TSA Fails Again
"If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." -- Anatole Franceand:
"The corruption at the UN didn't begin with the Oil for Food scandal, and it certainly doesn't end there. The United Nations is nothing more than bureaucracy piled atop waste, wrapped in fraud, covered with abuse -- all of it funded by American taxpayers who foot 22 percent of UN dues -- more than any other nation. We also pour billions of dollars more into the coffers of its related agencies." -- Oliver Northand:
"President Bush is the fittest president in history. They said it's because he spends a lot of time exercising. See a lot of our previous presidents wasted that time reading." -- Jay Leno
# Russmo.com - Bill & George's Big Adventure - cartoon commentary on NAFTA and CAFTA's affect on the U.S. Constitution. Would be funny if it weren't so true.
# Simon Pole - Emery Edit War at Wikipedia - Mr. Pole caught a decidedly non-neutral Wikipedia entry before the editors changed it back. Hehe. [pole]
# Keith Gottschalk at rabble.ca - A U.S. view: An open letter to Irwin Cotler - Mr. Gottschalk brands the arrest of Marc Emery as politically motivated by the DEA, and calls on Canada's Justice Minister to do the right thing and refuse to extradite him to the U.S.
The spillover of our insane war on drugs into your sovereign jurisdiction is merely one manifestation of a growing movement by the U.S. government from Jeffersonian democracy to an authoritarianism that recognizes no other nation's wishes for its own people, save what is delineated by the Bush administration.
What I also believe to be true, sadly, is that increasingly much of the world is starting to question whether the United States is the "shining beacon" of freedom and liberty throughout the world.
In fact, in light of current events both in the U.S. and the Middle East, I would politely venture to say that it is Canada which is increasingly being looked toward to set the example in peacekeeping, respect for diversity, and temperance in foreign policy. You have an opportunity to strike another blow for freedom by preventing the show trial of Mr. Emery, and instead, giving him his due process in his own country.
As a U.S. citizen I would be ashamed to have Mr. Emery, a Canadian citizen and politician, tried in the United States. It would be a grotesque violation of human decency and the right of people to be tried in their own nations for breaking their own nation's laws.
# Thomas L. Knapp - Something's rotten in DEA'n'Marc - a possible connection between the arrest of Marc Emery and the candidacy of Loretta Nall for governor of Alabama. Her votes would come straight from voters who would likely vote for incumbent Republican incumbent Bob Riley. [loretta]
Enter the DEA and the sudden, screeching halt to Loretta Nall's livelihood. If you think that's coincidence, give me a call -- I've got some Enron shares I'm looking to unload. Unlike Bob Riley and Lucy Buxley, Nall doesn't get a government paycheck to pay the bills while she tries to climb the political ladder. She has to work for a living. And the work she's done for some time has been for POT-TV.
Let's not take this lying down.
# Simon Pole - Must Hear: CBC Questions US Attorney on Emery - Simon converted to MP3 and saved this "As it Happens" interview of Assistant US Attorney Todd Greenburg. Same old lies. Smoking marijuana is a minor crime. But for some reason, selling seeds (trafficking) is major. Mr. Greenburg said that "the maximum penalty under the statutes that he's charged with is life in prison." [pole]
# New York Sun - Challenging Political Welfare - an editorial about Jim Lesczynski's lawsuit opposing matching funds for political campaings. Go, Jim! [smith2004]
# Alan Korwin at GunLaws.com - Gun-Free-Zone Liability - two years old, but still a good idea. "If you create a gun-free zone, you're liable for any harm it causes." Looks like the Arizona bill didn't go anywhere, yet. [scopeny]
# Becky Akers at LewRockwell.com - Bombs Away - on the Taking Away Scissors folks horrendous mismanagement of a bomb threat on an airplane. Get the passengers away from the possible danger ASAP? Nope. Make them sit on the plane for an hour, knowing there might be a bomb there, and then escort them off one at a time to be searched and questioned. No search warrants required. Fucktoads! [saltypig]
Why would finding a non-existent bomber be more important than 141 people's lives -- or, given that they were never in any real danger, their comfort and peace of mind? Because Leviathan looks like a fool at this point. The government has yapped about terrorists for four years. It has established a massive and very expensive bureaucracy, the Department of Homeland Security, to apprehend those terrorists: the TSA alone gobbles $5 billion per year in taxes. And how many terrorists have all these dollars and all this anxiety uncovered? None. Leviathan needs a bomber, any bomber. What does it matter, then, if a planeload of terrified hostages and their anguished families quake for an hour? On the exceedingly slim chance it might find something to justify four years of sound and fury, Leviathan eagerly traded their well-being.
The passengers had no options, of course. Even in fear of their lives, they lacked any recourse because TSA screeners had stripped them of everything remotely useful in a situation like this. It's tough to saw through an airplane cabin's door with nothing more than fingernails. And when armed cops force unarmed passengers to sit tight, the latter's only choice is whether to die from a barrage of bullets or a bomb.
