Well, everyone knows by now that the Republicans won a sweeping majority. I'm not convinced that the outcome of this election will affect things one way or the other, but assuming elections are even vaguely accurate, this sends a frightening statement about what the average American supports — or a frightening statement about what the election results will be no matter what people vote. Either way, very scary. Let's ignore “the war” for a moment, and just look at two domestic cases.
First, the “Beltway Sniper”. As you know, he was linked to a white van and shot using a .223 rifle. What you haven't been told is how they caught him — by using the gun owner and DMV records to “profile” all owners of .223s in the region. Now you can see why both the NRA and various civil rights groups oppose registration. (more) Before you say, “well, what's wrong with that”, imagine if instead of being linked to a specific (but still common) gun, they were linked to a specific (but still common) tattoo or piercing. Would you be in support of them taking piercing and tattoo shop records and visiting everyone with the same mods?
Now, I know many people have issues with gun ownership, and value the first ammendment more than the second ammendment, so let me mention something a little freakier. Many libraries in the US are being bugged/monitored and not only that, librarians have been served with subpoenas that don't allow them to talk about it (more). Use of computers in the library is monitored, as are the books you sign out and anything else you do there. After all, we all know that terrorists carry library cards and don't have the money to buy a computer of their own. The ALA has an excellent page both documenting the news (most recently for example the case of the ABFFE, ACLU, EPIC, and FTRF suing the Justic Department over the library subpoenas, just to find out how many have been issued — the JD won't tell), and advice to librarians as to what they can and can't reveal about the government's actions.
I don't know… It just seems pretty messed up — I was under the impression that America was a democracy, and that it elected its leaders to act as its representatives. As such, I'd have assumed that the government has a general duty both to act in the interests of the people, and to inform them of its actions. It's pretty scary when a “democratic” system consistently produces leadership that acts contrary both to the will and the interest of the people.
I believe the correct term for this systems of government is a “two party dictatorship”.
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