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On occasion, our rulers tip their hands a bit too much, especially when confronted with the recalcitrance of subjects in resistance to their best laid plans. “Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act,” reports CNN. “The Department of Homeland Security insists Real ID is an essential weapon in the war on terror, but privacy and civil liberties watchdogs are calling the initiative an overly intrusive measure that smacks of Big Brother.” MORE!
Tuesday, 29 March 2005
Deadlines loom for RFID tracking chips in USA passports
There's still time for USA citizens to get a new passport without an embedded RFID remote tracking chip -- but if you want one, you should apply at once. The Department of State is moving as fast as it can (slowed down only by technical difficulties -- RFID chips are proving more difficult to manufacture, more fragile, and less reliable than their boosters have claimed) toward the rollout of the new "electronic passports". And there's still no plan to encrypt any of the information on the RFID chip. Each chip will be digitally "signed" by the State Department, but that's for authentication, not as a control on access to the data.
Anyone who gets close enough to your passport with an RFID reader will be able (without your knowing the chip has been read) to determine your nationality, name, gender, date of birth, place of birth, passport number, etc. as well as receive a digital copy of your passport photo, for the convenience of identity thieves in forging a duplicate passport (with a clone of the RFID chip, including the digital signature) or other identity documents in your name and with your image, but perhaps with a signature in their handwriting (the signature, which might be slightly harder to forge, won't be digitized or digitally signed) for the use of criminals, terrorists, or anyone else who resembles your appearance. MORE!
That was from 2005 so it has been in use for a while...If they got the story in 2005 the government has been using and perfecting the techniques since 2000 if not longer...I can remember hearing about it back in the 80's as part of the miniaturization of computer chips and the beginnings of nanotechnology...
Is RFID tracking you?
POSTED: 1:25 p.m. EDT, October 23, 2006
CNN
(CNN) -- Radio frequency identification has been heralded as a breakthrough in tracking technology, and denounced as the next Big Brother surveillance tool.
RFID sounds futuristic: A transmitter smaller than a dime embedded in everything from a T-shirt to human skin, communicating data over a short distance to a reading device.
The technology has been around for decades -- the British used it to identify aircraft as friend or foe during World War II, and factory warehouses have used it more recently to make shipping more efficient.
So why is it getting so much attention now? The short answer is that RFID has moved into more common corners of society.
Today, it can be used to identify missing pets, monitor vehicle traffic, track livestock to help prevent disease outbreaks, and follow pharmaceuticals to fight counterfeit drugs. Many of us start our cars using RFID chips embedded in the ignition key.
RFID chips, injected under the skin, can store a medical history or be used to control access to secure areas. The next generation of passports and credit cards are hotbeds for RFID. It could make bar codes obsolete.
However, hackers and analysts are exposing potentially serious problems. Hackers could disable a car's RFID anti-theft feature, swap a product's price for a lower one, or copy medical information from an RFID chip.
"The dark side of RFID is surreptitious access," said Bruce Schneier, a security expert with Counterpane Internet Security Inc.
"When RFID chips are embedded in your ID cards, your clothes, your possessions, you are effectively broadcasting who you are to anyone within range," he said. "The level of surveillance possible, not only by the government but by corporations and criminals as well, will be unprecedented. There simply will be no place to hide." MORE!
Yesterday, like I stated above Cherkoff gave a speech in Boston cheerleading the BCS's decision to tag us like cattle and follow us all around the Matrix...We already need passports to go to Mexico and Canada now...I guess passports to travel between states are next!
(CNN) -- Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says there are no plans for a federal database of drivers' information.
The act, signed in 2005 as part of an emergency military spending and tsunami relief bill, aims to weave driver's licenses and state ID cards into a sort of national identification system by May 2008. The law sets baseline criteria for how driver's licenses will be issued and what information they must contain.
The Department of Homeland Security insists Real ID is an essential weapon in the war on terror, but privacy and civil liberties watchdogs are calling the initiative an overly intrusive measure that smacks of Big Brother.
