I live in Hollywood, a half a block off of The Boulevard and about two blocks away from The 101 (or for those of you who don't live in LA, Interstate 101). I hear helicopters -- circling, standing rock still hovering in the air, zooooooming past -- what seems like 24/7 these days. There have been nights here where as many as 5-7 chopper flyovers happen in a single night. Chasing Bad Guys. Spotlighting Getaway Vehicles. Sometimes... Doing I don't know what. The LAPD have grown quite reliant on the use of helicopters, even though (from what I've heard) it costs $16,000 (Yes, that's $16k) per minute to keep them there. They better be really Bad Guys to justify that, to my mind.
But it also brings up the whole idea that We The People have tacitly agreed to be constantly surveilled, for our own protection, ever since 9/11. 'It's the cost of Freedom!' someone wrote on Facebook, to protect us from BAD GUYS like Al Queida. Never mind that the former President (well, ok, technically he was called the Vice President) of the United States, Richard Cheney said, "Freedom is a luxury we can no longer afford." That's right. Forget that whole Constitution thingy. Bad for business, and won't let Us keep You Safe.
Technology always seems to rule us. I saw an article a couple of weeks ago (centuries, in Facebook time) showing the latest micro-technology -- Drones the size of mosquitos, fully equipped with both video and audio components, capable of flying in the front door with you, attaching to your clothing to be allowed entrance, etc. All once again, To Protect Us. Are you planning a terrorist operation in your very home?! (Sorry for all the italics and bolds, but this sort of thing does seem to call for shrill editing tricks.)
And on the larger Drone front, the (passed last year by Obama) NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act), allows by Presidential fiat, surveillance of All US citizens, without any need for justification or need for a messy wiretap warrant (Habeas Corpus). Just in case...
Now, I'll ask the question that formed the title of this blog once again. Are You Really Feeling Safer?
Showing posts with label 9/11. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 9/11. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Monday, December 26, 2011
Ah, The Republican Feeding Frenzy...
It seems that the Republican Candidates for President have been stumbling all over themselves to make mockeries of... Themselves. From Herman Cain and his 'infinite number of women' to Eye of Newt and his leanings towards his installation as the New Monarch (obviously with no Clothes to hide his bald lies and outrageous statements) to Mitt Romney (a.k.a. King George the Firsts [George Herbert Walker Bush] demented In-Law) and his 'Oh, what's this? This little bar code thingie?', the whole race is turning into hares trying to twist themselves into political pretzels. Too bad the Far Reich Tea Partiers doesn't see these gaffs as disqualify-iers against Higher Office.
Much was made of the Biden gaffs during the last election cycle, but this new batch of stumbler/ bumblers takes the cake (as in "Let Them Eat...") is taking the gaffs to new highs. Newt and his 'If I don't agree with what the Supreme Court decides, I'll haul them in to Congress under arrest if necessary to have them answer to The People' (as if the Little People were the ones he was talking about), take the Fascistic leanings of the Tea Party and their Acolytes to new lows, further deadening the possibility of democracy even further.
What next, Herr Gingrich? Abolishing the Constitution if it doesn't suit you? Instigating Martial Law to enforce your World Views? Even Mad King George the Second didn't do that with the reason of 9/11 to be his excuse.
How much more insane do the Politics of Hate and Deception have to become before even the most dim of political bulbs understands the consequences? How many more rabid Tea Partiers have to make 'jokes' of assassinating a sitting President because of his Color?
If they don't watch out, the feeding frenzy on the horizon will be the Republicans eating themselves alive with their beliefs and opinions.
Much was made of the Biden gaffs during the last election cycle, but this new batch of stumbler/ bumblers takes the cake (as in "Let Them Eat...") is taking the gaffs to new highs. Newt and his 'If I don't agree with what the Supreme Court decides, I'll haul them in to Congress under arrest if necessary to have them answer to The People' (as if the Little People were the ones he was talking about), take the Fascistic leanings of the Tea Party and their Acolytes to new lows, further deadening the possibility of democracy even further.
