Top Ten Signs of the US Police State, Plus One More Sign
Writes Uthman, "From secret detention centers to warrantless wiretapping, Bush and Co. give free rein to their totalitarian impulses." Here are abbreviations of his thoughts on four of the Top Ten signs....
-- Prison Camps - "This last January the Army Corps of Engineers gave Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root nearly $400 million to build detention centers in the United States, for the purpose of unspecified 'new programs....' "
-- The USA Patriot Act - "Did anyone really think this was going to be temporary? Yes, this disgusting power grab gives the government the right to sneak into your house, look through all your stuff and not tell you about it for weeks on a rubber stamp warrant. Yes, they can look at your medical records and library selections. Yes, they can pass along any information they find without probable cause for purposes of prosecution. No, they're not going to take it back, ever."
-- Signing Statements - "Bush has famously never vetoed a bill. This is because he prefers to simply nullify laws he doesn't like with 'signing statements.' Bush has issued over 700 such statements, twice as many as all previous presidents combined....."
-- High-Ranking Whistle Blowers - ".....The fact is, when people who kill, spy and deceive for a living tell you that the White House has gone too far, you had damn well better pay attention. We all know most of these people are staunch Republicans. If the entire military except for the two guys the Pentagon put in front of the press wants Rumsfeld out, why on earth wouldn't you listen?"
Mr. Uthman forgot the most obvious sign of all that the US is now clearly a totalitarian-style police state under the Bush Administration: One out of every 136 US residents is presently in jail. And get this...."The report by the Justice Department agency found that 62 percent of people in jails have not been convicted...." but are merely "awaiting" trial, per AP.
According to King's College, London, courtesy of its International Centre for Prison Studies, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the entire world.....more than any dictatorship, terrorist regime or (other) totalitarian state. Higher than China. Higher than Cuba. Higher than any Russian or Middle Eastern or African country. And it's not even close to any other country.
Per Patrick at top-blog TalkLeft, "The United States has the highest prison population rate in the world, some 714 per 100,000 of the national population, followed by Belarus, Bermuda and Russia (all 532), Palau (523), U.S. Virgin Islands (490), Turkmenistan (489), Cuba (487), Suriname (437), Cayman Islands (429), Belize (420), Ukraine (417), Maldive Islands (416), St Kitts and Nevis (415), South Africa (413) and Bahamas (410)."
Remember Mr. Uthman's essay and these shocking statistics the next time President Bush waxes nostalgic in front of cameras about democracy and the human longing for freedom and liberty.
Remember this hypocrisy, and the consistently anti-democratic actions of the Bush Administration, when you cast your votes in primary elections this summer and in Congressional elections this fall. And remember that YOU can change this with your vote!
Comments
I don’t think those kids in Iraq are dying for a a police state at home. Bush should be tried for crimes against humanity. As we memorialize these lost life and limb, let’s renew the call for justice against those who lied their way into war.
A hearty amen to that!
You end on an optomistic note. Which is nice. But you are assuming the voting process is secure and not tampered with. Anyone who follows the news (bradblog.com for one) on Diebold, et. al., could not possibly be as cheerful.
One of Uthman’s Top Ten signs IS the US voting system and Diebold. I agree with you, and have to believe, though, that this eventually must be addressed.
FYI…I am an Election Official for California’s upcoming June 6 primary, which uses Diebold electronic voting machines. (In fact, I am a Judge, which means I control the Diebold master “brain” at my assigned precinct.) Will be writing about this after the primary.
All those things you deride Bush over…what will come of them in two years when he leaves office? If a democrat becomes President, can we rightly assume all of those “signs of a police state” will disappear or not be perverted and if not, what does that say about your party?
These things are not likely to be perverted because there is no continuity in government. Presidents come and go. Even republicans are not going to hold power forever. Neither will democrats. So to suggest the problems of a police state is looming also suggests that your party will be complicit in it when it assumes power – which, well, hopefully it won’t.
In the meantime, America is at war with militant Islam and tou people are simply traitors and seditionists who undermine my America with the hysterical sensationalism of your liberal whining. You give resolve to our intractable foe who feeds on our divisiveness and hates the America of today almost as much as you do.
Get a life, already. Prison camps? Sneaking into my house? Statement signing? Disgruntled “whistle blowers”?
There are people out there right now who want to put you AND me on a stake and light a fire around it.
How ’bout bitching about those scumbags once in a blue moon?
My son was falsely accused of a crime 12 yrs. ago. He was innocent. He had really terrible legal representation even though it cost a lot. The crime he was accused of was sex offense with a 8 yr. old girl. This child came from a home with 3 criminal uncles, mom and sister who were prostitutes and drug addicts (they’re now dead). The child, now 20 says she used to “lie so much she believed her own lies”. But a hysteria in Baltimore over sex offenders is so bad, my poor mentally ill son is in prison and stays in segregation he is so afraid because when he was on parole, he went to a snowball stand and was recognized. He has served 2 yrs. and has a year to go. His psychiatrist of many years believes in his innocence and has much experience working with sex predators.
Those who know Ken well and have lived with him believe in his innocence. I’m told by a recent lawyer there’s no way to do anything about a lawyer who poorly represented him and the head of the Md.Parole Board lived in the neighborhood where the media hysteria began and was head of the improvement association. He made a statement that he can look at someone and tell if they’re guilty just by looking at them.
Ken’s psychiatrist says Ken is the one who is likely to be harmed by others. And almost ten years ago, he was by a little girl of 8 yrs. of age. I know few would believe this is possible. But, if you knew the circumstances of this child, if you knew how aggressively the prosecutor went after Ken at least partly because he “looked wierd” as he said and if you could believe a lawyer gave us 15 minutes to make the decision, didn’t answer my question as to whether taking an alford plea was a felony, didn’t tell Ken it was the same as admitting guilt in the eyes of the law and when I said maybe we should think about it became very angry and in a disgusted way said “alright then we’ll go to trial”. When I asked him if it didn’t matter if someone was innocent, he shrugged. My son has unwaveringly said he was innocent.
Our family is devastated. What a criminal justice system.
Obama, fascist, muslim, poofter. Libs, ya got whatcha want. What’s the beef? Oh, yeah, ya got no beef.