Taken from a quote by the Director of the Center For National Security. Today's meme is this: In the waning days of the Bush Administration, the stage has already been set to create a police state and perhaps that's why the Republican leadership (I know that sounds contradictory) is leaving. The damage that is being done has been planned and it is already in motion.
Step One. Destroy the Posse Comitatus Act. Use your military on your citizens, particularly your political enemies.
But civil liberties groups quickly condemned the move, which Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, a nonprofit activist group, likened to "Big Brother in the sky." "They want to turn these enormous spy capabilities, built to be used against overseas enemies, onto Americans," Martin said. "They are laying the bricks one at a time for a police state."
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Next, Make it so hard to defend someone that the defense is a foregone failure.
SAN FRANCISCO — Oakland lawyer Jon Eisenberg calls the case of Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. George W. Bush the strangest he has ever handled. How strange? Eisenberg was required to write one of his briefs in a windowless government office, without notes or lawbooks, under the watchful eye of two federal security guards.
When he got hungry, one of the guards brought him a banana. And when he finished, a security official shredded all his drafts — and even the banana peel, Eisenberg said.
Link: http://www.latimes.com/...
Next, conduct Kangaroo Courts that could not be more absurd if they were written by Lewis Carroll.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 15 -- Lawyers for the Bush administration encountered a federal appeals court Wednesday that appeared deeply skeptical of a blanket claim that the government's surveillance efforts cannot be challenged in court because the litigation might reveal state secrets.
"The bottom line here is the government declares something is a state secret, that's the end of it. No cases. . . . The king can do no wrong," said Judge Harry Pregerson, one of three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit who grilled administration lawyers at length over whether a pair of lawsuits against the government should go forward.
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Next, Use Professional Organizations of Doctors to Make Your Torture Seem OK.
The APA's anti-torture resolution follows a string of revelations in recent months of the key role played by psychologists in the development of brutal interrogation regimes for the CIA and the military. And it comes just weeks after news that the White House may be calling on psychologists once again: On July 20, President Bush signed an executive order restarting a coercive CIA interrogation program at the agency's "black sites." Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has indicated that psychological techniques will be part of the revamped program, but that the interrogations would be subject to careful medical oversight. That oversight is likely to be performed by psychologists.
Link: http://stokespost.blogspot.com/...
Psychiatrists and psychologists now attempting to face the fact that many in their midst are helping to torture people.
Link: http://www.apa.org/...
Next, Give Local Police Access to the Top Military Technology of The Day.
The Bush administration has approved a plan to expand domestic access to some of the most powerful tools of 21st-century spycraft, giving law enforcement officials and others the ability to view data obtained from satellite and aircraft sensors that can see through cloud cover and even penetrate buildings and underground bunkers.
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Next Define Blogging and Internet Usage as a Tool for Jihadi Radicalism. NYPD Warns of Potential Enemies Within And Especially Within Blogger Community.
Pre-Radicalization: seemingly ordinary individuals with regular lives and jobs adopt a jihadist mindset as their own.
Self-Identification: individual begins to drift away from his or her prior identity and associate almost exclusively with others sharing a new and similar mindset. This phase is usually triggered by a personal catalyst such as the loss of a job or a loved one or real or perceived persecution.
Indoctrination: an individual intensifies jihadist beliefs and concludes that personal action is required to further his or her cause through militant measures.
Jihadization: a member of a cluster of like-minded individuals commits to an identity as a holy warrior and actively participates in the planning, furtherance, or execution of terrorist acts.
Link: http://gothamist.com/...
Make Dissent a Crime. Fine People for Dissenting By Applying Rules never Applied Before Ever.
WASHINGTON: A US anti-war group has been warned it will be fined 10,000 dollars if it does not remove posters in Washington announcing a march in the capital next month against US involvement in Iraq, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...
Allow Right Wing Churches and Megchurches to Keep Tax Exempt Status Even When They Break The Law.
So says Rev.Wiley Drake, the former Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC); current pastor of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, California; and current darkhorse candidate for president of the SBC -- who has called for "imprecatory prayer" against AU, especially communications staffers Joe Conn and Jeremy Leaming; and executive director Barry Lynn. In a press release, Drake invoked the 109th Psalm and called them "enemies of God."
Link: http://www.talk2action.org/...