Fear and the surveillance law

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 2-18-08 | Bob Barr

[live+let_live]

“if fighting terrorism is the goal” —RE: Survellance Cameras

Yeah, makes one wonder if fighting terrorism is the goal.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759

I wasn't aware that the privacy of communications with foreign countries was an "Essential Liberty".

[live+let_live]

“Just like most left wingers”

You should read up on the author.

[Joe 6-pack]

"True, but it's not GOP pols and apparatchiks the 'Rats need to worry about. It's the rest of us."

If "the rest of us" were playing the role our founders had envisioned for us, the tar and feathers would have come out a long time ago.

[XR7]

See #20 above.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

I don’t know what sort of black helicopter world Bob Barr lives in.

This is no different from eavesdropping on the Russian Embassy in D.C.

I don’t suppose he thinks that is also unconstitional.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

#20 doesn’t mean anything.

Due process applied to real time intelligence collection is an oxymoron.

[Emperor Palpatine]

I used to respect Bob Barr. Now I consider him a traitor.

[Emperor Palpatine]

You oughtta hear the looney-tune Paulines on some other threads scream that very same thing at us.

[LiteKeeper]

How brain dead is this person?

[Just another Joe]

I trust the government about as far as I can throw, "The Whale" Ted Kennedy.
Which means I don't trust the government very far.

I trust certain PEOPLE within the government but the government itself, which could be Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, or (gasp) even Communist.
They're all theoretically possible.

How much power are you willing to give a Democratic or Communist government?

[Sandy]

What the government does not have any longer is the legal power to listen in to any international phone call or e-mail transmission made to or from any person, so long as one party is not in the United States - no suspicion of illegal or terrorist activity; just a suspicion that one person is outside the country.

This isn't even accurate. The government still has this legal power, as long as the eavesdropping occurs outside the United States. The only thing the government can't do is intercept the calls from inside the United States. The hyperbole on both sides of this issue always so ridiculous. Can't anybody ever talk about this matter without being wrong or just making stuff up?

[Aegedius]

Bob Barr is the example to prove that -— sometime, somewhere, when you least expect it, dementia can strike. Sad.

The real irrational fear is the fear that someone in a green eyeshade is listening to one’s phone calls.