Demonstrations are pretty useless. Even when you get enough people to make the news, you get ignored. 5-10 million people demonstrated agains the invasion of Iraq.
Lobbying to impeach Bush seems to be the way to go. Even if he stays, he'll be crippled. And sort your damn voting machines out.
Either way you need to organise. The web is great for this. Find the right person to lead the organisation (egoless, experienced & committed) and learn to influence the media.
This is my experience of campaigning against the British Govt who, trust me, are far worse and much less accountable.
It took 3 years of being locked in a dungeon before our Law Lords ruled their
imprisonment was incompatible with the HRA. The Govt's response was to push
through the whole Prevention
of Terrorism Act 2005 in 7 days saying that if it took any longer, these
dangerous terrorists would be free to strike again.
As subsequently happened on the ID Cards Act, the elderly House of Lords were
forced to stay up into the early hours of the morning and luckily not one of
them died. This 3rd draconian 'anti-terror' Act (which can lock any of us up in our own
homes without access to family indefinitely) was passed after several ping-pongs
and a sunset clause applied.
The moment I heard these so-called terrorists were released without being even
put under House Arrest, I knew this Govt would tell any lie to pass their totalitarian
laws.
I don't have time to give you a definite answer, but this
might help:
The government can demand that decryption keys be handed over in order
to access protected information,
where the person concerned has or has had the keys and does not have the information.
It is an offence not to hand over such a key on pain of 2 years imprisonment.
You are deemed to have possessed the key if you possessed it at any time before
the disclosure notice was served, unless you can show you did not have it after
the time the notice was served and before the time you were required to disclose
it. You are taken to show that you did not possess it at the relevant time if
you can adduce sufficient evidence to raise an issue with respect to this matter
and the contrary is not proved beyond reasonable doubt.
Note that if you ever had the key you will have to produce evidence you
no longer have it, i.e. provide evidence for a negative. Also, if the notice
requiring disclosure demands secrecy it is an offence to let anyone know that
you've been asked to hand over the key(s) in question on pain of 5 years imprisonment.
The legal requirements here undermine the use of public key systems, such
as PGP, to protect information that is communicated between people. Whilst it
is possible to set things up to minimise this impact and even circumvent these
powers, this simply imposes costs on ordinary users who wish to keep their communications
secret for any reason (criminals can circumvent these powers anyway!), and also
puts people who use PGP at risk of having to disclose their private keys (thus
compromising the security of all the info sent to them) or going to prison for
destroying, forgetting or losing a key.
See sections 49 to 56 which define the powers and offences related to this
issue. See also Schedule 2.
Believe it or not, there is no law against Govt spying on UK citizens. Well,
there is the retrospective Human Rights Act's Right
to Privacy but even Cameron wants to get rid of that.
No, instead we have laws like the ID Cards Act where everyone with a passport/driving
license will be forced to turn up for interrogation, fingerprinted like a criminal
and forced on to give up keys to their records on the passport, tax, benefits
and new ANPR databases.
All to be connected to form the world's
most intrusive mass surveillance database - even worse than anything China or North Korea have.
I'm guessing it's far worse than you think. Here's my earlier
comment on Tuesday's Dictatorship Bill.
If it says what we
think it says, I'm writing to the Queen and telling everyone (in my position as
a respected therapist/human
rights defender) to make plans for emergency emigration.
Or the human cattle ID cards Act,
which creates by far the world's most intrusive Big Brother database on citizens
by linking up 5+ previously unconnected databases...
The Dictatorship Bill, also called the Abolition
of Parliament Bill, Totalitarianism
Bill or (by the Govt) the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill is nothing less
than a naked grab for power. After being amended 3x, the Bill was passed
in the form described here.
LRRB
enables ministers to rewrite our constitution with only rudimentary scrutiny.
Consider the extraordinary mass
surveillance / coersion implications of the ID Cards Act. Even the
well-organised opposition could not stop
this legislation.
What chance then of:
1. Spotting obscure but deeply damaging clauses hidden in the boring legislation?
2. Motivating the Tories, LibDems and enough New Labour drones to subsequently
block it?
