Archive
Mandatory ‘Big Brother’ Black Boxes In All New Cars From 2015
Thursday, 19 April 2012 08:51
‘A bill already passed by the Senate and set to be rubber stamped by the House would make it mandatory for all new cars in the United States to be fitted with black box data recorders from 2015 onwards.
Section 31406 of Senate Bill 1813 (known as MAP-21), calls for “Mandatory Event Data Recorders” to be installed in all new automobiles and legislates for civil penalties to be imposed against individuals for failing to do so.’
Read more: Mandatory ‘Big Brother’ Black Boxes In All New Cars From 2015
Canada Launches Its Own Virtual Cash, Called MintChip
By Rebecca Boyle Posted 04.12.2012 at 11:02 am
Next time you visit Canada, you might use digital currency to purchase your poutine, using something called MintChip backed by the Canadian government. The Royal Canadian Mint announced it’s getting rid of the penny and starting a new e-currency instead, and it wants the software community to help develop it.
The government just launched the MintChip Challenge— which was apparently so popular it’s already fully registered — to seek new digital payment apps for this new virtual currency. The idea is sort of a hybrid, combining the convenience of electronic transactions and the anonymity of cash. It will work via SD cards, but it will have no personal information or bank account data associated with it. It’s sort of like BitCoin but with actual, government-backed value.
The four-month contest includes 500 developers who will build apps that can demonstrate MintChip’s value. They’ll have to work on a variety of smartphone and desktop browsers. The prize: Solid gold wafers and coins worth about $50,000.
Its anonymity is a pretty unique idea. Other electronic payment systems — PayPal, Square, NFC-enabled phones, etc. — all connect to a person’s credit card or bank account. But cash is a great equalizer; you don’t need to have good credit to use it. MintChip would enable the same type of low-cost transactions for which you’d normally use cash. A Canadian banking group called Interac estimates that small-value transactions under $20 are worth $90 billion to the Canadian economy, the Toronto Star reported.
MintChip still has some kinks to be ironed out, including privacy, security of the currency and other questions. But it’s certainly an interesting concept.
[via Slashdot]
Millions Against Monsanto: The Food Fight of Our Lives
Saturday, 14 April 2012 06:00
‘For nearly two decades, Monsanto and corporate agribusiness have exercised near-dictatorial control over American agriculture, aided and abetted by indentured politicians and regulatory agencies, supermarket chains, giant food processors, and the so-called “natural” products industry.
Finally, public opinion around the biotech industry’s contamination of our food supply and destruction of our environment has reached the tipping point. We’re fighting back.
This November, in a food fight that will largely determine the future of what we eat and what we grow, Monsanto will face its greatest challenge to date: a statewide citizens’ ballot initiative that will give Californians the opportunity to vote for their right to know whether the food they buy is contaminated with GMOs.’
Read more: Millions Against Monsanto: The Food Fight of Our Lives
Thirteen Ways Government Tracks Us
Tuesday, 10 April 2012 07:53
‘Privacy is eroding fast as technology offers government increasing ways to track and spy on citizens. The Washington Post reported there are 3,984 federal, state and local organizations working on domestic counterterrorism. Most collect information on people in the US. Here are thirteen examples of how some of the biggest government agencies and programs track people.’
Monsanto Threatens to Sue Vermont if Legislators Pass a Bill Requiring GMO Food to Be Labeled
Thursday, 05 April 2012 07:47
‘The world’s most hated corporation is at it again, this time in Vermont.
Despite overwhelming public support and support from a clear majority of Vermont’s Agriculture Committee, Vermont legislators are dragging their feet on a proposed GMO labeling bill. Why? Because Monsanto has threatened to sue the state if the bill passes.
The popular legislative bill requiring mandatory labels on genetically engineered food (H-722) is languishing in the Vermont House Agriculture Committee, with only four weeks left until the legislature adjourns for the year. Despite thousands of emails and calls from constituents who overwhelmingly support mandatory labeling, despite the fact that a majority (6 to 5) of Agriculture Committee members support passage of the measure, Vermont legislators are holding up the labeling bill and refusing to take a vote.’
Patent Awarded for ‘Behavioral Recognition’ Surveillance Software System
Wednesday, 28 March 2012 07:27
‘The American surveillance state is becoming increasingly advanced, expansive and capable of processing huge amounts of data at blinding speeds.
Now Behavioral Recognition Systems, Inc., also known as BRS Labs, has developed an artificial intelligence-based system which supposedly can automatically recognize human behavior.
Technology which seems similar on the surface already exists and is being used on surveillance platforms like the “Intellistreets” street lights. These street lights, which are outfitted with a great deal of surveillance equipment, are reportedly capable of monitoring activity and telling the difference between certain behaviors while also being able to tell the difference between humans and animals. This technology could be used to enforce curfews, track the movement of individuals, and supposedly spot fights and other crimes.’
Read more: Patent Awarded for ‘Behavioral Recognition’ Surveillance Software System
Feeding The Homeless BANNED In Major Cities All Over America
Thursday, 22 March 2012 08:26
‘What would you do if you came across someone on the street that had not had anything to eat for several days? Would you give that person some food? Well, the next time you get that impulse you might want to check if it is still legal to feed the homeless where you live.
