Does anyone believe this propaganda: Americans willing to give up privacy

[liberal N proud]

Americans divided on domestic spying
Poll also finds willingness to give up some personal privacy, though
By Dan Balz and Claudia Deane
Washington Post
Updated: 6:15 a.m. ET Jan. 11, 2006
Americans overwhelmingly support aggressive government pursuit of terrorist threats, even if it may infringe on personal privacy, but they divide sharply along partisan lines over the legitimacy of President Bush's program of domestic eavesdropping without court authorization, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Nearly two in three Americans surveyed said they believe that federal agencies involved in anti-terrorism activities are intruding on the personal privacy of their fellow citizens, but fewer than a third said such intrusions are unjustified.

At the same time, however, those surveyed are more narrowly divided over whether the federal government is doing enough to protect the rights of both citizens and terrorism suspects.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10795841/


I DON'T!

[still_one]

1. they voted for these morans twice in a row

and that includes giving a majority in congress

so obviously the sheep do NOT understand that once you loose your freedoms it is very difficult to get them back

I believe until there is enough pain, we will continue to follow this insanity

[INdemo]

2. Bo these "Moran's" were never elected

they stole these elections twice. Now if they can accomplish stealing elections than covering up this wire tap scandal and mail fraud, with the help of the MSM is quite simple...

[still_one]

19. yes the elections had voting problems BUT

it was close enough from independent polls, especially in 2000 which showed how stupid people are

[Dinger]

3. CNN Was Spinning The Same LIE Yesterday

It's time to save their king, but it's just too goddamned late. He's goin' down.

[acmejack]

4. No one asked me!

Anyone ask you? I didn't think so!

[liberal N proud]

5. Who did they ask? No one ever seems to know

[wakeme2008]

6. Couple points

1) the poll would change a lot IMHO, if the names that Bush wanted tapped turned out to have any political overtones.

2) I got into a big pissing contest over on a cruise board about the man that got killed by air marshals in Florida as he tried to leave a plane with his wife following him saying he was off his meds. In the end the only ppl that heard him "say" he had a bomb was the marshals that killed him. Anyway, I could not believe these ppl that supported the shooting because it made them feel "safer" flying. One was a Reverend. :grr:

[BR_Parkway]

7. I've never seen a article about polls with such vague numbers - well, no

numbers mostly - just "nearly", "almost one third"

It's ridiculous

[H2O Man]

8. I think that such "polls"

are simply propaganda intended to fool the general public into believing that those who express concerns about the illegal and unconstitutional behaviors of the Bush administration are a minority.

[Cooley Hurd]

10. It doesn't help that the corporate media is clouding the issue...

I've yet to hear about the Quaker surveillance story on the "big three" cable news networks. It's becoming increasingly apparent that the NSA wasn't exclusively spying on terrorists - once the public gets the real story behind this and puts it into the proper perspective, their support of the NSA's illegal tactics will (hopefully) wane.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

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[Cooley Hurd]

16. HAHAHA!

You forgot the "sacrasm" tag, but I get the joke.

Welcome to DU. ;)

[ComerPerro]

9. And that's why the Republicans will be in power forever

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

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[Cobalt Violet]

12. I believe the dumb asses that watch Katie Couric are.

She's always saying "extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures". I can't believe she can sleep at night leaving her daughter a dictatorship.

[blindpig]

13. I believe it.

Full bellies, a full tank, tv/dvd/games, as a people we are like sheep in the pasture, oblivious ruminants. One day the sheep will look up....

[derby378]

14. I for one welcome our new crab overlords

Craaaab people, craaaab people,
Taste like crab, talk like people,
Craaaab people...

[Vinca]

17. This is the current thing driving me nuts.

The question in these polls does not differentiate between spying with a warrant or spying without a warrant. That's the point!!!! Of course they should be spying on the bad guys when they're talking to citizens, but they shouldn't be doing it without a FISA warrant. Why poll idiots who haven't got a clue what's going on anyway???:banghead:

[zbdent]

18. The sheep are willing to give up some personal rights

until it affects them personally . . . witness any time some speeders get caught by a (cost-saving!) camera . . .

Or, Republicans' shrill whining about Bill Clinton's proposals right after the Oklahoma City bombing, or Columbine . . .

[meganmonkey]

20. I just wrote a LTTE about this last week

in response to a neo-con editorial in my local paper.

They printed my letter on Monday :)


Pinkerton got it wrong; citizens do mind spying
James Pinkerton's recent column "Maybe We Don't Need All Civil Liberties'' (The Ann Arbor News, Jan. 3) was completely appalling. He claims that most Americans don't seem to mind that the executive branch of our government is spying on its citizens. Thanks to inaccurate reporting and commentary like his, most Americans probably don't realize that this is being done with no oversight.

Thank goodness our Constitution was set up with checks and balances between the branches of government, in order to limit power and protect the civil liberties of American citizens. It is a shame, however, that the current administration is ignoring these fundamental rules. What Pinkerton neglected to mention is that there is a legal process available for the sort of spying the administration has been doing. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court has received almost 20,000 requests for surveillance warrants since its inception, and has turned down only five of these requests. There are even exceptions made for emergency situations, particularly in war time. Yet the Bush administration bypassed this process.

If they were really spying on dangerous, al-Qaida-linked terrorists, I am sure warrants would have been granted. So I can't help but wonder who they were spying on. Political opponents, peace activists, or maybe even you and me? As Benjamin Franklin, one of the founders of our great nation, said: "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.'' I don't know what "America'' Pinkerton is referring to in his commentary, but it is neither Franklin's nor mine.

---Megan Monkey
xxxxxx, MI