Three words: Predator Drones. Domestically.

[Demeter]

http://www.correntewire.com/three_words_predator_drones_domestically

Not that I'm foily, but I'd really hate to be prematurely correct on the idea that Afghanistan is the real-life proving ground for drone technology. Looking on the bright side, though, at least that way we'd have some reason to be there! Still, when you read this story from Elizabeth Bumiller, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the ultimate theatre where drones will be deployed is, er, Northern Command: The continental United States. There have, after all, already been stories of domestic drone deployment against protesters in WaPo, as far back as 2007. Anyhow, I'll quote from the printed version shown here -- that's right, printed, and then typed in; see NOTE 1 below. The story's headline is "Unblinking, lethal and soon to be ubiquitous," and no, they're not talking about Timmy Geither...

SUPPORTING LINKS:

http://www.correntewire.com/bush_stasi_deploying_insect_like_surveillance_drones

http://www.truth-out.org/lobbying-report-drones-fly-through-congress-enter-us-skies/1302937200

http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/us-military-conflicted-over-domestic-use-drones

http://www.correntewire.com/course_drones_are_evil_bullshit_president_fuck_you_supports_them


NOTE Oh, for those who don't get the headline, listen to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WWKG6ZmgAX4

What dead eyes Obama has, to be sure.

[fredamae]

1. Sens Merkley/Wyden are pushing

for a bill that will use Drones over Public Lands. I called BS a few months ago... I don't think others believed me..it's hard to imagine really, in America. I don't see how things don't have the potential to go terribly wrong with this.

Where does Private Land Not abut Public Lands?

http://www.ktvz.com/news/25966631/detail.html
http://www.katu.com/news/business/111134099.html
http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2011/05/19/coverstory.html

"S.AMDT.27
Amends: S.223
Sponsor: Sen Wyden, Ron (submitted 2/2/2011) (proposed 2/3/2011)
AMENDMENT PURPOSE:
To increase the number of test sites in the National Airspace System used for unmanned aerial vehicles and to require one of those test sites to include a significant portion of public lands."
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:S.223:

[LiberalEsto]

2. jeezus k-rist

Could it be time to start looking into body armor, stronger window screens and metal roofs?
Laser fly-swatters?
This is the stuff of nightmares.

For one thing, doesn't the Constitution guarantee us the right to a fair trial by a jury of our peers?
Oh wait, I forgot. Dubya and Cheney shredded that document years ago.

[Wilms]

3. .

:(

[Diclotican]

4. Demeter

Demeter

Big Brother Society anyone?... Dam even the russians under Stalin was not able to have THAT type of potential control over the public as US have today... Even Berija and Felix would be green of envy over this tools to control the population...

One thing is to looking at peopole at 10.000ft another story if the predator also have the posibility to be used as weapons to kill sivilians, who have never had their time in cort to either prove or disprove that they have been doing something wrong...

This sounds like out of a sience Fiction movie, where the population are more or less controlled by the government, off course to protect themselfs agains the evil doers who want to destroy "our way of life":.. Many accept it, but some wil allways rebel, and then you have it on...

This is bad news for your freedom, when predators can be used to spy on large populations, who have never been a danger to anyone.. Not to say, if the predators can be used to kill sivilians - as they are used in Iraq Afghanistan, Pakistan and a lot of other places most americans dosen't know exist.. IF you are not up to it, many americans would grue the day when the predators are used to controll, and maybe kill "enemies of State".. It have been shown in many Sience Fiction movies in the past - it can and wil be used if most americans are not up to the challenge.. Big brother are not just something you are reading on in a old book from 1948... Its a clear and present danger to everyone, everywhere..

Diclotican

Diclotican

[knitter4democracy]

5. They want them for police, weather, and other domestic uses.

From what I've heard through family who work in this area, it's going to happen. Police can use them for surveillance and traffic, they can be used to track weather a bit better than the systems we have now, and we all know they'd be used for spying. The darn things can see license plates from high up enough you can't see or hear them.

They're going to happen. The powers want that level of surveillance.

[DemReadingDU]

6. Bullseye - exactly where I live

From Bumiller NYT article

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio — Two miles from the cow pasture where the Wright Brothers learned to fly the first airplanes, military researchers are at work on another revolution in the air: shrinking unmanned drones, the kind that fire missiles into Pakistan and spy on insurgents in Afghanistan, to the size of insects and birds.
.
.
A tiny helicopter is buzzing menacingly as it prepares to lift off in the Wright-Patterson aviary, a warehouse-like room lined with 60 motion-capture cameras to track the little drone’s every move. The helicopter, a footlong hobbyists’ model, has been programmed by a computer to fly itself. Soon it is up in the air making purposeful figure eights.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/world/20drones.html?_r=2&hpw


and spouse tells me these drones are only going to be here for maintenance
:eyes:

[Patiod]

7. Now would be the time to get the far right on board against this

Obama has Predator Drones! Obama has Predator Drones!

Because they won't mind a President Biblethumper or President Rightwingkook has them.
But they might want to get rid of them now that the Socialist in Chief has them and could use them against Tea Partiers :crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy:

[truth2power]

8. Re: Obama and predator drones (the youtube link in your OP)..

It wasn't funny then, and it's not funny now. Just bad form on the part of Obama. Like joking about bombs while you're waiting to board an aircraft. He should know better.

[roxiejules]

9. NYT: Drones as tiny as bugs

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/world/20drones.html?_r=1&ref=science


War Evolves With Drones, Some Tiny as Bugs- NYT 6/19/11

Military researchers are at work on another revolution in the air: shrinking unmanned drones, the kind that fire missiles into Pakistan and spy on insurgents in Afghanistan, to the size of insects and birds.

The base’s indoor flight lab is called the “microaviary,” and for good reason. The drones in development here are designed to replicate the flight mechanics of moths, hawks and other inhabitants of the natural world. “We’re looking at how you hide in plain sight,” said Greg Parker, an aerospace engineer, as he held up a prototype of a mechanical hawk that in the future might carry out espionage or kill.

In February, researchers unveiled a hummingbird drone, built by the firm AeroVironment for the secretive Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which can fly at 11 miles per hour and perch on a windowsill. But it is still a prototype. One of the smallest drones in use on the battlefield is the three-foot-long Raven, which troops in Afghanistan toss by hand like a model airplane to peer over the next hill.

[saras]

12. and for Christmas this year...

"War Evolves With Drones, Some Tiny as Bugs"
just wait until some enterprising company sells cheap ones to all comers

They're not quite so much fun when the other side has them too...

[girl gone mad]

10. k & r

thanks for posting this here, Demeter.

[Demeter]

11. It's like screaming from the bottom of a well

Hoping that Lassie will hear...