Americans rising up against government: Column

Glenn Harlan Reynolds 5:36 p.m. EST February 23, 2014

Three examples of pushback against the ruling class.

America's ruling class has been experiencing more pushback than usual lately. It just might be a harbinger of things to come.

First, in response to widespread protests last week, the Department of Homeland Security canceled plans to build a nationwide license plate database. Many local police departments already use license-plate readers that track every car as it passes traffic signals or pole-mounted cameras. Specially equipped police cars even track cars parked on the street or even in driveways.

The DHS put out a bid request for a system that would have gone national, letting the federal government track millions of people's comings and goings just as it tracks data about every phone call we make. But the proposal was suddenly withdrawn last week, with the unconvincing explanation that it was all a mistake. I'm inclined to agree with TechDirt's Tim Cushing, who wrote: "The most plausible explanation is that someone up top at the DHS or ICE suddenly realized that publicly calling for bids on a nationwide surveillance system while nationwide surveillance systems are being hotly debated was ... a horrible idea."

On Friday, after more public outrage, the Federal Communications Commission withdrew a plan to "monitor" news coverage at not only broadcast stations, but also at print publications that the FCC has no authority to regulate. The "Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs," or CIN (pronounced "sin") involved the FCC sending people to question reporters and editors about why they chose to run particular stories. Many folks in and out of the media found it Orwellian.

How this program appeared was, like the DHS program, a bit of a mystery: FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said: "This has never been put to an FCC vote; it was just announced." But the blowback was sufficient to stop it for now.

Read more:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/20...column/5759933/

Quote: ThirstyMan wrote in post #2

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My guess [and hope] is that the people have had ENOUGH of this Lefty crap and are pulling back from the extreme Left's agenda.

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Zitat

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............... for now .......

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Those are the key words. The ruling class have been a patient lot. If they have to pull back a little they will. But they are also a power hungry lot who will not give up.

The FCC pulling back on monitoring news coverage just postpones codifying what the MSM is already doing.

The fact Americans have accepted being molested or irradiated to fly, that they have accepted local police tracking license plates shows how much progress the left has made.