Wouldn't It Be Great...

Wouldn't it be great if the Feds knew everything that there is to know about you and while they are at it know what you are doing at all times?

This would certainly give the FBI, CIA and Police Departments everywhere the ability to solve crimes and protect all of us from acts of terrorism perpetrated by our own citizens, as well as those who come into our country in order to do us harm. There are dangers everywhere, and our law enforcement agencies must be given the tools necessary to protect us.

Of course, at the same time, we should monitor the whereabouts and activities of all visitors to our country. If you want to visit the United States, then you must agree to wear a monitoring device so that the Feds will know where you are at all times, and will also be able to determine who you are conspiring with.

The following stolen from an article in the Washington Post sent to me a few days ago that demonstrates at least a small part of our nations willingness to violate our constitution in a "well intentioned" attempt to save it.

"The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad."

This will work very well for "them" when combined with the overall electronic surveillance, telephone and internet communications, credit reports, iris scans and such. Can you imagine if "they" are out to "get" someone, the arsenal of data that they will posses?

When I would see this stuff in the movies or on television dramas I would think: "look at what they do in order to catch the bad guys." That's just GREAT in the movies, but nowhere else.

It was over 30 years ago that I purchased a few items from a small grocery store, and when I tried to pay for the purchase with a credit card, the clerk asked me to supply him with a thumb print in a device that he had telling me that he was not allowed to accept credit cards without the thumbprint.

I refused, and told the clerk that I would not be purchasing anything if was necessary that I leave a "souvenir" thumb print. The clerk yelled at me as I left shouting that I was obviously a criminal and a communist if I was unwilling to give "the system" a thumb print. His attitude, like so many, was that if I did nothing wrong, I had nothing to fear from "the system or the government."

Our country has gone wild following the horrid event of 9/11 and this right wing government is encouraging all of the law enforcement agencies the opportunity and the money to do things that 7 years ago would have been considered unthinkable as to "information gathering and spying" on Americans. One can only wonder what the administration is doing that we don't know about. It is not that they have exactly upfront about their activities in recent years.

The Washington Post will publish a story this week detailing how the Feds had gotten the AC Nielsen Company to report to them directly as to what their "sampling group" has been watching on television.

The Feds also have an understanding with Google, Yahoo, MSN, as well as all Internet providers to report on the activities of all of their customers.

As of this moment Movies.com has refused to provide the Feds with the information they have requested as to what movies Americans are going to see. Apparently NetFlix has unfortunately adhered to a request as to the DVD's titles that they are supplying to their customers.

Now for the truth as I know it, ALL of the contents in the last few paragraphs that I have attributed to the Washington Post I made up. I lied about all of it, but isn't it creepy that it all seems to conform within the realm of possibility in the country we live in.

Many of my friends blame the system for all of this. Many others blame the terrorists for all of this. I choose to blame the people in our government who have used the horrors of 9/11 in order for them to takeover our previously constitutional democracy.

It would appear that many of our citizens would support the mid 20th Century expression of "I'd rather be Red then dead!" So many are accepting the promulgations of the government when it implies while negating the Constitution, "fear not, we will protect you from the terrorist hordes." This administration negates the notion of our "...having nothing to fear but fear itself" by promoting at every opportunity the notion that we all MUST be in constant fear all the time.

May we have a voice vote on the following please?

Who among us believes that there will be an "event" that will "allow" the incumbent administration to rescind or cancel the upcoming election and stay in power?

Can't happen here you say?

Why not?

Norman Horowitz

Comments

[pakaal]

Anyone who doesn't think the government abuses information and uses law-enforcement agencies to political ends, should look at the efforts the FBI took to humiliate and destroy avowed socialist Rev. Martin Luther King. This isn't an argument in a vacuum, the federal government has abused information on private citizens, and continues to do so all the time.

[freedomforevr]

As scary as this is, there is another problem here. That is data integrity. When you are dealing with a database of that magnatude, it would be very very hard to keep it secure. Especially when you consider that several government agencies will be accessing it. Any change could affect you for the rest of your life and could be as simple as someone just labeling you as a terrorist. People need to wake up and stop this BS that the government officials are putting into place.

[WorkingClass]

There is nothing to prevent Bush/Cheney from remaining in power should they choose to do so. My hope is that Bush WANTS to retire so he wont have to work any more.

[ceu]

"Who among us believes that there will be an "event" that will "allow" the incumbent administration to rescind or cancel the upcoming election and stay in power?"

My hand's raised high on this...oh...voice vote - AYE. I've been feeling that for a long time now & was rather surprised that it didn't happen before the 2004 election.

The "if you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to fear by 'cooperating' with authority" mindset has been around for a quite a while now. It's amazing the number of people who feel that asking for a lawyer when someone's arrested (exercising one's constitutional rights) is a sure sign of guilt and should be used against a defendant in a criminal trial. If you've done nothing wrong you shouldn't have a problem with the police entering your home without a warrant and doing whatever they feel like doing. Requesting they present a warrant (exercising another right) is considered another sure sign of guilt. Could someone please, PLEASE explain to me why so many people are willing to allow the Constitution to be thrown into the gutter & then scream "traitor" or "anti-patriotism" when others protest it??

[slg]

I can't imagine the neocons giving all those new unitary executive powers to Hillary Clinton or any other candidate on either side except Dr Rudy Strangelove. No election unless they're positive they can control the outcome.

When you think about the last 7 years, who is capable of stopping them?

[Durango]

Here is one big problem no one seems to recognize. With the Feds going after "Total Information" "in the "War on Terror" they are engaged in a massive waste of money.It's an enormous boondoggle

In the intelligence game there is always much more information available than the analysts can interpret. The trick is to recognize and evaluate the important information. (there were plenty of signs before 9/11 or Pearl Harbor. The failure was in connecting the dots.)

The point being: All the money, all the resources tied up in this spying is money and resources taken from the legitimate intelligence gathering.

For instance: If my name has ever come up it represents a waste of money. I AM NOT A TERRORIST. Nor are most if not all Americans. So by their wasting money looking at people like me (and you)they are negilgent.

Furtther we know that all these information gathering techniques are not working. How do we know? Simple, if they worked Bush et al would be screaming to the rooftops about how effective they were and how many terrorists they have captured. They cannot keep anything secret which they think supports them.

And the silence tells us these are simply boondoggles. A way to funnel tax dollars to friends and campaign contributors.

But I can't say they were totally ineffective. I have no doubt what so ever that they spyed on the Kerry Campaign in 2004. And are spying on Hillary and Obama as we speak.

[GuiltyByStander]

Easy enough as long as the Administration gets the news producers and their business managers signed up first. You tie them up with a secrecy agreement first and then explain how pleased you are that they will have to help you out.

[dissolvethecorporation]

The most frustating part is that BU$HCO won't need to fabricate the event; Al Qaeda and the corporate fascists play off each other like Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote.