I think you have a very short memory. Who sicked the army on peace activists? The last I remember, Bush went out of his way to express his opinion at what a great country we have precisely because people are free to express their opinions and protest the government. And I have always expressed my belief that people of all stripes should be able to express their opinions, it is a core principle of a free society.
As for the WH intent, it's a short step from collecting email addresses to putting that information through Echelon and finding out everything about the people on the list, then using the appartus of government and friends in the media to destroy their lives. Whether anyone would actually do that is irrelevant. The mere possibility of such abuse makes the entire enterprise a political land mine, which is why I am so surprised they even made the suggestion. -----Original Message----- From: Dana <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 4:27 PM To: cf-community <[email protected]> Subject: Re: you too can become a snitch for Obama oh.. I think you are drnking the koolaid again. Why is it ok to sic the army on peace activists and this is not? Do you seriously think they are advertising a surveillance campaigm? On their website? UM. I suspect they want a heads up so the president doesn't look stupid at press conferences, and who can blame them? I do think it has a kind of true believer edge t it and I don't plan to participate; I also do see some potential for abuse if the wrong person had the info, which may or may no happen, but should be treated as if it will, just because On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 1:23 PM, Robert Munn <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 12:10 PM, denstar wrote: > > > > > > > Remember when I said once we give up the power it's pretty hard to get > > back? > > > > Can you blame them? Crap man, anyone who's read any history at all > > saw the danger right away: > > > > "Give us the power to protect you" -- sure. > > > > We've been over this territory before. There were far more powers assumed > by > the government during the Civil War and WWII and those powers were > eventually surrendered. This is totally different. There is no national > security interest in reporting people's exercise of free speech to the > White > House. It's a purely political move designed to help the Administration > push > their policy goals. The irony is that they are using Big Brother tactics to > respond to criticism of their legislative goal of health care reform that > is, rightly or wrongly, being criticized for its Big Brother qualities. > That > kind of stuff just plays into the hands of critics who see nothing good in > the creeping power of the government. > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:301592 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
