Ted Stevens, Again
What an asshole. There are not many people who can embody all that is wrong with a system, but he manages to pull it off.
Power Control System Warning
Vnunet –
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has set out security requirements for automated control systems, principally in the power industry, to protect installations against physical and cyber-attacks.
Surprisingly for a document dealing with automated systems as opposed to data networks, it includes recommendations about protection against spam and social engineering, threats not normally associated with control systems.
Congressional Pay Raise
McClatchy – Where do these guys get the nerve?
After raising the minimum wage by 70 cents an hour this week, many members of Congress are ready to give themselves a pay increase of roughly $4,400 per year.
That would take their annual salaries to nearly $170,000.
Youtube Debate Scale Limits
Ed Morrissey says the solution to fix the obsolete nature of the Youtube debates is:
CNN would ask bloggers to form a committee to review the YouTube entries. Since this debate is a Republican primary event, the bloggers should probably represent that segment of the electorate — primarily Republicans, but perhaps with independent/centrist representation as well. The committee would review all of the YouTube entries and narrow them down to around 20, through whatever process and criteria to which these bloggers agree. They would also agree to the order in which the questions would be asked.
But this is more of the e-press conference approach. You could do it Digg style but the argument against that centers on there’s just too many people involved.
The elephant in the room is: if Youtube has too many users to pick questions for candidates, then the country probably has too many people to pick candidates.
State Fusion Centers No Good
WashTech –
State intelligence fusion centers, which have received praise and federal funds as a tool for merging terrorism, law enforcement and all-hazard intelligence, are struggling to produce useful information as a result of tangled technology and unclear missions, according to a nationwide study.
The report, titled “Fusion Centers: Issues and Options for Congress” and completed this month by the Congressional Research Service, cited problems with the centers’ lack of connectivity with existing law enforcement databases and poor compliance with federally backed technical data-sharing standards. Federal agencies have contributed to the problems by spewing overlapping data at the centers via uncoordinated and insecure networks that are hard to use, the auditors said.