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Friday, July 4, 2008 |
BBC: "Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled.
The ruling comes as part of Google's legal battle with Viacom over allegations of copyright infringement.
Leading privacy expert Simon Davies told BBC News that the privacy of millions of YouTube users was threatened.
He said: 'The chickens have come home to roost for Google.
Their arrogance and refusal to listen to friendly advice has resulted in the privacy of tens of millions being placed under threat.'
Mr Davies said privacy campaigners had warned Google for years that IP addresses were personally identifiable information.
Google pledged last year to anonymise IP addresses for search information but it has said nothing about YouTube data."
5:32:23 PM 
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If you don't fancy a trip abroad this year, you can watch the Tour de France. It starts tomorrow at Brest. Put your bowl with strawberries and cream within reach and enjoy the landscape.
You can also explore the route in Google Earth.
5:28:30 PM
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"The despisers of mankind - apart from the mere fools and mimics, of that creed - are of two sorts. They who believe their merit neglected and unappreciated make up one class; they who receive adulation and flattery, knowing their own worthlessness, compose the other. Be sure that the coldest-hearted misanthropes are ever of this last order."
(Dickens in Barnaby Rudge)
George W. Bush is a major league non-valeur, a good-for-nothing. When he came to power he promised to cut government spending and instead managed to get the US in a huge debt; he cheated with elections, he ruined America, left New York defenseless against a terror attack (I think he knew), started another war and introduced torture. In short he is the worst president America ever had. And he hates the world, he hates Americans. The problem is that he has a lot of power, he has, with the connivance of Republicans and Democrats alike, trampled on the American Constitution and turned America in a totalitarian state. The US no longer is a democracy.
Even a Democratic president won't change very much. There is a huge deficit to take care of, and several wars to maintain. The juggernaut of war is rolling on and short-sighted politics and wishful thinking have taken over. What is there left in America that is worth fighting wars for? Nothing. The dogmas of greed are ruling, and in a world with increasing shortages of oil and food, everyone is grabbing what they can. Barbarity is knocking on the door. Any president going against the grain of neocon sensibilites will be shot, like JFK was shot.
America no longer seems to have any room for necessary change. The system will bugger about until it breaks down of its own accord, having ruined everything that can possibly be ruined.
When even the backbone of the neocon global economy, the IMF and World Bank, are sending out warnings, you know that the game is up. But they should be clear, they should warn George W. Bush first and foremost. He is the one who brokered it all. And the IMF and World Bank were in fact the inspirators and movers of the debacle. They are responsible for this.
"As the head of the World Bank warns world leaders that the planet is entering the 'danger zone' with millions thrown into extreme poverty by the twin food and fuel crises, a leaked report from his organisation shows that biofuels have pushed up global food prices by 75 percent - a much bigger role in the disaster than previously thought.
In a letter to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, ahead of next week's G8 summit, and copied to other G8 leaders, World Bank president Robert Zoellick has called on them to act immediately to address the 'man-made catastrophe' of soaring food and oil prices."
No Mr Zoellick, it's you and George W. Bush and the IMF and the World Bank with their neocon drive for war who are responsible for the debacle. But I see the rats are leaving the sinking ship.
Today is Independence Day; independence from what? America is led by callous war profiteers, who don't give a damn about Americans or the world.
Naomi Klein: "Invading countries to seize their natural resources is illegal under the Geneva Conventions. That means that the huge task of rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure - including its oil infrastructure - is the financial responsibility of Iraq's invaders. They should be forced to pay reparations. (Recall that Saddam Hussein's regime paid $9 billion to Kuwait in reparations for its 1990 invasion.) Instead, Iraq is being forced to sell 75 percent of its national patrimony to pay the bills for its own illegal invasion and occupation.
Intimately connected to the price of oil is the global food crisis. Not only do high gas prices drive up food costs but the boom in agrofuels has blurred the line between food and fuel, pushing food growers off their land and encouraging rampant speculation. Several Latin American countries have been pushing to re-examine the push for agrofuels and to have food recognized as a human right, not a mere commodity. United States Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte has other ideas. In the same speech touting the US commitment to emergency food aid, he called on countries to lower their 'export restrictions and high tariffs' and eliminate 'barriers to use of innovative plant and animal production technologies, including biotechnology.' This was an admittedly more subtle stickup, but the message was clear: impoverished countries had better crack open their agricultural markets to American products and genetically modified seeds, or they could risk having their aid cut off.
Privatizing Iraq's oil, ensuring global dominance for genetically modified crops, lowering the last of the trade barriers and opening the last of the wildlife refuges... Not so long ago, those goals were pursued through polite trade agreements, under the benign pseudonym 'globalization'. Now this discredited agenda is forced to ride on the backs of serial crises, selling itself as lifesaving medicine for a world in pain."
America has lost its moral, intellectual and political preponderance. America is no longer a dream, it's a lie. The only way to get what it wants is by brute force. It can't convince any other way. And we know from history that the way of the sword will eventually end up in defeat. But America still has a choice.
