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Gov't Computers Used to Find Info on "Joe the Plumber"
After Joe Wurzelbacher of Ohio gained fame as "Joe the Plumber" in the course of the current presidential campaign, it seems that he's drawn more than idle curiosity from people with access to what should probably be confidential information. An anonymous reader writes with a story from The Columbus Dispatch that "government insiders accessed Joe the Plumber's records soon after the McCain-Obama debate. 'Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher's driver's license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times shortly after the debate. Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department.' Welcome to 1984."
One would do well to actually read 1984 (as opposed to just scream its title every time the Right does something you don't like).
1984 was an comment by Orwell on the Communists. Orwell, himself a socilaist, learned to hate and fear the Communists after the Spanish Civil War.
Big Brother was an obvious stand-in for "Uncle Joe" Stalin.
In 1984 you will see: ... with a life penalty?) and University speech codes (University "Free Speech Zones" are a wonderful example of NewSpeak, DoubleThink, and ThoughtCrime wrapped into one)
* The Ministry of Truth, the media manipulation of news and history (ala the recent Reugter's Photoshopping of pictures from the Israel/Lebanon war; Dan Rather's falsification of documents)
* NewSpeak, the changing of language to make certain thoughts impossible (ala the politically correct language redefinition we experienced in the 70s/80s e.g. "differently abled" for "handicapped", in Sweden "husmor" replaced by "hemmafru" or their English cognates "housewife" with "stay-at-home-mom")
* DoubleThink, the simultaneous holding of two or more mutually exclusive ideas (e.g. "homosexuality is something you are born with" and "homosexuality is a personal and private decision"; or "racism is always wrong" and "affirmative action is the right thing to do")
* ThoughtCrime, making the mere ability of thinking something a crime. You see this all the time in Hate Crime legislation (what murder wasn't already a crime
* also the breakdown of the family and sexual relationships (which has less obvious parallels but "PolPot & the child turns their parents in" (like Winston's neighbor) would be an example)
* furthermore the mild anti-semitism, the hatred of Goldsteinism, today you see this all the time however this is mostly thinly veiled as an attack on "Zionism"
We really shouldn't be surprised by the EU and The Left's fascination with this kind of behaviour. Orwell saw and predicted it nearly 50 years ago.
I'm a small business owner, and while we do well over $250K/year in revenue, I don't make more then $100K/yr. I don't believe I should be paid any more then my highest paid employee. Let's assume though that I did take more than $250K out of the business a year (which is what you'd have to do to hit the $250K limit Obama talks about). I have no problem with a higher tax rate kicking in above $250K/yr of my income, as long as the money is spent properly (i.e. NOT on bailouts, wars, etc).
We've had public health care for years in Canada, our social security is better and we are a welfare state, you can join the club too it's a lot nicer on the other side; we don't turn the aged away because they cannot afford medical service, we actually have a huge booming retirment industry; oh and did I mention that we keep crazy people off the street by giving them money (and possibly preventing them from harming others)....just a thought. Oh and after these bailouts, our tax bracket will be even lower than yours ;)
99% of your inmates should have had medical attention but now you get to pay for them for the rest of their known lives.
~Bullets and electrictity are far cheaper than re-education.
Now remember everyone belongs to everyone else, repetition is key.
(Of course if Russia invades we are turning to you to save us :'( )
I was working on a project where I had to be given access to a state's law enforcement computer system, which was the access point for their Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the US National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and several other systems. I had to watch a videotape and read and sign a document promising all sorts of hell if I ever abused my access by, say, running someone without cause. One real-life example was a cop who would notice an attractive woman go by on the road and run her license plate to get her home address, where he would subsequently show up. I was glad to see that they had such strict policies. Anyone who uses their access privileges to stalk or attempt to dig up info on someone should be prosecuted.
Cue the tape! Fast-forward to minute 5. This video shows employees who were hired by "Homeland Security" to spy on a potential terrorist. Instead, they decided to spy on a private house where man/lady were having sex.
This spying on Joe the Plumber is essentially the same thing - an invasion of privacy. Now I know you'll probably argue this is just a show, but having worked for the government, I can confirm that your information is Not secure. People are reading things about you that you don't want them to know (like how much you're paying to child support, or how much you earn, or how many times you got speeding tickets).
LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92xf94JPoB8&feature=related
The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
I find that impressive, that they're keeping an audit trail of everybody who accesses a record in the DMV database.
In Indiana I can go run plates for $5 dollars each in person. For a $50 dollar fee I can run as many as I want for $4 dollars.
In Oregon you can buy a CD with every Oregon driver on it. Someone put it on the internet and there was wailing and gnashing of teeth. The phone company in real time can and does sell off everyone's name, address and phone number.
And on and on....
It may be illegal to use that particular system in Ahia but I'm curious if there is a legal way to do it?
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
....may be enough to reduce my gross income so that I have to choose between food and fuel....
A solution might be to tax OUTgo rather than INcome and get rid of all other taxes. That tax would have to include ALL spending, not just necessities. A rich person or company buying stock or another company or anything else would be taxed on that also, not only the consumers buying bread and gasoline they buy, as it is with sales tax today. In short have a flat TRANSACTION or MONEYFLOW tax. All the incessant speculative trading in all "markets" could be taxed. This tax might only have to be a percent or two. However it would work only if NO transaction was exempt and all transactions were taxed the same. One big company buying another for $10 billion would pay $100-200 million in taxes.
A normal working person might only have to pay $1 or $2 when buying a $1000 item. A $200,000 house purchase might cost $2000 to $4000 in tax.
The big problem would be not in collecting the tax, but in distributing the collected taxes equitably among the various levels of government.
All theory is gray