Subject:
|
Re: Should we be concerned?
|
Newsgroups:
|
lugnet.off-topic.debate
|
Date:
|
Wed, 4 Jun 2003 13:48:04 GMT
|
Viewed:
|
352 times
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
Do I fear that the patriot act may infringe on my rights as a citizen? Yes,
but that is an allowance that I make for safety, much like long
airport lines.
|
“They that can trade essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety,
deserve neither liberty nor safety.” -- Benjamin Franklin
|
|
”The things that will destroy America
are prosperity at any price,
peace at any price,
safety first instead of duty first,
and love of soft living and the
get-rich-quick theory of life.”
- Theodore Roosevelt.
The consolidation of power that has occurred since 9/11 sends a chill down my
spine. Particularly because of the secrecy that protects the power structure
today, barking either “national security” or “traitor” at anyone who would raise
a voice of concern.
The fact that the U.S. government can lock any human being away in a cage on a
remote island without revealing that person’s identity or allowing them to
contact a lawyer is such a violation of human rights that it would make the
Founding Fathers wretch. Even if we were to accept the notion that it is
somehow OK to do this to non-US-citizens, how do we know that they will not use
this power to lock up American citizens? They don’t have to tell you who
they’ve got, and they don’t have to accuse them of a crime to do it.
George Orwell might have gotten the year wrong (or not!) but I think his
writings may soon move from fiction to the history section.
| |
You know that Patriot Act was some serious legal work and mighty in size when
submitted only a few days following the terror, makes you think that it had
been on somebody’s agenda for a looonnngg time.
|
The ink sure wasn’t wet on that one when they pulled it out of the drawer.
| |
Bush, methinks, may have
been just conveiniently corrupt and privy to all the agendas and agenda
makers of his father’s and Regan’s era. It’s a dynasty thing.
|
I think this is exactly inside-out. It is the policy makers from the
Reagan/Bush Sr. administration(s) who are privy to Dubya’s puppet strings.
Shrub is either far too stupid to have gotten where he is today by himself, or
else he is the craftiest politician and best actor ever to snort coke. The ones
who really hold the power in America are the people who never leave Washington.
The presidency itself is too fleeting to be the actual seat of power. Instead,
the post has become a lightning rod for the real power brokers who operate
behind the scenes. Notice how smoothly Dick Cheney maneuvered himself into the
co-pilot’s seat? Do you think the minority of the American population who voted
for Shrub even noticed who else was on the ticket? Yet who do you think makes
the real decisions at the end of the day? It is The Club, and they’ve been
establishing their control in Washington for a long, long time.
Why do you suppose the FBI allowed 9/11 to happen? They had all the clues
sitting right there on their desks. Either they are completely inept or else
they decided that 3,000 civilian lives lost was a small price to pay to advance
their agenda of totalitarianism. In either case, I don’t see a good reason to
give them more power to abuse or piss away. The “Patriot” Act is a shameless
consolidation of police state power that is not needed to enforce my safety and
security. It goes against the spirit of individual freedoms that this country
was founded on. Of the thousands of invocations of the “Patriot” Act since it
was enacted, only 50 were for terrorism-related investigations. They sell it to
the American people as a necessary tool against terror, but they’ve been
listening to your phone and reading your e-mail ever since. (By the way, guys,
could you please not park the surveilance van on my flowers? Thx!)
The FCC’s relaxation of the rules governing ownership of media outlets is
equally troubling to me. I remember, not long ago, when the radio stations in
my city actually competed with each other for listeners. There were at least a
dozen great stations trying their hardest to reel in those tuners, and it was
hard to decide which station to listen to during the morning commute. Then the
FCC tweaked ownership rules of radio stations and within 18 months, every
station sounded exactly the same, with no effort to entertain or stand out.
Even the former dance station now plays the same VH1 mix of pap as the former
rock stations, and you never hear local bands any more. I am sad to say that
I have stopped listening to radio.
I truly believe that the radio station rule change was the dry run for what the
FCC is doing today. When the media is all owned by a handful of large
corporations, it will become fat and lazy, and more to the point, irrelevant. A
paranoid person might even say that this is a critical step in the gross
consolidation of power that is taking place while we all hide underneath our
desks, clutching our gas masks and duct tape.
| |
I do not believe that Bush will burn. He’s got too many generations of
status quo, folks who learned from the Nixon Watergate era how to cover-up,
and more than a few brain-washed scapegoats a la Ollie North to even feel the
heat. That is what gets me. He will walk away untouched and those members
of our Nation who hold long term positions of power (broad definition) will
continue to manipulate what they can when they can.
|
Whether he burns does not matter. The president is just a figurehead who gets
to go along for the ride for awhile if he’ll play ball with The Club. The
dummer the bedder!!
| |
Just thank (insert your deity here) that there are folks trying to adhere to
the principles and ideals of America as it was founded.
|
Where are these folks? (Probably sitting in cages at Guantanamo.) I see the
most powerful government on the planet coming unrooted from the very people it
is meant to serve, and following some warped, death-dealing path of its own.
Other than the occasional anti-war protest, what is actually happening to keep
our government in check?
A wise man once told me that I would one day become a cynic. I just thought I
had a few more decades before it would happen.
- Chris.
|
|
Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Should we be concerned?
|
| (...) Exactly. This "with us, or against us" stuff is crazy. Why can't a person be wholly patriotic and still want a moment to figure out what might be the truly correct response to a crisis? (...) This is why I harp on people's apparent partisan (...) (21 years ago, 4-Jun-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
|
Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Should we be concerned?
|
| <snip> (...) Very good quote. Essentially saying let someone else think and act for me. There have got to be better ways to achieve anti-terrorism goals than promoting fear and division. I wonder how events would have played out post 9/11 had a less (...) (21 years ago, 4-Jun-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
|
36 Messages in This Thread:
 
  
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
This Message and its Replies on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
