As The Election Spectacle Goes On The Nation Takes Another Turn Towards Fascism

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Every Year Brings Us Closer to 1984

By Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald. Posted February 12, 2008.

In the beginning, the government just collected fingerprints -- now they want eye scans and a host of other biometrics. Where will it stop?



In the beginning was the fingerprint.

It was in the 19th century that scientists realized the ridged whorls on the tip of the finger constituted a unique marker that could be used to tell one person from another. And eventually, the FBI built a massive database of fingerprints.

Then came DNA. In the 20th century, scientists learned to use the double helix nucleic acid molecule as a means of identification even more definitive than the fingerprint. And the FBI built a DNA database as well.

Now the feds are building yet another database. And it has some folks worried.

Maybe you missed it in the run-up to Super Duper Tuesday, but CNN and the Associated Press reported last week that the FBI will soon award a $1 billion, 10-year contract for construction of an electronic file that would store not just fingerprints and DNA, but a vast compendium of other physical characteristics. We're talking eye scans, facial shape, palm prints, scars, tattoos and other biometrics, all for the purpose of identifying and capturing bad guys.



What troubles me is the comprehensiveness of the information the feds propose to gather. It calls to mind discomfitting reminders of the totalitarian states so chillingly depicted in Fahrenheit 451 and 1984, oppressive regimes that saw everything, knew everything, regulated everything. Given the advances in technology and the ominous, Orwellian turn our government has lately taken, the comparison seems less far-fetched than it once might have.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/76684/

Senate Votes Down FISA Amendment Stripping Telco Immunity

February 12, 2008: 11:47 AM EST

WASHINGTON- Senators Tuesday voted down an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that aimed to strip out immunity for telecommunications companies alleged to have cooperated with the government's warrantless wiretapping program.

The result of the vote makes it increasingly likely that phone companies will receive retroactive immunity from civil lawsuits over their involvement in the controversial wiretapping program.

The development comes even though Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other senior Democrats have argued in favor of the amendment.

The vote was 67-31 against removing the immunity provision.

...

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200802121147DOWJONESDJONLINE000621_FORTUNE5.htm

[thunder rising]

1. 97-31? did we gain a couple of states? I think I would have noticed

[ananda]

2. Ask this?

Why don't the people care enough to protest
and strike en masse?

These are our fundamental freedoms at stake,
and the move to fascism has undermined the
economy and the ship of state while the rich
get richer.

I really do believe that ours is essentially
a one party state now, the corporate state.

[tekisui]

4. Almost.

It is still two-party.
The corporate and the Populist. The Populist are found solely in the Democratic Party, at about 50%. The other 50% of the Dems, and all the pukes are the Corporate Party.

The Corporates are definitely winning right now. We, the People, just don't realize Our power.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

5. Here's one theory

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2855460

[blues90]

8. It is a one party corporate state , that's the joke on us .

[bdamomma]

9. until is affects us personally then and only then people will take a stand

and in the meantime everything that we believed in is getting abused including us by this filthy administration. Aren't we better than this?

[tekisui]

3. The Fascist States of America.

The Primary is The Major Distraction.

I enjoy electoral politics more than most, yet I am dismayed at the lack of attention given by the media and the common folk to the fascist shift moving daily.

[davidthegnome]

6. Unfortunately...

Many people do not watch the news very often, people are largely unaware of this - and those that are aware... well, the vast majority of us gather online - here at DU, for example. Surprisingly, I imagine this is one of those few things liberals and conservatives would agree on.

It's overshadowed by the whole shit flinging contest our candidates and we, their supporters, are engaging in. Honestly, they'll get what they want, one way or another. Until we're ready to storm the castle.. not much is going to happen.

That said, if you're an uneducated Country bum like me, they generally don't care enough to bother with you.

[Wednesdays]

7. Even a lot of DUers say, "What's the big problem?

And go on about how it doesn't bother them because they "have nothing to hide."

Sad...our Constitution burned before our very eyes, and people shrug it off. :cry:

[bdamomma]

10. ignorance will be mankinds downfall.

doesn't that hold so true.

[RuleOfNah]

11. Republicans hang lanterns on their biggest crimes.

They complain about nanny states as they create them.
They complain about tax burdens as they create them.
They complain about axises as they create them.

[checks-n-balances]

12. Hey, that's a bumpersticker

And it's all too true!

[RuleOfNah]

13. Which one?

I may need to pressure Congress into granting retroactive copyrights so I can sue the sticker maker out of business.