I've been helping prepare some info at work for a press conference tomorrow on our HVRP program, so I've got veterans on the mind. I checked YahooFinance when I got home, and a story about Delta charging soldiers bag fees naturally caught my attention.
On first glance, it appears pretty outrageous that a big company would tack on fees to members of our armed forces for checked luggage on a flight from DC to Atlanta.
But the thing is, as hard a critic as I am of failures in corporate governance, it's important to observe when the policy under scrutiny isn't actually that terrible. Delta (and the other major airlines) actually have quite friendly policies toward off duty members of our armed forces using domestic, civilian transportation networks. Relevant to this story, Delta doesn't charge any bag fees to checked luggage until the fourth bag, even though they do charge bag fees to other customers on the same routes. Southwest Airlines thinks this is such a huge issue that they've invented an entire television advertising campaign highlighting their policy that 'bags fly free'.
What this demonstrates is one specific example of the economic costs of militarism. There are the direct costs shown on the federal budget, which are astronomical. But then there are the indirect costs on the civilian economy which are even larger. It costs money to fly four bags from DC to Atlanta. It costs money to train soldiers on their return to the US from overseas deployments, on what they should expect right down to the logistical details of how to return home (the military reimburses bag fees). Somebody has to pay for all this.
It's right to be angry.
But in this case, don't be angry at Delta. The problem is DC. When you have Presidents and Congresses that are too deceitful and cowardly to fully account for all of the costs of war, those costs don't simply disappear. They're just externalized onto private actors, from the soldiers themselves to their family members and community to the various actors they encounter in the civilian economy.
And of course, if we weren't deploying troops overseas in Afghanistan, there wouldn't be any troops needing to carry four bags back from Kabul in the first place.
Showing posts with label militarization of society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label militarization of society. Show all posts
6/08/2011
5/02/2011
last call
(P) It's been 21 years since economic sanctions started killing Iraqis in 1990.
18 years since the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
13 years since the 1998 African embassy bombings.
11 years since the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.
10 years since the 2001 World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings and the invasion of Afghanistan.
8 years since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
5 years since Saddam Hussein was killed in 2006.
And now, the White House is set to report the death of Osama bin Laden.
If we don't bring our troops home now from foreign military occupations, we'll be doing this forever.
Forever.
Well, as long as empires last.
Which tends to be shorter than forever.
18 years since the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
13 years since the 1998 African embassy bombings.
11 years since the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.
10 years since the 2001 World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings and the invasion of Afghanistan.
8 years since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
5 years since Saddam Hussein was killed in 2006.
And now, the White House is set to report the death of Osama bin Laden.
If we don't bring our troops home now from foreign military occupations, we'll be doing this forever.
Forever.
Well, as long as empires last.
Which tends to be shorter than forever.
5/01/2011
comedy news network
CNN claims that, "Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is credited with trimming military spending and using a firm hand on tough decisions."
Ha!
4/22/2011
midwesterners for manning
So I haven't been able to sleep through the storm this morning. Maybe I'm excited to go home for Easter.
For whatever reason, I've decided to put down my two cents on the government's move of Pfc. Bradley Manning from Quantico to Leavenworth. For most folks, that's like the middle of nowhere. But I happen to be from a few miles east of there! So I put together a Facebook page and attached this description. If I've done this right, you can even click the Facebook link right here to like it.
With the government’s surprise announcement in April of 2011 that Private First Class Bradley Manning would be transferred from Marine Corps Base Quantico to the Army’s Fort Leavenworth, you may be wondering, where the heck is Fort Leavenworth? For the 99% of the population that doesn’t live in the Kansas City metropolitan area, here’s a brief primer on the military assets in the nation’s midsection.
