In other news, Phillip Morris strongly objected to people growing Hemp for commercial purposes. "It is bad for people's health... and besides, tobacco can't be used in blue jeans." said a Phillip Morris spokesman. It violates and duplicates our copyright on Nicotine -- which we made after we figured out what all that brown stuff was on the handkerchiefs.
Dark Matter is something that physicists have used, to explain things that don't add up in calculations about the movement of galaxies and the expanding of the universe.
I have an alternate explanation that explains the concept that the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate, Gamma-ray bursts, and the background noise in the Universe.
Namely: There wasn't ONE big bang and there isn't just ONE universe. I'm not talking about extra dimensions -- but that the universe that we experience is just one Cluster, or "bubble." Our Big Bang was a regional event, and we can't see beyond the Time/Space distortion of it's shock wave. At some point, billions of years in the future, we may encounter the diluted shockwave of another Big Bang (we'll register it as a large-scale Stretching and contracting of space, as though everything were all of the sudden in a larger gravity well and then in less of one) and then see stars from another "Universe" and their Red-shift will show them coming toward us.
Galaxies are pushed outward more than they should, because larger objects are affected at a greater distance -- while small objects are much more effected by the closer objects. So any gravity detection, say, on earth or of an earth-sized object, would not detect the massive but distant effect of another Universe pulling on galaxies of our own. Thus, Galaxies are moving outward at a faster rate than is explainable from Big Bang theory.
The concept of this being an Open, or Closed universe is moot -- we are in a sea of "bubbles." And our Universe -- or Megaverse, is much more massive than anyone can imagine.
>> However, there may be Neutron clusters of unattached matter. Or "closed-loop" pocket galaxies. And these would be "Neutral" to our Universe.
Corporations have no right to privacy -- nor does society benefit from them having such. The Executive Privilege of hiding everything has to be stopped. The whole notion of the Common Good has been stood on its head for years now. Corporations SHOULD ONLY EXIST IF the have a benefit to society -- not because they make a profit.
I've used this same argument with Record Labels; they create a system where it's more beneficial for them to have perhaps 40 top acts, and to limit the number of artists. They only want to promote one or two artists in each genera and get everyone to buy those. They also want to sell CDs at $14.99 a pop. But other than making everyone excited about Brittany Spears -- they serve no purpose in getting music to people. The question shouldn't be; "Should I have a right to steal music?" The question should be; "What benefit does society gain for charging for music?" The answer is none. Now, it's an open question whether or not Brittany will still make music if she got no money for it... but it is doubtful that Nobody would make music. In terms of Cars-- nobody would be driving cars if we didn't pay for them.
Most of the really profitable companies now are monopolies. And they try to control government to regulate force their use on society. We have to buy car insurance or we can't drive. Do we have a choice in driving -- most people don't, unless you live in New York City. We have to buy health insurance just to be able to afford a procedure -- otherwise you pay a phony-baloney inflated price that the Dr. or Hospital put on the procedure so that they could get $.37 on the Dollar. We have to get a ticket through something like TicketMaster -- and pay $60 for a show. Where I live, Georgia, they privatized natural gas, and the prices quadrupled -- but you get to choose to pay $1 per therm, with a base rate of $15, or you can pay a base rate with another company of $25, and $.75 per therm. Guess what? After all the tacked on phony fees -- you pay about the same with all the companies. They all use the same pipe. Or I can get DSL through BellSouth -- or BellSouth. I could pay more for Earthlink, to buy the privilege from BellSouth at whatever fee that local monopoly wants to charge. Weee!
Anyway, there is a long list of various, mandated monopolies and every one of them as a few dozen lobbyists pestering your Senator, or perhaps working directly in congress now.
They buy up old news stories and archive documents. It is a vast repository of most of the data in news print in the past 100 years. They buy it on the cheap because most companies that create the articles, don't have a business model that can take advantage of archiving data. It will cost some money to get the information out.
I'm going to a bank, to open a new account. Or I'm getting some restricted drugs. Or I'm opening a credit account at Sears -- all things that require your SSN now.
I go to a box that looks like the ATM reader box we've all seen today.
I type in my SSN. It replies "Ouch!" -- or the name of my kid -- whatever, that tells me it is the Authentication Service.
THEN I type in my password. It doesn't need to be elaborate like the ones we use to login to Windows -- because the system does not allow for brute-force attacks.
Other than that, the other common way for people to get passwords is to social engineer them. But these people don't know me, or live in my house -- so securing my password is not a big deal. I don't need to change my password - EVER, unless I want to. I could even use my bank pin, or just my best friends name. The only point is to keep it something a stranger doesn't know about you from perhaps scanning public records.
Trying to commit an identity theft against someone you don't know will be pretty difficult and shut down, when they change their password. Because anyone using your ID to identify you, will get a notice that you changed your password, and that you should re-authorize before doing any more transactions.
If you can think of anything better, that is only a minor inconvenience like this one (we can even use the same Credit Card networks and give them a few bucks for the privilege for the authorization). -- then please suggest it. No new cards are needed -- just a new system to authorize. The Box could be the ATM card scanner, or a new, more secure one. Credit agencies already use the time stamp plus hash I was talking about.
Public education would be needed, to tell people "don't enter your password in an authenticator that doesn't give you your secret reply!" Anyone falling for a "broken screen" is being socially engineered out of a password. Worse case, Grandma has to go get a new password.
Currently, if someone steals your identity, you have to go through a lot of pain and suffering and may still never be able to resolve it. Getting a new SSN is pretty difficult. Changing a password would be easy, and still allow the SSN to track you as a unique person.
Also, are you saying that you wouldn't allow people to get their password back if they forgot it or that you'd stick with normal photo-ID - all that does is create a system, no more secure than the current one (because it's just a compression of the current one into a password) but that is seen as infallible - misplaced confidence isn't good for security.
The current system relies on nobody knowing your SSN attached to your name. But you have to give almost every regulatory body your SSN if you want most any service these days. Anyone with access to their database, or your records, could make quick money selling the data.
With my system, you could give anyone you SSN, and they could sell the data -- but it is worthless to AUTHENTICATE as you. The point is, to remove ID from AUTHENTICATION. Right now, your SSN serves as both. How is this not 1000% better than the current system?
If I lose a drivers license, I have to go to motor vehicles with another photo ID and about 3 other forms of identifying me. So getting a new password is slightly easier. The point is -- it should not be electronic. Someone should have to sit down and prove they are you AND have access to the old password. This would remove the wholesale looting of whole databases of SSN and just hitting them for a few dollars at a time. This requirement is MUCH easier than trying to change a SSN, but without making it too easy.
I would also further require a 3-try limit on the private Key. If too many hits happen on your SSN -- then you get a callback or something from the Authentication agency. No more than 3 authorizations should happen per day, and no more than 10 a week and 30 a month. Something reasonable that would make it very difficult to hammer out the password.
I don't believe in constantly changing passwords -- that forces people to NOT remember them. It's also necessary with things Like Microsofts OS, because the hacker has access to the box and can do unlimited brute force attacks. In the SSN Authentication System, the password would be stored somewhere in a remote network and transferred with encryption, no more than few times a day to authenticated devices.
If I wanted to get into detail... I would encrypt each box with a GPS and date-stamp key. Move the box and it can no longer authenticate the box with the Authenticating Agency. Any box off the grid for more than a week would no longer be valid. So the box never gets or stores the password -- the only place it will exist is on the keypad and on a server.
Anyway, I don't see how this isn't BETTER than what we have now. With this system, I could say; "I'm John Doe 123-45-1234" and let them store me as that as a unique ID. When AUTHORIZING this -- the company or person I'm dealing with, is only getting a recognition receipt that This John Doe is authorized for SSN 123-45-1234.
Right now, if the wrong person gets my SSN -- I'm screwed. So just adding a password to it would improve the system. Having a third-party authentication system would improve that system. Having a 'handshake" check key so that a user could make sure they have an authentic Authenticator improves that. Making it slightly difficult to get a new password, is a necessary annoyance.
Getting the OLD password, would be something like going to the agency in person, and having them mail it to your house. Not fool-proof, but if you can't remember your
" Polonium is needed for the neutron initiator in some -- not all -- nuclear devices. "
>> I was talking about the briefcase nukes. It's a dense source of nutrinos and allows for the "poor man's bomb" like you are talking about. The Nuclear Initiator is the "big deal" in the weapon. Otherwise you have just have some really expensive nuclear waste. Of course -- I've always worried about a dirty bomb in a water supply.
Your point is good about the "truck bomb" -- which is why securing the ports was essential. But, apparently, a country like the UAE that does banking for terrorists and the drug trade, is better to have running the ports, than unionized American doc workers with patriotism and families to feed.
No, with good government -- you can vote people out of office.
Governments are NOT like monopolies.