LRRB is then carte blanche for Blair to do what he will with this country.
What can we deduce of his plans?
New Labour already rejected
an amendment to stop LRRB re-writing our most important constitutional laws.
They then promised to introduce new amendments fulfilling the same thing. Our
skepticism was once again justified.
This is more than enough evidence that Blair wants dictatorial powers.
LRRB is obviously a precursor to passing laws which Parliament wouldn't otherwise
pass.
Considering the deeply scary laws he's got through Parliament, the likelihood
is that he wants something so badly, and so unpalatable that he won't even risk
presenting it for proper Parliamentary scrutiny.
- He does not need Parliamentary approval to invade Iran
- He already has Hitler's
Enabling Act.
- He has already passed RIPA
and the ID Cards Act for more Big Brother snooping than anything China or North
Korea have.
- He already has locked up people for 3 years without trial or even being questioned
- although he has been twice been 'told off' for breaching the Human Rights
Act in this way.
I did not believe that he needs LRRB to repeal the HRA - indeed one welcome
amendment was to exclude the HRA from being amended. When every other explanation
has been ruled out, whatever remains, however unlikely, must be considered.
I think something much worse is coming although I dread to think what.
The head of the Homeland Security Department's visitor tracking program
on Tuesday called for the creation of a "global ID management system"
to make travel easier while enhancing security...
[Jim] Williams said he wants to join forces with several DHS agencies to
develop a global identification system that would cut wait times, reduce government
fees for travelers, fight illegal immigration and, perhaps paramount, better
defend nations from terrorists.
The US VISIT chief, who already oversees identity inquiries for nearly
every visitor who enters the United States, said a worldwide identification
system will better link nations in the fight against terrorism. In his speech,
he likened al Qaeda operatives and sleeper cells - including the ones that attacked
on 9/11 - to "submarines" that must surface to kill.
By that logic, anything that makes the government more efficient is a tool
of oppression.
And by your logic, invading Iraq was a good idea becuase it killed a few terrorists.
There is little evidence that ID cards make the government more efficient at
anything other than genocide.
"Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from
the subjects of it The history of liberty is a history of limitations
of governmental power, not the increase of it." - Woodrow Wilson
And it strikes me, from the reactions I've seen here, that Americans fear
their Government a lot more than people who have lived for 50 years under a
communist dictatorship.
We should be thankful that Americans are taught to respect freedom and keep
their Government accountable. Could you imagine what would happen if America
was suddenly taken over by a fascist like Hitler?
But think about it, what difference does it really make?
I don't know. What happens if you get another Franco/in the next 100
years? Is there an arrest field on your ID record?
Identity theft is almost unheard of, and even if attempted it cracks down
as some point along the way without liability for the victim.
Same in Britain. What difference do ID cards make?
You already leave a lot of traces everywhere as you interact with society
and all kinds of services.
Is that a good thing?
How long would it take to collate this information? A day per person?
How long if they're all under the same number? An hour per person?
How long if they're all linked electronically under the same number?
A minute to search for signs of dissidence amongst 100+ million people?
Furthermore, the passport applications will be denied unless you give up your
passport number, DVLA number and NI number ie indexes to major UK databases
on:
1. international travels.
2. car travels via national ANPR.
3. tax/income & disability benefits.
We're also being given a new unique number for what can be no other purpose
than indexing our medical records, bank records, phone & email records and
potentially even dissident Slashdot posts like this one.
For those without a background in databases, I've explained this further here.
1. Join No2ID, the extremely well-run campaign
that is the fastest growing in the UK.
2. Tell all your UK friends, especially influential ones what is happening.
Tell them to Renew their passports
for Freedom in May.
Re:iPAQ hw6515 is a step in the right direction
on
The Future of the PDA
·
· Score: 1
If it's the same as the Treo 600 keyboard, it's awful.
Who owns the patent for the Psion MX5 keyboard/clamshell design?
How do you know that God is perfect, and that none of the other Gods he didn't want us to worship (Commandment #2) don't for some reason pay attention to some of the people who are being prayed for.
