With the PATRIOT ACT and its ramifications, the U.S. Constitution, and all of the government abuses which the Constitution's original framers ("America's Founding Fathers") had specifically prohibited in the spirit of government "of, for and by the People" (instead of the reverse, which is despotism at best, and fascism at its worst) and had created specifically to limit the power of a goverment to enslave the very people it is supposed to serve...the very populace to which it is accountable, the government has effectively awarded itself privileges to exempt it from the highest laws of the land, and to disregard the truest notion of Democracy at its whim.
"Sadly, most Americans, motivated by a combination of fear of terrorism, indolence, desperation and powerful "patriotic propaganda" do not fully realize that they have become nothing more than servants of the government, without power, without a voice, and most regrettably, without a democracy. The American people are now run by a little consortium comprised of an incredibly powerful government and its ever-increasing collection of agencies and a few very wealthy, powerful families. This is not Conspirarcy Theory -- this is the gradual deterioration of any notion of fairness, a declining level of expectation and participation amongst the public, and the abdication of real freedom for the illusion of safety." -- Douglas Castle
The quotation which follows from Benjamin Franklin, one of America's greatest Founding Fathers, inventors, philosophers, statesmen, authors and exemplary Patriot, says it much more eloquently...
I have always been a fan of the legendary Ben Franklin, as I have been an admirer of his vision, his wit, his sense of humor, his knowledge of Human Psychology and his views. I suspect that were Ben alive today, he would be amazed at the transmogrification of his democratic ideals and his views on personal liberties, freedoms, innovation and FREE ENTERPRISE. Further, I don't think that he would recognize the United States at all.
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The article extract which follows appears courtesy of AP (Associated Press):
FBI access to e-mail, Web data raises privacy fear
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 30, 1:19 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Invasion of privacy in the Internet age. Expanding the reach of law enforcement to snoop on e-mail traffic or on Web surfing. Those are among the criticisms being aimed at the FBI as it tries to update a key surveillance law.
With its proposed amendment, is the Obama administration merely clarifying a statute or expanding it? Only time and a suddenly on guard Congress will tell.
Federal law requires communications providers to produce records in counterintelligence investigations to the FBI, which doesn't need a judge's approval and court order to get them.
They can be obtained merely with the signature of a special agent in charge of any FBI field office and there is no need even for a suspicion of wrongdoing, merely that the records would be relevant in a counterintelligence or counterterrorism investigation. The person whose records the government wants doesn't even need to be a suspect.
The bureau's use of these so-called national security letters to gather information has a checkered history.
The bureau engaged in widespread and serious misuse of its authority to issue the letters, illegally collecting data from Americans and foreigners, the Justice Department's inspector general concluded in 2007. The bureau issued 192,499 national security letter requests from 2003 to 2006.
Weathering that controversy, the FBI has continued its reliance on the letters to gather information from telephone companies, banks, credit bureaus and other businesses with personal records about their customers or subscribers — and Internet service providers.
That last source is the focus of the Justice Department's push to get Congress to modify the law.
The law already requires Internet service providers to produce the records, said Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Justice Department's national security division. But he said as written it also causes confusion and the potential for unnecessary litigation as some Internet companies have argued they are not always obligated to comply with the FBI requests.
A key Democrat on Capitol Hill, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont, wants a timeout.
The administration's proposal to change the Electronic Communications Privacy Act "raises serious privacy and civil liberties concerns," Leahy said Thursday in a statement. [continued...] ####
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Pandora's box has already been opened. Sadly, all of the abuses, brutality, entitlement and power-madness have already escaped into our sacred culture. This is happening throughout many cultures, many sovereign nations throughout the world -- it is a predictable response to crisis management and short-sighted, fearful masses of people. I try hard not to picture sheep being herded and led to the slaughter when I hear of these frightening things. I also do not believe that there is a civil, peaceful way of reversing this process... an accelerating trend of increased government power over citizens worldwide. My fear is that it may ultimately lead to catastrophic clashes between hungry, homeless, overtaxed, overworked disenfranchised "serfs" and their self-proclaimed "Lairds of the Land."
International Trend Observations: Expect increasing government regulatory activity; expect an increasing percentage of the world's unemployed or underemployed populace to be working for governments or governmental agencies; expect the stock of the largest corporations who are most deeply entrenched with their respective goverments (usually through major, long-term contracts) to retain and gain some value; expect the largest banks to act more directly as extensions of government agencies, and only barely as lenders (although they will still enjoy holding our money at ransom, and charging us whopping fees to get it back out); expect an increase in the percentages of the world's "working poor" and a continued decrease in the numbers and ranks of the formerly stabilizing "middle class,"; expect people to be working (without retirement) to the point of death or complete disability.
My Only Proposal: Be entrepreneurial, and collaborate with other free-thinking, like-minded entrepreneurs to build a cross-border international community of free(er) people. This is the only reasonable alternative to waiting for violent revolution, financial aid which will never come, or getting on the government dole and "gaming the system." The irony is that this method of gaming the system is that this is the most significant talent that the urban poor and the politically rich have in common. It is certainly easier than problem-solving, innovation and productivity.
Faithfully,
Douglas Castle
p.s. You can only "game the system," while there is a system left to game. This is solid advice, or perhaps even a warning to governments and to those clever non-producers among us who live, generation after generation, off of various government programs.
Capital, Traffic Building, International Customers and unique SERVICES.
Douglas Castle
Career Profile: http://bit.ly/DouglasCastleResume
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