Lost freedom

[sadie]

No freedom of speech here

http://www.wwltv.com/national/storie....86da5886.html


Right to privacy in own home?

http://www.wwltv.com/national/storie....87135e8c.html

[Logan]

Still think we do not live in a "police state" where our governments hates us SO much, that they are willing to BEAT us into submission for our own good?

Alex Jones*: "911, the road to tyranny". Get it and watch.


*(yea, he is a little off, but he delivers the message in the only method that will be affective at this point)

[iamfreeru2]

I received this is an email this morning. I thought it to be apropos to this thread. If anyone here thinks we are free any longer think again and it is getting worse.

This Is America?
Published in The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty - July 2002
by James R. Otteson

I have long had an uneasy relationship with airport security. Before
September 11, I resisted the demand that I produce a government-issued ID,
believing that it smacked too much of the “Papers, please” of the former
Soviet Union that Hollywood movies used to mock and we free Americans used
to laugh at.

I also used to withhold permission to search my bags. On one occasion before
September 11, in the Birmingham, Alabama, airport, the security guard was
nonplussed when I answered no to her perfunctory request for permission to
search my briefcase. I told her, and then her supervisor, and eventually a
man who identified himself as the head of security at the airport, that I am
protected by the Constitution from unreasonable searches and seizures. I
showed him the Fourth Amendment in the copy of the Constitution I always
take with me when I travel. It meant, I said, that unless they had either a
warrant or probable cause to suspect me of some crime, they had no right to
demand to search my bag. They admitted that they had neither, but, in what
was then a shocking revelation and now seems only to have been ahead of its
time, the chief of security said: “Well, you have your law; I have mine.”

That was before September 11. Since then, all sanity—not to mention quaint
notions like individual liberty, rights, and privacy—is fast going the way
of the Edsel.

Several weeks ago in the airport in Traverse City, Michigan, my wife, my
children of 8, 5, and 3, and I were all “randomly” selected for a complete
search of all our belongings. I have never been subject to more humiliating
treatment in my life. We all—including my three-year-old son—had to take off
our shoes, and hand them over for “inspection.” I had to take off my sport
coat and belt as well; and I had to hand over my wallet for it to be—well,
who knows?

I made my usual protest about protections from unreasonable searches and
seizures, but they fell on deaf ears. “We’re just following orders,” I was
told. That was the defense Nazi war criminals used, I said. Following orders
does not relieve you of responsibility for your own actions. “Are you
calling me a Nazi?” one demanded. “You call me a Nazi again and you’re never
getting on that plane!”

Whose orders are you following? “The FAA’s.” The FAA has instructed you to
detain and search innocent American citizens and their families? “Where have
you been lately, buddy? Haven’t you heard of what happened in New York?” But
wasn’t that tragedy, like most terrorist activities against America,
perpetrated by people who were not native-born American citizens, and who
were not traveling with their wives and small children?

By this point I was surrounded by approximately half a dozen security guards
and several armed National Guardsmen. I was informed that if I did not “shut
up,” I would be made to “go Greyhound the rest of [my] life.” I asked
whether I was suspected of a crime. I was informed that asking so many
questions “about the Constitution and all” was making me suspicious. “This
is America now, buddy. You better shut up and get used to it!”

I asked whether they now intended not only to violate my right to be free of
arbitrary searches and seizures, but also my right to free speech. I was
then told—through clenched teeth—that if I said “one more word,” they were
going to “lock me up” and make me “go Greyhound the rest of [my] life.” “I
have that power,” one security guard growled at me ominously.

My children were frightened and on the verge of tears, and my wife, also
growing uneasy, implored me to simply let them do what they wanted to do. So
after a tense moment I stood aside, escorted by two armed National Guardsmen
while several security guards searched through our bags. I had to stand by
silently while all of our things were taken out and examined, no doubt with
extra thoroughness to punish me for my impudence. My shirts, pants, and
socks were unfolded. A man with no gloves on rifled through my wife’s
intimates; he even fingered through her feminine products.

After some 20 minutes of searching, they finished, and allowed us to go up
the one flight of stairs and walk the 50 feet to our gate, where one of the
very same people who had searched us downstairs now searched us again before
we were allowed to get on the plane.

Security Reduced

What has become of us? A once free and proud people lets itself be subject
to this kind of totalitarian treatment? Searching my children, my wife, and
me does not increase security one iota: as anyone with any common sense
could see, we are obviously not a threat. Indeed, wasting time searching
people like us squanders the opportunity to check people who actually are
likely suspects. So it might in fact reduce our level of security.

I flew again just recently. During yet another “random” search of my
briefcase, the security guard found a leather thong with weighted ends that
I use to hold books open while I read them. (I am a college professor, so
this comes in quite handy; my mother gave it to me as a gift many years ago
) The guard decided it could be used as a “blackjack”—apparently a device
used to hit people on the head—and called his manager over.

