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Thursday, October 14th, 2004
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2:32 am - RFID chips in your soda can, purse, cds and dvds and now your drivers license!
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Virginia is First in Nation to Consider Putting RFIDs in Licenses
The federal government is working to include RFID tags in passports
RFID tags... Little tags with radio tansmitters; location, location, location. In recent years, the government has gained access to new methods of control and has limited the rights of it's citizenship on many levels. On many levels before now as a citizen, one could feel secure, based on the facts, that their government was without the power and ability to monitor his or her presence and activities. And within reason, it was easy to believe that instances like Ruby Ridge were blips and not typical by any stretch of the imagination and that the government was working for us, not against us.
Through zone filtering, they will know our travels and will be able to database them. Cross reference that with terrorist cells and just because you were in an area at a given time, you could become a suspect of a crime by location association without knowing anything about it. Not to say that the government would act on that kind of silly thing, but the data would be there and mistakes happen.
When advancements in RFID style technology occur and if the current trend of complacence continues, ALL RFID chips near your drivers license could be linked to you, making any odd combination set off red flags in database pools. At times some level of doubt could be lost and bad situations could arise for normal, law abiding people.
Hackers could take advantage of the very simple system of RFID based chipsets and no matter how well encrypted at the manufacture date could be used as a vehicle for privacy intrusion and possibly lead to huge losses in theft cases.
A juxtaposition of satellite data RFID could create false conditions for probable cause in arrests, depending on how much the technology grew.
If you are ever speeding and RFID technology is in place tracking you, you could get a fine by mail; no need for an officer anymore. Now sure, you were a dirty devil and speeding, weren't you?
EMP fries RFID chips, as well as any other electrical componet. Most Americans don't have the equipment for EMP discharge large enough to fry an electrical componet: But the terrorists do! (or will, as the human race is highly adaptive and very clever)
What you need to ask yourself with this is, "What wouild Hitler or Stalin do if they had this kind of technology at their becon call?" and then think about the political system in America and how easy it can be at times to manipulate?
"Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality" -John F. Kennedy.
Check out this ACLU article:
"Installing these chips in driver’s licenses would be a grave mistake," Calabrese told the legislators. "It would be a costly proposition that involves significant technological hurdles, and has little practical value. It is also likely to make Virginia drivers both less safe and less free."
Already, the federal government is working to include RFID tags in passports, and, at the direction of President Bush the National Institute for Standards and Technology is working on a standard for a federal employee identification card that would also include the radio chips.
Calabrese’s testimony is available online at http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=16658&c;=39.
current mood: annoyed
current music: Bork - Who Is It
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, March 12th, 2004
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6:58 am
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| Thursday, March 11th, 2004
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4:48 am - Some military families rethink war against Iraq.
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EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. - On the night last month he learned that his son had died in Iraq, Richard Dvorin couldn't sleep. He lay in bed, "thinking and thinking and thinking," got up at 4 a.m., made a pot of coffee. Then he sat down at the kitchen table and wrote a letter to the president.
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When the invasion of Iraq began, Dvorin -- a 61-year-old Air Force veteran and a retired cop -- thought the commander in chief deserved his support. "I believed we were destroying part of the axis of evil," he says. "I truly believed that Saddam Hussein was a madman and that he possessed weapons of mass destruction and wouldn't hesitate to use them."
By the time Army 2nd Lt. Seth Dvorin was sent to Iraq last September, however, his father was having doubts. And now that Seth had been killed, at 24, by an "improvised explosive device" south of Baghdad, doubt had turned to anger.
"Where are all the weapons of Mass Destruction?" Richard Dvorin demanded in his letter. "Where are the stockpiles of Chemical and Biological weapons?" His son's life, he wrote, "has been snuffed out in a meaningless war."
Source.
Hard lessons coming down the pipe, and no one will forget the liberals were right.
current mood: crushed
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, March 2nd, 2004
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5:50 am - Edwards bows out, letting Democrats f
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And now the real battle begins. Taking back the kingdom will prove hard, no matter what happens. Lets do this.
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, February 25th, 2004
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5:46 pm - It's hopeless: Is it?