Scattered around the region are a couple of army ammunition plants, underground storage facilities courtesy of various limestone mines and caves, the old Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base, and Honeywell’s nuclear weapons plant. The major military bases are Whiteman Air Force Base and Fort Leavenworth. Whiteman, a little over an hour east of the KC area, is home to one of the world’s most unique military assets – the fleet of B-2 stealth bombers. On the Kansas side, Leavenworth (also the town’s name), in the northwest corner of the KC area, is the oldest Army post west of the Mississippi River. It serves as one of the Army’s most important training facilities.
But this page isn’t about these installations. This is about a particular human being, raising awareness of his circumstances.
You see, Leavenworth is also home to THE federal prison, the prison of prisons, the Place To Be. Sure, there are infamous prisons like Alcatraz, historic prisons like la Bastille Saint-Antoine, and the superduperultravaluemealmax security facilities that have sprouted all over the country. But if you have been a VIP of the United States Federal Government, you have paid a visit to Leavenworth. (Technical note: there are several separate correctional facilities in the Leavenworth area, so if you are ever writing to or visiting someone, make sure you know exactly where they are, but collectively, it’s easiest to simply refer to them all as ‘Leavenworth’).
Naturally, surprise announcements can cause worry and concern, but two key things about Leavenworth do not need to cause alarm. First, it’s true that this relocation moves Manning away from his attorney and the nation’s capital. But Leavenworth isn’t in the middle of nowhere isolated from the rest of the world. It’s actually closer to a major civilian airport than Quantico. Second, Leavenworth is a major destination for military and civilian prisoners. Places like Quantico and Fort Knox are for lesser sentences of military personnel, and on the civilian side, for much of the 20th century, there were few other United States Penitentiaries of note. (Another technical note: in 2005, the civilian federal prison system expanded and reorganized, building larger maximum security facilities and changing United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth to a medium security installation, ending the prison’s century long role as the largest maximum security prison run by the federal government. The United States Disciplinary Barracks remains the military’s sole maximum security facility.)
In other words, the military has taken now 23 year old Bradley Manning out of the purgatory of indefinite detention amongst run of the mill detainees to move him to the place of the federal government’s worst offenders.
Now, I don’t know whether Manning is ‘guilty’ or ‘innocent’ – I don’t even understand exactly what laws the government claims have been broken. As of the time of this transfer, the government hasn’t even started prosecuting him yet, even though he has been imprisoned since May of 2010. What I do know is that every American citizen, every human being, deserves a few basic rights:
1. Due process
2. A speedy trial
3. Humane treatment
4. Protection from cruel and unusual punishment
5. Access to visitors, including legal counsel, friends, and international observers
6. Equal protection under the law
I also know that information about the activities of our government belongs to We the People, not to our employees in Washington. After all, we don’t imprison Daniel Ellsberg, we celebrate him. The government acted so heinously in the Ellsberg case back in the 1970s that the federal judge hearing the trial dismissed all the charges against the man who leaked what we call the Pentagon Papers.
These principles form the bedrock of our justice system, of our way of life, and not just in DC. We Midwesterners happen to believe in them, too.
Thanks for sharing this page with your family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and elected representatives.
(Note: This summary was compiled by a civilian (me) with no detailed knowledge of either the military or civilian correctional systems. If you have expertise in editing this to be more precise, please feel free to share!)
For more info about the ongoing treatment of Manning, see this website or this one.
For whatever reason, I've decided to put down my two cents on the government's move of Pfc. Bradley Manning from Quantico to Leavenworth. For most folks, that's like the middle of nowhere. But I happen to be from a few miles east of there! So I put together a Facebook page and attached this description. If I've done this right, you can even click the Facebook link right here to like it.
With the government’s surprise announcement in April of 2011 that Private First Class Bradley Manning would be transferred from Marine Corps Base Quantico to the Army’s Fort Leavenworth, you may be wondering, where the heck is Fort Leavenworth? For the 99% of the population that doesn’t live in the Kansas City metropolitan area, here’s a brief primer on the military assets in the nation’s midsection.
