Trolling for terrorists: what does that look like?

Mulling over the wonderful story and editorial comments by Jane Howard about the sad court case of the Border Patrol agent in the death of Dr. Ken Petersen....
Howard said she is glad to know that the Border Patrol is there to stop terrorists from coming in through Canada... Well, then, how do those PaTrollers stop those Terrists (as they are called by our Fearless Decider)? Do they recognize them by their assault weapons, or their camouflage gear? Or is it the color of their skin? Or maybe the faintly Arabic cast of their features? Is there some secret sign that they are taught in their Terrist Training? Or is this just one more instance of racist profiling?
It seems that driving up and down the Gunflint Trail is one of the big ways the Border Trollers carry on their fearless hunt. What exactly are they looking to find? Hmm, True looks a little scruffy, like much of Cook County, when he goes off fishing. Is scruffiness a sign of Terrism? A couple of years ago, True's friend Toivo watched a scene in the Grand Marais Harbor parking lot, where a couple of tourist families in vans were having a picnic. Trouble was, those couple of families looked like they might be Middle Eastern. Toivo watched in astonishment as one after another Border Patrol vehicles appeared, slowly TROLLING by the innocent families, obviously trolling for terrists posing as tourists.
It makes True laugh and laugh that the mouthpiece hired to represent Weber quoted bloggers and even our wonderful Sheriff Falk to prove that in Cook County the Border Patrol is perceived as the enemy more than "invisible terrorists." Now why would we ever think that?
Well, silliness aside, at least give those Trollers some Driver Training and don't let them off the hook when they get well-deserved traffic tickets.
Immunity? Because Ms. Weber was diligently pursuing those invisible Terrists she gets to run down and kill a good man?
Honestly, what country are we living in? Maybe a Latin American dictatorship? That's what they do down there, folks, with the blessing of our big corporations like Coca Cola. But that's another story.
True

A man's house is his castle?

The feds are spying on us, our phone and email conversations, and we can't get a driver's license or a post office box without providing our physical address location. What happens to that information? For a fee, anybody on the Internet can get it....
So True was dismayed to find another privacy leak courtesy of Cook County. ANYBODY, that's right, anybody, can pull up your name, property identification number, taxpayer information, property information and assessed property value.
Who lobbied for this Big Brother privacy invasion? Realtors? Collection agencies? Or maybe the NSA (for those of you who don't know: the NSA spies on all of us, all of the time, with no oversight, thanks to Bush, Cheney, Rove, et al who nonetheless delete all of their own computer hard drives so we can't find out what THEY are doing about, say, torture memos, firing of federal attorneys who don't agree with them, big big payouts to crony corporations, lies to the media, to name only a few of their crimes....)
Please, dear Cook County, DON'T make it easier for anybody to invade my privacy. And WHY are you only announcing this new travesty of individual rights after the fact?
True

Stop that spying or I'll give you something to spy about!

True,

Who still believes in the sanctity of the home? Or would you believe a person's house is her castle? Does anybody else care that satellite spying on our every email and phone conversation has just been okayed by the US Senate?

Oh ya I know the argument, that only the bad guys have anything to hide. NOT. I have my private thoughts to hide. I have my friends, my memories, my saints, my sins, my longings and hopes and dreams and fears to hide from a merciless Big Brother who would shred the American Dream for the sake of imperial domination, for the sake of oil and wealth and limitless power.

Well, then, scumbags aka elected officials, put this in your pipe and smoke it:

As a person of peace I am the enemy of the United States who stands for endless war. Enemy, enemy, enemy. USA equals Evildoer, evildoer, evildoer.

Ah so, you spy on me? OK then I will spew out all that stuff you are looking for and dare you to come and get me:

F**k Bu$hco. Death to the Repuglican agenda. Impeach Bush and Cheney and put them in jail. End Torture and arrest all those who condone or practice it. Let you be judged and sentenced to your own wicked and cruel torments of others, like the old fairy tales where the baddies were dragged behind a team of horses in a nail-studded cask. YOU ALWAYS PAY FOR WHAT YOU DO, or so I wish.

Nya nya nya, You Can't Catch Me I'm the Gingerbread Man...... by the time you head to my Castle I will be so out of here, out of this friggin country where I was born but no longer belong....
Anonymous

The Soft Underbelly of the Democratic Party - CommonDreams.org

Since the vote by Congress to support warrantless spying on all Americans, the blogosphere has been buzzing. Hmm, Minnesota "Nice" folks don't like Minnesota Mad Belding; they prefer to sit back and ignore the evil around them while making nasty cracks at the people who speak out.

Even the stuffy New York Times is with Belding on this one, though not using the "H" word. Oh my goodness, how NOT nice.

The frustration is not being listened to by any of the three branches of government which are supposed to check and balance each other. The Rage is that the Congress has given retroactive approval to the crimes of Bushco.

True

Read this Common Dreams post; others will follow:

The Soft Underbelly of the Democratic Party - CommonDreams.org

Power Without Limits - New York Times

Recent executive orders by the Bushco seem to be preparing the way to declare the United States Constitution and laws in abeyance while the Decider takes over. Don't believe it? Well, even the MSM (NY Times) has weighed in on this terrifying power grab.... Check it out:

Power Without Limits - New York Times:

A man's house is his Castle

As all readers must know, True puts everything in the shop window. So, many ignorant doofuses ask, why worry if he's being spied upon at home? THAT is, if he has nothing to hide.
Whether I choose to hide anything or not isn't the point. The point is what living in the land of the free is all about. Has anybody under the age of 60 actually studied the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?

For example, take a look at the Fourth Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Caroline Kennedy wrote a book about it, called The Right to Privacy. People have fought and died for it. True, being actually educated in American history, knows all this. What do you know? For example, do you know that every phone conversation you have, every email you write, and every Internet search you do is recorded in cyberspace? Or, that the government demands that Internet and phone providers save this information for you regardless of any little hitch like a warrant for cause?

Friend, do you care? Do you ever dream that you are naked in public, or using a public toilet without a door, or dragged away screaming by the Homeland Honcho Patrol? Do you mind that the metaphorical equivalent of your dream is what the neocons and their flunkie Dumb Dubya have established in America? Yes, HAVE established. That's what it is....Think about it.

I know many people who don't express their opinions on the phone or Internet out of fear. I am not one of them: let the spooks arrest me and drag me off to extraordinary rendition so long as somebody takes care of Katie, Sophie, Leo, Lulu and Sugar in my absence. Nobody will make me shut up.

BUT, what "bugs" me (pun intended) is:

• That my house is not any longer my Castle. It is subject to satellite surveillance of my every move, of disappearing me as an enemy combatant even though my little companions depend on me to protect them.
  
• Also, that the self-righteous, indecently rich, ultra right wing neocon hypocrites and their fat cat lobbyists and their lawless multinational corporations have in only seven years destroyed all that the Bills of Rights protects, all that the Constitution provides for against unchecked power grabs and even all that the legislative and judicial branches can decree (via Signing Statements and Executive Privilege).
• That you (we?) the people don't really give a flying f--k.

We get the government we deserve, ultimately. The modern robber barons, unlike those of the previous century, COULD be stopped. They could be called to account for their high crimes and misdemeanors against humanity, for their depradations of the planet, for their wars against innocent civilians, for their diversion of public interest funds to private gazillionaires. They could be impeached, or voted out of power, or shamed by a truth-telling media. THAT's why True keeps telling the truth.

Here, my dear readers, is a story you surely want to read:

Experts: FBI Would Skirt the Law With Phone Records Program