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Asian Call Center Workers Trained With U.S. Tax Dollars - Global-cio - Executive insights/interviews - Informationweek

Despite President Obama's recent call for companies to "insource" jobs sent overseas, it turns out that the federal government itself is spending millions of dollars to train foreign students for employment in some booming career fields--including working in offshore call centers that serve U.S. businesses.
The program is called JEEP, which stands for Job Enabling English Proficiency. It's available to college students in the Philippines through USAID. That's the same agency that until a couple of years ago was spending millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer money to train offshore IT workers in Sri Lanka--until I reported that inconvenient truth in this story. The ensuing uproar led to the Sri Lanka initiative's termination.

paul_mcdougall information week article technology government politics usa united_states america united_states_of_america tax taxes usaid train training outsourcing outsourced outsource offshore offshored offshoring barack_obama president jeep jobs employment philippines 2012 2012_04_18 april news industry asia
5 weeks ago by Seumas

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The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say) | Threat Level | Wired.com

Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.

wired magazine threat_level privacy crime security internet communications cybersecurity crypto surveillance nsa utah march 2012 2012_03_15 james_bamford united_states usa united_states_of_america oquirrh_mountains wasatch_range bluffdale police_state government politics liberty liberties
6 weeks ago by Seumas

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Local girl lied about 2001 rape; father set free after 12 years in prison

In early 2001, an 11-year-old Kalama girl named Cassandra Ann Kennedy told police her dad raped her on at least three occasions. Her father, Thomas Edward Kennedy, denied the allegation, but he was convicted by a jury and sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.
In January, Cassandra Kennedy, now 23, told Longview police she made it all up. So after serving more than nine years in prison, her father was released last week and the charges against him were dismissed.
"I did a horrible thing," Cassandra told detectives in January, according to a police report. "It's not OK to sit and be locked in this horrible place for something you didn't do. It's just not right."

Read more: http://tdn.com/news/local/local-girl-lied-about-rape-father-set-free/article_bf9cac36-7c7a-11e1-a9e4-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz1qz9svG3H

2012 april 2012_04_01 crime rape police_state police_abuse innocence law government prison 2001 news article
7 weeks ago by Seumas

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News from The Associated Press

U.S. officials were scrambling Sunday to contain the damage caused when an American soldier in Afghanistan wandered off base and allegedly gunned down more than a dozen villagers.

cnn article news asia_pacific afghanistan america united_states usa military government 2012_03_11 march 2012 crime murder warcrimes warcrime civilians marines
10 weeks ago by Seumas

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Business & Financial News, Breaking US & International News | Reuters.com

Sixteen Afghan civilians, including nine children, were shot dead in what witnesses described as a nighttime massacre on Sunday near a U.S. base in southern Afghanistan, and one U.S. soldier was in custody.
While U.S. officials rushed to draw a line between the rogue shooting and the ongoing efforts of a U.S. force of around 90,000, the incident is sure to further inflame Afghan anger triggered when U.S. soldiers burned copies of the Koran at a NATO base.

reuters article news asia_pacific afghanistan america united_states usa military government 2012_03_11 march 2012 crime murder warcrimes warcrime civilians marines
10 weeks ago by Seumas

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U.S. Sergeant Kills 16 Afghan Civilians, 9 of Them Children - NYTimes.com

Stalking from home to home, a United States Army sergeant methodically killed at least 16 civilians, 9 of them children, in a rural stretch of southern Afghanistan early on Sunday, igniting fears of a new wave of anti-American hostility, Afghan and American officials said.

new_york_times nyt article news asia_pacific afghanistan america united_states usa military government 2012_03_11 march 2012 crime murder warcrimes warcrime civilians marines
10 weeks ago by Seumas

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70 Groups Ask Congress to Halt Work On SOPA and PIPA | Public Knowledge
publicknowledge sopa pipa copyright congress letter government politics business riaa mpaa february 2012 2012_02_06
february 2012 by Seumas

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Obama’s high-tech labor lies - Salon.com