Sadly, feeding the homeless has been banned in major cities all over America. Other cities that have not banned it outright have put so many requirements on those that want to feed the homeless (acquiring expensive permits, taking food preparation courses, etc.) that feeding the homeless has become “out of reach” for most average people. Some cities are doing these things because they are concerned about the “health risks” of the food being distributed by ordinary “do-gooders”.
Other cities are passing these laws because they do not want homeless people congregating in city centers where they know that they will be fed. But at a time when poverty and government dependence are soaring to unprecedented levels, is it really a good idea to ban people from helping those that are hurting?’
Read more: Feeding The Homeless BANNED In Major Cities All Over America
The Obama Administration: All Your Privacy And All Your Stuff Belong To Us
Did you know that the federal government claims that it can take away your constitutional rights any time that it wants to? Over the past several decades, there have been an endless parade of laws and executive orders that have been slowly and methodically carving up our rights under the U.S. Constitution. Most Americans are not even aware of the “creeping totalitarianism” that is happening. Most Americans just trust the “authorities” when they tell us that certain things “must be done” in order to keep us all safe. But even if we gave up all of our privacy, even if we gave up all of our liberties and our freedoms, and even if we gave the government all of our stuff they still would not be able to keep us safe. It is inevitable that evil people are going to do evil things, and if you are counting on the Obama administration to keep you safe then you are being delusional. Obama is not going to save us from anything. But Obama will gladly take away our rights and our freedoms if the American people allow him to. The Obama administration seems to have an endless lust for more power. Sadly, if we do give away our rights it will have some very serious consequences. If we freely give away all of the rights that we have been given under the U.S. Constitution it will be incredibly difficult to ever get them back. Giving up liberty for security never works, and if we want to be worthy of being called Americans then we need to start standing up for the republic that our forefathers worked so hard to build.
An executive order that Barack Obama signed the other day is making headlines all over the nation. The title of the executive order is “National Defense Resources Preparedness” and it is actually an update of a series of previous executive orders.
The original “National Defense Resources Preparedness” executive order (EO 8248) was issued back in 1939. This latest version is very similar to EO 12919 that was signed by Bill Clinton in June 1994. However, several very important changes have been made in this new version.
For example, in Section 201(b) the words “under both emergency and non-emergency conditions” have been added.
So now the federal government can take control of all food, all energy, all health resources, all transportation resources and “all other materials, services, and facilities” in the country even if the United States is not experiencing emergency conditions.
Not that the Obama administration really needed to put that in there. After all, the U.S. government has been operating under a constant state of national emergency since September 14, 2001.
So the Obama administration did not really need to include a new excuse for taking control of everything. The existing “state of emergency” would probably work just fine.
If Barack Obama woke up one day and decided to exercise the powers in this executive order, he would be able to do pretty much anything that he wanted. This executive order would essentially allow Obama to declare a state of martial law in the United States even during a time when no emergency was happening.
Just check out what Section 201 of the executive order allows the federal government to take control of….
Sec. 201. Priorities and Allocations Authorities. (a) The authority of the President conferred by section 101 of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2071, to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts or orders (other than contracts of employment) to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders, and to allocate materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense, is delegated to the following agency heads:
(1) the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to food resources, food resource facilities, livestock resources, veterinary resources, plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and commercial fertilizer;
(2) the Secretary of Energy with respect to all forms of energy;
(3) the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to health resources;
(4) the Secretary of Transportation with respect to all forms of civil transportation;
(5) the Secretary of Defense with respect to water resources; and
(6) the Secretary of Commerce with respect to all other materials, services, and facilities, including construction materials.
So should we be worried?
Bush and Clinton did not exercise these powers.
Perhaps Obama will not either.
Yes, perhaps he will not.
But they are there.
And someday they will be used.
The Obama administration also continues to make shocking claims regarding our privacy.
According to the 4th Amendment, our homes are not supposed to be searched unless there is probable cause….
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
But according to CIA director David Petraeus, the American people are willingly bugging their own homes by choosing to use modern gadgets, and the CIA plans to use these technologies to spy on you. Petraeus recently said the following about the “transformational” impact these new technologies will have on the ability of the CIA to spy on the American people…
“Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters — all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing”
The kind of chips that Petraeus was referring to will soon be in nearly all new appliances. As a recent Daily Mail article noted, we will soon see an “Internet of things” emerge where virtually every electronic device is connected to the Internet….
This week, one of the world’s biggest chip companies, ARM, has unveiled a new processor built to work inside ‘connected’ white goods.
The ARM chips are smaller, lower-powered and far cheaper than previous processors – and designed to add the internet to almost every kind of electrical appliance.
It’s a concept described as the ‘internet of things’.
Futurists think that one day ‘connected’ devices will tell the internet where they are and what they are doing at all times – and will be mapped by computers as precisely as Google Maps charts the physical landscape now.
But we are not going to have to wait for the future for the federal government to use the Internet to spy on us all.
