Justin Raimondo on the TIPS program:
"A million spies reporting on their fellow Americans – and that's just the beginning! The nation's busybodies are going to have a field day; every crackpot in the country is going to flock to this program, like flies to fecal matter, eager to get in on the fun. Why, just think of the opportunities it affords the nation's nutballs: everyone they ever hated (ex-girlfriends, ex-husbands, ex-friends, and just random victims) will feel their wrath, and their power. It's a blank check issued to America's obsessives, who are going to do their best to make life miserable for the rest of us."
Scary Stuff. Justin's work is always an entertaining and eye-opening read, his support of nut-job Pat Buchanan aside.
Brian Doherty giving the Reason take on the issue:
"These TIPS soldiers have been given the mission to go where the police can’t necessarily go, see what the police can’t necessarily see, and then report findings to the Justice Department, which will maintain a database of tips. It remains to be seen whether this will save the country from attack, or simply bury bureaucrats in thousands of vague, frightened, meaningless reports that sully the reputations of the innocent. But we have already seen the effects of creating a system of omnipresent government informants who treat all fellow citizens as potential enemies. It used to be called “living behind the Iron Curtain.”
As he said in his opening comment, "they aren’t even trying to pretend anymore."