E-government and E-governance. definition of terms

E-government and E-governance.
--------------------------
There is some disagreement as to the definition of terms E-government and E-governance.
** I have resolved the dispute over the definitions as follows:

Electronic-Government is how a government sets up any Internet infrastructure and then uses that infrastructure to provide services * and information to citizens, alien residents and even tourists.

Electronic-Governance is how a government uses the Internet in expressing political power over its citizens and other people within its borders.

Cyber-Law-Enforcement , anti-terrorist measures and the regulation of Internet access in public libraries, are the current E-Governance issues under debate in many if not all democracies. In most dictatorships, E-governance is how a government may censor or restrict the dissemination of political viewpoints, news and organizing information over the Internet and other communication technologies.
--------
note: * West, Darrell M.; Assessing E-Government: The Internet, Democracy, and Service Delivery by State and Federal Governments. September, 2000. Brown University Providence, RI 02912. Last accessed September 6, 2002 via www.insidepolitics.org @ http://www.insidepolitics.org/egovtreport00.html .

: Supreme Court Developments on Yahoo! News

Print Story: Supreme Court Developments on Yahoo! News: -- Yahoo! News

Supreme Court Developments
By The Associated PressMon May 22, 4:24 PM ET

Highlights of actions taken Monday by the Supreme Court. The justices:

_Ruled unanimously that police do not need a warrant to go into a home to break up a bloody fight, in a case involving a 'melee' that Brigham City, Utah, police officers saw through a window.

_Rejected an appeal from Tennessee death row inmate Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman, who wanted the court to declare that the drug protocol used in most executions amounts to cruel punishment.

_Refused to hear an appeal in the case of a mentally ill man, Andrew Goldstein, whose conviction was overturned in the death of a woman pushed into the path of a subway train in New York.

_Said they would not consider the case of convicted murderer James Hamm, who graduated from law school and is being thwarted in his efforts to become a practicing attorney in Arizona.

_Delayed a decision on whether to take up a fight over reporters' confidential sources, apparently because a former government scientist's lawsuit that prompted journalist subpoenas may be settled.

_Declined for the second time to get involved in a child custody fight between a San Diego woman and and her former [female] partner."

============

When the law chases the Internet | csmonitor.com

~~~ Cybercrime in Cyberspace.
The Internet will never be a totally safe place.
Just be careful out there !! ~~ TP

When the law chases the Internet | csmonitor.com: "And yet cybercrime is now considered a greater worry than physical crime among US businesses, according to a new IBM survey. Nearly 9 out of 10 companies experienced a computer security incident in 2005, the FBI has found, with viruses, computer theft, and other such crimes costing US firms more than $67 billion a year. And the latest worry to individual PC owners is a type of 'spyware' that can remotely follow a person's keystrokes to steal a password or other vital information.

Google itself is quite aware of potential abuse by new software, and how much governments, from Washington to Beijing, want to control or snoop on Google users.

It is primarily up to Congress to pass new laws that can provide the tools to fight cybercrime while also balancing privacy concerns.

One pending bill would provide national standards for companies to notify customers if personal data on their computers has been breached. About half the states have such laws. Another bill would provide protection against spyware intrusion on PCs."

"Spy Court Judge Quits In Protest:" : washingtonpost.com

~ This Spy-gate thing is going to be serious news for a while. When both Democrats & Republican Senate leaders are expressing civil liberties concerns, all citizens should be concerned. Nixon -- and those Presidents before him -- walked over civil liberties regularly. No one wants to go back to those times , with Presidential Enemy lists , covert wire taps, & etc. The Bush Team must feel the Power of Checks and Balances here.
Hopefully Congress is up to the job ~~ TP
-----------------------------

"Jurist Concerned Bush Order Tainted Work of Secret Panel"

By Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 21, 2005; Page A01

"A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources. U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,, sent a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. late Monday notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation".

"Word of Robertson's resignation came as two Senate Republicans joined the call for congressional investigations into the National Security Agency's warrantless interception of telephone calls and e-mails to overseas locations by U.S. citizens suspected of links to terrorist groups. They questioned the legality of the operation and the extent to which the White House kept Congress informed."

"Sens. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Olympia J. Snowe (Maine) echoed concerns raised by Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has promised hearings in the new year."

"Hagel and Snowe joined Democrats Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Carl M. Levin (Mich.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.) in calling for a joint investigation by the Senate judiciary and intelligence panels into the classified program."

F.B.I. Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show - New York Times

~~~ Not that this is really surprising. When i worked for GreenPeace in during the Reagan years, we knew that we were being monitiored. Strange thing is we had nothing to hide,, I mean we were publicity-hound-political-activists, who telegraphed to the media most everything we did or said. Why non-violent groups need to be "monitiored" is still really beyond me.

