Your not even close. Watching phone calls as you say, doesn't deter terrorism but it does help catch them Do you agree or not with this: Why do we do all the above when it doesn't work?
Which stance are you taking? I believe there is a fine line to be walked between increasing security, and decreasing privacy/personal liberty. As I've said, we could just turn this country into a police state and it would be much safer than it is now, but that would also run over so many rights granted by the Constitution. Also, our airport security, while intrusive, is worthless. Studies and evaluations continually show that fake bombs can get past security, which when you pay TSA workers the crappy wage they do, is it any wonder the quality of our airport security is terrible? The terrorists haven't gotten us again not because we're safer, but because they know that taking over a plane with sharpened plastic shivs is not going to work this time around. The terrorists succeeded not only because of our lack of security, but because of the typical American's lackadaisical attitude and willingness for our incompetent government to solve our problems. Not only that, but before 9/11, typically hijackers stole planes to get prisoners freed, not to blow shit up. The only thing that's changed since then is that while our security still blows, at least Americans (I hope) would not let those pieces of shit ever get control of a plane again, whether they have knives, guns, or whatever else. The bottom line is we are hardly any safer than we were in 2000, but the government certainly has a lot of powers it didn't have, all so very much questionably constitutional (remember the judge who started striking down portions of the act?). If you want to see real airport security, read about El Al, the Israeli airline. Our security is a joke. Oh and also, what candidate for President constantly talks about how our security was/is a joke and was a contributing factor to the success of the terrorists on 9/11? There are a lot of ways to make our country safer from terrorism, and they don't start with policing Iraqi streets, or giving our idiotic federal law enforcement whatever powers they wish. They are rooted in sound foreign policy, including a whole hell of a lot less intrusion in the Middle East, and they also include a much tougher immigration policy that is focused on keeping these scumbags out of our country in the first place. You want to debate bad policy, how about Guiliani? His immigration reform involves making tamper-proof IDs, and databases for immigrants, and he has a history of running an amnesty city in NYC. As usual, more money, more government oversight, and more intrusion into people's lives, and yet, the effect will almost certainly be negligible. There are ways to make this country safer without going against the Constitution and intrusion into every citizen's lives. The real danger here is government control and degradation of civil rights, not some sloppy, bearded motherfuckers with plastic knives.
No one is going against the Constitution to make our country safer. Good men and women are using all the tools they have at their disposal to keep our country safe and have done a fabulous job since 9/11 in doing so. Not everyone is happy with that success, but you can't please everyone.
What success? As I've said, there have been numerous studies that have shown that our airports are no more safer, along with many other aspects of life. I'm going to say that since 9/11, the shits I get from eating spicy food have deterred terrorists from attacking within the United States. Look, they haven't attacked since 9/11, so my toxic flatulence must be working! Correlation does not imply causation.
The success of not having an attack on our soil since. But like I said, some people are disappointed in that. We've thwarted more than half a dozen plots since then and assisted other countries (including the UK) in doing so. Not everyone is happy. In fact, some are disappointed that the attacks have all, but dried up. Go figure
Did you not see the rest of my post after the question mark, or choose to ignore it? The bottom line is that we are hardly any safer, as much as you want to pretend that we are. We still have extremely lax border security, we are over there drawing new membership to extremism with our actions every single day, and many studies have shown that it's not too difficult to get a bomb past security screeners. Imagine what could be accomplished if terrorists actually got people loyal to them WORKING INSIDE of airports and airport security. Scary stuff, but keep closing your eyes and saying "we are safer now, we are safer now". Any rational person realizes its all smoke and mirrors and not much has been accomplished in the way of protecting us.
I probably ignored it. I have a built-in delusional filter. We are safer now. There is no question to that. Although some are very disappointed that we are. I can't imagine why.
You have your delusional filter wired in backwards apparently. Let me guess, do you side with most of the Neo-cons who in the economic debate, had a main talking point of "we need to be optimistic!"? Yea, the value of our dollar keeps dropping, we have a growing deficit, among many other things (Tesla and guerilla are much better economic experts than I, I'll let them add things here), and yet the main solution should be to "be optimistic". Real solutions? Pssh, we have optimism.
