SPOTLIGHT BIG BROTHER

I didn’t mean to rant again but I’m remembering something from the early 1960’s. As a young married, I attended a City of Fremont public meeting about a planning issue. I no longer remember what my publicly stated objection was, but within weeks, my neighbors were getting visits and calls about me, what kind of person I was, my habits and etc. I was under investigation by the FBI. Those were the J. Edgar Hoover days.

Also, before I got married, I worked for Alameda County. I showed up for work with a bumper sticker supporting Don Dillion for mayor. He wasn’t a mafia member. He was a local businessman who owned a citrus orchard. This was a local city election, but the county told me I had to remove my bumper sticker. I was furious but I needed the job and did it.

And, when I did marry, I had to quit my job because employees were not allowed to fraternize (let alone date) each other. Marriage? Out of the question.

Now, the Patreaus/Broadwell investigation has led to intrusive examination of private emails.  Democrat Patrick Leahy needs a healthy dose of censure from activists for his new and even stricter revision of the House of Representatives SNOOP law.  It is tiring that regular ciitizens like thee and me have to be government watchdogs. Not only guard dogs of the intrusive and corrupting influence of money, but the perceived and over rated dangers of email correspondence.

Most egregious, Leahy’s rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, OSHA, Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Maritime Commission, the Postal Regulatory Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Mine Enforcement Safety and Health Review Commission? Why should they be  allowed to subpoena my private information, with no judge to approve their need to know? They don’t even have to notify us that they are looking or have looked for as long as a year after the event. Unacceptable.

It isn’t law yet, but be aware if you have concerns. The entire document is available at this link if you wish to read it for yourself. That is, the discovery content from the online news organization from C/Net:

http://m.yahoo.com/w/legobpengine/news/senate-bill-rewrite-lets-feds-read-your-e-mail-without-warrants-191930756.html?orig_host_hdr=news.yahoo.com&.intl=US&.lang=en-US

ANARCHY 2012

The U.S. Constitution has been a model for other countries since its inception more than two centuries ago. Our Bill of Rights is considered one of humanity’s finest achievements. People from many nations have sought refuge here  to enjoy those freedoms. Yet, our current government has suspended important protections in the name of terrorism. A dangerous precedent via the Rave Act, the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act. With those and U.S. drug policies we are the most controlled and monitored society on earth.  There are cameras watching our every move on practically every street corner, every store, every mall. From the satellite above, every vehicle can be tracked by GPS  devices; there is one in every cell phone. Big Brother Is Definitely Watching. And, we’ve allowed it to happen.

Legislators are toying with interfering with our Judicial branch of government, by making laws against the court’s  unpopular decisions. Whether we like them or not we must not give up our checks and balances because they are currently unpopular. Let them stand the test of time.

We must give thought to what is happening in our country and become involved. It has swung out of control, prosperity evades us, and anarchy approaches, carried in a flag with a cross. Thomas Jefferson was famous for the Virginia Statute as much as for writing  the Declaration of Independence. He organized a Virginia  colony that separated Church and State, the very choking environment the colonists left behind in England,  the new colonies wanted to reinstate in “their” particular view of God. Thanks to the Virginia Statute we didn’t have to fight that  same nightmare all over again. And now, religionists are pushing strongly for laws that inject their morality into our laws on same-sex marriage, abortion, doctors rights to counsel, planned parenthood, and other bills slipped by us by both Democrats and Republicans.

With idyllic frenzy we’ve made laws that affect our country negatively. Two million Americans are incarcerated in the U.S., most of them for non-violent drug crimes.  Billions of dollars have been spent building prisons to house all of the Americans convicted of drug crimes. For carrying a half ounce of marijuana, a man who works and supports his children can go to prison for life in California and Texas.  Now Oklahoma is considering a similar law.

We are living in a police state not only from the surveillance, and the drug wars, but an increase in Police over-reaction. Nevada police have skipped free after killing an American Woman who came to the aid of her husband whom they had just killed when they asked him for identification and he reached into his jacket for his wallet. Such things should not happen in America. Protestors tasered, more police attacks on unarmed citizens.  America  imprisons more citizens  than any other nation. The government cannot afford to pay lifetime care for people who could and should be working and paying taxes. It is  insanely expensive and yet, they are willing to pay an informant, even a convicted felon, up to $250,000 to testify against someone charged with a drug crime. Of course, what convicted felon would lie to receive that kind of cash?

America’s prohibitionist policies have eliminated freedom all over the globe and the high money paid for drugs crossing our borders has helped fuel the terrorists instead of our tax purse. It is draconian.

Now, I read where the Occupy Wall Street protests are bothering the government enough to instigate a huge anti-public relations move and that the FBI will penetrate large OWS  groups to sabotage their effectiveness, make petty arrests and harass them.

Beware!  We don’t lose our freedoms, we give them away.