Either way the Bush Team is in trouble. If these domestic spying games the Administration is playing are found to be more than just unethical, but also to be illegal, some heads are going to have to roll. Being Scooter Libby already got indicted, maybe Dick Cheney is next, as he is the main powerplayer. { Don't tell me you really think Bush is in charge of this complicated stuff ! } ~~ ` TP
----------------------------

F.B.I. Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show - New York Times: "the documents, coming after the Bush administration's confirmation that President Bush had authorized some spying without warrants in fighting terrorism, prompted charges from civil rights advocates that the government had improperly blurred the line between terrorism and acts of civil disobedience and lawful protest.

One F.B.I. document indicates that agents in Indianapolis planned to conduct surveillance as part of a 'Vegan Community Project.' Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group's 'semi-communistic ideology.' A third indicates the bureau's interest in determining the location of a protest over llama fur planned by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
The documents, provided to The New York Times over the past week, came as part of a series of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. For more than a year, the A.C.L.U. has been seeking access to information in F.B.I. files on about 150 protest and social groups that it says may have been improperly monitored."

Next-Gen "Analog Hole" Legislation Proposed

~~ Mixed fellings here.
I believe copyrights should be honored. People do not honor them.
If everyone on the internet acted nice & honest this law would not be needed.

But then there is the Libertarian in me sayin' ,,
"Whaooh,, here !! Hold on a sec...." ~`
~~ tp
----------------------------------

Next-Gen "Analog Hole" Legislation Proposed: "The bill would essentially require all analog devices, such as televisions, to either re-encode a signal into a digital form, complete with rights restrictions, or to encode the rights restrictions into the analog stream itself.

Manufacturers would also be forbidden to develop a product that would remove those restrictions. Exectives at Veil Interactive, the developer of the VRAM technology at the heart of the legislation, described the technology as one that would not be noticeable by consumers."
=====================================================

CBS News | He Said/She Said Over Home Search | November 7, 2005 14:00:09

CBS News | He Said/She Said Over Home Search | November 7, 2005 14:00:09: "the U.S. Supreme Court is about to examine whether the police need the consent of one or both spouses to conduct a warrantless search of a home"

"Lawsuit hits home for bloggers Blogma | News.blog | CNET News.com

Blogma | News.blog | CNET News.com:

"Lawsuit hits home for bloggers"

In one of the first legal battles involving bloggers, Aaron Wall, who runs SEOBook.com, is being sued by Traffic-Power.com for defamation and publication of trade secrets that were allegedly posted on his blog. The kicker is that much of the content in question was not posted by Wall at all, but by readers in the comments section of his blog. The lawsuit will be an interesting test case in a realm that has largely avoided legal actions thus far."

Data Mining Found to Flunk Privacy Rules -

Data Mining Found to Flunk Privacy Rules - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON - None of five federal agencies using electronic data mining to track terrorists, catch criminals or prevent fraud complied with all rules for gathering citizen information."

" As a result, they cannot ensure that individual privacy rights are appropriately protected, congressional investigators said Monday."

FBI and State claimed they were exempt from the assessments required by the E-Government Act of 2002, the FBI because it was a national security system and State because its data dealt with federal employees, not the public.