Scattered around the region are a couple of army ammunition plants, underground storage facilities courtesy of various limestone mines and caves, the old Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base, and Honeywell’s nuclear weapons plant. The major military bases are Whiteman Air Force Base and Fort Leavenworth. Whiteman, a little over an hour east of the KC area, is home to one of the world’s most unique military assets – the fleet of B-2 stealth bombers. On the Kansas side, Leavenworth (also the town’s name), in the northwest corner of the KC area, is the oldest Army post west of the Mississippi River. It serves as one of the Army’s most important training facilities.
But this page isn’t about these installations. This is about a particular human being, raising awareness of his circumstances.
You see, Leavenworth is also home to THE federal prison, the prison of prisons, the Place To Be. Sure, there are infamous prisons like Alcatraz, historic prisons like la Bastille Saint-Antoine, and the superduperultravaluemealmax security facilities that have sprouted all over the country. But if you have been a VIP of the United States Federal Government, you have paid a visit to Leavenworth. (Technical note: there are several separate correctional facilities in the Leavenworth area, so if you are ever writing to or visiting someone, make sure you know exactly where they are, but collectively, it’s easiest to simply refer to them all as ‘Leavenworth’).
Naturally, surprise announcements can cause worry and concern, but two key things about Leavenworth do not need to cause alarm. First, it’s true that this relocation moves Manning away from his attorney and the nation’s capital. But Leavenworth isn’t in the middle of nowhere isolated from the rest of the world. It’s actually closer to a major civilian airport than Quantico. Second, Leavenworth is a major destination for military and civilian prisoners. Places like Quantico and Fort Knox are for lesser sentences of military personnel, and on the civilian side, for much of the 20th century, there were few other United States Penitentiaries of note. (Another technical note: in 2005, the civilian federal prison system expanded and reorganized, building larger maximum security facilities and changing United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth to a medium security installation, ending the prison’s century long role as the largest maximum security prison run by the federal government. The United States Disciplinary Barracks remains the military’s sole maximum security facility.)
In other words, the military has taken now 23 year old Bradley Manning out of the purgatory of indefinite detention amongst run of the mill detainees to move him to the place of the federal government’s worst offenders.
Now, I don’t know whether Manning is ‘guilty’ or ‘innocent’ – I don’t even understand exactly what laws the government claims have been broken. As of the time of this transfer, the government hasn’t even started prosecuting him yet, even though he has been imprisoned since May of 2010. What I do know is that every American citizen, every human being, deserves a few basic rights:
1. Due process
2. A speedy trial
3. Humane treatment
4. Protection from cruel and unusual punishment
5. Access to visitors, including legal counsel, friends, and international observers
6. Equal protection under the law
I also know that information about the activities of our government belongs to We the People, not to our employees in Washington. After all, we don’t imprison Daniel Ellsberg, we celebrate him. The government acted so heinously in the Ellsberg case back in the 1970s that the federal judge hearing the trial dismissed all the charges against the man who leaked what we call the Pentagon Papers.
These principles form the bedrock of our justice system, of our way of life, and not just in DC. We Midwesterners happen to believe in them, too.
Thanks for sharing this page with your family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and elected representatives.
(Note: This summary was compiled by a civilian (me) with no detailed knowledge of either the military or civilian correctional systems. If you have expertise in editing this to be more precise, please feel free to share!)
For more info about the ongoing treatment of Manning, see this website or this one.
7/27/2010
deficit fearmongers expand deficit
(P/R) For the sake of all that is rational and sane, I feel the need to make a blanket statement that shows no mercy or compassion for concepts like nuance and shades of gray.
If you voted for the war supplemental - ie, money above and beyond the massively bloated amount of money already allocated to military excursions - you have zero credibility on fiscal responsibility. I don't want to hear you utter one word about deficits or debt. I don't want a peep about how Social Security will go bankrupt in a gazillion years or how the richest country in the history of the world can't afford healthcare for its citizens or how rich people paying the lowest taxes in the developed world pay too much in taxes.
