What in the world is up with the Democratic presidential hopefuls? At their last debate, Al Sharpton and Howard Dean got into a shouting match over race. Dennis Kucinich jumped in against Dean on taxes and social security. And John Kerry jumped in on Pentagon funding.
This is shaping up to be a very entertaining presidential election.
Long-time readers of this blog know that I am no fan of RFID. This is a technology which, in theory, could destroy personal privacy. Imagine a small transmitter embedded in every thing you own: every piece of clothing, even. This is what the ultimate goal of RFID companies is. The RFID backers then go on to say, “Oh, don’t worry, these will never be used to track what you do. Trust us!” But if there’s one thing that we should’ve learned by now: anything a comany can do to earn more money, they will do.
Many privacy groups share this concern about RFID. Some, such as Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN), have apparently been getting under RFID interest group GMA’s skin. Wired reports an email stating GMA is trying to find embarrassing information about CASPIAN’s founder, Katherine Albrecht. The email, in part, read: “‘I don’t know what to tell this woman! Well, actually we’re trying to see if you have a juicy past that we could use against you.‘”
Because of this incident, GMA is now asking CASPIAN’s advice about RFID implementations.
According to an interview with former Treasure Secretary Paul O’Neill, the Bush administration was planning an invasion of Iraq practically from January 20, 2000. O’Neill states that Bush and other advisors wanted to remove Hussein from power, regardless of whether or not there were actual weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The interesting part of this story is that the White House is not denying what O’Neill has said. Instead, they are throwing out sound bites, like, Scott McClellan saying “what’s important is the reality of the results the administration is achieving for the American people.”
Attacking a nation for no valid reason is definitely a result of this administration, but I don’t see anything that this achieves. Other than to turn America into the bad guy.
