at full DVD quality.

UPDATE: It's confirmed. Wow.

New Pics of Will!

Yay! The wife emailed me a bunch of pics of Will's first plane ride and from his trip in CA.

Sex, Politics and Religion

The Vatican is apparently taking a card of misdirection from the deck of the GOP. Today a former MA priest, Bishop John M. D'Arcy from Indiana, says that the Catholic church should screen men entering seminary for homosexuality. He seems to allude that this would help to solve the child sex abuse cases going on all over the world involving Catholic priests.

I think the true problem is priestly celibacy - which is technically not required in the Catholic church. According to the aforelinked article, only in Western or Latin-Rite Catholocism is celibacy tradition and that Eastern Rite Catholic priests are more often than not married just like their fellow Orthodox and Oriental Christians. I'll be the first to admit that the article I've referenced is not the best on the subject, but it would take me too long to trace back through Catholic dogma to make my point they way I'd want.

You don't hear of scandals involving celibate priests and other men - it's the altar boys the priests seem to be after. These are young boys who are vulnerable and raised by their often devout parents to trust the church with all their soul - perfect targets for horny old men not satisfied to resort to self-gratification to satisfy repressed lust due to their errant vow. That's child abuse, paedophilia, sexual exploitation.

Nothing to do with homosexuality - it's pederasty, plain and simple. Why don't we hear about these priests going to gay bars? What about brothels? Could it just be that these trusting, vulnerable young folk are delivered right into the hands of these lusting men that they take advantage of it?

It just really bothers me that they believe it's only homosexuals who are perpetrating these assaults and that they believe screening for them, (works for the military, doesn't it?!), will keep them out of the priesthood. Why not take a stronger stance against child abusers in the church and relax those rules that, frankly, aren't canon and take a hint from your Eastern bretheren.

(In)Security at the.....hell, it's just NOT secure!

I have GOT to find a new title for this thread. It's getting ridiculous. Anyway, my 'TSCM friend' Jim Atkinson outed himself to Cryptome yesterday and gave them a bit more information about the pictures he took. Unfortunately, JYA aggregated all of Jim's pictures into composites so all of the EXIF metadata got lost in the process. It gives a little bit of insight as to how the pictures were taken - I wonder how many people in law enforcement are using EXIF and realize they can get a heck of a lot of information about an image on a Web site taken by some of the more recent digital cameras.

Here's sample EXIF data extracted from this original picture:

  2.10 
  2004-07-16T19:53:50 
  YCbCr 
  unknown 
  Flash did not fire 
  Hitachi 
  SH-G1000 

From that, we know what camera he used - a Hitachi SH-G1000 Pocket PC Camera Phone - when the picture was taken, and some details about what the camera did or, in this case, did not do - fire off the flash. Normally you could extract a heck of a lot more from EXIF but for some reason the Hitachi doesn't record other camera information. Here's one from a friend's CanonPowerShot G3 and another from one of my Kodaks.

Today's Insecurity note from Jim sez:

Boston Medflight Helicopters to MGH will have normal operations during the DNC and they will have an extra helicopter in service during this time period.

Spaulding will not be accepting helo flights on their pad, and anything into Shriners will go to Beth Israel roof and then to ground to there. I would be most concerned about "MedFlight 2" as it holds a huge amount of fuel, and can fly at over 200 MPH (with 2,000+ pounds of cargo), and has an extremely high operating ceiling. Also, the French made Dauphin II is a popular military model/variant and would most likely be the target if a terrorist was planning on snatching and using it as a flying bomb (easy to obtain flight training).

A 7300 pound helicopter, slamming into either the DNCC or nearby building at over 200 MPH would rip a huge hole in the building, plus the resulting fire due to the extended fuel capacity (350 gallons) and the lack of safe egress from the Fleet Center presents some interesting problems. There are no ground level exits from the Fleet Center, and the entire North Face of the building is exposed to incoming high speed air traffic so a hijacked/stolen helicopter attack would be devastating. The Fleet Center is quite literally "built on stilts", and an emergency evacuation is quite impossible.

