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 ...
A disappointing column from Sowell.
A forgery. If Obama knew that someone else filled out the form, then that is fraud and Obama is a liar, and he should be impeached
How did I come to my conclusion that Obama stayed in California? I studied an article written in 2009 about Obama’s friends at Occidental in California his freshman year.
A poster here recently suggested that we read it.
(NOTE: According to google, Red Steel at Free Republic quoted the entire article on May 15, 2008.)
I will not quote the whole article here.
I will quote those parts that show that Obama’ 1980 Selective Service form that we see on the internet is a forgery and those parts that show that Obama was in California the entire summer of 1980.
cbs AP/ June 18, 2009, 6:26 PM
Recalling Obama’s Younger Days
“Obama in the eyes of some right wingers is basically Muslim until proved innocent,” says Margot Mifflin, a friend from Occidental who is now a journalism professor at New York's Lehman College. “It's partly the Muslim factor by association and partly the fear of something being twisted.” The young man Mifflin remembers was “an unpretentious, down to earth, solidly middle-class guy who seemed somewhat more sophisticated than the average college student. He was slightly reserved and deliberate in a way that I sometimes thought betrayed an uncertainty.”
But another former Oxy classmate, Robert McCrary, now general manager of a contract sewing company, saw him differently: “He definitely had a cocky, sometimes arrogant way about him. ... He was not open to others.” Of course, he was only 18 when he arrived at the small liberal arts college nicknamed “Oxy.”
His freshman roommates were Imad Husain, a Pakistani, who's now a Boston banker, and Paul Carpenter, now a Los Angeles lawyer. Carpenter recalled Obama as “a good bodysurfer” who had “a funky red car, a Fiat,” and who also played intramurals &- flag football, tennis and water polo. “He was an athletic guy. He was gifted in that regard,” said Carpenter. He also remembered Obama being “super bright. He could get through the course work in a fraction of the time it took me.”
Obama had an international circle of friends - “a real eclectic sort of group,” says Vinai Thummalapally, who himself came from Hyderabad, India.
As a freshman, he quickly became friends with Mohammed Hasan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid, two wealthy Pakistanis. There were others, Thummalapally recalls: a French student and both black and white Americans, including Jon K. Mitchell, who later played bass for country-swing band Asleep at the Wheel (Mitchell remembers that Obama wore puka shell necklaces all the time, though they were not in style, and that “we let it slide because he spent a lot of time growing up in Hawaii.”)
The friends got together often to watch basketball games - they were Lakers fans - and eat the southern Indian food that Thummalapally cooked with his cousin.
There was serious talk, too. Obama had concerns about U.S. foreign policy - including the failed hostage rescue mission in Iran under Jimmy Carter, and American support of the Contras in Latin America.
Thummalapally lived with Obama the summer of 1980. The two ran together daily, three miles in the early morning, often chatting about their dreams. Thummalapally wanted to start a business back home; Obama talked about helping people.
********
1. Obama drove a red Fiat at Occidental. This means that Obama had eiher an Hawaiian or California license in 1979-1980, unless he was driving around Southern California without a license during that period.
2. Importance of Obama driver license: The person who filled out Obama’s Selective Service form in Hawaii on July 29,1980 had no identification: No Social Security card. No driver's license. no Occidental id card. Strange.
3. “ Thummalapally lived with Obama the summer of 1980. The two ran together daily, three miles in the early morning, often chatting about their dreams. Thummalapally wanted to start a business back home; Obama talked about helping people.”
Thummalapally: Anyone know where he is today? He obviously knows if Obama visited Hawaii in the summer 1980, because he lived with Obama during the summer of 1980.
4. Lived together and ran together daily.....not in Hawaii, but IN CALIFORNIA!
5. No mention of Obama going back to Hawaii. Can't be much clearer than that: Obama was in California for the entire summer of 1980, so there was no way for him to have filled out his Selective Service form on July 29, 1980. Someone else must have done it for him.
What about girls in Southern California at that time? I bet there are plenty women today who remember Obama being in Southern California during the summer of 1980, some of whom must have visited Obama at his apartment. Where are you? Be brave and tell us what you know.
What about local bars and restaurants? I bet obama and his friends visited some of them in Southern California during the summer of 1980.
