Posted on 01/01/2006 10:27:02 AM PST by SmithL
Went to work the other day
Didn't get blown up.
Think it might have something to do with George Bush?
Think it might have something to do with the measures that the president is taking to protect the country from terrorist attack?
Couldn't be. What kind of fool would fall for this line of thinking?
Well, I would fall for it, fool that I am. The above question was posted recently by a poster at freerepublic.com, and I believe it is spot-on.
Let me be the first to say it. I am delighted -- yes, delighted -- that President Bush has the National Security Agency monitoring the national conversation for sentences containing words such as "Brooklyn," "bridge," "blow" and "up."
I am also delighted to hear from U.S. News & World Report that the government is monitoring nuclear radiation levels at more than 100 sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses and warehouses.
We are also monitoring such sites in at least five other cities, the magazine says: Detroit, Las Vegas, New York, Seattle and our own Chicago. Excellent. The clever man who came up with this idea deserves a raise.
Of course, the Bush-haters, such as those at democraticunderground and dailykos, say this is a violation of the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure.
Apparently if a Geiger counter shows extraordinarily high levels of radiation on the sidewalk outside your building, it is no one's business but your own.
You know, sometimes I would love to be an enlightened liberal. I really would. I would be favored by the New York Times and The Nation. I'd be a hit with the New York network news. I'd date left-wing babes from the Upper West and Upper East sides of Manhattan.
But, hard as I strive, I cannot turn the corner. I simply do not see a right to privacy regarding legitimate clues that certain American "citizens" are trying to build a nuclear bomb. I see no violation of my civil rights.
Not only that, but the Patriot Act makes perfect sense to me.
Pathetic, isn't it?
But that's not the end of it. If we do indeed have secret prisons for terrorists in Poland and Romania, guess what? I have zero problems with that.
If we are indeed degrading captured terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay, I have zero problems with that either.
And if, in the interest if eliciting lifesaving information, we are indeed sending a few die-hard American-murderers to Syria for rendition, well, excuse me if my conscience is just not shocked.
To me, none of the above represents a civil rights violation. You know what it represents? It represents common sense. We're in a war, remember?
If you want to see a government violating its citizens' civil rights, you need to leave the United States for Canada and Europe. You know, those lands that are morally superior to our own.
Thomas Bray, a writer for the Detroit News, recently pointed out that the Canadian government has broad authority under anti-terrorism laws to intercept communications without court oversight.
In France, the current state of emergency resulting from the riots in the suburbs of Paris allows the government to impose curfews, seize evidence with no showing of probable cause and place suspects under house arrest for up to two months.
But if you really want to see the beginnings of a police state, you must go to England, the land of such obscene America-haters as John Pilger ("The current American elite is the Third Reich of our times") and Polly Toynbee ("Narnia is the perfect Republican, muscular Christianity for America -- that warped, distorted neo-fascist strain that thinks might is proof of right").
Sad to say, England is becoming a national prison of sissiness, 24-hour monitoring and mandatory love for multiculturalism.
Last year a Briton named Nicky Samengo-Turner described for the London Telegraph the hell he went though when a policeman discovered he had in his car a Swiss army knife. "You're going down, mate," the policeman said.
The driver was arrested, fingerprinted and jailed for several hours. He had been stopped and searched in accordance with new anti-terrorism legislation. In his case, the police were detaining every 25th driver.
According to the Belfast Telegraph, in the coming year the British government plans to enact a system under which the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded and the records preserved for a minimum of two years.
Using a network of cameras that automatically read every passing number plate, the police will be able to analyze any journey a driver has made over several years. Night and day, the cameras will watch highways, main roads, cities, towns, ports and gas stations.
In Gloucester, according to the London Times, the police send undercover diners to restaurants to eavesdrop on your conversations and arrest you if you say something insensitive about Asian Indians or Chinese. I kid you not. It's called "Operation Napkin."
Chief Inspector Dean Walker explained: "Our aim is to act in the interests of restaurants and other diners who are offended by racist behavior but feel reluctant to intervene. ... We want to encourage the reporting of racial crimes."
According to Reuters, the operation has now spread to London as well. On any given night, up to 20 officers are sitting down to free Indian, Chinese and Thai meals, waiting for a patron to say something "illegal."
But at least the police are exhibiting restraint. One poor sucker committed the grievous offense of mimicking an Indian accent. The officers decided his violation did not warrant offense. What magnanimousness. But then, I would expect no less. As Dennis Prager once asked: When have millions of Europeans ever been wrong before?
Michael Bowers is a copy editor and paginator for The Star. Send email to mbowers@starnewspapers.com.
David Boden
No, but I love it.
Michael Bowers' excellent article should be forwarded to every newspaper office, TV station and radio station in America.
Maybe then, if the snob media reads it, they will understand what every clear thinking U.S. citizen already knows.
I would also like to know where the Al'Quada location is and forward it to one our predator drones.
Including some Members of Congress, RINOs and DEMs!
ping
Chief Inspector Dean Walker explained: "Our aim is to act in the interests of restaurants and other diners who are offended by racist behavior but feel reluctant to intervene. ... We want to encourage the reporting of racial crimes."
According to Reuters, the operation has now spread to London as well. On any given night, up to 20 officers are sitting down to free Indian, Chinese and Thai meals, waiting for a patron to say something "illegal."
Bwaahaaahaaa! Oh those liberty loving Euros! Literally sending Humint Intel officers out amongst the unsuspecting masses
I completely agree with this column.
"Let me be the first to say it. I am delighted -- yes, delighted -- that President Bush has the National Security Agency monitoring the national conversation...."
I too am delighted about this, and called the White House to tell them so.
And for any civil libertarian purists out there, let me just say I lived across the street in Jersey City from the first WTC bomber (the dope who went back for the deposit on the rental truck). I remember saying to hubby after 9/11 that I was a lot more scared of the terrorists over here than the ones in the caves of Afghanistan.
We're not concerned about the NSA listening in because we have nothing to hide. Love the remark, passing it on. It may not be perfect; but, we need the Patriot Act.
What is the English British word for "Gestapo"?
Lord Ha-ha forgive me, I almost committed a racist crime, using the E-word.
It is better that 500,000 Little Eichmans be blown up, then one innocent anarchist activist have his rights violated.
(ss)Professor Ward Churchill
Oh, that is so good!
No I missed it when did he say that ?
You gotta love him.
AMEN!
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