This is no longer about anti-terrorism, it is now about total governmental control.

What this will do is open up the sky's for more of the small UAV'S which have a 6' or less wing span. Many law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, The Border Patrol, Homeland Security and the County Sheriffs Dept are limited in the usage of small UAV aircraft. Some of these planes have FLIR cameras which can detect body heat and can be used to locate lost hikers, illegal immigrants crossing into our country and so on. These SUAV systems do not normally fly at altitudes that will interfere with commercial flights.

"Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull."

The infrared scanning can see through certain kinds of building materials, giving the government a clear picture of who is inside a house, how many, and what these people are doing inside their houses.

This exact thing has already been declared unconstitutional by the SCOTUS. Police tried to use infrared scanners to find pot growers, found one, and ultimately got their butts dragged across the floor of the supreme court for doing it. That doesn't mean they will obey the supreme court, it just means they technically can't gather evidence off of it, and since there is precedent set, you could theoretically sue for damages if they tried.

Excellent post Amanda

I don't need the government to protect me. I can do that just fine by myself.

The cops don't need Predator drones with all those high-tech sensors onboard to look into peoples' houses. They already have helicopters with all the same sensors that can do the job without the threat of being hijacked by anybody with a laptop and a wi-fi connection. The term "military-grade encryption" to a hacker is like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

In an ideal world, yes, Student.

But then you take the NDAA into consideration, which makes US military detention mandatory if you are a non-us citizen suspected of terrorism or acting contrary to the interests of the US or any of its allies, detention without charge or trial until the war on terror is over.

And then you take the new Enemy Expatriation Act, or HR3166, which will give the US government the right to strip citizenship from anyone suspected of engaging in or advocating any act which runs counter to the interests of the US and/or its allies, and then under the terms of the NDAA you can be held without charge or trial until the war on terror is over.

Since there is no trial, they can easily say you were building a bomb, and how would you defend yourself? What could you say?

I believe those are two different problems. The solution to your problem is very simple. We stop complaining and have our state reps call a constitutional convention to make the constitution more explicit. There is no merit to being angry and not writing your rep.

Why don't they just call this new integrated system "Skynet?"

The type of SUAV systems I am talking about, are not going to look thru buildings. These are the same systems that the military is using now in Afghanistan and the NSA is using in Iraq as we speak. These systems have save so many lives. I think these types of systems would make a big difference in securing our borders and scouting out drug runners. Even the Coast Guard has been waiting for this bill to be passed.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy watchdog group, last month sued the U.S. Department of Transportation, the umbrella agency for the FAA, demanding that the FAA release details on authorized drone flights with the U.S.

And the saga continues.....ANOTHER case to be taken on by the DOJ.

Wait a minute....we still have not received FULL DETAILS on the "Fast and Furious". Further, Mr. Holder is still working as the DOJ.

Sheeesh, it is going to be January 21, 2013 when Mr. Holder is shown the EXIT door.....that is if he escapes going to court first.

@bug_smshr_drvr

Obviously, it would then become self aware and judgement day would then ensue that much sooner, DUH!!!

Wow! The sheep are getting skittish! You know, most people are just not interesting enough to warrant a drone. Get over yourselves...sheesh!

Coming to a town near you, sooner than you think!

CIA drones target rescue workers, mourners

7 February 2012

A report by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) has found that the US Central Intelligence Agency deliberately attacked rescue workers and funeral processions in follow-up strikes after drone missile attacks on insurgents in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The findings were made public on the group’s web site and published by the Sunday Times of London.

According to the organization, which includes British and Pakistani journalists, at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes while they were attempting to help victims of an initial CIA drone attack. Dozens more were killed by missile strikes against the funerals of victims of drone attacks.

Overall, the group found that “since Obama took office three years ago, between 282 and 535 civilians have been credibly reported as killed, including more than 60 children.” Pakistani officials and humanitarian aid workers have reported much higher figures for the death toll in Pakistan’s tribal areas, as many as several thousand….

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/pers-f07.shtml

I am not sure why I should have to point out that you are already being watched by satellites and can easily be watched by manned aircraft right now. Also, drones deployed on the border have permission to fly through U.S. airspace en route from one border to the other. These drones, which we have been operating for years in other countries without any midair collisions, are not the armed versions used to bomb operatives, just the spy type. Finally, these drones can only be used to watch people outside. If you are not in a building, you have no reasonable expatiation of privacy from aircraft of any type.

-It's a tad late here, so I hope that came out more or less coherent.

Why all the hand-wringing. Honeybees make it work, with flight so precise that the Drones even mate with the Queens in mid air. Oh, wait. Now I see the concern. Never mind!

;-)

Oh you have no idea how soon judgement day will be here. It's just around the corner! Obama leaves office this fall and creates a shadow government and it all begins. The end of the free and open Unites States is coming. It's going to get ugly!!!

Get ready for an ugly ride if people don't wake up and quit fooling themselves about whats happening in the world.

Like that financial trader on TV said "Goldman Sachs runs the world now" and like many rich/powerful people they see the rest of the population as a threat and as the enemy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvPPpUXE540&feature=related

The people who run things for them know that as the system becomes more clearly unfair and wealth continues to be concentrated at the top everyone else's standard of living will keep declining and that leads to social disintegration (gangs, crime, break down of "social norms", etc)....or to revolt (like the Occupy Movement)

They are getting things ready for either result, taking away civil liberties, enhancing and introducing technology for surveillance and suppression (like drones)

This is the way they hope to deal with the socially distractive consequences of their economic policies: deregulation, privatization, cutting wages and benefits, sending jobs overseas, etc.

"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."....Justice Louis Brandeis

It would/will be only a matter of time before a collision happens. You can count on it. Just look at the super secret drone which "flew" into Iran. Military said it had a fail safe homing device which was supposed to automatically bring it "home".

For starters, infrared systems cannot "see" inside of buildings. They can only read the heat signature on a surface. If you are inside of a building, and are not touching the walls or are not heating surfaces that would cause a temperature difference - which is what infrared detects - it CANNOT see you.

Second, for something to SEE inside of a building, it would need to bombard the target with radiation and get feedback. That's basic -physics.-

Third - talk of a retinal scans and cameras able to "read" your face - no matter how sophisticated - one cannot obtain a retinal scan at fifty feet. I do no care how advanced the machine is - there would be too much movement. That would require an extraordinarily expensive and highly advanced tracking system. This would also - effectively - make the robot BLIND. Ask how much a person can see while they are looking at something through binoculars. Answer: they can't see much other than what they are looking at.

Stop watching television, learn how the technology works. It's not as "advanced" as you wpu;d like to think they are and there are some pretty big -flaws- that these techno-videogame-military morons are not telling you about or considering.

Moped,

Technology today is only a blink of an eye in it's infancy.

How long ago was it that you had computer with a 200 mghz cpu and thought it was gonna catch fire it was running so hot. Now we have smart phones with 100 times the processing power and you can hold it in your hand. Only a matter of time and the police state is complete.

Additionally - A robot is not and cannot be "trained" to pick out properly camouflaged targets. Because you would need a robot that actually thinks and is witty like a sneaky human. They are only as sophisticated as their buggy programs, the scripts, and the imbeciles with the power points that don't bother to completely explain everything when they sell their products to a committee over a power point meeting. Because the point is to make a profit and win a defense contract. The technology doesn't have to work - it's so new and their no way of knowing HOW effective an entirely dependent DRONE security force would be.

