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Tennessee Official: Water Complaints Could be "Act of Terrorism"
An anonymous reader writes "A Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation deputy director is threatening citizens with being listed as terrorists for giving official complaints. Sherwin Smith, deputy director of TDEC’s Division of Water Resources said: 'But you need to make sure that when you make water quality complaints you have a basis, because federally, if there's no water quality issues, that can be considered under Homeland Security an act of terrorism.' 'In terms of the comments made by a member of the Water Resources Division at the meeting, we are just receiving the information and looking into this on our end,' spokeswoman Meg Lockhart said. 'The department would like to fully assess what was said in the meeting. I am told that the meeting was far longer than the audio clip provided by SOCM and that Mr. Smith actually clarified his remarks. But again, we are looking into it.'"
Welcome to the new McCarthyism. Any time you do anything "they" don't like, you're a ter'ist...
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
yet every time I think officialdom can't get any more stupid, they go and prove me wrong... again!
They dont want you dead, just obedient, subservient, docile and blindly supporting them. How can you make them richer & more powerful if you're dead?
I am a free slashdotter. I will not be modded, blogged, DRM'd, patented, podcasted or RFID'd. My life is my own.
Sherwin Smith should be fired immediately. If I threatened my customers, my boss would rightfully fire me on the spot.
This is no doubt the sort of horrifying terrorist plot the NSA telephone surveillance program has been so successful foiling. Thank good we has such dedicated protectors to save us from the terrorists.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
The government's number one tool in the fight against terrorism.
I hate to say it, but by definition, the only way for terrorism to work is for people to be terrified.
If the People would grow a backbone again, and stop being terrified, no matter if it's salafi jihadists or government propagandists who are attempting the scaring, then there could be no terrorism. War's over, let's pack up and go home.
A skiddish populous is the #1 tool in the effort that has been misnamed the "War on Terror".
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Better to live a single day as a lion than a thousand years as a lamb.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I don't know. I think Terry Gilliam was very close to making this shit up when he wrote the script for Brazil.
Any civil servant threatening terrorism charges for complaints from the public should be immediately fired. He/she does not have the public interest at heart.
listed as terrorists for giving unfounded official complaints
Fine even if that is the case we have other laws that cover things like that. "Making false reports", "libel", and "slander", would be some potential examples. These laws carry with them what most people consider to be appropriate penalties and restitution requirements. Slapping the term "terrorist' on everyone who steps even slightly out line has all sorts of negative consequences.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
The easiest way to always have terrorists is to create them.
Why? I've read a lot of articles here on slashdot over the past years about the US accusing China for snooping.
Isn't it fair when it's exposed that the US does the same on an even larger scale, for China to mention this hypocrisy?
c++;
When you put it that way... actually, living like a lamb doesn't sound like such a bad idea on the surface. Sounds like a nice, calm, peaceful existence. Whereas living like a lion sounds like every day would be a struggle to survive.
I get what you were trying to say, but there's got to be a better way to say it.
In other news Orson Welles is retroactively found guilty of terrorism by a secret government court.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
And this is why we should fear how much the government should be allowed to intrude into our lives. Because who knows what sort of low-level bitter bureaucrat may just take a disliking to you, and end up abusing government powers.
Higher Logics: where programming meets science.
Given what you say, it's the government that are the terrorists.
The government is the entity that decided that the people were afraid. The governments actions have caused me to be afraid...of the government.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
We can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
You know when fluoridation first began?
Nineteen hundred and forty-six. 1946. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Not a chance that'll happen. In America, we like bullies, and we make fun of people who are their victims. Just look at what happens every time a bullying incidents develops to the point that some poor kid kills him/herself. Americans worship assholes. We might say a few nice-sounding words against bullies once in a while, but we'll never do anything to actually fix the problem, nor will we ever hold bullies accountable for their behavior.
It's just like how we worship sociopathic business owners, and defend thier unethical and even dangerous behavior, and anyone who complains about them is blackballed in the industry. Whistleblowers (for instance, people who go to the government to stop a business owner whose practices will get someone killed through negligence) are seen as "rats", and will never get another job.
Nah if its like the rest of the south they'll be locked up in a shithole of a county jail, with wires hanging down and shit falling apart, but it cost the taxpayers millions thanks to good old boy politics, aka massive corruption.
Sadly the whole south is full of little fiefdoms that are corrupt as hell. I had a bud that flew drug interdiction for the USAF and they used to have jokes like "Why does the sheriff of (insert county) bust so many meth labs? because he doesn't want the competition!" rimshot. The feds know this but they know if they were to bust all of the corrupt cops you would end up having to use the National Guard because in a lot of these places you wouldn't have enough cops left to maintain the peace. My USAF friend said ANY fed could find out if a local police force was corrupt by just 30 minutes of looking at the land deeds, why? You'll find tons of pine forests owned by the cops or close relatives of the cops...because pine trees put out enough heat to foil their infrared scans.
I have lived my entire life in the south and one thing you learn, if you get on "the right side" of the local politicians and cops? You have nothing to worry about ever. You try stepping on their toes, rocking the boat? they can turn your world into shit REAL quick, you'd be surprised how many laws are on the books in your average state they can use against you.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
A thousand years of abject terror.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
Nothing new here, Alcohol prohibition was enforced by police against the cop's competitors 'way back when my grandfather's uncle got his still smashed in the 1920s. The funniest thing to me is that most small town residents that I've known think that there's no official corruption in their community, that it's just a problem for the 'big cities'.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin