Letters to the Editor
Scientician
Published Letters: 523 Editor's Choice: 1
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Glenn's personal experience
[Read the article: The banality of the surveillance state]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I apologize if someone brought this up already, but I don't have time to browse all the comments, but I recall that Glenn himself was the victim of some improper snooping into his affairs by an ideologically motivated government employee.
There was an incident where someone anonymous posted a comment to a right wing blog discussing Glenn's travel history and had specific information on when Glenn had entered and left the country. I believe it was during the whole sock puppet 'investigation' by right wing blogs.
It was a perfect example of what Glenn is talking about. In order to further domestic political goals of discrediting an ideological opponent in Glenn Greenwald, some Homeland Security employee dug into a flight database and publicly revealed personal and private information about Glenn's travel timings.
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Evan Sternberg:
[Read the article: The banality of the surveillance state]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I love whenever the government attempts to instill a program or program that helps prevent crime or terrorism, "we the people" conjure up worse case scenarios of Murphy's Law. Some level headed bloke like Glen will point out the possibility of a problem, the Chicken Littles scared of the scary scary police State take that possibility as fact. Now we are flooded with thousands of conspiracy because one guy says it could happen.
The broad sweep of human history shows that any power possessed will be abused sooner or later unless there are aggressive counter measures and disincentives built into the system to prevent it. So yes, once someone points out the possibility of abuse, abuse becomes a certainty over time.
Specific to the US, I suggest you read up on the findings of the Church committee, which uncovered reams of egregious abuse of surveillance by the US government over a period of decades. There were active campaigns to harass and abuse Martin Luther King and John Lennon. They even tried to get King to commit suicide.
This isn't merely hypothetical, and attempting to straw man us as paranoid conspiracy types doesn't really address the actual substantive concerns here. As Glenn said, one need not imagine a cackling supervillain to be concerned with how these powers are used. I've asked in the past: How many supermodels or ex-girlfriends of people at NSA are being targetted for purient reasons? How many young women text messaging racy pictures to their boyfriends are having these pictures viewed by others who have no earthly business doing so?
Finally we can't forget watergate, which was at its core about a President spying on his legitimate political opposition in order to better win re-election. Spying has been abused in the most serious and conspiratorial ways already in the US.
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Most Revealing
[Read the article: "The guys from the Politico brought my mom flowers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Was her admission (numerous statements) that the event was far easier and more pleasant than she had expected.
Let's recall that she has grown up with her dad as a high profile Senator and was a teenager for his last run for President. This isn't all new to her. She's seen obsequious press before.
Tells me they're even more lapdog than she remembers from 2000, when they were already in the tank enough to be his "base."
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Also
[Read the article: "The guys from the Politico brought my mom flowers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why would it be bad for Glenn to have criticized Meghan McCain?
She is not "off limits" she is an active part of his campaign. Naturally we should insist that criticisms of Meghan be substantive and issue based, but I'm not giving her a free pass for anything she says or does just because she's a candidate's daughter.
I don't mind that people take issue with Chelsey Clinton working for a hedge fund for example. I didn't like that reporters harped on the Bush twins being relatively normal college girls sneaking booze before turning the absurdly old age of 21 to drink (seriously, that's pretty stupid).
If Meghan McCain is going to vacuously recant the details of the press playing coutiers to her father's royal court, there are fair points of critique that can be levelled at her for acting like this is just some girly road trip for her and her friends. She's playing dumb here and I don't like it. The Bush twins always struck me as really wanting nothing to do with the campaign (apparently even asking daddy not to run). Meghan can't play above-the-fray bystander while actively helping her father.
It's not a huge issue of course, but to the extent she matters at all to her father's chances, she is a fair target.
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barryaus:
[Read the article: "The guys from the Politico brought my mom flowers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Millions of Americans drive toyotas. They're empirically better cars than any North American manufacturer has made in decades. Also, her father is (ostensibly) a free trader so the idea of buying the better car on the market wherever it was made is consistent.
I don't like McCain and I want him to lose, but I think it would be petty and unfair to take issue with his adult daughter's choice of vehicle.