Do the Brits have Tony Blair's eyeballs on their data base? Speaking of major criminals and terrorists. I heard that he was going to take a megabuck from Wall Street bank JPMorgan - as if our banks weren't in enough deep dodo.

Boy, oh boy! Is this ever neat. As soon as we all have our ID chips implanted (whether we want to or not), just think what a boon this will be to law enforcement. Big Brother is adding another feather to his cap. "1984" here we come and the end to any privacy. Of course, I don't think they are able to read our thoughts yet, but give them a minute and they'll figure it out.

Honest people will have to employ daily disguises just to keep from being categorized. I'm thinking of wearing those glasses with eyeballs on springs, kind of a moving target. Or, we could all wear Alfred E. Newman masks, that might work.

"Anomalies, Prisons, and Geophysics: How Governments Use Data and How to Stop Them"
http://www.chycho.com/?q=anomalies_prisons

..."There are numerous ways to gain freedom from these organizations whose purpose is to identify, isolate, incarcerate and even eliminate what they deem to be undesirable elements from society. The machine running these filtration programs can be halted if people stop providing governments and corporations with data. Reducing the number of transactions that are automatically fed into the databases will produce gaps and uncertainties in the data set, creating erroneous interpretation. If enough errors are made, a population loses confidence in the controllers and the system should correct itself. Providing these organizations with large quantities of false or distorted data can also reduce the efficiency of their system. Other methods may include the retraining of law enforcement officers, using cash whenever possible, disassociation and/or protection from insecure electronic activity, and private inquiry into the reasons for government acquisition of personal data. It is very important to grasp the concept that "if there is no data set, then there are no anomalies.""...

"As a collective we must understand that democracy can only exist in a society with an educated populace, and the right for self-governance can only be obtained through knowledge. When a society embraces ignorance and forfeits its right to control its destiny, it has succumbed to apathy and can only deteriorate. In science, the analysis of anomalies contributes to our understanding of the physical world, improving our lives. In contrast, identifying anomalies in our society based on political doctrine has created fear and misunderstanding, restricting our lives. The lack of accountability from our leaders and our indifference to the consequences of their actions is diminishing our civil liberties. But it is not too late, we can prevent this from happening. We still have the ability to reclaim our future if we begin to educate ourselves."

I am glad to be old and have no grandchildren.

Looks like the British may have the lead on us regarding personal spying and interference in personal liberties. Seems to me we revolted a couple of centuries ago to protest that.

Now, we are asking for their expertise? Just wait until a computer matches a muddy, out of focus, grainy, photo taken at a crime scene with the photo stored when you went to make a deposit at your bank.

Knock on your door in the middle of the night. Protest! Truncheon in the stomach, manacles and hood, undisclosed location. Torture. Why am I here? Beating. Hot room, cold room, noise, broken fingers (not torture, no organ damage leading to death) I want a lawyer! Beating.

A few years of that and it won't seem like America to you anymore. I think the time to fight this is now!!!

The UK is again to well-meaningly blunder, eyes closed and fingers crossed, into yet another bi-lateral deal with the US.

The US will insist upon providing definitions for 'suspects', 'terrorists', 'worst of the worst' (a sliding scale?), and sundry other terms that are currently plaguing it's own Constitution and dog-earing the Bill Of Rights.

The most distubing aspect of this whole idea is not merely the unreliability of information that can and definitely WILL ensnare innocent people. (Computers just amass information. Garbage in, garbage out.) It is the intentional manipulation of information for political ends that we should fear. We already know that Ted Kennedy and some prominent peace activists are or were on the American no-fly lists because they were in the terrorrist database. Why were they there? Very good question.

And here is the answer. Political dissenters become terrorists because our government says so. Ergo, they are now in the database. And what happens next? Terrorists become the disappeared. 1984? We WISH this was 1984. What we're looking at here is a global Nazi "Final Solution."

The problem is that the goals being pursued with the use of these systems are criminal. Don't let the criminals fill your mindspace with catchy phrases.

The British also gave us Clockwork Orange, 1984, Brave New World, Brazil, etc.