The Fleet Center is perhaps one of the worse possible places in they could be having this convention.

OK - I don't think the terrorists would try all the stuff Jim has mentioned. I think what bugs me the worst about all this - besides the complete lack of media attention - is that I'm normally a person who chastizes the Bush administration and DHS for their paranoid tendancies. we hear SO MUCH about the security of the convention in Boston but this "series" shows that it's all lip service and eye candy. Over the next few days I'm going to float more of this to Boston-area media and see if anyone bites. This is getting ridiculous.

My Trip Through Europe

Well, sort of. Since I'm not travelling this week, (*pokes wife playfully*), I sat down to watch EuroTrip tonight. I give it a 9 out of 10 - yes it's cheesy, yes it has gratuitous nudity, sex & swearing, and yes, it fits the mold of every road trip flick ever done but it was fun, hilarious & had some excellent cameos. My favorites were the two Snatch actors - Vinnie Jones & Rade Serbedzija. I'd watch it again now if I didn't have to get some shut eye soon. Definitely should have watched it this weekend. It would have fit very well with the "stupid humor" movies I like to watch with my brother when we're chilling out and having a boys weekend - but hey....I caught 7 movies this weekend and I still have movies to watch.

My Son's Voice, My Wife's Heart

I've been a bit down with both Kirky and Will in CA for the week and Friday night was my first night without them. I went up to sleep and on my pillow was a silver-looking mini-laptop. When I opened it, it turned out to be a picture frame with two photos of my son and a recording of his voice on each side. I got teary. On the plus side, I've been sleeping quite soundly. I've been taking the frame around and pressing the buttons to set off the sound clips at random times.

• Will Being Fussy
• Will Playing and then Starting to Get Cranky.

Only seven more days until things return to normal.

An All-Movie Weekend

Kirky and Will are in CA with the in-laws visiting my brother-in-law and his family - so I'm left home to work and watch the dogs. Alas. ;)

But seriously, I'm taking the time to catch up on deep sleep & movies my wife wouldn't want to see. This weekend my brother was visiting as he helped me run some ethernet cable. So I rented a bunch of movies and belo are my thoughts.

• Club Dread - 6 out of 10 - It was a fun movie but not remotely as fun as Super Troopers was. I hope Broken Lizard's next is much better.
• Kill Bill, vol 1. - 7 out of 10 - Great flick. I loved the mix of Japanese Samurai movie crossed with Spaghetti Western. Definitely a Tarantino film. I'm looking forward to Vol. 2.
• Once Upon a Time in Mexico - 8 out of 10 - Not quite what Desperado was but neat to see a new twist with the CIA/FBI interaction.
• The Butterfly Effect - 8 out of 10 - A truly mind-blowing movie and interesting look at the power of chaos as well as how single events in ones childhood make a huge difference.
• Timeline - 7 out of 10 - An entertaining but fairly predictable movie. Its themes have been covered thoroughly in other movies.
• School of Rock - 9 out of 10 - Reminds me of Mr. Holland's Opus with a twist. I love Jack Black and I'm a sucker for a movie about HS music programs which is why this movie gets a high rating for me.
• The Rundown - 7 out of 10 - A great buddy-acton movie with The Rock and Seann William Scott.
• Fahrenheit 911 - 8 out of 10 - Quite a bit of what I already new but it was nifty to see everything wrapped up into one film. Glad to see the strong relationship drawn between the Al-Sauds and Bushes - I wish I saw more of this widely in the news.
• Out-foxed - 10 out of 10 - I really liked this film - a lot more than F911. Again, lots I already knew and I see Fox as a joke anyway, but the amount of people who used to work for Fox - especially those who weren't anonymous - was powerful. I especially liked the piece of Jeremy Glick vs. Bill O'Reilly and it was just amazing to listen to what the Bush admin is doing and then to see Fox fall in-line. Horrible, disgusting, and an eyeopener.

Throughout this week, I'll watch movies I have stored on TiVo and "muse" about them. Fun.

