04-08-2009, 06:04 PM | #1 (permalink) |
... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.
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Obama continues warrantless wiretaps
Remember when a few people were pissed that Obama voted to support the new version of FISA that provided retroactive immunity to telecoms involved in spying on their customers? Turns out we were right.
It's nice that we have a president that doesn't dig holes in the white house lawn anymore, but I refuse to replace one corrupt leader for another. I'm not upset, I'm fucking livid. Thoughts? |
04-08-2009, 06:24 PM | #2 (permalink) | |
Junkie
Location: Indiana
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Glad you brought this up. It's nice that Olberman covered this considering how much dirt he reported on about Bush. I was hoping he would have things like this about Obama as well. Sometimes I get the feeling he wishes he could say more, but is hamstrung by corporate media. Same goes for Dobbs at times.
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It's time for the president to hand over his nobel peace prize. Last edited by samcol; 04-08-2009 at 06:29 PM.. |
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04-08-2009, 08:33 PM | #5 (permalink) | ||||
Lennonite Priest
Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA
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If you are livid do something about it instead of just saying "I'm livid." Quote:
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Which brings me to quote Pete Townshend..... this song represents what is going on and our VERY NEAR future............... Quote:
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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?" Last edited by pan6467; 04-08-2009 at 08:42 PM.. |
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04-08-2009, 09:12 PM | #6 (permalink) | ||
... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.
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For a fucking constitutional law teacher, Obama seems to be missing something pretty basic. By the time I'd graduated from middle school I understood the necessity for warrants, probable cause, etc. Quote:
There's literally nothing, short of breaking a lot of laws, I can do. What is it that you're doing? |
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04-08-2009, 10:11 PM | #7 (permalink) |
Junkie
Location: bedford, tx
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not surprised, in fact predicted, that he would not relinquish powers that were grabbed by previous administrations, no matter how facially unconstitutional.
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"no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him." |
04-08-2009, 10:13 PM | #8 (permalink) |
Lennonite Priest
Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA
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Tea parties. Sure as some say they may not mean anything but, I'm sure when those Addams boys planned theirs no one took them very seriously.
If you wake enough people up, and there are many waking up now that the new boss truly is becoming the same if not worse than the old boss. If people go to these tea parties start writing letters to the editor, start joining their local political parties and demand that they be heard and for true changes that hold government accountable, the press will listen, the parties will have no other choice than to listen because if the Dems lose the House in 2 years Obama won't get anything done, and that is becoming more and more of a strong possibility. We organize sit-ins and demonstrations. We become radicals like they were in the 60's. We still have voices, we can still demand changes. And if those things don't work, well not to sound pessimistic but this country will be doomed. The only thing we'll truly be able to do at the end of the day then is pick up arms and take Washington by force. Our military will not fire on their own, hopefully. If people storm Washington... whether peacefully or in arms.... government will have no choice but to listen. If we complain, stay asleep, etc and do nothing then we are as guilty as those fucks in Washington because we know what they are doing is wrong and not representative of the people and we allowed it. Better to stand and fight for your beliefs and hope someone may hear you and fight beside you for what is right, than to die a complacent coward or an accomplice to scared of losing what little is left him and pass on even worse to your kids and grandkids.