More than half the nation's state legislatures have passed symbolic legislation denouncing the plan, and some have penned bills expressly forbidding compliance.
Several states have begun making arrangements for the new requirements -- four have passed legislation applauding the measure -- but even they may have trouble meeting the act's deadline.
The cards would be mandatory for all "federal purposes," which include boarding an airplane or walking into a federal building, nuclear facility or national park, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the National Conference of State Legislatures last week. Citizens in states that don't comply with the new rules will have to use passports for federal purposes. MORE!
News / Updates > Status of Anti-Real ID Legislation in the States
Status of Anti-Real ID Legislation in the States
Following is a list of states where legislation against Real ID is currently active, with links to the relevant legislation and, where available, its status. More information about Real ID in each state is available by clicking on the state name. This list will be constantly changing as more states act, and it will be updated as quickly as possible. View the video short, "Real ID: A Real Nightmare," here.
Maryland
Well actually a problem for us taxpayers, not the federal government...They love giving the taxpayers money away...Remember the $200 hammers and toilets seats?! This next story makes me long for those days...I also wish this had posted the other day when I was slamming Texas...From ThinkProgress:
Pentagon paid $998,798 to ship two 19-cent washers.
The Pentagon paid a small South Carolina parts supplier about $20.5 million over six years “for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas. The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq.” August 16, 2007 9:26 pm | Comment (62)
More wasted money in Iraqnam?! How about this from Think Progress:
On and on, over and over again...I guess NOLA should be glad that they have to fend for themselves, or else the shoddy workmanship and building delays would be done there too...However, there are other issues in NOLA...From Crooks & Liars:
AP Via The Huffington Post:
Maybe someone will address this problem with the private investors at the 2nd Annual NOLA Rising Tide Conference...From Crooks & Liars:With large swaths of the Gulf Coast still in ruins from Hurricane Katrina, rich federal tax breaks designed to spur rebuilding are flowing hundreds of miles inland to investors who are buying up luxury condos near the University of Alabama’s football stadium.About 10 condominium projects are going up in and around Tuscaloosa, and builders are asking up to $1 million for units with granite countertops, king-size bathtubs and ‘Bama decor, including crimson couches and Bear Bryant wall art.
While many of the buyers are Crimson Tide alumni or ardent football fans not entitled to any special Katrina-related tax breaks, many others are real estate investors who are purchasing the condos with plans to rent them out.
And they intend to take full advantage of the generous tax benefits available to investors under the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, or GO Zone, according to Associated Press interviews with buyers and real estate officials. Read more…
The second annual Rising Tide conference will be held August 24-26, 2007, at the New Orleans Yacht Club. This is a NOLA blogger-organized and supported conference featuring speakers, panels, breakout sessions, and other dialogs on the future of the city of New Orleans. This year’s emphasis is on ground-level, grass-roots efforts. It has become clear to those of us in south Louisiana that we will have to watch the watchmen, as well as take the upper hand is setting the city back on track. To that end, there will be presentations on local politics and how to influence them, making civics sexy, sustainability, levee engineering, and media outreach…read on
Countrywide forced to turn to banks for help
Leading mortgage lender tightens lending standards, turns to more expensive $11.5 billion line of credit to maintain liquidity; chairman cashing out.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Embattled Countrywide Financial, the nation's No. 1 mortgage lender, was forced to tap an $11.5 billion line of credit Thursday to run its business during the credit crunch, and said it's toughening underwriting standards on home loans.
At the same time, SEC filings show the company's chairman has made a $13 million profit in the past month selling Countrywide stock on the decline. MORE!
Sounds a little "Enron-ish" to me...How come the chairmen and other big wigs get they money out before the bottom drops?! They claim however that they are trying to "work through the trouble"...Yeah right...Get their money out of trouble is all they are trying to do...From ThinkProgress:
Leading Home Mortgage Loan Company On The Verge Of Bankruptcy Still Running Ads
Countrywide Financial, the nation’s leading mortgage lender, is suffering a liquidity crunch as a result of doling out risky subprime loans in the past few years. The company announced today that it will borrow $11.5 billion in order to keep making home loans. “The announcement sent its stock tumbling about 11 percent and prompted one credit rating agency to downgrade its rating to near-junk bond status.”
