“Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security.” – Benjamin Franklin
EISENHOWER WARNED us and now as a reaction and an excuse born out of the attacks on September 11, both Democratic and Republican parties have vanquished individual freedom on the altar of protection.
From Salon.com, an article that first appeared on Alternet, by David Rosen:
Americans’ personal privacy is being crushed by the rise of a four-headed corporate-state surveillance system. The four “heads” are: federal government agencies; state and local law enforcement entities; telecoms, web sites & Internet “apps” companies; and private data aggregators (sometimes referred to as commercial data warehouses).
[...] But what happens when the boundary separating or restricting corporate-state collaboration, e.g., an exceptional crime-fighting incident, erodes and becomes the taken-for-granted operating environment, the new normal? Perhaps most troubling, what happens when the traditional safeguards offered by “watchdog” courts or regulatory organizations no longer seem to matter? What does it say that the entities designed to protect personal privacy rights seem to have either been effectively “captured” or become toothless tigers?
How 9/11 impacts people who lost love ones on 9/11 we can only imagine.
But the job of keeping America the country we once were before we let fear hobble our allegiance to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights seems to have been laid down for eternity.
Benjamin Franklin was right.
” An electorate of sheep begets a government of wolves. ” – Murrow
Ain’t it the truth.
The police state has been growing, steadily, and quite visibly.
And the wolves are braying at the gates.
Wow,
Folks are only now paying attention? Where were you when the 4th Amendment was being obliterated by our “War On Drugs”? Were were the “Progressives” when Obama caved on FISA? We surrendered our privacy a long time ago. We allowed the Police State into our very living rooms because Nancy Reagan told us it was necessary.
I have never ever caved on my rights or privacy. I never ever believed Nancy Reagan and have railed against the whole notion that we have to trade our liberty for security. It has gotten me into more trouble than I care to admit with the GOP fringe in my family. I refuse to live my life in fear and I’m not going to start now.
Which ones do you think are only paying attention now? If anything, I’d guess that fewer are paying attention now. After all, there’s a Democrat in the White House now, so we can’t possibly be having civil liberties issues, can we?
Privacy has always been an issue around her for people, so I agree with Cujo359. Not quite sure what the hell spincitysd is talking about.