Sonntag, 29. Januar 2006

I rarely fill my car with high-octane gas but there have been occasions when I did thinking that it is beneficial to my car or my wallet. Apparently, it is a waste of money to do so unless your vehicle is expressly desinged for it. 12:35:42 PM    comment []

The IAA was signed into force by George W. Bush on the day the capture of Saddam Hussein was announced. The old magic trick was put to good use here: while everyone was watching the seemingly momentous event in Iraq, back at home a law was put into place that allowed the goverment to "obtain an individual's financial records without a court order. The law also makes it illegal for institutions to inform anyone that the government has requested those records, or that information has been shared with the authorities" (quote from item 4 of the top ten censored news items in 2005). The law also defines that financial institutions are not just banks but any entity that handles money transations! Scares the sh*t out of me; why was such a wide-ranging power granted? Incidentally, finding the official document took a while: it is there at the Permanant Select Committee on Intelligence but clicking the link on the page provided gets you an error. You need to fiddle with the link (convert back-slashes to forward slashes) to get hold of the document. No prizes for guessing which OS they are using! 12:21:42 PM    comment []