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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?" |
04-08-2009, 10:19 PM | #9 (permalink) |
Junkie
Location: bedford, tx
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"We must all hang together, or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately." Benjamin Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
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"no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him." |
04-08-2009, 10:39 PM | #10 (permalink) | |
Lennonite Priest
Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA
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Once we give government power, they take more and more. Healthcare.... make it unaffordable and the people will want government to help them and give government power over that part of their lives. Gun control.... give government power to make laws on guns then usurp rights of ownership slowly and over time. Abortion...... give government the power to control who can or can't, give government control Gay Marriage.... allow government to dictate what marriage is and who can become married to whom.... give government control The above 4 are issues that either side you are on you are asking for government to take control. The above 4 have been issues as long as I can remember, nothing in there truly changes except government's control whether usurped overnight or in time.... BUT those issues provide the greatest smokescreens so that people don't truly see how they are being stolen from, how they are losing more and more rights and ownership of the country, how they are in essence being led to the gallows. It also helps when the ultra rich control both parties and almost all the media (Clear Channel, Disney, Microsoft, GE, Westinghouse, and so on). Local papers, radio stations television news.... it's all controlled by the same people who control the political parties..... in doing so they can control what media gets out and keep the masses in a haze. But people are waking, the internet has helped... they don't control the internet yet..... but once they do, then there will never be an organized nationwide resistance. But what do I know.... ---------- Post added at 02:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:37 AM ---------- What did he know, he flew a kite in an electrical storm.
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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?" |
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04-08-2009, 10:48 PM | #11 (permalink) |
Junkie
Location: bedford, tx
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just one old man in a bunch of old men who wrote something two centuries ago when they had no clue how life would be today.
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"no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him." |
04-08-2009, 10:52 PM | #12 (permalink) | |
Lennonite Priest
Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA
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Who would have known, 200 years of it's life and survival, that it was so imperfect and flawed and only Obama can fix it. I find it funny the issues like the OP were the Dems cry for power grabbing and how unConstitutional those power grabs were..... yet they remain silent and seemingly approve of Obama doing exactly what Bush did.... grab all the power he possibly can and never once blink or apologize for taking rights away.
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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?" Last edited by pan6467; 04-08-2009 at 11:14 PM.. |
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04-09-2009, 04:50 AM | #13 (permalink) |
Junkie
Location: Indiana
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It would be nice to get the opinion of people who agreed with Bush on this subject now that Obama is doing it. Likewise from the people who were against wiretapping when Bush was doing it and now support and/or voted for Obama.
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It's time for the president to hand over his nobel peace prize. |
04-09-2009, 07:15 AM | #14 (permalink) |
Still Free
Location: comfortably perched at the top of the bell curve!
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You mean that Obama did something considered "Stateist" or Tyrannical. Come on.
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Gives a man a halo, does mead. "Here lies The_Jazz: Killed by an ambitious, sparkly, pink butterfly." |
04-09-2009, 07:36 AM | #16 (permalink) |
Junkie
Location: bedford, tx
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I decried it when Bush did it and my opinion hasn't changed with Obama, but I didn't expect Obama to stop doing it either.
__________________
"no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him." |
04-09-2009, 07:41 AM | #17 (permalink) | |
warrior bodhisattva
Super Moderator
Location: East-central Canada
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It's not just a continuation; it's a bit worse:
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In Warrantless Wiretapping Case, Obama DOJ's New Arguments Are Worse Than Bush's | Electronic Frontier Foundation I don't know what to make of this other than it being a bridge from the last administration. I think a lot of this is merely tied to the joke that is the GWOT. I hope to see some indications that the Obama admin. is moving away from that in its entirety. The wiretapping issue I hope will die with that. There are already far too many people victimized by travesties of justice (and peace). The last thing we need right now is four more years of it. I wonder how the other elements of "Homeland Security" will play out in this administration.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing? —Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön Humankind cannot bear very much reality. —From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot |
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04-09-2009, 08:03 AM | #18 (permalink) |
Who You Crappin?
Location: Everywhere and Nowhere
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To play devil's advocate for a minute, this seems like an issue that sounds great and noble on the campaign trail, but suddenly changes when you step into the White House and are privy to all of the classified information. What if the Pentagon came to Obama and showed that these wiretaps stopped dozens of potential terrorist acts on US Soil? Would that change YOUR mind?
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04-09-2009, 08:34 AM | #19 (permalink) | |||
... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.
