For your 'privacy': Washington DC Metro to Randomly Search Riders' Bags

By Lena H. Sun
Washington Post
Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:49 UTC

Metro officials yesterday announced plans to immediately begin random searches of backpacks, purses and other bags in a move they say will protect riders and also guard their privacy and minimize delays.

U.S. intelligence agencies have long warned that the weeks just before an election and immediately after are considered a "zone of vulnerability" for the country. The teams tasked with helping the winner of next week's presidential election transition into office also have been warned about the heightened chances of attack. Officials note that the March 11, 2004, Madrid train bombings took place three days before general elections in Spain.

Click here to read the full article

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. We don't always have the definitive answer about human nature, but we can teach the lessons of our past to each succeeding generation. We are operationally defined by our curiosity and our expressions. A thought unembodied in words remains a shadow, but a spoken word is a microcosm of human consciousness. May your words always symbolize what really matters. Let that be a reflection of impeccable character and wit, of tolerance and imagination. Be the change.

3000 feet in...

And 3000 feet back out...

To go where few have dared...



Notice the fossilized shell bed above my head. We also found carvings from 1977 and capsules of explosives.

Police will use new device to take fingerprints in street

Police will use new device to take fingerprints in street
By Owen Bowcott
Civil rights campaigners say images must not be added to databases

Every police force in the UK is to be equipped with mobile fingerprint scanners - handheld devices that allow police to carry out identity checks on people in the street.

The new technology, which ultimately may be able to receive pictures of suspects, is likely to be in widespread use within 18 months. Tens of thousands of sets - as compact as BlackBerry smartphones - are expected to be distributed.

The police claim the scheme, called Project Midas, will transform the speed of criminal investigations. A similar, heavier machine has been tested during limited trials with motorway patrols.

To address fears about mass surveillance and random searches, the police insist fingerprints taken by the scanners will not be stored or added to databases.

Liberty, the civil rights group, cautioned that the law required fingerprints taken in such circumstances to be deleted after use. Gareth Crossman, Liberty's policy director, said: "Saving time with new technology could help police performance but officers must make absolutely certain that they take fingerprints only when they suspect an individual of an offence and can't establish his identity."

Details of the type of equipment and the scope of its use have been revealed in a presentation by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA).

The initial phase of the Mobile Identification At Scene (Midas) project, costed at £30m-£40m, will enable officers to perform rapid checks on the fingerprints of people arrested or detained. The marks will be compared against records on Ident1, the national police database which holds information on 7.5 million individuals.

Geoff Whitaker, a senior technology officer with the NPIA, told the Biometrics 2008 conference that Project Midas would save enormous amounts of police time and reduce the number of wrongful arrests.

At present, officers have to take suspects to custody suites if they need to check fingerprints. On average, the agency's research shows, the procedure takes 67 minutes. "If we scaled this [saving] up to the national level that would equate to 366 additional police officers on the beat," Whitaker said. "One of the benefits is that it will reduce the number of errors - and we can reduce the number of arrests significantly.

"There's a huge range of opportunities [for] mobile ID. It could be used on the deceased at the scene of a crime, on suspects for intelligence in the early part of an investigation, [or even] in a mortuary."

Policing of big public occasions, sporting events, festivals, political conferences - as a well as immigration and border controls - could benefit from the equipment, he suggested.

"Another use is for prisoners in transit; it's not uncommon for prisoners to swap identities on the way to prison," he said.

Project Midas, he said, would give the police "a full, mobile national capability" to check identities.

The system is being designed to have the capacity to beam images of suspects back to officers on the streets to help confirm identifications. Some US police forces are already using the technology.

"The return of mugshots [to officers]," Whitaker added, "is something we would like to do."

The tender document for Midas states: "Bidders' solutions ... should include, but may not be limited to, fingerprint identification capability." Plans for a police Facial Images National Database (Find) were suspended last year but are being reviewed.

One of the companies bidding for the Midas contract, Northrop Grumman, told the Guardian: "A lot of the hand-held [devices] we are considering have cameras so they can support fingerprint and facial images".

A limited trial of mobile police fingerprint devices, called Project Lantern, started in 2006. About 200 have been distributed and 30,000 checks performed. They were deployed in police cars using automatic number plate recognition technology - stopping vehicles that were logged as stolen, having no insurance, no MOT or simply unknown.

