Democrats pushed forward on an immigration overhaul on Thursday evening with no Republican support, as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) continues to hold out, arguing that the divisive issue will make progress on climate change legislation impossible.
The Senate is also in the middle of debating Wall Street reform, which is expected to take up the next few weeks of floor time. Reid, however, said that the chamber would be able to handle the task. "We can do more than one thing at once," he said.
The Democratic proposal includes increased money for border patrol and drug war agents, equipment, helicopters and unmanned drones. It would create a national ID -- which is dubbed a "biometric social security card." Though Democrats insist that it is not an ID card and can only be used for employment purposes.
The proposal would also include a crackdown on employers who hire undocumented workers. It works to deport some immigrants who are not in the country legally and creates a limited pathway to citizenship for others....more
The way Centralia Jr. High students get lunches will change in Fall.
Centralia City Schools Superintendent David Rademacher says the school will begin using a biometric scanner to identify students and keep track of their lunch "tickets." Students place a finger or thumb on the scanner which recognizes them and accesses their lunch information. The system does not scan fingerprints, but rather biological traits. Rademacher says such a system has advantages over a ticket or card system. "Kids lose their card or they accidentally send it through the laundry, so you have to make new cards," he says. "With this scanning device, that won't be necessary."
Rademacher says tickets can also be misused if lost or stolen - a problem that would be eliminated with a biometric scanner. The Superintendent says the system is working well at Nashville and North Clay schools and will be a pilot program for other Centralia Grade Schools. Rademacher says the program will have a start up cost. "We are thinking it will be around four-thousand dollars for two scanners and the software that we need to take the information from the lunch program and scan it into our administrative software," he says.
Rademacher says if the program expands into the other schools, the District will only have to purchase new scanners at about 16-hundred dollars a piece. The Superintendent says the biometric system should pay for itself over the years by eliminating materials like cards and also reducing time spent by staff doing lunch paperwork.
Rademacher says the only downside reported about the scanning machines is that younger children grow quickly and may be required to scan their information into the system every year. He says it's likely older students, like those in Jr. High, will only have to input their information once.
SHOPPERS in France could soon be able to use their finger to pay for everyday shopping, in a move that aims to tackle fraud and speed up supermarket queues.
High-street bank Accord has been given permission by the French data protection authorities to start a six-month trial into the new biometric payment system.
However the new system developed by Accord records the unique pattern of veins underneath a person's index finger - not the fingerprint itself.
The bank - which is owned by Auchan - will offer the service to a number of its current account customers and biometric readers will be installed in a number of its hypermarkets.
Customers begin by registering their finger data securely with their bank.
Touching the finger scanner at the checkout confirms the buyer's identity and the amount is then debited from their account.
"The latest futuristic Orwellian toy sold to the public to fight illegal immigration and make Americans feel “safe” is getting new life in the debate ramping up on immigration reform. In addition to draconian legislation passed recently in Arizona essentially legalizing racial profiling, a bipartisan effort in the Senate is pushing for new biometric Social Security cards to link to the federal E-verify software system.
The Chicago Tribune reports that Sen. Charles Schumer and Sen. Lindsey Graham proposed a system where a Social Security card would be scanned and matched to a fingerprint or “some other personal biometric” data. Employers would scan the cards of new hires, which would provide proof of legal status. Refusal to cooperate could mean fines and jail time.
The e-verify system already has problems. The Tribune report highlights the story of Karen Peisker, a native Chicagoan who had to prove to UPS she had the legal right to work in America nearly 25 years after she began working there. When she started using her married name, the system flagged her and Karen had to repeatedly bring her birth certificate, marriage license and passport to work. Karen’s incident isn’t an isolated one. Four percent of legal workers have been flagged for potential fraud, forcing them to prove their identity and the system failed to flag illegal workers more than half the time.
Aside from logistical problems, the privacy and civil liberties concerns are downright frightening. No matter how “fraud proof” a form of identification is, willing crooks will find a way around the system. Even though Senators Schumer and Graham have attempted to assuage fears of a national ID card, opponents have been fighting attempts at pacifying public concern since the REAL ID Act was signed into law in 2005. In an interview with the Tribune, Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the ACLU pointed out the dangers of such an ID saying “We think that card would quickly spread to other purposes, from voting to gun ownership to travel, and it will really be a permission slip for participating in American life.”" Papers, Please? Senate Pushes Biometric Social Security Cards - Chicagoist:
"Mexico plans to start enrolling 110 million citizens into its national ID card program this summer. The program will be among the first to capture iris, fingerprint and facial biometrics for identification, says Terry Hartmann, vice president of identity solutions at Unisys.
Unisys’ Mexican subsidiary was awarded a contract by the Mexican Ministry of Internal Affairs and National Citizen Registry to create and manage the biometric-based citizen identification solution.
The agency will issue another tender for companies to compete for the ID card issuance portion of the project. The country expects to issue cards to citizens over the course of three to four years.
