Ink Lake

Goddamn It

The Times today with a great exposé of the rampant abuse that goes on at state-run facilities for the mentally disabled. Danny Hakim tells of humiliation, beatings, and death, at the hands of state employees.

Yet on a February afternoon in 2007, Jonathan, a skinny, autistic 13-year-old, was asphyxiated, slowly crushed to death in the back seat of a van by a state employee who had worked nearly 200 hours without a day off over 15 days. The employee, a ninth-grade dropout with a criminal conviction for selling marijuana, had been on duty during at least one previous episode of alleged abuse involving Jonathan.

“I could be a good king or a bad king,” he told the dying boy beneath him, according to court documents.

In the front seat of the van, the driver, another state worker at O. D. Heck, watched through the rear-view mirror but said little. He had been fired from four different private providers of services to the developmentally disabled before the state hired him to care for the same vulnerable population.

Kudos to Hakim and the Times. Yes, I have my frustrations with the paper (more in an upcoming post), and yes, I like blogs and blogging, but there’s no substitute for reporting like this. I hope everyone sees the value in news you actually pay for. Five bucks a week is a bargain.

Fron another section of the piece…

The Times asked the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities why Ms. Bishop and Mr. Morgese could not say what an assault was and why Ms. Maioriello’s supervisors had not forwarded her allegations to law enforcement.

The state disputed the framing of the question.

“Your characterization of these exchanges is not consistent with our understanding of the facts regarding those conversations,” an agency spokeswoman said, adding, “Without question, it is the agency policy that if a staff person hit an individual with a stick, law enforcement should be notified.”

The state was subsequently informed by The Times that a tape existed of the encounter, and shortly thereafter both Ms. Bishop and Mr. Morgese were removed from their positions. Ms. Bishop was reassigned to the central office, and Mr. Morgese was demoted and sent to a regional office.

The X Factor

I usually try to avoid getting too geeky on the blog, so when the IT-security company RSA reported it had been hacked, I didn’t post, but now that it appears that incident was merely setting the stage for an assault on defense contractor, Lockheed. News accounts I’ve seen are not giving a good idea of what’s going on, I’ll chime in. I was the architect of a SecurID infrastructure, so I know of what I speak.

For those of you who don’t know, RSA makes a two-factor authentication product called SecurID. You may have seen these little fobs. They are popular with a lot of companies for things like securing access for mobile users who connect to their company’s e-mail, etc. 

It’s called “two-factor”, because you need two things to gain access.

• something you know (your PIN), and
• something you have, (the fob).

They generate a six or eight-digt number that changes every thirty or sixy seconds (depending on the model purchased). A user enters that number, along with their PIN. 

The numbers are never repeated, and you can’t use the same one twice. If anyone on 24 used them, there would be no show. The numbers, though impossible to guess, aren’t random. They’re generated based on a “seed” file. The SecurID server in the company you log on to, also has a copy of the seed file that the token is programmed with, and it’s generating the same numbers, and then comparing the two.

What hackers stole (though RSA didn’t confirm it) are the seed files associated with an unknown number of tokens. Now, RSA has no knowledge of who is assigned which token. They sell the tokens in bulk to a customer, which then in turn assigns them to a person, creates a user-name, etc. RSA claims, and it’s technically accurate, that theft of the seed files alone, won’t allow someone access to a protected system.

However, if by phishing or key-logging, you capture the username and PIN and token-code when a person logs in, and you are running your own SecurID server with the stolen seed file, you can figure out which fob the user has. You can then generate one-time tokencodes at your leisure, and you now know their username and password. You may also just be able to guess a person’s user-ID and PIN (e.g., jdoe and John Doe’s birthday). The former appears to be what happened at Lockheed.

Obviously, this is serious for any SecurID customer of RSA’s, and a disaster for the company itself (a division of EMC). It’s a security company, and yet was itself hacked. In a not easy-to-find message to their customers on their website, Art Coviello, the head of RSA writes,

“While at this time we are confident that the information extracted does not enable a successful direct attack on any of our RSA SecurID customers, this information could potentially be used to reduce the effectiveness of a current two-factor authentication implementation as part of a broader attack.”

Yeah.  “Nothing to be worried about, sir”, said the porter on the Titanic. “We’ve just run over a whale and should be underway shortly.”