I explained to the manager, as I had explained to the guard, what I use it
for. I even got a book out of my briefcase and demonstrated. The manager
said, “That’s fine. Let him through.” “But,” the guard protested, “he could
use it to knock somebody out!” And he provided his own rather dramatic
demonstration of how one might use it. The manager replied, “It’s no
different from a fist—are you going to cut his arm off? Let him through.” I
thanked the manager for her common sense.

Thus there is still some of that in airports—but it is increasingly uncommon
And the new security measures being adopted, which do not increase security
and instead serve only to inconvenience law-abiding Americans, are quickly
stamping out the last vestiges of reasonableness—not to mention liberty—at
our airports.

The terrorist threat is real. As September 11 showed, it is all too real. We
should not let our political sensibilities trump our good sense when actual
lives are at stake. And we should not let our precious liberties—the very
liberties that make this country worth dying for—be usurped by petty tyrants
who are “just following orders.”

The invasive and unconstitutional tactics of such airport security are an
alarmingly large step toward creating just the kind of totalitarian society
our enemies hope to create. We must not let it continue.

James Otteson is a professor of philosophy at the University of Alabama.

[Bird]

How about being chased down by thugs masquerading as police and shot repeatedly in the head? And this because one was seen "leaving a house under surveillance". That is about the same as being hunted down and murdered in the streets after leaving the library for having "questionable library checkout records", or anything of the like that could raise suspicion on the part of the police- so much for due process of law. This is an outrage and the worse form of terrorism because it is done under the guise of public service.

British police kill wrong man

Suspected bomber was not involved

By Patrick Quinn, Associated Press

LONDON -- Police identified the man who was chased down in a subway and shot to death by plainclothes officers as a Brazilian and said Saturday they no longer believe he was tied to the recent terror bombings.

Friday's shooting before horrified commuters prompted criticism of police for overreacting and expressions of fear that Asians and Muslims would be targeted by a "trigger-happy culture" after two well-coordinated attacks in two weeks.

Police expressed regret for the death of the man at the Stockwell subway station, identified Saturday as Jean Charles de Menezes, 27. Witnesses said he was wearing a heavy, padded coat when plainclothes police chased him into a subway car, pinned him to the ground and shot him about five times in the head and torso.

Hours after the shooting, Police Commissioner Ian Blair said the victim was "directly linked" to the investigations into attacks Thursday and July 7. In the latter, suicide bombings on trains and a bus killed 56 people, including four attackers.

Police initially said the victim attracted police attention because he left a house that was under surveillance after Thursday's bungled bombings, in which devices planted on three subway trains and a double- decker bus failed to detonate properly. Stockwell is near Oval station, one of those targeted.

"He was then followed by surveillance officers to the station. His clothing and his behavior at the station added to their suspicions," police said Friday.

But Saturday, a police official said on condition of anonymity that Menezes was "not believed to be connected in any way to any of the London bombings."

"For somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is a tragedy and one that the Metropolitan Police Service regrets," a spokesman said on condition of anonymity, which is police policy.

However, police did not explain what went wrong or say whether Menezes had done anything illegal.

In Brazil, the Foreign Ministry said it was "shocked and perplexed" by the death of Menezes, whom it did not name but described as "apparently the victim of a lamentable mistake."

The ministry said it expected British authorities to explain the circumstances of the shooting, and Foreign Minister Celso Amorim would try to arrange a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during a visit to London.

Brazilian media reported that Menezes was an electrician who had been legally living and working in England for the past three years. He originally came from the small city of Gonzaga, some 500 miles northeast of Sao Paulo in the state of Minas Gerais.

"He spoke English very well, and had permission to study and work there," Menezes' cousin Maria Alves told the O Globo Online Web site from her home in Sao Paulo.

Menezes' family was Roman Catholic. When asked if he had become Muslim in Britain, Agostino Ferreira Rosa, a policeman in Gonzaga said: "According to his family, he had nothing to do with Muslims or Islamism. He was Catholic."

"There was no reason to think he was a terrorist," Menezes' grandmother, Zilda Ambrosia de Figueiredo, told Globo TV late Saturday. "He was very easygoing and very communicative with everybody. It's terrible what they have done to him."

Mayor Ken Livingstone said the killing was a "human tragedy" that was a consequence of the attacks.

http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1...earch=fi lter

[Bird]

Well, biometrics is making its way onto the scene. How convenient... no need to carry cash or even plastic anymore to do anything, including buying groceries. Sounds like a great idea! And they sell if like they sell everything else- for your benefit, comfort, convenience, etc. The pitfalls are obvious.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Instead of keeping countless cards and pieces of information that verify your identification, soon there may be only one thing you need: yourself.

