So I am once again in America. I landed in Seattle on Friday. The usual red tape applied with customs, immigration and all, but a new addition was President Bush’s latest advance in T.W.A.T (The War Against Terror), the new ‘treat everyone who isn’t American like a criminal and piss them off so as to seal their dislike for the US authorities’.
Basically I, a British citizen and an ally of the (not very) United States, now have to be finger printed, iris printed and photographed like a criminal when I enter this country. My own government isn’t even allowed to do this, but President Bush somehow thinks he has the right to treat me like a criminal, and not tell me what will happen to that data that he forced me to hand over.
I feel utterly violated by the Bush dictatorship on this, enraged at how he imposes his stupid rule of fear onto a visitor from a friendly ally nation. But if I want to see my friends her in the (not very) United States then I have to allow myself to be violated in this way, and allow the unknown authorities to take this data and add my information to their new world order. It is a disgrace and seriously pisses me off.
Americans – wake the fuck up will you!!!! If you allow your ‘leader’ to continue to upset everyone in the world, seemingly with your blessing, then don’t be surprised when more and more people in more and more countries start to hate you all with a passion as unreasonable as your fear of them!
I wish that Blair had the balls to levy American visitors to the UK with a immigration fee of $100, plus a fingerprint, iris scan and photograph. That would please me no end. Start hitting Mr Average Joe American where it hurts because then maybe he’d start taking an interest in affairs outside of the world CNN spoon feed him between commercials!
I saw a great big bill board near Sea-Tac airport that was advertising READY.GOV. It said something like ‘Don’t be scared, be ready.’ But that in itself is just another way to inject more fear into the dumbed down masses in an effort to convince them that if someone isn’t a republican flag waving ‘God Bless America’ American, then they are a possible terrorist. It makes me want to start a website called wakethefuckup.com!
Grrr!!! It makes me so mad!!!!
Still, God bless Bush for so badly screwing up Americas economy that my money is now worth LOADS more than ever before. I went out today and spent over a thousand dollars on computer stuff I needed for work. Stuff that thanks to Americas ailing economy, effectively cost me half as much as it would have in the United Kingdom.
However, after watching American television for a little while this evening I don’t suppose I can blame the nation for becoming insular and ignorant. CNN world news covered lots of America, a bit of ‘God bless our boys in Iraq’ and almost bugger all news from anywhere outside the world that is America.
I love this country, I really do, but sometimes it feels more like lusting after a dumb blonde pinup than love. As Josh Ritter says “I’m trying hard to love you, but you don’t make it easy babe.”
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What visitors have to endure
Ready.gov propeganda
Department of Homeland security
BBC : Christian ideals and Republican policies
Wrote the following comment on Dec 20, 2004 at 12:51 am
1) Get your American friends to visit you (less violation for all concerned)2) What about customs, won’t that cost a bomb – literally? (your computer gizmos) and 3) Americans (not all, but it seems the ones who vote) are very, very ignorant people. They have no idea what’s happening outside of their home town, why on Earth would they think about the outside world? After all, that’s what it is to them. Very much outside. If it ain’t happening in your back yard…Enjoy xmas :-)
Wrote the following comment on Dec 20, 2004 at 1:46 am
If Bush did not make adjustments to foreigners entering our country the liberals would be screaming that he is not making any changes to make our country more secure.
I agree with you, I wish Blair and everyone else in the world would set up the same system. Maybe if other countries were attacked with the same magnitude as we were, then they would also.
For the little bit of “inconvenience” that this has caused you, if one terrorist is caught, it’s worth it.
I’m glad Bush and Blair have the balls to do something while others sit idly back and wait for their attack. These terrorists want you and everyone in the world who are not fundamental Islamists dead. The world was not fond of Reagan either, thank God we had him.
Wrote the following comment on Dec 20, 2004 at 10:38 am
Okay, responces :mybeautifulscar : Many of my American friends can’t visit me because their currency has been massively devalued thanks to the man who is running their country into the rgound right now. As for customs charging me to bring computer stuff into the UK, that depends on one thing… my honesty. I’ll leave you to guess whether or not I want to give the UK govt 17.5% tax and X% import tax on something I bought nearly 5000 miles from their shores.
dropsofjupiterihh : Clearly a Bush supporter, and so I doubt anything I say would do anything to sway your opinion, apart from make you all mad and call me a “bleeding heart liberal” or something.
