Tennessee Official: Water Complaints Could be "Act of Terrorism" 407
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.'"
Re:Scare tactics (Score:5, Informative)
7-pool is better than a 6-pool, but if they wall off before your zerglings get there, you're toast. Roach timings are better, especially if the Terran goes early expand.
Re:This has to end.. (Score:5, Informative)
Umm.
No, they were unfounded.
The 'documents' you're referring to are the venona intercepts.
You can read them here. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/intercepts.html [pbs.org]
It had nothing to do with undermining the entire U.S. Government as McCarthy was paranoid about.
It was about Our government trying to find soviet spys who were only here for one thing. To get information on the atomic bomb.
If you actually knew the history of the time, there was a short period where the united states was the only actor to have nuclear weaponry and everyone wanted it.
Re:This has to end.. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This has to end.. (Score:5, Informative)
The purpose of the Federal Government is to guarantee and secure our freedom and rights. Of course this asshole and most others in the Fed have lost sight of this.
Let me see if I've got this straight. Other people and the government (which is apparently a different thang than 'other people') are the ones who are supposed to protect each and every one of us against other people and the government taking away our rights?
There's a reason I think the term 'rights' is pretty much just philosophic bullshit.
Pretend you're an analyst trying to define the requirement of rights for a society. Splain how that would work.
Re:Scare tactics (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Fire Sherwin Smith immediately (Score:4, Informative)
Sherwin Smith should be fired immediately.
And did you notice? Just before that quote, Sherwin Smith had said that all the people who originally complained had backed down once he gave them a phone call, so they didn't have to do any water testing. In light of the terrorist comment, it's now obvious what he told them to make them back down.
This guy shouldn't just be fired. He should be put on leave on absence and he should be investigated for possible criminal negligence. And all the complaints he received should be re-investigated by an impartial third party.
If someone, that had formally complained, now dies because this guy didn't want to test the water, it will be his head and the heads of any of his superiors that support him, that will roll because of their willful negligence.
Re:Scare tactics (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Scare tactics (Score:2, Informative)
There have been other attacks of course, but this has been the deadliest, and most famous against the United States.
2001 9/11 attacks [telegraph.co.uk] - 2,973 dead. Two skyscraper towers destroyed, heavy damage to Pentagon.
Estimated damage to US economy: ~ $100,000,000,000.
Attacks against the US embassies in Africa is another example.
1998 Bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya [nytimes.com] - 224 dead, est. 4,000 injured, both embassies heavily damaged
It's true that more than a thousand U.S. citizens have died in Afghanistan, but that's the result of a misguided and disproportionate "action against terrorists" rather than of doing nothing.
The campaign by the US, NATO, and other allies in Afghanistan is neither misguided nor disproportionate.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)