"The aim was to deny criminals the use of the roads," said Whitaker. "Around 60% of drivers stopped gave false identification details."

Fingerprint checks often showed they were carrying falsified documents.

The electronic searches, encrypted and sent over public networks, were usually returned to the mobile devices within two minutes; 97% of searches were completed in five minutes. Responses are graded as "high" or "medium". If high, it shows the system is confident of a match; if medium, it could display up to three potential identities. The returned data includes the name, age and gender of the suspect if there is a match.

A spokeswoman for the NPIA added: "It will be up to each police authority to assess the benefits and see how many they want. Early indications are that the benefits will be huge."

Thomas Smith, an officer from the Los Angeles police department, also briefed the Biometrics 2008 conference on the success of his force's mobile ID devices which send images and fingerprint matches back to officers on the street. He said they had become so powerful that once the machines were produced some suspects admitted they were lying about their identity.

"Our next thing will be facial recognition [computerised matching of suspects from their faces] in the field," he said.

X-rays emitted from ordinary Scotch tape

Innovation delights me...

X-rays emitted from ordinary Scotch tape
Process might be harnessed for making inexpensive X-ray machines
By Malcolm Ritter


Just two weeks after a Nobel Prize highlighted theoretical work on subatomic particles, physicists are announcing a startling discovery about a much more familiar form of matter: Scotch tape.

It turns out that if you peel the popular adhesive tape off its roll in a vacuum chamber, it emits X-rays. The researchers even made an X-ray image of one of their fingers.

Who knew? Actually, more than 50 years ago, some Russian scientists reported evidence of X-rays from peeling sticky tape off glass. But the new work demonstrates that you can get a lot of X-rays, a study co-author says.

"We were very surprised," said Juan Escobar. "The power you could get from just peeling tape was enormous."

Escobar, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, reports the work with UCLA colleagues in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

He suggests that with some refinements, the process might be harnessed for making inexpensive X-ray machines for paramedics or for places where electricity is expensive or hard to get. After all, you could peel tape or do something similar in such machines with just human power, like cranking.

The researchers and UCLA have applied for a patent covering such devices.

In the new work, a machine peeled ordinary Scotch tape off a roll in a vacuum chamber at about 1.2 inches per second. Rapid pulses of X-rays, each about a billionth of a second long, emerged from very close to where the tape was coming off the roll.

That's where electrons jumped from the roll to the sticky underside of the tape that was being pulled away, a journey of about two-thousandths of an inch, Escobar said. When those electrons struck the sticky side they slowed down, and that slowing made them emit X-rays.

So is this a health hazard for unsuspecting tape-peelers?

Escobar noted that no X-rays are produced in the presence of air. You need to work in a vacuum — not exactly an everyday situation.

"If you're going to peel tape in a vacuum, you should be extra careful," he said. But "I will continue to use Scotch tape during my daily life, and I think it's safe to do it in your office. No guarantees."

James Hevezi, who chairs the American College of Radiology's Commission on Medical Physics, said the notion of developing an X-ray machine from the new finding was "a very interesting idea, and I think it should be carried further in research."

in the gray zone...

There are only two kinds of people in the world--those who are alive and those who are afraid. Perhaps fear is a natural outcome of the wish to be in control. We all yearn for mastery. But mastery is always limited. Sooner or later we will come to the edge of all that we can control and find life, waiting there for us.

The wish to control floats like a buoy above the hidden reef of fear. More than anything, fear is the stumbling block to life's agenda. Perhaps it is only the things we fear that we wish to control. No one can serve life if they are unconsciously afraid of life! Life is process. When he was very old, Roberto Assagioli, the founder of psychosynthesis, reminded one of his young students of this: "There is no certainty; there is only adventure," he told the young man. "Even stars explode."

-from My Grandfather's Blessings, Rachel Naomi Remen, 2000

Adam Kokesh's speech at the Revolution March

A Revolution by Any Other Name Would Smell Just as Sweet

Today marks the first day of early voting here in Texas. One might say it's the beginning of the end of annoying campaigns, while another might call it Phase III of the never-ending struggle for liberty, peace, and constitutional justice.

You might ask,
Where do you stand, Chief Squatting Duck?
Can these past 15 months of political inquiries be summed up into a single thought or theme?
What's on the horizon?

