...or why the Gamecat can not vote for Barack Obama.

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2006/05/70886

Quote :

"The Eternal Value of Privacy Bruce Schneir The most common retort against privacy advocates -- by those in favor of ID checks, cameras, databases, data mining and other wholesale surveillance measures -- is this line: "If you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?" Some clever answers: "If I'm not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me." "Because the government gets to define what's wrong, and they keep changing the definition." "Because you might do something wrong with my information." My problem with quips like these -- as right as they are -- is that they accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It's not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect. Two proverbs say it best: Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? ("Who watches the watchers?") and "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Cardinal Richelieu understood the value of surveillance when he famously said, "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged." Watch someone long enough, and you'll find something to arrest -- or just blackmail -- with. Privacy is important because without it, surveillance information will be abused: to peep, to sell to marketers and to spy on political enemies -- whoever they happen to be at the time. Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance. We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn them. Privacy is a basic human need. [Emphasis mine] A future in which privacy would face constant assault was so alien to the framers of the Constitution that it never occurred to them to call out privacy as an explicit right. Privacy was inherent to the nobility of their being and their cause. Of course being watched in your own home was unreasonable. Watching at all was an act so unseemly as to be inconceivable among gentlemen in their day. You watched convicted criminals, not free citizens. You ruled your own home. It's intrinsic to the concept of liberty. For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that -- either now or in the uncertain future -- patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable. How many of us have paused during conversation in the past four-and-a-half years, suddenly aware that we might be eavesdropped on? Probably it was a phone conversation, although maybe it was an e-mail or instant-message exchange or a conversation in a public place. Maybe the topic was terrorism, or politics, or Islam. We stop suddenly, momentarily afraid that our words might be taken out of context, then we laugh at our paranoia and go on. But our demeanor has changed, and our words are subtly altered. This is the loss of freedom we face when our privacy is taken from us. This is life in former East Germany, or life in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. And it's our future as we allow an ever-intrusive eye into our personal, private lives. Too many wrongly characterize the debate as "security versus privacy." The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that's why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide."

Thanks for expanding FISA, Mr. Friendly-Smiley-Change-Hoping Guy!

8/21/2008 1:11:27 AM

Why do you hate Black People so?

8/21/2008 1:14:15 AM

I think I'll tape a slip of paper with the 4th Amendment on it to my vote of No Confidence this November.

8/21/2008 1:19:40 AM

I doubt the government gives a fuck about you singing in the shower. More likely, they don't give a fuck about you at all.

I'm more worried about Nixon-esque spying on government critics and dissenting parties, under the guise of "anti-terrorism". Under FISA 2008, they don't have to prove the grounds for spying in order to get a warrant. All they gotta do is allege that a group is involved in subversive activity, and they can engage in warrantless wiretapping for up to a week.

8/21/2008 1:54:14 AM

i thought the "Stop the Bill of Rights Blackout" thing from Bob Barr was clever:

Quote :

"The Bill of Rights As Envisioned by the Government in 2008 The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, shall be delegated to the United States."

http://www.bobbarr2008.com/files/rights-2page.pdf
http://www.bobbarr2008.com/rights

8/21/2008 3:10:26 AM

Wow.

I was sure there'd be apologists galore on this. The opiate of Change and Hope is pretty powerful...

8/21/2008 6:57:52 PM

Quote :

"I'm more worried about Nixon-esque spying on government critics and dissenting parties, under the guise of "anti-terrorism"."

No need to worry--it's already here. Take a look at the 1,000,000 name and counting No Fly list.

8/21/2008 7:18:22 PM

FISA is the main reason why I'm voting for Spider-Man come November.

8/21/2008 9:41:48 PM

agreed wholeheartedly, after fisa, i was disappointed in obama
he even stated that he would take another look at the law after he was elected - there is something incredibly immoral with that statement - vote for me and i'll change what i voted for now...

take a look at how the patriot act helped catch spitzer...

8/21/2008 9:58:06 PM

Every time is see the thread title I read:

Quote :

"The Eternal Value of Piracy"

8/22/2008 8:45:05 AM

Quote :

"FISA is the main reason why I'm voting for Spider-Man come November."

We need to get millions of people to agree on a uniform fake name to vote for. What's up Paris Hilton messing up the vote here?

8/22/2008 9:33:20 AM

oh god, not paris hilton

what about jesse ventura? remember, if you write in someone they have to meet the criteria of the office

8/22/2008 9:42:42 AM

Massive write-in campaign for Ron Paul or Jesse Ventura.

8/22/2008 9:58:20 AM