=========

~~~ I find this above hard to believe.

I mean the Government--

-- our Government , of the People , by the People , for the People --

would NEVER make a mistake like this,

over and over and over again !!

This has to just another one of those vailed liberal media

attacks on the Bush administration

that my hero ,

Rush "I only do pharmaceutical drugs" Limbaugh,

keeps telling me about !! ~~

~ ` ` ~ tp
=

Andrew Kantor: CyberSpeak - With technology, it's easy to break the law - Yahoo! News

Andrew Kantor: CyberSpeak - With technology, it's easy to break the law - Yahoo! News:

"But it's a good example of how traditional definitions don't always fit in the brave new world. Was I stealing? I was depriving my neighbor of bandwidth. I was slowing his access. But what if he wasn't online? (In fact, he wasn't home at the time.)"

The Internet has really complicated life. Thank G-D ! 

BBC NEWS | Technology | ID theft ring escapes shutdown

~~ Cops vs. Robbers in the 21st Century.~~ t p ~

------------------------------

BBC NEWS | Technology | ID theft ring escapes shutdown:
"ID theft ring escapes shutdown"

"The bug keeps track of what you type on your keyboard
An ID theft ring that has hit thousands of people is proving hard to shut down."

Handsets' Deadly Use: Detonators - Yahoo! News

~~ ` All technologies that can , will be utilized as weaponry. Not to sound cold here, but it is the unfortunate truth of human history ~ ~ ~TP

-------------------
----
-
Handsets' Deadly Use: Detonators - Yahoo! News:
""Handsets' Deadly Use: Detonators"
Mike Angell
Fri Aug 26,
7:00 PM ET :

"More and more terrorists are using cell phones to remotely detonate bombs -- and there's not much authorities can do about it. At least, not that they can say."

Web of Crime: Who's Catching the Cybercrooks? - Yahoo! News

~~~ First there was the Internet.

Then came Cyber-crooks.

And now Cyber-detectives.

Then soon we will need to police the Cyber-Police ,

as they could become double agents with all that cyber-knowledge.

Then of course there will be the TV show about

"Cyber-Cops Gone Bad " on FOX. ~` TP

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Web of Crime: Who's Catching the Cybercrooks? - Yahoo! News:

".........tracking every digital footstep the hacker took as he wreaked havoc on dozens of businesses by shutting down their online storefronts........."

Just Monitoring Blogs Isn't Enough - Yahoo! News

~~` Wherever people congregate --- in real-space or cyber-space ---

the marketing slime fungus sprouts.

Maybe Proctor and Gamble will come up with some spray cleanser to

fight this fungus --soon to be-- among us.

They can advertise it here on

"Technopolitical"

if they do ~

`~` ` TP

----------------------------------------------------------------

Just Monitoring Blogs Isn't Enough - Yahoo! News: "Just Monitoring Blogs Isn't Enough" - by BRIAN MORRISSEY of ADWEEK

Fri Aug 26, 5:04 PM ET


The rise in consumer-generated Web content is leading at least one interactive agency to branch into blog relations in an effort to help clients steer online chatter about their brands.

Ripple Effects Interactive, a Pittsburgh-based independent agency, last week formed an online relations unit to monitor and influence blogs, message boards and other user-generated media."
===================================

Jealous Lover Program Creator Is Indicted - Yahoo! News

~~ GOOD !!!
{ If he is really guilty,
and also feels sorry for what he has done. }~

~ or maybe ~

BAD !!
{ If the prosecutors are just
goofing up here, and actually
meant to indict
some one else with the same exact name,
or something like that.}
=======
=======

Jealous Lover Program Creator Is Indicted - Yahoo! News:

"SAN DIEGO - AP Wire @ Yahoo !

The creator and several buyers of a computer

program designed to allow jealous lovers to

snoop on their sweethearts' online activities

have been indicted for allegedly violating

federal computer privacy laws."

---------------------------------------

http://www.webpronews.com/ "It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time…" You might want to make sure it doesn't violate any federal laws before ubiquitously marketing it. LoverSpy's creator Carlos Enrique Perez-Melara, 25, learned that one the hard way, now facing up to 175 years in jail.

http://www.webpronews.com/news/ebusinessnews/wpn-45-20050829ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime.html

BBC NEWS | Americas | Colombia lawmakers 'use cocaine'

~~ I am Shocked !
Just Shocked to hear this!
I order this country closed at once ! ~~
~~ TP

"Colombia lawmakers 'use cocaine'"
BBC NEWS | Americas | Colombia lawmakers 'use cocaine'

Some of Colombia's elected politicians have used cocaine within Congress itself, the vice-president of the country's Senate has alleged.

The drug is also being sold there, Senator Edgar Artunduaga said.

"I know names of people who distribute cocaine here in Congress," he said, revealing the results of an investigation ordered by his office.

"There are important officials who distribute, and senators and representatives who consume," he said.

