Is there anywhere safe left to go? Political rambling. Not cut. Deal.

[rikibeth]

I saw this link on gehayi's LJ. ataniell93 is talking about it too. gehayi also provided this link http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/07/20040708-15.html to the interview in question. It's verbatim. This is actually what the Shrub's press secretary said in a press briefing on this past Thursday:

Q On Ridge's security warnings, can the President today guarantee Americans that no terrorist attack can upset the U.S. elections this November, that they will go ahead as planned?

MR. McCLELLAN: Ann, I don't think anyone can make guarantees. But the full intention is to move forward and hold those elections. I don't know specific information related to election day or any other of the high profile events that we have coming up. What we can guarantee to the American people is that we will continue to take strong steps to make sure that we are doing a better job every day of protecting the homeland and enhancing protective measures in certain areas of the country. And we will continue waging the war on terrorism, on the offensive, to defeat the terrorists. That's what we will continue to do.

These are threats that we need to take seriously, and that's why it's important to keep the American people informed.

If I had my paperbacks better organized, I could lay hands on my copy of To Sail Beyond the Sunset, and get the exact wording of Maureen's description of the Nehemiah Scudder takeover, and get the exact year for "In 20xx, there was no election."

That's what it's reminding me of.

What am I supposed to DO about it, folks?

Gave money to the Kerry campaign. Bought the Rock Against Bush CD. Give money to the ACLU. Regularly pester my Congresscritters on issues that are dear to me, although, honestly, a fair amount of the time Dodd votes the way I want him to, and it's the ones from other districts who are the problem, and they aren't going to listen to me, and when Dodd isn't going to vote the way I want him to, I somehow doubt he's listening to me either.

But what the hell do I do when, despite that, stuff like the Patriot Act goes through, and when the official line coming out of the White House is so liberally sprinkled with fnords as to make me despair of people REALIZING that Bush and his puppeteers are a worse threat to our liberties than any fanatic with a box cutter, and when they're setting us up to swallow something as fundamentally wrong as NO ELECTION with the minimum protest?

There are "stop the war" protestors gathered at the corner of Farmington and Main every weekend, holding banners and clanking cowbells and whatnot. I'm sure they mean well... although I am deeply uncomfortable with the ones carrying the posters of Rachel Corrie... but I can't see that they're changing anything by standing there, either.

My solution has always been to live as if I am free, and simply to minimize official NOTICE of the temporal laws I break in the process. Discretion. If the Powers That Be declare some nonsense like a "drug-free school zone," to pick an example, prudence dictates that the front porch with the view of the school is not an ideal smoking area. I drive according to my best judgement of safety, and treat speed limits as advisory, and count it a bonus that silver-grey Volvo station wagons are not attention-drawing cars.

When Charlotte went as Justice for Hallowe'en two years ago, out of curiosity, we timed out the speech about Lady Justice from "V for Vendetta." Too long for a Masquerade presentation, sadly. But I want to do it anyway.

I would seriously consider moving to another country. But IS there another one where I could be both safe and free?

I come from a Jewish family. That's given me a profound sense of unsafety since I was nine years old -- the age at which I first became aware of the Holocaust. And it's a very helpless feeling... because my own beliefs or doubts won't mean a thing, when it comes down to it, only who my mother and grandmother were. I used to consider the First Amendment the best possible rule to live under, in that respect. If I had confidence that it would remain in effect, I'd still think so. My confidence is shot.

I have this little corner of my brain with a one-suitcase packing list, you know, what I'd take if I ever had to leave the country for good while looking like I was just leaving on a vacation. I think it's existed ever since I read "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit."

Sometimes I wonder if I haven't already left it too late.

Comments

[lonestarkate.livejournal.com]

Oh dear god.

I am officially scared.

shitshitshitshitshit.

[arden-ranger.livejournal.com]

Personally, I am considering Canada.

[florahart]

You know, my brother and his wife are currently in school in Canada. I said when GHW Bush was elected that I seriously considered moving to Canada, and damn, again with Dubya. The man scares me badly, and the number of people who seem to not grasp what's going on...like my grandmothers and my uncle who (gurgle; this makes me kuh-razy every time I think of it) WORKS FOR homeland security, coming out of military retirement to do so...it's just mind-boggling.

