The Mound of Sound

You might well already have RFID technology in your house. I have. RFID or radio frequency identification is a formal term for surveillance microchips and they’re really catching on. I had one implanted in my dog. If he winds up at the SPCA, they’ll pass a scanner over him that will reveal his chip data. From that they’ll be able to get my name, address and telephone number and will, presumably, call me to collect my hound.

RFIDs are getting really, really small and really, really cheap and there are some who think it would be a really, really good idea to pop one beneath your delicate hide and mine. In fact it may only be a matter of time.

This excerpt from a story in today’s Daily Mail:

“The microchips – which are implanted under the skin – allow the wearer’s movements to be tracked and store personal information about them.

“They could be used by companies who want to keep tabs on an employee’s movements or by Governments who want a foolproof way of identifying their citizens – and storing information about them.

“The prospect of ‘chip-citizens’ – with its terrifying echoes of George Orwell’s ‘Big Brother’ police state in the book 1984 – was raised in an official report for Britain’s Information Commissioner Richard Thomas into the spread of surveillance technology.

“The report, drawn up by a team of respected academics, claims that Britain is a world-leader in the use of surveillance technology and its citizens the most spied-upon in the free world.
It paints a frightening picture of what Britain might be like in ten years time unless steps are taken to regulate the use of CCTV and other spy technologies. “

The British report isn’t alarmist. In fact, some jurisdictions are already dealing with this threat to our privacy. RFID technology has been around since the patent was issued in 1973 but it has only been recently that the chip has evolved to be really small and astonishingly inexpensive – as little as five cents a piece. The chips were once “read only” but new “read and write” versions are available.

Wisconsin has banned the implantation of RFID chips in people and other jurisdictions are moving in the same direction. The RFID industry, however, isn’t giving up that fight. The chairman of VeriChip corporation has been actively lobbying for the use of RFID chips for immigrants and guest workers.

Exploring the use and threat of RFID technology is far beyond the scope of this blog but this is something you need to follow. The mere threat of terrorism has already caused our governments to narrow historic civil rights, including privacy rights.

I guess this bag of dirt just can’t help himself. In today’s Washington Post, columnist Robert Novak, moaned about the looming election in Nicaragua and the prospect of victory for Daniel Ortega. In Novak’s own words:

“The seemingly unavoidable outcome of next Sunday’s election is a Nicaraguan tragedy, losing at the ballot box what was won two decades ago by the blood of contra fighters and the risking of Ronald Reagan’s presidency.”

The “blood of contra fighters”? Curious, isn’t it? Novak is never one to avoid condemning terrorists, unless they’re America’s own terrorists. The CIA-sponsored Contras were a pack of murderous villains who claimed the lives of thousands of innocent Nicaraguans.

Today we condemn states and leaders we claim sponsor terrorism and yet we still cling to the myth that Reagan wasn’t one of them. That rank hipocrisy couldn’t happen without creeps like Novak.

Hey Steve. I know you don’t like scientists and their techno-babble about global warming but you should like this guy. He’s an economist, just like you, only a real one – Sir Nicholas Stern – and he’s just released a report that says, from an economic standpoint alone, urgent steps to tackle global warming is a NO BRAINER! Did you get that Steve? Sir Nicholas says there will be enormous, long-term benefits from allocating about 1% of our GNP to fighting climate change.

Now, Steve, I’m sure your phone is ringing off the hook with calls from the oil patch and their gaggle of richly-funded global warming deniers but for God’s sake man, that garbage just doesn’t cut it anymore. The Alberta tories and their oil baron patrons can’t call the shots any longer.

Stern has said what all the others have said, Steve. We haven’t got years to squander on empty consultations and years after that to ponder emissions caps. We’ve got to do this now Steve, now.

We can’t follow Washington on this one, pal. We have to work with other, responsible nations to force Bush’s hand. Besides, the mid-terms are expected to put a brand new face on Congress, one that will likely demand action.

Today the world got a Stern warning. Steve, you’ve been put on notice. It’s time you stood up for Canada, even if that means standing up to Alberta.

With U.S. congressional mid-term elections a week away there are renewed concerns about the electoral chicanery that marked the 2000 and 2004 votes.

If you’re in a tight race, try to prevent as many as possible of your opponent’s supporters from being able to vote. If that sounds sleazy and vile, well it is.

The correct term for it is “voter suppression” and The New York Times calls it “silent disenfranchisement.” Remember Kathleen Harris in Florida in 2000 and her role in keeping thousands of black voters away from the polls?

The British paper, The Independent, questions whether this will turn out to be America’s “dirtiest election ever” and cited these examples:

“Uproar has surrounded a key race in San Diego, where a Vietnamese immigrant, Tan Nguyen, is trying to unseat the Democrat incumbent, who is Hispanic. He has resisted calls to pull out of the race after an investigation found his campaign had sent letters to thousands of Hispanic voters warning them not to vote on 7 November if they were not legally in the US, suggesting they could face deportation.

“In Pennsylvania, a Democrat House candidate has been running attack ads on the Republican incumbent questioning his “family values” after an ex-mistress accused him of choking her.

“Several Democrats, meanwhile, have found themselves victims of spots funded by an Indianapolis businessman, Patrick Rooney, who says they want to abort black babies. “If you make a little mistake with one of your ‘hos, you’ll want to dispose of that problem tout de suite, no questions asked,” a voiceover on the advertisement declares.