What next, Herr Gingrich? Abolishing the Constitution if it doesn't suit you? Instigating Martial Law to enforce your World Views? Even Mad King George the Second didn't do that with the reason of 9/11 to be his excuse.
How much more insane do the Politics of Hate and Deception have to become before even the most dim of political bulbs understands the consequences? How many more rabid Tea Partiers have to make 'jokes' of assassinating a sitting President because of his Color?
If they don't watch out, the feeding frenzy on the horizon will be the Republicans eating themselves alive with their beliefs and opinions.
Monday, September 5, 2011
That Anniversary.
Ten years ago this Sunday, I was standing on a ladder with a bright blue almost unnatural sky behind me painting high up under eaves and listening to NPR when "reports [were] coming in of a possible small plane crashing into one of the World Trade Center Towers in New York. More details will be made once we have reporters on the scene." At that moment, I knew it was no "small plane" that had hit, and that that day was going to be one of the longest in my memory. I was also however, expecting that Martial Law would be imposed at any minute, when the news came that a "second plane" had struck the other Tower.
Yes, we're coming up on that anniversary, eulogizing and fetishizing our very own post-modern Pearl Harbor: 9/11. 'A day that will live in..." No, that was that other attach on American Soil.
Let me once again remind you before I go on, I am in not in any way either diminishing or denying the horror of that day now almost ten years ago. Three thousand people lost their lives that day, and many more suffered on the ground from the consequences of the two Towers crumbling into dust, both on that day and in the days and months to come from the literal fallout of the destruction.
What I am also reminding you about are the questions involved which still unanswered to this day regarding the circumstance of what happened and who did it. And I already hear the angry lynch mobs at my door ready to make me one of the fallen, just because I don't agree with the Twin Fetishes of what are called "National Security," and "Homeland Security." I still believe that the Twin Towers and the devastation to them and New York City, were merely excuse and prelude for the Military-Industrial complex to generate more revenues and get the American People to give up what had heretofore had been precious Freedoms in the 'fight against' "International Terrorism."
And while that day no visible form of Martial Law was imposed as I had expected it would, the prelude to the dissolution of our Protected Freedoms in the face and guise of 'protecting Our Nation,' still resounds like that of the previous "Shot Heard Round the World" of an earlier Age of Revolution, not dissolution. The very foundations of what Those who would say that they 'Believe In' the freedoms inherent in our System of Law and Revolutionary Intent, are still, or have been participating in the taking apart/tearing down/dismantling, Declaration by Declaration and Constitutional Amendment by Amendment of that System; all in the face of denial and fear-mongering and for an arcane sense of "safety" that has never really appeared.
Martial Law was not instituted that day or in the days following, but a far more insidious form of imposition of loss of freedom resulted in the Stalin-like fortification of Military Might in the form of first "The Patriot Act" and later the 'formation' of the equally infamous(and scabrous) "Tea Party." Quote/unquote Patriots will use the excuse of this anniversary to once again pump up the drumbeat of War in the form of 'tightening' our borders and cutting loose/jettisoning any impediments to their version of Making America Free and Safe. Martial Law might have been more easier to deal with in a way. At least that way the loss of freedoms and rights would have been obvious. Which is why that 'nuclear option' of Constitutional 'deregulation' occurred.
And also once again I urge you to watch the documentary entitled "9/11: Press for the Truth." <http://www.911pressfortruth.com/> which has detailed timelines that contradict the4 "standard version" of what really happened that day, and has "humorous" clips of Bush, Cheney and Rice backtracking and getting caught in outright lies over the exact nature of what transpired. It also shows how the international police organization Cointelpro raided an Islamic Terrorist group in Manilla, Philippines in 1992, retrieving drawings then of plans of two planes going into large square buildings; evidence which was dismissed by the US Government.