What happens when the DRONES fail? Or they are hijacked, reprogrammed, "tricked" into landing intact in Iran? The most advanced drone we have to offer - can be 'tricked' into landing in our sworn enemies territory.

Really? You want these things "guarding" something? No one things we're possibly making a massively idiotic blunder by reducing our man power and relying on virtual pilots to know what they are doing?

This means that, for them to be effective, a drone would have to have a human pilot flying it. Scanning, constantly. Who would probably get sick and tired of staring at a screen filled with static objects, interference, or the endless number of other "false alerts" that pop up when they see a Deer, or an Elk, or any number of other things that might -flag- as a heat source.

What you are basically seeing the the outward paranoia of a government that seems to be quickly losing faith or confidence in itself - in that it is outwardly turning apparently VERY hostile towards the very citizens it claims to serve.

And when you misplace your smart phone? Or an air burst EMP knocks out everything? :D

The Police State.

.5 percent of the American population serves in the U.S. military.

A fraction of the United States serves in Law Enforcement.

Soldiers and cops can't "farm" or and probably do not work in factories.

Or drive semi-trucks filled with logistics.

The "Police State" is not as all powerful as you might think - and that is precisely the reason it's behaving the way it is.

Last I checked - most of the world doesn't live in America. And a good portion of America still isn't as modernized or regulated. Only a few specific spots in American - highly populated cities, ports, manufacturing hubs, government, and military bases.

Outside of that - it's agricultural.

I think we've got it all wrong.

As soon as America turns into an Overt Police State - that will be the end. This country will burn itself to the ground within less than a decade if a civil war occurs.

There are too many of us and too few of them.

Military and cops would probably defect to rebels or their home city states.

It's all basically one big "show" to try to "scare" everyone.

I guarantee it.

Frankly I'm more concerned about the part that says "commercial and private drones". Although it may not seem like it, it is a lot easier to hold the government accountable than it is private businesses. In reality, a lot of what the government and law enforcement has used to collect data and info has been through commercial sources.

We have already been flying drones in the border areas. I suspect this is about getting drones in more active flyways. Predators have a ceiling around 25,000 ft and Global Hawks are more like 65,000 ft. Predators are pretty slow flying at speeds comparable to private single engine prop planes. The global Hawk flies at jet liner speeds. The real small drones fly typically in the 300 ft level, fairly short flight radius and are very slow. I'm not sure I see much advantage to Predator like drones over manned fixed wing and helicopters, which can carry all the same hardware. They can fly/loiter close to 24 hours which could be and advantage, but then you have the speed limitation. I see real use for the Global Hawks and similar platforms we may not know about yet. These can cover some ground quickly and the advertised loiter time is 36 hours. These would provide better than satellite level information and could do it faster and much cheaper. There is a limitation to how much you can move satellites around because they carry a limited amount of maneuvering fuel. The Global Hawks go for around $100 million so they are relatively cheap. The Global Hawks can get up there above commercial traffic, but they have to get up and down too so that would potentially put them in commercial traffic zones.

I guess a lot of it depends on what you are looking for. There are a lot of legitimate useful things as well as surveillance activities. If you had a couple Global Hawks cruising around constantly, you could probably get eyes on just about anywhere in the continental US within an hour or less. NASA already is flying some of these. Drones don't really make a lot of sense for watching everybody, but they can do well watching selected somebodies. There is already plenty of ground surveillance technology out there that can be used for screening, selective searching and tracking of a wider population. We probably ought to be concerned about that stuff. I don't see these drones infringing on our privacy any more than things already in place.

Safety is a real concern, but it depends on how many of these you have up there and crossing through commercial flight zones. A relative handful of government drones wouldn't be such a big problem but if they opened this up to commercial versions as is suggested, it could be a different matter altogether.

@bug_smshr_drvr

We can just call it.... "BIG BROTHER" (a reference in George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-four)

And, to Amanda--and to the rest of us--I quote (..er, paraphrase) Benjamin Franklin:

"When we give up liberties in the name of safety, we will [then] have neither liberty nor safety."

Reminds me of the old soviet union. no economy because half the people worked for the government, and half of them were spying on the other half. We could build a new factory, but we only have half enough people to build factories....the other half watches to see if the half that is working is breaking some law, therefore we cannot build a factory

For now it's spying outside the building, next comes the spying inside the building from big brother that can't seem to control their greed, corruption, or expenses on the Hill.

It's all basically one big "show" to try to "scare" everyone.

I guarantee it.

Moped, you aren't in a position to "guarantee" anything.

Anyone who has ever read an account of the communization of China has read that it takes only a very small number of cowards and bullies salivating over the power that a core cadre promises them to create a totalitarian state wherein everyone turns into an informer on their neighbor out of fear for their own safety.

It has already been done. It has already been demonstrated. The "proof-of-concept" "in-the-wild" has already been done. The techniques are already well-known and these are the very things that this government is doing right now, which is why it is all so very unsavory.

The future is obvious.

You're going to need a close relationship with Him who raises the dead, the Father of Jesus Christ if you want to survive what is coming over the world very soon.

Anyone who continues to trust this increasingly paranoid machine that worships "science and technology" and re-writes all the laws on the books--or declares them null and void by small-panel fiat--is putting their trust in the wrong place.

As was pointed out above, the laws already exist to make you a non-citizen for criticizing the demons who are setting this monstrosity up, and the laws already exist to ship you off to Siberia just as soon as that declaration is made of you. The United States of America, a constitutional republic, is already a thing of the past. It no longer exists. Those of you who continue to believe that it still exists have not yet considered the real meaning of the suspending of habeas corpus, in a meaningless "war against fear" that will/can/does/could/shall never end. You haven't yet thought about the purpose behind the mysterious compound with a large underground complex of holding cells at Las Pulgas, Mexico, just a few miles south of the California border and within easy reach of offshore boats that will soon be coming empty and going full of former American "citizens" to only God knows where. You can expect that wherever these boats take the former American "citizens" who dared to complain that America was no longer America will not be places that welcome Christians kindly.

If you don't yet see this future coming very soon, you haven't yet pulled your head out of your idiot box.

It's all basically one big "show" to try to "scare" everyone.

I guarantee it.

Moped, you aren't in a position to "guarantee" anything.

Anyone who has ever read an account of the communization of China has read that it takes only a very small number of cowards and bullies salivating over the power that a core cadre promises them to create a totalitarian state wherein everyone turns into an informer on their neighbor out of fear for their own safety.

It has already been done. It has already been demonstrated. The "proof-of-concept" "in-the-wild" has already been done. The techniques are already well-known and these are the very things that this government is doing right now, which is why it is all so very unsavory.

The future is obvious.

You're going to need a close relationship with Him who raises the dead, the Father of Jesus Christ, if you want to survive what is coming over the world very soon.

Anyone who continues to trust this increasingly paranoid machine that worships "science and technology" and re-writes all the laws on the books--or declares them null and void by small-panel fiat--is putting their trust in the wrong place.