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February 15, 2003, international protests involving what ended up being millions of people around the world, as many as a million in NYC alone, against the Iraq war received little MSM coverage and didn't change a thing. It was by far the largest protest in history and it was entirely useless. Quote:
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04-09-2009, 08:46 AM | #20 (permalink) | |
Lennonite Priest
Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA
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__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?" |
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04-09-2009, 09:03 AM | #21 (permalink) | |
Junkie
Location: bedford, tx
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__________________
"no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him." |
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04-09-2009, 09:07 AM | #22 (permalink) |
... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.
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To be fair, a lot of people did. It makes sense to you and me that warrantless wiretapping is a fundamental attack on privacy, and that privacy is a necessary right for liberty, but there are those that value safety so highly they'll even take the illusion. We can certainly fault their logic, but you can't hold someone's fear against them in the climate we've been in for the past 60 years. Cold war, terrorism; a boogeyman around every corner.
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04-09-2009, 09:47 AM | #23 (permalink) | ||||
Lennonite Priest
Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA
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__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?" |
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04-09-2009, 10:04 AM | #24 (permalink) | |||
... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.
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Tea parties will be impotent as long as they're ideology rallies. You need a singular goal, something to be shared with your brothers and sisters on the left, like ending wiretapping. We liberals simply aren't going to get on board with neoliberalism because we've seen that it's all talk when neoliberals get into office. Lower taxes on the rich and spend tons on the military is just as much micromanaging as any social program a liberal might put in place. Quote:
It did nothing. Quote:
Fighting smart means no more bullshit protests that don't stand a chance of success. Fighting smart means employing methods that have succeeded in the past and stand a reasonable chance of succeeding now. |
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04-09-2009, 10:22 AM | #25 (permalink) |
Junkie
Location: bedford, tx
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what about them? they are not constitutional. ignore them. if you have 4,000 people at a protest OUTSIDE the BS free speech zone, what the hell are the local police going to do? arrest everybody?
__________________
"no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him." |
04-09-2009, 10:28 AM | #26 (permalink) | |||||
Lennonite Priest
Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA
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Personally, I think after the tea parties people should form convoys to Washington, picking up people in other cities along the way. San Fran to St.Louis to DC and so on. I'd use vacation days, sick days to join the convoy and to help organize this areas. To those fearful they wouldn't have jobs to return to because the work they'd miss, look at it this way, if we don't do it now while we have the chance, then the job you have may not be there much longer anyway and the luxuries and lifestyle you have now may not exist in a year or 2 and then it maybe too late to do anything.
__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?" |
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04-09-2009, 10:30 AM | #27 (permalink) |
... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.
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Speaking from experience, they grab the loudest, beat him or her, and then arrest him or her. A few hours later, the video shows up on youtube and finds it's way to reddit, where it's seen by maybe 40,000 people. Complaints are called in, but by the time all is said and done, the loudest protester has been in jail for several days and is somehow facing assaulting an officer charges. Meinwhile, the police continue to antagonize the protesters, who are on the verge of losing their shit because a brave and innocent person was just beaten and arrested in front of them, and then someone in the protest does something stupid and the whole protest is marginalized as violent and is forgotten. And that's if we're lucky. If we're unlucky, tons of cops will show up suddenly out of nowhere in riot gear and will start to fire gas cannisters into the crowd and things will get really ugly.
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04-09-2009, 10:37 AM | #28 (permalink) |
Crazy, indeed
Location: the ether
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I think this is unfortunate, and sad. But I saw this coming.
And I don't think there would be evidence of this kind of stuff actually stopping anything. But one of the key features of national security states and this BS GWOT is that it is nearly politically impossible to revert them. First because no one wants to be responsible if they reduce the national security apparatus and something happens. Secondly, because too many private interests end up supporting this crap. A lot of new GWOT measures are actually used more frequently to protect copyrights, harass immigrants, etc. |
04-09-2009, 10:40 AM | #29 (permalink) | ||||
... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.
