![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Yesterday on the bus home
I overheard some people talking about Dude, Where's my Country? A woman was raving about it to the man next to her.
She had read Stupid White Men and thought this one was even better, all the things it was saying about Bush and the administration. The next thing she said really caught my attention.
"The one thing I'm afraid of is that he'll get assassinated. I can't imagine they can let him go on saying all these things."
She can't imagine the administration would let someone speak against it so plainly, and sounded like she thought it a serious possibility that they would resort to assassination of a US citizen to shut him up. she didn't really sound upset about it, either. But neither did she sound like she was joking. And the man she was with didn't disagree with her.
This country is fucked.
She had read Stupid White Men and thought this one was even better, all the things it was saying about Bush and the administration. The next thing she said really caught my attention.
"The one thing I'm afraid of is that he'll get assassinated. I can't imagine they can let him go on saying all these things."
She can't imagine the administration would let someone speak against it so plainly, and sounded like she thought it a serious possibility that they would resort to assassination of a US citizen to shut him up. she didn't really sound upset about it, either. But neither did she sound like she was joking. And the man she was with didn't disagree with her.
This country is fucked.
no subject
To me it's more frightening that people will give credence to that idea than the possible occurence itself. It signals an acceptance of constitutionally untenable activities that could easily permit an overthrow of the present governmental system if it becomes sufficiently prevalent.
Given that, I hope what you overheard is a relatively isolated case. Even if it isn't, it makes me want to know what we can do to prevent those sorts of ideas from becoming the accepted wisdom.
no subject
I don't think it's an isolated case. I know my first thought on hearing of Wellstone's plane crash was that Bush must've done it. I'm still not completely convinced that he didn't.
no subject
no subject
B
no subject
I'll vote. I'll fight for my candidate. I've given what money I an, and I've given time. But, to be honest, I am in no way sanguine that a Democrat will be allowed to win this.
You can call this counsel of despair. You'd be correct. I am in despair.
no subject
Dude, it's not an emergency situation any more. And what's he going to tell his cohorts, "don't mind me, go blow stuff up anyway"? They're already doing that if they're going to do that...
no subject
He brought up that this is not the first time presidents have done things like detaining US citizens in the face of a war - Lincoln has a group of Maryland congressmen arrested around the civil war because he was worried they were going to vote to secede from the union. However I find it interesting that the example he found of this sort of thing happenning was from a time when we were dealing with internal conflict, not external.
It's a complex situation. I appreciate the viewpoint that it's not an emergency situation, but I contend with the term "anymore" -- I don't believe that anything the Bush administration has done in the middle east, here, or elsewhere has dramatically lessened the odds of the US' getting attacked. so if you agree it was an emergency situation after 9/11, then it's still an emergency situation. But I think it's more like "situation normal in light of the existence of severe power and economic inequities and religous fanaticism combined with dangerous technologies."
no subject
Based on my definition of "emergency", it was one post-9/11 because we didn't yet know if more of the same was forthcoming, and because the government had to seem to act decisively to protect us, even if they really weren't. Now that we "know" that there won't be another attack soon, it's no longer an emergency, just status quo danger we don't want to think too much about. The fact that Bush and congress did almost nothing useful (but spent a lot of money on it) is sad but irrelevant.
Speaking of sad, someone's pocket knife got missed at a checkpoint, they went back and tried to check it, the plane was held up 90 minutes and the whole family was held back. What a bunch of idiots.
It's not actually all that complex until you try to untangle the red tape and national and corporate politics and fix things: the 9/11 terrorists succeeded partly because our intelligence wasn't working well or together, but mostly because of vast loopholes and a little bit of innovation. Box cutters and nail files should still be okay on planes, and you can't X-ray for bomb threats. So what do they do? They hire new screeners without changing the duty regimen that makes it almost impossible for them to succeed (especially watching X-ray for hours on end); they spend bazillions on baggage scanners when that wasn't what was so devastating this time.
At least they're finally doing background checks on the service people who get to bypass the checkpoints...
no subject
So, I'm not surprised she think that the Administration would kill Michael Moore. That's *exactly* the message the right-wing has been sending for most of her life. Michael Moore opposes Bush. Any who do so are enemies. Enemies deserve death.
However, she hasn't played it out. The right-wing's control of the meida means that Moore has been marginalized, and he's far more useful to them as the Liberal Fool than dead. So, Michael Moore is safe.
There are others I fear for far more.