The fact remains that the billions of dollars Twatface is spending on aquiring huge amounts of information on people legitimately visiting the United States is money that is wasted if prevention of terrorism is the only objective. There is already mountains of proof from studies (even US Govt studies!) that this kind of border scrutiny of visitors will NOT prevent terrorism and WOULD NOT have stopped 9/11.
Also, Just for your information, I have lived with terrorist attacks since I was a child. The IRA have been blowing stuff up in England for years. Terrorism is nothing new to me. In the UK and across the rest of the world where terrorist threats have been present for years, we choose to live our lives free from constant fear unlike America is apparently doing.
What I would like to hear is more Americans asking WHY 9/11 happened to them and not HOW it happened. Your security was pitiful before, but that wasn’t what caused you to be attacked, but it seems you may have missed that point.
Wrote the following comment on Dec 20, 2004 at 4:21 am
I have to agree with you about fear..I heard someone once say that he tried not to allow fear to be his motivation for any of his actions, whether reactive or proactive. Good philosophy but sometimes it’s hard to recognize fear because it gets cloaked in a lot of other junk in our minds…we tend to enable our fear and call it prudence or wisdom or perhaps even preparedness.
Wrote the following comment on Dec 20, 2004 at 7:30 am
Preach on, preacher man!I love it .The reasons I like America are as follows:-A moderate insurance thing goin (for me, anyway), and pretty good roads-I’m taxed no more than a third of my income and 403B is a pretty darn good thing I’m finding out-Family and familiarity (familiarity breeds idolatry).The reasons I hate America:-More and more censorship, less and less freedom.-Our public schools are merely factories for americanizing the nation. Case in point: we are not allowed to have nativity scenes but frosty and santa are GODS. Another case in point: a kid gets suspended a whole week for writing letters to his class about a spiritual experience with Jesus-It does NO GOOD to have a “Christian” president who can’t give us religious freedom we supposedly are allowed in our constitution. It does no good to have a “Christian” president who sends men off to die so we can carry on affluent lifestyles and at the same time allows babies to die yet claims he’s pro-life. DO SOMETHING. This is why i am a democrat.
Wrote the following comment on Dec 20, 2004 at 11:34 pm
Tell me then dropsofjupiterihh, as you see the bigger picture, can you explain to me why terrorists want YOU dead? Perhaps you can define for me, so as I can better understand, what exactly is a terrorist? Where are they from, why do they hate you and I so much, and what can we do to bridge the distance between their thinking and ours. I only ask this because I am sure that you, as someone who clearly sees the bigger picture, must surely be able to explain this to those of us who are somehow in the dark.
You see I am assuming that you aren’t simply someone who has consumed the simple and easy to swallow explanation of “they want you dead”. I am assuming that you are trying to understand why it is “they want you dead” and see if there is anything you can do that could change that. I’m assuming that you know or are attempting to find out who “they” are. I am also assuming that you were equally as concerned about ETA, the IRA and other terrorists groups around the world who were killing innocent people years before 9/11.
I’m concerned that you talk of terrorists and common criminals in much the same way, just as Bush does. And while criminals may take over your neighborhood, I doubt terrorists ever will.
Wrote the following comment on Dec 20, 2004 at 10:29 pm
I don’t believe choosing to live with terrorism is a good idea, just as I wouldn’t choose to live with a gang killing people in my neighborhood, or neighbors selling drugs or any other intimidating behavior.
You do not choose to live with it, you choose to do something about it, otherwise they take over the neighborhood. Why 9/11 happened is because the terrorists want us dead. I get it, believe me.
What I don’t get is why people cannot see the big picture.
Wrote the following comment on Dec 21, 2004 at 2:20 pm
Your comments are coming across to me as condescending. Although I obviously have a different opinion on what is happening, I am not a moron. Of course I am a Bush supporter. I also do my research, listen to the ideas of the left, read from various sources and form my own opinions, based on my ideologies and current events.
If sounding condescending is not your intention please let me know. If it is, and you are so experienced with terrorism, and are deadset on the idea that what Bush and Blair and numerous other countries are agreeing upon is wrong, then perhaps you can enlighten me as to the proper steps to take and also explain why your idea is not being used or if it is, why it is not working. Since you have been living with terrorism most of your life.
