The founders of our country faced dire threats. If they failed in their endeavors, they would have been hung as traitors. The very existence of our country was at risk.
Yet, in the teeth of those dangers, they insisted on establishing the full Bill of Rights.
Is our Congress today in more danger than were their predecessors when the British army was marching on the Capitol? Is the world more dangerous than when we faced an ideological enemy with tens of thousands of nuclear missiles ready to be launched on a moment's notice to completely annihilate the country? Is America in more danger now than when we faced worldwide fascism on the march-when the last generation had to fight and win two World Wars simultaneously?
It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they did. Yet they faithfully protected our freedoms and now it's up to us to do the very same thing!
The Administration responds the only way it knows how: with bald-faced lies. Will the press allow them to get away with it like they did during campaign 2000? Maybe the times are a changin'.
5 comments:
One of the tactics used by O'Lielly and Rush is to avoid facing the actual arguments by calling the motives into question.
I've had similar arguments from some conservative friends when discussing Richard Clarke's book. They find it easier to avoid confronting the truth by claiming he just wrote the book for the money. Meanwhile, they ignore the long years of service he gave to politicians on both sides. They ignore the expertise he has.
The motives shouldn't be the argument. They should be considered. But in the end you have to face down the ideas if you want to make any progress advancing the discussion.
Howdy, it's wrong. It's not what this country is about. It's not why I served in the military. It's not what Thomas Jefferson envisioned.
You can keep the fear mongering going on forever. That's the real noise.
They don't have to wait 72 hours to have a wiretap approved. They can do them immediately, but they have to have them approved by the court within 72 hours. If it's approved they're good to go. If it's not, they pull the tap.
It's that simple. It's not that hard to follow the law. If they can't do it, we need to get rid of them.
In addition, the current administration is not very discriminate about who they spy on. They've been spying on innocent Americans. That's why they don't get their wiretaps audited by the courts. They know what they're doing is wrong. And they keep doing it.
If they want to have more power why don't they go to Congress ask for it? Let the American people have the debate. Why do they subvert the constitution? Why weren't they serious about fighting terrorism before 9/11? The Clinton people told them their biggest problem would be Al Qaida, and they shrugged them off. They were more intersted in busting the California medical marijuana plague.
What right-minded citizen would want to give this government more power over his life? Where are the conservatives who so despise 'Big Government?"
Al is dead on when he says it's arrogance that makes us think we are in greater danger than any generation before ours. It turns out that 9/11 didn't really change the world much at all.
You know what's happened? The foray into Iraq has really handcuffed us in regards to a real nuclear threat like Iraq. We could have kept bullying Iraq without the invasion. Then we'd have something to hang over Iran's head.
It pains me to see them flaunting their nuclear development like that. It's like Iran's poking a stick in our eye.
These nukes are the real threat. 9/11 would be blip compared to an islamic extremist with a nuke. Fortunately, Iran would have long way to go to develop a delivery system that could reach us. But if they dropped a nuke anywhere it would be a great tradgedy.
It is a morbid drama. I hope the administration is more diplomatically capable than I imagine them.
Culture of fear --> scared, gullable and easily distracted populace --> big, intrusive government --> diminution of rights and freedoms and governmental abuse of power --> GW and his cronies.
They've got you right where they want you, Howdy.
So because J. Edgar Hoover was illegally wiretapping American citizens it should be ok for the gov't to keep doing it? That's ridiculous.
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