Reply #60: I just wish I was paranoid

[G_j]

But many of us have wondered what they would pull to interfere with democratic elections once again. October is at hand. I'd like to think that we are paranoid, but our trepidation is based in the reality of experience. They have manipulated the population through terror alerts, with visions of 'mushroom clouds' and 9-11, manipulated them into a war that has killed thousands upon thousands of innocent people. They have secret prisons and 'ghost' prisoners. They oppose a world court and call the Geneva convention 'quaint'. Most of us understand all this, there is every reason to wonder what else is connected to this October FBI activity.

But it is still very important to keep in mind that the 'police state' was in the works before Bush. There has been a growing and thriving industry in crowd control weapons since the end of the cold war.
The National Lawyers Guild issued a detailed and scathing report on how the lines between the military and law enforcement were severely and illegally blurred in Seattle during the the WTO protests.

"The war on (some) drugs" has been a manifestation of a 'police state'. So there is an aspect of this that goes deeper than presidents. But it seems that the 'police state' and the Bush cabal were made for each other. I guess this is one reason why Bush is able to wield so much power.

As for our general attitude, I think we are overly obsessed with the "freepers". While we spend a lot of time here discussing their insane, racist hate mongering, we mostly ignored what happened in Miami during the FTAA protests.
I was disheartened that so many 'liberals' turned their heads and refused to raise alarm about the "Miami Model". At least the treatment of dissent at the RNC got a bit more attention.

While I agree freeper types are worrisome and dangerous, they don't have access to arsenals of crowd control weapons and an Orwellian surveillance infrastructure. I think the only way to check this is for the general population to become aware of it and to stop treating the issue like a tinfoil hat conspiracy "theory".
Education is the key, me thinks.

well enough of this early morning rant..coffees ready! :-)

--
"..we all will need to remain extremely vigilant in coming months – not necessarily for terrorists but for lying politicians!
Karen Kwiatkowski

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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1219-08.htm
Reuters
FTAA Protests: Amnesty Says Miami Police May Have Broken UN Laws
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A veteran activist finds much to fear, but also bits of hope, after being jailed in Miami.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17342
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St. Petersburg Times: Miami Crowd Control Would Do Tyrant Proud

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1130-07.htm

Miami police Chief John Timoney must be mighty proud of the social order he maintained during the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit a couple of weeks ago in Miami - sort of the way Saddam Hussein was proud of quieting dissension in his country.
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Arresting The Future
Tom Hayden, AlterNet

Even as FTAA protestors and trade ministers poured out of town in droves, the city's Robo-Cops continued to demonstrate the 'Miami model' of suppression -- with pepper spray, rubber bullets and drawn weapons.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17246
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Information Control:

The 'Miami Model' used during the anti-FTAA protests represents a new police strategy whose aim is to control not just the streets, but also the story told by the media.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17293
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