Posted on 09/24/2001 3:10:00 AM PDT by Ada Coddington
Unfree Republic
by Jeff Elkins
Let the stench of Middle East flesh reach Paradise reassuring them that these filth have gone to hell permanently."
The quote above is representative of many posted on the FreeRepublic.com site in the wake of the WTC attack, and unfortunately its like is not uncommon elsewhere. Americans are angry, predictably and rightly so, but just as predictable are the side effects. As always, that righteous anger will be accepted as a beloved gift by the state and molded into tools of oppression.
It’s funny how that works. Every single state-sponsored war the US has become embroiled in has resulted in an inexorable increase in the power of the state.
It’s also funny that it’s always assumed that human behavior in the past has no relation to how we behave today. Why those people were old-fashioned, we’re modern, educated, etc.
The beginning of this repeating pattern has already become public with the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security. It has an ominous sound, that name, almost Germanic. (I can’t wait to see the uniforms.)
On April 13, 1917, days after our entry into World War One, President Wilson created the Committee on Public Information to promote the war domestically while publicizing American war aims abroad. Bush has replicated that step, with this new cabinet-level department.
Under the leadership of journalistic muckraker George Creel, the CPI was a propaganda apparatus unparalleled at that point in world history. The CPI functioned as a de facto public censor, vetting nearly all published material about the war and helping to draft legislation such as the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. In the months prior to our entry into the war and especially after our entry when they were nearly criminal, antiwar viewpoints were rarely heard.
The same pattern emerges now: Penn. Gov. Tom Ridge will be President Bush’s George Creel, and just as in those dim days of yesteryear, he’ll have plenty of willing civilian accomplices. And after all, there’s so much more to censor -- Ridge will need all the help he can get. In seeking warriors for the front line of Internet censorship, Ridge needs look no farther than FreeRepublic.com. The atmosphere there is now poisonous.
Again, look back to Wilson's CPI. It encouraged businesses to spy on their employees, parents to spy on their children, children to spy on their parents, neighbors to spy on neighbors, and above all to report "disloyal," pro-German sentiments. State authorities banned the teaching of German in schools and changed German street names. As the madness mounted, those regarded as pro-German were hounded from their jobs, pressured to change their German names, beaten, and in a few cases lynched. Almost all cases of violence, while incited by the state, were carried out by "civilians" in the grip of war hysteria.
Along with this anti-German hysteria, Congress passed several measures designed to rigidly suppress criticism of the war. In particular, the Espionage Act, passed in June 1917, specified a fine of $10,000 or twenty years in prison for "whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, and whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag."
The Espionage Act was very popular in its day. It was cheered on by mindless lemmings under the influence of state propaganda. Their great grandchildren now inhabit FreeRepublic.com, viciously attacking anyone who questions the wisdom of the state.
Our Congress is considering similar measures under the rubric of "anti-terrorism," and as it was at the beginning of the 20th Century, the FreeRepublic lemmings of the 21st are cheering the morally corrupt politicians along.
It’s not just message posters on the site. The management of FreeRepublic has instituted a "loose lips sink ships" campaign, with new moderators patrolling the forum to delete posts that in their opinion are detrimental to the "war effort."
The FreeRepublic mission statement claims "We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America."
Sanctimonious hogwash. Everything old is new again – the keyboard warriors of FreeRepublic would be right at home in 1917 shilling for Wilson.
September 24, 2001
Jeff Elkins is a freelance consultant and writer living in North Central Florida. His personal website is located at www.elkins.org.
Where is this question coming from, Jim? Was it something that Revel said?
I have a further problem with that policy of co-opting a private individual to perform a search in order to get around the 4th Amendment - but the shills here saw "child porn" and screamed down anyone who disagreed with them with legitimate points.
Sink, you are a low-life piece of shit for mischaracterizing DD that way when he isn't here to defend himself. But that policy is a good example of the concerns some of us have with this "Homeland Security" BS. Just how far is HS going to go? Will they be co-opting private indivduals to circumvent th e restrictions placed on them by the Constitution?
This thread is too long already, I would direct everyone to this thread where the Southern Poverty Law Center seems to be directing Stratfor which seems to be directing the new Homeland Security in a very frightening direction, merely becuase individuals might get upset that the Government is restricting civil liberties.
Since when are we Americans not supposed to guard our freedoms? When did pointing out Gov. abuses and calling for adherance to the Constitution make one an extremist?
Thank you but I prefer to do neither.
The keyboard warrior is someone who urges others to die for their country but who will not be first to parachute into Afghanistan.
When there is one law for the people and another for the government and its murderous and corrupt praetorian guards, we cannot love our system. When the judges side with the government and the government presents false evidence, we cannot love our system.
If *you* can cite a more perfect system for the governship over man - we're all ears, dear ...
Some other time, perhaps.
Jolly Rodgers: I ask once again for your documentation, please? This is quite the allegation and I'm sure you wouldn't mind sharing your source.