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Let me put it this way, knowing where I stand on a lot of issues, do you think I'd be comfortable with the message at a tea party? Quote:
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At this point, I can't really think of anything that fits between "active, but useless" and "illegal". You said above: Quote:
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04-09-2009, 10:40 AM | #30 (permalink) | |
Lennonite Priest
Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA
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I somehow believe that cops and the military all have families suffering because of the failed economic and government policies and they are less likely to do much. They may even join. Podcast, have direct video to website coverage of your demonstrations... that way the people can see what is truly happening. Demand to be heard. We're at a cross roads, it's either stand up and do or cower and die. We may never again have a chance to stand up in a year or 2.
__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?" |
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04-09-2009, 10:43 AM | #31 (permalink) |
Crazy, indeed
Location: the ether
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Now, I would love to see the reaction of the crowd to an anti-GWOT speech at one of these tea parties. Considering that the major people pushing for them are people like Michele Malkin, Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck, all enthusiastic supporters of the GWOT.
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04-09-2009, 10:47 AM | #32 (permalink) |
Super Moderator
Location: essex ma
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that's the problem---this idiotic "war on terror" which is self-evidently still floating about (afghanistan anyone?) as the obama administration tries to work it's way through the clusterfuck left behind by the bush people---and this idiocy has been institutionalized in the "department of heimat security"...
the bizarre thing is not that this wiretap policy has continued (i which oppose--but i opposed and still oppose everything about this "war on terror" nonsense)...the interesting thing is that obama has started making moves to take the united states off the endless cold war model---you know, the military keynesianism that the right has used since reagan as it's preferred mode of massive state intervention in the economy--but because the right supported this, somehow it wasn't "statism" or anything else (pick your conservative meme)--it was "national security"---one result of this is that the extent of the patronage system that's been tied to the bloated unnecessary procurement policies that are of a piece with the imaginary eternal cold war are starting to make their way to washington for a huge fight over money and--here's the obvious kicker--jobs. i do not think these two things are unrelated: starting the process of dismantling the national security state--which has been around since the late 1940s---is happening in the name of a different type of warfare, which is now taken as paradigmatic--which is the "war on terror"...assymetrical conflict, unconventional war---not the stuff of empires. so i wonder about this relationship. but again: i oppose the wiretaps and the war in afghanistan and the nonsense of the "war on terror" that gave rise to it.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite |
04-09-2009, 11:02 AM | #33 (permalink) |
Lennonite Priest
Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA
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Will,
You are a passionate, intelligent young man who I am proud to call friend. Don't lose the passion. Tiring is what they want. They want people to believe what they do to speak out is going unheard and not changing anything.... they want people to become tired and thus shut up and sit down. But the longer you stand, the louder your voice grows, the more organized you become, the more people will follow, the more people come and follow and find their own voices.... the harder it becomes for government to say "shut up and sit down." The harder it becomes for government to do anything but listen. Find that inner strength Will, use that passion and intelligence and find that voice in you that can't be worn down.
__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?" |
04-09-2009, 11:19 AM | #34 (permalink) |
... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.
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I'm not tired at all, I've got the energy of a Kenyan soccer player, it's just about finding a constructive avenue for this drive and frustration. I'd like someone several measures smarter than I am to sit me down and tell me what I can do that stands a chance of changing things. For the time being, I'm okay with posting articles to reddit, putting videos on youtube, and continuing to write my representatives, but these things aren't even drops in the bucket. I want the hose.
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04-09-2009, 11:20 AM | #35 (permalink) |
Still Free
Location: comfortably perched at the top of the bell curve!
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I have several very liberal friends. In polling them today, they have all said what the (apparent) liberals on here are saying, "Yeah, this is sort of wrong and I'm pretty disappointed in this and, uh, I certainly hope he changes his mind on this eventually. But hey, he might know something we don't know..." These very same liberals (my friends) told me 6 months ago that they couldn't wait for Obama to win so Bush could be PROSECUTED for his illegal wiretaps. He should have been impeached for it, blah, blah, blah. I see an awful amount of wiggling in this thread too. Apparently, principles are tied to "R" and "D". Sorry, but I'm calling you guys out on this. Look back and truly recall the things you said regarding Bush doing it. THAT is exactly how you should feel about it now. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it.
