Hysteria Lane

by John Cory, Reader Supported News

Monday, 10 May 2010 08:49

National ID Card. (photo: file)

Reader Supported News | Perspective

wasn't going to write anything this weekend because I was angry with Democrats. Again. Yes, I know - big surprise.

Why?

Democratic Senators Durbin and Schumer introduced legislation calling for a National ID Card for all working Americans as part of the solution to immigration problems. A really cool one too, with biometrics and fingerprints and all that stuff.

Holy Joe Lieberman's reaction to the failed Times Square bomb attempt is to find a way to strip citizenship from suspects accused of terrorist actions against America.

And the great GOP blowhards are screaming about Miranda rights and revoking them or just ignoring them and now Attorney General Holder is on TV talking about "modifying" Miranda under certain circumstances. WTF?

I am screaming at the television, which is now ignoring me as it tells me to ask my doctor about a new pill that will keep me from screaming at the television. Side effects could include depression, suicidal thoughts and talk radio voices in my head.

The reaction around the failed bomb attempt has generated a whole new brouhaha about whether people on the Terrorist Watch List should be allowed to purchase guns or not. Mayor Bloomberg calls it common sense that such a loophole should be closed. Senators Graham and Collins say that we need to be careful about denying citizens their Second Amendment right to purchase firearms.

Now I am screaming - inside my own head - no need to disturb the neighbors again.

Whether or not people on the Terrorist Watch List should be able to purchase a gun IS NOT the issue, folks.

The Terrorist Watch List/No Fly List should be the issue!

Government agencies have a LIST - but unlike Santa this list is only the bad people. You know, like 8-year-old Mickey Hicks or the late Senator Ted Kennedy. That list. Remember?

How big is the list? One million names. How do you get on it? How do you get off it? Who the hell controls it? How valid is it?

There must be a hundred questions that need answering about this LIST and I realize the celebrity media journalists are still sharing Facebook photos from the big White House Correspondents prom they just attended but - anyone? Hello?

Okay. My fault. There is no news media today - they all sold out for really cool parties and red carpet sunglasses. And the only rights they are interested in saving are the movie and publishing rights of their next book.

But what about the protectors of democracy and freedom and all those noble words pontificated by Democratic leaders and candidates during campaign season? Where are they now? Transparency? Change? Hope? Democracy?

How do you modify freedom? How do you modify constitutional rights? Either you have freedom or you don't. Either you have civil liberties and constitutional rights or you don't. You can't be a little bit pregnant and you can't be a little bit free.

Right after the Times Square bomb attempt, Mayor Bloomberg said that these people attack New York and America because of our freedoms. They hate us for our freedoms.

If the terrorists wait a bit longer maybe they can pick up our freedoms at the fire sale on Hysteria Lane. Buy civil rights cheap - two for the price of one.

I wonder how much angrier I can get with Democrats?

A rhetorical question.

Never mind.

Comments

+14 # Guest 2010-05-10 08:15

Why is it that even the left caters to the right wing in this power structure. It is like we are more afraid of the Boogy Man than the dog that is chewing our leg.

+6 # Guest 2010-05-10 11:43

The left in the U.S. disappeared about the time TV started giving equal time to the "scientists" who said there was no climate change due to use of fossil fuels; but those who thought the people who worked and made the wealth should be getting most of the benefit were a fringe group of wierdos.

+5 # Guest 2010-05-10 11:45

WHY?! INDEED!!!
Corporations out! NOW!!!
We desperately need publicly funded elections.

