Slashdot Mirror
Is Your Neighbor a Democrat? There's an App For That
theodp writes "ProPublica's Lois Beckett reports that the Obama for America campaign's new mobile app is raising privacy concerns with its Google map that recognizes one's current location, marks nearby Democratic households with small blue flags, and displays the first name, age and gender of the voter or voters who live there (e.g.,'Lori C., 58 F, Democrat'). Asked about the privacy aspects of the new app, a spokesperson for the Obama campaign wrote that 'anyone familiar with the political process in America knows this information about registered voters is available and easily accessible to the public.' Harvard law prof Jonathan Zittrain said the Obama app does represent a significant shift. While voter data has been 'technically public,' it is usually accessed only by political campaigns and companies that sell consumer data. 'Much of our feelings around privacy are driven by what you might call status-quo-ism,' Zittrain added, 'so many people may feel that the app is creepy simply because it represents something new.'"
It is creepy, and a good reason not to register as a member of either party...no matter how much you may want to vote in the primaries.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
I know all about who's what, since we see dozens of petitions a year.
The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
ignored by the Government.
Seriously, this is what they think is a good idea?
Time for change is right. I'm thinking we need a new system, the current one no longer represents the people.
Be seeing you...
a political party isn't a government...
go back to school.
I'm sure if this story were the other way around (smartphone app ousting locations of registered Republicans) most Democrats would love to get their hands on that kind of information to administer a bleeding-heart liberal "reeducation" program.
right back atcha.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duopoly
> Harvard law prof Jonathan Zittrain said the Obama
> app does represent a significant shift. While voter
> data has been 'technically public,' it is usually
> accessed only by political campaigns and companies
> that sell consumer data.
"But the plans were on display..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That's the display department."
"With a flashlight."
"Ah, well, the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice, didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."
- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
But for other uses.
Mandy, 28, swallows.
a political party isn't a government...
go back to school.
dude, the "political parties" are fronts for the corporations.
Pay fucking attention.
Be seeing you...
Till that to Hitler .... or Obama.
Canada doesn't even have that, otherwise Harper would never have won a second time. In fact he shouldn't even be PM anymore because of fraud. WTF is going on?
Right. Yes voter records are accessible to the public but so are criminal records and those
of sex offenders. Even the wages and salaries of federal employees are available online
for anyone curious enough btw.
I wonder what a given neighborhood would look like if we overlaid sex offenders and
criminal records with Obama voters. This is entirely feasible and entirely legal as well.
But yes for everybody else who didn't have the misfortune of living 30 years in a communist
country, commies love to use peer pressure. Right now they're planning to show who is
using how much electricity in a given neighborhood and giving discounts if _everybody_
reduces their energy use in a street. Yes, if only one neighbor exceeds the set quota
everybody 'loses' and everybody will know who is 'responsible'. Expect your neighbors
to come to your door and bitch at you.
It appears your hunch isn't that far off from reality:
SCOTUS Rules Petiton Signatures Are Public Record.
ah, yes... "the" corporations, much like "the" [insert racial stereotype here]
Citizen, there's an app for that. Now go spread the message around your block.
Life is not for the lazy.
The previous method, back in the days before all this social networking stuff: Republicans tend to keep their shades drawn, even though they really don't have anything that would be worth hiding. Democrats ought to draw their shades, but don't.
I am officially gone from
1. adds a list of people to harrass for republican activists.
2. even more sign the democratic party is less based on ideals, but more on the sense of community that has been taken from us by the paranoia and fear taken from us by the government and RIAA/MPAA affliated communities. Make otherwise unsure people feel like part of something, and hopefully they won't pay attention to issues.
You can't simultaneously thing wikileaks and government transparency are good things and this is a bad thing. The data was already available, this app just puts a more accessible spin on it. Whether the data should be available or not, that we can talk about...
anyone familiar with the political process in America knows this information about registered voters is available and easily accessible to the public.
Just answer me this Tweek, what do you see as postive about toddler murder?
Ahh ahh... It is easy
Yes it easy.
But wait, there's no need for the Right to feel left out -- they could use technology like this to round up the jews, queers, gypsies et al., with just a fraction of the effort invested by their Nazi role models back in the '30s!
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
We were at one point seeing county and state records being made more accessible by online searches. The rather perverse opinion seems to have prevailed that public information that is easy to access is too frightening so that although you can go to the court house and find the information you can't access it online. But this new app apparently ignores that line of reasoning.
To me public information means exactly that. There is no reason to hide public information. The spin off effects of secrecy which some people want to confuse with privacy issues has long reaching effects that are very hard to measure. Yet neither the general public nor the government or the courts have any consistent reasoning on what or should be private.
This data is not 'creepy' when company's are using this data privately for profit, however when it's expressed publicly in a not-for-profit way it's a privacy concern. God bless America.
a political party isn't a government...
go back to school.
Is the govt any better?
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
Such are the flaws of collectivism.
What I find is interesting is that this is Obama's official campaign app and not some third-party "lets see what we can do with data" app.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
...shows the private addresses of all politicians with a range of little icons over their houses showing what kind of scandals they have been involved with and what organisations they have been members of.
He's been shitting on privacy since day one. This app just reflects his normal mode of operation, and offers the worst excuse ("it's public record, so it's okay") that you can imagine.
Google said the same thing about Street View and nobody liked that, either.
I'm voting for him because Mitt Romney will destroy America, but I sure as hell hate having to do so. And don't say "go independent" because I'm not some criminal-hugging drug addict who believes in anarchy being a viable form of government. Let's try to keep our plans based in reality instead of some pro-crime pothead's wet dream.
ignored by the Government.
You don't have a right to privacy enshrined in the law.
Ain't that a kicker?
It's interesting, I was just thinking- so now I know how to find out who all is voting for the other guy without drawing attention to myself.
