BE AFRAID AMERICA, BE VERY AFRAID

Something new (to me) has just alarmed me more than I can accept.

I am no hero, but I've been in some unpleasant situations in my life. I was vaguely involved in a shooting war, was aboard a ship with a fire reported in an ammunition storage room, had a hand caught in a lion's mouth (stupid is as stupid does), avoided a charging crocodile by inches and even had another deer hunter put a round in a tree about four inches from my chest.

But the other night I was watching, casually, the community television station when I should have been asleep in bed. (That's the channel the cable company is forced to include in every over priced subscription to their service.) What I saw and heard was a guy named Aaron Russo talking and running film and raising hell. He has a web site called freedomtofascism.com.

When I played the video I distinctly heard "It is time for civil disobedience" and "North American Union" and "make Congress destroy the federal banking system".

I know about the good effects of civil disobedience from Mahatma Gandhi's biographers and Martin Luther King, Jr., in person and in recordings.

But what was the North American Union? I am well aware that the Republican Party and Dubya Bush are anti union. But Russo indicated that it was part and parcel of the administration's plan for the United States. And it is not a desirable "union". Not in the least.

So I Googled it. There are pages and pages about this anti-American program. That B actor we elected twice apparently had smoke blown in his, um, face by the banking lobby. So did Bill Clinton. So, to, have far too many of our representatives in Congress.

My first reaction was, how in the world did this sneak past the public? So I read some more. According to the sources I perused, it seems that big banking and big media have connections we do not know about. They are almost joined at the hip. Interlocking directorships are a major factor in deciding what we will see, hear and read.

And there is move toward a "national ID card". No, it isn't going to stop illegal aliens from coming here. It's a method to track everything you do. And where you go. And read. And buy. And spend your money on. And where you live. And anything and everything about you. The book 1984 wasn't written about America (it took place in England) but its premise is knocking on America's door right now. In fact, it already has more than a foot in your door.

The newer RFID chips can be placed on anything you buy. The best of them can be the size of a period in a sentence. Those new tires you bought? The RFID tells the manufacturer where you are, when you are, how long it took you to get there and how many times you stopped on the way there. The jar of peanut butter? It tells them when you bought it, how often it is being used where it is located (exactly). The new CD? They know how many times you use it, where it is, if you try to make a copy of it, where you live.

We all know about the Florida voting fiasco at election times. So now the "powers" are talking about computer voting. Sounds easy to us users, doesn't it? But there are a couple of major drawbacks. You see, there is no paper trail when they are used. Results cannot be checked against anything. And according to reports from the hackers, they can enter the voting computer's programs and change the results at their will. I spoke to a local about this. She smiled, said, "No problem. Tell me what program it is and I am into it faster than you can download the new Vista package. And change the vote to whatever you'd like. And no one will ever know." Computer voting is not something we want in America.

Is this scaring you, too? Go visit Aaron Russo's site.