Now this is what I call letting the terrorists win.

Don’t worry. The FBI has been trying to get a unified computer system for tracking cases up and running for more than a decade, and all they’ve accomplished is wasting tens (if not hundreds) of millions of taxpayer dollars.

Console yourself in the fact that this project will be executed by contractors who are so incompetent that it will NEVER work, EVER. It’s just a money pit.

what a bunch of freakin scaredy cats.

Yep, this will be finished when Duke Nukem Forever gets published…

Ya know - Jesus had a simple message: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

And in the end, that’s a purely defensive attitude.

It’s the best defense against those who would harm us.

One would think a “Christian nation” might try it.

It’s a lot less expensive and a lot more effective.

I know - no profit to be made.

Oh well.

The FBI Deputizes Business
“…“Then they said when-not if-martial law is declared, it was our responsibility to protect our portion of the infrastructure, and if we had to use deadly force to protect it, we couldn’t be prosecuted,” he says…”
http://www.commondreams.org/ar.....2/07/6918/

Everything else they’ve tried to accomplish seems to have worked. They’ve taken away our basic right of Habeas Corpus. They’ve switched our military policy to accept pre-emptive wars. This is just another step in a long line of successes.

Top Ten Signs Your Country May Be Going Fascist

Check out Number Six.

Yep, this will be finished when Duke Nukem Forever gets published…

You mean we’re still waiting? Lord it’s been years!!

Two things spring immediately to mind. One: the false positive rate on this thing is going to be HUGE. Many many people are going to be falsely accused of things due to this. And, as a secondary thing, the people who are supposed to be watching this are going to let legitimate positives slip through the cracks…I work in a hospital and I can tell you technology, as advanced as it is, is stupid. EKG (12 lead) machines give diagnostic labels to ekg’s that are COMPLETELY off base routinely. The monitors are CONSTANTLY alarming, and no one really pays the slightest attention. If a patient is really crashing, we know because we are watching them with our own eyes, NOT listening to the monitor.

Two: How many people are going to lose their jobs for being falsely identified as ‘having a brush with the law’ as it was put in the article??? What happened to being innocent until proven guilty in a court of law?? I thought this was the purpose of routine background checks on employees–which also have their issues, but at least nothing shows up until it’s a conviction….

I smell a massive lawsuit in the works. I also smell massive civil disobedience — and destruction of the cameras by disgruntled citizens.

MountainMan23 @ 5:

Ya know - Jesus had a simple message: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

And in the end, that’s a purely defensive attitude.

It’s the best defense against those who would harm us.

One would think a “Christian nation” might try it.

It’s a lot less expensive and a lot more effective.

I know - no profit to be made.

Oh well.

Absolutely right.

The U.S. has this obsession for trying to put an end to the “symptoms”. As for root cause of criminal / terrorist behaviour — it’s not so important.

The terrorists are indeed winning.
.
.
.

All presented in a cutesy-wootsy, gee-wiz, golly-willikers-ain’t-that-neato-keen tone, as if they were doing a consumer-info piece on a new freekin’ washing machine or something; y’know, just another breathless report on just another bit of high-tech gimcrackery, but with just enough “criminals” and “terrorists” (what’s the friggin’ difference, anyway?) thrown in to make John and Jane Doe - addled as they are by their fast and happy lives as mindless consumers anyway - register the proper Pavlovian responses.

Is this wretched nightmare over yet?

Cool wire frames — I’m sure that cost Homeland at least a million plus another mil for Kelly’s work-up.

You might like this if you liked how the Nazi’s rounded up Jews, Queers and anyone else who didn’t have blue eyes, blonde hair or supported Jewish People and Spiritual People.

Jage @ 2:

Don’t worry. The FBI has been trying to get a unified computer system for tracking cases up and running for more than a decade, and all they’ve accomplished is wasting tens (if not hundreds) of millions of taxpayer dollars.