I too would like to hear that, since I'm a something of a Spooner aficionado. I think that CJ might have accidentally gotten close to the truth though. At least some of what is now Arlington National Cemetary was private land owned by General Lee and was seized by the federal government at the end of the War Between the States. Knowing Spooner the way I do he certainly would have condemned such a seizure but he wouldn't have called it 'socialistic' he would have simply called it theft.
There's a good history of Arlington National Cemetary here.
No, I'll leave the frothing at the mouth and nonsense to Lew, as he writes his next "I hate Israel, and so should you" baised hit piece. He seems to churn out a couple of them a week.
If you do not know history (cycles) or care that US has wrecked havoc for decades -- what do you really expect? -- why do you expect support. I posted months ago that US was garnering a strong dislike abroad and the only response was screw -em, we're it (not precisely in those words).
I find no repentance for doodly squat, and that is not an appeal to the anti-abortionists or any other single issue. No, it's a full-bore question. That is, US is IT?
?Well, maybe we people should rethink that, which was the crux of my #444. Were you responsible for the things that I mentioned. And there's much more, but FR doesn't seem to accept culpability - no US only want the glory.
Good luck my friend, for we've already lost many of our own in this struggle. And there may be many more. I pray that the sacrifice will be worth every one who died for liberty.
Keep trying to equate my handle with a man dead long ago. If you had intelligence enough to read Spooner instead of relying on those with a political agenda built around some of Spooner's writing I would discuss it with you. Go look at the territory instead of relying on false-to-facts maps.
Since you have Jihad in your handle is it safe to assume you believe in killing innocents on the basis of a cultural war? (I do not believe this turn around to be fair play. It is only an example of your limited cognitive ability being applied in a similar way to point out the absurdity of your logic)
What happens when the war is over, we've fought the good fight, and the increased laws/government powers are not taken off the books?
Say the war is over, say somebody gets into office, democrat or whatever, they decide that rather than go back to the way things were, they can perhaps use some of those new laws/powers to help themselves.
A good analogy would be re-districting, it's a mild tool that the parties use against each other every 10 years (and it is used against each other). Think about a party inheriting some laws and powers that are to deal with terrorists, and they get to define what terrorists are. They could use that against the other party. All of the sudden the playing field changes. FR might be considered a hotbed of radicals and extremists and could be banned (okay I'm stretching, but you know what I mean)
Obviously Elkins doesn't intend to put his life on the line to fight for this country or our freedoms so he shouldn't insist that people have the freedom to post military information that could risk a life of one single man who would die for freedom. Any information that risks those lives even if someone hitting the abuse button only suspects it might, should be pulled.
It is necessary to: Set up the internment camps.
It is necessary to: Print the Government ID cards.
It is necessary to: Put the picture recognition software on every street in America.
It is necessary to: Make it easier to wiretap everyone.
It is necessary to: Get Carnivore up and running at 110 percent.
It is necessary to: To know and control everything about everyone to keep everyone safe from "THE ENIMEY"
Don't be fools and give away our God given rights as proclaimed by the Constitution
Remember, it's as true now as it was then.
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human liberty; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." -- William Pitt
There should be no new restrictions of our liberties in this country.
Profiling? How is that a restriction of anyones liberty if it simply keeping a close watch on you? as long as you are not assailed, or put in jail then nothing has been restricted.
Having to go through a longer wait at the airport? Give me a break, the airlines are private industries if they did not want tougher standards they would fight them. the fact is they want these standards. Are you saying a private company does not have the right to set whatever standards they want? Of course they do, and if you don't like it you have the right not to fly.
What I was getting at in my earlier post was that I am tired of hearing the jargon of how we shouldn't strike back. If we do not these attacks will continue, even if we pulled completley out of the middle east they would continue. It isn't about support with Isreal, it isn't simply about Iraq. It's about our way of life. We have freedom and wealth, and these radicals despise us because of it. We are an offense to their religious beliefs simply by existing. The only way to get them to stop without force is to give in to their demands, to change our way of life, to adopt their rules and culture. Do that and you will realy see a restriction on freedoms. www.wordsoftruth.8m.com
I never said I was in favor of child pornography, child explotation or child molestation.
What I said is that allowing law enforcement to require photo mart clerks to notify them of suspected child pornography is not only unconstitutional it is stupid. Don'tcha think the true sickos are developing their own film?
I say the practice is unconstitutional based upon the long standing rule that if Law Enforcement directs a private individual to take an action that individual is considered LE for the purposes of a constitutional analysis. In this case, directing the clerk to seize pictures is an end run around the 4th Amendment; law enforcement could not seize (or even look at) any pictures without a search warrant.
In the specific case, individuals (with no prior crimal records) were being charged with child pornography for taking pictures of their children/grandchildren who were in a bathtub based on these clerks turning over the pictures to the police.
You don't have a problem with that?
The people who brought you Project Megiddo, aka The Crazy Christians Are Coming And Y2K Means They'll Riot In The Streets!
If the President wants to get a public kudo from me, he can do me a real big favor and tell Dees and Co. to piss off and butt out of government.
I wasn't aware that he did.
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