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President Obama: Don't Lecture China on Censorship

Dave Lindorff
The Public Record
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:28 EST

© White House photographer Pete Souza
In an unprecedented town hall in Shanghai, the President takes questions on the most pivotal issues in U.S.-China relations directly from students and via the internet.

President Obama, in his visit to China, held a "town meeting" with Chinese students in which he praised openness and lectured them on the value of freedom of information, saying that he is a "supporter of non-censorship" and that open access to information was a "source of strength."

And yet America is hardly free of censorship. Heck, the president himself has gone to court to prevent the release of photographs of US troops torturing captives in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo. Talk about censorship! But it goes way beyond just such crude, totalitarian style control over information.

Let's just take the issue of depleted uranium weapons, over 1000 tons of which have been expended in the US invasion of Iraq, most of it in populated areas where millions remain exposed to the radioactive dust of the burned material. There is almost no reporting on this topic in the US media. The Pentagon has for years lied about and hidden the effects of this deadly substance, used in shells, bombs and bullets because of its unique ability to penetrate hard steel armor and concrete bunker walls.

Don Dahler
New York Times
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:22 EST

© CBS
Residents who live at 1510 Lexington Avenue, New York City's first non-smoking apartment building, aren't even allowed to light up on the sidewalks outside the development.

Residents At 1510 Lexington Avenue Will Be Unable To Smoke Inside -- Or Even Directly Outside -- New Development

Smoking has been banned in restaurants, bars, taxis, office buildings, but what if you were told you couldn't even smoke your own home? That's just the case in Manhattan where "No Smoking" signs are going up in numerous apartment buildings.

For the 1 million New York City residents who smoke, doing so in their own home has been an unwritten privilege. The problem with smoking in an apartment, however, is you can't keep that smoke from going into other parts of the building. In fact, a recent study by the New York City Department of Health says 57 percent of non-smokers have had substantial exposure to cigarette smoke.

So some apartment buildings are now banning smoking for new tenants. Existing tenants who smoke will be allowed to continue to puff away.

That's not the case with the new East Harlem building at 1510 Lexington Avenue, which will be the city's first completely non-smoking residence, where tenants won't even be allowed to walk outside and light up in the immediate perimeter of the building. Even the construction workers can't light up.

The Daily Telegraph
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:17 EST

A council is to equip all its on-street parking wardens with head-mounted video cameras, making it the first in the country to do so.

Wardens in Bolton will be fitted with the gadget - the size of an AA battery - to deter assaults and provide a better service, the town council said.

Each camera is fastened to the side of the officer's cap and it records images continuously over the shift. These images are later downloaded on to a computer.

Council bosses said that in the past three years there had been 53 ''code red'' incidents involving wardens, including physical attacks, being driven at and being spat upon.

The head-cam technology was pioneered by the council's parking enforcement contractor, NSL, which has introduced the services for a small number of local authorities.

Tom Whitehead
The Daily Telegraph
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:13 EST

The expansion of the ID cards and biometric passports programme is costing the taxpayer almost a quarter of a million pounds every day to develop.

The roll out of the controversial identity cards has already cost the public millions of pounds and the bill is growing, figures show.

The daily cost to the taxpayer for the expansion of the biometric documents is now six times the size it was just three years ago.

Last month it emerged some 28 million people would have to sign up for an ID card in order to cover the cost of the scheme.

The Identity and Passport Service spent a £42 million on developing both the ID cards and biometric passport programmes in the six months since March this year.

That was equivalent of £229,508 every day - the highest amount of spending on the joint scheme so far.

In 2008/09, a total of £81.5 million was spent - the equivalent of £223,288 a day.

Sarah Harris
The Times Online
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:56 EST

Teachers will be given new powers in a fresh crackdown on bad behaviour

Teachers have gained new powers to search pupils for drugs, alcohol and stolen goods, it has been revealed.

They will gain the legal right to frisk pupils and search school bags without consent in a fresh crackdown on bad behaviour.

The move extends the existing right of teachers to look for weapons and is enshrined in new legislation.

It is designed to stamp out a culture of drug-taking and underage drinking that is developing in schools.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls said the powers would ensure all pupils knew that a 'teacher's authority in the classroom is unquestionable'.

But teaching leaders warned that staff could face false allegations of assault from pupils as a result. It will also increase the responsibilities of teachers.

Schools can already look for weapons by removing children's jackets and jumpers and 'patting down' their clothing. They can also screen them using the sort of metal detectors seen at airports.

But while they can ask pupils suspected of possessing drugs to turn out their pockets and open their bags, only police can frisk for drugs or other items.

