George Orwell was Right!
Now that President Cheney… I mean Bush, has the nation firmly embracing the mentality of fear in his roll as Big Brother… I mean as our President, we should all sleep better at night. Snug in our beds while surveillance cameras keep a watchful eye out for terrorists committing acts of terror and running a yellow light at three in the morning.
Billions of tax dollars are being wasted by the Department of Homeland Security with a vast conspiracy theory that everywhere you look the terrorists are going to pop out and get you. The Boogie Man could only have dreamed of having a public relations campaign like these guys have worked up.
With FDR rolling over in his grave at a couple of thousand RPM’s a minute, Bush has succeeded in making us all for the most part live in fear simply because he thinks that we should. The only thing we have to fear is…(insert Bush tag line here) __________!
Over at the Boston Globe they have this interesting point of our governments efforts to protect us all…
US doles out millions for street cameras
Local efforts raise privacy alarms
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff August 12, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Homeland Security is funneling millions of dollars to local governments nationwide for purchasing high-tech video camera networks, accelerating the rise of a "surveillance society" in which the sense of freedom that stems from being anonymous in public will be lost, privacy rights advocates warn.
Snip
In the last month, cities that have moved forward on plans for surveillance networks financed by the Homeland Security Department include St. Paul, which got a $1.2 million grant for 60 cameras for downtown; Madison, Wis., which is buying a 32-camera network with a $388,000 grant; and Pittsburgh, which is adding 83 cameras to its downtown with a $2.58 million grant.
Small towns are also getting their share of the federal money for surveillance to thwart crime and terrorism.
Recent examples include Liberty, Kan. (population 95), which accepted a federal grant to install a $5,000 G2 Sentinel camera in its park, and Scottsbluff, Neb. (population 14,000), where police used a $180,000 Homeland Security Department grant to purchase four closed-circuit digital cameras and two monitors, a system originally designed for Times Square in New York City. - Boston Globe
This story reminds me of yet another one from ten or twenty years ago where the FBI infiltrated a local KKK organization to keep an eye on them. While the surveillance went on for months it was later reported that in the local group that they were keeping a close eye on there was actually only one or two members that were not undercover FBI agents. My point in mentioning this little story is that whenever we put total trust in our agencies to protect us they inevitably screw it up or are over zealous with their efforts.
I’ve always been a firm believer that there is no better deterrent to crime than a person in a police uniform patrolling the community we live in. Pick a city or pick a state and where there is a strong police presence crime goes down. There is not a camera out there that will ever stop a crime from happening but a uniformed police officer can. All of the money that Homeland Security spends on surveillance cameras on our streets could actually pay for several years worth of police officers salaries.
What’s next on the Bush/Cheney doctrine to protect us from the terrorists is American Blue and Grey uniforms so authorities can more easily spot the terrorists amongst us. If George Orwell only knew.
Papamoka
Billions of tax dollars are being wasted by the Department of Homeland Security with a vast conspiracy theory that everywhere you look the terrorists are going to pop out and get you. The Boogie Man could only have dreamed of having a public relations campaign like these guys have worked up.
With FDR rolling over in his grave at a couple of thousand RPM’s a minute, Bush has succeeded in making us all for the most part live in fear simply because he thinks that we should. The only thing we have to fear is…(insert Bush tag line here) __________!
Over at the Boston Globe they have this interesting point of our governments efforts to protect us all…
US doles out millions for street cameras
Local efforts raise privacy alarms
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff August 12, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Homeland Security is funneling millions of dollars to local governments nationwide for purchasing high-tech video camera networks, accelerating the rise of a "surveillance society" in which the sense of freedom that stems from being anonymous in public will be lost, privacy rights advocates warn.
Snip
In the last month, cities that have moved forward on plans for surveillance networks financed by the Homeland Security Department include St. Paul, which got a $1.2 million grant for 60 cameras for downtown; Madison, Wis., which is buying a 32-camera network with a $388,000 grant; and Pittsburgh, which is adding 83 cameras to its downtown with a $2.58 million grant.
Small towns are also getting their share of the federal money for surveillance to thwart crime and terrorism.
Recent examples include Liberty, Kan. (population 95), which accepted a federal grant to install a $5,000 G2 Sentinel camera in its park, and Scottsbluff, Neb. (population 14,000), where police used a $180,000 Homeland Security Department grant to purchase four closed-circuit digital cameras and two monitors, a system originally designed for Times Square in New York City. - Boston Globe
This story reminds me of yet another one from ten or twenty years ago where the FBI infiltrated a local KKK organization to keep an eye on them. While the surveillance went on for months it was later reported that in the local group that they were keeping a close eye on there was actually only one or two members that were not undercover FBI agents. My point in mentioning this little story is that whenever we put total trust in our agencies to protect us they inevitably screw it up or are over zealous with their efforts.
I’ve always been a firm believer that there is no better deterrent to crime than a person in a police uniform patrolling the community we live in. Pick a city or pick a state and where there is a strong police presence crime goes down. There is not a camera out there that will ever stop a crime from happening but a uniformed police officer can. All of the money that Homeland Security spends on surveillance cameras on our streets could actually pay for several years worth of police officers salaries.
What’s next on the Bush/Cheney doctrine to protect us from the terrorists is American Blue and Grey uniforms so authorities can more easily spot the terrorists amongst us. If George Orwell only knew.
Papamoka
Cross posted at Gun Toting Liberal
Technorati Tags:
Bush, Cheney, Chertoff, Homeland Security, Video, Cameras, Big Brother, Republicans, Al Quida, Terrorism, New York City, US Military, Orwell, Orwellian, Osama Bin Laden, Iraq, Afghanistan, Civil Liberties, Over Compensating, Gonzales, War on Terror
Labels: Airport Security, American Safety, Be Afraid, Being an American, Homeland Security, Safe Streets, Safety in numbers, Saudi Arabia, Terrorist Suspects, Tower one, Tower two, World Trade Center
posted by Papamoka at
2:32 PM
2 Comments:
Oh, CHIT! LOL... great minds think alike, bro... ! ! ! ! ! !
Beat ya to it didn't I? LOL! Well it is supposed to be cross posted at Gun Toting Liberal.
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