Tag Archives: TSA

On My Way to Munich

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I’m feeling much better today, even tho I’m pretty darn tired. I FINALLY got called for a job that didn’t get cancelled. I only got the call on Thursday and didn’t know for sure until late Friday and didn’t get my flight information (so I would really know for sure) til yesterday.

I’ve been keeping myself fairly ready to leave since I got back from my trip around the world. I left right at the beginning of November and got home right before Christmas. I was supposed to go to work January 3. I’ve basically been on call since then. I’ve had about a dozen calls to go to work since that first job got cancelled, but none of those jobs actually happened.

I still had a few things to take care of before leaving. Laundry, cleaning out the fridge so I won’t have to come home to a fridge full of rotten food, paying any bills that might come due before I’m due back home, calling my property manager to clear up any issues that might come up while I’m gone, arranging a ride to the airport, get my ‘smart phone’ working again for the trip, and finish up packing.

I left home yesterday around noon. Got to the airport and for some reason they wouldn’t check my baggage all the way through to my destination. My flight was delayed for about an hour, but thank goodness I have a club pass and could spend my time chilling out there. It was about a 10 hour flight to Munich and of course I really couldn’t get any sleep.

So here I am now in the Munich airport, waiting for my flight to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. Thank goodness I have a long layover! I had to get my passport stamped into Germany so I could collect my luggage, then run across the street to another terminal and go through security again. I thought we were ridiculous with our security theater in the US, but Germany takes it to an even more absurd level!

I’m so glad I was able to get the TSA pre-check in the states, but as far as I know they don’t have any kind of international program like that. I really wish they did! I didn’t have to take my shoes off (I’ve still got my flip-flops on), but I had to take out EVERYTHING from my pockets including cash (which I HATE to do since it’s so easy for someone to walk by there and steal it all), credit cards, passport, etc. Remove not only computer, but ALL electronics from my bag. Thats Kindle, cameras, phones, iPod, etc. What a bunch of insanity!

Apparently the world is overrun with suckers that are completely willing to trade their freedom for ‘security’. It’s as true now as it was when Benjamin Franklin said it over 200 years ago.

You CAN’T make that trade! You give up your freedom for NOTHING but an ILLUSION! It infuriates me that we ALL have to put up with this violation of our rights all because the majority of the people on this planet are so gullible.

While I wait for my flight to Las Palmas, I have a little bit of time to blog. I can’t connect to the wi-fi here. I don’t know why. There’s supposedly free wi-fi here in the airport. I should arrive at 1830 and someone should be waiting to bring me to the ship.

I’m going out as Chief Mate this time. I did sign on this time as Chief Mate, not like the time I signed on to the Sevan Louisiana as Second Mate and they made me Chief Mate anyway and then refused to pay me for it! I’m a little nervous since I haven’t sailed Chief Mate for quite a while snd never really on anything so complicated. I’m hoping everything will go well and I’m looking forward to a great learning experience. It would really build my confidence to get through this trip without any major issues.

I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to get online once I get to the ship. As Chief Mate I expect to be a lot more busy than I usually am as DPO. Will be spending more time on deck instead of stuck on the bridge for 12 hours a day. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.

Wish me luck! 🙂

PS- I finally got the wi-fi to connect. 🙂

JusJoJan: Drama

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Starting out the new year without all the usual drama. Why? Mostly because I’ve been staying home, sticking to myself, too paranoid and depressed to go out to celebrate the holidays with everyone else.

I decided to join in on Linda’s Just Jot It January challenge again this year. The idea is just to write something (anything) every day during January. Hopefully it will be enough to start a good habit that will continue.

I’ve been trying to transition from working on the water to a more sedate lifestyle. Not by choice, but only because there has been approximately ZERO work for the last 2+ years! I’ve been trying to make a living with a more creative focus. I’ve been doing a lot of writing, photography, painting, etc.

I’d love to be able to just relax, chill out and stop worrying about all the ‘drama’ going on around me. Crazy issues always coming up with tenants, roommates, family, work (or lack of work/finances) and just the normal everyday shit going on in the world.

I wish I could just focus on one thing. Writing, for example. I’ve started a book, I’m on the last chapter, but haven’t worked on it in a couple of months now. I just can’t get motivated to write when I’m trying to deal with all the rest: how to pay the bills, crazy woman in my house (she’s gone now), finding a job, city sending me threatening letters about my properties/tenants, getting income taxes sent in, brakes gone out on my truck in the middle of Houston traffic!

