Monday, January 19, 2009

Obama AG approves library and bookstore searches, lessons from history

Joan et al,

"Only geese and fools wake up in a new world every morning." Harry S.Truman

"Nohting is said that has not been said before." Terence 185-159 BC

"Waste not fresh tears of old griefs." Euripides 485-406 BC

The democrans** and the republicrats** are merely two warring tribes that take turns in which shall hold the rest of us in thrall. They in turn are "ruled" by the Oligarchs and their surrogates, the lobbyists who in turn are "ruled" by various organizations such as foundations and institutes that are controlled by Oligarchal money.

**democrats and republicans

So to be outraged and justifiable outraged at the apparent perfidy of this particular agent (Eric Holder) is to but to be diverted from the more major problem which is loosely stated as follows:

This republic has become (is becoming) a plantation and we are not the masters but are become (are becoming) merely field hands and house servants whereas the Federal Governent has taken the role of the overseer under loose direction of the owners (I. E. and E. G. - the Federal Reserve bank, a private bank without oversight, and the families that control it also without oversight). That loosely stated is the problem and Eric Holder is merely the latest annointed agent of the ownership/controlling establishment that rules over us.

In this environment, the hordes of lackeys that make up the MSM are free to castigate whom they wish among the agents, hence there has been no word of outrage. Tocomlain of that is like complaining of an occasional mosquito infestation during an ongoing small pox epidemic

For those who think these words are 'outrageous.' I suggest that you bone up on your history as this kind of evolvement as concerns this republic has happened in parallel fashion before and is well documented. One classic well documented example is that of Sparta and the Helots. To study that history and to reflect upon what is happening today is but to realize that with minor differences of style one is but seeing history repeated.

"You will have to live with their memories and make them
Into something new. Only by acceptance
Of the past will you alter its meaning."
T.E. Eliot, The Cocktail party

Here is my attempt to get you started so that you can understand what the underlying problem really is. The Spartan/Helot society was an agricultrual one wherreas ours is not but the underlying principles that gave cause for the Spartans to do with and to 'their' Helots is not much different than what is happending today in this industrialized electronic age.


Social Class -
Helots...


Who were the Helots?



The Helots were the peoples who inhabited the lands of Messenia which neighboured Sparta. Messenia was conquered by the Spartans in 640-620 BC.
The Messenians became state-owned slaves who lived on his Spartan master's kleros.




What was their function in Society?



The Helots lived on the land of the Homoioi families. Their main duty was agricultural. They were responsible for farming the land and supplying a fixed quota of produce annually. This allowed the Spartans to focus their attention on their military training. It was considered beneath the Homoioi to work the land.
As a military society the Spartans relied heavily on the Helots to provide the necessary food and provisions. Any produce that was left over the Helot families were allowed to keep and do with as they wished. A highly frugal society, the Spartans were not greedy or selfish in their consumption.
Helots could also act as servants to Spartan soldiers during times of war. When necessary the Spartans raised whole armies of Helots who acted as light armed soldiers. The Helots did not desert the Spartans in battle and many were some of the Spartans best warriors. Distinguished military service could mean freedom for a deserving Helot and his family.
The Helots had a huge impact on Spartan foreign policy. Fear of a Helot result meant that the Spartan's were afraid of foreign contacts or visitors who might encourage the Helots to revolt. It also meant that the Spartans were hesitant to become involved in military campaigns far from home in case the Helots used the army's absence as an opportunity to revolt.



What were their rights?



Helots were state owned serfs and as such they were protected by the state. The state relied heavily on their Helot population for survival, therefore to kill or injure a Helot without reason was a serious crime. The Helots were not the property of their Spartan 'master,' and the state would allow no unauthorised injustices to be dealt them.
Politically and legally Helots had no rights at all. The state was free to send them or dispose of them wherever they saw fit. The Helots could not vote and could not hold property.
Helots out numbered Homoioi at least twenty to one and were therefore the subject of continual suspicion. The Spartans created an elite secret police known as the Krypteria. The Krypteria were responsible for keeping the Helots under control. We are told by Aristotle that every year the Spartan Ephors declared war on the Helots and sporadically launched campaigns of terror and violence against them.



What were their responsibilities?



The Helots were responsible for providing the Homoioi with food and produce. Without the Helots the Spartan economy and war machine could never have functioned as effectively as it did.



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Mel

--- On Sun, 1/18/09, JoanSharon@aol.com wrote:

From: JoanSharon@aol.com
Subject: Holder Approves of Bookstore and Library Searches... Where's Outrage?
To: charlite58@aol.com, rskraft@garlic.com, RuthSKing@aol.com, Chetz18@aol.com, JasmineSea@aol.com, Sparkling516@aol.com, dr_taitz@yahoo.com, mllwrm@yahoo.com, greerwynn@gmail.com, tmccoy3@sbcglobal.net, DaynaL2575@aol.com
Date: Sunday, January 18, 2009, 2:32 PM

Obama AG Nom Eric Holder Approves of Bookstore and Library Searches... Where's Outrage?
By Warner Todd Huston (Bio | Archive)
January 18, 2009 - 04:01 ET



Last Thursday, Barack Obama's nominee for Attorney General, Eric Holder, admitted during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing that he supported renewing the part of the Patriot Act that allows for the FBI to seek records from businesses, libraries and bookstores as the policing agency investigates suspects in this country. For years we've seen news agencies and opinionists rail against the expanded power of the FBI to search such records. But, now with Obama's AG announcing in his confirmation hearing that he agrees that the FBI should have this power, all anti-Bush administration voices are silent on the matter that had them so exercised for 6 years.

Since 2002 the debate has raged about the efficacy and Constitutionality of the Patriot Act with the power of the FBI to search bookstore and library records coming in for special condemnation. Even as the Supreme Court of the United States has upheld the law, right to privacy groups, the media and anti-Bushies have pointed to this particular policy and cried Orwell or worse.

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USA Today talked about the situation in 2002. Not unexpectedly, the American Library Association has been worriedly writing of this business for years. Some librarians have even forced the FBI to jump through hoops to seize computers during investigations. And, of course, the ACLU has fought the provisions, too.

Over the years many challenges to the library and bookstore search power have been made and thus far the law has withstood the onslaught. As a result, the Bush administration has been accused of indulging any manner of imperialist, unconstitutional, Orwellian motives.

Holder publicly announces his support for the hated library search provision yet we are met with silence from the very people that made Bush out to be the most evil man in history for his support of the same power. This is the sort of news that would have made its way around the Internet at least 10 times by now if it were a Bush administration official saying so. Yes, now we get silence.

Where is the condemnation of Eric Holder on this issue? Where is the ACLU to demand Obama ditch Holder? Where are the many Huffington Posters and DailyKossacks railing against this junior Orwell, Holder?

The newspapers are strangely silent, though I did see this reported in the San Francisco Chronicle. Olbermann and Matthews, still nursing their tingles, seem to have turned away from this story. Maddow and the DailyKos seem to have lost their voices over it.

It makes one wonder if their conviction is informed by courage and principle or convenience? Are they only to rail against an FBI that intrudes into bookstore and library records when it is Bush’s FBI? Are they suddenly not so worried about their claims of invasion of privacy and unconstitutionality when they feel the FBI is about to become their FBI?

And where are the multi part stories from the Old Media? Where are the stern voices and grave concerns of The New York Times or the L.A. Times that Eric Holder and Barack Obama are about to continue the Bush outrages against the average American’s privacy?