+3 # Guest 2010-05-10 15:21

Quoting

Why is it that even the left caters to the right wing in this power structure. It is like we are more afraid of the Boogy Man than the dog that is chewing our leg.

you almost "got it" --- they are in bed with OIL/BANKS--- and BTW Congress still has their "whatever medical plan" and won't have to join the "new whatever it is that got passed"

+19 # Guest 2010-05-10 10:03

Again, John Cory has spoke my mind. I'm not about to take my life's savings and spend it on a plane trip to Europe only to find out, at the counter, that I am on the no-fly list. AKA - you go nowhere and there's no refund for your airline tickets. I know a 60-ish sweet man who tried to board a plane to see his grandkids only to be told he was on the no-fly list. He asked WHY?? The ticket agent asked if he had ever attended an anti-war march. He had. The agent said, "Yup, that'll do it". Those million on the list are anti-war marchers. NOT TERRORISTS. They are simply patriots who care about their country -- those are the ones on the no-fly list. This is FASCISM. And it will take a blizzard of resistance to get rid of it.

+6 # Guest 2010-05-10 20:35

I was determined to get arrested in the days of anti-war marches before the invasion of Iraq along with thousands of others. I had done everything else I could do and I wanted my name on the roll call up yonder of those doing all they could do to stop the slaughter and unnecessary suffering. I did not anticipate getting on a no-fly list because of participating in a great American tradition of civil disobedience. No more plane trips for me. No family reunions or going to funerals of even close relatives and friends. I don't understand people tolerating the humiliation and indignities they must go through now to travel.

I want MY America back!

+2 # Guest 2010-05-11 14:05

The republicans are doing everything to destroy democracy in America. It's a Party ticket that needs to get it's head chop off, yeah, just a venomous snake.

+12 # Susan W 2010-05-10 10:36

You are so correct once again! That list is a total farce. My 38 year-old son ended up on it when he went to Hawaii 2 years ago. He wasn't on it when he left home but was mysteriously added to it while sitting on his ass drinking beer on vacation. He was never told why and hasn't tried flying since but assumes he is still considered a "terrorist" for being a hard working, blue collar, native born American citizen. What absolute BS and you are the only one to point out that the list is the problem.

+11 # Guest 2010-05-10 10:56

The mysterious, byzantine "no-fly" list has always troubled me for all the reasons mentioned in this article.

So, are the Tea Party types loudly questioning the 'no-fly" list? Or are they still stuck on birth certificates?

Just interested.

+8 # Guest 2010-05-10 11:24

In the 1850's through 1930's, if not longer, all Chinese, whether born here or not, had to carry citizenship cards to prove their Americanism.

If 'everyone' has to have them, does that make for an even playing field? But of what? Full on suspicion and paranoia. Who belongs and who doesn't and who gets asked to show and who doesn't have to show. This country is going backwards, not forwards. We need take a good hard look at our foreign policy and fix it. Freedom? "Oh they're just jealous," comes probably from the people who haven't traveled at all out of this country. There are some really wonderful places besides America. Really.

Democrats have been wimps for the past decade. Corporate money. And who once again pays for their cowardice? The people. How much longer can I hold on to being a Democrat? Alternative? None.

+4 # Guest 2010-05-10 11:31

Wow, you nailed it, exactly. We are through being railroaded and must fight back with great vigor...and we CAN do that.
Eric Holder isn't showing us much as an Attorney General. I suggest he seek "to spend more time with his family" and be replaced forthwith.

And if our "Constitutional Scholar" of a President can't get his head out of the pudding pot and straighten up and fly right, he needs to be reminded of our Constitution until he REMEMBERS it. Good gawd Gertie.

+7 # Guest 2010-05-10 13:24

Free Country and Democracy USA? Ha,Ha,Haaaaaaaa aaaaa.......! Not here!
This country was much more FREE when the Indians were still in existence.
How can people who live and are kept in FEAR be a FREE nation! Ask this to yourself.

+8 # Guest 2010-05-10 13:24

How about "racial profiling,"? What "race" is Tiger Woods, or my old friend in Alaska who is genetically half Caucasian, one quarter Eskimo and a quarter Japanese. Under what "race should he be 'profiled." Let's just have "profiling," so when a tall, blond, blue-eyed man with no luggage wants to check in, dressed in sandals, T shirt and short pants, and wants to travel one-way to Barrow Alaska - maybe someone should check on him, whether he is on a no-fly list or not. From an old Alaskan

+2 # Guest 2010-05-10 13:50

Mad at the Democrats, John?