How do you know that some of the people who are doing the praying aren't themselves sending some weird kind of healing energy?
Interesting to see the balance of good science vs barmy old cack posts. Any decent scientist would have to take this study with a veritable iceberg of salt, especially when it showed a measurable effect for prayer.
Oh and aren't 33% of scientific papers flawed anyway?
One of my girlfriends is a reiki master and when she's doing reiki on me, it's unmistakeable. It's like someone just injected you a small dose of the best MDMA ever.
Was Sheldrake's evidence that people responded when being watched thru a CCTV camera convincing?
Whole experiment is bogus AND, for anyone who actually read the article, it actually says prayer might help heart patients.
"However, six-month mortality was lower in patients assigned bedside MIT, with the lowest absolute death rates observed in patients treated with both _praver_ and bedside MIT. Patients treated with bedside MIT also showed changes in self-rated emotional distress prior to catheterization and stenting."
Emphasis mine. The study seems to support that prayer has an effect.
Slashdot Mirror
Demonstrations are pretty useless. Even when you get enough people to make the news, you get ignored. 5-10 million people demonstrated agains the invasion of Iraq.
Lobbying to impeach Bush seems to be the way to go. Even if he stays, he'll be crippled. And sort your damn voting machines out.
Either way you need to organise. The web is great for this. Find the right person to lead the organisation (egoless, experienced & committed) and learn to influence the media.
This is my experience of campaigning against the British Govt who, trust me, are far worse and much less accountable.
And how much terrorist funding have we blocked for this loss of privacy?
Any?
Would it really help the terrorists if accesses to the database were based on intelligence rather than whim of some egotistical official?
How long did it take for MS to maximise IE usage?
;)
There haven't been THAT many people recommending FF to a big enough audience for long enough.
Besides, Opera is far better.
ABG - unlike AC, I am proud to share a species with you.
I don't have time to format a Slashdot response.
You might already know the Orwellian extent of the ID database. If not please read:
http://www.bristol-no2id.org.uk/blog/?page_id=5
There are some links there about other terrifying laws Blair has passed.
http://www.bristol-no2id.org.uk/blog/?page_id=5
Sure thing...
I know it's hosted on the unreliable Infowars, but it's the only copy of The Independent's article I could find:a rs_never_even_questioned.htm
http://www.infowars.com/articles/terror/held_4_ye
It took 3 years of being locked in a dungeon before our Law Lords ruled their imprisonment was incompatible with the HRA. The Govt's response was to push through the whole Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 in 7 days saying that if it took any longer, these dangerous terrorists would be free to strike again.
As subsequently happened on the ID Cards Act, the elderly House of Lords were forced to stay up into the early hours of the morning and luckily not one of them died. This 3rd draconian 'anti-terror' Act (which can lock any of us up in our own homes without access to family indefinitely) was passed after several ping-pongs and a sunset clause applied.
The moment I heard these so-called terrorists were released without being even put under House Arrest, I knew this Govt would tell any lie to pass their totalitarian laws.
More recently, the sunset clause of PoT was renewed without even a vote. And Control Orders were ruled incompatible with the HRA by a High Court judge.
Let me know if you need any other sources.
Wait a minute... you have to give up your fingerprints?
Yes, and iris scans, and anything else they deem important. And we'll be made to pay for it too.
There was much jeering and disbelief when the Govt tried to argue that passports & driving licenses were voluntary.
I don't have time to give you a definite answer, but this might help:
The government can demand that decryption keys be handed over in order to access protected information, where the person concerned has or has had the keys and does not have the information.
It is an offence not to hand over such a key on pain of 2 years imprisonment. You are deemed to have possessed the key if you possessed it at any time before the disclosure notice was served, unless you can show you did not have it after the time the notice was served and before the time you were required to disclose it. You are taken to show that you did not possess it at the relevant time if you can adduce sufficient evidence to raise an issue with respect to this matter and the contrary is not proved beyond reasonable doubt.
Note that if you ever had the key you will have to produce evidence you no longer have it, i.e. provide evidence for a negative. Also, if the notice requiring disclosure demands secrecy it is an offence to let anyone know that you've been asked to hand over the key(s) in question on pain of 5 years imprisonment.
