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America?s New National Security Risk P2p Networks

Washington, DC & Hollywood, Calif. — “We found more than 200 classified government documents in a few hours search over Peer-2-Peer networks,” said Retired General Wesley K. Clark


at a recent Government Reform Committee hearing (7-24-07). Describing it as the new national security risk Clark said, “We found everything from Pentagon network server secrets to other sensitive information on P-2P networks hackers dream about.”


Clark, now the chairman and CEO, of Wesley K. Clark & Associates, and a board member of Tiversa, Inc., which conducts 350 million searches per day, compared to Google’s 150 million daily searches.


“If everyone knew the scope of the risk of P2P networks, America would be outraged and demand solutions” Clark suggested regulation and mandatory defensive active monitoring programs, especially for sensitive government documents. “If you wait for the lawsuit, you have waited too long.” Clark noted that many of our national information security leaks were fresh, complete and often were distributed on home computers over P2P networks.


Chairman Henry Waxman (D) investigating the P2P networks invited LimeWire and StreamCast to testify along with other interested experts on illegal filesharing before the U.S. Houses of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Last March, United States Patent and Trademark Office released a study revealing that inadvertent file-sharing continued to threaten individual privacy and national security.


“This is the new threat to Homeland Security,” CEO Robert Boback, told the hearing. “We found thousands of corporate cases from banking statements, server passwords, financial data, public company data, human resources, medical records and fortune 500 company minutes on compliance.”


“One of the defining characteristics of contaminated networks is that users rarely ever know that they are sharing the files on their computer with other users on the network,” said SafeMedia Corporation Chairman Safwat Fahmy in his written testimony on how SafeMedia’s technology was developed to address illegal sharing of copyrighted materials on contaminated P2P networks. “Our technology eliminates all the identity theft and security risks of contaminated P2P networks that affect consumers, students, businesses and our national security.”


Fahmy also stated in his written testimony to the Committee that, “P2P networks, in order to work and survive, requires that all users share files. If users are unable to share files to be downloaded, then the network would be pointless and cease to exist. So, the developers of the P2P software create a directory on the user’s computer called “shared” to be uploaded on demand to any user on the entire network most often without the user knowledge, at the time of installation.”


Other startling testimony surfaced from Professor M. Eric Johnson, director, Center for Digital Strategies, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College. To illustrate the threat of P2P file sharing, his researchers ran a set of “honey-pot” experiments. They posted the text of an email message containing an active VISA (debit) number and an AT&T phone card in a music directory in a contaminated P2P network that was shared via Limewire.


“It appears that two takers of the card were able to obtain funds as the activity was split into two groups,” Johnson told the hearing. And it happened, “because one taker used Paypal, which is more US-centric, while the other used Nochex, which is UK-centric. Within another week, the calling card was also depleted. Examining the call records of the card, all of the calls were made from outside of the US to two US area codes – 347 (Bronx, NY) and 253 (Tacoma, WA), illustrating the P2P threat both within and outside of the US. Even more interesting, long after we stopped sharing the file, we observed the file continuing to move to new clients as some of the original takers leaked the file to others.”


In a second study, researchers examined bank-related documents and found circulating sensitive data as bank statements, credit reporting agency records, user ID and password lists and tax returns were inadvertently “shared” with millions of people. There was also evidence of sensitive government information being distributed through P2P networks over a two-month period.


“At SafeMedia, we have developed business solutions combining P2P Disaggregator technology (P2PD) and a Digital Internet Distribution Solution (DIDS) that prevents contaminated P2P networks from indiscriminately being accessed by users’ computers,” explained Fahmy. “Our solutions utilize advanced technologies such as: Adaptive Fingerprinting and DNA markers; Adaptive network patterns; Intelligent libraries; Remote update and Self-healing to effectively drop all contaminated P2P traffic with No Invasion of User Privacy. P2PD is fully effective at forensically discriminating between contaminated and non-contaminated P2P traffic with no false positives whether encrypted or not: P2PD operates at network speed with little or no latency.”


Fahmy added “The purpose of P2PD technology is not to shut down P2P networks or inhibit P2P technology. “We allow traffic from non contaminated P2P to pass to its destination we only drop traffic to and from contaminated P2P networks.


“Many users now are enjoying the protection of their identity and safety of their network from contaminated P2P network by using SafeMedia’s products which are available now for immediate implementation in DSL/Cable modems or as a standalone network appliance named” Clouseau” said Fahmy.


