Wiki:

Wake-on-LAN (“WOL”) is implemented using a specially designed packet called a magic packet, which is sent to the computer to be woken up. The magic packet contains the MAC address of the destination computer, an identifying number built into each network interface card (“NIC”) or other ethernet device in a computer, that enables it to be uniquely recognized and addressed on a network.

Powered-down or turned off computers capable of Wake-on-LAN will contain network devices able to “listen” to incoming packets in low-power mode while the system is powered down. If a magic packet is received that is directed to the device’s MAC address, the NIC signals the computer’s power supply or motherboard to initiate system wake-up, much in the same way as pressing the power button would do…

The magic packet is a broadcast frame containing anywhere within its payload 6 bytes of all 255 (FF FF FF FF FF FF in hexadecimal), followed by sixteen repetitions of the target computer’s 48-bit MAC address, for a total of 102 bytes. Since the magic packet is only scanned for the string above, and not actually parsed by a full protocol stack, it may be sent as any network- and transport-layer protocol…

Abuse of the Wake-on-LAN feature only allows computers to be switched on; it does not in itself bypass password and other forms of security, and is unable to power off the machine once on…802.11 wireless interfaces do not maintain a link in low power states and cannot receive a magic packet

This does not entirely explain Attkisson’s computer hacking issues. For example, it says that wake-on-LAN can’t power down the computer. But it does suggest that reporters for the AP, CBS and other media outlets should disconnect their ethernet cables and unplug their computers before going home after work. (Roger Simon has related thoughts.)

Attkisson:

“This suspicious activity has been going on for quite some time – both on my CBS computer and my personal computer,” Attkisson said. “CBS then hired its own independent cyber security firm, which has been conducting a thorough forensic exam … they were able to rule out malware, phishing programs, that sort of thing…There were just signs of unusual happenings for many months, odd behavior like the computers just turning themselves on at night and then turning themselves back off again.”

How do you get a computer to switch on remotely? Oh well, let’s leave that. It is nice to see that the left and right agree on some things, like this appalling snooping. And we’ve heard voices usually highly supportive of Democrat proposals opposing some of the most ludicrous bills in recent times.

Well, some things never change, however. Celebrities, is there anything they don’t know?

Politico:

Fox News has notably changed its tone since the election…McCain told me, “Rupert Murdoch is a strong supporter of immigration reform, and Roger Ailes is, too’…McCain said that he, Graham, Rubio, and others also have talked privately to top hosts at Fox, including Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Neil Cavuto, who are now relatively sympathetic to the Gang’s proposed bill…The unity of the Gang fractured at one point when Rubio, who often tried to find ways to set himself apart from the seven other senators, announced his support for an amendment requiring biometric tracking for visa holders which the Gang had agreed to oppose…

Rubio sided with the Chamber against the construction workers. ‘There are American workers who, for lack of a better term, can’t cut it,’ a Rubio aide told me. ‘There shouldn’t be a presumption that every American worker is a star performer. There are people who just can’t get it, can’t do it, don’t want to do it. And so you can’t obviously discuss that publicly.’ In the end, the wage issue was settled to the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s satisfaction, and the Building and Construction Trades union won a cap on the number of visas for foreign construction workers…

The senators’ immigration-policy staffers also attended the Gang’s meetings, and, over time, two stood out: Leon Fresco, a Schumer aide, and Enrique Gonzalez, a Rubio aide. Both are Cuban-American lawyers from Miami who know the intricacies of immigration law. On one occasion, Fresco interrupted Schumer and corrected him on a technical point. According to McCain, Schumer, who is known for being colloquial with his staff, retorted, ‘Shut up, Leon!’ McCain remarked that Schumer and Fresco seemed to have a relationship akin to the characters played by John Goodman and Steve Buscemi in the cult movie ‘The Big Lebowski’

VDH:

employers want a continuing influx of young workers who will undercut the wages of American citizens. That the bargaining power of other minorities, Latino- and African-American citizens especially, is undercut by illegal labor matters little. How odd that elite Republicans pander to Latino grandees to win perhaps 35 percent of the Latino vote; that the party garners no more than 5 percent of the much larger African-American vote is never discussed. In the bizarre logic of the Republican elite, you must cater to the Hispanic elite in order to siphon votes from the liberal Latino bloc, while the much more important black demographic is simply written off. Is there one Republican politician who is more worried about the plight of unemployed African-American citizens than he is about granting amnesty to foreign nationals who broke U.S. laws to come here?