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How hard this election will be
Looking at the polls is a depressing action, no matter what party or ideology you follow; if you're against G.W. Bush. Now, one can say that polls don't matter until they're blue in the face, but one aspect of them does matter; the news stations play their numbers all over the place, all of the time, and that affects people's decisions, especially swing voters.
With constant attacks on front runners in this race (first Dean, then Kerry); no matter who gets the nomination, they will have an uphill battle to fight. Democrats and liberals are already starting their engines with "lesser of two evils" speak, pollsters point out that Kerry can't beat Bush, conservatives attack and attack and use divisive tactics to attempt to obtain the greater, more 'profound' end of the national conversation. Conservatives also try to divide the Democratic Party as much as possible in their own media outlets through interviews, commentary, and national ads. Through division, they will beat us; they turn us to opposite extremes, we fall. There is also the liberal factor, as mentioned before; it's the right's easy to implement idea that they can just shut liberals out of the national press by making the word 'liberal' itself a profanity, but that's only the beginning. Another easy win plan of theirs is to talk around liberals in the national media, cause outbursts, and make liberals to seem less worthy of national attention; kind of like when a caustic adolescent picks on a small child until they explode, and then blame it on the child; an easy to enact plot even in the adult world, especially with people of passion, like most liberals are. Then there are the liberals themselves; they're attacking the front runners almost as much as Bush/Cheney and the conservative media: I do not believe they understand the level of damage they are putting on when they do this, or the consequences thereof. At this rate, Bush/Cheney won't have to spend a dime, because the liberals will trash the democrat's chances all by themselves; and I'm not just talking about the internet chatter, either; I'm speaking of national news outlets.
We are on the battle ground for whether there will be another four years of Bush or not and the internet is buzzing with information as usual; almost all the news papers in the entire country have web sites, and through Google News I'm sent near constant articles about John Kerry and his position as a candidate. Before that, I was sent news on Howard Dean. I've had the same influx of news about both, and 90% of the mailings for both have been negative. News papers are important avenues of press, and the ones in conservative states tend to be conservative in their opinions; Kentucky, where I live, is no different. It's amazing what happens to the front runner, as soon as they get ahead; a bombardment of news begins to hit on every issue known to man, and how horribly they pull it off. A sex scandal here, special interests there; it all adds up. The republicans and conservatives have it down to a science; even if something hasn't happened and there is no evidence that it has happened, if you say it has happened even one time within the mass media, journalists will hunger for it and drive it home and then the public abroad will believe it, no matter what, because it was said in a news paper or magazine. The sex scandal thing is especially damaging due to Clinton’s perversions; now the majority believes that all democrats are sex fiends and will do anything for sex, apparently; or at least that's the popular opinion in Hopkinsville, KY, where I live. The funny thing is, it never happened; the girl that was claimed to have had an affair with Kerry was never an intern, and denies anything between them ever happened. This doesn't matter either, because the public opinion has been shaped and it will be there forever now. This is the way media in our times operate.
With the dawn of the internet, everyone with a computer and a site becomes a pundit, adding to the chaos of the equation; in one way, this is a good thing, as I suppose it could be said that the internet is the ultimate democratic forum; in another way, however, it adds to the already clouded mechanism of media overall and could cause a great deal of hardship for candidates of any party in the future. Right now, Kerry is lifted up and shot down so many times a day that I doubt anyone knows what to think of him. The same would undoubtedly happen to Edwards, in my opinion, if he were the front runner.
Liberal has been turned into a bad word by radio hosts Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, as well as by the more mainstream TV stations such as Fox News. In the South East, saying the word liberal is as rude as saying the f-word at a three year old's birthday party (excluding Florida, as Florida just doesn't count when someone says the south, politically). This is a big obstacle to overcome, as anyone who is anti-war or pro-choice is an automatic liberal and will be branded as such in the papers.
