San Francisco Lawmaker Wants Blue Angels Grounded During Fleet Week

Tue, 12 Jun '07

Critics Include Anti-War Groups Who Cite Safety, Pro-Military Message

What would San Francisco's annual Fleet Week be, without a performance by the US Navy Blue Angels aerial demonostration team? A city official wants to find out.

The San Francisco Examiner reports Supervisor Chris Daly, with help from such groups as CodePink, Global Exchange and Veterans For Peace, is pushing for a Board of Supervisors resolution to ground the annual performance, calling it "dangerous and unnecessary."

Perhaps not surprisingly, critics of the performances point to the April crash of a Blue Angels performer at an air show in Beaufort, SC as "proof" the shows are dangerous. Paul Cox, a Vietnam veteran and member of Veterans for Peace, says the slightest miscalculation or mechanical problem could cause a plane to "go barreling into the Golden Gate Bridge or a high-rise and cause a significant amount of damage."

Cox, along with other members of the group, is also opposed to the pro-military theme of the show, and the fact the Blue Angels are a recruiting tool for the Navy. He also says the performances cause "noise pollution."

CodePink, a women-for-peace group, has started an online petition calling for city leaders to end the flyovers, citing concerns with public safety, pollution and fuel usage. The Examiner reports as of last week, about 500 people had signed the petition.

Despite those points and protests, the Blue Angels performances are a popular draw at Fleet Week and the 34 other locations the Blues have scheduled throughout the US this year alone. In 2006, more than 15 million spectators watched the team perform, including well over one million in the Bay Area alone.

Edward Leonard, chairman of the San Francisco Fleet Week Committee, notes in 2004 -- when the Blue Angels did not make an appearance -- attendance to the weeklong Fleet Week event dropped by more than 50 percent.

"We think it's safe," said Leonard, on questions about the safety of the Blue Angels performances. Leonard notes the Blues must receive approval from the FAA prior to each performance, and the more complex maneuvers are conducted over Bay waters.

Plus, he adds, "commercial airlines fly over the city all the time."

Daly's resolution calling for an end to Blue Angels performances over The City By The Bay may be introduced this week. The non-binding document wouldn't carry any legal weight, but it would present the Board's view on the issue -- and "We can then take the next steps we have to legally stop them," Daly told the Examiner.

This year's Fleet Week activities are scheduled for October 4-9.

Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act (Introduced in House)

HR 2755 IH

110th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 2755

To abolish the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks, to repeal the Federal Reserve Act, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

June 15, 2007

Mr. PAUL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

A BILL

To abolish the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks, to repeal the Federal Reserve Act, and for other purposes.

     Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

     This Act may be cited as the `Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act'.

SEC. 2. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD ABOLISHED.

     (a) In General- Effective at the end of the 1-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and each Federal reserve bank are hereby abolished.

     (b) Repeal of Federal Reserve Act- Effective at the end of the 1-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal Reserve Act is hereby repealed.

     (c) Disposition of Affairs-

           (1) MANAGEMENT DURING DISSOLUTION PERIOD- During the 1-year period referred to in subsection (a), the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System--

                 (A) shall, for the sole purpose of winding up the affairs of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks--

                       (i) manage the employees of the Board and each such bank and provide for the payment of compensation and benefits of any such employee which accrue before the position of such employee is abolished; and

                       (ii) manage the assets and liabilities of the Board and each such bank until such assets and liabilities are liquidated or assumed by the Secretary of the Treasury in accordance with this subsection; and

                 (B) may take such other action as may be necessary, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, to wind up the affairs of the Board and the Federal reserve banks.

           (2) LIQUIDATION OF ASSETS-

                 (A) IN GENERAL- The Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall liquidate all assets of the Board and the Federal reserve banks in an orderly manner so as to achieve as expeditious a liquidation as may be practical while maximizing the return to the Treasury.

                 (B) TRANSFER TO TREASURY- After satisfying all claims against the Board and any Federal reserve bank which are accepted by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and redeeming the stock of such banks, the net proceeds of the liquidation under subparagraph (A) shall be transferred to the Secretary of the Treasury and deposited in the General Fund of the Treasury.

           (3) ASSUMPTION OF LIABILITIES- All outstanding liabilities of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks at the time such entities are abolished, including any liability for retirement and other benefits for former officers and employees of the Board or any such bank in accordance with employee retirement and benefit programs of the Board and any such bank, shall become the liability of the Secretary of the Treasury and shall be paid from amounts deposited in the general fund pursuant to paragraph (2) which are hereby appropriated for such purpose until all such liabilities are satisfied.

