Posted on 05/29/2003 7:32:04 AM PDT by The Rant
Now don't get me wrong, I do not hate the people of California although it may seem that way. I have many friends in California, from the northern areas to Los Angeles and San Diego, the coast to the valleys, hell; the favorite football team of my youth was the 1976 Oakland Raiders (replaced by the 1985 Chicago Bears, of course). So, you see, I do not hate the people of California. In fact, hate is a pretty harsh word, a word that should be reserved for members of al Qaida and their ilk. No, I do not hate the people of California. I detest, for the most part, their politicians though. I also detest those who choose to become activists who would undermine the government and impose their strange and pathetic views of the way things should be into my life on a daily basis.
One town that I would probably enjoy visiting but would never want to reside in would be Arcata, California. It is probably a quiet upstanding little town. In fact when I did my research on Arcata the main punch of its city webpage was the fact that there were several farmers markets open and operating. But the people who actually run Arcata are a bit remarkable. They have imposed a fine on any city supervisor or employee that cooperates with the federal government regarding the use and implementation of The Patriot Act. The Patriot Act was enacted after the tragedy of September 11th for the sole purpose of giving the law enforcement community the tools with which to catch those who would do us harm. Their reasoning is that some elements of the act are too intrusive into the lives of individuals.
It should be stated that The Patriot Act is a controversial piece of legislation that our lawmakers are continuing to debate and refine. It was an absolute necessity directly after September 11th and many of its provisions are required today so we can avoid reliving the horrors inflicted on us that fateful day by those who hate. As much as we do enjoy slamming the politicians in Washington DC we all stood to witness how they responded in that crisis. Quite honestly, after September 11th we all came together as Americans instead of Republicans, Democrats and Independents. Things got done efficiently, Congress acted swiftly and our President led us superbly. It was the way this country was supposed to be and for a while there we had pride in ourselves. It was refreshing. The Patriot Act will be addressed and it will be redefined. It will continue to give our law enforcement officials, the same ones who put their lives on the line and died on September 11th, the necessary tools to keep us safe.
Now I am sure that the City of Arcata is a well-equipped city complete with fire and police departments. Judging from the webpage they may even have an agriculture committee that makes sure the produce that comes from their farmer's markets is the best in their county. But I have to go out on a limb here and suggest that the federal government, as flawed as we may perceive it at times, has a more elaborate and intensive intelligence gathering system in place than they do. I am sure that if they took the time to contact their representatives in Washington and raise the question their representatives would be happy to explain this to the Arcata City Council, although seeing that Arcata is in California that logic could be called into question.
That being said the issue of not cooperating with the federal government in the War on Terror is not very patriotic. Frankly, that is a kin to what some foreign nations are doing to our federal government, countries that are feeling the heat because of it too. In a town where farmer's markets and American values are embraced it is quite the quandary to have such an obstructionist mentality holding political favor over the people of Arcata. In fact I wonder if there isn’t an amazing apathy with regard to voter turnout in Arcata. Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with the residents of Arcata. Perhaps it has everything to do with some loud-mouthed busy-bodies who feel a need to control everyone and everything because of several years of embarrassing bed-wetting incidents that occurred while their parents were too busy following the Grateful Dead around. Or not. One has to wonder.
As nice as the people of Arcata, California may be their elected officials need to realize that the troubles that face our country include their fair city as well. In the years prior to September 11th the people who flew those planes into our buildings killing thousands of us were living among us, peacefully, productively, as our neighbors, our friends and perhaps even those that sold us our produce. They were evil and bad people who played the game and killed our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. They gave no outward appearance of their sick and twisted intentions yet they delivered malevolence to our people the likes of which has never been seen before. We can never, ever forget this.
What Arcata is doing has nothing to do with civic virtue and that’s not who I want to buy my produce from!
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Frank Salvato is a political media consultant, a freelance writer from the Midwest and the Managing Editor for www.TheRant.us. He is a contributing writer to The Washington Dispatch. His pieces are featured on various other websites.
The patriot act is hardly that -- it is a direct afront to the freedoms which are guaranteed to us as citizens and it's an enourmously DANGEROUS piece of legislation for everyone who values freedom and cherishes liberty.
That said, in times of war our freedoms ARE curtailed, this is necessary to do the job of setting out and winning said war. Our fathers and grandfathers sacrificed their freedoms and lives in world war 2. When the war was over those freedoms were restored.
Likewise the Patriot act does have an expiration date built into the legislation and while there are some congressmen and women who would like to see the act's provision extended or made permanent they are, thankfully, in the minority.
HOWEVER there is a strong and misguided undercurrent underway that is laying the foundations for an intrusive orwellian style civilian monitoring system and the patriot act is one leg of that foundation, the total information awareness initiative is another, and Echelon is another.
All of these intrusive systems are being established without public debate or discorse. Echelon already exists and it does spy on US citizens by handing off the spying to our foreign partners and then having them report to our agencies what they discovered. Total information awareness is just totally freigning in the amount of data it will collect on hundreds of millions of mostly innocent civilians.
Just because the left opposes this doesn't mean the right should automatically embrace it -- this is one of those things that really make you go hmmmm. Conservatives are against big government, at least that's what I bought when I signed up, well this isn't small goverment but it is big brother.
We can not allow the threat of terrorism to turn us into a society which resembles those we've fought against for the last hundred years.
This pretty much nails what it's like to live in LA LA land. Trust me, I live here, it's awful. Why just yesterday the LA City Council decided that all companies must declare any ill-gotten gains from "slavery", I kid you not, slavery! Meanwhile the real problems are just too difficult for them MORONS.
Hey Osama, send your boys to Arcata, they can function there with impunity, the city fathers are on your side, they hate our President sooooo much it blinds all other considerations, ugh.
This is true, HOWEVER, that information is collected only on oversight from the judiciary branch (a search warrant).
Remember how indignant we were when it was revealed how much the east german secret police spied on its citizens? How is this any better? I'm sure the east german system was used to surpress crime, they sure did pass a lot of laws in East Germany.
The problem is, we've passed a lot of laws in the US too and I don't care how good a citizen you are you've broken a few of them as New Yorkers can attest.
The final test of all this is, how would you feel about this system in the hands of a tree hugging liberal? They're bound to get back into office sooner or later.
Well, no, actually, it isn't. Fire service is provided by a (largely volunteer) local fire district. The night shift consists of three guys to cover two stations and one adjoining city. They also can't keep their streets paved
The author hit the issue on the nose with his "Dead" reference. It seems that on their last tour, many of their fans got stranded in Arcata, where they remain to this day. The town has a one-block square central plaza that used to be sort of a nice amenity, and now requires the ability to fights one's way through a sea of aggressive panhandlers and "weed" salesmen.
Interestingly enough, they got rid of their former police chief because he proposed the cameras, and because he had the novel idea that the law ought to be enforced. Last week, someone attacked and damaged an historical statue on the plaza. Authorities, of course, have no clue who it might have been, and, when interviewed, the former chief said, "well, yeah, that's kind of why I proposed the cameras". Up until a year or so ago, there was a web-cam aimed at the plaza, available to all. That camera produced almost daily low-level protests, but nothing significant. It wasn't until the chief floated the idea of having a camera that the local port-listing mob started showing up.
By the way, one of the big proponents of the "anti-patriot ordinance" is a recently elected council member who announced, shortly after his election, that there was no further need for public forums because he already knew what people were going to say. Being a lib politician means never having to say, "well what do YOU think we should do?"
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