As was pointed out above, the laws already exist to make you a non-citizen for criticizing the demons who are setting this monstrosity up, and the laws already exist to ship you off to Siberia just as soon as that declaration is made of you. The United States of America, a constitutional republic, is already a thing of the past. It no longer exists. Those of you who continue to believe that it still exists have not yet considered the real meaning of the suspending of habeas corpus, in a meaningless "war against fear" that will/can/does/could/shall never end. You haven't yet thought about the purpose behind the mysterious compound with a large underground complex of holding cells at Las Pulgas, Mexico, just a few miles south of the California border and within easy reach of offshore boats that will soon be coming empty and going full of former American "citizens" to only God knows where. You can expect that wherever these boats take the former American "citizens" who dared to complain that America was no longer America will not be places that welcome Christians kindly.

If you don't yet see this future coming very soon, you haven't yet pulled your head out of your idiot box.

The headline reads;

Pilots worry about safety of allowing domestic drones in US skies

It seems to me that the headline should read;

Pilots worried about the DANGER of allowing domestic drones in US skies.

I think it's hilarious the people on here that try so hard to get people to think they are smart about everything... they know all this stuff about technology, radiation and molecules... and they pretend to know all about what the government is doing, and what they got ... yet they sit and worry about ... "Total Government Control"... and are totally ignorant to the idea of two pieces of paper that are over two hundred years old called... "The Constitution"... and... "The Declaration of Independence" that states that everybody in the country together or even "part" of can oust a crooked and corrupt government....! Wow...

People who didn't even have a computer over two hundred years ago, and had less to work with, they stood up and created this country, and yet over two hundred years later, there are over three hundred million more people, with more to work with, and they will serve up the line about how it isn't as easy as it sounds to oust the government... Wow...!

What a concept... "Ousting a corrupt government"... wow...! But it will never happen because there are too many thin skinned school boys walking around pretending to be men, while playing with their cell phones and pretending to be important, pretending to be Geo political experts, lawyers and judges... and thinking that they men, while they sit and are afraid of someone who is taking their rights away from them... rights they won't use, and will never use because they are too afraid to use them...! Wow...!

You people are funny...!

Moped:

Good presentation of the physics. Saved me the exercise to explain it. However, I am not as confident about your conclusion.

But thanks.

A.C-1213193

totally ignorant to the idea of two pieces of paper that are over two hundred years old called... "The Constitution"... and... "The Declaration of Independence" that states that everybody in the country together or even "part" of can oust a crooked and corrupt government....! Wow...

Unfortunately those warranties of freedom were abrogated, corrupted, scrapped, while you were not looking...

All you have left is the 2nd, that protects everything else - if you have its spirit and the GUTS and sacrifice it demands and presumes, by definition.

You people are funny...!

Nothing funny that I can see. They are scared and alarmed, and are in earnest. You are whistling in the dark, trying to keep up your courage...you wake up and be aware too.

Moped,

Let's get back to reality for a minute. These are NOT "Skynet" capable autonomous drones. The Predator, and the smaller drones, are actually flown by human operators remotely. Said human being may be half way around the world, but his is still the one monitoring the video feeds and pulling the trigger when they decide to fire the missiles. We do have some drones that can take off by themselves, follow a predetermined course and land at a predetermines location, but we do not have anything capable of making autonomous decisions that could change course to look at a suspicious individual. That still requires a human operator linked with the vehicle.

University of Chicago Student:

There is no merit to being angry and not writing your rep.

Been there, done that. Joined in the protests againstt he NDAA last Friday. Do you think our government actually works for the people? I doubt it, not anymore.

Moped said:

For starters, infrared systems cannot "see" inside of buildings. They can only read the heat signature on a surface. If you are inside of a building, and are not touching the walls or are not heating surfaces that would cause a temperature difference - which is what infrared detects - it CANNOT see you.

My apologies. My brain translated that as infrared, but here is the actual article clip from Science Daily:

X-ray vision is no longer just for sci-fi movies and superheroes. Now, superhuman powers are closer to real life than you might think. Engineers have developed a new device, called the Xaver that can see straight through walls.

"It's designed to find people through walls and tell you where they are and how many there are," says engineer Robert Judd. The device can see through plaster, brick, even reinforced concrete. It quickly identifies who or what is in a room and what's happening behind the walls. The device sends out radio waves through a wall or door. The waves then bounce off objects in a room and bounce back to the device which creates an image of objects in a room -- moving flashes of light represent people or furniture in a room.The military and law enforcement agencies have orders in for the new technology.

Moped said:

Third - talk of a retinal scans and cameras able to "read" your face - no matter how sophisticated - one cannot obtain a retinal scan at fifty feet. I do no care how advanced the machine is - there would be too much movement. That would require an extraordinarily expensive and highly advanced tracking system.

See this clip from Computerworld:

For two weeks in early October, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will test Global Rainmakers Inc (GRI) iris scanners at a Border Patrol station in McAllen, Texas. Arun Vemury, program manager at Homeland Security's Science and Technology branch, told USA Today that the iris scans "will be used on illegal immigrants." A database of stored digital images of people's eyes are a "quicker alternative to fingerprints." The iris scan works while a person is in motion and at a distance of 24 inches to over 15 feet easily, said Jeff Carter, Corporate Development Officer and Chief Strategist (CDO) of Global Rainmakers, in a phone interview. "Your iris is completely unique. There is no chance of fraud." GRI has done extensive iris scan research on huge record sets and has not found any indication that ethnicity, eye color, contacts, or glasses would render the scan ineffective. Fingerprints can be "disguised" with cuts. Facial recognition can be altered by bruising the face or other identity altering factors. The iris is much more difficult to alter.

It is a dangerous proposition to mix unmanned aircraft with other manned flights such as private and commercial transport. I realize that anti-collision has come a long way but such proposition flies right into the face of Visual Flight Rules (VFR). Finally, a PIC is the final authority on board an aircraft because he has a vested interest in the success of the mission (his health). A pilot sitting at a desk has non.

JungleJim sid:

I think these types of systems would make a big difference in securing our borders and scouting out drug runners. Even the Coast Guard has been waiting for this bill to be passed.

The Coast Guard is now a division of, and under control of, Homeland Security. So is FEMA and the Secret Service, just to name a few.

Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmm "1984?" The following quote from Wiki

"

Nineteen Eighty-Four (first published in 1949) by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party.^[1] Life in the Oceanian province of Airstrip One is a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, and incessant public mind control, accomplished with a political system euphemistically named English Socialism (Ingsoc), which is administrated by a privileged Inner Party elite.^[2] Yet they too are subordinated to the totalitarian cult of personality of Big Brother, the deified Party leader who rules with a philosophy that decries individuality and reason as thoughtcrimes; thus the people of Oceania are subordinated to a supposed collective greater good.^[1] The protagonist, Winston Smith, is a member of the Outer Party who works for the Ministry of Truth (Minitrue), which is responsible for propaganda and historical revisionism. His job is to re-write past newspaper articles so that the historical record is congruent with the current party ideology.^[3] Because of the childhood trauma of the destruction of his family — the disappearances of his parents and sister — Winston Smith secretly hates the Party, and dreams of rebellion against Big Brother.

As literary political fiction and as dystopian science-fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic novel in content, plot, and style. Many of its terms and concepts, such as Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, and memory hole, have become contemporary vernacular since its publication in 1949. Moreover, Nineteen Eighty-Four popularised the adjective Orwellian, which refers to official deception, secret surveillance, and manipulation of the past in service to a totalitarian or manipulative political agenda.^[3]"

^{He was just a few years off .............}

This is an extremely serious issue. The drones were designed for combat surveillance. As such, they have really good look down capability, but absolutely no wide visual capability like the windows pilots look through during flight.