IMHO, if any company continues to use SecurID tokens, they need new tokens, from a new seed file. That’s not going to be fun, millions of tokens are out there. Large companies may have thousand in circulation, but sometimes all your alternatives suck.

Princes Of The City

Gothamist

The acquittal of the two cops charged in the rape of the woman they were ostensibly supposed to be helping, just makes you want to shake your head.

Yes, they’ll soon be gone from the force, and hopefully a civil trial will garnish every penny they’ll ever earn, but the damage has been done.

If you’re a woman, should you have to worry that the police sent to help you, may sexually assault you? No, but it will happen, and that’s not good for anyone.

If I were the prosecutor, I would have asked this during cross-examination of both Kenneth Moreno (the rapist), and his partner and co-conspirator Frank Moreno,

If you had a sister, and she were drunk and cops came to help her, would you be happy if they behaved as you did?

“Happy if they lied about about their whereabouts to repeatedly come back to her apartment to ‘spoon’ with her? Happy to leave her on the bed to wake up in only a bra and in her own vomit?

Happy if your sister testifed in open court that she awoke to being penetrated from behind?

Happy that if your sister confronted the officer said, he told her not to worry, that altthough things got “really crazy”, he wore a condom?

Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense

I wouldn’t have minded seeing Bin Laden’s body, but I don’t need to. It would have been for purely voyeuristic reasons. The President made the right decision. I’m satisfied in seeing the pics of the courier, his brother, and Bin Laden’s son. Motherfuckers who woke up every day, planning evil.

Obama also made the right decision in sending people in, rather than dropping a bomb. Not only would that have possibly not left enough pieces to unequivocally ID him; I didn’t want him dying never knowing what hit him.

All of 9/11 sucked, but one thing that gnawed at me particularly, was when the hijackers of United 175 (the second plane to strike the WTC), approached Manhattan, they would have seen the smoke pouring out of 1 WTC. They knew, that whatever else happened, their plan had already, at least partially, succeeded. Similarly, the passengers on the plane got to see that, and would have had some minutes of unimaginable horror.

So, I am glad Bin Laden got to hear the helicopters land, the gunfire that killed his courier and his brother. Saw his son killed by the SEAL team that charged up the stairs, got to see his wife shot in the leg (and yes, she earned that). The last voices he heard were American voices. The last face he saw was an American pointing a rifle at him.

Johnny Hooker: You're right, Henry. It's not enough. But …[laughs] it’s close!
                                                                                                    — The Sting

Reliable Sources

Rep. Peter King, went on Fox and said that the name of the courier who led the U.S. to Bin Laden was gotten by waterboarding KSM.

KING: Well I don’t know if everyone knows this or not, but you mentioned the fact that we obtained information several years ago, vital information about the courier for Obama [sic]. We obtained that information through waterboarding. So for those who say that waterboarding doesn’t work, who say it should be stopped and never used again, we got vital information which directly led us to bin Laden.

This contradicts all available evidence to the contrary, but this being Fox, the statement went unchallenged.

So I called up Rep. King’s D.C. office. I told the aide who answered the phone, that I had just read what Rep. King had said, and was it accurate.

“Yes.”

I then asked where King had gotten the information.

“Officials.”

“What officials?”, I asked.

“Government officials”, she said.

“What government officials?”

“As part of his job heading the Homeland Security committee, Rep. King works with many officials.”

“Was he disclosing classified information?”

“No.”

“Would you like to talk to the aide who works with Rep. King on these issues?”

“You bet”, I said.

“One moment…<pause>. His name is Adam, but he’s not in the office right now. I’ll transfer you to his voicemail. ”

I got the voicemail of Adam Paulson. I’m waiting for the callback.

The Jewish Mob

No, I’m not talking about people like Bugsy Siegel, Dutch Schultz,or Meyer Lansky. I’m talking about the residents of Kiryas Joel, a Jewish  Orthodox community in Orange County.

I read on Gothamist that it has managed to get found to be the town/city of 10,00 people or more, with the highest proportion of people below the poverty level.

Trust me, they aren’t unhappy about that. It translates into a ton of federal and state aid for people who spend their time figuring more ways to rip off AFDC, Medicaid, food stamps. If you don’t have to work for it, and you can steal it, they will.