Interpol
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:01 EST

INTERPOL today issued its first ever passports which will enable Heads of National Central Bureaus (NCBs) and staff to travel internationally without requiring a visa when assisting in transnational investigations or urgent deployments to incidents.

Two countries, Pakistan and Ukraine, have already agreed to waive visa entry requirements for INTERPOL passport bearers, recognizing that those individuals will be travelling on behalf of the organization in the furtherance of international police co-operation.

Without the delay of visa processing procedures, any INTERPOL team can be immediately deployed to scenes of terrorist events, major crimes or natural disasters and officials from NCBs can easily cross borders to assist in fugitive extraditions.

UK: Woman fined for feeding the ducks

BBC News
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:27 EST

A mother out feeding the ducks with her young son was given an on-the-spot fine by a park warden.

Vanessa Kelly was in Smethwick Hall Park, in Smethwick, West Midlands, when she was approached by the warden and given a £75 fine for littering.

The warden then told Ms Kelly her son could continue to feed the ducks as he was too young to be fined.

Sandwell Council defended the fine, saying Ms Kelly was not in a designated feeding area.

Jacqui Cheng
Arts Technica
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:44 EST

Google's Street View has pushed Switzerland's privacy commissioner over the edge. His organization plans to take Google to court over what it considers to be egregious privacy violations on behalf of Swiss citizens after months of trying to negotiate with the company.

Loved by many, Google's Street View feature remains controversial among users and consumer groups who are concerned about privacy. The latest uproar comes from Switzerland's Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), which claims Google hasn't taken sufficient measures to protect citizens' privacy and is now threatening to take the company to federal court.

The Swiss Privacy Commissioner, Hanspeter Thür, has been on Google's back over Street View since August of this year (when the feature began to be implemented there). At that time, he demanded that Google withdraw Street View in Switzerland, and said that it would only be allowed if certain "negotiated conditions" were met. Meanwhile, Thür's office offered instructions for citizens on how to get their faces blurred if they show up in a snapshot.

Real ID program in deep trouble

Jaikumar Vijayan
Computer World
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:52 EST

A decision by lawmakers to slash funding for the unpopular Real ID national driver's license program has put an already struggling initiative on life support.

The U.S. Senate recently approved a $43 billion budget for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the federal government's 2010 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. The appropriation called for substantial increases in DHS spending in several key technology areas but slashed Real ID funding by 40%, from $100 million to $60 million.

The budget cut suggests that Real ID is going nowhere, said Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. But Congress' hesitation to kill Real ID entirely highlights the touchy political nature of the program, he said.

"There isn't any love for Real ID on Capitol Hill," Harper said, but many lawmakers are reluctant to openly reject it for fear of being seen as too soft on national security.

Jared Yee
Tech Central
Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:46 EST

Collecting biometric information could put civil liberties and privacy at risk, despite considerable benefits, says the Irish Council for Bioethics (ICB)

In its report, "Biometrics: Enhancing Security or Invading Privacy?", the ICB explores privacy concerns stemming from the growing use of biometric technologies to counter identity theft.

The technologies reviewed in the report include the familiar ones of fingerprint, palmprint, facial, vein pattern and voice recognition, plus newer technologies like gait (style of walking), keystroke dynamics and DNA. These are a "a more robust confirmation of a person's identity" than PIN numbers and ID cards.

However, these also put privacy at risk because electronic data can be collected, compiled and connected with rapidly increasing ease. The ICB stated that individual civil liberties could be implicated, especially if personal information enters the public sphere. Individuals could be categorised with biologically-derived labels such as 'disabled', 'criminal', 'suspect' or 'immigrant', potentially leading to discrimination.

"The ubiquity of biometrics begs the question whether any of us can lead truly private lives anymore," said Dr Siobhán O'Sullivan.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

"The free press is the mother of all our liberties and of our progress under liberty" Adlai E. Stevenson

"There is no more important struggle for American democracy than ensuring a diverse, independent and free media. Free Press is at the heart of that struggle." Bill Moyers

"This is, in theory, still a free country, but our politically correct, censorious times are such that many of us tremble to give vent to perfectly acceptable views for fear of condemnation. Freedom of speech is thereby imperiled, big questions go undebated, and great lies become accepted, unequivocally as great truths." Simon Heffer in The Daily Mail, 7 June 2000

"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure." Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823

"A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press, must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the right of the people to know.": Murray I. Gurfein

One of the shrewdest ways for human predators to conquer their stronger victims is to steadily convince them with propaganda that they're still free. N.A. Scott