Mulling over George Pope to Steve Asher 21 Jul 2003

Hi George!

SA> It is a bit too much to reproduce in here, & I find it difficult
SA> to follow, but check out 
SA> http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00064.htm and
SA> http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00065.htm for
SA> what they describe as "bigger than Watergate" with their
SA> description of how to rig an election in the USA.

 GP> I will check this out, because here in Canada, they just started
 GP> allowing electronic tax filing using third-party software! :|

I love the language of those foisting their "e-government solutions"
onto us: "get on-line instead of in-line", tax-payers are now
"allowed" to do their returns electronically, school children are
"able" to get their lunches or use the library by using their
retina scans / finger scans etc etc.

WorldNet Daily has an article today on a US taxpayer who received a
package of tax preparation software from H&R Block. He pursued it,
as the address label was in the same format as his income tax returns.
It turned out that the tax office & H R Block had collaborated to
profile a target group of taxpayers to "encourage" them to do their
returns electronically. He wasn't impressed with the privacy breach!

In the UK, people are not flocking to do such things "on-line" so a
"think tank" has proposed that people be compelled to do so.

Here is an example - "Liverpool takes to the armchair" - www.kablenet.com

"Residents of Liverpool City Council will be able to access local services
without leaving the living room" - by accessing the council via digital TV.

In the mean time, anyone foolish enough to call a large business or
government department is forced to fight their way through a barrier
of "if you want to report a fault, press 2", "if you want customer
service, press 5", "to hear this message again, press 7" (as if anyone
would want to hear that crap again), until they get to a burst of ring 
tone, which is then answered by another voice advising that "all our 
operators are busy, please hold", then some corporate messages boasting 
about (that corporation's) excellent customer service & facilities. 

This is all true! (Their web sites aren't much easier to navigate)

Cheers, Steve..

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