NSA building massive database of US domestic phone records

[Pekka]

Only one problem. Once thse things are working good, it's difficult to strip them down.

[Ted Striker]

That's why we need a Messiah to cut through the usual political channels with blunt force

You need a Figurehead to rally the people's spirits and you need a Master Tactician to do the magic behind the scenes


You know, sort of like Bush and Cheney/Rove/Rumsfeld if they weren't evil and incompetent fukheads

[Pekka]

So why is this agency... monitoring you? Is it afraid of its citizens? I understand listening criminals and those who are heavily associated with Obama.. I know I know.. it's for your own protection, right? You have nothing to hide so it's ok..

Here's an idea. Start monitoring the agency. For their own good. To defend yourself. They have nothing to hide.

Or is this BS argument an rhetorics to begin with? Man, I don't feel sorry for your asses. The ones who realize what this is, means, and implicates, you're not making enough waves to make better policies.

What can I say. There is not an emoticon invented that would fit right here.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Again the records of thephone calls are not individual's property. It is instead the property of the carriers. They can choose to do whatever they want with those records sell them provide them to the government etc.

If you wanna be pissed be pissed at the carriers (with the noticeable exception of Qwest ).

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Pekka
So why is this agency... monitoring you? Is it afraid of its citizens? I understand listening criminals and those who are heavily associated with Obama.. I know I know.. it's for your own protection, right? You have nothing to hide so it's ok..

Here's an idea. Start monitoring the agency. For their own good. To defend yourself. They have nothing to hide.

Or is this BS argument an rhetorics to begin with? Man, I don't feel sorry for your asses. The ones who realize what this is, means, and implicates, you're not making enough waves to make better policies.

What can I say. There is not an emoticon invented that would fit right here.

You just told us that once it was in place it was hard to unravel. So which is it?

What we do need are some rallies in the streets

[Elok]

Until said messiah arrives, feel free to continue working yourselves into a hysterical frenzy over this utterly useless fishing approach to intelligence gathering. While you're at it, read Hannah Arendt's "The Origins of Totalitarianism." You all might get some appreciation of how real dictatorships get formed. Pretty much all the crap you've mentioned here is irrelevant to them. You wanna worry about something, worry about the growing class divide and massive disillusionment in the merits and effectiveness of democracy. Historically, that's a far better indicator of looming danger than basic government nosiness.

As a wise man once said, "first they came for the overseas phone calls to suspected terrorists...and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't calling any suspected terrorists overseas. Then they came for the massive sets of crude statistical data on telecommunications...and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a datum. Then they came for the bureaucratic shipping contractors from overseas...and I was all for it that time, because it was a different 'they' from the other two times, and besides, those contractors were obviously swarthy and therefore evil."

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Elok
You wanna worry about something, worry about the growing class divide and massive disillusionment in the merits and effectiveness of democracy. Historically, that's a far better indicator of looming danger than basic government nosiness.

These all aren't mutually exclusive things to worry about, and this goes beyond simple, "basic nosiness."

I've pointed out the growing poverty rate every time DanS puts out one of his stupid Let the Good Times Roll threads.

Just in the past week there is another indicator, the Near Poverty rate, which has also gone up again.

And yes our Democracy is slipping away beneath us, most people just don't see it. This issue has at least some traction that can help expose some of those other issues.

[Elok]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
That's why we need a Messiah to cut through the usual political channels with blunt force

You need a Figurehead to rally the people's spirits and you need a Master Tactician to do the magic behind the scenes


You know, sort of like Bush and Cheney/Rove/Rumsfeld if they weren't evil and incompetent fukheads

Oh, for ****'s sake...please tell me you're being sarcastic. Please. Would you prefer that this messiah be named "Caesar" or "Napoleon?" Or maybe "Lenin." Lenin's a name we can all trust...

[Pekka]

Once it is in the place, it's difficult to get rid of it. THat's for sure.

You need to rally the streets peacefully, you need to raise AWARENESS, you need to monitor the ones who are behind these decisions, you need to boycott those who sold the technology, you need a comprehensive privacy policy that PROTECTS the individual.

If not, you're nothing but commie hoes, I'm sorry but that's the truth.

And it's not just in there, it's here as well. It's just getting worse in there first, we get it in here afterwards.

People can continue 'trusting agencies' and keep thinking they have 'nothing to hide' and only hippies and weirdo activists protest it because it's 'a loony conspiracy theory'.

The fact is, you don't care for your privacy at all. You don't. Not you Ted. But most of the citizens don't care. They don't even deserve it then. You know.. it's like, if you're too lazy to say 'yes I want my freedom', and that's all it takes to get it but you're too lazy.. ? How the hell would they deserve it? No way.. no way.

Keep fighting to good fights, this is certainly one. Don't forget it either, even if there are other news coming up. Remember, anyone who claims against you is a traitor. A traitor to be forgotten and not confronted. But a traitor none of the less, and a hater of freedom and privacy.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Elok


Oh, for ****'s sake...please tell me you're being sarcastic. Please. Would you prefer that this messiah be named "Caesar" or "Napoleon?" Or maybe "Lenin." Lenin's a name we can all trust...

I'd call him Elok, All Knowing, All Acting, All Omnicient

[Elok]

Oh, hells no. Populist dictator's a crap job. A few free blowjobs from nubile peasant slaves does not begin to compensate for decades of paranoia about assassins and revolts.

[Ned]

I have a question concerning "wiretaps."

Assume for the moment that the government has a legal wiretap on a citizen and you make a call so that citizen. If the government records your phone call, have your constitutional rights been violated?

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Are you guys going to get tired of being a banana republic any time soon?

Not while American Idol is on.

[Pekka]

I don't know about US constitutional rights, however, if the wiretap is legal (on grounds that there is evidence in the first place), I personally see no problem with it at all.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

should we burn down our democracy, lynch all our leaders, and start over again?