Unisys is charged with setting up 3,000 enrollment centers as well as adding enrollment capabilities to existing government facilities, Hartmann says. Some of these enrollment systems will be portable, suit case style systems.
The multi-modal nature is what makes Mexico’s program different from others out there, Hartmann says. “It’s essentially the first national identity system that will capture iris and use it,” he says.
Mexico hasn’t had a national ID system before, though the country’s voter ID card has used to identify citizens.
While the card technology to be used for the national ID has not been determined, Hartmann says, “there is a very good chance it will be a smart card because they will want to use biometrics for identity verification.”
Exactly how the card will be used has yet to be worked out either, Hartmann says. Similar programs around the world use biometrics for voter registration and even financial transactions. “The card isn’t only for identification, it could be a driver licenses, used for collection of tolls, a travel card and even an ATM card,” he says." ...more
"As the Vatican grapples with the fallout from the clerical sex abuse scandal, new evidence is beginning to emerge of questionable Church behaviour in another sphere: money.
Mafia turncoats have long alleged that the Cosa Nostra used the Vatican bank – the Institute for the Works of Religion, also known by its Italian acronym IOR – to launder its ill-gotten gains. Their accounts have often been long on colour and short on convincing detail, but a persuasive new witness has now come forward, claiming first-hand knowledge of the practice.
Massimo Ciancimino is well-placed to know: his late father, Vito, was an influential Sicilian politician, mayor of Palermo and a notorious link between the Christian Democrat Party and Cosa Nostra – and Massimo accompanied him on many of his business trips.
Mr Ciancimino has been testifying in court, granting interviews and even collaborating on a book, and what he has to say is proving increasingly embarrassing for the Vatican.
"Marcinkus was involved in the planning of this murder, even though he was never indicted for it. "
In an interview with the author Luigi Nuzzi, Mr Ciancimino described how he accompanied his father to the IOR under the pretence of buying a rare medicine only available from the Vatican pharmacy.
His father used accounts at the bank and two safety deposit boxes to store funds – often bribes he would redistribute to politicians and Mafia bosses.
Giving evidence at the appeal hearing for the murder of the Milan banker Roberto Calvi, Mr Ciancimino described a meeting between his father and Calvi on the premises of the IOR, where Calvi handed over political bribes for redistribution by “Don Vito”.
The man who threw open the doors of the IOR to men like Calvi and Mr Ciancimino senior, along with many other wealthy but tax-shy Italians who valued the services of an offshore bank located in the heart of Rome, was the American Archbishop Paul Marcinkus.
Archbishop Marcinkus’s entanglement with Calvi – whose Banco Ambrosiano collapsed ruinously in 1982 – did lasting damage to the reputation of the Roman Catholic Church. He died in the US in 2006 having steadfastly refused to explain his conduct.
His name has now been added to the list of suspects in Calvi’s murder." ...more
"Because she was born in Chicago, Karen Peisker never imagined her bosses at United Parcel Service would suddenly question her right to legally work in the country.
But last month, an electronic employee verification system flagged the truck driver for possible identity fraud because she had been using her married name, Rivera, on her driver's license since 2007. Though Peisker joined the company in 1985, it put her at risk of being fired until she proved she was who she said she was.
'I couldn't believe it,' said Peisker, 50, who repeatedly had to show up to work with her birth certificate, marriage license and U.S. passport until the confusion was cleared up.
Not uncommon, such problems with the federal E-verify software system — intended to pluck illegal immigrants out of the work force — have led to proposals for a more wide-reaching solution that could be as culturally transformative as it is controversial. Until recently, it also might have seemed as futuristic as a movie thriller.
Two U.S. senators prominent in immigration reform efforts have proposed that all Americans be issued biometric Social Security cards, containing data from either a fingerprint or retinal scan to help employers determine whether the holder is legal.
In explaining the only current bipartisan reform proposal, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has called such a high-tech Social Security card 'a linchpin' in efforts to win support in Congress for fixing an immigration enforcement system that many agree is broken. Immigrant advocates are pushing for action on immigration reform this year, and the Obama administration has expressed support, though many analysts doubt the current political climate is conducive.
While details are still sketchy, Schumer and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have proposed that the new Social Security card be swiped by employers through a machine to match a fingerprint or some other personal biometric feature against data stored on computers. Those who refuse to cooperate or otherwise knowingly hire unauthorized workers would face fines and even prison.
Privacy groups call the idea chilling, and costly. Last week, 44 organizations sent a letter of protest to the White House and both senators, arguing that implementation of a biometric card could cost 'hundreds of billions of dollars.'
Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, labeled the proposal a form of 'mission creep' that would pull the country down a dangerous path.
'We think that card would quickly spread to other purposes, from voting to gun ownership to travel, and it will really be a permission slip for participating in American life,' Calabrese said." ...more
"“This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.”--Revelation 13:18
As technology grows more sophisticated and the government and its corporate allies further refine their methods of keeping tabs on the American people, those of us who treasure privacy increasingly find ourselves engaged in a struggle to maintain our freedoms in the midst of the modern surveillance state.
