U.S. Becoming More of a Police State

Let me me preface this by saying I am a card carrying lover of the United States and the rights & liberties we enjoy as citizens of it.

Although, sadly, I am seeing more and more of those liberties and rights being violated under the guise of "National Security".  Any country or state for that matter, in my opinion, that gives up freedom for security is not somewhere I would want to live.

If you want to see what the Good Ol' U.S. of A. could be turning into just watch the movie V for Vendetta or read George Orwell's 1984 written in 1948 by the way.

The NSA and other alphabet agencies seem to be taking their cues from the Committee for State Security otherwise known as the Cold War Soviet Union's KGB.

The KGB was known for 'Supressing Ideoloical Subversives' or in other words those with thoughts and ideas that are not in line with what the Gov't wants.

Leonid Brezhnev, and those who came before and after him, ordered the State and KGB to actively perform routine house searches, rifle through trash, to seize documents, listen in on phone calls, and if it had existed then I am sure he would have been nosing around in our e-mails, and other private communications and he also had the KGB on continual monitoring of dissidents and residents. Sound eerily familiar?

I am sure if you do your reading on the KGB and compare it to current U.S. Policies and Practices you will find quite a few similarities.

As you know from my previous posts concerning Surveillance Devices in our home, Increased Surveillance in The U.S., & Florida, Arizona, and The Police State know that bit by bit our civil liberties and rights are being taken away right under our noses.

This piece has been kicking around in my head for a while now, and due to a recent article I read on Yahoo today, 14 June, 2011 concerning how the F.B.I. has granted itself, with no oversight whatsoever, new abilities and powers I thought it was time to emerge from mere thought into words of black and white.

The article which can be read here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic/20110613/ts_atlantic/newpowersfbijustgranteditself38763

The above states that the Feebs have given themselves 'more autonomy than ever to conduct low-level searches without a paper trail.'

Example 1) Undocumented Database Searches - Under the new rules, agents will be allowed to search such databases without making a record about their decision, according to the FBI's General Counsel it is too cumbersome to require agents to open formal inquiries before running quick checks. Or for that matter it must be too much of a hassle to bother with the 4th Amendment.

Example 2) Lie Detector Tests (AKA Psychological Stress Evaluator Tests) Under current rules Agents can't administer a Lie-Detector test until they open a 'Preliminary Investigation,' which in turn requires a factual basis for wrongdoing.

Well, Gosh fellow citizen, they need actual evidence that you are guilty of something before they, the mighty F.B.I., can poke their nose into your personal business. Sure sounds like a good idea to me, what about you?

The new rules will allow Agents to use Lie-Detector tests not just on those suspected of criminal activity, but also on potential informants, and from the way it sounds to me, whoever they feel like as long as their investigation is considered an 'Assessment'.

Example 3) Trash Searches – Agents will be able to search the trash of a 'potential informant', or your average Joe Blow as part of an 'assessment'. “Agents have asked for that power in part because they want the ability to use information found in a subject's trash to put pressure on that person to assist the government in the investigation of other people.” The F.B.I. General Counsel said information gathered that way could be useful for other reasons. Apparently like Nazi Germany and the former USSR our Gov't wants We The People to turn into snitches on our friends, neighbors, co-workers, and more than likely our families.

Maybe as with the old Soviet Union to cause neighbor to snitch on neighbor for personal gain or favor and then the Gov't could wrongfully imprison or persecute/prosecute those that they feel are a threat to their agenda. 

Remimds me of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and the
Red Scares/ McCarthyism of the 1950's and 1960's.

Example 4) Surveillance Squads - The current guide stipulates that these highly trained squads can only be used on a target once during an assessment. The new rules would allow them to be used multiple times, but keep in place limits on the duration of physical surveillance. Read my article on Increased Surveillance in the U.S.

In the context of preventing governmental intrusions into personal life, Justice Louis D. Brandeis of the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the writers of the U.S. Constitution conferred:

The right to be let alone — the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men. To protect that right, every unjustifiable intrusion by the government upon the privacy of the individual, whatever the means employed, must be deemed a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

In other words the U.S. Gov't is in violation of the 4th Amendment every time they utilize any of the above, in what, We The People, feel is an unauthorized intrusion into our personal lives and business.

How about our trash. There is a reason why trash bags are, black, green, or brown, because even with our garbage we expect some measure of privacy.

Most of us do not set our cans on the street, but on our lawn or driveway next to the street. Which means it is still on private property and not public lands. It is not as if there isn't the technology for clear garbage bags for use in our homes. We see them in offices everyday.

I think a judge in a Florida appellate court said it well:

"In my view, a homeowner, upon placing items in a closed garbage container and placing the container in a position on his property where the container can be conveniently removed by authorized trash collectors, is entitled to reasonably expect that the container and the trash therein will be removed from his property only by those authorized to do so, and that such trash will be disposed of in the manner provided by ordinance or private contract. By sealing the containers in a secure manner and placing the containers on his own property, the owner has done everything within his own means to insure the privacy of the contents thereof, short of delivering the containers to a central disposal site himself."

So beware the next time you e-mail, take the trash out, make a call or text on your cell, Big Brother is observing and listening to you with Satellites from space, small UAV's hovering at your window as you watch TV, and going through your trash while you sleep.

As an added piece of food for thought, I believe we need to make a addition to the Article 2 of the Constitution, As such, to be considered for President of the United States, and as Commander-In-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces the candidate MUST HAVE served in the Armed Forces. How can the President order our men and women into battle if he has never served himself and does not understand what it entails.

Remember *Writing is the socially acceptable form of Schizophrenia*

Two of my favorite sayings in closing:

1) If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized or easily referenced.

2) "It is the duty of those who CAN see what is going on to expose to those who cannot see, the situation that they are unaware of!"