John Whitehead - US is a police state

[The Northerner]

Run time: 04:53 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjwCAWCInwM   Posted on YouTube: May 28, 2011 By YouTube Member: RTAmerica Views on YouTube: 10813   Posted on DU: May 31, 2011 By DU Member: The Northerner Views on DU: 946

 
"What stands between us and an authoritarian state is the Constitution," says Rutherford Institute President John Whitehead. Unfortunately Whitehead says the government is bypassing the Constitution, particularly the 4th Amendment, thanks to the Patriot Act. As activists are arrested and fear spreads across America, Whitehead says we are watching the US transform into a police state in front of our very eyes.

[virgogal]

1. Poor guy. He should get the hell out of here while he still can.

[Rageneau]

5. For years, this bird was a big part of the problem.

His Rutherford Institute was of a feather with Larry Klayman's Judicial Watch, and, as such, Whitehead attempted to cynically manipulate the law in order to embarrass and, hopefully, destroy Clinton. If he has seen the light, fine, but for a long time, he was on the side of darkness.

[JHB]

14. Years before that they were part of the assault on public schooling...

...fighting to save our children from radical leftist indoctrination, like teaching them about evolution.

and let's not forget their role as Paula Jones counsel in one of the biggest fishing expeditions against Bill Clinton.

[DeSwiss]

2. POLICE STATE - K&R n/t

[razorman]

3. Bullshit. I have seen real police states(Haiti and Yugoslavia in the '70's). This ain't it.

However much we may dislike what is going on here, the U.S. is still the freest country in the world.

[PDJane]

4. No. It isn't.

Denial won't help.

[Rageneau]

6. If we're the freest country in the world, how come I can't smoke pot in a coffee shop?

And why can't I play online poker for money? People in other, freer, countries can do these things.

[razorman]

7. At least you are allowed to bitch about it. You can even say bad things about the government,

and you won't be imprisoned or executed for it.

[PDJane]

8. Ask Dan Choi about that hypothesis.

Ask Medea Benjamin. There are more. More than 2,000 people imprisoned since 2009 for protesting.

[Downtown Hound]

10. No, but you can be imprisoned for having the wrong skin color

or being of the wrong faith. Just ask the hundreds of people illegally rounded up and held in jail for MONTHS after 9-11.

[razorman]

12. And you think that's not happening in virtually every Muslim country?

[Downtown Hound]

13. Isn't your argument that we're so much more free than them? n/t

[razorman]

15. Yes. For them, the penalty for even minor crimes is often maiming.

The death penalty covers pretty much everything else.

[Downtown Hound]

16. And our penalty for even minor crimes

is to almost certainly never be offered a good paying job again. A life of poverty and shitty wages, a lot of times for what are victimless crimes.

Ours is just a kinder, gentler form of fascism. But don't think that there are't plenty of wacky right wingers that would love for us to be more like Iran.

[Downtown Hound]

9. Is the U.S. as bad as some other countries? No.

Is it still the freest country in the world? Hell no, and you are kidding yourself if you think it is.

[izquierdista]

11. He probably thinks we have the best health care too.

Pretty soon we will be hearing that America has the world's best public transportation. :eyes: