On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 4:07 PM, denstar wrote: > > But, come on! People were actually pissed at the media for > "revealing" this treasonable act. "yer help'n the terrists by not > like'n be'n spied on by yer own government" > > Are you saying that you believe that the only records that the telcos > turned over were for people with overseas calls? >
That's different than the wire-tapping story. > Torture is illegal, the definition of torture is a problem. President > McCain > > will make sure there is no gray area on torture. > > See, I don't think that waterboarding, for instance, suffers from > definition. > McCain has already made it clear he doesn't support waterboarding. > The bags on the heads and naked bodies and whatnot-- it wasn't all > those lowly soldiers just doing it for kicks, I don't think. > > It seems to me that it was encouraged from on high. Which is horrifying. > Evidence. Without evidence, that is idle speculation at best. > > War is hell. We are shining beacons of humanity, or whatever. At > least we tried to be. Now we're like "lets ask the lawyers". Bah! > > Mere husks of our former selves. > Come on, hyperbole seems to be making the rounds on the list of late. Mere husks? > > The preemptive strike stuff that Walker pushed. > Why are we talking about Chuck Norris? ;-) Seriously, who is Walker, exactly? I don't remember anyone named Walker directing our troops to invade a country. > > Look, I know there's crap that happens, that isn't "good"-- "24" type > stuff, I can live with (that's why there's presidential pardons). > > But ensconcing this crap in law, and making it a policy... that's what > gets me riled up. > Our system of government provides checks and balances to deal with this sort of thing, and the system is working quite well. The Executive branch takes charge in times of emergency, then when things cool down, Congress and the courts step in and push back against the Executive. That is how our government has worked since its founding. Seeing the politicians on TV, talking about pork projects, and how > "that's how the system works" pisses me off. > > Bribery, eh? That's how we do it now? > Congressional earmarks are fine, IMHO, as long as there is transparency in government. Do I think it is a bad thing that Congress allocated money to build a bike path in San Diego? Hell no, I think it's great. That bike path wasn't free, I paid for it with my taxes. Otherwise the money gets doled out by bureaucrats, and I would much rather have my tax dollars being directed by an elected official who is answerable to the voters rather than an unelected bureaucrat who can't even be fired for incompetence because of the way federal civil service rules work. > Doesn't the way we've become just sorta sadden and anger you? Not so > much that crap happens, but that we're saying it's o.k.. Trying to > make it be part of what being American means (puke). > > We haven't "become" anything, this is how our country works. As MD says, people are willing to give up a little freedom (having their bags searched on the subway in NYC) in times of trouble in exchange for protection. Ultimately, things will change, they always do. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:256796 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
