I object, Mr. President!
Kids, this is what happens to your democracy when you sit back and let the big G-Man raid your house in the name of your safety:
Well, you're American, but you're a terrorist. So I guess you don't count!
Don't misunderstand me: shit happens, terrorists need to be caught, etc etc. But look at what's happened the past 10 years. We've lived in this hypervigilant state of "OMGZTALIBANALQAEDA GONNA RAEP MAH BABEHS" and still STILL we have guys that slip in. We have a no-fly list that really is a joke and seems to still let people like Faisal Shahzad (i.e. bad ammonia Times Square bomber) and the Detroit Pants Bomber in.
Something is obviously wrong if you keep bulking up on a system and yet people are slipping through the cracks. You want speed? You want quickness? Make your force agile and small. It's what we've done in the military, righ? Cut back on the sizes of battalions and platoons? You go after the enemy, you go after him in small squads, for quicker movement and efficiency and agility. Using a shotgun to kill a mosquito is never the right answer, and though the nuclear bomb did settle some of our problems (albeit at a price -- as is the case in warfare), that was a selective instance of reasonable overkill. IMO.
But this? THIS? You cut on one constitutional right, you begin to slowly gnaw away at the others. And it's subtle, too; the constitutional rights we find missing are the ones you don't hear nicely smiled on CNN or roared with rabid froth on FOX. They're the ones that matter, but the ones we never hear about. Your 4th amendment. Your 5th, 6th and 7th. They're no big, right? If it ain't on FOX, I have nothing to worry.
Wrong. So wrong.
Well, you're American, but you're a terrorist. So I guess you don't count!
Don't misunderstand me: shit happens, terrorists need to be caught, etc etc. But look at what's happened the past 10 years. We've lived in this hypervigilant state of "OMGZTALIBANALQAEDA GONNA RAEP MAH BABEHS" and still STILL we have guys that slip in. We have a no-fly list that really is a joke and seems to still let people like Faisal Shahzad (i.e. bad ammonia Times Square bomber) and the Detroit Pants Bomber in.
Something is obviously wrong if you keep bulking up on a system and yet people are slipping through the cracks. You want speed? You want quickness? Make your force agile and small. It's what we've done in the military, righ? Cut back on the sizes of battalions and platoons? You go after the enemy, you go after him in small squads, for quicker movement and efficiency and agility. Using a shotgun to kill a mosquito is never the right answer, and though the nuclear bomb did settle some of our problems (albeit at a price -- as is the case in warfare), that was a selective instance of reasonable overkill. IMO.
But this? THIS? You cut on one constitutional right, you begin to slowly gnaw away at the others. And it's subtle, too; the constitutional rights we find missing are the ones you don't hear nicely smiled on CNN or roared with rabid froth on FOX. They're the ones that matter, but the ones we never hear about. Your 4th amendment. Your 5th, 6th and 7th. They're no big, right? If it ain't on FOX, I have nothing to worry.
Wrong. So wrong.