Comments Posted By DaveG
Displaying 21 To 30 Of 43 Comments
ABC NEWS CALL MONITORING: WHAT'S GOING ON?
So, boiled down, this is likely, although not proven, to be a case of normal law enforcement utilization of phone records to solve an alleged crime. So, there would be warrants in this case, correct? Are those warrants secret?
Comment Posted By DaveG On 16.05.2006 @ 08:11
If so, was the warning to ABC from a "senior administration official" yet another crime?
Tano -
Heroine? Yes, I think so. Does she have the right to call the administration on illegality? Absolutely. I know you fantasize about a world in which everyone just lays down and allows the govmint to do what they want, irrespective of the laws
Do you actually read the post before you start spouting? She was in the IG office. She, more than most, knew the proper channels for airing her concerns, but chose to not use them. You see, she took a job, swore an oath, and took what we in the employed world call "renumeration" in return. She willingly gave up her right to squawk to the partisan, shrill media when she did so. She's not allowed to just change her mind and do whatever the hell she wants - that is the cost of being a grown-up. You probably won't like it much, should you ever defy all odds and actually achieve it.
Comment Posted By DaveG On 15.05.2006 @ 09:36
THE HYSTERICAL DRAMA QUEENS OF THE LEFT
A larger issue here is the change to domestic intelligence since 9/11.
Correct. Unfortunately, with our wide-open borders it is impossible to avert attention from domestic individuals to only monitor foreigners and still have any hope at all of preventing further attacks. The enemy can infiltrate out society with trivial ease, and thence use our own open society against us. How can we ignore that?
I agree that oversight is not only highly desireable, but absolutely necessary. The problem arises when the oversight committee can't keep their yaps shut and the details of the program are leaked to USA Today (All the News Fit to Print on a T-Shirt) or any of the other media entities that value their own self-aggrandizement over our safety.
But without transparency, who oversees the overseers? These are the extremely difficult questions those responsible for defending us have to deal with on a day-by-day basis, all the while suffering the slings and arrows of those whose desire for personal gain overcomes any sense of responsibility they may once had.
Comment Posted By DaveG On 12.05.2006 @ 09:58
“Well, maybe. But how does he know the motivation of sources whose identity we don’t know?â€
Which also nearly blindingly begs the question of how we can know the veracity of sources whose identity we don't know.
Comment Posted By DaveG On 12.05.2006 @ 08:10
JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE FOR THE LEAKERS
Don’t put your loyalty to Bush ahead of American ideals and your own intelligence.
That's a fair request, as would be the request that those with knee-jerk opposition to any policy instituted by the Bush adminstration not let their hatred get in the way of seeing that it is very possible that these programs are 1) vetted by at least somewhat competant lawyers and leading legsislators, 2) are in the interest of saving American citizens lives, and 3) shouldn't be disseminated by cynical, opportunistic media outlets.
It's a two-way street, and given the potential consequences of revealing our defensive tactics to a ruthless and patient enemy bent on the destruction of our entire way of life, I find the willful leaking of these details to be a reprehensible act.
Am I wearing blinders? Maybe, but I have yet to see any evidence whatsoever that these programs are abusing our incredibly elastic "right to privacy," which has quite frankly been so stretched out of any reasonable semblance to our Constitutional rights by decisions like Roe v. Wade that I don't know what it's supposed to look like anymore anyway.
Comment Posted By DaveG On 12.05.2006 @ 07:16
These types of programs must have oversight from Congress to ensure they stay legal and don’t stray from their legal, intended mission.
You're right, of course, but I question whether Congress can be trusted as the overseer. I find Congressional corruption to be heads and shoulders over anything coming out of the Executive branch. We need (if it's even possible anymore) non-partisan oversight.
Comment Posted By DaveG On 11.05.2006 @ 13:31
If you want to object to this, then you have to also object to entire litany of data-mining of "personal" data that occurs every second of every day.
Do you have a "loyalty" card at your grocery store? If so, every purchase you make is recorded, tracked, and analyzed. Do you use an ATM? Every transaction is recorded, and in many cases, your photo is taken as well. Use a credit card? Do the math on that yourself - it's pretty easy to think of nefarious schemes that could come from knowing every single financial transaction you have made in the past decade.
Get real, people. This is a very small tip of a very large iceburg, and unless you're willing to go live on a commune in North Dakota and be entirely self-sufficient, get over it.
Comment Posted By DaveG On 11.05.2006 @ 10:21
CIA VS. THE WHITE HOUSE: THE VIPS CONNECTION
I have to chuckle at the constant hysterical rantings that the Bush Administration is part and parcel of a tyrannical regime we hear from the far-left base of the current minority party. Were there even a glimmer of truth to such infantile rantings, it would be evidenced by the fact that these VIPS would have been 'disappeared' years ago. Yet here they are, in open rebellion against the Administration, seemingly paying no penalty for their sedition at all.
Comment Posted By DaveG On 25.04.2006 @ 13:49
THE MEDIA FINDS THE STRAWBERRIES
Gayle -
I think (s)he meant that Bush will be ousted via impeachment by the Democratic majority that (s)he believes will exist after the 2006 elections.
Personally, I think (s)he's wrong on both.
Comment Posted By DaveG On 3.03.2006 @ 14:08
The parallels between what the Bush administration is doing and what Hitler and his minions did is truly troubling.
Snort!
Using that logic, JF Kennedy was the reincarnation of Abe Lincoln:
http://www.school-for-champions.com/history/lincolnjfk.htm
Comment Posted By DaveG On 3.02.2006 @ 13:42