It would be expected these things would fly at relatively low altitudes, possibly ranging from 100 feet to maybe 10,000 feet. Without external wide viewing AND two operators, there is a very high risk of the thing running into towers, buildings, the guy wires of towers and other aircraft. One device I saw recently being touted for police was a miniature helicopter, one that could be carried in the trunk of a patrol car. This also did not appear to have wide viewing capability, only look down like the military systems. Here there was the suggestion that the officer on scene would be operating it.

In the low altitude visual flight environment, the following is absolutely necessary for flight safety:

1. Wide, unobstructed viewing capability side to side and up and down. This set of views must be separate from the surveillance views used for the searching function.
2. An absolute minimum of two operators, one to fly the device and only fly. The other to run the search stuff. In addition the pilot MUST be the "owner" or commander of the activity and solely responsible for flight safety.
3. For "field" operations involving "on-site" operators, BOTH must be fully qualified and certified in the operation of the system AND both must be pilot qualified.
4. For base station type operations, like the military does it now, the operator flying the device must be pilot certified or under the direct one-on-one supervision of a certified Instructor Pilot. The surveillance operator in a base station could be only surveillance certified or under the supervision of a certified surveillance instructor.
5. In high density urban environments, it may be necessary for a third operator, pilot qualified, to function as a second pair of eyes for the Command Pilot.
6. The risk to other aircraft is the small size of these things. These drones could bring an air plane down. But, since they are so small they could be easily missed by the pilot(s) of the air plane. This puts the responsibility for aircraft separation on the drone operators and not the pilots of the larger air planes. For the mini copter, this is even more critical because it is so inordinately small, but still capable of bringing another aircraft down.

An additional concern, particularly for the urban environment is the chance a "bad guy" would shoot the thing down. Where will it crash? In someone's house?, in an electrical substation?, in a gas station? For the really small mini copters, this would be less of an issue, but still a possibility of collateral damage.

There would need to be some serious and strict safety guidelines for the use of these drones, which I think the Government has not taken the time for concern. As usual they are too quick to install such new devices with the thought in mind that action can be taken after a problem arises.

@ Hamzsque El Sid313!*....

Hamzsque El Sid313!*.... is a bold example of a person who isn't only misguided by his/her own fright and is not only slumped over and embarrassed by his/her own shortcomings, but has now self employed himself/herself to spew his/her own beliefs and pass them off as facts...! Wow...!

Watch this...

Hey "Hamzsque El Sid313!*"... name one instance or "ANY" instance... since the American Revolution when has a group of Americans petitioned the ousting of a government and have been denied the ousting of a government because their "warranties of freedom" as you call it... were "Abrogated"... "Corrupt"... or "scrapped"... when they weren't looking... ?

Surely you have "FACTS" to back up your claim... and "NOW" would be a good time to present them since your thoughts are actually just a fallacy... based on empty and careless judgements... and there really aren't any facts to back them up... isn't that true Mr/Ms Hamzsque El Sid313!*...?

You are the most obvious display of the "dumbing down procedure" that certain fear mongering Americans have resorted to for reasons only they know of...! It is quite sad, that this is the only deduction that "YOU" can offer up when "YOU" look around...This is all that "YOU" can regurgitate from what "YOU" recall as an education "YOU" somehow seem to think "YOU" have... that the sky is falling...! WOW...! Thank you for standing up and showing us how uneducated you are and how scared you are and how "YOU" have given up in your mind to the belief that the sky is falling and there is absolutely nothing in your mind anybody can do about it... This is "ALL" you can stand up and do... is claim that "YOU" are a failure...!

"YOU" aren't what someone would call "scared or alarmed"... you are just a clear example of what a person looks like who has given up all hope... in "earnest"...!

What you have shown as FACT... is that the only one "whistling in the dark" is "YOU"... that is blatant in your writing... and that, to most people is quite funny.... because there is nothing more pathetic than someone who clearly has given up, and is trying to convince others to follow you down the drain also...! There is no "courage" in doing that...!

Amanda-2017567 ... is another one crying out that the "sky is falling" and there is nothing else to do about it but look at sites and articles that say... that something is "close" to being developed... that something is a "nearly" at the stage of being developed.... ! Wow... !

Amanda-2017567... does not claim to know anything... but she does know how to post a lot of material about things that are almost developed... but not quite ready yet.... or have been developed and not even in use yet... this is often referred to as ........."Premature Ejaculation"... or "Fear Mongering".... LOL...!

AC:

My company is involved in biometric technology, from design, development, testing to implementation, and one of my responsibilities is to keep up with the current trends and new technology breakthroughs being made. I can assure you the retina scanners are real and are going to be implemented in the next year and a half. The portable DNA scanners are also real, have completed testing and will also be implemented synonymous with the retina scanners in the next year and a half. WAASS is presently in testing and pending successful testing will be implemented in the near future, and FAST is reportedly currently in testing.

If Homeland Security didn't already KNOW that there would be serious ethics questions raised about this technology why would they feel the need to 'test the system in an undisclosed location'?

You're saying I am fear-mongering--I'm going on the evidence of my own research and the confirmation of Homeland Security itself, who poured money into the development. Please, I'd love to be wrong--point me in the direction of information from a reputable source that says DHS does not have this technology. I'll gladly come back here and say I was wrong--I'll be happy to say I was wrong. Right now all I have is a theory that happens to fit the available facts--if I don't have all the facts I can't make informed, logical decisions.

Its made in the USA. What do you folk want? So we get the drones flying all over the place. Remember they are Made in the USA.

So they can have missiles on them, we might get a few foul ups. Ahhhh.

But Just imagine the fun and games. Say a taliban is shooting at a US army soldier. The drone comes in and this raghead can't hide. He can run but can't hide. He runs past a group of goats and and jumps on a yak. The drone shoots the hell out of him and the yak is safe. :)

Well they buzz around in the USA now. So what. We need to iron out the bugs and not having them landing in iran.

after the 2 pilot fell asleep and flew over an hour past their destination.. I am sure they are worried about drones taking their photo sleeping in the cockpit....... or worse yet... crashing into a drone.... but the drone could easily avoid the airliner, I think the pilots are a minor safety concern for the drones.. I think the pilots should concentrate on flying the plane and not worry about aircraft controlled by a roomful of people under observed command..... unlike two sleepyheads..

As far as I understand it the supreme court ruled gps are now illegal for LE use. But before that it was considered not an invasion because its not actually looking at anything its just tracking where that car is. Meaning it would be no different that a unmarked following you around all day.

The retina scanners that DHS is developing in conjunction with the FAST system can be incorporated to scan a person's eyes as they sit at a red light, predicting who is going to run that red light before they do it, printing that person a ticket for running that red light before they even do it. Traffic cameras will be able to see a person's shifting eyes, predicting that they will cut off another vehicle before they do it; and they can record the pulse of the other driver, and if the pulse speeds up after the person is cut off, the police can apprehend the other driver for a potential road rage incident before the driver can actually commit said incident.

Like they say

You ain't seen anything yet. And the sad part it was all soooo predictable.

Orson Wells would have been a happy man if he could have seen all this. Then again he predicted it.

"God damn you all! I told you so!"---H.G. Wells

Welcome to the D.S. of C.A. (Divided States of Communist America)

The Supreme Court ruled the police cannot attach a GPS to your car without a warrant, not that it's illegal for the police to use a GPS for tracking your car.