For instance, our Social Security system uses less than 2% overhead to distribute funds and is the envy of the world. Because millions of seniors watch it like a hawk -- there is oversight. And it was put together by FDR, who knew how to create good government.
Government is a tool and can be good or bad depending upon who the citizens put in the government.
"Contractors and privitisation are not to blame; monopoly is." Whatever. I agree that monopolies have to be watched. That competition can create cheaper+better things. But that is not necessarily inevitable.
Privatization where there is a natural monopoly is BAD. What makes things fail like this is corrupt politicians. Most of the people in office right now, have power because they are sell-out cronies to corporate lobbyists and are only waiting for their chance to move into the private sector to get their rewards.
Yes, your scenario explains perfectly, why all our Weapons secrets have been sold to everyone else.
Once the secret for say; stealth bomber is out -- the company gets to make a new, more super-secret weapon for MORE money.
This would be like your hypothetical photographer, supplementing their income by taking pictures of your wedding night, and then charging you NOT to release them to the internet. Then going and selling them to some web site. You get divorced and hire the same photographer at your next wedding.
That's pretty much in a nutshell, our Government's relationship with private industry. I'm sure if any country spent 50% of their GDP on a military like ours -- they too could build a useless stealth bomber. But who, other than the private industry who will one day employ the politician with military oversight in as a highly paid consultant, benefits from this situation.
You make it sound like our military is actual useful.
All the wars we've been in, besides WW II were a scam for money. People hate america because through Globalization, American corporations are forced upon them by their own compromised politicians. 87% of the projects in Iraq, done by private industry, don't even function -- the same thing in the Katrina "clean up" -- they've shipped in private corporation consutlants, at thousands a day, to do mediocre work.
Our Pentagon admitted to "losing" $2 Trillion. They can't account for it. And were defeated by 19 box cutters.
So, if you want to understand a great analogy for our Private/Public Military; You hire the most expensive photographer. Photographer shoots pictures of you at wedding and you on your wedding night. Photographer mentions that they need money to "secure" your dirty photos. You pay. Photos end up on internet. Photographer blames subcontracted development lab. You both shrug and he hands you the phone number for a nice looking call girl -- all is forgiven. While you fool around with the call girl, the Photographer rapes your wife -- she blames you, and you have an ugly divorce (war). You hire the same photographer for your next wedding, because basically, you are marrying for money anyway, and you like that call girl. Rinse and repeat.
Now you should be able to understand war better. It has nothing to do with technology or strategic advantage. Advantages are maintained by more money and resources. Patriotism and Nationalism, are ways to sell it to the people.
During our war with Germany, many of our major corporations sold weapons and materials (IBM computers) to the other side -- this was even before multinationals were really on the stage. Our military protects business interests and ensures new markets -- it has nothing to do with security. Most people in this world want to just live their life and be left alone. So conflict must be created. It's pretty hard to tell the false flags from the actual violent protests. But if there isn't a civil war somewhere, to keep the machine running, someone has to get paid to start one. That's what Negroponte was doing in Iraq -- exactly what he did in Chile.
Sorry to put a knot in this thread -- but I think we often ignore the realities of war, when we get all geeky on "weapons technology." We have to always be ahead of the hypothetical enemy. There is no enemy -- just profits.
If it were easy -- everyone would have one. Many countries like North Korea, have taken decades and committed massive resources to try and create a bomb. They have, with much of their nations resources on the line, managed to perhaps build 5 low-yield nukes. But the US spent massive research with the britest minds of the time on the Manhattan project -- and I don't think anyone has developed a Nuke without stealing or buying some of those secrets from somebody else.
But proliferation has increased a lot since Bush took office. He stopped the Clinton initiative to pay guards at Russian nuclear plants. He's had to let Pakistan have free-reign otherwise lose the ally to Mullahs. And it seems that Brewster-Jennings, which worked to covertly stop WMD proliferation was shut down with the outing of Valerie Plame. The Mango deal with India, set them up to become a major nuclear power -- I suppose as a hedge against China.
I'm sure that if some terror group manages to get the plethora of nuclear secrets now flying around, it will be Clinton's fault.
Um, I'm sure it's a bit more work than that. Very few countries have ever been able to make a bomb. Most all of the countries now developing weapons got the information from Pakistan... and they got it from us. Israel is also a well-known country for selling off US weapons secrets whenever we sell them something (the USSR I believe, got theirs from Israel).
And Homeland Security, actually DID put the plans for building nuclear weapons on it's web site -- until public outcry made them take it down.
You make it sound like banging two radioactive rocks together... yeah that's why everyone had to get their technology from someone else? I think only one other country besides the US ever independently developed nuclear weapons -- and even THAT is suspect. It's either been stolen, or proliferated on purpose.
The accusations of Iran having the bomb are ludicrous as well. They have (as far as anyone knows), 144 cyclotrons capable of concentrating plutonium. Running non-stop at peak performance, it would take 10 years for all of those cyclotrons working non-stop to make ONE atom bomb. It takes a lot of Uranium and a lot of work.
But the "small nuke" you mention is a very big deal right now. There were hundreds of breifcase nukes that went missing after the fall of the USSR. Many governments were concerned but it was believed that it wasn't too much of an issue, because the material necessary to arm it was about a pound of Polonium. An unstable, expensive, and hard to handle source of neutrinos that has a half-life of one year. After two years -- the briefcase nukes would disarm themselves. Despite what the News Agencies reported -- it isn't easy to acquire.
But when did we last hear about Polonium in the news? Oh yeah... the death of Lyshenko. Now I understand the press told us he was a reporter, critical of Putin.... but he was actually a weapons dealer, who was visited by a Mullah on his death bed to give him a martyrs funeral. Lyshenko was known as a go-between for the Russian/Israeli mafia (mostly in Ukraine working with separatists and Poland), and the Taliban.
Sorry, forgot to mention that some of the guards complaints, is that WORKERS at the BWXT Pantex plant were working something like 36 hour shifts. Yeah, people handling weapons-grade plutonium are taking No-Doze like an overworked Trucker.
I'd be curious who they got to replace them... look at who they've gotten to work at Blackwater security. But hey, you know, what could happen if you hire a bunch of Armageddon-loving fundamentalists? I'm not saying that's who is doing security -- but you and I won't be able to know, because it's a private company.
I hope they make a profit -- otherwise this would be a travesty.
What about this scenario; "Yes, we'd like 10 ICBMS to deploy to our new ally in Poland." "Sorry, your payment last month was late -- and we've raised our rates. You know, it's the marketplace. It's going to require $2 more billion than last time." "... what marketplace! We are your sole buyer and the US government owns those missiles." "... look, if I played favorites with every customer who came through the door, I'd be out of a job..." "... what Frakkin' other customers! I'm going to have you Court Marshalled!" "Hey, take it up with customer service [CLICK]"
I've been talking this up the past month... it's pretty outrageous to think that our Nuclear Weapons are now made by a for-profit company.
Of course, right now, when GE wants more money to build props for Nuclear Subs.... they just leak the blueprints to a foreign company and our subs become obsolete and trackable. So the government shells out more money to GE for new props. Everybody wins!
But this has to top the list of Greedy+Stupid; https://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=11373 2007-04-17 More than 500 security guards at the United States' only nuclear weapons assembly plant walked off the job just after midnight Monday to protest what they said is a steep deterioration in job and retirement security since the government changed fitness standards for weapons-plant guards in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The contractor at the plant, BWXT Pantex in Carson County, Texas, replaced the striking guards with a contingency force that it says will secure the plant's weapons, nuclear materials and explosives as long as necessary. The issue is not confined to Pantex because guard union leaders at other weapons plants also are raising concerns about the new security requirements, which they say will force many older guards out of their jobs.
Congressional Democrats criticized the Energy Department for not acting to resolve the guards' concerns in time to avert a strike.
"This employment instability not only raises the potential for significant costs to the American taxpayer, but also raises serious nuclear security concerns," said U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Michigan), who chairs the oversight subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
>> The whole point of the "Privatization better known as Crony Capitalism" is to limit research and to privatize science. At the EPA, they were selling off the shelves for all the research labs. Much of the private repositories of environmental data are now gone -- and it is a lot of work for even scientists working at the EPA to find out; "what was the level of lead in the Savannah river in 1980?"
For instance, if the only repository for Lung cancer data, were at Phillip Morris, do you think they would have had to suffer all those lawsuits for knowingly sellining an addictive and cancerous product?
>> The other part of this that really sucks, is that it's for patents. The ban on Stem Cell Research, doesn't mean that private industry has stopped researching -- it just means that the research isn't done by the government, and available to everyone -- including Universities. So the argument about snow flake babies, that gets people all excited has nothing to do with it -- it's so Johnson & Johnson will OWN the next patent on a stem cell treatment as soon as they can find a way to make it proprietary.