Just consider the many ways we’re already being monitored and tracked: through our Social Security numbers, bank accounts, purchases and electronic transactions; by way of our correspondence and communications devices--email, phone calls and mobile phones; through chips implanted in our vehicles, identification documents, even our clothing. Data corporations are capturing vast caches of personal information on you so that airports, retailers, police and other government authorities can instantly identify and track you. Add to this the fact that businesses, schools and other facilities are relying more and more on fingerprints and facial recognition to identify us. All the while, banks and other financial institutions must verify the identities of new customers and make such records of customer transactions available to the police and government officials upon request.
In recent years, this information glut has converged into a mandate for a national ID card, which came to a head with Congress’ passage of the REAL ID Act in 2005. REAL ID requires states to issue machine-readable drivers’ licenses containing a wealth of personal data. However, because the REAL ID Act has been opposed by many states due to its cost and implementation, we have yet to be subjected to a nationwide implementation of a national ID card. That may all change depending on what happens with the immigration reform bill now before Congress.
A centerpiece of the immigration bill as proposed by Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is a requirement that all U.S. workers, citizen and resident alike, be required to obtain and carry biometric Social Security cards (national ID cards under a different name) in order to work within the United States. Attempting to appease critics of a national ID card, Schumer and Graham insist that “no government database would house everyone’s information” and that the “cards would not contain any private information, medical information, or tracking devices.” However, those claims are blatantly false. Indeed, this proposed biometric card is nothing more than an end-run around opposition to a national ID card.
Civil and privacy rights advocates, as well as liberal-, conservative-, and libertarian-leaning organizations, have long raised concerns that a national ID card would enable the government to track citizens and, thus, jeopardize the privacy rights of Americans. President Reagan likened a 1981 proposal to the biblical “mark of the beast,” and President Clinton dismissed a similar plan because it smacked of Big Brother." ...more
"The pressure has finally taken its toll: PositiveID (PSID), the microchip implant company formerly known as VeriChip, has hired a PR firm to clear up inaccuracies in the media about its products — many of which originate from PositiveID’s own Web sites and its annual report.
There’s a lesson for managers here: hiding in a bunker and hoping that bad press about your business will go away on its own is a rotten strategy. Only by being upfront, transparent and above all quick in your response to negative coverage can you nip PR challenges in the bud.
PositiveID has suffered for months from dismal headlines about its experiments on elderly Floridians with Alzheimer’s and its plans to inject as many people as possible with RFID-enabled microchips that grant doctors access to their online medical records.
Until now, PositiveID had rarely responded to the press, and even turned down a request by BNET for a Q&A with CEO Scott Silverman to rebut allegations about the company. (The offer still stands.)
When BNET noted recently that PositiveID wanted to expand its Health Link medical record system to sailors and seafarers, a representative from Gibraltar Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based PR firm, wrote to demand a correction:
Health Link is a software-based product, and has nothing to do with the FDA-approved RFID microchip products under development at PositiveID
The reason Health Link and the microchip are confused is because of PositiveID’s own web site, which once had a page that said:
Health Link is the connection between you and your personal health record. Health Link utilizes a tiny, passive microchip (the nation’s first and only microchip cleared for patient identification by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration) and a secure, private online database that links you to your personal health record.
… About the size of a grain of rice, the microchip is inserted just under the skin and contains only a unique, 16-digit identifier. … unlike conventional forms of identification, the Health Link cannot be lost, stolen, misplaced, or counterfeited. It is safe, secure, reversible, and always with you.
That sounds a lot like a microchip to me, especially as the page was dominated by a photo of a microchip (pictured above), and a headline that said, “The Health Link Microchip,” which you can see in this copy of the original page. When I pointed this out to Gibraltar, the page disappeared. The rep said in an email:
The old VeriChip Web site you link to and quote is no longer active -– the company, now known as PositiveID, has a new Web site here: www.positiveidcorp.com
I understand the confusion that could result from reading the old site, so let me clarify this again for you -– Health Link is a software-based PRH product. It is in no way affiliated with the FDA-approved RFID VeriChip or any other injectable products PositiveID currently has under development.
For good measure, the rep added later:
I understand that the presence of the old site may have created some confusion. It has been taken down." ...more
"NEW DELHI: Beggars often change their names to hoodwink anti-begging teams by posing as first-time offenders. They will not be able to do so any more, for the Delhi government has installed biometric machines at beggar homes to check repeat offenders and maintain a dossier of each arrested beggar.
With an estimated 60,000 beggars, most of who go about their business at traffic intersections and religious places, the Delhi government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it was geared to tackle the problem by taking action under the anti-begging law as well as by implementing rehabilitory measures.