Oh yeah, I’ve been having a wonderful life these last few months. But you know what? I think I would get so bored if I didn’t have all this shit going on around me. I do bring a lot of it on myself.

I grew up in a crazy house, two of them. I’m sure I would’ve been taken into protective custody if any of that had happened today. Both my parents houses were pretty wild. Constant drama at both places. My brother was lucky, he could pick and choose. He could stay at Dads where he was treated like a king, until he wasn’t. Then he would go home to Mom’s where he could do whatever he wanted.

I was stuck at my Dad’s most of the time. He was really strict on a lot of things, but very open about a lot of others. He ran a pretty strange household for back then. First of all, he didn’t work anymore. He retired in his early 30’s. Bought a bunch of property and a sailboat and got out of the rat race. I’ve always admired him for that.

He worked on his boat and rented apartments to all the ‘poor’ people in town. Our apartments were full of the local fishermen, bartenders and drunks. We had parties on the shuffleboard courts every weekend and big pig roasts in our empty lot every couple of months. Dad would have me play the piano upstairs for his drinking buddies.

Moms house was a whole different adventure. We were allowed to keep pets over there and have friends come over. We had cats, dogs, fish, gerbils, hamsters, rabbits, turtles, parakeets, even a kinkajou once (that only lasted til it bit my mom real bad one night). My stepfather would hang out drinking beer and making crude comments all day while we tried our best to ignore him and stay out of his way.

Between the two of them, there was always some drama going on. I think in a way I miss all that. I try to keep my life interesting and not boring. I’m not bored often, but that’s because I always have something I should be doing. Most of those things are only because I say so.

I don’t have to write, work on my photos, paint, blog, etc. But I like to do those things and even tho they’re a lot more work than I ever imagined, they keep my busy and I still enjoy messing around with it all.

I’ve actually cut down a lot. I hardly even go out anymore. That eliminates a lot. I miss out on all of my friends, but I can’t take the chance of going out to see them any more. It’s sad, but this place is not the same anymore.

They’ve taken all the fun out of life here. All in the name of ‘safety’. Screw safety! I’d rather have a LIFE back! Stop shoving us all into tiny little perfectly ‘safe’ boxes and let us enjoy our lives. So what if we screw up occasionally? So what if we have a little accident every once in a while, that’s how we learn! That’s all part of LIFE!

Stop pretending life is about being safe, or secure. It’s NOT! Life is about taking chances, experimenting, seeing the world and everything in it, meeting new people and learning new things. None of that is about being ‘safe’!

I could do without all the drama around the issue of safety! The theatre they put on at the airports with the TSA. Geez, how long are they going to keep that up? How long is it going to take for people to wake up to the fact that none of that is anything BUT a SHOW?

I’m so tired of other people trying to control me! Aren’t you?

Travel Day

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I made it home. Finally!

I was surprised Tuesday morning when my relief showed up. I was waiting in the cargo control room to get my work assignment from the Bosun at 0800 when he popped in. I was so happy to see him.

I really wasn’t ready to go yet. I didn’t expect a relief to show up til late afternoon. I still had to finish packing and cleaning my room. That didn’t take too long. By the time the captain was ready to sign me off, I was ready to go.

I left the ship at about 1030, my flight was due to leave Norfolk at 1214, so I was a little nervous about getting to the airport on time. No need to have worried. I checked my luggage outside (and had to pay a $25 fee- thanks Delta!) and then went inside to check in.

I had to go to a live person, the machines wouldn’t check me in. Turns out my flight was delayed for over 2 hours and so I would miss my connection in Atlanta too. I was scheduled to arrive in Houston by 1800. Turns out, I didn’t get there til almost 2400!

Six hours late, due to Delta’s screw ups and they would do absolutely nothing about it. No offers of food, drinks, vouchers, lounge use,…, no NOTHING to help defray the stress and aggravation of a more than 6 hour delay.

I did finally manage to get a $15 food voucher out of them. Barely enough to cover one meal, while missing 2- 3 due to their delays. At least it was something, tho they told me they don’t normally do that. Some customer service, wow! 🙁

No wonder I don’t fly Delta anymore!

I got home about 0300 the next morning. So tired I could hardly keep my eyes open on the road. People worry about drunks on the highways, but I guarantee you- tired people cause much more damage! And yet, drunks get all the punishment, wether or not they’re actually any trouble.

