‹ Raimondo, Penn, Sheehan Protest 5 Years in Iraq in SF 3/16/08 •
The ACLU is reporting that by this summer, a million people will be on the US terrorist watch list. As of this writing there are approximately 925,000.
Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Program noted that “If there were a million terrorists in this country, our cities would be in ruins.”
All jokes about the IRS and Federal Reserve aside, gigantic dragnets like these have been historically ineffective at catching boogiemen. In fact, the FBI has complained that the NSA drowns them in dead ends, wasting everyones time, patience and resources.
Note: among others, security expert Bruce Schneier discussed this phenomenon several years ago.
See also: Nobody expects the American Inquisition.
Addendum: be sure to also check out “The Fear Factory” from the latest copy of Rolling Stone magazine.
All of this surveillance done with the applause of the pseudo-conservatives. Curtis what’s-his-face, co-founder of the Guardian Angels, looked at the British proposal to monitor constantly every vehicle in England and thought that would be a swell idea to implement here.
Laura Ingraham has a fainting spell anytime any judge puts the slightest restriction on Big Brother’s surveillance.
Mark Levin, between coughing fits and passing out on his porch, turns apoplectic at the very mention of the word “privacy.”
The Dems are entirely useless. The libertarians and paleocons are powerless. Before you pick your nose, scratch your privates, or murmur something about Bush, think again. You might be on Kandid Kamera.
R. Nelson,
I see you are listening to conservative talk radio and getting another side of the picture, even if you disagree with it.And your descriptions of Laura Ingraham’s fainting spells and Mark Levin’s coughing fits and apoplexy is hilarious.
Hells bells, those radio clowns noted above aren’t conservative. I’m conservative: small government, weak executive branch, very modest taxes and spending, no gratuitous war, constitutional protections, states rights, the Fourth Amendment, etc., almost none of which, when you scratch their surfaces, the talk show “conservatives” support.
Today’s alleged conservatives differ with liberals on about four social issues, and that’s it. Big deal. Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.
By now you would think that people like Ingraham would have figured out that the intelligence failures of our government are not due to the lack of data. It is rather an inability to use it.
Is there any way of knowing if one is personaly on this list of citizens so opposed to this stupid War-on-Terror as to be considered a threat to the Bush Administration? I’d feel real bad if I knew that I was not on it. I would also feel bad if I knew that I wasn’t on some ADL list of outspoken anti-Zionists. I’ve worked hard at getting on these kinds of lists and would feel slighted by any omission.
Try flying –you’ll find out real soon whether you’re on this “VIP” list.
I’m a little old lady with no criminal record and I get “special screening” every damn time I fly (which I don’t now — no flying for me — I refuse to feed the Orwellian beast) But I did always get the “SSS” mark of the beast on my boarding pass which is when the TSA thugs would pull down my pants and grope my breasts.
All because of one horrible day in September? I think not, this “War on Terror” is a war on Islam. It serves Zionists and war profiteers alone.
As we watch the stock market collapse and the dollar become toilet paper, as we get our phones tapped and our bank accounts and purchases scrutinized, as we lose every vestige of freedom and as our children die in endless wars, let’s remember the root cause — our carte blanche support of Zionism and the military/industrial complex, which has manifested itself in the “War on Terror.”
When will Americans wake-up? When we literally can’t afford to eat and/or the inevitable draft comes.
But it will be too late….
When will Americans wake-up?
Alas, if they haven’t done so by now, I doubt they ever will, at least not in time to save themselves.
They don’t want to wake up. Americans put a lot of time into creating their own reality. Nobody wants to wake up from a dream to find a nightmare.
What scares me the most about this is the coming together of many agencies with who knows how many agendas. The now defunded but still active Information Awareness Office (IAO) was established by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The IAO was created to keep an eye on everyone that could conceivably be thought of as a threat.
Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root had been awarded a $385 million dollar contract by Homeland Security to construct detention and processing facilities in the event of a national emergency.
So where are we at now? Are we just waiting for the next “terrorist” attack so we can start locking up Americans?
My prediction is that it will go something like this.
Multiple attacks by American Iranians within our cities (either true or made up). Quickly followed by an attack on Iran and Martial Law here at home. The lockup of Muslim Americans along with hard core decenting Americans.
This would work to the advantage of the power elite for many reasons. One, they could throw out that “God damn peice of Paper” the Constitution. Two, they could ignore election results. Three, they get their war without UN or congressional approval. Forth, they could detain their enemies and the enemies of the war.
I hope like hell this doesn’t happen. But trust me the government is capable of doing just that. It has happened in the past, and could happen again.
Peace!
Yeah, Brad Smith. This is IsraelUSA and it can happen! I’ve been predicting April is going to be the attack Iran month. Why do you think Fallon is gone, not there to keep it from happening? The military rule, baby, including your pocketbook, the bastards!
Methinks a police state is in the works, mainly because the internal capabilities and legitimacy of the American state have deteriorated to the point were violence and other primitive methods are once again.
“One, they could throw out that “God damn peice of Paper” the Constitution.”
done.
To our rulers we are all terrorists, or at least potential terrorists.
And with our administration’s love for preemptive wars…
The emerging electronic police state will clearly snap into focus once the national ID card is in place and it must get scanned in order to conclude every imaginable transaction. We will then become aware of many other secret lists compiled by anonymous bureaucrats and forced on the private sector at gunpoint by an executive order of the President. Such as the NO Shop list, the No Gasoline list, the NO Rent list, the NO Credit list, the NO Work list, the NO Medical Care list, the NO Walking Around On The Street list.
“Sorry Mr. Smith. The scan denied approval of your grocery purchase. You might be able to get a hot meal at Camp Freedom & Safety at the edge of town.”
There will be no need for the old fashioned midnight knock or the labor intensive, “ihre Papieren, bitte,” routine to control the McSheep. Our invisible shackles will be the dream come true of all dictators of yore.
Salvation might start with the NO TV list.
MetaCynic,
You left out the BIG one.
The “NO VOTE” list.
Hooray! Let’s all drown in paranoia!!!
As Eliot Spitzer incedence has shown it is perhaps too late to wake-up now. Most people in power have spemthing or other in their closet and the ‘agencies’ can easily find it out. Can anyone in his right mind support anti-PATRIOT act? You will loose your job and probably your wife too.
Spitzer was outed because he was a super-delegate for Hillary. He’s the second super-delegate of Hillary’s to be knocked out.
if you’re not on the list, you’re doing something wrong