When was the last time we had a CURE for anything? All we get now is treatments that cost just enough that we will cough up the bucks so that we don't have to deal with the misery of going without. Any cheap birth control or Asthma treatments?
They are going to keep doing this until some really, really bad disaster befalls us. But we won't know how it happened, because a company like BWXT Pantex won't be required to keep records of who they sell weapons to. I know that sounds far-fetched, but how many times have we heard well-dressed men running agencies for this government stand before the public and say; "My dog ate it... it could happen to anyone... nobody could have anticipated a breach of the levies." Yes, and people were screaming that the levies were 18" below sea level and the government stopped paying for the project years ago -- but hey, who reports that sort of information anymore when Paris Hilton might have to lose her driver's license?
1) No help there. We all have to remember something in life... I'd say most people could probably right it down... the point is, they don't ever hand the password to anyone -- but only type it into an authorized ID box. It's at least BETTER than now, without being worse.... nothing is going to be perfect. I'd like it NOT to be perfect ID, if you understand my other rants about being anonymous is necessary for free speech.
2) No -- a faked box wouldn't work. If I type in my SSN it won't reply with "Ouch!" -- unless someone looked over my shoulder when I used a REAL box. This "man in the middle attack" would only work at an establishment with regular customers that has REAL and FAKE boxes. So, you capture the "check key" -- or authorization response with a hidden camera, and then play that back for the customer when they come in again. But that is at least more work than now... and it requires someone who is authorized for business (something to lose), and a repeat customer -- which means that anyone running such a scam has a bit more exposure than the one-hit tourist who is your ideal target. That's about the only scam that could work -- and it is a bit trickier than the phony ATMs that have done the same scam. In this case, you'd have to have a real ATM next to a phony one -- and match the customer on a second pass.
3) "I phrased it like an advantage" -- well, that is my marketing instincts coming out. NO REAL advantage on tracking -- I just thought when pushing this idea, there should be the distinct push that States would authorize, or real businesses -- not groups that have a few fat-cat investers like the one that does all the standardized testing we subject our kids to in "No Child Left Behind." Currently, we get the worst of both worlds when our government privatizes things -- but that's because they have little vision beyond their own larcenous hearts.
The Policy part of this, is that the Private/Public Key SSN Authorization Sytem (sound like a Government agency already?) is to be used where YOU WOULD USE YOUR SSN. I think the National ID will come with a policy that you will use it even more than a drivers license. As in "papers please."
Yeah, and it figures coming from the Bush group.... just do a little research on the people who show up at their regular "Prayer Breakfasts." They definitely have a lot of people who should have been tried at nuremburg on the family tree. This is a group that LOVES this kind of tracking citizens like so much cattle.
I Trust our government like I do John Gotti. When John Gotti wants me to buy a card for "protection" -- I'm going to wonder... what's in it for good old John Gotti -- where is the fix?
So I don't trust THIS government -- I can barely tolerate it anymore. They are proven crooks, vote-riggers and threaten the security and prosperity of America at every turn. Can we be sure if it is by mere incompetence or just larseny? Why should WE have to figure out WHY?
I think the ONLY reason that Bush wants a National ID, is so someone can make money, he can track people, and that it would make a totalitarian state easier.
>> But hey, if it can make it slightly more convenient to a color TV... what's the worst that could happen?
Every time someone has no rebuttal they use the Tin-foil-hat theory accusation.
Do you know how many times the popular conspiracy theories about the Bush government proved to be true?
No torture -- conspiracy theory. No secret prisons -- conspiracy theory. No rendition -- conspiracy theory. WMDs in Iraq -- conspiracy theory. Jessica Lynch rescue was faked -- conspiracy theory. Nobody in the administration outed Valerie Plame -- conspiracy theory. Elections rigged in Florida in 2000, and Ohio (and many other places) in 2004 -- conspiracy theory (hey, they arrested 3 people and they were in charge of elections).
You know, I could go on with all the tin-foil-hat theories that proved true all day. So, thanks for lumping me in with such an accurate, and prescient group as the conspiracy theorists. Obviously, they have a better track record of getting it right than CNN.
>> I really can't protect you from your lack of imagination on the National ID card. The better question is; Why do we need it? What does it solve? The only thing I could think of -- is Identity theft and illegal workers. Which the government has no interest in stopping. None. They let Tyson foods bus illegals into chicken plants.
So, if there is nothing SOLVED by having a National ID -- why do it? It is not a convenience for me -- I don't want one. The government should have to prove its merits -- not have people like you say; "what could possibly go wrong?" That isn't much of a discussion.
I said "allowed to know." Yes, a hacker might be able to decrypt this -- but that is a LOT harder than decoding a DVD. The ID card is not a device that you or I will be "playing back." It has data, in a non-consumer oriented device -- so the reading device will be restricted and tracked. I can bet that some mafia groups will get their hands on these types of devices and find a way to keep them authorized. But that isn't good news for YOU or ME anyway.
Don't confuse the hacking of Big Media titles with decrypting something like this.
However, if they use their normal "crony + idiot" like they did with the voting machines -- it will be hacked right away. If they want to use some NSA geniuses, then it would be many, many orders of magnitudes harder to crack than the latest Blue-Ray DVD. Imagine every DVD being unique, and you had to enter in a password to read "parts of it." I'd expect that there will be compartments of encrypted DATA on this card that only some will be able to access -- for instance; medical data might only come out at a hospital card scanner, and they have the pass key to read it. While only the RNC might be able to read the other part that says; "Voted for Dean."
I pretty much figure that there will be an RFID that can tell who you are just passing by. So people will get your ID whether you agreed or not --- that part will probably be hacked in 10 minutes and treat you to wonderful, personalized adds everytime you pass a billboard. "Hey John Doe -- do you want a burger." "Hey John, I'm waiting.... call me..." Hey John, are you worried about Identity theft? For a small fee, we could guarantee that nobody knows you are John Doe..."
1) Because you need the old password, and you sit down at some place like a bank -- or anywhere authorized, and show them photo IDs, mail -- all the stuff you do now when you lose an ID and go to Motor Vehicles. This is at least 10 times more secure... so what's the beef? Why can't the bank authentication be faked? Well, if I were faking being John Doe -- I'd be in a bank or somewhere getting my photo and finger print and hoping there were no other John Doe screaming about identity theft... and the bank has a few Million in the vault and expensive property -- so I doubt they'd want to make money on fake IDs.
2) That's the point of the "check code" -- the handshake in private/public key incryption. I punch my ID in a box that is authorized and hooked up to a phone line -- just like we do right now, billions of times a day, with credit cards. When I enter in my SSN, I get something back like "Ouch!" -- because that's what I set up as my "check key." Now, however someone wants to create the authorization scheme to verify that box -- they are still going to have to intercept incrypted codes for anyone who's ID they are going to want to steal. I could get very detailed but I could say with a GPS, authorization procedures, and a phone line -- these ID boxes could be pretty hard to steel -- you could authorize them by day, and for one location on the planet.
OK, now that I saw "Ouch!" on the screen -- I know it is an authorized ID system I'm hooked up to. Unless someone has intercepted my last transaction with an authorized device, and is running an elaborate scam -- this is at least many times more work than what it takes to steal a bank pin on my Debit card -- which is harder to steal than my SSN right now. So now I can send my password that goes to the ID system, and then they wire back to the Vender an authorization like "John Doe Approved" and a transaction number -- just like credit card companies use -- a time stamp and hash that could be used to prove later that I, John Doe, really did buy that crappy leather jacket so pay up!
3) Yes, it doesn't reduce tracking. But I would want such a system to be State-based authorities. Not Federal. I don't have a problem with a company like VISA being an authorized ID System. The point is; someone needs to know that I'm John Doe -- if they are wrong, VISA is going to lose some money. THAT sort of privatization is fine with me. In the National ID scheme; huge government beuaracracy authorizes cards, but outsources to one politically friendly company. I guess it's pretty much that I know BushCo will screw it up, and it will cost us a lot of money, and only benefit friendly crooks. What else is new? But any ID system needs to only provide a reasonable guarantee to Company X or Person Y that I am John Doe. VISA has a vested interest in Credit Cards and would be financially damaged trying to screw me over -- see, they have something to lose! Not one appointed company made for the sole purpose of privatizing and keeping he system forever from oversight.
4) Um, because my password can be changed. If someone steals my ID Number -- how do I change my unique ID like a SSN? Everything is based on some sort of fixed tracking number in every database ever used. The password can change and be used merely to authorize that I am John Doe using such and such SSN. It's only a slight inconvenience like a bank pin -- you don't need it everytime you shop -- you just use this INSTEAD of your SSN. Like when you take our a loan, or apply for that fricken' blockbuster video card where they think I'm going to trust them and 20 part-time teenagers with my SSN to rent a video.
So, in short -- you don't use your SSN to go shopping now. You use your credit card and occassionally your drivers license. In fact, you can even use CASH. McDonalds does not need to know I'm John Doe in order to sell me a hamburger. They just need my money. If VISA wants to do a better job of securing money -- then let THEM solve it. I don't want a MORE PERFECT ID system -- I just
>> Everytime these jerk-offs fail to help the citizens, they somehow translate it into requiring MORE power for them.
Like if a security guard were at a bank and got repeated warnings by the FBI of bank robbers in the area -- then fell asleep.... the bank gets looted, and instead of firing the sleepy policeman, he gets promoted and given an M-16 machine gun. That's been our government in a nutshell since 2000. Except that some of us look at the new Porsche the security guard is driving and perhaps consider that he didn't "just fall asleep."
1) Right now states authorize IDs. The principle format of our government is based upon Individual rights trump the State. State's Rights trump the Federal Government. It's supposed to be the willingly governed -- I know that sounds like a foreign concept. Because Corporate Media has done a really good job of making us unaware of this. For instance; "The Consumer is Sovereign" should mean that anyone can buy a ticket and then resell it. So tickets now are just a lease-hold on a particular seat -- a contract. Also, corporations have more money -- so they've been slowly eroding the right of people to do what they will with what they bought. If you never own it...... anyway, this National ID card centralizes data, and usurps the role of the State to govern its citizens -- and for people to move out of states that get too crazy.
States used to be the ones who regulated business incorporation -- they still do in a way. But a business that incorporated used to have to prove it's worth to the common good. Corporations lasted about 2 years until renewal, and many businesses lost their Incorporation privileges. Now you have to prove that a corporation is harming everyone, and catch them red-handed, just to sit in court for 10 years to get a monetary judgement.
2) You'd better believe it has a chip. They are going to encode more than your name and SSN.
3) You cannot trust our current government -- so, you shouldn't have to trust ANY government. If you like this government, than wonder what a Socialist government might do with this centralized power.
4) There is no Constitutional basis.
5) 100,000 of records have been stolen from the IRS. This centralization of all this information is a "trust us" arrangement with a group that has time after time proved negligent. What makes anyone think that there won't be ID theft, fraud, or political corruption after the National ID?
6) As I've stated before, if we wanted to end identity theft, we could just use a Public/Private key security code using our SSN as the Public key. Give your SSN to anyone -- but only YOU can use it because you have a password that authorizes you with that SSN -- and the government could set up a system to verify this. But they don't seem to give a damn about identity theft -- just at expensive operations like this.
7) It will cost a lot. What has this administration done on the cheap, besides the VA and education? Who's going to make the IDs? Friends.
8) It will make it harder to protest. We all carry some form of ID. But this will centralize and allow for storage of; "John Doe Went to war protest." Yeah, can you tell I don't trust these war-mongers?
9) What are the barriers? Who gets an ID and who doesn't? I know what it takes to get a drivers licence. We can also get regular IDs, passports and Visas.
>> Did I mention I don't trust the Bush administration? This would be like privatizing Social Security... meaning they loot it. I fully expect that people who don't like BushCo, will have all sorts of "problems" crop up. They also will likely create databases that scan the data and track wherever we all go... the government has no need of this sort of information if it is a government that represents the will of its people. So here comes the huge, huge, Elephant in the room; 10) A National ID -- or any "foolproof" and required ID that would inlclude biometrics, DNA, or other data would make resistance to a totalitarian state very, very hard. If the state wanted to declare martial law, because they were sick and tired of the "will of the people" -- denying people access or preventing civil disobedience would be a lot easier. I don't want cards that are impossible to forge... as I said before, for employment purposes or financial transactions, we could easily fix our SSN crisis. -- the SSN was originally developed as a way to provide services for Americans -- and it has crept into a way to track citizens. In a real Democracy, people behave and follow the laws because THEY
Yes, and Poindexter is still assembling a huge database on Americans -- as they've privatized the Total Information Awareness gambit.
IF you wanted to blacklist someone, you might enter anything into a database about that person. Everyone paying attention to how much fun we've had with the Credit Score companies and how long it took to force them to tell us what the damn score was without spending $40 for the privilege of correcting their errors?
And, who is going to bet me $10 that you won't be allowed to know what data gets on your ID card? As well as medical health, and most like genetic data, you might even have job history, traffic accidents -- think of all the baggage a corporation would want to have about you. All this data gets sold right now to private corporations -- did we vote on that? Please, by all means google it. Yes, the Bush administration takes info from your tax forms, or from Homeland Security, and sells it to private companies that do things like identify issues for politicians to campaign on -- or probably anything someone will pay for.
I'm sure future employers will consult the National ID card when they hire you. What sort of information will be on that card? Well... did you agree to let the government, or bank lose your data on a laptop recently? No? Did you ask them to sell the data -- the bank can't do it by law, but there is no provision against the government doing it. What about false information?
No, the national ID card isn't to identify you -- it's to track you, and to build a database on you. It's to make you a citizen at the level that they think you deserve to be. What happens to a traveling salesman who gets on the "Do Not Fly" list?
It might be your SAT score or it might be some government information that decides what college you or your kids go to. "Not corporate friendly" might keep you out of Yale. I'm sure my voting record would be useful, so that they could keep me out of Political debates -- who needs a loyalty oath when you can actually determine if someone is the "right sort."
You may call me paranoid. I just think if you don't imagine what the abuse could be -- you are being naive.
Wow -- stopping identity theft would be very easy -- without an expensive national ID card, and making everyone a tracked suspect.
With our SSN, we could all create a private key. By using something like the credit card networks, ID boxes could be put in stores -- or wherever you wanted to identify a person.
A person would enter their SSN into the box. They would use their "check pin" -- with the Check pin and the public SSN, they would get a response code which would verify that this was a secure connection (whatever they choose to have their response be) -- then they would enter in their password. The Vendor, would just receive a time-stamped verification that said; John Doe is authorized to act on behalf of John Doe -- coupled with a picture ID of any sort.
If anyone else uses your SSN -- they don't have the password. If someone gets that -- you go through a simple face-to-face visit at a bank or some authorized ID place, and submit a new password.
>> Wow. Gee --look! I solved the whole crisis, with just using telephone lines and a new system to just add a password to the SSN system and use common Public/Private Key techniques. A thousand Slashdotters could solve this dilemma -- so how come we have such an insipid, expensive, stupid National ID from BushCo and the Poodle-fascist in England? Perhaps we just need to jump ahead and get chipped or barcoded. Then only authorized criminals will get to steal our retirement funds.
A National ID does nothing to resolve someone stealing your ID. Does nothing to prevent anything -- but it does a great job of keeping track of the average joe, or allowing an overbearing government to oppress people. Just like that stinking "do not fly list."
I have yet to see one example -- even ONE, where this administration has done something that benefitted me. They take great pride and probably pass around the cigars every time the come up with another clever way to cheat Americans. I would sooner trust the random stranger on the train than ANYONE in this criminal enterprise in Washington.
Nobody likes this... save for a few corporate shills that make a living on blogs, pretending that people demand this nonsense.
There is no groundswell of support for these things -- just a Corporate media that downplays the numbers of American's who protest, and fail to mention that one Bus brought all those "concerned citizens" to Florida to prevent the recount in Florida in 2000.
This is just more of the creeping fascism in America. Just like the "No Child Left Behind" just served to profit one testing company, that had a lot of Bush family money in it.
Now this will be used to track protesters. Why do you think that the FBI has Quakers on it's list to spy on and not violent hate groups?
This is getting really ugly. When not dodging investigations into corruption, evil and vote-rigging, our administration finds excuses to extend their power and intrusiveness into our lives. I feel like they are herding us, and by the time everyone wakes up -- there won't be much we can do.
By the way -- I seriously doubt sending an email to HS will do any good. They already bury office supplies in the desert to keep their budget up -- does anyone know any function of that group beyond being a place to give cronies jobs?
If I were being naughty, I might suggest that we start blogging about; How to ruin surveillance devices and ID machines.
You know, if I were bothered by this and thought my vote didn't count because it's run on the same machines made by companies that get these sorts of contracts.
These fricken' fascists. How do I already know that this won't stop crime, government corruption, and scary bad acts that get everyone in a lather?
I think I'm going to take all my discount cards, and start swapping them with strangers.
They've tried multiple times to pass this -- much like their Media Consolidation that Rupert Murdoch wanted.
Our government is made up at least by 70% of sellouts who should be in prison, of anyone were to invade their privacy and find out what they are up to. What use is all this security garbage, if you can't trust your government? None.
Slashdot Mirror
In other news, Phillip Morris strongly objected to people growing Hemp for commercial purposes.
"It is bad for people's health... and besides, tobacco can't be used in blue jeans." said a Phillip Morris spokesman. It violates and duplicates our copyright on Nicotine -- which we made after we figured out what all that brown stuff was on the handkerchiefs.
