Saving US from ourselves

[tw]

People such as Urbane Guerilla approve this. From the NY Times of 22 October 2005:

Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems
The federal government ... is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications.

The action, which the government says is intended to help catch terrorists and other criminals, has unleashed protests and the threat of lawsuits from universities, which argue that it will cost them at least $7 billion while doing little to apprehend lawbreakers. Because the government would have to win court orders before undertaking surveillance, the universities are not raising civil liberties issues.

The order, issued by the Federal Communications Commission in August and first published in the Federal Register last week, extends the provisions of a 1994 wiretap law not only to universities, but also to libraries, airports providing wireless service and commercial Internet access providers.

With the Patriot Act, they can now monitor you without a court order. If they don't like what they hear, then they can apply for a court order. To take advantage of these new 'privileges' in the name of Fatherland Security, your life be properly connected to government monitoring devices so they need not let anyone such as your ISP know what they are doing.

Office of Fatherland Security and those who support its creator lie to us about protecting rights. Based pragmatically only on what they ask for, they have created threats from a mythical enemy to chip away at the Bill of Rights and basic Constitutional guarantees - ie the Patriot Acts. Patriot Act hypes fear to make dictatorship easier. Brown shirts such as Urbane Guerilla love it. We can even torture people by declaring the victims exempt from the Fundamental Declaration of Human Rights. Screw the American principles of law. As long as Osama bin Laden is still free, then Constitutional rights can be subverted. Explains why George Jr did not attempt to capture bin Laden. Fear justifies everything.

Oh. But we are the good guys. Only they are evil. Our government can be trusted to be honest - to tell us that torture is OK - to provide honest reasons for a "Mission Accomplished" war. As one lady recently said, ten years ago she never thought we would relive the mistakes of Nixon, Vietnam, and Watergate. To even send good Americans to their death so that a war would not be lost on Nixon's watch. Thirty years later - well - how many remember that man declare, "Your president is not a crook." Something about why we relive the lessons of history.

The current one declared, "Mission Accomplished" and said Brownie was doing a good job. He even sat on his ass as hundreds of thousands were dying from a Tsunami - with the USS Lincoln sitting for five days doing nothing in nearby Hong Kong.

30 years and we relive history all over again as if the ghost of Joseph McCarthy had returned to save us from ourselves. Maybe I should ask how many know who Joseph McCarthy is since fear again is subverting American principles. Clearly we must be the enemy. A religious right government will impose Catholic Church and fundamentalism Christian doctrine on us to save us from ourselves. Tap our internet at will to make sure the flock does not stray - does not visit porn and purchase contraception.

Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition. Why should a right wing extremist America, advocated by Urbane Guerilla types, be any different?

[xoxoxoBruce]

A couple of websites I visit tell me on the front page they have logged my IP address. I've noticed it's always the same number so I guess all the feds have to do is ask (or otherwise) comcast for addresses and who they are.

[Rock Steady]

In 1979, while I was in grad school, my suitemate told me the police showed up at our dorm looking for me and were waiting. I asked a prof to go with me. The police and the head of the computer center told me that some equipment was stolen and the phone company identified my phone as a computer modem user. I had to show them my reciept and serial number of the decwriter I owned. Good thing I had that reciept in my files.

They said the students acted suspicious. I said the students at this University don't trust the administration.

[tw]

From the Washington Post of 24 Oct 2005

FBI Papers Indicate Intelligence Violations
The FBI has conducted clandestine surveillance on some U.S. residents for as long as 18 months at a time without proper paperwork or oversight, according to previously classified documents to be released today.

Records turned over as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit also indicate that the FBI has investigated hundreds of potential violations related to its use of secret surveillance operations, which have been stepped up dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but are largely hidden from public view. ...

Although heavily censored, the documents provide a rare glimpse into the world of domestic spying, which is governed by a secret court and overseen by a presidential board that does not publicize its deliberations. The records are also emerging as the House and Senate battle over whether to put new restrictions on the controversial USA Patriot Act, which made it easier for the government to conduct secret searches and surveillance but has come under attack from civil liberties groups.
...

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Hell, from the excerpt quoted, I'd approve of both points of view.

TW, only the professional meshugginah thinks I'm a brownshirt, okay? Get over yourself.

[mrnoodle]

They want to look at my computer? I assumed they were doing it already. I'm sure entire divisions of busy haxx0rs are poring over my spam and pictures of nieces and nephews. I haven't cleaned out my cache in a year, they might even find some porn. Enjoy.

While they're in there, I wish they'd at least empty the spam inbox every once in awhile.

edit: the porn isn't of my nieces and nephews, you sick bastards.

[tw]

Originally Posted by mrnoodle

They want to look at my computer? I assumed they were doing it already. I'm sure entire divisions of busy haxx0rs are poring over my spam and pictures of nieces and nephews. I haven't cleaned out my cache in a year, they might even find some porn. Enjoy.

I already looked. Your taste in porn is anal.

[tw.]

boy, i might as well give it up. the real tw is funnier than i am.


(=o=)

[tw]

From the NY Times of 31 Oct 2005 - or just another example of why responsible nations need a smoking gun to justify war:

Doubts Cast on Vietnam Incident
The National Security Agency has kept secret since 2001 a finding by an agency historian that during the Tonkin Gulf episode, which helped precipitate the Vietnam War, N.S.A. officers deliberately distorted critical intelligence to cover up their mistakes, two people familiar with the historian's work say.

The historian's conclusion is the first serious accusation that communications intercepted by the N.S.A., the secretive eavesdropping and code-breaking agency, were falsified so that they made it look as if North Vietnam had attacked American destroyers on Aug. 4, 1964, two days after a previous clash. ...

Mr. Hanyok's findings were published nearly five years ago in a classified in-house journal, and starting in 2002 he and other government historians argued that it should be made public. But their effort was rebuffed by higher-level agency policymakers, who by the next year were fearful that it might prompt uncomfortable comparisons with the flawed intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq, according to an intelligence official familiar with some internal discussions of the matter.

Deja Vue? War justified by lies - therefore the US loses that war?

Well its been 30 years since Vietnam. I guess we can now tell Americans why the US was the enemy - the illegal aggressor - in Vietnam. No? They might realize that we are doing same in Iraq? Gasp. The truth might be just like Pentagon Papers. We better hide it for reasons of National Security.

Americans like their president when lied to. Americans cannot be trusted to learn about Vietnam until after "Mission Accomplished". Oh. We already declared Mission Accomplished - and then killed all those Iraqs and thousands of Americans. Then we torture people - because they are obviously evil - we are god's chosen people. Didn't god tell George Jr that? No problem; and I just saved money on Geico. Nobody cares about the truth. We can't be trusted with the truth.

[Troubleshooter]

Tomorrow's pizza order...

http://www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927

[xoxoxoBruce]

War justified by lies - therefore the US loses that war?

I think this war is more like a cage match.
The US is still fighting well but already lost the match. It only remains to be seen if the Iraqis or radical islamics will win.

[mrnoodle]

Originally Posted by tw

I already looked. Your taste in porn is anal.

BWAH!