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01/12/2004 Archived Entry: "This pretty much sucks."
This pretty much sucks.
I realize that there is a need for airline security. But given ThugCo's propensity for using every single thing as a political bludgeon to beat opponents about the head, how do you suppose this will affect activists trying to fly into New York for the Republican Convention later this year?
Precautions in the name of air security are about to taken to a level unimaginable in the United States only a few years ago.The Washington Post reports the Bush administration is expected to order as soon as next month the first step in setting up databases on all air passengers, to be used to color-code each air traveler according to his or her potential threat level.
Passengers coded red would be stopped from boarding; yellow would mean additional screening at security checkpoints; and green would mean an only standard level of scrutiny.
Airlines and airline reservation companies would reportedly be forced to turn over all passenger records to U.S. government officials, who struck out in a trial program was based on voluntary surrender of airline industry data.
Not a single airline agreed to turn over data voluntarily.
Replies: 10 people speak up
What's next, star-bellied sneeches? How freakin arbitrary can you get? Didn't they figure out that no one likes these color-code systems? Where's the T-shirt, let's get one: "I'm a Yellow-Code Democrat"
Posted by Dr. Damfa @ 01/12/2004 11:15 AM NY
Remember the book 1984? Bush is Big Brother...
The only way to get rid of this pResident is to vote absentee (most important) and unplug the electronic voting machines. We need a paper-trail; that's all I'm asking for. Otherwise you can kiss ALL of your freedoms goodbye.
As for airline security; why are they so concerned about this stuff? If there really are terrorists out there intent on killing more Americans I seriously don't think they'd perform the same action twice.
I'd be far more concerned if TSA suddenly relaxes on security than a terrorist threat. I won't say what I'm implying here so draw your own conclusions.
Posted by Coujeaux @ 01/12/2004 12:11 PM NY
The real point behind this is to keep Americans from traveling outside the country. This
is what I would do if I wanted to take over a democracy:
1. The obvious step would be to start a war that wont ever end
2. Install faulty voting machines,
3. Undermine everyone's sense of security,
4. Bankrupt state and local governments,
5. Keep a running file on everyone,
6. Make sure all of the foreigners in the country are registered (maybe even make
them wear some kind of symbol on their chest to designate that they are
foreigners)
7. Destroy the education system
8. Make sure all of my friends run the media
9. And lastly, make sure that no one can get away, which is the point of all this
airline bullshit. If people can leave the country, they might not come back, and if
they do come back, they might bring dangerous "foreign" ideas back with them
This simple plan has been followed by every totalitarian regime in history (more or less).
You have to remember that even Hitler wasn't born evil, these things take time. America
will take a gentle touch to take over (luckily these whackos don't have it, they are just
pushing us closer to the brink, but I don't know if bush is man enough to take us over the
edge)
the takeover of America has been very gradual, it started before my birth, it started with
Kennedy's assassination, Vietnam, and Nixon's takeover, and was continued by Reagan,
Bush, Clinton and Bush (I think Carter was probably innocent in all of this) 9/11 was just
the catalyst for the current stage of the takeover (I don't know if bush was behind 9/11 or
not, no one ever will most likely, but he sure did benefit from it).
Our only real hope is that they played their hand too early, strong-armed it a bit too
much, and it will come back to bite them in the end. Sure, call me paranoid all you want,
we can discuss it later if we end up in the same re-education camp in a few years.
Posted by justin @ 01/12/2004 01:07 PM NY
Justin, I think you need to loosen that tinfoil hat a bit, it's cutting off your circulation. evident in that last paragraph. What's really happening is more akin to the plot of the original Rollerball movie with James Caan, than 1984. Businesses and Corporations are becoming more powerful than the governments of their home countries.
On the brighter side, I am happy to see you using the capitalization at the beginning of sentences, and there is more structure to your posts, so keep up the good work.
Posted by Stentor @ 01/12/2004 04:10 PM NY
So, what do you do when you aren't busting my balls?
Either way, tin foil hats don’t do any good. The mind control isn’t coming in ray form, it’s coming through the coaxial cable right in our houses in the form of news. It is exactly these corporations that you speak of that are coordinating the take over that I spoke of, the presidents that I mentioned were simply accomplices in the process, and almost every thing that has happened in my lifetime, and most likely yours, is just another part of the evolution of a new form of government, corporate feudalism.
An interesting book I read on that subject is called "Saturn’s Race” by Larry Niven. Its fairly soft science fiction, but interesting insight. Either way, an easy, interesting read.
Sure, saying "ill see you in the concentration camps" might be a bit of an exaggeration (or it may not) but it is less untrue than saying that everything is great, and America is on the right track. You will just have to forgive a bit of poetic license, or don’t, see if I give a shit.
Posted by justin @ 01/12/2004 09:00 PM NY
dear stentor, what are you using in lieu of a brain?
just wondering.
Posted by Laura @ 01/12/2004 09:30 PM NY
Come on now, be nice. We are all on the same basic side here (that is to say that we all share a common enemy) a little bickering is good, but we really don’t need to insult each other.
On a completely different subject, I had no idea that rollerball was a remake. Of course the new one looked so stupid in the commercials that I didn’t really pay it much attention.
A movie has to be pretty bad if Rebecca Romijn can’t even make me watch it on cable. I do like James Caan though, so maybe the old one is worth checking out.
Posted by justin @ 01/12/2004 11:27 PM NY
Actually, Justin's comments are not too far removed from Gore Vidal's numerous political essays over the past several decades. It's not too much a stretch of the imagination to envision the emergence of a Feudal Corporatist State. I refer all interested readers to two "sci-fi" novels I read many years ago:
(1) The Space Merchants - Pohl and Kornbluth
(2) The Merchants' War - F. Pohl (a sequel to the above).
On-Topic: I wonder if Tom Ridge will call yet another Orange Alert a few days prior to the NYC Republican convention. I suspect NYC will be closed-up tighter than a drum.
Decades from now, when our Blessed Republic is reduced to a curious footnote in the history books, it might well be said of our age:
The tragedy of our time is not that we became a nation of slaves, but that we became a nation of slaves so willingly.
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 01/13/2004 01:09 PM NY
isnt it funny how the most insightfull and though provoking books almost always come from the greatly underestimated world of science fiction. larry nivin has written a lot of great pseudo political work, and robert heinleins late work has a very anti corporate tone to it (especially "friday") that is what people who scoff at science fiction dont understand, the science fiction part, is just a set up for the political and social theory. lets not forget that 1984, a brave new world, and animal farm are all classified as science fiction. either way, i must say that everyone should go out today and buy hunter s thompsons new book "kingdom of fear" it is quite possibly the best book i have ever read, and that is saying a lot, because i have read a lot of books, i used to read 2-4 books a week before real life set in. now im lucky if i read a book a month.
Posted by justin @ 01/13/2004 01:59 PM NY
who has time to read books with all these damn blogs anyway?
Posted by justin @ 01/13/2004 02:01 PM NY
