Fake CIA, FBI E-Mails Power Sober Worm Fake CIA, FBI E-Mails Power Sober Worm
Several new versions of the "Sober" e-mail worm have been mass-spammed to millions of e-mail boxes of the last 72 hours, posing as messages from the FBI and the CIA warning recipients that their Internet address has been implicated in illegal activity online.
The messages obviously were not sent by either agency, but any recipient who clicks on the attachment carried in the e-mail may indeed soon find their computers involved a variety of illegal activities at the hands of the virus authors. Both the CIA and the FBI have posted warnings about this latest worm on their Web sites.
Finnish anti-virus firm F-Secure calls the latest Sober outbreak the largest e-mail worm epidemic so far this year. UK-based e-mail security company MessageLabs said it has intercepted more than 2.7 million copies of Sober and its variants, noting that "the size of the attack indicates that this is a major offensive, certainly one of the largest in the last few months."
The criminals behind the Sober family of worms usually release several variants of the worm at once, each one altered slightly to evade detection by anti-virus software; security firms often take several hours to push out new virus definitions that their software uses to spot the worm.
The Sober worm uses its own e-mail engine to blast copies of itself out to all of the addresses found on an infected computer. Sober kills a long list of security applications that may be running, including anti-virus and firewall software, and prevents the victim from visiting a long list of security-related Web sites. Finally, it opens a backdoor on the infected machine, allowing attackers to upload whatever software they want.
As usual, be extremely cautious about clicking on links and opening e-mail attachments, even if they appear to come from someone you know. As Sober illustrates, you cannot always depend on scanning an attachment with anti-virus software to be sure it is safe to open. If you have any doubts about the integrity of an attachment or weren't expecting it, contact the person who sent it.
[Press Release] Misleading NY Post Attempts to Demonize Even Modest Rockefeller Reforms with Sensationalist Story That Gets Drug Laws Wrong
New York- The New York Post published a front page article today which falsely suggested that Rockefeller Drug Law reforms would enable people with murder convictions to be "set free." What the Post failed to report was that the limited reforms regarding the drug sentences in no way give a judge the authority to change a sentence for a violent felony offense such as murder. The reality that must by known even by the New York Post is that people convicted of these offenses are not being released.
"The article is misleading because the people convicted of murder are not going to get out of prison under the Rockefeller Drug Law reforms," said Bill Gibney of the Legal Aid Society. "If someone is serving time for another crime, especially a violent crime, they’ll have to serve that time. The small reforms to the Rockefeller Drug Law will not enable them to get out early."
The reforms passed last year by the New York State Legislature allowed only those imprisoned for A1 felonies to apply for resentencing under the new sentencing guidelines. Thousands of people incarcerated because of possession of small amounts of drugs were not eligible for resentencing under the reforms.
"The Legislature and the Governor need to step up to the plate and show some political sensibility and backbone," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "We’ve taken two steps forward with the small reforms, but we have ten steps to go, and the NY Post knows it."
There is a growing wave towards repeal of the failed Rockefeller Drug Laws. This past November 7, Rockefeller Drug Law repeal candidate Gwen Wilkinson staged a remarkable upset over incumbent George Dentes in the Tompkins County District attorney race. This is the second year in a row that an incumbent DA has been defeated due in part to their support of the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws.
In a bitter fight last year, political upstart David Soares defeated incumbent Paul Clyne in the race for Albany County District Attorney, sending political shockwaves throughout the state. Soares sailed to victory on platform that included repealing the failed Rockefeller Drug Laws and calling for expanded judicial discretion. In his concession speech, Clyne said he would have won were it not for his longtime opponent to reform of the laws. In recent polls, over 83 percent of New York residents said they think the Rockefeller Drug Laws should be repealed.
"It’s one thing for The Post to propagandize with reckless disregard for the truth on its editorial page or with its headlines," said Nadelmann. "But it’s not OK to do the same in its reporting. The Post’s coverage of the Soares/Clyne race for Albany DA last year was blatantly and deliberately dishonest, and now they seem to be reaching for new lows."
[The D’Alliance] GOP Support for Industrial Hemp
I always get a little irritated whenever I have to defend industrial hemp from those who think it is part of the war on drugs. The prohibition against industrial hemp is but one manifestation of the gross irrationality that animates larger marijuana prohibition. Despite that fact that they are qualitatively different plants, industrial hemp is guilty of the sordid crime of looking like psychoactive marijuana.
