Saturday, January 13, 2007
"It's not easy living in a police state."
A look at opening mail without a warrant, then and now.
7 Comments:
By 
D.E. Cloutier, at
Sat Jan 13, 12:04:00 PM:
As a businessman in the global marketplace, I already have spies in France, China, Egypt, Indonesia, and a bunch of other countries reading my mail, opening my courier envelopes, and listening to my telephone conversations. One more country doing those things doesn't bother me.
By Christopher Chambers, at
Sat Jan 13, 02:21:00 PM:
Well DEC, as a someone who isn't a businessman in the global marketplace (bending over for our lovely "business allies" in China), this does bother me. I guess it's called "being an American." reminds me of of rightie commentator William Kristol's comment on Bush's speech "I wish he would have spent more time on achieving victory and less on helping the Iraqi people." Or one of the President's cronies who engineered this nuclear deal with another nation sucking our away jobs, India, then promptly "retired" and took a job with the lobbying firm here in Rome-on-the-Potomac that was representing India in the first place.
Relativism is OK when conservatives, "businesspeople" and evangelical preachers use it; it's a sin when liberals mention it. I chose to stand on the side of prinicipal and orthodoxy when it comes to my civil liberties and civil rights, thank you. Someone better have a goddamn super-compelling reason to trample them, and frankly I don't care what the practice is is corrupt, robber-baron capitalist/totalitarian states is.
By Purple Avenger, at
Sat Jan 13, 02:29:00 PM:
Chris, I suspect you got a better chance of the crackhead down the street reading your mail looking for checks to steal.
Newsflash: Bush doesn't care if you're banging your neighbors wife, growing weed in the basement under grow lights, or moonlighting writing screeds for Socialist Worker's Daily.
By 
, at
Sat Jan 13, 02:54:00 PM:
And the UN wants to monitor and and control the internet its comming down to 1984 and big brother all the time its time to get us out of the UN
By , at
Sat Jan 13, 08:02:00 PM:
So Chris I take it you'd rather NOT have the Government open mail to prevent an Anthrax mail attack (like the old one that killed several people) even if it meant someone you know and love (perhaps even yourself) would die as a result?
If you're not ready to walk the walk (die or have your family die in an Anthrax mail attack) don't talk the talk.
Threat is real. People already died (I know, just "little people" like office and postal workers). Still, they are dead. As a result of terrorism. See also: Al Gore's Global Warming Pal Ted Kyzincsky.
By , at
Sun Jan 14, 12:54:00 AM:
To me, the real issue is not whether the executive can open mail without a warrant, because obviously if the president had evidence that a biological weapon was going to be used, we want him or her to order the suspicious mail to be opened.
What I'm not satisfied with is the apparent complete lack of accountability for these warrantless searches. Opening mail without a warrant, and other such extrajudicial infringement on the rights of citizens, should be extraordinary measures, and should need to be justified after the fact before some kind of body from another branch of government, e.g. a congressional committee, and failure to report such an action should have severe repercussions.
I realize that requiring the executive to disclose extrajudicial activities even to a secret congressional committee carries the risk of information being leaked. But it seems to me that that is an unavoidable risk, since the alternative of allowing totally unaccountable executive power is worse.
If the president cannot reasonably hope for secret congressional testimony to remain secret, then that is a governmental dysfunction which needs to be addressed; but it is also a separate issue, and shouldn't be a reason to throw out all congressional oversight!
I think it is an awful idea to trust anyone with total extrajudicial power and let them remain unaccountable to anyone. Who watches the watchers?
By Purple Avenger, at
Sun Jan 14, 06:02:00 AM:
Who watches the watchers?
Practicality? With the mail volume such as it is, can anyone honestly say someone will be poking through something without good reason?
I can't. There's better things to do with one's time. Torturing innocents, flying black helicopters around, murdering irritating journalists and such.
