The good folks at Antiwar.com Radio added a transcript to the MP3 of last week’s interview. My comments on the Obama administration’s ploy to increase FBI surveillance power are excerpted here at the top. (The full text is below. My Kelly Girl past is now no longer secret).
Bovard:
National Security letters have already been a complete disaster. The FBI has used those to put the Fourth Amendment through a shredder. We have no idea how many innocent people
First we hear that “there’s nothing new here to see, move along, nothing here, we already know this” when the Wikileaks come out and now we have the Pentagon demanding that they be returned and expunged from the records of the Wikileaks organization…”or else”.
The Pentagon asserting that somebody else should “do the right thing” is almost hilarious.
But for real hilarity, check in on the election cycle in Connecticut where we have the female head of the World Wrestling Federation going up against a nice array of rich guys attempting to buy themselves a sinecure in elected office. After all, in a volatile economy such as ours, where else can one neter poor and come out rich than they can in politics. Given that, the rich are sure to enter rich and come out richer, despite draining their coffers on remarkably hilarious campaigns.
On the only positive note that comes to mind, perhaps so much information will be gleaned by government security agencies, legally or illegally, that it will be impossible to interpret. On the other hand, there is always the chilling possibility that some of it could be used to target individuals who pose political rather than legitimate national security threats. Those in high office sometimes fail to make a distinction between national security and the security of their personal positions – their political power and perks. Adam’s Alien and Sedition Act is an early textbook example. Lincoln’s abuses were legion. If those in high office really wanted to enhance America’s overall security they would spend every waking moment reversing the government’s meddlesome and counterproductive foreign policies which now blow one trillion dollars a year. The weakened capital starved economy that results from such idiocy is by far the greatest threat to America’s future. I doubt if many terrorists have even momentarily considered targeting (neutral “we mind our own business”) Swiss assets – and for good reason.
I can’t wait til wikileaks drop the BoA Fraud Documents…