“In New York another Democratic candidate for the House, Michael Arcuri, has been struggling to recover from ads suggesting that he used taxpayers’ money to dial a phone sex line. It turns out that an aide did dial a sex service once by mistake.

The demonisation of the Democrats

* MICHAEL ARCURI, NEW YORK

An ad by the National Republican Campaign Committee accused House candidate Arcuri of using taxpayers’ money to dial a sex line. “Hi, sexy,” a comely actress declares. One of his aides indeed dialled a sex service from campaign headquarters, but only by mistake.

* HAROLD FORD, TENNESSEE

An African-American running for Senate, Mr Ford was the subject of an ad by the Republican National Committee revealing his attendance at a Super Bowl party sponsored by Playboy. It features an actress in skimpy clothing winking and urging Mr Ford to “call me”.

* STEVE KAGEN, WISCONSIN

Congressional candidate Dr Kagen was accused by the Republican Party of Wisconsin of having links to a serial killer and child rapist, a claim set out in an election mailshot. In fact, he was linked only to the man’s lawyer, who had once done some legal work for him.

* JIM WEBB, VIRGINIA

The incumbent Republican senator George Allen has published excerpts from Webb’s novels which contain graphic scenes of prostitution and child abuse. The Allen campaign claims that the passages show a “continued pattern of demeaning women”.

* RON KIND, WISCONSIN

Republican TV ads alleged Kind “pays for sex” after he opposed an effort in Congress to end funding of sex surveys by the National Institutes of Health. The ad implies this meant Kind wanted “to pay teenage girls to watch pornographic movies with probes connected to their genitalia”.

Is there a limit to this sort of thing, some point beyond which these lowlifes won’t venture? If there is, it’ll be one defined by voter backlash but I don’t see that happening in the U.S. I hope we won’t get to the point where our politicians get away with this garbage unpunished.

Remember when Kim Campbell paid the price for an ad mocking Jean Chretien’s appearance? Let’s just hope we stick with those values.

It’s making headlines in newspapers in every corner of the world – Hamid Karzai is trying to cut some deal with the Taliban.

Yes, this is the same Taliban that Canadian and other NATO soldiers are in Afghanistan to defeat. Let’s see – they’re killing us and a bunch of other folks and we’re killing them and a bunch of other folks while Hamid is trying to get a game of “let’s make a deal” going.

Now, what does that tell ya?

It says a lot of things, almost none of them new.

It says that we’re not going to defeat the Taliban with guns and bombs and rockets. Nope, no way in hell.

It says that Karzai knows his already thoroughly compromised and corruption-riddled government needs a deal with the Taliban just to survive.

It says that Hamid realizes that NATO’s effort isn’t working, that it’s far too small to win this one for him.

It says that the Afghan president sees the hearts and minds of his people slipping straight through his fingers.

Meanwhile it’s also reported that the Taliban has rebuffed Karzai. That says they don’t see the need to make any deals.

It’s also reported that the Taliban aren’t going back to their mountain retreats this winter as expected. No, apparently they intend to stay and run a campaign aimed at taking Kabul.

It says that NATO is out of time and must either deploy a far larger force or start preparing to get out.

We men have done such a terrific job of running this planet that maybe it’s time to let the other half show us what they can do. I, for one, think that is an idea worth tossing about.

According to The New York Times, a serious power shift from men to women is already well underway.

“We are perhaps on the first step to a matriarchal society; women will earn more money than men if current trends continue by 2028,” said Michael J. Silverstein of the Boston Consulting Group. “The trend has been escalating in the last 10 years as there has been a gradual, slow erosion of the power balance in the family, a psychic rebalancing.”

“Women, Mr. Silverstein added, are “controlling purchases and driving a shift in our economy.”

“Much of that shift has to do with education and pay. At American colleges and universities, women represent 57 percent of undergraduate classes and 58 percent of graduate classes, according to the American Council on Education. (They also hold a slight majority in the overall population.) And education, in turn, has helped to bolster salaries and income. In 2005, government data show, women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median weekly earnings of $585, or 81 percent of the $722 median for their male counterparts, up from about 63 percent in 1979.”

Let’s face it, she who controls the wealth is she who holds the power, or at least a good deal of it. With purchasing power comes economic clout and with that, eventually, matching political clout. And why not?

One key to the Republican resurgence that swept the United States was a brilliant communications strategy that harnessed the ‘alternative’ media to do the far right’s bidding. This involved cable outlets, like Fox, and the open-mouth radio gulag of Rush Limbaugh and Michael “Weiner” Savage. The Repugs were able to use those vehicles to set the agenda that mainstream media eventually had to follow.

American progressives have very quietly fought back by claiming the internet as their own. From all accounts they’ve done a pretty good job of it. Now, with mid-term elections just days away, they’re launching an internet offensive – Google bombing.

Google bombing is a means of using embedded hyperlink principles to focus Google searches onto web sites that may not be particularly flattering or supportive of a particular candidate. So far, 50 Republican candidates have been targetted.

The key, according to Chris Bowers who conceived the idea, is to ensure that only credible sources are hyperlinked. Those clicking on the candidate’s name must be directed to a legitimate news source, something accurate and believable.

Doubtless this will have some Repugs howling. Unlike the underhanded tactics they use, deceptive attack ads and push-polling for example, Google bombing just relies on truth. No wonder they’ll find it so upsetting.