Bank of America’s web site was, um, compromised for a period of time today.

During that period, people had access to full information on Bank of America customers.

http://jalopnik.com/#!5758997/…

… when she logged into her Bank of America account earlier this evening she saw, rather than her credit card account, the mortgage and home equity account of someone else. That’s right, Bank of America was showing her, instead of her own credit card account, the accounts for a Bank of America account holder in Randolph, NJ. The only similarity between the two? The same last name.

The full extent of the issue has not been made public, so it’s unclear how many accounts were exposed and whether everyone with internet access could gain access to the exposed customers’ accounts, or if only those who logged in with an existing customer account had access to other customer accounts.

However, that’s a moot point, because any hackers out there watching for vulnerabilities could very well have exploited this problem (and of course, hackers could have caused the problem to begin with, for all we know).

As a result, if you’re a Bank of America customer for your bank account, credit card, mortgage, etc., you should consider requesting an “Initial Fraud Alert” on your credit to prevent identity theft.

An Initial Fraud Alert is used by credit ratings agencies to alert banks, lenders, and other potential creditors that your personal information may have been stolen, and requires them to contact you directly, using specific contact information before granting any credit in your name. (This will prevent people, for example, using one of those unsolicited credit card offers to take out a new credit card in your name using the stolen information).

You do NOT want to be subject to identity theft.

Coming soon: Tom Salmon fun-run?

For any Vermonter looking for early spring signs of a Salmon run this may make a splash. It appears Tom Salmon is game for a run against Senator Bernie Sanders next year. An internet search of owned domain names shows that one   Salmon, Thomas of Railroad St. Saint Johnsbury Vermont is currently the proud registered owner of salmonforussenate.com  

Salmonforusenate.com was registered January 19th 2011 and lasts until January 2013. The 19th of  last month must have been a busy day for our man Salmon as the Burlington Free Press also reported he would announce his final decision on this year’s ‘birthday’ of the US Navy See bees, March 5th.

No turning back? With date set and his domain name tucked under his arm he has set himself floating down the path to become the authentic self-utilizing power along the lines of excellence of his dreams.

note: Salmonforuspresident.com is still available for now

After the events in Egypt a closer look might be taken at proposed US Senate legislation unoffically called the internet kill bill. Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Tom Carper (D-DE) have co-sponsored a bill (introduced in 2010) that might give the President the power to disconnect the internet. It is unclear if the President might already have this power under decade’s old legislation passed after Pearl Harbor.  

Whether killing the internet is even possible is still debatable. However by reconfiguring network routers and making it difficult for them to reach IP addresses the Egyptian government effectively did to some degree kill their internet. Not quite a kill switch but a kill system that disrupted communications between those organizing and participating in anti-gov protests.

In a statement after the events in Egypt Senators Lieberman, Collins, and Carper released a statement defending the bill saying in part 

“they will ensure that any legislation that moves in this Congress contains explicit language prohibiting the President from doing what President Mubarak did.”

However Sen. Lieberman’s earlier statements offer little similar reassurance. This is from  a 2010 interview where he  claims critics are spreading “total misinformation” about the bill while he uses a less than comforting example to describe the law's function 

“We need the capacity for the president to say, Internet service provider, we’ve got to disconnect the American Internet from all traffic coming in from another foreign country… Right now, China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in a case of war. We need to have that here, too.”  

The internet kill bill joins so much other senate legislation good, bad and ugly that is stalled in the Senate. It may also be broken into bite sized pieces and added to spending bills. Many of the barriers are turf battles about which groups (DHS or military?) should have authority over civilian cyber security rather than issues of personal freedom and rights.  US, county and local government IT officials note the problems an internet shutdown might cause. Law enforcement relies heavily information flowing from the internet and would have to rely on radio during a shutdown. Also some municipalities have emergency management on twitter feeds.  

This is a (co-)founders privilege diary, as it has nothing to do with Vermont, politics, news, or anything like that. After years of ups and downs in the effort, my best friend from back in Kentucky just had her first baby this week. Welcome to Adrian Rose Griffith-Mealy, who arrived Thursday, Feb 11, 2011 at 2:52AM – A beautiful, healthy 6lb 14oz baby girl.

And while I have pictures to prove that last statement, it seems a little inappropriate to post them. Instead, here’s a YouTube vid of the happy parents from just a few weeks ago. Laurie Griffith and husband Peter Mealy are a performing duo in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and as you’ll notice below, Laurie was up there on stage until pretty close to the last minute.

So, this is Pete singing his ode to the pregnancy… very entertaining.

Congratulations, L & P. That’s a lucky little girl to have such awesome parents.