As identity theft has become the bane of consumers everywhere, technologies aimed at making transactions more secure are gaining ground. Such "biometric technologies" include iris scans, as well as those for fingerprints, palm, skin, voice and face patterns.

"In everyday life, the use of biometrics has been growing," said Philip Youn, a consultant at International Biometric Group.

The underlying strength of biometrics is that it uses patterns that are unique to each individual. Your fingerprints belong to you alone, and unlike that password to your online bank account, you can never lose it.
Where can you see it now?

Retail. Albertson's, the No. 2 supermarket chain, is one of hundreds of retailers testing biometric payment systems that let customers pay for purchases with a mere swipe of a finger.

It works like this: You register your fingerprint and your bank account with a service provider. The main ones are Pay By Touch and BioPay.

When you shop at a participating merchant, you just swipe your finger and the payment is automatically transferred from your bank to the merchant -- you don't have to hand over a card, sign a receipt or punch in a PIN.

Earlier this year, Albertson's joined the Pay By Touch network and is testing the service at four of its stores in the Portland, Oregon area.

"One thing we've heard repeatedly from our customers is that they would like to speed up the checkout process," Albertson's spokeswoman Shannon Bennett said. The feedback has been "very positive" she said, although the company hasn't announced any expansion plans for the program.

So far Pay By Touch is available at 100 to 200 stores while rival BioPay's system can be accessed at 150 locations.

"Biometric payments are the safest because no information is passed to the merchant," said Donita Prakash, vice president of marketing at BioPay.

And because you don't have to present your card at the point of sale, the transaction is faster, Pay By Touch marketing director Shannon Riordan said.

Another selling point: biometrics could offer are instant age verification for alcohol and tobacco sales.

Computers. Getting started with biometrics for your computer is as easy as picking up a product like the Biopod Password Manager produced by APC. The small fingerprint scanning device, which plugs into a USB port, stores all your passwords in your fingerprint.

When you go visit your favorite Web sites -- whether it be Amazon.com or your investment portfolio -- all you have to do is scan your fingerprint.

If you don't want to deal with external hardware, IBM, Toshiba and Compaq all sell notebook models already outfitted with a fingerprint reader.

The price of the Biopod is about $50 while laptops with the device built-in can sell for as little as $1,300.

Travel. If you travel internationally, then soon you'll be carrying some high-tech identification. The Department of State has launched a plan to introduce electronic passports that come with a chip that stores the usual personal information as well as a digital photo which enables biometric comparison through the use of facial recognition technology at international borders.

According to State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore, the electronic passports are still in test mode, but partial implementation is planned for the fall and full implementation in 2006.
Fundamentally flawed technology?

No biometric technology is 100 percent reliable, and privacy advocates are concerned with another problem -- centralized databases holding huge amounts of personal information.

"Whenever you're collecting uniquely identifiable information that you can't change, that's a very bad idea. It's a honeypot for hackers and attackers," Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, said.

"Biometric technology would seem like it's a fantastic fix for identity theft, but once the ultimate identifier is stolen, there is no recourse for an individual to prove who they are," she said.

While victims of identity theft can get a new credit card number, change their address and even apply for a new Social Security number, they can't change their DNA.

Furthermore, there are those who just cannot use certain biometric systems, IBG's Youn said, explaining that some people's fingerprints are damaged, and others are born without readable prints -- although this is a small portion of the population.

Representatives from Pay By Touch and BioPay said when it comes to security, users of biometric payment services can relax because both companies don't store pictures of fingerprints. Instead, tiny measurements unique to each finger are recorded as an algorithm. If a hacker breaks into the system, all he or she would find is a number rather than a usable image of a fingerprint, they said.

Is a federal law that better protects personal data on the way? Click here.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/19/pf/s...rics/index.htm

[Fed-Up]

Well folks,

I'm just ready to to start dropping bad guys until they kill me.

I'm so sick and tired of the fascist takeover of our country and having to endure the same ol' ****....

"It's for you're safty" The situation in Amerikkka

has hit the skids and I guess it's only a matter of a

few years before the tanks start rolling down Maine St. and we'll have to make a stand against the jokers
who think they're running things....so be it.

Like the Warsaw Ghetto stand back during WWII

I guess the strong and courageous will have to begin dropping enemies and taking their "toys" away from them.

It will sure beat watching Election Coverage!


Keeping the powder dry,for that day....

Well hell wake up they all ready have concentration camps all over for us who do not comply to there will. These miltary bases that are closing down are being redone to house many. Gee I may get to meet you all one day there. I hope we can get enough people together to go to DC and stand there and let them know we have had enough. It is about time for an uprising of us for truth and to save our childrens future. Just my personal opinion again. Bobbie

[Fed-Up]

Better to not bunch up....


small unit tactics!

Maybe your right in some accepts for the surprise attack but we do elect these buttholes and need to taken them out of there somehow.