Not to mention the FBI Agent who told her superiors that there were reports of individuals in Texas (I believe) learning how to take off and fly planes but not how to land them, in 2000. These reports were also brushed aside. And just for further information, in the day following the events of the morning of 9/11/01 when air traffic was suspended over the entire US, there was one plane that was allowed to fly out of the country: one carrying a family with the curious name of bin Laden.
As with the Kennedy and MLK assasinations, the true facts of these matters will probably never be revealed, with the 'Clear and Present Danger' to our Nation and our planet which those answers represent will go one shrouded in mystery.
Yes, we're coming up on that anniversary, eulogizing and fetishizing our very own post-modern Pearl Harbor: 9/11. 'A day that will live in..." No, that was that other attach on American Soil.
Let me once again remind you before I go on, I am in not in any way either diminishing or denying the horror of that day now almost ten years ago. Three thousand people lost their lives that day, and many more suffered on the ground from the consequences of the two Towers crumbling into dust, both on that day and in the days and months to come from the literal fallout of the destruction.
What I am also reminding you about are the questions involved which still unanswered to this day regarding the circumstance of what happened and who did it. And I already hear the angry lynch mobs at my door ready to make me one of the fallen, just because I don't agree with the Twin Fetishes of what are called "National Security," and "Homeland Security." I still believe that the Twin Towers and the devastation to them and New York City, were merely excuse and prelude for the Military-Industrial complex to generate more revenues and get the American People to give up what had heretofore had been precious Freedoms in the 'fight against' "International Terrorism."
And while that day no visible form of Martial Law was imposed as I had expected it would, the prelude to the dissolution of our Protected Freedoms in the face and guise of 'protecting Our Nation,' still resounds like that of the previous "Shot Heard Round the World" of an earlier Age of Revolution, not dissolution. The very foundations of what Those who would say that they 'Believe In' the freedoms inherent in our System of Law and Revolutionary Intent, are still, or have been participating in the taking apart/tearing down/dismantling, Declaration by Declaration and Constitutional Amendment by Amendment of that System; all in the face of denial and fear-mongering and for an arcane sense of "safety" that has never really appeared.
Martial Law was not instituted that day or in the days following, but a far more insidious form of imposition of loss of freedom resulted in the Stalin-like fortification of Military Might in the form of first "The Patriot Act" and later the 'formation' of the equally infamous(and scabrous) "Tea Party." Quote/unquote Patriots will use the excuse of this anniversary to once again pump up the drumbeat of War in the form of 'tightening' our borders and cutting loose/jettisoning any impediments to their version of Making America Free and Safe. Martial Law might have been more easier to deal with in a way. At least that way the loss of freedoms and rights would have been obvious. Which is why that 'nuclear option' of Constitutional 'deregulation' occurred.
And also once again I urge you to watch the documentary entitled "9/11: Press for the Truth." <http://www.911pressfortruth.com/> which has detailed timelines that contradict the4 "standard version" of what really happened that day, and has "humorous" clips of Bush, Cheney and Rice backtracking and getting caught in outright lies over the exact nature of what transpired. It also shows how the international police organization Cointelpro raided an Islamic Terrorist group in Manilla, Philippines in 1992, retrieving drawings then of plans of two planes going into large square buildings; evidence which was dismissed by the US Government.
Not to mention the FBI Agent who told her superiors that there were reports of individuals in Texas (I believe) learning how to take off and fly planes but not how to land them, in 2000. These reports were also brushed aside. And just for further information, in the day following the events of the morning of 9/11/01 when air traffic was suspended over the entire US, there was one plane that was allowed to fly out of the country: one carrying a family with the curious name of bin Laden.
As with the Kennedy and MLK assasinations, the true facts of these matters will probably never be revealed, with the 'Clear and Present Danger' to our Nation and our planet which those answers represent will go one shrouded in mystery.
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