JustGetThere

Local authorities are routinely using surveillance powers to monitor couples' sleeping arrangements, according to information obtained under a freedom of information request.

Politics.co.uk | Councils use the powers to evaluate residents' claims to single person council tax discounts, but local authorities are currently pushing for greater powers, including the right to enter peoples' homes to conduct bedroom inspections looking for a "secret boyfriend or girlfriend".

The Conservatives, who launched the freedom of information request, are saying the powers are further proof of Britain sleepwalking into a surveillance state.

"Councils will naturally wish to ensure that council tax discounts and benefits are not wrongly claimed," said local government secretary Eric Pickles.

"But I am concerned that innocent citizens will be spied on through heavy-handed and disproportionate use by town hall snoopers.

"There are far less intrusive and more cost-effective ways of vetting council tax, such as through data matching, rather than paying town hall officials to camp out overnight outside people's homes."

Rotherham Council published a surveillance dossier documenting the extent of their surveillance powers. These include:

* "Surveillance to take place in order to establish if vehicle registered to partner at address on two or more occasions... to substantiate the allegation of living together".

* "Surveillance to take place to establish if alleged partner leaves the property each morning. To establish if customer's partner is living at the property."

* "Drive past surveillance at property each morning and evening to see if vehicle is outside the property. Evidence to substantiate claim that customer may have landlord living with her."

* "To establish if partner living is property. To establish if customer has undeclared partner living at property."

* "Surveillance to take place to establish how often the customer’s partner’s vehicle is part at the property over a two week period. To establish if customer’s partner is living at the property."

* "To establish if partner living at property and working. To establish if partner living at property as husband and wife."

Less than 80 days from the next Presidential Election, Diebold admits that their tabulator software -- in use for years, in dozens of states -- loses votes. Will anybody notice now?

By Brad Friedman

The Brad Blog | Diebold has admitted that their tabulator software, known as GEMS, and used all across the country, in at least 34 states, does not count votes correctly.

In fact, it actually loses votes, by not counting them at all, yet gives the system administrator no indication that the votes were not counted. Instead, it tells them that all votes have been counted correctly. This bug has been in Diebold's software --- where it remains to this day-- for years. Diebold has only admitted it now that it's been found by someone else (a number of counties in Ohio, of all places) and with the 2008 Presidential election less than 80 days away. Washington Post's coverage here.

Coinciding with that startling admission, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC)'s Gracia Hillman, one of the two Democratic-recommended appointees, has gone on public record stating that the federal certification testing process is too stringent.

While all of that was made clear in Ellen's blog item, I found both of the above points so remarkable that I wanted to underscore them now that I've finally made it to Denver (or at least Boulder, for the moment), since I was simply stunned to read it myself after getting back on the grid.

Is anybody there? Does anybody care?

UPDATE: CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight covered the stunning admission by Diebold on their show Friday. Here it is (thanks to Alan Breslauer, as usual!) ...




UPDATE 8:43pm PT: McClatchy's Greg Gordon picks up the ball, and advances it a bit, noting the failure in oversight by the feds which allowed for the failure, as we've been trying to get across here for years. He begins this way...

Warning on voting machines reveals oversight failure

WASHINGTON — Disclosure of an election computer glitch that could drop ballot totals for entire precincts is stirring new worries that an unofficial laboratory testing system failed for years to detect an array of flaws in $1.5 billion worth of voting equipment sold nationwide since 2003.

Texas-based Premier Elections Solutions [Diebold] last week alerted at least 1,750 jurisdictions across the country that special precautions are needed to address the problem in tabulation software affecting all 19 of its models dating back a decade.

By Hawk

Truth Alliance | ReCreate 68 kicked it off Sunday, just one day prior to the official start date of the DNC with a number of speakers including Cynthia Mckinney and Cindy Sheehan at Civic City Park in front of the capital steps. After marching from civic center park to the Pepsi Center where the convention will convene Monday the protesters started to disperse after being told to turn around by riot police. It seemed like the protest and March may have died out then, but it didn’t stop there and took on a life of its own once the protesters regrouped in front of th Capital building.