Not that I would ever do anything to harm them or anything. But if I decide I don't want Bill's lawn service taking care of my lawn because he is a democrat, I don't need to sign for a big list at some government office and suffer people wondering why I want it. Come to think about it, there are a lot of performance reviews coming up, perhaps I can show some people how evil big corporation really can be.
Note: I am not over anyone who doesn't already think like me. There is absolutely no chance I could economically harm anyone with this information, But others could. Kind of really creepy isn't it.. lol
ah, yes... "the" corporations, much like "the" [insert racial stereotype here]
You might think corporations are people, but the sane people do NOT believe that.
So sorry, corporations can not find safe harbor under hate laws. Nice try though.
Be seeing you...
What this may do is surprise a lot of people, who are actually secret liberals but pretend to be right-wing to avoid confrontations. (My husband does this with his parents. They're as tea party as it comes.) If people see they're not so alone, maybe they won't be so ashamed... Then again, if they see a wall of solid red around them, maybe they'll move.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
They all wake up in the morning with "Vote for Romney" signs in their front yards.
They act as though IOS is the only platform. I searched on Google Play (Stupid name btw, Market was much better!) and no such app exists for Android.
This database been used by Choicepoint for years for Gerrymandering. When you read that a GOP mob will be challenging black voters in district X, it's because Choicepoint has worked out that district X is the best chance of swinging the vote by barring black voters. Ethnicity they mine from one database, the voting preference from this database.
Remember the voter cleansing list? Crossed referenced with Choicepoint (DBT as it was then). The list of mostly Democrats purged from the Florida electoral roll for having similar names to convicted felons in other states. Where do you think they got the list of Democrats from to filter by??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Central_Voter_File
This data should be private, perhaps showing people the public data about them will finally help it be kept private.
Who you vote for is your business, and nobody elses.
Cannibalism, shooting sprees galore, acid-in-the-face attacks, etc; please don't give 'em any ideas.
Take the Red Pill.
Basically, cellphones in any area signal to nearby wireless-router access-points (like your home wireless router) and send their own geo-location along with their signal-strength and MAC-address of the router to a database. Over time and multiple cellphones/smartphones, etc. doing the same thing, the router's MAC becomes traingulated and is mapped to a database. I think the database is managed between Skyhook and Google, which can be querried with the MAC address for the info. I'm pretty sure I've done a poor job describing this, but it's an interesting idea and a possible privacy issue. The only link I could find quickly is this: http://coderrr.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/get-the-physical-location-of-wireless-router-from-its-mac-address-bssid/
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
Yet another way Democrats and Republicans have devised to drive voters to register (and vote) as independents. Let's hope this trend keeps up!
However that was a ruling based on the laws of the state of Washington.
In California the laws are radically different. In fact California and Washington have two of the most divergent sets of laws in the country as far as voting.
Some differences of the top of my head
Overall, I doubt the app is legal in California, although I suspect they could get a presidential pardon.
Work bio at MMWD
And that's EXACTLY what someone should do. This shit isn't going to end until the general public feels the burn. We'd be all better off if that burn were a prank and not what we're really afraid will happen...
Political parties are a crutch for people who can't think for themselves.
Sounds like all those "stalker" apps that harvest Facebook for public check-ins and then show you who's nearby. "But it's public information!", the app's author says. 2 days later, the app is pulled, never to be heard from again.
Why would you say tea party nut? You do realize the last several shooting incidents were most likely people who would vote democrat right? They also were somewhat crazy and probably never connected their political ideology with their desire to kill people.
The Obama campaign is just using a technique that's tried and true in the corporate world.
As long as they don't start installing this app as part of AT&T's Android bloatware package, I don't have a problem with it.
But it's interesting that knowing about what corporate money is coming into a political campaign is completely off limits. For some reason, that's considered just beyond the pale. Well, we know the reason, but that doesn't make it easier to swallow.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Oh, it represents the people alright.
The people with lots of money.
It represents the people, but not any of the people we know.
You are welcome on my lawn.
"That's weird. How come Disneyland and every graveyard are covered with little, blue flags on this map?"
sig: sauer
Exactly what makes you think that a new system will be better?
Look around the world today. Mostly it's worse. Some more are essentially the same +/- certainly not worth going through the hassle to switch to.
A few are better but they are usually the size on one US state or less. Not clear that they would be scalable to something the size of the US.
Or you could avoid saying inflammatory things to the wrong neighbor.
Actually many Jews and Gays are pretty conservative these days, and will certainly vote for Romney. Dunno about the Gypsies.
You could argue that a member of the political party who is currently serving in the government who is seeking reelection is the government. Isn't that what is happening?
They're hardly alone. Here's a similar one: This here app "Stakeout" crawls through meetup.com and finds people around you and when they're (presumably) not at home. https://theotigerblog.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/we-know-where-you-live/
Before we get too excited about this, we would do well to remember that it wasn't until the 1800's that we started having anonymous voting.
When you voted for any of the first several presidents, you went into a big room and held up your hand. There was zero voter fraud then (as now).
Secret ballots and anonymity in the electoral process was not part of the original system in the US. The founders didn't see the need, apparently. But counting the votes was always taken very seriously, with representatives from both parties involved. (This was before the innovation of black box computer voting outsourced to Republicans. Before Ken Blackwell. Before 2000).
You are welcome on my lawn.
Collectivism? Why is everything that the right doesn't like is assumed to come from the mind of Karl Marx? If your neighborhood watch goes around noting the license plates of guys who cruise for hookers, is that collectivism?
Social morality has always had an element of peer pressure and groupthink. That's as true for right wing value systems and left wing ones.
Seriously? I can't imagine any way to better piss off independents than this crap.
Care to back that up with some argumentation?
If your opinions are that private, WTF are you doing on Slashdot?
it's supposed to only be given to political parties, NOT to random marketing.