I suppose at the very root, my individualism has been reinforced. My nomadic spirit was soothed with every journey I made in the pursuit of knowledge, from Austin to Houston and DC to the Twin Cities. My defenses against tyranny have strengthened 50 times over, from the national level all the way down to my own body. And the newest change in me is my new-found fountainhead of tact, self-love, reserve, patience, grace, and modesty.

I'm not perfect, but I've come a long way in the 15 months of joining forces with probably the most devoted and resolute army of realistic freedom fighters this nation has ever beheld. I can count on my family, my coworkers, my friends, and even my hairdresser to all write-in Ron Paul. They have all had a whiff of freedom and the sweet aroma shall forever dance around in their memory. We fear not.

So now I ask you,
How long will you wait for a happy ending?

I'm Secretly Voting for Chuck Baldwin

If Texas didn't have a write-in option, then yes, I would vote for Baldwin of the Constitution Party.

Go to http://vote-usa.org to see your sample ballot of candidates.

Too bad I can't actually write-in my preferred choice. Do electronic voting machines let you type-in anything at all??? Last time I remember, the machines had a dial and a button and that was it.

Homer Simpson tries to vote for Obama...

Moral Imagination...moving beyond the politics of fear

Moral Imagination requires 1)the capacity to imagine ourselves in an inclusive and expandable web of relationships (including those who might wish to harm us or those we fear or feel ambivalence from) and 2)The ability to sustain a problem solving curiosity that embraces complexity without reliance on dualistic polarity---either/or decision making.

New pocket mantra: Reach out to those you fear/Touch the heart of complexity/Imagine beyond what is seen/Risk vulnerability one step at a time.
J. P. Lederach

"Do you begin to see then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself" George Orwell, 1984.

The Solution: A reinvigorated humanistic vision. Where people and communities at local,national, regional and global levels are not trapped in a paralyzing present and strive to realise justice, peace, compassion and truth in their personal social and political relationships. The expectation is that "hope and history will rhyme" on the far side of fear and revenge.

I've been researching peace movements, from local to global, on the internet during the last 2 weeks and I just wanted to share this with you, there is so much out there...

Do you feel there is a prevalent unifying movement going on right now?

That was my question for the evening.


Yesterday I let the "END THE FED" cause guide me, and I went to all the popular college hangouts and posted up my END THE FED prints. During my mission, I found myself caught in the middle of the Texas-Oklahoma rivalry. If only I could get these passionate kids to get behind a REAL battle, I thought.

Just as I finished putting up the last poster, I noticed an older gentleman staring hard at one of my prints. I approached him, and soon we were walking back to Brave New Books together. Jim recommended that I read The Creature from Jekyll Island, which is about how the Federal Reserve was conceived. At the bookstore, we found the book in "Ron Paul's Reading List" section. How perfect, I thought. But it was way too heavy of a read for me to delve into. I did, however, find a handy survival book, and gladly bought it.

Lookie what I found on Google Video!
G Edward Griffin - Creature From Jekyll Island A Second Look at the Federal Reserve


Jim then told me about a conference at UT that was taking place about the activism in 1968. The clerks at Brave New Books looked up the event online, gave me a time and place, and so began my new mission.

Even on a Saturday, UT is dappled with busy minds. My destination was at the "Six Park" which is a beautiful grass mall lined with very old oaks and six buildings. Every step was elating, and so I locked up my bike and walked toward my fate: Government and Liberal Arts.

Maps on the wall guided me this way and that. I found the auditorium and noticed a bunch of people chatting outside under a pergola. "What's going on?" I asked a busboy nearby. It was a concession for all the professors who put the event together, and he told me to talk to Hannah if I wanted to learn more.

I walked up to her, and before I could even introduce myself, she said, "Help yourself to the food. You're here; go ahead." Perfect timing, for my stomach was empty and I didn't figure dinner into any of my missions. I had a plate of fruit, crackers, little crispy triangles known as baklavash, chicken, stuffed mushrooms, and some delicious lemon cake. Someone let me check out the program, and I found out the key speaker tonight was Michael Hardt, co-author of Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire and Empire.



Soon we all found ourselves getting comfortable in the auditorium. This event was titled, "Revolution, 1968 and Today," and I guess I was expecting some kind of history lesson, but instead I was struggling to digest Mr. Hardt's vocabulary and organization. He didn't go into detail at all about the events of 1968, but rather attempted to analyze the outcomes, implications, parallels.

