home

Losing Liberty

By TChris, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Mon May 07, 2007 at 07:33:12 PM EST
Tags: (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit

Nicely said:

Just a few years ago, the United States could hold its head high for the freedoms enjoyed by those residing within its borders as well as its energy, leadership, and openness and compassion. Today we are fast becoming a closed society, suspicious not only of “outsiders” but of many within our borders who are in some way “not like us.” The lists of our freedoms have turned into lists of our enemies, giving them an unmerited significance that in turn diminishes the country’s international standing. Persuasion has been replaced by coercion, honor sacrificed to a corrupted “duty,” and morality to expediency.

Military analyst Dan Smith examines the administration's assault on civil liberties post 9/11.

< Police and Soldiers Arrested for Looting | You're Gonna Live! I'm Gonna Sue! >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    Losing Liberty | 3 comments (3 topical)

    Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

    internal use of the millitary (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by mckimj on Mon May 07, 2007 at 10:25:41 PM EST
    I find it as frightening that the prohibition against the internal use of the millitary is gone with the passage of the John Warrener Defense Authorization Act of 2007.  Patrick Lehey voiced the only objection. According to Utne Reader, Bush can use the millitary domestically and take over the national guard over the objection of the states and cities. He can also have the millitary police arrest those who he or his designee determines to be undesirable. Are we "undesirable"? Absolutely no media or blog coverage of this one. The Democratic Majority appears to be usless and as antti-constitution as only the paid for elite can be. I have always been a big D Democrat but apparently an old fashioned one.

    You should see the military bird flu (none / 0) (#3)
    by Militarytracy on Tue May 08, 2007 at 11:05:53 AM EST
    plans for all of us.  I would like to see them myself, but you have to have rank to see those and I have none of that.  It's all very secret but I do get to hear the rumors, they aren't swell ones where we civilians are concerned either.

    Parent
    this is what REALLY is troubling me (none / 0) (#1)
    by profmarcus on Mon May 07, 2007 at 08:29:13 PM EST
    and it's causing me a greater degree of angst every day... think about it... on 20 january 2009, a new president will be sworn in... if all the draconian and illegal measures that have been put in place by george bush are still in place, doesn't that put the election of a president in november 2008 in an entirely different light...?

    and it's forging ahead pell-mell as we sit here in front of our computer screens...

       The Bush administration, however, is seeking far broader changes in the [FISA] law -- on which we would urge Congress to proceed with extreme caution. The administration says that it simply wants to modernize the law to make it "technologically neutral," applying equally to communications that take place through the air and by wire. Sounds sensible, but the administration proposes to deal with that problem in a way that could dangerously expand the scope of surveillance that the government could engage in free from court oversight.

    oh, yes, and then there's this...
       The administration's proposal ... has no requirement that the person at the other end of the communication be a suspected terrorist.

    what they're doing seems perfectly obvious to me... for some time, probably on the order of many years, the government has been conducting comprehensive "sniffing" programs via massively powerful computer systems and software that sweep through every byte of digital, voice, and video communication and all electronic transactions that are conducted in or routed through u.s. pipes... the "sniffing" software is programmed to detect certain words or patterns of words and certain code strings... if any of those appear, the communication, the source and the destination are grabbed and kicked out for further analysis...

    the changes to fisa, as i see it, are intended to accomplish two things... one, they are trying to put their already-operational activities on at least a semi-legal footing... two, they are softening both congressional and public opinion to its existence, "prepping" us, as it were, for more to come...

    unless and until bush, cheney and their minions are removed, we will continue down this same path until 20 january 2009...

    And, yes, I DO take it personally

    Losing Liberty | 3 comments (3 topical)

    Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment