October 8 2007
"Wired" is the publication with the most details on the subject of the NSA, surveillance, FISA--a knot of questions that rose to prominence thankfully because Bush/Cheney took direct control of them. Most of what we read in newspapers and on the Internet comes from the Associated Press (AP) and Reuters. McClatchy is usually a similar news service and AFP is only ever so slightly different, in that it caters slightly more to government officials outside the united $tates. In general, AP dominates with very light news stories regurgitating the State Department and White House on international issues. The job of AP is to take out anything from the State Department or White House that would not appeal to Amerikkkan consumers, before regurgitation. So to get something a little more meaty, one has to read something like the bourgeois-techie "Wired," and this is what we recommend our readers do, because of the impoverishment of the rest of the media.
Especially now when Cheney and Bush have taken direct responsibility for surveillance of Amerikan citizens, we are receiving non-stop nonsense in the press. The way politicians do anything is to take the most innocuous aspect of a problem that can be easily and widely digested by the public without explanation and then label it the subject at hand. Then throw in some words about "terrorists" and we are on the way to a story something like that the terrorists are putting poison in our apple pies and the apple farmers won't let us inspect the apples before they get to the grocery store. Civics by sound-bite actually cannot be even that long, because that last sentence had more than 20 words.
As we write this review of "Wired," Congress is considering FISA legislation. Among the considerations is whether to give the Bush administration immunity for its creation of a vigilante movement for its own political gain. The telephone and Internet corporations are asking for immunity as are the politicians. When something is outside the law, the proper term is "vigilante." Among the reasons given for why the vigilante movement should be given immunity--it was just being "patriotic"--and we agree, patriotic to Amerikkka.
Amerikans love monarchy more than they even know, being too busy with Britney Spears's custody battles to bother knowing what their own politics are. House of Bush or Clinton is good for them as long as these houses promise security. The idea that something is not lawful just because the president ordered it is beyond these people--way beyond. The funny part is that civics lessons in school can say what they want for years at a time, but when all is said and done, the numerically predominant class in the united $tates, the labor aristocracy is going to have its vigilante movement anyway.
Now we have "sleeper cells," the perfect way to get around a need for "probable cause." Pretty funny really--surveillance can go on quasi-legally for decades, as long as stupid judges, cowed Congresses and opportunist presidents decide there is "probable cause." The very idea of a "sleeper" terrorist cell is actually another word for "improbable" cause. It all works, because Americans as a people disappeared in the 1800s and now we have Amerikans--a people staffing the most repressive state in the world.
Cowardly Amerikans prevail, because the brave ones die in pointless wars where nothing is accomplished. Why make peace in the Middle East when you can sell weapons to both sides and hire hackers to work for the NSA? As long as one is willing to tolerate fear-mongering, one can avoid the problem in the Mideast as long as one wants.
The draconian Meghan's Law for sex offenders has application in Texas with GPS tracking devices.(1) (GPS devices use satellites to track objects.) The monarchists are complaining that even Meghan's Law is not draconian enough, because somehow estimates say 25% of offenders escape. A leg bracelet (GPS device) can keep track of convicted sex offenders. Meanwhile, according to "Wired," unconvicted objects of NSA surveillance might be tracked by cell phones, Internet, GPS devices and surveillance in the dental office(2), library,(3) cafe and bedroom.(4) If the politicians are lucky, their vigilante movement will dispose of their problem, maybe with a little slip-up somewhere, so many vigilantes, so many possibilities when a persyn's right to privacy and hence security is violated.
"Innocent till proven guilty" and "right to confront the accuser" are civics fairytales intended only to fool international public opinion about Amerika. The truth is Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. In Amerika itself--we know the real deal, the white nationalist vigilante movement.
George Orwell said, "Thoughtcrime is the only crime that matters." Amerikans know enough to claim otherwise, but could as well ponder whether there is more socialism in a Beijing McDonalds or freedom in the world's leading prison-state. The goals of communism and freedom are stated somewhat differently, but the lying is the same in China and the united $tates.
Note:
1. http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Story?id=601536&page=2
2. http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2002/06/53302
3. http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2002/09/55056
4. http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/iraqi-spy-warra.html