(In)Security at the Fleet Center, part the third

And so it continues. My TSCM friend followed up on part one and part two by taking pictures Friday of the area surrounding the Fleet Center. Cryptome was sweet enough to make my life easier by posting them for me as well as their own look at Fleet Center Security. .....wish the Feds were paying this much attention.

Update: (In)Security at the DNCC, part deux

Well, we have an update from my friend the "TSCM Guy" and apparently Boston has done little to nothing to improve security as the convention nears. What, do I need to send these posts to media outlets? At his request, I've cleaned up the piece a bit.

I visited the site of the DNCC again on today, and poked around a bit more.

The government has moved around a small number of the Jersey barriers in front of the Tip O'Neil building to partially block one section of the sidewalk, but they have done little else with said barriers. One barrier had a single stake, but not one of the other hundred had any stakes. None of them where linked yet, and none had cables or chains. There were more visible security (FPS weenies), but they seemed more interested in scratching their butts then stopping me to ask why I was lurking around dressed like a homeless bum, and lugging a huge green duffle bag stuffed with 50 pounds of flour. The flour was to harmlessly simulate a "nefarious device or compound" (ie: explosives, chemical, biological, radiological device, etc).

The Verizon communications trailer is still totally exposed, and STILL unlocked & right at the sidewalk.

The two HVAC sets right on the sidewalk, (near the Verizon trailer), are totally exposed and have no type of filtration of any kind. If someone popped a smoke bomb, released a noxious gas, or (God forbid) release some anthrax it would get sucked in to the auxiliary HVAC system and dispersed throughout the entire Convention complex. This would be a lot harder to do with roof mounted units, but these smaller street level units are a glaring security hole, and an invitation to mischief. At the minimum these units should have had snorkels installed with one micro-filters.

I did not see any evidence that the sewer had been snaked yet, (inspected for bombs with a video snake), and it is now going to be impossible to do an inspection as there is absolutely no time left to do it. None of the sewer grates & manholes have been tack welded yet, nor locked down, (you do this as you snake the pipes). It is likely that the government security weenies are just going to do a cursory check on the manholes and tack them closed (which is actually a useless action as the tack weld can be broken with one whack of a chisel, or welders scaling hammer).

The construction of the roof of the pavilion invites thrown objects due to the low height, and if the Green line (subway) is running passengers on the loading platform could toss nasty things down on to the roof of the pavilion. [Editor's Note: The good(?) news is that the Green Line stop at Fleet will stop running on Friday, 7/23.]

There is still nothing in place to prevent a truck from running the light barricades being put up around the area. Essentially any vehicle weight at least 15000 pounds, (medium sized Ryder truck), and moving at 15 mph of more would be unstoppable. If the assailant increases the speed to 35-40 miles, or upsizes the truck to a 25,000 pounder (heavy Ryder truck) mischief could be conducted even though the five "gauntlets" they're setting up.

From what I can see the biggest, and most serious vulnerability is from trucks loaded with flammable or explosive materials approaching from the area of the Charlestown Navy Yard, or cutting though Chelsea, crossing the bridge at the power plant and going on an attack vector along the Hood Plant.

MGH is closing off a big chunk of the hospital and is going to be transferring, (cough, cough), evacuating patients to other facilities starting next early next week so that they have a bare minimum of patients. Several family members of the Al-Saud family that were staying at Blair House (at MGH) are being transferred (at their request) this Friday morning. On a more amusing note, MGH has removed the "We Welcome the DNC" signs, and replaced them with ones with a less ironic message.

The Heliports will still be open at all three hospitals, and nothing has been done to prevent an ambulance from getting stolen and being used for mischief - they still have access to the DNCC. In fact ambulances are going to have a special "parade route" that loops then around a series of gauntlets to ensure they can get from the hospital to the DNC or local hotels at high speeds.

There are still major radio coverage shadows in the area, (I double checked today), and there are no new communications towers of booms up yet (or planned to go up) that would help the situation. If there is an incidet at the DNC there will be virtually no radio coverage.

