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surveillance is freedom tv ad; my response to "defending democracy"
Topic Started: Mar 5 2008, 11:41 PM (112 Views)
riverwatcher


Have you seen the TV ad in which Congress is portrayed as being careless about protecting America, and lazy for going on vacation instead of passing a law increasing the current (warrantless) surveillance authority and parameters? It's from a group called "defenders of democracy"
http://www.defenddemocracies.org/

e-mail addr: (you have to right-click on their name on the "to" addr to send an e-mail)
info@defenddemocracy.org

to whom I sent this:

To Whom It May Concern:

Perhaps you don’t know: the NSA lists PETA, Greenpeace and the Quakers among their targeted, and admits that they’ve spied on tens of thousands of Americans without warrants, without oversight, without accountability (that we know of).
The Bill of Rights, as we know it, is less protected, less honored and less upheld, thanks to George W. Bush (who is on record as calling the US Constitution “just a goddammed piece of paper”).
By any definition, the Bush administration has been and continues to be the greatest and most urgent threat to the freedom, security and peace of Americans.
The Patriot Act, a study in legislative misnomers, was written prior to 9/11, needing only just cause to usher it swiftly through Congress to becoming law.
Though candidate Senator McCain would have us give credit to Bush for preventing any further terrorist attacks since Sept. 11, ’01, there would have been none at all had “W” done his job and listened to his expert advisers and intelligence in the first place (whom he consistently ignored, marginalized, demoted, fired or otherwise silenced, much as he did for his “decider”-ing the invasion of Iraq, the most recent surge, and ignoring the predictions on the catastrophe that was Hurricane Katrina).
The “war on terror” is a lie, perpetuated solely for the mind control and militarization of the people, the profit and growth of the defense contractors-campaign contributors, and the expansion of executive powers that were, until now, limited for over 200 years, under a Constitution that was written by signers simultaneously fighting during war with Imperial Britain (who considered them "terrorists").

Were there a real war on terror, we would have gone after Al Qaida at their base in Pakistan, where they still are, and are growing – as Bush loves to remind us- not where they weren’t - at least not until we arrived - in Iraq (google “wolfowitz, oil, iraq”).
Were there a real war on terror, we would have the same security measures as Hong Kong, which efficiently and safely scans 100% of their incoming oceanic cargo (the US scans less than 5%).
Were there a real war on terror, we would be actively finding and securing the world’s missing nuclear materials, partnering with the world powers to restrain its dictatorial madmen, and securing our (still-vulnerable) water treatment, chemical, nuclear power plants and electrical grid – and would still be able to board planes without removing our shoes or surrendering our 5-oz. of shampoo and toothpaste. As it is, your tax dollars and mine help prop up US-friendly (albeit problematic) dictators like Musharraf, Kim-Jong Il is forgotten, as is bin Laden, and much of the former Soviet Union’s stray nuclear arsenal remains unaccounted for.

You want more surveillance?
How do the current FISA parameters not allow all the latitude needed?
Perhaps you would have corporate America – as your ad promotes, get retroactive and ongoing immunity for complying with federal demands to do the bidding of Big Brother – and follow the model of IBM in assisting Nazi Germany to count, record and eliminate their enemies, without oversight or limitations – what we now refer to as the holocaust?

Under McCain, we would be “one nation under Surveillance”, and militarily coercing or occupying the rest of the world – “spreading democracy” and killing innocents by the score (over one million innocent Iraqis would still be alive today but for George Bush & his version of spreading democracy).
You use the words “freedom”, “democracy”, “protection” in ways that, by definition, would oppose everything the Bush admin has been doing for 6+ years.

Is this - increased, warrantless surveillance - what you call defense of democracy?
Was Congress just supposed to pass everything the White House wants?
What does “balance of powers” mean to you?
Maybe you’d have us torture and kill people – ostensibly because, like surveillance, it leads to useful info- although unreliable and by definition, illegally gained, and, according to you, should not be restrained – to the point we’re as barbaric and amoral as any civilization in history (or worse)?

Just not clear on some of your terminology. I don’t see how surrendering freedoms is “defending democracy”.

name -addr

PS
I’m not convinced that this whole right vs. left issue – incl your commercials, pleas for action (and $) – aren’t intentional distractions to the core issues crippling America. This ‘terrorist’ campaign serves you in that you gain members, capital and momentum – much as it does all of Washington’s status quo and those who profit from it– without personal risk. It’s a straw man – no one intends to ever address it, only milk it; use it for their own means – yours is to anger, scare and ultimately financially gain from people who don’t know that you want the Constitution to be beneath the chief executive, again, much like the days of der Fuehrer.

...maybe you'd like to send these fascists a note?????
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blarney fife
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Did you check out the folks behind defenddemocracy...lots of our "favorite" people. Smells like PNAC (a little). Apologies for the poor paste job...it's bedtime.



Biographies


Board of Directors


Steve Forbes
Board Member
CEO Forbes Magazine
Dr. Jeane J. Kirkpatrick
Founding Member, 2001-2006
Fmr. Ambassador to the UN


Jack Kemp
Chairman Emeritus
Fmr. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development


Distinguished Advisors


Judge Louis J. Freeh
Fmr. Director of the FBI
Sen. Joseph Lieberman
(D-CT)
U.S. Senate


Newt Gingrich
Fmr. Speaker of the House
R. James Woolsey
Fmr. Director of the CIA


Max M. Kampelman
Fmr. Ambassador


Board of Advisors


Gary Bauer
President
American Values
Hon. Richard D. Lamm
Fmr. Governor
Colorado


Rep. Eric Cantor
Chairman (R-VA)
Task Force on Terrorism
Sen. Zell Miller
(D-GA)
Former U.S. Senator


Frank Gaffney
President
Center for Security Policy
Richard Perle
Former Chair of the Defense Policy Board and FDD Advisor


Charles Jacobs
President
American Anti-Slavery Group
Steven Pomerantz
Former Assistant Director
FBI


Charles Krauthammer
Syndicated Columnist
Oliver "Buck" Revell
Former Associate Deputy Director
FBI


Bill Kristol
Editor
Weekly Standard

Edited by blarney fife, Mar 6 2008, 12:02 AM.
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Q
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A Higher Evolution
I can't find an actual ad, but after reading that article, I smell the very strong aroma of that "new rubber smell" from fresh Astroturf.
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