You. Have. Zero. Credibility.*
*Of course, you've probably had slim-to-none credibility as is. But this vote helpfully renders the number a precise zero.
Stop talking about the deficit. Everybody knows it's irrelevant. Even you.
If you voted for the war supplemental - ie, money above and beyond the massively bloated amount of money already allocated to military excursions - you have zero credibility on fiscal responsibility. I don't want to hear you utter one word about deficits or debt. I don't want a peep about how Social Security will go bankrupt in a gazillion years or how the richest country in the history of the world can't afford healthcare for its citizens or how rich people paying the lowest taxes in the developed world pay too much in taxes.
You. Have. Zero. Credibility.*
*Of course, you've probably had slim-to-none credibility as is. But this vote helpfully renders the number a precise zero.
Stop talking about the deficit. Everybody knows it's irrelevant. Even you.
6/07/2010
will manning serve more jail time than libby?
There are some fascinating angles to this story at Wired. What is classified information? What should be classified? Who gets to determine what is classified? Is it ever okay to leak something? What should happen to whistleblowers? How does the public conduct oversight of classification?
And perhaps most interestingly, what is the military smoking to give a 22 year old the keys to the kingdom? Is this what our military has become? We're so far removed from dealing with actual national security matters that an army specialist deemed by our own government as barely competent to drink a beer has access to sensitive diplomatic cables that have nothing to do with his assignment in Iraq?
Or maybe, they do have something to do with Iraq, and they would be quite embarrassing for our political leadership. But of course, how can we know what they are when the government classifies them and prevents We the People from seeing them? This is particularly intriguing as it involves the Wikileaks video Collateral Murder to which my reaction is basically ho hum.
You see, unlike when, say, the Bush Administration destroyed an actual national security asset, and most ironically, one working on WMDs, stuff like this carries no military value. None. Zero. It's political, and there are no reasons to classify politics. In fact, secrecy is pretty much exactly how We the People get screwed.
But remember, no senior Bush official served jail time for revealing undercover agent Valerie Plame (Wilson). None. Zero. Wanna bet 22 year old Manning gets more than that?
And perhaps most interestingly, what is the military smoking to give a 22 year old the keys to the kingdom? Is this what our military has become? We're so far removed from dealing with actual national security matters that an army specialist deemed by our own government as barely competent to drink a beer has access to sensitive diplomatic cables that have nothing to do with his assignment in Iraq?
Or maybe, they do have something to do with Iraq, and they would be quite embarrassing for our political leadership. But of course, how can we know what they are when the government classifies them and prevents We the People from seeing them? This is particularly intriguing as it involves the Wikileaks video Collateral Murder to which my reaction is basically ho hum.
You see, unlike when, say, the Bush Administration destroyed an actual national security asset, and most ironically, one working on WMDs, stuff like this carries no military value. None. Zero. It's political, and there are no reasons to classify politics. In fact, secrecy is pretty much exactly how We the People get screwed.
But remember, no senior Bush official served jail time for revealing undercover agent Valerie Plame (Wilson). None. Zero. Wanna bet 22 year old Manning gets more than that?
6/01/2010
what if Iran or China attacked a NATO member?
(P)(R) One of the stories I took a break from during my lovely trip to Minnesota involved the sanctions Israel has imposed upon the Gaza strip. Economic sanctions are one of the most horrific weapons in the modern day arsenal, brutalizing the citizenry while having negligible impact on the regime. The sanctions Israel has imposed upon Gaza are particularly brutal in some of the details.
But what happened over the weekend isn't really directly about the human consequences for Palestinians. While I was out of town, the state of Israel launched a military attack against civilian vessels which had been searched before departure and which were flying under the Turkish flag. Turkey isn't just some random country. They are a member of NATO.
NATO is a military alliance. In our modern day Americana world of fake threats, like color-coded alerts and the evils of marijuana and impoverished warlords from Fallujah to Kandahar, we are tempted to forget sometimes that earlier in the post-war era, we still felt like there were actual national security interests the US held around the globe. We built the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as an explicit alliance for the defense of all.
