Lunog

We can expect to see a lot more articles about our newest $2.5 billion dollar Virginia-class submarine as both the prime contractors (General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman) and the Navy (PMS 450)1 begin their push to justify its unprecedented and jaw dropping price tag!

Virginia-class Submarine

To date PMS 450 has made very little or no Virginia-class submarine historical or future cost data, supporting data, and related assumptions publicly available².

It is not meaningful or credible for John Holmander (General Dynamics, Program Office) or others to repeatedly chant numbers, without making public, for analysis, the underlying cost data, supporting data, and assumptions².

Worse, bordering on insulting is to tell our submarine community and the public "the subs are cool. James Bond cool"³. The subs may be "James Bond cool", especially if your last sub was diesel and you're not current on submarine advances, but the question is are they $2.5 billion dollars per copy cool!?

-----notes-----

1. The Navy's Virginia-class submarine program office—executive officer Rear Admiral William H. Hilarides and Program Manager Captain Michael Jabaley (incoming).

2. These are not fixed priced prime contracts requiring the prime contractors to deliver each submarine at a set price and accept all risk and the loss for not doing so.

On the contrary, these are cost reimbursement contracts requiring the prime contractors to spend our tax dollars until they run out or are told to stop, whichever occurs first.

There is no legitimate reason for not disclosing all cost data for the construction of the Virginia-class submarine so long as the prime contracts remain other than fixed price contracts.

3. See Chris Joyner, Clarion Ledger, New Navy nuclear submarine to be christened 'Mississippi' quoting Michael Jabaley.

Originally Published August 14, 2008; Updated and Republished August 18, 2008; Updated and Republished August 28, 2008:

Web:

• UPDATED 08/28/2008 UPI, Russia condemned by fellow G8 members

  "We deplore Russia's excessive use of military force in Georgia and its continued occupation of parts of Georgia."--G-8 Nations, minus Russia--

• UPDATED 08/18/2008 We keep hearing a lot about democracy and very little about the Baku-Tiblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and Baku-Tiblisi-Supsa (BTS) oil-gas pipelines?

  Oh well, just in case your interested here's a map which might help you better understand the latest use of force.

  Somehow our leadership, such as it is, repeating "Russians are dangerous and bad—Georgians are safe and good" seems a bit too juvenile, at best! (courtesy of our Energy Information Agency, Caspian Sea Energy Data, Statistics and Analysis - Oil, Gas, Electricity, Coal (600K pdf)):

  

  Here's a short background congressional research report, Russia-Georgia Conflict in South Ossetia: Context and Implications for U.S. Interests (150K pdf), courtesy of Federation of American Scientists, Secrecy Project (Steven Aftergood).

• UPDATED 08/15/2008 AP, Georgian signs draft truce on strife with Russia.

• UPDATED 08/14/2008 NYT, Russia Vows to Support Two Enclaves, in Retort to Bush.

  “If Russia does not step back from its aggressive posture and actions in Georgia, the U.S.-Russian relationship could be adversely affected for years to come.

  ...I don’t see any prospect for the use of military force by the United States in this situation. Clear enough?” --Secretary Defense Gates--

  Secretary of State Rice said:

  “It is time for this crisis to be over.”

  But she's not planning to go to Moscow to tell the Russians!

  What diplomatic school is teaching our diplomats to say this drivel—go to Moscow, tell the Russians, not the reporters! (Germany's Merkel is traveling to Moscow and may be carrying a joint representative message?)

• UPDATED 08/13/2008 US plans aid to Georgia as Russia rolls into city.

• UPDATED 08/12/2008 AFP, Russia and Georgia agree to peace plan: Sarkozy. Nice to see Europe so involved in its own security:

  "There is a text. It has been accepted in Moscow, it was accepted here in Georgia. I have the agreement of all the protaganists," --Nicolas Sarkozy--

  To bad today's breathless Secretary of State Rice wasn't involved over the prior two years diffusing Russia-Georgia as they danced a circle like grade school bullies provoking and taunting each other.

