More Tyranny Coming Your Way

No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders. 

---Samuel Adams

ISIS.  Hamas.  Hezbollah. Iran.  Syria.  Al Qaeda.  Taliban.  Muslin Brotherhood.

BOO!  Boogeymen.

Did I miss anyone?

You're being primed right now.  For what?  For a constitutional bitch-slap that will make the USA PATRIOT Act look like a Dr. Seuss book.

Here's the narrative:  All of the radical Islamic groups are a direct threat to the American homeland.  We'd rather kill them over there than here on American soil.

Then, once an unstoppable terrorist attack does occur - and it IS going to occur in short order - we will be told the fed needs to further restrict our civil liberties.  It's for the good of the whole.

The propaganda kicked into high gear on Thursday, when the president talked in circles, but was sure to drop the keywords designed to incite fear in Americans -

As Commander-in-Chief, I will always do what is necessary to protect the American people and defend against evolving threats to our homeland. 

He failed the, "sound presidential" test with his, "We don't have a strategy yet" for ISIS line, but that's just Barry being Barry.  He's got this, "leading from behind" shtick down pat.  I think the rest of us call it, "wandering aimlessly".

On Friday, British Prime Minister Cameron at least looked the part, and told the world they were on their second highest threat level.  Yikes!

I guarantee you that the "solution" to stopping further attacks will involve a further degradation of your freedom.  I guarantee it.

Just like the sales job we got for the USA PATRIOT Act, you're being fed a line of crap.  They're painting a mental picture of an invasion of the "homeland" by wild-eyed, head-chopping, scarf-wearing, warriors.  Water landing craft, Red Dawn paratroopers, and an endless caravan of heavily armored tanks.

In reality, these bastards drive around in used Toyota pick-ups trucks.  How are THEY going to invade the "homeland"?

If they weren't so far in the bag, "the press" would ask this one simple question:

As you told us after the 9/11 attack, you're saying the US mainland is primed for an attack.  How will these radical Islamists mount this attack?  Perhaps more to the point, how will they mount this attack in ways that are not currently available to them?

The truthful answer is that they don't have new ways of mounting an attack.

After 9/11 we made some effective changes that DID NOT involve crapping on the Constitution.  Locks on pilot doors.  Armed air marshals.  They scramble fighter jets to intercept wayward aircraft.

Awesome.  And not one of them infringes on my liberties.

TSA feel-ups, VIPR squad checkpoints, NSA wiretaps and Treasury Department financial controls DO infringe on my Constitutional rights.  And they accomplish what?

There has never been, nor will there ever be a way to stop an individual or small group wanting to conduct a terrorist attack.  For God's sake, if prison-like countries such as Russia and China can't stop terrorist attacks, it simply cannot be done.

And for good reason.  A large, bloated bureaucracy can't stop a small, nimble opponent.

What they'll sell you - and which you will likely buy - is that, "If even one life is saved, the slight encroachment on your civil liberties is worth the cost."

Their solution is to give you more of what hasn't worked!  Death of the Constitution by a thousand cuts.

The purpose isn't to stop terrorists, it is to grow government.  To give further rise to Bush's TSA squads, and Obama's national police force -

We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

--Barack Obama, July 2, 2008, campaign speech in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Quick thought:  Since this standing army, I mean "police force" is national in scope, by definition, it's federal.  Posse Comitatus, anyone?  Build an army, under the direction of the commander-in-chief, but tag it as civilian, and you're in like Flint.

The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. 

--James Madison

At least the trains are on time, right?

I'm not without solutions.

You'll notice that most of these solutions, "look outwards".

>  If this threat to the "homeland" includes embassies and the like, shut them down, and bring the people home.  Don't you DARE infringe on my rights because you have someone in Mosul or Fallujah in an embassy or consulate.  If they don't want us there, then leave.

>  Actually defend our border.  Really.  Stop laughing.  Everyone and everything that enters this country is checked.  Re-purpose these VIPR squads to border patrol.  Re-purpose TSA dweebs to "cargo sniffer duty".  Actually build the southern border fence.  Yes, it WILL work, as it did when Israel built their fence.

Barrier supporters argue that it protects civilians from Palestinian terrorism such as suicide bombing attacks which increased significantly during the Second Intifada. Between 2000 and July 2003 (completion of the "first continuous segment"), 73 Palestinian suicide bombings were carried out from the West Bank, killing 293 people and injuring over 1,900. However, from August 2003 to the end of 2006, only 12 attacks were carried out, killing 64 Israelis and wounding 445.

Perfect?  No.  Effective and Constitutional?  Yes.

>  Actually enforce our immigration and visa laws.  Really.  Stop laughing.  Re-purpose the mouth-breathing TSA dweebs to hunt down, detain, and deport all offenders.  Sic ICE/Homeland security folks on the more difficult ones that evade the re-purposed TSA bounty hunters.

>  Pass a national CCW reciprocity law (and make all states 'shall issue').  Really.  Stop laughing.  More good people with guns increase the ability of the people to stop a terrorist act in its tracks.  Especially in high-value targets such as schools, restaurants, museums, movie theaters, churches and malls.  Really, any "gun free zone".

The 14th amendment guarantees equal protection under the law.  It reinforced that the states are also subject to the Bill of Rights.  As long as a person follows the CCW laws of the state in which they are present, there is no legal justification to deny them the ability to protect themselves and others in another state.   Plus, well, the second amendment says so.

>  Grow a set of balls, America.  This notion that only the government can protect you, and that a bigger government is a better government is just so un-American.  Read some American history if you don't know what I mean.  We've become so soft and squishy.  We try to legislate ourselves to safety.

Make bullying illegal and bullying will stop.  No.  A punch in the nose of the bully will stop the bullying.  What happens now?  The defender gets suspended or expelled, and probably arrested for battery.

Assign some arbitrary number to what is legally drunk, then make driving while drunk illegal, and all drunk driving will stop.  No.  Severely punish people who injure others or their property while drunk.  What happens now?  People who have not infringed on the rights of others have their rights and property stolen.

Punish the offenders.  Don't treat us like children or criminals, assuming everyone is a potential offender.

Fix your own problems.  Encourage others to act the same.
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Of course, none of this will happen.  Not even (or especially) the ball-growing part.

All of it would give us a better chance to stop or limit a terrorist attack, and not a single line of the Constitution would need erasure.

No increased NSA-sponsored eves dropping on Americans.  No additional VIPR squads roaming our roads and train stations, jacking up citizens at random.  No additional monetary shenanigans to protect us from ourselves.

Dream on, cupcake, dream on.

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