That said, I did some volunteer work for a candidate a few years back (went door-to-door asking people to vote for our guy). I showed up at his campaign HQ introduced myself by first name and asked how I could help. They gave me a sheaf of printouts with names and addresses and sent me off ringing doorbells. There was no ID or authentication attempt and I've never been a member of any party (I just happened to like that particular candidate).
It's a pretty bad screw, voter info should be completely confidential. Sigh.
That's the last push I need to start the Mindyourownfuckingbusiness Party.
When I was a Poll Inspector, lots of times we'd have paranoid zealots from the lunatic fringe go through all our stuff rooting for fraud, ramrods from the local (Republican) Party office checking to see if people were showing up, &c. We are required to post an updated Roster for public inspection.
This is just a bit like giving away too much, since as we all know some blissfully ignorant psycho just may have been just waiting for this random bit of the available info to inspire some dramatic lunacy.
I'd like to try/use the app, but I don't own a smartphone. That I can't run its equivalent on my PC kinda pisses me off.
He wasn't talking about hate laws, you said that. His comment was about irrational fear, stereotyping, stupid generalizations and other small minded ways ol looking at things.
even more sign the democratic party is less based on ideals, but more on the sense of community
Wow, so it's "community" now to out your neighbors and friends as to political leanings?
Come to think of it, Democrats are fond of outing gay Republicans. I guess this is just another example of how the Democrats know best what aspects of your life should be public.
As others have stated - a better incentive to register independent I have not seen.
Thank you Democrats for birthing yet another wave of libertarians, keep tugging on that wool.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I don't think someone thought this app through. This app is going to tell people what the age the person is of the household, their sex, and if they are likely to be Liberal or not? I can see this app being very popular with the criminals, they can see which houses are most likely liberal since there are Democrat(s) living at that address. Now if you were a bad guy, wouldn't you love to know what the ages are in the house, if its most likely female or male, and their political leanings are since the Liberals/Progressives are most likely NOT GOING TO HAVE A GUN IN THE HOUSE! What an interesting burglary tool, or should I say, application.
If all you see is red and blue, I'd say it's time to get new glasses, metaphorically speaking...
If you start hating someone just because of one thing they believe, then the only person that has a real problem is you.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Blue and Navy!
Other colors you say? Unpossible!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
We need to take a book out of what they do in New Zealand, Germany, and several other countries. We need to open source the technology behind the voting machines like they do in Australia and we need to have it become a standard system that requires your identification card you carry on you and take a photo as well just so that things can be vetted and secured. Photo identification on the poll taker part for verification is used in many countries. It doesn't put the issue on the actual voter then. I personally don't care about using my finger print or retina or something for multi part verification for my vote or even a password and check in system, we can send in our IRS taxes via the internet, why can't we vote that way too? I mean hell our taxes are far scarier with far more information that could ruin us than our vote. I would also say we need to make voting mandatory, even if you says I abstain you are on the record saying i abstain, just like senators and congressmen have to as well. Second we need to force the private donations out, I know you are gonna have some one bitch about this but since you have people with more money getting more voice than people who don't have money its a modern day Land owners only can vote kind of law. Anyone without a million dollars to throw someones way now make the average american who doesn't have the ability to afford lobbyists, or buy 10,000 dollar plates for campaign fundraiser dinners we the world poor are now 3/5's a vote to our rich land owners then. We are now salves in a whole new way to this system of private campaign donations. If you really want to see change we need to have a general fund that shared to everyone. We also need to have forced times like how we have the emergency broadcast system to inject the campaign videos of only the candidate on the screen talking about his views on issues. Those videos will be required to be played if you got so many signatures in the market or district that advertising is played and then also once you get to the final elections they are played during prime time. No more money for private groups or political parties. If the political parties get donations they can only use them to put into the general fund and pay for the federal printing office to print signs. No more money can be used to pay for more ads unless it comes from the general fund which is partial tax money and partial multi-party donation support. All chips in as the people running represent everyone if they get in this isn't a game of winning this is matter of representing 100% of your area not only the 51% that voted you in. Third we need to break up the political parties. We currently have what is tantamount to a political duopoly, The smaller parties are only filled with extremists on both sides and the idea of neutral middle is gone. Both democrats and republicans are just two sides of the same coin just one is more "Christian moral" conservative than the other. We need to force it so that no less than nine (9) major political parties exist at any one time with no more than 20% control. I want to see people be forced to compromise and move the ball down the field as a team to make the world better for everyone, not just those who donated to them or those they align them self with. We need to have other parties on equal footing with the current parties to keep politicians clean. We need balance and you can't have polar + or - any more you need to have the multiple voices of direction come together and not tow party line if they think where the party is going is wrong and can easily switch parties while in office if they want to. Also i think we need to make the congressional rep time to a one time term of four (4) years, senators can run for a one time term of six (6) years and the president is the only one that is able to run for multiple terms but for two terms of five (5) years. For the president though you had to have been a senator or a congressional rep as well. Also the cycle fo the elections again have to be off from the other ones so on odd years you ha
You forgot Barn-Burning.
This is just another example of tech burning away the illusion of privacy. It isn't taking away privacy from people; it's just another graphic example of letting people see what kind of information that is and always has been freely available to anyone who wants it. Which is worse? Not knowing what people know about you or knowing very well what people can know about you? It might be scary for some, but I'll *always* choose the latter.
So far all the homicidal nut jobs in the U.S. have liberal bents, so it's quite safe to reveal where Democrats live.
Revealing locations of conservatives now, that would lead to some real issues...
People: register independent, and vote for who you like, not the color of their badge.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This is slashdot; the attribution was redundant. Most of us got it on the second line...
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
This unleashes the mob, if you're looking for trouble.
Sadly, I have to tell you that Privacy has been ignored not only by the government, but also by a lot of people around us
Look at what they have disclosed about themselves on fb and other social-network sites
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
We need an app like this for gun owners and straight single women... just one app, I mean.
It actually seems MORE true for right wing value systems, actually.