[greeneyes-rpi.livejournal.com]

In the words of Maureen Johnson:


America in my own time line suffered the cancer of "Bread and Circuses" but found a swifter way to commit suicide. I don't boast about the difference, as in time line two the people of the United States succumbed to something even sillier than Bread and Circuses: The people voted themselves a religious dictatorship.

(snip)

Elections are not won by converting the opposition, but by getting out your own vote, and Scudder's organization did just that. According to histories I studied at Boondock, the election of 2012 turned out 63 percent of the registered voters (which in turn was less than half of those eligible to register); the True American party (Nehemiah Scudder) polled 27 percent of the popular vote...which won 87 percent of the electoral college votes.

In 2016 there was no election.



(pp228-229 in my printing)

Talk to people you know in the "swing" states, and get them to vote this maniac out of office. I have a lot of friends in Florida, which makes up for my useless vote here in Texas.

[subtle-science.livejournal.com]

which makes up for my useless vote here in Texas.

I hear ya!  'Course, that's not gonna stop me from taking a stack of voter registration applications with me when I go see Fahrenheit 9/11.

[la-directora.livejournal.com]

MR. McCLELLAN: Ann, I don't think anyone can make guarantees.

Excuse me? We DO have a guarantee of elections in this country. It's called THE CONSTITUTION. The Constitution does not say, "Elections will be held the first Tuesday in November, unless that doesn't seem like a good idea at the time.

Holy f-ing crap.

[arden-ranger.livejournal.com]

The Constitution also doesn't say "Marriage in this country shall be defined as a union between one man and one woman" either.

Yet.

Man, I hate those bastards

[tikvah.livejournal.com]

I come from a Jewish family. That's given me a profound sense of unsafety since I was nine years old -- the age at which I first became aware of the Holocaust. And it's a very helpless feeling... because my own beliefs or doubts won't mean a thing, when it comes down to it, only who my mother and grandmother were. I used to consider the First Amendment the best possible rule to live under, in that respect. If I had confidence that it would remain in effect, I'd still think so. My confidence is shot.

I hear you, loud and clear. In fact, when Drew and I were chatting tonight, that topic did come up, but I figured that if it came time to run, I'd run for my other home country, Israel, instead of Canada. If I have to live in the midst of dangerous insanity, I might as well go to Ground Zero to more actively prevent the type of Middle-East based Armageddon-style disaster that Shrub and his buddies are trying to inflict on the world so that they can expedite the so-called Rapture.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I'd feel any better. I don't want to live in ANY sort of theocracy, even one where I'm technically part of the majority. And the safety would be a wash.

*sigh*

[gkrikket.livejournal.com]

I don't think this one is as bad as your fear. (At least I hope not!)

I think the Press secretary was having a bad day and answered the question poorly, but let's face it -- he was giving the unvarnished truth. There is nothing the administration can do, and no way they can guarantee that there won't be any attacks during the election, or any other time. All this HOmeland Security Bullshit is just that -- Bullshit. Given the definition of the problem it can't be "solved".

To answer your question, I don't think there is a truly "free" country left on the face of the planet. (Although you know how my political leanings color that statement.) If things go to hell, I've considered moving to Russia if I can. (I even applied for a job in Moscow.)

I figure that at least there, it's "honest" corruption, rather than the hypocritical variety we have here.

[zdashamber.livejournal.com]

I've been keeping an eye on this from a fall-of-the-Weimar-Republic POV. I think you've still got several years to get out, if everything goes as badly as possible. We've got the first camps, Gitmo and those in the occupied territories, but only a few American citizens are in them. If there's another major terrorist happening, they may go after today's "communists" with the Patriot Act, but I don't think you guys are going to be on that list. And then it'll take years to get people blase about ridding the US of its "moral cancer-bearers". On the other hand, the "no fly" list could be a problem... You'd have to get to Canada before being able to fly somewhere.

For my part, since I'm pretty unattached, I think I'd rather do civil war than flight. The American Revolution was about 30:25:45 patriot:tory:leave me out, right? I bet we could get 30%...

I suppose the question is, how long do we wait after the cancellation of the election before we start shooting. I wish we'd actually studied the American Revolution in school... It's the most successful I can think of. I suppose I should go get a book to see how they did it. A few ex-military leaders to win the war surrounded by a bunch of thinking leaders to win the peace? Did it work out only because Washington stepped down instead of becoming king?

[olofd.livejournal.com]

I would seriously consider moving to another country. But IS there another one where I could be both safe and free?