He did mention the "Black Panther Party" a few times, so let us take a moment to look that up...

Founded in Oakland, California, by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale on October 15, 1966, the organization initially set forth a doctrine calling for the protection of African American neighborhoods from police brutality, in the interest of African-American justice.[1] Its objectives and philosophy changed radically during the party's existence. While the organization's leaders passionately espoused socialist doctrine, the Party's black nationalist reputation attracted an ideologically diverse membership.[2] Ideological consensus within the party was difficult to achieve. Some members openly disagreed with the views of the leaders.

By 1968, the party had expanded into many cities throughout the United States, including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Newark, New York City, and Baltimore. That same year, membership reached 5,000, and their newspaper had grown to a circulation of 250,000.[3]

So, here are some notes (and questions) on what Michael Hardt was trying to say:

* 1968 was victorious, and the terms of refusal were pre-configurations of the new exploitative regime
* Liberation movements are sources of creativity and innovation
* Power may act, but resistance creates
* Around the world, the current revolutionaries are sometimes referred to as the "94 Generation," the "Millennium Generation," and the "Seattle People."
* February 15, 2003 was the grand Anti-Iraq War protest held across the globe
* There has been a shift in the global media to start recognizing worthy struggles
* Identity Politics-- dealing with frameworks society has given us
* To abolish identity is true revolutionary propositions? Compare with feminists who fought to abolish gender
* To attack structures of power and internal identity is more painful and brutal than actual bloodshed? Can you imagine a world without race or institutions?
* At some point, do contradicting struggles reach an intersectional event?

* Why was I affected by the Ron Paul Revolution and why not others? Are others not decent nor curious?
* Am I a part of the "Millennium Generation"?
* What is the struggle now? Which creation of transformation will be victorious in the coming decades?
* Can we unify our causes like the Seattle Protest or should we continue to focus on covering all the bases in the name of freedom, education, and proliferating difference?

After the conference was over, I personally asked Mr. Hardt if he thought there was a single unifying movement taking place. And he said no; that there were lots of different movements and that he thinks it's a good thing. "Well, I'm looking for an underlying cause that can unify them all, if not most of them," I said, and then thanked him for such an interesting lecture.

Recorder in hand, I headed to 6th Street with the new mission of gathering opinions through my deviously complex yes-or-no question. Most people felt there wasn't a single popular movement. I even talked to a police officer who felt that the reason there isn't a prevalent movement is because kids these days are not passionate enough about their causes; they're not willing to go to jail for what they believe in. He has worked as a riot guard before, and he says it's nice for him that protesters are compliant, but he doesn't expect any real change without the true passion that he remembers from the 60s and 70s.

Lots of younger folks felt "going green" is a pretty prevalent cause. Others alluded to 911 conspiracies and degradation of religion. I was surprised when some said God as energy, conscience, and morality was the prevalent unifying movement. Another beautiful soul with a blue lily tattooed on his shoulder said the unifying movement was the ascension from the reptilian brain to a broader mode of thinking and perception. The rest of the answers were about getting drunk, getting laid, and starting wars.

So there you have it.

Do you feel there is a prevalent unifying movement going on right now?

Washington, You're Fired!

Tonight I went to the Spider House Cafe for a free showing of Washington, You're Fired! and I also got to meet with the writer/producer Keith Abel from Louisiana. He and William Lewis have done extensive research to put this film together, and it does not disappoint! Did you know that in the state of an emergency, the government can legally take away all your rights, property, and virtually the entire community, including utilities and human labor?! And did you know that the original Patriot Act that was agreed upon by the Democrats and Republicans was SWAPPED in the middle of the night with an entirely new Patriot Act written by a man from South Korea?!?! And as for the most current events, G.W. Bush signed the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act into effect last year which made the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 no longer valid! That means the government can now use the military for domestic law enforcement purposes. In other words, Bush has turned the army inwards on us!

There will be a second free showing of this movie at Brave New Books Tuesday, October 14, 2008 @ 7:00PM. I MUST get more people to come!!!

This video below was released last week about the bribes just before the bailout. Check it out.

Goldman Sachs Bribed Senate To Pass Bailout Bill

Complete CONTRIBUTION LIST:
http://www.washingtonyourefired.com/goldman_sachs_2008_contributions.html

How much bribe money does it take to transfer $700 Billion taxpayer dollars to Wall Street's elite?

