If you have traveled internationally lately, you have a number you don't know about. It was assigned to you by federal agents and the ATS (Automated Targeting System) based on your in-flight meal, seat preference, where you're from, your motor vehicle records, and other factors. This number is designed to give airport security an at-a-glance view of who they should be watching, frisking, denying the right to travel, etc... But don't worry - privacy advocates are on it, just like they were on the Patriot Act and the mandatory fingerprinting at Disney. Secure Flight, a similar program designed for domestic travel, has been banned by the courts until it can be proven that it is accurate and private. These numbers are not made available to the people they're assigned to, nor is there any way to know whether you have been assigned one at all.
We are quietly losing our civil liberties and no one seems to care. People just allow these things to happen without question, though President Bush and his Administration have used every trick in the book to make these things happen without arousing any suspicion from the public. Is anyone watching? Why isn't the media calling attention to these things? Why aren't more people calling for impeachment? The more I watch the news, the more I see a clear conservative bias. The liberal media is dead - if it ever existed at all.
2,888 US Soldiers dead
21,921 US Soldiers wounded
Friday, December 01, 2006
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9 comments:
The media is in a sad state. Their job is to be adversarial and they fail miserably. The are guaranteed freedoms in the Constitution so that they can go after the government to keep them straight. They have a responsibility that they neglect. Can you imagine if the real wrongs committed by this government were pursued as strenuously as the Monica Lewinsky affair?
Watch Democracy Now or The INN World Report or almost any show on FreeSpeechTV. This is what Democracy looks like.
It's good that we have somewhere to look for an example, because to be quite honest, I'm not sure what democracy looks like anymore. It's terrifying to see the state fo the world, and even more terrifying to see that no one cares to do anything about it. Today is the anniversary of Rosa Parks refusing to go to the back of the bus. Gesture like that mean nothing now, especially because no one is actually making them.
You do have some good outlets and we have nothing like The Daily Show or Colbert.
It's not all bad.
Daniel,
That's true, we do have those, but not everyone has access to them. The problem is that the people who should use those outlets don't. Our college students are reprehensibly out of touch with the real world. We have a whole generation who has been taught not to question their president. Whne my husband says something about Bush in class, he gets nasty glares and arguments from 18 year olds while the professor backs him up. We are in a sad state of affairs when our college kids stop questioning authority. The biggest protest we've had during this whole war has been at the Deaf University because their new President is hearing.
I agree with the out of touch thing, their is lacking a genuine world view.
8675309, Sorry I couldn't help myself. Every lame house band in 1983 was playing that song and it is forever engrained in my ROM.
Hey Cranky - you'll be pleased to know that that song has made it back. My teens and their friends know it too, and heaven knows I didn't teach it to them
Use the logic on the media that you proposed on the previous post. If your paper pisses you off, dont buy it, dont subscribe to it, dont search it on-line, dont link to it, ever. Same with your local TV news, and the station it belongs to. Same with magazines, same with websites, same in any situation where someone who provides information stands to gain from your use of their media.
Daniel: much as I like the Daily Show, it's no substitute for an actual news show. The primary function of the Daily Show these last few years has been to simply ask the questions (however jokingly) that the MSM hasnt had the balls (or permission from their overlords) to ask.
Dave,
That's a great point. To get REAL news, we have to watch BBC. Jon Stewart is great, but he's a comedian, and he's biased. I hate to say it, but we can't pretend that he's objective. He tried to be in a lot of ways, but he admits that his is not a NEWS show, it's a comedy show. I use CNN as a resource, but I should start looking in other places.
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