As The Election Spectacle Goes On The Nation Takes Another Turn Towards Fascism

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Every Year Brings Us Closer to 1984

By Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald. Posted February 12, 2008.

In the beginning, the government just collected fingerprints -- now they want eye scans and a host of other biometrics. Where will it stop?



In the beginning was the fingerprint.

It was in the 19th century that scientists realized the ridged whorls on the tip of the finger constituted a unique marker that could be used to tell one person from another. And eventually, the FBI built a massive database of fingerprints.

Then came DNA. In the 20th century, scientists learned to use the double helix nucleic acid molecule as a means of identification even more definitive than the fingerprint. And the FBI built a DNA database as well.

Now the feds are building yet another database. And it has some folks worried.

Maybe you missed it in the run-up to Super Duper Tuesday, but CNN and the Associated Press reported last week that the FBI will soon award a $1 billion, 10-year contract for construction of an electronic file that would store not just fingerprints and DNA, but a vast compendium of other physical characteristics. We're talking eye scans, facial shape, palm prints, scars, tattoos and other biometrics, all for the purpose of identifying and capturing bad guys.



What troubles me is the comprehensiveness of the information the feds propose to gather. It calls to mind discomfitting reminders of the totalitarian states so chillingly depicted in Fahrenheit 451 and 1984, oppressive regimes that saw everything, knew everything, regulated everything. Given the advances in technology and the ominous, Orwellian turn our government has lately taken, the comparison seems less far-fetched than it once might have.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/76684/

Senate Votes Down FISA Amendment Stripping Telco Immunity

February 12, 2008: 11:47 AM EST

WASHINGTON- Senators Tuesday voted down an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that aimed to strip out immunity for telecommunications companies alleged to have cooperated with the government's warrantless wiretapping program.

The result of the vote makes it increasingly likely that phone companies will receive retroactive immunity from civil lawsuits over their involvement in the controversial wiretapping program.

The development comes even though Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other senior Democrats have argued in favor of the amendment.

The vote was 67-31 against removing the immunity provision.

...

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200802121147DOWJONESDJONLINE000621_FORTUNE5.htm