U.K : Proposed laws allow government to view all emails, texts, etc. without warrants

Legislation will be announced soon that will allow the government to monitor the calls, emails, texts, and even website visits of all UK residents. Internet providers must give intelligence agency GCHQ real time access to all communications.

Naturally all this invasion of privacy is touted as justified to fight crime and terrorism. This is the new Newspeak of George Orwell's 1984.

Even a Tory (Conservative) MP David Davis said the bill is "an unnecessary extension of the ability of the state to snoop on ordinary people". Davis told the BBC:"What this is talking about doing is not focusing on terrorists or criminals, it's absolutely everybody's emails, phone calls, web access...All that's got to be recorded for two years and the government will be able to get at it with no by or leave from anybody." There will be no necessity to get permission from a magistrate.

The director of Big Brother Watch said that the legislation is"an unprecedented step that will see Britain adopt the same kind of surveillance seen in China and Iran".Shami Chakrabarti director of Liberty also criticised the legislation:"This is an absolute attack on privacy online and it is far from clear this will actually improve public safety, while adding significant costs to Internet businesses," Internet companies are also worried about the legislation.

An industry official is quoted as saying that the measures would be "expensive, intrusive [and] a nightmare to run legally". The previous Labor Bill was withdrawn due to opposition. Hopefully, sufficient Liberal, Conservative, and Labour MPs will oppose this bill to have it withdrawn as well. For more see this BBC article.

Democrats PR shop run by Orwellian writers

This is from the Huffington Post. I wonder if this will cause any type of movement toward third (Or more) parties in the US. It should be painfully clear that there is no real choice between Democrats and Republicans. George Orwell of course would not write this sort of PR except to expose it so he really would not work for the Democrats..


David Sirota| BIO
Democrats Hire George Orwell to Run Their PR Shop
26 Comments | Posted May 27, 2007 | 01:26 PM (EST)


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Read More: George W. Bush, George Orwell, Harry Reid
Apparently, House and Senate Democrats have resurrected George Orwell from the dead and put him on staff as the head of their PR department. Why do I say that? Because House and Senate Democrats are now insisting that this week's votes to give President Bush a blank check to continue the war were, in fact, heroic efforts to stand up against George Bush and stop the war. I kid you not.


Here's a line from the Democratic Party's official radio address this weekend, delivered by Elliot Anderson, a veteran of the Afghanistan War:

"The best way to honor the troops is to responsibly end our involvement in Iraq's civil war. As long as President Bush stays committed to the same policies that aren't working, it won't be easy. But I am proud to see Democrats and now some brave Republicans standing up to him." (emphasis added)
Now look, I have all the respect in the world for those like Anderson who have served or are serving our country in the military. And I think Anderson is absolutely right that "the best way to honor the troops is to responsibly end our involvement in Iraq's civil war." But the claim that "Democrats and now some brave Republicans standing up to" President Bush just a few days after 90 percent of congressional Democrats voted to give Bush a blank check is right out of a George Orwell novel (by the way, I don't blame Anderson for any of this - I'm guessing Harry Reid's people wrote him the speech or at least shaped it accordingly as a condition of him getting to deliver it).

Same thing, I might add, from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Hours after the blank check vote, the organization sent out a fundraising letter saying:

"The House just passed legislation that will go to the White House that includes critical issues Democrats have been fighting for including canceling the President's blank check in Iraq."
And, big shocker, there was Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) telling reporters that giving Bush a blank check somehow represents "the beginning of the end of the president's policy in Iraq."

Again, it's an utterly Orwellian attempt to make the public believe something happened when clearly the opposite happened. We are expected to believe Democrats did everything they possibly could to end the war, just like George Bush would have us believe the war is going swimmingly - because politicians in Washington, to paraphrase Orwell, believe that while all Americans are created equal, some - in particular, the creatures of the Beltway who think they are smarter than everyone and can trick the public - believe they are more equal than others.

The only difference between the Democratic Party's behavior right now and an Orwell novel is that the state-run propaganda in the latter is just a wee bit more convincing. Memo to Democratic politicians and their new political consultant, George Orwell: YOU AREN'T FOOLING ANYONE. WE ALL KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. THE MORE YOU PRETEND THAT YOU HEROICALLY DID EVERYTHING YOU COULD TO STOP THE WAR, THE MORE PATHETIC YOU LOOK.