Bush's fear campaign is still running strong, and even in light of his wanting to cut money to first responders everywhere, who helped save countless lives and aided in major operations during and after 9/11. Through disaster, war (twice), a terrible fiscal record and all his other booboos, Bush has proven that his fear campaign can withstand almost any blow. So long as some kind of progress is being shown on some minor level, everything is okay, because Bush is protecting us against the big bad boogey man. It doesn't matter that the average American’s chances of being killed or wounded by a terrorist are exactly zero because "if it happened once it can happen again," oh no, please god help us all; it's killing me. His fear campaign is his best card, and he'll use it until the end. [Osama found in Nov, Saddam goes on trial in August; bet? ]
Raising money has been a serious problem with the democrats, of late, and this becomes a serious problem only in light of the fact that Bush has a 100,000,000 dollars in the bank right now and is constantly touring for fundraisers; has been since 2k. There is no end to the Republican money machine, and the DNC and Kerry will have a hell of a time getting the money to match that kind of dollar power (I, like a lot of people, assume Kerry has the nomination, but for Edwards fans sake, just insert his name there instead) to command a worthwhile campaign to try and take the white house. If all of the democrats who are currently campaigning for the slot decided to back one candidate and fund them constantly through it all, I still believe it would be a hard campaign for fight. Dean will have an involvement, I'm assuming, in raising money for the nominee, but it's up to speculations to what that role will be. But what could Dean do to help us win? Personal appearances? Donate the money he would collect? I don't see how he would be affective in any scenario.
I know how hard this election will be, because I live in a place where men wear hats that read" God, Guts, and Guns MADE America: Lets keep all three" and have bumper stickers that bear the confederate flag and Bush/Cheney stickers on their windows. I know how hard this election will be, because I live in Kentucky, where Ernie Fletcher took the entire state in the gubernatorial race only a few months ago; a spot that had been owned by the democrats for around 37 years. Ben Chandler, the guy who ran against him, and lost against him, took Fletcher's seat in congress. Ben chandler isn't much of a democrat; he supports the NRA all the way, has an A rating from them, and promises on his campaign page that he will fight all gun control bills, tooth and nail. This race for the presidency in 04 will be the hardest presidential race in history for the democrats. There is no doubt of it, no matter how we analyze the data or personal impressions we see, day to day. It's going to be the hardest fight in history short of all out war to get this country back.
It's a fight we win or we lose forever; hard set heads are already turning to 04 as a loss, and what follows that? Hillary in 08? Pardon me for saying so, but I think Kerry has a lot better a shot at the white house than Hillary Clinton, even with the Bush administration as the offense for Kerry's play. So, the Democratic Party becomes the party for losers, forever? I can see it happening; I can see 50 years of republican rule, at which point it would become total imperialism, and we'd never be able to get out of it then. The Green party, and all the other minority/small parties have no hope of ever garnering national attention or widespread support; even Nader has dropped the Green Party and is now talking about running as a third party contender. If that happens (UPDATE: Okay, it happened), and the vote is shaved again for the democrats, it would spell really bad news for the country. I hate to say it, because I'm not a total fatalist, but if Bush wins this, it could cause a steam roller effect for the next eight years; although I admit that's a subjective statement, but it's likely to happen in my view.
So if you think it's a vote between the lesser of two evils, or that John Kerry or Edwards aren't the perfect candidate, then who are you waiting for? Jesus Christ incarnate? Gandhi? They can't save this thing, but if I have to stump preach it until I'm imprisoned without trial by the Bush administration, I'll say this:
Either John Kerry or Edwards, one of them is the only hope to correct this country politically until your ideal government can come along, and until then, I think it would be wise to do everything in your power to do whatever it takes to keep democrats in office, because otherwise our country will slowly become purely imperial and our freedoms will be stripped away without any justification for the authority to do so. People are locked up right now without any hope of ever getting out and with no right to talk to anyone; there is nothing saying that that can't happen to you someday. So stop attacking the front runners, start supporting your candidates to make them the front runner and make certain that whatever you do, you don't give support to Bush in any way; allowing media to conquer your mind through misdirection or divisive tactics. Also keep in mind that attacking the people that intend on helping us out of the Bush administration’s mess is the best way of supporting the current president.
I'm not saying Bush will win, but it will be a hell of a fight.