Dark Matter is something that physicists have used, to explain things that don't add up in calculations about the movement of galaxies and the expanding of the universe.
I have an alternate explanation that explains the concept that the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate, Gamma-ray bursts, and the background noise in the Universe.
Namely: There wasn't ONE big bang and there isn't just ONE universe. I'm not talking about extra dimensions -- but that the universe that we experience is just one Cluster, or "bubble." Our Big Bang was a regional event, and we can't see beyond the Time/Space distortion of it's shock wave. At some point, billions of years in the future, we may encounter the diluted shockwave of another Big Bang (we'll register it as a large-scale Stretching and contracting of space, as though everything were all of the sudden in a larger gravity well and then in less of one) and then see stars from another "Universe" and their Red-shift will show them coming toward us.
Galaxies are pushed outward more than they should, because larger objects are affected at a greater distance -- while small objects are much more effected by the closer objects. So any gravity detection, say, on earth or of an earth-sized object, would not detect the massive but distant effect of another Universe pulling on galaxies of our own. Thus, Galaxies are moving outward at a faster rate than is explainable from Big Bang theory.
The concept of this being an Open, or Closed universe is moot -- we are in a sea of "bubbles." And our Universe -- or Megaverse, is much more massive than anyone can imagine.
>> However, there may be Neutron clusters of unattached matter. Or "closed-loop" pocket galaxies. And these would be "Neutral" to our Universe.
@AK Marc.
>> Amen brother!
Corporations have no right to privacy -- nor does society benefit from them having such.
The Executive Privilege of hiding everything has to be stopped.
The whole notion of the Common Good has been stood on its head for years now. Corporations SHOULD ONLY EXIST IF the have a benefit to society -- not because they make a profit.
I've used this same argument with Record Labels; they create a system where it's more beneficial for them to have perhaps 40 top acts, and to limit the number of artists. They only want to promote one or two artists in each genera and get everyone to buy those. They also want to sell CDs at $14.99 a pop. But other than making everyone excited about Brittany Spears -- they serve no purpose in getting music to people. The question shouldn't be; "Should I have a right to steal music?" The question should be; "What benefit does society gain for charging for music?" The answer is none. Now, it's an open question whether or not Brittany will still make music if she got no money for it... but it is doubtful that Nobody would make music. In terms of Cars-- nobody would be driving cars if we didn't pay for them.
Most of the really profitable companies now are monopolies. And they try to control government to regulate force their use on society.
We have to buy car insurance or we can't drive. Do we have a choice in driving -- most people don't, unless you live in New York City.
We have to buy health insurance just to be able to afford a procedure -- otherwise you pay a phony-baloney inflated price that the Dr. or Hospital put on the procedure so that they could get $.37 on the Dollar.
We have to get a ticket through something like TicketMaster -- and pay $60 for a show.
Where I live, Georgia, they privatized natural gas, and the prices quadrupled -- but you get to choose to pay $1 per therm, with a base rate of $15, or you can pay a base rate with another company of $25, and $.75 per therm. Guess what? After all the tacked on phony fees -- you pay about the same with all the companies. They all use the same pipe.
Or I can get DSL through BellSouth -- or BellSouth. I could pay more for Earthlink, to buy the privilege from BellSouth at whatever fee that local monopoly wants to charge. Weee!
Anyway, there is a long list of various, mandated monopolies and every one of them as a few dozen lobbyists pestering your Senator, or perhaps working directly in congress now.
There are too many ticks on this dog.
I worked at Information America for a while.
They buy up old news stories and archive documents. It is a vast repository of most of the data in news print in the past 100 years. They buy it on the cheap because most companies that create the articles, don't have a business model that can take advantage of archiving data. It will cost some money to get the information out.
NOT two passwords.
I'm going to a bank, to open a new account. Or I'm getting some restricted drugs. Or I'm opening a credit account at Sears -- all things that require your SSN now.
I go to a box that looks like the ATM reader box we've all seen today.
I type in my SSN. It replies "Ouch!" -- or the name of my kid -- whatever, that tells me it is the Authentication Service.
THEN I type in my password. It doesn't need to be elaborate like the ones we use to login to Windows -- because the system does not allow for brute-force attacks.
Other than that, the other common way for people to get passwords is to social engineer them. But these people don't know me, or live in my house -- so securing my password is not a big deal. I don't need to change my password - EVER, unless I want to. I could even use my bank pin, or just my best friends name. The only point is to keep it something a stranger doesn't know about you from perhaps scanning public records.
Trying to commit an identity theft against someone you don't know will be pretty difficult and shut down, when they change their password. Because anyone using your ID to identify you, will get a notice that you changed your password, and that you should re-authorize before doing any more transactions.
If you can think of anything better, that is only a minor inconvenience like this one (we can even use the same Credit Card networks and give them a few bucks for the privilege for the authorization). -- then please suggest it.
No new cards are needed -- just a new system to authorize. The Box could be the ATM card scanner, or a new, more secure one. Credit agencies already use the time stamp plus hash I was talking about.
You still need a real device with a fake one.
... I would encrypt each box with a GPS and date-stamp key. Move the box and it can no longer authenticate the box with the Authenticating Agency. Any box off the grid for more than a week would no longer be valid. So the box never gets or stores the password -- the only place it will exist is on the keypad and on a server.
Public education would be needed, to tell people "don't enter your password in an authenticator that doesn't give you your secret reply!" Anyone falling for a "broken screen" is being socially engineered out of a password. Worse case, Grandma has to go get a new password.
Currently, if someone steals your identity, you have to go through a lot of pain and suffering and may still never be able to resolve it. Getting a new SSN is pretty difficult. Changing a password would be easy, and still allow the SSN to track you as a unique person.
Also, are you saying that you wouldn't allow people to get their password back if they forgot it or that you'd stick with normal photo-ID - all that does is create a system, no more secure than the current one (because it's just a compression of the current one into a password) but that is seen as infallible - misplaced confidence isn't good for security.
The current system relies on nobody knowing your SSN attached to your name. But you have to give almost every regulatory body your SSN if you want most any service these days. Anyone with access to their database, or your records, could make quick money selling the data.
With my system, you could give anyone you SSN, and they could sell the data -- but it is worthless to AUTHENTICATE as you. The point is, to remove ID from AUTHENTICATION. Right now, your SSN serves as both. How is this not 1000% better than the current system?
If I lose a drivers license, I have to go to motor vehicles with another photo ID and about 3 other forms of identifying me. So getting a new password is slightly easier. The point is -- it should not be electronic. Someone should have to sit down and prove they are you AND have access to the old password. This would remove the wholesale looting of whole databases of SSN and just hitting them for a few dollars at a time. This requirement is MUCH easier than trying to change a SSN, but without making it too easy.
I would also further require a 3-try limit on the private Key. If too many hits happen on your SSN -- then you get a callback or something from the Authentication agency. No more than 3 authorizations should happen per day, and no more than 10 a week and 30 a month. Something reasonable that would make it very difficult to hammer out the password.
I don't believe in constantly changing passwords -- that forces people to NOT remember them. It's also necessary with things Like Microsofts OS, because the hacker has access to the box and can do unlimited brute force attacks. In the SSN Authentication System, the password would be stored somewhere in a remote network and transferred with encryption, no more than few times a day to authenticated devices.
If I wanted to get into detail
Anyway, I don't see how this isn't BETTER than what we have now. With this system, I could say; "I'm John Doe 123-45-1234" and let them store me as that as a unique ID. When AUTHORIZING this -- the company or person I'm dealing with, is only getting a recognition receipt that This John Doe is authorized for SSN 123-45-1234.
Right now, if the wrong person gets my SSN -- I'm screwed. So just adding a password to it would improve the system. Having a third-party authentication system would improve that system. Having a 'handshake" check key so that a user could make sure they have an authentic Authenticator improves that. Making it slightly difficult to get a new password, is a necessary annoyance.
Getting the OLD password, would be something like going to the agency in person, and having them mail it to your house. Not fool-proof, but if you can't remember your
"
Polonium is needed for the neutron initiator in some -- not all -- nuclear devices.
"
>> I was talking about the briefcase nukes. It's a dense source of nutrinos and allows for the "poor man's bomb" like you are talking about. The Nuclear Initiator is the "big deal" in the weapon. Otherwise you have just have some really expensive nuclear waste. Of course -- I've always worried about a dirty bomb in a water supply.
Your point is good about the "truck bomb" -- which is why securing the ports was essential. But, apparently, a country like the UAE that does banking for terrorists and the drug trade, is better to have running the ports, than unionized American doc workers with patriotism and families to feed.
No, with good government -- you can vote people out of office.
Governments are NOT like monopolies.
For instance, our Social Security system uses less than 2% overhead to distribute funds and is the envy of the world. Because millions of seniors watch it like a hawk -- there is oversight. And it was put together by FDR, who knew how to create good government.
