The latest bit of lunacy floating around the winger tubes is that Obama plans to use the scheduled nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System as an excuse to seize dictatorial powers. (h/t to PFAW's Right Wing Watch)
Earlier today, Janet Porter used her daily news alert to warn about the supposed danger this test poses to our freedom.
Next Wednesday, the federal government will be testing a new emergency system. It will be different in at least three ways: (1) its nationwide, (2) it may last as long as three-and-a-half minutes, and (3) the feds will actually take temporary control of all the airwaves.
If they can take control of radio, TV, cable, and satellite systems for this, what’s to prevent them from doing it in whole or in part whenever they want. It’s another expansion of the government into our everyday lives.
Hmmm--did anyone bother to tell Porter that some form of emergency national communications system has been around since 1951?
This comes on the heels of a similar warning by Bryan Fischer last week. To my mind, this is on the same level as black helicopter rhetoric.
Apparently this latest hand-wringing originated in a column by Renew America's Sher Zheve. She warned that the test is "the final phase of Obama's testing of his ability to seize communications in the USA at will." It probably would have stayed on the fringe of the fringe if Fischer and Porter hadn't picked it up.
And yet, some of these people got on us for not wanting better preparation in the event of a terrorist attack? The mind reels.