Wow, septic yank that was a pretty impressive rant 
I feel like I should have a cigarette after reading it I cannot imagine how you feel after writing it 
Iāve been reading Moral Politics by George Lakoff, and listening to an audiobook of Al Frankenās The Truth (with Jokes). Plus my daily diet of antiwar.com and dailykos.com. An extensive rant is forming. Lakoff has given me a lot of insight into the conservative mindset, but I still feel like completely deconstructing it as a massive rationalization used by egotistical bible thumping liars. I mean if the conservative sack of shit would stand on its own, why would they need a phalanx of professional liars led by Karl āGoebbelsā Rove to try to prop it up? Can anyone take seriously people who advocate creationism and ignore scientific studies about global warming and the relationship of child rearing to crime? I sure canāt. Bush and his gang of war criminals should be renditioned abroad and tortured. Hope Iām not āannoyingā you Georgie boyā¦ Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Stay tuned for the rant.
Apparently they not only listen in to your phone conversations but they also open your mail if it is coming from overseas.
America definitely seems to be moving away from that whole āland of the freeā bit.
[quote]Apparently they not only listen in to your phone conversations but they also open your mail if it is coming from overseas.
article link
America definitely seems to be moving away from that whole āland of the freeā bit.[/quote]
If you import (via freight forwarder) something into the U.S. and about 99.9% of the rest of the world whether it is household goods, commercial items or anything else they are also subject to inspections. Is inspecting items through the postal system any different?
[quote=āpurple people eatersā][quote]Apparently they not only listen in to your phone conversations but they also open your mail if it is coming from overseas.
article link
America definitely seems to be moving away from that whole āland of the freeā bit.[/quote]
If you import (via freight forwarder) something into the U.S. and about 99.9% of the rest of the world whether it is household goods, commercial items or anything else they are also subject to inspections. Is inspecting items through the postal system any different?[/quote]
Iām sure someone can find an article telling us the appallingly low rate of inspections of imported goods. 
[quote]purple people eaters wrote:
Quote:
Apparently they not only listen in to your phone conversations but they also open your mail if it is coming from overseas.
article link
America definitely seems to be moving away from that whole āland of the freeā bit.
If you import (via freight forwarder) something into the U.S. and about 99.9% of the rest of the world whether it is household goods, commercial items or anything else they are also subject to inspections. Is inspecting items through the postal system any different?
Iām sure someone can find an article telling us the appallingly low rate of inspections of imported goods. [/quote]
I know youāre saying in jest but my job involves working with US (and every other country) customs and currently its about 70-75% X-ray inspections, they also do random manual inspections. Still one of the most streamline customs processes in the world.
[quote=āpurple people eatersā][quote]purple people eaters wrote:
Quote:
Apparently they not only listen in to your phone conversations but they also open your mail if it is coming from overseas.
article link
America definitely seems to be moving away from that whole āland of the freeā bit.
If you import (via freight forwarder) something into the U.S. and about 99.9% of the rest of the world whether it is household goods, commercial items or anything else they are also subject to inspections. Is inspecting items through the postal system any different?
Iām sure someone can find an article telling us the appallingly low rate of inspections of imported goods. [/quote]
I know youāre saying in jest but my job involves working with US (and every other country) customs and currently its about 70-75% X-ray inspections, they also do random manual inspections. Still one of the most streamline customs processes in the world.[/quote]
Not in jest at all. Xrays wonāt turn on written coded plans.
Iāve always held the opinion that once the Bushmen started treating the civil rights of suspected bad guys as nuisances it was only a matter of time before they started regarding our civil rights as nuisances too.
Well, the time has come . . .
Trying to convince the Bushmen that theyāre overreacting though is like trying to convince this dog that his hind leg isnāt out to get him.
Spook Iām not a bush manā¦no I am a bushman ehhh but that
[quote=āpurple people eatersā]Spook Iām not a bush manā¦no I am a bushman ehhh but that
[quote=āpurple people eatersā]
If you import (via freight forwarder) something into the U.S. and about 99.9% of the rest of the world whether it is household goods, commercial items or anything else they are also subject to inspections. Is inspecting items through the postal system any different?[/quote]
But they are not inspecting imports into the country, they are opening private letters between individuals. I think most people expect to be inspected when they are importing goods into a country but not when itās a private letter. How often does the post office open personal letters to see whatās inside them?
And it may not be just a few letters or calls now and then. This guy claims that the total number of Americans listened to could be in the millions.
