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Author: Mandy Nagy

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Mandy Nagy

Mandy Nagy (aka "Liberty Chick") was an investigative writer and researcher. She primarily covered the institutional left, protest movements, hacking and cybercrime, and technology. After suffering a serious stroke in September 2014, Mandy no longer was able to work at Legal Insurrection, but she's always on our minds and in our hearts. For more information, see here.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 11, 2013 14 Comments

PolitiFact announced yesterday afternoon that it will soon launch PunditFact, a new site aimed at fact-checking pundits and media figures. PolitiFact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking website of the Tampa Bay Times, will soon launch PunditFact, a site dedicated to checking claims by pundits, columnists, bloggers and the...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 06, 2013 39 Comments
The other day, I wrote that long wait times are not the only issue with the Obamacare website, highlighting my skepticism of the administration’s claims that high volume was to blame for all the glitches in the system. It turns out that Reuters news agency spoke with five technology experts who expressed similar skepticism and question the architecture of the Obamacare website.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversaw development of the [Obamacare] site, declined to make any of its IT experts available for interviews. CGI Group Inc, the Canadian contractor that built HealthCare.gov, is "declining to comment at this time," said spokeswoman Linda Odorisio. Five outside technology experts interviewed by Reuters, however, say they believe flaws in system architecture, not traffic alone, contributed to the problems. For instance, when a user tries to create an account on HealthCare.gov, which serves insurance exchanges in 36 states, it prompts the computer to load an unusually large amount of files and software, overwhelming the browser, experts said. If they are right, then just bringing more servers online, as officials say they are doing, will not fix the site.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 05, 2013 15 Comments

US Special Forces are said to have been involved today in a mission in Somalia that targeted an Al Shabaab leader.  The raid comes nearly two weeks after the attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi. From the New York Times: A Navy SEAL team targeted a...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 05, 2013 20 Comments

"Capitalism works for me. In my life this is: true or false." That's the choice being posed to passersby in Times Square in New York City over the next few days as part of an art installation. [caption id="attachment_67027" align="alignnone" width="535"] Photo Credit: Jake Schlichting/Times Square Arts[/caption] The...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 04, 2013 33 Comments

Since its initial rollout on Tuesday, the Healthcare.gov system has been plagued by technical glitches and long wait times. Some have tried to offer potential reasons, explaining that the system must communicate with many other systems and that's further complicated by the fact that the...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 04, 2013 13 Comments

You may recall that in August, the owner of secure email provider Lavabit abruptly shut down the service, leaving little indication as to why, other than a cryptic message posted at the company’s website. Based upon limited statements made by Lavabit’s owner Ladar Levison since he...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 01, 2013 19 Comments

Update - The barricade was all a set up for photo op -- Obama admin knew Vets were coming...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on September 30, 2013 2 Comments
The Syrian Electronic Army breached the Twitter account of GlobalPost on Monday and claims to have hacked the outlet's website, in retaliation for an article the outlet published about the group earlier this month. Posting from GlobalPost's Twitter account, the pro-Assad hacking group tweeted, "Think twice before you publish untrusted informations[sic] about Syrian Electronic Army.  This time we hacked your website and your Twitter account, the next time you will start searching for new job :)" (Note: the unauthorized tweets related to today's incident have since been deleted from the GlobalPost Twitter account. Screen capture below). SEA-globalpost The group also tweeted an image of GlobalPost's website administration panel from its own Twitter account. Kyle Kim, Deputy Social Media and News Desk Editor for GlobalPost, confirmed the hack. https://twitter.com/kyleykim/status/384719304542785536 https://twitter.com/kyleykim/status/384720368830644224 Kim also cited a GlobalPost article as the reason why the outlet was targeted by the SEA.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on September 29, 2013 23 Comments

Two 19-year old men have been charged with robbery, weapons and conspiracy offenses after a San Francisco television reporter was robbed of his equipment Friday.  A security guard accompanying the reporter fired shots upon the men during the confrontation. From Reuters: Two teenagers have been arrested after...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on September 29, 2013 32 Comments

Amidst a campaign to fight Saudi Arabia's de facto rule that bans women from driving, a Saudi cleric said that women who drive risk negative physiological impacts that could damage their ovaries. From Reuters: A conservative Saudi Arabian cleric has said women who drive risk damaging their...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on September 29, 2013 24 Comments

So, a lot of folks are talking about last night's season premiere of Saturday Night Live and its skit on Obama's sell of Obamacare.  Many are commenting that it mocks Obamacare.  I'm not sure I really saw it entirely the same way. Check it out for yourself: To...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on September 27, 2013 45 Comments

Police said Thursday that six people have been arrested following the wild party last month at the vacant upstate New York home of ex-NFL player Brian Holloway - a party held without his consent.  The six are facing charges that range from criminal trespass and...

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