Around 1pm the protesters took to Lincoln Street, a major artery running directly through the capital building and Civic Center Park. Upon being confronted by fully equipped armed police the protesters did an about face making a b-line down a major one way street brining downtown traffic to a stand still. Upon approaching the 16th street pedestrian mall this large masked mob began to make its way down one of the busiest shopping avenues in Denver, stopping bus traffic and setting shoppers on edge.

This marching came to an abrupt end on Stout St. and 15th St. when the protesters found themselves face to face with a wall of armed police in full riot gear with no intention of letting them past. A very tense moment especially with our guys from WeAreChangeColorado.org and Luke Rudkowski being smack dab in the middle of the blockade. Fortunately after what amounted to a Mexican standoff between masked protesters and police, the officers did allow small groups to filter out on the west side of the street until the crowd was almost completely dispersed.

Interestingly enough after having squelched this uprising, the police seemed to turn the street corner on 15th and Stout Street into a parade of their own, as mounted police, riot police, and convoys began to make their way up and down 15th in an obvious show of strength.

An interesting kick off to a much anticipated convention. We will have live streams available during the DNC start date of Mon. 25th.

Photos courtesy of WeAreChange.org

Background Information: American Crystal, a large Wyoming-based sugar company and several other leading U.S. sugar providers have announced they will be sourcing their sugar from genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets beginning this year and arriving in stores in 2008. Like GE corn and GE soy, products containing GE sugar will not be labeled as such.

Organic Consumers Asociation | Since half of the granulated sugar in the U.S. comes from sugar beets, a move towards biotech beets marks a dramatic alteration of the U.S. food supply. These sugars, along with GE corn and soy, are found in many conventional food products, so consumers will be exposed to genetically engineered ingredients in just about every non-organic multiple-ingredient product they purchase.

The GE sugar beet is designed to withstand strong doses of Monsanto's controversial broad spectrum Roundup herbicide. Studies indicate farmers planting "Roundup Ready" corn and soy spray large amounts of the herbicide, contaminating both soil and water. Farmers planting GE sugar beets are told they may be able to apply the herbicide up to five times per year. Sugar beets are grown on 1.4 million acres by 12,000 farmers in the U.S. from Oregon to Minnesota.

Meanwhile candy companies like Hershey's are urging farmers not to plant GE sugar beets, noting that consumer surveys suggest resistance to the product. In addition the European Union has not approved GE sugar beets for human consumption.

Click here to sign petition

Example of Petition

To:
James Jenness, Chairman and CEO
One Kellogg Square
P.O. Box 3599
Battle Creek, MI 49016-3599

Paul S. Michaels, President,
M&M/Mars Inc.
6885 Elm St., McLean, VA 22101
consumer.affairs@mmmars.com and askmms@mmmars.com

Richard H. Lenny
The Hershey Company
PO Box 810
100 Crystal A Drive
Hershey, PA 17033

We, the undersigned, would like to thank American Crystal for historically encouraging related sugar beet farmers to avoid conversion to genetically engineered sugar beets. We are concerned about recent comments suggesting American Crystal is now supporting transition to biotech.

As you know, roughly half of all granulated sugar in the U.S. is derived from sugar beets. Consumers leery of genetically engineered products cannot rely on packaging labels indicating which products contain genetically engineered ingredients and which do not. As a result, consumers will seek out products from companies that have publicly stated that they do not use genetically engineered ingredients and/or products that are USDA certified organic.

One need only look at the history of genetically engineered crops to see that the promises made by the biotech industry starkly contrast the reality.

-Roundup Ready corn and soy have led to an increase of herbicide use, not a decrease.

-The increased use of Roundup on Roundup Ready crops has led to the advancement of superweeds that are resistant to this herbicide.