• UPDATED 08/12/2008 NYT, Cyberspace Barrage Preceded Russian Invasion of Georgia
• UPDATED 08/12/2008 Moscow Times, Sarkozy Clinches a 6-Point Plan for Peace
• UPDATED 08/11/2008 CSM, Roots of Georgia-Russia clash run deep
• UPDATED 08/09/2008 NYT, Taunting The Bear. Hopefully the NYT will begin updating and expanding their reporting Rolodex beyond Kennan legacy, Kissinger, Kagan, Cohen, Gates, and Rice et al?
• US tells Russia to halt attacks in South Ossetia [Georgia]

Originally Published March 09, 2007; Updated and Republished August 13, 2008; Updated and Republished August 27, 2008:

Surprise! The United States Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issues a scathing 199 page report (4M pdf)1 on the FBI's improper and illegal use of National Security Letters (NSL). After the OIG report states that the FBI's use of NSLs has grown dramatically from 8,500, pre-Patriot Act to 143,074 post-Patriot Act2, 2003-2005 it catalogs the problems.

The problems belie all control or oversight of the NSL process. Some of the noted problems include:

• No policy for retaining copies of issued NSLs.
• No uniform system for tracking NSLs and the information obtained under them.
• Improper and illegal use of NSLs.
• Improper use of "exigent" NSLs.
• Inability to connect NSLs with specific and proper National Security Investigations.
• Failure to adhere to internal FBI internal controls and policies.
• Not adhering to the least intrusive method for obtaining data, as required.
• NSL database incomplete and inaccurate.
• Complete loss of NSL data.
• Twenty-two percent more NSLs in case files than in NSL database.
• Under reporting the number of issued NSLs.

Hey John Ashcroft, you wanted proof - read this report. Even the bubble of the pugnacious and perpetually in-denial Alberto Gonzales was burst by the report.

Web:

• UPDATED 08/27/2008 Reuters, Judges consider whether FBI violated free speech
• UPDATED 08/13/2008 UPI, Reporters' group wants FBI explanation
• UPDATED 03/27/07 NY Times, Congress Expands Scope of Inquiries Into Justice Department Practices and Politics

-----notes-----

1. The report is a pdf of an image of the report - DOJ-OIG needs to issue the report as regular pdf so it can be easily studied annotated and shared. Not to mention a much much much smaller file size! Original 35 Meg "image" pdf has been replaced by normal "text" pdf.

2. You'll recall NSLs receive no judicial oversight and that the Patriot Act significantly lowered the standard for issuance of NSLs.

NSLs are issued based on an internal FBI certifying process which the report makes clear is badly broken.

Originally Published March 13, 2008; Updated and Republished August 27, 2008:

Bush senate Republicans in Congress have stall legislation1 aimed at helping those caught in the mortgage crisis retain their homes—Homeless Los Angelinos and others are building tent cities. These same senators while stalling legislation aimed at helping Americans stay in their home continue sending trillions of dollars to Iraq!

Perhaps Senator Mitch McConnell, and other Bush Republicans will explain how it is that Americans are homeless while they send trillions of dollars to Iraq?

Web:

• UPDATED 08/27/2008 UPI, Official seeks foreclosure moratorium San Diego's city attorney seeks relief from the county's 213 percent increase in mortgage foreclosures.
• UPDATE 03/13/2008 Forbes, Paulson's New Anti-Crisis Playbook."Poor judgment and poor market practices led to mistakes by all participants.”—Oh, you mean like the 1998 collapse of Long Term Capital Management or today's collapse of Carlyle Capital.
• BBC Video Clip, The new homeless in the United States
• Senate Democrats Discuss Republicans' Refusal To Help Americans At Risk Of Losing Their Homes

-----notes-----

1. Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, (S.2636)

The United States Bureau of Census, Statistical Branch is reporting little or no change in Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007 (3Meg pdf). Few Americans will be surprised that the current wrecking crew administration has failed to make progress in solving any of our fundamental problems—unchanged is a blessing out of this pathetic administration. The Gini index, a measure of distribution, has declined slightly from 0.470 to 0.463—your parents Gini was in the .3s!

Like we target economic growth with low inflation we must target income and wealth growth with low gini.

Web: UPDATED 08/27/2008 WP, Poverty Rate Held Steady Last Year, Census Says

Originally Published August 10, 2008; Updated and Republished August 14, 2008; Updated and Republished August 26, 2008:

United States District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock, District of Massachusetts has issued an injunction prohibiting Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) students from presenting their paper, "Anatomy of a Subway Hack" at this years DEFCON 16.