 Very Important Board Meeting Many Light Years Away

The Almighty Spirit flits from star to star surrounded by the Chief Spirits and Their subsidiary Gods of the solar systems.

“So.  Where is the little asshole?” The Almighty Spirit snarls.

“He’s coming,” says Chief Spirit 112X.  “Said He’d be a bit late.  Something about Egypt.”

“Yeah,” says The Almighty Spirit.  “He’s not in control down there.  Hasn’t been since mankind oozed out of the slime.  Dildo dipshit asshole!  I should have vaporized Him and that whole fucking solar system way back.  Shit.  This is what I get for giving Him another chance after He fucked-up the development of the Altair galaxy.  I demote the shithead to a mere God and give Him one simple solar system to develop intelligently, and now the whole Milky Way is threatened.  What a piece of shit!”

Here He comes,” says Chief Spirit 14X.

Hi Everybody,” says Earth God.

“Yourself,” says The Almighty Spirit.  “And just what is it You’re calling Yourself these days?  Yahweh?  Vishnu?  The Holy Ghost?  Fuckwad?  What?!”

“Well, considering turns of events on Earth, I’ve kind of taken of fancy to Allah.”

“Whatever,” sneers The Almighty Spirit.  “Listen, I demoted You to a God and gave You one simple task.  One solar system with one planet hosting supposedly intelligent beings who would some day join with all Our other beings in this Universe in The Almighty Fulfillment of My Almighty Purpose.  We’ve been waiting.  What’s all this war shit, and what’s this crap about you being the one and only true God?  How is it Your beings have such arrested development?  I’ve got plans for the Universe, and they included Earth’s participation.  Now I’m thinking of vaporizing the whole bloody system.  You along with it.  Explain to Me why I shouldn’t.”

“Well, jeez, Almighty One,” says Earth God, “I’ve been doing My best.  They’re actually talking about a manned trip to Mars.”

“When?  Kubrick did all that in ’68.  I saw the movie.  And You don’t get it.  I don’t want them going anywhere til they cut out all that war shit and start acting like they have half a pea-brain.  Stop all that capitalism crap that uses science and technology to produce junk gadgets and pollution and disease and mental and economic stupidity.  And, of course, wars.  Do you think I’m going to let those assholes of Yours come up here and fuck-up the Universal Neighborhood?  

“We’ve got a good thing going up here.  Shit.  I’m not going to let regular fucking human trash come up here and start building malls and golf courses.  And driving around in fucking cars!  You’re on Your third strike–yeah, and ballparks too–You get that planet in order PDQ!  I want to see results before another Earth year passes.  Do Fucking Something!  You’ve been sitting on Your fat ass letting those dildo dipshits worship You while they run amuck.  No wonder they like You.  You let them get away with everything!  If I weren’t Almighty Tolerant, I’d bust You up right here and now and scatter Your worthless Godness to the ends of My Expanding Creation.  Now…”

“Okay, okay,” says Earth God.  “I’ll get right on it.  Jeez.  You know, I’ve got a lot riding on that Obama guy.  He’s…”

“WHAT?!  That Asshole?!  Listen, You little douche-bag, I want You to find some leader down there who will put a stop to all the nonsense.  Somebody that, You know, will DO SOMETHING!  I Myself always liked that Jack Kennedy.  You fucked that up too, didn’t You?  And what about that Sean Penn guy?  Did that movie with Eastwood, Mystic River.  Pay attention to what’s going on.  This is Your last warning!  Now get back down there and let’s see You produce.  I’m not going to subsidize any more of this dumb-ass fuckwad loser crap.  Not in My Universe, asswipe!”

Earth God departs.  Chief Spirit 467981X speaks:  “You know, Almighty One, I don’t think He’s really going to be able to turn things around in one Earth year.  We ought to just bail on the system right now.”

“Shit, I know,” says The Almighty Spirit.  “But let’s just see how bad He fucks things up this Earth year.  Maybe We won’t have to do anything.  He’ll let them do it to themselves.  What a God.  Jesus Fucking Christ!  Lowlife little turd.  Goddamn pre-vert too, the way He’s done things.  He really got off on that being nailed to a cross shit.  I should have ended it right there.”

“Well,” says Chief Spirit 927629021834109X, “one thing about You, Almighty One, You don’t micro-manage.”

“Shit,” says The Almighty Spirit.  He’ll probably get some dildo dipshit assholes like the fucking Rodriguez brothers running the planet next.  Goddamn, I loved that movie.  At least He didn’t fuck that up.  Shit.  Let’s go get something to drink and then go do some Creating.”

