"When I came into this office, I made two commitments that are more important than any other. Number one, to keep the American people safe. And number two, to uphold the constitution and constitutional rights to privacy and to civil liberties."
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
There's nothing in the Presidential oath that promises safety for American citizens. There's only one job sworn in the oath. To uphold the Constitution.
"In a press conference just now, President Obama addressed the NSA surveillance programs, saying "we're gonna have to make some choices as a society" to examine how we deal with privacy issues and terrorism."
Right. And just how is society going to make informed choices about things they don't even know exist?
They're saying they aren't intercepting audio recording of phone calls, but can we really trust them at this point?
And he wasn't very clear about the online communications, from what I read so far. So probably Skype calls and such are intercepted and recorded anyway.
You can't have 100% security anyway, and even if you could, I don't know that anybody considers that the goal. And I don't think most people who have actually thought about the issue would say that "100% security" is such a desirable goal that it would justify trampling all over basic rights.
[+] [-] jgeorge|12 years ago|reply
"When I came into this office, I made two commitments that are more important than any other. Number one, to keep the American people safe. And number two, to uphold the constitution and constitutional rights to privacy and to civil liberties."
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
There's nothing in the Presidential oath that promises safety for American citizens. There's only one job sworn in the oath. To uphold the Constitution.
You had one job. ONE JOB.
[+] [-] mtoddh|12 years ago|reply
Right. And just how is society going to make informed choices about things they don't even know exist?
[+] [-] mtgx|12 years ago|reply
And he wasn't very clear about the online communications, from what I read so far. So probably Skype calls and such are intercepted and recorded anyway.
[+] [-] mindcrime|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] waterphone|12 years ago|reply