And indeed, they only ruled that it is illegal to do for 'an extended period of time' without a warrant.....so yeah.

Yeah well this was predicted to happen a decade ago when these Drones were being developed. The MLB Company, who makes the majority of these drones are pouring millions into lobbying efforts to enrich themselves. However, money is not the fear factor here. Drones fly at 25,000 feet, too high to see one. But they can read a license plate on a car 50 miles away in the dead of night. And with SmartPhones becoming common place, they will be able to "see" and track all of us or anyone of us at any time. They are equipped with heat signature recognition sensors, so they can spot you on the ground from 50 miles away in the dead of night and you will never know it. Remember, they are flying too high to even hear. And they don't have blinking lights on them like commercial aircraft. Forget about hiding in your house under the covers. They can "see" you from 50 miles away in your house with their tracking microwave pulses and HSR sensors. Their only purpose for flying above American cities is to spy on innocent Americans. Don't be mislead into the, "well if you are doing nothing wrong then....mentality." The U.S. Government and the United Nations want to spy on Americans to inflict fear and panic into the hearts and minds of men, women, and children. They want total control over us. And these drones are simply another means of achieving that end so much sooner. Remember Obama has control over the bill. If he signs - don't vote for him. Sign up with us at: www.americanjusticefederation.com. We need your support please.

and here everybody thought that it was the year 2012, but they were sadly mistaken. welcome to 1984!

LOL John, your delusional. They can't see that far, and as far as that goes satellites have for years been able to see what drones could see. A drone can get there faster though. As far as seeing in buildings, you can use thermals that can see inside a building on the ground much better then a drone could ever see, we used them in other countries for years. As far as being in the way of an actual airplane, a drone can fly for 16 hours depending on the drone. If a 737 hits it it wouldn't even make a bump. They lose signal all the time and go into standby /glide/ record mode. Wear your aluminum foil hats. I hear this blocks the government from reading your thoughts.... they have real life mind readers on the ground though.

I've gone "green" and use armadillo shells instead of tin foil. They also block 50% more government brain waves.

@bill-1260019

Maybe, besides the reference to George Orwell's Dystopian Government (in his 1949 novel, predicting government "controls" that would be "in place", in futuristic 1984), we also have the MAYAN CALENDAR to contend with:

Who knows? Maybe the ancient Mayans knew things that would happen, at (or by) the end of this year.... 2012 !

....

Spying on Americans in our own homes without need of a warrant is a change.

We were promised change and hope.

I hope we get some change in the fall

You WILL get some change this fall. You'll see President Obama defeat a different Republican candidate.

Hey wake up. Its Made in America.

I feel scared. I need a drone flying over my place. The neighbour might be peeing on the fence. I don't want that. Its enough with the dogs pee.

Sometimes out front of my place I am not sure if the turd is a from a person or dog. Soon enough I will be able to call homeland security on the hotline.

Hey wake up. Its Made in America.

I feel scared. I need a drone flying over my place. The neighbour might be peeing on the fence. I don't want that. Its enough with the dogs pee.

Sometimes out front of my place I am not sure if the turd is a from a person or dog. Soon enough I will be able to call homeland security on the hotline.

See post above on WASS. Then look at the capabilities of the retina scanners.

The Future Attribute Screening Technology--FAST--that I was talking about above is currently being testedin an 'undisclosed location' in the Northeast. It will scan a person as far as 50 feet away for changes in body temperature, respiration, heart rate, eye movement and other factors to determine if they are acting in a suspicious manner. Agents watching the scanners can then direct ground agents to arrest the person befoe they can commit an illegal act. Early tests utilizing DHS employees who were told to act a certain way indicated hat the machine was 70% accurate in detecting persons who were told to act suspiciously.

DHS is going to utilize FAST in airports to figure out who is nervous getting on a plane--the FAST system utilizes retina scanning, infrared, pulse and respiration monitor, so someone out of breath with pulse pounding and eyes shifting around rapidly is certainly about to commit a terrorist act. If you have a machine that tells you that someone will commit a crime, then you can arrest them and put them in jail before they commit that crime, which could serve to wipe out most obvious types of crime right away. FAST can be used on buses to predict which passengers will cause a disruption and transportation officers can meet the bus at the next stop, taking the potentially disruptive passenger away to jail; can be used to tell which businessman walking into a diplomatic session will be carrying a briefcase bomb. There will be no more chances for assassination plots like 'Operation Valkyrie' and of course no more 9-11, unless the terrorists are specifically trained to act normal and can control their breathing enough to appear calm and beat the scanner. After all, the scanner has 70% accuracy!

Also currently being tested are portable DNA scanners. Meant to be utilized at airports, it'll require that the person being tested open their mouth for an inside-the-cheek swab which will then be placed in a portable DNA analyzer and return results. Most of the initial results will be enrollment results but if the DNA submitted happens to be a match or partial match for someone on DHS's database who is, for instance, currently detained at Guantanamo Bay or currently detained as an illegal immigrant, that person can be detained as well. This is primarily for use on children coming through with parents, DNA analyzers will make sure the child is related to the parent and not being smuggled or trafficked in.

All of this raises my eyebrows. Does it raise yours?

Ok, so since they are already spying on you that makes it ok? Kiss your private ass goodbye!

And what happens when--not if, when, because with all the plane and other wireless signals beaming through the air, something's going to interrupt the remote control signal--one of those drones suffers a technical malfunction and crashes on someone's car? What if there's someone in the car when it gets hit? What happens if the person gets hurt?

Did Homeland Security think about all of this before they pushed it through?

The guys pushing this through are the same ones that ran two airliners into the towers........so they could push through the Patriot Act, create the Homeland Security, and start two wars. I doubt if they will be overlyconcerned if one of their drones drops on top of someone's car.

Welcome to the world of George Orwell's "1984" and Tom Cruise's "Minority Report". The potential for law enforcement to arrest people before they have committed a crime, just because some high-tech sensors and a computer algorithm says we MIGHT, is truly scary.

Never in the history of our country has a government program NOT exceeded its authority.

Never in the history of democracy has a government program declared it has fulfilled its mission and should be disbanded.

As to Josh's question, a cop car driving by your house can't see through the walls, can't tell the cops outside on the street which people are in which rooms and what it is that they are doing. The sensors on these drones (and most police helicopters, too) CAN. Unless you live in an underground bunker, the cops can watch you in your own house just like they were watching a TV show using these drones, often from hundreds of miles away. They are so quiet, they could be circling over your house right now......

Josh, it isn't that you can't understand, no one is that dense. What you don't want to understand is the you are forging your own chains.

NeighborOfTheBeast: Do you watch "Person of Interest?"

BAHAAAA BAHAAAA, and the sweet sound of the government calling their little flocks in. Come home little babies your daddy government will protect you. You people will just give everything away in the name of greed and power. Shame to have served this country and see where it's headed today. Time to say enough is enough, we really don't need the government to protect us. Fear mongering and most of the idiots will lap it up like a kitten at a milk bowl. Up hold the Constitution is what our leaders are supposed to be doing and more and more everyday they keep taking our rights away from us. SAY NO TO HLS, what a joke.

Go USA-851295

NeighborOfTheBeast: Do you watch "Person of Interest?"

Nope, never heard of it. I have been one, though.

