Big Brother
The Flu Case
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:35 EST
© Unknown
Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko leads the way
On a cold, overcast December afternoon in 2004, I briefly met with Viktor Yuschenko, the Ukrainian President.
He had been treated for poisoning at a hospital in Döbling and when he was released, he held a press conference surrounded by doctors and attended by scores of journalists.
Yuschenko stood there barely saying a word, looking haggard and with a bluish pallor: his face was pock marked and his hair was an unnatural colour; his eyes were full of mistrust and fear even though the private Rudolfinerhaus clinic held few threats.
Five years on, this shattered looking individual,
who was once the head of a pro democracy movement, is about to proclaim himself a dictator.
Ukraine is the first country to come under the control of the WHO and the UN under the International Health Regulations 2005, and
the reality is that Yuschenko and his Prime Minister Julia Timoschenko are just carrying out the orders from WHO and the UN when they suspend civic rights and democracy under the pretext of fighting a pandemic emergency.
The Week
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00 EST
© moodboard/Corbis
Could insurance dodgers potentially face hard time?
The House health reform bill would require all Americans who can afford insurance to buy it, raising a thorny question: What happens to those who opt out, then suddenly get sick, and stick the rest of Americans with their medical bills? President Obama
supports a "penalty...high enough that people don't game the system."
How high exactly? Republicans point out that the House bill specifies "a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years." Could Americans really go to jail for forgoing health insurance? (
Watch Obama's comments about penalizing the uninsured)
The Dems have gone too far this time: "This is the ultimate example of the Democrats' command-and-control style of governing - buy what we tell you or go to jail," says Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), as
quoted by Nolan Finley in
The Detroit News. Obama's health care reform is looking more and more like the product of "a totalitarian regime." - "
Buy insurance or go to the gulag"
Lewis Page
The Register
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:20 EST
US Navy Intelligence is soon to deploy radical new computer monitoring software able to sniff out "deviations" among hundreds of thousands of sailors at sea on the world's oceans.
Rather than some kind of Orwellian porn-enforcement system for use on the USN's own matelots, however, the so-called Predictive Analysis for Naval Deployment Activities (PANDA) technology will instead be used to sift a global plot of worldwide shipping movements to identify vessels acting in a menacing fashion.
"With tens of thousands of ships on the world's oceans every day, it is very difficult to identify behaviour that may indicate a threat," said Rich Dickinson, PANDA honcho at Lockheed Advanced Technology Labs, providing the kit. "We believe PANDA provides a great improvement for [maritime domain awareness] by automatically detecting deviations and alerting operators to them."
The idea is that the Office of Naval Intelligence will deploy PANDA at its National Maritime Intelligence Centre in Maryland, where the new tech will be able to monitor tracking information covering much of the watery globe.
The Mail Online
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:12 EST
© PA
A high-flying city lawyer was fired from her £150,000-a-year job after a 'routine security check' revealed her DNA was held on the national database - over a 'false allegation' made against her.
Lorraine Elliott said that she felt 'gobsmacked and depressed' after bosses spotted her file during 'background clearance' checks as she was just about to start work on a new project.
The mother-of-three today described her reputation as having been 'tainted' after she was dismissed from her post following the discovery of her DNA profile - despite never having been charged with an offence.
Reuters
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:09 EST
© Reuters
A Canadian civil liberties group has accused police of quietly buying a high-tech audio weapon for possible use against protesters at next year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
The so-called long range acoustical device can fire a concentrated blast of sound powerful enough to cause hearing damage and temporary vision disruption, according to the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.
The group, monitoring security for the 2010 Games, said there should have been independent safety testing of the 'sonic gun' before Vancouver Police were allowed to buy it, executive director David Eby said.
The purchase, which was never publicly announced, "reduces the credibility of blandishments from city officials about not interfering with lawful and peaceful demonstrations", the civil liberties group said.
Ekklesia
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:07 EST
A British soldier who refused to return to Afghanistan after developing a principled opposition to the war, has been re-arrested and charged with five more offences following his part in an anti-war demonstration.
While details of the charges remain unclear, the re-arrest of Joe Glenton has raised fears over the abuse of civil liberties, and in particular the freedom to protest.
Glenton participated in an anti-war protest in London on 24 October. It is thought that the charges brought in the light of this include "refusal to obey a lawful order" and speaking to the media without permission.
Chris Williams
The Register
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:00 EST
And where do you think you're going?
Hotmail users are now unable to log out of their account if the browser they are using does not accept third party cookies.
The move by Microsoft raises security concerns, particularly as PCs on corporate networks and in cybercafes and libraries are often set to reject cookies.
The error screen* that greets users who try to log out tells them they must re-enable third party cookies or close every browser window.
© Microsoft
Third party cookies are most commonly used by advertising networks to track surfers across the web.
Shelly Hanson
The Intelligencer
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:38 EST
Student refused; was held down for vaccination
Wheeling- It took the strength of two sheriff's deputies to keep a middle schooler still enough to receive a shot of the swine flu, or H1N1, vaccine at a recent clinic.
During a regular Wheeling-Ohio County Health Board meeting Tuesday, health department Administrator Howard Gamble told board members about the student's attempt to flee Wheeling Middle School during a vaccination clinic held there last Friday.
He noted the boy's mother could not bear to watch the scene and left the gymnasium. Out of apparent fear of receiving the injection, the student ran out of the building. The school's resource officer, Ohio County Sheriff's Deputy John Haglock, coaxed the boy back inside. Once at the shot station, however, Haglock apparently needed some help keeping the boy still, and another deputy assisted.
"He tried to run. I looked over and saw two sheriff's deputies holding a kid down," Gamble said. "Mom took off, she couldn't take it. You had one nurse with the needle, two deputies holding him, one nurse is grabbing hands - because that's what they want to do, to go after the needle. And that's the last thing you want."
Allen McDuffee
Huffington Post
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:42 EST
If you want to draw attention to a problem, try hiding it. That's the strategy of several military bases when it comes to the H1N1 vaccine.
Shortly after the Pentagon announced that all Armed Services personnel would soon be facing a
mandatory H1N1 vaccination program, I started receiving email from soldiers, airmen, marines and sailors because of a previous
story I had written on the anthrax vaccine. Mandatory vaccine programs are a sensitive subject in the military, so it's not a huge surprise that swift and visceral reactions to the program gained speed.
With a vaccine that was so new and little known about it, like many Americans, troops were heading to the web to find answers to their very legitimate questions -- not only for themselves, but for their families who have the option of receiving the vaccine on base. What they found instead is that several websites and blogs with key information asking critical questions had been blocked from their viewing.
George Hunter & Doug Guthrie
Detroit News
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:13 EST
Money raised by Metro Detroit, Michigan agencies increases 50% in five years
Local law enforcement agencies are raising millions of dollars by seizing private property suspected in crimes, but often without charges being filed -- and sometimes even when authorities admit no offense was committed.
The money raised by confiscating goods in Metro Detroit soared more than 50 percent to at least $20.62 million from 2003 to 2007, according to a Detroit News analysis of records from 58 law enforcement agencies. In some communities, amounts raised went from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands -- and, in one case, into the millions.
"It's like legalized stealing," said Jacque Sutton, a 21-year-old college student from Mount Clemens whose 1989 Mustang was seized by Detroit police raiding a party. Charges against him and more than 100 others were dropped, but he still paid more than $1,000 to get the car back.
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