Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Outlawing Freedom Of Speech

Tony Blair-Lincoln Reborn
First they outlawed firearms, then it was knives and now the staunchest of US allies is set to outlaw objectionable speech. Blair, in setting forth new anti-terror laws wishes to make it illegal to speak or write in any fashion which "glorifies" terrorism. Rather a draconian step in any sane individuals estimation. The movie "V For Vendetta" will obviously fall in this category. Any number of books, already censored in Great Britain for decades will fall prey to this and the prisons could very well be filled to overflowing with writers, publishers, political activists and historians. One more step in the wrong direction for the Empire.

325,000 Served
Those are the numbers of people the government is admitting to having on their terror watch list. And just who is on it? Hard to say. The AG and administration swear that they are mostly foreigners and that Americans make up only a small fraction of the people on the list. Would that fraction be 10%? 5%? We know that they have children on the list, authors who are critical of the Bush regime and who knows who else? I may be on it, but since I haven't flown in years and won't until they allow me to fly with a minimum armament of at least a pocket knife, (altho I would prefer to carry one of my firearms, as I do on a daily basis).
The fact is that this list is too large and there are too many Americans on it with no oversight and no legal recourse. It is a violation of basic civil liberties all in the name of State security and the likelyhood of it ever going away is somewhere between slim and none.

Dear Congress, Please Send More Money...Love, Dubya.
The current resident of the White House apparently needs some pocket change, to the tune of $75 million for expanded propaganda so they can implement regime change in Iran. Maybe continuous satellite broadcasts of Britney Spears and Black Eyed Peas will finally bring the Mullahs down.

Broke Back Mountain Blues
Well, actually country music. My favourite tax victim has managed to hop on the gay cowboy train and release a song called, "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)", an iTunes exclusive. Willie recorded it last year and released it recently. Given the success of the movie it will likely rocket to #1 and Willie will bump Kanye West out of the Grammy's next year.

Last But Certainly Not Least
The FEMA travails continue apace. The crypt keeper wants more money, more power, more people and will do just as little with them as they did previously. Look for FEMA to be taking over everything related to disaster preparedness from the top all the way down to your local level. And they'll still botch anything. Bringing back the old Civil Defense system that ran from the local level up is the only system that makes sense.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Breakdown of Administration's Funding Request to Support Freedom in Iran

Anonymous said...

So, let's see the breakdown.... $10 million to get dissenters tossed into Iranian prisons. I can assume that they will receive the same levels of support tendered to the dissidents in Southern Iraq by Bush, Sr.

$50 million for propaganda and expanding the propaganda machine of VOA.

$15 million for interfering in the Iranian political process. Let me ask you...when China did something similar for the Clintons how did you feel about that interference? Would you have felt the same if Saddam had bankrolled anti-Bush campaign efforts?

$5 million more to aid private industry (Farsi radio). How "Democratic".

And finally, $5 million for student aid....of course if they actually managed to get a visa and get to the US past the draconian DHS, that might aid them. Unfortunately, there is no place in Iran for them to get a visa...

Sovereignty seems to be a foreign concept to the neo-conservatives and Bush. Perhaps you folks should look it up.