Government is a tool and can be good or bad depending upon who the citizens put in the government.
"Contractors and privitisation are not to blame; monopoly is."
Whatever. I agree that monopolies have to be watched. That competition can create cheaper+better things. But that is not necessarily inevitable.
Privatization where there is a natural monopoly is BAD.
What makes things fail like this is corrupt politicians. Most of the people in office right now, have power because they are sell-out cronies to corporate lobbyists and are only waiting for their chance to move into the private sector to get their rewards.
Thanks for this post.
The common wisdom seems to be that Nukes are easy to create. Thanks for rebutting that.
Yes, your scenario explains perfectly, why all our Weapons secrets have been sold to everyone else.
Once the secret for say; stealth bomber is out -- the company gets to make a new, more super-secret weapon for MORE money.
This would be like your hypothetical photographer, supplementing their income by taking pictures of your wedding night, and then charging you NOT to release them to the internet. Then going and selling them to some web site. You get divorced and hire the same photographer at your next wedding.
That's pretty much in a nutshell, our Government's relationship with private industry. I'm sure if any country spent 50% of their GDP on a military like ours -- they too could build a useless stealth bomber. But who, other than the private industry who will one day employ the politician with military oversight in as a highly paid consultant, benefits from this situation.
You make it sound like our military is actual useful.
All the wars we've been in, besides WW II were a scam for money. People hate america because through Globalization, American corporations are forced upon them by their own compromised politicians. 87% of the projects in Iraq, done by private industry, don't even function -- the same thing in the Katrina "clean up" -- they've shipped in private corporation consutlants, at thousands a day, to do mediocre work.
Our Pentagon admitted to "losing" $2 Trillion. They can't account for it. And were defeated by 19 box cutters.
So, if you want to understand a great analogy for our Private/Public Military;
You hire the most expensive photographer.
Photographer shoots pictures of you at wedding and you on your wedding night.
Photographer mentions that they need money to "secure" your dirty photos. You pay.
Photos end up on internet. Photographer blames subcontracted development lab. You both shrug and he hands you the phone number for a nice looking call girl -- all is forgiven.
While you fool around with the call girl, the Photographer rapes your wife -- she blames you, and you have an ugly divorce (war).
You hire the same photographer for your next wedding, because basically, you are marrying for money anyway, and you like that call girl.
Rinse and repeat.
Now you should be able to understand war better. It has nothing to do with technology or strategic advantage. Advantages are maintained by more money and resources. Patriotism and Nationalism, are ways to sell it to the people.
During our war with Germany, many of our major corporations sold weapons and materials (IBM computers) to the other side -- this was even before multinationals were really on the stage. Our military protects business interests and ensures new markets -- it has nothing to do with security. Most people in this world want to just live their life and be left alone. So conflict must be created. It's pretty hard to tell the false flags from the actual violent protests. But if there isn't a civil war somewhere, to keep the machine running, someone has to get paid to start one. That's what Negroponte was doing in Iraq -- exactly what he did in Chile.
Sorry to put a knot in this thread -- but I think we often ignore the realities of war, when we get all geeky on "weapons technology." We have to always be ahead of the hypothetical enemy. There is no enemy -- just profits.
Yes, exactly.
If it were easy -- everyone would have one. Many countries like North Korea, have taken decades and committed massive resources to try and create a bomb. They have, with much of their nations resources on the line, managed to perhaps build 5 low-yield nukes. But the US spent massive research with the britest minds of the time on the Manhattan project -- and I don't think anyone has developed a Nuke without stealing or buying some of those secrets from somebody else.
But proliferation has increased a lot since Bush took office. He stopped the Clinton initiative to pay guards at Russian nuclear plants. He's had to let Pakistan have free-reign otherwise lose the ally to Mullahs. And it seems that Brewster-Jennings, which worked to covertly stop WMD proliferation was shut down with the outing of Valerie Plame. The Mango deal with India, set them up to become a major nuclear power -- I suppose as a hedge against China.
I'm sure that if some terror group manages to get the plethora of nuclear secrets now flying around, it will be Clinton's fault.
Um, I'm sure it's a bit more work than that. Very few countries have ever been able to make a bomb.
.... but he was actually a weapons dealer, who was visited by a Mullah on his death bed to give him a martyrs funeral. Lyshenko was known as a go-between for the Russian/Israeli mafia (mostly in Ukraine working with separatists and Poland), and the Taliban.
Most all of the countries now developing weapons got the information from Pakistan... and they got it from us. Israel is also a well-known country for selling off US weapons secrets whenever we sell them something (the USSR I believe, got theirs from Israel).
And Homeland Security, actually DID put the plans for building nuclear weapons on it's web site -- until public outcry made them take it down.
You make it sound like banging two radioactive rocks together... yeah that's why everyone had to get their technology from someone else? I think only one other country besides the US ever independently developed nuclear weapons -- and even THAT is suspect. It's either been stolen, or proliferated on purpose.
The accusations of Iran having the bomb are ludicrous as well. They have (as far as anyone knows), 144 cyclotrons capable of concentrating plutonium. Running non-stop at peak performance, it would take 10 years for all of those cyclotrons working non-stop to make ONE atom bomb. It takes a lot of Uranium and a lot of work.
But the "small nuke" you mention is a very big deal right now. There were hundreds of breifcase nukes that went missing after the fall of the USSR. Many governments were concerned but it was believed that it wasn't too much of an issue, because the material necessary to arm it was about a pound of Polonium. An unstable, expensive, and hard to handle source of neutrinos that has a half-life of one year. After two years -- the briefcase nukes would disarm themselves. Despite what the News Agencies reported -- it isn't easy to acquire.
But when did we last hear about Polonium in the news? Oh yeah... the death of Lyshenko. Now I understand the press told us he was a reporter, critical of Putin
NOW, you can start to worry.
You can find more detail of this on http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
Sorry, forgot to mention that some of the guards complaints, is that WORKERS at the BWXT Pantex plant were working something like 36 hour shifts. Yeah, people handling weapons-grade plutonium are taking No-Doze like an overworked Trucker.
I'd be curious who they got to replace them... look at who they've gotten to work at Blackwater security. But hey, you know, what could happen if you hire a bunch of Armageddon-loving fundamentalists? I'm not saying that's who is doing security -- but you and I won't be able to know, because it's a private company.
I hope they make a profit -- otherwise this would be a travesty.
What about this scenario;
"Yes, we'd like 10 ICBMS to deploy to our new ally in Poland."
"Sorry, your payment last month was late -- and we've raised our rates. You know, it's the marketplace. It's going to require $2 more billion than last time."
"... what marketplace! We are your sole buyer and the US government owns those missiles."
"... look, if I played favorites with every customer who came through the door, I'd be out of a job..."
"... what Frakkin' other customers! I'm going to have you Court Marshalled!"
"Hey, take it up with customer service [CLICK]"
http://www.ucnuclearfree.org/blog/bidforbomb.html
I've been talking this up the past month... it's pretty outrageous to think that our Nuclear Weapons are now made by a for-profit company.
Of course, right now, when GE wants more money to build props for Nuclear Subs.... they just leak the blueprints to a foreign company and our subs become obsolete and trackable. So the government shells out more money to GE for new props. Everybody wins!
But this has to top the list of Greedy+Stupid;
https://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=11373
2007-04-17
More than 500 security guards at the United States' only nuclear weapons assembly plant walked off the job just after midnight Monday to protest what they said is a steep deterioration in job and retirement security since the government changed fitness standards for weapons-plant guards in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The contractor at the plant, BWXT Pantex in Carson County, Texas, replaced the striking guards with a contingency force that it says will secure the plant's weapons, nuclear materials and explosives as long as necessary. The issue is not confined to Pantex because guard union leaders at other weapons plants also are raising concerns about the new security requirements, which they say will force many older guards out of their jobs.
Congressional Democrats criticized the Energy Department for not acting to resolve the guards' concerns in time to avert a strike.
"This employment instability not only raises the potential for significant costs to the American taxpayer, but also raises serious nuclear security concerns," said U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Michigan), who chairs the oversight subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
>> The whole point of the "Privatization better known as Crony Capitalism" is to limit research and to privatize science. At the EPA, they were selling off the shelves for all the research labs. Much of the private repositories of environmental data are now gone -- and it is a lot of work for even scientists working at the EPA to find out; "what was the level of lead in the Savannah river in 1980?"
For instance, if the only repository for Lung cancer data, were at Phillip Morris, do you think they would have had to suffer all those lawsuits for knowingly sellining an addictive and cancerous product?
>> The other part of this that really sucks, is that it's for patents. The ban on Stem Cell Research, doesn't mean that private industry has stopped researching -- it just means that the research isn't done by the government, and available to everyone -- including Universities. So the argument about snow flake babies, that gets people all excited has nothing to do with it -- it's so Johnson & Johnson will OWN the next patent on a stem cell treatment as soon as they can find a way to make it proprietary.
