In recent days we have seen a new surge in a the phenomenon that is hacktivism.  Hacking has been brought back to the mainstream media’s attention by the recent instances of Gov. Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! e-mail getting cracked, and then Bill O’Reilly’s website.  These black hat crackers are striking out to reveal a forgotten truth about the internet:  Nothing is secure.

We need to examine why these hacks occurred, and why they are important and relevant to our world today.  The Palin hack came because of a policy that she holds in her administration, a policy of absolute secrecy.  Secrecy is so important to her that she has been circumventing the Freedom of Information act by using a personal web mail account to conduct state business.  She had been breaking the law and preventing the necessary transparency in government, so the internet retaliated.  Around midnight on September 16th a channer cracked Palin’s password, supposedly using the password reset function and finding the answers to Palin’s security questions through a few quick Google searches.  He rifled around, grabbed some screenshots and posted them to Wikileaks and 4Chan.  These screen shots confirmed that Palin was indeed conducting government business through her personal email, and while the cracker found nothing they though was incriminating, it does show that she was purposefully circumventing the Freedom of Information act.

Bill O’Reilly, on the other hand, just pissed off the internet.  He attacked the greatest example of an independent transparency organization we have ever seen, saying that the owners should be cuffed and booked for their slimy and despicable site.  He attacked the one thing hackers around the world are most united on:  The freedom of information.  Because of this another cracker decided they would hack O’Reilly’s site.  To do this they used variations of the websites admin URL until one worked and gave them access.  They proceeded to upload screenshots including the names, addresses, and passwords of premium users of the Bill O’Reilly site to Wikileaks to prove the hack had been accomplished.  This attack was committed because of O’Reilly’s attack on the freedom of information, and on the freedom of the internet.

Hopefully we can expect to see a continuation of this movement to bring even more transparency the people running our cities, states, and country.

Posted by Wes Mueller on 09/22 at 11:17 AM  •   •  permalink

Over the past month we’ve seen a lot happening in the East.  Georgia tried to assimilate its semi-autonomous regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.  Russia invaded Georgia and the world reacted with outrage.  Now a new crisis has occurred in the region with the formal declaration of collapse in Ukraine.  This collapse has increased worries of Russian interference with pro-West governments in the region.

The destabilization of yet another country in the region does not bode well for a world that is supposed to be done with power politics.  As we watch the government reacting to this crisis in Ukraine it will be important to watch for signs of rising Russian influence in the country, especially in Crimea, a region that is already semi-autonomous and pro-Russia. 

The collapse of the Ukrainian government has happened due to the differing reactions towards the South Ossetia War in Georgia earlier this month.  President Yatsenyuk attacked the country’s Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, for not reacting strongly enough to the conflict, saying that she has committed high treason for her lack of strong words against Russia.  She has defended her lack of vocal outcry, saying that she fully supports Georgia and the EU’s position in the matter.  She stated that she felt it was important not to aggrevate Russia at this time, a move I would call an exercise in good diplomacy.  President Yatsenyuk has declared that the coalition that resulted from the Orange Revolution has officially collapsed and has stepped down from his position.

I feel a chill.

Posted by Wes Mueller on 09/17 at 12:09 PM  •   •  permalink

Secrecy and loyalty.  Unquestionable policy.  These are things we’ve become very familiar with over the past eight years.  A sense of you’re with us or you’re against us.  You’re either pro-Bush or anti-American.  Not really a policy for patriotic Americans who want to protect their freedoms and country through dissent against questionable policies and actions within the government.  A policy that could be continued through the vice president should Sarah Palin be elected.

Sarah Palin has a record of using her power to lash out at opponents and elevate friends.  She’s recommended her office use personal email for government business to avoid being subpoenaed.  When cutting the budget she ignored lawmakers and conferred with her husband, who is employed on the North Slope by an oil company.  It was said she hired a classmate to be the head of the agricultural department not because she was qualified for the position, but because she had loved cows when she was younger.  And of course, we’re all familiar with the scandal of Palin trying to get her sister’s ex-husband fired, which resulted in the firing of his superior on the grounds of being uncooperative with the Governor’s office.

These are policies that are dangerous in our federal government, and are an unethical abuse of power, something Palin is apparently familiar with. 

Posted by Wes Mueller on 09/15 at 01:32 PM  •   •  permalink

Let’s say that in your state, as a government employee, time you spend away from your office for official business gets you a $60 a day allowance to cover travel expense, meals, things of that nature.  That sounds like a pretty good little system, right?  I mean, you’re required to be away on official business, you should get something to help you pay for it, right?  Now let’s say that you are using your home as your office more than 300 days a year, and this home is 600 miles away from your main office.  Would it still be alright to take this allowance to cover your expense for all these days?  Or would this be an abuse of the system set up to help pay for official trips?

Sarah Palin works from home.  In one year she racked up $17,000 in allowances for being away from her office (read: the Governor’s Mansion) on official business (read: working from home).  This allowance is paid for by taxpayers, and is supplementing the $125,000 salary that she’s receiving for her occupation as the Governor of Alaska.  This is someone the Republican party is celebrating as a shining light in the world of fiscal responsibility, and she has been taking an extra $60 each day to work from her home.

To me this action is a completely unethical abuse of the systems in place, and many other states agree.  For a government worker to be taking money set aside for travel expense from taxpayers while they’re working from home is completely irresponsible.  To me this is a mugging.

Posted by Wes Mueller on 09/10 at 02:01 PM  •   •  permalink

When does life begin and what makes it sacred?  This is going to be a main issue in November when people go the voting booths, more so with the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate.  These are questions that we need answers for, and I’m going to tell you my answers.

When does life begin?  Well, for the cellular organism that begins the journey to being human life begins at conception.  There is a life which is born of this action.  That doesn’t mean that human life begins at conception, however, as I would not call a organism with one or two cells human.  So is this life as sacred as human life?  Is it more sacred then a pig or a cow?  Is it more sacred than the fly you swat or the cockroach you crush?  Is it more sacred than any bacteria that you scrub off your stove?  All of these organisms are as or more complex than what is created at the time of conception, but all of these are held, somehow, as less sacred.  By the same moral justification that says you’re damned for murdering a “baby” you’re damned for scrubbing your toilet.  There’s nothing sacred to you about any other single celled organism, so why is this one special?

So when does it cease to be beast and become man?  Let’s look at the development at 6 weeks.

What I see in this picture is a salamander.  Something you would keep in a glass tank with fake plants and some gravel.  I don’t see a human here.  A salamander isn’t sacred to you, so why is this one special?  How about two months along?

I still don’t see a human here.  What I see here is an abominable mid species that looks like you crossed a monkey with a frog.  I fail to see anything sacred here, and if someone actually did cross those species you’d call it playing God and a sin, so why is this thing special?

The time I start to see human is 5 months.  By then abortions are already illegal, so I fail to see where the issue is here.  Prior to then what are you aborting?  Is it a human or a fish?  Is it a boy or a lizard?  And if the slaughter of these strange half-animals is immoral how do you justify your actions when you support the war over the lives of troops, or eat meat, or keep a pet?  Isn’t this moral justification missing something for you?

Posted by Wes Mueller on 09/08 at 01:34 PM  •   •  permalink