I Have a Bone To Pick with GW Bush

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

William Safire's editorial today is heating up an important debate. There are two camps: "This is war." vs. "This is Orwellian." I want to open a third camp. "This is ridiculous."

Our borders are wide open. Terrorists could blindside us at will. The foreign threats are much greater than the domestic threats in this war of terrorism. So naturally, we do NOTHING about that. Instead, we strip away our privacies. Sorry. That doesn't fly. If it were truly important to take away our privacy, the borders would have been secured a year ago.

It appears that it is easier to ask us to live in fish bowls than to tell illegal immigrants that we cannot afford to have such loose border control anymore. It appears to be a political calculation. Does that not reduce the lost privacy aspect to nothing but political calculations? Which is more important? Our safety? Or as Dick Morris says it, the 'browning of America'? But hey, the 'browning of America' ends when the borders are secure. Thus, the ridiculousness aspect only grows.

GW Bush is well intentioned, I'm sure. But his political calculations reveal that taking away our privacy can't be all that important, if he isn't willing to tick off parts of the Hispanic community by securing our borders.

This is my suggestion, for what it's worth:

1. First seal the borders.

2. Mention a timeline for this lost privacy. No 'continuation triggers' either. Settle for 4 years of this lost privacy. Then destroy the data of all non-suspects. Only keep data of suspects that is deemed worth keeping by a warrant.

3. Non-citizens can be monitored and that info can be filed at will. Americans generally would like that idea.

4. Put someone in charge other than Poindexter. Why give ammo to the desperate DNC? It makes no sense.

If GW fails to heed this advice, I forsee political havoc. And I will be a part of it.

[ApesForEvolution]

Walls keep people out AND keep people in. Don Duong is experiencing a 'wall' of sorts in communist vietnam and is prevented from leaving. Could you conceive of a day, say with communists/democr@ps in control and the constitution irrelevant, in which patriots might need to pass across the border? I prefer SEVERE FINES for governments in the form of TRADE TARIFFS and other instruments aimed at crippling their finances for each foreign national found illegally in this country. The problem will end when we severely punish the illegals and the nations allowing them to get here.

[ApesForEvolution]

Walls keep people out AND keep people in. Don Duong is experiencing a 'wall' of sorts in communist vietnam and is prevented from leaving. Could you conceive of a day, say with communists/democr@ps in control and the constitution irrelevant, in which patriots might need to pass across the border? I prefer SEVERE FINES for governments in the form of TRADE TARIFFS and other instruments aimed at crippling their finances for each foreign national found illegally in this country. The problem will end when we severely punish the illegals and the nations allowing them to get here.

[janetgreen]

The problem will end when we severely punish the illegals and the nations allowing them to get here

You're right! And most of us will be dead and gone before our politically correct, slave-labor greedy, vote-greedy politicians will even speak of it.

[dirtboy]

Very good point. We need this data base to sunset.

It'll take them four years to settle on a database technology ... that's three years old and one year obsolete. The main threat to privacy IMO is the claim (which I have not seen verified yet) that the Homeland Security bill would allow the feds to search financial and medical records without a warrant. We've been discussing this topic quite a bit today.

[dirtboy]

"this is war", "This is Orwellian" I offer possiblity #3 "this is totalitartian"

I offer possibility #4 - this is totally nuts. The feds can't even redesign the IRS computer systems, where 90+percent of the data coming in has a matching key, either SSN or TIN. And they think they can create a massive database, probably on the order of tens of petabytes in scale, that can allow them to wallow through thousands if not millions of data feeds that must be matched without a common linking key, and use data modelling of a sophistication that does not yet exist, to find a couple of terrorist cells, when they couldn't even friggin' run a SQL query on the DC sniper database to determine that they should check out that Caprice that was entered several times?

What the feds need to do is can the crap. Their problem is not a lack of a huge database. Their problem is not a lack of information. Their problem is the stinkin' PC mindset and reliance on technology over old-fashioned human intel, investigation and intuition. They don't need a bigger database. They need an attitude adjustment.

