Once upon a time, the United States was a land of unparalleled
freedom. The rest of the world envied the freedom that ordinary
Americans had to think, say and do what they wanted. But all of that
has changed. Now Americans have to fear that they will be tackled by a
squad of security goons and dragged off to a detention facility
somewhere if they spill a Pepsi on a flight attendant or take a few too
many pictures of a public building. The United States used to be the
polar opposite of totalitarian regimes like Nazi Germany and the Soviet
Union, but now America is rapidly becoming very much like them. Due to
the fear of a boogeyman living in a cave somewhere or some guy with
explosive powder in his underwear we are all being forced to give up our
freedoms and learn to live in a Big Brother police state.
But have things really changed so much that we have to give up all of
the cherished freedoms that our fathers and grandfathers fought and
died for? Haven't there always been fanatics and crazies and criminals
out there? Why do we suddenly have to become so afraid of them?
In the past, Americans would not let anyone make them live in fear.
If some unbalanced individual did something bad, it wasn't the end of
the world, was it? No, in the past Americans dusted themselves off and
continued to live as free men and women. You see, when we live in fear
and radically alter our way of life just to feel a little more
secure, we lose. We have let someone else steal our freedom and our
dignity.
But now in the name of "security" all kinds of bizarre proposals have
been implemented on the local, state and national levels. Somehow we
think that if everything that we do is watched, monitored and analyzed
we will all be safer somehow.
Maybe we are safer and maybe we aren't, but we are certainly a whole
lot less free.
The following are 20 signs that the United States is rapidly becoming
a totalitarian "Big Brother" police state….
#1) A new bill being pushed by Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman
would allow the U.S. military to
round up large numbers of Americans and detain them indefinitely
without a trial if they "pose a threat" or if they have "potential
intelligence value" or for any other reason the President of the United
States "considers appropriate".
#2) Lawmakers in Washington D.C. working to create a new immigration
bill have decided on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal
immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would be required to obtain.
#3) Barack Obama is backing a plan to create a national database to store the DNA of people who have been arrested
but not necessarily convicted of a crime.
#4) Just to get on an airplane, Americans will now have to go through
new full-body scanners that
reveal every detail of our exposed bodies to airport security
officials.
#5) If that wasn't bad enough, the Transportation Security
Administration has announced that airport screeners will begin roving
through airports randomly taking chemical swabs from passengers and
their bags to check for explosives.
#6) Starting this upcoming December, some passengers on Canadian
airlines flying to, from or even over the United States without ever
landing there, will only be allowed to board their flights once the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has
determined they are not terrorists.
#7) Organic milk is such a threat that the FDA has been conducting military style raids on Amish farmers in
Pennsylvania.
#8) An NYPD officer has broken his silence and has confessed that
innocent citizens are being set up and falsely arrested and ticketed in order to meet quotas.
#9) A growing number of police departments across the U.S. are turning to mobile camera systems in order to
fight motor vehicle theft and identify unregistered cars.
#10) For decades, Arizona has been known as "the sunset state", but
lately many frustrated residents have started calling it "the surveillance state".
#11) Judges and police in Florida have been caught using "secret codes" on tickets in the state of Florida.
#12) An extensive investigation has revealed that between 2003 and
2007, that state of Texas quietly gave hundreds of newborn baby blood samples to a
U.S. Armed Forces laboratory for use in a forensics database.
#13) A 6-year-old girl was recently handcuffed and sent to a mental facility
after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.
#14) One 12-year-old girl in New York was recently arrested
and marched out of her school in handcuffs just because she doodled on her desk.
#15) In Florida, students have
been arrested by police for things as simple as bringing a plastic
butter knife to school, throwing an eraser, and drawing a picture of a
gun.
#16) When a mother on a flight to Denver spanked both of her children
and cussed out a flight attendant who tried to intervene, she suddenly
found herself handcuffed and headed for prison. Why? She was charged
with being a domestic terrorist under the Patriot Act.
#17) A new global treaty may force U.S. Internet service providers to spy on
what you do online.
#18) A leaked Obama administration memo has revealed plans for the
federal government to seize more than 10 million acres of land from
Montana to New Mexico.
#19) 56 percent of Americans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research
Corporation poll said that the U.S. government has become so large and
powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and
freedoms of ordinary citizens.
#20) But one
other recent poll found that 51 percent of Americans agree with
this statement: "It is necessary to give up some civil liberties in
order to make the country safe from terrorism."