The legal requirements here undermine the use of public key systems, such as PGP, to protect information that is communicated between people. Whilst it is possible to set things up to minimise this impact and even circumvent these powers, this simply imposes costs on ordinary users who wish to keep their communications secret for any reason (criminals can circumvent these powers anyway!), and also puts people who use PGP at risk of having to disclose their private keys (thus compromising the security of all the info sent to them) or going to prison for destroying, forgetting or losing a key.
See sections 49 to 56 which define the powers and offences related to this issue. See also Schedule 2.
I think we can safely tone down the 'UK sucks' tone.
Yes, it isn't the UK which sucks, just the totalitarian Government in power.
Believe it or not, there is no law against Govt spying on UK citizens. Well, there is the retrospective Human Rights Act's Right to Privacy but even Cameron wants to get rid of that.
No, instead we have laws like the ID Cards Act where everyone with a passport/driving license will be forced to turn up for interrogation, fingerprinted like a criminal and forced on to give up keys to their records on the passport, tax, benefits and new ANPR databases. All to be connected to form the world's most intrusive mass surveillance database - even worse than anything China or North Korea have.
Oh, and the Dictatorship Bill which passed on Tuesday.
I'm guessing it's far worse than you think. Here's my earlier comment on Tuesday's Dictatorship Bill.
If it says what we think it says, I'm writing to the Queen and telling everyone (in my position as a respected therapist/human rights defender) to make plans for emergency emigration.
Or the human cattle ID cards Act, which creates by far the world's most intrusive Big Brother database on citizens by linking up 5+ previously unconnected databases...
The Dictatorship Bill, also called the Abolition of Parliament Bill, Totalitarianism Bill or (by the Govt) the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill is nothing less than a naked grab for power. After being amended 3x, the Bill was passed in the form described here.
LRRB enables ministers to rewrite our constitution with only rudimentary scrutiny. Consider the extraordinary mass surveillance / coersion implications of the ID Cards Act. Even the well-organised opposition could not stop this legislation.
What chance then of:
1. Spotting obscure but deeply damaging clauses hidden in the boring legislation?
2. Motivating the Tories, LibDems and enough New Labour drones to subsequently block it?
LRRB is then carte blanche for Blair to do what he will with this country. What can we deduce of his plans?
New Labour already rejected an amendment to stop LRRB re-writing our most important constitutional laws. They then promised to introduce new amendments fulfilling the same thing. Our skepticism was once again justified. This is more than enough evidence that Blair wants dictatorial powers.
LRRB is obviously a precursor to passing laws which Parliament wouldn't otherwise pass.
Considering the deeply scary laws he's got through Parliament, the likelihood is that he wants something so badly, and so unpalatable that he won't even risk presenting it for proper Parliamentary scrutiny.
- He does not need Parliamentary approval to invade Iran
- He already has Hitler's Enabling Act.
- He has already passed RIPA and the ID Cards Act for more Big Brother snooping than anything China or North Korea have.
- He already has locked up people for 3 years without trial or even being questioned - although he has been twice been 'told off' for breaching the Human Rights Act in this way.
I did not believe that he needs LRRB to repeal the HRA - indeed one welcome amendment was to exclude the HRA from being amended. When every other explanation has been ruled out, whatever remains, however unlikely, must be considered. I think something much worse is coming although I dread to think what.
Isn't it up to the web browser to scale fonts?
Luckily the best browser (Opera) allows you to scale everything to unlimited degree.
By Jonathan Marino
April 25, 2006
The head of the Homeland Security Department's visitor tracking program on Tuesday called for the creation of a "global ID management system" to make travel easier while enhancing security...
[Jim] Williams said he wants to join forces with several DHS agencies to develop a global identification system that would cut wait times, reduce government fees for travelers, fight illegal immigration and, perhaps paramount, better defend nations from terrorists.
The US VISIT chief, who already oversees identity inquiries for nearly every visitor who enters the United States, said a worldwide identification system will better link nations in the fight against terrorism. In his speech, he likened al Qaeda operatives and sleeper cells - including the ones that attacked on 9/11 - to "submarines" that must surface to kill.
