c-span callers missing the key point

[evirus]

God if I could wake up early enough to catch Washington journal I would call in with a quote that would shut up all these waco people that wish to give everything for security.

Ben Franklin said it best (I'm paraphrasing) "those who wish to give up a little liberty for a little security deserve neither"

I have not heard one caller or one talking head say this yet, and its such an obvious point. The second people start giving up their rights for safety, our democracy consumes itself to the point where all power is vested in the executive branch, at which point we have no more democracy but a dictatorship.

[savemefromdumbya]

1. the German people gave up their rights to hitler

they lay down and let him ride all over them. the same thing is happening here. Fortunately we have enough leverage in the US to not let 'the nazi thing' happen here. It's going to take a lot of work though.

[The-Cynic]

2. They usually do

C-span callers usually arn't the brightest in the world, generally they're either confused forigners who can't speak english or confused older american who have lost their sight, and call up on the wrong line....and it just messses things up from there.

[Ksec]

3. Listening now (repeat)

The Rethugs have ALL said the same thing. Ive heard maybe ten wingers and everyone of them were whining and moaning about poor George being picked on. No substance, nothing but them crying about the bias of reporting the facts.

[evirus]

5. yah

its the main reason why i dont watch the whole thing..... you listen to the first 3 R callers and you hear all they have to say.

i saw the repeat because i just cant get up at 7am, get enough of that at college having to go to class, i need to sleep in now

[baldguy]

4. "America" is an idea.

It's not a piece of land. It's not our "way of life', whatever that means. It's not a group of people defined by race, religion or even a common history.

"America" is the idea that everyone - no matter where they come from, what they think or believe, or what the color of their skin is - everyone has the right to be free and do as they please. As long as they allow others to do the same, they are part of "America" - no matter where they are.

The defining document of thia idea is the Constitution. If the Constitution is ignored, or side-stepped, or by-passed it is just as threatening to the safety and security of America as any military attack.

[evirus]

6. never thought about it like that

but i like how you put it.

[classic1]

7. Just because Ben Franklin said it

does it make it right? I am not saying it is wrong either. Just food for thought

[newyawker99]

9. Hi classic1!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Cleita]

8. My email to the Baltimore Sun White House correspondent

Julie Hirschfeld Davis's answer to a woman who read some of the fourteen signs of facism over the telephone. She was asked if the country was becoming fascist to which she replied that there were degrees, but no, we don't commit human rights violations, and other things that were brought up so no we aren't facist.

Dear Ms. Davis:

I was really disappointed in your answer on C-SPAN’S Washington Journal to the patriotic woman who read some of the fourteen signs of facism on the air because she is obviously concerned like myself in what direction this country is going in.

For one thing human rights are constantly being violated by this administration, first in Iraq, concerning the tortures at Abu Ghraib prison, second with our own military who is being sent to fight a war without the proper equipment and third with the gross negligence shown to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the survivors who aren’t receiving the assistance they should from the amount of money that has been spent and funneled mostly to Halliburton and other large donor corporations of the Republican Party. I worry that no one else’s human rights are being considered by you other than those of non-Black Americans.

Spying on citizens without approval of the court is a gross violation of privacy and reminicent of Soviet Russia. Your characterization of facism being in degrees is somewhat like being a little bit pregnant. Where did that rationalization come from? You yourself admitted that you aren’t getting much information out of the White House and you are there everyday. How typical of a facist government to operate in secret and in the dark, like cockroaches.

Now there is this big push at our borders to invent a class of stateless people, with no rights. How much further behind will the concentration camps be?

If the media doesn’t start recognizing it’s duty to keep the American public informed, and instead insists on feeding the American public propaganda from the White House, we will end up with a fuehrer and no rights in the end. Remember Hitler’s Third Reich didn’t arrive on the scene full blown. It took years for the Nazis to come to the place they were in at the end of World War II. I see our country headed down that same road. We aren’t completely turned into fascists yets, but the ideology is in place and it will be only a matter of time to close the circle.

You could become a real journalist by writing stories about the two stolen elections and the selection of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor of California so that he could push out Kevin Shelley, the Secretary of State with his own choice, a man who is trying to bring back the E-voting machines that Shelley was trying to get rid of or at least made honest. The pattern of these neo-conservatives is to compromise elections. There is loads of information, provable and accurate information out in the internet if you google, read with an open mind, and make your own decision about.

I think the journalist who finally cracks this whole thing open will get a Pulitzer Prize not to mention that it is the patriotic thing to do.