The surveillance state threatens Americans' love of country.

[Raya @ REAL CONSERVATIVES]

 

 

.

Noonan: Privacy Isn't All We're Losing

The surveillance state threatens Americans' love of country.

　

The U.S. surveillance state as outlined and explained by Edward Snowden is not worth the price. Its size, scope and intrusiveness, its ability to target and monitor American citizens, its essential unaccountability—all these things are extreme.

The purpose of the surveillance is enhanced security, a necessary goal to say the least. The price is a now formal and agreed-upon acceptance of the end of the last vestiges of Americans' sense of individual distance and privacy from the government. The price too is a knowledge, based on human experience and held by all but fools and children, that the gleanings of the surveillance state will eventually be used by the mischievous, the malicious and the ignorant in ways the creators of the system did not intend.

For all we know that's already happened. But of course we don't know: It's secret. Only the intelligence officials know, and they say everything's A-OK. The end of human confidence in a zone of individual privacy from the government, plus the very real presence of a system that can harm, harass or invade the everyday liberties of Americans. This is a recipe for democratic disaster.

If—again, if—what Mr. Snowden says is substantially true, the surveillance state will in time encourage an air of subtle oppression, and encourage too a sense of paranoia that may in time—not next week, but in time, as the years unfold—loosen and disrupt the ties the people of America feel to our country. "They spy on you here and will abuse the information they get from spying on you here. I don't like 'here.' "

Trust in government, historically, ebbs and flows, and currently, because of the Internal Revenue Service, the Justice Department, Benghazi, etc.—and the growing evidence that the executive agencies have been reduced to mere political tools—is at an ebb that may not be fully reversible anytime soon. It is a great irony, and history will marvel at it, that the president most committed to expanding the centrality, power, prerogatives and controls of the federal government is also the president who, through lack of care, arrogance, and an absence of any sense of prudential political boundaries, has done the most in our time to damage trust in government.

But again, you can always, or every four years, hire a new president. The ties you feel to your country are altogether more consequential, more crucial. And this is something we have to watch out for, and it has to do with the word "extreme," more on which in a moment.

How did we get here? You know. In the days after 9/11 all the clamor was for safety. Improve intelligence, find the bad guys, heighten surveillance. The government went to work. It is important to remember that 9/11 coincided almost exactly with the Internet revolution. They happened at pretty much the same time.

In the past 10 years technology sped up, could do more and more—big data, metadata. Capabilities became massive, and menacing.

Our government is not totalitarian. Our leaders, even the worst of them, are not totalitarian. But our technology is totalitarian, or rather it is there and can be used and abused by those whose impulses tend, even unconsciously or unthinkingly, in that direction.

So what's needed? We must realize this is a crucial moment: We either go forward with these programs now or we stop, and think. Some call for a conversation, but what we really need is a debate—a real argument. It will require a new candor from the government as to what the National Security Agency does and doesn't do. We need a new rigor in the areas of oversight and accountability—including explicit limits on what can and should be allowed, accompanied by explicit and even harsh penalties for violations. This debate will also require information that is reliable—that is, true—from the government about what past terrorist attempts have been slowed or stopped by the surveillance state.

Closing thoughts.

The NSA is only one of many recent revelations and events that have the ability to damage the ties Americans feel toward their country. It's not only big stories like the IRS, but stories that have flown mostly below the media's interest. Here is one: There was a doctor in Philadelphia who routinely killed full-term babies for years, and no one wanted to stop him for years. It got out of hand—he was collecting body parts in jars—and he was finally arrested, tried, sent to prison. People who are not extreme—people, forgive me, who are normal—who followed the story watched in a horrified, traumatized wonder. "They have places where they kill kids in America now, and it's kind of accepted." Those who watch closely say there are more such clinics, still up and operating. There's a bill in Congress now to limit abortions after the fifth month, the age at which hospitals can keep babies alive. It's not an extreme proposal, not in the least, but it's probably going nowhere. It's been called anti-woman.

I feel that almost everyone who talks about America for a living—politicians and journalists and even historians—is missing a huge and essential story: that too many things are happening that are making a lot of Americans feel a new distance from, a frayed affiliation with, the country they have loved for half a century and more, the country they loved without every having to think about it, so natural was it.

This isn't the kind of thing that can be quantified in polls—it's barely the kind of thing people admit to themselves. But talk to older Americans—they feel they barely know this country anymore. In governance its crucial to stay within parameters, it's important not to strain ties, push too far, be extreme. And if you think this does not carry implications for down the road, for our healthy continuance as a nation, you are mistaken. Love keeps great nations going.

Some of the reaction to the NSA story is said to be generational. The young are said not to fear losing privacy, because they never knew it. The middle-aged, who grew up in peace and have families, want safety first, whatever it takes, even excess. Lately for wisdom I've been looking to the old. Go to somebody who's 75 and ask, "So if it turns out the U.S. government is really spying on American citizens and tracking everything they do, is that OK with you?" They'll likely say no, that's not what we do in America.

The other day on Fox News Channel I saw 79-year-old Eugene Cernan, an Apollo astronaut. Mr. Cernan's indignation about the state of things was so sincere, so there. China had just blasted into space, bringing its pride and sense of nationhood with it. America doesn't do that anymore, said Mr. Cernan, we're not achieving big things. Now we go nowhere.

The interviewer, Neil Cavuto, threw in a question about the spying.

Yes, we're under attack, said Mr. Cernan, but "we can handle it," we can go after "the bad guys" without hurting "the good guys," you can't give up your own liberty and your own freedom.

Exactly how a lot of us feel about it, rocket man.

 

Peggy Noonan is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal whose work appears weekly in the Journal's Weekend Edition and on OpinionJournal.com.

