Surveillance of the people...

[CNHT]

Damn, all that needs is a hammer and sickle and it would be complete.

LOL it does look like early 50's communist art doesn't it?

It's sad that the 99% innocents have to be affected just because there might be a 1% chance of a suspicious 'package' on board.

[CNHT]

Except for E-ZPass. Pay cash. There's only ever been one anonymous in-car road tolling system ever set up in the whole country, that I know of, and I think it's since been replaced with one that isn't anonymous at all.

Interesting fact: Of the thousands of E-Z Pass 'scofflaws' who drove through the NH tolls without paying in Sept-Nov, over HALF were from out of state.
I'm not sure if they HAD a unit and did not use it right or did NOT have a unit and just went through the E-Z Pass enabled gates since there is no human manning those.

When we heard this, we joked, "Yep, it's all the illegal voters coming up from Mass!"

[Spencer]

     This was a photo someone sent to me....London is one of
the top cities in the world incorporating cameras in a big brother network.
It didnt stop the 7-11 terrorist attacks, did it?


   Click the pic for a larger image....spooky.

That poster went up in London in 2002, according to Wired (http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,56152,00.html).  It is ironic and telling that this poster was issued and posted well before the London terror attacks of July 2005 (which targeted London's transportation system -- both the Tube and bus system).  So much for being "secure beneath the watchful eyes" of government.

[Braddogg]

It's not the watching that worries me . . . it's the arresting.

[BaRbArIaN]

http://newteevee.com/2008/03/18/comcast-cameras-to-start-watching-you/

Comcast creating technology to view who is watching the tv via the cable box.  Its not like they'd export the data to various govt. agencies without a warrant or anything for fishing expeditions, right?

[ByronB]

I love the cameras they are putting up in my area (Chicago, IL) that have a shorter yellow light time to pick up more "violators", also in Bolingbrook people were getting ticketed for a right on red (legal in IL) even after countless complaints... I couldn't find a news article but the word on the street is that they took it out of service after the MAYOR got a ticket for a right on red... (couldn't believe the citizens huh).

[doobie]

Except for E-ZPass. Pay cash. There's only ever been one anonymous in-car road tolling system ever set up in the whole country, that I know of, and I think it's since been replaced with one that isn't anonymous at all.

No, you have to *avoid* the toll booths.  They aren't anonymous even if you wore a mask and paid in cash.  Most of them will take a picture of your license plate, etc.

[kawi600]

Except for E-ZPass. Pay cash. There's only ever been one anonymous in-car road tolling system ever set up in the whole country, that I know of, and I think it's since been replaced with one that isn't anonymous at all.

Problem is they put cameras around the tolls in the name of catching deadbeats.. but they have demonstrated they have no problems with using those video records for prosecuting crimes. So why not go to the next step and use them for monitoring where people go? Not good. There are ways to obscure your plate, but why should we have to feel like criminals doing stuff to protect our freedom and our privacy? Its all such BS..
I agree that we all need to keep on top of the surveillance methods which are being used and employ technology to maintain our privacy where ever possible.

[BaRbArIaN]

http://www.inteldaily.com/?c=126&a=8374

The NSA now spies domestically, up to and including using IR to view numbers of people in buildings, their movements, etc.  All available at the stroke of a key, no warrant required.   Welcome to the USSA.

[Recumbent ReCycler]

Except for E-ZPass. Pay cash. There's only ever been one anonymous in-car road tolling system ever set up in the whole country, that I know of, and I think it's since been replaced with one that isn't anonymous at all.

Problem is they put cameras around the tolls in the name of catching deadbeats.. but they have demonstrated they have no problems with using those video records for prosecuting crimes. So why not go to the next step and use them for monitoring where people go? Not good. There are ways to obscure your plate, but why should we have to feel like criminals doing stuff to protect our freedom and our privacy? Its all such BS..
I agree that we all need to keep on top of the surveillance methods which are being used and employ technology to maintain our privacy where ever possible.

I was once reprimanded by a trooper who told me that my refractive plate cover was prohibited, and he made me remove it.  I told him that the regs prohibited tinted plate covers, but did not say anything about refractive plate covers.  He told me that because it made it difficult to read the plate from an angle, it wasn't allowed.  I still haven't found a regulation that prohibits them, but I haven't been using them because I don't feel like dealing with any more disagreeable troopers.

[Raineyrocks]

 http://www.prisonplanet.com/abc-nsa-agents-admit-spying-on-americans-private-calls.html

ABC: NSA agents admit spying on Americans' private calls

David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Raw Story
Thursday, October 9, 2008

The Bush administration has repeatedly defended its warrantless surveillance of Americans as being directed only against "people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations."

Now two intercept operators who worked for the National Security Agency at Fort Gordon in Georgia have come forward to tell ABC News that isn't true.

David Murfee Faulk described to ABC's Brian Ross how he had listened to "personal phone calls of American officers, mostly in the Green Zone [in Baghdad], calling home to the United States, talking to their spouses and sometimes their girlfriends."


"Co-workers of mine were ordered to transcribe these calls," Faulk stated. "When one of my co-workers went to a supervisor and said, 'But sir, these are personal calls,' the supervisor said, 'My orders were to transcribe everything.'"

Adrienne Kinne, who like Faulk is an Arab linguist, said she had received the same orders and had listened to hundreds of Americans in the Middle East simply calling home. She emphasized that these were "Americans who are not in any way, shape, or form associated with anything to do with terrorism. It was just personal conversations that really nobody else should have been listening to."

When asked about President Bush's statement that the intercepts were directed only at known al-Qaeda suspects, Kinne stated, "That is completely a lie." She said that military officers, journalists, and Red Cross workers were among the people whose calls she transcribed.

Faulk told ABC that certain calls were even passed around among the intercept operators like office jokes. "I was told, 'Hey, check this out, there's some good phone sex.' ... It was there, stored the way you'd look at songs on your iPod."

"I feel that was something the people should not have been doing, including me," Faulk acknowledged.

Both whistleblowers' stories are included in a new book by investigative reporter James Bamford, The Shadow Factory. Bamford told ABC that although Americans were told the surveillance program was needed to keep us safe, "What it turns out to be is for a more prurient reason, listening for the sake of listening and then laughing."

CIA Director Michael Hayden, who was previously head of the NSA, has issued a statement saying that "any suggestion General Hayden sanctioned or tolerated illegalities of any sort is ridiculous on its face."

More details are available from ABC here.

This video is from ABC's Good Morning America, broadcast October 9, 2008.