“The Night Cometh, When No Man Can Work” – John 9:4

As Freedom Sunsets into Perpetual Night

by John Galt

The dramatic headline on the Drudge Report tonight might seem logical and innocent to the uninitiated:

‘PERFECT CITIZEN’ PROGRAM PLACES ‘SENSORS’ THROUGHOUT WEB

The truth behind the headline though is that our nation has been bleeding its freedoms away one bureaucratic paper cut at a time. The idea is that the NSA wishes to use the logical approach of government mandated monitoring of the flow of data to “protect” critical utility infrastructure and corporations from external attack. Unfortunately, the mentality of those in charge of the operation is best reflected in this quote from an “unnamed” military official from the Wall Street Journal report:

A U.S. military official called the program long overdue and said any intrusion into privacy is no greater than what the public already endures from traffic cameras.

Really unnamed U.S. military official? I don’t hold my credit card number up to traffic cameras. My spending habits and purchases, bills and personal pictures are not visible to the traffic camera. My personal emails are not visible to the traffic camera. My communications with my family are not visible on the traffic camera. If I wish to engage in lawful dissent the traffic camera does not pass judgment or use it as a perverted form of evidence against me in a trial. Apparently the attitude is that the real threat to America is not the cleansing sunlight of freedom, the ultimate disinfectant to prevent the disease of totalitarianism, but instead the free thoughts and actions of the United States citizen. This thought from above should disturb every patriotic American and chill them to the bone.

The story continues though, with further ideas being thrown against the wall, which will ultimately open Pandora’s Box and lead to the monitoring of not just “critical infrastructure” but the individuals who think they are living their lives as normal Americans, unaware that they are already being monitored but now able to put the friendly name of ‘Perfect Citizen’ as the software program which sponges up their activities on the internet and probably lift it off of their hard drives if you “trip” one of their sensors. This portion of the story is most disconcerting:

Some companies may agree to have the NSA put its own sensors on and others may ask for direction on what sensors to buy and come to an agreement about what data they will then share with the government, industry and government officials said.

While the government can’t force companies to work with it, it can provide incentives to urge them to cooperate, particularly if the government already buys services from that company, officials said.

So who is going to be the determining agency (or agencies) that decide what data is of a critical nature and what is not? When do incentives become threats, such as if you do not install this software and work with us, we’ll seize your company and arrest the officers of the corporation? Does the risk of a contagious disease give the CDC or United States Military Medical Command a right to your personal data from your doctors based on the new centralized data collection system ordered in the Health Care bill passed by the Obama administration? Does the IRS have the right to all personal AND financial data now via this system if you are determined to be a security risk because you fall behind in paying your taxes or buy more widgets from eBay or bullets from Cheaper Than Dirt.com than the national average? What oversight will we see to protect your freedoms and rights under the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution, or does that damned piece of paper even matter now?

The risks of what this type of program entails where “sensors” are implanted throughout the web when you have a regime hell bent on instituting FCC oversight over broadcast outlets and the internet are positively horrific. Imagine that Cass Sunstein, the Regulatory Czar who answers to no authority but the President, determines that a political opposition group or broadcaster should be deemed a national security threat. What is to prevent the ‘Perfect Citizen’ from being used for data mining purposes to intimidate and threaten the group forcing them to change their opinions or causing members to flee under the iron boot on their throats?

This is a very dangerous precedent being proposed and despite the rhetoric we are about to hear, this is no traffic camera at a busy intersection; this is an attempt to create and maintain order by completing the process of an end run around the Constitution to usurp the rights of the people in the name of security. Instead of quoting our Founding Fathers and their rather poignant thoughts on this subject, I thought I would quote an unidentified child which seems quite pertinent to the discussion:

We are the voice of the new generation. We are the voice of the new people. The destructive ways of the past are gone. We will replace them with our vision of the future. The Party will lead us to the new age. There have been those who have tried to stop the new age. They are the corrupt reminder of the past. They have tried to confuse us with the idea that the old America was a good country. We know that lie. History teaches us that lie. We are grateful to our brothers who saved the world from destruction, and we can now join them in a world of socialist brotherhood. Everyone will go to school, everyone will have a job, everyone will be equal. No one will exploit or be exploited, and all those who oppose this wonderful vision will be crushed.

