NEWS: Bush: 'I Don't Want You Reading My Personal Stuff'

President Bush expressed Thursday, that he does not use email, not even to send personal messages to his twin daughters because he fears his information will be made public. The President insisted that the government monitors everything in Washington and there must be some sense of privacy. His concerns stem from the 3.5 million FOIA requests per year for information. Bush, who is for open government, hopes that the information released to the public will not endanger lives of Americans. Advocates for openness, fear that the Bush Administration will use Homeland Security as an excuse to keep more information secret.



On one hand, I feel for the guy because he cannot even send an email to his daughters. Although, I'm sure he can. On the other hand, he is the President of the United States and is a very public figure. His actions and life are very much in the public eye. I also find it ironic, that the President is worried about an invasion of privacy when his administration is getting ready to approve/revise a new Patriot Act.

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WAR: Patriot Act II. Update

[edit on 14-4-2005 by Event Horizon]

[edit on 14-4-2005 by Event Horizon]

[edit on 14-4-2005 by Event Horizon]

Why doesnt he use PGP for private communications ?

What is PGP? Is it some type of encrypted communicative device?

Oh dear!!! What a shame
Our governments allow big corporations to gather and sell information about all of us, without our knowledge. Information that is increasingly being stolen by "hackers" for who knows what purpose. We are to be scrutinised in everything we do, where we go, what we spend our money on, what web sites we visit, what library books we withdraw, emails we send etc....etc...

I personally feel that it's all a HUGE breach of my privacy and imposed without my permission but can little or nothing about it.

Why should those that impose and allow all this data gathering be immune from it?

When I read this article I found it hard to believe that the president could not email his daughters. If they didn’t have a safe communication infrastructure how would any business get done?

Maybe Bush is trying to pave the way for new a more “secure” internet, an internet that can be controlled.


[edit on 15-4-2005 by Event Horizon]

"There has got to be a certain sense of privacy," he told the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

Yah, this coming from the man who brought us the Patriot Act (I & II) which basically removes any and all forms of Privacy be it documents, your own home and even your speech when needed. Our thoughts are next, which have already been controlled on occasion only it's usually a lot less publicized.

"You know, you're entitled to how I make decisions. And you're entitled to ask questions, which I answer.

Oh really?!?!? Well then what was the deal with these??
Bush Walks Out on Media, Refuses to Answer Questions About Relationship With Ken Lay
www.capitolhillblue.com...

Who let bin Ladens leave U.S.? Bush refuses to answer 9/11 commission's queries
news.neilrogers.com...

I mean come on now Mr. Bush, let's be honest here ok. Even your "Partners in Crime", so to speak, are doing it too. For example:

Secretary On the Offensive
www.washingtonpost.com...

by Britguy,
Why should those that impose and allow all this data gathering be immune from it?

You said it buddy!! But I wouldn't hold your breath waiting to hear an answer to that question because they ain't got any and the ones they do have they ain't talking about.

what's Bush's big problem?

We already know he's a shape-shifting reptoid

What could be worse


do they wake up with 'dragon breath?'

Bush is for open government? His administration has done more than any in US history to scale back public access to government information. The current admin has:

-Classified more documents than any prior administration, most retroactively.

-Redefined the standard for reviewing FOIA requests, making it much harder to release information.

-Instituted the Patriot Act!!

-koji K.

[edit on 15-4-2005 by koji_K]

[edit on 15-4-2005 by koji_K]

every person involved with the passing of the patriot act is treasonous scum who needs to be removed from the government, and needs to read the bill of rights and realize that they have opened the door to every citizens rights to militia.

Is there any doubt in your mind that, if Bush were to use email, someone would be desperatly trying to get at the personal information he sends to use against him? With the hatrid for the man from the fringe left being so incredibly rabid, I suspect they would find a way.

Using a dictionary cracker on an email account where the password is a word or combination of words, you could get into someone's email in about 5 mintutes. If they also used symbols and had about 14+ characters, it may take a few hours. While the prez would probably have a lot of security set up monitoring access or failed access to his personal email, would his daughters? His daughter's friends who may get forwarded some emails from dad?

It's not just the government you have to worry about getting into your email. If you make one of those special enemies who decides to hack into your email, even if they have no computer skills, all they need is a web browser and the words "Warez" and "crack". They'll find a tool that will do all the hard work for them in no time.

