It’s…
…the mistrust, stupid.
As usual, Richard Fernandez gets to the heart of the matter. And the heart of the matter is trust, or lack thereof.
We don’t trust this administration. But even if we did, it’s always a bad idea to put too much power into the hands of government, and surrender too much liberty to it, because even if we do trust today’s leaders, we may very well not trust tomorrow’s.
[NOTE: Here’s another Fernandez article that’s well worth reading.]
The “Founding Founders”, as BHO recently referred to them, understood very well. That is why we have a government structured the way it is, and constitutional limits on what government can do for, and to, us.
What? Those ideas were old-fashioned and did not fit the modern age, so we abandoned them? Who knew?
Government, and particularly intelligence and police agencies, believe that if a technology exists it must be utilized. Never mind the old fashion ideas on limits. Besides, you can look in the constitution and it does not say a word about emails and cell phones. (Of course it does not say anything about government reading private snail mail either. I wonder …?)
“The Administration is part of the problem. Though they pretend it is not, the quality of their character is relevant. In fact, the doubts over that quality are the central element in this crisis of trust. It [is] spreading the contagion of mistrust into the system. ”
Yes, that.
And they have been showing us that quality for going on five years.
Is Fernandez saying the only satisfactory recourse is impeachment?
Sounds like it to me.
What needs to be done is to overturn the jurisprudence that ruled that personal information that one discloses to a third party is obtainable by the government without a warrant and a showing of probable cause. This is just wrong. If I use Google there is no reason that the government should have a right to that information even though I disclosed that information to Google by using their product. Is it unreasonable to expect parties that I deal with not to disclose information to a third party? Of course not. For example, we expect health providers not to share our medical information with fourth parties. This rule should also apply to the government. If the government wants any information about a citizen it should have to go before a judge and show cause why the information is needed.
For those who think that the data banking operation by the NSA is constitutional and even warranted, what are your thoughts on this?
http://money.msn.com/credit-rating/irs-tracks-your-digital-footprint#scpshrtu
Our IRS records are a pretty powerful bit of information. Particularly if that information is abused. We have now learned that some of it has been abused and that better than 80% of the IRS employees are loyal democrats. Where does the remedy lie? Firing half the democrats and replacing them with loyal Republicans? Fire them all and start new? Something else? Until something concrete is done, the distrust will continue.
” The problem is not with the grant of power, but the abuse of power.”
Is there any doubt whatsoever that the administration is abusing its power? That the left; from congressional democrats to republican RINO’s to the MSM is facilitating that abuse of power?
Is it reasonable to presume that the left and Obama have any intention of even reducing that abuse of power, much less stopping it?
Is there any doubt that congressional democrats will prevent any attempts to rein in Obama’s abuse of power?
My answer to these rhetorical questions is, of course the abuse will continue. The abuse isn’t an accidental byproduct. It’s not a bug but a strategic feature. Part of the methodology the left is using to “fundamentally transform” America.
As of Nov. 2012 they proved they have the votes. Efforts at increasing and refining voter fraud are no doubt continuing, evidenced by the IRS, FBI, ATF and OSHA persecution of ‘True the Vote’, a Texas group fighting voter fraud.
The purpose of Amnesty is to enlarge overnight, democrat voters by up to 15 million new socialist votes. If successful, that almost certainly hands the 2016 election to Hillary.
The abuse of power will continue because it is power that they seek. Not just the power to ‘fundamentally transform’ America, which is but a transitional goal of the left but the power to achieve their end goal; the fundamental transformation of humanity.
The left believes in the perfectibility of mankind because leftist ideology rejects the very concept of human nature. Positing human nature presupposes objective reality and the left insists there is only subjective reality. Thus, people are what society has made of them. So, if people can be controlled enough, those ‘who know better’ can force humanity out of the darkness…
1984 was prophetic because as the night follows the day, the left’s premises make its resultant consequence an Existential Imperative.
The problem is in fact with the “grant of power”. Our founding fathers expressly prohibited the grant of this power to avoid the abuse of this power. The government unilaterally declared that it has this power, however. The founding fathers knew that all grants of power inevitably lead to abuse. Therefore, on the important rights they did not grant the government the authority to limit those rights.
“The left believes in the perfectibility of mankind because leftist ideology rejects the very concept of human nature.”–GB
When VF created his monster, it was for the good of humanity, but in his rush and challenge of creation, he forgot to include ANY safeguards or limits and to even question whether the task should be done. His monster then killed his family.
Kind of like today.
Trust in our system lies at many levels.
I just read about the testimony yesterday of NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander before the House Intelligence Committee. The committee members, both Democrat and Republican, believed Alexander who said that Snowden was lying because he “wasn’t in a position to access the content of the communications gathered under National Security Agency programs, as he’s claimed.”
They believe Alexander because they trust him. And why not? According to Wikipedia, he’s “a four-star general in the United States Army. He previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff, G-2, U.S. Army from 2003 to 2005. He assumed the positions of Director, National Security Agency and Chief, Central Security Service on August 1, 2005 and the additional duties as Commander, United States Cyber Command on May 21, 2010.”