-Consumer resistance to genetically engineered foods will affect profit margins of your company and its supporting farmers.

-Studies consistently show that biotech cannot feed the world, despite what the American Crystal President recently stated and what biotech companies are advertising. The United Nation's own reports indicate that crop yields for organic operations that have been in place for 3 years or more are higher than biotech chemically intensive operations.

Please reconsider your decision to support genetically engineered sugar beets and, in so doing, you will make American Crystal a food staple that consumers can confidently rely on in the long term.

Thanks,

Let’s flood national radio talk shows with our calls on 9/11/08

By Mark Dice

The Resistance Manifesto | First of all, find out when the show airs LIVE and in what time zone. Many shows are live in one time zone, and are then replayed several hours later in other parts of the country which have different time zones.

Second, call the show in the first few minutes as soon as it starts. Call right when the show goes on air, or even start calling several minutes BEFORE it goes live. This way you won’t have to press redial for an hour hoping to get through. Get the call-in number and timeslot from the show’s website which you’re going to target. Once the host gives the phone number over the air inviting people to call, the phone lines will be jammed with people trying to call in.

The topics are usually consistent for the entire segment, half hour, or even hour. Mainstream media mockingbirds love to beat a subject to death. You can’t just ask a random question about a subject, even if it is a good one because these zombies love to stay on the same topic. Do you agree or do you disagree with the topic at hand? Why? You need a fake question to get past the call screener.

Have a question or comment that revolves around one of the top stories for the day ready to feed the call screener. The screener is the person who first answers your call. They’ll ask your name, town you’re calling from, and your question or comment. If the screener thinks your question or comment is a good one, they’ll put your call in the call bank and you’ll start hearing the show through your phone, and you turn off your radio to avoid feedback. Then be ready to wait.

Be prepared to be on hold for at least thirty minutes to an hour once you make it past the screener. It’s not that bad since you can at least listen to the show while you’re on hold. Use your blue tooth or ear piece so you don’t have to hold your phone up to your ear the entire time. Also, this way you can do laundry or surf the web while on hold. Try to use a land line, and not a cell phone because your voice will sound much clearer when you’re on the air.

If you use a land line then you can put the phone on speaker phone to listen to the show until your call, but as soon as they go to your call PICK UP THE RECEIVER. It sounds terrible when using speakerphone on the air and they may just drop you. You need to sit right next to the phone and pick it up the second they call your name and put you on air. Do not be on the other side of the room and miss your opportunity.

When the host goes to your call, DO NOT SAY HI, OR HOW ARE YOU DOING, OR HEY THIS IS MARK IN SAN DIEGO. As soon as they say, “let’s go to Mark in San Diego, what’s up Mark?,” go right into your question or make your statement. When they do this, your phone line is opened up and you’re on the air.

Remember, they are the PUBLIC airwaves. And we’re not calling them and bothering them on their home numbers. That would be harassment, and wrong. This is a call in radio show on the public air waves. They give out the number and ASK PEOPLE TO CALL. So CALL. And KEEP CALLING.

Just think how many people will Google “Terror Storm” or “Alex Jones’ Endgame” after they hear it on the show, or after they keep hearing it. This is how one ordinary person can speak to MILLIONS of people with a simple phone call.

It’s good to bring up issues and keywords like Operation Northwoods, 9/11 insider trading, Loose Change, etc. If you plug a website, you will most likely have your comment censored, and the web address will not make it on the air.

Instead of plugging a website and having your call go to waste, ask these clowns if they have seen Terror Storm on Google video, or if they’ve read The Resistance Manifesto. Tell them you keep hearing about this film called Fabled Enemies or The 9/11 Chronicles and you watched it for free on Google Video and was shocked at the quality and sources from the films.

This is simple, extremely powerful and effective, and runs you ZERO risk of getting arrested as other forms of activism entail. I encourage you to get several of your friends or members of your favorite forum to all call into the same show on the same day. This is called a phone mob and is a great way to hammer your point into the minds of the listeners. Good luck, happy phone mobbing, and power to The Resistance!



