Air America breaking news: "USA to fingerprint ALL visitors !!!"

Chad Irby wrote:

People can be dangerous. Objects aren't.

Then why are there restrictions on the possession of dynamite? I have
never done anything illegal, (mostly) meaning I'm not dangerous, so I
should be able to buy dynamite to my heart's content. I can't.

Tim Kroesen wrote:

You're going to have a camera soon at the entrance to every major public
portal with very advanced facial recognition s/w behind it. It is in
use already. So much for your fingerprints...

Facial recognition technology has been a complete failure so far. They
tried it in an airport (Orlando? Miami?) and it couldn't even reliably
recognize regular employees at the airport. It also failed to identify
a single bad guy, even though it had access to vast databases of people
wanted by the police. I'm not yet worried.

Right; only criminals need worry about advancement in law enforcement
tech...g Let's forget all the 1984 what-if junk too; it came and
passed with all the dire consequences of a popcorn fart.

Tim K

"James Robinson" wrote in message
...
Tim Kroesen wrote:

You're going to have a camera soon at the entrance to every major
public
portal with very advanced facial recognition s/w behind it. It is
in
use already. So much for your fingerprints...

Facial recognition technology has been a complete failure so far.
They
tried it in an airport (Orlando? Miami?) and it couldn't even reliably
recognize regular employees at the airport. It also failed to
identify
a single bad guy, even though it had access to vast databases of
people
wanted by the police. I'm not yet worried.

Tim Kroesen wrote:
Tracking people ***doing*** what ??? The real point is being evaded...

Who cares if a policeman observes you cross the street if you're not
jaywalking???


Who cares if they take a photo of you at Immigration, if you aren't
doing something illegal?

rk wrote:
And you should learn some manners, telling people to just get over 3,000 dead
and what they should think about that? Excuse me? Just who are you?

People should not let terrorists change the way they live. The USA government
has acted in the exact opposite way, hoping to sustain the state of shock and
fear of 9-11 for its own political gains.

Getting on with life does not mean that you have forgotten, nor lost respect
for all those who lived (and didn't) through that ordeal.

In fact, by getting on with life and not letting terrorists change YOUR life,
you are showing respect for those who died because you are then fighting the
terrorists the only way citizens ca: don't let them change the way you live or
the way you think.

None of the security measures taken by the BUSH regime would prevent another
attack. Nothing would prevent an attack similar to that of Madrid. They could
easily derail a freight train containing dangerous chemicals or petroleum
products near a large city for instance.

The more you constrain your lifestyle and economic activity, the more you hurt
yourselves and the more the terrorists win. Slowing down your borders from
canada has hurt companies like GM, Ford and Chrysler because their "just in
time" mantras broke down because they could no longer count on the trucks
arriving on time due to variable customs delays.

Once you start to slow down ports traffic due to full inspections of all
containers, it will also greatly hurt the USA economy.

In fact, the so called "war on terrorism" actions taken by the Bush regime
have hurt the USA ecoomy far more than 9-11 did by itself. And that doesn even
include the exhorbitant costs of the Irak invasion which will bring the USA
deficit growing to new heights. And as soon as interest rates start to grow,
you'll find the USA government being strangulated by increasing debt servicing
payments which will really hurt the USA government in coming years. The Bush
regime has been lucky because it has been able to hide its mismanagement with
lower interest rates reducing debt servicing payments.

If the USA economy is doing so well, how come Delta has recently mentioned it
may have to go to chapter 11 ?

mtravelkay wrote:
Who cares if they take a photo of you at Immigration, if you aren't
doing something illegal?


It isn't the issue of taking a photo that is of concern. It is what they
intend to do with it that is.

In London, they don't have databases that try to follow individuals. They just
tape various scenes and keep for a determined time period so that if a crime
has been discovered in a certain location, they can go back and examine what happened.

The USA wants to store individual's personal information, track their
spending, hotels, phone calls etc. And it offers no garantee of what the
information will be used for or how long it will be kept.

In article ,
James Robinson wrote:

The problem I have with taking fingerprints is that they are
specifically using them to track people, and marry up to central
databases of info on what I read in libraries, who I send Emails to, and
what I purchase with my credit card. That is a much more insidious
agenda than simply replacing the beat policeman's eyes with a camera.

They got all that from your fingerprints?

Geez, they're much smarter than I thought.

You'd expect that the way they got all of that other info was from when
you *gave* it to them.

--
cirby at cfl.rr.com

Remember: Objects in rearview mirror may be hallucinations.
Slam on brakes accordingly.

In article ,
James Robinson wrote:

Stephen Harding wrote:

Perhaps because they aren't targets of terror the way the
US is? Every whacko prefers to go after number one, and
that would be the US.

The policies of the Bush government have only increased that
likelihood, by acting unilaterally,

(with about 70 other countries that apparently don't exist in your world)

and in continuing the biased
treatment of Arab countries in the region.

We can see how that "biased treatment" is going...

....like Moammar Gaddhafi's son, who is calling for democracy in Libya
now (after his dad folded up, due directly to fear of the US coming
after him next)?

And like the revolution that's firing up in Iraq, where the people are
tired of the rule of the mullahs?

And the other countries in the area that are actually supporting some
levels of democratization, after years of resisting it completely under
the European diplomatic model?

Meanwhile, about 1% of the people in Iraq are supporting the cleric
who's causing a lot of the trouble in Fallujah, and want people like him
to shut up and let them get on with rebuilding...

--
cirby at cfl.rr.com

Remember: Objects in rearview mirror may be hallucinations.
Slam on brakes accordingly.

In article ,
James Robinson wrote:

Beyond that, how do you think the Iraqis feel about the multiple
attacks on their country by the US leaving thousands dead and raining
missiles around their homes? That would be pretty traumatic,
wouldn't it?

Overall, they're pretty good with it.

The biggest question was "what took you so long to help us?"

There's nothing like a battle on home soil.

....except for 40 years of misery caused by a bunch of home-grown
*******s who killed more in a season than the war killed in a year...

--
cirby at cfl.rr.com

Remember: Objects in rearview mirror may be hallucinations.
Slam on brakes accordingly.

"Tim Kroesen" schreef in bericht
link.net...
Perhaps those critical to Americans should just 'go away' too...

You still don't get it. Nobody here is "critical to Americans". Many of us
are "critical to the current US government". There is a huge difference
between the two, as 75% of Americans are not guilty of electing the Bush
gang.

Sjoerd