Nuke safety rules may be revised

The Bush administration is moving to replace government safety requirements at federal nuclear facilities with standards written by contractors — after Congress directed the government to start fining the contractors for violations.

Long-established government minimum standards at the more than two dozen nuclear weapons plants and research labs around the nation would become unenforceable guidelines under the Energy Department proposal.

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., an author of the 2002 legislation ordering the fines, accused the administration this week of distorting Congress’ intent with a plan that “will likely decrease worker protection.”

John Conway, chairman of an advisory board overseeing safety at the Energy Department, said the proposal would weaken safety standards covering more than 100,000 workers at the facilities.

Bush relentlessly changes everything he can to benefit corporations. There may be thousands of examples like this one. mjh

Veto Threatened on Bill to Restrict Powers Under Terrorism Law By ERIC LICHTBLAU, NYTimes

The Bush administration, stepping up the debate over its antiterrorism policies, threatened on Thursday to veto a pending bill that would scale back the government’s powers under the USA Patriot Act.

Attorney General John Ashcroft told reporters that the bill, sponsored by Senate Republicans and Democrats, “unilaterally disarms America’s defenses” against terrorists and that President Bush intended to veto the measure if Congress passed it.

The threat of a veto represents an unusual pre-emptive strike by the administration. The bill has not even come up for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Look at Asskraft’s (sic) hyperbole about ‘unilaterally disarms America’s defenses.’ What a liar.

Note that Duhbya has had zero vetoes, a modern record. Will his first veto be an attack against the Legislature’s attempt to rein-in the out-of-control Executive? mjh

Democratic Contenders Attack Bush on Iraq, Terrorism, Trade and Economy

”A president has to be able to walk and chew chewing gum at the same time,” said Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, arguing that Mr. Bush had focused on the war on terrorism at the expense of other domestic needs.

A cutting remark from the nice guy, but not quite up to his earlier dig. mjh

mjh’s Weblog Entry – 05/05/2003: Big Belt Buckle

”Just because you speak the language of regular Americans does not mean your agenda is not the agenda of corporate America. Just because you walk around on a ranch in Texas with a big belt buckle doesn’t mean you understand and stand up for rural America.”

Security Poor in Electronic Voting Machines, Study Warns By JOHN SCHWARTZ, NYTimes

Electronic voting machines made by Diebold Inc. that are widely used in several states have such poor computer security and physical security that an election could be disrupted or even stolen by corrupt insiders or determined outsiders, according to a new report presented today to Maryland state legislators.

Authors of the report — the first hands-on attempt to hack Diebold voting machine systems under conditions found during an election — were careful to say that the machines, if not hacked, count votes correctly, and that issues discovered in the “red team” exercise could be addressed in a preliminary way in time for the state’s primaries in March. …

The authors of the report said that they had expected a higher degree of security in the design of the machines. “We were genuinely surprised at the basic level of the exploits” that allowed tampering, said Mr. Wertheimer, a former security expert for the National Security Agency.

William A. Arbaugh, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Maryland and a member of the Red Team exercise, said, “I can say with confidence that nobody looked at the system with an eye to security who understands security.” …

In the security exercise, members of the attack team said they were surprised to find that the touch-screen machines used by voters all used the same physical key to the two locks that protect their innards from tampering. With hand-held computers and a little sleight of hand, they found, the touch screens could be reprogrammed to make a vote for one candidate count for an opponent, or results could be fouled so that a precinct’s tally could not be used.

In addition, they said, communications between the terminals and the larger server computers that tally results from many precincts do not require that machines on either end of the line prove that they are legitimate, an omission that could allow someone to grab information that could be used to falsify whole precincts worth of votes.

And the server computers do not have the latest protection against the security holes in the Microsoft operating systems, and they are vulnerable to hacker attacks that would allow an outsider to change software, the group found.

The authors of the report also said smart cards that are shipped with the system for voters and supervisors to use during elections have standard passwords that are easily guessed. …

Mr. Wertheimer said the application of security was inconsistent, with encryption applied in some places without the accompanying technology of authentication to ensure that the machines that are communicating with each other are the ones that are supposed to be communicating and that an interloper has not jumped in. “It’s like washing your face and drying it with a dirty towel,” he said. …

There is much more to be done, Mr. Arbaugh said. Working on the exercise for just a week to prepare for the one-day attack, he said, “we got the tip of the iceberg.”

