I work for em and I don't trust em.
Actually, let me clarify that.
The methods being used today have given the government a lot of power to fight terrorism.
The problem is not the government right now, but a future government that abuses this power for obtaining information on regular citizens in situations having nothing to do with terrorism.
THAT'S when we should worry; the sad part is that this administration has put this sort of power in place without thinking of the future consequences, but hasn't this been the reactionary acts of this administration all along?
Go ahead and do it and worry about how to handle the results later?
(IE Iraq.)
As Ronald Reagan said, "Government is the problem."
Policies should not be judged as good or bad based on whether you like or trust, whether you dislike or distrust, the administration in power at the time the policy is put in place.
If it is a good policy then it shouldn't matter how you feel about the administration at the time.
Otherwise, you are advocating that you want one set of rules in place if you like the administration in power and another set of rules in place if you dislike the administration in power.
And that would be nonsensical.
If the snooping is being done to catch islamofascists, I don't care who is in power, they have my permission.
It's called profiling which I am for 100% if we are to "win" this so-called war on terror.
Agreed.
The idea that a future, less than righteous government will use this power in a corrupt way is part of problem with a democracy.
We absolutely cannot have reasonable security without many programs of information gathering and interdiction in place.
It could be used against citizens, possibly in the future but are completely necessary now.
When we abandoned our Constitutional Repulic form of government in favor of majority rules,(democracy) we signed our death warrant and make no mistake we are headed down that road and have been for years.