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Germans Loved Obama. Now We Don’t Trust Him.
New York Times ^ | 07/01/2013 | By Malte Spitz, Green Party

Posted on 07/01/2013 12:12:19 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

BERLIN — IN May 2010, I received a brown envelope. In it was a CD with an encrypted file containing six months of my life. Six months of metadata, stored by my cellphone provider, T-Mobile. This list of metadata contained 35,830 records. That’s 35,830 times my phone company knew if, where and when I was surfing the Web, calling or texting.

The truth is that phone companies have this data on every customer. I got mine because, in 2009, I filed a suit against T-Mobile for the release of all the data on me that had been gathered and stored. The reason this information had been preserved for six months was because of Germany’s implementation of a 2006 European Union directive.

All of this data had to be kept so that law enforcement agencies could gain access to it. That meant that the metadata of 80 million Germans was being stored, without any concrete suspicions and without cause.

This “preventive measure” was met with huge opposition in Germany. Lawyers, journalists, doctors, unions and civil liberties activists started to protest. In 2008, almost 35,000 people signed on to a constitutional challenge to the law. In Berlin, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest data retention. In the end, the Constitutional Court ruled that the implementation of the European Union directive was, in fact, unconstitutional.

In Germany, whenever government begins to infringe on individual freedom, society stands up. Given our history, we Germans are not willing to trade in our liberty for potentially better security. Germans have experienced firsthand what happens when government knows too much about someone. In the past 80 years, Germans have felt the betrayal of neighbors who informed for the Gestapo and the fear that best friends might be potential informants for the Stasi.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Germany; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: germany; greenieweenie; greenparty; liberalism; mentaldisorder; nsa; obama; spying
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1 posted on 07/01/2013 12:12:19 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

To the headline: they do?


2 posted on 07/01/2013 12:13:53 PM PDT by svcw (Stand or die)
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To: SeekAndFind

Did the author love Obama enough to vote for him?

Being a citizen doesn’t matter anymore. Obama will take anyone’s donation or vote.

“YES WE CAN!”
“YES WE CAN!”
“YES WE CAN!”


3 posted on 07/01/2013 12:17:45 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
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To: SeekAndFind

Sort of like that other guy. What was his name?
Began with an H.


4 posted on 07/01/2013 12:24:59 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: SeekAndFind

Germans loved Hitler. Then came the Nuremburg Trials and all of a sudden they hated him. Get the picture?


5 posted on 07/01/2013 12:28:21 PM PDT by veritas2002
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To: veritas2002

Many liberals would cheer Obama on if he started rounding up conservatives. Many liberals thought it was perfectly fine for the IRS to target conservative groups.


6 posted on 07/01/2013 12:35:31 PM PDT by laplata (Liberals don't get it. Their minds have been stolen.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Saugers!


7 posted on 07/01/2013 12:38:15 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: All armed conservatives.)
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To: veritas2002

“Germans loved Hitler.”

In 1936 so did a lot of Americans including the Democrats who made a point of copying a lot of Hitler’s programs and policies.


8 posted on 07/01/2013 12:48:33 PM PDT by MeganC (A gun is like a parachute. If you need one, and don't have one, you'll never need one again.)
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To: veritas2002
Then came the Nuremburg Trials and all of a sudden they hated him.

I think they began to hate Adolf while they were shivering under massive piles of rubble, trying to avoid rapists from the Red Army.


9 posted on 07/01/2013 12:49:16 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: laplata

“Many liberals would cheer Obama on if he started rounding up conservatives.”

You’re right. I hear this kind of thing all the time. The counterpoint to this is that I won’t shed any tears for any of these liberals who get rounded up by a right-wing dictator if that comes to pass.

You reap what you sow.


10 posted on 07/01/2013 12:50:16 PM PDT by MeganC (A gun is like a parachute. If you need one, and don't have one, you'll never need one again.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Still, they don’t really get the danger Obama’s Presidency presents to them or to the USA.


11 posted on 07/01/2013 12:52:49 PM PDT by elhombrelibre
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To: SeekAndFind

Germans have experienced firsthand what happens when government knows too much about someone.

And so have we.


12 posted on 07/01/2013 12:53:41 PM PDT by Vaduz
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To: SeekAndFind

History; it WILL repeat itself.


13 posted on 07/01/2013 12:57:53 PM PDT by polymuser ("We have a right to debate and disagree with any administration!" (HRC))
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To: MeganC

I won’t shed any tears for the liberals when SHTF. .


14 posted on 07/01/2013 1:13:09 PM PDT by laplata (Liberals don't get it. Their minds have been stolen.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Sie waren Dumkopfen!!

Er list win Schweinhund!!


15 posted on 07/01/2013 1:19:40 PM PDT by ZULU ((See: http://gatesofvienna.net/) Obama, do you hear me?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Another person they loved....Hitler. Amazing the similarity’s between them.


16 posted on 07/01/2013 1:24:18 PM PDT by ColdOne (I miss my poochie... Tasha 2000~3/14/11)
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To: SeekAndFind
"This just in: Germans still love David Hasselhoff."


17 posted on 07/01/2013 1:25:29 PM PDT by Yo-Yo
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To: SeekAndFind

I don’t give a rat’s as* what Germans think. They pose and pretend to be such profound political thinkers but supported this sickening clown we have as pResident. They can start making amends by apologizing for their stupidity.


18 posted on 07/01/2013 2:48:22 PM PDT by Amberdawn
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To: SeekAndFind

Germans do seem to be exceptionally prone to buyers remorse in their decisions about leaders.


19 posted on 07/02/2013 11:49:44 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Doing the same thing and expecting different results is called software engineering.)
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To: veritas2002
...Germans are not willing to trade in our liberty for potentially better security.

They just "traded in" the liberty of others for it.

When the band plays "Hail to the Cheif", they're pointing the cannon at you.


20 posted on 07/02/2013 12:00:18 PM PDT by ex91B10 (We've tried the Soap Box,the Ballot Box and the Jury Box; ONE BOX LEFT!)
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