Now they can steal your laptop, phone etc….

As if it wasn’t bad enough already, now they can outright STEAL what may be the most important piece of gear you own, your computer, and anything else you might be carrying with you – ALL WITHOUT ANY REASON AT ALL!!!

Wow.

Science Fiction comes to life before our eyes……

I mean fine, if there’s some reason to suspect someone, then by all means give them a good looking over, but just because?

And what does that become in the hands of the people who man those security points…I mean…..have you been through one of those things? It’s the people that McDonalds won’t hire for chrissakes, not people who clearly have experience and the training needed to truly know what to look for, and maybe have even seen it before….

These people with this kind of freedom will do things to people based on god knows what basis like – “he looks like the guy who stole my lunch money in 5th grade”, (or maybe he IS that guy), or in my case “I don’t like musicians, they’re liberal commies”, or “I’d like to get THAT girl in a small room in the back for 5 minutes”, or the old “I do whatever the hell they feel like” reason.

And you can’t do a thing about it. So they take your laptop with everything on it, they keep it as long as they like, maybe forever, and that’s it. No compensation, no getting it back so your life can go on as scheduled, nothing, just a big hole where your info/time/money/contacts/etc etc etc used to be.

Yeah, you have it backed up (you do don’t you?), but what about all the private info, emails, secure (you thought) logins, anything that you wouldn’t want a TOTAL STRANGER going through? And they will go through it.

This is SOOOOO gross…..those fat, clammy old-sweat covered touching themselves in the bathroom in back hands all over my personal DATA?!?!?

EWWWWWWWW!!!!

And what’s even grosser is the regular people who DEFEND this kind of thing, either out of maliciousness, or even worse blind raging stupid obedience to ideas they don’t even grasp….

I keep saying this – what makes everyone so sure that the powers that be in this administration and their controllers in the corporations are going to let an election and the possible rollback of these transgression occur?

It’s becoming a big concern to me, if you were them, would YOU let that happen?

There’s a LOT of money being made on very shaky premises, but it’s still a LOT of money….if it was you would you let that stop? Would YOU give up all that control, if you were in their place?

If I was them and thought like they do, I sure as hell wouldn’t.

A day in the news…

In going through some of the news today, here’s some of the things I noticed….

etc etc etc…..

Now I’ll admit to a fairly far left perspective on many if not most things (if it’s for the people, I’m for it, but if it’s against people and pro-corporations, I’m likely to have issues with it…and as a general rule most things this administration does are VERY pro corporation, including an entire war for them….another story though….) but that doesn’t mean that this stuff isn’t valid, it just means I tend to notice it and be upset by it more.

In the hope that things will be different soon, though I tend to think people are WAY overestimating Obama’s interest in “change”.

Talking Points did you really even wonder about this?

So now it’s confirmed, Fox News should be disbarred or whatever they do to people that call themselves News and aren’t…

Did anyone really think this wasn’t true….EVER?

Nine GREAT reasons to pursue impeachment….

In an article in The Nation

Establishing accountability for US war crimes in the Iraq war era is the sine qua non for initiating a new era on different principles. Here are nine reasons why we must not let bygones be bygones:

1. World peace cannot be achieved without human rights and accountability.

According to Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, chief American prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunals, “The ultimate step in avoiding periodic wars, which are inevitable in a system of international lawlessness, is to make statesmen responsible to law.” Moving in that direction will be impossible unless such responsibility applies to the statesmen of the world’s most powerful countries, and above all the world’s sole superpower. US support for the war crimes charges like those just brought by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will represent little more than hypocrisy if US Presidents are not held to the same standard.

2. The rule of law is central to our democracy.

Most Americans believe that even the highest officials are bound by law. If we send mentally-disabled juveniles to prison as adults, but let government officials who authorize torture and launch illegal wars go scot-free, we destroy the very basis of the rule of law.

3. We must not allow precedents to be set that promote war crimes.

Executive action unchallenged by Congress changes the way our law is interpreted. According to Robert Borosage, writing for Huffington Post, “If Bush’s extreme assertions of power are not challenged by the Congress, they end up not simply creating new law, they could end up rewriting the Constitution itself.”

4. We must restore the principles of democracy to our government.

The claim that the President, as commander-in-chief, can exercise the unlimited powers of a king or dictator strikes at the very heart of our democracy. As Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson put it, we, as citizens, would “submit ourselves to rules only if under rules.” Countries like Chile can attest that the restoration of democracy and the rule of law requires more than voting a new party into office–it requires a rejection of impunity for the criminal acts of government officials.

5. We must forestall an imperialist resurgence.

When they are out of office, the advocates of imperial expansion and global domination have proven brilliant at lying in wait to undermine and destroy their opponents.

They did it to destroy the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. They’ll do it again to an Obama Administration unless their machinations are exposed and discredited first.

6. We must have national consensus on the real reasons for the Bush Administration’s failures.

Republicans are preparing to dominate future decades of American politics by blaming the failure of the Iraq war on those who “sent a signal” that the US would not “stay the course” whatever the cost. Establishing the real reasons for the failure of the US in Iraq–the criminal and anti-democratic character of the war–is the necessary condition for defeating that effort.

7. We must restore America’s damaged reputation abroad.

The world has watched as the United States–the self-proclaimed steward of democracy–has systematically broken the letter and spirit of its Constitution, violated international treaties, and ignored basic moral tenets of humanity. As former Navy General Counsel Alberto Mora recently pointed out to the Senate Armed Services Committee, our nation’s “policy of cruelty” has violated our “overarching foreign policy interests and our national security.” To establish international legitimacy, we must demonstrate that we are capable of holding our leaders to account.

8. We must lay the basis for major change in US foreign policy.

Real security in the era of global warming and nuclear proliferation must be based on international cooperation. But genuine cooperation requires that the US entirely repudiate the course of the past eight years. The American people must understand why international cooperation rather than pursuit of global domination is necessary to their own security. And other countries must be convinced that we really mean it.

9. We must deter future US war crimes.

The specter of more war crimes haunts our future. Rumors continue to circulate about an American or American-backed Israeli attack on Iran. A recently introduced House resolution promoted by AIPAC “demands” that the President initiate what is effectively a blockade against Iran–an act seen by some as tantamount to a declaration of war. Nothing could provide a greater deterrent to such future war crimes than establishing accountability for those of the past.

Holding war criminals accountable will require placing the long-term well-being of our country and the world ahead of short-term political advantage. As Rep. Wexler put it, “We owe it to the American people and history to pursue the wrongdoing of this Administration whether or not it helps us politically or in the next election. Our actions will properly define the Bush Administration in the eyes of history and that is the true test.”

UPDATE! 9/10/08

Another voice for impeachment in the Congress!!