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Author Message
25 new of 404 responses total.
marcvh
response 222 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 5 21:29 UTC 2006

Re #218: I agree with you.  But I'm not the one who claimed that the
allegations were untrue; I'll agree that they are inadequately substantiated
but that's hardly the same thing.

The owners of CNN (i.e. everybody who owns a share of AOL-Time Warner Turner)
should resign?  From what?
cross
response 223 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 9 14:26 UTC 2006

This response has been erased.

twenex
response 224 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 9 22:54 UTC 2006

As always.
manthac
response 225 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 00:25 UTC 2006

bush has done nothing but make this country a worse place and he should really
be inpeached..
nharmon
response 226 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 04:04 UTC 2006

It sure is easy to lay blame on one person and not on ourselves, isn't
it Josh?
rcurl
response 227 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 04:50 UTC 2006

What can the ourselves do about the egregious mistakes of Bush, except speak
out to the extent one finds comfortable, and vote?
klg
response 228 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 11:39 UTC 2006

Worse than what?  Being incinerated?
jadecat
response 229 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 13:19 UTC 2006

Yes because so many Americans were being incinerated before Bush took
office...
klg
response 230 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 17:06 UTC 2006

You mean like the prior bombing of the WTC,Khobar Towers & the US Cole?
rcurl
response 231 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 17:15 UTC 2006

KLG likes the "fear card". I like the "civil rights" card. KLG assumes 
that everything bad that can happen is being reduced by starting a war, 
invading American citizens privacy and Constitutional rights, etc. I think 
that much more can be done to defend ourselves from terrorists and 
encourage the spread of democracy without violating the Constitution or 
turning potential friends into enemies, by more intelligent and measured 
and Constitutonal actions.
klg
response 232 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 17:48 UTC 2006

Curl fails to realize that the U.S. is under attack and is engaged in a 
war, necessitating some adjustment in how we weight the necessity of 
self-defense versus individual rights.
bhoward
response 233 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 17:54 UTC 2006

How far would you adjust the balance toward self-defence, klg?  And
for how long?
twenex
response 234 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 18:01 UTC 2006

Curl fails to realize that the U.S. is under attack 

It is? Gee, I must've missed all those reports on the news last night about
strikes against US interests in the Middle East and bombing raids on the
mainland.

Which considering the incessant blather in the weeks after 9/11, is pretty
strange, don'tcha think?
rcurl
response 235 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 18:16 UTC 2006

Re #232: the only attack we appear to be under is a result of the unprovoked
invasion of another country, and the "enemy" there is finding plenty of
opportunity to inflict injury to us on-site. All of that could  have been
avoided by the intelligent application of information about the real
situations, rather than looking for excuses for belligerency. 

Whatever degree of "self defense" we have due to the intelligence operations
we undertake can be accomplished equally or better by Constitutional means.
There is enormous waste in chasing thousands of fruitless leads, from
inspecting "grandmothers" an kids at airports to listening in on thousands
of innocent telephone and e-mail exchanges, while enormous piles of legally
intercepted communications in Arabic go untranslated, and communications
between intelligence agencies remain poor.
marcvh
response 236 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 18:18 UTC 2006

Individual rights are a form of self-defense, namely defense from your
own government.  You're talking about national defense.
jep
response 237 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 19:58 UTC 2006

A collection of groups have filed lawsuits in Detroit and New York 
federal courts to stop the Bush Administration's eavesdropping.

In New York, the lawsuit was filed by the Center for Constitutional 
Rights on behalf of their group and some individuals.

In Detroit, the lawsuit was filed by the ACLU on behalf of the ACLU, 
the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Greenpeace and several 
individuals, according to the news on Comcast.net.
klg
response 238 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 20:11 UTC 2006

(I hope this is not an indication that Curl is getting Alzheimer's.)


A collection of such groups could be assembled to stop President Bush 
from going for a walk.
marcvh
response 239 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 20:23 UTC 2006

Depends whose rights he's walking on.

I suspect these legal actions will either get tossed out on some sort of
technicality involving standing or the like, or else will get delayed until
they are largely moot.  But there is the off chance of a smackdown.
kingjon
response 240 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 21:26 UTC 2006

"... delayed until they are largely moot." Considering that the New York Times
delayed something like a year before releasing the story, how long would that
be? 

mcnally
response 241 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 21:54 UTC 2006

 Until we "win" the "War on Terror"?
kingjon
response 242 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 21:56 UTC 2006

Given the advances the so-called "civil libertarians" are making in *other*
areas, I suspect we're more likely to *lose* it than win. (But that's an
argument for another day in another item.)

marcvh
response 243 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 22:04 UTC 2006

Re #240: For example, if the Bush admin is out of power by the time
there is a ruling, and the new administration doesn't follow up on
this particular program, then it might be moot.  If the plaintiff dies
before the legal system completes its process, then it might be moot. 
And so on.

The courts might rule anyway, as they are doing in the Jose Padilla case.
Moot cases can still be useful for deciding larger issues and setting
precedents.
marcvh
response 244 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 17 23:07 UTC 2006

BTW, Re #242, what exactly would "losing the war on terror" look like?
Would that mean that terrorists would invade the United States and take
control of our territory, deposing our government and installing their
own puppet regime?  Or what?

I'm also not sure what it would mean to "win" it.  Many people,
including the president, think that it's not possible to win it:
 "I don't think you can win it. But I think you can create
  conditions so that the - those who use terror as a tool
  are less acceptable in parts of the world."   -GWB, August 2004
cyklone
response 245 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 18 02:19 UTC 2006

So we should give up certain civil liberties for as long as it takes us to
fight a war that can't be won? 
richard
response 246 of 404: Mark Unseen   Jan 18 02:36 UTC 2006

The ACLU today filed suit against the National Security Agency for 
illegal spying.

The case is ACLU v NSA, and it was filed today, 2/17/06, in federal 
district court in Michigan, listing the ACLU of Michigan as co-lead 
plaintiff.

Here are the other plaintiffs:

NSA Lawsuit - Stop Illegal Surveillance
ACLU, ACLU of Michigan and co-plaintiffs:
   

American Civil Liberties Union 

American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan 

Council on American-Islamic Relations 
    Rabiah Ahmed 
    Arsalan T. Iftikhar 

National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers 
    Joshua Dratel (Statement) 
    Nancy Hollander (Statement) 

Greenpeace (Statement) 

James Bamford, journalist/author (Statement) 

Larry Diamond, Hoover Institution, Stanford University (Statement) 

Christopher Hitchens, journalist/author (Statement) 

Tara McKelvey, journalist/author 

Barnett Rubin, New York University Center on International Cooperation 

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