If the government gets into your email, they, as an entity, are not going to be looking for personal information to use against you, it's going to be for security risk detection. Not saying I agree with it, but that's what the government would be doing in there. (You can have, however, some "special" individuals in the government that may try to, though I'd be more worried about moveon.org or the kindly fellahs who have been sending me death threats for being a conservative and posting my real email addy on a blog's comments section.)

If someone wants to get into your email who just doesn't like you or hates you, though, they're not going to be looking for any security information. They're going to be looking for personal information they can somehow hurt you with. Bush has plenty of those people out there. He's right to be wary.

Those of us who know computer security pretty well are fairly secure, most of the cracking programs won't be able to penetrate our email passwords, and most hacking tools will have a hard time getting past the firewalls (yes, plural, since many hacking tools focus on a specific firewall to bring it down, Zone Alarm being a prime target). For Joe Public, which I would suspect Bush's daughters would be a part of, it'd be a piece of cake. You deleted your email with the personal information? Dang, now they have to spend an extra 15 minutes hacking into your operating system and looking through all of the wonderful temporary files Windows saves and makes super difficult to get rid of.

Beware, my friends. Your email and computer are not secure.

He of all people should know when something isnt "secure"

I take that as a warning.

More fear.

Originally posted by jprophet420
every person involved with the passing of the patriot act is treasonous scum who needs to be removed from the government, and needs to read the bill of rights and realize that they have opened the door to every citizens rights to militia.

But that IS what they want.

no, it doubt that. they might want it to happen and fail, but they dont want it. how many people are in the military vs how many able bodied people with weapons? has to be a 25:1 ratio our favor at least.

Originally posted by dgtempe
He of all people should know when something isnt "secure"

I take that as a warning.

More fear.

If you hadn't realized everything of yours which can connect to the internet is not only unsecure but pretty much open before this point, you've been living in a dreamland. Ignorance is bliss in the e-world. Marketing companies try to open security holes in your operating system to send them information on what sites you go to, what kinds of products you look at, how long you're at sites, and the like. And that's legal. There are many others with far more nefarious ideas in mind. As I had said, it's really easy to do, too.

The best way to secure your computer a little bit more is to use an uncommon operating system (Microsoft is working hard to prevent this from happening. They're starting to implement a Genuine Microsoft Operating System Check on DirectX downloads so you can't run any recent Windows software on a Windows shell) and an uncommon web browser. There are fewer tools and spyware programs directed at those, and as a result they tend to be harder to crack into. However, for your average Joe, your computer is an open book. It has been since about 1996. Your fear comes a decade too late

Well, of course i know that the Internet is an open book.

I just think the fact that Bush seems to think so, kinda puts the cork on the bottle.
For any of the doubting Thomases out there ( and beleive me they exist)

Guess Bush isn't as dumb as people seem to think, eh?

I just think he's worried that he'll get on the wrong internet's. Ya know being that there are so many.

And why would he need email for his daughters. I'm sure they have the most advanced telecommunications in the billion range freq.uency.0002 or maybe even methods of telepathy.

Well, something like "Hi dear, thinking of you, your dad." Could prove detremental and would definately prove to me how evil "certain" people are.

One phrase comes to mind after reading this "what goes around comes around". Under Bush such sweeping measures as the patriot act have been passed, so its quite humorous and even fitting that now he feels the pressue of the systems he helped put into place. Rather fitting that hes on the same side of the fence with the rest of us who have known for ages that our communications can and often are sniffed and snooped upon. But then as all the proponents of the patriot act like to say "if your not doing anything illegal then theres nothing to hide" So my question is this...what is our president wanting to conceal that we arent allowed to under his laws?

[edit on 15-4-2005 by alternateheaven]

and had everything to do with the requirements and obligations of being President. As President, all phone calls, correspondence, email, visitors are part of a public record. All of those things are fair game under the FOIA or through various investigations. So it makes perfect sense that he would not want his "personal" messages to his daughters or wife to be part of that public record. It is one thing to show a phone call to your kid, but another to have the actual text of that conversation to be public. God knows I wouldn't want the little pet names I have for my husband and kids to be known.

Bleys