amerikanischen Arbeiterjugend?

Does this bother anyone else?

Wilmington, Delaware is going to be home to The Academy for Public Safety and Security (APSS), which plans to open its doors by 2010. It will be dedicated to preparing (primarily inner-city) young men and women for front line careers in Homeland Security. Isn't that nice? Equal opportunity for the female youth to serve "The Homeland".

"... we decided to start a new school culture from scratch, one built on the premise that many children would rather be part of the solution than the problem of violence. And, given an education to prepare them academically, socially and vocationally, they will become the best-of-the-best first responders in the homeland security job sector, rather than succumb to apathy or crime."

"The tone of the first responder high school will be that of a military or police academy, complete with uniforms and daily physical training during and after school."

"Student cadets will study careers in SWAT, prison guarding, water rescue, paramedics, firefighting, professional demolition careers, in addition to the usual school subjects. They will learn Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish — any language of use in homeland security."

Read more about it in the Newcastle Community News or the Delaware Business Ledger. Students will be called cadets, wear uniforms, and will follow courses of study in special weapons and tactics, prison guarding, professional demolition and other skills needed in an authoritarian police state. Will future generations read about the Liga der amerikanischen Arbeiterjugend (APSS) Cadets like we read about the Bund deutscher Arbeiterjugend today?



Another meaningless coincidence: The first national HJ rally was held in 1928 with 600 boys present. The new school expects to take as many as 600 students. Coincidence or not, it still gives me the shivers.

Am I making too much of all of this?

FISA is Outdated?

George Bush held a press conference to reassure us all that our rights have been protected and will continue to be. Then he demanded that we give retroactive immunity to telecom companies and not hold them responsible for violating the rights that he says are being protected. He basically said that allowing Americans recourse to having their Constitutional rights violated would be "patently unfair".

So...did anyone else know that one can take classes in how to speak Orwell at Yale?

I found the Olbermann video after I had started this entry. If you only have time for one video, I'd watch his.



Apparently, Keith Olbermann feels like I do.

"It was legal, but it was the kind of legal for which you still need immunity just like it wasn't legal."

FISA is out of date?

Will Congress Listen? NO TELECOM IMMUNITY!

NO RETROACTIVE TELECOM IMMUNITY!!!

Please act now. The Senate passed a FISA reform bill falls short on adequately protecting Americans from warrantless surveillance and it shamefully grants retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies that "may have" aided the Bush administration’s illegal domestic wiretapping.

Join the effort to stop retroactive telecom immunity by signing the emergency petition here.

See what Keith Olbermann had to say about it here.

If you are going to give immunity to a corporation for an illegal action, do it beforehand. Otherwise, it can only be viewed as a corporation colluding with the United States government in illegal activities.

FBI Deputizes 23,000 Business Leaders.

I read an article in The Progressive which delves into the relationship that the FBI has forged with private industry in the form of an organization called Infragard. It was formed in 1996 to combat cyber threats and has evolved into an organization over 23,000 strong watching and reporting across 17 matrixes.

"Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does—and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government, which alarms the ACLU. But there may be more to it than that. One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to “shoot to kill” in the event of martial law."

"In November 2001, InfraGard had around 1,700 members. As of late January, InfraGard had 23,682 members. “350 of our nation’s Fortune 500 have a representative in InfraGard.”"

Read the full article by Matthew Rothschild, here.

Chris Dodd Gets Gold Stars

Five Gold Stars for Chris Dodd

I did not get to put this up before the vote. However, it is important to post. Chris Dodd spoke eloquently and angrily regarding the push to exempt communications companies from any liability regarding trouncing Americans' rights.

The EFF has been at the forefront of this fight.



P.S. He won this round! But the fight is not over, rest assured.

Spying Prior to 9/11 and Forcible Injections

Keith Olbermann addresses allegations made by Quest's former CEO that illegal domestic spying was going on prior to 9/11 and an immigration official's testimony to congress that at least 48 immigrant detainees have been forcibly injected with dangerous drugs.

(Reported in the Washington Post via C&L):

Former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading, said the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to court documents unsealed in Denver this week. Read more…

A former Qwest Communications International executive, appealing a conviction for insider trading, has alleged that the government withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars after Qwest refused to participate in an unidentified National Security Agency program that the company thought might be illegal.

Airlines are Suing the FBI and CIA

Airlines and aviation-related companies have filed suit against the CIA and the FBI in an attempt to force terrorism investigators to give the airline companies a walk in terms of liability for the Sept. 11 attacks.

The lawsuits filed in Manhattan seek court orders for depositions of two secret agents, including the 2001 head of the CIA's special Osama bin Laden unit, and six FBI agents with key information about al-Qaeda and bin Laden.

Read about it here and here.