You should be mad at yourself.

The "terrorists" -- the people who committed the violence of 9/11 and who perpetrate most of the terrorism around our world -- still control both the Democrats and the Republicans.

That's the way it is.

If you are going to be mad, be mad at your blindness.

You are foolishly expecting something better from the Democrats based on PR.

It's a different flavor of PR than FoxNews, but it is still PR and from the same source.

You are buying into "ostensible diversity" with "underlying uniformity."

You cannot expect POSITIVE change from *anyone* until you know what to look for, and where.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-10 13:54

angry at democrats? yessir. where I live in Indiana there isn't a Democrat on the ballots...

+2 # Guest 2010-05-10 15:18

Quoting

angry at democrats? yessir. where I live in Indiana there isn't a Democrat on the ballots...

WOW "june noble" --- all republicans? I think you miss the point! Democrats are our ONLY hope -- and they aren't doing "what they promised" --- of course we now know they are in bed with the oil/banks/ and of course Republicans (I suppose) in mind-spirit (whatever)

+4 # Guest 2010-05-10 14:53

No big surprise that the 'no fly' list includes peace promoters. We peace lovers are 'anarchists' and are to be grouped in with terrorists according to Norther Command Center rulers here in Colorado Springs, the country's super fusion center that oversees telling cops how to brutalize and intimidate anarchists, via 'spooks', in over seventy centers nationwide. Nearly all elected officials, regardless of belonging to the G.O.P. or Dem. Party, refuse these days to be tough and put a stop to our fascist police state, constant war mode, election fraud, loss of rule of law, etc.,etc.,etc. Some HOPE from the Dems., including a man named Obama. If their pansey approach is supposed to give us HOPE, I'd hate to know what gives us despair.

+1 # Guest 2010-05-10 15:16

I yell at the TV also --- but all this "no fly" list and racial profiling is a diversion --- Write this every day to your reps/senators "bring home troops from German, Japan, etc. and put them on the border --- build the fence(S) --- maybe we need 3 or 10 in a row. Then deal with the illegals in our country. Let me see --- the easiest way is to MAKE the employers verify (I think it WAS eVerify) each worker he hires." Make your own words as I'm just a programmer who can't write forcefully enough -- but YELL on the phone at them too --- SHORE up our borders!!!!!!!! !!! They can/have waltzed into our country and I hear (c-span) from so-called experts "they" have cells in the USA, grow weed in the USA --- and ... so... SHORE UP OUR BORDERS

Then keep spamming your reps/senators until you eVerify WHO GAVE to their campaigns (oh we're having a primary in a month?-- good time to start)

+9 # Guest 2010-05-10 15:17

"They hate us for our freedoms" is a canard that could only convince a significant slice of the population in a country as ignorant of history as our own. Right, it's our "freedoms" that have them pissed off -- not our pimping of their resources, propping of their dictatorships, or bombing of their populations...

+3 # Guest 2010-05-10 16:00

Aurolyn....this is the most critically-thought-out comment, yet!

+3 # Guest 2010-05-10 15:18

George Bush may no longer be president, but his doctrine marches on. Obama may not be a Republican, but he sure is acting like one. And, Eric Holder may not be Roberto Gonzales, but he's sure acting like him. If this law passes along with Senator Lieberman's law stripping an American citizen of his citizenship without any due process, if according to our government the individual is supporting what we define as a terrorist organization, which could even be a charity, Bush's ghost continues to eat away at what little we have left of our civil rights and our civil liberties. Why did we vote the Democrats into power if they simply continue Bush's doctrine?

+4 # Guest 2010-05-10 16:10

It's interesting to see that the mindset of the Salem witch trials and McCarthyism is alive and well in America.

+3 # Guest 2010-05-11 07:34

The question should be, what are we going to do about it?

