Cybersecurity, Chrysler in Bankruptcy and Union Finances
A congressional investigation of security breaches at the Pentagon targets popular file sharing programs like LimeWire.
After extensive bailout efforts, Chrysler moves to file for bankruptcy.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis revokes rules requiring transparency in union finances.
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1. TECHNOLOGY
A congressional investigation of security breaches at the Pentagon targets popular file sharing programs like LimeWire.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Technology Policy Analyst Cord Blomquist on who was really at fault:
“The Pentagon’s leak of Marine One plans was entirely preventable had the proper limitations been placed on individual users machines—in this case a private contractor—something a high-school student working as an IT admin could easily do. Rather than looking at LimeWire as a place to lay blame, Congress should be asking for a full-scale investigation into the DoD and other agency IT managers, as they’re the dolts who allowed LimeWire to be installed on machines laden with sensitive data. This sort of policing and investigation into government incompetence is what the Oversight and Government Reform Committee is supposed to do.”
2. BUSINESS
After extensive bailout efforts, Chrysler moves to file for bankruptcy.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs John Berlau on why the company should have filed for bankruptcy months ago:
“The prospect of an ever-increasing supply of tax dollars is leading parties with auto industry contracts – unions, bondholders, dealers and others – to play a game of chicken. No one wants to renegotiate a contract when they think the government will come in with more money to cover the losses. And the Obama administration, as with AIG, does not have the power of a bankruptcy court to discharge debt.”
3. LABOR
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis revokes rules requiring transparency in union finances.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst F. Vincent Vernuccio on the impact of Solis’ decision:
“Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis [has] betrayed rank and file union members by repealing vital reporting regulations that allowed members to see how union bosses were spending their hard-earned dues money. Solis’s repeal weakens one of the chief reporting tools used by the website to collect union financial data, the Form LM-2. The form requires labor organizations whose annual receipts are greater than $250,000 to identify and report all expense above $5,000. This tool allowed the DOL’s Office of Labor and Management Standards to obtain $91.5 million dollars in restitution of dues and resulted in over 900 convictions from 2001 to 2008.”
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