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt

If you haven’t noticed, I haven’t been blogging much lately, as I’ve been working (professionally, as a consultant) pretty steadily on the legislative push to allow up to 10,000 center and home-based early education and care providers the opportunity to come together as a union and negotiate with the state on policy issues relevant to their profession and the kids in their care. It’s a big issue not just for them, but for our economy – that’s a lot of small-businesspeople spread across the state that make it possible for parents to work in the near term. In the even more important long term, these professionals set the stage for kids’ success in the schools (including by IDing and addressing developmental or behavior issues early). It’s an awesome issue on a lot of levels.

On that front, there are some great things to report. First, Howard Dean endorsed the effort with some strong language, saying the legislation “makes for common sense public policy and is the right thing to do.”

Also, hearings are now set in the House on the bill for next week. The ball is moving forward. Here are some links to some of the coverage:

• Provider Anna Gephardt and Organizer Cyndi Miller on the Mark Johnson Show from the Statehouse last week (the last half hour of the program, right after Gov. Shumlin)
• Center Director Tori Grahame and Miller on Steve West’s WKVT show in Brattleboro. (no podcast link yet, but it’ll be rebroadcast Saturday on Steve’s highlights of the week)
• Shay Totten’s coverage of Sen. Tim Ashe being put to work at a Colchester Center and his comments in support of the bill (You can also see a brief video of comments from Ashe).

Great stuff, serious momentum. Over a third of the House and Senate are co-sponsoring, and the Governor supports the effort. It’s awesome to see politics work the way it’s supposed to.

If you’d like to contact your legislators on the issue, here’s a link to the leg directory. The bills are H.97 and S.29. If you can spare a moment to write a letter to the editor, here’s a tool for that as well.

Per Josh Stilts / Brattleboro Reformer:

Sens. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and David Vitter, R-La., say applications for the Pilgrim nuclear station in Plymouth, Mass., and the Vermont Yankee plant in Vernon, whose owner, Entergy Corp., applied for 20-year license extensions for the two on the same day, Jan. 27, 2006, are taking too long.

…and…

Vitter, who represents Louisiana, Entergy’s home state, has received $20,000 in campaign contributions from the company since the 2002 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan Washington-based group that tracks money in politics.

A reporter actually looking at the money trend between a politician’s stated views and his supporters?  I didn’t know they were still allowed to do that sort of thing.  

Now, Vitter and Inhofe are claiming that the reason the NRC is taking so long in the case of Yankee and Pilgrim are because of the people protesting against them.

You know what?  That would be awesome if it were true.  It would be a testament to the ability of people to influence politics and policy and the things that effect their community.

That said, Vermont Yankee’s wounds are primarily self-inflicted.  It’s not like anyone made them lose fuel rods.  It’s like anyone made them fail to maintain their cooling towers.  It’s not like anyone forced them to leak tritium into ground water.

This is a company that has made false statements to public officials.  It’s a company which has not properly maintained safety.  It’s a company that clearly does not care about Vermont or Vermonters in any form.  

Activists may have managed to call attention to VY’s hardships– there are stories that wouldn’t be out there without the close scrutiny.  But without VY engaging in such consistently egregious and dangerous behavior?  The relicensing would have come through by now.  

I’d love to give activists credit for this– it would be a rare opportunity for me to agree with David Vitter about something.  But no, not so much.  Activists are of value, but they don’t make the decisions.  We call attention.  We bring to light.  But we don’t have that kind of power, as much as I sometimes wish we did.

UPDATE

I spoke too soon. The Times has carried the story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02…

The Chamber of Commerce holds itself out as the voice of business in the United States. But they’re not all crazy; they’re responsible businesses. That’s why they were happy to have Obama speak to them this week, even though there are lots of things they disagree on.

President Obama urged American businesses on Monday to “get in the game” by letting loose trillions of dollars being held in reserves, saying that they can help create a “virtuous cycle” of more sales, higher demand and greater profits that will put people back to work and turn around the sluggish economy.

. . .

But the chamber, too, is eager to tone down the rhetoric, according to senior officials there. At the height of the high-profile fight with the White House, several big-name companies left its board, citing concern about the chamber’s opposition to the administration’s efforts.

And how do they show their commitment to tone down the rhetoric and work constructively?

ThinkProgress has learned that a law firm representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the big business trade association representing ExxonMobil, AIG, and other major international corporations, is working with set of “private security” companies and lobbying firms to undermine their political opponents, including ThinkProgress, with a surreptitious sabotage campaign.

Yup, American business at its finest.

Two questions:

1. What are the odds of reading about this in the Times or the Wall Street Journal?

2. How quickly will the Vermont Chamber criticize this bit of shady and unethical practise?

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