But, I thought the current line was that the tea party types were too stupid to use a smart phone. Regardless that they're all deviously cunning at the same time.
(I have trouble keeping track of which "great truth" about out-groups is in effect.It's a bit like those press releases from the Syrian government. "There is no unrest in Aleppo. And it is all fomented by outsiders.")
"shooters are liberal"? I wonder where that meme came from. Sounds like typical misdirection to me.
From all the facts I've seen, the shooters were not-particularly-sane people with guns, and had ideologies that weren't consistent with any major school of thought.
Actually, the Nazis were pioneers in exactly this sort of technology, for exactly that reason *cough*IBM*cough*
Like everyone posting here today, I am presently out on my own recognizance, and manage to generally eschew my Government on a day to day basis. The [long string of expletives omitted] Advertisers, OTOH, not so much. Considering all the corporate support for foreign corruption, (not to mention our friends in the Financial Sector), I don't see how you can expect me to believe your friends in commerce are not as just evil as they feel is necessary.
Well, in a sense, I guess they all have been... Liberals will actually try to do something. You wouldn't see a conservative shooter. They just don't have it in them to get up and accomplish anything, good or bad.
I am a US citizen enjoying European privacy laws. That Just about everything (thing like the fact that you purchased auto or homeowner's of insurance) in the US is treated as a public record is a major problem. It's being abused in was that our grandparents could not have dreamed of. When will Americans wake up?
I will accept corporations as people when the state of Texas throws them into prison for 30 years hard time, or they actually execute one -- not before. They damn sure cannot vote.
Voters votes used to count, or recount, but that was in the olden times before actual voters were replaced with easily hacked electronic voting machines. Actual voters $10 or $20 campaign contributions used to count for something as well, before SCOTUS approved the Citizens United decision, now mountains of campaign cash from offshore banksters. Corporations, which cannot vote, can only buy advertising that promotes their candidate (or more recently both candidates). If we ignore the corporate media and investigate, support, and vote for candidates that will actually represent us when in office, we would be a lot better off.
When the economy completely collapses we'll know who to go after.
The two parties own our political process. They make it difficult for anyone but them to get on the ballot. They even have "straight ticket" checkboxes on ballots so you don't have to go through the trouble of voting for individuals based on their qualifications, but simply vote for every Democrat or Republican on the ballot.
But in the end, you can vote for whoever you want to vote for in the general election.
The biggest reason for the party registration is that most states don't allow you to vote in a party's primary unless you're registered to a party, and a person registered for one party can't vote in another party's primary (vote for the weakest candidate). Yes, that's another way the two parties have owned our system: The government actually runs and pays for their primary elections when it should be their own business who they put up for election, and entirely with their own money.
Actually, yeah I'd even have a problem with it in your example. A guy getting a hooker isn't hurting anyone. They should mind their own business.
AreYour Neighbors Republicans? There's a gene test for that too!
Yes, seriously.
But, it could, of course, also check if you're prone to be Democrat too.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-genetics-of-politics
"The researchers’ data on 442 identical and 364 fraternal Add Health twins indicate that genetics underlies 72 percent of differences in voting turnout and roughly 60 percent of differences in other political activity. Fowler, who presented the research at the American Political Science Association meeting in August, claims that preliminary results from the Twins Days festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, also support the findings. Fowler adds that his team’s work does not suggest that genetics can determine whom people will vote for, only whether or not they are likely to vote. He also emphasizes that environment most likely plays a significant role in voting: “There is still a lot we can do to shape political behavior in spite of our genetic tendencies.”"
Except this information is already public record, it was never private to begin with.
. . . and good ole Mr. Hope n Change made it all possible to update it to the 21st century. First they would make such a thing voluntary, while the technology is ironed out, and then give it a few election cycles and it will be required to vote with a smart phone, and this information will automatically be catalogued and shared with govt agencies. They won't likely care if you are voting for either of the two establishment choices, but they are likely to use the GPS location of third party voters. This, coupled with an automated drone airforce, they could AUTOMATICALLY send hellfire missiles into any building filled with third party voters without much effort at all.
Therefore, the Holocaust of the 21st century wouldn't even require an actual gestapo. All votes would be recorded and GPS stamped automatically, and once the opposing strongman gives the word, a drone army automatically drops a "payload" at the GPS location to anyone who voted for the other guy.
Not saying that would happen, but the fact that this technology along with GPS guided weaponry that is increasingly automated (no human pilot), it actually COULD happen, should a new Adolf Hitler type leader get elected. If anything, I hope this creepy thing turns a lot of Democrats off from voting for Obama, but then again, what's the other choice? Worst election. Ever.
+1 - Ben Franklin (Defending the right of others to disagree with your opinion).
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
And,,, cow tipping. I hope I didn't give any terrorists ideas.
The big question I have is what value does this have to the Obama campaign?
Collectivism? Why is everything that the right doesn't like is assumed to come from the mind of Karl Marx? If your neighborhood watch goes around noting the license plates of guys who cruise for hookers, is that collectivism?
Social morality has always had an element of peer pressure and groupthink. That's as true for right wing value systems and left wing ones.
Just like how you think some guy looking for a hooker is evil.
Morality is relative and those who claim to be moral rarely are.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Nice Try
NAZI was slang (shortened form of the German pronunciation for the first word of the actual name of Hitler's party)
Hitler's political party had the acronym NSDAP (which you will see on signs and atop standards in parades on old newsreel footage) and in was (translated to English) "National Socialist German Workers Party" (Germans use "Deutch" for "German" and "Arbeit" for "Work", Their words for "National" "Socialist" and "Party" start with "N" "S" and "P" the same as the English counterparts) .... There is simply no way to assign a "national socialist worker's party" to the "right wing" within any political spectrum other than that of Europe, where everybody is so far left that a socialist can be to their right.
sheesh.... the weakness of the modern edumacation system is sure on display....