USA Today ran an article today ("'Industrial' Hemp Support Takes Root") noting the advocacy of one David Monson, a conservative Republican legislator from North Dakota. Having grown up in Hawai'i, GOP support of industrial hemp is not all that novel, as the leading advocate for reform there has been longtime state Senator Cynthia Thielen. A former Republican governor of Kentucky is also an industrial hemp supporter. This year, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) introduced the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2005.
The bottom line is that industrial hemp is not a drug in any sense. In fact, it actually makes psychoative cannabis less so were the separate plants grown in proximity to one another.
The Hemp Industries Association provides a good rundown of the plethora of benefits related to industrial hemp. Among them, hemp oil is a superior source of omega-3 fatty acids. The Body Shop sells a line of hemp personal care products, as does Dr. Bronner. Hemp also provides durable fibers that can be used for clothing, rope and other more industrial uses (like paper, biocomposites, and insulation).
Today's news article also provides some much needed historical context:
Growing hemp used to be legal in the USA. During World War II, the government urged farmers to grow it for much-needed rope and textiles. But in 1970, Congress designated hemp — along with marijuana and heroin -- as a "Schedule 1" drug under the Controlled Substances Act, making it illegal to grow hemp without a license from the DEA.
Today, the USA is the only developed nation that has not established hemp as a crop, the Congressional Research Service says. Great Britain lifted its ban in 1993; Germany did so in 1996 and Canada followed two years later. The European Union has subsidized hemp production since the 1990s.
Washington's drug war foolishly shortchanges American farmers and consumers.
Posted by Nikos Leverenz.
04/12/05 ID-Spiral Presents: The Mellout! – London The Return of the Mellout
4th of December
IDSpiral return to their acclaimed Sunday afternoon scheme – bringing you some of London’s finest performers within the perfect environment to lean back and chill – or get up and dance…
Check www.idspiral.org
Located in a beautiful venue, just off London’s Portobello Road, the event starts at 4pm in the afternoon, settle in with some fine vegetarian food, bring your kids along to play away and listen to some fine ambient tunes, singer songwriters, poets and performers.
The venue is a non-smoking space, but features a large and comfortable outdoor balcony area – so no one is excluded.
To make matters even more interesting, there will, now, also be an expressionist dance workshop in the adjacent dance studio – the AllisOne experience. This will start at 7.30 and last 2 hours – finishing just on time for the final spiral of energy with a full on live band and some pouncing dance tunes.
Performers for the December event are (in this order):
Mudra - IDSpiral's ambeint weavemaster with soul
Cornelius - singer songwriter originale
Snap Dragon Dance - exploring contact improvisation
Tayron - mime danced performer
Friends Lovers & Family - for the fantastic upbeat funk explosion
Dark Angel - eclectic dancey vibes
Hours
Doors Open 4pm – 11pm
£7/£5 concessions – kids under 10 free – over £3
£2 extra for workshop
Inn on the Green – 3 Thorpe Close W10 – nearest tube Ladbroke Grove
Please also check our new online shop for some of the finest and most affordable ambient music CD prices on the web…
ABA-SHANTI-I RETURNS – BRIGHTON – 23/11/05 UK'S HOUSE OF ROOTS PRESENTS
THE MIGHTY
ABA-SHANTI-I
HEAVY WEIGHT DUB SOUNDSYSTEM
SOUND OF JAH LIGHTNING AND THUNDER
WARM UP FROM BRIGHTONS MISS POLLY AND MC TAPPA ROOTS
DOWNSTAIRS
ITAL LOVE
WEDNESDAY 23RD NOVEMBER
AT THE VOLKS, MADEIRA DRIVE, BRIGHTON
8PM TILL 2
ENTRY £6. CON £5 B4 10PM
[In The News] Stupid TV Ads Cut, Mandatory Minimums Stopped!
We have a lot of good news, and a little bad news.
As you may recall, we identified six federal drug war programs that could be cut to save taxpayers a lot of money. After a lot of lobbying - and thousands of emails to members of Congress by supporters like you – Congress has cut these programs by $300 million. This is a tremendous savings! The Drug Czar will have $20 million less next year for those stupid anti-marijuana TV ads. States will have $185 million less for rogue drug war task forces that have caused problems from Tulia, Texas to Flint, Michigan. Other federal drug war bureaucracies will have about $100 million less.
You also helped us fight Congressman Mark Souder’s draconian methamphetamine bill. We’re happy to report that the harsh mandatory minimums have been removed from the bill. This is a big victory for the Drug Policy Alliance, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative and other groups that have been fighting against new mandatory minimums.
