http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031901775.html I'll just wait here for some patriot-act apologist to come in and defend this with the usual bravado. Heck I'll even start it for you! "Have you ever been affected by this personally? If not, I don't see why you'd have a problem with it." "I think it's reasonable, given this post-9/11 world." "I have nothing to hide, why should this bother me? Only terrorists would be concerned with this activity."
You have to ask yourself, what is the intent of these actions? TO STOP TERROR. Why impede that if the costs to society are so minimal? Why give the terrorists a leg up by tripping yourself up over senseless red tape? Furthermore, simply finding selected examples of alleged missteps in terms of following policy is something that can be found in EVERY INDUSTRY on the planet. Shall we condemn every activity because of exceptional and unusal occurrences? It's like the goal for some of you is to make terrorist activity easier, and working to find evidence to support the cause. Why not evaluate the program in its entirety? Not just the selected, infrequent missteps? Makes you wonder...
The Justice Department’s Inspector General yesterday told the House “that the FBI may have violated the law or government policies as many as 3,000 times since 2003 as agents secretly collected the telephone, bank and credit card records of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals residing here.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032000921.html
I don't read Tj's posts, but since mark kindly ( ) quoted douchebag's ramblings, allow me to ponder how one seperates LACK OF CERTIFIABLE AUTHORIZATION from "we are trying to stop terror". Frankly TJ, you have no ****ing clue what you are talking about. Oh wait, that's exactly the way it always is.
What % of total actions does 3,000 represent over 4 years? 1% ?? Probably much less. Is that cause for alarm? Particularly when the stakes are so high and you are guarding our country's citizens? Seriously. Have you also documented all of the shots Tracy McGrady has missed since 2003 and concluded that he sucks as a basketball player? You'd be applying the same flawed logic if you did.
You may be the person on here who has shown the most willingness to give up their liberties which are part of the American fabric since the nation was formed. People make jokes about the French being surrender monkeys, but TJ puts them to shame in giving up the goal of a nation with speed and little fight or even questioning.
i would compare TJ more to the good little german circa 1938. to compare TJ to a surrender monkey implies that he isnt going along w/ the program. "i was only following orders".
The Patriot Act and Homeland Security are two of the biggest threats to America today. Do you know what a government that starts to violate individual liberty is going to become? A terror.
Wasn't it Skippy here who got all frothy-mouthed insane because he thought we'd be tipping off the terrorists when we served them with wire-tapping warrants? I still can't believe that a human being could be so stupid as to think that agents were actually knocking on terrorists doors and personally serving those warrants. Thank goodness the vast majority of the cowards like Skippy here that are willing to surrender their rights cuz the president said he had to are so embarrasssingly ignorant and so far, far, far on the lunatic fringe that their baseless opinions are utterly irrelevant. Especially after the neocons suffered such a massive ass-whupping last November. Pretty telling that Vichy Skippy here is angry that people refuse to surrender the civil rights that men he could never live up to died to protect. He thinks so little of them and their sacrifices that he can toss aside everything they fought and died for without a single regret. Well, what else can you expect from a coward that takes his morning dump on our brave troops and the public servants such as firemen and police officers?
Hmm... let's see, in just a few short posts, I have already been called: 1) A douchebag 2) A Nazi 3) A surrender monkey 4) told that I have no f****** clue 5) Vichy Skippy (?) Nice to know which side is responsible for the mudslinging and taking things down to their basest level....
Don't reply to it Mark, it cannot understand logic. In fact, please join me in ignoring it so that we are no longer burdened with such mentally disjointed rhetoric.
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. --letter from the Pennsylvania Assembly dated November 11, 1755 to the Governor of Pennsylvania The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. --FDR
Disturbing article Rhad. I found this quote particularly telling: That sounds like something you would hear about the former East Germany.