GOLDMAN SACHS CONTRIBUTIONS:
Obama, Barack (D-IL) $691,930
Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) $468,200
Romney, Mitt (R) $229,675
McCain, John (R-AZ) $208,395
Himes, Jim (D-CT) $114,748
Giuliani, Rudolph W (R) $111,750
Dodd, Christopher J (D-CT) $105,400
Edwards, John (D) $66,450
Specter, Arlen (R-PA) $47,600
Emanuel, Rahm (D-IL) $32,950
Reed, Jack (D-RI) $30,100

How much money did your Represenative get from Big Bankers to look the other way and pass a bill that the American people clearly do not want?

HELP SPREAD THE WORD...
http://www.WashingtonYoureFired.com

Watch out... the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, HR. 1955 makes you a criminal for even THINKING about trying to persuade others into action.

What can you do? Write your Senator and Congressman, and tell them they're fired! Tell them you oppose these bills that take away your rights! By not saying anything, you are TOLERATING bad behavior and unconstitutional laws. BE HEARD! You have a voice, so USE IT!



Also, exactly one week ago, the new Zeitgeist: Addendum was released. I hear it's pretty shocking at the end, so next time you want to watch a movie with some friends, I recommend Zeitgeist: Addendum.

NYC: National Debt Clock Runs Out of Digits

" It appears even technology cannot cope with the global financial crisis: the National Debt Clock in New York has run out of digits for the first time.

The electronic billboard hit its limit after US public debt rose above the $10 trillion mark for the first time on September 30.

As a temporary fix the dollar sign has been switched to a figure--the '1' in $10 trillion. The clock is currently marking the US federal government’s national debt at about $10.2 trillion.

The clock, located in Times Square in New York, shows the amount of money owed by the US government. It was created by the late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst, who put the sign up in 1989 to call attention to what was then a $2.7 trillion debt.

The Durst Organization says it plans to update the sign next year by adding two digits. That will make it capable of tracking debt up to a quadrillion dollars. "

END THE FED Prints

Let's go, people!

Join the END THE FED Meetup Group here: http://ronpaul.meetup.com/186/


"Banks have done more injury to the religion, morality, tranquility, prosperity, and even wealth of the nation than they can have done or ever will do good."
-- John Adams

Battle in Seattle & END THE FED National Protest

I just went and saw Battle in Seattle in theaters. I liked how it covered so many stories, showing just how we are all affected by the WTO. The violence was really gruesome, because, it's based off of real life. Lots of historic footage was inserted. What a fucked up world we live in. And the WTO is still a disgrace. Too bad the movie doesn't go into more detail about the global effects of the World Trade Organization.

http://www.battleinseattlemovie.com/
http://5actions.org/
http://whocontrolstheworld.com/

The Truth behind the WTO:






On November 22, 2008, expect protests against the Federal Reserve in many major cities. If we play our cards right, and pump up the energy right after the election, we might be able to get a ton of support for this day of protest.

I think I need to start printing flyers...

Rep. Brad Sherman Martial Law

Naomi Wolf says we're in an emergency, a coup, a police-state...


Here's why:

Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1

3rd Infantry’s 1st BCT trains for a new dwell-time mission. Helping ‘people at home’ may become a permanent part of the active Army.

They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.

Politicians Are All Alike?

Need a break from the depressing, humiliating United States government?? Guess what, there are "policitians" everywhere and thank God for that, they lend us humour to our droll days! Watch and listen... enjoy!

On August 19th, 2007, an oil tanker off the coast of Australia split in two dumping 20,000 tons of crude oil. Senator Collins, a member of the Australian parliament, appeared on a TV newsprogram to reassure the Australian public...great interview, better than SNL

House's final vote on bailout is Friday. Your ACTION is needed NOW.

Honorable Lloyd Doggett,

As a hard-working citizen of Austin, TX, I urge you to stand with the people and oppose the bailout tomorrow. I'm beginning to have faith in government and reason, and I hope you do what's right and STOP the dangerous power of the FED and the executive office.

Let the free market be free! We need to end the inflation of worthless currency! For a billion free-thinkers, repeat the brave act of defending Constitutional limitations on government and vote NO once again on the bailout plan.

We're together with you on this.
Let the principles of freedom resound up into the building tops and pour into the streets.


Sincerely,
"Chief"


Find your representative here and let him/her know what you think.