Bingo. Wiretapping unconstitutional!

[Hadriel]

But where is my inner attention whore going to get its fix of government inquiries if they can't wiretap my phone calls anymore?   

[Magus068]

Why not? It's not like they wiretap every single phone. What they need, however, is greater cause to suspect.

That said, the whole idea of the Patriot Act and other sorts of security measures are quite creepy. I mean, isn't that what people hate Stalin and other dictator's for?

Its the price of safety...  A little inconvience won't kill you.  Anyway terrorist nowadays are getting smarter & the goverment want a better security measures to prevent any more terrorist act.

And yes, every phone is wiretapped by the government to get certain keywords like bombs, highjacking, jihad, etc...

[ZeaLitY]

There was a debate between Feingold and some other senator months ago. The one senator said, "civil liberties won't do you much good if you're dead" while defending the wiretaps.

Feingold? He echoed something profound. "Give me liberty or give me death."

[Daniel Krispin]

There was a debate between Feingold and some other senator months ago. The one senator said, "civil liberties won't do you much good if you're dead" while defending the wiretaps.

Feingold? He echoed something profound. "Give me liberty or give me death."

That old blasted cry for liberty. Never did like it much - sounds too pompously American - but hey, I'm Canadian, and bound to find issue with it. I look at that whole American Revolution thing somewhat negatively, and see their 'heroes' as villains.

[Burning Zeppelin]

There was a debate between Feingold and some other senator months ago. The one senator said, "civil liberties won't do you much good if you're dead" while defending the wiretaps.

Feingold? He echoed something profound. "Give me liberty or give me death."

Personally, I'd rather be alive than dead. Then again, I'm not one of you brave, courageous, freedom fighters that we call Americans.

[Kano]

Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither.

And will lose both.

[Radical_Dreamer]

There was a debate between Feingold and some other senator months ago. The one senator said, "civil liberties won't do you much good if you're dead" while defending the wiretaps.

Feingold? He echoed something profound. "Give me liberty or give me death."

The other senator also is making the absurd statement that civil liberties make us less safe. If anything, government crackdowns make things less safe. Take the cameras at interesections, that take pictures of the license plates of those that run red lights. Make you feel safer? They shouldn't. After installing those cameras, accident rates at monitored interesections skyrocket as drivers either floor it or slam on the brakes suddenly to beat the cameras, thus leading to more accidents. Whenever someone in the government says something about trying to make Americans more safe, I think of those cameras. When the government asks us to make sacrifices to increase our saftey, they are, in practice, going to make us sacrifice our liberties or money in order to reduce our safety.

[ChibiBob]

Oh darn, no more wiretapping on American phones. I guess I can't weave "pigs must die," the meat-packing industry, and other double entendre innocent-pig-farm-slash-evil-terrorist codespeak into my regular, everyday phone conversations anymore.

There goes my Friday night entertainment.

But seriously, did this wiretapping endeavor even successfully rout terrorist activity in the United States? Most right-wingers would claim that yes, there is a direct correlation between the lack of terrorist activity in the nation and the recent wiretapping, while most left-wingers would say that wiretaps, even if they were legal, should have not been an option in the first place due to violations of "natural civil liberties" or whatever other terminology they could pull out of John Locke's ass. My politics-hating yet grossly opinionated self, on the other hand, would ask: Considering Britain was the power that outed the last terrorist plot while America was "waiting it out to glean more information about other potential illegal activity," would the wiretapping even have a point if America waited so long that the attacks actually happened? The American government then scolded Britain for making the arrests too soon and only upping the risk of the fellow plotters seeking revenge on our countries, but do we see any attacks going down? I think not. Rather than eliminating what attacks the government could and either averting the plot entirely or postponing it long enough that the FBI/NSA would uncover it anyway, they insist on letting the terrorists fester and conspire as a united force rather than taking out what cells they can and driving what element of fear could sink through their thick skulls.

We call the Middle Eastern states retarded, but as the kindergarten adage goes, "Takes one to know one."

[Lord J Esq]

Also worth remark is that the Bush administration has denied the existence and scope of the wiretapping program at every juncture. First they said it didn't exist at all. Then they said it existed, but only applied to a handful of people making international calls. Then they said it applied to domestic calls too, but still only to a handful of people. Then they said it applied to practically every call made within the United States of America by every person on every phone line, but they insisted that the actual audio of the calls was not being monitored...

The Bush administration has worn out its trustworthiness. I don't trust leaders like them with tools like this. If they want power like this, they'll have to go through the Congress. And, given this latest ruling, they may not be able to do it anyway. Good.

[Lord J Esq]

Topic Split. See Hate the United States for off-topic discussion.

[Silvercry]

I see a lot of complaining.  What I don’t see are solutions.

Lets forget for a moment that this wiretapping has enabled the US to prevent -- and assisted in preventing -- numerous terrorist attacks, including the most recent one in the UK.  Never mind that detail, since non of you will believe me anyway.

Wiretapping is out?  Ok, done.  How do you plan to prevent the next attack?  How will you find, monitor, and apprehend the people who want you dead for now other reason than your zip code?

What is your solution?

Lord J, I'm looking in your direction…

[ZeaLitY]

The CIA exists for a reason, and citizens have already taken a huge hit in security at public ceremonies. Though I'm not in the business of defending Ann Coulter (or the CIA really), she's right when saying the terrorists have won -- we can no longer take water to drink on airplanes. Their failure has succeeded in making flying even more of a hell for us. If there's a root to the problem, it's Islamic radicalism. But I suppose we can't dust that under the rug, can we?

[Silvercry]

Still not hearing a solution.  You're right of course, but how do you fix the problem?

[ZeaLitY]

My question is, is the threat substantial enough to warrant illegal wiretapping? At any rate, I hope someone else joins in.

[Exodus]

My question is, is the threat substantial enough to warrant illegal wiretapping? At any rate, I hope someone else joins in.

As much as I know the Compendiumites in general hate one liners:

No.