Comments on The Fourth Amendment, Revised.
go qwest! they just got a customer for life from me. i am always surprised when businesses do the right thing, but it is nice to know that some people in the corporate world have backbones.
Based on my experience with Qwest, they totally meant to cooperate with the illegal wiretaps but they lost the paperwork and scheduled it for the wrong day, and then sent the data to the wrong person. They did tell the government to go fuck themselves but they tell absolutely everyone -- customers, competitors, delivery drivers -- to go fuck themselves. Half credit for that, at best.
You can also count on Credo Mobile (formerly Working Assets). Not only did they tell the NSA and Bush to go fuck themselves, they also helped lead the charge against this unconsitutional invasion of our lives.
So lemme get this straightish: An average Joe can smoke a joint and have his life totally destroyed, while our leaders can commit multiple felonies and violate everything our country claims to stand for then have Congress retroactively legalize their crimes and give them even more power?
Every one of those despicable neo-fascists who voted for this bill should be executed for treason. It's National Guillotine time; let's wear the freakin' thing out.
Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of The New US of A:
Did I miss any??
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
I've thought and wanted to write what @2 did, but he/she did it faster and better.
Any constitutional scholars about that have insight into a possible challenge?
@7 umvue. I'm not a constitutional scholar but the ACLU already has a suit in the works. Read more here.
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/35928prs20080709.html
The last few weeks have made me cranky so I will just assume nothing good will come of it. The Democrats broke. Again.
“The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to "create" rights. Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting.”
William J. Brennan, Jr.
@8 Thank you. A good time to join the ACLU. I just sent in my renewal (only 3 months late).
You know why I don’t feel safer.
The safe part is bullshit. FISA isn't supposed to make you safer. It's supposed to make it easier to prosecute you. And that will work.
You should all just assume that everything digital is permanently recorded and accessible later (email, phone calls, you name it). Sorting out your history is just a database management problem, and a relatively simple one at that.
Qwest's DSL is actually pretty amazing. On speedtest.net I get about 6000kb/s down and ~725kb/s up. Although it was terrible when they first hooked me up. I called and had them switch me to a gateway with less traffic on it and presto.
Blows the doors off of Millenium's, sorry, Broadstripe's shitty, shitty cable internet.
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