June 18, 2013

As long as you're under my roof....

Parents use that excuse when they search the room, bags, or computer of their child. As long as you're under my roof, you'll do what I say. Those words are weak excuses, but even if we say they have some validity. Children are not yet mature enough to understand the consequences of actions, and will make bad decisions for many reasons. That excuse ends when the children become adults, and leave the nest. How many of us would tolerate our parents coming into our own homes, and searching through things. The "You're my child" excuse kind of dies when you go off on your own doesn't it?

A guest in your home who uses your bathroom, and then inspects your medicine cabinet is a snoop. Can a government who intercepts the fax, or the email message tell the pharmacy to give you the medication be anything less than a snoop?

A friend riding in your car who opens your glove box and begins going through your things to see what you have in there would not be invited into your car again. Yet a Government who looks at things far more personal that that claims they are doing it for your own good, and it's perfectly legal, because someone else told them it was OK.

Besides the defenders of the faith tell us. It's really just an illusion of privacy at this point. Really? Then why can't I do it too? If I have a scanner, and a computer to decode cell phones, I am eavesdropping in every single state of the union. It is a Felony for me to do it. If I hack my neighbors WiFi and just monitor what he does, that is a crime. I am committing yet another Felony. Google was fined for doing that with their street view cars.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/22/google-street-view-fine-germany/
And not just in Germany. http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/12/google-street-view-settlement/

Friends, we will have Civil Rights as long as we shout, scream, and argue that we should. As long as we are willing to fight for our rights, we will have them. As soon as we decide that the Government, like our Parents, knows best and we should just go along, we will lose all those rights. Then eventually, someone will argue that we should have rights in practice, not just on paper. Then we'll see another Revolution, and what will the future say about us? If we are lucky, the Future will say we were just victims. That would be easier to stomach than willing accomplice of the immoral act.

I do not live in my Father's house. This is my roof, and my home. This is my country, and I will not go quietly and say all is well when I see those Civil Rights that so many fought so long and hard to get are eroded away with mumblings from authoritarian courts and abusive policies. I urge you, do not join the group that is going gentle into that good night. Either we stand for principle, or we all suffer for party.

June 7, 2013

Why the NSA scandal belongs squarely in President Obama's lap

If you hire me as a Manager, then the things that happened before I showed up to run a department are not my fault. I wasn't there, I can't be expected to fix things that happened before then. I can be and absolutely should be held responsible for things that happen from the time I show up onward.

Bush was an idiot. We said so on this board many many times. We posted polls that the majority of people said so.

We cheered President Obama's election. We called him a Genius during the campaign, and many times since. Bush shredded the Constitution, and we protested it.

So we take the two cases. An idiot who wasn't smart enough to understand the importance of the Constitution. One who was accepted to Harvard Business School based upon his family influence. Then Daddy kept him safe from the nasty old War in Vietnam. A Frat boy who never earned a thing in his life. Too stupid to even manage to own a baseball team without losing a ton of other people's money. It was too much to expect that Bush the idiot would understand the 4th Amendment. He probably used that phrase to request a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich. A moron who agreed with the Fascist bastards Rove and Cheney when they proposed this crap.

If limited mental capacity is justification for mitigation of sentence, then we must admit that Bush was certainly limited in mental capacity. That doesn't mean he should be forgiven by any stretch of the imagination. However, when assigning blame, we should recognize that he was an idiot and almost certainly didn't come up with this. Undoubtedly Cheney did, with Rove, and when they briefed Bush with hand puppets told him all was cool with it.

But President Obama has no such excuse. Unlike Bush, he was not only a Law School Grad instead of a Business School graduated by his Family name, but actually taught Constitutional Law. President Obama almost certainly lectured on the 4th Amendment during his tenure. He certainly studied it at Harvard Law. So we find that one was an idiot, and the other was a genius who taught the importance of the 4th Amendment.

President Obama had a choice. A choice to say no. A choice to defend the Constitution as he swore an oath to do. A choice that was dictated to him by his legal education. From the NY Times covering his initial inauguration.

He didn't make the right choice, he didn't make the hard choice. He took the easy way out, and for that, the blame rests squarely on his shoulders. He had the power, and he failed to take the right action, the action that was required by the Constitution, and by his oath. We can blame Congress, for they share some blame. But one man had the power to say no. That one man did not do the right thing when he absolutely knew better.