Did we really all check 'agree' to this government spying?

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/12/check-agree-government-snooping


The NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily. Photograph: OJO Images/Rex Features

I don't think the White House was surprised by the polls this week that found strong support for the National Security Agency accessing the phone records of millions of Americans. The outrage that played out in the headlines was greeted by a sigh at the breakfast table: 56% of Americans consider the policy "acceptable" – a modest increase in support since the program's outlines first came to light in 2006. Sixty-two percent of those polled said that it is "more important for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, even if that intrudes on personal privacy" than "the federal government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats."

The same poll found that a majority of Americans, 52%, rejected the idea that the government "be able to monitor everyone's email and other online activities if officials say this might prevent future terrorist attacks". There's an apparent contradiction here – the program that's in place is OK, but please don't monitor my email. But I think this White House, and most politicians, know something that Americans won't admit outright: to express a desire for privacy is very different from believing and fighting for it as a right.

So, what has to happen for the American public to do more than merely express the desire for privacy?

What would have to happen for them to vote against the politicians who support these programs? (Which is, you know, almost all of them.) Equally, what would have to happen for them to stop using Google, or Microsoft, or their iPhones?

[RC]

1. What most people do not understand is, this has nothing to do with stopping actual terrorism.

With a little digging, we can find plenty evidence of that.
But spying on people so a to keep US compliant and under control. No matter how legal this spying is made to sound, it is still unconstitutional.
As common carriers, AT&T, Google, Verizon, etc., do not own that information that we want to impart elsewhere. The information that generates the metadata. As for the metadata itself, that is a by-product of making sure the system is working correctly, and it is still private information. For the government or anyone else to make use of this data needs the use of real warrants issued by real courts, for real investigations, spelling out the real reason for the warrant and the real information that is being sought. None of the data bases the government has setup to acquire and store this information, square with the 4th Amendment. No crime, nor any suspected crimes has been put forth as justification for this whole spying on all the citizens in this country and elsewhere, either. After all, how can we all be criminals, when the government is supposed to work for us? These actives by our government are proof our government is working against us. Remember the "We the people.." as the preamble of the Constitution starts with? Apparently not many people do anymore.

What the government is doing is obtaining this data, from all sources, with threats of duress, if the sources do not cooperate. The secret court system set up to issue these warrants are, in reality nothing more than Star Chambers to rubber stamp the requests to give a cover of legitimacy. Our owners are doing this because the technology has advanced enough so they can.

[William769]

2. Maybe.

Let's use the hubble telescope to read the fine print.

[xchrom]

4. & discover a new 'legal' black hole. Nt

[randome]

3. 'Storing' data that can never be viewed except with a legal warrant is not 'spying' to me.

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[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
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[Laelth]

5. If some of these legislators find their names on "the list" they may change their tunes.

Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Core

-Laelth

[okaawhatever]

6. Why don't we wait until we find out what's actually going on. So far there isn't alot of info about

what these programs are and what they do. Once I know that, I can answer questions. k

[Bluenorthwest]

7. I have a bit of a problem with jumping from 'acceptable' to 'they want and support it'.

Synonyms for acceptable: all right, decent, fairish, fine, good, OK (or okay), passable, respectable, satisfactory, serviceable, tolerable.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/acceptable