When was the last time we had a CURE for anything? All we get now is treatments that cost just enough that we will cough up the bucks so that we don't have to deal with the misery of going without. Any cheap birth control or Asthma treatments?
They are going to keep doing this until some really, really bad disaster befalls us. But we won't know how it happened, because a company like BWXT Pantex won't be required to keep records of who they sell weapons to. I know that sounds far-fetched, but how many times have we heard well-dressed men running agencies for this government stand before the public and say; "My dog ate it... it could happen to anyone... nobody could have anticipated a breach of the levies." Yes, and people were screaming that the levies were 18" below sea level and the government stopped paying for the project years ago -- but hey, who reports that sort of information anymore when Paris Hilton might have to lose her driver's license?
1) No help there. We all have to remember something in life... I'd say most people could probably right it down... the point is, they don't ever hand the password to anyone -- but only type it into an authorized ID box. It's at least BETTER than now, without being worse.... nothing is going to be perfect. I'd like it NOT to be perfect ID, if you understand my other rants about being anonymous is necessary for free speech.
2) No -- a faked box wouldn't work. If I type in my SSN it won't reply with "Ouch!" -- unless someone looked over my shoulder when I used a REAL box. This "man in the middle attack" would only work at an establishment with regular customers that has REAL and FAKE boxes. So, you capture the "check key" -- or authorization response with a hidden camera, and then play that back for the customer when they come in again. But that is at least more work than now... and it requires someone who is authorized for business (something to lose), and a repeat customer -- which means that anyone running such a scam has a bit more exposure than the one-hit tourist who is your ideal target. That's about the only scam that could work -- and it is a bit trickier than the phony ATMs that have done the same scam. In this case, you'd have to have a real ATM next to a phony one -- and match the customer on a second pass.
3) "I phrased it like an advantage" -- well, that is my marketing instincts coming out. NO REAL advantage on tracking -- I just thought when pushing this idea, there should be the distinct push that States would authorize, or real businesses -- not groups that have a few fat-cat investers like the one that does all the standardized testing we subject our kids to in "No Child Left Behind." Currently, we get the worst of both worlds when our government privatizes things -- but that's because they have little vision beyond their own larcenous hearts.
The Policy part of this, is that the Private/Public Key SSN Authorization Sytem (sound like a Government agency already?) is to be used where YOU WOULD USE YOUR SSN. I think the National ID will come with a policy that you will use it even more than a drivers license. As in "papers please."
Yeah, and it figures coming from the Bush group.... just do a little research on the people who show up at their regular "Prayer Breakfasts." They definitely have a lot of people who should have been tried at nuremburg on the family tree. This is a group that LOVES this kind of tracking citizens like so much cattle.
OK, here is my position in a nutshell;
I Trust our government like I do John Gotti. When John Gotti wants me to buy a card for "protection" -- I'm going to wonder... what's in it for good old John Gotti -- where is the fix?
So I don't trust THIS government -- I can barely tolerate it anymore. They are proven crooks, vote-riggers and threaten the security and prosperity of America at every turn. Can we be sure if it is by mere incompetence or just larseny? Why should WE have to figure out WHY?
I think the ONLY reason that Bush wants a National ID, is so someone can make money, he can track people, and that it would make a totalitarian state easier.
>> But hey, if it can make it slightly more convenient to a color TV... what's the worst that could happen?
Every time someone has no rebuttal they use the Tin-foil-hat theory accusation.
Do you know how many times the popular conspiracy theories about the Bush government proved to be true?
No torture -- conspiracy theory.
No secret prisons -- conspiracy theory.
No rendition -- conspiracy theory.
WMDs in Iraq -- conspiracy theory.
Jessica Lynch rescue was faked -- conspiracy theory.
Nobody in the administration outed Valerie Plame -- conspiracy theory.
Elections rigged in Florida in 2000, and Ohio (and many other places) in 2004 -- conspiracy theory (hey, they arrested 3 people and they were in charge of elections).
You know, I could go on with all the tin-foil-hat theories that proved true all day. So, thanks for lumping me in with such an accurate, and prescient group as the conspiracy theorists. Obviously, they have a better track record of getting it right than CNN.
>> I really can't protect you from your lack of imagination on the National ID card. The better question is; Why do we need it? What does it solve?
The only thing I could think of -- is Identity theft and illegal workers. Which the government has no interest in stopping. None. They let Tyson foods bus illegals into chicken plants.
So, if there is nothing SOLVED by having a National ID -- why do it? It is not a convenience for me -- I don't want one. The government should have to prove its merits -- not have people like you say; "what could possibly go wrong?" That isn't much of a discussion.
I said "allowed to know." Yes, a hacker might be able to decrypt this -- but that is a LOT harder than decoding a DVD. The ID card is not a device that you or I will be "playing back." It has data, in a non-consumer oriented device -- so the reading device will be restricted and tracked. I can bet that some mafia groups will get their hands on these types of devices and find a way to keep them authorized. But that isn't good news for YOU or ME anyway.
Don't confuse the hacking of Big Media titles with decrypting something like this.
However, if they use their normal "crony + idiot" like they did with the voting machines -- it will be hacked right away. If they want to use some NSA geniuses, then it would be many, many orders of magnitudes harder to crack than the latest Blue-Ray DVD. Imagine every DVD being unique, and you had to enter in a password to read "parts of it." I'd expect that there will be compartments of encrypted DATA on this card that only some will be able to access -- for instance; medical data might only come out at a hospital card scanner, and they have the pass key to read it.
While only the RNC might be able to read the other part that says; "Voted for Dean."
I pretty much figure that there will be an RFID that can tell who you are just passing by. So people will get your ID whether you agreed or not --- that part will probably be hacked in 10 minutes and treat you to wonderful, personalized adds everytime you pass a billboard. "Hey John Doe -- do you want a burger." "Hey John, I'm waiting.... call me..." Hey John, are you worried about Identity theft? For a small fee, we could guarantee that nobody knows you are John Doe..."
Yeah, all the government services we DON'T want.
1) Because you need the old password, and you sit down at some place like a bank -- or anywhere authorized, and show them photo IDs, mail -- all the stuff you do now when you lose an ID and go to Motor Vehicles. This is at least 10 times more secure ... so what's the beef?
Why can't the bank authentication be faked? Well, if I were faking being John Doe -- I'd be in a bank or somewhere getting my photo and finger print and hoping there were no other John Doe screaming about identity theft... and the bank has a few Million in the vault and expensive property -- so I doubt they'd want to make money on fake IDs.
2) That's the point of the "check code" -- the handshake in private/public key incryption. I punch my ID in a box that is authorized and hooked up to a phone line -- just like we do right now, billions of times a day, with credit cards. When I enter in my SSN, I get something back like "Ouch!" -- because that's what I set up as my "check key." Now, however someone wants to create the authorization scheme to verify that box -- they are still going to have to intercept incrypted codes for anyone who's ID they are going to want to steal. I could get very detailed but I could say with a GPS, authorization procedures, and a phone line -- these ID boxes could be pretty hard to steel -- you could authorize them by day, and for one location on the planet.
OK, now that I saw "Ouch!" on the screen -- I know it is an authorized ID system I'm hooked up to. Unless someone has intercepted my last transaction with an authorized device, and is running an elaborate scam -- this is at least many times more work than what it takes to steal a bank pin on my Debit card -- which is harder to steal than my SSN right now. So now I can send my password that goes to the ID system, and then they wire back to the Vender an authorization like "John Doe Approved" and a transaction number -- just like credit card companies use -- a time stamp and hash that could be used to prove later that I, John Doe, really did buy that crappy leather jacket so pay up!
3) Yes, it doesn't reduce tracking. But I would want such a system to be State-based authorities. Not Federal. I don't have a problem with a company like VISA being an authorized ID System. The point is; someone needs to know that I'm John Doe -- if they are wrong, VISA is going to lose some money. THAT sort of privatization is fine with me. In the National ID scheme; huge government beuaracracy authorizes cards, but outsources to one politically friendly company. I guess it's pretty much that I know BushCo will screw it up, and it will cost us a lot of money, and only benefit friendly crooks. What else is new? But any ID system needs to only provide a reasonable guarantee to Company X or Person Y that I am John Doe. VISA has a vested interest in Credit Cards and would be financially damaged trying to screw me over -- see, they have something to lose! Not one appointed company made for the sole purpose of privatizing and keeping he system forever from oversight.
4) Um, because my password can be changed. If someone steals my ID Number -- how do I change my unique ID like a SSN? Everything is based on some sort of fixed tracking number in every database ever used. The password can change and be used merely to authorize that I am John Doe using such and such SSN. It's only a slight inconvenience like a bank pin -- you don't need it everytime you shop -- you just use this INSTEAD of your SSN. Like when you take our a loan, or apply for that fricken' blockbuster video card where they think I'm going to trust them and 20 part-time teenagers with my SSN to rent a video.
