Monday, October 24, 2005

The United Police State of America

It's happening. Not since J. Edgar Hoover was watching over us, has our right to privacy been in so much danger. New records released to the Electronic Frontier Foundation under an FOIA request reveal the FBI has been illegally spying on Americans without proper paperwork or needed oversight. This is the direct result of post 9/11 paranoia that allowed the Patriot Act to set the bar for our civil rights.

How long will it take for Americans to realize that trading your freedom for the illusion of safety is a bad deal? Time to abolish the Patriot Act and call from some accountability from this government.

posted by Libby Spencer at 1:13 PM

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's just shocking isn't it? And worse still this trend is not limited solely to the US. In some respects the anti-terrorism legislation currently being debated in Australia is even worse. Not with respect to spying - though they no doubt do that as well - but in terms of detainment without charge, broad-sweeping sedition policies and even attempts to legalise using lethal force against someone not even charged with anything yet (e.g. London Part II). Heaps more on this on my blog.

At any rate, the quote from William Shakespeare's "Julius Ceasar" is eerily apt:

"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrow the mind... And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded with patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader, and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."

6:39:00 AM  

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