No, I’m NOT saying that tired people need to go to jail and have their lives destroyed the same as they treat the drinkers! Most of them who have not hurt anything or anybody! So they’ve all been punished for some future possibility!

What they need to do is to change the rules so that they’re actually keeping people safe on the roads and not just collecting fines and ruining peoples lives over the ‘chance’ that they ‘might’ at some point in the future harm something or somebody.

Stop harassing and arresting people for some possibility of something they ‘might’ or might not do and start checking to see if they are actually competent! Same goes for the stupid drug tests at work and the idiotic TSA ‘terrorist’ searches at the airports!

I’m so sick and tired of everybody telling me all this crap is for our ‘safety’ and ‘security’. NO, it is NOT! It has NOTHING to do with either one of those things! It has nothing to do with anything other than CONTROL and the destruction of our most basic human rights!

The TSA agents in the airports actually have the nerve to tell us ‘have a nice day’ after they  intentionally (even if ignorantly) strip us of our rights and our dignity. How can anyone have a nice day after being treated like that?

Yes, I know, most people sincerely believe all this crap is necessary and is really for their safety. All I can say to them is: WAKE UP! You’re being LIED TO and your complacency is making it ever easier for the goons to move all of us even further down the road to tyranny.

Happy New Year!

TSA Demands Internal Passport for Domestic Travel

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TSA Demands Internal Passport for Domestic Travel.

This is another great article from the Dollar Vigilante.

Yep, here we go, following in the footsteps of such wonderful places as NAZI Germany, Soviet Russia (USSR), and Apartheid South Africa. We absolutely MUST stop this! We do NOT need to “show our papers” everywhere we go!!!!! We are NOT slaves or animals that must be constantly tracked and under surveillance!!! Yes, ‘our leaders’ do think so, but why do so many ordinary people go along with them? WTF is WRONG with people, that they would even suggest this???

And, believe me, this will only be the beginning. 🙁

Better be prepared for some SERIOUS SHIT when they get this “law” into effect! I hope to hell I can get myself out of here before the shit hits the fan and I encourage anyone else here in the US to find some options too. The USA is NOT going to be a safe place to be for much longer. Get out while you can!

I was really hoping to make some serious progress in a couple of months when I was due to get my yearly bonus from work. Got news the other day that they’ve cancelled my bonus (not all of it, just stopped earning it from end of the month- it’s a HUGE pay cut). Not just me, everybody was cut! How can they do that? It was in the contract. I guess those are only for one side to obey, the side that doesn’t have the power and money to do whatever they want. 🙁

With the price of oil so low, I guess I should be happy to still have a job. I’m sure the company knows that and so that’s why they’ll do whatever they want regardless of any ‘contracts’.

One step forward and 2 steps back. That’s what it seems like around here. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I can see what’s coming and take steps to prepare for it. It sure as hell adds a lot of stress to life tho.

I’m trying even harder to find some way to get out of the USA. I haven’t been able to find anywhere else to go that will allow me to WORK to support myself. That’s the only holdup. A lot of nice places are OK if you want to just go there to live, or to retire, or if you want to start a business. But they won’t let you work and possibly take a job from a local. I don’t blame them for that, it’s just frustrating for me when I want to leave so badly and I can’t find a way to do it.

Lately, I’ve even looking at just saying screw working anymore. I’ll just get permanent residency somewhere. I MIGHT be able to scrounge up enough to live on til I die. IF I move somewhere cheaper (and I die young). Maybe I’ll get lucky and that country (wherever) won’t deport me to the US when it really gets bad. Just got hit with approx. $3000++ plumbing bill, that kind of thing sure doesn’t help!

Oh well, what can you do but keep trying.

LAS

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Well, I made it through another security theater without blowing my top.

I waver between frustrated anger at the fact that these people all think they’re doing me some sort of favor by stripping me of my ‘god-given’ (Constitutional- Natural) rights along with my clothing and my dignity, and incredible sadness and depression over the fact that the American people put up with all this TOTAL BULLSHIT with barely a whimper of submission.

I wonder how in the hell did a country full of risk takers, who ALL (other than the Indians) came here from somewhere else, leaving everything behind to make a new life for themselves in the land of the FREE, turn into such a bunch of whiny, irresponsible, scared shitless morons every time ‘our’ government whips up a fear frenzy?