Seems to be the embodiment of trust.
I don’t want to rely on trust when it comes to DC. I want to rely on Constitutional limitations, restraints, and multiple layers of oversight backed by swift and harsh punishment for public officials who are caught betraying ‘trust’.
[NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander] “Seems to be the embodiment of trust.”
You don’t get to that level without being a bit of a politician. That Obama kept him on at NSA and then appointed him to the additional position of Commander, United States Cyber Command raises huge red flags. The Pentagon is filled with what amount to political appointees. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen being a foremost example of one. It’s a given that anyone in a high position within the administration has indicated their willingness to ‘cooperate’ with Obama.
Anyone ‘in a position of authority’ who is essentially saying, ‘everything’s fine, there’s nothing to see here, move along’ is lying.
I cannot fathom the mindset that trusts the government to handle private information, believing they are constrained by “law”. In what other area has this administration been constrained by, or accountable to any law? They have thumbed their noses at it and dared anyone to challenge them. And nobody has or will.
The past four years have shown the justice department, the FBI, the State department, and every other branch you can name to be unaccountable to the law, to congress, or to us.
Nobody remembers or knows anything when questioned about the IRS, now the head of the FBI claims not to know a singles member of the committee investigating the that crime.
You need to be brain dead to believe that there is a system in place to deal with criminal activity of this government or this administration. Just watch any oversight hearing on any subject. The people defending the government with our personal information are utterly clueless if they think anyone would ever be fired, much less go to jail, for breaking the law.
Snowden may not be a hero, but he was bright enough to realize any complaint he filed thru legal channels would never see the light of day, or get a second of media coverage.
I hope people wake up soon.
Exactly, Parker. But the electorate has demonstrated that it doesn’t really care; therefore, foxes are elected to guard the hen house. It has been proven that you can get away with just about anything under the guise of “securitiy”.
Meanwhile, we need more free lunches, more Obamaphones, free health care (ha), and so on.
Check this out:
Evidence For An Ugly Proposition
And be sure to watch the embedded video, “Rampant Injustice” which runs 21 minutes.
Take your blood pressure meds first.
Lack of trust is the logical conclusion of postmodernism.
Lack of trust only ends in one destination – tyranny, oppression, poverty, misery and death.
In truth, the problem is philosophical before it is political. And in even truer truth the problem is religious prior to being philosophical.
If there is no God, there is no standard of truth. If there is no God, it cannot really be true that we are created by One and with certain inalienable rights…and so on.
In the actual fact of the actual matter – all postmod BS notwithstanding – if there is no God the is no “America” and that is just the reality of the case.
There may be something else; there may be Zombie America where some other spirit inhabits a certain body…but not the American Spirit which is/was America and Americans.
If we really do not have the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; we don’t really have any rights at all….and in point of fact we are attending a wake as if the person were still alive and discussing what they might do next week.
They won’t be doing anything next week. They’ll be being dead still next week. Ditto “America”…unless some sort of revival hits. It’s happened before….
Mike +1
http://db.tt/2Y8rtsFC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is5s9dgzovg
I ought to club them and eat their bones.
But, unfortunately, a good deal of the people either don’t mind their bones being eaten or refuse to see the ogre.
hello hello hello hello hello
Hi hi hi hi hi
What what what what what
why why why why why
Obama bama ama ma a
This echo has been interrupted by the NSA. All future echoes are verbotten in the name of Hitler.
I’ve said before that the problem is a typical democrat voter will vote for someone they wouldn’t dare let their daughter date.
How did lack of character, trust and integrity become such a acceptable idea? I think its simply an artifact of liberalisms mission to destroy people’s perception of judeo/Christian morals which holds those things to be of upmost importance.
Why is there so much distrust in government? Most taxpayers now realize government jobs are a Democrat nepocracy with unions and the like, Democrat orgs all, running the oppression of civll rights show with a {nudge, nudge, wink, wink} coming from the White House.
Taxpayers are being abused by multiple agencies of the Fedcoat government all the while forcing said taxpayers to pay for the privilege of having government agencies give them anal probes. Why it’s almost like the Chinese charging the families of those executed for the cost of the bullet. Almost.
I’m still putting my ‘file blank tax returns for 2013’ protest idea together, including the new OwebamCare form. I honestly think such a protest is our one last shot at civil disobedience to make our disgust with this government heard. After the IRS runs OwebamaCare, the protests will most certainly be uncivil, that is to say, violent.
Our Founding Founders would have been reloading by now.
I just read Ann Barnhardt’s three-part essay “We are the Gold”, about currency. It’s currently at the top of her site. It does relate to trust.
http://barnhardt.biz/index.cfm (You can’t link her individual posts.)
Concurrent with Geoffrey’s suspicions, I think there’s a high likelyhood that they have the “goods” on our dear Commander here. Just as they did with Petraeus.