Additionally, two things were added to his bill that the Alliance has been calling for all year – a program to provide grants to states for treatment programs for pregnant women and women with children, and a federal study to look at ways to establish a federal treatment-instead-of-incarceration program for offenders with substance abuse problems. When we started our campaign, Souder’s bill was all mandatory minimums and no drug treatment. Now it contains drug treatment and no mandatory minimums! We would like to thank the thousands of you who wrote to your members of Congress!!
Unfortunately, we couldn’t take out a provision that applies an enhanced sentence of up to 20 years for making or selling methamphetamine in a household where a child resides. Though methamphetamine in the presence of children is a serious problem, this provision could devastate families by giving thousands of mothers long prison sentences when other options, such as treatment, are available. Even more unfortunately, Congress added the meth bill to the PATRIOT Act, making it virtually impossible to stop. Congress will vote on the PATRIOT Act sometime in December. We’re still lobbying to improve the bad provisions in it.
Finally, our bill to suspend federal laws that prohibit Katrina victims with drug convictions from receiving public housing, food stamps, public assistance, and school loans now has 10 co-sponsors. We hope to move the bill in December or early next year. If you haven’t faxed your member of Congress in support of the bill, please do so today.
Also, please consider giving a contribution to our work. We depend on donations from people like you to advance the reform of our nation’s drug laws.
Thank you for your commitment to drug policy reform!
Link To Original Article
[The D’Alliance] Is the Thanksgiving Turkey “Clean”?
Today, President Bush officially pardoned the National Thanksgiving Turkey, Marshmallow. The pardon was also extended to an alternate turkey, Yam.
Given the increased Beltway obsession with growth hormones and performance enhancing supplements in the context of professional athletics, one wonders: are Marshmallow and Yam "drug free?" Or have they been raised with hormones and supplements?
Perhaps they should be tested and have their pardon revoked if they are not. After all, if they're clean they have nothing to hide... One would think that free range birds should get first priority.
Do our avian friends have Fourth Amendment rights, and are those rights greater than those retained by high school students (who are increasingly being asked to provide urine samples under random student drug testing)? If that question can be answered in the affirmative, that is something NOT to be thankful for.
Posted Nikos Leverenz.
[In the News] Talking Over Turkey
What would happen if there was open and honest debate about drug use and drug policy in the U.S.? If people just talked - candidly, truthfully and without fear of judgment or recrimination?
The Drug Policy Alliance wants you to help us find out. And we think the best place to start is right where you live – literally.
Change starts at home. And family holiday gatherings are the perfect place to bring up the issues you care about. But we know this can be a tough subject to tackle, so we'd like to help you out with Talking Over Turkey, a toolkit to inspire real family conversations about drug policy.
This packet gets you started with a newspaper article as a jumping off point for discussion, and provides questions and talking points that will come in handy whether you're struggling to broach the topic with Great-Aunt Mary, or looking for a meaningful dialogue with your college-age son.
Get Talking Over Turkey Now
Parents who want to initiate a discussion about drugs with their children can also supplement the packet with the "Dear Johnny" letter, written by Safety First director Marsha Rosenbaum to her son when he was entering high school.
So bring a copy along with the green bean casserole when you meet your family for the holidays. Then when the person next to you at the table asks what you’ve been reading lately, you can begin, “Actually, there’s this one article…”
If you manage to convert your whole family to the cause of drug policy reform (we can dream, can't we?), the packet even includes a form for them to join the Alliance.
Either way, please let us know how it goes by emailing actionfeedback@drugpolicy.org. We will post a few of the most interesting stories on the website. You can also send us an email if you are planning to talk to your family and would be interested in sharing your story with the press!
Best wishes for delicious discourse from all of us at the Alliance!
Link To Original Article
[The D’Alliance] $38 In Liquid Form
A recent study by RTI International found that every dollar spent on methadone maintenance treatment produces $38 in related economic benefits.
Wow.
This is similar to a 1995 study by the RAND Corporation which found that, dollar for dollar, providing treatment to cocaine users is 10 times more effective at reducing drug abuse than drug interdiction schemes and 23 times more effective than trying to eradicate coca at its source.
The RAND study was conducted for--drumroll please--the U.S. Army and the drug czar's office. What became of RAND's recommendations? Your guess is as good as mine, but I do remember the drug czar's office having a paper airplane competition in the Old Executive Office Building around that time.
