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Grubble Grubble
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Thursday, August 08, 2002 :::
rant
Ok, I was listening to a speech that Bush the younger was giving today at a school. One of the points he was discussing was homeland security. He wanted congress to give him the ability to put people in place without having to deal with annoying rules and regulations that don't mean anything.
Is it just me or does this scare you? The idea of rules and regulations are to keep us from making monumental mistakes. Or abusing the system. It is our system of checks and balances. Speaking of which, did not our founding fathers specifically set up our three separate parts of government with checks and balances?
Let me add to this rant Junior's desire for a program called TIPS. To summarize, this program will train our friends, neighbors, and local service people to spy on us. Next time your apartment maintenance man comes into your place, he may spend some time snooping.
The potential for abuse is amazing. What if someone does not like you? Suddenly you are being informed upon. Bush is planning on testing this in 10 cities with a total population of approximately 24 million Americans. The goal is to recruit 1 million people for the test.
That is 1 in 24. Even at the height of the cold war, the Stasi could not claim such numbers. You remember the Stasi, don't you? This was the apparatus set up by the Soviets to spy on and police their own people.
Ok, I know I am sounding paranoid, but we are shifting here into a very frightening place. It was not too long ago that Bush was accusing anyone who disagreed with him of being anti-American. Since when is expressing a contrary opinion to be un-American? We are supposed to be a nation founded on rebellion.
If we cannot debate divergent views here in America without being accused of sedition, where can we?
/rant
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