We are treaty-bound to defend, militarily, our fellow signatories. Article V in particular spells this out:
Now, Israel of course enjoys a special relationship with the US. Greece and Turkey specifically, and all the Europeans more generally, know this well. This kind of event wouldn't lead to World War III. Rather, what this does is it weakens the American century, the American post-war experiment of collective security. What we are telling groups around the world is that they can not rely upon the US to be objective standard-bearers of international law and order. Rather, we've picked sides. You are for us or against us.
If you're a Somali pirate, we'll send the US Navy after you. We'll shoot you on sight. If you're a member of the Israeli Defense Force, you have free reign to assault vessels in international waters - even if they're flying flags of countries we are theoretically sworn to defend.
I don't know what the future of NATO holds in a world where the US screams at countries like Iran while giving free passes to countries like Israel. But I do know this double standard is going to get us into trouble.
Actually, strike that. It's already gotten us into trouble. The only question is what happens next.
But what happened over the weekend isn't really directly about the human consequences for Palestinians. While I was out of town, the state of Israel launched a military attack against civilian vessels which had been searched before departure and which were flying under the Turkish flag. Turkey isn't just some random country. They are a member of NATO.
NATO is a military alliance. In our modern day Americana world of fake threats, like color-coded alerts and the evils of marijuana and impoverished warlords from Fallujah to Kandahar, we are tempted to forget sometimes that earlier in the post-war era, we still felt like there were actual national security interests the US held around the globe. We built the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as an explicit alliance for the defense of all.
We are treaty-bound to defend, militarily, our fellow signatories. Article V in particular spells this out:
The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
Now, Israel of course enjoys a special relationship with the US. Greece and Turkey specifically, and all the Europeans more generally, know this well. This kind of event wouldn't lead to World War III. Rather, what this does is it weakens the American century, the American post-war experiment of collective security. What we are telling groups around the world is that they can not rely upon the US to be objective standard-bearers of international law and order. Rather, we've picked sides. You are for us or against us.
If you're a Somali pirate, we'll send the US Navy after you. We'll shoot you on sight. If you're a member of the Israeli Defense Force, you have free reign to assault vessels in international waters - even if they're flying flags of countries we are theoretically sworn to defend.
I don't know what the future of NATO holds in a world where the US screams at countries like Iran while giving free passes to countries like Israel. But I do know this double standard is going to get us into trouble.
Actually, strike that. It's already gotten us into trouble. The only question is what happens next.
10/29/2009
oppressors get upset, hilarity ensues
Let me premise this by saying I'm not one of those people who thinks we live in an honest, full blown police state, but I do care a lot about Constitutional rights (I did grow up in a town called Liberty, after all) and probably follow related news more than the average bear.
Well, sometimes our surveillance society ends up being comical as much as anything else. Check out these two stories I saw together this evening.
First, the Pittsburgh G-20 Twitter-Terrorist (I have that copyrighted, CNN!) appears to actually be under real government investigation. It wasn't enough that the police spent 16 hours searching his home for...something (the warrant wasn't real clear on that). A federal Grand Jury indicted him on a separate line of inquiry about alleged violations of the Anti-Riot Act. Yes, the guy tweeting publicly available locations of police who shouldn't even have been deployed so that protestors could avoid them is accused of inciting a riot. That's just brilliant. Next thing you know, people who advocate nonviolence are going to be locked up in jail as dangerous criminals. Oh wait, we have a great history of doing that, from this guy to that one.
The second thing I ran across was this devious sex criminal. How do I know she's devious? She's a Philadelphia Phillies fan, of course. She posted an ad on Craigslist. The Philly police, naturally having nothing else to do, read through Craigslist, found her ad, and asked her to meet a guy in a bar. They talked for awhile until some sort of implied offer for World Series tickets involved, gasp, sex. Then presto, guy replying to ad about World Series tickets turns out to be a cop, girl wanting World Series tickets turns out to be a danger to society.
Thank you Pennsylvania for removing two hardened, dangerous, violent criminals off our streets!
Well, sometimes our surveillance society ends up being comical as much as anything else. Check out these two stories I saw together this evening.
First, the Pittsburgh G-20 Twitter-Terrorist (I have that copyrighted, CNN!) appears to actually be under real government investigation. It wasn't enough that the police spent 16 hours searching his home for...something (the warrant wasn't real clear on that). A federal Grand Jury indicted him on a separate line of inquiry about alleged violations of the Anti-Riot Act. Yes, the guy tweeting publicly available locations of police who shouldn't even have been deployed so that protestors could avoid them is accused of inciting a riot. That's just brilliant. Next thing you know, people who advocate nonviolence are going to be locked up in jail as dangerous criminals. Oh wait, we have a great history of doing that, from this guy to that one.
The second thing I ran across was this devious sex criminal. How do I know she's devious? She's a Philadelphia Phillies fan, of course. She posted an ad on Craigslist. The Philly police, naturally having nothing else to do, read through Craigslist, found her ad, and asked her to meet a guy in a bar. They talked for awhile until some sort of implied offer for World Series tickets involved, gasp, sex. Then presto, guy replying to ad about World Series tickets turns out to be a cop, girl wanting World Series tickets turns out to be a danger to society.
Thank you Pennsylvania for removing two hardened, dangerous, violent criminals off our streets!
8/31/2008
this is america
(P) America is very good at dealing with crises. They demand action, and we're good at doing something. If it works, we do more. If not, we try something else. In the face of Something Serious, do something is a refrain we all rally around.
That's why the most troubling trends in our society are the ones that creep forward, seeping into us without us ever really acknowledging or confronting them. Or even approving of them. As more and more tax dollars go to more and more people, the system gains a momentum all its own of stakeholders looking for ever more seats at the taxpayer table.
One particularly destructive trend has been the militarization of our society. Our language, our discourse, our politics; the very options we believe to be possible are framed more and more by the perspective of force. Last week's Democratic National Convention and this week's Republican National Convention illustrate the nonpartisan nature of this development. We are acculturated from a very early age to internalize that the people on the receiving end of force must obviously have done something to deserve their fate, to the point that most of the creeping militarization goes on without even being news.
But the conventions give us a time when the envelope is pushed a little farther, and it's at those points when some attention gets paid to this issue. The resources that go into these things are enormous. More 'security' money was set aside for a four day convention in Denver than is needed to cover the whole projected budget shortfall for the entire year for Bi-State/Metro, the St. Louis' area transit agency. Is the threat of a couple hippies really more bad than this? When did we make that choice?
The answer is, we didn't. Until somebody you care about gets on the wrong end of the law, we just don't pay that much collective attention to the expanding prisons and police forces and rush to control what people do. SWAT, special weapons and tactics, is literally military training and equipment for use against civilians. The vast majority of those targeted civilians are American citizens.
So it's worth thinking about. Do we really need to spend $100 million to secure two week's worth of political conventions? Do we need to send heavily armed officers after groups of Americans who haven't broken any laws? Do we want a society where police can arrest solely on probable cause, give no reason for a search, remove items, and lock you up, all without charges? Do we see value in limiting the speech and assembly rights of citizens to make sure Important Politicians and Business People aren't bothered in their plotting to run the country? Is the technical know-how, energy, and expertise of the government servants who designed the system monitoring my blog well-allocated?
There's no one answer to any of this. Virtually no one suggests having no police forces, while virtually everyone celebrates individual rights and the Constitution. Most of the actors in the system, on all sides, are legitimately serving their country and advocating the principles in which they believe. The answer is to discuss this, to have an open exchange of ideas driven more by citizens in public and less by special interests in private. That would be real change in our society. That's the only way to combat mission creep.
Here are some links to what's been going on. Exploring is particularly important if you're not familiar with the reality of government power today.