Anti-begging squads apprehended 2,537 beggars in 2007, 2,232 in 2008 and 2,681 last year, the government said through additional solicitor general Mohan Parasaran. 'Biometric machines have been set up at the Sewa Kutir Complex, Kingsway Camp, to identify repeat offenders and update/consolidate the record of apprehended beggars,' the government added.
The Sheila Dikshit government told the Supreme Court in an affidavit that it has decided to set up a quick reaction system and a control room/call centre to attend complaints about begging by citizens. 'The Beggary Control Room will be interactive with citizens and other stake-holders through toll-free phone numbers so that anyone can have an easy access for the purpose of information/complaint/suggestions in respect of beggary related matters,' it said.
On finding that drug abuse among beggars was quite rampant, the government has decided to engage NGOs in providing/supplementing the services of de-addition treatment in beggar homes.
It said imparting of vocational training to inmates at beggar homes has been started to make them self-reliant. 'Vocational training in accordance with the abilities and health condition of inmates is being imparted in different trades — tailoring, weaving, candle-making — to the inmates of the beggar homes at Lampur complex and Nirmal Chhaya and stipends as admissionle under rules are being paid to them."...source
"Every morning millions of people repeat their 'keys, wallet, phone' mantra before leaving home for work to make sure they have not forgotten anything.
But will the day come when we can strike 'wallet' off the list because the mobile phone will be used for all our payments?
The key development in payments technology is the ability of mobiles to receive payments, according to Dave Birch, director of Consult Hyperion.
So how will these payments work?
App appeal
Whatever people's views on the future of cash and cheques, there is an inevitability about the increased use of mobiles to make payments.
'Cash is unlikely ever to disappear, but its decline may even accelerate as mobile payments come in,' says a report by the Payments Council, which oversees payments strategy and has a membership that includes banks and other payment system providers.
'By 2050, using cash could well be a minority activity, much more the preserve of informal transactions.'
A number of niche businesses have been developing systems that operate safely, conveniently and cheaply for mobile owners.
One of the first mass-marketed operations is the 'Send Money' app for the iPhone which was launched recently by Paypal.
This allows two owners of iPhones to 'bump' their phones together - by tapping them against each other physically - in order to make a connection and send money to each other.
The bumping may be a bit of a gimmick, but the technology that lies behind it signals how future payments may be made.
Having accepted a connection which flashes up on the screen, one person can send another some money from their bank account or an account they have set up with Paypal.
Paypal effectively is the middle man - providing a holding account for each so the individuals do not have to exchange their bank details.
Its profit comes from charging some users, including business users. For example, if the sender uses a credit or debit card for the payment, there is a fee of 3.4% of the payment plus 20p. The sender can choose whether to pay the fee or pass it on to the recipient" ...more
"Cash will be used in fewer than half of all transactions by 2015, according to an official report which suggests plastic is rapidly overtaking notes and coins in consumers' pockets."
Last year 59 per cent of the 37 billion transactions were done with cash, a sharp decline from the 73 per cent of transactions that were made with cash just 10 years ago.
According to the Payments Council, a trade body representing the banks, card and cash machine industry, this proportion will fall to below 50 per cent by 2015, and to 45 per cent by 2018.
The figures have alarmed some campaigners, who gave warning that banks should not encourage the march towards a cashless society.
The Way We Pay 2010 report from the Payments Council analysed in detail the revolution that has happened since 1966, the year that the first credit card was issued, followed one year later by the first cash dispenser being trialled.
It pointed out that in that time the majority of people had gone from being paid in cash at the end of the week, to being paid once a month by a direct transfer into their bank account. Just one in twenty workers were paid wages in cash last year, it calculated, a figure predicted to fall to a mere one in 50 by 2018.
Because of this trend and the rise of debit cards and direct debit payments, cash has markedly fallen from favour, the report said.
"The trend is well entrenched and will continue. Paying for things is more secure and more convenient now we don’t have to keep replenishing the stock of paper and metal we drag around. By 2018, the amount of cash we use will fall by 20 per cent after adjusting for inflation, even though our total spending will rise by perhaps 15 per cent in real terms," the report said.
"And this is probably a conservative estimate," added a spokesman, who pointed out that of the 21 billion cash transactions last year, 19 billion were for less than £15. This is the limit that people can spend on so-called contactless payment cards, a type of debit card which can be used in some corner and sandwich shops, whereby the consumer does not need to type in any PIN security code.
Mark Hunter, the Liberal Democrat MP, who has led the campaign to save the chequebook, said: "This is not something the public are asking for. It is the arrogance of the banks which is pushing for these changes....more
The Payments Council predicted yesterday that banknotes and coins will be used for fewer than half of all transactions within five years. The Way We Pay 2010 report revealed that the use of cash has slumped in the past 10 years. Instead we're using plastic, with chip and pin and contactless cards set to dominate payments in the future.
According to the report, debit card usage has climb fourfold since 1999 – four times as fast as spending. Mike Bowman, head of policy and markets at the Payments Council, said: 'Although cash won't disappear in our lifetime, the continuing payments revolution will make it an ever smaller part of our spending.'