What I don't quite understand is that these dystopian models of the future should probably be taken as warnings -- not as gameplans. WTF?

It's time for full fledged British declaration of independence from the fascist Yank and to renounce all allegiance this S and M super punch and fascist war mongering S and M whips and chainificationism. of tyranny and Dick "Whips and Chainy."

LMAO.

Thanks doom, I needed that.

This is why I left the country. Everywhere I went was a phucking camera and beams shooting into my eyes in the non-visible spectrum of light. What does years of invasive retinal/iris scans do to your cell structure? Nothing? Normal light over years can cause retinal detachment (which is why skiers, pilots and boaters among many otheres, must wear polarized sunglasses to protect their eyes.)

No thanks, I'd rather live in a poor country that requires a real warrant signed by a separate judge who must sign for probable cause. Not a place where some turd from FatherLand Security can write his own warrant at the door and go through a fishing expedition at your house planting evidence like was done for years in the shamed LAPD Rampart division in Southern California.

What a nightmare is the US police states of America! Nine million people behind bars and counting. Most for minor substance and perceived sexual offenses in their own home.

Just visiting the place give me the creeps now.

Glad i'm poor in a low-tech island with daily power outages. Kinda hard to keep the cameras on with no power.

Paradise... or Paradise Lost?

My change in lifestyle reminds me of the writings of Milton. Lucifer remarked as he fell into the bottomless pit, "It is far better to rule in Hell, than to serve in Heaven."

This isn't a step toward reducing terrorism, it's a step toward further reducing the legacy of freedom bought with our ancestors' blood, sweat and tears. The 9/11 tragedy could have been prevented with existing laws. It was incompetence (or perhaps witting negligence) that squandered opportunities to foil the plot. The USAPATRIOT, Military Commissions and Protect America Acts are superfluous from a security standpoint, devastating from a constitutional and human rights standpoint, and superbly useful from a totalitarian standpoint. For reasons unclear to me Nostradamus is often glorified as a great prophet, but it's Orwell who most accurately predicted our sorry lot.

There's more yet m'dears...

Wary of Facebook? We oughta be!
Check this little gem from Tom Hodgkinson :::

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook

Then ensure yr family & friends *don't* parade themselves on such sites!
xx

"The US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand - have formed a working group, the International Information Consortium, to ... " ... to submit to the demands of the USA as usual.

pacplyer:

Never mind the infra-'red eye', I am gonna get a chip inserted into my brown eye, so every time they feel the need to scan me they have to look up my arse.

PIZZDORF -- You needn't bother.

They've already got that "opening" covered, with a long fiber optic "snake" and/or an articulated robotic snake.

They go into places few Americans would risk taking a look, but this area is their specialty, and they're proud about it.

Again, the elite swine need someone to execute their nefarious schemes. In this country of Lemmings, what was used 100 years ago by that elite class to oppress, shoot, burn murder and beat us into compliance are now labeled as "heroes" who unselfishly defend our country from designated, ( by the elite class or their toadies), enemies.
The F.B.I. has always been a group of "super patriots" who do exactly what they're told by their superiors. They are not patriots in the sense that we common folk are because with the common folk is a loyalty to constitution and country. Their loyalty is with those individuals that affect their careers and advancement.
For a perfect example of these "super Patriots" and what they will do, (Waco, Ruby Ridge etc), and have always done, check out this site. Make sure you read the reply of that pig who worked as Hoovers' quizling.

http://www.justicedenied.org/issue/issue_27/fbi's_legacy_of_shame.html

Afraid of a little good old-fashioned police work, apparently. Cops today are overpaid prima donnas who wouldn't know an honest days's work if it bit them in the arse. The US cops are all busy keeping his royal highness safe from protesters, and anyone who might have a difference of opinion with his holiness. It's pathetic.

greatbear: On the other hand, you might see cops also as ordinary humans, underpaid in most municipalities, and with class interests identical to our own.

Undoubtedly it's important that the man in the high castle maintain a wedge between cops and protesters. Just imagine if they agreed on certain issues.

In which city do you think cops are overpaid? Let's graph it vs. cost of living. So far as I've seen, most cops and FBI agents generally don't make the big bucks.