People have short memories
 

USA Today. 2006-05-10

http://images.usatoday.com/news/_pho...yden-large.jpg

Re: People have short memories
 

Of course they have been monitoring calls/internet forums etc. Most large companies have monitored the internet for years.

Re: People have short memories
 

My point was that it was brought into the open back then, it shouldn't be a surprise now, even if for the non-cynics.

Re: People have short memories
 

Agreed. I'm sick of the silly political games.

Re: People have short memories
 

Yeah but this way they make it look like the black guy is all at fault.

Re: People have short memories
 

That would be because it is less about "short" memories and more about selective memories. Never let the facts get in the way of a good mud-slinging.... :sneaky:

Re: People have short memories
 

a) a week is a long time in politics.
b) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON
c) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawful_interception

There is more but the point is that it is nothing new - the USA (and others) have been monitoring communications in one form or another since WWII. Obama is being targeted simply because he is the man at the top. I'm sure that it'll happen to the next president as well. What might be making it worse for Obama, however, is due to the outcry from the Democrats when the Patriot Act came in and now he is seen as bolstering it. A slight stench of hypocrisy.

On the other hand, a government needs to do something to protect its citizens from harm. We can't have it both ways.

Re: People have short memories
 

I will happily surrender some of my liberty (some) in return for not getting blown up.

Re: People have short memories
 

Yes, it's an unenviable position. You can't be the one who demands the magic tiger repelling rock be removed just in case it actually did something useful and the next tiger that turns up will be blamed on you. Besides Congress keeps renewing the rock or placing impossible conditions on removal of the rock (see also TSA, Guantanamo Bay etc).

Another thought occurs to me. This sudden rash of Obamascandals (tm). Benghazi, IRS, AP, NSA etc and several other leaks seem to be occurring almost weekly. A cynic might think that either someone is trying to constantly smear Obama, or making the assumption that leaks are usually intentional that a distraction is being made. One can get very cynical about politics.

Re: People have short memories
 

Me too, and I was talking with USC colleague yesterday who said exactly the same thing unprompted by me. They can track my phone usage and email all they like, he11, they can listen to my phone calls to my mother if they want, but they're wasting their time if they think they'll find anything of interest. .... In fact most of my conversations with my mother aren't even interesting to me! :rolleyes:

Re: People have short memories
 

Don't you mean the President? What does his colour have to do with it? Lets face it the opposing side would blame whoever was President...Democrats or Republicans. The President's been in office for a few months...now it's time to gear up for the next election. :rolleyes:

Re: People have short memories
 

Well many of Obama's supporters seem to think that he is being criticized because he is black despite the fact that there is not one jot of evidence to support that assertion. In fact there are so many things to disagree with based on his policies its hard to know where to start, and all have absolutely no connection to his race, but the standard explanation touted by his supporters in response to all and any criticism, is that it is all about race; how racist is that? :rolleyes:

Re: People have short memories
 

Strictly speaking his color has nothing to do with it. Or it shouldn't. I agree to a certain extent that the opposition would blame whomever. However, while the US seems to have a veneer of civil rights and equality for African Americans there is a large proportion of the country that don't see him as the President just some sort of usurper or placeholder.

You just have to look at the outcry over a Cheerios advert featuring a cute mixed race family to see where the country really stands.

Re: People have short memories
 

Isn't he showing racial bias by playing up his black half and ignoring his white half? But I would agree that it appears as if many in the USA pay lip service to civil rights and racial equality.

Re: People have short memories
 

Meanwhile, back in 07 ......



.... yet another 'broken promise' which is part of the general resentment people generally have about how the current administration is behaving. 2016 election is going to be tense - I wouldn't be surprised if we see an indy potus as there is much disdain against the gop and dems based on the most recent representative administrations. They're shooting themselves in the foot. Ooops trigger words.

Back in 08 NOVA did an interesting program about the NSA; it gets quite insightful from 39 mins onward. Even back in 08 intelligence data sources were growing at 4 Petabytes a month - 1 Petabyte could hold approximately 20 million 4-door filing cabinets full of text. It could hold 500 billion pages of standard printed text. Just imagine how much it grows 5 years on. The NSA is only one part of a complicated web. We are all suspects in the eyes of our trusting gov't, therefore guilty until proven innocent. Even Holder can't assure Congress that (nsa) aren't listening in on them. One has to wonder about the effectiveness of this data mining and wiretaps; especially over the past 6 months because, to me, it seems the gov't is more interested in protecting itself rather than us ... and uses the guise of "Security".