[JohnHuang2]

Friday, July 19, 2002

Quote of the Day posted by gunshy

[rockfish59]

Sounds like a free pass to the 'peeping toms!'

'Why yes, officer, I saw her put explosives in her panties!'

[herewego]

Amen

[Texasforever]

What's going on here? Why are 12 million Americans, in addition to thousands of government police agents with unprecedented eavesdropping powers, needed to ferret out the suspected 5,000 terrorists in the United States?

5,000 does not sound like a lot until you divide them into 4 man hijacking teams. He is correct that 5,000 is a small needle in a very large haystack and that seems to contradict his own position.

[Texasforever]

Bush's plan, known as TIPS, Terrorism Information and Prevention System, intends to turn one out of every 24 Americans into a government spy reporting on their fellow citizens

I thought the purpose was a terrorist tip line? So "a fellow citizen" that happens to be a terrorist should be left alone?

[Kerberos]

"It is amazing to watch conservatives and patriots cheer on the advent of the Orwellian state"

I think frightening is a more appropriate way of phrasing it.

[nunya bidness]

Gramsci understood what Marx did not understand: Economic crises by themselves would not subvert capitalism, because capitalism always managed to overcome the crises and emerged stronger. Another theory was necessary for a different reality. One that recognized the importance of culture and ideology, and methods that went beyond the coarser forms of Marxist class struggle. Methods that would be efficient in capturing power in a western society. Methods that would fit the use of mass media because they were subtle and persuasive. If you gain the minds you gain the bodies. Even a partial victory is useful, because it weakens and diminishes your opposition.

Source

[pawdoggie]

It's been my observation that many of the contributors to this site devote a lot of electrons to denouncing the lack of governmental/police, teacher, clergy, parental, etc., oversight of terrorists, teenagers, criminals, corporate executives, rogue cops, pedophile priests, etc. But when the Federal government attempts to enlist the cooperation of the people in a position to know about the activities of the terrorists who threaten that most basic of rights, human life, we see a flood of messages decrying the great loss of liberty. Bill Clinton didn't need a TIPS program to "spy" on his opponents, he did it the old-fashioned way: by promoting corrupt officials in the FBI and DOJ. Would a TIPS-type program, specifically oriented on the immediate terrorist threat, be any more destructive of individual liberty than the worst depredations of Clinton or Nixon?