Interesting People mailing list archives

Re: WORTH READING Do Americans Care About Big Brother?


From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 09:30:09 -0700


________________________________________
From: Mark Blacknell [mb () blacknell net]
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2008 12:01 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: Re: [IP] Do Americans Care About Big Brother?

That Time piece is an execrable bit of "journalism".   Glenn Greenwald,
lawyer and Salon columnist, has an excellent dissection of it at
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/03/17/time/index.html

"No matter how corrupt and sloppy the establishment press becomes, they
always find a way to go lower. Time Magazine has just published what it
purports to be a news article by Massimo Calabresi claiming that "nobody
cares" about the countless abuses of spying powers by the Bush
administration; that "Americans are ready to trade diminished privacy, and
protection from search and seizure, in exchange for the promise of increased
protection of their physical security"; and that the case against unchecked
government surveillance powers "hasn't convinced the people." Not a single
fact -- not one -- is cited to support these sweeping, false opinions."

Glenn goes on to knock down, point by point, the core claims of the article.
Well worth reading.

Mark

~
Mark Blacknell
+1.202.270.5909
http://blacknell.net



On 3/22/08 7:58 AM, "David Farber" <dave () farber net> wrote:


________________________________________
From: Bill Daul [bdaul () pacbell net]
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2008 5:24 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: Do Americans Care About Big Brother?

Do Americans Care About Big Brother?  (Time  March 14, 2008)

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1722537,00.html?xid=rss-topstor
ies

A quick tally of the record of civil liberties erosion in the United States
since 9/11 suggests that the majority of Americans are ready to trade
diminished privacy, and protection from search and seizure, in exchange for
the promise of increased protection of their physical security. Polling
consistently supports that conclusion, and Congress has largely behaved
accordingly, granting increased leeway to law enforcement and the intelligence
community to spy and collect data on Americans. Even when the White House, the
FBI or the intelligence agencies have acted outside of laws protecting those
rights ‹ such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ‹ the public has by
and large shrugged and, through their elected representatives, suggested
changing the laws to accommodate activities that may be in breach of them.

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