Console yourself in the fact that this project will be executed by contractors who are so incompetent that it will NEVER work, EVER. It’s just a money pit.

Well with the Dems in control of congress, and a potential Dem prez, it might work.

If this follows the same bungling track as the FBI computer systems, then we are safe.

What is with that organization? Violating our civil rights, and spying on those trying TO DO GOOD, DO RIGHT, such as Dr. King, anti-war demonstrators, animal rights activists, eco-activists, etc.

The FBI is an organization of evil, repressive bastards. I don’t care how many TV series that they have trying to convince us otherwise, my perception is that he FBI is a kinder, gentler version of the KGB and other undemocratic secret police groups in Russia, North Korea, Iran, Egypt, etc. How are they any better?

Does this sound like a good thing or a bad thing, Winston?

Answer wrong and win a trip to Room 101 in the Ministry of Love.

On the other hand, look at how DNA information has been used to free convicted people or prevent the conviction of wrongly accused persons. On the face of it, all biometric information can do is say person X is person X, whether he is trying to pass himself off as person Y or person Y is trying to steal X’s identity. If it works. The story mentions fingerprints as the gold standard, but lately there have been stories that fingerprint identification is as much art as it is science when used in crime investigations.

Ordering pizza in the future…

“Of course the people don’t want war. But after all,
it’s the leaders of the country
who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple
matter to drag the people
along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist
dictatorship, or a parliament, or a
communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the
people can always be brought to
the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you
have to do is tell them they
are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for
lack of patriotism, and
exposing the country to greater danger.”

– Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

We’re all the enemy to this government. “Eventually it will be everybody.” “…used to keep unauthorized people out of secure places.” “…fingerprints like snowflakes, no two are the same Wolf.” Isn’t there something about opinions being like a$$ho1es? Oh, and by the way
Big Brotha used all the “fascinating” data they got on Kelly and she’s now in Gitmo.

Big Brotha used all the “fascinating” data they got on Kelly and she’s now in Gitmo.

Who’s Kelly?

Danny @ 13:

You might like this if you liked how the Nazi’s rounded up Jews, Queers and anyone else who didn’t have blue eyes, blonde hair or supported Jewish People and Spiritual People.

Exactly. This isn’t a joke.

jesus also said — believe in my daddy or you’ll go to hell for ever

STOP George @ 10:

MountainMan23 @ 5:

Ya know - Jesus had a simple message: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

And in the end, that’s a purely defensive attitude.

It’s the best defense against those who would harm us.

One would think a “Christian nation” might try it.

It’s a lot less expensive and a lot more effective.

I know - no profit to be made.

Oh well.

Absolutely right.

The U.S. has this obsession for trying to put an end to the “symptoms”. As for root cause of criminal / terrorist behaviour — it’s not so important.

The terrorists are indeed winning.
.
.
.

and since, as we all know the concept of innocent until proven guilty is unknown in corporate america, except at the upper levels, the mere reporting of an arrest for a criminal act will result in a job termination. no conviction necessary. but i’m sure the fbi has a plan to insure that the public suffers no undue harm from this release of information to employers. right?

We can spy on all of our citizens with immunity and technology, but we can’t find Osama Bin Laden? Or Tim Osman or whatever his name is. Something is wrong. Our priorities a little backwards. I can’t believe they are getting away with this. I really can’t. I thought the American people were prouder and smarter than this.

Lets face it, obl won with one attack.

He changed this country from a great democracy to a police State.

Stop donating millions to these freaking Senators who approve this crap.

None of them are standing up and filibustering for us.

Not Obama not Clinton, none of them.

Give your money to disaster victims.

Orangutan. @ 24:

We can spy on all of our citizens with immunity and technology, but we can’t find Osama Bin Laden? Or Tim Osman or whatever his name is. Something is wrong. Our priorities a little backwards. I can’t believe they are getting away with this. I really can’t. I thought the American people were prouder and smarter than this.

