Maybe we should all put up video cameras on our houses to monitor everything that goes on in front (and back and sides) of our house. That way, one day perhaps, we will be able to observe or record what the police are doing in our neighborhoods. It might make the police a little less secure that they can do bad things against us if these video cameras are everywhere. Problem is that it makes neighbors and passersby a little nervous as well. Oh, well, if it helps to prevent someone stealing gas out of my cars or vandalizing them (or worse) then I guess I will have to worry less about what others think when they walk by. Maybe I need one or two on my roof pointing upward to see the spy drones or helicopter gun ships. Maybe, I need to go back on to my meds! ;-}

Minority Report movie (2002).

And now they have not only computerized facial recognition but the computer can detect facial and body expressions of people on the street...or in crowds like at the Super Bowl...that can detect if someone is likely to, or about to, commit a crime. And the US will soon be right up there with the British who have, in London, thousands of cameras that read license plates and monitor people on the streets and in the stores.

And, thanks to Microsoft, we can all be safe and secure in the knowledge that someone is watching out for us....or just...watching us! Anyone ever wonder just what all of those Microsoft 2nd Tuesday "security" updates are all about? Sure, there are security bugs that they find and fix...eventually...but do you ever wonder if the "security" updates are less to protect you from viruses, hackers, etc and more to spy on you for the government or some private sector money making organization? And that really goes for any software updates you do. All of those Itunes updates, so I've heard, have less to do with anything most people really want or need than it does with keeping you locked in and to get you to buy songs or other things on-line...maybe even they monitor you for the government as well..who knows?

Anyone ever wonder about this new concept of "the cloud"? So instead of downloading files...like songs, books, movies, whatever...and saving them on your own hard drive...which you might have encrypted to keep out the bad guys (government and otherwise)...and that when you want to access those files...it takes practically no time at all to do it....so, if you, instead, use "the cloud"..ie: you save all your stuff "in the cloud" (ie: not on your computer)...and then when you want to access your stuff..you have to download it from the place "in the cloud" you are saving your stuff.

Duh! I suppose if you had an optical fiber network where on-line bandwidth was very huge then you wouldn't have to worry much. But most people, especially in the US (we're so far behind other progressive countries) have much slower connections.

Bandwidth matters. And Bandwidth is often reduced by bottle-necking, throttling, and other issues. The other concept of using "the cloud" is that you can have a program running in the cloud (ie: not on your computer)...and all you have to do is feed it data and parameters...input...all the number crunching goes on in the cloud. Sounds like a good idea. But with both of these concepts...one thing stands out....you don't really have much control over the security of your data. Sure, you say your data in "the cloud" is encrypted but is that so safe...really? Ever heard of "back doors"? It makes it so much easier for the bad guys to access your data when it is "in the cloud" than it would be if you stored it locally. Same thing for these on-line storage backup companies that tout that you are never really "safe" unless you have 3 backups...one on-line. When your stuff is stored remotely...it is so much easier to access it by the bad guys. And when you have to rely on "the cloud", unless you have fantastic bandwidth that experiences no bottle-necking or throttling then it just doesn't make sense to use "the cloud".

i don't get it. whats the big deal? if you don't have anything to hide more power to the camera! makes me feel safer. matter of fact? i use to drive for a living and i really liked the idea of the traffic cams in that A. it helps deter reckless driving and B. if people actually paid the fines it would generate sizable revenue. now mind you there are some underlying logistical issues with them but when you cover as many miles in year as i have you have to thank God that no one slams into you blowing through a red light as my son and i were once witness to when a car infront of us pulled into the green and some idiot throttled up and blew the red only to smash the lady and her kid up as he rolled his car. He wound up dying. back then that intersection did not have a camera and was always active with people blowing the red. since the installation of the cam? i don't see so many people running the reds and then when the cam flashes? i laugh, idiot. so where is a cop when you need one? p[eople keep treating them like crap sooner or later we won't have any. on another note? i actually thought about going to my city council and try to intiate a program by where folks in the hood all install home security cams and get some sort of prop tax kick back. you can get kits now for like $400 with like 6 cams. how much safer would you feel if you knew as a collective we were all watching our streets? I know i was pretty pissed to wake up one morning and find my kids car had been stolen as well as my neighbors across the street, all in the same night! had i a camera system maybe it would have detered the perps or better yet maybe the cops might have caught them. you don't bitch about the camera at 7-11 do you? as long as big bro ain't watching me run around naked in my back yard? more power to the camera!!!

But have you noticed that almost always the license plate numbers are intentionally blurred out and sometimes they try to blur out the addresses posted on the houses? I have also noticed that oftentimes when you type in an address...the location you get is not the actual location...the real house may be a couple of houses down. But, sometimes the addresses do show and you can "walk" down the street, turn, zoom in on the houses or mail boxes to reveal the actual address. And if we have this capability, through Google Earth, I'm sure the government can do it real time from their satellites with the ability to read license plates from space...but they still couldn't get the right street angle, of course. But that is what all of those ground-based cameras posted on our streets are for. And when you couple this with RFID chips that are embedded in our debit cards or even woven into the fibers of some clothes (think I'm kidding?) then they can track anyone, anywhere.