[quote]But Tice disagrees. He says the number of Americans subject to eavesdropping by the NSA could be in the millions if the full range of secret NSA programs is used.
āThat would mean for most Americans that if they conducted, or you know, placed an overseas communication, more than likely they were sucked into that vacuum,ā Tice said. [/quote]
The article link can be found here
back when i used to reside on the ābeautiful isleā i would call home and chat with other members of my yank (not yankee) family. from 2001 onward we would hear someone else clicking on the line. as you can imagine/recall, alot of us were talking about certain topics at that time. once, we were having a particularly juicy talk and the line went dead when we were comparing the news the american public got in comparison/contrast to what other nations were reading/viewing. never talked politics over the phone again.
yes, this is but one personās reporting of an event. take it for what it is worth.
The National Democratic Committee would like to ask some of you to āget of their sideā. Your not helping things :loco:
dissent is the highest form of patriotism. back when i took that oath to defend america against all enemies, both foreign and domestic never would i have dreamt that someday I would be the enemy.
wanna simply protest in the US? go to jail: rense.com/general69/dissent.htm
I guess you would have preferred the alternative: Gore and Kerry ā¦ two fine specimens of the human race.
And you are Canadian. You say you live in the shaddow of the USA. Well, that wouldnāt be the case if you didnāt keep voting for politicians like Gore and Kerry. You are a weak country that has no desire to stand up the United States because you are too busy smoking your socialist pot. If you (meaning the country) would get off your ass and actually compete economically to lure businesses into your country, then perhaps things would change. But for now, all the Canadians I know in Tawian (like all the French I know in Asia) are fleeing their own country to seek fortune that just doesnāt exist in their own country because of the stifling culture of complacency. All you have to do is get off the crack pipe, stop blaming the USA for all your woes, and do something extrodinary.
Despite what the GOP leadership thinks, civil liberties are important to Americans.
Even when the poll questions are made as favorable as possible to the GOP position (subtly indicating calls to āpersons living within the United Statesā instead of mentioning Americans directly), the numbers are still pretty miserable for the Bushies. As the facts become more clear, these poll figures will likely spiral down ā most Americans are only starting to hear about how illegal all this is and many Americans still donāt fully appreciate how widely the Patriot Act has been used for non-terror-related investigations.
Lets ask Jackā¦
Isnāt āJackā the guy who blew the Brazilian electrician away?
Hubboy, now using a cellphone in public is going to be a life-threatening experience.
Good gawd, wonāt these madmen ever stop and take their quarrel āoutsideā where it belongs?
Toe Tag is pleased to present more hard information (in contrast to the juvenile ad hominem hate mail from the Forumosa Fascists)ā¦
Spy Agency Data After Sept. 11 Led F.B.I. to Dead Ends
WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 - In the anxious months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the National Security Agency began sending a steady stream of telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and names to the F.B.I. in search of terrorists. The stream soon became a flood, requiring hundreds of agents to check out thousands of tips a month.
But virtually all of them, current and former officials say, led to dead ends or innocent Americans.
F.B.I. officials repeatedly complained to the spy agency that the unfiltered information was swamping investigators. The spy agency was collecting much of the data by eavesdropping on some Americansā international communications and conducting computer searches of phone and Internet traffic. Some F.B.I. officials and prosecutors also thought the checks, which sometimes involved interviews by agents, were pointless intrusions on Americansā privacy.
As the bureau was running down those leads, its director, Robert S. Mueller III, raised concerns about the legal rationale for a program of eavesdropping without warrants, one government official said. Mr. Mueller asked senior administration officials about āwhether the program had a proper legal foundation,ā but deferred to Justice Department legal opinions, the official said.
President Bush has characterized the eavesdropping program as a āvital toolā against terrorism; Vice President Dick Cheney has said it has saved āthousands of lives.ā
But the results of the program look very different to some officials charged with tracking terrorism in the United States. More than a dozen current and former law enforcement and counterterrorism officials, including some in the small circle who knew of the secret program and how it played out at the F.B.I., said the torrent of tips led them to few potential terrorists inside the country they did not know of from other sources and diverted agents from counterterrorism work they viewed as more productive.
More atā¦ nytimes.com/2006/01/17/polit ā¦ nted=print
So, not only is the NSA, Pres Bush, and Alberto infringing upon the civil liberties of US citizens, BUT they are ALSO making us less safe by using resources like the FBI in fruitless goose chasing.
Bodo