The primary command center for security is set up in a series on dressing rooms actually in the conference facility, and the FBI/CIA/FPS setting up a redundant command post in three nearby buildings nearby (sounds like the brewing of a turf war). Add to this the military has already mobilized five missile batteries within one mile of the Fleet Center, and the State Police having their own little side show nearby queuing up the SWAT trucks, (they were getting a huge shipment of chemical weapons today - 45,000 pounds of CS and CN hand grenades, shoulder-fired CS pyrotechnic projectiles, stun grenades, pepper foggers, nauseating agents, etc. The shipment came from Armor Holdings/Defense Technology in Florida.). The Navy Yard is making preparation for some serious floating iron as well, so it will be interesting to see what they float in to intercept any airborne threat.

I could go on, but nobody is listening, nobody cares, yadda-yadda-yadda.

I see a major clouster-fook brewing.

My own FOAFing in WordPress

Being extremely jealous of the other guys hacking apart WordPress to make it FOAF-y, I've actually done my own PHP hack. This one required nothing more than making sure the "Profile" field under the WordPress User Profile contained a one-line bio. Or...thereabouts. Then I added the "olb" property from the Bio Vocabulary.

Then I made an edit to Christoph Görn's hack of Morten Frederiksen's foaf-output plugin 1.9, (found in wp-content/plugins when installed) and added the following lines:

After the line

xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"

xmlns:bio="http://purl.org/vocab/bio/0.1/"

and after the line

$rdf .= "\n\t" . '<homepage rdf:resource="' . htmlspecialchars($authordata->user_url) . '"/>';

if($authordata->user_description)

                $rdf .= "\n\n\t" . '<'bio:olb>' . htmlspecialchars($authordata->user_description) . '</bio:olb>' . "\n";

Finally, something I can hack myself. Next step is to try and add a birthdate. Not nearly as easy.

Homestar & TMBG

Speaking of Strong Bad being a favorite, I can't get enough of this recent collaboration between Homestarrunner.com and They Might Be Giants. The Brothers Chaps animated a video of the new TMBG single from "The Spine" called "Experimental Film" - definitely check it out.

Minister of Homel....Fear

Once again, Mark Fiore is dead on with his look at Tom Ridge- Minister of Fear.

FOAF & Political Leanings

As FOAF becomes more and more a "personal profile" RDF language as well as a form of "personal identification", people are going to want to add more detailed information about their preferences. What about politics? It's hot right now- worldwide.

So what about a MyPolitics FOAF extension? It would need to be internationalization-friendly. The person should be able to say what country their politics are with, (i.e. US), what party they affiliate with, (i.e. Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, Independent, None), and what their politics are (i.e. conservative, liberal, far left, far right, moderate, centrist, anarchist, libertarian), and finally even be able to identify their views on certain issues from Marriage to Family Planning to the Environment.

Anyone have any ideas for RDF properties?

Mousepad Activism and Syndication

I've always been a bit of a "Mousepad Activist", that is to say that I have subscribed to about 100 environmental and various liberal political activist Web sites in hopes of getting emailed "Action Alerts" pertainant to my views that I can act on.

However, my folders of email from these organizations is HUGE & its a small group of companies that power these Web sites - Capital Advantage, GetActive, etc. Why can't all these groups setup user/pass logins with cookies telling me which Action Items I've already done and also offer RSS/Atom feeds of the newest action items? Or let me see all the campaigns they power so I have a place I can easily search? The amount of time it takes for a huge email batch to go out can be alleviated somewhat if there's an RSS/Atom feed that can be grabbed easier & acted upon sooner.

Of course, just as I get much more email than the average user, I probably also view a lot more Web sites via a newsreader as well - check them all out in my OPML file.

For instance, from my various news feeds I've noticed that Bush is completely rolling back the Clinton-era laws regarding the protection of national forests under the guise of giving power back to the states.

• Democrats.org: Jul 13, 2004: National forests at risk
• CivilRights.org: Administration Confirming Plans to Open More Forests to Logging
• Boston.com: Bush administration proposes plan to open more national forests to logging

But then I had to go hunting for news on the PACs. The only one I found so far was at OurForest.org. I'm sure more will be out tonight but why should I have to search? This can only benefit these orgs & as we get closer and closer to the 2004 election, more and more fellow mousepad/armchair activists want to have their voice heard.

