Fascism's Ugly Head: Your Laptop Can Now Be Screened at Border Crossings

At what point do we stop calling America the "Land of the Free," or a "democracy" and call it what it's becoming, a fascist, totalitarian police state? It really doesn't matter what the reasoning behind policy changes such as this example, where cops can arbitrarily decide to peruse your laptop when you cross the U.S. border without probable cause. This is hardly the first example to take place in Bush's post-2001 America. The excuse to eliminate our Constitutional rights is the same as China's. "We must protect the country."

The one thing we have going for us is that, in theory, we can replace our leaders with those who'll revert us back to being a true democracy, with a Constitution, with civil rights. You know, those sorts of things we've been fighting to protect in the first place.

Go see "The Lives Of Others"

My friend Danny over at SPI invited me to a free Sony screening of the Oscar™- nominated German film, "The Lives of Others," about characters caught up in the surveillance society of East Berlin just before the fall of the Great Wall. The entire city is monitored by an elite group of secret police, called Stasi, who gather statistics and spy on the personal lives of citizens, looking for those spreading ideas contrary to the government, and rewarding those who turn suspects in. All mail is opened and read. Artists can be blacklisted. All public speech requires permission. It is a city that has chosen security above all other freedoms and rights.

Amidst all this, a top interrogator (renowned for his grueling 48 hour interrogation sessions) is assigned to wire-tap a playwright's house day and night. He becomes entangled in the day-to-day events of this artist, and despite his mission to find and report all suspicious activity, discovers his own motives changing.

How topical a film this is -- an example of what could happen to America if our current Administation's efforts to increase policing and surveillance power (in the name of National Security) are left unchecked. Just as now, the Socialist GDC's battle-cry was not "Hey, we're Authoritarian Fascists!" It was "We will Protect You," and just as now, the personal and business interests of government officials took priority over Law, stengthened by this Knowledge Over Everything.

If you are able, go see this film in the theatre.