Drones cleared for domestic use across the United States

[Cali_Democrat]

Drones cleared for domestic use across the US
Published: 29 November, 2011, 21:47

What do you know about drones? You know drones — those robotic, unmanned planes that fire missiles for the American military across Afghanistan, Pakistan and anywhere else the United States needs to get away with murder.

Well if you don’t know too much, don’t worry, that’ll change soon. The Federal Aviation Administration is looking into rules that will bring the controversial aircraft into the country, creating an United States airspace buzzing with tiny, robot planes to look over every inch of American soil — and maybe more.

An article published Tuesday in the Los Angeles Times reveals that new drone planes could be coming domestically quite soon, as both law enforcement and the agricultural sector are seeing benefits in keeping an arsenal of unmanned planes ready to patrol the skies. For farmers, drones could bring a new method of pumping pesticides into fields of crops from above; for the cops, the aircraft could conduct surveillance over suspected criminals (think police chopper but remote controlled). The Times reports that utility companies see a benefit in drones as well, giving them a new set of eyes to monitor oil, gas and water pipelines.

But with missile-equipped drones causing thousands of deaths overseas, the installation of a drone program stateside could be detrimental to America as the government all but deems the country fit as a warfront.

Read more: http://rt.com/usa/news/us-drones-border-patrol-489/

[Vanje]

1. Pull!!!!

[Webster Green]

9. Totally.

:thumbsup:

[Cali_Democrat]

11. It won't be long before drones are considered people, similar to corporations

and the people who shoot them will be charged with serious crimes.

[lonestarnot]

61. Without a doubt!

[mmonk]

26. +1

[guitar man]

32. +1000

exactly :spray:

[DainBramaged]

36. Yep

All the gun fanatic now have a reason to fire away.......and Obama has given them fodder, this is just so fucking stupid.

[Soylent Brice]

56. YES.

THIS.

[Wilms]

2. n/t

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_i6Z7MA-Gi_U/S60AON0bICI/AAAAAAAAAQY/Xy6NFe1Lr5A/s1600/obama+drone.jpg

[SammyWinstonJack]

28. More and more.....not a fan.

x( Who does he serve? Who does he protect?

[Better Believe It]

38. Uncle Sam is watching you. Be careful about what you say or do.

[woo me with science]

3. A police department outside Houston already has one that is capable of carrying weapons.

I don't recognize my country.

[awoke_in_2003]

47. "I don't recognize my country"...

you and me both. I remember reading "1984" right around the 1984 time frame- never believed we could get there. But inch by inch, ever so slowly, that is where we are heading. I really want to take my iMac apart and desolder the camera from the motherboard- how hard would it be for the NSA to slip a virus onto the net to affect all camera equipped computers? It would be a piece of cake to right a little script to turn the camera on while keeping the indication light off.

[Zebedeo]

55. Duct tape

Or electrical tape over the camera will do the trick much more easily than desoldering the camera. Plus, you can remove the tape when you want to use the camera. :)

[awoke_in_2003]

59. True...

wonder what to do with the microphone, though? If an external one disables the internal one, I could hook one up and run it outside.

[Edweird]

4. Hopetastic changealiciousnous!

[struggle4progress]

5. Civilian use of unmanned drones awaits federal OK

W.J. HENNIGAN; Los Angeles Times
Published: 11/29/11 12:05 am

LOS ANGELES – ... Police agencies want drones for air support to spot runaway criminals. Utility companies believe they can help monitor oil, gas and water pipelines. Farmers think drones could aid in spraying their crops with pesticides.

“It’s going to happen,” said Dan Elwell, vice president of civil aviation at the Aerospace Industries Association. “Now it’s about figuring out how to safely assimilate the technology into national airspace.”

That’s the job of the Federal Aviation Administration, which plans to propose new rules for the use of small drones in January, a first step toward integration.

The agency has issued 266 active testing permits for civilian drone applications but hasn’t permitted drones in national airspace on a wide scale out of concern that the pilotless craft don’t have an adequate “detect, sense and avoid” technology to prevent midair collisions ...

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/11/29/1924914/civilian-use-of-unmanned-drones.html

So if you're interested in this topic, start watching the Federal Register for a proposed rule-making by the FAA on the topic and get ready to submit your comments to the agency

[Enrique]

6. can they carry pepper spray?

:bounce:

[DJ13]

8. Thats boring, how about a drone equipped with a Taser

Taser Flying Saucer Drone on the Way

http://gizmodo.com/326876/taser-flying-saucer-drone-on-the-way

[awoke_in_2003]

48. I want freaking lazer beams...

:)

[SpiralHawk]

7. Droids & Clones cleared for Tactical Transcendance

1% Drones shall not deter history.

[SpiralHawk]

22. Proles ordered to STFU

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. Key technical issue remains...and its a biggie

Its called sense and avoid, and its a serious problem. UAVs have to be able to sense and avoid obstacles and other aircraft. Today that is handled by the operator keeping it in their field of view and doing the looking.

Language in the cited source is more inflammatory than anything else.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. " No one could have foreseen..............."

[SidDithers]

13. RT. LOL...nt

Sid

[SomethingFishy]

16. What does RT mean?

[Aerows]

27. Just derogatory nonsense

That essentially means "I don't care, submit to authority as long as the leader of the nation has a D behind their name." Oh, and "I hate the source because it's the Russian Times and they are undermining our country by reporting things, since our own journalists don't anymore."