Why isn’t anyone in jail – and the whole damn village should be in jail? It’s because they vote as a bloc, so they are politically untouchable. You never heard a peep from A.G. Cuomo, and you won’t now that he’s governor. Ditto Spitzer, Clinton, Pataki, Schumer.

A bunch of ganifs.

Give It (And Us) A Rest!

As the Taxi and Limousine Commission narrows its selection for the next-generation of NYC taxi, Gothamist reports  the city wrote a grand  total of 400 tickets for honking last year. That is odd, as in the over 50,000 complaints to the city’s 311 line gets a day, noise is the #1 complaint.

Wired

 

400 tickets a year works out to a little more than one a day. It’s illegal to use your horn when a car is not in motion. That law is broken in New York, about 400 times per minute, and there are 525,600 minutes in a year.

In my experience, just about the biggest culprits for unnecessary honking are taxis. Not only do they do it the most, they set a bad example for other motorists. So this is an opportunity for TLC Commissioner David Yassky.

I propose a couple of ideas:

1) have the new taxis wired so that the horn also blows inside the car. I suspect that will go a long way towards keeping cabbies leaning on their horns.

2) You could have a system where every time the horn is activated, the car’s computer sees if the car is in motion. Perhaps give the cabs an allowance of 3 honks a week. Every horn use after that, a buck goes back to TLC.

Commissioner Yassky, be bold. Do this, and you will change this city as much as the creation of Central Park did. That’s not too shabby.

Yvonne Fletcher

Constable Fletcher was killed twenty-seven years ago today. The 25-year old officer was killed while on duty by gunshots fired from within the Libyan embassy in London. The killer has never been identified.

Photo: James Gibbon

Municipal Priorities

More photos

As I biked down Henry Street this morning, the bike lane in front of “Our Lady of Lebanon” was blocked with the cars of people attending services there. No news there; every Sunday the church-goers illegally park half in-the lane, half on the sidewalk,for about a block near the church.

But today, the lane was filled all the way from Montague to past State Street . As I went by, a white SUV caught my eye. It was a city car, and on its rear window, said, “Official Use Only”.

I came around to the front of the vehicle, expecting to see some kind of explanation as to what business Parks & Recreation is doing on a Sunday morning. Ah, the Lord’s work.

AI stopped to take a picture, an 84th Precinct patrol car happened by. I knew better than to ask whether they were going to ticket any of the 60 or so cars, but to my surprise, the police car stopped.

“What are you doing?”, said the officer in the driver’s seat of patrol car 2806.

“Is taking photos illegal now ?”, I asked.

(Silence)

“No. But if you scratch the car..” (which I was nowhere near touching).

“Great. If I scratch it, you can come arrest me.”

“I don’t have to arrest you. We’re just talking.”

“Yes, we’re just talking.”

(Silence)

“Be safe”, driver-officer said.,

“You too”, I replied.

He pulled way, driving past a bike lane full of cars, as far as the eye could see.

A homeowner came outside to play street hockey with his kids. He said he had asked a cop about all the cars. He’s a cyclist and saw the danger of bikes having to come into traffic. The officer explained that the church was having a “special service”, and that he wasn’t there every Sunday, so couldn’t speak to it (what every person in the neighborhood knows).

Before he left with his kids, the Henry Street resident also told me that that having the the cars on the sidewalk every Sunday, causes the pavement to crack and it’s the homeowners who are responsible for the cost of repairing it.

R.I.P., Sidney Lumet

Serpico

Dog Day Afternoon

The Pawn Broker

Prince of the City

Night Falls On Manhattan

He wasn’t born in New York, but Sidney Lumet was a quintessential New York director, and New Yorker.

Here are two of my favorite scenes from the first movie he ever directed, 12 Angry Men. This first  is with a young Jack Klugman, and Henry Fonda as jurors at 60 Center Street. I once served as a juror there, too.

 

Below, is the final scene in the film. Two anonymous people share an experience, and then head their separate ways; Juror #9, heading to the Brooklyn Bridge subway station (just out of shot).

When I tutor on Saturday mornings, I come out that same entrance in Foley Square, on my way to Chinatown. Those courthouse steps are in many an episode of Law & Order, and when I pass by, often a group of old folks, practicing t’ai chi.