Posted on 11/14/2002 3:44:40 PM PST by 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.
Well, I think I'll just sit this one out and let you'all work on the micro methods needed to solve a problem that may, at it's root, have a macro solution. Sure beats offering a libertarian non-solution to the inevitable alien invasion that perhaps mirrors the WOD. "It can't be done, but with enough money, we can get it done!" hahaha
The moon is landing? Link?
Sure they're doing everything right, but... they also want to keep Noam Chomsky and Gore Vidal in business!
That's their problem. The war is being fought now. If we can survive without another 9-11 for the next 4 years, then was not needed anyway. And, if it's as important as they say, it will be expedited.
It's one heck of a mess to be sure. The only thing that spared Clinton was the FBI files. But if they want us safe, first things first.
Just think though. We had Echelon during the Clinton years, while one of Clinton's flunkies, Kennedy [from Arksansas], was typing raw FBI files into his home PC on the kitchen table. Talk about kitchen table issues!
There isn't any evidence [I know of] that Echelon files were copied by the Clintonista, but in the long run, Echelon and Carnivore will do more harm than good. Smart terrorists will figure out how to bypass them. The not-so-smart will get caught. But those two programs will be around forever, for the next Clinton to plunder.
But of course! Don't you?
Bwahahahahaha!
Even though you're probably just trolling, Deb, I'll answer your question anyway. Remember that FBI agent who wondered why so many Middle-Eastern men were enrolled in flight schools? Intuition, Deb. Something a database will never give you. And remember what happened to her intitiution? It was squelched by middle-level bureaucracy layers in the FBI. Can't offend folks, you know.
That's just one example of street-level smarts being smothered. Likewise, the cops on the street during the DC sniper investigation were apparently doing their job - there were several entries in the sniper database for the Caprice in question. But either no one came up with a query to pull hits on license plates in excess of two occurences (which would remove most of the random background incidents and provide a workable investigative list, instead of just stopping every white van), or no one wanted to see that data, because, in the words of a police source, they were looking for a "white van with white people." Lack of intuition, so you had an investigation driven by bias instead.
Couple these events with a failure to adhere to immigration guidelines (most of the 9/11 hijackers should have been denied visas but the guidelines were overrridden, and Malvo should have been deported), and the immediate problem becomes clear - the feds simply aren't using the tools at hand, nor using the laws they already have. More laws and more tools will not change that fundamental problem.
I agree we need to get control of our borders, North and South...although how anyone is going to seal our Eastern and Western borders are beyond me...it's extremely easy to pilot a small boat into any part of the east coast. But I think these concerns about privacy are entirely overblown.
Do you ahve any idea how huge one day's database would be, let alone several years? I think your web history and e-mail privacy is secure unless you're plotting to kill the Pres. or blow up embassies. In that case I hope there's a sysytem in place to uncover those messages and track the sender and recipient.
Much as all it takes is a match to burn down a 100 year-old forest, the Beltway crowd of greedy opportunists have, almost overnight, clouded the future of this country by the mass importation of tens of millions of 3rd world peoples that have virtually no concept or connection whatsoever of the constitutional principles, rule of law, and system of governance that made America what it is.
It is staggering how this country has been debased by our insane immigration polices in just a couple of decades. Even more staggering is the number of so-called conservatives that actually attempt to defend or minimize what is going on.
The tide has apparently turned around on that..
I was told by a border patrol agent that they are under orders to make NO arrests. Michelle Malkin confirmed this order in her book.
Um, who's been in charge of the Executive branch of government for the past 2 years do ya think? I heard that it was a Republican..
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