Proud, yes. Proud to be stupid.

“…employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law. …”

Unless your an illegally immigrating brown skinner from Mexico/South America. The corporations will welcome you with open arms and no doubt be given an exemption to employ you at a fraction of the salary of the citizen you are replacing.

Shouldn’t that be Big Sibling now?

getalife @ 25:

Lets face it, obl won with one attack.

He changed this country from a great democracy to a police State.

Stop donating millions to these freaking Senators who approve this crap.

None of them are standing up and filibustering for us.

Not Obama not Clinton, none of them.

Give your money to disaster victims.

Television writers?

Many topics are like organ harvesting or child sex slavery. We know they exist, but they are too horrible a reality to discuss openly. True.

I’m sure the thinking is, “why should you worry if you’re not doing anything wrong?”

Minority report.

Maybe instead they could just assign each of us an FBI agent to follow us around 24/7 and report every fu*king thing we say and do, when we eat and sleep. Maybe even shower with us too, just to be sure that we live on the straight and narrow.

Filthy Harry @ 1:

Now this is what I call letting the terrorists win.

I would disagree. This sort of thing has always been in the works because it’s about getting political power and cover by taking easy security actions the public thinks it’s OK with because terrorists and criminals will be identified and controlled more easily. In every country around the world, even ones where the government is very oppressive of its people, the public time and time again stands behind its leadership (again, bad or good) when there’s a war to fight, or a security action being taken to fend of an unknown or undefinable threat perceived as outside of the culture.

Look at the way terrorism and crime is described in rhetoric, and you’ll find that it’s always defined as being amorphous, unknown, uncontrollable, outside. Terrorists are always overseas somewhere else, yet when a white guy hear goes to a mall and shoots people up and commits suicide, he was simply a murderer. His action would be criminal of course, but the point is about the language and how people perceive things because of it and its repetition over days, years, decades, even centuries.

This is not necessarily about letting terrorism win. It’s about government trying to take more control under the guise of securing others. This will certainly make people secure, but it does as little for personal security as it does more for mass security. This is about the enduring human need to control, not about giving in to Osama, although he certainly hasn’t helped. The problem is that this stuff is always doomed to fail on some level because people will start showing false positives in the system, people will be wrongfully accused, lives will be inadvertently destroyed, privacy will die, etc. etc. on down the line. All of this to feel safe from criminals, whose population is aggrandized to be larger than it realistically is.

Remember that Bushco tried getting unrestricted wire tapping well ahead of any 9-11 terrorism.

BlueIndependent @ 33:

Filthy Harry @ 1:

Now this is what I call letting the terrorists win.

I would disagree. This sort of thing has always been in the works because it’s about getting political power and cover by taking easy security actions the public thinks it’s OK with because terrorists and criminals will be identified and controlled more easily. In every country around the world, even ones where the government is very oppressive of its people, the public time and time again stands behind its leadership (again, bad or good) when there’s a war to fight, or a security action being taken to fend of an unknown or undefinable threat perceived as outside of the culture.

Look at the way terrorism and crime is described in rhetoric, and you’ll find that it’s always defined as being amorphous, unknown, uncontrollable, outside. Terrorists are always overseas somewhere else, yet when a white guy hear goes to a mall and shoots people up and commits suicide, he was simply a murderer. His action would be criminal of course, but the point is about the language and how people perceive things because of it and its repetition over days, years, decades, even centuries.

This is not necessarily about letting terrorism win. It’s about government trying to take more control under the guise of securing others. This will certainly make people secure, but it does as little for personal security as it does more for mass security. This is about the enduring human need to control, not about giving in to Osama, although he certainly hasn’t helped. The problem is that this stuff is always doomed to fail on some level because people will start showing false positives in the system, people will be wrongfully accused, lives will be inadvertently destroyed, privacy will die, etc. etc. on down the line. All of this to feel safe from criminals, whose population is aggrandized to be larger than it realistically is.