A few days after the New York Times’ (embarrassingly belated and deeply flawed) article on Apple’s Chinese production facilities reignited a national discussion about offshore outsourcing, President Obama was confronted during a Google+ “hang out” about why during a brutal unemployment crisis his administration continues to support expanding the H-1B visa program that allows tech companies to annually import thousands of low-wage engineers from abroad. In his stunning answer, the president first expresses bewilderment that any American high-tech engineer could be out of work, because he says that “what industry tells me is that they don’t have enough (domestic) highly skilled engineers” and that “the word that we’re getting is that somebody (a domestic engineer) in a high-tech field should be able to find something right away.” He then goes on to insist that the H-1B program is “reserved only for those companies who say they cannot find somebody in (a) particular field” and that it shouldn’t apply to industries where “there are a lot of highly skilled American workers” looking for a job because he says his administration is focused on “encourag(ing) more American engineers to be placed” in open positions.

salon politics obama unemployment employment h1b outsourcing offshoring engineering engineers jobs david_sirota february 2012 2012_02_06 news article business industry technology tech government barack_obama
february 2012 by Seumas

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Neil Young is right — piracy is the new radio — Tech News and Analysis

As an artist who probably makes a substantial income from licensing his music, you might think Neil Young would frown on piracy and file-sharing, but that appears not to be the case, according to an interview he gave at the Dive Into Media conference in Los Angeles. Instead of railing against file-sharers, Young called piracy “the new radio” because it’s “how music gets around.” The musician’s comment puts a lot of the hysteria about copyright infringement into perspective — as we’ve pointed out before, file-sharing and monetization aren’t mutually exclusive, and in many cases a certain amount of so-called “piracy” can actually be good for business, as authors, musicians and even game developers have come to realize.

Comparing piracy to radio is a smart way of looking at the issue: in the early days of the music business, when live performances and record sales were the main revenue generator for artists and publishers, radio itself was seen as a form of piracy (as sheet music was before that). Musicians fulminated about radio stations playing their music for free, and some record labels made their acts sign waivers saying they would not appear on the radio. In the end, of course, radio became a huge revenue driver for music — although it did so in part because record labels and publishers pushed for licensing fees.

gigaom january 2012 2012_01_31 mathew_ingram article news piracy copyright radio riaa music technology file_sharing neil_young quote quotes business sopa pipa legislation politics government author neil_gaiman paulo_coelho rovio minecraft markus_persson videogames gaming developers
february 2012 by Seumas

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PIPA Supporters Violate Copyright Laws, Too | VICE
copyright law government pipa sopa america usa united_states article news roy_blunt senator senator_roy_blunt 2012 january
january 2012 by Seumas

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What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2012?

Current US law extends copyright protection for 70 years after the date of the author’s death. (Corporate “works-for-hire” are copyrighted for 95 years after publication.) But prior to the 1976 Copyright Act (which became effective in 1978), the maximum copyright term was 56 years (an initial term of 28 years, renewable for another 28 years). Under those laws, works published in 1955 would be passing into the public domain on January 1, 2012.

copyright duke movies books literature music films film songs song 2012 2012_01_01 january 1955 1978 article law government politics usa united_states america
january 2012 by Seumas

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[Infographic] Surveillance Under the Patriot Act | American Civil Liberties Union

Hastily passed 45 days after 9/11 in the name of national security, the Patriot Act was the first of many changes to surveillance laws that made it easier for the government to spy on ordinary Americans by expanding the authority to monitor phone and email communications, collect bank and credit reporting records, and track the activity of innocent Americans on the Internet. While most Americans think it was created to catch terrorists, the Patriot Act actually turns regular citizens into suspects.

aclu patriot_act government politics freedom liberty civil_liberty civil_liberties civil_rights privacy law surveillance america usa united_states 2011 october 2011_10_24 infographic graphic image
january 2012 by Seumas

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President Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Bill Into Law | American Civil Liberties Union

President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law today. The statute contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision. While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had “serious reservations” about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use the authorities granted by the NDAA, and would not affect how the law is interpreted by subsequent administrations. The White House had threatened to veto an earlier version of the NDAA, but reversed course shortly before Congress voted on the final bill.

