Getting there

As reference to the previous post from Dr. s9, which refers to this very fine FireDogLake piece which openly asks if we are in a dictatorship...

It was only an hour or so after reading this that I then read this horrible crap from CNN.

Here, I'll save you the click through:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government has been secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls in an effort to build a database of every call made within the country, it was reported Thursday.

AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth telephone companies began turning over records of tens of millions of their customers' phone calls to the National Security Agency program shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said USA Today, citing anonymous sources it said had direct knowledge of the arrangement.

The White House defended its overall eavesdropping program and said no domestic surveillance is conducted without court approval.

And my favorite part is that the guy heading this project, then-NSA chief Gen. Mike Hayden -- who will soon head the CIA -- stood up in front of Congress and lied his ass off about this. Even if he wasn't under oath, I don't give a shit, it's still a violation of 47 USC §1001 Here's yer money graf, though:

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully -
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or
device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent
statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry; shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

and this is just the beginning of the section of law that lays out pretty specifically why guys like Hayden and everyone else like him in this administration need to be in jail!

But does any of this answer the specific question: are we there yet?

As I mentioned in the commentary response to the esteemed Dr. s9, I have been a bit conflicted about this, because none of this looked like what I thought it would. I mean, tanks on the streets, door to door searches by the blackshirts, yeah, that's an image I can get my head around and say "we have arrived!"

But even while these guys are putting all the pieces in place to have that kind of control; openly falsifying elections, Congress working to vest the CIA and NSA police forces with plenary law enforcement powers in the United States, the NSA conducting warrantless searches on perhaps millions of Americans, pimping for government sponsored eugenics under the guise of "anti-abortion" policies, and every attempt to hold the executive accountable for any of these breaches of our rights are being stymied by procedure, or even more gravely, ill-conceived legal whingery with fancy sounding names like "unitary executive theory" which is just another way of saying the President is just a law unto himself.

So I can only say that we are in fact there! It's just that the campground doesn't look like anything in the travel brochure.

But given that we are there, we now have some decisions to make.

Anyone? Anyone?

mojo sends