A Countrywide spokesman said, “Management is completely focused on running the business in a changing environment.” Unfortunately, Countrywide isn’t taking the necessary steps to prioritize its spending and maintain its solvency. MORE!
Regardless of cosmetic fixes by the Fed, the market is in very big trouble with the housing meltdown in play! And like they stated in the article above, Countrywide is doing business as usual...Are people still getting these doomed sub prime or interest only mortgages?! WAKE UP PEOPLE!
There is just so much stuff going on I don't know where to go next? How about that Spying thing again...Remember that stirring testimony by James Comey, I understand if you don't, the whole Paris Hilton in jail thing was going on and that story never saw airtime, but you can see it on youtube...Well we come to find out that Mueller had notes from the event and it looks like even Ashcroft was out of the loop...Maybe...
Today's Must ReadBy Spencer Ackerman - August 17, 2007, 9:28 AM
What did John Ashcroft really know about the warrantless surveillance program?
According to FBI Director Robert Mueller's notes on the March 10, 2004 visit to Ashcroft's hospital room, Ashcroft told Andrew Card and Alberto Gonzales that "strict compartmentalization rules" by the White House prevented him from "obtaining the advice he needed" about the warrantless surveillance program. At first glance, I thought that meant that Ashcroft himself was prevented from knowing certain aspects of the program. Several commenters read it differently, and judged that Ashcroft was complaining that his key advisers were barred from information about the program that would inform Ashcroft about its legality. And today, the Washington Post backs them up, citing anonymous official sources. MORE!
It makes sense...No one really knows what the "program" is or how it is run except the criminals running it...Not that Ashcroft is some beacon of liberty but he did say this: he warned the Senate about the Patriot Act that "those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists." It makes sense in the fact that as soon as the program was revealed to Comey he rejected it outright and threatened a mass walk-out of the DOJ if the program was not "fixed" to stay within the law...Now the million dollar question is why hasn't Ashcroft been called to testify?! Seems the Rethugs are pushing the envelope on the whole spying thing too...From The Wall Street Journal(has murdoch taken over yet?):
U.S. to Expand
Domestic Use
Of Spy Satellites
August 15, 2007; Page A1
The U.S.'s top intelligence official has greatly expanded the range of federal and local authorities who can get access to information from the nation's vast network of spy satellites in the U.S.
The decision, made three months ago by Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell, places for the first time some of the U.S.'s most powerful intelligence-gathering tools at the disposal of domestic security officials. The move was authorized in a May 25 memo sent to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking his department to facilitate access to the spy network on behalf of civilian agencies and law enforcement.
![[QOD]](http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/it_lifeinsure11172003193516.gif){kind=small}
Until now, only a handful of federal civilian agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey, have had access to the most basic spy-satellite imagery, and only for the purpose of scientific and environmental study. MORE!
They been using them on us, just not letting us know in so many words...Like I stated above, when the public finally hears about a new invention, the government has had it in testing and production for at least 5-10 years! All of this goes back to that movie "Enemy Of The State"! Pay attention to them movies...That is how the Illuminati communicate with one another...The Matrix wasn't just an action flick but also an expose or documentary...But let's not get into too much Conspiracy 101 today...
