Reply #13: Just waiting to flip the switch and go live with Amerika v2.0...

[warren pease]

Here are some of the worst pieces of the puzzle that they've either brazened out or sneaked through when they thought nobody was watching.

We now have the Orwellian "thought crime bill" (HR 1955/S 1959) still awaiting passage in the Senate and Bushie's big red X; executive orders allowing them to steal everything you have if you express disagreement with their Middle East "policy," which they say would "undermine efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people." (So that's what it's called: economic reconstruction, political reform and humanitarian assistance. You just can't make this stuff up.)

Here's another one just like it for those who object to their policy re Lebanon and Syria (should anyone actually know what that is), a sin so apparently repugnant that our Czar feared that it would "...constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat."

Presidential directives like NSPD 51/HSPD-20 that blather on about "continuity of government" and how government agencies and private sector organizations will work together (only those named Blackwater need apply) "to ensure a comprehensive and integrated national continuity program that will enhance the credibility of our national security posture and enable a more rapid and effective response to and recovery from a national emergency."

Such an emergency might well be a presidential hangnail, since the catastrophes that trigger these directives include "… any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions." Vague enough for you?

Then come the federal invasions of privacy regarding medical and http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/washington/23intel.html?ex=1308715200&en=168d69d26685c26c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss">financial records; monitoring US citizens' electronic communications; re-targeting spy satellites for domestic surveillance; the TSA cavity search specialists (for attractive young women only; the rest are presumed to pose no threat to the state); InfraGard, the new national system of vigilantes with the FBI's permission to "shoot to kill;" no-fly and terrorist watch lists; Halliburton/KBR's detention camps; RFIDs in all new passports and new national ID cards that may still be issued this year; new TSA "behavior detection officers" to spot those who don't "look quite right;" all this wonderful new stuff coming this year and next from the DHS; private armies featuring mercenaries from companies like Blackwater and DynCorp springing up like mushrooms after a light rain... All that and the Patriot Act, the http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/commissions.html">Military Commissions Act, http://www.aclu.org/safefree/extraordinaryrendition/22203res20051206.html">extraordinary rendition (whatever the hell that means) and torture, too. (Note: the torture link is graphic and disgusting, as it should be.)

No need to revisit FISA; we all know how our brave opposition party stood up for us against further interception of our private communications and slapped the Bushies down hard, repeatedly blistering the airwaves with devastating attacks on this pack of vile fascists and… What? Oh… They didn't? Hmmmmm. Must be time for a strongly worded letter then.

Also, see the blockquote in this post, which is a small part of H.R. 1585, the fiscal year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act. Note the orders to prepare to use regular troops -- as opposed to the Guard or Reserves -- to respond to "natural disasters and terrorist events." In other words, martial law.

You look at the destructive power the executive branch has acquired for itself since 2001 and it's hard not to come to the conclusion that all these pieces are there to lock this country down like a bank vault. They just haven't flipped the switch yet.

And maybe they never will. Maybe the implied threat is enough, although the Cheneys of the world don't strike me as the type to do stuff like this just for fun.

Rather, fun to them is shooting animals and, occasionally, each other. We need a lot more of the latter and far less of the former.


wp