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  Invelos Forums->General: General Discussion Page: 1... 4 5 6  Previous   Next
The Obama Comp Plan (Locked)
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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorCharlieM
Registered Sept 5 2005
Registered: May 20, 2007
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Posted:
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Quoting hydr0x:
Quote:
Quoting hal9g:
Quote:
Quoting skipnet50:
Quote:
Quoting hydr0x:
Quote:
Quoting skipnet50:
Quote:
"A person willing to sacrifice his liberty for security, deserves neither."
                                                                        Benjamin Franklin

Skip


someone should have told George W.


Name a single liberty that any citizen of the United States has been deprived of.

Skip


He can't! 


you mean I actually have to mention obvious examples like Guantanamo Bay?


What citizen  of the US lost their rights at GITMO?
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributornorthbloke
Registered: March 15, 2007
Reputation: High Rating
United Kingdom Posts: 5,459
Posted:
PM this user
Quoting hal9g:
Quote:
Quoting skipnet50:
Quote:
Quoting hydr0x:
Quote:
Quoting skipnet50:
Quote:
"A person willing to sacrifice his liberty for security, deserves neither."
                                                                        Benjamin Franklin

Skip


someone should have told George W.


Name a single liberty that any citizen of the United States has been deprived of.

Skip


He can't! 


Quote:
Sometime in early 2002, President Bush signs a secret executive order authorizing the National Security Agency (NSA) to wiretap phone conversations and read e-mails to and from US citizens. The order extends an operation set into motion at least as early as October 2001 to begin wiretapping US citizens’ phones in a response to the 9/11 attacks. When the program is revealed by the US media in late 2005 (see December 15, 2005), Bush and his officials will say the program is completely legal, though it ignores the requirements of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act (FISA) that requires the government to obtain court-issued warrants to mount surveillance against US citizens. They will insist that only those suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda, and then only when those individuals make or receive international communications, are monitored. As more information continues to come out about the program, these assertions will be increasingly called into question. [New York Times, 12/15/2005; Washington Post, 12/22/2005] In January 2006, the press will learn that the NSA wiretapping program began well before 9/11, obviating the justification that the Bush administration had to authorize the surveillance in response to the terrorist attacks (see Late 1999, February 27, 2000, December 2000, February 2001, February 2001, Spring 2001, and July 2001). Bush’s order details the NSA to monitor international telephone conversations and international e-mails of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of US citizens without court warrants, in an effort to track what officials call “dirty numbers” linked to al-Qaeda. When the program is finally revealed by the New York Times over three years later (see December 15, 2005, officials will say that the NSA still seeks warrants to monitor domestic communications. But there is little evidence of this (see, e.g., Spring 2001). The presidential order is a radical shift in US surveillance and intelligence-gathering policies, and a major realignment for the NSA, which is mandated to only conduct surveillance abroad. Some officials believe that the NSA’s domestic eavesdropping crosses constitutional limits on legal searches. “This is really a sea change,” a former senior official who specializes in national security law will say in December 2005. “It’s almost a mainstay of this country that the NSA only does foreign searches.” [New York Times, 12/15/2005]

and
Quote:
Internet service providers can be ordered to reveal the web sites and e-mail addresses that a suspect has communicated to or visited. The FBI need only inform a judge that the information is relevant to an investigation. [Village Voice, 11/26/2001; San Francisco Chronicle, 9/8/2002]

and
Quote:
The Patriot Act permits federal agents to secretly obtain information from booksellers and librarians about customers’ and patrons’ reading, internet and book-buying habits, merely by alleging that the records are relevant to an anti-terrorism investigation. The act prohibits librarians and booksellers from revealing these requests, so they cannot be challenged in court (see October 2, 2001).
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRifter
Reg. Jan 27, 2002
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Quoting whispering:
Quote:
Quoting Rifter:
Quote:
There is a huge difference between a "republic" which is what the US is, and a parliamentary democracy, which is what most of the countries in Europe are.  We elect not only our representatives and senators from each state, but we also elect the national leader, the president.  Parliamentary systems typically only have one house elected by the people.  The upper house is usually appointed, and the national leader is the prime minister, the head of the coalition party in power.  As we have seen over the years in Israel, a crisis of confidence in the PM can bring down the coalition and create a national emergency.

I live in the Republic of Finland. I vote for people for my city council (just few weeks ago actually), the parliament, president and the finnish MEPs to the European Parliament.

Quoting hal9g:
Quote:

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do themselves.



I liked that one.



You're missing my point.  Parliamentary systems are inherently weaker because you require coalitions to maintain your power base, and such coalitions are notoriously prone to falling apart.  The Brits and the Israelis both have a LOT of experience in that area of governance.  You're welcome to it, but I'll pass, thank you very much.
John

"Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice!" Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964
Make America Great Again!
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRifter
Reg. Jan 27, 2002
Registered: March 13, 2007
United States Posts: 2,694
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Quoting hydr0x:
Quote:
Quoting hal9g:
Quote:
Quoting skipnet50:
Quote:
Quoting hydr0x:
Quote:
Quoting skipnet50:
Quote:
"A person willing to sacrifice his liberty for security, deserves neither."
                                                                        Benjamin Franklin

Skip


someone should have told George W.