(In)Security at the DNCC

So I was chatting with a friend who does security evaluation & TSCM, about security at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He was doing a walkthrough for a client and had a less than favorable reaction:

[Here are] some seriously easy ones, that can be verified without mulling around, and can be seen by the layman.

There are jersey barriers in front of the O'Neil building, but none of them are staked down, none of them are connected together, and none of them have interlocking cables of any sort. The same barriers are not installed properly with some of them either teetering across the curb, or or spaced so far apart so as to allow a vehicle to access the front of the building(s).

The temporary communications trailer (Verizon) has been installed right at the edge of the street and is a plywood trailer with a fiberglass/sheet metal shell. Easy to destroy/damage, also easy to take out from a considerable distance with a rifle. I actually walked through the Verizon trailer yesterday (unescorted, and uninvited) and through a fist full of red and black poker chips behind the switching cabinet.

Ditto for the two large HVAC/Gensets at the outer corners of the pavilion. Easy access, easy to sabotage, fully accessible even now (I opened the service panel of both and mulled around for a few minutes before departing).

Chains, cables, and nets has not yet been installed on either side of the locks on the Charles, nor does it appear that the moorings for these nets have yet been installed (it takes over a month to install one of these). Also, the actuators for these nets have not been installed either.

While the road in front of the Fleet center is in the middle of being resurfaced there has been no provisions made for a hydraulic or pneumatic barrier on any of the roads, nor have any of the road been prepared to staking anchors for any other kind of barriers (the anchors would have to be poured before now).

There needs to be a "sterile corridor" in place 3-4 weeks prior the DNC, which is now only two weeks out. Hot topping and road construction continues in the area, and there is going to be zero time left to build out the sterile corridor.

As per the head of security at MGH, Shriners, and Spaulding Rehab (just a few blocks from the DNC) the two heliports associated with the hospitals will continue to operate during the DNC (major hazard).

Semi trucks WILL BE ALLOWED INSIDE the Fleet Center prior to, during, and after the convention... and tour/shuttle buses will be running.

Ambulances will be stationed 7/24 on both the loading side, and access road side of the Fleet... Hint: Ambulances are usually left running at the local hospitals (just a few blocks away), AND will be allowed to queue up en-mass at the DNC. It will be very easy for a mischief maker to steal on of these ambulances and "crash the party", or steal it, pack it with explosives (in a few minutes), and delivery it to the pavillion.

Only the "inbound" side of the major roads will be blocked off, and then only with a couple of J-Barriers and a police car. Neither is capable of physically stopping anything larger than a pickup truck.

There is a huge radio coverage hole, or shadow if you will at and around the Fleet Center as communications by Radio is going to be touchy at best.

"I could go on...." he sez.

Hmmmm.

As a followup to the whole issue of a RF "coverage hole", I asked if that would effect wireless & TV. He agreed and also included: "and cell phones, PDA's, beepers, car alarms, pacemakers, etc." He suggested folks "WiFi off the open network at the O'Neil building next to the DNCC instead."

*shakes head* - will someone PLEASE get the Boston Police, DHS and FBI up to speed? This is embarrassing.

Making Fiends

I don't look forward to much except maybe my Penny Arcade fix or the latest Strong Bad flash - but probably my most favorite online comic/flash I happily anticipate is "Making Fiends". Here's author Amy Winfrey's Web site. Harry Potter FF fans, think "Slytherin meets MarySue Hufflepuff". It's fun, delightfully evil and it takes me hours to stop speaking in Vendetta's accent.

Down Home President

I've been ramping up with my political blogs more and more with the forthcoming election and stumbled across Clinton's official blog. I was stunned to read the openness and vulnerability of his most recent post. Is this really him?

The Fourth and Friends

It occurs to me that I haven't written about me of late and have been using this site to record instances of prior art. So here's a little tidbit.