As usual, Mickey Kaus is all over the insanity playing out before our eyes. Appalling creatures, these politicians, no? HT: IP

Telegraph:

total credit in Chinese financial system may have reached 221pc of GDP, jumping almost eightfold over the last decade. Companies will have to fork out $1 trillion in interest payments alone this year…“Liquidity conditions have tightened severely due to the crackdown on shadow banking activities,” said Zhiwei Zhang from Nomura. “We believe the series of policy tightening measures in the past three months have reached critical mass, such that deleveraging in the banking sector is happening. Liquidity tightening can be very damaging to a highly leveraged economy,” he said

Morgan Stanley: “Through 2007, creating a dollar of economic growth in China required just over a dollar of debt. Since then it has taken three dollars of debt to generate a dollar of growth. This is what you normally see in the late stages of a credit binge.” So is the spiking of interest rates in Shanghai.

There’s an interesting piece in Forbes about the potential political future of a well known woman. Add to that the administration’s permanent campaign and a database covering every high placed friend and foe, and it just might be that the Forbes writer is aiming too low. Senate in 2016? How about the Oval Office?

Saudi Gazette:

In Syria, it was Russia which wrote the screenplay of the war, this time in order to serve its own strategy and to maintain a foothold for its naval fleet in the Mediterranean, specifically in the Tartus seaport. Tartus is the sole harbor in the Mediterranean for the Russian naval fleet to receive logistic supplies and maintenance. It receives Russian military ships coming from the Black Sea. The seaport, however, is small and can only receive four medium-size ships at a time. President Putin has clearly said that Tartus is vital for Russian security strategy

The NYT says that the US is now going to start sending weapons to the rebels. The US position has changed from two years ago when Assad was a reformer.

WaPo:

CBS News spokeswoman Sonya McNair: “A cyber security firm hired by CBS News has determined through forensic analysis that Sharyl Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012. Evidence suggests this party performed all access remotely using Attkisson’s accounts. While no malicious code was found, forensic analysis revealed an intruder had executed commands that appeared to involve search and exfiltration of data. This party also used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion.

This was earlier in 2012. This was later in 2012. Probably that Snowden fellow hacking her computer, right?

DOJ: “To our knowledge, the Justice Department has never compromised Ms. Attkisson’s computers, or otherwise sought any information from or concerning any telephone, computer, or other media device she may own or use.” Well that’s reassuring.

Much is being made about Democratic senator Ron Wyden’s reprehensible stunt in asking DNI Clapper about the NSA gathering data on 300MM Americans when he knew the answer was yes and that this was classified information. Leave aside the many ways to weasel out of the question. Bottom line: is it better or worse that these practices, and the complicity of every US technology company in abetting them, have now seen the light of day?

Coulter : the Republican Party’s entire battle plan going forward is to win slightly more votes from 8.4 percent of the electorate…This line of attack has real resonance with our stupidest Republicans. (Proposed Republican primary targets: Sens. Kelly Ayotte, Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio)…If the GOP is this stupid, it deserves to die

WaPo:

The CIA’s deputy director plans to resign and will be replaced by White House lawyer and agency outsider Avril D. Haines, Director John O. Brennan said Wednesday. Haines, who will succeed career officer Michael Morell on Aug. 9, has served for three years as President Obama’s deputy counsel in charge of national security issues and as legal adviser to the National Security Council. Although she has never worked inside the intelligence agency, “she knows more about covert action than anyone in the U.S. government outside of the CIA,” Brennan said

Given all we’ve learned about covert action over the last few weeks, that’s quite a mouthful.