My earlier post on this thread.
By that logic, anything that makes the government more efficient is a tool of oppression.
And by your logic, invading Iraq was a good idea becuase it killed a few terrorists.
There is little evidence that ID cards make the government more efficient at anything other than genocide.
"Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it." - Woodrow Wilson
My earlier post on this thread.
And it strikes me, from the reactions I've seen here, that Americans fear their Government a lot more than people who have lived for 50 years under a communist dictatorship.
We should be thankful that Americans are taught to respect freedom and keep their Government accountable. Could you imagine what would happen if America was suddenly taken over by a fascist like Hitler?
But think about it, what difference does it really make?
I don't know. What happens if you get another Franco/in the next 100 years? Is there an arrest field on your ID record?
Identity theft is almost unheard of, and even if attempted it cracks down as some point along the way without liability for the victim.
Same in Britain. What difference do ID cards make?
You already leave a lot of traces everywhere as you interact with society and all kinds of services.
Is that a good thing?
How long would it take to collate this information? A day per person?
How long if they're all under the same number? An hour per person?
How long if they're all linked electronically under the same number? A minute to search for signs of dissidence amongst 100+ million people?
Ask the Jews about the first ever electronic database on citizens.
My earlier post on this thread.
Does Sweden have a codified constitution? Does it have any laws to prevent collating/abuse of this information?
Furthermore, the passport applications will be denied unless you give up your passport number, DVLA number and NI number ie indexes to major UK databases on:
1. international travels.
2. car travels via national ANPR.
3. tax/income & disability benefits.
We're also being given a new unique number for what can be no other purpose than indexing our medical records, bank records, phone & email records and potentially even dissident Slashdot posts like this one.
For those without a background in databases, I've explained this further here.
If that wasn't bad enough, the cards will also contain RFID chips.
It's also clear that the Government want to make us dependent on ID cards
"the ID card is now an accepted part of accessing many public- and private-sector services."
This would be less scary if Blair's Government hadn't lied at every opportunity, attacked one of our most prestigious academic institutes for daring to offer a less intrusive scheme and wasn't passing Bills to do away with our democratic process.
So what can you do to help?
1. Join No2ID, the extremely well-run campaign that is the fastest growing in the UK.
2. Tell all your UK friends, especially influential ones what is happening. Tell them to Renew their passports for Freedom in May.
If it's the same as the Treo 600 keyboard, it's awful.
0 ,39023905,39165419,00.htm
Who owns the patent for the Psion MX5 keyboard/clamshell design?
I'm also keeping an eye on these new 'laser' keyboards:
http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/inputdevices/
Can get them for £100.
Agree.
Of course, if praying really works, doesn't it cast doubt on all medical research?
Didn't work for draft dodgers.
How do you know that God is perfect, and that none of the other Gods he didn't want us to worship (Commandment #2) don't for some reason pay attention to some of the people who are being prayed for.
How do you know that some of the people who are doing the praying aren't themselves sending some weird kind of healing energy?
Where are my mod points when I need them?
Interesting to see the balance of good science vs barmy old cack posts. Any decent scientist would have to take this study with a veritable iceberg of salt, especially when it showed a measurable effect for prayer.
Oh and aren't 33% of scientific papers flawed anyway?
One of my girlfriends is a reiki master and when she's doing reiki on me, it's unmistakeable. It's like someone just injected you a small dose of the best MDMA ever.
Was Sheldrake's evidence that people responded when being watched thru a CCTV camera convincing?
Prayer had a measureable effect if you had RTFA.
Go explain that one.
Completely true.
Whole experiment is bogus AND, for anyone who actually read the article, it actually says prayer might help heart patients.
"However, six-month mortality was lower in patients assigned bedside MIT, with the lowest absolute death rates observed in patients treated with both _praver_ and bedside MIT. Patients treated with bedside MIT also showed changes in self-rated emotional distress prior to catheterization and stenting."
Emphasis mine. The study seems to support that prayer has an effect.