Ted Rall for January 03, 2011

Uh, Dave? Who is Dave?

Dave’s not here, man.

^”Open the door! I’m Dave! Lemme IN!” (old Cheech&Chong skit, for the uninitiated…)

There’s nothing like law enforcement agencies tirelessly hunting down increased power and a perpetual mission. It’s kind of like the War on Drugs.

Dave’s another undercover cop recognized by another undercover cop. Thanks T.Rall – it had to be said, and you had the guts to say it. .

Yeah, mattro, like the “war on crime”…just a manmade, never-ending boondoggle to make money at the public trough. Law enforcement has been fighting crime for centuries with no end in sight!

“How’s the misses?”

I would like to know who makes up this ‘far right conservative’ media? Have never heard of them.

Finding a “real” terrorist to catch is extremely difficult. So, let’s just create one using entrapment. We’ll be heroes right after we set this building on fire. I’m not impressed when undercover agents arrest some punk kid who they talked into driving a car bomb.

America has been lucky so far in that all the terrorists getting caught have failed in their mission only because they are idiots. Undercover agents don’t make me feel a whole lot safer, but the awakened eyes of my fellow Americans does.

I hope these different law enforcement agencies get their act together and start communicating with each other before another 911 terrorist slips through their fingers.

While there have been “cops” willing to ignore the Constitution for some time, they’ve been a minority. With “Homeland Insecurity” stepping into more arenas, and too many movies and TV shows glorifying those who violate rights, making it “right”– like warrantless searches, and BUILDING THE BOMB FOR THE DUDE!!!– I do have to wonder what is going on.

Nailing the bad guys CAN BE DONE while protecting all our rights– we are supposed to reject the “KGB tactics”, not praise them. In viable interrogations, torture actually doesn’t work as well as other techniques. In setting up a dude/dudette for a sting, warrants and proper procedures CAN be followed.

People only get concerned when “law enforcement” steps over the line, if THEY are the one hanging at the end of the rope. That isn’t the way “we do it” here.

Imagine if Nazi Germany (at the time the world’s most technologically advanced state) had the technology available to it that the USA has developed in the intervening 70 years. When Palinism (or whatever) achieves full power, we’re in for a horror that will make the 1930s look like a Sunday school picnic.

Reminds me of “The Man Who was Thursday” by Chesterton.

well said mattro53