An outrageous Republican talking point

[CTyankee]

appeared in an LTTE in my local paper, re warrantless wiretaps:

"When will American who oppose domestic spying realize that nobody in government is vaguely concerned with their simplistic and pathetic little secrets. Their skirting of minor legal issues such as taxes, private consumption of drugs and the failure to register motor vehicles in the proper state; are not even on the radar of the NSA. Terrorism is, nothing else."

These are the people who used to say that the government is always bad and can't get anything done right. Now it's that the government is omniscient, apparently.

[Vincardog]

1. OK freeper lets start with your secrets.

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. Well, I believe in the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.

So I guess I have nothing to worry about according to the writer of that letter.

I feel so safe now. All that worry for nothing.

[Frances]

3. I would guess that this letteris designed to appeal to

white male voters, who have previously thought that Repubicans were anti-government. WRONG!

[bluestateguy]

4. "If you've done nothing wrong, you should have nothing to worry about"

Uh huh. From the same people who summonsed Homeland Security to track down the Texas Democrats in the legislature because they did not show up for a pointless session on re-redistricting.

[Dr Fate]

7. Which Founding Father originated that quote? Was it Jefferson or Franklin?

???

[Doctor_J]

9. I think it was Limpballs,

the Lost Framer

[benburch]

5. I know different!

One of the first abuses of the PATRIOT act was to subvert the OnStar system in an alleged mobster's car to listen to conversations that were going on inside the car.

I know this because I worked on the software for OnStar while at Motorola, and OnStar was so appalled by this use of their system that they quietly had us remove this ability from all future versions of the system.

[MercutioATC]

14. That's a great story!

I know of other abuses of the Patriot act to spy on or charge non-terrorists, but I hadn't heard that one.

[RagingInMiami]

6. In what paper was that?

[CTyankee]

10. The New Haven Register

There was a spate of letters defending Bush's warrantless wiretaps. This was one of the most ridiculous. In another letter the ole standby "Blame Clinton" was trotted out for a little ride. Still another suggested that "political opposition should stop at the waters edge" which is convenient now but didn't stop repukes from giving Clinton hell over Kosovo. I just fired off my own LTTE where I concentrated on the fact that all this smoke and mirrors appears just as the Abramoff and DeLay scandals are breaking and we had a horrible week in Iraq. HOpe it gets published!

[RagingInMiami]

12. Good job

[Doctor_J]

8. Freeper logic:

Universal single-payer health care: Evil Big Government
Cheney monitoring my reading habits: Vital to national security

[OneTwentyoNine]

19. Yawn....oft repeated RW talking points. Bush SHOULD be able to spy on us..

Same shit that hits our opinion line in our newspaper from the Bush toadies. Oh my,they could care less if Sherriff Bunnypants taps their phone lines or mine. Afterall,it's ALL in the name of National Security. And...if you bitch about it you MUST be hiding something.

Yeah right...those assclowns want us to believe that if Clinton had done the same they would be 100% behind him? Oh how fucking precious......

[havocmom]

11. Knowledge of those minor indiscretions come in handy

when you wanna blackmail congress critter into cooperating. Also useful to make reporters and/or editors & publishers STFU.

In fact, knowing those little secrets pretty much puts leashes on everyone who has any sense of shame, which is just about everyone except the sociopaths ordering the illegal taps.

[gulliver]

13. They just don't understand the danger.

It's quaint. It's like saying, "When will you people realize that no one is really stupid enough to smoke cigarettes while filling up their gas tanks at the local BP? We don't need signs to tell us not to do that!"

Of course not. People only do wise things. And people only do good things with power.

The power these dimwits are talking about is orders of magnitude beyond what they suspect. We are talking about a system that gives one branch of government complete monitoring and archiving power over all major communications. It's not Lily Tomlin's laugh-in character listening in on a 41-year-old male freeper trying to arrange a date with a 13-year-old boy. It's a computer checking the voice stream for key words and storing the entire conversation for retrieval, possibly years later.

It could not possibly be more important that this power have Congressional and Court oversight.

[billybob537]

15. You have the right to remain silent

And we wish you would avail yourself of said right.
I have a right to privacy EVEN if all they might uncover is the size underwear I wear. :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce:

[tanyev]

16. Would he still feel the same way if Hillary were in the White House?

Doubt it.

[gulliver]

17. This angle makes me paranoid.

You are absolutely right that they would freak out if Hillary were in the White House with this kind of power. That, in turn, empowers the Republicans to rally their base to fight to keep Hillary (and Dems) out of power. That's why it is so awful, divisive, and incendiary to even have such an awesome unilateral power in the presidency. It's like a gun pointing at every American's head. If it is allowed to remain in place, politics will all be about who holds that gun.

I actually think Bob Barr gets it. His piece in Time magazine was right on target. What Bush has done is simply dangerous. Historically dangerous. Reckless. Arrogant. Foolish. Dangerous. It's against the law and unconstitutional -- and for very good reason.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. Would they want Pres. Hillary to spy on them?