Now I can see which of my employees probably voted for Obummer and I can reward them with quietly and subtly spaced-out pink slips for having saddled me with all the new taxes and regulations...
This is slashdot; the attribution was redundant. Most of us got it on the second line...
Not everyone read that book in English -- or at all, for that matter.
you only need to worry about getting your family out of the country if they start spraypainting yellow stars on houses
if a candidate running for my electorate really sucks, and nobody voted for him, but other people in his party elsewhere got voted in, why the hell should some moron get to govern a district in which nobody voted for him?
"proportional representation" isn't democracy, it's just a fancy name for mob rule
Just wait for September or October. Someone will be sure to remind us Jews about the Mormon practice of baptizing our relatives who were slaughtered in Europe. All the constant Christianity nonsense from Republicans is bad enough-a reminder of how LDS' "scripture" is downright offensive will do us good.
Between that and Obama's fantastic record of support for Israel with multiple Israeli leaders (who were gracious to provide plenty of video footage and soundbites for campaign ads), Romney isn't very appealing. Remember- we're a little too smart for the inane pandering he's dependent on to gain conservative votes. Sure he can make you think he has Jewish vote all locked up by playing nice with our conservatives, but we're a very varied bunch and most of us have no interest in the armageddon that American conservatives are trying to bring about.
Yes of course since he used that NAME Hitler must have been left-wing, just like the People's Democratic Republic of the Congo is a republic with democratically elected representatives who answer to the people.
His comment was about irrational fear, stereotyping, stupid generalizations and other small minded ways ol looking at things
if you're talking about radiumsoup's comment "ah, yes... "the" corporations, much like "the" [insert racial stereotype here]", his comment is actually pretty stupid and pointless. maybe it could even be implied that he thought Nyder was taking a poke at Jews, but from his comment I doubt radiumsoup gave it that much thought.
small mindedness is honestly believing that corporations don't have US politics by the balls. corporations aren't people and they can't vote, but they don't need to vote because they just buy what they wanted from elected representatives... its called lobbying (with bribery thrown in for good measure)
there is plenty of irrational fear, stereotyping, etc in the world, but there is also abundance of ignorance and gullibility
ever heard the phrase "money talks and bullshit walks"? that pretty much sums up american politics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Myers_(politician)
Yeah, why would you all care if someone knew what party you registered with....Stand up for yourself
While I agree with your general sentiment anonymity of a vote is an essential condition for a free and fair election. While people should stand up for themselves when society is hostile to a particular view many people do not. Giving people an anonymous vote is the only way to ensure that they will vote the way that they want to. Without this people may feel pressured into voting a particular way. You can say that this is their problem - and is western democracies it probably is (less so in some places) - but if it effects enough people it becomes a societal problem because then democracy ceases to function and bad things happen.
So by all means encourage people to stand up for what they believe but remember that many may not (for various reasons) and so you need to have an electoral system that works for them as well.
What if my neighbor is not a democrat, not a republican either, nor a libertarian, an independent ...
What if my neighbor turn out to be an illegal alien?
What should I do?
If I was an American, I would put up a sign offering my vote for sale. Why should only politicians be the only ones that take money from "special interested"?
This can be done 100% legal by creating political action committees that accepts donations, and pays you off $$$ as a consultant.
Corporations are simply orginizations. They are owned and operated by individuals, who themselves bear responsability for their actions. So when people make blanket claims about "The Corporations" they are speaking from ignorance and hate and fear.
Now, the parent brought up hate laws in a compleyly transparent attempt to change the subject. I was simply pointing that out.
Don't show me Dems, show me single Dem girls of roughly my age!
Seriously, in the age of Girls Around Me plotting an obfuscated version of a public data set (the last name is edited out) should not look creepy any longer. The app could have opted to edit nothing out, and then link the data to plethoras of other data sets and social network accounts.
As a society, the US has been persistently trading privacy for shopping coupons, transparency and security for the past century or so. As individuals, it's your responsibility to share what little information you've still control of on a per need basis. Most evidently don't care that much. (How many cash-only people do you know? What about non-Googlers?)
If it ever is illegal to aggregate data on anyone unless they opt-in in no uncertain terms, and illegal to bundle such an opt-in clause in terms and services, I'll shed a real tear. But we're not heading there.
We already know the Teaklanners are terrorists. Probably not too good that "there's an app for that".
Tracking johns and publically embarrassing them is just one tiny aspect of the multiheaded hydra meme battling for dominance. Groups of ideas battle to reproduce, evolving and using all tricks at their disposal, including force of law.
That you feel this or that law is good or bad is about as important to the meme datastream as the fact you have a leg or brain is to your DNA datastream. It's just a functionary detail in the service of its reproduction.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
"proportional representation" isn't democracy, it's just a fancy name for mob rule
"Democracy" is just a fancy name for mob rule.
So when people make blanket claims about "The Corporations"
its not irrational fear or blanket statements. its just basic business. corporations exist to enable people to make money and flout the law without being personally sued. just look at what happens when a company files for bankruptsy... usually the CEO gets a nice big fat golden handshake. ok he may not be the most popular guy in town, but he can merely move to a new town where money talks. credibiliy, ethics and morals aren't prerequisites for making money in this day and age. in fact as the old saying goes (and is still so true), "nice guys finish last".
the parent brought up hate laws in a compleyly transparent attempt to change the subject
i sort of got the impression that what was said in the op (perhaps not clearly worded) was that it was invalid to compare corporations with [insert race here] because of corporations being impersonal as they are, or in other words corporations don't deserve any protection from racial descrimination type arguments (or laws) because they don't represent anything that could be discriminated against
the difference is that in the case of proportional representation, the mob is the political party, whereas in a democracy the mob is the people
i'll take democracy over proportional representation anyday
if you want your local representative to be decided by government, maybe you should try living in china
My father, who is American (not me though, technically yes, but I don't live there, and it seems like a crazy place I wouldn't want to stay for all that long), thinks the Primary system makes the USA more democratic. I'm not so sure. Seems to me like a weird way for the 2 "parties" to be completely inescapable.
