read all about it!

They even quote yours truly & various other bloggers.

Just one of the many American wing nut, right wing think tanks, that are funded by billionaires and millionaires for the sole purpose of propagandising policies, that benefit, the very same billionaires, and millionaires.”

Just read it and I think you will be quite surprised by what he says. Of course, they are getting a couple of more traditional right wingers to respond to him but the case he makes demonstrates how broad and racially conscious a libertarian platform can be.

I wanted to link to an article in to-day’s Guardian (it’s on page in which Sir Tim Berners-Lee discusses the threat the Internet posts to privacy (I admit this is winding the thread a bit, so apologies to those that upsets) – but their site’s in a complete mess and kept freezing on me, not that I could find the article there anyway.

In truth, the combination of the State and business interest in our personal data is so overpowering that sooner or later privacy will become a thing of the past. A generation will grow up believing that “if you’ve got nothing to hide…” and let’s face it, most people did not resist Hitlerian or Stalinist tyranny.

The abuse of voice recongition technology is but part of a wider picture.

A quick tip though: even if lie detectors did work they’d first have to establish a baseline against which changes in your voice could be measured so next time you call a government department, bank or an insurance company make sure you are having a wank when they ask your name and address.

I’ve been doing this as a precautionary measure since my girlfriend left me.

Serious offer, if you would like to post a blog or two on my blog, go over there and hit contact me.

To the OP -

Will this then open the government up to ‘class action’ lawsuit?

If a person is denied their 40 quid a week or whatever because of this machine/software/crap – then will that leave the person open to sue – and by what you are writing – can and will be used in a civil case where the claimant can become a millionaire over night?

Interesting when you really start getting into this.

Just one of the many American wing nut, right wing think tanks, that are funded by billionaires and millionaires for the sole purpose of propagandising policies, that benefit, the very same billionaires, and millionaires.

Lot of food for thought.

I am not concerned particularly with the risk that manipulation of Diebold or similar machines could sell another US election. Too many watchdogs, too much local and parochial control over procedures used, meaning there’s too much variation.

No, what I’m scared of is that Diebold are not seriously trying to market their machines to America. That market is, for them, purely advertising; it means they can say to third-world governments ‘hey, look, the US uses our machines’. Then they can sell their machines to third-world governments, particularly Central and South American ones, where there isn’t an infrastructure for oversight and legal challenge, and the people in power can mandate that only votes cast through such machines are valid.

Then someone’s in trouble, and in not many decades, they’ll be spreading it around.

The privatisation of the Prison system in America has led to the highest prison population in the so called free world. Politicians take money from corporate private companies, and then enact laws that benefit said corporations. Billions of $ are handed over to these companies without question.
It has reached the farcical point in America where a right wing govt, Bush Cheney ( Supposed to care about competition) creates a no bid process where govt contracts are handed out to companies like Halliburton that Cheney used to run.

America, in some states even handed over the whole voting process, to private corporations who count the votes through electronic voting machines. The politicians were so stupid or corrupt that they allowed the Companies to insist that there would be no paper trail back up, and no one could examine the inside of these machines, to see if the software was working correctly. Corporate confidentiality is used as wonderful excuse to cover up what is really going on. Many of the companies that the govt gave the contract to, quite openly admitted in both the 2000 and 2004 ,election how they wanted to see a Republican govt elected. Can you imagine a British election run by a private company with links to one major political party?