Wrote the following comment on Dec 21, 2004 at 5:55 pm
i had a really great conversation with a bush supporter today and he really DID enlighten me. sounds hokey, i know. He explained the reinsurance companies, and how no one really talks about what happened on 9/11. What REALLY happened was the companies who would all go in together to insure huge losses like the twin towers decided it was just too big for them to swallow, and they weren’t going to insure this loss. what would have happened then was life as we know it would have stopped, because the whole insurance system would have stopped. this would have impacted just about every area of life. so bush went to meet with some of these people , along with greenspan to discuss what to do. they agreed that the US would swallow the cost – but cap it at i think about 12 billion dollars. When the reinsurance companies found out they decided to go ahead and take care of whatever was leftover. that is why you didn’t see greenspan for a day, and bush when he heard the news sat thinking about this.why did the terrorists want to take out the towers?? well it sure as hell wasn’t to SCARE us like most people think. maybe that was part of it. but they wanted to stop the western way of life. and if the reinsurance companies and the US gov. wouldn’t have swallowed the cost, then they would have a big win there.another thing is the oil. osama wants to take over saudi arabia, just so he can stop the oil flow because that would take us out – our way of life, anyway. this is just what we discussed. how much of it is true, i couldn’t say. how much of it is BS? I couldn’t say. but you know i’m a liberal mostly, and it was a very interesting conversation with someone i do respect – old man who works in DC. interesting fellow.
Wrote the following comment on Dec 22, 2004 at 12:31 pm
dropsofjupiterihh, Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound condescending, I just think that your explanation of “They want us dead” is simply you repeating the propaganda that Bush is dishing up for Americans to swallow. Of course you are right, but what I am hoping is that you have some understanding on why they want you dead, instead of simply just swallowing the propaganda pills they’re giving you to swallow.
Bush and the other leaders who are standing behind this illegal war for oil, did so in the face of overwhelming international opposition from the masses. They offered us all kind of ‘intelligence’ to justify their war for oil, but as yet, none of those justifications have been found.
Also the war in Iraq is SEPARATE from Bush’s so called ‘War of terror.’ Hussain hated al Queda as much, if not more, than America. This illegal war for oil was supposedly to liberate the people of Iraq and impose American democracy on a country many many many thousands of miles away from America where the culture is even further removed from anything you and I know and can easily understand.
My concern is that while the flag wavers over here in America are standing behind Bush and his agenda, they are not at all concerned at the muddling of the lines between the so called ‘War’ on terror’ (an unwinnable war if you ask me), the war in Iraq and the ongoing war on crime.
Somehow the war in Iraq has become part and parcel of Americas crusade on terrorism when initially it had little to do with that. More people have died since the war over there ended too, has that though ever crossed you mind?You mentioned something about your neighborhood becoming overrun with terrorists, something that I feel shows evidence of how the Bush propaganda has managed to confuse you of the lines between a criminal and a terrorist. Your neighborhood unlikely to ever be overrun by terrorists, but it could be overrun by criminals. But that’s a domestic policing issue surely, not a military international issue? The are NOT terrorists on every street, but there very well maybe a criminal on every street.
The problem is this: If Bush continues to increase this culture of fear that is growing rapidly in America, based purely upon his war against terrorism, then America only closes itself down even further and its citizens only close their mind more. If this happens then surely one could say that a flag waving right wing republican is not that far removed from an Islamic extremist. They are in effect an American extremist.
The growing culture of fear of course insures Bush of an open road when it comes to bringing in new laws that are there to combat the ‘rise of terrorism’. New laws that may actually trample over your rights and freedoms. If the lines between common domestic criminals and terrorists become any more blurred then how will you be able to make fair and informed decisions on effectively dealing with these two vastly different issues?
While you may applaud the way Bush is dealing with those who have chosen to target America (remember he didn’t care before 9/11!) in terrorist attacks, I feel that his efforts to irradicate the unseen enemy will in the end be completely ineffective. If history has taught us anything, it has surely taught us that terrorism is nothing new and that it can never be irradicated as Bush would have us believe.
And since his war for oil in Iraq, and his illegal detention of POW’s in Guantanamo bay, do you think America has attracted the hatred of more or less people, people who may be liable to feel that terrorism against such an empire is not such a bad idea.
I haven’t lived with terrorism most of my life, I have lived with it all of my life, but for much of it I was simply too young to understand it. In the UK, when the IRA were carrying out hideous bombings and vial acts of terrorism (many of which never made American news), the then governments idea wasn’t to simply wade on into parts of Ireland with air raids, bombing raids, and huge military might. The war on terrorism is not won like that.
I might also add that the war on terrorism wasn’t invented by Bush. It’s been being fought for years by many countries who have long suffered at the hands of terrorists. America is very sadly just the the new kid on the block.