General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I'm getting really sick of the whole "Comrade Eddie" BS from some [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)You use a password to enter your e-mail account. Same with your bank account.
In so doing, you express your expectation of privacy with regard to your e-mails. Same with other internet activity or accounts that you use after putting in a password and using a user name other than your own. That is part of your freedom of association. When three of our Founding Fathers wrote (we assume it was they who wrote) the Federalist Papers, they did so because they wanted to hide their identities. They were expressing an expectation of privacy. It wasn't perfect. People could guess their identities. But they were confirming the eternal fact that when we express certain of our opinions under a name other than our own, we are asserting with the use of a pseudonym or user name that we expect privacy as to those expressions of opinion.
You cannot get more American, more protected by the Constitution than the Federalist Papers. They set a precedent that the use of a user name or pseudonym expresses the desire for and expectation of privacy.
The NSA is violating the Constitution big time and daily and in some cases it my be damaging companies or individuals as it does it. That could cost taxpayers a bit of money.
I do not expect my legal theory to be confirmed by the current Supreme Court or even very soon. But I am pretty certain that, unless a dictator or one of the dynasties that is currently vying to become royal highness in this country succeeds in taking us over entirely, or unless we ruin ourselves fighting ever more distant and impossible wars (as virtually every other empire has done -- Spain, the UK, Rome, Russia, etc.), a future Supreme Court will agree with me.
If we continue on the road to increasing government paranoia and surveillance on the citizens (who are supposed to be the ultimate authority in our country), then we will cease to be a republic, cease to choose any aspect of our government through democratic elections.
I strongly oppose the secret and over-reaching surveillance that is now going on. It is completely inconsistent with our Constitution, the concept of the separation of powers in our government, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and every freedom we have ever claimed we were born with.