But everyone still uses cash don't they?
Only for small amounts, it seems. The Payments Council said that while 21 billion consumer payments were in cash last year, four-fifths of them were for amounts less than £10. Meanwhile for regular commitments, such as bills, cash has plummeted from 19 per cent of all payments in 1999, to just nine per cent last year. The number of people being paid in cash-in-hand has also shrunk, from one in eight in 1999 to just one in 20 in 2009. Even the tradition of waving a fiver or tenner in a boozer for service is disappearing as just 40 per cent of pub spending now involves cash, compared to 90 per cent a decade ago.
What about cheques?
They are set to disappear altogether. The Payments Council has suggested they be phased out by 2018. In evidence they point out that the use of the cheque book has been in steep decline since 1990 as people choose quicker payment methods. Last year, just 0.8 per cent of retail transactions were made with cheques. The Payment Council's 1999 prediction that just over one billion cheques would be used by individuals in 2009 proved to be almost twice as much as the actual number written, which was just 577 million.
The disappearance of the cheque is a contentious issue, particularly with older people. Michelle Mitchell, Age UK charity director, warned: 'The withdrawal of cheques would cause serious difficulties to some older people who don't feel comfortable with the chip and PIN system and don't like carrying around big amounts of cash,' she said. 'We urge the next Government to ensure the use of cheques is guaranteed until alternative payment methods are in place which older people feel comfortable with.'
However, pensions and benefit payments have already largely made the switch from cash. Ten years ago, 87 per cent of state benefits were paid in cash, whereas today 79 per cent of payments go directly into bank accounts" ...more
"PositiveID (PSID), the microchip implant company formerly known as VeriChip, has added a new wrinkle to its business model that is bound to be controversial: Its Health Link chip is being sold “on a paid subscription basis” in a pilot scheme targeted at ship, dock and maritime workers.
Health Link is a microchip implanted under the skin that, when scanned, provides access to a patient’s online medical records. The chip is linked to Microsoft (MSFT)’s HealthVault and Google (GOOG) Health.
The company’s press release is slim on details, but it suggests that either ship workers’ employers or the employees themselves will be charged a monthly fee to keep the chip activated in the system. In effect, PositiveID will hold the implanted workers’ online health records to ransom: One assumes that if the monthly fee is not paid, access will not be granted. (Why else would anyone feel obligated to pay?) The company said: Upon successful completion and review of the pilot program, PositiveID will offer its Health Link PHR to millions of seafarers and port workers per year, on a paid subscription basis.
Shipworkers are being targeted because they frequently travel far from their regular doctors:
When sailors become ill, they will visit a doctor at their next port of call. The doctor, typically, does not have access to the sailors’ [pre-employment medical examinations], nor does the doctor know the patient’s medical history, and will therefore conduct a thorough, costly examination prior to prescribing treatment. This expensive and burdensome repetition of medical procedures can be eliminated by using Health Link, which stores the sailors initial PEME and subsequent medical procedures.
You can easily imagine how some companies, eager to save money on healthcare, will insist on chips for all their employees." ...more
"The British government plans to collect lifelong records on all residents starting at the age of five, in order to screen for those who might be more likely to commit crimes in the future.
In a plan being piloted by Lincolnshire Community Health Services, all parents of children starting school are being sent an 83-question survey that asks detailed questions about their lives and their children's behavior.
'This is incredibly intrusive and asks questions which, quite frankly, Lincolnshire Community Health Services do not need to know and have no right knowing,' said Dylan Sharpe of the group Big Brother Watch. 'Even worse, the NHS Trust has failed to make it clear that this is a voluntary questionnaire. I would advise any parent receiving this to stick it straight in the bin.'
The questionnaire asks everything from how often the child lies, bullies, or steals inside or outside the home to how often she or he eats red meat, takeout food or carbonated beverages. Parents are also asked how well they themselves did in school, whether they have friends, and if they feel like they can speak freely in front of others.
The plan is for the forms to be filled out every year and supplemented by reports from teachers and social workers. When children become old enough, they will also be asked to fill out questionnaires. The information will be kept on file indefinitely, and will be accessible to health workers to decide if parents should be offered 'support' to 'enhance children's life chances.'
The government plans to expand the plan to all of England and Wales some time this year." ...more
"One would have to be a blind man to not see that America is fast losing the fundamental principles of liberty upon which our once-great country was established. And, without a doubt, the single biggest reason for this decline is the lack of concern and effort on the part of today’s Christians and pastors to resist it.
All over America, when one approaches our pastors and church leaders with the obvious decay and ruination of constitutional government and Declaration principles taking place in our land today, the response flippantly comes back: “God hasn’t called me to do that; I’m supposed to win souls and that’s it.” (Or words to that effect.) As if the call to Gospel preaching, evangelism, and missionary endeavor negates our responsibility as citizens of a free land.
