Posted on 06/11/2013 12:49:03 PM PDT by cotton1706
Sen. Lindsey Graham would propose censoring Americans' "snail" mail if he thought it would help protect national security, the South Carolina Republican said Tuesday. But for now, he says he doesn't think it's necessary.
Faced with questions about the disclosure that the National Security Agency has been collecting phone and email records of citizens, Graham pointed to a World War II-era program in which the federal government censored mail. He said it was appropriate at the time and that he would support reinstating the program if it aided security efforts.
"In World War II, the mentality of the public was that our whole way of life was at risk, we're all in. We censored the mail. When you wrote a letter overseas, it got censored. When a letter was written back from the battlefield to home, they looked at what was in the letter to make sure they were not tipping off the enemy," Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill. "If I thought censoring the mail was necessary, I would suggest it, but I don't think it is."
The Guardian newspaper revealed last week details of a government surveillance program enacted in response to terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, that secretly collects digital communication data from U.S. citizens. The source who provided the information to The Guardian, a Hawaii-based former government contractor named Edward Snowden, fled to Hong Kong and his whereabouts are currently unknown.
The new details about the program have sparked a debate over civil liberties and the extent of lawful government surveillance. On Tuesday, Graham suggested that Americans should be more willing to give up certain civil liberties to prevent future terrorist attacks.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
This guy is unhinged to make any comment like that. I guess he was absent the days they taught the constitution when he was in school, if they even did teach it.
Try it, dork.
"[N]o mystical, Messianic movement -- and particularly not that of the Kremlin -- can face frustration indefinitely without eventually adjusting itself in one way or another to the logic of that state of affairs.
"Thus the decision will really fall in large measure in this country itself. The issue of Soviet-American relations is in essence a test of the overall worth of the United States as a nation among nations. To avoid destruction the United States need only measure up to its own best traditions and prove itself worthy of preservation as a great nation.
"Surely, there was never a fairer test of national quality than this. In the light of these circumstances, the thoughtful observer of Russian-American relations will find no cause for complaint in the Kremlin's challenge to American society. He will rather experience a certain gratitude to a Providence which, by providing the American people with this implacable challenge, has made their entire security as a nation dependent on their pulling themselves together and accepting the responsibilities of moral and political leadership that history plainly intended them to bear."
Unfortunately, the leadership of the US - Republican and Democrat - does not "measure up". And, like it or not, the world's judgment of America's worthiness has faded.
source: George Kennan, "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" (1947)
They are infinitely more dangerous than the Taliban.
Interesting that this should come up. I was doing some random reading last night and came across a reference to Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder (”Little House on the Prairie”, etc.) Lane was an author and a noted libertarian writer in the mid-20th century.
In 1943 she sent in a postcard in response to a radio poll seeking opinions on Social Security. She wrote that she thought it was a ponzi scheme that would eventually destroy the country. Soon afterward, the FBI requested that a Connecticut State Trooper be sent out to her house to question her about what exactly she meant. Lane responded by unleashing a series of newspaper articles on how freedom of speech was being endangered and also authored a pamphlet called “What is this? The Gestapo?”
Good for her.
Graham would support censoring the mail for national security purposes. Ostensibly, that was what what the World War II era censoring was about. But we see that it was also used to attempt to intimidate and silence a vocal critic of domestic policy.
There is nothing new under the sun.
Exactly. In 1942, we didn't import 10,000 Japanese students and 200,000 German immigrants to justify mail censorship.
Of course you would, you compromised little worm.
The problem is, this government is so big, so politicized and so perverted in its intents, the censorship would begin and never end... and political enemies of those in power would suffer.
Good God, this country is turning to shit.
He is a scurrilous little punk. He is almost as bad as Obama.
If I thought NOT tarring and feathering this POS had any socialy redeeming quality, I would not have suggested it...
Hey, all you incredibly dumb and uninformed Americans, I’m Lindsey Graham. I’m a really, really, REALLY smart lawyer from South Carolina. Almost as smart as John Edwards and Elena Kagan.
Because I am from South Carolina, some of you uninformed BIGOTS might call me a “cracker.”
Actually, that suits me just fine because that would make me a Graham Cracker. So if you don’t like my position (most often bent over Obama’s or Harry Reid’s desk) on globull warming, immigration, the Kagan nomination or those OTHER unimportant issues (I slept through those classes on factual evidence in law school) – because I AM a Graham Cracker -- y'all can
BITE ME!
It's not about YOUR SAFETY, it's about the safety of THOSE who are in HIGH POSITIONS OF POWER in our nation.
“@GrahamBlog @LindseyGrahamSC
Both are valid if twitter users would like to join me inviting the pathetic coward to become a democrat or resign”
Already have and threw in a few other thoughts for this panty waist. Now I’m waiting for the SS to pay me a visit.
https://www.facebook.com/LindseyGrahamSC?fref=ts
Will he pay the bills for me?
I told him to go ahead and sic his NSA protectors on me.
Must be official. He has come out of the closet....as a Liberal Democrat.
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