What makes you think you WON'T be photographed by big bro as you run around naked in your back yard?

You really want to give up your right to privacy--anywhere apparently--in exchange for catching the guy running a red light or stealing your car. Or how about you hold a party in your backyard that the police figure must be a group of terrorists plotting? Maybe they could send in a drone. You have no idea how information, including innocent information and guilt by association might be used.

One consolation - the software was done by MicroSoft. It will be full of bugs, wide open to hacking, and will have to be upgraded every year.

Paranoia is a mental disease characterized by irrational unwarranted, delusional beliefs that someone is watching and/or controlling you...like through radio waves...or that you can actually talk to, and hear, some imaginary being...I think they call it "prayer". But, there is nothing unwarranted, irrational, or delusional about the belief that someone IS watching and monitoring us because they ARE. But, of course, the watchers, upon seeing that we are on to them, will call us paranoid anyway. Today, if you are not believed to be paranoid (by THEM anyway) you are just bleating sheeple that are easily led to the slaughter when THEY whisper sweet propaganda into your ears.

Microsoft has planned obsolescence very well perfected. What better way to not only sell a consistent reliance on their software but to create their constant ability to inject code that might be used for purposes that they really don't want you to know about...and neither does the 3-letter government organizations. Where are you Mel Gibson...help me out here...would you?

Matter of fact just about everything has a microprocessor it in now-a-days. And what better way of causing the planned failure of our devices...say refrigerators, or TVs, or cars, or whatever...to occur just before warranty runs out (as a reminder to buy the extended insurance) and then once again after the warranty runs out if you didn't buy the extended insurance. Another matter of fact...that these microprocessors will be communicating to some federal agent nearly everything we say in our kitchens and bedrooms one day. Our appliances will be spying on us....talk about paranoia...it'll drive us all nuts for sure.

We can all cry about what is going on, ranting and screaming feels good, but in reality what will be, will be. We have allowed our government to get away with lying to us about why we were warring on a nation (Vietnam for one and then on to the more recent wars we are still fighting), using us as guinea pigs for nuke tests in the 1950's in the Nevada desert, and now spying on us in the name of national security. Guess what, perhaps there is nothing we can do or say to change what is happening. We have allowed the right side of the political isle and the left to pay off the Wall St. loses while pushing full forward onto austerity for the rest of us, and have we marched or come out in packs to stop them, NO. We get up in arms and get pissed and say they are turning our freedom into a joke and spying on us from every source imaginable, yet only a 45-50% turns out on Election Day! Until we unite as a force, we have no chance of changing any thing. They, speaking of every entity that will make a profit off our laziness and inability to form a united front, will continue to produce and purchase, with our tax revenues, whatever they wish too, to keep us in line with their wishes. Why, because they know the American span of attention is limited to micro bytes of info they feed us in our news and whatever else we spend our time watching. Is there even a small chance we can turn this form of 1984 around, maybe. but until we stop them from dividing us into our separate little fragmented political and ethnic groups, we haven't a chance of getting back our civil rights and privacy, that is being stripped away almost daily. So either get serious and get united or get use to the eye in the sky and everywhere else they are watching us from.......

I wonder what part Microsoft will play in the new NSA complex they are building in Utah..right next door to the mylife bunkers. "Find out who is searching for you!".

Man, talk about a "cloud"...that's likely where all data will be stored, decrypted if need be, and analyzed...or a good part of it anyway.... It will save them from having to sneak into peoples houses, or businesses, imaging people's drives for analysis when they get back to their lairs....although I'm sure they will continue to do that, as well, when they are dealing with someone who knows better than to warehouse their data "in the cloud".

I agree, domestic surveillance has become a tool for the Oligarchs to use in thwarting attempts like the Occupy Movements initiative to move towards representative govt., also commonly known as Democratic Socialism....a direction most of the rest of the world is already well on it's way towards. This scares the crap out of piggish subversives like the Kochs....who by the way will be entombed in solid gold mausoleums by the time we catch up with the rest of the world.

Another "TOOL", is a guy most citizens have never heard of....which is all about to change......PAUL RYAN....the media will no longer be able to suppress the facts behind his BUDGET PLAN. The very least, Biden could expose the cold facts in front of a global audience during the VP debates with the little monkey. In my opinion this plan is truly the Republians achilles heel.....hey, MIITT HAPPENS!

I've been in the mountains this last week but caught some of Mike Papantonio's coverage...... what a freaking great job he does!...... Good choice Thom!

Ryan needs to be asked how his Koch/Teabag mandate of shrinking government by cuts to senior citizens and working people and thus reducing spending......how does this action which turns into more tax cuts for Romney to stash in off-shore bank accounts..... create one more damn job for the millions currently suffering from all of this bald faced greed?