I saw a Black-Ops chopper (...er, Vietnam-era word, for helicopter) circling low and slow, over my very-quiet, over-55 neighborhood, and--looking up--I reached out, to them, with my middle finger and gave them the bird: and, I grinned, broadly, while doing it, just in case they could "see" me, with their high-tech equipment.

Don't worry, they saw you.

Yeah. Okay. I'm paranoid. I'll be the first one to admit it.

Amanda...I think you need to switch to decaf. Perhaps they COULD do these ideas of yours, but they are frankly too incompetent to pull them off. This is the government for heavens sake.

I would be more afraid of Who's drones they were. I would bet there are plenty of terrorist's already here who are looking at drones also. Better get those Bunker's built, the future look's pretty scary to me. And aren't those little remote control planes that people fly for a hobby called drones??

LB:

I've lived in a place where I had no rights. I spent three years in a deportation camp where guards could watch me pee if they felt like it. Don't tell me the government couldn't strip you of your rights because I can tell you from firsthand knowledge that they can and they do.

Government isn't incompetent when it relates to protecting THEIR interests.

Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't really out to get you.

No they're not, everyone thinks the government seems not to have the ability too oversee alot of things. Truth be known, it's just like Osama. They themselves will not be providing the services so to speak. Our troops have the knowledge and will follow orders as they're given. I mean really they've already started training the regular police officers for urban warfare, called them swat. I'm just saying trained them all across the country, how many terrorist do we have here?

Start taking the power away from the government VOTE RON PAUL> than the rest of the bunch.

PARANOIA? Hmmmm !

...

You have a different "vision" of America (viz., the United States of America) than did our country's Founding Fathers!

It was Benjamin Franklin who cautioned about giving up liberty (or, liberties), in exchange for perceived "Safety". Franklin concluded that, in giving up some liberty, we would--in the end--have neither safety nor liberty.

Hitler made his country "safe": and, at what price?

He, Herr Adolf, even had the Waffen Schutz Staffeln--otherwise known as the SS--to spy on his own military personnel, in case there arose attempts to assassinate him; and, he had the Geheim Staats Polizei, which, when shortened and abbreviated, became the Ge-Sta-Po, or Gestapo: to control the populace and give them something to fear.

ODDLY, the "duty" of the Gestapo was to provide "Security": it's 21st-century equivalent being our very own Department of Homeland Security. (And, with its very own unique "shroud of secrecy", to veil it, our own modern-day nemesis is more similar to Hitler's "Secret National Police" than we could have ever imagined, or envisioned.)

...and rightfully so.

Tarzan7 loves his apostrophes, doesn't he? WoW!

The way I see it though, there's a live person sitting in the seat of that police helicopter ready to correct a course if it goes wrong, able to react and guide the helicopter to a landing in case of massive technical malfunction. My concern is that with these drones, if something interrupts the wireless signal and the drone crashes, there's no 'Miracle on the Hudson'. It comes down where it comes down and you'd better hope there's no person right there.

Amanda, where was this deportation camp? When did this happen? How did you get out?

In case of signal loss, they are programed to return home and land.

OMG...!!! Amanda.... "Deportation camps"...??? You do know... that criminals, and illegal aliens and people in different countries are treated different...! Are you conscious to the fact that you are in the United States...? Are you in the United States... or were you when you were in this deportation camp...?

Where in the U.S are there deportation camps that hold you and do what you say they can and do in fact do...to people who are documented American citizens...? Where...? Where are they...?

You are just a little more than just paranoid... or a lot less connected to reality than a person who knows nothing about anything ... which is it ...???

Tiredofhypocrites said:

Amanda, where was this deportation camp? When did this happen? How did you get out?

Deportation camp in Raymondville TX, human rights people call it 'Ritmo' because they say it looks and feels like Guantanamo Bay. I was eighteen. I was adopted, never told before my parents passed away, USCIS does a routine record review and finds they lost my adoption paper, comes to me for a copy, I know absoultely nothing, they decided I was illegal and scheduled me for deportation, then refused to let me go even when it became clear that there was nowhere for them to deport me to--since I don't have an original birth certificte saying where, when, or who I was born to, I was a 'stateless' infant. The country tthat my orphanage was in refused to recognize that I was a citizen of theirs so I was looking at spending the rest of my life in detention, 'stuck' because there was nowhere I could go. I finally got out 3 years later after writing letters to every courthouse in three states trying to find a record of my adoption filed somewhere.

AC said:

You do know... that criminals, and illegal aliens and people in different countries are treated different...!Are you conscious to the fact that you are in the United States...? Are you in the United States... or were you when you were in this deportation camp...?

Of course I know that. I spent a year in a New York prison before space opened up in the TX deportation camp. The prison was better than the deportation camp. So yes, I knew i was in the States.

AC said:

Where in the U.S are there deportation camps that hold you and do what you say they can and do in fact do...to people who are documented American citizens...? Where...? Where are they...?

They're all over. Mostly in the southern states because those are closer to the border. I've heard it isn't quite as bad in the government run deportation camps, that the privately run camps are worse, and that was the camp I was in--provately run by Corrections Corp of America (CCA).

As to 'documented'--according to ICE, I was an illegal. I prefer th term 'undocumented'. Most people don't like 'undocumented', they like 'illegal' but that doesn't describe me, or the others like me who were in there; we broke no laws. I had a legal DL (brand new, that I was proud of!) legal SS card, legally filed BC. For anyone unfamiliar with adoption procedings, once you are officially and legally adopted your adoptive parents file for a birth certificate for you that shows them as your parents. This is indistinguishable from a regular US birth certificate and serves as a legal form of ID for all official purposes. Having a legal BC with the adoptive parents names on it is proof that a legal adoption was filed somewhere. So even though USCIS found my adoption paper was missing from my file, the fact that I had a legal BC should have been proof that I had been legally adopted. It did not, for them, so even though I never EVER stopped thinking of myself as American, the government told me I couldn't call myself one because they lost a piece of paper.

I was assigned underwear that still had blood from another woman's period crusted on it because they hadn't washed it before assigning it to me. On many occasions eating utensils were not given. fod was served crawling with maggots and we were told to wait till the next day because there wasn't enough in the budget to prepare 2 dinners for 1500 people. There were 60 people to one tent (they called them pods) 5 toilets for those 60 people, no partitions or walls separating the toilets from each other or the living space, lights were NEVER turned off so it was hard to get sleep, body cavity searches and strip searches were conducted by whichever guard happened to be there at the moment--we don't have the right to ask for a female guard to do the body cavity searches. The guards weren't gentle either--a lot of uswere left bleeding after one of these searches.

AC said:

You are just a little more than just paranoid... or a lot less connected to reality than a person who knows nothing about anything ... which is it ...???

I know what it is like to live in a place with no rights. As many people don't. I never intended to talk about my expereiences, ever, but when I saw the NDAA's provisions on 'indefinite detention without trial or charge' I felt I had to tell people what true loss of rights is like. If people aren't made aware of what our government is doing in secret, you, like every other American citizen Homeland Security has declared 'illegal' are going to find yourselves going through what I went through.

Hope everyone gets a good picture of this new beast of private prisons being created by inflaming public opinion over illegal immigration, then pushing through laws with skillful highly paid lobbyists, and opening their pockets to receive our taxpayer dollars. Also hope everyone noticed that "profit" seemed to be the bottom line since they "couldn't afford in their budget" eating utensils, laundry services, or proper food. Also hope everyone noticed the release of sexually twisted thugs upon a female population.