Name a single liberty that any citizen of the United States has been deprived of.

Skip


He can't! 


you mean I actually have to mention obvious examples like Guantanamo Bay?




And just what do you think is going on at Gitmo?  There are no US citizens there, and every one of the detainees is a prisoner of war.  You may have heard that Bin Laden's videographer got life in prison the other day at his trial.  Don't make the mistake of believing what the anti-war and anti-US media has been saying about Gitmo.  Every bit of it is pure BS.
John

"Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice!" Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964
Make America Great Again!
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRifter
Reg. Jan 27, 2002
Registered: March 13, 2007
United States Posts: 2,694
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Quoting sugarjoe:
Quote:
Quoting skipnet50:
Quote:

And please remove the United Nations from our land, we would appreciate it very much.
Skip


Why am I not surprised?

The loss of trust in the United States as a superpower is reinforced by its undisguised contempt for international organizations like the United Nations and for agreements like the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, as well as its relative unwillingness, as the world's biggest air polluter, to take the pressing problems of climate change seriously.



Oh please!  Why don't you guys get a new tune?  The UN is the most corrupt international organization to ever come down the pike.  It is nothing more than a hotbed of anti-US propaganda and is used as a platform to denigrate the US by a bunch of socialists and communists who bad mouth us at every opportunity on one hand, while holding out the other hand for handouts of food, medicine, and technical expertise.

Oh, by the way, the land and building (and the heat and lights, and maintenance) for the UN are provided at OUR expense, and they turn around and give us grief about paying dues.  Screw the UN, it is a waste of time and space just like the League of Nations was after WWI.
John

"Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice!" Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964
Make America Great Again!
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRifter
Reg. Jan 27, 2002
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Quoting SH84:
Quote:
Reporters were arrested and put in jail because they didn't name their sources. Or just filming on the sidewalk. That is no freedom of the press for me.



Reporters do not have the right to trespass on private property, nor can they harass people in the pursuit of news.  I don't know of a single reporter who has been forced to reveal sources if those sources were legitimate to start with.  That would get huge play here if it ever happened.  It hasn't.
John

"Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice!" Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964
Make America Great Again!
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile Registrantkdh1949
Have Gun Will Travel
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Quoting SH84:
Quote:
Reporters were arrested and put in jail because they didn't name their sources. Or just filming on the sidewalk. That is no freedom of the press for me.

Just because someone has been arrested doesn't mean his freedom to publish was threatened. Those reporters who were arrested had already printed something freely -- otherwise there would have been nothing of interest by the courts.  Freedom of the Press, as guaranteed by our Constitution, didn't automatically mean someone could withhold probative information from a court in a criminal or civil trial.  What gives the reporters and editors the freedom to withhold names of their sources was a series of laws called "shield" laws which when enacted guaranteed that the reporters sources were protected.  These, however, are State not Federal law.  What this means is that reporters are protected in State courts but not Federal courts.  This is a distinction that I don't want to go into here, other than to say that there are different crimes and misdemeanors handled by state and federal courts.

Until the shield laws were enacted, there was no protection from being required to reveal sources.  But this did not mean that the "Freedom of the Press" was infringed in those cases.  No one said that the information could not be printed.  And today, except for federal courts where there is no shield law, few cases of reporters being arrested occur and really few are successfully prosecuted.

With respect to people being arrested for filming on the sidewalk, few of these cases are successfully brought to prosecution, either.  I am not saying that such harassment isn't happening, or didn't happen in the past, but it isn't happening often and is usually overturned when it has happeed.

I wonder in how many other countries reporters are as free to pursue their craft as they are in the United States.  I doubt there are any countries where the media is any more free than the United States.  How free is the press in Germany?  Can a reporter publish material favorable to neo Nazi groups or advertise Nazi memorabilia for sale?  In the last 25 years or so, no one has been prevented the lunatic right-wing fringe in the USA (KKK, Aryan Nation, American Nazi Party, etc.) or lunatic left-wing groups or even just plain lunatics (Lyndon LaRouche) from publishing their hateful material or selling their hateful stuff.  But how much of THAT is allowed in Germany or any other industrialized country?  Hmmmm?
Another Ken (not Ken Cole)
Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges.
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 Last edited: by kdh1949
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRifter
Reg. Jan 27, 2002
Registered: March 13, 2007
United States Posts: 2,694
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Quoting northbloke:
Quote:
Quoting hal9g:
Quote:
Quoting skipnet50:
Quote:
Quoting hydr0x:
Quote:
Quoting skipnet50:
Quote:
"A person willing to sacrifice his liberty for security, deserves neither."
                                                                        Benjamin Franklin

Skip


someone should have told George W.


Name a single liberty that any citizen of the United States has been deprived of.

Skip


He can't! 


