Posted on 06/17/2013 10:26:16 AM PDT by jazusamo
Amid all the heated cross-currents of debate about the National Security Agency's massive surveillance program, there is a growing distrust of the Obama administration that makes weighing the costs and benefits of the NSA program itself hard to assess.
The belated recognition of this administration's contempt for the truth, for the American people and for the Constitution of the United States, has been long overdue.
But what if the NSA program has in fact thwarted terrorists and saved many American lives in ways that cannot be revealed publicly?
Nothing is easier than saying that you still don't want your telephone records collected by the government. But the first time you have to collect the remains of your loved ones, after they have been killed by terrorists, telephone records can suddenly seem like a small price to pay to prevent such things.
The millions of records of phone calls collected every day virtually guarantee that nobody has the time to listen to them all, even if NSA could get a judge to authorize listening to what is said in all these calls, instead of just keeping a record of who called whom.
Moreover, Congressional oversight by members of both political parties limits what Barack Obama or any other president can get away with.
Are these safeguards foolproof? No. Nothing is ever foolproof.
As Edmund Burke said, more than two centuries ago: "Constitute government how you please, infinitely the greater part of it must depend upon the exercise of the powers which are left at large to the prudence and uprightness of ministers of state."
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
I haven’t “trusted” in the government for a long, long time.
Even the greatest minds trip over their own feet occasionally.
....in order to loose it, you have to first gain it. He’s done everything possible to make sure he never deserved it.
Correct...The only ones having trust in him are those looking for his next handout.
They could not possibly be using the data to track terrorists. If they were, they would have thwarted the Boston bombing.
“When Barack Obama squanders his own credibility with his glib lies, he is not just injuring himself during his time in office. He is inflicting a lasting wound on the country as a whole.”
This is a good message, but I’m trouble by some of the other views in the article. A VERY rare occurrence for Sowell.
Incidentally, if tapping our phones could lead to a 1% reduction of the highway fatality rate, would most people accept it? Of course not. How about preventing a 9-11 every 10 years? Of course (to many)! But the lives saved is quite the same. Think about it.
Plus didn’t they get the memo that the info was harnessed not necessarily for national security but for re-election political purposes! Makes perfect sense, as well, why are they casting such a large net, when they could focus on the Tsaarnoarez (or whatever their names are) brother types?? We’ll never believe our government again, as to what their intentions are, as long as the democRATs are in power, I think.
Sorry Dr. Sowell, the 4th does not get stripped by any ‘national security’....as if Big Gov’t were actively trying to protect We the People to begin (see open Southern Border, current RoE for troops, Boston bombing, etc.).
Come back to the starting line and try making a case again.
Sowell’s argument begs the question. He assumes that the surveillance state protected us. He argues that the govt can’t talk about its successes. Maybe not, but it’s failures, e.g. Boston Marathon, stand out in stark relief. Furthermore, the govt attempted to justify itself, only to have its claim blown out of the water within minutes, as usual by foreign newspapers, not US.
Sowell is wrong on this one.
One of the few places I have to disagree with the great Dr. Sowell.
The Democrat party is so thoroughly evil that they will never limit BO's attempts to install a full-blown dictatorship so long as they get a sufficient piece of the action.
And the GOP leadership is too gutless to exercise their power to check and balance beyond holding kabuki theater style hearings.
In theory, what he says is absolutely correct. In practice, it won't happen unless either (a)enough Democrats grow a conscience or (b)enough Republicans grow a spine.
Trust in government evaporated for me in November, 1963 when Lyndon Johnson and some of his CIA/Mafia/NSA friends shot their way into the White House...and our esteemed media went along with the lies.
This isn’t new...but it is accelerating quickly now.
And I’ll add that BO’s regime sees Al Qaida and terrorism as nothing more that tools which he can use to grow the size and power of government. He doesn’t even view them as enemies. To him, the real enemies are the TEA Party, conservatives and those who oppose his vision of all powerful government managed from the top down.
Yep, and I don’t see either a or b happening anytime soon.
I am of the Opinion that Barack Hussein Obama WANTS TO destroy the countrey- I think the brilliant Dr. Sowell has not yet accepted that 100%. This is what causes me to differ on this article with him.
A great and saintly man in charge of a socialist government could possibly make it work, only by being and doing God’s work. (REAL God’s work- not the made-up feel-good give me your money and let me spend it liberal type of work)
But an evil man in charge of capitalism can only make it fail on purpose.
” One of the few places I have to disagree with the great Dr. Sowell.”
I know......hell just froze over : )
Yep. There is no opposition party. There is no Republican Party. There is now just one party. The Traitor Party.
The 4th isn’t optional.
Et Tu, Dr. Sowell?
Are we all so spoiled that we cannot enforce the Constitution?
Our safety is not guaranteed by phone tapping.
Our safety is not guaranteed by the Constitution, for that matter.
We have a right to privacy.
Are the families of the World Trade Center bombing more equal?
Are they the new arbitors of legality?
What do they know?
For me, now I'm a "senior", it would go back to the Eisenhower administration.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.