Letters to the Editor
Bill Owen
Published Letters: 508 Editor's Choice: 6
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@ Buck Fush
[Read the article: The "liberal" position on the Surveillance State]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks! We can quibble about the details but most of us would agree that the apparatus of democracy is being dismantled before our eyes. The end of habea corpus, the abolition of the Posse Comitatus Act, black clad heavily armed police asking for papers, the tasering of the opposition, secret trials, secret prisons, a poisoned public dialog where those who simply ask for change are branded as traitors, the list goes on.
America is indeed not a textbook police state and so Wiki's definition does fall down in some areas. What we have now is a new and improved police state. America, or at the least the oligarchy, has learned from the mistakes made by previous authoritarian regimes. They have maintained free speech for instance, anyone can say anything, on the streets, or in their blog and they do. I listen to Mike Malloy at Nova M all the time, and Mike talks about 911 Truth, the "Bush crime family" et al and he is not arrested. The genius of this is that it provides an outlet for dissent, but is actually harmless because their 'truth' is shouted from every telescreen, and every edition of the Times - our Truth is harmless, because there is no choice anymore. America is not free.
America voted to end the war - yet it continues. I cannot think of a better example of the clearly expressed will of the people being so completely ignored. Is that democracy? Is that freedom?
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Chocorat going up!
[Read the article: The "liberal" position on the Surveillance State]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Morning, Smith.
Parsons.
Heard the rumor?
No. Good news, is it?
I should say so, yes.
Choco rations going up.
Really?
Twenty-five grams next week.
Doubleplus good.
The problem is I remember when the chocolate rations 30 grammes. Hell I remember when you could collect your paycheck and buy all the chocolate you wanted. Not anymore. Today it goes to the corporation - to VISA.
They do the same thing with gasoline. Used to be people got mad when it went to 2 dollars a gallon, now we are happy when it goes "down" to 3.
He who controls history controls the future.
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@ Timberman, controlling history
[Read the article: The "liberal" position on the Surveillance State]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"But of course no one can."
Glenn just gave us a perfect example. The history is that FISA was seen as far right, authoritarian, et al. The revised history, the one that the vast majority now believe in, is that a return to FISA will be a victory for the left, that it will return us to liberal democracy and freedom. Well it won't, as Glenn demonstrated.
The fact that you remember, that I remember, or even that Glenn with his pulpit remembers, is unimportant. What will that fact of your "remembering" change? Most people don't remember. Winston remembered that his choco ration had gone down not up, but you could not prove it by Parsons, the proles, or O'Reilly.
I keep hearing how America won WWII, and the Cold War. I think you would be hard pressed to find an American to disagree with me. My history book says something very different. As Napolean said, "History, is a lie agreed upon."
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@ LWM - Brilliant Exposition of the Problem
[Read the article: The "liberal" position on the Surveillance State]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You are correct the prison industry and it's support mechanisms form the core of any fascist state.
You may have heard of Nils Christie the author of "Crime Control As Industry: Towards Gulags, Western Style is an essential guide to understanding the incarceration boom and considering how we can turn it around. The first book of Norwegian criminologist Nils Christie, Limits to Pain, argued that the criminal justice system is in fact a pain delivery system, with the size of the system controlled not by the number of committed acts labeled as crimes but by the amount of pain that a society is willing to impose on its citizens. Crime Control as Industry expands upon that theme, and tracks how an industry has arisen to manage crime. And like any industry, the crime control industry is not about to say on its own: "Stop, we have enough of the market. We don't need to grow."
from Amazon reviews... http://tiny.cc/tk3YA
I used to work at Canada's Correctional Service at their National Headquarters, so I know something about this. In Canada we have roughly 15,000 Federal inmates who are serving over 2 years. Our population is about 1/10 of yours, so if America incarcerated at the same rate as Canada you would have roughly 150,000 prisoners vs 2.3 million. Despite the fact that we still have a few blacks running around loose, crime is not a problem in this country. We have about 550 murders a year, 80% of those are domestic or between acquaintances. I think our experience puts the lie to any thesis that America's insane correctional policies have anything at all to do with controlling crime.
For what it is worth though, our prisons are pretty much filled with the poor, minorities (many aboriginals) the deranged, and of course those highly dangerous marijuana growers.
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@ LWM Rewriting history
[Read the article: The "liberal" position on the Surveillance State]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For the record. I think Russia won WWII. If the Wehrmacht's best divisions had not been destroyed by the Russian bear at the cost of 20 million lives, then they would have been waiting for you - and your allies, let's not forget them, on the beaches of Juno.
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@ Timberman
[Read the article: The "liberal" position on the Surveillance State]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So we agree on many things, let's make some history then. I never said give up. Quite the opposite sir.
Aux barricades?
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This is why I have my own business
[Read the article: The ornery pride of the political journalist]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If my "boss" told me I had to work in the bathroom. I would not work in the bathroom.
Call me crazy.
Surely one of them must have said something? Not a whine? Not a whimper?
We are in a great deal of trouble.