He added, “It seemed everywhere we scratched, there was something that’s pretty troubling.”

The panel recommended that election officials take several steps to improve security, including placing tamper-proof tape on vulnerable parts of voting machines and installing software that will alert officials to any changes to the machine.

If those steps are taken, Mr. Arbaugh said, “the assurance of this election will be comparable to that of past elections.”

The report can be found at www.raba.com.

Georgia Takes on ‘Evolution’ By ANDREW JACOBS, NYTimes

A proposed set of guidelines for middle and high school science classes in Georgia has caused a furor after state education officials removed the word ”evolution” and scaled back ideas about the age of Earth and the natural selection of species.

Educators across the state said that the document, which was released on the Internet this month, was a veiled effort to bolster creationism and that it would leave the state’s public school graduates at a disadvantage. …

A handful of states already omit the word “evolution” from their teaching guidelines, and Ms. Cox called it “a buzz word that causes a lot of negative reaction.” She added that people often associate it with “that monkeys-to-man sort of thing.” … [mjh: yeah, ignorant people]

“Evolution” was replaced with “changes over time,” and in another phrase that referred to the “long history of the Earth,” the authors removed the word “long.” Many proponents of creationism say Earth is at most several thousand years old, based on a literal reading of the Bible. …

In the past, Ms. Cox, has not masked her feelings on the matter of creationism versus evolution. During her run for office, Ms. Cox congratulated parents who wanted Christian notions of Earth and human creation to be taught in schools. …

“Creation is not science, so it should not be taught in science class,” said Dr. Ayala, a professor of genetics at the University of California at Irvine. “We don’t teach astrology instead of astronomy or witchcraft practices instead of medicine.”

Do you think it is a coincidence that barriers between church and state are being torn down by the born-again President? Is it coincidence that the same people who say there is no science supporting global warming also believe there is no science supporting evolution? Is it coincidence that education is declining as Christian radicals attack it right and left? An ignorant populace is more easily lead, especially by unscrupulous tyrants. Welcome to “faith-based democracy” (ie, a theocracy). mjh

In a Visit to New Hampshire, Bush Sounds Campaign Themes By ELISABETH BUMILLER, NYTimes

In the evening, at a lucrative drop-by in Old Greenwich, Conn., the state of his birth, Mr. Bush raised $1.1 million for his re-election campaign. The checks brought his fund-raising total to more than $130 million, an amount that dwarfs the $40 million raised and mostly spent by the next-biggest fund-raiser of the 2004 campaign, Howard Dean.

The major no-show at the event was Gov. John G. Rowland, a Republican who is enmeshed in a corruption scandal over free renovations to his lakeside cottage. Bush campaign officials did not say whether they had asked Mr. Rowland to stay away. …

In Old Greenwich, Mr. Bush was introduced by his cousin Debbie Stapleton, the Connecticut finance chairwoman of his campaign, who happily described the president as a Northeasterner with Ivy League roots.

“You may associate him with the Lone Star State, boots and spurs,” Ms. Stapleton said, “but I knew him in his earlier Connecticut days of family gatherings, Yale Bulldogs and Old Blue.”

Mr. Bush recalled his years at Yale as well as members from his class of 1968 who had turned up to see him.

Op-Ed Columnist: Where’s the Apology? By PAUL KRUGMAN, NYTimes

So where are the apologies? Where are the resignations? Where is the investigation of this intelligence debacle? All we have is bluster from Dick Cheney, evasive W.M.D.-related-program-activity language from Mr. Bush — and a determined effort to prevent an independent inquiry. …

In any case, the point is that a grave mistake was made, and America’s credibility has been badly damaged — and nobody is being held accountable. But that’s standard operating procedure. As far as I can tell, nobody in the Bush administration has ever paid a price for being wrong. …

These people politicize everything, from military planning to scientific assessments. If you’re with them, you pay no penalty for being wrong. If you don’t tell them what they want to hear, you’re an enemy, and being right is no excuse.

Still, the big story isn’t about Mr. Bush; it’s about what’s happening to America. Other presidents would have liked to bully the C.I.A., stonewall investigations and give huge contracts to their friends without oversight. They knew, however, that they couldn’t. What has gone wrong with our country that allows this president to get away with such things?