Let's hope these new findings about methadone treatment are given the consideration they deserve.
Posted by Clovis Thorn.
STOMP! BRIGHTON! TUES 22ND NOV!! Due to the fact that there is bugger all decent Old Skool in this city, a few of us forum Brightonians have decided to put on a little STOMP! for your listening enjoyment.
Sticking with the pure sounds from 91-94 (with maybe a bit of Hardcore Breaks/ Nu Skool BB hardcore thrown in) we hope that anyone who is at a loose end on Tues 22nd will come and join us.
As an example of the kind of styles... Rob Redford will be playing a '92 summer of love' set, while I will throw down some '93/05 BB hardcore.
If all goes well, I'd like to make it a regular occurance- both as a venue for decent old skool sounds, as well as a platform for the new sounds of Hardcore Breakz and BB hardcore that I'm sure are about to explode onto the dance scene as a whole!
We need your support though- any demo cds will be gladly accepted! (Note: a great excuse to get free mixes!)
Hope to see you all there!
Bike is Back. . . My much loved Monster bike and rack went missing off the back of my van.
ARRRGH!
Spent the week letting all the bike shops know, digging pics out for the police and going to bootfairs 2 try to get it back.
Then gave up! Then found it with rack still locked to it, at the side of the road. It Seems that it had just dropped off! Half a Mile from home!
Hope it did not take out any motocycles when it lay in the middle of the road!
Gave it a wash and New back Wheel and is as good as New!
I AM SO SO SO HAPPY! :weee: :weee: :weee:
[The D’Alliance] Deep in the Heart of Texas
Hudspeth County to be exact - right next to El Paso.
Thursday evening, U.S. Border Patrol agents tried to pull over a dump truck on I-10. The driver drove toward the Rio Grande and fled on foot when the truck got stuck in the river bed.
According to Hudspeth County Chief Deputy Mike Doyal, the border patrol agents were unloading the marijuana they found when "the dump truck driver returned with armed men, some of whom drove 'official looking vehicles with overhead lights.'" Chief Deputy Doyal said some of the men appeared to be dressed in Mexican military uniforms.
"It's a very serious incident," Doyal said. "We are very fortunate ... no one got hurt. Everyone had the presence of mind not to cause an international incident, or start shooting."
As the showdown was taking place, a BULLDOZER appeared and dragged the truck (and remaining marijuana) across the border.
I'm sitting on about four fences with this issue. For those of you who don't know, I lived in Texas for a while. I have this map of the Republic of Texas in 1845 hanging up in my apartment. My last name - Milam - is the name of the giant pink "county" in the middle of the map.
My point is that I have some roots in this state.
Part of me, the 1845 part, says "Don't Mess With Texas, Baby!" and almost hopes there is some gunfire. OK, not almost hopes - wants there to be gunfire. You can take Melissa out of Texas, but you can't take Texas out of Melissa.
Another part of me is very concerned not just for my country, but for the Americans and Mexicans who work and live along both sides of the border.
Will it take a "real" war - one covered live on TV - for all of America to realize the destruction that is the War on Drugs?
Posted by Melissa Milam.
The Case for Legal Pot Use David Lazarus of The San Francisco Chronicle makes a succinct case for the taxation and regulation of non-medical marijuana.
The column relies heavily on a report issued earlier this year (pdf) by Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron. Among that report's core findings:
Legalizing marijuana would save $7.7 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition. $5.3 billion of this savings would accrue to state and local governments, while $2.4 billion would accrue to the federal government.Marijuana legalization would yield tax revenue of $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like all other goods and $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco.
Using the national figures, marijuana decriminalization would yield a net economic benefit of almost $14 billion per year.
To be sure, $14 billion isn't very much when one considers the two and half trillion dollars the federal government expends annually.
What persistently goes unmentioned in the larger decriminalization debate is impact on individuals caught in prohibition's dragnet. Marijuana arrests reached an all-time high last year -- 770,000 and counting. So that's over three quarters of a million persons who are brought into the criminal justice system each year who might not otherwise have been there.
Ordinarily, it would be wise to point out the sordid waste of law enforcement resources and court resources, but for many elected officials, even those who consider themselves "conservative," it is almost axiomatic for them that "fiscal largesse in pursuit of 'law and order'is no vice!"
This especially rings true when the law itself is so fundamentally flawed: the commitment of public resources to enforcement becomes the raison d'etre for prohibition. Individual liberty, science, and reason be damned...
Posted by Nikos Leverenz.
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