CNN has a story “DHS reading your tweets and Facebook posts?”
It sounds scary and feeds into the paranoid that Republicans and others have about government.
But from reading the story what you see is that the DHS is just doing what other corporations are doing. When I blog about a subject here on this little blog corporations and others are watching for keywords and tags and they get a notice and they check to see what was said.
In FL and here in TX when I have blogged about a problem with a cable company their agents have spotted the post right away and contacted me right away and said we see you have a problem we will fix it for you. And they have done it.
I have posted good things about products and had people or corporations contact me.
I saw a year or so ago that a guy that I knew when he was a police officer back in the 70s had died and I posted about what a great man and police officer he had been. His family found the post about him and they were so happy to read it and contacted me. I posted about a girl that I liked when I was ten years old and she found the post and contacted me.
I could go on and on with stories like that. So people or corporations watching tweets or checking Facebook or doing a search is not a bad thing. In fact I think it is great.
But I do see when the police or government are monitoring and watching it can be scary. I do not have a problem with the DHS, at this time, doing what they are doing.
The problem is going to be if the wrong people get into government. We do not want a President Nixon again with his hit list. I would also fear having a man like President Reagan again. Reagan because of Iran-Contra. He showed that he did not care what the law was he was going to do just what he wanted to do and lie about it and cover it up. Then also I would fear a man like President George W. Bush. Bush because of his war on terrorism and his thinking that “enhanced interrogation techniques” was moral and legal. If you take a position like that and you say it is OK for government to do anything you will have a government out of control.
We need people in government that believe in the rule of law. We need people that believe in the Bill of Rights. We need a strong honest Attorney General.
The Republicans have had a lot of fun attacking President Obama for appointing a lot of “czars.” I think the truth is that President Bush appointed more. I think it is the word “czar” that the Republicans just love to point out. It is a poor name for the position. The position should just be manager or boss or something. We could use a czar to protect us from government.
The United States Attorney General should be the person watching out for things like that. We have had some rotten AGs in the past and some great ones. Under President Bush we had a worthless one of course. Under President Nixon we had a great one and thank God for that. The President of the United States order him to do something that was not legal and he resigned right on the spot. President Nixon then ordered the next in line to do it. He resigned right on the spot. So sometimes you have men with the right stuff.
We just need to be Americans. We just need to do the right things.
We need to be a nation of laws. We also need an organization like the ACLU to keep a watch on things.
Right now the one thing we do not need is Republicans in the White House or in Congress.
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