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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThose who think that the goverment really cares about everything they personally are talking about
are just about as silly as those who thinks gawd is monitoring their every move and has nothing better to do than to focus on only them....
corkhead
(6,119 posts)who actually thinks "that the goverment really cares about everything they personally are talking about". Where have you heard of such a thing?
we can do it
(12,118 posts)corkhead
(6,119 posts)Straw man:
A straw man or straw person, also known in the UK as an Aunt Sally, is a type of argument and is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position. To "attack a straw man" is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by replacing it with a superficially similar yet unequivalent proposition (the "straw man" , and to refute it, without ever having actually refuted the original position. This technique has been used throughout history in polemical debate, particularly in arguments about highly charged, emotional issues.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man
we can do it
(12,118 posts)God is watching you. He is sitting right next to big brother.
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)You forgot to capitalize Big Brother.
we can do it
(12,118 posts)Like in high school when we joked about a crackle on the phone meant it was tapped. Like they knew what Henry Hill was doing in Goodfellas in the 70s.
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)we can do it
(12,118 posts)leftstreet
(36,081 posts)we can do it
(12,118 posts)leftstreet
(36,081 posts)by Greg Henderson
August 07, 201312:44 AM
President Obama defended the US government's surveillance program, telling NBC's Jay Leno on Tuesday that: "There is no spying on Americans."
"We don't have a domestic spying program," Obama said on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. "What we do have is some mechanisms that can track a phone number or an email address that is connected to a terrorist attack. ... That information is useful."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/08/06/209692380/obama-to-leno-there-is-no-spying-on-americans
I believe Teh President
we can do it
(12,118 posts)oh wait - that's santa claus.... he does keep track of everything you personally are doing - so be good for goodness sake....
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)Face palm montage here.
we can do it
(12,118 posts)On earth as it is in heaven.
alc
(1,151 posts)but I am concerned about my congressman. candidates in the next election. election supervisors. donors. and many other people who can affect my life.
collection data on everyone gives them capabilities that can change elections and congressional votes. That is scary. The fact that "I" am part of "everyone" doesn't concern me a bit.
we can do it
(12,118 posts)hmmmm
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)WARNING: INCOMING WALL OF SMILIES. ACTIVATE DEFENSES.
we can do it
(12,118 posts)Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)we can do it
(12,118 posts)Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)International, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch as well as freaks like Valerie Plame Wilson and Joe Wilson all working up this hysteria because of their blind hatred of Barack Obama - it is no wonder the lunatic fringe is also all worked up about this ridiculous and preposterous trivial matter of the government closely monitoring all our communications when it is only being done for our own good.
Just listen to this nutcase:
"It is not excessive to believe this growing, gargantuan, secret complex now represents the greatest threat to our freedom in the new twenty-first century." - for U.S. Senator Gary Hart
or just get a loud of these two goof balls:
The NSA's metastasised intelligence-industrial complex is ripe for abuse
Where oversight and accountability have failed, Snowden's leaks have opened up a vital public debate on our rights and privacy
by Valerie Plame Wilson and Joe Wilson
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 June 2013 13.00 BST
Let's be absolutely clear about the news that the NSA collects massive amounts of information on US citizens from emails, to telephone calls, to videos, under the Prism program and other Fisa court orders: this story has nothing to do with Edward Snowden. As interesting as his flight to Hong Kong might be, the pole-dancing girlfriend, and interviews from undisclosed locations, his fate is just a sideshow to the essential issues of national security versus constitutional guarantees of privacy, which his disclosures have surfaced in sharp relief.
Snowden will be hunted relentlessly and, when finally found, with glee, brought back to the US in handcuffs and severely punished. (If Private Bradley Manning's obscene conditions while incarcerated are any indication, it won't be pleasant for Snowden either, even while awaiting trial.) Snowden has already been the object of scorn and derision from the Washington establishment and mainstream media, but, once again, the focus is misplaced on the transiently shiny object. The relevant issue should be: what exactly is the US government doing in the people's name to "keep us safe" from terrorists?
We are now dealing with a vast intelligence-industrial complex that is largely unaccountable to its citizens. This alarming, unchecked growth of the intelligence sector and the increasingly heavy reliance on subcontractors to carry out core intelligence tasks now estimated to account for approximately 60% of the intelligence budget have intensified since the 9/11 attacks and what was, arguably, our regrettable over-reaction to them.
Today, the intelligence sector is so immense that no one person can manage, or even comprehend, its reach. When an operation in the field goes south, who would we prefer to try and correct the damage: a government employee whose loyalty belongs to his country (despite a modest salary), or the subcontractor who wants to ensure that his much fatter paycheck keeps coming? - Valerie Plame Wilson and Joe Wilson
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/23/nsa-intelligence-industrial-complex-abuse
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Geez where did you dig up that band of loons? Must be from some Rand Paul Geocities site or something.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)we can do it
(12,118 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)Yes. I know. LOL WUT. Yes, yes. Im aware. Really, I dont mind that yall are havin fun with the image*, the internet is a very silly place and all, but if you could make an effort to include a link to the original when youre posting it, Id be really grateful.
http://ursulav.deviantart.com/art/The-Biting-Pear-of-Salamanca-29677500
steve2470
(37,457 posts)Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)we can do it
(12,118 posts)Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)Put too many words in your headline and don't include links to nonsense.
we can do it
(12,118 posts)Union Scribe
(7,099 posts)BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)on a lady who had simply done a Google search for a pressure cooker.
Nobody every said they were interested in EVERYTHING we say and do. That is a disingenuous straw man argument.
But what they are interested in is having easy access to anything that might interest them at any moment, without being incumbered by such inconveniences as the laws and the Constitution.
And I hope the OPer gives considerably more thought than has been demonstrated so far. After all, did the NSA's eye in the sky accomplish anything whatsoever in apprehending the marathon bombers?
This is not "intelligence". It is not "detective work". It is harassment and intimidation. That has always been the goal.
LaydeeBug
(10,291 posts)Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)Silly me.