No, it's wired correctly. Let's review: No attacks since 9/11, compared to the 90s. This would indicate that we ARE safer. VS. No attacks since 9/11 and we are not safer. Hmm, I wonder which one is delusional? So much disappointment
Do you know what "correlation does not imply causation" means? Obviously you don't, because rather than explain how there is clear causation, you just continue to rattle on your talking points. You should get into the television business, you would make a wonderful political pundit.
I know what "no attacks since 9/11" means. How about you? I'm not going down the "conspiracy" delusional path that good is bad. Where I come from, we have an old saying: "Don't pee off the bridge and pretend it's raining."
But of course optimism and the ability to only look at numbers that paint a rainbow in our future, forget about all others. Housing market, fuel costs, real deficit numbers, who needs them! You're either with us or against us damnit, how dare you question anything! Doing so might actually accomplish something
One thing I'll give GTech credit for, he's involved in politics heavily, and really cares about the direction of our country. We may be on completely opposite sides of the fence, but I'd rather have someone who cares and is wrong, than someone who doesn't care. /I'm looking at you, half the eligible voter population.
Yes having someone involved is great, having someone involved that is blind though makes me wonder which one is really the lesser of two evils..
That why airports should have no security, that was your aurgument for not listening to phone calls; it can't stop every terrorist 'why bother?' Police can't arrest every criminal so why bother?
What I was saying was in response to the idea that these added things have somehow made us safer, which they have not. I mean fuck, if you're going to take away civil liberties in the name of defense, at least create more defense!
Some people can only be pessimistic. One in this very thread is a professional at it. The dollar dropping means we can sell more goods. There is not a growing deficit, the deficit continues to come down. It has for the last four years. I recently posted more than a dozen reports from a wide spectrum of media outlets over a two year time span. There was one partisan hack that kept trying to paint the good news as bad, but that's what partisan hacks do. I've lived through a recession. I've lived through hard times. But of course pessimism and the ability to only twist numbers so far out of reality and make up their own criteria, forget about all the indicators that say otherwise. The fact that more Americans own a house today, than ever before. The fact that the deficit continues to dwindle, the fact that unemployment is at record lows, the fact that more and more jobs are being created...good paying jobs, the fact that tax receipts are at all time highs, despite heavy tax cuts for the middle class. Who needs reality when some dumb jock can make up their own little world? You're either with America, or a partisan hack with BDS, how dare we petend to question anything when in fact, all we are doing is avoiding reality because the notion that Bush might have done something good is out of the question! Doing so might actually mean one is a Bush supporter, and a partisan hack can't have that. (not directed at you, fletch. a little parody of a separate post) We've been safer. Only a partisan motivated person could possibly look at the history of the past seven years and suggest otherwise. No one is taking civil liberties away. Perpetuating such myths and conspiracies only serve the notion behind the candidate they support.
You really should avoid monetary policy. It's not your strong suit. The dollar dropping means we can sell more goods, true. But we no longer have a manufacturing economy. We have an investment and service based economy. In a global economy, this means we cannot buy things. Also, by saying that we can sell more, implies that our dollars have less value, which is true, and also speaks to the fact that the dollars we earn, are in fact less valuable than they were 5 years ago. Understand that the US dollar's value is unbacked, except by the confidence the market places in it. More and more countries are looking, in our time of weakness on the exchange markets to move to alternative reserve currencies, at which point confidence and value of the American dollar will begin a long, and steady decline towards devaluation. The sad thing is, that the American people are not responsible for this directly. The lack of value for the American dollar right now is not related to a confidence problem. That issue hasn't completely surfaced yet. The issues are the inflated money supply, when GWB decided to pursue his imperial empire overseas, he spent more than we could afford. Through the wonders of fractional reserve banking, the monetary supply is so inflated right now, that any signs of deteriorating confidence on the global money markets, and we're going to be facing serious economic depression. Recently, Israel asked Condi Rice to guarantee that all American aid would be delivered in Euros, rather than American dollars. Even our allies are scared to be holding our money right now, the concerns of an impending crash are imminent and realistic. So no, it is not as simple as saying, the dollar is cheap, we can sell more. The last time we were in this situation, the Fed had to raise interest rates as high as 21%, to make up for the over spending in Vietnam, followed by the collapse of the Bretton Woods agreement. This time, the market is already too volatile, and increasing the interest rates, will absolutely kill our speculative investment economy. It will cause the traffic of economic velocity to slow to a halt.
so if someone was bitten by a snake while walking through a forest in 2001 but hasn't been bitten since then it's because now safer to walk in the forest?