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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOne Small Step. Should Scare the Hell Out of You.
Last edited Sat Sep 13, 2014, 07:17 PM - Edit history (1)
(This is a repost from four years ago, when Democrats generally agreed that ubiquitous spying was a bad thing. The article is even more relevant today.)
From observation to restriction. Your every move, your every purchase, your every email can be and is being tracked. Sometimes by the government, sometimes by a corporation; and the line between the two entities becomes less distinct every day. The potential for abuse is tempting to those who want power, and the tendency toward apathy is great for those who want a false sense of security. But the problem isnt with the technology; its with the laws. The technology is here and improving every day, to rail against the inevitable would be as futile as using a bucket to hold back the tide. There has always been the possibility and even a propensity for abuse, (in some) even in the pre-industrial world. But we can thank those like Jefferson and Madison who insisted that individuals have a right to remain unmolested, as long as they were innocent of any crime, and for the fact that we were not spied upon at all hours of the day in the past. Its time to stop taking those rights for granted while letting them slip away.
We already have the PATRIOT ACT, National Security Letters, and AT&T turning over our records with no warrant. Now the Justice Department wants to be able to track anyones movements with no warrant. Why are these things so important when the system put in place in 1978 already favored law enforcement? Why are they necessary if they wont really be used? When set against economic injustice, environmental devastation and wars, the assault on civil liberties may seem to pale in comparison. But without true civil liberties, our ability to address those other problems is non-existent. Once it is accepted by the citizens that its okay for the government to watch us all the time, as long as I have nothing to hide we will have set ourselves up to have a society where the word freedom will have no real meaning.
There are many people rightly upset by the continued assault on unions and the middle class in general, myself included. At a time when our insurance companies should have been permanently reined in, they are swelling their profits and their power. Legal bribery of our politicians has been expanded at a time when it needed to be eliminated. Legal raiding of our treasury is obvious enough to sicken any who care, and we have a massive portion of our country fighting against their own interests. And to me these things are linked to potential future abuses that are possible by limiting long established rights. And with wealth being held by a smaller and smaller portion of the population, there will naturally be some who will insist on tighter controls. (The Stasi and the KGB didnt need to spy on all people at all times, just enough of the population to let people know it was dangerous to step out of line. With advances in technology, almost total surveillance is possible.)
We have all seen first hand how quickly circumstances can change and how easily people can be manipulated. That alone should prod people into action. Some of the same people who ridiculed the burning of the Beatles albums in the 60s, participated in the burning of the Dixie Chicks CDs in 2003. In a matter of months, the media was able to convince about half the nation of a complete falsehood - that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Support for torture increased, just by changing its name. Many people were, and still are, ready to cede the power of the Legislative and Judicial branches to the President, and were/are claiming, against all evidence, that doing so is the Most American position.
By ignoring the slow encroachment of government and corporations melding, and ignoring the erosion of the need for probable cause before surveillance, we risk losing the most important thing there is about being American.
Years ago someone explained to me that he thought society was analogous to a rock suspended over the ground by a rope. The ground represented authoritarianism and that was where society had a natural predisposition to fall. But there were people who were on the other end of that rope that made it there job to keep society as just as possible. The more people on that rope, the better.
We need to heed the warnings from years ago, from Orwell, Huxley and others and realize the future is already here.
http://www.wider.unu.edu/events/past-events/2006-events/en_GB/05-12-2006/
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gjCPfFdmocBeGyr_-lqmLC_3CfcAD9DQS4Q84
http://people.reed.edu/~gronkep/TortureWhitePaperV2.pdf
http://www.aclu.org/national-security/internal-report-finds-flagrant-national-security-letter-abuse-fbi
http://atlanticreview.org/archives/726-More-Americans-Believe-that-Saddam-Was-Directly-Involved-in-911.html
punkin87
(350 posts)suede1
(892 posts)I wonder if anyone who responded four years ago, will respond differently today?
20score
(4,769 posts)Last edited Thu Jan 30, 2014, 12:59 AM - Edit history (1)
Like to see what they have to say now.
questionseverything
(9,646 posts)Muhtorovs challenge has its roots in the case rejected by the Supreme Court last year. In deciding to dismiss, the Supreme Court relied upon the assurance by the U.S. solicitor general that the government would notify criminal defendants when it had used evidence from the surveillance.
But the solicitor general at the time did not know that the Justice Department had a policy to conceal such evidence from defendants. He learned of it only after some criminal defendants sought clarification of remarks that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) made in late 2012 that the government had used evidence from warrantless monitoring in certain cases. The department reversed its policy last year.
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so the solicitor general presented false info to the supreme court????? because he did not know that justice department was (illegally) concealing evidence???
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/terrorism-suspect-challenges-warrantless-surveillance/2014/01/29/fb9cc2ae-88f1-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)20score
(4,769 posts)niyad
(113,239 posts)Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)K&R
20score
(4,769 posts)Appreciated.
Oscarmonster13
(209 posts)how sad/scary that this was true then, and is more so now.
I keep saying it: For all those who say "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about" or "I trust our POTUS to do the right thing" or "It's for our own good" ...realize that these actions by our government set a legal precedent that will continue to undermine our civil liberties for decades to come. And while some feel "safe" right now with a (D) in office...woe to us when that eventually is controlled by someone with far more sinister agendas...
20score
(4,769 posts)Or don't think, as the case may be. The power structure has to change.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)20score
(4,769 posts)cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)20score
(4,769 posts)20score
(4,769 posts)marym625
(17,997 posts)very well done. Very little you and I disagree about.
I will never understand apologists. People that defend things like the NSA and call themselves liberals, must not pay attention, lie or they're just plain stupid.
Major protests of the late 60s and early 70s were part of what helped bring change. One such protest was against the Democratic Party at the Convention in 1968. Those protesters were not a bunch of conservatives. We need to realize that "party line politics" no longer exists. It's all about the money and it's everywhere.
20score
(4,769 posts)marym625
(17,997 posts)frankowen7
(103 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)20score
(4,769 posts)liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)it' but most people know the difference between right and wrong and thanks to Snowden's revelations, and all the others before him, more Americans now understand what has been going on. As a result of the information getting to them, a majority oppose having their Constitutional Rights abused and violated.