Tag: constitution

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America’s Secret Police

Do not mention to the public or the media the use of cell phone technology or equipment used to locate the targeted subject,” the Iowa City Police Department warned officers in one training manual. It should also be kept out of police reports, it advised. NY Times, April 1, 2012

For all the screeching and wailing about government oppression in the form of an insurance mandate for health insurance, why are those freedom-loving, liberty-cherishing, gun-hugging Americans so utterly placid and spineless about the massive government intrusion into their personal lives through the routine abuse of police powers as described in the New York Times on April 1?

Apparently the police, even in small, rural towns, routinely go to cell phone companies and demand the locations of particular phones, or the content of text messages. Some of these police departments have even acquired their own equipment to do it without having to pay– or possibly arouse the antipathy of– private cell phone companies.

Where’s all the outrage? Where’s the placards, the effigies, the righteous indignation, the groveling, tearful references to the Constitution, the swelling, yelling, enraged marches?

The most sacred rights are being systematically disemboweled and we hear not a whimper from the so-called patriots.

It’s all a lie and America is a giant fraud. It’s time to hold a grand public ceremony and officially burn the Constitution in a steel barrel and then roll it off the docks somewhere near Wall Street and the “Freedom Tower”, and time for all the flag-draped Patriots to just get over it: you are liars.

Retroactive Immunity: John Ashcroft’s wet kiss to the Telecoms

I will note that I was completely wrong about consequences of Ashcroft’s actions, primarily because Obama has completely and totally capitulated to the forces of darkness in the American intelligence community and has, indeed, joined in the Constitution-defying American Jihad against suspected American enemies everywhere with his own program of assassinations and mayhem.

I would like to say that I predict that it will be the thing Obama will be sorriest about in ten or twenty years. But he won’t be, because the American public will adore him for killing people on their behalf. The more, the better. The bigger and more spectacular, the better. The bloodier, the lovelier. In foreign lands or, hell, why not, here on American soil. Arrest them, torture them, kill them remotely: our religion is an angel, a drone, with a gift of shredding.

If there were no enemies out there to kill, I strongly suspect we would make them up. No military or intelligence community would ever willingly acknowledge that they are not really needed, or that they do more damage, in the long term, than good.

And if you think that is preposterous, you should ask yourself how we got here: Obama, the “yes we can” guy, in the embrace of a Hellfire missile.

[added July 17, 2012]

Did you know that about 98%– no exaggeration — of criminal court proceedings in the U.S. end with a plea bargain? Is this good? Bad? Terrible?

What we have is district attorneys with enormous power bullying defendants into giving up their constitutional rights by threatening to lay more serious charges than are called for (which could result in a far more severe sentence) if the defendant doesn’t please guilty to “lesser” charges.

Now, did you know that District Attorney’s are allowed to demand a “waiver” as part of these agreements, wherein the defendant gives up his right to appeal his sentence later, if he happened to, say, discover exculpatory evidence somewhere, or that his own lawyer was a dunce? Furthermore, his own lawyer is likely to push him to agree to these terms because part of the waiver excludes his own attorney from any culpability for incompetence or negligence resulting in a more severe sentence than might be reasonably expected?

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The Fake Courage of Patriots

Few developments in politics in America have surprised me as much as the utterly sheep-like response to revelations that the government is tapping everyone’s phones. [I know– a purist may quibble. The government is actually only collecting all of the phone numbers you have called. They haven’t started actually listening in on the conversations yet. But why shouldn’t they? The idea has now been test-marketed. Nobody objects.]

Americans wax more effusively and eloquently than anyone else in the history of the world on precious freedoms and liberties. And then they trade them away in a flash for a handful of beans.

It is really, really very stunning. The one mitigating factor in the pantheon of disagreeable traits of Americans has always been the high value they seemed to place on freedom and democracy. Sure Americans can be loud and bombastic and ignorant, and sometimes supremely indifferent to the value of a community– but they always used to err on the side of civil liberties.

