Linkmeister

we're unbelievably close to having a police state complete with military presence in law enforcement, aren't we?

*sigh*

Its all just so strangely Orwellian I can't wrap my head around it.

We have these Politicos talking nonsense about what it won't be and how it will be limited. It is so rare when a government program maintains a limited scope.

Meanwhile, the citizenry is filled with folks scared about terrorism or seeking vengeance while they think their money is being pissed away by big business (*newsflash - the Dow being at its lowest point in 4 years is not earth shattering. It doesn't even qualify as a recession. Let's discuss it when its at its lowest point in 10 years and the unemployment rates are rising while prices rise as well...then we have a problem)...so some are tentatively ok with giving up a few of their civil liberties because, 'hey, we aren't doing anything wrong.'

Let's talk in 5 years when you're keeping your shades down in your house all the time because your local 'neighborhood watchdog' has a telephoto lens aimed at your bedroom to see if you practice illegal sex acts like sodomy and the military tanks are situated at busy intersections to encourage good driving.

What disturbs me the most (beyond the idea that these bozos think these ideas are good for the country) is the remarkable lack of outcry from the populace. I tend to quote Reverend Niemoller a lot these days. He's the guy whose Congressional testimony started with, "When they came for the Jews, I turned away," etc. What the hell is wrong with people? I'm tempted to put on a sandwich board saying "It's OK to criticize and dissent from this government, really!"

That's funny (about slow response time with the mail), because when I get responses from the White House, they're still using the "Anthrax Incident" in the letters explaining why they've been back-logged with their mail!

I think the lack of outcry is directly proportional to the amount of information available. There's too much other stuff in the way.

If you don't actively search out real news, you never hear it.* There's too much to filter out sometimes. So the outcry doesn't happen because the news just slips right on by...

Jeannine, I realize that the irony is with the email lag time being blamed on snail mail problems (by now you would think they'd have things under control, but who knows what kind of security programs they have running there, to guard against computer viruses), but slow delivery of snail mail does complicate the whole process of replying to all people at a timely rate (i.e. when someone emails and then sends items via regular mail - floppies are melted, cds shatter in the drives, paper turns the color of tea and gets brittle). We're just struggling to keep up (shrinking staff is our main problem - we went from 22 people to answer public inquiries for the Institution to 3.) I expect that there is less staff on the hill - the decrease in interns (who regularly are assigned to answer mail) was pretty drastic. So we're still using Anthrax as an excuse, too! Our Institution mail all went through the same post office that was shut down and anything that comes to our mail addresses takes about 1 month just to arrive at the main mail room (it's all going through Ohio to be irradiated). Then it has to be sorted and delivered to the central mail rooms of each museum/research center/etc. Then it finally gets distributed. Letters used to take about a week to get here. Now they take about 45 days.

Erm. That was all confusing, but I've run out of time to rewrite it!

* Especially if you have a situation like mine - short drive at 6:30 am to the metro (could listen to maybe one story on Morning Edition), long commute on metro (can't listen to radio, too much interference), work, commute home, arrive home 6:30 - 7, when most local and national news is done. Sometimes I'll feel so out of touch, even with net news ('cause I can't really be reading the news all day instead of working!).

Wow, Bun-Bun!