I have my own ideas, but then the Republicans will call me unspeakable names. The Party Of Evil is nothing but a Medieval curse, a black plague arising from the ashes of Dark Ages!

That is why they believe in the institutionaliz ed religious hypocrisy. It gives them an excuse to bring up the "Salem witch trials and the McCarthyism" in them among a lot of other nasty things.

The good point is, the coming of Obama brought out this hidden curse out in the open to warn not only the nation but the entire world of the evil of fascism, racism, hypocrisy, greed and of the GOP.

Just look at what is going on, and that is just the visible stuff, not the hidden ones.

So, again, what are we going to do about it?

+4 # Guest 2010-05-10 17:52

John: Which part of the word FASCISM don't you understand?

+2 # Guest 2010-05-11 06:21

Just let the civil war begin and see how many of these wanna-be fascists will crawl back into their cesspools. I say that because there is no room for them in the rest of the world. Fascism is dead everywhere except in the USA! The rot continues in the GOP, Rightwing Conservative, Republicans and in the Judicial, police, penal and jury systems in America.

If these neo-nazis idiots think we are going to let the USA become another pre-WWII Germany, just let them try! Only this time let's finished the job!

+3 # Guest 2010-05-10 19:06

No government can create or preserve freedom/civil rights. Government is a seat of central power, which can only limit individual rights, not "create" those which are every human being's by birthright. No one "gave" me my rights, nor you yours. But each of us has lost any number over some excuse by government. "National emergency", "temporary measures", "internal security" (you want to tie my hands for MY "security"?). Governments do not run out of excuses until they are run out of town.

"That government governs best, which governs least" --Thomas Jefferson. You will find those words nowhere on the platform of either of our two "major" parties, nor waved on any banner above a Tea Party.

+1 # Guest 2010-05-10 21:02

I despair that the idealized spirit of America so aptly described by Thomas Jefferson has perished now and forever in our society. I forsee no possibility of the resurection of a truly free and democratic America and I do not believe that our social institutions have the capacity to revive the American dream. I cannot imagine that the people will have the capacity to over throw the tyranny we live under. I am begining to find comfort in the notion of anarchy. I believe that durable change is only going to be possible when our government is destroyed, not just modified, and I welcome that destruction. The biggest threat to the survival of the planet is the United States and perhaps it is time for the people of the world to over throw us. We have not proven to be worthy of the power that we weild over the planet. Far from it. WE are the tyranny that must be defeated that freedom can have a chance to live. WE are the greatest terrorist threat.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-11 11:49

Daniel, what should really bother us is that we're the most powerful country on earth, not just in nukes, but in conventional weapons as well. Check out the following video from the Global Report, and tell me what you think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8qHfavdXMA

The problem is that when a country becomes as powerful as we've become, if you get a rotten egg in as pres, a Hitler so-to-speak, it could prove fatal to the whole world, including the U.S. Imagine, for example, if Adolph Hitler inherited the kind of power that we have when he took over Germany.

I don't know if you ever revisited the article titled "Karl Rove, Republican Party plot vast network to reclaim power," and read some of the msgs I posted for you referencing "The Global Report" (GR), a half-hour news program that I watch on FSTV. If you haven't, I think that it's one of the best news programs that runs on a shoestring budget. Check out the 2 other links that I ref about GR.

+3 # Guest 2010-05-11 13:44

Daniel, I was watching Democracy Now this morning on FSTV where they interviewed a Taraq Aziz, someone that I've heard many times in the past, and what he stated to Amy Goodman was somewhat disturbing to me. I was hoping that one of the primary reasons why Gordon Brown's labor party lost was due to the Brits being sick and tired of the UK jumping thru America's hoops, supporting all of our illegal wars of aggression, that they were sick and tired of their leaders acting like America's poodles and not as leaders of their own sovereign nation, but apparently I was dead wrong.

According to Taraq Aziz, all three of the political parties involved, labor, conservative, and the liberal democrats, are all supportive of the illegal U.S. wars of aggression. It seems that, even with a three party system in the UK, that the British people do not have any political party that will tell the U.S. where to stick it.

