Posted on 02/10/2012 8:31:56 AM PST by KeyLargo
America's police state: The drones are coming
Friday, February 10, 2012
A new federal law accelerating domestic use of government aerial surveillance drones brings America frighteningly close to an Orwellian police state.
President Obama is expected to sign the FAA Reauthorization Act, which expedites approval for federal, state and local police to use these drones. The Federal Aviation Administration's existing case-by-case approach is chilling enough -- it's being sued over its refusal to disclose publicly which agencies use drones and how they're used.
Still, it's known that the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection arm uses drones domestically. Now imagine local police drones constantly, unblinkingly tracking -- without warrants -- your every move and aspect of your property.
Far-fetched? Hardly. Great Britain right now is testing the use of drones to enforce government-subsidized agricultural policies. If successful, drones will replace satellite surveillance. The French government already monitors wine producers with drones.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
“...because the truth of the matter is that by 1984, we were already to the level of surveillance and government intrusion found in that book.”
Hmm, in 1984 you had government surveillance devices in every room of your home that could be monitoring you at any time, 24 hours a day? Color me incredulous.
How high do these thing fly and can they be shot down with a deer rifle?
“Some people would say that is illegal or somewhat dubious, and IF you have nothing to hide, no one should mind being under such surveillance...”
Problem is, everyone is doing something illegal. There are so many laws on the books, the average person commits 3 felonies a day. So that argument is out the window; we already ARE enemies of the state, not by our choice, but by the choice of the legislators.
They easily had that technology, just used it more judiciously, requiring warrants easily obtained. And once in position, it was unlawful to interfere with such devices, if you discovered them. Public places and businesses did adopt much camera security during that time.
At that time, if you made more than four long distance phone calls a month, one of them would have been monitored by the NSA.
The popularity of the Internet was a major setback to such monitoring, then public domain encryption.
The successful conclusion of the (cold) war with Eastasia also caused much chaos in the surveillance networks.
So it has not been a straight line progression. But things really picked up after Reagan.
Maybe you could also dub in the 30-06 that will be used to neutralize said piece of unmanned flying krap if I catch it violating my 500 foot rule? I wonder what the charge might be for shooting down somebody’s intrusive, unlicensed, unmanned, un-warranted, flying mousetrap?
Ping
Sorry, but the ability to put in wiretaps or cameras with a warrant, even if it’s too easy to get, is not equivalent to ubiquitous, warrantless, constant monitoring of every domicile. Businesses and public spaces are irrelevant, since that is not governmental intrusion.
As for the NSA, I believe what you are referring to is international calls, not long distance calls. At least, I’ve never seen a single reference to the NSA monitoring domestic long distance calls (legitimately at least), prior to the 9/11 era.
Sure, there has been a progression, but we are not even today at the level of monitoring that happened in 1984. Britain is closer, but even they are far from it.
“How do you spoof these things???”
If we get everyone in America to carry the same make, size, and color umbrella every time they leave the house, it’s sure to screw around with them royally.
What Congressmen actually voted for this and who got the kickbacks from the manufacturers? They want their toys and their toys will take your liberty. Both Parties are in this.
1984 is here and gone. It is becoming more and more not about us as a nation of one, but instead about we the suspects and they who consider us as such.
They know your politics because of your on-line posts. They know your “friends” and family if you belong to Facebook. They know your bank account. If those in charge don’t like your politics or that may not be good news.
As I suspected our supposed conservative rep voted for this POS bill.
Thats why there are probably a lot of people smart enough, and prepared enough, to “Go Galt” in a moments notice...
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