Archive for August, 2007
Familygreenberg.com Health Check – July Edition
Monday, August 6th, 2007A week late, but better late than never:
| Metric | June | July | % Change |
| Visits | 945 | 1,041 | +10.16% |
| Pageviews | 1,416 | 1,574 | +11.16% |
| Pages/Visit | 1.50 | 1.51 | +0.91% |
| Avg Time on Site | 4:13 | 4:40 | +10.38% |
| Bounce Rate | 78.94% | 81.17 | +2.83% |
| % New Visitors | 84.87% | 86.55% | +1.98% |
Well, that’s much better. Last month, all the major statistics were down. This month, they’ve rebounded a bit (although not to May levels). The increase of roughly 100 pageviews is explained by topical posts (Harry Potter and the Apple iPhone), as well as a marked increase in hits to my archive files and my family’s personal pages. The former doesn’t seem sustainable, while the latter does, so we’ll have to see how August treats me.
Also, a note to those who are curious abuot such things: Google Analytics has changed the way it calculates Average Time on Site. A big ol’ hat tip goes to Yohay, who found out that they now exclude bounce visits from both the numerator (total time on site) and the demoninator (total number of visits). So, while in June, I reported 53 seconds (up from 46 in May), I’m now showing 4:40 in July (up from 4:13 in May). Still positive news, but not as positive as it might appear at first.
Altogether, a pretty good month…
Categories: Blogging about Blogs | Comments Off on Familygreenberg.com Health Check – July Edition
Objections to Wiretapping Mysteriously Vanish
Monday, August 6th, 2007In December, 2005, there was much ado made about the National Security Agency’s secret program to wiretap phone calls to/from known terrorist phone numbers (e.g., cell phones captured in the war zone) and phones in the United States. Critics interpreted the program as an opportunity for the NSA to listen in on calls made by innocent American citizens, without the need for a search warrant or even a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant. There was much discussion on the legality of this program, particularly during the run-up to the 2006 congressional midterm elections.
Fast forward to August 3, 2007, the summer in an off-election year, when far fewer people are watching or listening to what Congress has to say. On that day, the Senate passed a bill that amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make everything the original NSA program did legal, plus more (16 Democrats voted for the bill). Here’s what the New York Times had to say:
Congressional aides and others familiar with the details of the law said that its impact went far beyond the small fixes that administration officials had said were needed to gather information about foreign terrorists. They said seemingly subtle changes in legislative language would sharply alter the legal limits on the government’s ability to monitor millions of phone calls and e-mail messages going in and out of the United States.
They also said that the new law for the first time provided a legal framework for much of the surveillance without warrants that was being conducted in secret by the National Security Agency and outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that is supposed to regulate the way the government can listen to the private communications of American citizens.
“This more or less legalizes the N.S.A. program,” said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington, who has studied the new legislation.
But wait, it gets better. The article goes on to lay out this chain of events:
1) January – under pressure from the major telecommunication companies and members of Congress, the White House places the NSA program under the auspices of the FISA court.
2) The change suddenly swamps the FISA court with an enormous volume of search warrant applications, leading the administration to seek the new legislation.
3) The legislation is drafted and passed just before Congress adjourns for it’s summer holiday.
4) The law contains language that allows the government to force telecommunication companies to comply with spying operations. Telecom companies are now threatening to challenge the law in court.
So, it seems, what started as moral outrage just before the elections turned into a logistical nightmare, which led to the passage of legislation directly opposed to the original moral outrage, and is now headed for a court challenge. Round and round we go.
No wonder no one trusts the federal government.
Categories: Political Rantings | Comments Off on Objections to Wiretapping Mysteriously Vanish
This is CNN…
Monday, August 6th, 2007So check it out: CNN’s story on Danica McKellar’s book links back to my post on the subject.
It’s in the “From the Blogs” section (you have to expand it to see). So far, eight people have clicked through.
Next thing you know, I’ll be interrupting posts on important topics to talk about what Paris Hilton had for breakfast this morning…
Categories: Blogging about Blogs | Comments Off on This is CNN…