Letters to the Editor
macgupta
Published Letters: 386
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What I learned in the last seven years....
[Read the article: More disruptions to the Cheney/Rockefeller plan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What I learned in the last seven years that democracy demands participation of the citizens or else it will decay. A passive citizen is also failing the Constitution just as so many of our political leaders are.
Another thing that is a blessing is that the Internet lets us discover that we are a constituency, and not just isolated individuals that are helpless and hopeless. A million readers of The New York Times might be unanimous in some opinion; but you might never find out even from the published letters to the editor.
It is almost as significant a development as finding evidence for extraterrestrial life - "we are not alone".
Kudos to GG for effective use of the new medium.
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@Taliesan
[Read the article: This Modern World]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Applause!
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The Theory of Evolution
[Read the article: Today's FISA vote]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Who knows, our Democratic Senators might find, after seven years, that there is a special joy in thumbing their noses at the President.
It is through strange paths like this FISA bill that Democrats in the Senate might evolve to have a spine. This is quite similar to what happens in evolution in the natural world as well - essentially a whole series of accidents.
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Retroactive unimmunity
[Read the article: Today]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Since it wouldn't be putting anyone into double jeopardy, presumably next Congress could, in principle, repeal retroactive immunity?
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My paranoia
[Read the article: Jihadis throw a wild bash over the Protect America Act]
[Read more letters about this article: Here](copied from something i posted elsewhere, posting it here because shooter242 is worried about not being in the 21st century)
I have good reason to believe that the US government is able to integrate in near-real time, the phone call records, cell phone locations, electronic highway toll payments, airplane tickets, credit card, atm payments, email, etc. to track people, and it is [already] doing this for all people in the country without any kind of warrant.
I have seen the demo of a (commercial) device that I'm 100% sure that the government will require Intel to build into its chipset that enables the location of a laptop (soon to be any computer) to be tracked to within a few feet. I have thus seen tracked the laptop moving in my living room in a better-than-google-earth resolution satellite photograph Today corporate IT can set up this plug in this device so that the laptop will not work without it. Tomorrow it will be integral to the personal computer and the government will at all times know where everyone with a computer is. BTW, the tracking works even when the laptop is off.
This being the USA, no one is even going to protest. There will be long lines of people wanting RFID implanted in their brains because it will give them 10% off at Macy's. [And then we have shit-scared shooter242s.]
If we don't yet live in the ultimate surveillance state, it is only because building this stuff takes time.
Every breath you take, every move you make, we'll be watching you!
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War of Civilizations
[Read the article: The fun and excitement of civilization wars (fought from afar)]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]From the perspective of someone in India, there is a war of civilizations, of sorts. There is a faction of Muslims who are akin to American rightwing Christian fundamentalists, except on steroids, who feel it is their deity-given right to dominate and impose themselves on everybody; for whom politics is war and for whom no holds are barred, including terrorism. (What was "Direct Action Day" after all?) And just as the failures of conservatism are justified because we have had "true" conservatism yet, the failures of this brand of Islam are justified by its followers, because we have not had "true" Islam yet.
The interesting thing is that this faction is productive of nothing - its existence continues because of petroleum money, (in the past support from colonial powers) or support from rich states, including the United States on occasion (e.g., the incalculable harm done by supporting Zia ul Haq). Left to its own resources it would collapse into a non-entity very soon.
So, this war of civilization, such as it is, does not require any heroic action, but merely the steady building of the institutions that can deliver economic growth and social justice.
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Statute of Limitations
[Read the article: The courts and Congress affirmatively conceal and protect lawbreaking]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Glenn:
What is the statute of limitations on the various alleged crimes that the Bush Administration, the telcos, etc., can be tried for?
Is there a statute of limitations on civilian cases?
Thanks!
-Arun
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Americans yawn.
[Read the article: Shocking new revelation: Unchecked government powers get abused]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is not just the Executive or the Congress or the Press or the two-party system that is dysfunctional. If the American people don't think their liberty is worth defending, then there is nothing a small group of aware people can really do, except keep shouting at the top of their lungs until either they are shut up or else the people listen and act.
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@Che Pasa
[Read the article: Shocking new revelation: Unchecked government powers get abused]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Since that's nearly the only thing they have stood their ground on, in all these years, during which they have shredded and pissed on the Constitution continuously, what's the reason for wanting to "preserve" Social Security?
Not the wrath of the People. They simply do not care what the People think about anything.
The politicians are still responding to their constituents. The people (anywhere close to a majority) are simply not angry about the shredding of the Constitution. They would be angry if something bad happened to Social Security.
The opinion polls might show something (e.g., disapproval of illegal surveillance). But opinion apparently does not always translate into changes in the voting behavior or political participation of any significant number of people. Opinion is cheap. Politicians make their guesses. E.g., despite the Democratic-led Congress having a lower approval rating than the President, the politicians are pretty sure that a Democratic majority will be returned to Congress in the 2008 elections. So at this point, that particular public opinion is entirely irrelevant, politically speaking. Only a viable third party challenge would make the approval rating of the Congress into a politically relevant fact, that politicians would respond to.