Wanted, dead or alive

[jhetley]

And, since I'm playing politics today, via unixronin:

http://www.aclu.org/privacy/35968prs20080714.html

According to the ACLU, the gummint now has over a million names on the terrorist watch list.  Contemplate that, for a moment.  Of course, they (and we) have no way to verify that count, as the list itself is secret.

Guess it's time for the nuclear option.  That many enemies, it's the cheapest way.

Comments

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Contraproductive. If you watch only the 10K most dangerous people, you might miss something, but you won't have spent five minutes on each and *definitely* missed suspicious activity.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I think "contraproductive" is inadequate. "Use the right word, not its second cousin."

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Guess it's time for the nuclear option. That many enemies, it's the cheapest way.

Kill 'em all--let God sort 'em out.

Yup.

[prophet-marcus.livejournal.com]

But hasn't the FBI always maintained a long, long list of "persons of interest?" Sure, you could probably find out if you were on the FBI list if you knew how to play the Freedom of Information game, but if you had a reason to suspect you were on the list, why bother?

The whole problem with the Patriot Act style rules and regulations is the fact that "the president's discretion" or someone's discretion is all that's required as justification - and I don't trust any politician's discretion without a watchdog or a rival breathing down his/her neck.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

A list that long, actual names and aliases, dilutes the utility value to somewhere near zero. Too many "false positives" -- particularly with the Muslim-world equivalent of "Bill Jones."

Me, I don't even trust a politician _with_ a watchdog or rival. The rival probably wants the same powers.