As I have written about previously, the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. military and the Federal Reserve are all using Facebook and Twitter to monitor the American people.
If you post this article to Facebook and Twitter, multiple agencies of the federal government will have a record of it.
In fact, the truth is that every single phone call, every single email, every single Facebook post and pretty much every other kind of electronic communication that you can imagine is monitored by intelligence agencies. Don’t ever assume that anything you say on your phone or on the Internet is private.
And now, even your ISP will be spying on you to make sure that you are not downloading any copyrighted material.
Yes, that is right.
A clandestine deal coordinated by the Obama administration will go into effect on July 12th. The following is from a recent Raw Story article….
If you download potentially copyrighted software, videos or music, your Internet service provider (ISP) has been watching, and they’re coming for you.
Specifically, they’re coming for you on Thursday, July 12.
That’s the date when the nation’s largest ISPs will all voluntarily implement a new anti-piracy plan that will engage network operators in the largest digital spying scheme in history, and see some users’ bandwidth completely cut off until they sign an agreement saying they will not download copyrighted materials.
Word of the start date has been largely kept secret since ISPs announced their plans last June. The deal was brokered by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and coordinated by the Obama Administration.
So be careful what you are doing on the Internet.
Your ISP will be watching it all.
Even local police departments are “pushing the envelope” when it comes to surveillance technology. For example, the NYPD is working on technology that will be able to see a gun inside your clothes from a distance of 80 feet away….
The reason that the NYPD is so interested terahertz waves is that they pass through nonconductive materials like clothes, but can’t penetrate metal — like, say, the steel in a semi-automatic pistol. That means if you scan someone, you can look for spots where a person’s natural terahertz radiation is blocked, most likely by a metal object.
The benefits for police officers are obvious. They can essentially sit back in a specially-equipped van and scan anyone they suspect of carrying a gun from a safe distance. Right now it only works from three or four feet away, but department spokesman Paul J. Browne told the New York Times that the NYPD — in coordination with the Department of Defense — hopes to increase its range to 25 meters, or 82 feet.
Unfortunately, there are dozens of other new technologies like this. For 14 more examples of how the government is watching us, just check out this article.
Most Americans assume that these technologies will only be used against “terrorists”, but that simply is not the case.
For example, a man living in Burnsville, Minnesota was recently subjected to “electronic home monitoring” for not having the proper siding on his home….
A Burnsville man on his way to work was arrested and thrown in jail without bond, and then subjected to electronic home monitoring.
But it wasn’t for drugs or a DWI or some other major crime.
Burnsville city leaders say Mitch Faber’s dealings with the law all stem from his failure to properly put up siding on his house.
Yep, siding.
Sadly, the truth is that the United States is rapidly being turned into a high-tech Big Brother prison grid dominated by control freak bureaucrats who do not care about our liberties and freedoms.
This is not the way that America is supposed to work.
We are supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Has that dream been lost forever, or will we get it back someday?
Hugo Chavez accuses U.S. of using weapon to cause Haiti quake
Several media outlets have reported Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accusing the United States of causing the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti, which killed possibly 200,000 people. Other media dispute the report.
Last week, Digital Journal reported that the Venezuelan President accused the United States of using Haiti’s earthquake as a pretext to occupy the Caribbean country, and since then the US has deployed thousands of troops to the region to bring law and order.
Media reports claim Chavez’s state “mouthpiece” ViVe TV is blaming the US for causing the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti as part of testing a “tectonic weapon” that can cause eco-type disasters, according to Russia Today. The information was apparently gathered by Russia’s North Fleet, FOX News says.
The Latin American leader added that the US should “stop playing God.”
The TV report said these “weapon earthquakes” would eventually be used against Iran and be taken over by the US military.
It goes on to say these weapons can alter the climate and set off earthquakes and volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.
Although news is gaining attention around the world, its credibility has yet to be verified. Some critics wonder how a state TV claim is being tied to Hugo Chavez.
Press TV reports the Venezuelan media are reporting the earthquake may be associated with the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), which has been accused of generating violent and disastrous changes in climate.
HAARP has been met with controversy since the mid-1990s when the State Duma of Russia issued a press release written by international affairs and defense communities on HAARP and signed by 90 deputies:
“The U.S. is creating new integral geophysical weapons that may influence the near-Earth medium with high-frequency radio waves … The significance of this qualitative leap could be compared to the transition from cold steel to firearms, or from conventional weapons to nuclear weapons. This new type of weapons differs from previous types in that the near-Earth medium becomes at once an object of direct influence and its component.”
In 1997, US Secretary of Defense William Cohen also expressed concern over such eco-terrorism “whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.”
However, the U.S. government claims HAARP’s primary objective is to analyze and investigate the Earth’s ionosphere and the possibility of developing technology for communications and surveillance purposes.
No Government, No Problem – Belgium Celebrates 450 Days Without Government But With Growth
Saturday, 10 September 2011 07:50
‘Belgium has not had a government in over 15 months, a record for modern economies. Yet their economy somehow managed to outperform those of the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, Finland, and Switzerland in the most recent quarter.’
Believe nothing 