Okay next up is General Betray-US and his bogus, "ghost written" September report on the surge...I am not surprised that the BCS is going to write the report and Betray-Us will go before congress in closed door sessions...What is amazing is the extra layers of bs the BCS is taking the American public through...Why not just have him come out and say that the surge is working and be done with it?! why all the extra layers? I mean either way Shrub is setting us up to being in Iraq until he leaves or rather if he leaves...What also trips me out is the response from Matthews...Last week he was acting like a straight homo talking about how bush, "is a great neo-clown mind" and how great he is to this display from Crooks & Liars:
Yea, I know…but at least he’s getting out this important truth. Petraeus is not writing the all important September/Iraq report that is supposed to give an honest assessment of the war and not a propaganda document vetted by Bush. Will the rest of the media follow? Not so far….And he throws in Cheney’s ‘94 statements telling us why toppling Saddam was not a viable option…
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Tweety: Is the White House going to pull a Lucy again? With the football trick, all over again? For months President Bush has been asking us to wait for a report from General Petraeus. How many times have we heard that phrase? “Wait for the report from General Petraeus.” Now we learn that the White House is going to write that report - the White House - and that the General will testify publicly before Congress only after the report’s been written by Bush’s people. Is this a sign of something we’ve seen before, is the Bush Administration going to politicize that critical September report instead of letting the General deliver a full and honest raw assessment to the American people? It looks like it. Also tonight on our political headlines, wise words from a strange mouth, wait til you catch this – in 1994 Dick Cheney of all people said going into Baghdad would be a bad idea.
I love the part where he calls Cheney a dick...However, either Matthews is bi-polar or just doing his mis-information confusion tactics for his audience...Maybe he read some of the criticisms on the "lefty blogs" about him being a "bush bitch" and this is his attempt to correct it...Either way I don't trust his psycho ass but it is interesting to note...Cheney: If we had gone to Baghdad, we would have been all alone, there wouldn’t have been anybody else with us, it would have been a US occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces who were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade in Iraq. Once you got into Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein’s government, then what are you going to put in its place?
Tweety: Good question, Dick. Anyway, that was Cheney, by the way, back when he knew what was going on. And the question now is, that guy had led this president into doing exactly what he said would be a bad idea. Dick Cheney — remember those words.
In the re-inventing reality column we have to add the recent discovery that the un-government and faux noise have been editing Wikipedia entries on topics like the Iraq Occupation and Gitmo Bay...The scum at faux is fixing anything that doesn't agree with their narrow rethugliclan world view...From Crooks & Liars:
It’s been a rough week for our ol’ friends at Fox News. Thanks to some IP-address based research, the political world learned that the FNC was responsible for “touching up” Wikipedia pages, editing content that didn’t fit with the partisan network’s political agenda.
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For example, embarrassing content from Media Matters about FNC personalities was quietly removed. Criticism of Keith Olbermann and Al Franken was accenuated. The network that specializes in on-air propoganda had taken its usual schtick to Wiki pages.
With that in mind, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Fox News’ Chris Wallace — you guessed it — sought to undermine Wikipedia’s credibility with a report tonight. MORE!
Typical rethugliclan bullshit...Get caught and it's always someone else's fault! The Wapo has the story of the FBI and CIA changing wikipedia entries...
CIA, FBI Computers Used for Wikipedia Edits
Thursday, August 16, 2007; 6:43 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program.
The changes may violate Wikipedia's conflict-of-interest guidelines, a spokeswoman for the site said on Thursday.
The program, WikiScanner, was developed by Virgil Griffith of the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico and posted this month on a Web site that was quickly overwhelmed with searches.
The program allows users to track the source of computers used to make changes to the popular Internet encyclopedia where anyone can submit and edit entries.
WikiScanner revealed that CIA computers were used to edit an entry on the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A graphic on casualties was edited to add that many figures were estimated and were not broken down by class. MORE!
Well at least we know for sure that Wikipedia is crap now! Just like the MSM! More propaganda for the BCS! There is so much more friends and they normally double up on it on Fridays but my head is hurting and if you have read this far yours is probably too...I know I am leaving some stuff out but my head hurts and I got some errands to run...If there is something I missed or got wrong please let me know...There are still plenty of spots left in the Pick'Em Pool...Come join us this season...The group id: is 19980 & the password is : wordpass...This is the link to join up...Pro Pick'Em! If you need some help just let me know...
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