Loss of Privacy

Save yourself a few dollars on a rental or purchase and go read the crap comic version of Iron Man by S. Peter Davis.  It’s worth it and you don’t have to waste your money seeing another average movie.

You can also read his version of The Incredible Hulk, which, again, is far better than the movie.  It only costs a few minutes of your time and you’ll still have cash in your pocket when you’re done.

It was reported last week that London’s Oyster Card was hacked, with details to be published in October. Since then, the system has crashed, again, creating speculation that the hack is already out in the wild and being used.

“There is currently a technical problem with Oyster readers at London Underground stations which is affecting Oyster pay as you go cards only,” explains the TfL website. To minimise confusion, gates at all underground stations have been opened.

“We believe that this problem, like the recent issue, resulted from incorrect data tables being sent out by our contractor, Transys,” claims Maskell.

While the court case had been ongoing, the details of the hack had been released online at Wikileaks. If one had been quick enough, they could have saved the details and worked out further flaws in the Oyster Card.

Apparently, Wikileaks posted the wrong paper. The paper that had been released was an older document, however you can read a discussion about it on their site. arXiv.org has the details on the Mifare attack.

British authorities have confirmed that, starting next year, anyone flying through their airports will be fingerprinted, supposedly to increase security.  We already know that this is more security theater.  It won’t make anyone safer, yet, despite the objections of its citizens, it has decided to continue with this plan, no matter the controversy.

It is concerned that so-called ‘common departure lounges’ could allow an incoming international passenger – possibly a terrorist or a criminal – to switch tickets with an accomplice booked on a domestic flight.

Among the airports that have departure lounges accessible to domestic and international passengers are Heathrow’s Terminal One and Five, Gatwick and Manchester.

Then, how about you don’t have common departure lounges?  Still think Heathrow’s new terminal 5 was a good idea?  This was planned from the start.  This plan also assumes that terrorists and criminals are too stupid to think of other plans.  This plan also assumes that the British authorities know who all the terrorists are, which they done, which means this plan is complete garbage.

BAA, which operates seven UK airports, is keen to see the arrangement extended as it allows all passengers access to airside shopping malls, including its own chain of World Duty Free stores.

So, the big money behind the BAA is pushing this forward, which is why normal citizens are being ignored.

Currently, passengers at airports that have common terminals are photographed as they pass through security. Their identities are rechecked at departure gates.

Yes, because if you are a terrorist or criminal, you haven’t planned for this contingency.  The problems that Britain faces aren’t these people escaping.  If the terrorist blows up stuff, they usually blow themselves up.  Often, British citizens themselves are the ones committing the offense.  We’ve seen that  law enforcement takes so long to discover a suspect that, even if they discovered who committed the crime, that person would be long gone by the time alerts were issued.

What will now happen is, terrorists will still switch boarding passes.  In the past, a look at a photo would let you know that they are not the same person.  Now, all the terrorists need to do is pop into a bathroom, apply some latex, and, voila, you have a new set of fingerprints that match.  Since we’re not looking at photos anymore, and the fingerprints match, it must be the same person!

Creating mixed terminals is a security nightmare that never should have been allowed to be made.  Then again, we have to make money for the BAA, so we aren’t too concerned about real security, just profits.

But the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has questioned why the measures are necessary, arguing that photographing passengers is effective and less intrusive.

The Deputy Information Commissioner has previously said that any passengers asked to give their fingerprints at airports should do so only ‘under protest’.

BAA, whose airports include Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, has argued that scanners are needed so that all passengers can shop in its huge terminal shopping malls.

So, there we go.  BAA is in it for the cash.  They don’t care about anything else, except finding ways to make more money, regardless of how much they step on you.  You are being fingerprinted so that the BAA can maximize their profits.

If you think that you are safe in America, that too is being changed.

From next year, the US authorities also intend to fingerprint-scan people departing the country.

This is how everyone is getting around the privacy issues.  You can’t fingerprint citizens in the USA, so the UK and Japan starts fingerprinting foreigners.  Japan has already stated that they will hand over the databases to any country that asks.  This same procedure will be repeated for any country that wishes to get around those pesky little privacy laws.

If you’re rich, you can get around this by fractional jet ownership, such as NetJets.  For the rest of us, it’s cattle class and biometrics.

The easiest way to solve this problem would be to separate international and domestic terminals, however, this isn’t about actually preventing terrorism.  It’s about control.  They want to control you and most people are happy to give up their private information for perceived security.  If the BAA makes a few extra bucks, well that’s completely incidental.

It doesn’t matter if you think you have nothing to hide.  People have already been arrested and harassed already for doing nothing wrong.  This will only make it easier.  It also makes the United Kingdom a country I will never return to, a list that seems to be growing by the day.

The fact remains that there have only been a small handful of attacks at airports.  This is not something that is wanted, nor needed.

A 16-year old boy was tasered by the police, up to 19 times, after he had fallen and was on the ground with a broken back and a broken heel.

His aunt says he is undergoing major surgery for a broken back and broken heel. While he was lying on the ground, she wonders why Ozark police used an electric stun gun on him up to 19 times.

“I’m not an officer, but i don’t see the reason for ‘Tasering’ somebody laying there with a broken back. I don’t consider that a threat,”

His dad says the use of the stun gun delayed what would have been immediate surgery by two days.

“The ‘Tasering’ increased his white blood cell count and caused him to have a temperature so they could not go into the operation.”

Tasering someone with a broken back is also not a good idea.  He already a spinal injury.  Now the police want to do more harm by making him thrash about while being tasered.

“He refused to comply with the officers and so the officers had to deploy their Tasers in order to subdue him. He is making incoherent statements; he’s also making statements such as, ‘Shoot cops, kill cops,’ things like that. So there was cause for concern to the officers,” said Ozark Police Capt. Thomas Rousset.

According to this statement, he was only making incoherent statements.  Why is it necessary to taser him because he’s talking crap?  Or was he tasered because he had a broken back and refused to comply with an order to stand up?  We just don’t know.  We do know, that having a broken back means that he was no threat to the police.  So, tell me again why it was necessary to taser him 19 times?

Tasers are being used so often today, that they have become a replacement for billy clubs.  If an officer hit someone with a billy club 19 times, there would probably a bigger outrage.  Instead, the public assumes that its use is justified and more humane than a billy club.

Tasers were originally used as a tool to incapacitate violent suspects.  It was to be used only in a case where deadly force was justified.  Unfortunately, the police now use them every day for anyone who doesn’t comply with the police, for whatever reason.

DailyKos is reporting that voter rolls are being purged, while other states are refusing to accept new registrations.  They also claim that, overwhelmingly, it is blacks who are being eliminated from the voting process.

While voter purges are common, people move and rolls have to be updated, this, apparently is not your typical purge.

In swing-state Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State conducted the biggest purge of voters in history, dumping a fifth of all registrations.  Guess their color.

In swing-state Florida, the state is refusing to accept about 85,000 new registrations from voter drives – overwhelming Black voters.

In swing state New Mexico, HALF of the Democrats of Mora, a dirt poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic county, found their registrations disappeared this year, courtesy of a Republican voting contractor.

In swing states Ohio and Nevada, new federal law is knocking out tens of thousands of voters who lost their homes to foreclosure.

Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are trying to raise money to put ads on the major networks to inform the general public about what is happening.

If you think this sort of thing can’t happen, then you’ve forgotten what happened in 2004.