If you remember Obama frequenting restaurants and bars in Southern California during the summer of 1980, let us know. Speak up as a brave citizen of the United States who wants to do what is right.
6. What I also found impressive about the article was this: The wealth of names from Obama'sOccidental days who would know how Obama spent his summer of 1980, especially when there is no record of Obama holding a job from his first day at Occidental until he graduated from Columbia 4 years later.
Are we to blindly and naively accept the idea that Obama supported himself during his 4 years in college simply with college loan money and some mysterious scholarships, scholarships that no one can find anything about? Give me a break.
7. The names of Obama friends from Occidental in the article are below. Investigators and reporters should put pressure on these people to tell us where Obama was during that summer of 1980. These friends can't hide behind federal privacy laws like Obama can.
Paul Carpenter, freshman roommate,Los Angeles Lawyer
Mohammed Hasan Chandroo
Wahid Hamid
Imad Hussain, freshman roommate, Boston banker
Robert McCrary
Margot Miffin, professor, Lehman college, New York
Jon R. Mitchell, later country band member
Andrew Roth
Vinai Thummalapally from Hyderabad, India; lived with Obama during summer of 1980
8. Hawaii summer 1980: If none of the people above can put Obama in Hawaii on July 29, 1980 when his Selective Service form was filled out, then Obama is a fraud and a liar and needs to be impeached.
It’s not trust, not anymore.
We sincerely believe that Obama, Holder, Umma et. al. are in fact WORKING FOR THE OTHER SIDE (name your issue, it doesn’t matter).
It’s not trust, not anymore.
We sincerely believe that Obama, Holder, Umma et. al. are in fact WORKING FOR THE OTHER SIDE (name your issue, it doesn’t matter).
If Obama was not president and there was not a Democrat criminal enterprise running the IRS and treacherously implementing tyranny, The NSA might be trusted.
It is not the NSA that is bad, it is the tyrants
Terrorists is a subjective term.
This is the first time in my life I have disagreed with Thomas Sowell. Actually, it is not disagreement but a confusing of the issue.
These extraordinary powers are for the expressed purpose of protecting us from terrorist attacks. Trusting the politicians not to abuse the extraordinary powers is just as it appears, foolish.
Loving one’s country is patriotic … trusting one’s government is just plain foolish.
It was, as vanishingly rare an occurrence as such a thing is.
Thanks for the Ping, jaz.
There exist frequent strong incentives for those in power to target those who are harmless but can easily be demonized, or those who legitimately oppose those in power, while ignoring those who would actually endanger lawful society and legitimate governance. One should not expect that those in power will consistently target those who endanger lawful society given that there are powerful incentives to do otherwise. Such a statement does not imply that those in power today are particularly dishonorable, but rather that institutions where such incentives exist are almost invariably shaped by them over time.
Lordy! Is my hero, Dr. Sowell, moving into "trade a little freedom for security" territory?
Moreover, Congressional oversight by members of both political parties limits what Barack Obama or any other president can get away with.
Yoiks! There is no controlling legal authority willing to stop O'bambi, and recognizing that, he has pulled out all the stops. He is surrounded by his castle walls, which comprise every mozlim brohood thug and Chicago gangster he could recruit. Sitting on the parapet is Eric Holder, he who knows nothing. O'bambi is untouchable.
(sigh) You are correct.
I was only 11 at the time, but that changed me.
Well, I was just a child then, and toasted President Eisenhower with a glass of milk every day with Big Brother Bob Emery.
Now, of course, we must toast Obama with Soma (I know...Big Brother was from 1984, and Soma is from Brave New World, but obama has manged to combine both dystopic scenarios.)
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Are you still killing your unborn? -- GOD |
the GOP leadership is too gutless
No; but the Newtown parents are.
Didja know that the day that mass shooting happened, approximately 46 children were choiced to death in Massachusetts by choosey mothers?
I don’t doubt that
This is a good message, but I’m trouble by some of the other views in the article. A VERY rare occurrence for Sowell.
I agree. I always love Dr. Sowell’s writing and admire his intellect, but some of the things he’s said here are unusual for him. Perhaps he lost some family or friends in 9-11. When things get personal, your perspective changes.
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