DISQUS

AMERICAblog: UK to outsource email, phone, internet monitoring

  • Nick_the_Dog · 11 months ago
    OT I found this on TMZ. It's funny. Blue man, Chicago, park bench? http://www.tmz.com/2008/12/30/cops-blue-man-tri...
  • Nick_the_Dog · 11 months ago
    said Macdonald. "All history tells us that reassurances like these are worthless in the long run. In the first security crisis the locks would loosen."

    That's the plan! The "New World Order" is working hard to destroy all that we have worked for. Not a good thing! I say we kick their asses.
  • cosanostradamus · 11 months ago
    .
    LONG LIVE BIG BROTHER, PLC!!!

    Wasn't this just on "Masterpiece Theater Contemporary"?

    Don't worry, the good guys ALWAYS win in the end. They get to go to Heaven, which is right above the North Pole, where Santa Claus lives and there's no global warming.


    More crimes against humanity: Life and death in the pineapple fields.
    .
  • Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas · 11 months ago
    The power brokers will begin the nibbling away of a free and open internet very soon. Somehow they will try to get control of it, not for porn, but because of sites like this. I am not sure if they actually can, it may be impossible but they will try. It is fucking up the plan to have a permanent Karl Rovian picture of government. The blogs have already changed the game in a major way. Watch now as the power elite try to get a handle on this. Fortunately email will probably be a place of refuge but again, I don't know enough to know if they could actually control the net. Even our email might be controlled. If they don't get a handle on it, then they will probably never hold that kind of power again. Works for me.
  • TomJoad · 11 months ago
    Perfectly written and absolutely right, but I would have liked to have seen the description instead of the (perfectly fitting but sometimes misunderstood) descriptive "Power brokers".

    Politicians, who are in a position to give and take away, to reward or punish, or reward the highest bidder...in a time when more than ever the bidder can find inventive ways to reciprocate and give the politico something of value....these pols sit in the nexus of power, brokering it for their own gain. They are able to seize things they had nothing to do with building, and sell them further to someone who will suddenly tax (and be clear, it is DEFINITELY a TAX...but a sneaky, hidden one, which is the way especially GOP clowns like to tax) .

    Power brokers (at least as I understand them)
  • Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas · 11 months ago
    There is a dirty little secret out there, save for those who watched "Who
    Killed the Electric Car?". Chevron (and no doubt some money from Exxon)
    bought up a patent about ten years ago for the NiMH battery technology. They
    knew full well that Lithium would be fine for cell phones and laptops but
    somewhat unstable and dangerous for an electric car. So fine with
    Lithium...no threat to my 400 million bonus this year. But Nickel Metal
    Hydride...no fucking way will they let that grow legs. These power brokers
    made sure that the electric car idea died in the late nineties. From
    watching the movie, you quickly see that the EV1 was very viable and very
    much loved by the celebs and folks who were "allowed" to have one for a
    short time. I've been riding an electric bike for two years now and have
    gotten quite involved with some blogs about this issue. Electric vehicles.
    Houston and Detroit, whose CEOs all play golf together, are doing all they
    can to create a myth in our minds that these EVs won't be practical. Well
    enter James Dyson of the vaccuum fame. Apparently here is one rich Mofo who
    is sinking all his profits into R+D to come out with an electric car with a
    HUGE range plus a charger, affordable, and fun to drive...and the best part?
    The range will be enormous AND the charger will recharge in about an
    hour...stranded Americans? hardly...so go shoppping at the mall or have a
    long lunch and come out to your car with another 500 miles on it. Sure some
    people won't be able to have both cars all electric but a helluva lot of us
    will be able to own one. Now watch closely as Houston and Detroit hold out
    their hands for bail out money while killing this idea as best they can.
    Mister Dyson...I love your vaccuum...keep at it!!!!
  • TomJoad · 11 months ago
    From the goddamned polliticians side, what's not to like?
    Plausible (if one doesn't look too hard) deniability, easier job, certainly donations from the companies, sloughing off of duties.

    When things go wrong, it's "Oh...those BAD companies, they didn't do their job" whereas when things go wrong and it is the government...THEY get the blame. Less things to worry about, and again when it all goes wrong, they just blame the company.

    This ties in with the states selling off of resources/assets that the public has already paid for, to a company, which will use both tax money And take money directly from us poor suckers for something which is ours to begin with.

    It's a good racket, selling us back things we own.

    Enough of this bullshit. Just as we have seperation of chuch and state (I'll wait here until you all stop laughing..........) so we ought to have a bigger wall between governmental duties and the business world.
  • caphillprof · 11 months ago
    Huge money is made off privatizing government functions--for the contractors and for the politicians. It's a win win situation, only the public loses.
  • MB · 11 months ago
    The UK is blazing the path that other governments will follow. We can be sure of that.
  • Indigo · 11 months ago
    Deconstructing the U.K. isn't a job for the faint-of-heart.
  • lynchie · 11 months ago
    We have seen countless instances where personal information has been "lost" what has never happened is that the company losing the information ever pays a fine or is held accountable. Private contractors controlling the internet and phones etc will simply start selling the information and begin monitoring everything we do for monetary gain.
    We all need to write our representatives, who don't give a shit if we are alive, and point out that they were hired (elected) to represent us not the companies providing them with nice holidays, bags of cash, free cars, trips to St. Andrew's, etc., etc.
    I am not convinced they will do anything because i fail to see a single elected official at any level who doesn't have his hands dirty from one lobbyist or another. The politicians have reached a level of contempt towards the electorate that is appalling.
    A good example is the Caroline Kennedy crowning. I respect her and would offer that she has some qualities that perhaps qualify her for the job as Senator, but it seems to me that the simple solution is put the position up for election. The people of New York State should have the right to pick who represents them not the Governor who can use this plum for personal gain like the idiot in Illinois. Politics has become a giant ponzi scam with these dorks elected for life and totally ignoring the people they work for.
  • roger · 11 months ago
    Given the large number of death cause by heat exposure during summers in some American and French cities, how can you say that air conditioning can't be a necessity?
  • Attila the Blond · 11 months ago
    corporations with the power to oversee the citizens, in partnership with, and by approval of, the government is fascism. Tell the squabbling kids in the back seat that we are there now.
  • EmGD · 11 months ago
    C'mon now, are we getting so lazy as a society that even our Governments are trying to shirk their duty to become an obsessive monitoring state by pawning in off on the private sector? C'mon now Britain, stiff upper lip, monitor the e-mail, phone, and internet of your citizenry on your own time. Orwell didn't write Big Brother as an Indian guy hired by the government.

    http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/
  • steve b · 11 months ago
    if AMDOCS gets the contract I will put on a tinfoil hat immediately