Star Tribune
Salon
a free speech zone
Colorado Independent
That's why the most troubling trends in our society are the ones that creep forward, seeping into us without us ever really acknowledging or confronting them. Or even approving of them. As more and more tax dollars go to more and more people, the system gains a momentum all its own of stakeholders looking for ever more seats at the taxpayer table.
One particularly destructive trend has been the militarization of our society. Our language, our discourse, our politics; the very options we believe to be possible are framed more and more by the perspective of force. Last week's Democratic National Convention and this week's Republican National Convention illustrate the nonpartisan nature of this development. We are acculturated from a very early age to internalize that the people on the receiving end of force must obviously have done something to deserve their fate, to the point that most of the creeping militarization goes on without even being news.
But the conventions give us a time when the envelope is pushed a little farther, and it's at those points when some attention gets paid to this issue. The resources that go into these things are enormous. More 'security' money was set aside for a four day convention in Denver than is needed to cover the whole projected budget shortfall for the entire year for Bi-State/Metro, the St. Louis' area transit agency. Is the threat of a couple hippies really more bad than this? When did we make that choice?
The answer is, we didn't. Until somebody you care about gets on the wrong end of the law, we just don't pay that much collective attention to the expanding prisons and police forces and rush to control what people do. SWAT, special weapons and tactics, is literally military training and equipment for use against civilians. The vast majority of those targeted civilians are American citizens.
So it's worth thinking about. Do we really need to spend $100 million to secure two week's worth of political conventions? Do we need to send heavily armed officers after groups of Americans who haven't broken any laws? Do we want a society where police can arrest solely on probable cause, give no reason for a search, remove items, and lock you up, all without charges? Do we see value in limiting the speech and assembly rights of citizens to make sure Important Politicians and Business People aren't bothered in their plotting to run the country? Is the technical know-how, energy, and expertise of the government servants who designed the system monitoring my blog well-allocated?
There's no one answer to any of this. Virtually no one suggests having no police forces, while virtually everyone celebrates individual rights and the Constitution. Most of the actors in the system, on all sides, are legitimately serving their country and advocating the principles in which they believe. The answer is to discuss this, to have an open exchange of ideas driven more by citizens in public and less by special interests in private. That would be real change in our society. That's the only way to combat mission creep.
Here are some links to what's been going on. Exploring is particularly important if you're not familiar with the reality of government power today.
Star Tribune
Salon
a free speech zone
Colorado Independent
1/13/2007
militant authoritarianism at work
(P) Unbelievable. Except, it's not; it's exactly what authoritarian conservatives want. It's official, the notion that we should further consolidate the militarization of our society was one part of the massive 2007 Defense Authorization bill. Now, I'm using authoritarian conservatism very broadly here. I mean it as the notion that we can have a better society by increasing the usage of armed employees of the government controlled by ever fewer, more centralized power sources; Republican and Democrat categories do not overlap very well with this issue of deploying military forces. In both houses of Congress, majorities of both parties voted for the bill (although, there's certainly a reason they didn't introduce this as stand alone legislation rather than sticking it in the larger defense bill). The Insurrection Act (which is the exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of the armed forces domestically) was amended to further militarize our society and place at the hands of the President control over the country.
In the future, governors will no longer control their own states' guard troops in an emergency. Instead, the President of the United States will now control the deployment of armed forces against American citizens. Apparently, simply deploying Blackwater forces in New Orleans wasn't enough. In case you were worried, big brother is still alive and kickin'.
Here's the letter the Governors, who obviously oppose this, sent to Congress last summer.
In the future, governors will no longer control their own states' guard troops in an emergency. Instead, the President of the United States will now control the deployment of armed forces against American citizens. Apparently, simply deploying Blackwater forces in New Orleans wasn't enough. In case you were worried, big brother is still alive and kickin'.
Here's the letter the Governors, who obviously oppose this, sent to Congress last summer.
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