[ApesForEvolution]

We will be living under a new, spanish-speaking Estados Unidos de Norto Mehico before our children pass the way it's shaping up now...

[TomServo]

What the feds need to do is can the crap. Their problem is not a lack of a huge database. Their problem is not a lack of information. Their problem is the stinkin' PC mindset and reliance on technology over old-fashioned human intel, investigation and intuition. They don't need a bigger database. They need an attitude adjustment.

Bump...

[budwiesest]

We'll be safe when rogue nationalist idiots fear us. No sooner. We'll be equally safe when rouge (can't follow the constitution) politicians fear us. 'till then it's CYA.

[Darlin']

Ooooooh-kay, lets look at your step one:

1. First seal the borders.

Explain exactly how you'd go about that, for how long and what you estimate the cost would be. Assuming you mean our borders to the north and south, what about our coastlines ?

[WoofDog123]

*2. Mention a timeline for this lost privacy. No 'continuation triggers' either. Settle for 4 years of this lost privacy. Then destroy the data of all non-suspects. Only keep data of suspects that is deemed worth keeping by a warrant. *

While I like the rest of your suggestions, I believe this one is naive in the extreme. The government never destroys ANY data, and would certainly not comply with a law requiring destruction of data with such encompassing uses.

If they are allowed to compile this data, it is there forever, for every successor administration to use to its own advantage.

[budwiesest]

1. First seal the borders.

May I?

Physical borders are merely a distraction. They contribute to the confusion which surrounds the true invasion- that being the trampling of the Bill of Rights, the limits placed upon our government by the Constitution, and the losses of freedom and liberty that have accompanied this invasion.

We, being about the last bastion of places willing to protect natural (God-given) rights, must always find ourselves at odds with those whose mission it appears to be the denying of them. Politicians and foreigner alike must be thwarted in their efforts to undermine our most sacred bond.

What we lack in border patrol may be one tenth what we lack in liberty patrol. Pass it on.

[WoofDog123]

*micro chip all immigrants and visa holders...make it a requirement *

Once they establish such a precedent, it is only a matter of time until it is extended to all newborns in the US.

[secretagent]

They could just type in "terrorist" and see what Google returns.

[Darlin']

I ask for answers and you give me Libertarian talking points. Obviously, you have no viable solutions you only want to complain. Thank you but no, thank you. Not interested.

[Deb]

Yeah, questioning Bush would be like questioning THE MOON LANDING!!!!

(((((paging all Birchers)))))

Your leader calls.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

Do you all know what exactly these intrusive laws are, when did they pass, who wrote them. Sounds to me like Safire is just running off at the mouth. I need to know more.

[Deb]

I hope they didn't shut down Echelon or Carnivore, but since the feds know when the terrorists are talking to each other, we can assume they're still up. Thank God (and no thanks to you) .

Why don't you draw up and submit to the WH, a list of acceptable policies and devices that will stop the thousands of maniacal terrorists, currently in or country, who would like to turn you and your family into crunchy landfill. The phones are waiting.

I don't think you addressed the sleeper cell problem.

[Deb]

We say...Build a wall, dammit!!!

Janet Reno preferred a little dyke.

[Deb]

Yeah...you tell 'em!!! What we need is more government intuition!!!

You're a genius!!! How does it work, anyway? Kinda like "The Think System"?

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

William Safire wrote an editorial that our privacy will be completely shredded.

Too late!! My privacy is already completely shredded. Everyone's got my social security number, my birthdate, my address, my mother's maiden name, my bank balance, my credit rating (which is excellent, BTW), my reading preferences (Amazon tracks my every move and offers me suggestions based on what I look at), my medical records, etc.

The only thing they don't all have is my phone number. Only the telemarketers have that, and they call me relentlessly.

So, really, in truth, I have no privacy at all. I like to think that I do, but I don't.

The goal is to eventually have all this information on file -- a national database with millions of pieces of information about us all. What they intend to do with all this information, I don't know. But it won't be to our benefit, I can tell you that.