Letters to the Editor
-
art guerrilla re pwog
I've seen that abbreviation used here and there, but couldn't be sure I knew what the writer meant when they wrote it. Thanks for putting it in a board enough context to give it meaning. I also, then, assume it's a slur. Got it.
-
Innovation in government
That's the beauty of the security partnership between the government and the companies running the surveillance state infrastructure: they can charge us for it indirectly. No new taxes, just pay your cellphone provider, satellite TV provider and internet service provider a third of your salary, and get spied on for free. Not only that, but the same system provides Safeway with inventory control, Blue Cross with a list of your pre-existing conditions whenever they want to escape paying a claim, and your employer with a virtually cost-free way to count your keystrokes per hour, check for excessive liquor purchases, and find out where you are without hiring a foreman to check all the john stalls.
Whoopee! Shooter is small potatoes; all he wants is an armband, a set of earphones, and a pat on the head every now and then. If he had the slightest bit of imagination, he could be building temples to Thanatos on every other streetcorner, and really raking it in.
-
This reminds me...
I was clicking some of the links you provided in your previous blog entry on this subject ("Our benevolent surveillance state") and found this that was in a Washington Post article linked to in a Corrente blog entry:
The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources, a hundredfold increase over historic norms. The letters — one of which can be used to sweep up the records of many people — are extending the bureau’s reach as never before into the telephone calls, correspondence and financial lives of ordinary Americans.
This reminded me of something I read at the Capitol Hill Blue website several years ago. Doug Thompson, creator of the site, who lives in Virginia started noticing a sudden influx of government workers at the coffee shop he went to in the mornings. There were literally dozens of people with government I.D. badges, so he began approaching them and asking where they worked and what they were doing. He learned these people worked at a new agency nearby and their sole purpose was to collect and store the data of every bank transaction made by every single American in the country.
This is something that gets very little attention, but obviously there is much cooperation taking place between banks and the U.S. government, as well.
-
@CarolynC and GlennGreewald's relpy
CarolynC,
Thanks for the Arendt quote via Chalmers and your added insights. Perhaps that "curious, quite authentic inability to think" explains why many of the same politicians and media stars who couldn't restate enough during the Impeachment Years that "we are a nation of laws, not men", and who couldn't repeat "rule of law" enough times on the endless panels assembled on Larry King and elsewhere, seem now unable to grasp in meaning and immeadiacy the "staggering" - as Glenn stated - "scope and breadth of domestic spying".
Glenn wrote;
All excellent observations. Tyrannical leaders of other countries get demonized into absurd caricatures, stick figure cartoon villains. So as long as people don't see those absurd images here, they tacitly assume that everything is fundamentally different, even when the behavior is the same.
Absloutely right, but those tyrannical leaders "get demonized " by narratives provided by the Right-Wing and fixed into public consciencness by the media. That's why Chavez is a caricature and Musharraf isn't. I'm not defending anyone here but it's clear that if Chavez had done what Musharraf did in declaring a state of emergency and enacting those draconian measures that he did, the media reaction would have been drastically different because the media's driving force, the Right-Wing noise machine, would have demanded it.
My broader point in relation to your comment is this: that same process, as you are already aware, is the driving force behind how our politicians become characterized domestically. People don't see those absurd images here, with George Bush in office, because neither the consequences of actions nor fundamental principles are the driving foce behind the behavior of our media - Right-Wing power is. It doesn't take much imagination to see how fundamentally different the entire discussion might be if Al Gore or John Kerry were in power, but those are the two who became the "absurd caricature" while the closest president we've ever had to actually being a "stick figure cartoon" was treated by the press and advertised to us as a man of inherent greatness and nobility.
-
Glenn ...
This paragraph was the best addition to your argument I've seen in a while:
This doesn't mean there is a complete erosion of freedom equal to all of those societies. Free speech still basically thrives; we elect our leaders; and individuals retain a fair amount of autonomy in their personal choices. But it is simply undeniable that many of the political attributes that were always used to define the oppressive societies against which we were supposedly fighting are now explicitly vested in our own government. By itself, the scope and breadth of domestic spying is just staggering, and much of it is illegal.
It's smart to address the argument that claims our concerns as frivolous and from the far left-wing. We are not all rabid radicals hell bent on criticizing this country and its leaders. I think that average people don't realize that these actions in our government may over time result in the complete erosion of this country's founding principles. I want to protect our children and future generations from this creeping disease. There have been plenty of mistakes made by governments ... even when those in power try to serve the best interest of our people. Humans make errors, and sometimes the errors can pave a path to larger, less reversible, errors. This country is great, and we want to keep it that way. This is true democracy.
Glenn, I hope you are writing recruitment pieces that summarize for easy understanding. Mainstream media will take up this issue ... it's a critical one ... but like global warming, also so obvious, it's taken our larger population years to see the light. I really hope you can apply your unique skills to further rally those who focus on paying the bills & feeding their families ... to explain to them why this issue is so critical. It is these people who need to learn about this ... and soon. I think if this is done with calmness and a steady message .... eventually people will see the light. Support from the Dem candidates would be wonderful, too.