Greasing the Wheels: Advertising Oshkosh Trucks

Wisconsin based Oshkosh truck build’s “Severe Duty” trucks. These include ambulances, fire trucks and military vehicles, among others. Driving around Washington, DC recently with the local NPR station (WETA 90.9/89.1FM) on the radio, I smiled as I heard that this portion of the program was sponsored by Oshkosh Truck Corporation. Someone, somewhere evidently felt that placing their name on the DC NPR station would generate good will and perhaps a few orders.

Frankston on Bank of America’s Security Practices

Bob Frankston:

Even more so because of a letter I received after sending an online Query to CallVantage using another unique address and I quickly got an unrelated letter from a third party site that seemed fraudulent. I reported it to the third party’s ISV and got a response saying they were shut down but know no more than that.
I view these as very serious breaches because they indicate attacks at the vital points in the system.

TSA Collects Airline Passenger Data Despite Pledge

AP:

A federal agency collected extensive personal information about airline passengers although Congress told it not to and it said it wouldn’t, according to documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
A Transportation Security Administration contractor used three data brokers to collect detailed information about U.S. citizens who flew on commercial airlines in June 2004 in order to test a terrorist screening program called Secure Flight, according to documents that will be published in the Federal Register this week.
The TSA had ordered the airlines to turn over data on those passengers, called passenger name records, in November.

The EFF’s Lee Tien has more.

Our Tax System….

Zelenak & Chirelstein on Tax Shelters:

This article describes the ongoing legislative and administrative efforts to curtail tax shelters. It concludes that these efforts, which rely largely on disclosure requirements and penalties, cannot succeed as long as taxpayers continue to win many of the litigated shelter cases.

Amazing… Yet, we continue to generate more tax law spaghetti.

Bob Lefsetz on the Music Business

Barry Ritholtz published Bob Lefsetz’s comments on the state of the music industry:

“We’re being duped. The RIAA keeps saying it’s saving the MUSIC when really all its label members are interested in is saving THEMSELVES!
It’s out of control. Irrelevant of the Grokster decision. These billion dollar companies with their high-priced lobbyists have infected the media and the minds of the public to the detriment of ART! What’s worse, they’ve convinced the musicians signed to their labels of the validity of their position, which is equivalent to slaves standing up for plantation owners.
I don’t know about you, but I believe in MUSIC, not LABELS!

Where will Senator Kohl Stand? With the People or Hollywood

Cory Doctorow urges us to contact Senator Kohl, along with others and urge him to stop Hollywood’s special interests from inserting the broadcast flag requirement into a Senate appropriations bill today. The broadcast flag is yet another reduction in our fair use rights.

This is a classic dead of night, end of game maneuver. The Wisconsin Senator has voted against our interests recently, including the National ID bill, the bankruptcy bill (more) and large corporate giveaways. I hope he does the right thing today. Call his office: (202) 224-5653 or send an email. I cannot see any benefit to Wisconsin residents of Kohl’s recent efforts. More on the Senator’s votes here. The EFF has more. Roger Simon correctly points out that Hollywood’s real problem lies with their declining product quality.

Watch the conversation via Technorati