And I find it more than unfortunate to discover that none of it is true. It’s an absolute tragedy. It’s positively depressing. It may be the end of the biggest charade in the history of the world. Freedom is squat. The constitution is a hallmark card of fuzzy, effusive sentiments about human dignity and liberty. The Bill of Rights? If the government decides we need any rights, I’m sure they’ll get around to granting them.

I should have known. The support for a constitutional amendment banning flag-burning is a pretty clear indicator. Why don’t they just pass constitutional amendments banning atheism, homosexuality, and lustful thoughts while they are at it?

There are some other things I know I am going to find out in the near future.

1. Most Americans don’t really believe in God.

2. Most Americans don’t really believe that truth is better than lies.

3. Most Americans don’t really believe that it matters where Paris Hilton is sleeping tonight.

4. Most Americans really do like seeing nudity on television.

5. Most Americans would sell their own mothers for any of the following prizes:

  • an appearance on Leno or Oprah
  • tickets to front row seats at the Superbowl,
  • a Big Mac

I was also amazed, given my disappointment elsewhere, with the fact that the jury did not sentence Zacarias Moussaoui to death after it was determined that he thought bad thoughts about the U.S. after 9/11. Then I found out that it was merely one juror of the 12. So the vote of one person was all that stood between an execution for crimes never committed and life in prison for crimes never committed.

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Tyranny

The Bush administration has been diligently addressing some very important issues. Recently, articles in the Washington Post and the New York Times showed that the government was holding detainees illegally in foreign countries where they are tortured for information, and that the government was eavesdropping on telephone conversations without a warrant.

In a right-side up world, the government would now be arresting and charging those responsible for these criminal acts. If they were authorized by officials in the White House, they would have resigned and would be facing indictments. If the President himself authorized them, he would be facing impeachment.

Not this government. This government is arresting and charging those who told you that your government is breaking the law and that it is spying on you and torturing people.

It is totally weird that the mainstream press, and the Democrats, are not screaming bloody murder. The Bush administration has undertaken activities that are literally stunning in the depth and breadth of their violations of human rights and democratic principles. But, in a world that could only have been envisioned by Josef Goebbels

In my darker moments, the only conclusion I can draw is that all those flag-waving, patriotic, gun-toting Americans who sit there idly watching TV and not caring about these actions do not deserve democracy. In fact, they are no longer entitled to democracy. You have approved and accepted and embraced tyranny. Your government showed you a bogey man and said “boo” and you cried and wet your pants and said, please, oh please, stop them, I’ll let you do anything, I surrender all of my rights. It was that easy.

I never would have believed it. I grew up watching the Watergate scandal unfold, convinced that when Americans become aware of malfeasance by their own government, they react with disgust, they tell the pollsters that the government has no support, which empowers the loyal opposition — who are presently themselves timorously cowering in the corner–to take decisive action. Sadly, I believe that most Americans don’t care about Bush’s dictatorial powers because the word “terrorist” has become, in his mind, synonymous with “Arabic”.

On Mary O. McCarthy.

If Mary O. McCarthy really is guilty of leaking information about the CIA’s illegal activities to the press, I hope some organization with guts announces that she will given a real “Medal of Freedom”.  She is someone who has made a genuine sacrifice on behalf of democracy and civil liberties.

Did you know:

CIA employees are all required to take a “lie detector test” every five years.

The world is indeed very topsy turvey.  Lie detectors don’t work.  They never have and they probably never will.  Doesn’t matter.  Porter Gross over at the CIA looks like a fine hunter of leakers.  That’s all that matters.  His bosses think he’s a bloodhound.   I cannot believe though that not a single CIA employee has yet taken his or her employer to court over the issue.  I repeat– check this with objective analysts if you doubt me– the polygraph does not work.  It never has.  It probably never will.  There is a good reason why results from a polygraph are not admissible in court.  And anybody under suspicion of anything who would agree to take a polygraph is a fool.