Bill Maher on Wiretapping

[Valerie]

"We love a good wiretapping" by Bill Maher

"Stop worrying that the government is listrening in on your phone conversation. The person you called isn't even listening to your phone conversation.

"Now, sure, there may be legitimate arguments against a warrantless surveillance program -- in previous administrations, they were called 'laws.' And yes, the idea of Karl Rove monitoring my e-mails is really creepy, which is why all of mine say the same thing, 'Hey, did you hear freedom is on the march and I quit smoking pot? Praise Jesus, Bill.'

"But the organization that's conducting these wiretaps, the National Security Agency, has no political opinions, remains invisible and only does what the president tells it to. No, that's the Democrats. The NSA is a spy agency, but it's different from all the others. It has only one function: to listen. You know, like a husband.

"And if it needs to listen to me to keep a dirty bomb from going off right down the road, then listen away. All I ask, NSA, is that you don't judge -- and more important, if you could be a lamb and screen my calls. In fact, tell everybody I'm not in.

"So, on the downside, yes, our lives are now an open book. But on the upside, George W. Bush doesn't read books.

"And really, people, if you're so worried about the privacy of your cellphone calls, stop making them when you're in line at Starbucks!

"Americans don't want privacy -- they'll put a camera in their shower and show it on the Internet. To get on TV, they'll marry strangers. And midgets. Americans can't whine about privacy when they're trying to get on a show called 'Big Brother.'

"We are a nation of exhibitionists from me to shining me, and privacy is the last thing we want. Because we don't just want to know what Jennifer Aniston did on New Year's Eve, we want Jennifer Anison to know what we did.

"Our true fear isn't that someone's listening, it's that no one's listening.

"This whole country is one big desperate cry for somebody to listen to me, photograph me, Google me. Read my blog. Read my memoir. It's not interesting enough? I'll make stuff up. Just somebody, please, notice me.

"Get real, America, you need an audience. And the NSA needs somebody to listen to. It works out perfectly. We get peace of mind knowing that Al Qaeda's being monitored, and the NSA gets the satisfaction of wiping its feet on the Constitution. Everybody wins'"

[tristano's ghost]

Gee, what kinda American-hating leftist loon could have spouted THIS anti-administration garbage?

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.

Clue: according to Attorney General Gonzales, the writer indulged in the practice of electronic surveillance.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Maher better watch out. He's already lost one TV show over unpatriotic behavior.

[tristano's ghost]

Originally Posted by tristano's ghost

Gee, what kinda American-hating leftist loon could have spouted THIS anti-administration garbage?



Clue: according to Attorney General Gonzales, the writer indulged in the practice of electronic surveillance.

Second clue: it's not George Will or Howard Dean.

But really, the first one should be enough.

[tristano's ghost]

Look, all you loony liberals and leftists and civil-rights wolf-criers, just shut up and trust our great leader. Via the Los Angeles Times:

WASHINGTON — For Americans troubled by the prospect of federal agents eavesdropping on their phone conversations or combing through their Internet records, there is good news: A little-known board exists in the White House whose purpose is to ensure that privacy and civil liberties are protected in the fight against terrorism.

Someday, it might actually meet.

Initially proposed by the bipartisan commission that investigated the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board was created by the intelligence overhaul that President Bush signed into law in December 2004.

More than a year later, it exists only on paper.

Full article here.

How reassuring to know that one of its first would-be appointees was treasurer of Bush's first Texas campaign. Shouldn't he be over at FEMA or something?

[Scott Dolan]

Howdy, TG.

Mr. Pootz is home sick today. It really sucks, although at least it happened on a day I already had off. So most of the things I had planned for today have gone straight out the window.

I am going to try to hit the Y tonight after the old lady gets home. I want to swim some laps.

Other than that, there ain't much going on today.

How 'bout you?

[tristano's ghost]

Oh, you know, the usual... shouting America-hating slogans in the streets, spitting at some evangelicals, and flinging vials of blood at the local military-recruitment center. And that was just while I was riding my bike to work!

Pretty good, in general (all kidding aside). Had a vicious flu that kept me away from work for a couple of days last week; right now I'm working on a program about women songwriters in jazz and listening to the new Mary Lou Williams Collective take on THE ZODIAC SUITE (love the original). Geri Allen's the pianist, and I generally dig her.

Mr. Pootz your son? If so, hope he gets better quick.

[tristano's ghost]

Originally Posted by tristano's ghost

Second clue: it's not George Will or Howard Dean.

But really, the first one should be enough.

Here's another clue: those words were spoken quite recently on the floor of Congress.