Quote:
Sometime in early 2002, President Bush signs a secret executive order authorizing the National Security Agency (NSA) to wiretap phone conversations and read e-mails to and from US citizens. The order extends an operation set into motion at least as early as October 2001 to begin wiretapping US citizens’ phones in a response to the 9/11 attacks. When the program is revealed by the US media in late 2005 (see December 15, 2005), Bush and his officials will say the program is completely legal, though it ignores the requirements of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act (FISA) that requires the government to obtain court-issued warrants to mount surveillance against US citizens. They will insist that only those suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda, and then only when those individuals make or receive international communications, are monitored. As more information continues to come out about the program, these assertions will be increasingly called into question. [New York Times, 12/15/2005; Washington Post, 12/22/2005] In January 2006, the press will learn that the NSA wiretapping program began well before 9/11, obviating the justification that the Bush administration had to authorize the surveillance in response to the terrorist attacks (see Late 1999, February 27, 2000, December 2000, February 2001, February 2001, Spring 2001, and July 2001). Bush’s order details the NSA to monitor international telephone conversations and international e-mails of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of US citizens without court warrants, in an effort to track what officials call “dirty numbers” linked to al-Qaeda. When the program is finally revealed by the New York Times over three years later (see December 15, 2005, officials will say that the NSA still seeks warrants to monitor domestic communications. But there is little evidence of this (see, e.g., Spring 2001). The presidential order is a radical shift in US surveillance and intelligence-gathering policies, and a major realignment for the NSA, which is mandated to only conduct surveillance abroad. Some officials believe that the NSA’s domestic eavesdropping crosses constitutional limits on legal searches. “This is really a sea change,” a former senior official who specializes in national security law will say in December 2005. “It’s almost a mainstay of this country that the NSA only does foreign searches.” [New York Times, 12/15/2005]

and
Quote:
Internet service providers can be ordered to reveal the web sites and e-mail addresses that a suspect has communicated to or visited. The FBI need only inform a judge that the information is relevant to an investigation. [Village Voice, 11/26/2001; San Francisco Chronicle, 9/8/2002]

and
Quote:
The Patriot Act permits federal agents to secretly obtain information from booksellers and librarians about customers’ and patrons’ reading, internet and book-buying habits, merely by alleging that the records are relevant to an anti-terrorism investigation. The act prohibits librarians and booksellers from revealing these requests, so they cannot be challenged in court (see October 2, 2001).


Sorry, 'bloke, but you're really out in the weeds on this one.  Many of the original provisions proposed for the original Patriot Act were dropped or modified in the version that eventually became the law.  The phone tap thing was ONLY invoked when someone OUTSIDE the US called a number IN the US.  None of those taps was initiated based on calls originating in the US.  Anyone who is on a watchlist has to have a court order backing up any wiretap, and that has always been the case.

By the way, Congress renewed the wiretap provisions after a long and bitter fight, primarily to protect the phone companies from retroactive prosecution for cooperating with the government after 9/11.
John

"Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice!" Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964
Make America Great Again!
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar Contributorhal9g
Who is John Galt?
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Quoting hydr0x:
Quote:
Quoting hal9g:
Quote:
Quoting skipnet50:
Quote:
Quoting hydr0x:
Quote:
Quoting skipnet50:
Quote:
"A person willing to sacrifice his liberty for security, deserves neither."
                                                                        Benjamin Franklin

Skip


someone should have told George W.


Name a single liberty that any citizen of the United States has been deprived of.

Skip


He can't! 


you mean I actually have to mention obvious examples like Guantanamo Bay?


Please name one American citizen being held there!
Hal
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar Contributorhal9g
Who is John Galt?
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Quoting SH84:
Quote:
Reporters were arrested and put in jail because they didn't name their sources. Or just filming on the sidewalk. That is no freedom of the press for me.


That has nothing to do with freedom of the press.

Where do you get your information from?
Hal
 Last edited: by hal9g
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorWinston Smith
Don't be discommodious
Registered: March 13, 2007
United States Posts: 21,610
Posted:
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Quoting skipnet50:
Quote:
Quoting hydr0x:
Quote:
Quoting skipnet50:
Quote:
"A person willing to sacrifice his liberty for security, deserves neither."
                                                                        Benjamin Franklin

Skip


someone should have told George W.


Name a single liberty that any citizen of the United States has been deprived of.

Skip



Still waiting.

Skip
ASSUME NOTHING!!!!!!
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Outta here

Billy Video
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile Registrantlmoelleb
Beer Profiler now!
Registered: March 14, 2007
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Quoting Rifter:
Quote:
And just what do you think is going on at Gitmo?  There are no US citizens there, and every one of the detainees is a prisoner of war. You may have heard that Bin Laden's videographer got life in prison the other day at his trial.

Please make up your mind. Prisoners of war are per definition not criminels and can't be punished for anything at all. They can be hold until the end of hostilities at which point they have to be released. You aren't even allowed to confiscate their mules.
Quote:


  Don't make the mistake of believing what the anti-war and anti-US media has been saying about Gitmo.  Every bit of it is pure BS.

Oh, it's probably a mix as usual - I do not beleive everything I read - both ways.But if everything going on at Gitmo was completely acceptable for a modern civilization, said civilization would probably not have had a problem with it happening on it's own soil.
Regards
Lars
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