Bush NSA surveillance -Have we left the fox guarding the hen house?
155989
We've left the fox guarding the hen house and left the hen house door open.  There are certainly disturbing similarities between Bush's idea of his power and Hitler's.  Obviously illeagle wiretapping isn't as extreme as the murders of Hitler, but the idea of each that they are above the law and the supreme arbiter are a direct parallel.
1022741
im a huge fan of the threat alert system!\n\nHA! i remember something happened...not sure what...whatever it was it was emberassing for the bush crew...almost immediately they raised the threat level in hopes that it would take the emperassment out of what happened. that was the last time i ever heard of the alert system...or from it.\n\nthey screamed wolf, no one listened. priceless!
221418
Not at all.\n\nThere are millions of people screaming, "Unfair! You are violating my rights!" Yet, how many people can actually say the have been a subject of the so-called "domesticy spying" program? How many people have actually had their phones tapped and conversations recorded?\n\nFor that matter, how many people have been the subject of a Patriot Act investigation? How many have had their library records looked at? How many have had their information spread across every intelligence agency in the nation?\n\nMy point is this: The only people who are being targeted are being targeted for a REASON. The government does not just indiscriminately say, "Let's listen in on John Q. Public's conversation for sh!ts and giggles today." Uncle Sam does not just pick phone numbers at random to listen to. There is a REASON they investigate who they do. And I, for one, WANT them investigated. If they are doing no wrong, the investigation will clear them. But if they ARE doing wrong, I sure as hell hope we are doing EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to stop them. The next attack could cost hundreds of thousands of American lives.\n\n"When NSA goes after the content of a communication under this authorization from the president, the NSA has already established its reasons for being interested in that specific communication. I've said in other places this isn't a drift net over Lackawanna or Freemont or Dearborn, grabbing all communications and then sifting them out."\n\n-- Gen. Michael Hayden (Deputy Director of National Intelligence)\n\nBottom line: If your phone hasn't been tapped, your rights have not been violated. If you are not engaging in any illegal activity, chances are 99.999% that you phone hasn't been tapped.
571054
The NSA exists and it is not secret. They even have a website.
577860
Government has been spying since at least 1995 (Clinton's Echelon spied on all electronic -phone/e-mail- traffic).\n\nThe best thing is to keep a record for yourself.
676372
Good point, your now coming out of the fake scare fog aren't you. The Patriot Act was just to spy on Americans wasn't it. George Bush finally admitted to it 3 years later. There never was a threat. Fear tactics to get votes and raise the forced inflation rate to make a few American Corporations filthy rich was the plan. How do you like the Republicans now?
87813
Yes, as others said, it takes a court order from a Judge and the legal requirements are very tough.  Patriot Act!  I wish idiots would learn to read something before criticizing.  The Patriot Act has many, many parts.  Wiretapping has been allowed for years - way before the Patriot Act.   Wire taps pertaining to spying and domestic terrorism have been authorized, again for years, when signed a Judge in a Secret Court.  None of this has anything to do with what Bush has been recently accused of or the Patriot Act.  Yes, wiretapping is Constitutional and legal under law.
63970
You have a very good point and for all i know you could be the very person you are talking about. If i was the NSA i think i would be asking that very same question. They probably are reading this. But  I think we have the right to our own opinion and i dont think my opinion about the goverments going to change anytime soon. I would tell them too that they could be doing better things with there money, than spying on me or you.
102648
However, as the above poster failed to point out, the Bush administration has done the opposite of low-level government; they have made the government more pominent. Domestic spying anyone?
153798
micro chips are used by satilites to find pets already! once they said cloning was not possible  but humans reached that yrs ago.... sex offenders, and high risk patients should be monitored, they have no legal rts.... but freedom will be at a  end w chip plantation.... also have u seen the latest gps global map systems?  i can see my subdivision and make of car on here at home  and took a look at my freinds house in the suburbs of boston!  he could not believe i told him he had a large pool in his back yard and a yellow garage w green roof.... eheheh...so what is next   we can spy on our own selves and freinds throughtout.... so will private owner s of these gps co. let the average computer joe find their own pet?  (good idea) stolen car,  or track our children's location when not at home?  or is hubby really at work?  what will happen to FREE WILL to do the rt thing?  what are ur thoughts?
976731
The responses to this question amaze me! Why does everyone act like The patriot act really changed anything as far as this issue goes? Did not FDR  use surveillance on German and Japanese Americans during WW II? Did not Kennedy and Johnson use the FBI to run surveillance on Martin Luther King and others in the 60's? Did not Nixon authorize  Surveillance of John Lennon and other anti war protesters. Did not the Clinton administration collect dossiers made by private investigators on political enemies?. I am not supporting all these actions some were wrong some were right some were questionable. This blustering over the patriot act is 85% politically motivated is my point. Yes there are some concerns but the One of the governments chief responsibilities is protecting it's people and defending it's borders. In Every war and instance of Civil strife the government has used domestic intelligence to gather information. The major difference today in we live in the age of 24 hr. news and the Internet and much more information is publicly available than ever before. To argue because it is the NSA instead of the FBI doing the spying is arguing semantics spying is spying and sometimes it's justified. At least in this case all but the most hard core bush opponents should agree that the threat is genuine and the intent is to protect the citizenry not politically motivated like the action of LBJ, Nixon etc...
1001947
The government, especially all spy and security agencies, is going to do what it wants when it wants.  I think it is just a  fluke that we know they have been listening in on us this time.\n\nAs for me, I don't plan on doing anything to harm the government so I don't really care.  We are already being watched over by Big Brother, why should listening in matter?
159304
Nope that would certainly be an invasion of privacy...But give Bush a little more time..then everyone will be criminals.
10304
Yes, they are already doing it, check the NSA reports, they have already gathers tele com and internet traffic, specially after 9/11 and still doing it without the legal justification.
154150
Absolutely. The USA PATRIOT Act violated the amendment. As did Bush's wiretapping.
29220
You must have talked to the President recently,because as far as I know he admitted of spying after the 9/11 attacks of intercepting Messages coming from foreigners that might have Terrorist connections here,that's how they found out the Brooklin Bridge was a target,On the other hand spying was done on Americans like M.L King on the orders of Robert Kennedy,spying was done by Nixon on democratic headquarters,even Clinton ordered some spying because of terrorists in this country,the only difference is that Bush did not bother to get the warrants necesary,but after 9/11, congress themselves gave him the powers to protect this country,whether congress went into specifics on how it should be done is still not known
319630
The evidence collected by the NSA, for example, when monitoring traffic from an enemy in some other country contacting some one here had better be admissible in court or we are all in danger of the next 9/11. The patriot act gives us the tools necessary to (hopefully) prevent terrorists\nfrom doing us any more harm here or abroad. Had Clinton had that available the first time the twin towers were attacked, we may have prevented 9/11 from ever happening.