Big Brother
Philip Giraldi
Antiwar.com
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:07 EST
© BEE FREE - PGrandicelli
It is ironic that President Barack Obama would travel to China and speak against government control over the internet. If the American Department of Homeland Security has its way new cybersecurity laws will enable Obama's administration to take control of the internet in the event of a national crisis. How that national crisis might be defined would be up to the White House but there have been some precedents that suggest that the response would hardly be respectful of the Bill of Rights.
Many countries already monitor and censor the internet on a regular basis, forbidding access to numerous sites that they consider to be subversive. During recent unrest, the governments of both Iran and China effectively shut down the internet by taking control of or blocking servers. Combined with switching off of cell phone transmitters, the steps proved effective in isolating dissidents. Could it happen here? Undoubtedly.
Once the laws are in place a terrorist incident or something that could be plausibly described in those terms would be all that is needed to have government officials issue the order to bring the internet to a halt.
Ernesto
Torrent Freak
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:04 EST
Tomorrow morning Lord Mandelson will present the Digital Economy Bill to the public, which among other things is aimed at reducing illicit file-sharing. According to parts of the bill that leaked today, the legislation could lead to jail terms for file-sharers and unprecedented power for the entertainment industries.
Over the past months the UK government has tried to tackle the issue of online piracy. This has resulted in a proposal from Lord Mandelson, who plans to disconnect alleged file sharers without any judicial process.
Tomorrow the exact text of the bill is expected to be made public, but according to early reports, the legislation will open all doors for a digital police state where alleged pirates will be crucified by private companies.
Judging from some of the plans that leaked earlier today, the endless lobbying efforts of the entertainment industry by anti-piracy outfits including IFPI and the BPI have definitely paid off.
Nathan Barker
Gouverneur Times
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:39 EST
© Gouverneur Times
Gouverneur, New York - The computerized voting machines used by many voters in the 23rd district had a computer virus - tainting the results, not just from those machines known to have been infected, but casting doubt on the accuracy of counts retrieved from any of the machines.
Cathleen Rogers, the Democratic Elections Commissioner in Hamilton County stated that they discovered a problem with their voting machines the week prior to the election and that the "virus" was fixed by a Technical Support representative from Dominion, the manufacturer. The Dominion/Sequoia Voting Systems representative "reprogrammed" their machines in time for them to use in the Nov. 3rd Special Election. None of the machines (from the same manufacturer) used in the other counties within the 23rd district were looked at nor were they recertified after the "reprogramming" that occurred in Hamilton County.
Tom Young
Computing.co.uk
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:20 EST
Complications surround strategy to monitor electronic communications, says Tom Young
There have been several conflicting reports on the government's interception modernisation programme this week, ranging from "UK web snooping plans: Full steam ahead" to "Legislation to access texts and emails on hold".
The confusion over the progress of plans to tighten law enforcement agencies' power to monitor communications has arisen for two reasons.
First, although the government has said it wants to press ahead with the plans, it will not introduce them before the next election. And second, the government is still not sure what it actually wants to do.
Ann Widdecombe
The Daily Express
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:18 EST
On Monday this paper reported a proposal by Government for inspectors to check homes for adequate child safety including smoke alarms, window locks and stair gates.
In addition to state snoopers, GPs and midwives are encour- aged to report lack of safety which they may have observed when visiting.
Recently a woman was reported to social services because she had wallpaper hanging off her walls. She says she was decorating but even if she were not what possible business is the dilapidation of her wallpa- per to anybody else?
If such a mother has not much money is she not better spending what little she can muster on food, clothes, warmth and toys for a child than on replacing wallpaper? How do these snoopers suppose parents manage who are both renovating old properties and raising young children?
Steve Doughty
The Mail Online
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:05 EST
© Mail Online
Health department inquisition
Parents of five-year-olds starting school have been sent an 83-point questionnaire that probes personal details of their lives.
It asks whether their children tell lies or bully others, and if they steal at home or from shops.
Parents are questioned over whether they have friends, if they can speak freely with others in their family and how well they did at school themselves.
The form also delves into family routines, questioning whether they eat takeaways and if the children drink water with their meals.
Michael Kleen
Strike The Root
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:02 EST
Part I
If the United States came under the control of a totalitarian regime, would we recognize it? This question is of utmost importance today, when many of us harbor fears that some time in the near future ideas such as freedom, liberty, and privacy will be alien to our society. But as we witness the regular passage of legislation designed to restrict and regulate, and the tendency of the Federal government to increase rather than decrease its power (with a handful of exceptions), we are struck by the uninterrupted routine of life in the USA . As the central government brings more and more of private society under its control, we continue to watch cable TV, shop at supermarkets overflowing with products, and eat at our favorite restaurants. Could it be that we have already passed that dreaded threshold and missed it?
The trouble with diagnosing our condition is that most people are unaware of what totalitarianism actually is. Among even the most politically astute, there is little mental room for the possibility that a state in the process of becoming totalitarian might lack the most brutal and outward signs of oppressive regimes portrayed in popular culture. Because of our rather simplistic frame of reference - picture black and white images of National Socialist Germany or the Soviet Union - we recognize a country as either being in the advanced stages of totalitarianism or not at all. But just because a state maintains the structures and language of democracy and continues to have elections, for instance, that does not preclude it from being totalitarian.
Kevin Whitelaw
npr.org
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:00 EST
The National Security Agency has been working with Microsoft Corp. to help improve security measures for its new Windows 7 operating system, a senior NSA official said on Tuesday.
The confirmation of the NSA's role, which began during the development of the software, is a sign of the agency's deepening involvement with the private sector when it comes to building defenses against cyberattacks.
"Working in partnership with Microsoft and (the Department of Defense), NSA leveraged our unique expertise and operational knowledge of system threats and vulnerabilities to enhance Microsoft's operating system security guide without constraining the user's ability to perform their everyday tasks," Richard Schaeffer, the NSA's Information Assurance Director, told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a statement prepared for
a hearing held this morning in Washington. "All this was done in coordination with the product release, not months or years later in the product cycle."
Laurence M. Vance
Lew Rockwell
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:48 EST
In George Orwell's novel
Nineteen Eighty-Four the government had three slogans emblazoned on The Ministry of Truth building: war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. True, the dystopian society depicted by Orwell existed only in his mind. Yet, the doublespeak that existed in that made-up society has increasingly been adopted by governments - our government.
It is a tragic thing that the U.S. government employs doublespeak to deceive the American people; it is even more tragic that most Americans accept government doublespeak as the gospel truth.
There is no greater instance of government doublespeak than when it comes to the military. Here are some examples:
Business Line
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:08 EST
Along with a bouquet of flowers, the global CEO of Yahoo! Inc, Carol Bartz, offered the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, whom she met on Wednesday morning, help with the Unique Identification (UID) programme being put in place in the country when she met him on Wednesday morning.
"The UID project involves a huge database. We, at Yahoo, have expertise in handling such huge amount of data. We met the Prime Minister today and discussed, among other things, how Yahoo can help the Government in the project," Bartz said here at an editorial round table with the media.
However, Yahoo also said that it was not looking at the UID project for any commercial interest but to pay back to the nation where it has had a presence for so many years.
Comment: As Wikileaks
points out in their announcement of the
leaked plans, "the project will likely become a model for many countries."
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