Scary

A Data Miner's perspective on the NSA Database

excerpt:

Who are they really spying on?

All of this brings us to ask who the real targets of all of this spying is.  In truth, it could be the terrorists.  In order to identify them, you need to know an awful lot about those who are not terrorists.  This helps to eliminate false positives.  However, the data for terrorists is so sparse, that even if a possible terrorist is identified, the algorithms used will rarely generate a high probability and a high confidence.  In other words, little, if any actionable intelligence.  On the other hand, if you want to predict how a person will vote in a given election, you can get an amazingly accurate prediction from the high-quality data from Joe and Jane Sixpack.

Which brings us to the Big Question:  Why?

We have wondered for years how the Rethugs can keep squeaking out wins in elections they should lose.  We know that their data miner of choice, ChoicePoint, was the company that purged the Florida voter rolls in the 2000 election.  And Lo! They pop up again in the NSA scandal.  It does not take a data miner to see that these thugs don't ever intend to lose an election again.

On Rove indictment

Jason Leopold's story is suspect. 

More scary

U.S. Government Intervenes in EFF vs. AT&T

WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. government filed a motion on Saturday to intervene and seek dismissal of a lawsuit by a civil liberties group against AT&T Inc. over a federal program to monitor U.S. communications.

The suit filed in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California accuses AT&T of unlawful collaboration with the National Security Agency in its surveillance program to intercept telephone and e-mail communications between the United States and people linked to al Qaeda and affiliated organizations.

Georgia's gay marriage ban ruled *unconstitutional*

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/16/202920/095

Okay it was chunked on a technicality, but a victory is a victory.  It will take legislators to put it back on the ballot again, and that won't happen in time for the November ballot.