[Editors note: For media interviews contact George McQuade, MAYO Communications, 818-340-5300. For more information about SafeMedia Corporation product line visit www.SafeMedia.com or call 561-989-1934. To hear today’s testimony from the U.S. House Of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, on the” Inadvertent Filesharing Over Peer-To-Peer Networks Hearing,” please visit: http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1430 ]

George S. Mc Quade III is a national award-winning journalist and media expert, often quoted in business, mainstream and high tech media circles. He is the West Coast Bureau Chief for O’Dwyer Publications in New York, which is the only daily behind the scenes publication on media. McQuade founded MAYO Communications & MAYO PR, an international award-winning entertainment publicity and public relations firm based in Los Angeles with offices in New York and San Diego, CA. MAYO Communications is a 100 percent woman-owned and Spanish-owned PR firm with three

company websites: www.MayoCommunications.com; www.MayoPR.com; www.LAentertainmentPublicity.com.

Constitution of India – a Bold Experiment

                                       Indian Constitution – A Bold Experiment

      

 Our constitution is not a novel formation of the constituent assembly, the various parts of the constitution has been derived from the working constitutions of other nations. As we know the fundamental rights enshrined in Part 3 and our federal structure of governance with a strong centralizing tendency has been taken from the American Constitution. The fundamental duties from the Irish Constitution and the parliamentary system of democracy with an independent judiciary from the England. We have been fortunate enough that our founding fathers took the initiative to inculcate such essential freedoms and form of governance in the most sacred law of the land, without which perhaps we would have resorted to an autocratic form of government akin to the British rule in India. Our forefathers had given us the tools that were essential for building a nation that had been ravished by the scourge of multi-ethnic wars and colonialism for decades, but in my respectful submission the moot question which they possibly did not envisage was whether our diverse cultures coupled with the burden of illiteracy would be able to handle these tools effectively. Sixty years down the line we might say that our democracy is the largest in the world and has been a grand success, but if we look minutely we can find that it is working mechanically. When we look into the majority flooding our constituent assembly we can see power hungry ministers who hardly have any concern for the masses.

 

If we go back to history we can find a possible answer as to why we have such a gloomy situation in our country. The ideologies of democracy, federalism and fundamental rights have been taken from the Western world, where people have attained there rights through struggle. The French Revolution of 1789 resulted in the: La Déclaration des droits de l’Homme et du citoyen) which is one of the fundamental documents of the French Revolution, defining a set of individual rights and collective rights of all of the estates as one. Influenced by the doctrine of natural rights, these rights are universal: they are supposed to be valid in all times and places, pertaining to human nature itself. We can also draw inspiration from the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 which came after 8 long years of war and it declared that “…..We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their CREATOR, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness….” These monumental documents arose out of an unprecedented social and political struggle.

 

We did recognize these rights in our constitution but our illiterate masses remained oblivious to its true meaning as they were far away from these ideologies as they struggled for their basic necessities; which were further enhanced in the aftermath to the creation of two separate countries after independence when millions were left homeless and thousands were massacred. We still have people who are unaware of their own basic rights. Our founding fathers had borrowed these principles from the Western society and had imported and transplanted them on our backward, semi-feudal society. Consequently our constitution and our society do not correspond with each other the former being modern while the later being backward. The belief that by merely importing and transplanting a modern Constitution on a backward society will result in our society quickly becoming modern has proved to be a mistake. We have still today a lot of casteism and communalism in our society.

 

At the same time it cannot be said that the Indian constitution is merely a paper document, by setting up modern ideals the Constitution is pulling society forward the goals of creating a modern society. No doubt that it has not done so automatically merely by its promulgation but it has reduced the pain, agony and duration which Western societies had to go through during the period of their transition from feudal agricultural society to modern industrial society. This transitional period is a very painful period and its is only after going through this fire that a transformation can be brought about

 

India is presently passing through this fire. We need to first bring our society and its attitude at par with the modern world, free from all the bias and inequality; after all the constitution is for the people, of the people and by the people of this nation .Our constitution makers had indeed made a bold experiment when they created the constitution in the backdrop of the society which prevails in our country.  However the Constitution if implemented in its true spirit, will be a boon to us, it is up to us to give it teeth and make the dream of our founding fathers a reality.

 

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Prop 8 and the Separation of Church and State

There is and has always been a great abyss between the religious and the secular.  Religious doctrine directs a believer’s behavior, and when a conflict arises between beliefs and the state, it seems that the logical course of action for the believer is to change the law. So it is with Prop 8.

Make no mistake; the quintessential issue underlying Prop 8 is the separation of church and state.

Separation of church and state is an American concept first proposed by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist that a “wall of separation” between government and religion was created in the first amendment.  The first amendment begins “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

Ironically, the first Supreme Court reference to Jefferson’s idea is found in the 1878 case Reynolds v. United States. It’s ironic because Reynolds was a Mormon challenging the state’s right to prohibit bigamy and Prop 8’s biggest source of funding is the Mormon Church, according to by Dan Aiello of the Bay Area Reporter.

