Congress OK’s expanded drone flights over the U.S.; bill headed to President Obama’s desk Read more

[babsbunny]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/congress-expanded-drone-flights-u-s-bill-headed-president-obama-desk-article-1.1018705

Flights could include some scenic sections of New York

By Joseph Straw / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/congress-expanded-drone-flights-u-s-bill-headed-president-obama-desk-article-1.1018705#ixzz1ljwt2bA2

WASHINGTON - Congress has approved legislation allowing expanded drone flights over the U.S., and possibly some scenic sections of the Empire State.

The bill will guide operation of the Federal Aviation Administration for four years and gives the agency until September 2015 to open up more airspace to the remotely controlled vehicles.

In New York, that could mean Air National Guard MQ-9 Reaper drone training missions over the bucolic 6.1 million acres of Adirondack Park, flown out of Hancock Field in Syracuse.

[Ezlivin]

1. I feel safer already!

This is one operation of government that is going to continue to expand.

We are all under surveillance now.

[woo me with science]

2. One more step. Every day, one more step.

We are in serious trouble in this country, and it is bipartisan.

Occupy now, because they are putting structures into place to prevent occupation later.

[Bonobo]

4. In all seriousness...

Would you really expect anything different in a country where people ONLY have two choices?

The very first thing that the institutionalized powers would do in ANY CIRCUMSTANCE is to collude with each other to keep what they have.

Example, they say "Hey, you are I could lose at any time, so let's make an agreement, etc."

It is common sense and human nature. Just examine your own experience.

Collusion. Good cop/bad cop. Call it what you want. It is the same thing.

[woo me with science]

6. +10000 This is so important, and exactly why

Last edited Wed Feb 8, 2012, 05:55 PM - Edit history (1)

the lesser of two evils argument we keep hearing is such a crock...because it is willfully blind to this fact.

Absolutely there is collusion, and we need to be talking about it more than we do. The entire debt theater we watched this spring, for example...Did anyone honestly believe that they didn't know, in both parties, exactly where they were headed with this Super Committee nonsense? And does anyone really believe that we won't see more austerity and preserved MIC funding when it's all done? The health insurance mandate was another perfect example of faux negotiations and using us against each other to pass a final product, the corporate mandate, that they knew none of us would have supported had it been presented honestly that way at the outset.

I actually predict that we won't see SS and Medicare cuts in 2012, before the election, but we *will* see a great deal of theater about their being cut. I think they will be put on the table again, and it will be a dramatic, intense battle to see if Democrats will "save" them. Eventually we will accept even more draconian austerity cuts across the budget (because by then we will have even more international tension and the MIC will need its funding preserved...), but everyone will accept these massive cuts gratefully, because it will "save" Medicare and Social Security again...at least temporarily. I believe we will see actual cuts sometime in the second term. It's all theater. Once again, you can get the people to accept something they would have previously considered unthinkable, as long as you appear to be fighting against something even more unthinkable.

And that is the beauty of purchasing two parties. You can put forth one candidate who will move rightward, and another candidate who will SPEED rightward, and the people will select a candidate moving rightward. In the closed negotiation rooms they know exactly what they are doing.

We will continue to hear the (true) argument that the Democrat is a less immediately destructive choice than the Republican. But people need to stop deluding themselves that by merely choosing the Democrat they are doing a damned thing to *reverse* the path we are on. At the most, it keeps the train to corporate fascism from speeding up.

We need people to understand that we are in serious, serious trouble in this country, and it has very little to do with the old red and blue labels. It has to do with the fact that the one percent have purchased our government, our media, and our electoral system. Of course most people here will choose to vote Democratic in the Presidential, once we are down to the two corporate choices. But our most passionate efforts, in terms of time and finances, absolutely must be aimed at getting the money out of our political process. We need to Occupy.

You are right. I think talk of collusion between corporatists in both parties has to come next in the narrative. It's not going to be pretty.

[Bonobo]

7. When you put it that way, it's like "Duh". Isn't it?

Even stupid people quickly learn to play the collusion game against a third party in virtually any circumstance.

I bet even apes are intelligent enough to do it. It's obvious.

[msongs]

3. no doubt our president will veto this attack on american freedom and privacy...right? nt

[Baclava]

5. "Drones over U.S. get OK by Congress "

All in all it's just another brick in the wall.

[woo me with science]

8. K&R