tvashtarkatena

We've essentially given up our right to privacy. First to corporations, so we could get and keep our jobs. Pee tests, credit checks, employment contracts which include behavioral prohibitions outside the workplace, a whole array of electronic monitoring; you name it. By the time the federal government came around to probe our assholes, we didn't even notice.

I cant agree more....... Why should you have the right to own land at all? Umm, since private property rights and the legal system that ensures that is the basis for our economic system and by extension is the basis for liberty... There is no 'umm', here. Private land ownership is not the basis of our legal system; the Constitution is. Going further back, our legal system is based on the Magna Carta, drafted at a time when only a few of the population owned land at all. No, our legal system would be little changed if land ownershp didn't exist. It is also not a basis for our economic system; capitalism could hum along just fine without land ownership; merely one of many components of ownership. Finally, it is also not a basis for liberty. Native Americans did not have individual land ownership, and I daresay they had a HELL of a lot more liberty than we do today.

Congratulations; you've been propogandized. The companies in question were not served a National Security Letter under the Patriot Act which would have included a gag order. Those are issued by the FBI. This program was run by the NSA. Those companies handed whatever the feds asked for willingly and under no threat of prosecution. Secondly, why should legal culpability be shifted to the federal government, which ALREADY IS legally culpable for the illegal spying program? This shifts nothing; it simply eliminates culpability for the telecom companies. Third, the federal government, given it's unlimited legal resources and ability to play the 'national security' card to have legitimate lawsuits thrown out of court, is a much tougher entity to hold accountable for criminal activity than private corporations. The Telecoms knowingly broke the law; there is absolutely no reason why they shouldn't be held accountable. 'Poor Telecoms'? Give me a break. Finally, as I stated, if we do not hold corporations for abiding by the law and their own privacy policies, which they love to tout (and which are generally meaningless), then what incentive do they have for protecting our personal information at all? The answer is, of course, none whatsoever.

I cant agree more....... Why should you have the right to own land at all?

Congress passed legislation in the '90s allowing greater transfer of military weapons, training, and tactics to police. The result is the riot control cop of today. 'Crowd control' tactics have become extremely provocative and violent. It's not uncommon for the police to outnumber the protesters nowadays, and nearly all of them carry fully automatic assault rifles. A favorite tactic, and one which the ACLU has repeated filed suit over, includes ordering protesters into an overly confined area (through the use of crowd control barriers) and attacking that part of the crowd that can no longer fit for noncompliance. They have increasingly used violence against peaceful protesters, including the elderly, indiscriminately. They often use 'non-lethal' weapons in a lethal manner; firing tear gas grenades point blank into protester's heads and bodies is unfortunately common. A second popular tactic is to create 'protest zones' far from the target of the protest (President Bush during public addresses being a prime example), thus neutralizing the impact of the protest. A third is revocation of protest permits at the last minute with no cause, thus denying protesters a basic constitutional right. Make no mistake, the point is to intimidate peacefully protesting populace into cowing, not to maintain law and order.

rewind repeat rewind repeat rewind repeat rewind repeat... Little wonder why KKK voted Bush...twice: 911 911 911 911 911 911 911 WMD WMD WMD WMD WMD WMD WMD WAR PRESIDENT WAR PRESIDENT WAR PRESIDENT WAR PRESIDENT WAR PRESIDENT SURGE SURGE SURGE SURGE SURGE SURGE SURGE....

No, I think Rosa Parks was much closer to the mark. The protesters in Olympia where attempting to promote social justice by helping to end an unjust war. In the 1950's, there were many people just like you who labeled the civil rights protesters as a 'mob'. All their arguments were the same as your's are today; absolutely no difference whatsoever. The protesters in Olympia are not a 'mob'; they're a group of protesting citizens. They knowingly broke the law in acts of civil disobedience to draw attention to the issue, just as Rosa Parks and her civil rights allies did. They expected to be arrested, and they were. You may agree or disagree with their issue or their tactics, but you've carefully chosen your labels to reduce them into disgruntled vandals. Clearly, by all accounts, they are anything but that. You also refuse to grant them credit the whatever success (the closing of the port to military shipments, however temporary) their action had, claiming they were using children as human shields or whatever. An amazing observation from 3000 miles away, but then again you're practiced at making them. The fact of the matter is, from your body of similar postings, is that you don't actually believe in the fundamental right to protest, and you're not honest enough to admit it openly. This protest achieved it's planned objective; draw attention to the issue and stop shipments through the port of Tacoma, at least for a time. You may have trouble accepting that, but the facts speak clearly for themselves, with or without your trans-continental opinion.

The Bush administration has been pushing for prosecutorial immunity for telecom companies who broke the law by cooperating with their illegal domestic spying program, which a FISA court ruled illegal last year and which has since been discontinued (according to the DOJ's public announcements at least). The ACLU has been watching this issue closely as well as lobbying to hold these companies accountable and uphold the rule of law. If immunity is granted, what incentive do these companies have for protecting our private information at all? Panel drops immunity for telecom companies from surveillance bill

I heart roid addicts.

Uh...sorry guys. I was just having a really bad day.

Y U HATES ECUDATION??/ I hate property tax. it just seems anti-American that you can't own your land and be done with it. no no no, you HAVE to have an income to have the American dream. seems to, albeit in a relatively small way, perpetuate wealth. if I were a liberal I'd still be against it and would find another way to make it up. You are the first person other than I whom I've heard express this viewpoint. We're 100% on the same page here. Here's to you: Feel free to move to a state that doesn't have property taxes. Oh wait, there isn't one. Well, in that case, feel free to move to any one of the following low property tax states: Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia, Mississippi and Arkansas Stay here and quit whining, or move to a less expensive shithole. You get what you pay for. The choice is yours.

Thanks for posting a dose of reality for the rest of us.

1dJwODowvVY

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz yawn.... Give your scabby little willi a rest, there, FW. Your wife is starting to run out of clean sheets. I'm a member of the ACLU Speaker's Bureau; a pool of public speakers that address various topics when the ACLU office receives a request to do so. I was invited to join the bureau when it was formed in 2001. It's a volunteer position. I speak with a variety of audiences on contemporary issues concerning civil liberties; Radio shows, high schools, colleges, various community centers, Town Hall in Seattle, ACLU branches, public forums, and the like. Great fun, really. If you'd like to delve further into it, I suggest you contact Doug Honig, our Education Director at the state office and my boss. aclu-wa.org. Go get 'em, Tiger.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with pouring the stuff out. After all, it was sold illegally. Certainly this stuff shouldn't wind up in our salmon streams, however. I would think, then, for environmental reasons, that the state would allow the citizenry to volunteer as holding tanks.

Try contributing a real TR sometime, shitbag. Now STFU and take it up the ass like a good little boy.

Two Dumshits on Gloryhole Wall

We all end up as one of the following three: Fat fuck, scrawny fuck, or dead fuck.

Does this forecast SUUUUCCCKKKKK or what?

Met most of 'em. Name dropper.

You're not gay.

Well, at least getting out the vote will be easier this time. It shouldn't take any longer than the 45 minutes I volunteer every 4 years to track down Kucinich's 10 supporters, all of which probably in my neighborhood. Interestingly enough, I'm learning through my ACLU speaking gigs, which occasionally involve progressive audiences, that most of the former Naderites seems to have converted to Ron Paulism. Strange.

Congratulations. You're gay.

Give up trying to ween him. It's like trying to get Larry Craig to stop sucking cock.

Weird. They all work for me. No copyright stuff, all SFW. Oh well, you're not exactly missing any masterpieces.