+1 # Guest 2010-05-11 15:53

Harold, I'll be investigating your links. Thanks for the info!

What you describe about the Brits sickens me. They may have wisely divested themselves of empire but gee, why not! As a proxy, they can be our poodles and share in the spoils of our imperialism! And gee; they don't have to pay the freight nearly as much as we! Smart cookies alright...maybe we're the tail being wagged.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-11 18:32

Here's another interesting thing that I heard on Grit TV. I present you with the Wikipedia Page on the Dream Act:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DREAM_Act

The Dream Act specifies how undocumented aliens can become U.S. citizens. The vast majority of the conditions specified to meet the requirements of citizenship are almost impossible for the vast majority of undocumented aliens to meet. It targets primary young people, primarily Hispanics, even tho they're not mentioned, since most of the undocumented aliens who can't meet the vast majority of the conditions, except one, joining the military, are Hispanics, & there are a lot of undocumented Hispanics.

The bottom line here is that this act will be a major recruitment tool to guarantee our military an unlimited pool of warm bodies to fight their illegal wars. The act requires that an individual serve a minimum of 2 yrs in the army, but when one joins the military, the minimum service time is 8 yrs.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-11 21:54

Harold, I'm already blown over by the fact that Blackwater mercenaries match US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on a 1 to 1 ration. Our mercenaries equal our troop strength such that when we are told about the deployment of our troops, the fighting force is actually twice as big as we are being lead to believe.
And now this! Harold! Think of it!..which you already have of course.
We now have a ready pool of recruits to draw from, recruits that can ALSO be put to use to subdue ourselves, here in our own country should we wish to express our defiance against our overlords.
It boggles the mind, and I confess...this had not occured to me before, and should have.
The master class, the oligarchs have found an inexhaustible pool of potential thugs to draw from to keep us in line and to continue their destructive domination of the third world.
God in heaven. What have we become.
The 20th century saw over 100 million dead from it's wars. What will the 21st century be like?

+2 # Guest 2010-05-12 06:50

What I couldn't fit in my last posting was that, even if an undocumented alien does join the mil, they would have to serve the full 8 years honorably. That means that they would have to follow every order as given to the letter. And, after they leave the mil, they can't get into trouble with the law. They would be on probation for who knows how long.

They're being taken for fools & they don't even know it. There's a documentary that will be out soon titled "Yo Soy El Army" that covers the Dream Act & what's going on in the nation's schools, how the mil has sent in Hispanic mil recruiters to brainwash the students into joining the mil.

When Bush passed the "No Child Left Behind Act, one of the conditions for schools to receive federal funding was that they had to allow the mil, not only direct access to the school, but contact info like the student's home addr & all their phone numbers, home & cell numbers, & complete access to their school records.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-12 07:07

This is an addendum to my last posting. The "Yo Soy El Army" documentary also shows that the military has even recruited the teachers, Hispanic teachers in the schools, to propagate the lies of the military recruiters. One clip from the documentary shows an Hispanic teacher talking into the camera and saying that the Marines do not train their recruits as killers, the most horrendous lie of all.

When these Hispanic soldiers finally leave the army and come home, even if they are not damaged for life psychologically , if they cannot find decent work to survive, their military training may come into play in a way that nobody is going to like.

+1 # Guest 2010-05-12 12:57

Daniel, if you would like to watch & listen to Grit TV's Laura Flanders' interview with the two gentlemen who produced the documentary titled "Yo Soy El Army" & see some clips from the film, go to Grit TV's homepage:

http://grittv.blip.tv/

When the page fully opens, it will begin playing the complete episode of Grit TV's most current program. You'll see Laura Flanders introduction. On the right side you will notice a vertical column of small icons with a date beneath each of them which will indicate the date that they were aired on Grit TV along with the subject title. Since I don't know when you'll read this posting, look for the icon with the title of "The Dream Act" which should be under the 05/11 date. If you click on that icon, it will begin to play the interview that Laura Flanders had with the producers of the documentary "Yo Soy El Army," & you will also see some clips from that documentary which might get you very angry. Give me some feedback.