Remember that Bushco tried getting unrestricted wire tapping well ahead of any 9-11 terrorism.

Undoubtedly the petty rulers have always wanted more power and control. The terrorists attacked America in the way that they did in order to change America. If our gov’t uses that attack to justify their powergrab, the terrorists win.

There is absolutely nothing new in this information.

Remember DARPA? Remember the Total Information Awareness Program?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.....ess_Office

And that’s not all: FBI program alleged to prepare businesses for martial law.

Have a nice day!

For some reason I have two gin-scented tears trickling down the sides of my nose…
I think everything will be all right, though.

A billion dollars, yet the borders are left wide open.

A big-brother state won’t come in one fell swoop. It will grow inch-by-inch, chipping away your freedom one moment of privacy at a time. And always, always, promising its desperate need to protect public safety.

i love it! the reporter goes ahead and has her face/eyes scanned. brilliant! the authoritarians are so powerful, that they actually sucked this lady into getting scanned under the guise that she was actually just “reporting” the news…..

how effective those authoritarians are!

Undoubtedly the petty rulers have always wanted more power and control. The terrorists attacked America in the way that they did in order to change America. If our gov’t uses that attack to justify their powergrab, the terrorists win.

And Bushco hasn’t shown itself to be petty? They didn’t show their lust for power until after 9-11? This is very foolish thinking. That the terrorists attacked us only hastened what has been in the works for a long time. Did the terrorists win? They helped, but they didn’t win. Surely helping the process was their gambit, but they hardly invented the motive. Besides, they ultimately are the primary targets of all of this surveillance. The problem comes in when the surveillance starts missing the mark regularly onto innocent people, and while the cost to actually find a single criminal/terrorist skyrockets due to all the false positives.

I got into this subject with somebody recently. We know what an opportunist like Bush does with tragedies on the scale of 9-11 or Pearl Harbor, and we know what better (though still flawed) men do or are capable of. Bush took license to break domestic and international law in pursuing nationalized belligerence internationally with his tragedy; FDR (mostly) reformed a country and gave us the best years we’ve ever seen, coupled with the greatest and most important social reforms. But even FDR incarcerated Japanese Americans, and tried pulling his own view of the law around at certain points. This trend went public with McCarthy’s Red Scare, and Nixon’s declaring that if the president does something, anything, it’s legal. I haven’t even gotten to FISA yet.

Do not make the mistake of thinking this stuff wasn’t already coming along. Osama and his ideological brethren are aiding and abetting the reduction in freedoms worldwide, but they didn’t invent the goals. They, ironically, are the brothers of those in government who swear they will do everything in their power to protect us, even if our enslavement is deemed necessary.

Guilty before proven innocent.
That’s backwards of our way of justice….isn’t it?

Make any arbitrary law and then selectively enforce it. That’s how Nixon fought the hippies.

Acting Patriotic @ 36:

And that’s not all: FBI program alleged to prepare businesses for martial law.

Have a nice day!

Yep, and remember all those ‘camps’ that Haliburton has been constructing right here in the good ‘ol USA?
It’s for a massive influx of immigrants (natural disaster?) and “OTHER NEW PROGRAMS”…..HMMMM

Tim @ 38:

A billion dollars, yet the borders are left wide open.

They have to be to sell their muffins and cafe au lait, and maybe some books too.

Instead of contributing our hard earned money to politicians we should be sending it to the ACLU. They’re about our only hope to help put an end to (or at least slow it down) this erosion of our rights. Had the Democrats taken significant steps to put the brakes on BushCo I would be more than happy to support them with my money. Since they simply continued to hand Bush the money and the power to continue his assault on the Constitution I won’t give them one red cent. There are good ones out there but it’s time to make the good ones realize they need to do more to bring the bad ones around or else help us kick them to the curb. Democrats in Congress, police your own to help us get our country back.