Show times and phone numbers


BILL O'REILLY 1 (877) 966-7746 Live 12-2pm ET

SEAN HANNITY 1 (800) 941-7326 Live 3-6pm ET

RUSH LIMBAUGH 1 (800) 282-2882 Live 9am-Noon ET

GLENN BECK 1 (888) 727-2325 Live 9am-Noon ET

MICHAEL REAGAN 1 (800) 468-MIKE Live 6-9pm ET

By Kurt Nimmo

Infowars | Faux News darling, inveterate neocon, and internment camp advocate Michelle Malkin got more than she bargained for when she ventured out in the street in Denver to take pictures of her avowed enemies, members of the “far left” gathered to protest the DNC.

She didn’t bargain for Alex Jones, who is not a member of the “far left” or any other category of the manufactured false right-left paradigm, but is rather a true conservative, a species completely alien to Malkin, who is a neocon, that is to say a Trotskyite, and a monster, as Alex averred.

Of course, Malkin is too young and untutored to know the true roots of the political ideology she espouses, so it will suffice to say she is a shameless opportunist on parade as a Bush “conservative,” that is to say she is an authoritarian warmonger intolerant of the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights.

At 57 seconds into the video here, Alex adeptly scouts out Malkin in the crowd. Malkin poses as a tourist in search of a few digital pictures, no doubt to put on her blog to accompany one of her hateful diatribes. “Hey, Michelle Malkin, you still promoting FEMA camps for the American people?” Alex inquires. Malkin acts as if she has no idea what Alex is talking about, although the expression on her face gives it all away.

A few years ago Malkin decided to cash in on the hysteria fabricated by the government in the wake of the September 11, 2001, inside job and wrote In Defense of Internment: The Case for “Racial Profiling” in World War II and the War on Terror. In the book, she made excuses for the immoral mass round-up of Japanese Americans during the Second World War and advocates racial profiling of Muslims and Arabs in the current context.

Back in 2004, when Malkin’s scurrilous book hit the streets, I wrote: “Malkin is preparing the ethical skids for internment of Muslim Americans who are, simply by virtue of their religion, considered somehow less than American and deserving of a FEMA camp if, per chance, Osama bin Goldstein pulls off another attack.”

Since I wrote the above, more than a few of Malkin’s neocon compatriots have called for 9/11 truth activists to be arrested, beaten, tased, and disappeared into concentration camps. Neocon Michael Reagan, the adopted son of the late Ronald Reagan, called for the truth activist Mark Dice to be shot, while Faux News talking head Brian Kilmead suggested beating dissidents for the crime confronting politicians. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough made a point of stressing that 9/11 truth activists be roundly tased and rendered to “special” detention centers. Geraldo Rivera characterized 9/11 truth activists as “anarchists” and on one occasion went so far as to suggest the bombing of a military recruiting center in Times Square was the work of truth activists, while Glenn Beck has compared activists to Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for his involvement in the false flag op in Oklahoma City.

Malkin is directly linked to this despicable bunch and no doubt harbors likewise sentiment in regard to people who oppose the neocon “clash of civilizations,” that is to say the neocon mass murder campaign currently responsible for well over a million people.

It’s really too bad Malkin was not arrested immediately for the part she has played in that murder campaign, a massive war crime bordering on the sort the Nazis committed and were sent to the gallows for.

Instead, she is allowed to “work,” as she insisted when confronted by Alex for her complicity in crime, her advocation of internment camps and torture. The Faux News darling was outraged that Alex Jones and others on the street in Denver would dare interrupt her “work,” that is to say her continuing support for the neocons and their crimes against humanity.

It was a good thing, Alex getting up in her face. It was good Alex and company chased the little darling of Faux News down the street and back to her hotel.

It was the least they could do.