Obama could humour the lobbies and when he is president do exactly the opposite as promised (Bush did some of that too). The American military can stand up to Bush when he gives the order to attack Iran. After all, there is enough reason to arrest Bush immediately, before he does more harm.
But it is much more likely that once Obama has been elected president he'll be killed, and during the confusion the right-wing will stage a coup. Or he'll be put before a fait accompli. But it does not seem Obama will be much of a change for America. Or Bush will try to attack Iran under his 'command', thus breaking down every last bit of democracy left in the US, in the hope of getting the Republicans back in power, and finish the strategic power game of encircling China and Russia. But this last option is very remote. The US military knows they can't cope with another invasion as in Iraq. It would have to be a limited attack.
Let's be honest. Bush is a war criminal. America is a rogue state. It kills and interferes with the governments of all countries in this world. The US is the sole exporter of right-wing revolutions. It exports destruction and poverty. And there is no serious opposition in the US.
TehranTimes: "The U.S. Navy's guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes, shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf on July 3, 1988, killing all 290 passengers and crew members, including 66 children.
The U.S. government refused to apologize for the incident, which was the seventh deadliest plane crash in aviation history, claiming that the crew had mistaken the Iranian Airbus A300 for an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter.
U.S. officials also said the entire Vincennes crew had been suffering from a mass psychological condition called 'scenario fulfillment' and had thus confused their training scenario with a real situation and responded accordingly.
Iran condemned the incident as an international crime caused by the U.S. Navy's 'negligence and reckless behavior'."
The US is the most hypocritical nation of the world. They have wrongfully accused Libya of the Lockerbie bombing, but do the real thing themselves.
One of possible scenarios is that during the take-over of power in the US after the elections, Israel may attack Iran. In which case the US will send its fleet to the region. Apart from the tremendous hatred against Jews that will result and subsequent attacks on Jewish institutions and people all over the world, oil prices will hit the sky, the stock market will collapse, the world economy will receive another enormous blow and chaos will result. The dollar will drop even lower. And countries which had previously kept and bought large reserves of dollars, won't have any scruples in stopping their support of the dollar and getting rid of their already much devaluated dollar holdings. In short America will be ruined.
Banks will go bankrupt. The tax payer will have to pay. Unrest will ensue. And in a country in which many people are armed, there is no saying what will happen. Of course, the oil companies will gloat. And the private capital of the Bushes, Cheneys and other war profiteers will grow sky high, leaving the rest of the population virtually penniless. You see, you are paying for their wars.
Ron Paul, Congressman, "In the last several weeks, if not for months, we have heard a lot of talk about the potential of Israel and/or the United States bombing Iran. And it is in the marketplace. Energy prices are being bid up because of this fear. It has been predicted that if bombs start dropping, that we will see energy prices double or triple. It is just the thought of it right now that is helping to push these energy prices up. And that is a very real thing going on right now.
Leaders on both sides of the aisle, and in the administration, have all said so often, 'No options should be taken off the table - including a nuclear first strike on Iran.' The fear is, they say, maybe someday [Iran is] going to get a nuclear weapon, even though our own CIA's National Intelligence Estimate has said that the Iranians have not been working on a nuclear weapon since 2003. They say they're enriching uranium, but they have no evidence whatsoever that they're enriching uranium for weapons purposes. They may well be enriching uranium for peaceful purposes, and that is perfectly legal. They have been a member of the non-proliferation treaties, and they are under the investigation of the IAEA, and El Baradei has verified that in the last year there have been nine unannounced investigations and examinations of the Iranian nuclear structure and they have never been found to be in violation. And yet, this country and Israel are talking about a preventive war - starting bombing for this reason, without negotiations, without talks.
Now the one issue that I do want to mention tonight is a resolution that is about to come to this floor if our suspicions are correct, after the July 4th holiday. And this bill will probably be brought up under suspension. It will be expected to be passed easily. It probably will be. And it is just more war propaganda, just more preparation to go to war against Iran.
This resolution, H.J. Res 362 [listed as H. Con. Res 362 online] is a virtual war resolution. It is the declaration of tremendous sanctions, and boycotts and embargoes on the Iranians. It is very, very severe. Let me just read what is involved if this bill passes and what we're telling the President what he must do:
This demands that the President impose stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains and cargo entering or departing Iran, and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials.
This is unbelievable! This is closing down Iran. Where do we have this authority? Where do we get the moral authority? Where do we get the international legality for this? Where do we get the Constitutional authority for this? This is what we did for ten years before we went into Iraq. We starved children - 50,000 individuals it was admitted probably died because of the sanctions on the Iraqis. They were incapable at the time of attacking us. And all the propaganda that was given for our need to go into Iraq was not true."
America still has a choice. Any time, any place, people can change things for the better. Or go along with the discredited powers that be and become despisers of mankind. But let it be known that totalitarian regimes don't last very long; even a totalitarian America is bound to flounder and crumble. It will be of their own doing, not by outside forces. And if the American military still has some real honour and moral value left they will prevent war profiteers from ruining America.
I wish all good Americans a really true and happy independence day.
11:37:12 AM
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© Copyright 2008.
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