In Canada, when we have a terrible political party because it gets too corrupt from being in power, eventually that party gets dumped and those with that ideology have to form a new party that must embody the ideals but not the old vices. It's not perfect but it seems light-years ahead of the US 2 party system. In the US the bad old stuff just never dies all the way back to slavery.
I support the makers of this app. All they are doing is putting to use what is already out there. If we don't want those records so public we should make the change so the records aren't public that way. In a way they are highlighting a problem that needs to be solved.
Stupidity is its own reward.
for being stupid enough to actually think those political parties are looking out for their best interests.
Its a Wallstreet Government: http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6376331/Inside.Job.2010.DOCU.MULTISUBS.DVDRip.XviD-JanOve
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
"There is simply no way to assign a "national socialist worker's party" to the "right wing" within any political spectrum other than that of Europe, where everybody is so far left that a socialist can be to their right."
This kind of lying about history, or worse, genuine ignorance, is truly scary. Such a statement is like spitting on the graves of all the Allied soldiers who died in WW2. You should be ashamed.
"Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it." I've never believed that phrase as much as I do now, reading your Glen Beck inspired nonsense. The ignorance required to make such an outlandish claim acceptable in the public sphere is truly revolting. The thing is that with a big lie, if you repeat it enough... (on Fox News)...
Stupidity is its own reward.
Registering as "independent" however means that you aren't allowed to vote in any primary elections
Actually that varies from state to state. Quite a few states, like Texas, have "open" primaries where any registered voter can vote in any parties primary. Some other states, such as Massachusetts, allow independent voters to vote in any parties primary. And a few Democratic stronghold states, such as Maryland, allow independent voters to vote in the Republican primaries (because otherwise it'd just be two voters and a goat).
You should learn your own states law. Arizona primaries are open to "non-affiliated" voters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_primaries_in_the_United_States
No doubt will be very useful after the revolution, when new 'Put your money where your mouth is' laws will be 'redistributing' all the leftists 'ill gotten gains' .
Funny it will be giving THEM exactly what they call for.
Aint technology a great thing ???
Voter reg data includes not just brief biological data [first, middle, last, address, DOB, sometimes telephone, date registered, political affiliation, the elections in which the person voted, which were absentee], but then state census data contains lots of other good stuff [first, middle, last, maiden, address, sometimes telephone, occupation as person reports it, head of household status, etc] and then if the person is a homeowner, you use the assessment database [date home purchased, assessed value each year, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, condition of each, any co-owners]. Then you can throw in the facebook, the google, the linkedin.
My concern: even private citizens like myself who know of and access this data don't flaunt it. I don't make it obvious to a neighbor that I know she votes in all Democratic primaries or only votes in November 0 mod 4 elections. I don't talk about her property tax bill either. Some people with this app will play it poorly because they will not understand that even the data is out there in the public, it is still impolite to treat it as common knowledge.
Support a few technologists in Washington.
There's been an app out for finding democrats for ages. It's called Grindr.
When I was a Poll Inspector, lots of times we'd have paranoid zealots from the lunatic fringe go through all our stuff rooting for fraud, ramrods from the local (Republican) Party office checking to see if people were showing up, &c. We are required to post an updated Roster for public inspection.
This is just a bit like giving away too much, since as we all know some blissfully ignorant psycho just may have been just waiting for this random bit of the available info to inspire some dramatic lunacy.
Or some burglar would like to know which houses have no guns.
--
There was no gun at the Aurora theater, so instead of a gunfight there was a massacre.
Where exactly is the problem: Is it wrong for the government to collect information about voter registration (necessary to prevent fraud, very helpful in planning primary ballots, in planning various districting maps, and in ensuring (where desired) that people don't "poison" the opposing party's primary)? Is it wrong that information collected by the government be publicly accessible (useful for verifying that information about yourself is accurate)? Or is it wrong that a private company has aggregated public information and made it easily accessible (removing yet another layer of privacy-by-obscurity)?
I live in a moonbat suburb of Boston. The app identifies me as the only non-Democrat in town.
(To be fair, the fact that I drive the only non-Prius may have tipped my neighbors off anyway.)
When Adams wrote that, a lot of public records were still maintained on paper. That alone provided a huge natural barrier to intrusive searches, despite the fact that the information was technically public. Placing all this information online in a publicly searchable database creates the biggest invasion of privacy in history, yet the legal basis has not changed.
This kind of "app", although technically legal, really does nothing but expose voters to the potential for abuse or even violence. If I wanted my party affiliation known I would post signs supporting my favorite candidates.
Bands of roving thugs using these apps to break windows of all registered republicans, democrats, whatever, is unacceptable. And really, what else could it possibly be good for?
I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
They are owned and operated by individuals, who themselves bear responsability for their actions.
What the fuck are you smoking? Seems to me that the whole point of incorporating is so that the individual does not have to take responsibility for bad business decisions, even if they were the ones making the damned decisions. Look at the fucking banking industry right now. Yeah, there's a whole lot of individual responsibility being meted out there, huh?
Corporations have all the rights of living people but don't have any of the responsibility. They've become super-people, able to act with near impunity because, at the end of the day, when the jig is up and there is nothing more than can be squeezed...then they just go Enron and the fuckers at the top hop on their private plane to the other boards they sit on to continue the process. They're the financial equivalent of locusts.
It's about finding non-democrats so they can be singled out for "special treatment" by the administration.
Keep your vote private. Never vote a 'straight ticket'. Never, ever, ever, under any circumstance register with any party.
Sorry... this just indicates you are going through life through blinders on.
Right now corporations are fronts for a very elite group of people. They are not representatives of their shareholders. Not in the least. When is the last time a shareholder meeting made a significant difference in the stance of a corporation?