I seriously doubt that, not with Mr. Bush controlling the U.S. collection of A-bombs. (Though I would say all the Scandinavian countries for instance are reasonably free and safe... but I'm biased, of course.)

Threats to U.S. democracy isn't an internal affair, it affects the whole world. I'm scared too.

[princejvstin.livejournal.com]

I'm going to try and take off my tinfoil hat.

I think the beloved Press Secretary lies on so many questions, that, when offered a straight question, with an easy answer he could make (Ie: Of course we can guarantee elections will go on in November. The US has held elections in the most dire of circumstances, including Civil War. Next question.), I think he just dodged and weaved out of instinct.

[shadowflyer.livejournal.com]

I'm sure he dodged and weaved because he and everyone working with him always dodges and weaves. But the fact that he can dodge and weave on something like this opens a very dark and cold window into the collective mindset here. Elections can be cancelled. Meaning the entire Constitution can be cancelled, because that's what it would take.

Whether they actually plan to do it is almost irrelevant. The fact that these beings think it can be done is reason enough to make taking them out of power a moral imperative.

By force if necessary.

[ceilidh71.livejournal.com]

I have this little corner of my brain with a one-suitcase packing list, you know, what I'd take if I ever had to leave the country for good while looking like I was just leaving on a vacation. I think it's existed ever since I read "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit."

what's so very scary is that many people, myself included, have that same mental list, and have been revising it and in some cases, preparing it physically these days. i love my country. i fear my government. i am appalled and saddened and horrified at the daily trampling on our constitutional rights in the name of "security."

i have never been an "acitivist" in politics, but the events of the past 10 years, culminating in the dismal state of affairs in the world and in the USA now, have motivated me.

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

[eirehound.livejournal.com]

I have this little corner of my brain with a one-suitcase packing list, you know, what I'd take if I ever had to leave the country for good while looking like I was just leaving on a vacation. I think it's existed ever since I read "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit."

Many Russians up until the sixties or so made a practice of keeping a prepacked case under the bed, in case Homeland State Security came knocking at the door in the middle of the night. (And some foresighted Russian men made a point of marrying unattractive women, because then nobody would have a motivation to get rid of them with a denunciation.)

I grew up on The Gulag Archipelago, and some of the similarities between the young Soviet police state and the embryonic American police state are truly chilling. The move to recruit Americans as what can't be described as anything other than informers (from Tiberius to Saddam, this has always been a hallmark of despotism), the threat to monitor Americans' access to information obtained from libraries or the Internet, the attitude toward governing treaties and laws as either mutable through creative reinterpretation or elaborate end-runs (Geneva COnventions or the COnstitution) ...

[panzerschrek.livejournal.com]

As a nation, our biggest problem is the two main parties, a pox on both of them, have created a government with all the social dynamics of a poorly run kindergarten, continuously kiting the bar of behavior lower and lower and lower. I think the Dems, after nearly 5 decades of control over at least one branch of governmen (admittedly with some small breaks) have gone shrill and whiny because they are out and the Republicans, bless their hearts, haven't the foggiest notion how to lead, having been out of power for so long. I think we have elected individuals on both sides of the aisle who are more interested in wining, dining and pocket-lining than leading a nation... I think we have an apathetic electorate made up primarily of sheeple who have locked themselves into the mindset of its one party or the other and have forgotten that groups should have no permanent allies, just permanent interests. As for the threat to liberty, would someone *PLEASE* remind / re-acquaint *ANYONE* in government vis-a-vis the writings of Ben Franklin? AS for government, remember, regardless of party, too much power in government is a *BAD* thing...


Having grown up a small stone's throw from a nuclear target, I am... a trifle cynical and apathetic about the whole terrorism thing. Knowing you are 15 minutes away from being a cinder because some septagenarian had a nightmare or one flight of geese too many flew over a radar site means you have a hard time getting *really* excited about a couple pounds of plastique, scrap metal and rat poison. That having been said, I think that there *are* terrorist attacks that would delay and *should* delay an election, but they would damn well need to be more than a few suicide bambers or the like... say, on the order of "Where did Manhatten go? It was here a minute ago" level of big.

As for where to go, I dunno if there is a place that is better than here... As bad and rankerous as things can be here, just about every place else is worse, in its own inimical way. That said, a wad of specie, a little gold or other precious commodity, id, a firearm and a grip with the essentials of life is *always* a good thing to keep handy, just in case the balloon *does* go up.