There's no place like home. There's no place like home.
"Researchers say they are rapidly closing in on new types of materials that can throw a cloak of invisibility around objects, fulfilling a fantasy that is as old as ancient myths and as young as "Star Trek" and the Harry Potter novels." I wish I could put a cloak of invisibility over most of the news stories I get assaulted with every morning. The latest story that takes us one step closer to the type of government you see in the sci-fi movies, you know the ones that are all-powerful, all-controlling and doesn't tolerate any criticism or opposition to it, is from the Supreme Court.
We know that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales thinks the government should throw journalists in jail for reporting what the government deems classified. That means that any criminal conduct by the government, buggings, cover-ups, bribes, IRS audits of political enemies, (sound familiar) could be deemed classified, and it would be illegal to report on it. I guess all that "original intent/strict constructionist" talk, as in "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press," needed an asterick. *Except for information we deem "classified" meaning those stories we deem politically damaging. So the war on terror is now a war on journalists who, by a plain reading the U.S. Constitution, are supposed to enjoy no law abridging their freedom of speech and the press. Now the war on information damaging to the government has expanded and has another causalty - government whistleblowers.
In a 5-4 decision to make any future (and current) repressive government happy, the Supreme Court said the nation's 20 million public employess do not have free speech rights to disclose government's inner workings. That fighter for the little guy, Samuel Alito cast the tie-breaking vote. The case arose from a memo a Los Angeles district attorney wrote questioning whether a county sheriff's deputy had lied in a search warrant affidavit. He claims he was demoted and denied a promotion for trying to expose the lie. He lost. So now it you are not in government as a member of the press, and try to expose how government is working you can be thrown in jail and if you are in the government and try to expose its malfeasance you can be fired or perhaps, this probably comes next, thrown in jail.
I'm sure there are people out there, proably a lot, who think all this is fine. I though we are fighting Al Qaeda and other tyrants because they hate us for our freedoms. That they are trying to take away our freedoms. They don't have to. We are doing it ourselves. Slowly, systematically, routinely and without any hue or cry from those more interested in what's on the sports page rather the front page. I'm going to go on Ebay now to look for that invisibility cloak.
We know that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales thinks the government should throw journalists in jail for reporting what the government deems classified. That means that any criminal conduct by the government, buggings, cover-ups, bribes, IRS audits of political enemies, (sound familiar) could be deemed classified, and it would be illegal to report on it. I guess all that "original intent/strict constructionist" talk, as in "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press," needed an asterick. *Except for information we deem "classified" meaning those stories we deem politically damaging. So the war on terror is now a war on journalists who, by a plain reading the U.S. Constitution, are supposed to enjoy no law abridging their freedom of speech and the press. Now the war on information damaging to the government has expanded and has another causalty - government whistleblowers.
In a 5-4 decision to make any future (and current) repressive government happy, the Supreme Court said the nation's 20 million public employess do not have free speech rights to disclose government's inner workings. That fighter for the little guy, Samuel Alito cast the tie-breaking vote. The case arose from a memo a Los Angeles district attorney wrote questioning whether a county sheriff's deputy had lied in a search warrant affidavit. He claims he was demoted and denied a promotion for trying to expose the lie. He lost. So now it you are not in government as a member of the press, and try to expose how government is working you can be thrown in jail and if you are in the government and try to expose its malfeasance you can be fired or perhaps, this probably comes next, thrown in jail.
I'm sure there are people out there, proably a lot, who think all this is fine. I though we are fighting Al Qaeda and other tyrants because they hate us for our freedoms. That they are trying to take away our freedoms. They don't have to. We are doing it ourselves. Slowly, systematically, routinely and without any hue or cry from those more interested in what's on the sports page rather the front page. I'm going to go on Ebay now to look for that invisibility cloak.
posted by Crankyboy at 10:58 AM
3 Comments:
Yeesh... When's it gonna stop? (The quickest way to stop the bleeding, you know, is a tourniquet. Hopefully the voters will exercise that option in November!)
I heard today that e-Bay is thinking about selling out to MicroSoft. Get your invisibility suit quick! Prices are gonna go up...
The US army and their trainees had these invisibility cloaks in South America a while back. I think they called it "Operation Anaconda." In fact the use wasn't limited to South America, they used them in Mexico, Guatamala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama - and only recently with Chavez and Aristide did they figure out how to make the wearers of the cloaks reappear.
I rank the "invisibility cloak" right up there with the water engine Fox News was touting.
But this government needs something like it to hide the fact that they're fascists.
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