constitution law aclu politics liberties liberty freedom privacy civil_liberty civil_liberties civil_rights government america usa united_states abuse article ndaa 2011 december 2011_12_31
january 2012 by Seumas

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SOPA opponents may go nuclear and other 2012 predictions | Privacy Inc. - CNET News

The Internet's most popular destinations, including eBay, Google, Facebook, and Twitter seem to view Hollywood-backed copyright legislation as an existential threat.

sopa pipa government politics cnet 2012 2011 december 2011_12_29 copyright declan_mccullagh google reid_hoffman linkedin jack_dorsey biz_stone craig_newmark craigslist twitter law usa united_states america news article facebook amazon privacy liberty liberties civil_liberty civil_liberties
december 2011 by Seumas

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Rackspace Cloud Computing & Hosting

The bill now before Congress would do more harm than good. We’re working to get it amended, so it can target online thieves without hurting innocent users of the Internet.

rackspace sopa dmca censorship law copyright congress lanham_napier article commentary opinion december 2011 2011_12_24 usa united_states america politics government
december 2011 by Seumas

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US House of Representatives: Internet pirates - Boing Boing

The House, of course, has been mired in Internet controversy since Rep Lamar Smith introduced his Stop Online Piracy Act, which establishes a regime of national censorship in the name of fighting copyright infringement. So it is with some amusement that TorrentFreak points out that more than 800 of the IP addresses assigned to the House of Reps were involved in copyright infringement over BitTorrent, according to the YHD database. There's a big trove of self-help books in there, with titles like "Crucial Conversations- Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High," and who knows, maybe that's what Mr Smith was reading when he decided to sell out America to Hollywood?

boingboing torrentfreak torrents bittorrent file_sharing filesharing news article december 2011 2011_12_27 riaa dhs law government politics america usa united_states copyright
december 2011 by Seumas

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We Killed Your Daughter; You're Under Arrest « LewRockwell.com Blog

Daniel Hiler ran out of gas during an evening motorcycle ride in Oildale, California on December 16. While walking his bike to a gas station, the twenty-year-old father of two ran into a family friend named Chrystal Jolley. The pair was crossing a street at a widely-recognized intersection when they were fatally blindsided by a vehicle traveling at a speed well in excess of the posted speed limit. Despite the fact that darkness had descended, the driver hadn’t turned on his headlights. The victims were killed instantly.

lrc 2011 december 2011_12_20 police abuse government crime law civil news california william_grigg
december 2011 by Seumas

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Are NDAA, SOPA, Occupy Wall Street and Anonymous Off-Limits on Twitter?

NDAA, SOPA, Occupy Wall Street and Anonymous may be off-limits on Twitter. As Twitter users who extensively discuss those topics continue to find their accounts being shut down or otherwise restricted, it seems increasingly likely that the phenomenon is more than a coincidence.

twitter business law ibtimes article connor_adams_sheets december 2011_12_19 news censrship government politics ndaa sopa america united_states usa
december 2011 by Seumas

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Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works | Motherboard

We get it. You think you can be cute and old-fashioned by openly admitting that you don’t know what a DNS server is. You relish the opportunity to put on a half-cocked smile and ask to skip over the techno-jargon, conveniently masking your ignorance by making yourselves seem better aligned with the average American joe or jane — the “non-nerds” among us. But to anyone of moderate intelligence that tuned in to yesterday’s Congressional mark-up of SOPA, the legislation that seeks to fundamentally change how the internet works, you kind of just looked like a bunch of jack-asses.

congress government internet america usa united_states sopa politics legislation law freedom liberty civil_liberties civil_liberty 2011 december 2011_12_16 joshua_kopstein news article commentary opinion editorial protect_ip
december 2011 by Seumas