I wonder how many people REALLY believe that “our government” has our best interests at heart, is only doing what it “has to” to ‘protect us’, is only ‘doing its job’? I wonder how in the hell they could POSSIBLY still believe all that CRAP when it’s been proven over and over and over again that ‘our’ government is full of evil bastards who would kill their own grandma if it would get them even an ounce more power!

I wonder how is it possible they’re still willing to give ‘our government’ the benefit of the doubt when it’s been proven over and over and over again how it has stolen our wealth to grow it’s own power. It’s committed numerous unjustifiable attacks against too many countries to name here. It’s committed crimes against humanity (against it’s own citizens, not just against foreigners)- MANY times in its history.

Doesn’t ANYBODY pay attention to history? Doesn’t ANYBODY think about what the hell they’re REALLY planning?

Does anybody think Americans will ever grow some balls like the people in Hong Kong have?

I wish them all the luck in the world over there. I hope they can save themselves and their country. I hope the Chinese rulers turn out to be more sensible than ‘ours’ are here. I hope they’re successful in saving their freedoms in Hong Kong and I HOPE the Americans can learn a lesson and STAND TOGETHER to fight our common enemy!

Nullify the NSA!

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I hate to say it, but I screwed up. I had heard of this event a couple of weeks ago and meant to get involved a whole lot more than I managed to do. I actually heard of it the first time from a post by Gene’O at the Sourcerer Blog. He had a great page on his blog all made up especially for this event (and of course it’ll be an ongoing fight, so check it out and follow it to keep informed).

I wanted to do something to help promote this event. I wanted to rouse people up to take a stand and get involved. I meant to make at least a post of my own (and hopefully a page) about it, but I’ve been so busy lately, the best I could manage to do was to sign the petition, email my congressmen, and post on my Twitter and Facebook pages. I hope at least a couple of people noticed it yesterday and took some action. 🙂

Today I got an email from the ‘Campaign to Stop Government Spying’,  ’cause’ I signed up for it a while back. They sent me an update on how things went yesterday and a reminder that the fight is far from over. Here’s what’s they reported…

The numbers were astonishing.  The Day We Fight Back was featured on over 5,000 websites, generated 84,000 calls, and 172,000 were emails sent while our petition here on Causes reached over 25,000 signatures!

 

In addition to the tremendous online success Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has filed suit against the NSA in what will surly become a landmark case against mass surveillance.

 

It’s a good start, but obviously not good enough since the congress is not yet willing to completely throw out the NSA (and TSA, and the PATRIOT ACT, and Obamacare, etc) and get back to Constitutional government!

Personally, I wish I could throw out (with appropriate punishment) every one of those politicians who allowed this to happen in the first place. Every single one of them who voted to support the NSA in ANY way.

The NSA is an affront to every principle this country was founded on. Its entire purpose is at war with the 4th amendment (and the 5th)(and all the rest of them too!).

I can hardly believe how far we have come in just MY lifetime. We’ve moved from a place where most of us could all live our lives in (relative) peace and prosperity, almost like in the TV shows “Leave it to Beaver” or Andy Griffiths Mayberry,…

To now we’ve somehow wound up in George Orwells 1984, or Huxleys Brave New World. Maybe a mixture of those 2 with a big bunch of Kafkas Metomorphosis thrown in.  In all reality, we’ve far surpassed even the worst nightmares of those visionary authors.

The NSA (along with the TSA and a bunch of other alphabet agencies) are a BIG part of what’s wrong with America.

I don’t agree with those who say we’ve got the government we ‘deserve’. I don’t believe ANYONE ‘deserves’ a government like this. One that treats us as criminals. One that thinks it has the right to track and CONTROL EVERY aspect of our lives.

Why in the world would ANYONE think anybody deserves that? It reminds me of the self righteous hypocrites who think everyone but themselves are sinners and belong in hell. They get a huge enjoyment out of feeling so smug and superior. But no one is perfect (including them), so they deserve to go to hell (and will) too.

The people who think we deserve this are just the same. So, we deserve this suck ass government we have because of what, exactly?

We’re ALL in the same boat! We need to figure that out and stand together to do something to save ourselves from sinking. We need to throw overboard the ones who are bashing holes in our hull and sabotaging our pumps!

Maybe then we can save ourselves and find a way to repair our country to one that will help better our lives again instead of the opposite.

