More Surveillance: Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Buses

We’ve already seen and experienced the effects of government intervention at airports, with many Americans opting out of flying altogether in order to avoid the hassles of TSA full body scans and gestapo-like interrogations. Whether the the security procedures at airports have made us safer is an oft debated topic, with those who oppose the stringent screening policies pointing to the recent Christmas Day bombing plot and senseless acts of humiliation and demoralization regularly carried out by TSA employees as failures of the current system.

In the near future the government is likely going to begin considering similar “security measures” for all public transportation systems, as Senator Lieberman suggested. If history is any guide, mustering support in Congress for new public security laws should not be very difficult to accomplish. In an environment where the powers that be have created an air of fear around just about everything from health care to financial reform, it is simply a matter of telling the right story to the American public and Congress. For those of our representatives who are ready to pull the trigger on more draconian control and surveillance, an attack anywhere within the borders of the United States, similar to what happened in Moscow recently, would be enough to institute public transportation security and surveillance laws within a matter of days if such an event were to occur.'

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Biometric Scans for Traffic Stops

In every Hollywood produced dystopian film one fantasy is certain to appear with deafening familiarly; absolute control. These visions of our future, and indeed humanity’s past, accentuate the authoritarian or totalitarian government enacting some random form of repressive social control. However, if you are seeking out the next big blockbuster dystopia, look no further than the American reality today. As shown by this newscast from FOX6Now, Milwaukee – WITI, we are obediently barreling toward such degeneration of civil freedom.'

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One Nation, Under Surveillance

What have you got to hide? The answer may shock you: If you’re like most Americans, you have far more than you realize that you need to be hiding, and not doing so may be putting you and your family in grave danger.

In his new book, Three Felonies a Day, attorney Harvey Silverglate holds that the typical American professional commits an average of three federal crimes a day, just going about their daily business, without even realizing it. And the only thing keeping them out of prison — make that keeping you out of prison — is the fact that federal prosecutors haven’t looked at you yet. “No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch,” reads a statement on the book’s Web site, “and nothing less than the integrity of our constitutional democracy hangs in the balance.”

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Welcome Home, War! Creating the 'Domestic Surveillance State'

In his approach to National Security Agency surveillance, as well as CIA renditions, drone assassinations, and military detention, President Obama has to a surprising extent embraced the expanded executive powers championed by his conservative predecessor, George W. Bush. This bipartisan affirmation of the imperial executive could "reverberate for generations," warns Jack Balkin, a specialist on First Amendment freedoms at Yale Law School. And consider these but some of the early fruits from the hybrid seeds that the Global War on Terror has planted on American soil. Yet surprisingly few Americans seem aware of the toll that this already endless war has taken on our civil liberties.


Don't be too surprised, then, when, in the midst of some future crisis, advanced surveillance methods and other techniques developed in our recent counterinsurgency wars migrate from Baghdad, Falluja, and Kandahar to your hometown or urban neighborhood. And don't ever claim that nobody told you this could happen -- at least not if you care to read on.'

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