We’ve heard thoughtful conservatives go on about how intelligence professionals have integrity and seek to carry out important defense mandates using the NSA’s tools in defense of American security. Snowden is thus a scoundrel or worse. To some extent these are fair points. But it is said that Petraeus was brought down by cross-referencing secret emails using ISP’s, phone GPS’s, etc, and then adding further corroborating details via hotel bills, online travel itineraries and so forth. Whether or not this is true in the case of Petraeus is irrelevant. The point is that micro-targeting of individuals is apparently easy to do, given the breadth of the available resources. All it takes is a small number of unscrupulous people with the right knowledge to do so. Imagine if you were at the pinnacle of government and could uncover the peccadilloes of not only the opposing team, but those of your own team. You’d potentially have the power to destroy an opponent’s campaign, but also disqualify or influence/control potential candidates on you own team. Imagine if you also had the dirt on the media that shapes the narrative, and the large financial backers of political campaigns. What power! (This last point is not at all theoretical and was centered in the hometown of the executive branch, as we have seen in case after case in the last two months.) The NSA just makes it all the easier to implement the Chicago way on a grand scale. So this fellow Snowden may be a lout, a nut, a gross criminal, and all the rest of it, but is it better or worse to know that the government can easily target for destruction, blackmail, or extortion any high or low placed person in the country, apparently without breaking a sweat?

The NYT from 2006:

HONG KONG, Aug. 6 — Pro-Beijing lawmakers approved legislation here today giving broad authority to the police to conduct covert surveillance, including wiretapping phones, bugging homes and offices and monitoring e-mail. The bill passed the 60-member Legislative Council on a vote of 32 to 0 soon after pro-democracy lawmakers walked out…the heads of security agencies are allowed to order less intrusive surveillance, like monitoring e-mail and phone calls through servers and telecommunications switches…The bill was particularly controversial because it does not prohibit covert surveillance of journalists and because it imposes only a few restrictions on covert surveillance of lawyers…Chinese agencies have tended to operate with considerable independence from the Hong Kong government and its institutions.

The Guardian on Snowden: On May 20, he boarded a flight to Hong Kong, where he has remained ever since. He chose the city because “they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent”. Huh? HT: LGF

Guardian:

The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell…He has had “a very comfortable life” that included a salary of roughly $200,000, a girlfriend with whom he shared a home in Hawaii, a stable career, and a family he loves. “I’m willing to sacrifice all of that because I can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.” Three weeks ago, Snowden made final preparations that resulted in last week’s series of blockbuster news stories. At the NSA office in Hawaii where he was working, he copied the last set of documents he intended to disclose. He then advised his NSA supervisor that he needed to be away from work for “a couple of weeks” in order to receive treatment for epilepsy

He also said: “My predisposition is to seek asylum in a country with shared values. The nation that most encompasses this is Iceland.” Weird. Very weird.

Goodwin:

The sweeping collection of data on private behavior is every bit as indiscriminate and flawed as the airport-screening system. In both, everybody is guilty until proven innocent. Because one terrorist hid a bomb in his shoe, we all must remove our shoes before flying. Because one terrorist hid a bomb in his underwear, we all are subject to X-ray- like screenings. The little old Lutheran lady from Peoria is as suspect as the Saudi Arabian student seeking a pilot’s license. Justice is supposed to be blind, not stupid. Meanwhile, the FBI had been warned about the jihadist turn by one of the brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon, but took its eye off him, perhaps out of an excessive concern for his rights. The Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 soldiers at Ft. Hood had identified himself as a “Soldier of Allah,” but the brass didn’t bounce him because they were afraid of the diversity cops. The balance of rights and security is out of balance. On one hand, security officials let terrorists slip through the cracks because they fear charges of anti-Muslim bias. On the other, they secretly vacuum up the personal data and habits of 300 million people. The snooping is an outgrowth of 9/11, but “growth” is the operative word. An emergency response has been expanded and institutionalized, secretly and repeatedly. The warrantless wiretapping program the Bush administration started focused on catching terror suspects from abroad communicating with Americans. But, like mushrooms after the rain, the program spread exponentially to where all phone calls in America are subject. Another program extends the snooping to the Internet and credit-card use, though the details are sketchy. It is of little comfort that the seizure of this electronic trail is defended by both Republicans and Democrats