-JRG 2004
( PR )
current mood: curious
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, February 24th, 2004
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5:43 pm - Cheney's girl urged to fight Bush
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Cheney's girl urged to fight Bush
The amendment
"I can't believe he's suggesting we discriminate against and out right deny balanced rights to a human; and some would call the gay community as a whole a culture, and if this is true the welt is all the more caustic. I think it's about time we remove gender altogether in national debate and legal status; I think we should ammend the constitution in a different way; elect to individual rights systems, and allow the people to make an active choice in what kind of family unit they want to hold. I can not believe that a person in that position of power has gotten to where he is with this kind of decision making and agenda," My response to a friend, in debate.
A spoon full of ignorance has been fed to the population; it's the Republican Party.
current mood: cynical
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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5:43 pm - Bush: That guy that served one term, way back... when?
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| Monday, February 23rd, 2004
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6:06 am - Sad.
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6:06 am - From kerry to Bush:
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| Friday, February 20th, 2004
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1:53 pm - The Tide is Turning:
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1:53 pm - He tried.
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The Bu$h Record
Bush, now president-elect, signals will to bridge partisan gaps
The second story should remind us all about Bush and his rhetoric; he pledged to bring us together, and what has he done? He's created the most polarized Nation in history.
The coming election is huge; bloodlines are being drawn, way points are being set, money is being raised like never before. Bush has more than 100 million in the bank and the Democrats are scrambling to catch up. Dean may deliver the next president, even is he isn't the man himself, apparently, as he is now converting his campaign to that of a money making empire for the nominee, whoever that will be. The war drums are being beaten, as Kerry moves ahead and Edwards picks up steam in the distance for the long haul; it's probably going to get ugly between the two major candidates, and Bush is already hammering at the front runner. This will be the most toughly fought presidential election in out time; probably any of out time's, respective to the older voting ground intact. It's no holds barred this time, and we have spirited attackers in our own camp as well as on the enemy's. We are attacking our own, they are attacking us; and there is no guarantee that when the nomination is made that this kind of behavior will end.
'I will work to earn your respect'
The President-Elect said that with such somber breath inflections oh didn't he? Those words are filled with spikes, are they not? Freedom, taken from us; Democratic forums revoked; the passage of choice threatened; a new enemy at every door, chain mailed and ready for airport battles; a planet living in fear over the horizon and countries devastated by war, the hallmarks of the republican owned congress and white house.
Yes, he said he'd try to earn our respect, because he knew he never would; he would try...
How do you earn respect by lying to a nation, deceiving congress and duping all of us into a war that we should have never signed on for? How do you earn respect my cheating people of their votes; by bypassing the electoral systems that have been in place all our lives? How do you earn respect by catering more to special interests than any other candidate, for any office, in the history of the United States of America? How do you earn respect by being family and buddy-family friends with the bin laden oil empire; the family of terrorist Osama bin Laden? How do you earn my respect by trying to putting the spin machine in motion to ban the marriage of a loving couple, regardless of sex or sexual preference? How do you earn a woman's respect by offering her the right wing agenda on a platter, and trying to remove her choice by doing so? How do you earn my trust, Mr. Bush, by selling out your country for the corporations that are ruining it on every level in society? How, then?
You can't; and if that's what you consider trying...
My vote goes to the competition; my vote goes to a democrat that cares.
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(comment on this)
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1:53 pm - Don't forget: Election 2k.
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In Duval County, Florida, confusion and a slowed response surrounded the disqualification of some 27,000 votes - 42% of which were reported to be in Black precincts. Some Black leaders are alleging that a Republican election supervisor provided misinformation regarding the votes in question. Black leaders who were initially unaware of what happened were unable to respond to the problem before Nov. 10 when the 72-hour deadline to file protests had already passed.
More.
Even more.
More still.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, February 17th, 2004
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2:36 am - Kerry/Fonda photo fake, Sex scandal is bullshit.
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| Monday, February 16th, 2004
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8:45 pm - Kerry in the news:
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Wisconsin poll projects blowout win for Kerry
Pre-debate survey has him with double support of Dean, Edwards
MILWAUKEE, Wisc. - Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry looks set for another blowout win, this time in Wisconsin on Tuesday, leading nearest rival Howard Dean by 24 points, according to an opinion poll released Monday by MSNBC, Reuters and Zogby.