Of course, this call to “win souls” doesn’t interfere with these preachers’ golf games; it doesn’t interfere with their family vacations; it doesn’t interfere with their active membership in whatever local civic organization they happen to belong to; it doesn’t interfere with their hiring of a lawyer if they are falsely accused or defrauded; it doesn’t interfere with their invitations to celebrity politicians for special church recognition on patriotic holidays; it doesn’t interfere with them going to the polls to vote; it only seems to interfere when they are personally asked to take a stand in the gap for our country’s liberties. Then, all of a sudden, they haven’t been “called,” or “God will take care of it,” or “Jesus is coming soon,” or “Religion and politics don’t mix,” ad infinitum, ad nauseam.
As a result of America’s preachers’ indifference (and that of the Christians they influence), our country is on the brink of becoming an oppressive and tyrannical state. No, let me rephrase that. America is already in the process of becoming an oppressive and tyrannical state. And it’s the preachers’ fault!" ...more
"According to the proposal, everyone seeking work in the United States—citizens and immigrants — would have to obtain an ID card containing his photograph and biometric data, such as fingerprints or an iris scan. Employers would be required to verify job candidates’ identities against the biometric data embedded in the card.
This is much more invasive than a “super Social Security card.” Schumer’s proposals would create an entirely new identity document. Essentially, it would establish a national identification system, a concept long opposed by Americans across the political spectrum.
President Ronald Reagan blasted a 1981 proposal for a national worker ID card, calling it the biblical “mark of the beast.” More recently, bipartisan resistance has indefinitely stalled implementation of the Real ID Act, a 2005 law setting federal standards for state driver’s licenses that many fear would set the framework for a national ID system.
The proposal would enable increased government and corporate surveillance of our daily lives. The ID cards would contain a machine-readable zone allowing government bureaucrats and private corporations to develop electronic profiles of our everyday activities." ...more
"PositiveID Corporation announced today that it has sold to a customer the Company's first order of 7,500 eight-millimeter RFID microchips, which were manufactured by Raytheon Microelectronics España (operating as 'ELCAN Optical Technologies'). The Company expects to use its smaller microchip in its medical diagnostic applications, medical device identification and animal health applications.
The Company is currently in Phase II development of an in vivo glucose-sensing RFID microchip. Phase II development, which includes optimizing the sensing system for its glucose response in the presence of blood and interstitial fluid matrix components, is expected to be completed in mid-2010. Following successful Phase II development, PositiveID intends to integrate the glucose sensor with the electronics interface of the microchip.
Scott R. Silverman, Chairman and CEO of PositiveID, said, 'We believe the manufacture and sale of this first batch of 8-millimeter microchips is another step forward for our Company as we take our microchip beyond identification-only to applications that may help diagnose and potentially treat medical conditions in humans and animals.'" .source
"When PositiveID (PSID), the company that makes implantable microchips that grant access to patients’ online medical records, acquired the credit monitoring and identity theft company SteelVault, it was never quite clear how the two business would mesh together. Recently, however, PositiveID (formerly known as VeriChip) has indicated that it believes the two business should segue into one another via protection against medical identity theft, which, it claims, accounts for seven percent of all identity theft.
I previously assumed that PositiveID would put up firewalls between the two businesses, even though both units might share technologies. After all, who really wants their online medical records stored in the same place and accessed by the same chips as their credit rating and social security number? The answer is that about 20,000 people have already signed up for PositiveID’s NationalCreditReport.com protection services. As you can see from CEO Scott R. Silverman’s quote in the press release, he sees the medical and credit aspects of his business as two sides of the same coin:
In addition to helping consumers protect themselves from identity theft as it pertains to credit fraud, we are also focused on combating the growing problem of medical identity theft, which affects 7 percent of identity theft victims. Through our secure personal health record, Health Link, which is interoperable with Microsoft Health Vault and soon-to-be with Google Health, we put consumers in charge of their own health information through a robust, patient-controlled interface.
That “7 percent” statistic is interesting. A recent survey by the Ponemon Institute found that only 5.8 percent of ID theft cases involve medical identity theft. PositiveID’s press release doesn’t cite the source of the number. Perhaps PositiveID has the data lying around its offices somewhere." ...source
For the Vatican to liken the recent pedophile exposure to the persecution suffered by early Christian martyrs has got to be the height of hypocrisy and shame. They truly are a cohort of heinous wolves.
"VATICAN CITY — The Vatican heatedly defended Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, claiming accusations that he helped cover up the actions of pedophile priests are part of an anti-Catholic 'hate' campaign targeting the pope for his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.
Vatican Radio broadcast comments by two senior cardinals explaining 'the motive for these attacks' on the pope and the Vatican newspaper chipped in with spirited comments from another top cardinal.
'The pope defends life and the family, based on marriage between a man and a woman, in a world in which powerful lobbies would like to impose a completely different' agenda, Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, head of the disciplinary commission for Holy See officials, said on the radio.
