infobong.com

Here's a little follow-up to yesterday's post on the arrest of hundreds of Muslims in LA on immigration charges. Through BoingBoing, I found a post by a British blogger in the US who has taken photographs and commented on the torrent of paperwork needed to maintain his visa. He says that his paperwork has been sent back twice by the INS for trivial errors. The instructions are so poor, he says, everyone makes errors, and, presumably, everyone could go to jail for simple mistakes. But Arabs and Persians are the first to be detained. Along with the African-Americans on death row, they're treated to a kind of affirmative action Trent Lott has always believed in.
These are certainly strange times. Its easy to forget the Afghan detainees sitting in cages in Guantanamo Bay with no idea if they'll be tried at all or the US citizens held without being charged with a crime. They might have scotched Operation TIPS, but Total Information Awareness is still going, even if they got rid of the Illuminati logo. And the Homeland Security Bill eliminated whistle-blower protections for employees of the department, so employees speak up when the government does something illegal or immoral, they can legally be fired and harrassed. This is a great little exemption for a department that includes the INS, the Coast Guard, and the Customs Service. I feel very overwhelmed and helpless by all of these changes, which I believe are limiting our freedoms as individuals and giving immense power to people who do not represent the best interests of Americans.