I am immensely enjoying fatherhood. Though I'm much more tired than I would like to be, it's not nearly as bad as I was expecting. Most of that is due to my wonderful wife who lets me sleep through the night. I'm normally a light sleeper but have managed to train my brain to shut out the nightly feedings with an emergency switch-on for when I detect Kirky's frustration level rising or an increase in the volume of my son's wails. Or maybe it's just that I'm so damn tired.

But seriously....my son spoils us. He is quick to calm though sometimes figuring out what will sooth him is a crap shoot. Change in position? pacifier? black-and-white bullseye side of his whoosit? bouncing? tummy time? Though one thing that always works is food. The breast is the world's best and fastest pacifier.

It's been amazing watching him over the past few weeks. He's about six weeks old and he's already holding his head up with surprising control. He's smiling more and more each day, & learning to imitate people - mostly when they stick their tongue out at him. Last night we played a game of "silly noises" where he'd make a funny sound, I'd imitate it and he'd repeat me. We did that for almost 5 minutes...it was great.

This past weekend we took him on his first road trip. We drove 7 hours to Melissa's house in Toms River, NJ. This was the same place we all had gathered for the Book 5 summit and I couldn't imagine a more low-key, relaxing place for Will's first vacation.

OK, maybe "low-key" wasn't the correct phrase but it was still relaxing. Melissa invited us down to spend the 4th with her family & family friends and it was a blast. Melissa's mother is an amazing hostess and we watched as she flawlessly directed carloads of people coming in and out of her house at all hours. There was always food to be had from munchies to dogs and burgers to goodies from Melissa's uncle's bakery, (the canoles and sugar-free cheesecake was to die for), to the crabs I caught with Melissa's "cousin" Joe that were marvelously cooked on the grill by his and Melissa's father with a wonderful garlic sauce. That was the other thing - the house was constantly full of the delectable aroma of roasted garlic. Absolutely amazing.

There was other things besides the food - but it's always about the food. ;)

Another highlight was getting to "teach" Joe how to fish as its something I haven't done in years & pulled the knowledge from goodness knows where. We didn't catch anything but besides learning something new, Joe seemed to enjoy the meditative nature of casting.

We spent a lot of time in the pool as my sunburn proves. I waited a tad too late to put on sunblock and now have a pink hue about me. "I don't burn" Ha, ha, ha....maybe 10 years ago when I actually spent summers outside. I don't think I've spent that much time outdoors since my honeymoon - which is pretty pathetic.

The night of the fourth all we had to do is sit on Melissa's back patio to see fireworks. She's right on the bay and there were 360 degrees of color all around us - it was great not having to go out or even move from ones chair to see the display.

Probably the highlight of the weekend was seeing Melissa and Megan with Will. It's important to me to surround my son with friends of mine who are educated, funny, open-minded, & intelligent and I couldn't imagine a better pair to foist him upon. We all took some great pictures of him that I'll get up on his site soon.

I also had the honor of eavesdropping while Melissa and Meg worked on their next joint project - a play. I don't think I've really said enough of how talented Melissa is as a reporter and Meg is as a writer. Watching them plot, plan and pen is as much fun as reading the stuff they produce. I can't wait to see this show on Broadway - it's going to be a hit. While Melissa's been churning out copy, it won't be long before Meg has several books published. Mark my words - they're going to be famous if I have anything to say about it.

Before I part, permit me to be overly sappy. I want to say how lucky I am to have such great friends. Kirky and I aren't really actively social people. Most of my friends come from the Internet with my various hobbies and we don't get to see each other often, in person. When we do, I am continually surprised by them including their wit, intelligence and just how generously sweet they are. Melissa and Meg make up an integral part to this small core group of friends & though we are always sad when we must part from our in-person visits, that melancholy is far outweighed by the memories formed during our stays with them. I can't imagine a better group of people to call my friends.

We'll be seeing them again in August at the same location as we continue our whirlwind summer tour of showing off Will. In the next two months, my Dad and his wife will be visiting as will my Mom and we'll be taking Will to Western Mass., Western Connecticut, California, & Georgia. Phew!