Herranz didn't identify the lobbies but 'defense of life' is Vatican shorthand for anti-abortion efforts.
Also arguing that Benedict's promotion of conservative family models had provoked the so-called attacks was the Vatican's dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano.
'By now, it's a cultural contrast,' Sodano told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. 'The pope embodies moral truths that aren't accepted, and so, the shortcomings and errors of priests are used as weapons against the church.'
Also rallying to Benedict's side was Italian Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, who heads the Vatican City State's governing apparatus.
The pope 'has done all that he could have' against sex abuse by clergy of minors, Lajolo said on Vatican radio, decrying what he described as a campaign of 'hatred against the Catholic church.'" ...more
The Vatican is circling the wagons in defense Pope .
"The pope on Sunday explicitly didn't address the allegations of sexual abuse by priests that have ripped through Europe in recent months and reignited controversy in the U.S. Benedict remained seated as Cardinal Sodano spoke, facing the large crowd and gripping a golden staff.
Moments later, the pope appeared in the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica overlooking the square where he delivered his traditional Easter Urbi et Orbi message. Easter Celebrated Around the World
'Even these days humanity needs the salvation of the Gospel to emerge from a crisis that is deep and that requires profound change, starting from the conscience,' he said. The pope also called for an 'exodus, not of superficial adjustments, but of a moral and spiritual conversion.'
Throughout Holy Week, top clerics around the world have taken to their pulpits to defend the pope, at times in language that risked exacerbating the controversy. In an interview published in the Milan-daily Corriere della Sera, the preacher of the papal household apologized for likening criticism of the pope to anti-Semitism during a Good Friday sermon in St. Peter's Basilica attended by the pope. That sermon drew strong criticism from abuse victims and Jewish leaders over the weekend. 'If, against my every intention, I jarred the sensibilities of the Jewish people and the victims of pedophilia, I sincerely regret it and I apologize,' Father Cantalamessa was quoted as saying.
Hundreds of people across Europe, including the pope's homeland of Germany, have come forward this year alleging they were victims of sexual abuse decades ago. One case involves a priest known to church officials as a sex abuser who was transferred to the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising in 1980 with the approval of Benedict XVI, who was then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger. The priest was convicted of sexually abusing minors in 1986 and received a suspended sentence. He wasn't definitively suspended, however, until March this year, when the archdiocese disclosed his case publicly." ...more
Contemporary globalization is essentially a massive civilizational shift in the making — a worldwide civil society that is more complex and integrated than we have yet imagined. It promises a potential improvement on what we now have. "For centuries, people have thought about the world in terms of the organization of nation states. But, thanks to globalization, nation states are now becoming units within broader clusters that are sometimes called civilizations. As Max Stackhouse explains in the second installment in his five-part series, this shift does not homogenize everything, but creates new patterns of diversity that foster innovative global patterns of life and more complex identities.
lobalization has gained many meanings since being introduced into the language as a term of analysis in the 1950s by Roland Robertson. In general, it refers, as he points out, to a worldwide set of dynamic social and cultural developments that are influencing every local context, all peoples, each nation and the ecology of the earth itself.
It has thus become the framework that relativizes and modulates every regional, national and local context — and is simultaneously adapted into each local, national or regional context in distinctive ways. It creates new cultural varieties that are 'glocal,' new combinations of the global and local."...more
"The Pervert" Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer abused an estimated 2,000 boys for decades without sanction
"When John Paul II died five years ago the crowd that packed St Peter’s Square for his funeral clamoured “Santo subito (Saint now)!” in a spontaneous tribute to the charisma of the Polish pontiff.
As the faithful marked the anniversary of John Paul’s death on Good Friday, however, he was being drawn into the scandal over child abuse in the Catholic church that has confronted his successor, Benedict XVI, with the worst crisis of his reign.
Allegations that the late pontiff blocked an inquiry into a paedophile cardinal, promoted senior church figures despite accusations that they had molested boys and covered up innumerable cases of abuse during his 26-year papacy have cast a cloud over his path to sainthood.
The most serious claims related to Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, an Austrian friend of John Paul’s who abused an estimated 2,000 boys over decades but never faced any sanction from Rome."
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Groer’s successor, criticised the handling of that scandal and other abuse cases last week after holding a special service in St Stephen’s cathedral, Vienna, entitled “Admitting our guilt”.
Schönborn condemned the “sinful structures” within the church and the patterns of “silencing” victims and “looking away”.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — who became Pope Benedict — had tried to investigate the abuses as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, according to Schönborn. But his efforts had been blocked by “the Vatican”, an apparent reference to John Paul.
Asked by The Sunday Times whether John Paul’s role in the cover-up of abuse should be investigated, Schönborn said: “I have known Pope Benedict personally during 37 years of amiable acquaintance and I can say with certainty that ... he made entirely clear efforts not to cover things up but to tackle and investigate them. This was not always met with approval in the Vatican.”
