Peter K says:

>considering that you are using government resources to post a message
>complaining about our current administration, I would say disproves your
>comment that the current administration is acting like the former East
>German government.
 
Oh goodness..my comment was directed towards actions taken by this administration
and our ever subservient Congress in one narrow aspect of our society - surveillance.
 
Call me crazy (wait...I think you did that already<grin>) but I find that the actions 
of the dauphin in regards to his and Cheney's pursuit of unfettered executive 
power (you know - his belief in the unitary executive, his flagrant abuse of executive 
signing statments, etc.) make clear their intention is to subvert the constitutional 
system of checks and balances. Since Cheney's time in the Nixon administration he has 
not really been shy about his disdain for any restrictions on the efforts of the 
Executive Branch - at least an Executive Branch that is occupied by his party.
 
The ongoing efforts to make permanent the PATRIOT Act(s), eliminate the 
decades old FISA court, procure statutory immunity for the telecoms, 
require all Americans to carry around "their papers" aka REAL ID, etc. would seem to me to 
be an issue that would concern and worry everyone (not just old-school conservatives like me).
 
Remember COINTELPRO, the Frank Church hearings, etc? Do you really think that the millions 
of missing White House emails was just an accident due to someone not properly following 
a retention schedule? Do you think it is perfectly ok for Cheney to destroy records despite 
a court order directing him not to? Their actions make clear that they don't believe they have 
to answer to anyone but themselves. Seems to me to be behavior similar to Soviet style leaders.
 
I can understand that there is still a lingering post 9/11 hysteria but I agree with what James 
Fallows has written about what he calls the 'fraidy-cat-ization of America and how it is one of 
the most damaging long-term effects of 9/11.
 
As Ben Franklin - a wise old revolutionary said: "those who value security over freedom deserve neither".
 
I'm not absolutely anti-surveillance. I want our intelligence and law enforcement agencies 
to have and be able to use whatever tools are available to assist them in doing their jobs. 
I just want there to be "circuit-breakers" in place to monitor and prevent the abuses that 
naturally seem to follow when government does not have to justify its actions. Perhaps 
that is a radical idea to some, after all the wise leaders who came up with that idea were 
revolutionaries themselves (another member of that same group of radicals came up with 
my state's motto - sic semper tyrannis). 
 
>Your education about the former eastern european bloc
>countries must have been done wearing rose colored glasses if you even think
>that our current government falls to the level of the Stase, KGB and others.
 
Well...I'm fairly knowledgeable about the reality of life in Eastern Bloc nations. 
My mother's side of my family is from the former nation of Czechoslovakia. And I guess partly 
as a result of that I have had a life long interest in Eastern Europe/Cold War issues. 
 
As a young teenager in 1968 I remember well the "Prague Spring" and the excitement I felt 
knowing I had relatives taking a stand in their nation trying to procure their inalienable rights. 
 
So, no Peter, I never wore those rose colored glasses.
 
And again...I did not say "our current government falls to the level of the Stase (sic), KGB and others".

I clearly said "it does appear that we are continuing our journey into an old Soviet-style surveillance society".
W'ere obviously not all the way there yet but it does seem clear there are those that are doing their best to start spreading asphalt.
 
And to be fair all of this does not fall on just the current administration - a lot of these sorts efforts go back decades. It's
just the current administration has been particularly brazen in its actions to capitalize on the climate of fear that is still hanging 
over the USA since 9/11.
 
Perhaps folks that don't see any evidence of that are the ones who are now wearing those rose colored glasses eh.
 
I specifically referred to the Stasi because they were actually very good records managers - seriously.
 
In the early 1990's when the Bundestag passed the Stasi Records Law a few miilion folks were able to view their personal files that 
had been created on them by the Stasi. If the Stasi hadn't implemented good records management practices it likely would have been nigh impossible 
for those millions of folks to find their files <grin>.
 

>Do you let us know Monday if you are back at work and that you weren't taken
>from your home in the dark of the night.
 
Oh I have no doubt that I will survive the weekend without being snatched and loaded into a van, 
then driven off to an airport from where I'm loaded onto a rendition flight and taken to who-know's where 
and subjected to torture...ooops, I mean "enhanced interrogation techniques".
 
But then I'm sure the tens of thousands of fine, honest, hard working American citizens that woke up one morning just a few decades ago 
to find their homes and businesses taken by the government and themselves loaded onto buses and shipped to internment 
camps just because their last names were Nakamura, Shimizu, etc. never imagined that would happen to them either.
 
Should I keep my Glock undr my pillow just in case? <grin>
 

>usually the President and others compared to a certain brownshirt group.
 
Uh oh...should I invoke Godwin's Law here ?<grin>
 

>I hope that you were this outraged when a former administration was rifling
>through 900+ FBI files
 
I assume you are referring to the Clinton Administration and actually Peter, yes I was outraged. 
 
I'm not a political party partisan nor have I been Limbaugh-tomized so my disdain for 
those in government leadership who break/ignore the law transcends party lines.
 
I do wonder if there is something similar to Godwin's Law that can be invoked when one is discussing
the actions of a Republican controlled government and the rejoinder is "well Clinton did/said..". 
As if one excuses the other. I'll have to hit the google later and see what I can find <grin>.
 
 
Cheers,
   Gerry
 
 
P.S.My apologies to all who can neither filter out off topic messages or just hit the delete key.

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