MIT students, Zack Anderson, R.J. Ryan, and Alessandro Chiesa, under professor Ron Rivest, figured out how to clone an insecure Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) RFID¹ CharlieCard (researchers also looked at MBTA's CharlieTicket).

One wonders why MBTA is requesting and a court granting an injunction²against undergraduate MIT students—seems an injunction is better directed at the vendor of the MBTA RFID CharlieCard³.

There is something very refreshing about the MBTA's insecurity. One wonders how we've managed, in all our brilliance, to create a system in which 48 bit encryption is laughably trivial to protect us from them⁴.

Web:

• UPDATED 08/26/2008 MIT Tech, Students’ Presentation Shows How to Get Free T Fare
• UPDATED 08/26/2008 MIT Tech, MBTA Sues Three Students to Stop Speech on Subway Vulnerabilities
• UPDATED 08/19/2008 Reuters, Judge backs hackers in Boston subway dispute
• UPDATED 08/19/2008 ZDNet, MIT students ungagged: Judge vacates gag order
• UPDATED 08/19/2008 InfoZine, EFF Urges Judge to Lift Gag Order on MIT Students
• UPDATED 08/14/2008 Wired, Federal Judge Throws Out Gag Order Against Boston Students in Subway Case
• UPDATED 08/14/2008 ZDNet, Defcon’s over but MBTA wants gag order to remain
• UPDATED 08/14/2008 Wired, Computer Scientists Ask Court to Reconsider Gag Order in DefCon Case
• UPDATED 08/11/2008 InfoWeek, MIT Students Ordered To Withhold Boston's MTA Hack Details
• Cnet, Judge orders halt to Defcon speech on subway card hacking

-----notes-----

1. RFID technology is becoming ubiquitous. It is currently used in our new passports which were reportedly compromised by the Chinese during their manufacturing process.

While key size and shielding may differ between usages many security experts seem to think the current RFID passports are a bad idea.

2. Adopting policies and legislation aimed at securing our networks and peripheral devices by prohibiting our security researchers from publicly discussing and publishing their circumvention research is a crude and blunt approach. Not to mention ineffective and a blatant violation of our First Amendment.

However, we are making progress—we use to arrest and jail our security researchers!

3. Karsten Nohl's (University of Virginia) research previously exposed the Mifare Classic RFID cipher algorithm underpinning ticket system security used by various domestic and foreign subways.

4. Such a system, while entertaining and generative of make-work, does not seem particularly friendly, beneficial, or sustainable for humans.

Time to stop demonstrating fuel cell technology and begin making the national investment and commitment which will ensure its immediate and successful commercial viability.1

Web: First mass U.S. crossing for hydrogen cars completed

-----notes-----

1. See Congressional Research Service Report, A Hydrogen Economy and Fuel Cells: An Overview, Brent D. Yacobucci and Aimee E. Curtright 2004, RL32196.

The fuel cell paths are not straight or without bumps but can completely eliminate the gasoline component from our current and welcome hybrid approach—retrofitting hybrids with all diligent speed—in fact the retrofit can be part of the hybrid sales pitch and guarantee.

"Buy your hybrid today and at your first battery change we'll install a PEM retrofit kit for..."--Your Sustainable Living Vehicle Manufacturer--

Many thanks China (多谢中)—you cannot have a bad Olympic closing ceremony with Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page playing "Whole Lotta Love"!

Fortunately the closing ceremony included young Chinese girls with crooked teeth; unfortunately the young girls did not appear to include seven-year-old Yang Peiyi.

Peiyi's voice was used by the lip syncing poser Lin Miaoke during the opening ceremony by direction of some clown in China’s Communist Party Politburo.

A three judge panel for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld (two-one) the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)1, which was created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

"Accordingly, we hold that the Fund’s facial challenge to Title I of the Act fails to reveal violations of the Appointments Clause or separation of powers, and we affirm the grant of summary judgment to the Board and the United States."--Circuit Judge Judith W. Rogers--

Web: WP, Appeals Court Upholds Sarbanes-Oxley Act

-----notes-----

1. The PCAOB ruled against Free Enterprise Fund and Beckstead and Watts LLP's (Argued April 15, 2008; Decided August 22, 2008; No. 07-5127; Judith Ann Wilson Rogers, Janice Rogers Brown, and Brett M. Kavanaugh). Fund then filed suit and argued that the board's independence from the executive branch rendered it unconstitutional.