This campaign was called “the Day We Fight Back”. We don’t need A day we fight back, we need to fight back EVERY DAY until they get off our backs and give us back our freedom!

Illegal government spy programs are not the ONLY things we need to fight. We can START with that, then take on the next. We need to keep going until we have ALL of our freedom back.

I hope I can see that someday. I hope I can even see a serious START to it. I know I’m not the one, but there must be SOMEONE out there who can come up with something effective, some way to make some progress, some way to wake people up to what’s REALLY going on and get them to take an interest…

Anyone?

None Dare Call It…

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None Dare Call It… | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

Interesting article from Laissez-Faire. It talks about Obamacare and how no one in the insurance industry is really speaking out against it. Yeah, I noticed that too. I know the insurance industry had a hand in the creation of Obamacare.

I admit, I have not read the ‘law’. No, I haven’t got through even 10 pages of it’s 4000 or so. I don’t know exactly everything it says. I only know about a few of the things it’s supposed to do. But I’m pretty sure the big insurance companies didn’t allow Obama or anyone else to cut their throats. To REALLY do them any damage.

MONEY runs this country and there’s no way this situation is any different than any other in the last 100 years. Big money has protected itself at the expense of the rest of us. Let’s wait and see? Or lets get rid of it before it hammers the final nail into our coffin?

I’m pretty sure the insurance companies are going to benefit from Obamacare. WE, (regular people) are the only ones who are really going to be hurt by it. Regardless of the hope that Obamacare will help the little guy, I can pretty much guarantee that the little guy is the only one that is going to get hurt by it.

If it doesn’t hurt you by turning your hospital into a depressingly substandard VA experience, or turning a visit to your doctor into a visit to the DMV (remember the last time you renewed your drivers license). It will for SURE hurt you when it becomes the final straw that breaks our financial system!

Then we’ll all be in the same sinking boat together. Of course the fat cats that created this mess will probably escape. You DID notice that they all exempted themselves from Obamacare, right? Unless you’re a much better prepper than I am, the rest of us are just going to get screwed. 🙁

The worst part of this whole scenario is what they mention towards the end of the article. The people who work in the insurance industry are not the only ones fearfully staying silent. The writer mentions remembering East Germany and the pervasive atmosphere of FEAR.

I can already see signs of it here. I have felt it myself. It’s all I can do to keep my mouth shut at the airport. I have to do it for fear of being hauled off to be ‘indefinitely detained’ and lose my RIGHT to travel forever.

All for simply wanting to exercise my RIGHT to travel FREELY and my RIGHT to speak freely about the loss of that right too!

I have talked to dozens of people since 9/11. Almost all of them are willing to justify our huge loss of liberty in some sadly delusional trade for safety. Apparently, most of them have fallen for the security theater in our airports and truly believe it is really doing something other than stripping them of their freedoms along with their dignity.

I can’t imagine what it must feel like to live like that. To choose to give up your freedom for ANYTHING, much less an impossibility like total safety. It’s really sad. 🙁

No, it’s not (JUST) Obamacare, that’s bothering me, that’s wrong here. It’s the entire system! The basic reasons for the founding of this country are being lost little by little. People just don’t care any more. Either they want ‘free stuff’ like the health care that Obamacare (falsely) promises. Or they are living in such FEAR that they are willing to not only give up THEIR right to live freely, but giving away MY rights too. 🙁

Health Tip

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“Privacy” Held Hostage By “Security” – Public Unimpressed

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“Privacy” Held Hostage By “Security” – Public Unimpressed | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

Another great article from Laissez-Faire. This one on the supposed conflict between privacy and security. I agree completely with Mr Leahy, the real issue is between control and liberty. I don’t know about you, but I will side with liberty EVERY time on EVERY issue!

What TSA Really Stands For

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What TSA Really Stands For | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.

Thousands Standing Around, Trampling Several Amendments, Too Stupid for Arby’s, Touch Sex Army, Teaching Submission to Americans, Touchin’ Squeezin’ Arrestin’, Theatrical Security Agents, Touchin’ Sensitive Areas, Taking Scissors Away, Tough Shit America!, Totalitarian Security Agents, Tremendously Stupendous Arrogance, Taxpayer Supported Assault, Trampling Stupid Americans…..

Take your pick. I could go on (and on). They are nothing but a bunch of well paid (from our tax dollars) government goons. They have somehow been brainwashed to think (if I can use that word in this instance) that by violating our rights daily, they are actually doing some good.  🙁

To anyone who seriously believes that, I have a bridge to sell you!