She is the author of eight books on American politics and culture. The most recent, "Patriotic Grace," was published in October 2008. Her first book, the bestseller "What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era," was published in 1990.

She was a special assistant to the president in the White House of Ronald Reagan. Before that she was a producer at CBS News in New York. In 1978 and 1979 she was an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Obama Coup Precipitates America's Undoing

...( translation: ... "Fundamental Transformation" )

 

By Fay Maricelli

There may be very few people alive now who remember what happened in Cuba in 1959 — and even less who understand the significance of it today — but is becoming more and more apparent that our own federal government, at the hands of an aspiring dictator, is about to undergo the very same type of changes. To where will American citizens flee in order to escape?

America has never witnessed firsthand a military takeover by our own government; frankly, none of us ever anticipated it until late 2007 with the announcement of a little-known senator from Illinois in his bid to become president. It was not difficult to read the signs. All indications that this man was going to be our next president set many of us off on investigative alert. He had no past. The one he claimed to have was completely fabricated by himself and his long-time friend and associate, William Ayers. Of course, little details are not really necessary when you have aspirations of becoming America’s first black president — and those details did go unnoticed by millions who were starstruck by this outwardly charming, yet inwardly deceptive and inherently evil, "rock-star" of a politician.

As time dragged on for those of us just anticipating the next big election, it became imminently clear that this virtual unknown was proving to be above the law, had no intentions of obeying our United States Constitution, and intended to hammer into the brains of any and all willing ears that he believed our Constitution — which had served as the basis for all legislation and precedents in court rulings for over 220 years — was outdated and that it was "time for a change."

I would say "somehow" he made it through the next election, but there was no "somehow" about it; it was fraud — complete, utter, unabashed, remorseless, fraud. The evidence to prove such a claim was overwhelming from several districts, yet it still goes unpunished. The simple truth is that Obama has a very efficient, although underhanded, team of damage-control technicians (extremely swift with their excuses and lies, and have no problem taking the fall for his faux pas. I shudder to think of how much they’re being paid to destroy our country…), and because he was lucky enough to have a Chicago base, I believe Obama also has a special group just for removing certain people that could hold a key to destroying him; just as I’d imagine any other Chicago thug politician would have. As highest ranking of them all, he obviously deserves the best.

Yes, it appears Obama has come to our White House prepared to do battle — not with Muslim terrorists or anyone that has slipped under the ever-watchful eyes of Homeland Security (sarcasm) — oh no, those people aren’t the problem…they are his security blanket!

The first part of his agenda seems to have been to divide us, and though many people would have initially thought this concept to be "out there," we now know that he does utilize the tactics of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), which is a commonly used method of persuasion especially useful in the field of customer service, sales, and motivational speaking. As useful as this communications technique is, it can also be misused, and it has been — sadly, Obama’s case is not the first one. While his first campaign was hugely successful, we can primarily attribute this success to his speechwriter, George Lakoff, who is one of the modern pioneers of the uses of NLP. So, when you hear the term "zombie" used to describe his followers, you’re not too far from the truth.

To look on with any awareness, it is clear that Obama created his division, his diversions, and his plan of attack. I believe it is safe to say that with the multitude of crimes we have witnessed him weaseling out of, and the fact that no one seems willing to come forward and "out" him, we are in an honest-to-goodness, old-fashioned, coup.

This same type of strategy was carried out in a similar fashion in Cuba in 1959. A distinct difference though is that Castro had done time in prison beforehand for an attempt, but the second go around was much easier because Cuba was in a nonchalant mood. It all began so quickly that the citizens had no idea it was happening again.

In front of Mr. Obama’s charge, the American press has been fully cooperative with him. Through their eyes, they present him to a confused public as a hero; a revolutionary.

Revolutionary? Che Guevara comes to mind. Hero? Much as Hitler was a hero to his followers? If these are the standards then I would have to agree.

However, contrary to their view and even some comments from his devout followers, Mr. Obama is not God, he is not above the law, and he is not American in any of his deeds, his words, or his spirit. So, why is it that he’s allowed to commit criminal acts without fear of retribution? It seems this man without a past, literally without a country, a professional failure, has duped us all. Right in front of our faces, with our eyes wide open, and our senses fully aware, he is implementing a coup on American soil…jerking our "rug" right out from underneath our feet.

As I wrap these thoughts up, some quick "musings" cross my mind;
Communism is associated with the surrealist era because it represented a fierce hatred of authority and religion. Homosexuality, as well as being in direct opposition to the word of God, is also a Communist concept. In my mind, this explains perfectly why Obama fantasizes about his vision of a "Utopian" world. Perversity is being established – enforced even — because anything else is not "normal" and anyone who rejects it is obviously against the ruling party. This tactic has made it quite a bit easier to weed out the opposition by observing those who resist.

Even though we recognized it and knew it for what it was, conservative Americans working hard to make their dreams come true and to ensure that the next generation would "have it better than the last," have now become the outcast…the "illegal alien," the suspect. At long last and to the credit of those who hate the freedom that America stands for, the hunter has become the hunted.

　

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CLICK HERE:

 http://tpartyus2010.ning.com/profiles/blogs/3180617:BlogPost:213018

.

.

.

 

[PHILIP SCHNEIDER]

We the People have lost much during this Obama disaster.

Will we ever be able to recover what has been lost in Liberty and Freedoms?

The will of the "American" people is much different than the will  of We the People.

Add the millions of illegal aliens to the number of "Americans" and We the People will be greatly outnumbered.

We are witnessing a paradigm shift and it seems unstoppable.

We here at REAL CONSERVATIVES have been fighting every loss of freedom through the last several presidents. It has been a huge disappointment to be a witness to a low point in United States history.