The Detective Jack Slipper, 81, of Great Train Robbery Fame, Dies - New York Times

~~~ Another historical Oh-Bit.
Not many peoples lives become characters in movies-- and for the postitive things at that too !
"Jack Slipper", the perfect name for the life he led.
As the lead police dectective in Britians greatest train robbery Mr. Slipper became a legend.
His parents must have got the name from Above .~
~~ TP

The Detective Jack Slipper, 81, of Great Train Robbery Fame, Dies - New York Times: "By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 25, 2005

LONDON, Aug. 24 (AP) - Jack Slipper, the retired Scotland Yard detective who pursued one of the fugitives from the Great Train Robbery across many years and two continents, died here on Wednesday. He was 81.


Known as Slipper of the Yard, he came to public attention for his role in the Great Train Robbery of 1963, one of Britain's largest and most audacious robberies and a crime that still fascinates the country.

An armed gang held up the Glasgow-to-London mail train, stealing 125 sacks of bank notes worth £2.6 million - $7.3 million at the time, or more than $50 million today.

The train's driver, Jack Mills, was hit over the head during the robbery. He never returned to work and died of cancer in 1970.

A team of detectives, including Detective Slipper, arrested most of the gang soon after the robbery. But one member, Ronnie Biggs, escaped from prison after 15 months by scaling a wall with a rope ladder and jumping into a waiting furniture van. Mr. Biggs fled to Spain, had plastic surgery to change his appearance, spent several years in Australia and settled in Brazil in 1970.

In 1974, Detective Slipper traveled to R"

Terrorists Turn to the Web as Base of Operations

~~ Every body uses the web these days to make their lives simpler ; even Bin Laden & Co.
.
The question is: Am I prepared to give up some cyber-liberty to increase Government's need for cyber-counter-terrorism?

Is terrorism -- or the threat of -- the price we pay for living in a free society?

Or must we allow our governments to ask citizens to show a passport to go onto the internet. Am I as a law abiding citizen, prepared to surrender privacy for the privilege of using the internet?

Or as a citizen with a voice, am I not entitled to unfettered access to the Internet, without any government interference?

To tell you the truth, I really do not know how I feel here. When human lives are at stake, the balances between rights, privileges and principles are not simple.
~~ Technopol~ ~ ~

Terrorists Turn to the Web as Base

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/05/AR2005080501138_pf.html

Al Qaeda's innovation on the Web "erodes the ability of our security services to hit them when they're most vulnerable, when they're moving," said Michael Scheuer, former chief of the CIA unit that tracked bin Laden. "It used to be they had to go to Sudan, they had to go to Yemen, they had to go to Afghanistan to train," he added. Now, even when such travel is necessary, an al Qaeda operative "no longer has to carry anything that's incriminating. He doesn't need his schematics, he doesn't need his blueprints, he doesn't need formulas." Everything is posted on the Web or "can be sent ahead by encrypted Internet, and it gets lost in the billions of messages that are out there."

Web of Crime: Zombie PC Armies Designed to Suck Your Wallet Dry - Yahoo! News

~~ Well written article on the Zombie PC thing.
Explains it better than anything else I 've read. Worth a click to read the whole thing , especially if you are a wanna-be-geek like me . ~~
~~ TP

"Web of Crime: Zombie PC Armies Designed to Suck Your Wallet Dry"

Erik Larkin, special to PC World

Tue Aug 23, 3:00 AM ET


"..... harmful bots, when installed on the PCs of unspecting users, connect to IRC, or to a Web site, or even to a peer-to-peer network and await commands from their controllers. When the commands arrive, the bots execute them on their unwitting hosts--which might include your personal computer--enabling malicious hackers to gain complete control over those machines; the infected PCs are then called "zombies."

For instance, a July 2005 study by antivirus vendor McAfee reported that the number of systems infected with malicious software that allows a PC to be used for unauthorized purposes jumped by 303 percent during the second quarter of 2005 from the previous quarter.

The primary purpose of these infiltrations is to make money, says Larry Johnson, special agent in charge of the Criminal Investigative Division of the U.S. Secret Service. And in some respects, the operations function just like a legitimate business.

Organized criminals are emerging as a new and increasingly effective source of sophisticated attacks with botnets, according to Vincent Gullotto, vice president of McAfee's Anti-virus and Vulnerability Emergency Response Team. "There's a whole new ballgame that's being played," he adds.

Copyright © 2005 PC World Communications, Inc.
Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Salon.com News | Why racial profiling doesn't work - NP

Salon.com News | Why racial profiling doesn't work - NP