Noonan:

There is no way a government in the age of metadata, with the growing capacity to listen, trace, tap, track and read, will not eventually, and even in time systematically, use that power wrongly, maliciously, illegally and in areas for which the intelligence gathering was never intended. People are right to fear that the government’s surveillance power will be abused. It will be. There are many reasons for this, but the primary one is that humans are and will be in charge of it, and humans have shown throughout history a bit of a tendency to play every trick and bend and break laws. “If men were angels,” as James Madison wrote, limits, checks, balances and specifically protected rights would not be necessary. But they aren’t angels. Add to all this simple human mistakes, innocent and not, and misjudgments. And add to that sheer human craziness, partisan lust, political mischief of all sorts. In the Clinton White House there was a guy named Craig Livingstone who amused himself reading aloud the confidential FBI files of prominent Republicans. The files—hundreds of them—were improperly secured and disseminated. Imagine Craig Livingstone at the National Security Agency. Imagine Lois Lerner. So if we have and develop a massive surveillance state, it will be abused.

The failure to do sensible profiling has created a wholly unnecessary Leviathan with powers that surely are abused today. Digging up dirt on your opponents is the Chicago Way, after all. So who would have the means and motive to orchestrate the impressive roll-out of spy scandal after scandal? Could it be the former senior military and intelligence officers who were burnt by people they loathe? Or perhaps their former associates?

More food for thought. Imagine if you could dig up all the dirt, not just on your Republicans opponents, but also on the Democrats who would like to run in 2016. Add to that all the dirt you have on reporters and editors who will shape the coverage of candidates. The power to be a kingmaker and kingbreaker. Unprecedented.

(Mickey Kaus seems to think it’s an inside job on the part of the administration, with which we disagree, but we do appreciate his handy guide to that Rubio silliness.)

It’s California:

An elementary school will hold a toy gun exchange Saturday, offering students a book and a chance to win a bicycle if they turn in their play weapons. Strobridge Elementary Principal Charles Hill maintains that children who play with toy guns may not take real guns seriously. “Playing with toys guns, saying ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ desensitizes them, so as they get older, it’s easier for them to use a real gun,” Hill said. At Saturday’s event, called Strobridge Elementary Safety Day, a Hayward police officer will demonstrate bicycle and gun safety, and the Alameda County Fire Department is sending a rig and crew to talk about fire safety. Fingerprinting and photographing of children will be offered

We wonder if the principal was one of Zombie’s Keystone Kops.

Zombie captures the pictures.

Via Belmont Club:

“Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” committee member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked Clapper during the March 12 hearing. In response, Clapper replied quickly: “No, sir.”

Move along now. Nothing to see here.

All the tech companies are denying that they ever heard of “PRISM“, and that the government does not have “direct access” to their servers. Amazingly, they all use almost precisely identical language to frame their non-denial denials. It’s another pathetic chapter in a long running series. So they didn’t apparently know the name “PRISM”, and they apparently forwarded the information the government requested to separate servers. Next!

Iowahawk nails it.

IBD

fracking has made U.S. oil production skyrocket 20% in just the last year, according to the Energy Department. That’s the biggest increase in 21 years, and it is expected to soar another 21% in the next five years. The growth has curbed the U.S. need for energy imports. America is expected to end its dependence on imported liquid fuels by 2025…

Venezuelan exports to the U.S. have fallen 11% in the first two months of 2013 compared to 2012…African nations sounded the sharpest warnings because they have been the first to see the impact of our fracking revolution on their exports, which fell 41% in 2012 from 2011. There are comparable figures elsewhere in OPEC

It was a mere two years ago that we first mentioned fracking, and look how great the progress has been in such a short time.