So, in short -- you don't use your SSN to go shopping now. You use your credit card and occassionally your drivers license. In fact, you can even use CASH. McDonalds does not need to know I'm John Doe in order to sell me a hamburger. They just need my money. If VISA wants to do a better job of securing money -- then let THEM solve it. I don't want a MORE PERFECT ID system -- I just
Yes.
Who ASKED for a National ID anyway?
The Government.
Who has done nothing about Identity Theft?
The Government.
>> Everytime these jerk-offs fail to help the citizens, they somehow translate it into requiring MORE power for them.
Like if a security guard were at a bank and got repeated warnings by the FBI of bank robbers in the area -- then fell asleep.... the bank gets looted, and instead of firing the sleepy policeman, he gets promoted and given an M-16 machine gun. That's been our government in a nutshell since 2000. Except that some of us look at the new Porsche the security guard is driving and perhaps consider that he didn't "just fall asleep."
1) Right now states authorize IDs. The principle format of our government is based upon Individual rights trump the State. State's Rights trump the Federal Government. It's supposed to be the willingly governed -- I know that sounds like a foreign concept. Because Corporate Media has done a really good job of making us unaware of this. For instance; "The Consumer is Sovereign" should mean that anyone can buy a ticket and then resell it. So tickets now are just a lease-hold on a particular seat -- a contract. Also, corporations have more money -- so they've been slowly eroding the right of people to do what they will with what they bought. If you never own it... ... anyway, this National ID card centralizes data, and usurps the role of the State to govern its citizens -- and for people to move out of states that get too crazy.
States used to be the ones who regulated business incorporation -- they still do in a way. But a business that incorporated used to have to prove it's worth to the common good. Corporations lasted about 2 years until renewal, and many businesses lost their Incorporation privileges. Now you have to prove that a corporation is harming everyone, and catch them red-handed, just to sit in court for 10 years to get a monetary judgement.
2) You'd better believe it has a chip. They are going to encode more than your name and SSN.
3) You cannot trust our current government -- so, you shouldn't have to trust ANY government. If you like this government, than wonder what a Socialist government might do with this centralized power.
4) There is no Constitutional basis.
5) 100,000 of records have been stolen from the IRS. This centralization of all this information is a "trust us" arrangement with a group that has time after time proved negligent. What makes anyone think that there won't be ID theft, fraud, or political corruption after the National ID?
6) As I've stated before, if we wanted to end identity theft, we could just use a Public/Private key security code using our SSN as the Public key. Give your SSN to anyone -- but only YOU can use it because you have a password that authorizes you with that SSN -- and the government could set up a system to verify this. But they don't seem to give a damn about identity theft -- just at expensive operations like this.
7) It will cost a lot. What has this administration done on the cheap, besides the VA and education? Who's going to make the IDs? Friends.
8) It will make it harder to protest. We all carry some form of ID. But this will centralize and allow for storage of; "John Doe Went to war protest." Yeah, can you tell I don't trust these war-mongers?
9) What are the barriers? Who gets an ID and who doesn't? I know what it takes to get a drivers licence. We can also get regular IDs, passports and Visas.
>> Did I mention I don't trust the Bush administration? This would be like privatizing Social Security... meaning they loot it. I fully expect that people who don't like BushCo, will have all sorts of "problems" crop up. They also will likely create databases that scan the data and track wherever we all go... the government has no need of this sort of information if it is a government that represents the will of its people. So here comes the huge, huge, Elephant in the room;
10) A National ID -- or any "foolproof" and required ID that would inlclude biometrics, DNA, or other data would make resistance to a totalitarian state very, very hard. If the state wanted to declare martial law, because they were sick and tired of the "will of the people" -- denying people access or preventing civil disobedience would be a lot easier. I don't want cards that are impossible to forge... as I said before, for employment purposes or financial transactions, we could easily fix our SSN crisis. -- the SSN was originally developed as a way to provide services for Americans -- and it has crept into a way to track citizens. In a real Democracy, people behave and follow the laws because THEY
Yes, and Poindexter is still assembling a huge database on Americans -- as they've privatized the Total Information Awareness gambit.
... did you agree to let the government, or bank lose your data on a laptop recently? No? Did you ask them to sell the data -- the bank can't do it by law, but there is no provision against the government doing it. What about false information?
IF you wanted to blacklist someone, you might enter anything into a database about that person. Everyone paying attention to how much fun we've had with the Credit Score companies and how long it took to force them to tell us what the damn score was without spending $40 for the privilege of correcting their errors?
And, who is going to bet me $10 that you won't be allowed to know what data gets on your ID card? As well as medical health, and most like genetic data, you might even have job history, traffic accidents -- think of all the baggage a corporation would want to have about you. All this data gets sold right now to private corporations -- did we vote on that? Please, by all means google it. Yes, the Bush administration takes info from your tax forms, or from Homeland Security, and sells it to private companies that do things like identify issues for politicians to campaign on -- or probably anything someone will pay for.
I'm sure future employers will consult the National ID card when they hire you. What sort of information will be on that card? Well
No, the national ID card isn't to identify you -- it's to track you, and to build a database on you. It's to make you a citizen at the level that they think you deserve to be. What happens to a traveling salesman who gets on the "Do Not Fly" list?
It might be your SAT score or it might be some government information that decides what college you or your kids go to. "Not corporate friendly" might keep you out of Yale. I'm sure my voting record would be useful, so that they could keep me out of Political debates -- who needs a loyalty oath when you can actually determine if someone is the "right sort."
You may call me paranoid. I just think if you don't imagine what the abuse could be -- you are being naive.
Wow -- stopping identity theft would be very easy -- without an expensive national ID card, and making everyone a tracked suspect.
With our SSN, we could all create a private key. By using something like the credit card networks, ID boxes could be put in stores -- or wherever you wanted to identify a person.
A person would enter their SSN into the box. They would use their "check pin" -- with the Check pin and the public SSN, they would get a response code which would verify that this was a secure connection (whatever they choose to have their response be) -- then they would enter in their password. The Vendor, would just receive a time-stamped verification that said; John Doe is authorized to act on behalf of John Doe -- coupled with a picture ID of any sort.
If anyone else uses your SSN -- they don't have the password. If someone gets that -- you go through a simple face-to-face visit at a bank or some authorized ID place, and submit a new password.
>> Wow. Gee --look! I solved the whole crisis, with just using telephone lines and a new system to just add a password to the SSN system and use common Public/Private Key techniques. A thousand Slashdotters could solve this dilemma -- so how come we have such an insipid, expensive, stupid National ID from BushCo and the Poodle-fascist in England? Perhaps we just need to jump ahead and get chipped or barcoded. Then only authorized criminals will get to steal our retirement funds.
A National ID does nothing to resolve someone stealing your ID. Does nothing to prevent anything -- but it does a great job of keeping track of the average joe, or allowing an overbearing government to oppress people. Just like that stinking "do not fly list."
I have yet to see one example -- even ONE, where this administration has done something that benefitted me. They take great pride and probably pass around the cigars every time the come up with another clever way to cheat Americans. I would sooner trust the random stranger on the train than ANYONE in this criminal enterprise in Washington.
Nobody likes this... save for a few corporate shills that make a living on blogs, pretending that people demand this nonsense.
There is no groundswell of support for these things -- just a Corporate media that downplays the numbers of American's who protest, and fail to mention that one Bus brought all those "concerned citizens" to Florida to prevent the recount in Florida in 2000.
This is just more of the creeping fascism in America. Just like the "No Child Left Behind" just served to profit one testing company, that had a lot of Bush family money in it.
Now this will be used to track protesters. Why do you think that the FBI has Quakers on it's list to spy on and not violent hate groups?
This is getting really ugly. When not dodging investigations into corruption, evil and vote-rigging, our administration finds excuses to extend their power and intrusiveness into our lives. I feel like they are herding us, and by the time everyone wakes up -- there won't be much we can do.
By the way -- I seriously doubt sending an email to HS will do any good. They already bury office supplies in the desert to keep their budget up -- does anyone know any function of that group beyond being a place to give cronies jobs?
If I were being naughty, I might suggest that we start blogging about;
How to ruin surveillance devices and ID machines.
You know, if I were bothered by this and thought my vote didn't count because it's run on the same machines made by companies that get these sorts of contracts.
These fricken' fascists. How do I already know that this won't stop crime, government corruption, and scary bad acts that get everyone in a lather?
I think I'm going to take all my discount cards, and start swapping them with strangers.
They've tried multiple times to pass this -- much like their Media Consolidation that Rupert Murdoch wanted.
Our government is made up at least by 70% of sellouts who should be in prison, of anyone were to invade their privacy and find out what they are up to. What use is all this security garbage, if you can't trust your government? None.