Saving US from ourselves

[tw]

People such as Urbane Guerilla approve this. From the NY Times of 22 October 2005:

Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems
The federal government ... is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications.

The action, which the government says is intended to help catch terrorists and other criminals, has unleashed protests and the threat of lawsuits from universities, which argue that it will cost them at least $7 billion while doing little to apprehend lawbreakers. Because the government would have to win court orders before undertaking surveillance, the universities are not raising civil liberties issues.

The order, issued by the Federal Communications Commission in August and first published in the Federal Register last week, extends the provisions of a 1994 wiretap law not only to universities, but also to libraries, airports providing wireless service and commercial Internet access providers.

With the Patriot Act, they can now monitor you without a court order. If they don't like what they hear, then they can apply for a court order. To take advantage of these new 'privileges' in the name of Fatherland Security, your life be properly connected to government monitoring devices so they need not let anyone such as your ISP know what they are doing.

Office of Fatherland Security and those who support its creator lie to us about protecting rights. Based pragmatically only on what they ask for, they have created threats from a mythical enemy to chip away at the Bill of Rights and basic Constitutional guarantees - ie the Patriot Acts. Patriot Act hypes fear to make dictatorship easier. Brown shirts such as Urbane Guerilla love it. We can even torture people by declaring the victims exempt from the Fundamental Declaration of Human Rights. Screw the American principles of law. As long as Osama bin Laden is still free, then Constitutional rights can be subverted. Explains why George Jr did not attempt to capture bin Laden. Fear justifies everything.

Oh. But we are the good guys. Only they are evil. Our government can be trusted to be honest - to tell us that torture is OK - to provide honest reasons for a "Mission Accomplished" war. As one lady recently said, ten years ago she never thought we would relive the mistakes of Nixon, Vietnam, and Watergate. To even send good Americans to their death so that a war would not be lost on Nixon's watch. Thirty years later - well - how many remember that man declare, "Your president is not a crook." Something about why we relive the lessons of history.

The current one declared, "Mission Accomplished" and said Brownie was doing a good job. He even sat on his ass as hundreds of thousands were dying from a Tsunami - with the USS Lincoln sitting for five days doing nothing in nearby Hong Kong.

30 years and we relive history all over again as if the ghost of Joseph McCarthy had returned to save us from ourselves. Maybe I should ask how many know who Joseph McCarthy is since fear again is subverting American principles. Clearly we must be the enemy. A religious right government will impose Catholic Church and fundamentalism Christian doctrine on us to save us from ourselves. Tap our internet at will to make sure the flock does not stray - does not visit porn and purchase contraception.

Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition. Why should a right wing extremist America, advocated by Urbane Guerilla types, be any different?