Fiery_penguin_of_doom wrote...
BigLundi wrote...
IF you want me to even consider your extremely conspiratorial position on Obama being..."a terrible man" You're going to need to provide sources. Oh he put a gun up to a 16 year old kid and pulled the trigger while he was eating dinner with his cousin did he? Mind elaborating with...EVIDENCE or anything or are we just saying things just cause we feel like it?
Let me be clear that none of your sources backed up the claim that I asked to be backed up before we go on an investigation as to your own accusations and sources, shall we FPOD?
Ok, here we go. Let's brace ourselves.
This may or may not come as a shock to you FPOD, but I don't have huge problems with the Patriot Act, as it's carried out. You're against it, clearly, because it invades personal privacy. I'm for it, clearly, because from what I know about it, courts still have to approve reasons for investigation before wire tapping can be done. And this is actually in your own source near the bottom, during an ACLU investigation:
"According to a senior Justice Department national security official testifying to Congress last March, the government has sought roving wiretap authority in about 20 cases a year between 2001 and 2010 and has sought warrants for business records less than 40 times a year, on average. The government has yet to use the lone wolf authority.
But the ACLU also points out that court approvals for business record access jumped from 21 in 2009 to 96 last year, and the organization contends the Patriot Act has blurred the line between investigations of actual terrorists and those not suspected of doing anything wrong."
So they still need court permission to wiretap, they just don't need to tell the people they're wire tapping...that they're wire tapping them. They have still, as far as anyone knows, never simply wire tapped someone without court approval "Just because". And if you're against the act because they MIGHT do something they haven't done in over a decade of being able to...then...I'm going to have to say that's a little unjustified. You can't disapprove of something because of what MIGHT happen. And when the statistics show that the application of the Act is done in a way that is conducive to law, and only violates privacy with reasonable cause(and there's no evidence to show they've done otherwise) the extension of the Patriot Act isn't yet, a bad thing. It's just possible that it might be a bad thing at some point. But until then...fuck off about it.
Again...form your source..."The AP has more from the signing statement: “My administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a nation.”"
So...what's the problem? Because from here, after reading the statement, it seems that he didn't want to sign it, but that he knew Congress would veto his veto and play ping pong with it until he did. So what did HE do wrong, specifically? Because...you still haven't given an instance.
Oh good. Another scare act that people are apparently just supposed to knee jerk react to and say, "This is abhorrant!" without doing any research.
Again, your source.
"Sean Flynn, a professor of intellectual property law at American University, said ACTA is not as "draconian" as the pending U.S. legislation, calling the treaty "SOPA light." Some of its most troubling measures -- such as a requirement that Internet service providers suspend service to customers caught downloading copyrighted works, known as the "three strikes" rule -- have been stripped from the agreement, he said."
""ACTA contains new potential obligations for Internet intermediaries, requiring them to police the Internet and their users, which in turn pose significant concerns for citizens' privacy, freedom of expression, and fair use rights," Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in a blog post last fall."
So essentially, the real bad stuff is taken away, but internet providers are supposed to be a little more alert to illegal downloading of copy written material, which causes people to be 'concerned' that something 'might' happen to their rights to privacy, freedom of expression, and fair use.
So let me ask you, yet again...why am I supposed to be pissed off at Obama for supporting an act that doesn't even necessarily give the ought that these rights will be infringed upon...just the possibility. A possibility I might add, that still exists right now regardless, it's just not, at the current moment, federally regulated.
So just like the Patriot Act, Why am I supposed to be angry with Obama for what "might" happen? That's just conspiracy theory nonsense.
Please tell me why whales can't be killed for profit? Just wondering. Personally I don't think we have some sort of responsibility to make sure animals continue to live.
But really that's besides the point, as this is about Obama. So...here's your source again:
"The Obama administration argues that the whaling moratorium should be suspended because it has loopholes that are being illegally exploited by Japanese, Norwegian and Icelandic whalers. They believe that after 25 years of conflict within the International Whaling Commission, commercial whaling should be legalized in the hope that, by bringing the killing out into the open through agreed-upon quotas, a consensus eventually will emerge in support of a phase-out of whaling altogether."
So in essence, Obama's trying to make whaling go down, by showing everybody in the open that it happens, and that it's morally reprehensible.
The article is more an opinion piece than an actual news article, as ti makes arguments against the position, so...bias anyone? Regardless: "First, the proposed deal nowhere requires a phase-out of whaling. Not in 10 years. Not ever."
So what? Doesn't mean there can't be one in one year.
"Second, legalizing whaling in order to eliminate it makes as little sense as allowing criminal activity in order to eliminate crime." So I guess legalizing pot doesn't lower the crime rate...
"Third, the hope that reaching an agreement with the whalers will, in some undefined way, appeal to their better nature, eventually strengthen their interest in conservation and lead them at some future point to abandon whaling is, at best, wishful thinking."
Well...that's basically just them saying "Whalers are immoral douche bags that can never be reasoned with. So this will fail." Good job at being objective in an article...and does anyone else smell an appeal to incredulity?
"The actual number of whales allowed to be killed if the agreement is adopted is, at this point, anybody's guess." Therefore...we should presume that it's high?
This article isn't very good, especially at reporting.
No...that article has nothing to do with regulating the internet...yet again, let me quote it for you.
"Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages."
...So..he's not trying to regulate the internet...he just wants it to be easier to track messages if they need to.
...What's...wrong...with that?
Stated that his administration can kill U.S citizens without a trial.
Actually..."Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that the decision to kill a U.S. citizen living abroad who poses a terrorist threat "is among the gravest that government leaders can face," but justified lethal action as legal and sometimes necessary in the war on terror." Obama didn't say that. The Attorney General did.
According to that Article, all Obama said , according to your source, was "The day that al-Awlaki was killed, President Barack Obama said his death was "a major blow to al-Qaida's most active operational affiliate" and "another significant milestone in the broader effort to defeat al-Qaida."
Of course, I can see you saying that this is a 'cop out' on his side, and without proving that this individual was a member of Al-Qaida, Obama could just kill whoever he wanted, and claim they were an Al-Qaida affiliate and be done with it.
However, that counter argument would be purely speculative, and not based on evidence, but your own bias against the government. Therefore...I can dismiss it entirely. :D
[quote]Continuation of a policy of indefinite detention without trial at Guantanamo bay.
Can you give a link real quick to anyone who was sent to Guantanamo by his orders? Or is it just that he hasn't shut the place down yet that you're saying is for some reason just as bad as regulating the place and enforcing it?
Obama has been trampling our civil liberties.
As I've demonstrated...by quoting your own sources, you haven't really shown him doing that. You've only shown him supporting things that you don't like on a fundamental level. That's just a political problem with him based on a preference of libertarian policies of less government power and more local power, not...Obama being evil.
Any "liberal" who still supports Obama at this point in time is mentally ill or really isn't a liberal. Left/Right, Communist/Libertarian/Whatever we can all agree that we have rights and they should be protected from those who would deny them.
Well, I'm someone who thinks if someone is out to kill a massive amount of people in a terrorist attack, their rights should be infringed upon, but only if we have sufficient reason to believe that this is in actuality the case. Which is exactly what the government has been doing and has always done.
Please tell me why you think they should be allowed to carry out that plan before being detained.