Smokescreens

I have found the NPR blog Planet Money to be a wonderful resource to learn more about our current financial crisis. They had a bit today that captured my feelings toward the US government's actions over the last few years exactly.

The blog post was about actions in Argentina to nationalize pensions. In the post Simon Johnson was quoted as saying:

Untrustworthy governments can use the crisis as a smokescreen for destructive, self-serving policies that wouldn't normally fly.

This expresses my opinion wonderfully. In my opinion the reaction to 9/11, the recent Iraq conflict, the war in Afghanistan, the bailout and economic crisis are all examples of government declared crises used as smokescreens to strip American citizens of their rights and placing an even larger burden on their future.

I will stop here, as I easily get worked up over these things. Anyone that feels similarly I recommend you check out the downsizedc.org campaign "I am not afraid." Downsizedc.org is an effort to contact your federal representatives on a number of different issues all focused on decreasing the influences of the US federal government.