No posts in a while, but now I'm back with this cheerful essay on the new police state and how we will soon join the ranks of other countries with "disappeared" people.
The Black Commentator - In the Time of Disappeared People
The Bush men have obviously been pondering the imposition of Permanent National Emergency for as long as they have been planning Permanent War. The discovery of a draft of the so-called Patriot Act II, rushed forward by Bush's national security conspirators in January for review by their allies on Capitol Hill, presents the public with a warning of - but not a defense against - a cunningly devised blueprint for the modern, total police state. Combined with the Patriot I, enacted immediately after September 11 by a nearly unanimous Congress, and through gross distortions of existing conspiracy laws plus the catch-22s of secrecy, Patriot II is the perfect tool to "disappear" any number of human beings for any reason to any place for any length of time.
And here's a story about how the fascists are planning to assign a "threat level" to everyone who buys a ticket for a commercial flight. Madness!
And for my friends living abroad, you may not want to come home anyway. Check out what happened to this Canadian woman when the airport INS people in Chicago thought she had a false passport. Her crime? Being brownskinned.
And finally, more proof that Evil is currently winning: Mr. Rogers died. Fred Rogers was a part of my childhood like I suspect many others--I always wanted a trolley like he did that would disappear into the wall and come out in another place--and by all accounts was truly a wonderful person.
Even though tongue in cheek, this page makes a good case for Mr Rogers being a Zen Master. After all, if Winnie-the-Pooh can be Taoist, then why not the man who asks, "How would you listen to a fish?" Expect a book version of this in about ten years.