"We don’t spy on Americans, just anti-government Americans"

reply to post by winofiend
Ever heard of the internet? What ever device connects to a server gets logged and tracked constantly. Your phones, consoles (especially the up-coming ones) computers, laptops, tablets, etc.... even some appliances and in some cases they can even listen to your conversations. This is how they'll track citizens, with the devices they make for us.

reply to post by Hopechest

Its for my protection and something I can't do on my own.

That is pathetic. It is that very attitude that has created the nanny-state.

"I need someone else to protect me."

Please.

We really need to segregate ourselves.

things like this make me wonder just how many people 'secretly' work with the state..

reply to post by EricR


Man I love this website!!

Its so great to read y'alls threads, and posts to know I'm not alone.
All my friends, and family think I'm stupid or crazy, and maybe I am.

However when I see threads like this I know it can't be a coincidence.
If this many people see what I'm seeing, maybe its my friends, and
family that's stupid, and crazy.

Are at least their being willfully dense.

Thanks for being who you guys/gals are.

Thank you for bringing this to light.
We live in a scary time.
Everything this country was founded on is being eradicated.
I'm not sure what that means or where we are going... but I don't think it's good.
America was set up to be something great... something new and different in the world and in man's history.
Those ideals are, now, disappearing and we are LETTING it happen.

Do you really think the federal government has the resources to put 300 million people under surveillance or do you think they prioritize people who have said or done something that makes them a larger threat than the rest of society?

reply to post by Hopechest


No, but they have programs that can identify certain words that can alert them to investigate a particular conversation in a blog or e-mail. Those red flag words can than be siphoned out to look for connecting phrases against other related words that may indicate an attack on a building or an attack on officials etc...

I'm sure it would be one hell of a boring job to decipher all the final phrases that drop out of all the clutter, but if you're going to get paid a decent salary and benefits to do it, than what the hell, its a job and we know how much in demand jobs are now.

Originally posted by sulaw
reply to post by Hopechest

 

Apples and Oranges, it's when they start digging into citizens that don't pose any threat, then invasion of privacy and the whole Amendment (rights) debate starts.

If you dumb enough to walk around saying that outloud or even on a cell phone, you deserve to get thrown in guantanimo~ Have fun with big BoB and his meat sandwich~

Quite true.
If American Islamic fundamentalists Black Panthers
or just plain Obama were subjected to these policies,
y'all wouldn't bat an eye.

reply to post by sealing


Well heck, and never mind and if you dont know the LEFT durring the 60s and 70s were off the chart with all sorts of bombing, robbing, arson ect. If anyone things I jest and really cares look it up yourself.

Originally posted by Hopechest
So let me get this straight.

If some guy is walking around saying hes going to blow up the Empire State Building, says he has the bomb making material, and has a date...you would think its inappropriate for federal officials to dig into his life because of his first amendment rights?

What about the rights of the thousands of people he may kill?

I guess the government should leave people like this alone. Kinda like they did with Timothy Mcveigh?

Yes, if someone is saying they are going to blow up some buildings then go ahead and arrest the crazy bastard. But the definition of what the government considers "anti-government" is anyone is doesn't toe the line.

A Ron Paul supporter, a constitutionalists, support smaller government, a vet - you are "anti-government" Now if you support the government poking into the lives of people who are unsatisfied with how the government is leading us then give your head a shake....and realize you to one day may be consider a domestic terrorist.

reply to post by silent thunder


Would it be considered "anti-government" if citizens were to spy on them and the government?

Wait wait, don't tell me...it would threaten national security.

I think prodding your populace with ever increasing imposition upon their liberties and freedoms is also against national security as it may and will create the very problems they are trying to prevent.

Funny how things work like that.

Thankfully, I think the U.S. government, for the most part, doesn't screw around too much in this area, but there are of course plenty of other areas that are rife with corruption, due to the corrupt individuals influencing them.

Lol, well at least this person is coming out and down right saying it. Lol, Facebook and all of the connections that it has, as well as the many other social media sites, AND google (which records the IP address of each person's search) are all things which could EASILY spy on whomever they want.

I remember reading a post outlining an email from DHS claiming that they view people who pay for hotel rooms with cash and own greater than 7 day supplies of food, among many other things, as "extreme right-wing potential domestic terrorists".

reply to post by dothedew

I guess that they're now going to round up all those soccer moms that practice "extreme couponing". I know grocery store owners consider them terrorists. I guess that also means that if you go on vacation for two weeks, and bring your own food you're a terrorist. Oh, what the heck, they think that anyone that is still breathing is a terrorist. We breathe in oxygen and expel Carbon Dioxide, so Al Gore believes all humans are terrorists causing global warming. Yep, tell that to all the Americans that are still freezing in April here, Al. No global warming for the last three decades....... as Yakov Smirnoff would say "America, what a country!!".

