Re: It's all over ...
So, are ya saying that we should really be bothered by the whole thing, or do you just not like the focus on the wiretaps??
I just don't like how people cry about everything. Recently (for the past few years), our country has been going through this phase of rebellion. No matter what our government does,
right or wrong, the public has this strong dislike of what is going on.
When our banks started tanking, people cried for help. When the government offered help, those same people cried about how the government was getting involved with businesses and their financing. It's just really annoying to live in a country full of people who are never happy. They just complain about everything that happens, even if it's what they've been asking for.
Because they are both illegal and against the Constitution and our rights.
Just because the government does it doesn't make it right.
You obviously have no idea how national security works and how it protects people like you and I from getting killed.
Bush isn't just behind "all of the major changes in Homeland Security" - he created the entire agency, itself a melding of several pre-existing agencies.
Very true. So, what Obama is doing isn't anything new.
That's almost certainly not true. The old-school phone-tapping is no longer even necessary. Actually, all of your communications are most likely monitored and/or recorded, but perhaps not by an actual person.
You're right...the government
does monitor a lot of things on a regular basis. Our purchases, our travel records, our spending habits, DVD rentals, our school performance, our job choices, etc.
People who are upset over wiretapping are upset over nothing new. The government monitors the public's internet usage (search engines, website hits, IP addresses, downloads, etc), so how is wiretapping any different? The answer:
IT'S NOT. Yet, people want to get all pissed, just because it involves a phone.
And how can you be sure that nobody here is or would be "of interest" to legitimate authorities with due cause and a reasonable suspicion?
My comment wasn't to be taken as a "nobody here (at FreeOnes) is a potential terrorist" or something like that. My comment was to point out that the government isn't going to be randomly wiretapping Joe Blow, who has absolutely no reason to be wiretapped. They're going to do their research, find out who could provide valuable information and who could be a serious, potential threat to our country, and then wiretap
them.
Anyway, once again, Chef, it looks like you've turned off your skepticism switch. It sounds like you've accepted what the Bush administration and their lackeys have fed the public - "If you haven't done anything wrong, you've got nothing to worry about!" See here for a hint to how much that's pure b.s.:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5987804&page=1
My dad works for the Department of Homeland Security. I know a lot more about what really goes on than what you are reading in a newspaper or seeing on the internet.
That's a ridiculous attitude, frankly, especially coming from someone who is usually so forthright about being pro- "law and order". If someone breaks the law, they break the law, and should face the appropriate punishment....RIGHT? If we're talking about speeding, stealing a Snickers, or snatching a purse, you'd be first to call for the culprit's head, but here, I guess, breaking the law is just no big whoop? Not to mention the little "unconstitutional" whoopsie. If the cops just broke your door down and started rooting through your shit, saying it was for "public safety" reasons, would you just step aside? Wait, don't answer that....
People are using the argument that it's "unconstitutional" a lot when it comes to this wiretapping issue (and plenty of other issues). Every single person in the United States has a different interpretation of The Constitution. To act as if wiretapping potential threats to our country is unconstitutional or unlawful is all a matter of personal interpretation. There is
no place in The Constitution where it says that wiretapping somebody's phone is unlawful, so why is everybody,
all of a sudden, becoming an amateur expert in governmental law?
And, if the police broke down my door and starting going through my shit, and they had a justifiable reason to be doing so (IE - public safety, national secruity), who the fuck am I to get mad about that? Seriously, who the fuck am I to put personal inconvenience or annoyance in front of the safety of my fellow countrymen on the level of importance? Actually, who the fuck is
anybody to do that?
That's the problem with a lot of the so-called "patriotic" Americans now-a-days: they want a better America...but, just as long as they don't have to sacrifice anything or be inconvenienced, even in the slightest degree.