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Gives a man a halo, does mead. "Here lies The_Jazz: Killed by an ambitious, sparkly, pink butterfly." |
04-09-2009, 11:39 AM | #36 (permalink) | |
Crazy, indeed
Location: the ether
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I mean, the people "blowing the whistle" on this are Olbermann, the daily kos, and other lefties... |
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04-09-2009, 11:40 AM | #37 (permalink) | |
Junkie
Location: bedford, tx
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do NOT let that officer, or officers, make an example out of one of your own. That is how you get marginalized, by not showing any teeth. The first time that a police officer puts his hands on a protester, he should get mobbed and beaten, and then the others that jump in should get mobbed and beaten. government bodies are not going to listen to you as long as you behave like little guinea pigs holding a damned sign. Once you threaten their base of power with your own, they will listen. Look at what happened after the BART shooting.
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"no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him." |
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04-09-2009, 11:49 AM | #38 (permalink) |
Super Moderator
Location: essex ma
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what you seem to miss, cimmaron, even in what you relay of your own friend's positions is that first the wiretapping business did not happen in isolation but as part and parcel of the central "policy" of the bush administration--the loopy "war on terror". your friends appear to have opposed the entirety of that fictional "war" (the effects of which were in many ways all too real)...obama has self-evidently changed the situation--he has broken up the logic, such as it was, of the bushwar--starting to actively wind down the iraq debacle, moving to close guantanomo, explicitly rejecting the bushjustifications for torture, rejecting the compulsion to secrecy that the bush people derived from their "war"...on and on. i happen to think that much of what the bush administration did can and should be understood as criminal--but the likelihood of any action is, sadly, slim to none. such is the nature of criminal action if you're el jeffe for a time.
it is a real problem for me and almost everyone i know that obama has chosen to retain other aspects of the bushwar---to act as if there is sense in continuing the conflict in afghanistan for example, to act as if there is sense in maintaining the wiretapping business. what you demand of those of us who are not on the right is a simple-minded black/white stand. personally, i don't consider the right to be relevant at this point, so see no need to take seriously any attempt coming from the conservative to impose anything on debate. so you can in this case see things as you like, but there's no particular reason for anyone who is not already in the same political camp to agree with the terms you'd like to set for it. at the same time, this breaking up of the bushwar logic at the level of policy as maybe put folk in a it of an awkward position--by separating the more outrageous and/or absurd aspects of the "war on terror" from others, the administration has broken up the old frame. i don't think you'll find *anyone* who identifies themselves as even a little on the left who supports what the obama administration has decided to do on wiretaps. just do a basic search and you'll get ample evidence of it. the point i tried to make above was that it seems to me that retaining this element of the "war on terror" nonsense should be thought about in the context of the administration's initial moves to attempt to dismantle to old, outmoded national security state--and so as a tactical thing connected to what appears to be its alternate plan for military strategy--and by extension procurement--which has to do with less conventional war--which is at the same time a wholesale rejection of the rumsfeld doctrine. but i still oppose it.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite |
04-09-2009, 11:53 AM | #39 (permalink) | |
Still Free
Location: comfortably perched at the top of the bell curve!
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I certainly can't look back and know the way each one of the posters here reacted to the Bush administration's actions, but I would be dollars to doughnuts that it was a bit more vitriolic than what we are witnessing here.
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Gives a man a halo, does mead. "Here lies The_Jazz: Killed by an ambitious, sparkly, pink butterfly." |
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04-09-2009, 11:54 AM | #40 (permalink) | |
Friend
Location: New Mexico
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As for the protesting, I believe the government should bend to the will of the people, not the other way around. Look at France, their government is terrified of its citizens. That's how it should be.
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“If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again.” - Bill O'Reilly "This is my United States of Whateva!" |
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continues, obama, warrantless, wiretaps |
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