reply to post by silent thunder

In the Bible, The government sent out troops to kill all newborn children, because Jesus would be a threat to government power. What did Jesus end up preaching ? What power did he take from the government? It turns out that he was not a threat at all. So, who is the modern day paranoid government? It just kills me that our presidents have taken an oath to the constitution and the DHS thinks that "constitutionalists" are a threat. It just kills me trying to figure out this whole world. The US has this big problem with communist governments. I grew up being told that the communists were "Godless?" Yet, I recently saw a book with photographs of the beautiful Christian churches preserved from the time before the communist revolution. I would have thought they would have destroyed them...nope. Now, In the early Christian Church, everyone was to give everything they had to the church, and holding out anything meant excommunication. Everything was to be divided to those as had need. So I am just freethinking and it makes me think about those who complain about people on welfare. Are they modern Christians, or what? Please do not take this as an attack on Christians. I believe that I am a Christian, even though I am not currently attending church much, if at all. But now the government is spying on everyone and everything. Are they maybe expecting Jesus to come back? Or What? It is just getting hard to understand anything, anymore. The Bible warns us about the government being baby killers, the history of this country that was taught in public schools told me that without the Bill of Rights being part of the Constitution, many or most or all of the states would not have signed them and we would not be "united states" but sovereign nation states. Talk about distrusting big government. So now people who complain about the government encroaching on their rights are "suspect?" Geez. I thought things were screwed up on Gilligan's Island. So um, now that I have been raised not to trust the governments of the world, they have me just where I want them or something like that. err, eh-hem, well, doh...tick tick tick on the clock on the wall, just sitting here. My ears are still ringing from working on them jet airplanes when I was in the military. Interesting sound.....when will they get around to manipulating the DNA of my pickup truck so it will have a foal? Used to be when your horse died, you could probably ride its kids. Now you got to get a license to go down the dang road....Horses didn't need gas....just sitting here broke as a joke cause good old Nixon the sneak thief opened relations with China...now everything comes from China....might as well outsource our president, might as well outsource our police, might as well outsource us. I'll bet the Japanese would trade us. Their island for our place. They ruined their place. The government over there is telling everyone its safe, don't worry bout it. I bet the Japanese trust their government now...not! So, why don't we all just draw straws for president? At least it would be fair. Then people would have something to hope for. Better odds of being president than winning the powerball. Dang, I bet they are really spying on me now, what with me being crazy, a Christian, a constitutionalist (swear me in, boys, I won the presidential straw pick! Bring me a Bible and print out of the Constitution, a Mel Gibson "Patriot" DVD and a copy of the "Last of the Mohicans") By jiminee. Yessiree bob, hate those dang out of control gub'mints, dagnabit durn them rascals. ....Damm ringing in the ears. Should a stuck with rock concerts....yessir, if I had a five dollar bill and just 5 minutes with Obama, could get im ta sign by xecutiv odor a "Me protection act" where I is above the law just like Uncle Monsanto....Oh, Oh, I dun it now boys, the MIB is commin for me. Mommy.

I think I'm a tad more relaxed about all of this than many on here. I'm not disputing that our own American government spies on us, but that's nothing new. We have the CIA, NSA, DIA, NGA, and NRO all watching what goes on, and they've been doing it for years. Even before the internet came alone, the NSA (and probably the other 4) had the ability to intercept any and all telephone conversations anywhere in the USA. Then there was Hoover's FBI, which spied on pretty much everybody (although that was thankfully before my time).

Now, the spying is easier, because we expose ourselves all over the Internet. All the Big 5 have to do is tap into the backbones, and they'll have every email, every forum post, everything we're afraid they'll have.

Should we be afraid? Part of me wants to say no, but I was in college on the day the Ohio National Guard opened fire at Kent State. When the Chicago police force assaulted the protestors at the Democratic National Convention in 1968. I was, in college, a member of a certain leftwing organisation, and I'm sure that's recorded somewhere.

So I guess my answer to the question, Should we be afraid? is We should have been afraid long ago. None of this is new; all of this is more of the same political class protecting their own power. Left, Right, doesn't make a difference, not at that level.

To quote Neil Young, from Ohio, " We're finally on our own."

reply to post by ProfEmeritus

I love you. Don't get scared. Soccer mom's. Totally caught me off gaurd. Hope the DHS does not read that and realize they have been slippin. Wake up tomorrow I hope I read the paper and the headline says, "DHS declared legally insane."

reply to post by silent thunder


I've seen a lot of people on ATS claiming they want to murder others for political or religious reasons

I'm glad they are spying on these types of people.

It's true, they don't care how old you are either, apparently. Makes me sick.

Mom’s Mad: Secret Service Grills 7th Grader Over Facebook Post About Obama
May. 17, 2011 7:27pm Scott Baker

1001.5K000Fox News:

A 13-year-old boy in Washington state faced federal interrogation by a Secret Service agent over a Facebook posting that warned President Obama of suicide bombers, q13fox.com reports.

Vito LaPinta of Tacoma, Wash., said he posted a message on Facebook after Usama bin Laden’s death, saying Obama should be careful of possible retaliatory acts against him by other terror members, according to the station.

“I was saying how Usama was dead and for Obama to be careful because there could be suicide bombers,” the boy told the station.

A week later, the boy said a man walked into Truman Middle School “with a suit and glasses and he said he was part of the Secret Service.”

“He told me it was because of a post I made that indicated I was a threat toward the president,” he said.
www.theblaze.com...

We're digging ourselves a hole, bigger than the ones that are popping up all over the world. It's almost as if we're waiting for some kind of superhero to rescue us, from the evil empire, we've allowed to be built. We're still living under the illusion that has been laid before us, which was created thousands of years ago. It's always been about ruling the world; slaves and masters. We need to find a way to break those chains that we have been led to believe is called "living life". We're not living life. We're being dictated to!

reply to post by shhhhhh


No they are digging a hole to Armageddon because they want the world to be destroyed and Jesus to return.

In their minds inciting chaos and death is a valid strategy.

Originally posted by Wertdagf
reply to post by shhhhhh

 

No they are digging a hole to Armageddon because they want the world to be destroyed and Jesus to return.

In their minds inciting chaos and death is a valid strategy.

I think you're mixing up your religions, guy. Thats the 12th Imam deal that the Iranian leaders supposedly follow. I seem to remember a thread where you said that when energy weapons hit the free market you would be ok with an all out ban of the second amendment.



Not surprising you're also a fan of spying on people. You just don't like the United States Constitution at all do you?