Reynolds was a Mormon who argued that it was his moral responsibility to marry often and that the government had no right to interfere with his constitutional right to practice his religious beliefs. The court rejected his argument.

Chief Justice Waite wrote a brilliant opinion. He first reminded the reader that prior to the adoption of our constitution the demos were frequently and unwillingly taxed to support religion, even if they were not members of the church, and were sometimes punished for failing to “attend public worship and for entertaining heretical opinions.”  The court further said “Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices.” In other words, a person can believe anything he or she wants as long as exercising that belief does not break the law.

Prop 8 is an attempt to inject religious belief into our legal system. It is steeped in biblical writings dating back to circa 1200 BCE. There are numerous biblical references to homosexuality being an abomination in “God’s eyes.” The first is in Geneses 19:4-8 where Lot offers his virgin daughters to a mob of crazed homosexuals in an attempt to protect angels sent to warn Lot of Sodom’s looming destruction.

 If religious doctrine dictates behavior, then the author of homophobia must be the Judean based religions. Perhaps the origin of western homophobia stems from the days of Jewish captivity in Mesopotamia and Egypt. During the time of and prior to Ramses II, the prisoners of war were enslaved and some were publically sodomized as both a symbol of dominance and obedience.  It is likely that many of the Jews were publically sodomized as well as a disciplinary measure.

The Jews left Egypt after many generations of slavery and being force to watch. Once free, they enacted their own laws. If you doubt the imprint of slavery upon a people ask any African American what he thinks.

Whether or not this explains the origin of homophobia it does not address a blatant misrepresentation made by the proponents of Prop 8.  On their website, protectmarriage.com, they claim that Prop 8 “…simply restores the meaning of marriage and protects it as an essential institution that has benefited mankind since the beginning of time.” If this means that same sex marriage has never been legal, they are sadly mistaken. In fact, the first laws prohibiting same sex marriage originated in Rome after Constantine declared Christianity to be the state religion. In 438 Theodosius II, Christian emperor of Rome in Constantinople, enacted the Theodosian Code which was the first law in modern history to prohibit same sex marriage, according to Ebsco Host. In virtually every other culture prior to this time same sex marriage was accepted.

The website also states that “Proposition 8 does not discriminate against gays.” Nothing could be further from the truth. It is inherently discriminatory. When your grandfather or grandmother was a child, it was illegal for a white woman to marry a black man or vice versa in most states. During World War II Japanese Americans were rounded up and isolated even though they were American citizens.  

Professor Richard Peterson of Pepperdine University said in a TV ad that a Massachusetts Appellate decision would lead to same sex marriage being taught to school children in California. Massachusetts law is not binding on California law. Professor Peterson failed to return my phone call when asked to comment.

One television ad says that gay and lesbians have the same rights as straight people and Prop 8 does not change the law.  Then why do we need Prop 8?

It is true that in 2000 Prop 22 which banned gay marriage passed by a large majority. Unlike Prop 8, Prop 22 was not a constitutional amendment. A constitutional amendment cannot be changed by the state legislature or a judge. Injecting religious beliefs into our state constitution violates the most fundamental principals which the founding fathers of this country used to frame our constitution.

The separation of church and state is what divides California from fanatical Muslim States in the Middle East.  Prop 8 is a religiously backed issue, and worse, outsiders from other states are jumping into the fray in the mistaken belief that California’s business is their concern.

Religion has its place. It does not belong in politics. It does not belong in our constitution. Any religion that advocates discrimination  does not belong in California. 

I’m the former Opinion Editor for the online Santa Monica College newspaper. I have written several articles for the paper.

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The Preamble


The School house rock song, “Preamble” THIS IS MANLY FOR STUDYING PURPOSES! (you can still watch it for fun though) Look, this was put up A LONG time aqo..when I was in 10th grade. I’m in college now. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it! And before I forget, No copyright infringement intended And I can not be held responsible for whatever you do with this video. IF YOU FIND THIS VIDEO ON ANY BAD SITES (like a porn site or something O_O ) PLEASE PM ME. IF I GET TOO MANY PMS I WILL DISABLE EMBEDDING! IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE NOTES, THEN DISABLE THEM YOURSELF!!!! THERE IS A LITTLE BUTTON WITH A UP ARROW NEXT TO THE FULL SCREEN BUTTON! USE THAT!

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Do you feel the Constitution of the United States of America is being adhered to today?

Back your opinion with reasons/examples please 🙂

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Freedom FROM Religion

Freedom of Religion
Image taken on 2009-12-03 21:24:44 by cobalt123.