Just So You Don't Think I'm Biased

[Epsilon]

Fidoohki wrote:

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Wise and profound words but cold confort to the loved ones of people that died in an act that might have been prevented


if you didn't want to be 'inconvienced.'

The really morally bankrupt and intellectually dishonest part of your question is that warrantless wiretapping would have been utterly unneccesary
to prevent the attacks you are so hung up on. "Bin Laden Determined To Attack Within United States", does that title sound familiar? How about the
memos regarding suspected terrorists at flight schools and all the other evidence Bush et al ignored?

Here's the thing, Fidoohki. You are trying to claim some sort of moral high ground, as if obeyin our government is the highest moral conviction we can
have. This is bullshit. In the case of the United States the ultimate authority in your country is not the president, it is the constitution and you should
obey that. Soldiers on the battlefield are required to disobey illegal orders and they have taken oaths of obedience to the government. We, as
citizens, should do no less.

If the president (or prime minster or governor general in my case) ordered me to kill someone I would say NO. If they ordered me to steal, I would say no.

And this isn't just about them being at a wartime footing. This is about teaching a lesson. The lesson is "if the government asks you to do something,
you make damn certain they ahve the actual authority to do so or we will sue your ass into the ground." Punishing the telecoms for this egregious
violation of people's civil rights is not just about punishing them, but about making every telecom company in the future think twice before they
capitulate to demands.

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Epsilon