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An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the U.S. Congress | Electronic Frontier Foundation
eff electronic_frontier_foundation article news internet politics sopa censorship government civil_liberties civil_liberty freedom america usa united_states law copyright december 2011 2011_12_15 protect_ip house senate congress testimony letter vint_cerf paul_vixie steven_bellovin jim_gettys dave_kristol steve_deering david_ulevitch elizabeth_feinler robert_w_taylor fred_baker dan_kaminsky esther_dyson walt_daniels nathaniel_borenstein simon_higgs john_bartas nathan_eisenberg dave_crocker craig_partridge doug_moeller john_todd alia_atlas kelly_kane robert_rodgers anthony_lauck ramaswamy_aditya
december 2011 by Seumas

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Internet Engineers to Congress: SOPA censorship will harm Internet security - Boing Boing

83 of the Internet's most prominent inventors, founders, and engineers have penned an open letter to Congress in opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is slated for markup in the House today. The signatories warn that the bill will compromise fundamental Internet infrastructure and undermine the security of the net.

boingboing cory_doctorow article news internet politics sopa censorship government civil_liberties civil_liberty freedom america usa united_states law copyright december 2011 2011_11_15 protect_ip house senate congress testimony
december 2011 by Seumas

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How SOPA will destroy Internet security - Boing Boing

Last week's SOPA hearings were punctuated by facepalming moments in which learned members of the House Judiciary Committee dismissed the distinguished engineers who say the bill weakens Internet security. They said things like, "I'm no nerd, but I just don't believe it."

Well, you don't have to be a "nerd" to understand a) what DNSSEC is; b) why we desperately need it (or something like it) before the Internet collapses along with the creaking public key infrastructure; and c) how the insanity in SOPA will tank that effort. Stewart Baker at the Volokh Conspiracy lays it out in small, easy-to-understand words.

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bricoleur: Overbroad Censorship & Users

A lot of good stuff has been written about why the currently pending Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is bad for the future of the internet, the technology industry, international human rights, security, free speech, privacy, blind people and jobs. One thing I haven’t seen is a succinct description of the problems of site-wide censorship when it comes to ordinary, non-infringing users. So... I’ll try to do that here.

2011 december law politics internet censorship america usa united_states sopa protect_ip copyright government civil_liberties civil_liberty freedom privacy bricoleur
december 2011 by Seumas

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SOPA and everyday Americans - Boing Boing

Alec Macgillivray (Twitter General Counsel, former Google attorney, Berkman Fellow) has a great post explaining how SOPA might impact everyday Americans.

boingboing cory_doctorow article news internet politics sopa censorship government civil_liberties civil_liberty freedom america usa united_states law copyright december 2011 2011_12_17 protect_ip twitter alec_macgillivray google berkman fellow
december 2011 by Seumas

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Congressional SOPA hearings: no opponents of the bill allowed - Boing Boing

As the House of Representatives opens hearings on SOPA, the worst piece of Internet legislation in American history, it has rejected all submissions and testimony from public interest groups and others who oppose the bill.

boingboing cory_doctorow article news internet politics sopa censorship government civil_liberties civil_liberty freedom america usa united_states law copyright november 2011 2011_11_15 protect_ip
december 2011 by Seumas

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Military given go-ahead to detain US terrorist suspects without trial | World news | The Guardian

Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay.

Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his principles and disregarding the long-established principle that the military is not used in domestic policing. The legislation has also been strongly criticised by libertarians on the right angered at the stripping of individual rights for the duration of "a war that appears to have no end".

article america united_states usa government politics military civil_liberties law civil_liberty freedom constitution obama senate terrorism ndaa abuse december 2011 2011_12_14 new
december 2011 by Seumas

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Detaining US citizens: How did we get here? - Americas - Al Jazeera English

Aziz Rana, professor of constitutional law at Cornell University, explains the significance of provisions in the 2012 National Defense Authorisation Act that define the entire world as a battlefield, allowing for open-ended detainment of US citizens, without a trial.

aljazeera news article america united_states usa government politics military civil_liberties law civil_liberty freedom constitution obama senate terrorism ndaa abuse december 2011 2011_12_15
december 2011 by Seumas

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Ron Paul furious over indefinite detention act — RT