     (d) Report- At the end of the 18-month period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall submit a joint report to the Congress containing a detailed description of the actions taken to implement this Act and any actions or issues relating to such implementation that remain uncompleted or unresolved as of the date of the report.

that would require years of work and couldn't possibly be done in twelve months

www.techdirt.com/articles/20070621/004352.shtml

NBC Exec: Think Of The Poor Corn Farmers Hurt By Movie Piracy
from the wait,-are-these-guys-serious? dept

NBC/Universal's general counsel Rick Cotton must just be trying to push his anti-piracy comments to absurd levels to see just how much he can get away with. We'd already written about his completely unsupportable statements on how law enforcement needs to spend less on traditional crime and focus more on piracy and counterfeiting. We also covered the highly problematic suggestion he made to the FCC that it force ISPs to monitor their traffic for any unauthorized material (complete with more bogus stats). However, as more people dig through that FCC filing there are some amazing quotes that really suggest that Cotton and NBC/Universal have no connection to reality with these pleas. Public Knowledge picks up on NBC's showy concern for the American farmer:

"In the absence of movie piracy, video retailers would sell and rent more titles. Movie theatres would sell more tickets and popcorn. Corn growers would earn greater profits and buy more farm equipment."

There are all sorts of problems with this statement. As Public Knowledge points out, first off, movie theaters are doing great this year, suggesting the big "threat" of piracy had a lot less to do with its troubles than the fact that it just didn't have that many compelling movies the past few years. Also, corn farmers are doing quite well (and people still eat popcorn at home while watching pirated movies). Of course, that doesn't really matter. What's key here is that if Cotton and NBC actually believe this logic, then they don't deserve to be in business. By the very same reasoning, I could say "If all movies were pirated, then everyone would have that additional money they didn't spend on movies to spend on things like fancy dinners. Restaurants would be more crowded. Farmers would make more money by being able to sell more profitable food at higher prices." See how easy it is? It's also completely bogus, but it's just as accurate as Cotton's statement on the corn farmers. To suggest that the ripple effects don't ripple in other directions isn't just misleading, it's dangerously wrong. Of course, knowing how the entertainment industry works, next thing you know, they'll be demanding a cut of the profits corn farmers make, since, after all they're "profiting off the backs of the movie industry" without paying the industry for the benefit.

Court: Protecting trade secrets takes priority over election transparency

By Ryan Paul | Published: June 25, 2007 - 08:26AM CT

A Florida appeals court has upheld a lower court decision that denies requests for an independent source code audit of voting machines used by Florida's 13th district, which suffered election irregularities in a highly controversial congressional race. The appeals court has chosen to support a lower court decision which asserts that forcing voting machine maker Election Systems and Software (ES&S) to provide source code access to independent security auditors would amount to "gutting the protections afforded those who own trade secrets."

It all started when candidate Christine Jennings lost to Rep. Vern Buchanan by only 368 votes in a House race last year, the slimmest margin of any congressional race in the country. Irregularities in the election, particularly high undervote rates, caused Jennings to express doubts about the validity of the outcome. During the election, approximately 15 percent (or 18,000) of the total ballots cast in the district did not include a vote in the disputed race. By comparison, the absentee ballots in the same district and regular paper ballots used in neighboring districts only exhibit a 2 percent undervote rate for congressional races. The high undervote rates have been attributed to the ES&S iVotronic machines used in the 13th district.

Although efforts to get the state to force ES&S to submit to additional independent code audits have failed, a bipartisan congressional task force working closely with the Government Accountability Office is actively scrutinizing the circumstances surrounding election irregularities in Florida's 13th district, and may decide to subpoena ES&S. The congressional task force plans to issue a progress report late next month, but the entire investigation is expected to last until September.

Could the iVotronic systems be responsible for the voting irregularities? A growing body of evidence indicates that electronic voting machines, particularly those that use touch-screens, lead to higher undervote rates. Touch-screen voting machines made by major vendors also frequently exhibit serious technical flaws and poor reliability. In response to widespread voting machine problems, Florida governor Charlie Crist is encouraging the state legislature to pass a law that would prevent districts from buying most kinds of touch-screen voting machines.

A bill that was approved by the House Committee on Administration last month includes source code disclosure requirements which stipulate that voting machine makers would be required to disclose their code to independent third-party auditors who may be required to sign nondisclosure agreements. As Tim Lee pointed out in his article on the subject last month, independent code audit requirements are important for election transparency, but nondisclosure agreements would prevent broad public analysis of source code and could potentially be used to intimidate security analysts. Considering the high level of vulnerability exhibited by mainstream electronic voting technology, Congress needs to do all that it can to help the states protect themselves from faulty products.