The Groer affair became public in 1995 when former pupils of an elite Catholic school accused him of sexual abuse.
After an outcry, Groer was replaced and made the prior of a convent. He was never punished and issued only a vague apology in 1998 before retreating to a nunnery where he lived until his death in 2003. Some of his victims were offered “hush money” from the church. ...more
"With biometric information taking an increasingly prominent role in national security, the Department of Defense has created the new Biometrics Identity Management Agency, which will lead DoD activities to integrate and synchronize biometrics technologies and capabilities and to manage the DoD’s biometrics database to support the National Security Strategy.
According to a 2008 DoD directive, biometrics is generally defined as “a measurable biological (anatomical and physiological) [or] behavioral characteristic that can be used for automated recognition.” Normally, biometric data is unclassified; however, elements of the contextual data, information associated with biometric collection, and/or associated intelligence analysis may be classified.
The 2008 directive also stated that biometrics is an important enabler that will be fully integrated into the conduct of DoD activities to support the full range of military operations.
Every day, thousands of biometric records are collected and sent to the Department of Defense Automated Biometric Identification System to store and compare against existing records, according to a 2009 DoD report.
“The technology is improving such that a submission from theater [e.g., in Afghanistan] can be searched in the DOD ABIS and a response sent back to theater in less than 2 minutes,” the report said." ...source
"DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Apr 01, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) –PositiveID Corporation (“PositiveID” or the “Company”) /quotes/comstock/15*!psid/quotes/nls/psid (PSID 1.36, -0.01, -0.73%) announced today that its identity security business, which offers credit reporting, credit scores and credit monitoring services under the NationalCreditReport.com brand to help protect consumers from identity theft, has reached a significant milestone, reporting record growth to 20,000 active subscribers. According to Javelin Strategy and Research’s 2010 Identity Fraud Survey Report, more than 11 million Americans fell victim to identity theft in 2009, and the total annual fraud amount increased by 12.5 percent to $54 billion. Javelin Strategy and Research also reported that 50.2 million Americans were using a credit monitoring service as of September 2008, amounting to a $6 billion to $9 billion industry on an annual basis.
Scott R. Silverman, Chairman and CEO of PositiveID, said, “In addition to helping consumers protect themselves from identity theft as it pertains to credit fraud, we are also focused on combating the growing problem of medical identity theft, which affects 7 percent of identity theft victims. Through our secure personal health record, Health Link, which is interoperable with Microsoft Health Vault and soon-to-be with Google Health, we put consumers in charge of their own health information through a robust, patient-controlled interface.”" ...source
"A school has provoked uproar after taking children's fingerprints without permission from their parents.
Pupils were 'frogmarched' to be fingerprinted so they could use touch screens in the canteen to have money deducted from their account, thereby speeding up lunch queues.
Capital City Academy in Brent, north London, was later forced to apologise and wiped all prints it obtained before asking for consent.
It also introduced an opt-out for parents uncomfortable with the technology, allowing pupils to enter a four-digit pin code instead of scanning their print.
The revelation comes as teachers today warned schools are routinely taking children's fingerprints without permission from their parents.
As many as 3,500 schools take biometric data from pupils to speed up basic administration such as buying canteen lunches or borrowing library books.
"A former pope was warned that paedophile priests should be removed from active ministry and repeat offenders expelled from the church, according to a clerical communique that has emerged following a US lawsuit.
The letter, written in August 1963 by the head of an order that specialised in the treatment of priests accused of abusing children, suggests that the Vatican and Pope Paul VI should have known about failings in procedures for dealing with such cases, according to the lawyer who produced it.
A senior church official swiftly dismissed the claim, suggesting it was unlikely the document would have been seen by the then pope nearly 50 years ago.
The letter has been released as plaintiffs in Kentucky attempt to sue the Vatican for allegedly failing to alert police or the public about priests who molested children, part of a series of abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic church and left the current pope, Benedict XVI, struggling to defend its reputation.
The document, produced by Anthony DeMarco, a lawyer who acted for plaintiffs in a separate US compensation claim settled in 2007, was written by the Rev Gerald MC Fitzgerald, the head of the Servants of the Holy Paraclete, an order based in New Mexico." ...more
"India is launching a new census in which every person aged over 15 will be photographed and fingerprinted to create a biometric national database.
The government will then use the information to issue identity cards.
Officials will spend a year classifying India's population of around 1.2 billion people according to gender, religion, occupation and education.
The exercise, conducted every 10 years, faces big challenges, not least India's vast area and diversity of cultures.
Census officials must also contend with high levels of illiteracy and millions of homeless people - as well as insurgencies by Maoists and other rebels which have left large parts of the country unsafe.
President Pratibha Patil was the first person to be listed, and appealed to fellow Indians to follow her example 'for the good of the nation'.
'Everyone must participate and make it successful,' she said in Delhi." ...more
