Beware Bullshit Power Grabs

According to the Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is actively seeking "moles" to infiltrate "vegan potlucks" in the Twin Cities area. The purpose of this action is to spy on groups who intend to protest the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis later this year.

When protest is viewed by the feds as terrorism, the Bill of Rights is suspect.

This isn't the first time the JTTF has investigated domestic political dissenters under the rubric of protecting America from "terrorism". And they aren't the only "anti-terrorist" operation in domestic law enforcement to keep tabs on political dissent.

The Fresno Sherriff's Department's anti-terrorism task force got caught spying on anti-war protesters in 2003.

I could cite lots of other examples, but I don't have time, and if you actually cared, but I get tired of leading the horse to the trough.

Back in 2002-2003, when the federal government began expanding and consolidating the authority of the national security establishment, in response to the 9-11 attacks, people like me- dissenters who never trust the government for any reason whatsoever- complained that the government already had too much power, that we should stop the feds from expanding their authority, that it amounted to a power-grab. Political pundits at the time, mostly conservative ones, responded with statements like "what do these protesters have against protecting America from terrorism?" I even heard one pundit warn ominously that "protesting against anti-terrorism is itself terrorism."

I'm not stupid. I know about COINTELPRO. I know enough history to know that power always seeks more power, under any rubric, and through any guise. The ostensible reasons never match the underlying motivation. It's called Mission Creep. One minute they're claiming to protect you, the next minute they're investigating you. Protecting you from you is the job of the feds. We're all suspects. If you investigate anyone long enough, you will find them breaking a law. We're all guilty. But the feds already have too much power. If you don't believe me, ask yourself why America has more citizens living in prisons than any other nation on Earth, by volume, and per capita.

After the 9-11 attacks, every federal official in the nation began clamoring for some of that post-9-11 national security money, paid for by our taxes. More contracts, more offices, more resources. Once they've got the contracts, they spend their days justifying their bloated budgets by scaring you into thinking they're keeping you safe. There aren't many actual terrorists in America, so the national security establishment spends its time fighting the only enemy that can reduce its power: American citizens.

So what can we do about it? Not a goddamned thing. Only our elected representatives can change the law and they're too worried about their media image to rock the boat. If they criticize the national security establishment, the feds cry foul, the think tanks start calling newspapers, and the next day the headline reads "Senator is soft on terrorism". Our whole system is rigged to expand power, away from us, and into the hands of the power-whores who claim that it's for our own good.

Fuck them.