Those who are professionals at inflaming public opinion could probably move this whole scene a little closer to Auschwitz very easily if they were allowed to. We should have never let them get this far. Everyone should become aware of the 800 "internment camps" built by Halliburton behind the smoke screen of "homeland security". Jesse Ventura on his site explores that subject in detail.

@Amanda, When did this happen, and have you and others filed a redress for past wrongs?

Plotinus:

We were illegals. Illegals don't have rights. We don't have human rights and we don't have civil rights.We don't exist. We aren't human. Who cares if a guard gets his rocks off fondling and groping an illegal; it's fine as long as they aren't doing it to a US citizen.

Acosmet:

ICE and its agents are indemnified against lawsuits because they are acting in the interests of national security. It was also made quite clear to me when I signed the release papers that if my name comes up in front of ICE/Homeland Security again for any reason they can revoke my naturalization and still deport me anyway. That's why when 'illegals' like me are lucky enough to get out, we don't talk. We stay silent. The US as a whole hats 'us illegals' enough, no one's going to listen.

Amanda,

I guess you realize that had these conditions existed in a real prison with real criminals we would have been reading about troops having to take over after the inmates rioted and burned it down.

Amanda-2017567

"The way I see it though, there's a live person sitting in the seat of that police helicopter ready to correct a course if it goes wrong, able to react and guide the helicopter to a landing in case of massive technical malfunction. My concern is that with these drones, if something interrupts the wireless signal and the drone crashes, there's no 'Miracle on the Hudson'. It comes down where it comes down and you'd better hope there's no person right there."

I am assuming you are guessing more than basing your opinion on fact. There are multiple redundancies built in to these systems. Although failures do occur, it does not happen often. The type of Small Unmanned Air Vehicle (SUAV)I am referring to, of those, the largest weighs in about 6 pounds. Amanda What is your worry?

@Amanda; You might want to read this article if you haven't yet.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/21/justice/us-detainees-assault-suit/index.html

(CNN) -- A class-action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of three immigrant women who were allegedly sexually assaulted while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Texas, the American Civil Liberties Union said this week.

Amanda, thank you for sharing what must have been a horrific experience for you. I hope you used an alias and a proxy server to give yourself a little buffer between yourself and the intelligencia. I'd hate for you to get "black bagged" and disappear for being a whistleblower. It just goes to show how far down the rabbit hole we have gone in the name of "national security" since 9/11. If those 19 terrorists had been properly screened by ICE, and all the warning signs not ignored by the FBI, the world would be a much different place today.

I guess since the intelligence agencies don't have a Cold War to fight anymore, they gotta turn their all-seeing eyes inward and persecute/spy on American citizens. How much longer before Eric Holder comes after our guns, using his "Fast & Furious" debacle to attack the Second Amendment? Maybe even stage a new "terrorist action" so that Obama can declare martial law and suspend the Constitution itself. I wouldn't put it past either one of 'em.

Hey...where did you get your flying car? I've been wanting one for years since the Jetsons. Figured we'd have one easily by 2012.

You can buy one right now, all you need is about four million bucks. And a pilot's license. And an FAA-approved flight plan.

Here's hoping you won't run into some local cop's Predator drone while you're up there.

http://www.terrafugia.com/

About $250,000. Should start shipping sometime this year, maybe.

These are all measures and technology developed to keep us safe and prevent terorists from striking again. Homeland Securityis now looking at internal terrorists as well as external ones; cults/communes in remote places that could be stockpiling food and weapons, enclaves of skinheads, neonazis, and ethnic extremists of all kinds; militias and anti-technology extremists (those who don't use electricity or any kind of technology) DNA samples, a retina scan and fingerprints will be required for anyone planning to leave the country via airport or border stop at the Mexican or Canadian border, retina scanners can be incorporated on the cameras already placed on buses and trains.

They are all designed to keep us safe so another 9-11 will never happen.

They are all designed to keep us safe so another 9-11 will never happen.

Not possible. There is simply no way to predict the lone wolf terrorist. No matter how sophisticated a system is designed to be, chaos and randomness always enters the picture.

All of what you are talking about is fear predicated attempts at total control which in the end is always a complete illusion and failure. Ask any regime or civilization that fell before this one.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be concerned about the control freaks trying to take over the culture with the techno fantasies...we should. The drones are a horrible idea.

The UAVs are a potential money saver for law enforcement, gov't agencies, and some
day even the TV traffic eye in the sky. However the will be problems with air traffic, resistance
from small aircraft private pilots and commercial pilots will be great. More
time is needed for UAVs to be accepted, their future should be excellent. We need
to keep an open mind. Jay Stenda

@Jay Stenda

Neville Chamberlain, in Great Britain, had your same thinking; he said, essentially, the following: "We should keep an open mind, about this fellow Hitler":

and, then Chamberlain was given the boot, and Churchill took the "reins". And, the rest is history.

@ Nataliya S

In reality, Churchill, had the "open mind/perspective", Chamberlain was passing out blinders. We cannot be deceived by phrases individuals or PACs will use (i.e. political ads) for their agenda. It’s being able to see thru the fog.

Culheath:

Sorry. My subtle sarcasm was a little too subtle.

Hey Amanda... do you spend the other 99% of your time eating cheese sandwiches while you sit searching YouTube for the latest sightings of Bigfoot... and flying saucer sightings...?

How many hours a day are you allowed to be out of your straight jacket...?

Just curious...

I'm gainfully employed, thank you, and my boss values my skills quite highly. I'm not even going to bother with the rest of your rant-- the rules on here are to discuss the issues, not engage in personal attacks, and I don't have to explain anything to you...or give you details of my personal life.

AC - you are an ass, Amanda has a story that should scare you to death. Those very things can and may happen to you as well.

TSA is already operating at your local Wal-Mart. What are they looking for?

There is an evil wind blowing in America and it is evident in the xenophobic rants of the rednecks on the internet and in the snide remarks of posers like you that are pretending to be so skeptical that others will think Amanda’s story is ridicules.

The truth is that more and more people every day are learning the truth and the fear of our Government is growing daily. What is most worrisome is that the Governments fear of the citizens is growing every day and their paranoia is what will eliminate the freedoms and rights we are supposed to enjoy in America.

We are like the proverbial frog in the bird-bath (or, "birdbath", alternately):

We find ourselves in nice, warm, comfortable water (in that bath for birds). The sun rises, ever-so-slowly, yet assuredly, in the sky; the water heats up, gradually; and, we become very, very relaxed...and SAFE & SECURE: just like how that frog feels, in that water.

Almost imperceptibly, though, the frog's muscles are now so relaxed that he/she cannot respond to the growing danger: the danger of getting heated up too much, on the inside.

The frog can't instinctively leap out, now: and, he/she is soon "cooked".

To be certain, "his goose is cooked!"

So well said and so true Watchingfrogsboil.

Scary sh*t at the highest level.

Congratulations America , we earned it !!!

@watchingfrogsboil

Well, interestingly, I just posted the frog-in-the-birdbath "parable", before I read your post, here.

And, "postscript": frogs don't even have to "boil", in order for us to say "their goose is cooked".

And, in allegorical fashion: the boiling frog is us.

Welcome to your new and improved life - in the "goldfish bowl" !!

You'll be reassured and comforted by "big brother" that it's all for your very best interests.