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Kerry, riding a wave of momentum that has carried him to 14 wins in the first 16 Democratic contests, most by huge margins, leads Dean 47 percent to 23 percent in the Wisconsin survey. North Carolina Sen. John Edwards is third with 20 percent.
More.
Other Stories:
Kerry intact despite nipping by Edwards
Democratic contenders debate in Wisconsin
current mood: curious
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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9:30 am - Letters from our soldiers:
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9:30 am - Just a reminder:
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One of the greatest advantages the 'conservative' media force has is it's grassroots means of spreading party dividing rhetoric and propaganda. They divide the Democrats and use the non-party liberals against the democrats. In these times, it's dangerous to act alone; dangerous for anyone involved in this fight. I suggest that everyone keep this in mind in the coming days leading up to the nomination and subsequent presidential election.
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(comment on this)
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9:30 am - The Grass Roots Campaigning for Kerry is far reaching; a photo that I like:
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9:30 am - Snort then inhale then take a sip then drop a dot then crack your spin then inject some truth and...
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9:30 am - My take on the Kerry "sex scandal"
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Sigh.
They will do anything, anything to take down the leader. John Kerry is being acused of flirting with an intern, and by some reports fucking one. These accusations are being brewed up by who other than Matt Drudge! That's a big fucking shock! My god, why would a conservative news/trash maker want to lie and create a rumor mill about a strong democratic hopeful! Kerry is untouchable to a certain extent, so they have to manufacture nonsense to take stabs. I can understand this; I really can: when you rig an election to get into office, you don't go quietly into the night. These power hungry shitheads are going to make this as ugly as they can to save their own asses.
In the current status of my nation, America, I see no room to beg differences. I see no means of explaining to someone how we can move forward with the current administration. I see no way in the mental plain of objectivity to justify to one's self interest or national pride any other route for us to progress other than a democratic revolution in the United states of America. We need to shut down the conservative media on their own ground; we need to sponsor open public democratic forums; we need debate, honest and sometimes brutal debate, and not trash can tabloid bullshit littering our elections. To take to early assumptions and cater to the lies of a relatively small media in public force, would be disasterous. In our country, we can do better; we can change the way we make things happen; it is in our power to change our country and world.
It's a question of credibility in the public trust; if the people don't take control with their minds, good deeds and voting record, then there is no credable means to justify the freedoms we hold in this country; simply, if this can't be justified, these freedoms will inevitably be taken from us. We have to, as a nation, begin to think for ourselves and question authority and hold our authorities accountable. We must elect as a majority candidates that will work for the people and the public good. We must do this, or there will be no national or worldwide destiny to control; no bright future to mandate for our children.
Another thing:
JFK, in my opinion, was our strongest leader, arguably, ever. He cheated on his wife numerous times. It did not affect his presidency or policy. This in response to a friend of mine's post which may be unrelated. When you elect someone for the office of president, you're electing two things; the commander of the Unites States military and an executive officer of the federal state. They don't have a personal life if they're good, and their personal life is irrelevant to the job. If they are good at what they do, and fight for the better interests and not the special interests, the corperations and the indefinately rich, they have my vote.
current mood: curious
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, February 14th, 2004
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5:59 am - Republicans junk "No Child Left Behind"
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The Unfunded mandate begins to crumble as states begin to turn away:
Arizona may defy schools mandate
PHOENIX - Arizona lawmakers are mirroring efforts from Utah to Maine by pushing to abandon President Bush’s plan to hold schools more accountable.
If the lawmakers are successful, they could endanger $327 million in federal education money coming from the No Child Left Behind Act.
Lawmakers in Arizona and across the country are chafing under strict federal rules - some without funding provided - that dictate who can teach students, how many students must take standardized tests, and minimum progress schools must make to retain control over their own destinies.
The opposition to No Child Left Behind also comes from Republicans who disagree with a top-down federal mandate they see as encroaching on states’ rights. The act was signed into law in January 2002.
More.
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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