[SammyWinstonJack]

31. Wonder how Canadians will react when this drone "surveillance" comes to their neighborhoods?

:shrug:

[Aerows]

33. Judging from the Canadians I know

Not well at all. One of my very good friends lives in BC, and he would put up with this from his government for about a nanosecond, and from a foreign government not at all.

[quakerboy]

44. How are they dealing with any of the rest of what Harper

is bringing them, and what close association with the US brings?

[City Lights]

60. Keeper!

:hi:

[msongs]

14. the bush agenda marches on under new management nt

[pam4water]

46. +1

[awoke_in_2003]

49. It is not the Bush agenda...

it is the Elite's agenda. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

[SomethingFishy]

15. They are already in use in Texas

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Texas-civil-libertarians-have-eye-on-police-drones-2245644.php

Thanks to money from the DHS.. or... the taxpayers. We pay for the government to spy on us. Nice.

[azul]

17. What if the International Criminal Court got drones?

and they were sent out to kill war criminals fleeing from justice wherever in the world they may be hiding?

Would that be a bad thing?

Does the USA get to unilaterally be a judge and executioner because they have the technology and others don't, yet?

[JCMach1]

18. Note to future protests... FLY KITES!

oh yeah and those promotional balloons might work too.

[Mimosa]

19. If anything should scare us it is this. n/t

[Tesha]

20. It's okay -- they're only going to use them against really bad people.

They promise!

Tesha

[Cali_Democrat]

23. We must trust in authority.

[awoke_in_2003]

50. if you're not doing any wrong...

you shouldn't worry. Says so right in the Constitution :sarcasm: (just in case)

[Fire Walk With Me]

21. I suppose that the only good thing about #OLA having been dismantled tonight

is that they're not going to hit us with a drone tomorrow.

[Maven]

24. How long before Skynet becomes self-aware?

Sorry, I had to.

[Aerows]

30. I thought the same thing

:hide:

[The Straight Story]

25. meh, people will soon be cheering them here when they are used in bars to catch smokers

:evilgrin: :hide:

[backtoblue]

29. what could possibly go wrong ?

An un-manned, recording, weapon-loaded plane controlled by a kid of no more than 25 years old patrolling our skies... Nope, perfectly safe.

[Fuzz]

34. Saw that coming a mile away. Facist big brother.

[krispos42]

35. If they're not armed....

...and can't see inside my house or vehicle without a warrant, then there probably isn't a specific reason to get worried.

Oh, there's plenty of general reasons to be worried... rise of the surveillance state, etc. But this will likely be a cheaper, safer alternative to having a larger, heavier, manned aircraft doing it, where "it" is a non-police, non-military photo-recon task such as crop analysis.


I can see where utility companies would be interested in something like a solar-powered UAV that could stay up for days at a time after, say, a hurricane (or an October nor'easter!) to direct reconstruction efforts.

[eilen]

39. DHS doesn't need no stinkin' warrants.

They will listen to your phone, scan your home, your financial transactions and if they determine you are a threat to the US, assassinate you.

[awoke_in_2003]

54. The problem is...

that for every good thing these things can do, the police state always finds more ways to use them for bad. Over the last 20 years, have we made a big jump to the police state envisioned in "1984"? No, it has just gone that way inch by slow inch. Problem is, no one remembers the last 20 years, or doesn't want to connect the dots. The country as we know it will not last another 50 years.

[hifiguy]

37. One more step towards the total surveillance state.

And there are people on this very thread who bury their heads in the sand and mock those who see such things as grave invasions of privacy. The march of history shows that any technology that can be used against the masses will be used against the masses by TPTB.

[woo me with science]

40. +10000

It's happening.

[hifiguy]

41. Soon we all will live in The Village

"You are Number 6."

[AtheistCrusader]

43. Que: Iron Maiden

[inna]

42. pretty terrifying, actually. every new day brings some new low, or so it seems at times.

[kayakjohnny]

45. They've been around for a while now, under a different name.

Wait til these 'pilots' decide to duke it out with the gov pilots.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=rc%20planes%20and%20helicopters%20videos&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1280&bih=831&pdl=500&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw&ei=qsHWTtTGHISatwfinOSdCA#q=rc+planes+and+helicopters+videos&hl=en&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=vid&ei=FMLWTtD0H4e6twek_OmdCA&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=4&ved=0CDYQ_AUoAw&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=e49963b328cad71&biw=1280&bih=831

[spanone]

51. imagine the hatfields & mccoys with drones....

[Smarmie Doofus]

52. Wonderful.

I'm kidding.

[sarcasmo]

53. Police State.

[Gringostan]

57. I'm a pilot...

I'm a pilot and I can't see any problems with this - NOT!

Is anybody in the government using their grey cells anymore?

[lonestarnot]

62. Guess you don't need a job either.

:sarcasm: :hug:

[blkmusclmachine]

58. That was the plan.

[lunatica]

63. It was always inevitable

But drones will also do a lot of very good things on balance. They're just robots. And they will be a good crime fighting tool when their use isn't abused. And, of course, their use will be abused by some.

But I'm a long time SciFi fan. The use of drones is the future. Anywhere you need eyes they will be a good tool.

[BadDog40]

64. Drone them back like this guy did

Very cool video of an occupy drone over the cops in Poland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTQ3uijvG8o