+4 # Guest 2010-05-11 03:22

Soon it will be so important that we protect our women that they will need to wear burkas!

+3 # Guest 2010-05-11 06:15

The right wing conservative republicans calling of arms: The Mexicans are coming! the Mexicans are coming! NO, NO, they are here! The are here! Wait! The Chinese are coming, the Chinese are comming! No wait, Sarah Palin saw them from her backyard! Wait! No, Russians are coming, the Russians are Coming! No, No! It's Hugo Chavez is coming, Hugo Chavey is coming! Wait! It's the Cubans are coming, the Cubans are comming. Wait! It's Amy Goodman that is coming, Amy Goodman is coming!
No, Wait! Obama is coming, Obama is coming!

And so on and on. Get the point!

Only the guilty, greedy, the mean spirited, the immoral,the wicked can be so terrified of the reality. Everything they say is a big lie! Enters the GOP and it's storm troopers, their corporate whores, the police and their TEA Party!

+4 # Guest 2010-05-11 10:35

Given how poorly the corporate airlines maintain their aircraft and how little they pay their pilots, I have put *myself* on a "no-fly" list. Every time you turn around a plane is dropping out of the sky due to some "malfunction". Add to that this bogus no-fly list, the bodily searches, extra charges for being overweight, extra charges for carry-on bags, extra charges for using the bathroom, extra charges for everything they can possibly come up with so their fat-cat CEOs can make their yacht payment on time... I'll take a pass. We'd do well to remember that to the corporate airline the plane, the pilot, the crew and YOU are ALL expendable in the quest for shareholder profits.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-11 14:12

With republicans flying in those airlines, it behooves people to be on the "no-fly" list. With the entire civilized world hating every thing that GW Bush did and the Republicans creating a fascist states and bragging about it only mean every USA citizen is in danger of being mutilated and harmed throughout the civilized world. Only in the USA are these sorry stupid neo-cons, fascists, racists getting away with it.

We, the Democratic Party must and can do something about it. Those politician that don't want to follow us, discard them like wet rags!

I see you at the polls!

+2 # Guest 2010-05-11 15:47

You are so right GroundBound. Perhaps as a strategy we should start thinking of ways to thwart this corporate madness. Ideas come to mind such as: borrow as little as possible and pay it off as quickly as possible; avoid credit; defer purchases until you can pay cash; do NOT buy what you do not need; defang Madison Avenue and the machinations of the oligarchy by refusing to own a television set...please stop watching it!; read books and lots of them for information on the world and its history; get your news from the internet only and if you must access radio and cable news programing be extremely selective; downsize materially - get rid of your junk and don't try to replace it; establish food coops; see if you can barter services for goods, or barter any way you can; work to get past a cash economy where you can; walk, don't ride, when you can; take buses or trains, not planes; make do or make what you can; save, save, save; don't let corporate America pimp you in any way you can.

+3 # Guest 2010-05-12 07:57

I highly recommend everyone to watch Zeitgeist's "The Addendum" at zeitgeistmovie.com.

Secret no-fly lists, chipped passports now required to set a toe off US property, erosion of civil rights, Structural Adjustment Policies being moved forward in the US, "our" corrupt representatives all theatrical majors supporting the corporatist agenda...and now again, here we go with the National ID cards.

Last time around they called them "Smart Cards" and tried to use the then-current hysteria over identity theft to shove this through. Now it's the current hysteria over immigrants and terrorists that's being used to herd us into being a nation of people with electronic anklets.

I highly recommend, again, everyone watching Zeitgeist The Addendum at zeitgeistmovie.com. It is highly educational.

The Addendum is not a left thing or a right thing. It is a tutorial on economics, the herding of populations and the vampiric nature of corporations on nations.

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