[IP] Re: WORTH READING Do Americans Care About Big Brother?

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

________________________________________
From: Mark Blacknell [mb@blacknell.net]
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2008 12:01 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: Re: [IP] Do Americans Care About Big Brother?

That Time piece is an execrable bit of "journalism".   Glenn Greenwald,
lawyer and Salon columnist, has an excellent dissection of it at
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/03/17/time/index.html

"No matter how corrupt and sloppy the establishment press becomes, they
always find a way to go lower. Time Magazine has just published what it
purports to be a news article by Massimo Calabresi claiming that "nobody
cares" about the countless abuses of spying powers by the Bush
administration; that "Americans are ready to trade diminished privacy, and
protection from search and seizure, in exchange for the promise of increased
protection of their physical security"; and that the case against unchecked
government surveillance powers "hasn't convinced the people." Not a single
fact -- not one -- is cited to support these sweeping, false opinions."

Glenn goes on to knock down, point by point, the core claims of the article.
Well worth reading.

Mark

~
Mark Blacknell
+1.202.270.5909
http://blacknell.net



On 3/22/08 7:58 AM, "David Farber" <dave@farber.net> wrote:

>
> ________________________________________
> From: Bill Daul [bdaul@pacbell.net]
> Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2008 5:24 AM
> To: David Farber
> Subject: Do Americans Care About Big Brother?
>
> Do Americans Care About Big Brother?  (Time  March 14, 2008)
>
> http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1722537,00.html?xid=rss-topstor
> ies
>
> A quick tally of the record of civil liberties erosion in the United States
> since 9/11 suggests that the majority of Americans are ready to trade
> diminished privacy, and protection from search and seizure, in exchange for
> the promise of increased protection of their physical security. Polling
> consistently supports that conclusion, and Congress has largely behaved
> accordingly, granting increased leeway to law enforcement and the intelligence
> community to spy and collect data on Americans. Even when the White House, the
> FBI or the intelligence agencies have acted outside of laws protecting those
> rights ‹ such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ‹ the public has by
> and large shrugged and, through their elected representatives, suggested
> changing the laws to accommodate activities that may be in breach of them.
>
> -------------------------------------------



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