After all:

• surely you agree that your very own "big brother" knows what's best for you,
• surely you know that your very own "big brother" would never, never, never do anything to hurt you,
• surely you believe that your very own "big brother" is incapable of lying to you and has never, never, never done so in the past,
• what?? You don't believe your very own "big brother"? - shame on you, you ungrateful little prick!!

Yes, you can. Both Bush and the Republicans are now what they call "progressives". But you can also thank Obama and all of the current congressional democrats that pushed this particular measure through. If you don't like losing all of your constitutional rights, get involved in politics, start pushing for the constitution, and become a conservative or tea party member. Remember that currently neither major political party is for constitutional government, although that's even more true of the democrats than the republicans. If you don't, get ready for Communist states of America.

Stupid comment.

Might sound stupid but, not to far off of the truth. People are not standing up for their rights anymore and can care less until it affects them directly.

This started long before Bush. The "UN patriotic act" wasn't written after 9/11 like so many sheeple in this country believe but in the mid to late 90's.

Now our 'gubernment' can detain its own citizens indefinitely without charge.

Police state is imminent ...........

Bill of rights ? We don't need no stinking bill of rights !

It, likely, will happen fairly soon! If the captain of the Costa Concordia had not overridden the computer so he could show off, most of us would have never heard of the ship. Most commercial and military aircraft can, if needed, pretty much fly themselves. In many ways, computers are better than human pilots. They can accept many more inputs than a human; they don't get tired; they don't sleep; and they don't have personal issues.

But they are affected by electronic failure, electromagnetic interference and hacking (whether already airborne or surreptitiously hardwired into the motherboards).

I see it all as just another step forward in the militarization of domestic police forces and diminution of privacy and civil rights. To me that is far more worrisome than concern about air traffic control. We should not be taking this lightly.

But they are affected by electronic failure, electromagnetic interference and hacking (whether already airborne or surreptitiously hardwired into the motherboards).

Not to mention Mother Nature's effects on components. Such as Pitot tubes (some faulty/poorly designed) in the case of at least 6 disasters or even birds sucked into engines.

I work in IT and if I had a choice between IBM's Watson and Sully Sullenberger(before retirement) at the controls, I'd probably go with Sully.

I work in tech and IT and couldn't agree more.

The problem is, we don't always get Sully. As a surgeon friend once told me, "you need to remember, 50% of the doctors out there graduated in the lower half of their class!" The same holds true for pilots. Computers don't shut themselves off so they can swing close to an island so they can blow their horn and wave at people. Computers also don't get into playing video games so much so that they miss the airport or have a few drinks before a flight.

Before anyone thinks I am slamming pilots, I am not. My father was a pilot. He started out flying Hellcats off of light carriers during WWII and flew the rest of his life. A vast majority of pilots, commercial and military anyway, are very professional, very safe and very sober, but there are a few who aren't and those are the ones we end up reading about after a crash.

Doug, it's funny you should mention pitot tubes. It looks like the Air France flight from Rio to Paris, that crashed back in 2009, was caused due to poorly engineered pitot tubes. There were several pilots in to cockpit of that plane, yet they still ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic.

Believe me, I am not lobbying to have pilots removed from planes any time soon, but just think how many crashes we hear about that, after investigation, turn out to be pilot error. No system is completely fool proof and, thanks to modern technology we can build in a lot of redundancy.

culheath, I have worked in tech and IT for some time myself. I still remember when we were required to back up everything we did on the computer, with paper, because folks were so afraid that electronic media (at that time mostly 5.25" floppies) could be easily lost. I do believe that many of us, even those my age, will live to see pilotless cockpits.

If they are in my air space they are a target.

From Niven's "Cloak of Anarchy"\":

"Someone at police headquarters had expected that. Twice the usual number of copseyes floated overhead, waiting. Gold dots against blue, basketball-sized, twelve feet up. Each a television eye and a sonic stunner, each a hookup to police headquarters, they were there to enforce the law of the Park."

I think you'll need something more substantial than 12 guage buckshot for these birds.

A 50 cal. might be enough, and there are still some old 4 guage duck guns around.

Speaking of funding .... Where is this $63.4 billion dollars coming from ? The U.S.A. is beyond being in debt. Are we going to borrow the money from China again ? I can think of much better use for this money than toy planes.

Last I heard, only 40-50% of President Obama's $787 billion Stimulus Bill's spending has been accounted for.

Jeffrey:

Homeland Security's budget started at $49 million in 2001 when they were formed. In 2010, only 9 years later, their budget swelled to $89 billion. 187 government agencies are now using security tracking software developed by or with DHS funding, or are partially or completely controlled/funded by DHS under that $89 billion umbrella.

@Amanda;

A little light on the subject,

DHS also constitutes the most diverse merger of federal functions and responsibilities, incorporating 22 government agencies into a single organization. (Wikipedia)

Opening with a budget of $42.4 billion in FY 2003, the Department of Homeland Security's funding has been growing modestly since then. These increases have been appropriate given the resources required to bring a new department up to speed, including personnel, infrastructure (including a new headquarters facility), and other critical investments. This growth has remained relatively constant in the transition from the Bush Administration to the Obama Administration, with the FY 2010 budget request, the Obama Administration's first, coming in at $55.1 billion, an increase of 5 percent from the FY 2009 budget. (Heritage Foundation)

The components with the highest net cost were US Coast Guard ($12.1 billion), U.S. Customs and Border Protection ($11.6 billion), and Federal Emergency Management Agency ($10.5 billion). (Wikipedia)

The proposed Department of Homeland Security budget (2012) of $43.2billion amounts to a slight increase of .7 percent, or $309 million over net discretionary funding levels enacted in 2010. The budget request for total funding is $57 billion, which includes all fees and other income. (Washington Post)

acosmet:

Thank you for the corrections. I'll remember that. I've seen a lot of different figures for DHS's budget; at this point it's hard to know which ones are accurate and which ones are slanted.

Homeland Security might be 22 government agencies in single organization, but they are involved in joint operations (with joint funding)with organizations as diverse as the National Guard, US SouthCom and US NorthCom. NASA is reportedly using cybersecurity tracking software developed by Homeland Security, as are numerous other agencies.

From Wikipedia:

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a cabinet department of the United States federal government, created in response to the September 11 attacks, and with the primary responsibilities of protecting the territory of the United States and protectorates^[vague] from and responding to terrorist attacks, man-made accidents, and natural disasters. In fiscal year 2011 it was allocated a budget of $98.8 billion and spent, net, $66.4 billion.

@Amanda

man-made accidents, and natural disasters

I don't know how much of the following cost (35 billion) came out of DHS budget, but I would guess the a lot of it did. If that additional allocation was added to the budget, it "maybe" because that's what FEMA & DHS presumed it needed for disaster relief. I'm not sure it was all used for disaster relief, but it could be tracked down. A good project for some investigative journalist.

nine events (disasters) have produced over $35 billion in damages, and the numbers are expected to increase. Some estimates suggest that 2011 will be the costliest year recorded since 1980 (earthsky.org)

The budget request for total funding is $57 billion, which includes all fees and other income, and spent, net, $66.4 billion. Approx. 9.4 billion extra.

The extra $ might be a, use it or lost situation, but “I think” that policy was stopped! And it’s supposed to be returned.

Never trust the Government to work within the safeguards. They always break them.