Already making its way through the House and Senate, the Act in its current wording will allow for Americans suspected of any “belligerent” act to be detained in Guantanamo Bay-style military prisons indefinitely for any alleged crimes without trial. With it now being revealed that the president put forth suggestions to draft the latest version of the legislation, Levin told the press Monday night, "I just can't imagine that the president would veto this bill.”

news article ron_paul liberty civil_liberties civil_liberty civil_rights government politics ndaa obama constitution december 2011 2011_12_14
december 2011 by Seumas

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Two SOPA Writers Become Entertainment Lobbyists - Slashdot

"According to Politico, 'A pair of senior Hill aides at the center of a brewing battle between Hollywood and Silicon Valley are packing their bags for K Street, where they’ll work for two of the entertainment lobby shops trying to influence their former colleagues in Congress on the very same issue. Allison Halataei, former deputy chief of staff and parliamentarian to House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), and Lauren Pastarnack, a Republican who has served as a senior aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee, worked on online piracy bills that would push Internet companies like Google, Yahoo and Facebook to shut down websites that offer illegal copies of blockbuster films and chart-topping songs.' Techdirt adds, 'Pastarnack went to the MPAA where she'll be "director of government relations" and Halataei to the NMPA (music publishers and songwriters) where she'll be "chief liaison to Capitol Hill." The Politico article linked above notes that this kind of "revolving door" is all too common. It may not be directly corrupt, but to the public it sure feels corrupt.'"

slashdot tech technology business industry government corruption sopa lobbyists america united_states usa mpaa politics nmpa music movies riaa payola legislation lamar_smith lauren_pastarnack allison_halataei december 2011 2011_12_10 discussion forum internet copyright
december 2011 by Seumas

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7-Year-Old Accused Of Possible Sexual Harassment For Kicking Bully In Groin « CBS Boston
article news boston 2011 december 2011_12_02 school education government child student bully
december 2011 by Seumas

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Wikileaks - The Spy files

Mass interception of entire populations is not only a reality, it is a secret new industry spanning 25 countries.

spy_files wikileaks technoloy computers internet networking government privacy security freedom surveillance spying united_states usa america julian_assange
december 2011 by Seumas

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Security vendors help covert agencies spy on their own citizens: WikiLeaks | ITworld

Yesterday WikiLeaks released 287 documents in what it calls The Spy Files, which describes as descriptions of the relationship between national intelligence agencies and the commercial software, security and surveillance companies they hired to provide technology that allows them to secretly listen in on cell phone conversations, text messages, email and other Internet traffic and location data.

Some even use voice-recognition technology to help identify the voices in conversations on which they eavesdrop, sometimes while looking for the opportunity to end some conversations by firing a missile to kill one of the participants.

Nearly all governments spy on their own citizens and on foreigners using surreptitious spyware on computers, cell phones, GPS devices and other modern electronic devices according to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said during a panel on espionage and digital security at a conference yesterday in London.

itworld tech technology wikileaks security government america us usa united_states privacy civil_liberties civil_liberty corruption espionage article 2011 december 2011_12_02 spying kevin_fogarty spy_files julian_assange london internet computers networking
december 2011 by Seumas

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How Paulson Gave Hedge Funds Advance Word - Bloomberg

At the Eton Park meeting, he sent a different message, according to a fund manager who attended. Over sandwiches and pasta salad, he delivered that information to a group of men capable of profiting from any disclosure.

bloomberg paulson henry_paulson finance financial fiances government politics corruption america united_states usa goldman_sachs fannie_mae aticle richard_teitelbaum 2011 november 2011_11_29 2008 citigroup
november 2011 by Seumas

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Senators Demand the Military Lock Up American Citizens in a “Battlefield” They Define as Being Right Outside Your Window » Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union

The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. Even Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised his concerns about the NDAA detention provisions during last night’s Republican debate. The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself.

aclu government politics freedom civil_liberties civil_liberty civil_rights america usa us united_states law legislation ndaa national_defense_authorization_act senator_carl_levin carl_levin senate john_mccain mccain senator_john_mccain s1867 november 2011 2011_11_23
november 2011 by Seumas

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