The Feds can listen to my phone conversations. I have nothing to hide....

[Postman]

They'd get pretty bored actually. But the point is this...

I don't care if they are listening TO ME. I do care if they are listening to OTHER POLITICIANS FOR POLITICAL REASONS. And in THAT case, I'm against them listening to anybody.

So for all you freepers who argue - if you have nothing to hide then you shouldn't have anything to fear- well guess what, it's not about whether they are listening to me. I'm not a threat. It's about spying on other politicians for political reasons. That is the threat to Democracy.

[Berry Cool]

1. Freepers who say they have nothing to hide

should be told to stop wearing clothes in public (after all, they have nothing to hide, right?) and be immediately moved into glass houses with completely transparent walls. I mean, they have nothing to hide, so it shouldn't be a problem.

And yes, both the bathroom and the bedroom of the house will have those glass walls.

[RufusTFirefly]

2. As that giant of jurisprudence, Edwin Meese, once said:

"There are no innocent suspects."

[lonestarnot]

3. I care if they listen to me the bastards! If I don't say anything but

fart in a whirlwind, that's my fucking business! I have my privacy expectations as a private citizen of the United States of America! Period. End of Story. BG!

[Postman]

4. Understood.

n/t

[lvx35]

15. Thank you! I do NOT want feds listening to me!

unless they have REAL reasons, which its extremely unlikely feds listening to me would have.

[Wiley50]

5. Postman? You're a Politician?

Where do I have to move to vote for you?

[Postman]

6. Not on your life.

n/t

[Journeyman]

7. As a businessman, I don't want anyone eavesdropping on my plans and affairs. . .

How can I function in this cutthroat capitalist society I find myself in if I can't be assured my business affairs and plans aren't being compromised by an unethical wiretapper? Short of simply making unautorized wiretaps illegal, what protection do I have for the privacy of my business dealings? And if I can't be assured my "unfettered capitalist yearnings" aren't sacrosanct, what incentive do I have to move forward, given that my plans could be sold this evening to my competitors?

So there's another among millions (300+ million last census, if I'm not mistaken) for why someone would have perfectly harmless reasons for keeping perfect secrecy in our affairs. And I have many others, just for myself, so the 300+ million is simply a base number for illustrative purposes.

[Demobrat]

8. Can you imagine the shrieking

if Clinton had wanted free rein to listen in on anybody he wanted to? It makes me LOL just to think about it.

[baldguy]

9. If you have nothing to hide, they've got not business listening to you.

[Ilsa]

10. I don't want to feel like I am two steps from being thrown into a gulag

if one more law is passed and made retroactive unconstitutionally. I'd like to think I have some provacy to express myself to people who know and understand me, not people who might want to use information against me in any way.

[Cha]

11. Would they care if I'm telling

my sister that bush is brainless, piece of garbage waste?

[Bitwit1234]

12. Wish I knew when they WERE listening

they'd get an earful....I would call bush a turd every other word and then add cheney and rove as well.

[kenny blankenship]

13. The crowning achievement of the police state--of any police state

is the citizen with nothing to hide.

This defomed stump of humanity has been given different names over the years. Maybe he can be found behind the features of Nietzsche's "Last Man" the one who would turn himself over to the authorities if he ever came to suspect his neighbor of bearing an ill will towards him. That's on the rightwing side. George Orwell writing from the left, gave this creature his most fleshed out portrait in the character of Parsons in 1984. Parsons was the Party booster and sports organizer whose children turned him over to the Thought Police for denouncing Big Brother in his sleep. Parsons applauded his kids for turning him in, and believed himself to be guilty of the charge of Thought Crime--although he had no waking memory of the event and although no more fervent lover of Big Brother could be found anywhere in Oceania--for no better reason than that the Police had accused him. In our era, Parsons would be the Fox News demographic.

The people who created this republic were all traitors to the rule of the English King. It's not for nothing that they demanded that in their new land the people should be secure in their papers and possessions. Prior to their armed revolt against what they saw as a tyrannical government (people of the 20th and 21nd centuries could teach them a thing or two) they were ALL individuals who very definitely "had something to hide."

[parasim]

14. In a society ruled by the politics of fear...

... everybody potentially has "something to hide".

Two scriptwriters discussing a script for a political thriller they're working on.

Two kids talking about some videogame they're playing.

Somebdoy telling a joke they heard on a talk show.

Why do they "have something to hide"? Well, they may not think they have anything to hide, but since the surveillance software used by the NSA to analyze keywords in any given conversation they listen in on could potentially flag somebody as a threat simply because they use certain words like "bomb", assassination", etc. Even me using these words in this post could perhaps be flagging me as a possible threat, who really knows?

That's what pisses me off about the whole thing. Given the combination of this whole wiretapping thing which can deem anybody a "suspect" simply because the software makes some sort of conclusion based on keywords and the Patriot Act with it's ability to allow the government to arrest American citizens because they've been deemed "suspects" creates a very unsettling situation.

[Lady President]

16. When it happens, it sucks

One of my best friends worked at a law firm where almost everyone was eventually incarcerated for RICO violations. (Think a certain OH Congressman with a poor toupee.) She received the official letter from the FBI saying that they had been listening to her conversations. I know that the FBI was only entitled to listen to the first few seconds to determine who was on the other line, and then a few seconds periodically to make sure that the conversation remained legal. However, my friend was dating someone at the firm who was later indicted, so it was up to the FBI's discretion how much of the discussions about him they wanted recorded. After she found out, we spent days trying to remember everything we might have said-- sex, drugs, etc. It was awful! It sounds silly, but just thinking about it now makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable.

So no, I want the Feds to stay the hell away from my phone!