California Uber Alles

California Uber Alles (2004)

Okay, this is the last in my deleted scenes viewing mode series. Let's carve out a section like so:

Thumbnail of "California Uber Alles"

And now we'll zoom into the selected section and see what we've been missing:

Detail of "California Uber Alles"

I hope you've enjoyed piloting in and out of a few images over the last several days.

~/~

And...meanwhile...in the 3D California (and across this great land)...

Close your eyes, can't happen here
Big Bro' on white horse is near
--The Dead Kennedys, "California Uber Alles"

From CNN -- one week ago:

In a poll released Friday [5-12-06], almost two thirds of Americans said it was acceptable for the NSA to collect phone records. When asked if they would be bothered if the NSA had their phone records, Democrats and independents were more likely to be bothered than Republicans. The ABC-Washington Post poll surveyed 502 people by telephone.

...And always wear the happy face
--The Dead Kennedys, "California Uber Alles"

[Image seen at collective]

What? Me Worry? Maybe you should...

From This Can't Be Happening:

The mainstream media keep finding and quoting people who say they don't care if the government taps their phones or monitors their calling records, because they "don't have anything to hide." Polls are dutifully trotted out showing that half the public supposedly supports NSA spying even on Americans, which they perceive as being aimed at catching "terrorists."

Besides the fact that this mentality shows little appreciation for the blood that was shed over the years to establish the freedoms of speech and assembly and privacy that we are supposedly so proud of, there is evidence that the Bush Administration and its spook minions are using this whole warrantless NSA spying campaign not to try to catch "terrorists," but to keep us, the American people, from knowing what the government is up to.

The latest evidence of this darker reality comes from veteran ABC journalist Brian Ross, who reports on ABC's website that he and a colleague, Richard Esposito, were warned by a government intelligence source that their phones are being monitored by the government in an effort to ferret out their government sources.

"It's time for you to get some new cell phones quick," the source told the two, Ross reports.

Ross goes on to say that sources have told him and Esposito (in person, not on the phone), that the government is investigating the calling records of reporters at ABC, the New York Times and the Washington Post, all in an effort to ferret out whistleblowers and unidentified sources of stories critical of the government or of Bush policies.

So now, we can state clearly that this administration, which has gone to such lengths over the last five years to try to control the public agenda by limiting reporters' access to information, by paying for fake "news", by currying favor with such broadcast outlets as Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, and by bullying editors and publishers, has gone the next step into flat-out intimidation and spying.

Hmmm. It sounds like some of our freedoms (of speech/of the press) and rights (to privacy) are being outsourced to a regime BushCo increasingly is emulating: China.

How long before Google and Yahoo will be asked to filter all information critical to Bush and Cheney and the Ruling Republicans from American's computers -- a process already employed by Fox News?

And if you're spying on our own journalists and citizens, doesn't that take precious time away from the big picture task of apprehending terrorists and bringing them to justice?