… then Ronald Reagan got into office and it all went to shit.

So long, USA, it was nice to know you.

But it looks like I’m going to Canada by train to talk to the banks there Thank you!

Good luck with that (the train. If you’re traveling from Chicago to NYC, for example, on The Lake Shore Limited: well, when Amtrak arrives in Rochester, NY, the brown-shirts (literally! I believe they were sheriff’s deputies or something; definitely NOT border patrol agents) will be waiting on the platform. They board the train and go through the cars, asking everyone if they’re a U.S. citizen. Seriously! A few of the folks will respond with “I beg your pardon?!” or possibly “Is this still the United States of America?!” After a few or several “foreign nationals” are taken from the train, you will be allowed to proceed to your destination (assuming you weren’t among the detainees).

I live in fear of a real or manufactured “terrrist attack” used to justify the usurpation of the Constitution.

Feinstein should be ashamed of herself. So should Schumer. Shame on them.

Pray for us all.

Thank you for your post and for your book, which I will order.

To add to the list of potential nightmares is something strange that occurred last month in my area of northern Michigan (Tip of the Mitt). For approximately 6-8 hours one day, the entire area had NO telephone communication. All phone lines, were not operating. That, of course, affected all of the business in my town which had to shut down because their computers were inoperable. What was really odd was that there was no cell phone service either. The explanation going around was that one of AT&T’s fiber optic lines had been accidently cut. Communication was restored in the early evening.

The truly strange part of my story was something that happened to me two days later. I was doing my usual early morning web site browsing for news and analytic comments, starting with my home page, Talking Points Memo. After seeing what Josh is thinking, I go to Juan Cole’s Informed Comment to see what’s happening in the Middle East.

On this morning, when I attempted to access Dr. Cole’s web site, a page came up that said, “YOU ARE FORBIDDEN TO VIEW THIS SITE.” I have never encountered such a message before. I do not have any site blocking software on my computer since I have no children in my home. Therefore, I cannot account for this as an accidental activation of my own software. Having never seen this message before, I don’t know if it is a normal feature of Explorer or what. It did not look like the message that comes up when a website is simply unavailable. I wish I had saved it so that I could ask people with more knowledge than I of Explorer if it was recognizable.

I do know that I was shocked and chilled at seeing it. However, I went on with my browsing (FireDogLake is next), and returned later to Informed Comment, and it was then available.

I felt that this was extremely strange, and connected it with the interruption of telephone service two days before. I don’t know if my connection of the two events has any significance, but I have added it to the growing list of things that I find VERY disturbing about the progression of our nation toward facism.

Thank you for the opportunity to tell someone about this weird occurrence.

Kathy P

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2…..data_hell/
Hooray! I did it.

Hi Naomi,
can you add this link in the body of the article?
Many people do not read through the comments, and it is an important link.

It’s not that farfetched. You are traveling down one of our turnpikes. And you see a red light in your mirror. The pursuer pulls along side and orders you to pull over. You notice “Blackwater Patrol” lettered on the door. Next thing you know, you’re history.

Do I smell a market niche?

Here’s a business idea: The Sons of Liberty Roadside Assistance & Rapid Response.

Combining GPS tracking, incident documentation (video & audio remotely monitored), roadside assistance, and security response & lawyer dispatch times fast enough to rattle the right cages before the precedent is set and no one notices—after which it’ll be too late.

We’ve all been concerned about the advent of the 1984-surveillance state–rightly so.

But maybe the technology has more impact tilting events in our favor. After all, we’re not the ones with something to hide. They are.

So imagine capturing this highway scenario, and being able to a) contact the sheriff’s office or a private security firm within 30 minutes–or for that matter, 15 minutes; b) deliver footage to remote servers live, and to YouTube within 45 minutes; and c) have civil rights attorneys waking up both local DAs and regional USAGs in the middle of the night with phone calls within 60 minutes.

If I was someone like, oh say, Paul Wellstone, Glen Greenwald, DAn Levin, Jim Hightower, a Greenpeace staffer, maybe Cat Stevens, Amy Goodman, or Juan Cole, such a system might seem kinda useful.

Just sayin’.

We already do *OnStar, Sirius Satellite radio, AAA, etc., and the technology’s readily available and has already been applied in various forms. All it requires is someone integrating it effectively.

Peace and love to all of you! We will overcome, if not in this life, in the next.

So, if they are such Nazi’s how come they are in bed with all these Neocon Jews?

—-
[Drury] accuses [Strauss] of teaching that perpetual deception of the citizens by those in power is critical because they need to be led, and they need strong rulers to tell them what’s good for them. For Drury, Strauss was nothing less than a Jewish Nazi whose pretense of American patriotism and piety hid a cynical and extremist antidemocratic ideology.

Strauss put forward a belief in a totalitarian system run by a sophist elite who saw their mission as absolute rulers. This elite would rule over the populace through deception and consolidate their position of power by disseminating myths designed to keep the general population in blissful ignorance and docile servitude. Strauss thus believed in a hierarchical social structure that sees society divided into two classes: the elite who should lead, and the masses who should follow…Strauss is unconcerned with the moral character of these leaders; rather, he believed that those who are fit to rule are those who realize there is no morality and that there is only one natural right, the right of the superior to rule over the inferior.

Deception for Strauss is not just an unavoidable bi-product of politics but a central and necessary part of it, a condition of perpetual deception between the rulers and the ruled being the sine qua non of a stable society. Strauss suggests that noble lies therefore have a key role to play in uniting and guiding the mass of the population. The elite, in other words, need to proliferate certain myths in order to give people meaning and purpose and to ensure stability in society, on the basis that a populace dedicated to the relentless examination of what Nietzsche called deadly truths can never be conducive to social cohesion and a stable social order.

As another Strauss analyst summarizes, he advocates a society in which the people are told what they need to know and no more and he puts forward certain key myths that he claims all governments need to exert control.

http://www.getunderground.com/…..le_ID=2120
—-

- Tom

AMERICANS AGAINST MARTIAL LAW
Whose got a better concept?

It seems it would be neither here nor there for the rest of us, but it might spark Pelosi to action NOW if she learned Bush wiped out her position with the stroke of a pen.