Its all I can do to keep my mouth shut when I have to go to the airport. I’m sure one of these days they’re going to put me on the no-fly list and then that will be it for me. I’ll be unable to work and that will be that.

People tell me to just refuse to fly if I’m so against the TSA “keeping us safe”. Yeah, riiiiiiggght. Please tell me how I am supposed to get to work over in Singapore when I live in Texas without flying??? Oh, and by the way, the TSA is now in train stations, bus stations, ROAD BLOCKS, MALLS, STADIUMS, and they were even at the last presidential nominating conventions. So how the hell can I escape them???

The fact that they are shredding the entire constitution in the idiotic (impossible) quest to make us all “safe”, is not an issue to 99% of the people I see at the airport. I think THAT fact bothers me even worse then the TSA itself. That AMERICANS who are supposed to be so supportive of freedom that we will go halfway around the world to fight other peoples battles for them will not only accept these NAZI tactics, but cheer on the thugs. I can only shake my head and grit my teeth. What the hell has happened to us?

Yeah, the linked article is a little tongue in cheek but it does make some good points. Seriously.

I recently applied for the ‘trusted traveler’ program the Customs & Border Patrol  (CBP) runs. Only so I can get through the lines faster. In hopes that will help me  keep my “privilege” to travel for a while longer. It’s still in process (probably to be denied after this rant). The officer actually told me that because I have a criminal record (30+ years ago, another one 5+- neither of which had anything remotely to do with security) I might not be approved. WOW! She actually told me that my RIGHT to travel freely was NOT a right but only a privilege!

Well, NO! It is NOT a privilege! It IS a RIGHT!!!!

Despite the fact that I already have a TWIC (Transportation Worker Identity Card) which is given out by the TSA after a background check and is SUPPOSED to be so we can have UNESCORTED access through a PORT (airPORT), and also (had) a security clearance for work which also gave me a pretty thorough background check, I had to pay another $100 for the CBP background check for this program.

I asked the agent why with this being the THIRD background check, she was not able to see that I had been arrested and had a criminal record? Of course, she was not allowed to tell me that! 🙁

By this point I was getting pretty upset. She insisted I would have to trace down my own records and FAX them in to her within 30 days. OK, so I managed to get the records and tried for hours to fax them in. No luck, phone always busy. With all that money the government gets, they can’t do paperwork any other way but by fax? they can only afford one phone??? WTF???

I called and reached another officer (mine was off) and they gave me a different number to fax. No luck on that one either. So, here I am at work (offshore), we don’t have a fax. I have no mail or email that I can send the papers to. I only get off to go home the day before my time runs out. They sure make it easy to do something to help yourself instead of them. Yeah, riiiiiight. 🙁

Some free country we have… yeah, riiiiighhht. Sure you don’t want to take a look at that bridge?

Undercover Agents Infiltrated Tar Sands Resistance Camp to Break up Planned Protest

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Undercover Agents Infiltrated Tar Sands Resistance Camp to Break up Planned Protest.

Here we go again. Just like usual, government agents infiltrating and spying on people where they have no right or justification to do so. Where was the probable cause for a warrant? We DO have freedom of association and freedom of speech and we also have the right to peacefully protest and petition to address our concerns. The constant spying by the government ( I refuse to call it “our” anymore since it no longer represents me at all now a days and has completely broken its contract with me -and all of us), has become the norm and somehow people have accepted it. I do not understand the complacency at all. What is wrong with people that they can’t see the danger in allowing the government to violate the constitution like this? It goes on CONSTANTLY now, they violate daily every one of the Bill of Rights except the 3rd (the one about quartering soldiers in our houses). I cheered the Egyptians for fighting for their freedoms the whole while wondering why we are not up in arms. We have a whole lot more to be angry about than they do. Yet we sit here quiet as a mouse, submitting to a strip search every time we want to go somewhere. No protests by anybody over it. I am grinding my teeth and its all I can do to keep my mouth shut so I will be ‘allowed’ to travel. By the time I get to the x-ray machine I am fuming! The TSA NAZI tells me to “have a nice day” and I tell them that’s impossible while they are violating my rights. So far, they haven’t hauled me off to prison or put me on the no-fly list but I’m sure it’ll happen sooner or later. How the hell did we ever get to this point? More important, what is it going to take to get people to do something about it????