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?

Spy Drones in Your Town?

Another development in Technology to "Protect Us". (Photos courtesy of Reuters)
After tests, the FAA may approve the Miami-Dade Police Department to start flying a spy drone over urban areas. Personally, I expect more than approval from the FAA shuold be required.

Police department spokesman Juan Villalba said,

"Our intentions are to use it only in tactical situations as an extra set of eyes."

I feel better now. How about you?

According to the Reuters article,

"The CIA acknowledges that it developed a dragonfly-sized UAV known as the "Insectohopter" for laser-guided spy operations as long ago as the 1970s."

"U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been flying drones over the Arizona desert and southwest border with Mexico since 2006 and will soon deploy one in North Dakota to patrol the Canadian border as well."

Read more

Cheney Wants Retroactive Immunity for Telecom Companies

Does it concern anyone else that the Vice President of the Unites States is asking that corporations who (may have) violated the rights of Americans and others be given retroactive immunity?

Dick Cheney spoke at the Heritage Foundation yesterday and asked that we update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and make the temporary "Protect America ACT of 2007" PERMANENT? On top of that he is requesting that Congress give telecom companies and their execs complete retroactive immunity.

The introduction, given by Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation is a telling prelude:

"...you are always and will always be welcome at the Heritage Foundation. Mr. Vice president at heritage, we firmly believe that congress should not impose restrictions on the ability of the executive branch to carry out one of its primary constitutionally mandated functions. Namely, protecting Americans from acts of war by foreign enemies."

In his speech, Dick Cheney declares that,

"The relative safety of the 6 years and 4months since 9/11 is not an accident, but an achievement."

AND

"Liability protection, retroactive to 9/11 is the right thing to do...It's the right way to help us prevent another 9/11 down the road."

If you are going to give immunity 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.

Bill Moyers on

Bill Moyers addresses the argument over presidential power in his segment, "When the President does it, does it make it legal?" I found the historical perspective particularly interesting.

It's about 10 minutes long, but worth watching.

Police Attack Journalists at Protest

Late last night, I turned on the TV. As there was little on, I flipped channels until I got to our Spanish-speaking channel and realized they were talking about an immigration protest in L.A.. I watched the video and was disgusted. Not only did I see police swinging batons at parents heads as they ran from the melee with toddlers in their arms, I saw the police (without provocation) attack a TV news crew (or two). They struck from behind, knocking them to the ground, kicking them and beating them with batons. The still below is from one of the videos. The girl in the white shirt is a TV reporter trying to help up her cameraman who was clubbed, thrown to the ground and kicked. As she moves to help him up, an officer strikes her from behind. I'm hoping the full video will appear on the web soon.


The police, as usual, claim that anarchists not involved in the protest threw rocks and a bottle...so they attacked the crowd of families and journalists. It is interesting that this is the same claim they make over and over when the police state lashes out against its enemy: the public.

When is this country going to skip a night or two of Tivo and attempt to regain control of our local, state and federal "law enforcement"? Has anyone seen this on white-people TV? I know I haven't.

Spin, the movie.

"SPIN"

Definitely worth a watch. Brian pieced together bits of satellite feeds to give a behind-the scenes look at TV politics and spin

"Using the 1992 presidential election as his springboard, documentary filmmaker Brian Springer captures the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of politicians and newscasters in the early 1990s. Pat Robertson banters about "homos," Al Gore learns how to avoid abortion questions, George Bush talks to Larry King about halcyon -- all presuming they're off camera. Composed of 100% unauthorized satellite footage, Spin is a surreal expose of media-constructed reality."

(~quote from Google poster of this video)

Remotely Controlled Boeing Passenger Bombs

Will a new technology promoted to prevent another 9/11 put flyers at greater risk of being used in terrorist attacks?

The article starts out by saying, "New autopilot will make another 9/11 impossible". Of course, if someone hacks into the system, it would make 9/11 possible on a far grander scale. The system is called 'Uninterruptible Autopilot System' and was patented by Boeing without fanfare within the last couple of weeks.

(Click to enlarge)

"The mechanism is designed to make it impossible to crash the aircraft into air or land targets - and enable the plane to be flown by remote control from the ground in the event of an emergency."

"Once triggered, no one on board will be able to deactivate the system."

"After it has been activated, the aircraft will be capable of remote digital control from the ground, enabling operators to fly it like a sophisticated model plane, maneuvring it vertically and laterally." (View the article here.)

Of course, this assumes no one will be able to hack the system. If some 13 year old hacker gets in, the safety of passengers and any target on the ground are jeopardized. We all know that only teenagers can hack the most secure government computers and terrorists in caves are just too stupid to accomplish such a feat.

Automated License Plate Recognition

I awoke to find a comment of someone questioning this technology and it's existence in the States. Here's a You Tube video of one in use in Florida:

Big Brother's Eyes

It's called a number of things:

Automatic Plate Recognition, Automatic Vehicle Identification , Car Plate Recognition, Automatic Number Plate Recognition, Car Plate Reader, and Optical Character Reader.

The video was sent to me by Stan and is from the Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team (IMPACT) in British Columbia. There are numerous police agencies in the United States that have begun using and training on this technology.

Automatic number plate recognition is an optical character recognition technology that reads auto license plates at speeds up to 100 mph and about 60 reads per minute. It links into a system that networks numerous law enforcement agencies that cross-references the databases searching for offenses. In most interviews I have heard, the officers interviewed say it's only used to locate criminals with felony warrants.

Companies selling this technology advertise claim:

"The imaging function of the software identifies license plates and compares them to the database and can grant access for permitted vehicles, identify stolen vehicles or track vehicles to confirm their route."

You be the judge. Don't believe me. Look this stuff up.



In Texas, we are to be double taxed through the new toll road system. To apply that tax, the Texas Department of Transportation is utilizing this technology to auto-toll people as they drive. Take a look at one of the TXDOT documents here.
Here's another interesting site: http://www.licenseplaterecognition.com/

I encourage you to pursue finding out more about how it is being applied in your community.

Just one man's point of view...

Thanks to Kieran for sending me this one. This occurred back in October, but it should not be forgotten. I think it is important for all Americans to familiarize themselves with the Military Commissions Act of 2006. My hope is that after familiarizing themselves, they will get involved.

Feel like you're being watched?

Americans and foreigners crossing U.S. borders have been assessed by the Homeland Security Department's Automated Targeting System (ATS).

Check out the article written by Michael J. Sniffen of the Associated Press. This part really caught my eye:

"... travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments, which the government intends to keep on file for 40 years. Some or all data in the system can be shared with state, local and foreign governments for use in hiring, contracting and licensing decisions. Courts and even some private contractors can obtain some of the data under certain circumstances."

How is it that our government can collect, keep and share data about us...but we can't see it?

Here's an article from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Today from November 2005.

Here's the Privacy Impact Assessment from the Department of Homeland Security.

Spy Planes Over the United States

The Global Hawk has flown it's first Air Combat Command mission over the United States!!! Read an AOL Time/Warner news report here or a Newshounds report here. The Air Force fact sheet link can be seen here.

The Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle provides Air Force and joint battlefield commanders near-real-time, high-resolution, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance imagery.

Cruising at extremely high altitudes, Global Hawk can survey large geographic areas with pinpoint accuracy, to give military decision-makers the most current information about enemy location, resources and personnel.
~U.S. Air Force

What do you think about your government using drone spy planes for surveillance in the U.S.? Do you get warm fuzzies knowing that your tax dollars are going to fund Air Combat Command missions over (against) people living in the United States?