Corporations are significant concentrations of power and the "executive class" use them to get their way.
instead of democrat app, should be a very large red flag of alert. What is this? Pointers to marks to further separate our country?
It never fails to astound me what happens when you give technology to those who should not have it.
Oh do tell enlightened one, I want to see your plan for a better system of government that will fairly and equitably govern a nation of 300 million people.
Why don't you write a paper and submit it as a slashdot article. We are all waiting.
Please indicate where in the Constitution the party is given all this power.
Specific references please.
Tick, tick, tick, tick.
Sorry, you lose.
God you people are idiots. You do understand that the Nazis were the 'National Socialist German Workers' Party' don't you? That's the left in case you do not understand it.
I am curious, where did you get this idea that Hitler voted Republican?
What privacy? You signed that away a long time ago. This is merely the wider exercising of something that's been possible and legal for a very long time.
No-one yet has cited the precise point in time that this registration info became public, and who signed it off. Don't just whine, go and do some useful research instead.
Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
if they start spraying yellow stars and pink triangles on houses maybe the country can return to being a white god fearing country instead of a mud infested shit hole that tries to corrupt children with homosexual recruitment propaganda. It is sickening what the nation has become, a bunch of effiminate manchildren and faggots who preach about "equality for all" but violently suppress any dissenting opinion that doesn't agree with their multikult rhetoric.
New flash faggots, you're all broken mentally ill people who enjoy eating feces. You're a vector for disease and the sooner we add homosexuality back on the books as a mental disorder the better off we will be. "Oh, so you're a closet fag" they wail, never fully realizing that there are plenty of people who simply see them as the dieased freaks they are.
"Oh you're a Jesus freak then." Wrong answer faggots. God has nothing to do with disliking homosexuals and their deviant lifestyles. Eating feces is not normal, having sex with dozens of partners in some dirty bathroom stall is not normal. If you want to live in a hedonistic shit hole go do it elsewhere.
The day of the rope is coming.
Be warned, be ready
None shall be left and the hard rain will wash away the filth of the streets.
This is slashdot; the attribution was redundant. Most of us got it on the second line...
Not everyone read that book in English -- or at all, for that matter.
This is an English language forum, you can hardly complain about quoting English writers in English.
Also, if you are barely literate there is this handy invention called "google" where you can copy and paste quotes in and usually get an idea of the author straightaway.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
If you think that's creepy, checkout:
http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/elections-quebec-2012/carte-du-financement-politique-au-quebec/
Since 2011, any amount over 200$ was made public by the organisation overseeing elections. Since 2012 all amounts are public. This is (in part) to counter corporate fraud. Companies are not allowed to donate directly to political parties, so they ask their employees to do so.
See post above about Democratic Republic of Congo. Also, recall that East Germany was the German Democratic Republic. Then, go read up about fascism and where it fits on the political spectrum. You scabrous spittoon of stable sweepings.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
How do they diffrentiate the ones cruising for hookers from the ones cruising for any other reason?
No, actually, the people that own it aren't. The whole point of the corporation form is that it is a mechanism by which the government allows stockholders to have the financial benefits of "ownership" of a business operation without, except in the most extreme circumstances, bearing any responsibility other than the financial risk of the up-front investment (unlike an operator of a sole proprietorship or member of regular partnership, who can be held liable for all liabilities of the business entity even if they far exceed the amount voluntarily invested in the business.)
We are speaking of the political spectrum in the US.
You said it yourself genius, "Commies love it" ... "But wait, there's no need for the Right to feel left out".
Go back to your moms basement and finish your Cheesy Pooffs.
Actually, the executive class are just the best-paid agents of the capitalist class (the two overlap, which can confuse the issue, but its membership in the latter class that is the real source of power.)
More idiocy from the land of libtardia. Why are you people so stupid? Can't you read?
Jews historically break for the left like lemmings off a clif. God only knows why.
Yet you lot spout this nonsence like it it gospel. "Jews and Gays are pretty conservative these days"... "Obamacare will reduce healthcare costs..." "Obama is pro free-enterprise", and on and on it goes.
Lies, all of them.
Wake up morons.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=1645534
"In 2008, 78 percent of America's Jewish voters voted for Barack Obama -- second only to the African-American vote, which was 97 percent. But a New York Times bestselling author doubts the president will receive that same kind of support from the Jewish community this year.
Near the end of his first term, many submit that President Barack Obama is the most anti-Israel president in U.S. history. Though still overwhelmingly Democrat, the latest Gallup poll indicates President Obama's support among Jews has eroded by some 15 percent."
Care to back that up with some argumentation?
He just did. "Anything less than Proportional Representation doesn't meet any sensible definition of democracy."
It's a sensible argument in some respects. It means no winner-takes-all-seats during elections. If there are N seats for an area, and votes are spread like 35%, 30%, 20%, 10%, and a couple of weenies, then each of the major parties involved get seats in proportion to their share of the votes. The alternative is to split the same area into N districts, and give a seat to the winning party in each one. The top party in that same area would usually get most if not all of the seats -- yet it's only 5% more popular than the next largest party, and only representing a third of the voters; it's the rule of the majority by the biggest minority.
In other respects, it's not that sensible. Depending on the threshold at which parties get one seat, it can give tremendous bargaining power to smaller parties since a ruling majority can seldom be formed without them; it's also the rule of the majority by minorities.
The two systems can be (and usually are) combined: allocate a seat or two to the leading party of each district, and the remaining seats proportionally over the whole area. That way, major parties can more readily form majorities in parliaments.
The same thing that they've been used for the whole time the information has been public. One campaign getting the information and providing it in a form (and with usage controls) optimizing it for use for that purpose on their side is just a way of reducing the costs of having every local campaign office paying the cost of getting paper records from the local government, and every party-friendly-but-independent effort doing the same thing.