The child that said these words was part of the fictional ABC television mini-series Amerika in the late 1980′s. Only the word “Soviet” was removed from this sentence which was before the word “brothers” and should give one pause as the ideals of that tyranny have become relevant again today. Re-read the sentence and think about the numerous chants, programs, oaths, and songs sung in praise of this President and the ideals of the radical left becoming reality in our nation now. Then consider the powerful infrastructure being aligned against your freedoms while you attempt to survive the economic and political disaster our nation is mired in.

The one sentence from the article from an internal Raytheon email which validates my fears says it all:

“Perfect Citizen is Big Brother.”

May God let us see a sunrise again in our lifetime as freedom sunsets into the darkness of perpetual night.

When America’s Leaders Called For Prayer and Fasting

From my friend William J. Federer – a look back at why America was blessed with victory over our enemies – and blessed above any nation before us.

When suffering the evils of tyrants, the first order of business was to call for a day of Prayer and Fasting.

In these dark days of tyranny from our own leadership – where are even the church leaders on this score?

Fast asleep and lukewarm in the comfort of pews filled with donors.

God bless us with Repentance.

Or this experiment in self-governance is doomed.

When our leaders used to call us to prayer and fasting

By William J. Federer
© 2010

To punish Massachusetts for the Tea Party, King George III decided to destroy its economy by blockading Boston’s harbor on June 1, 1774.

Thomas Jefferson drafted a Resolution for a “Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer” to be observed the same day. It was introduced in the Virginia House of Burgesses May 24, 1774, by Robert Carter Nicholas and supported by Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and George Mason, passing unanimously:

“This House, being deeply impressed with apprehension of the great dangers, to be derived to British America, from the hostile invasion of the City of Boston, in our sister Colony of Massachusetts … deem it highly necessary that the said first day of June be set apart, by the members of this House as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine interposition, for averting the heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights. … Ordered, therefore that the Members of this House do attend … with the Speaker, and the Mace, to the Church in this City, for the purposes aforesaid; and that the Reverend Mr. Price be appointed to read prayers, and the Reverend Mr. Gwatkin, to preach a sermon.”

George Washington wrote in his diary, June 1, 1774: “Went to church, fasted all day.”

Virginia’s royal governor, Lord Dunmore, interpreted this resolution as a veiled protest against King George III and dissolved the House of Burgesses, resulting in legislators meeting in Raleigh Tavern where they conspired to form the first Continental Congress.

On April 15, 1775, just four days before the Battle of Lexington, where was fired “the shot heard ’round the world,” the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, led by John Hancock, declared:

“In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us, as men and Christians, to reflect that, whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments … the 11th of May next be set apart as a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer … to confess the sins … to implore the Forgiveness of all our Transgression.”

On May 15, 1776, Gen. George Washington ordered:

“The Continental Congress having ordered Friday the 17th instant to be observed as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, humbly to supplicate the mercy of Almighty God, that it would please Him to pardon all our manifold sins and transgressions, and to prosper the arms of the United Colonies, and finally establish the peace and freedom of America upon a solid and lasting foundation; the General commands all officers and soldiers to pay strict obedience to the orders of the Continental Congress; that, by their unfeigned and pious observance of their religious duties, they may incline the Lord and Giver of victory to prosper our arms.”

At the Constitutional Convention, 1787, Ben Franklin stated:

“In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection.”

Proclaiming a Day of Prayer, Ronald Reagan said Jan. 27, 1983:

“In 1775, the Continental Congress proclaimed the first National Day of Prayer. … In 1783, the Treaty of Paris officially ended the long, weary Revolutionary War during which a National Day of Prayer had been proclaimed every spring for eight years.”

Maybe Americans should once again, as Reagan concluded: “… seek His help for the challenges we face today and in the future.”