When Adams wrote that, a lot of public records were still maintained on paper. That alone provided a huge natural barrier to intrusive searches, despite the fact that the information was technically public. Placing all this information online in a publicly searchable database creates the biggest invasion of privacy in history, yet the legal basis has not changed.
Everybody here always mocks "security through obscurity" so it's interesting to look back to a time when it actually was quite plausible.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
It's because we Americans are simply too stupid to select an election system that allows more than two parties
Please don't expect this to help. There are enough clueless idiots out there to fill any number of political party nominations. I'm not sure that choosing the least worse of 3 or more is much better than least worse of two. But you should definitely keep party membership lists private - it opens all sorts of possibilities for abuse otherwise.
Even murderers know that republicans are crazy!
Based on what GP actual said, I'd think he's afraid of people who both have a membership that indicates a high probability of gun ownership and act in a manner which indicates paranoia directed at him personally. He didn't say the problem was that the person was an NRA member, but that that he was "that fellow that accuses you of stealing mail when you give him the NRA pamphlet the mailman mis-delivered." (I have highlighted the key part of the sentence you seem to have overlooked.)
In the real world, proportional representation is the name for a feature of certain systems of democracy (and there are several different ways of acheiving it) in which the representation in the legislature is proportional to the support for particular views in the electorate. You are probably thinking, in making this complaint, of specifically the party-list-proportional system, which does this directly by assigning seats in the legislature to parties who assign seats off their own lists which are set prior to the election. While this does reduce the direct accountability of individual members to the general electorate, it in practice produces governments which much higher popular satisfaction that first-past-the-post, single-member district systems like that in the US. This is because it is more effectively democratic.
The Colorado dude was a college guy. Clearly a liberal.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Democrats and Liberals are business hostile. I applaud this new tool for qualifying hiring candidates.
People like you are the reason they invented lampposts and rope.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
So the gist of your comment is, "I'm a troll, and I like arguing, but I'm incapable of individual thought".
Thanks for wasting my time, but for trolls like yourself I guess that's where the thrill comes from. Put "GNAA" in your handle next time so I know I'm dealing with somebody who is just fishing for abuse.
Ever considered posting on 4chan or reddit instead of Slashdot? We have intelligent discussion here, and people like you would be better served trolling other trolls.
"shooters are liberal"? I wonder where that meme came from.
From the same shelf as "liberals are harmless gun-fearing pansies." They're brought out for different occasions.
I was not aware of this app until now, but I will use it in my quest to purchase a home. Now I can finally check out the neighborhood and make sure I won't be buying a home surrounded by a bunch of filthy liberals. The utility of the app is limited of course, since I was not going to buy in an area of poor people and minorities anyway, duh. A little added "homeland security" can't hurt. Thanks for pointing yourselves out, since we aren't allowed to make you wear special identifying clothing!
So, people who think that serial killers should be executed are just being judgmental?
"shooters are liberal"? I wonder where that meme came from.
Not a meme, just the facts. All of the mass shootings we have seen in the news have had liberal bents. Chose any one you like, look at what they were into.
Not to be sure, they were also madmen. But it seems that so far all of the insane people are a lot more prone to shoot up conservative members (like churchgoers and so on) than liberals, so people that might be specifically targeted need only generally worry about being specifically targeted if they are conservative.
That's simply how it is.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Depends which one appeases the periwinkle blue caravan lobby.
well, i'm shocked as to why america has to use brute force to get anywhere in the world, being as friendy and understanding you obviously are :)
when the greenback loses its global reserve status (it will eventually), you may find that america literally becomes a mud infested shit hole, because your debt is the only thing keeping you afloat.
Well, duh... And it also helps to simply attribute the quote as the guy did.
I can't believe I'm answering this turd...
Oh dear, you're modded for Insightful.
Slashdot users, you should stay far away from politics and stick to whining about Windows.
... people can plainly see which way you lean?
All members of the government are a member of a political party. So yes, political parties *are* the government.
Learn to love Alaska
And really, what else could it possibly be good for?
Your stupidity and ignorance isn't a good refutation of it. Just because you can't think of anything off the top of your head when you obviously aren't even trying, doesn't mean there aren't any other reasons. In fact, I've found that the more people say "I can't think of a good reason" the more it seems to me that there are plenty.
Learn to love Alaska
Thanks for your post. Our databases have now been corrected.
The latest one appears to be a right-wing christian terrorist. Maybe you haven't been paying attention, but much of the right wing has gone completely insane. When a party requires beliefs that are obviously backward, foolish, and harmful, insanity has become political. You cannot be sane, paying attention, and Republican any more.
I don't see it as any more "creepy" than the political robo-calls I get, the mailers I receive, or the knocks on my door from political workers.
Annoying and inconvenient, yes.
If you are going to participate in the political process, which is a guaranteed right, and nothing to hide or be ashamed of, you are not going to, and have never been able to, do it anonymously.
Transparency runs both ways, how are you going to know if there's ballot stuffing or fraud if it's all a big secret ?
Legitimate privacy concerns are one thing; the tendency to shirk social responsibilities and try and justify this under the guise of "privacy concerns" is quite another.
Newsflash: Many Americans are willing to give up their rights and responsibilities for some perceived convenience. It's pathetic and childish, but hey, at least it's representative government at work.
Holy shit is that app bad for me. I live in Texas (not really because I'm that paranoid, but you get the idea), and if my distant neighbors knew I voted for democrats on occasion my house or family could be in fucking danger. HOLY SHIT this is not cool.
OK, do I have anonymous poster on? Check.
That's disturbing. I'm personally not registered as repub or dem, but Green Party - and I think registering under another party enhances privacy and security. I feel separate from the warriors. And I can vote for whomever I want, which usually means voting against the most monstrous. But never wasting a vote, knowing that we are a two-party system.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
If you want to determine the future direction of the country, the primaries is where it's being decided. By the time the general election comes around, you have two choices that tend to be quite similar (despite all the rhetoric). And that's actually a pretty good system, provided people participate in the primaries.